Open Thread – Fri 5 Jan 2024


Dîner aux Ambassadeurs, Jean Béraud, 1880

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Indolent
Indolent
January 5, 2024 6:40 pm
Eyrie
Eyrie
January 5, 2024 6:40 pm

The forecast problem begins with accurately measuring current weather variables on a dense enough grid. There are always errors in measurement, the grid is all over the shop and over more than few days the errors propagate and the actual weather that happens no longer resembles your forecast a good deal of time.
Forget about seasonal forecasts, you are relying on real or imagined correlations.
John H., I used to do this stuff for a living a long time ago.

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 6:41 pm

They can’t claim they had no idea how much the public would despise them. It is also one of the biggest bludge of a job available.

Soft targets for violent thugs, Pogria.

Do we justify people assaulting parking inspectors and traffic controllers on the grounds that they’re bludge jobs and people despise them? No.

Kneel
Kneel
January 5, 2024 6:44 pm

“Trump is unique unfortunately. Both Vivek and DeSantis come from within the system.”

DeSantis is, no argument. House, then Governor. Quite successful and popular as Gov, but has had a very crappy campaign, IMO.

Vivek though is not – he’s never run for office before AFAIK.
And like Trump, he is not reliant on either the party machine or big donors for funding.
He also, as he keeps saying, part of the next generation – he is also one of the few who is on many podcasts and livestreams, where you can hear his response to unscripted questions and get a nuanced answer instead of a 10 second sound byte chosen by someone who hates all he stands for.

He’s a fast learner, comes across as honest and straightforward, and I like him – I think he’d be a good president and that Trump (assuming he wins the GOP primary and the general) could do Vivek a great favour by making him VP, SecState etc where he could pick up the required deep state exposure. That would make him a great successor to Trump and keep the MAGA agenda on track (which not just the US, but the world, needs IMO)

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 5, 2024 6:45 pm

Roger – Same social phenomenon as in London ULEZ and the stupid Welsh 30 km zones. The ordinary people are revolting, starting with the ferals like those ones doing unto the brown bombers in Vicco.

jupes
jupes
January 5, 2024 6:47 pm

Anyway, it got me thinking that he could be a demon contender for the presidency if Hiden is off the ticket. Maybe the Demons realized the dickhead from Cali is a no show.

I’m inclined to Tucker and Vivek’s theory that the Deep State has given up on the Dems and has now thrown it’s support behind Haley.

calli
calli
January 5, 2024 6:48 pm

‘However, if this jeopardises my career, I need all the help I can get to fight against the person who reported me to the media.’

Nothing says conviction to a principle than trying to punish someone who found your stupid badge both offensive and contrary to your employer’s policy*. And said so.

* I leave the obvious flexibility of the Qantas approach to others. Perhaps this was the very thing that she imagined gave her licence to do the deed.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 5, 2024 6:48 pm

24 minutes ago
Don’t back South Africa’s case, Coalition urges
Staff writers
Staff writers

The Coalition has urged the Albanese government to abstain from supporting South Africa’s case against Israel at the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) due to be held next week.

South Africa launched the case at the end of last year and it’s expected to be heard at The Hague in Netherlands on 11 and 12 January, with the potential for a provisional ruling within weeks.

In The Hague application, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza against the Palestinian civilian population, but Israel has called the allegations “despicable” and rejected the case with “disgust”.

In a statement the opposition’s foreign affairs spokesman, Simon Birmingham, said the government should not support the case against Israel as it had right to self-defence.

Australia’s position is not yet clear but some Labor members have urged the party’s leaders to take a stronger stance against Israel.

Mr Birmingham said Australia needed to support Israel’s war on Hamas for there to be any chance of peace in the future.

“Australia should maintain a strong commitment in support of Israel’s inherent right to self-defence after Hamas’s horrific targeting of civilians, while continuing to expect Israel to act with regard to international law,” he said.

So far only Malaysia has offered its support for the ICJ claim, while the US National Security Council described the case as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any bases in fact whatsoever.”

calli
calli
January 5, 2024 6:50 pm

And she knows she won’t be sacked. She’s black.

Kabuki on stilts from both employee and employer.

Delta A
Delta A
January 5, 2024 6:50 pm

I suspect it would take great talent to drive a cricket ball 20 mts to centre hit a target measuring approximately 150 cm x 90 cm; about the standard size of a bedroom window.

Ergo, Grandson has a fine cricketing career ahead of him.

calli
calli
January 5, 2024 6:52 pm

Was he aiming at the window, Delta? That is the question….

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 5, 2024 6:54 pm

The Coalition has urged the Albanese government to abstain from supporting South Africa’s case against Israel at the United Nations International Court of Justice

Not good enough. Albo has to vigorously and loudly vote against it or be outed as a closet antisemite. Abstaining is accepting.

Disappointed that the Libs are so wimpy, but then they’re the Libs.

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 6:54 pm

Roger – Same social phenomenon as in London ULEZ and the stupid Welsh 30 km zones.

The ULEZ cameras aren’t human targets, Bruce.

But, as I’ve mentioned previously, it would be more effective to refuse to pay the fines en masse.

Civil disobedience on such a scale is very difficult for government to handle. As it is, they’ll just replace the cameras.

jupes
jupes
January 5, 2024 6:54 pm

My favourite film about Jewish gangsters is Once Upon a Time in America.

Tom Hardy plays a superb role as a Jewish gangster in Peaky Blinders.

Morsie
Morsie
January 5, 2024 6:54 pm

Someone brought a Woolies paper shopping bag to our house.FMD it’s made in China.
How in the heck can that be environmentally sound.

Pogria
Pogria
January 5, 2024 6:55 pm

Roger,
I am not condoning the violence at all. Right now we, Aussies, seem to be living in a maelstrom of being attacked from all sides by our own Government, activists, evil do-gooders, you-know-who imports and many others. We see how all the above are allowed to behave any way they please without repercussion. Average Oz is berated and/or charged if they so much as peep.
As I stated, I do not condone, but definitely understand. I have been sorely tempted to, not hurt anyone, but cause damage to the cameras. I am sure I am not alone in this.

