text:
Americans will die for liberty
Excerpts from a British writer:
We are inclined, in our snobbish way, to dismiss the Americans as a new and vulgar people, whose civilisation has hardly risen above the level of cowboys and Indians. Yet the United States of America is actually the oldest republic in the world, with a constitution that is one of the noblest works of man. When one strips away the distracting symbols of modernity - motor cars, skyscrapers, space rockets, microchips, junk food - one finds an essentially 18th-century country.
The sense of entering an older country, and one with a sterner sense of purpose than is found among the flippant and inconstant Europeans, can be enjoyed even before one gets off the plane. On the immigration forms that one has to fill in, one is asked: "Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offence or crime involving moral turpitude?" Who now would dare to pose such a question in Europe? The very word "turpitude" brings a smile, almost a sneer, to our lips.
The quiet solicitude that Americans show for the comfort of their visitors, and the tact with which they make one feel at home, can only be described as gentlemanly. These graceful manners, so often overlooked by brash European tourists, whisper the last enchantments of an earlier and more dignified age, when liberty was not confused with licence.
But lest these impressions of the United States seem unduly favourable, it should be added that the Americans have not remained in happy possession of their free constitution without cost. Thomas Jefferson warned that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots. To the Americans, the idea that freedom and democracy exact a cost in blood is second nature...
The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.
The idea has somehow gained currency in Britain that America is an essentially peaceful nation. Quite how this notion took root, I do not know. Perhaps we were unduly impressed by the protesters against the Vietnam war. It is an idea that cannot survive a visit to the National Museum of American History in Washington, where one is informed that the "price of freedom" is over and over again paid in blood.... when the Americans speak of freedom, we should not imagine, in our cynical and worldly-wise way, that they are merely using that word as a cloak for realpolitik. They are not above realpolitik, but they also mean what they say. These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
By JR on Thursday, May 31, 2007 No comments:
By KG on Thursday, May 31, 2007 No comments:
Core American Values
Yes folks, 'core American values', that's what the ACLU is all about, leftist parasites touting core American values. One of these 'core American values' is that Torturing suspected terrorists = Bad.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday it is suing Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Co., claiming it provided secret CIA transportation services for three terrorism suspects who were tortured under the U.S. government's "extraordinary rendition" program.
The lawsuit, which the ACLU planned to file later Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, charges that flight services provided by Jeppesen enabled the clandestine transportation of the men to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other "forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said after the news conference: "Either they knew or reasonably should have known that they were facilitating a torture program."
Companies "are not allowed to have their head in the sand, and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured," said Wizner. "American corporations should not be profiting from a CIA rendition program that is unlawful and contrary to core American values," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU.
Yes, torturing suspected or actual terrorist scumbags is bad, very bad, completely against core American values [spit]. When I read this today, I remembered the following, posted a few days ago, over at The Midnight Sun. It prompts the question, well what about indulging in child porn; does that go against the 'core American values' that the ACLU is touting?
A former youth league sports coach and executive of the American Civil Liberties Union, who has argued against any limits on Internet access in public libraries, is facing a hearing – and the possibility of prison – for having hard-core child pornography. This man was the PRESIDENT of the Virginia ACLU and while he was president, he lobbied to keep the Internet available to child pornographers via any port available, and WHILE he was president he was engaged in purchasing and subscribing to child (infant and toddler torture) pornography for his personal and sexual gratification. The ACLU.
Twice during pretrial hearings judges had denied him bond, describing the material as some of the most sickening they'd ever seen.
Apparently not, remember this the next time some maggot comes before you waffling about 'core American values' and how the ACLU is all for bloody 'core American values'.
By MathewK on Thursday, May 31, 2007 No comments:
NOT SO BAD
You know how bad things have got when Jimmy Carter's critique of your presidency is taken seriously. This week the former US President attacked the current one, saying that, "as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world", George Bush's Administration had been "the worst in history". It's one thing to have to listen to Bill and Hillary Clinton claim that things were better when they were in the White House, but Jimmy Carter? Being told by Mr Carter that you're the worst president in history is like being told by William McGonagall that your poetry stinks.
For the younger reader, perhaps already infused with a nostalgia that recalls the 1970s as a time of peace and prosperity, a brief reminder of the golden era of Carter is in order. It wasn't all disco and flared trousers and sex without condoms. Also fashionable in those days were unemployment, inflation and communism.
The US jobless rate was more than 10 per cent. Inflation touched 15 per cent. Soviet troops marched unmolested into Afghanistan. America watched helpless as its diplomats were held hostage by Iranian revolutionaries for 444 days. In the rest of the world, from Latin America to Asia, American power yielded to the communist advance; economically, America was being bested by Japan and Germany.....
Start with economics. America is not going to be overtaken by China any time in the next century. So large is the US advantage that, even growing at 3 per cent, the country's economy adds more to the level of global activity than China does growing at 10 per cent.
Its soft power may have been attenuated these past few years, but not destroyed. Who is there to replace America? China? Do me a favour. Does anyone out there really think they would prefer to live in China rather than America? Europe? Viewed from the comforting perspective of a pavement cafe in Paris, Europe might look a more appealing place. But the continent is in the midst of a long, slow suicide; falling birthrates and a moral surrender to the forces of relativism have left it an easy prey for less tolerant cultures.
There's no denying that Iraq is a self-inflicted wound and an energy-sapping one at that. But the scale of the damage to America there can be overstated too. All we've really learnt in the past five years is that even the US is probably not powerful enough to remake 700 years of history in five years. That doesn't mean America is weak, just less strong than it thought it was.
Of course, a president, an inept one, can set back the course of a nation's progress. Like Mr Carter before him, Mr Bush's ledger is heavy on the liabilities. But America recovered from Mr Carter, thanks to good leadership and the ingenuity of a people whose great gift is their constant capacity to recreate themselves. Who's betting it won't do so again?
By JR on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 No comments:
hold the panic--and the carbon taxes!
"More than 17,100 basic and applied American scientists, two-thirds with advanced degrees, have signed the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine's Global Warming Petition, which says in part, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."
Heartland Institute
By KG on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 1 comment:
Leftists sticking the hand out
I'm talking about their tendency to stick their hand out for someone else to give them something, they might not be helping themselves to the contents of your wallet while you stand by, but they'll raise taxes so you don't really see the money. Or they'll put something else in place so that you just end up with less.
"The time has come for universal, affordable health care in America," Obama said in a speech in Iowa City, at the University of Iowa's medical school. "My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is that the amount of money you will spend on premiums will be less," Obama said. "If you are one of 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance, you will after this plan becomes law."
Obama also called for a series of steps to overhaul the current health care system. He would spend more money boosting technology in the health industry such as electronic record-keeping, put in place better management for chronic diseases and create a reinsurance pool for catastrophic illnesses to take the burden of their costs off of other premium payers. His plan also envisions savings from ending the expensive care for the uninsured when they get sick. That care now is often provided at emergency rooms. The plan also would put a heavy focus on preventing disease through lifestyle changes.
That 'heavy focus' means he'll be regulating and cajoling you on what you eat and how you live, under the guise of I know what's best for you. This all sounds wonderful, those of you with private health will pay less and those of you with nothing will just be covered. But this is the real world and most of us (not leftists and socialists) know all too well that there is no free lunch, someone somewhere has to pay for it.
"To help pay for this, we will ask all but the smallest businesses who don't make a meaningful contribution to the health coverage of their workers to do so to support this plan," said Obama. "And we also will repeal the temporary Bush tax cut for the wealthiest taxpayers." From FOXNews, photo from AP
Yes the old 'tax the rich', Obama doesn't say that he'll just be screwing over Bill Gates and Donald Trump to fund his grand plans, who says he won't expand the group benefiting from Bush's current tax cuts? What happens when those of you working your way up decide, bugger this, why should I break my back working when I just end up paying for those who didn't? You'll be surprised at how accommodating leftists can be when grouping folks as 'wealthy'.
As for the businesses, they employ people don't they, what do you think they do when their costs go up? What do you think happens to their share price when the market hears of this? What do you think happens to the country's economy when people start losing jobs and investors start getting nervous. Americans whinge and whine when they pay 20% tax, well how would you like to be paying 30-40% and waiting for the healthcare you paid for? Careful who you vote for, it's your money one way or another.
By MathewK on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 No comments:
Leftist wants someone to loathe
Australian Leftist columnist Phillip Adams often writes in a rather ironic way but the article by him excerpted below does seem to be a clear confession of the hate that drives him -- as it does with so many Leftists. That they hail the slightest negativity emanating from conservatvies as "hate" shows how urgent is their need to project their own failings onto others. Adams is commenting on the likely defeat of Australia's conservative government at the next election -- due later this year. Adams is a millionaire so his hate is not born of "poverty". And, yes, that poster he has on his library wall is who you think it is
For God's sake don't tell Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins, but despite a lifetime's atheism I have, over the past decade, been driven to prayer. My increasingly desperate appeals have been addressed to Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, Thor, Ra, Vulcan and sundry totems, jujus, graven images and idols - entreating one or more of them to end the Howard Government....
But nothing happened. To be perfectly frank the disappointing lack of response considerably added to my religious scepticism. But now, suddenly, the gods are acting! The various almighties are finally showing him the door! And I'm suddenly getting a bit worried. How will I get on without him? .... Just as Mum needed Kennett to give meaning to her existence, I may well be sustained by Howard hating. How will I get through the day without the prospect of the six o'clock news when I can, in the family tradition, yell at the screen?