John H.
John H.
January 5, 2024 6:55 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
Jan 5, 2024 6:31 PM
How living like a hunter-gatherer could improve your health

If your life is nasty, brutish and short you will emit less CO2 and therefore the planet will be a utopia.

The shorter lifespan mostly relates to childhood mortality. Survive that and a long life can happen but only if:

1. You stay in the same area and hence are not exposed to pathogens for which you have no dedicated T cells.
2. You don’t go to war with your neighbours, which happened often enough.
3. You aren’t a member of Yanomamo tribe, where snack bites accounted for a surprisingly high percentage of deaths and limb loss.
4. You’ve won the genetic lottery because long life has a big genetic component.
5. You have access to a wide variety of plant foods because nearly every study finds that a diet high in plant foods is preferable. A plate of many colours is the go.
5. You have large family which will sustain you in old age.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 5, 2024 6:57 pm

I suspect it would take great talent to drive a cricket ball 20 mts to centre hit a target measuring approximately 150 cm x 90 cm … Ergo, Grandson has a fine cricketing career ahead of him.

I hope the umpire wasn’t hospitalized.

jupes
jupes
January 5, 2024 6:59 pm

Speaking of cricket, can Jamal save the day for the Pakis?

mareeS
mareeS
January 5, 2024 7:00 pm

A nice cat story for us today.-

I received a call from a vet in a nearby suburb, asking if we were the owners of a cat named Bubble? Our daughter had a pair of young tabbies named Bubble & Squeak when she moved back to our place during the plague, of which Bubble went wandering a few months later in June 2022.

End of Bubble, and poor Squeakie, her brother, was hit by a car 3 months ago. End of story, except the phone call today has re-united our daughter with the other half of the set, via microchip, from about 2km away after all this time.

Now for re-settlement into a household with 4 other cats, a moron daschund, assorted other critters belonging to daughter. Never had this situation before, so it will be interesting. She has a place of her own for a while.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 5, 2024 7:02 pm

Speaking of cricket, can Jamal save the day for the Pakis?

Not looking good at 7/68.
I wonder whether the bookies in Karachi are in for a pasting?

Delta A
Delta A
January 5, 2024 7:05 pm

Was he aiming at the window, Delta?

I ain’t asking, calli. He’s in enough strife already… and so would I be if I congratulated him on his hit.

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 7:09 pm

I have been sorely tempted to, not hurt anyone, but cause damage to the cameras.

Sure, but as with the ULEZ cameras, it won’t effect change.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 5, 2024 7:12 pm

Sure, but as with the ULEZ cameras, it won’t effect change.

The Mayor of London should watch V for Vendetta.

Pogria
Pogria
January 5, 2024 7:12 pm

After reading this story I will link to, I am seriously considering getting a mule to patrol the property instead of Maremmas, Alpacas or Lamas.

I knew mules were tough, but this is a whole other level.

Scroll down if the story doesn’t show straight away as it is part of an aggregate page. It also has pictures!

rosie
rosie
January 5, 2024 7:14 pm

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant explicitly rebukes Ben Gvir and Smotrich’s plans for ethnic cleansing and explicitly states that there will be Palestinian control of Gaza after the war.

John Aziz

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 7:15 pm

Someone brought a Woolies paper shopping bag to our house.FMD it’s made in China.

I noticed Coles’ are made in Vietnam.

Certainly would be interesting to know the source of the timber used at the mill. I’d suspect it’s native forest.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 5, 2024 7:15 pm

I have changed my mind about bringing back lunatic asylums. I have realised that those currently in charge would put me in one.

Actually, it might not be so bad, almost all the Çats would be there too. And all the loonies who believe men can get pregnant and women can have a penis would be outside.

JC
JC
January 5, 2024 7:15 pm

Musk is up at all hours.

I replied to his conversation with Mark Cuban about Cuban’s support of DEI. Typical Demonrats, things like DEI are for everyone else – not billionaire Demonrats supporters.

Elon musk
liked your reply
@elonmusk Hi Mark, I read your long missive why you support DEI. Tell us, did you run the basketball team with DEI? Did you hire any dwarfs for the team for instance? As far as I know there are none.

JC
JC
January 5, 2024 7:18 pm

Actually, it might not be so bad, almost all the Çats would be there too. And all the loonies who believe men can get pregnant and women can have a penis would be outside.

By this logic, doesn’t that make the “outside” the loony bin and the asylum normal?

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 7:25 pm

By this logic, doesn’t that make the “outside” the loony bin and the asylum normal?

Worth repeating:

“The day will come when men will go mad. They will look at those who are not mad and attack them, crying out, ‘You do not think the same as us; you must be mad!’”

St Antony the Great +AD356

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 5, 2024 7:25 pm

By this logic, doesn’t that make the “outside” the loony bin and the asylum normal?

It’s a matter of who’s got the numbers.

Rabz
January 5, 2024 7:31 pm

Tom, today’s cartoons really have essayed the monstrous degeneracy of the braindead west.

Knight – the Bureau of Mediocritee™ gets it utterly wrong, again …
Broelman, you knobhead – if you really gave a rodent’s other than trying to ignore Thai massage palace Albanseazey’s obvious stupidity, you might call him out on it. But, yeah, no, li’l Johnny HoWARd and Goose Morristeen (again)
Adams – no one gives a sh*t about the NHS unless or until they have the misfortune to be sucked into it …
Ramirez – forgets about his TDS, temporarily, and hits upon an historical theme – exorbitant public debt kills previously functioning societies, as we’re all about to find out …
Branco – tik tok, tik tok, decadent western imbeciles are completely f*cked …
Varvel – it’s not who votes, but who counts the votes …
Stiglich – a staggeringly stupid syphilitic geriatric imbecile (BIRM) stating the bleeding obvious about banana republics – if you can’t rig an election, just have your opponent arrested on trumped (PTP) up charges
Bok – a somewhat lacklustre effort, essaying (PTP) the now bleeding obvious decline of the “grate skools” of the Ivy League
Payne – “Establishment Punk”, identified (by him) 45 years too late …
Lisa and the Garrisoni – spot on again. But yeah, the Epstein Islanders will get away with it anyway. Nice to see the Oz attempting to tar Fatty Trump with the “yeah, but, he was there too, along with this monstrous ol’ imbecile …”

What a sh*tshow. 😕

John H.
John H.
January 5, 2024 7:37 pm

I have changed my mind about bringing back lunatic asylums. I have realised that those currently in charge would put me in one.