The world faces a similar problem with George W. Bush. The most unpopular president since Harry Truman at his nadir - and as Jimmy Carter rightly says "the worst president in US history" - will soon be banished from the political stage. For nigh on seven years - though it seems almost an eternity - countless millions have loathed the man. He has increased the blood pressure of not only hapless Democrats but also a large majority of my fellow Australians and pretty much the entire population of Europe.... Where will all that hatred go when he's gone? What will people do with it?
For 11 years John Winston Howard has been my central focus, my obsession, my bogeyman, my nemesis. To be without him might answer those prayers. But as has been wisely said "Beware the answered prayer"!
By JR on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 No comments:
So long Cindy - Hugo will miss you
In a 1,245-word missive entitled "Goodbye Attention Whore" posted on the liberal DailyKos blog, Sheehan said her campaign to end the war in Iraq had strained her relationship with her children, cost her a marriage and left her nearly penniless.
"This is my resignation letter as the 'face' of the American anti-war movement," Sheehan wrote. "I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost."
"I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a 'tool' of the Democratic Party." Sheehan wrote. "However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used."
From FOXNews, Pic via AP
Though I doubt Conservatives can muster a similar amount of hatred and abuse as leftists.
By MathewK on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 No comments:
Welcome to Australia Ayaan
Ayaan Hirsi Ali will arrive in Sydney today amid tight security normally reserved for foreign dignitaries or royalty. Her writings and talks focus on what she calls the backwardness of Islamic culture and the persecution of Muslim women.
However, University of Technology Sydney Islamic law lecturer Jamila Hussain said Hirsi Ali's ideas were extreme and stigmatised Muslims. "I think she'd be better staying where she came from," Ms Hussain said. "I've read enough of her thoughts. It's a narrow and radical opinion, and I don't agree with it. She's obviously had some dreadful experiences, but they're not typical."
Nada Roude, of the NSW Islamic Council, said Hirsi Ali's comments on the prophet Mohammed were a "no-go zone". "They (prophets) are not just like you and me, they have special status - you're supposed to show respect," Ms Roude said. "There have to be boundaries in how far you go in respecting other's beliefs.
The reaction from the community is likely to be quite worrying." Hirsi Ali has written that under Dutch law, Mohammed's marriage to six-year-old A'ishah (whose age is disputed by Muslim scholars) and his subsequent consummation of the marriage when she was nine would make him a pedophile.
Ms Roude said there seemed to be a double standard about who was allowed to visit Australia, particularly as Hirsi Ali's visit appeared to have the potential to incite hatred.
Yeah whatever, let the woman speak freely, everyone else here supposedly has the right to voice his or her opinions, let this woman say her bit. As for the double standards, yeah sure, pigs are gliding by too, we have folks saying whatever the hell they want to here, about us and against us and we can't get rid of them. No double standard here, Hirsi Ali isn't inciting folks to blow up infidels or Muslims in the name of Jihad, she is welcome to speak in my opinion.
As for 'special status', you get your leftist pets to respect Christianity and you might get somewhere, till then suck it up.
By MathewK on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 1 comment:
AH! WHAT A LAUGH! VITAMINS AND WEIGHT LOSS
The American Journal of Epidemiology is usually at the top of my list for amusing absurdities but I think I am going to have to add "Archives of Internal Medicine" to my list of guffaw-provoking reading. One of their latest articles is a real lulu. I will reproduce below first the Abstract and then a media summary. See if you can spot the absurdity:
Calcium Plus Vitamin D Supplementation and the Risk of Postmenopausal Weight Gain
By: Bette Caan et al
Background: Obesity in the United States has increased significantly during the past several decades. The role of calcium in the maintenance of a healthy body weight remains controversial.
Methods: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial was performed with 36 282 postmenopausal women, aged 50 to 79 years, who were already enrolled in the dietary modification and/or hormone therapy arms of the Women's Health Initiative clinical trial. Women were randomized at their first or second annual visit to receive a dose of 1000 mg of elemental calcium plus 400 IU of cholecalciferol (vitamin D) or placebo daily. Change in body weight was ascertained annually for an average of 7 years.
Results: Women receiving calcium plus cholecalciferol supplements vs women receiving placebo had a minimal but consistent favorable difference in weight change (mean difference, -0.13 kg; 95% confidence interval, -0.21 to -0.05; P = .001). After 3 years of follow-up, women with daily calcium intakes less than 1200 mg at baseline who were randomized to supplements were 11% less likely to experience small weight gains (1-3 kg) and 11% less likely to gain more moderate amounts of weight (>3 kg) (P for interaction for baseline calcium intake = .008).
Conclusion: Calcium plus cholecalciferol supplementation has a small effect on the prevention of weight gain, which was observed primarily in women who reported inadequate calcium intakes.
A Media summary below:
CALCIUM and vitamin D supplements could help postmenopausal women to control their weight, according to research in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine . The study included 36,282 women aged 50 to 79 who were randomly assigned to receive either 1000 milligrams of calcium plus 400 international units of vitamin D each day, or an inactive placebo. Participants were weighed each year for approximately seven years. At the end of the study, women who took the supplements weighed an average of 130 grams less than those who did not. The benefits were greatest in women who were not previously getting their recommended daily intake of calcium, with those in the supplement group weighing an average of 190 grams less than those in the placebo group by the end of the study. The authors suggest that calcium and vitamin D may help to break down existing fat cells and prevent the development of new fat.
Dja geddit? Popping all those pills over all those years helped the ladies lose all of one quarter of one pound! Wotta laugh!
A more honest conclusion to the study would have been something like: "Calcium and vitamin D supplements were found to be unimportant to weight control in this study".
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
By JR on Monday, May 28, 2007 No comments:
Tending to our infidel dead
Lieut. Cecil Henry Garsford was 23 when he perished on the slopes of Asmai Heights, the place now known colloquially as TV Hill because of the broadcasting tower on the summit. Garsford, Eton-educated, was once awarded a medal for "gallantry when, canoeing on the River Rhine in Bonn, he saved the life of another youth who had capsized and was drowning."
The eldest son of Lt.-Col. John Garsford, he had gone into battle against Afghan tribesmen brandishing his father's sword. With his dying breath, "he called on his comrades to take care of it, because it was his father's." The date was Dec. 14, 1879, and young Garsford had come a long way to die. His fate is remembered here, on a tombstone plaque, in a sleepy Kabul cemetery.
In Kabul, the Christian Cemetery – also known as the British Cemetery – is such a place. On a sun-burnished afternoon, the graveyard is still but for birds chirping and lizards scuttling across the stone walls. It is peaceful. Afghans call this cemetery Kabre Ghora, ghora being a popular 19th-century term for a British soldier. The graveyard, here at the northeastern end of Shahabuddin Wat, was established by the British, during the second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880).
Five-year-old Muterza, a lovely child with eyes like coffee beans, swings idly from the heavy wooden gate, at once shy and curious. Members of his family, Pashtuns, have served as custodians of the cemetery for decades, even through the Taliban period, when immense pressure was exerted to stop tending the infidel dead.
Indeed, the Taliban had its headquarters in the buildings that line the outer right wall of the cemetery. Three months before the Taliban fell, Mullah Omar himself ventured into the graveyard to confront Muterza's grandfather, Rahim Mullah. "Why do you continue doing this?" Omar demanded. "I am an illiterate man," Rahim Mullah responded. "And everyone knows that to be illiterate is to be blind." The one-eyed Omar countered: "But I too am blind!" And then, hard as it is to imagine, Omar burst into laughter.
At one end, beneath a Maple Leaf, a large memorial is dedicated to dead Canadians, installed only a few months ago. They, too, came a long way to die. Rahim Mullah is 75 years old now and ailing. In fact, he's in hospital. But his son, Ainullah, has picked up the spade. On this day, he is pulling weeds from graves and tossing aside cluttering rocks. There is little shade. "Once, we had big trees inside the cemetery, but the Taliban cut them all down," he says. "They used them to build fires in the winter."
Ainullah, 49, speaks proudly of his father's devotion to this foreign cemetery, sentiments long ago instilled in him also. "He insisted on staying here, even through the wars. The Taliban were unhappy about this. But he had such a love for the place. He said: `Yes they are Christian, but Christians are human beings too.' "The important thing is that we are all human beings. Me, I don't have bad thoughts about Christians. Many of these people gave their lives for Afghanistan."
By MathewK on Monday, May 28, 2007 No comments:
Pub bans homosexuals!!
Got your attention didn't it, can you hear it, the leftists pulling out their placards, tyranny, Bush=Hitler, HoWARd, no blood for oil… oops wrong protest, shame Australia, homophobia, gay rights, down with the Church, rights for Gays, Gay marriage. That's right you can't hear anything can you, that's because I lied, in the heading that is, the pub didn't ban gays, they banned straight folks, you know the other alternate lifestyle group, heterosexuals.
A MELBOURNE pub catering for gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals in a landmark ruling at the state planning tribunal. The owners of Collingwood's Peel Hotel applied to ban straight men and women to try to prevent "sexually based insults and violence" towards its gay patrons.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week granted the pub an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act, effectively prohibiting entry to non-homosexuals. VCAT deputy president Cate McKenzie said if heterosexual men and women came into the venue in large groups, their number might be enough to swamp the gay male patrons.
Can you hear the crickets chirping, oh the silence is oppressive and no marching down George Street banging drums and wasting everyone's time is there. By the way the ban applies to lesbians as well, oh dear, what will the leftists do now, are some group's rights more equal than others?
Just wondering, how are they planning to police this gay-only entry thing, if a couple of gay-bashers turn up there wearing tight pants with floppy wrists, is that ok, perhaps there is some sort of Gay id-card that I didn't know about.
What a bonzer sheila
This is a cause dear to my own heart. I love the great Australian slanguage and use it a lot in speech (not in writing) but I am often saddened not to be understood by the younger generation
"Terri Irwin is on a mission to save Aussie slang. The US-born environmentalist pleaded with Australians not to replace our "beautiful" vernacular with American phrases. Under her vision, phrases such as crikey, g'day, strewth and bonzer would dominate conversations. The widow of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin spoke of her dismay that US expressions were used so much. "America has so infiltrated Australia that Australianisms are starting to fade," she said. Mrs Irwin said she made sure her children Bindi and Bob were brought up with Aussie slang. "Australian slang is part of the beautiful cultural value of this nation," she said. "Crikey - hold your head up, don't feel embarrassed about ockerism."
By JR on Sunday, May 27, 2007 No comments:
This evening I saw the 60 minutes program on David Hick's family, I've never actually heard his children or his wife speaking about him. After seeing his father carrying on in the past, I was surprised when I heard his children speak, they are such good children, in some ways I guess the best thing he did for them was to leave all those years ago.
You know what I found amazing, those two children knew what he is, they know he left them to fight for the enemy and they know he did the wrong thing. It's amazing that stupid leftists cannot see what even his own children can.
By MathewK on Sunday, May 27, 2007 No comments:
Perceptions and footprints
Earlier in the morning I watched a program about Muslims in Thailand. Apparently the south of Thailand is majority Muslims, but in the north they are a minority. As expected, the ones in the south are passionate followers of the religion of peace. The story began with an incident of two Buddhist men who were attacked and one beheaded by Muslim insurgents. It then moved to the 'plight' of the minority Muslims in the North, apparently they are feeling a 'backlash' and are feeling a bit of dislike from the Buddhists in the North. The Muslims in the North are feeling that they have to justify their religion to others and don't want to hide their Muslim identity. The story also alluded to the media's constant front page coverage of the violence in the South exacerbating this 'backlash', presumably they'd prefer the beheadings to be relegated to the back pages, you know these things happen, so why make a fuss of it, lets keep the harmony you know, tolerance and all that.
Here's a tip folks, why don't your Muslim leaders in the North publicly tell everyone that those pieces of crap down south beheading folks are just that, pieces of crap. We don't support them, they are not welcome here, we don't share their practices and if any of us share their feelings, then they'll get turfed out, because we want to live in peace as we claim to. I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it, so get on with it, unless off course the ones in the North are quietly supportive of their brothers down south.
Speaking of perceptions, apparently the United States military has been accused of sending nerve gas and cluster bombs to the Lebanese fighting the Fatah al-Islam militants in Lebanon. They make these allegations because some of us are automatically skeptical when the US says something, but when the terrorists say something, we just take them at their word for it.
Because of this it doesn't really matter whether the allegations are true or not, the seeds of doubt will be sown, pretty soon the useful idiots in the west will be whining about Geneva conventions, human rights, war crimes and all that.
In Iraq the scumbags use chlorine bombs, they blow up as many women and kids as they possibly can and would be happy to use anything else they can get their hands on. In this crazy world that we live in, the useful idiots believe that al-Qaeda's torture manual and practices are the same as making a suspected terrorist read a newspaper full of crap or depriving him of sleep in Gitmo.
So in my opinion, why shouldn't the US send nerve gas to the Lebanese in the fight against these terrorist scumbags? If they are, good on them, I certainly won't be carping on about it. I remember seeing on one of the news programs the Lebanese PM insisting they won't allow any terrorist organization to operate within their country, well if this Fatah al-Islam can be made an example of, perhaps Hezbollah might just decide to reduce their presence. Call it their 'carbon footprint' if you want, to save face and help their useful idiot friends in the west.
A Greenie absurdity made real -- in Australia
MEET Queensland's first carbon farmer. Peter Allen, pictured, a third-generation farmer from Moura, has signed a $1 million deal for doing nothing at all. In a historic transaction, mining company Rio Tinto bought the rights to carbon dioxide stored in 3500ha of Mr Allen's heavily vegetated property, 575km northwest of Brisbane. Instead of clearing the land to run cattle, Mr Allen will preserve the trees for 120 years to ensure they soak up carbon dioxide.
When you hear talk of carbon offsets, this is where the money goes. Many of the state's farmers stand to reap multimillion-dollar incomes from selling carbon rights to large corporations or individuals wishing to become carbon neutral. "It's not like I have won the lotto or that I'm a tree-hugger. It was a purely financial decision," Mr Allen said. "We looked at the return on developing that land for grazing, compared to the return from the carbon rights. "We had to think hard before we decided to lock that land up for the next 120 years. "If it had been any less money, we wouldn't have done it."
This time last year, Mr Allen had eight bulldozers ready to knock down a swathe of trees on an investment property just outside Charleville. Under the State Government's moratorium on land clearing, farmers were given until December last year to enact one final clearing permit. Rio Tinto stepped in, offering Mr Allen and five other farmers money in exchange for their inaction. A total of 12,060ha was spared, the carbon rights secured under a legally binding contract. It is believed to be Australia's biggest carbon-trading deal.
The carbon industry is expected to boom after the Prime Minister's Task Group on Emissions Trading hands down its blueprint next Thursday. But as the carbon industry gears up, questions have been raised about the lack of regulation over the voluntary offset market - the system through which airline passengers, rock festival patrons and motorists can pay for their pollution. Green watchdogs say the voluntary market is open to exploitation, with no controls on who can sell carbon and no checks on the work carried out. Further questions have been raised about the effect of tree-planting, the popular method used by most carbon offsetters.
By JR on Saturday, May 26, 2007 1 comment:
Leftist crapola from Amnesty condemns Australia
I used to be a member of Amnesty when they restricted themselves to helping political prisoners everywhere but now they are just another bunch of one-eyed self-righteous preachers who hate America and much else besides. Don't even MENTION Israel!
Australia has NO political prisoners. Illegal immigrants are ordinary law-breakers. There is more on Amnesty boss -- the far-Leftist Ms Khan -- here. By putting John Howard in the same camp as the revolting Robert Mugabe, however, her main achievement is to make herself look absurd.
The screenshot below of the Amnesty USA site (from Taranto's post of May 23) shows how infantile they have become and his post of 24th. has more derisive follow-up. I actually thought that the Amnesty site might have been hacked by outsiders in an attempt to discredit them but it is now clear that the juvenile nonsense was in fact all their own work.
If Amnesty were seriously concerned about human rights, they would be concentrating their attention on things like this
Prime Minister John Howard finds himself alongside Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in an Amnesty International report which says they are among short-sighted fear-mongers dividing the world. The human rights pressure group has accused Mr Howard of portraying asylum-seekers as a threat to national security. The report also criticises Australia's role in the war on terror and its treatment of female victims of violence.
Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan says the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership. Ms Khan included Mr Howard with Mr Mugabe, US President George Bush and Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir in the same scathing paragraph in her foreword to the group's annual report published today. Ms Khan said the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard "thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership''. "The Howard government portrayed desperate asylum-seekers in leaky boats as a threat to Australia's national security and raised a false alarm of a refugee invasion,'' Ms Khan wrote.
By JR on Friday, May 25, 2007 No comments:
Some battlers are less equal than others
Just as Kevin Rudd finished wiping the egg off his face after revelations over his wife's treatment of her employees. The usual suspects provide us with more evidence of their hatred of small business, their ignorance and their trash-anybody-to-get-into-power approach.
On Wednesday during question time, Ms Gillard, the Opposition's industrial relations spokeswoman, repeatedly waved a copy of the AWAs given to staff at the Lilac City Motor Inn at John Howard. "Mr Howard would be proud of this effort," Ms Gillard said. "It means that a worker can be paid the minimum wage, $13.47 an hour, and that's it. No penalty rates. No overtime. No rest breaks. No shift allowance. No leave loading. No public holiday pay. "It goes on and on: $13.47 an hour and you lose every condition that workers have historically relied on in this industry as part of their pay packet," Ms Gillard added.
She wasn't waving copies of anything in Kevin Rudd's face over this was she? No, no wasn't waving anything at Greg Combet and the rest of unions over Kelly Hoare either. You see some battlers are less equal than other battlers. The people Gillard was carrying on about aren't millionaires, they aren't running 170 million dollar companies or something, not that millionaires are fair game or anything.
JOANN Doolan has been to hell and back since the motel she owns and operates with her husband, Don, was catapulted into the IR debate this week. Since Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard, drawing on a media report, accused them of slashing staff pay and conditions when they introduced Australian Workplace Agreements, the family has been inundated with hate mail and abusive phone calls. But the Doolans, who bought the motel in 2005, say they pay all of their staff more than the minimum wage and have a good relationship with them.
The award for a grade-one hospitality services employee is $13.91 an hour, or $14.57 for a grade-two employee. Nerida Corby, 32, has worked for the Doolans as a receptionist, waitress and general handywoman for the past three months. The mother of two children under five said the Doolans were excellent employers - flexible and considerate. She told The Australian that she earned well above the $13.91 an hour minimum. "My pay is perfectly reasonable for what I do," Ms Corby said.
"I am happy to be working here. They are great, they are very nice people. They are just a young family trying to run a business." In the media maelstrom, the Doolans were accused of instructing staff not to wear perfume or aftershave, nor to rub their nose or even "pull at a slipping bra strap". But Ms Doolan said she was disturbed by the way she had been depicted - and the hate mail that followed.
The Doolans have two boys, aged four and seven, and have worked hard to build the motel into a successful business. Mrs Doolan was forced to talk to her sons' primary school to ensure that they were not bullied as a result of all the attention. Ms Corby said staff had been upset and protective of the Doolans, concerned at the distress the controversy was causing them. "It is not just them affected," she said. "If they don't get the business we don't get the jobs."