They’d put me in one because I know more about the neurobiology than most psychiatrists and that makes them very mad.

Rabz
January 5, 2024 7:38 pm

“The day will come when men will go mad. They will look at those who are not mad and attack them, crying out, ‘You do not think the same as us; you must be mad!’”

Gerbil Broiling, 2024

Muddy
Muddy
January 5, 2024 7:41 pm

Chris
Jan 5, 2024 4:15 PM

After a book review in Quadrant I bought Secret Victory: The Intelligence War that Beat the IRA by Matchett.

I have a copy of that, and did have one of The Bloodiest Year 1972 by Ken Wharton, who has written a few volumes of that wasteful conflict, and which I would recommend also.

One of the many books I’ve had to get rid of (long story; unhappy story) in recent years was titled something like ‘Voices from the Grave,’ and purported to be interviews with significant actors in Northern Ireland, published after their death. One I recall was a fellow named Hughes. If I remember correctly, he provided evidence – albeit anecdotal – that Gerry Adams was indeed a ‘shot caller.’ Given the book was supported by a U.S. college, and overall was pro-nationalist, I see no reason not to regard the revelations as probable.

I also recall reading a book, maybe a decade ago now or more (my sense of timing is not great these days), about the theme of ‘collusion’ between the U.K. Government and the Loyalists. It was apparently the recollections of an ex S.A.S. member who formed part of a ‘hit squad’ murdering random Catholic civilians. While that activity certainly did occur, my understanding is that it was by loyalist militias, rather than official British Army policy.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 5, 2024 7:46 pm

cept VIC speed camera operators are civilians employed by Serco

Serco might be despised even more. Ditto Wilson Parking and Group Four. Everyone associated with them going straight to hell.

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 7:49 pm

Serco might be despised even more. Ditto Wilson Parking and Group Four. Everyone associated with them going straight to hell.

The company, yes.

The people they employ are on minimum wage and trying to make ends meet when they could be on the dole with all the associated freebies.

cohenite
January 5, 2024 7:52 pm

Top Ender
Jan 5, 2024 6:38 PM
Trolley-Dolly Fightback!

The Qantas stewardess who wore a Palestinian flag badge on a flight has asked for help in ‘fighting’ against the person who reported her to the media.

Emma Ale, along with a number of other cabin crew members, wore the ‘divisive’ pins on a flight from Melbourne to Hobart on December 20.

She’s really ugly; obviously a DEI hire. Why are leftie women (sic) always hideous.

Rabz
January 5, 2024 7:53 pm

Bork Malton: I would heartily recommend some of you study Economics… It isnt some tussle between Ayn Rand “rock ribbed ” individualists; Conservatives and blood sucking Socialists … It Isn’t Team Red VS Team Blue Rugby match. This is a fiction designed to parasitise both polarities. If a Society gets divided into either of those delusions it will work out inefficiently and be a drag on the entire Community .

And here we are, Cats – the imbecile above attempting to channel Perfesser Sowell.

Very, very poorly.

If it’s any consolation Cats, I would heartily recommend that none of you (except for those of you that may have already had the misfortune to have done so) attempt to study economics.

There are far more useful activities you could be engaging in, such as going “Full Milei” on those he has identified as [redacted] … 🙂

John H.
John H.
January 5, 2024 7:53 pm

Sign China is preparing for war in 2025 or 2027

The problem with this argument is the same as the argument that the West could use Ukraine as a launching pad to invade Russia. It’s not like the leader wakes up one morning and decides to start a war. It takes months of planning and moving all the people and hardware to the right locations. That will be very obvious to their opponents. Even if a local conflict breaks out it will take months to turn that into a full scale war. I’m more worried about US hawks than I am about Chinese dragons.

Indolent
Indolent
January 5, 2024 8:03 pm
DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 5, 2024 8:05 pm

There was a time when Freudian psychoanalysis was taken seriously, and all the fashionable folk paid money to lie on a couch and talk about their neuroses. Nobody got cured of anything, but it went on for decades. Maybe in some quarters it still does. But in the main, eventually people sobered up. A century ago, it was spiritualism and table knocking.
Now it’s trannies and other perverts.

It will pass. And some other loony fad will dominate.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 5, 2024 8:08 pm

swearie bits deleted from the witches.

Well this will be great.

Jihadi supporting flogs outing themselves en-masse.

MFW
@MFWitches
We’re quite serious about this: every worker in Australia should be wearing a Palestine pin because they can’t sack or censure all of us.

It’s fu shit that people’s jobs are being threatened simply for standing up for slaughtered children.

@nikeaustralia
: don’t you dare punish this amazing employee.

We at MFW are willing to have Palestine pins made and sell them at cost if they can’t be sourced in large enough numbers elsewhere.

Let’s gauge interest in this.

Who wants one? Please reply to this tweet if you do. And please re-tweet it as well to see how far this can get and how much interest we can generate.

Fu this shit.

There’s huge power in collective action. And if we don’t do this, they’ll punish and silence us simply for taking a stand against mass murder.

Let’s stand up to the haters.

#FreePalestine

Free like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_NS4geHgx8

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 8:10 pm

A century ago, it was spiritualism and table knocking.

Many grieving people after WWI.

Now it’s trannies and other perverts. It will pass.

It certainly will.

And some other loony fad will dominate.

Indubitably.

“When people stop believing in God…” 😀

Muddy
Muddy
January 5, 2024 8:11 pm

It will pass. And some other loony fad will dominate.

In the meantime, while we ‘tsk tsk’ and roll our eyes, the foundations beneath us are being incrementally and irrevocably undermined. Suddenly, we’ll fall into the void and wonder ‘How the heck did that happen? Without warning?’

Pride and moral lethargy will kill us yet.
But probably not until a future generation, so we don’t need to worry our pretty faces.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 5, 2024 8:16 pm

Roger
Jan 5, 2024 6:27 PM
That’s the trouble, guys, when you cause the entire population to hate you.

‘cept VIC speed camera operators are civilians employed by Serco, Bruce.

I suspect that most mobile speed cameras are operated by contractors.

What causes the unhappiness? Is it an extremely strict application of the limits? One k over the limit cops a fine? Maybe a bit of leeway would help, but that is contradicted by the mantra that “Every k over the limit is dangerous”, which is a particularly inane position to take, “60 kph, perfectly safe, 61 kph, deadly”.

Dot
Dot
January 5, 2024 8:17 pm

I’m inclined to Tucker and Vivek’s theory that the Deep State has given up on the Dems and has now thrown it’s support behind Haley.

It seems like a good theory. I reckon Trump has an insurmountable level of lawfare. Vivek and Rand Paul would be a pretty good foil to Newsom and M. Obama.

Trump would destroy Cuban.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 5, 2024 8:21 pm

From memory, it was Rodger on this site who recommended Simon Heffer’s book “Sing As You Go – Britain Between the Wars.” I’m reading it now – Heffer makes that case that between the two world wars, Britain was almost two nations. One living in insanitary slums, in poverty that not even the welfare State could alleviate, the other an expanding and prosperous middle class, living in their comfortable suburban villas, driving their new motor cars…Good reading, highly recommended.

I’m giving way to temptation, and ordering the other three books in the series.

Bazinga
Bazinga
January 5, 2024 8:23 pm

RE: speed scameras. It was a mostly peaceful protest against revenue raising.

Jorge
Jorge
January 5, 2024 8:24 pm

On Jewish gangsters and religion, I liked the incident Thomas Keneally used in Schindler’s Ark.

In one of the camps the Germans forced the Jews to line up and come forward one by one to spit on a Torah taken from the local synagogue.

Everyone including the very observant shuffled forward in line and with guns pointed at them did as demanded. Except for a notorious local hood. He wasn’t defiant. He was scared. Not of the Hermans but of God. He hadn’t attended schul in years, since his bm but disrespecting a sacred Torah was inviting retribution far beyond anything the Germans might do.

A wise guy. Very wise.

John H.
John H.
January 5, 2024 8:25 pm

DrBeauGan
Jan 5, 2024 8:05 PM
There was a time when Freudian psychoanalysis was taken seriously, and all the fashionable folk paid money to lie on a couch and talk about their neuroses. Nobody got cured of anything, but it went on for decades. Maybe in some quarters it still does. But in the main, eventually people sobered up. A century ago, it was spiritualism and table knocking.
Now it’s trannies and other perverts.

It will pass. And some other loony fad will dominate.

Yet earlier today I read an article that there last year there was a momentary resurgence of Freudian psychoanalysis. Perhaps the recent movie with Anthony Hopkins playing Freud has something to do with that. Additionally arty types tend to like psychoanalysis and despise the approach of people like me who invoke many types of analysis in the all too often vain attempt to understand human behavior. Though it is something of a paradox because sometimes it is obvious in one domain but mysterious in another. For example, there is abundant literature pointing to the deleterious consequences of chronic early life stress but understanding how that relates to genotypes and neurobiology remains very difficult. A few days ago there was a very good review article that addressed that nexus. Progress is being made.

To allow Freud an escape, in 1895 he wrote, “Project for a Scientific Psychology”, which apparently(haven’t read it, won’t read it, too dated) argued for an entirely different approach that was much more empirically grounded. It wasn’t possible then, it is just beginning to be possible now, thanks in large part to the brilliant work of people like Sapolksy, Posner, Le Doux, Goldman-Rakic and a host of others I don’t know about.

Psychoanalysis can be useful but not Freudian or Jungian types. That stuff is bunkum. Anyone invoking Jung today has too many kangaroos loose in the top paddock.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 5, 2024 8:28 pm

DrBeauGan
Jan 5, 2024 7:15 PM
I have changed my mind about bringing back lunatic asylums. I have realised that those currently in charge would put me in one.

Actually, it might not be so bad, almost all the Çats would be there too. And all the loonies who believe men can get pregnant and women can have a penis would be outside.

Problem is the loonies outside would soon get sick of supporting us, and introduce compulsory euthanasia.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 5, 2024 8:33 pm

What causes the unhappiness?

Heres mine in a nutshell.

1: Cop in car, observes dangerous driving, pulls person over, and offense stops.

2; Lardass sets up revenue camera, person drives by dangerously, unless they are speeding there is no offense. Even worse, they prang down the road, there has been no way of trying to mitigate the incident.
Even if they are speeding and prang down the road, the lardass did nothing to reduce the likelihood.

3: Every dork on earth drives 10km below the speed limit in suburbia because thats where the revenue cameras get set up. And dont get me started on the country “put the camera where as you are leaving town it will get people in the 1km between the 80kph and 110 kph signage.

Vagabond
Vagabond
January 5, 2024 8:44 pm

DrBeauGan
Jan 5, 2024 8:05 PM
There was a time when Freudian psychoanalysis was taken seriously, and all the fashionable folk paid money to lie on a couch and talk about their neuroses.

In the 1950s a Professor of Psychiatry in Chicago called Jules H. Masserman was not a fan of Freudian psychoanalysis. To satirise this trend he sought out the medical condition least likely to have a psychodynamic basis and settled on ingrown toenails. He gave a lecture titled “The psychosomatic profile of an ingrown toenail” full of psychoanalytic jargon and such things as descriptions of trauma from the masculine toenail thrusting into the receptive feminine soft tissues – you get the drift.

Surprisingly to him, but perhaps not to us, he was deluged with positive feedback and praise from colleagues who had “never appreciated the psychological significance of this condition”…

He published his observations about it in a US Psychiatry journal in 1953. The article was called “Faith and Delusion in Psychiatry” and can probably be found if you look for it.