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey said yesterday the ALP should have done more to check its facts before airing the allegations.
Don't worry about facts or ruining other peoples lives, they are baying for Howard's blood, they're doing well in the polls, the public is buying their crap and God help anyone (battler or not) who gets in the way. Incidentally, when the Doolans bought the business there were 6 employees, now there are 12 or more, but that's obviously a bad thing, go figure.
By MathewK on Friday, May 25, 2007 No comments:
VC hero Gurkha banned from living in Britain 'because he has no strong ties with UK'
His courage in the face of almost certain death made him a war hero and deservedly earned him the Victoria Cross.
Tul Bahadur Pun's extraordinary act of valour while fighting the Japanese during World War Two even won him royal admirers. He was invited to the Queen's Coronation and had tea with the Queen Mother.
Yet despite his illustrious service record, when the ailing 84-year-old former Gurkha soldier applied for permission to live in Britain he was refused by government officials.
Amazingly, British officials in Nepal told the wizened old warrior who put his life on the line for King and country: "You have failed to demonstrate that you have strong ties with the UK."
Lawyers acting for Mr Pun, along with 2,000 former Gurkhas, will appeal his case before the immigration courts in London in August.
Meanwhile the elderly gentleman, who suffers from a range of serious health problems, must hope he can survive the intervening months in his ramshackle home in Nepal 4,000 feet up a mountain.
This is an unspeakable act of bastardry, even for a government with a reputation for treating their soldiers like shit.
These cunts are happy to fund hordes of fucking arabs and their spawn, so much so that one "radical cleric" can afford to live in a house worth around a million dollars while preaching hatred of the society that supports him.
But this Ghurka has "failed to demonstrate that he has strong ties with the UK", according to some bureaucratic piece of shit.
Perhaps if Mr. Pun and his supporters were to establish a radical mosque in the heart of London and encourage young men to become suicide bombers THAT would establish some "strong ties"?
If we fail to stand up for this man may God forgive us. Because our descendants certainly won't.
(I make no apologies for my language--if something like this won't move us to incandescent rage, then what will?)
By KG on Friday, May 25, 2007 No comments:
Mobile telephone fraud and regulatory capture
Regulatory capture happens when an industry regulator falls under the influence of those that they are supposed to regulate. That would seem to have happened in the case of Australia's telephone regulator -- the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). I have found that out from my personal experience. The TIO seems to believe anything that service providers in the industry tell it.
What happened was that scammers somehow accessed my Vodafone cellphone account and rang up a lot of text-message charges against me. When I eventually realized what was happening and protested vigorously about it to Vodafone, they eventually refunded me the disputed charges. Before doing so however, they forwarded me an absurd email from the scammers which said that only I could have incurred the charges. Vodafone apparently accepted that bit of fantasy as correct so gave me an "ex gratia" refund only.
I was outraged at this slight on my good name and character and asked Vodafone for more details that would allow me to track down who exactly had been misusing my account. Vodafone refused to tell me anything further, however. They would not even tell me whether the charges were for messages that I had supposedly sent or for messages that I had supposedly received. Since I haven't even figured out HOW to send text messages on my current phone, that was a very relevant detail.
So I protested to the TIO about this stonewalling from Vodafone -- and also protested that the scammers had not apparently been in any way restricted and were free to carry on defrauding others.
I have received today a letter from TIO reviews officer Olivia Munro which just rubs salt into the wound. They have refused to do anything about my complaint and they too appear to have accepted without investigation that the fantasy letter concocted by the scammers was true, correct and factual. Australia's major banks lose big money to scammers but that the little guy might be similarly affected seems not to have occurred to the useless TIO. My only recourse now is to take the matter to court and I have not yet made my mind up about that.
So DON'T rely on your government to protect you. Insist that all bills are mailed to you in paper form so that you can examine them carefully and refer to them in the future. And DON'T authorize anybody to take money out of your bank account directly in settlement of what you owe. Pay all your bills yourself rather than authorizing automatic deductions from your account. You may never see your money again otherwise.
Good news from Iraq
Unfortunately not news on those 3 soldiers that were captured a while back, two are still missing, the latest I read today was that one soldier may have been found dead but it's unconfirmed.
There is good news from Iraq, believe it or not. It comes from the most unlikely place: Anbar province, home of the Sunni insurgency. The level of violence has plummeted in recent weeks. An alliance of U.S. troops and local tribes has been very effective in moving against the al-Qaeda foreign fighters. A senior U.S. military official told me—confirming reports from several other sources—that there have been "a couple of days recently during which there were zero effective attacks and less than 10 attacks overall in the province (keep in mind that an attack can be as little as one round fired). This is a result of sheiks stepping up and opposing AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] and volunteering their young men to serve in the police and army units there." The success in Anbar has led sheiks in at least two other Sunni-dominated provinces, Nineveh and Salahaddin, to ask for similar alliances against the foreign fighters. And, as TIME's Bobby Ghosh has reported, an influential leader of the Sunni insurgency, Harith al-Dari, has turned against al-Qaeda as well. It is possible that al-Qaeda is being rejected like a mismatched liver transplant by the body of the Iraqi insurgency.
And who is pushing the hardest to end the surge, call it quits and 'redeploy'. And they keep a straight face while telling us how they also hate the terrorists just as much as we do. Hat tip Hang Right Politics.
By MathewK on Thursday, May 24, 2007 1 comment:
Bias? How dare you!!
Move it along folks, nothing to see here, or is there? Isn't it funny how the last two Labor recruits were from the 'unbiased' ABC. For our international readers, it's like certain members of the MSM in America joining the Democratic Party but insisting they have been completely unbiased all along. Coming back to the topic, is it just me or do the recent opinion polls of the Howard government look like the public think John Howard is some sort of child molester or something? I mean the guy has been in power for a while now, Australia is enjoying the benefits of sound economic management, more tax-cuts are on the way, the budget is in surplus and yet it seem the electorate just want to throw him out because we've had just about enough of the good times. Thanks John but we're feeling weighed down by all this cash, so please take back some of it and give it to Joe Bludger down the road. Maybe not.
THE woman who framed the questions in a damning opinion poll on the performance of Prime Minister John Howard plans to host an intimate $175-a-head fundraising dinner for Labor star recruit Maxine McKew. An email leaked to the Daily Telegraph confirmed that Rebecca Huntley, director of research at polling group IPSOS, had taken on the role of fundraiser for Ms McKew, who is trying to unseat Mr Howard in Bennelong.
Dr Huntley, who has a PhD in gender studies, confirmed yesterday that she had a leading role in shaping the poll questions. But she strongly denied her friendship with Ms McKew affected her work.
Dr Huntley said yesterday she was a close friend of Ms McKew, but insisted she had no influence on the outcome of the poll. "So the claim is that because I'm a friend of Maxine's, the poll is somehow biased?" she asked. "I don't think there is a conflict of interest. The questions were requested by The Bulletin and I reshaped them and made them more objective."
Yeah sure, if you look out the window folks, you'll see the largest pigs ever sighted by mankind, gliding gracefully by on majestic wings. Maybe I'm wrong on this but when I hear something like a PHD in gender studies; I need to turn down the volume on the Leftist BS Detector.
Speaking of leftists and BS, remember Kelly Hoare, shafted by the leftists, thrown out onto the scrapheap, right after they assured us how much they cared for the battler. Don't worry if you don't remember, I'll help you, here, here, here and here. It seems Kevin Rudd can't even get his wife onboard with his rights-for-some-battlers campaign.
A COMPANY owned by Kevin Rudd's wife put workers on individual contracts that stripped them of key award conditions. Mr Rudd's wife, Therese Rein, is a multi-millionaire businesswoman whose companies employ 1400 workers in Australia and Europe.
Her firm Ingeus is a global player in the employment and recruitment sector and last year achieved revenues exceeding $170 million. ...the company run by Kevin Rudd's wife, Therese Rein, has been accused of offering contracts that would have failed her husband's 'no-disadvantage' test...
For our international readers, this is like Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards lecturing you about poverty at an American university for the sum of $55,000. Hat tip to The Sniper.
If Rudd can't get his own wife onside, imagine how much 'caring' you'll be getting from his fellow socialists and greenies in the Labor party. The next time you see polls telling us Howard is going to get the boot from the electorate, you should remember the 'objectivity' of the poll and when it comes voting time, it might be best if you're not on the receiving end of the opposition's 'unique' caring.
A Government of Idiots?
Until the unions did their best to sink him, Australia's presumptive next Prime Minister was doing a good job of presenting himself as relatively conservative. The article below by Colebatch the Younger is therefore a useful corrective. Excerpt only: (RTWT)
Australia is a stable, well-governed country, but if Kevin Rudd becomes Prime Minister it may not be possible to go taking this for granted.
In the 11 years since it was elected, the right-of-centre government of John Howard has proved itself Australia's best government ever. That is not to say it has been perfect, just very good indeed. The economy has boomed and gone on booming. Per capita income has soared, inflation, unemployment and interest rates have all been low. More Australians are wealthy and enjoy a higher living-standard than ever before. A number of potentially serious regional foreign crises have been handled effectively. Australia in general is one of the most respected countries in its region and a leading player in south-east Asian international co-operation and diplomacy. It has taken a strong position in the war on terror and supported the U.S. internationally both diplomatically and militarily.
Australia has been well-governed and prosperous for so long that there is a feeling that such is the natural and unchangeable order of things. This could be a dangerous delusion. Kipling once warned of:
Life so long untroubled, that ye who inherit forget.
It was not made with the mountains, it is not one with the Deep.
Men, not gods, devised it; men, not gods, must keep ...