I was not a psychiatrist but after a long medical career there are many similar personal experiences that come to mind.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 8:48 pm

JC
Jan 5, 2024 5:51 PM

Meyer Lansky,

Really? He ran a decent operation and was an ethical crook running a number of gambling joints. He wasn’t involved in drugs either.

It’s kind of a myth that the Mafia were morally opposed to dealing drugs.
The old school Mafia dons who came to power in the 60’s and 70’s were, in fact, against drug dealing, but not because of moral or ethical considerations.
Their thinking was that a murder conviction might get someone 10-15 years, which they could be relied upon to sit out their sentence with their mouth clamped firmly shut.
However, when massive sentences were introduced for wholesale drug dealing, they knew that someone aged in the 30’s or 40’s looking at maybe 40 years in the slot, they were more likely to flip on the mob.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 8:55 pm

‘However, if this jeopardises my career, I need all the help I can get to fight against the person who reported me to the media.’

Translated.
She wants to dox the passenger so the mob can descend on them.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 9:02 pm

Roger
Jan 5, 2024 6:54 PM

Roger – Same social phenomenon as in London ULEZ and the stupid Welsh 30 km zones.

The ULEZ cameras aren’t human targets, Bruce.

But, as I’ve mentioned previously, it would be more effective to refuse to pay the fines en masse.

If they really want to damage the revenue streams, print off some posters saying “SPEED CAMERA!” and stick them to poles 200-300 metres upstream from the camera cars.
If enough people did that (at very little risk of being caught) the revenue would be severely crimped.

rosie
rosie
January 5, 2024 9:07 pm
John H.
John H.
January 5, 2024 9:11 pm

Vagabond
Jan 5, 2024 8:44 PM
DrBeauGan
Jan 5, 2024 8:05 PM
There was a time when Freudian psychoanalysis was taken seriously, and all the fashionable folk paid money to lie on a couch and talk about their neuroses.

In the 1950s a Professor of Psychiatry in Chicago called Jules H. Masserman was not a fan of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Beat Szasz by 10 years, Rosenhan by 20 years, and Sokal by 40 years!

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 5, 2024 9:12 pm

Most people would not see speed cameras as a safety measure. Yet we’re happy to line up and get an armful of interim approved stuff. Incongruous no?

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 9:15 pm

If they really want to damage the revenue streams, print off some posters saying “SPEED CAMERA!” and stick them to poles 200-300 metres upstream from the camera cars.

ULEZ cameras aren’t speed cameras, they target drivers of older petrol vehicles entering so called low emissions zones in Greater London.

Diogenes
Diogenes
January 5, 2024 9:16 pm

previously, it would be more effective to refuse to pay the fines en masse.

And automated systems will just cancel licences registrations, put liens on houses, garnishee wages etc until the fine is paid.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 5, 2024 9:19 pm

qantas should sack her.

It can hardly do so after some of the gay leprechaun’s antics. And there is the problem.

Lee
Lee
January 5, 2024 9:22 pm

‘However, if this jeopardises my career, I need all the help I can get to fight against the person who reported me to the media.’

Translated.
She wants to dox the passenger so the mob can descend on them.

What’s the worse she can do, sue him or her for taking her picture?

Like to see how that goes in court.

LOL.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 9:23 pm

Roger Avatar
Roger
Jan 5, 2024 9:15 PM

If they really want to damage the revenue streams, print off some posters saying “SPEED CAMERA!” and stick them to poles 200-300 metres upstream from the camera cars.

ULEZ cameras aren’t speed cameras, they target drivers of older petrol vehicles entering so called low emissions zones in Greater London.

Yeah, I get the difference.
I have no problem with mass vandalism of ULEZ cameras, if for no other reason than there was no mandate taken to an electorate to introduce them.
Speed cameras can be dealt with a different way, which is large numbers of people flagging their presence and choking off the revenue.
Pretty hard to convict someone when VicPol used that tactic as part of the industrial campaign.

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 9:23 pm

RE: speed scameras. It was a mostly peaceful protest against revenue raising.

Nobody is against peaceful protest.

A gang of thugs setting upon some bloke’s car and breaking his windscreen, an action which he reasonably perceived as a threat to his life, is not, however, peaceful.

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 9:25 pm

Yeah, I get the difference.

OK, it’s just that you posted that under text relating to ULEZ.

Warranted some clarification.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 9:27 pm

Lee
Jan 5, 2024 9:22 PM

‘However, if this jeopardises my career, I need all the help I can get to fight against the person who reported me to the media.’

Translated.
She wants to dox the passenger so the mob can descend on them.

What’s the worse she can do, sue him or her for taking her picture?

Like to see how that goes in court.

She isn’t going to court.
This is step one.
Get it out there that passenger took a photo and she “wants action”.
Step two … other helpful Q employees dox the passenger.
Step three … the weird beards go after him/her.

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 9:28 pm

And automated systems will just cancel licences registrations, put liens on houses, garnishee wages etc until the fine is paid.

Quite a few legal obstacles to all of that, considering it’s a metropolitan council and not the UK government we’re talking about and it’s not in their immediate jurisdiction to do any of those things.

I reckon they’d give up.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 9:28 pm

All good Roger.
I agree that attacking a human operator is both the wrong thing to do, and ineffective as a protest.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 5, 2024 9:29 pm

He published his observations about it in a US Psychiatry journal in 1953. The article was called “Faith and Delusion in Psychiatry” and can probably be found if you look for it.

I was not a psychiatrist but after a long medical career there are many similar personal experiences that come to mind.

There seem to be very few people with a capacity for scepticism and rational thinking. The great majority get their opinions from their acquaintances with no analysis whatever. Hence the addiction to silly fads.

I have a very low opinion of the human race. How we managed to build a great civilisation is inexplicable. Watching it crumble looks natural and inevitable.

“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”
Robert Heinlein

Roger
Roger
January 5, 2024 9:32 pm

I note Dutch truckers are taking ULEZ fines to the High Court.

If they win all fines paid by European registered drivers will have to be paid back.

The beginning of the end?

Good night!

cohenite
January 5, 2024 9:34 pm

Indolent
Jan 5, 2024 8:04 PM
High School Shooter in Perry, Iowa Who Killed a Sixth-Grader and Shot Five Others Identified – Social Media Desperately Tries to Erase Evidence of His Identity

Transexualism is an illness. But the problem lies not with the illness. The problem is with the social and political leaders who allow this illness to fester and change basic social values.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 5, 2024 9:38 pm

ULEZ cameras aren’t speed cameras, they target drivers of older petrol vehicles entering so called low emissions zones in Greater London.

Hundreds have been taken down by the resistance.

More than 380 ULEZ camera attacks in London amid backlash against low emission scheme (Aug 2023)

Methinks the British government doesn’t have the people on their side to take on the awful mythical CO2 dragon.

chrisl
chrisl
January 5, 2024 9:40 pm

In NSW the speed cameras must put a warning sign up for approaching motorists.
In Victoria they do not
They are invariably located in safe open stretches of road where a few kms over an arbitrary speed limit would do no harm
They are placed in locations where it is safe for the disguised car to park
The margin of error is 3 kph
They are a very significant revenue raiser for both the government and the private company that operates them
If you are sitting in a car armed with a machine that enables you to steal money from a motorist basically doing nothing wrong and you are attacked , tough titties
Go and get a proper job

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 9:44 pm

Roger

Jan 5, 2024 9:32 PM

I note Dutch truckers …

Led by Laurie Van Driver?

John H.
John H.
January 5, 2024 9:44 pm

DrBeauGan
Jan 5, 2024 9:29 PM

He published his observations about it in a US Psychiatry journal in 1953. The article was called “Faith and Delusion in Psychiatry” and can probably be found if you look for it.

I was not a psychiatrist but after a long medical career there are many similar personal experiences that come to mind.

There seem to be very few people with a capacity for scepticism and rational thinking. The great majority get their opinions from their acquaintances with no analysis whatever. Hence the addiction to silly fads.

I have a very low opinion of the human race. How we managed to build a great civilisation is inexplicable.

I’ve been saying for decades if you want evidence for divine intervention than modern civilisation is interesting because human behavior doesn’t explain it. I’ve known quite a few people capable of skepticism and rational thinking. They are often outsiders, avoid groups, and despise politics. Hence they are hard to find because life has taught them to not express their views because they will too often be perceived as either a threat or weird. It’s that 30 IQ gap argument. I don’t entirely buy that but there is something to it.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
January 5, 2024 9:46 pm

From The Australian.

“Kerryn Phelps and wife Jackie Stricker-Phelps join chorus of concerned gay Jews over Mardi Gras letter”.

Cassie might not be a fan of Phelps but at least Phelps is calling out the hypocrisy of Gays supporting Palestine.

Seems she converted as Stricker is Jewish.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 5, 2024 9:47 pm

Labor wants fund to help people in remote Indigenous communities own their homes

EXCLUSIVE
By paige taylor
Indigenous Affairs Correspondent, WA Bureau Chief
9:30PM January 5, 2024
No Comments

Labor plans to open up remote Aboriginal communities to individual home ownership as a means of easing the chronic housing crisis for 92,000 Indigenous Australians living in locations classified as “very remote”.

In the first significant push in Indigenous policy since the failed voice referendum last year, Northern Australia Minister Madeleine King wants a fund so far used only to kickstart resources and mining projects to invest in Aboriginal housing.

The plan would allow residents to become homeowners in remote Indigenous communities for the first time, making long-term lease payments that deliver a ­profit to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

The proposal grew out of changes at Western Australia’s largest remote Indigenous community of Bidyadanga, where traditional owners are in the final stages of negotiating with the state government to change land tenure that would make commercial ventures possible.

Currently residents of Bidyadanga are renters for life, as are residents of other remote communities around Australia where housing is government-owned.

In the communities where NAIF invests, residents of remote Indigenous communities could ultimately buy a house on a 99-year lease, a system akin to that used for all land ownership in the ACT.

“We want more Australians to own their own homes,” Ms King told The Weekend Australian.

“That goal is just as important for First Nations Australians. When I became minister, I asked the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to consider lifting investment in important housing projects in the north that benefit communities and support commonwealth policies.

“The NAIF are looking at co-investment in regional and ­remote housing projects across northern Australia.

“I would encourage and support innovative approaches to using the NAIF to create better housing for communities, which is of material benefit to the whole nation. A strong north means a strong Australia.”

The rural WA town is turning the communal, commercial, as outsiders will be invited to invest and open…

The changes at Bidyadanga began as a partnership between the Karajarri people and the former McGowan Labor government, which was looking for ways to reduce its massive remote ­housing bill. This followed the Turnbull government’s decision in 2018 to walk away from funding remote housing.

The federal government had spent $5.4bn building and refurbishing 11.500 houses in remote communities but a review found another 5500 more were needed.

Peter Yu – a Yawuru leader from the Kimberley and vice-president of the Australian ­National University – told The Weekend Australian that Ms King’s plan was welcome and it was time to talk about industry ­investment in remote communities. However, he said this must be accompanied by a labour-force strategy in remote communities. This was necessary so that people would have the means to pay for their homes.

“It can’t be seen as a training scheme or work for the dole ,” ­Professor Yu said.

“I am talking about real jobs … the taxpayer pays tradespeople quite enormous amounts of money to travel from regional centres and sometimes capital ­cities to do work in the remotes (and) the government overindulges in consultants and private ­sector services for remote communities

“Why after 50 years of government investing in remote area housing don’t we have Aboriginal plumbers, electricians?”

Professor Yu, who has overseen an innovative home ownership scheme for his people in his home town of Broome, said he wanted to see Indigenous people in remote communities passing on wealth to their children.

“When people rent they don’t have a sense of ownership over that asset,” he said.

“This thing about owning risk is a generational issue and it is a cultural thing that has to be learnt – we don’t have generational wealth transfer in many Aboriginal families. Fundamentally a lot of Aboriginal people don’t understand what it is like to own assets and protect assets

“We need to build a culture of understanding the value of protecting our assets.”