Alvaro Vargas Llosa wrote recently of the "Return of the Idiot" -- of economically illiterate populists like Hugo Chavez fired by anti-Americanism and the ghost of communism: "Today, the species is back in force in the form of populist heads of state who are reenacting the failed policies of the past, opinion leaders from around the world who are lending new credence to them, and supporters who are giving new life to ideas that seemed extinct." There are signs of this attitude re-surfacing on the Left in mainstream Australian politics.
That the opposition Australian Labor Party is now ahead in the opinion polls, with an election a maximum of about seven months away, is ominous, given what it has become. Bob Hawke, Labor prime minister for much of the 1980s, proved a sound, responsible and beneficial economic reformer. But it seems times have changed, and not for the better. The present leader, Kevin Rudd, despite wearing nice suits (he is an ex-diplomat) and projecting innocuousness, seems to have a grasp of economics comparable to that of Hugo Chavez. Indeed a group of Rudd's supporters -- including the national president of the Labor Party and a host of Labor-affiliated union leaders -- signed a letter inviting Chavez to Australia to advise on the governance of the country, claiming:
We have watched developments in Venezuela with great interest. We have been impressed by the great effort that your government has taken to improve the living standards of the majority of Venezuelans. Although we are on the opposite side of the globe, we feel that our shared ideals of social justice and democracy bring us close together ... what Venezuela has been able to achieve in so little time will be a source of inspiration and ideas for many in Australia.
Rudd has condoned this poisonous nonsense and refused to discipline or rebuke those responsible, despite or perhaps because of the fact that apart from anything else it is an obvious insult to Australia's closest ally, the U.S. Rudd himself spouts simplistic anti-market extremism:
Our common enemy is the political project of John Howard which seeks to reconstruct Australian society ... Howard's vision for Australia is Friedrich Hayek's rampant individualism where unfettered free markets determine the value of not only every commodity but of every person and institution.
THE MUSLIM TERROR OF SEXUALITY
The men of Islam are obsessed with sex beyond even the wildest imaginings of the Western male's mind. And the obsession is far from healthy and even further from reality. We frequently joke about men's preoccupation with sex and female body parts in the West, but our fascination with "T&A" is nothing when you consider that the Muslim world is literally consumed by female sexuality and with their fear of it. It is ironic that both Muslim men and women are under the mistaken impression that Western society is oversexualized compared to them, when in fact, it is practically impossible to be more obsessed with sexual matters than they are in Muslim communities.
Consider for a moment a culture that would prefer to let young girls die in a burning building than to risk having them run out of said building not clothed in properly modest dress; and tell me that such a society is less preoccupied with matters of sex than we are in the West.
Enormous effort goes into veiling women, dressing women modestly, silencing women, covering women's bodies, punishing women, controlling women, reviling women, humiliating women, beating women, subjugating women, avoiding the dishonor of women, keeping women uneducated, policing women, infantilizing women--in short, dehumanizing women in every way possible -- all under the guise of "protecting" and "honoring" them as they relegate them to animal-like status.
The women in this misogynistic Islam are brainwashed from birth into thinking that this cultural preoccupation somehow is necessary and that it "liberates" them in some bizarre manner.
Amazingly, this medieval culture has grasped the fundamentals of both Orwellian and postmodern rhetorical rationalizations, that are so prominent in certain intellectual quarters within our own culture! I have heard the canned rationalizations coming from their lips of muslim women myself; and they all claim that it frees them from having to be "sexual objects."
On the contrary, in Islamic society that is apparently the only role open to women. That, and breeders for the jihad.
This societal psychopathology poisons all interactions between the genders; takes up an incredible amount of time and effort in so-called "intellectual" circles and is the subject of religious edicts and innumerable rules and strictures on women's behavior and in the religious and social life; and causes the pseudoscientific rantings of arrogantly pathetic men (like the one above) who try to justify their misogyny so that they don't have to deal with the reality of their frightened and impotent masculinity.
Women become mere possessions-vessels/repositories of the impotent and inadequate male's honor. That men and women could relate equally in every sphere of human endeavor is a concept that is so alien and so threatening; I suspect it is what partly drives the rage the males feel toward western culture in general.
Without the subjugated woman, the entire house of cards of Islam and Arab culture will come tumbling down. And with at least 50% of their population de-humanized, is it at all surprising that Islamic culture wherever it has taken root inevitably evolves into backward, primitive, violent, and non-productive societies?
I have said it before and I will say it again here: the treatment of women under Islam is not only the key to understanding the pathology of the culture, but also the key to developing an antidote to its most poisonous and toxic elements.
The bureaucratic mind:
By KG on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 No comments:
DOH!
Teaching 'becoming too feminised'
An academic believes research needs to be carried out into why men are shying away from becoming teachers.
Fewer than 10 per cent of the early childhood and primary school teachers graduated at a recent ceremony at Massey University.
Pro Vice-Chancellor of Massey's College of Education James Chapman said there is a lot of speculation about why men are not getting into teaching.
He said some of his female colleagues say the curriculum has become so feminised, men do not feel comfortable with it.
Professor Chapman says the Government needs to commission some solid research into the issue for the good of the country's children.
More research. More taxpayer's money to examine the bloody obvious. Then they'll have a dozen or so conferences and working papers and seminars and meetings, all to "discover" what any parent or interested observer could have pointed out for nothing--that the whole PC mess that passes for education simply isn't working.
It isn't just the curriculum that's become feminised. Society as a whole has adopted feminine values that place some kind of mythical "safety" above all else, that try to deny human nature and instead mould kids according to some utopian dream that never has and never will work.
Evil America
Well that's what we are led to believe, after September 11, it's as if Muslims in America are just rounded up and tossed into concentration camps or into the sea or something. Leftists whining of discrimination, bigotry and generalization of Muslims, Europe sets the better example, learn from them folks, Europe the bastion of tolerance, multiculturalism, racial equality etc. Well the truth is not quite what we are constantly told by the haters, I read this at Dinah Lord's blog last night and people like this are who we want in the western world, not professional parasites like CAIR and other grievance mongers, constantly whining about perceived discrimination and intolerance.
Farah Pandith, who in February was appointed to the freshly created position of senior advisor for Muslim Engagement in the State Department's European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau, has pointed to her own life experience as an American Muslim woman of Indian origin to illustrate how it is possible for Muslim immigrants to successfully integrate into United States society.
The "Muslim experience in America does prove that Muslims who live their religion can be unqualified democratic Americans," she told the gathering held at Rome's American Studies Centre. Turning to Washington's foreign policies, Pandith described the notion that America is at war with Islam as a "myth".
She said that in the two conflicts currently involving the United States in majority Muslim nations - Afghanistan and Iraq - Washington was supporting "fledgling democracies," after helping to respectively topple the Taliban, which she described as "an obscurantist regime that targeted and banned centuries-old Afghan culture" and Saddam Hussein, "one of the worst dictators ever to tyrannise Muslims".
She also said the US had given billion of dollars in humanitarian and economic aid around the world in Muslim communities, citing as examples Indonesia in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, in Pakistan following the October 2005 earthquake and reconstruction in Lebanon after the July-August 2006 conflict with Israel.
And to backup Farah Pandith, I heard this morning of this Pew research study of American Muslims. There are some worrying aspects like the one quarter of young Muslims who are ok with suicide bombings on some occasions, presumably these occasions are ones where they are not in attendance. But the study does reveal that America is actually better, heck Muslims even believe more in the American dream than the general public.
The study by the Pew Research Center says US Muslims - most of whom are immigrants - believe in the American work ethic and reject extremism. Their income and education levels mirror those of the general US public, according to the survey. Moreover, 71% of Muslim Americans agreed that people could get ahead in the US by working hard - the figure for the general public was 64%.
Coming back to the reality as alluded to by "serial liars" (I'm still laughing at that one) like Mark Steyn. Seems like the EurabiansLeftists in Europe should rather follow America's example, before they choke on their outrage, it's not me saying this.
"The life situations and attitudes of Muslim Americans stand in contrast with those of Muslim minorities of Western Europe." Pew Global Attitudes surveys last year in the UK, France, Germany and Spain found that most Muslims there suffered unemployment and felt marginalised.
"The American dream is still very much alive here," she [Laila Al-Qatami] says. "If you work hard and you put your mind to something, you can still succeed here. That's what American Muslims see and feel. They still see it as a land of opportunity — that's why so many people want to immigrate here." Compared with Europe — where many Muslims live in ghettos, earn the lowest incomes and suffer high unemployment — America represents the good life, she says.
See social justice and carping about multiculturalism gets you into the ghetto, for life. The best you can look forward to is burning someone else's new model Citroen, hey maybe it'll have full leather and a sunroof this time.
Just as a side issue, may I humbly offer a suggestion to the dedicated researchers with their clipboards and pie charts? The next time you ask some youngster, drunk on social justice and all that, about their views on suicide bombings, when they respond they are supportive of it and its ok; just ask them as a follow up question. Remember to be very non-judgmental about it, PC and all that, ask them if they can muster the same level of support and encouragement for suicide bombings if they happened to be one of the victims.
Hat tip Dinah Lord
"selfish" baby boomers, eh?
"'Boomer bank' right behind Gen Y
IT'S the best bank around.
Zero interest and little expectation of receiving anything back except a doe-eyed look of gratitude.
Demographer Bernard Salt labels it the Boomer Bank, the vault of money available to the Generation Y children of the nation's baby boomers that stays open even after they leave home.
New Australian Bureau of Statistics research reveals more than 1.2 million parents have children aged 18 to 24 living out of home and 57 per cent of them continue to provide some form of financial support to them.