Ms King became interested in whether the NAIF could be used to fund remote housing when she learned about the former McGowan government’s proposal to transform three of Western Australia’s most populated Indigenous communities into towns in all but name.

So far Bidyadanga has made the most progress. Its deal comes with town-standard water, power and ­sewerage. These are significant upgrades and attractive to other remote communities.

The WA treasurer at the time, Indigenous man Ben Wyatt, still sees potential for investment and home ownership in remote ­Indigenous communities with “scale and access to mainstream economies”.

“I was of the view that Aboriginal communities that could ­access labour and other economic opportunities needed to be ­encouraged to embrace land-­tenure reform that would then be able to target other investment vehicles,” Mr Wyatt said.

“I am delighted that the NAIF seems to be pursuing this opportunity. Housing in centres like Bidyadanga will provide a range of significant outcomes, economic, social and healthwise.

“In my view other remote communities that are close to, or in some way connected to, the mainstream economic opportunities should be supported and encouraged to embrace such land tenure reform”.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said: “(The ­National Indigenous Australians Agency) has been instrumental in working with the Bidyadanga community and other service providers to strengthen employment and economic development outcomes.”

The newly established ­National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association’s chief executive, Rob Macfarlane, said he was hopeful about the investment plan.

“In every state we go to, Indigenous organisations talk to us about home ownership,” he said.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 5, 2024 9:48 pm

I understand Judaism is commonly viewed as an ethnicity as well as a religion. However, I disagree with this view. The claim it is anything more than a religion doesn’t make sense. I can convert to Judaism. If I did, would I suddenly become an ethnic Jew? If so, why?

Lee
Lee
January 5, 2024 10:00 pm

Didn’t Sadiq Khan introduce – or at least try to – ULEZ outside his area of responsibility?

Dot
Dot
January 5, 2024 10:07 pm

Their thinking was that a murder conviction might get someone 10-15 years, which they could be relied upon to sit out their sentence with their mouth clamped firmly shut.

What do I know about running a restaurant?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 5, 2024 10:09 pm

Higgins ‘feared she would go to prison’

At a late-night meeting between Brittany Higgins’s lawyer Leon Zwier, David Sharaz and her longtime supporter Emma Webster, the former Liberal staffer’s bizarre fear came out.

Any one of the bush lawyers, on this blog help put? Why would the knickerless one fear going to the jug?

John H.
John H.
January 5, 2024 10:11 pm

Antipsychotic Prescriptions Increasing for Children and Adolescents in Australian Primary Care Services

Following the US trend as we typically do. It is insane to give children antipsychotics because both 1st and 2nd gen cause brain shrinkage. I first came across this in a macaque study which found shrinkage of 9-11%, many years later imaging studies found similar results in humans.

Ironically, Mad in America is populated by many people who don’t have a clue.

According to the study’s author, University of Iowa professor, Nancy Andreasen, Ph.D., “the higher the antipsychotic medication doses, the greater the loss of brain tissue.” Andreasen further explained that “antipsychotic treatment has a negative impact on the brain, so…we must get the word out that they should be used with great care, because even though they have fewer side effects than some of the other medications, they are certainly not trouble free and can have lifelong consequences for the health and happiness of the people we serve.”

Andreasen is the former Prof of Psychiatry at Harvard. She has long advocated minimizing dosage. Here’s a trick, go find a mental health professional in Australia and ask them about this issue. Not once have I heard it expressed in the MSM. Antipsychotics are very good for psychosis but this increasing off label use is atrocious.

Don’t get me started on anticholinergics!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 10:11 pm

Lee

Jan 5, 2024 10:00 PM

Didn’t Sadiq Khan introduce – or at least try to – ULEZ outside his area of responsibility?

Yes.
By definition it would apply to vehicles outside the City of London.
If I drive from outside the city into London once a week, I cop a levy (fine), right?
But I don’t live in his jurisdiction.

Dot
Dot
January 5, 2024 10:12 pm

Sorry.

“What do I know about the restaurant business?”

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
January 5, 2024 10:13 pm

OCO
You would be an ethnic Jew, of course you would. There is no such thing as a genetic Jew, hence such radically diverse creatures as Kerryn Phelps and Lenny Kravitz.
…but whetehr the Powers That Be recognise you as such, well that’s a moot point. I’d say they would, because ethnic Jewry is not a patrolled power ethnicity like Transwimmin or First Nationses.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 5, 2024 10:17 pm

The Coalition has urged the Albanese government to abstain from supporting South Africa’s case against Israel at the United Nations International Court of Justice

Not good enough. Albo has to vigorously and loudly vote against it or be outed as a closet antisemite. Abstaining is accepting.

Are they perhaps being clever – carefully calibrating what they demand to where Albo’s cowardice begins.

They are denying Albo chance to quibble in the no man’s land between outright denunciation of Hamarse and the far more timid abstention – having no opinion. If Albo cannot even bring himself to merely abstain…

The electorates that Labor is most at pains to keep on side will not be satisfied with anything less than throatiest denunciation of Israel, but the rest of Australia finds the Koran wallahs utterly revolting and is appalled at anything that looks like accommodating Hamas in particular and, increasingly, Islam in general.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 10:20 pm

Phelps doesn’t get any credit from me.
She has been at the forefront of every lefty conservative bashing exercise for the last thirty years.
Now she decides to “take a stand”, not for the people of Israel, but for her own self-interest at the prospect of not being granted a licker licence for Mardi Gras.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 5, 2024 10:21 pm

As long as that Libs say they would absolutely vote against – to show where they think the line is drawn.

Indolent
Indolent
January 5, 2024 10:22 pm
JC
JC
January 5, 2024 10:25 pm

There is no such thing as a genetic Jew,

Yes there is at least to some extent. My daughter had one of those DNA tests showing 18% Ashkenazi DNA. Tay-Sachs disease is commonly found afflicting Jewish people. It doesn’t make you Jewish of course, but there is genetic identity.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
January 5, 2024 10:28 pm

From the Courier Mail. The scum at Qld Health still sacking people
2 years after the event.