In its report General Social Survey: Summary Results 2006 report, the ABS found common types of support provided for children aged 18 to 24 years were:
# money to pay bills or debt (30 per cent);
# money to help pay rent and housing costs (21 per cent);
# money for food (19 per cent); and
# paying for educational expenses (15 per cent).
news.com
A REALLY bad President remembered
A response to the Peanut Pontifications
In the Carter years, the United States was an international laughingstock. This was not just because of the prevalence of his ghastly kin: the beer-sodden brother Billy, doing deals with Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi, and the grisly matriarch, Miz Lillian. It was not just because of the president's dire lectures on morality and salvation and his weird encounters with lethal rabbits and UFOs. It was not just because of the risible White House "Bible study" sessions run by Bert Lance and his other open-palmed Elmer Gantry pals from Georgia.
It was because, whether in Afghanistan, Iran, or Iraq-still the source of so many of our woes-the Carter administration could not tell a friend from an enemy. His combination of naivete and cynicism-from open-mouthed shock at Leonid Brezhnev's occupation of Afghanistan to underhanded support for Saddam in his unsleeping campaign of megalomania-had terrible consequences that are with us still. It's hardly an exaggeration to say that every administration since has had to deal with the chaotic legacy of Carter's mind-boggling cowardice and incompetence.
Source. There is more on the destructiveness and support for Islam of the Carter regime here.
Britain: More Greenie craziness -- BBQ police
The Primrose Hill community centre in north London has been hosting a popular annual summer festival for the past 30 years. Yet this year, in order to qualify for the 400 pound grant from Camden Council that helps to make the festival a reality, the centre is having to jump through some pretty strange hoops.
The centre is being asked to fulfil a string of new requirements. These include making sure that five per cent of festivalgoers fill in a questionnaire to say whether they enjoyed themselves; inviting `under-represented groups' to participate as stall-holders or performers; hiring only professional caterers who must be registered with their local authority; making sure all staff, artists and volunteers have a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check to ensure they do not have a history of harming children; and using only a gas barbeque. Under no circumstances may the Primrose Hill community festival use their traditional coal barbeque, even though it has not caused any accidents over the past three decades.
Alongside New Britain's speech police, health-and-safety police and ethnic quotas police we can now add the Barbecue Police: council officials whose job it is to ensure that only the right kind of barbecue is used in the right kind of way by the right kind of people. Another bit of fun goes up in smoke.
I need to get onto this band wagon
You would think this is common sense, but I guess we need to do the research and spend thousands of dollars to prove everything these days. I mean I could have told them this.
AN Australian-first study has successfully linked teacher performance with student results, bolstering the Federal Government's efforts to introduce performance-based pay. It found that classes taught by the best teachers scored twice as high as those taught by substandard teachers. The top 10 per cent of teachers were able to achieve in six months what the bottom 10 per cent of teachers took more than a year to do.
The study, to be released today by the Australian National University, debunks claims by teacher unions that teacher performance cannot be confidently measured by looking at the results their students achieve in universal tests. It also finds that additional qualifications, such as a masters degree, which are increasingly being suggested as the basis for performance-based pay, have little effect on results.
Is this supposed to be shocking news to people, to explain this another way, when you sign up at your local Karate school, first, you want the master to know what he's banging on about. Second if he's no good at teaching his skill, then you'll pretty much be where you started on day one, just a lot more frustrated. Well if, good teachers equates to good education for students, is news to people, then I guess you've been informed. Needless to say, the unions and mad left will be whining about this. While I'm on the subject of whining leftists, over in the UK.
Gordon Brown is to risk a backlash from environment campaigners and the Labour Left by endorsing a blueprint for a new generation of nuclear power stations.
Oh dear, brace yourself Gordon, nothing like the Nuclear alternative to get the mad left to go into meltdown, dontcha know, Nuclear = bad, humans = bad. Look to wind and the sun for answers, though not the sun as an answer for what's causing global warming, let's not 'progress' too much now, down with the motor car, death to the motor car.
Don't hold your breath Kiwis
I remember reading last week that New Zealanders won't be getting any tax cuts this year, even though their government is operating in surplus. One would have thought that since it's their own money, it would be nice to get some of it back to do with as they please.
Any prospect of a cut in personal income tax rates in Thursday's Budget was emphatically ruled out by Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday. The earliest a general tax cut might be signalled is in next year's Budget - an election year - and Finance Minister Michael Cullen reiterated yesterday that any cuts then would need to be sensible and affordable. Final confirmation that Labour will not deliver personal tax cuts in this Budget came from Helen Clark, who yesterday affirmed signs that have been coming from Dr Cullen.
Ok I thought, maybe next year they'll get something, election year and all that, well guess again Kiwis, I wouldn't be holding my breath for any tax relief. It's the Greens you see.
Prime Minister Helen Clark expects to stay onside with the Green Party, despite its reminder that there is just one more Budget for the Government to deliver on its promises or face a possible withdrawal of co-operation. Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the party expected the Government would fulfill all its promises, but if it did not the party could consider itself released from its agreement to abstain on confidence and supply votes.
Ms Fitzsimons would not list specific areas in which she thought the Government had fallen short of promises. However, there was dissatisfaction over last week's Budget, which Ms Fitzsimons said took only "teensy weensy" steps over climate change and fell far short of Labour's goal of becoming carbon neutral.
Lets just cut through all the waffle about promises, negotiations, good faith and all that, the mad left want their pound of flesh and let me assure you, while Helen Clark and the Greens kiss and make up, you're going to get screwed. That is one thing you can bet on, but look on the bright side, you'll be carbon neutral.
No justice - rape victim's father
THE father of one of the Sydney women raped seven years ago by Bilal Skaf's gang says rape victims should avoid court, and take matters into their own hands instead.
The father, who cannot be named, said criminal justice in the state was so biased against victims of crime that rape victims should have nothing to do with it.
"Do not go to court. Sort it out outside of the court, if you get my drift," he said.
"Once you get to court, you will not get justice. It is a justice system in name only."
read the whole article for the details of how this man's daughter was treated.
By KG on Monday, May 21, 2007 No comments:
Very nicely said
I hadn't actually seen this before today...
... but I am glad I did. Too good.
By Tiberius on Sunday, May 20, 2007 No comments:
Fu Manchu Now a Nice Guy
Fu Manchu is one of the classic villains, appearing in many popular books, movies and TV shows ever since the 1920s. But you are not allowed to have an Asian villain these days (Even though the Chinese Triads make the Mafia look like ambassadors of goodwill). Therefore:
"Racially insensitive, classic, arch-criminal Fu Manchu may soon return to the screen.... the character is being resurrected by Distant Horizons, a company from that hotbed of racial tolerance known as South Africa. This time he won't be a bad guy, instead they're pitching him as more of an anti-hero who "fits in with a more socially conscious world and that addresses the very complex multipolar world we all live in today." That's corporate speak for "we're not going to be all racist about it."
If he had been a white guy, the character would have needed no revision of course. So who exactly is being racist here?
Test Shows Conservatives More Mentally Complex Than Liberals
Post excerpted from Cheat-seeking Missiles
I'm not sure that this is what Jonathan Haidt, associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, set out to do, but his research into the basis of our morality has shown what is obvious to most of us: Liberals run on a pretty simple clock, whereas the clockwork of conservatives is far more advanced and complex. Did he really say that? You bet:
Haidt argues that human morality is a cultural construction built on top of - and constrained by - a small set of evolved psychological systems. He presents evidence that political liberals rely primarily on two of these systems, involving emotional sensitivities to harm and fairness. Conservatives, however, construct their moral understandings on those two systems plus three others, which involve emotional sensitivities to in-group boundaries, authority and spiritual purity.
Got that? Liberals are worried that the guppy doesn't get hurt and that everyone sings Kumbaya with perfectly balanced voice quality. Conservatives are all for not harming and being fair, but create a much more complex structure for their moral measurements.
Adding in-group boundaries basically means we conservatives are conformists and are more likely to find immorality in the wanton destruction of social mores than liberals, who tend to see such destruction as a moral attribute. Rage against the machine, fight the man. Authority means, of course, respect for authority. Liberals get no moral readings from that attribute, but it's big to conservatives.
Haidt's last point is interesting: the spiritual roots of moral decisions. I think he's wrong here because his survey focuses on religion, not on beliefs. Dennis Prager correctly states that there is more dogma in the Liberal faith system (environmentalism, human rights, tolerance) than in any established religion. If Haidt had designed his survey instrument differently, I believe "core belief systems" would have scored as high with the liberals as with the conservatives, if not higher.
By JR on Saturday, May 19, 2007 No comments:
The siege of Malta
"This is something I post every year. Today happens to be the 442nd anniversary, to the day, of the heroic stand at Malta, an event which all who are thankful for the blessings of western civilization should remember. On Friday, May 18th, 1565, the fleet of the Ottoman Empire was sighted by the watchmen of The Knights of the Order of St. John at Forts St. Elmo and St. Angelo, headed for the southern shore of the island of Malta...."
Go read the rest at Panday's Gazette--it's a story of staggering courage and sacrifice. And you can bet your kids won't hear anything about it from their skoolteachers.
Thanks to Stephen Renico for posting it.
By KG on Saturday, May 19, 2007 No comments:
An Australian Response to Attempted Media Censorship
The resource-rich Australian State of Western Australia covers an area greater than Texas and California combined. The resources boom has made it very rich, despite its having a Left-leaning Labor Party government. There has however been vast government corruption, which the local newspaper in the capital city helped to expose and publicize, resulting in the standing down of several leading government figures. Despite the fact that the newspaper concerned was in fact rather slow off the mark in publicizing the corruption, the Leftist government hates it:
The State Government has refused to introduce laws to protect journalists' sources unless The West Australian newspaper, sacks editor Paul Armstrong. Attorney-General Jim McGinty said The West Australian was the nation's most inaccurate and dishonest newspaper and until it lifted its standards it did not deserve shield laws. "The board of West Australian Newspapers needs to sack the editor. It is personally driven by a particular individual,'' he said.
Mr McGinty said standards were so bad at The West Australian that if a competitor emerged that could break the paper's monopoly, the Government would consider redirecting its advertising to foster competition. "I think it is in the interests of a healthy democracy that we have competition. The public would then have a choice not to buy a crap newspaper,'' he said. Until standards improved at The West Australian, he said there would be no shield laws in his state to protect journalists' sources. "With the shield go responsibilities. And when you get a newspaper that is bigoted, lies, cheats and deceives, my view is that you don't get the shield,'' MrMcGinty said.
Mr Armstrong said yesterday he "could not give a fat rat's arse'' about what Mr McGinty said about him. "Do I care? Not in the slightest. If he hates us it tells me we are probably doing our job and doing it very well, as I know we are,'' he said. "But I would care if McGinty turned around and said that (the) newspaper and editor are excellent. That would tell me, as it would tell Chris Mitchell (editor-in-chief of The Australian), that we are a long way short of the mark,'' Mr Armstrong said.
A very blunt Australian response that would be unthinkable in most of the world. Australia does not have a First Amendment but any serious attempt to hamper press freedom would trigger voter contempt so the editor could speak without fear. But the war continues:
"West Australian Newspapers has rejected calls by the State Government to sack The West Australian newspaper's editor Paul Armstrong. The Government - led by former television presenter Premier Alan Carpenter - yesterday escalated its war with the state's monopoly newspaper, repeating calls for Armstrong to be sacked.
But West Australian Newspapers chief executive Ken Steinke last night vowed the publisher would not be intimidated, attacking the Government's threat to shift millions of advertising dollars to any start-up competitor to the newspaper.... "One would assume taxpayers' money would be spent in a way that provided the best value for money - not according to which newspaper gave the Government the most favourable coverage," Mr Steinke said....
Armstrong also hit back at the criticism, comparing Mr McGinty to Stalin and saying the minister was using taxpayer funds to blackmail, threaten and intimidate a vocal but legitimate critic of the Government.
I think this is all a bit of foot-shooting on the part of the W.A. government. They have allowed their hate to overcome their judgment.
Leftist crapola from Amnesty condemns Australia I...
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selfish, arrogant bitches
WELCOME TO THE DARK AGES: ASSOCIATE STATE CLIMATOL...
Running low on lemons?
For a loser who doesn't know any better
NEWSWEAK DIAGNOSES GWB AS MENTALLY ILL
Separation of Church and State?
Put down the egg son!!
Teachers rewarded for incompetence
Changes on Neptune Link Sun and Global Warming
Ho Hum! The Race Card Again
Gasp! Hard-Left public broadcaster funds anti-Moo...
Vaginal laser rejuvenation & Female genital mutila...
JEWS, JOOOOS and Hebrews (JOOOOS is the way sane ...
Pray for them folks
Problems posting comments?
The REAL story behind the Wolfowitz World Bank sca...
And STILL Bush is soft on illegal immigration!
I THINK I OWE THE GREENIES AN APOLOGY
A salute
Muslims must assimilate, says PM
More evidence of media bias
What can you say.
The Kansas tragedy: Blame-Bush buffoonery
You're on the right track Pete
When will women learn?
Democrat Congress Ignorant On Iraq
Real Heroes
Labor's secret plans – You've been warned
THE JOOOOS WIN AGAIN!
Some babies are more equal than others
Can you hear it?
Leftist totalitarianism
Guns kill people
welcome to the world of consequences, sweetie
Is "Blame whitey" one of the world's greatest spee...
Refugee's jail term cut for 'trauma'
The Quantum of Solace
This is better than standup
You Shall Have No Gods Before Envy
Justice?
Can't trust em
MORONIC U.S. ARMY BRASS
Sydney, Australia - Closed
You can't take Latham out of the leftists.
"Middle of the Road Fascists"?
True Motivation
U.N. To World: You Have No Human Right to Self-Def...
Force-fed warming hysteria
OK to Slur CONSERVATIVE Latinos
The leopard keeps its spots.


text:
Област Хигашикасугај () Higashikasugai-gun која се налази у префектури Аичи, Јапан.

Налази се на североистоку провинције Овари који покрива данашње градове Комаки, Касугај,  Сето, и Овариасахи.

Области у Јапану

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We are bored silly today here at Chez Colombina. Thank goodness for the internets and the wonderful nerds who create useful tools like Movie Quote Generator (Thesurrealist.co.uk). Highly recommended.
Have a great Sunday and May the Lutens be with you.
Happy Sunday! I did my own search. These are words to live by: "Leave the gun. Take the Caron."
"Caron? We ain't got no Caron! We don't need no Caron! I don't have to show you any stinking Caron!"
"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my Montale."
OK, since you mention it, I'll put some on. . .
Hmmm. . . Aoud Flowers--a sample a got from Lisa--like it very much (but then I seem to like these better than most).
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my putain des palaces. Prepare to die."
"Coco, for lack of a better word, is good."
"Do not go into the Angel. Stop where you are. Turn away from it. Don't even look at it."
"Sales Lady? We ain't got no sales lady! We don't need no sales lady! I don't have to show you any stinking sales lady!"
I don't even know this one! Gosh, Montale are productive! :-) I still only like 3 of their scents, Jasmin Full, Oud Cuir Arabie and Vetyver des Sables.
"My mama always said life was like a box of Serge Lutens."
Another good one, "This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old Chanel."
You've created a monster. I'll be on this thing all day.
"They don't throw their garbage away. They make it into Dior."
Can you believe I actually got "I love the smell of Jicky in the morning"... ?
"First rule of Muscs Koublai Khan club is -- you do not talk about Muscs Koublai Khan Club."
I love doing this with the word "monkeys." And "pants" or "underpants." For example, "I love the smell of underpants in the morning." Hi, I am twelve years old!
There's that advertising slogan generator, too, and that can be fun. "Watch Out, There's a Columbina About." Hee!
...she is armed with Muscs Koublai Khan and dangerous.
"All work and no MKK makes Jack a dull boy."
"I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old Colombina for dinner."
"I feel the need - the need for Fracas!"
"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his Mitsouko."
What has our society come to if a person aged 29 is considered old? Hrmph.
"The White zone is for Chanel and Guerlain only, There is no Caron in the Red zone.
No, the White zone has always been for Caron and Guerlain only, there is no Chanel in the Red zone.
Don't tell me which zone is for Chanel only, I know what this is about Martin...you want me to add Lanvin!
Don't start up with your red zone white zone sh*t again, Betty..."
Airplane, anyone?? I hope so otherwise this post looks ridiculous.
Hahaha, so funny. I am glad I found this thing.


White IPA brewed w/ 100% Galaxy hops, kumquats, corriander & peppercorns. Fermented in French Oak Foudres. Bottle Conditioned w/ Brett.
A: Hazy, pale yellow color with over two fingers of white foam head. Light lacing remains on the glass.
S: Crisp--even sparse--brett-affected yeast metabolites that exhibit remarkable focus and clarity without being overpowering.
T: Begins dry, with soft refined malt and some bright pithy fruit. Acidity is strong into the middle where the beer becomes sweeter, more mineral, and tinted with a breezy quality of goat pasture. The latter lingers during the finish, faint but complex.
M: Thin to medium viscosity, refreshingly acidic--especially late, with brisk carbonation.
D/O: An excellent brett beer, this Belgian-style strong pale ale struggles to live up to the IPA label. Instead, it delivers an austere dose of wild yeast funk with little associated tartness.
Bottle purchased at Craft Beer Cellar in Waterbury, VT.
Pours a hazy light yellow, with a little bit of lacing coming from a 1.5 inch fluffy head.
Smells like delicious Galaxy hops- passionfruit and orange, a bit of grapefruit, and some distinct Brett barnyard funk.
This tastes delicious. It doesn't really scream white IPA to me- not really getting the peppercorns. I am getting a varied fruit flavor which could include Kumquats- if I knew what they tasted like. Getting lots of passionfruit, orange, and grapefruit, with some chalky sweet tarts flavors, barnyard funk, and crackery malt.
The body on this one is of light to medium thickness, with a lower amount of carbonation, and a crisp mouthfeel.
Probably the best white IPA i've ever had, although I would have just identified it as an American IPA with Brett.
The beer is quite dry, in fact exceedingly dry for an IPA even, but this really isn't an IPA. The dryness certainly reduces the hop fruitiness substantially in the flavor, but there is still an oral nasal, floral fruitiness that just can't be completely held in check. The finish has a medicinal, sort of aspirin like, almost mineral like note that seems to be brought out by a combination of the hop character and the Brettanomyces influence. The finish has a bitterness to it (in actuality the entire flavor profile has a certain level of biting bitterness), though this isn't a super bitter beer, and this combines with a biting note from the Brettanomyces phenolics and perhaps even some astringent green hop character. There is definitely an herbal character to the flavor that wasn't noticeable in the aroma (again the dryness of this beer brings this out); it reminds me of tobacco, some pine, perhaps of something menthol like, none of these are really distinct in and of themselves though, perhaps it is better described as a peppery, spicy herbal character. This beer is quite light bodied, as one would expect, it is quite quaffable, even dangerously so given the beers strength.
The problem with beers like this, incredibly hoppy / citrusy but bone dry, is that much of the juicy citrus character is lost in the flavor due to the dryness. This beer is a testament to the wonders of Indian coriander, it doesn't have that dirty herbal character that western coriander does and it really integrates very nicely with the kumquat and Galaxy hops; interestingly enough, I hadn't realized that coriander and kumquats were used here; I wholly attributed their flavor contributions to the hops, but now having read the label they most definitely contribute. The pepper to adds a nice spiciness to this brew that was again mistaken for hop character. Back to the problem, without the residual malt sweetness that even supports the driest of the usual IPAs, this beer has lost the juicy citrus character that would be otherwise be noticeable in the flavor. While I have compared this a lot to an IPA, it is clearly not one, given the interpretive take the style can have, I would say this fits into the Saison category (at least better than it fits anywhere else). Since I do love hoppy and I do love Saisons, this beer is right up my alley; exceedingly enjoyable and I doubt I will be able to hold on to my second bottle long enough to allow the Brettanomyces presence to increase much.
This starts off interesting, and actually gets more interesting as you make your way to the bottom of the glass. The use of Brett is quite lovely, and the hops have held up (even through this is months old at this point). This is the first beer I've had from Anchorage, and it's far from a disappointment.
Poured from the bottle a lightly hazed yellow with one finger of rich white head. Light lacing left behind.
Aroma of lemon zest, pineapple, coriander, white pepper, Belgian yeast, and brett.
Tasted of lemon, brett, Belgian yeast, saltine cracker, white pepper and brett. Lightly bitter finish.
Light-to-medium bodied and quite dry with a sharp carbonation.
An easy drinking and tasty Belgian IPA from Anchorage. It's so good to have them return to St. Louis.
750ml bottle. This is from Batch #1, January 2012. Poured into an unmarked tulip glass. Reviewing from memory.
A: Pours out an extremely hazy, bright yellow color. I remember being pretty amazing at how different the color was. Great carbonation from the bottle conditioning. Big two finger, bright white head that stuck around a while. Left some nice lacing as well.
S: That Brett yeast is very pronounced, which was pretty pleasant being a Brett fan. You got hints of lemon and grassy notes hidden below it. Being an IPA though, the hops were sort of dominated by the other smells.
T: Up front you taste that mild barnyard funk on the tip of the tongue that comes from the Brett. I pulled some lemon, coriander notes as well right away. There isn't a strong hop bitterness, but they are there. It's a nice refreshing flavor on this brew. I remember the finish being fairly dry and not overly bitter.
M: It's a medium bodied IPA. Very highly carbonated which helps the flavors clear the palate.
750 mL bottle from AJ's in Aptos. Pours a pale gold color -- not quite as light as a wit or berliner weisse, but still very pale. Aroma is zesty and bright. Big tropical papaya and grapefruit and pineapple, lemon verbena, no trace of malt. Just as it should be. Flavor is a little light on hops due to the aging, but it still has a solid tropical fruit presence. Reminds me of orange pineapple juice a bit. A bit of musty oak and brett, moderate bitterness and a lingering tickle of black pepper. A very impressive beer.
A: Super hazy honey color with a huge bone white head that leaves great lacing down the glass and stays forever.
S: Fantastic smell. Candied orange and juicy mandarin orange, a touch of oak, some great barnyard funk, a touch of coriander and some white pepper.
T: Not as good as the smell, but still pretty tasty stuff. Opens with a touch of citrus sweetness and then moves towards a more bitter middle and finish with grapefruit pith, brett, biscuity malt and some peppery hops.


Today we have our regular column from Nick Hardman of Betting School Insiders who has pointed us at some big priced winners since he started contributing.
Not long ago we highlighted William Haggas as a trainer to follow at Musselburgh.
He has had just 11 runners at the track since 2010 and 5 have won, including three of the last four.
In fact he is 1-1 in 2012, 1-1 in 2013 and 1-2 in 2014.
We also highlighted the fine strike rate that Alan Swinbank has up at Musselburgh with his handicap runners over 1m to 1m 6f.
Since 2010, he has had 47 runners in 1m to 1m 6f handicaps and 12 have won giving him a strike rate of 25.53% and a level stakes profit of +20.25pts.
His string is in fine form at present and his last 7 runners at Musselburgh have finished 5113211.
The Betfred Sprint Cup is the feature race on Saturday at Haydock and I have looked at the profiles of the winning horses since 1997.
Horses aged 3 to 5 have won 15 of the last 17 renewals and 14 of the last 17 winners were rated 109+.
Since 1997, 13 winners arrived here on the back of a top 3 finish, 15 winners have come from the top 6 in the betting and 14 winners had previous winning form over 6f.
Interestingly, 13 of the last 17 winners had run over further than 6f.
Just one horse ticks all those boxes and that is Henry Candy's Music Master @8/1.
Favourite Sole Power has never won over 6f, whilst Gordon Lord Byron falls down on the age stat only.
Those that tick all the boxes except for being in the top 6 in the betting are Professor @66/1, Es Que Love @20/1 and Baccarat @25/1, all of whom are available at big odds.
Today Nick Hardman of Betting School Insiders Club takes a look at key trends for both jockeys and trainers at the Newcastle meeting.
We landed a nice winner and a few placed finishers at decent odds last Friday and this week we head off to Newcastle. The three trainers of interest are Michael Dods, Richard Guest and Tony Coyle who boast course strike rates of 16%, 16% and 19%. If we dig a little deeper we can improve on those statistics by targeting certain races and certain types of horse.
Trinity Star is the only 3yo handicapper from those horses listed above. Paul Mulrennan takes the ride on Escape To Glory, Blackfoot Brave and Trinity Star. He has ridden 3 winners from 5 rides for Michael Dods at Newcastle since 2012. Connor Beasley takes the ride on Dartrix and the Dods/ Beasley pairing have combined well this season including two winners from their last 4 starts.
Penalty Scorer (2yo), Sakhalin Star (3yo) and Hazza The Jazza (4yo) will all be ridden by Duiilo Da Silva who claims a useful 5lbs. Richard Guest's last 5 runners at the track have finished 21112.
Snoway is perhaps his most interesting runner stepping up into handicap company for the first time after showing some ability in 3 maidens so far. She finished 4th on both her first two outings in Class 5 company before finishing a disappointing 10th of 12 in a Class 3 at York.
However, anything saddled by Michael Dods is worth a second look in the market whilst Tony Coyle's horses look to be the outsiders in our list, especially Shirocco Passion who has shown nothing in 3 runs this year.
Everybody wants to make risk-free bets. That's the dream. Being able to profit from a few hours "work" a week whilst having 0% risk.
In the past there've been two ways of doing this. The first was arbitrage and the second was welcome bonuses.
But both of them have their problems.
Arbitrage requires you to have accounts with every bookmaker on the planet, you need a huge bankroll and you have to buy expensive software to make sure you get on all the bets available.
Oh yeah, and you also have to sit in front of your computer all day, every day to make sure you don't miss one!
Not really the dream lifestyle we're looking for.
Until… you run out of new bookmakers that you can take advantage of with their welcome offers.
Well most people just stop. The really dedicated will move to using bingo and casino offers.
But once again you need to have a large bankroll.
In fact, one such service recommends a minimum of a £3000 bankroll!
Well… now there is, and I was shown it by Michael Wilding.
Anyway, Michael asked me to take a look at his approach to making risk-free bets and, of course, I did.
What I found was a way to make £200+ every month, in just an hour or two a week and using a tiny £300 bankroll!
As if that wasn't enough, he only uses twelve of the biggest bookmakers to do it. So there's no opening hundreds of bookie accounts.
You see every week bookmakers put offers in place to their current customers. These offers are designed to entice you into betting more with them.
Usually they take the form of free bets or higher odds, but it does vary.
What Michael is doing is to look at the offers that are being put into place and… working out how he can trade them out to make a guaranteed profit.
I'm going to give you an outline of how this works.
Most of the time it requires two of what Michael calls Cycles.
The first Cycle is designed to qualify you for the free bet. You see bookies are clever, they don't just give you the offer, you have to place certain bets in order to get the free bet (or whatever the offer is).
What's clever though is the staking. Because this is calculated in such a way that it guarantees you a profit whatever happens!
That's pretty awesome, because on average we're making well over £15 risk-free profit on these bets.
Anyway, after getting the bets for a while I wondered if I should do it myself. After all, it doesn't sound that complicated.
But, as always with Michael, what he made easy for me to follow was much harder to work out myself.
You see he just emailed me when there was a new trade possible, posted the details in my members area telling me exactly what to bet on, which bookmaker, how much to bet and what to bet on Betfair for each of the cycles.
Oh yes, there's usually a few days between each of the cycles as well so there's no rushing around to catch the bets.
By the time I'd read through all the terms and conditions, either they wouldn't work for risk-free betting or the profit was so small that it wasn't worth the time. And I spent hours trying to work it out.
Now I know that Michael's a pretty busy guy, so I was wondering how the hell he managed to find the bets that were profitable and make them work every time?
Well, there was only one way to find out.
Turns out that he has a team working with him. They monitor all the offers that bookmakers release and then they read through the terms and conditions to make sure they're valid, before working through his strict conditions to make sure the bet is profitable.
If it is, then they let Michael know so he can tell his members about it (and place the bets himself).
What this means is that tens of man hours of work each week is boiled down to around one hour of bet placing to make £200+ every month.
It's one of the best risk-free services out there I've tried and it ticks all my boxes.
If you want to check it out then Michael is also offering an insane trial. You can read all about it here.


text:
3265 Fletcher è un asteroide della fascia principale. Scoperto nel 1953, presenta un'orbita caratterizzata da un semiasse maggiore pari a 2,4102760 UA e da un'eccentricità di 0,1426625, inclinata di 6,93770° rispetto all'eclittica.

Collegamenti esterni

Corpi celesti scoperti nel 1953
Fletcher