“A registered nurse with seven years’ experience was terminated from her job at the Queensland Children’s Hospital at Christmas, more than two years after failing to comply with the government’s Covid vaccine mandate.

Ella King has slammed the sacking, in the middle of a critical shortage of health workers.

The 29-year-old told The Courier-Mail that over her career she has never been non-compliant but after witnessing some of her colleagues reacting very badly to the vaccine she decided not to go ahead with the jabs”.

She is 6 months pregnant. Sacked not for not taking the vaccine but for failing to comply with terms of employment which naturally meant taking the vaccine.

Note the part about her seeing other staff being Vax injured.

JC
JC
January 5, 2024 10:30 pm

When my parents sent their saliva away to a genetic testing company late last year and were informed via email a few weeks later that they are both “100% Ashkenazi Jewish”, it struck me as slightly odd. Most people I know who have done DNA tests received ancestry results that correspond to geographical areas – Chinese, British, West African. Jewish, by comparison, is typically parsed as a religious or cultural identity. I wondered how this was traceable in my parents’ DNA.

After arriving in eastern Europe around a millennium ago, the company’s website explained, Jewish communities remained segregated, by force and by custom, mixing only occasionally with local populations. Isolation slowly narrowed the gene pool, which now gives modern Jews of European descent, like my family, a set of identifiable genetic variations that set them apart from other European populations at a microscopic level.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 10:34 pm

When my parents sent their saliva away to a genetic testing company late last year and were informed via email a few weeks later that they are both “100% Ashkenazi Jewish”,

Someone gave me one of those kits for Christmas.
I hope to tailor my version of the results for different family members to create a bit of angst.
Definitely going to tell one that we are a little bit First Nations.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 5, 2024 10:45 pm

The reaction to those DNA kits is interesting.
Some people want the results to be close to 100% of a racial grouping they see as desirable, and others like the idea of being “like a box of chocolates” (without necessarily being brown).
You would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Elizabeth Warren’s arrived.
Speaking of which, I think the folk singer Buffy St Marie (who identified as Indian) was recently outed as Italian and the family changed their name during WW2 from Santa Maria.
She threatened to sue the arse off any relatives who called out the fake Indian thing, but it finally broke last year.

JC
JC
January 5, 2024 10:46 pm

Interesting conversation flow today without most of the maladjusted bush pigs haunting the site.

JC
JC
January 5, 2024 11:01 pm

Speaking of which, I think the folk singer Buffy St Marie (who identified as Indian)

The other interesting thing that came from my kid’s DNA was around 2 1/2% native American Indian. That definitely came from her mother’s side.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 5, 2024 11:11 pm

Why after 50 years of government investing in remote area housing don’t we have Aboriginal plumbers, electricians?”

….

He’s been a lifelong silver plated tick engorging himself on his community and still pretends asking why is a clever debating tactic.

If only he had a voice…
https://www.anu.edu.au/about/university-executive/professor-peter-yu

Cassie of Sydney
January 5, 2024 11:21 pm

Yes there is at least to some extent. My daughter had one of those DNA tests showing 18% Ashkenazi DNA. Tay-Sachs disease is commonly found afflicting Jewish people. It doesn’t make you Jewish of course, but there is genetic identity

JC, yes, thank you.

I know about Tay-Sachs, it is in every Jewish family of European Ashkenazi descent. Apparently, in the 1200 or 1300s, there was a population bottleneck of Jews in Europe, almost all of us Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of about a dozen people from that time. It is a dreadful disease.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 6, 2024 12:08 am

Do we get a weekend thread, or does Friday’s just carry on?

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
January 6, 2024 12:19 am

qantas should sack her.

Passenger plane crew who support the mob who entered the world political stage by hijacking passenger planes. They’re nuts.

rosie
rosie
January 6, 2024 6:58 am

She is 6 months pregnant. Sacked not for not taking the vaccine but for failing to comply with terms of employment which naturally meant taking the vaccine.

Ella King works for the nurse’s union. Don’t know about the sacking, sounds like it was finalising a Saga, family are anti vaccine nutmegs though, all sorts.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 6, 2024 8:16 am

Peter Yu – a Yawuru leader from the Kimberley and vice-president of the Australian ­National University – told The Weekend Australian that Ms King’s plan was welcome and it was time to talk about industry ­investment in remote communities. However, he said this must be accompanied by a labour-force strategy in remote communities. This was necessary so that people would have the means to pay for their homes.

“It can’t be seen as a training scheme or work for the dole ,” ­Professor Yu said.

“I am talking about real jobs … the taxpayer pays tradespeople quite enormous amounts of money to travel from regional centres and sometimes capital ­cities to do work in the remotes (and) the government overindulges in consultants and private ­sector services for remote communities

Perhaps the reason that there are no indigenous tradies in remote communities is that, like Peter Yu, they have seen that they have no future there, and have moved away, and assimilated into the mainstream Australian community?

Bruce
Bruce
January 6, 2024 8:38 am

@ Old Ozzie:

“It also used disparaging language when discussing Shiites, which the Islamic State group views as heretics.”

The brings to mind the classic line from that crafty old goat Henry Kissinger. When asked, way back when, to comment on the high-body-count war between Iran and Iraq, h remarked, to the effect:

“It’s a shame they BOTH can’t lose”.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 6, 2024 10:26 am

This is an ex-thread – it has ceased to be.

Winston Smith
January 6, 2024 11:33 am

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

Jan 5, 2024 2:59 PM
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12925323/Lakemba-Ramadan-festival-complaints-smelly-food.html

Is the fightback beginning?

I bet the petition – with names and if possible addresses – has found its way into ‘unfriendly’ hands.

Winston Smith
January 6, 2024 12:01 pm

Black Ball

Jan 5, 2024 3:15 PM
A Reuters report on the Nigerian Christmas Eve massacres astoundingly claimed that climate change was a reason for the attacks even though the attacks were launched by Muslim herdsmen on Christmas Eve,

FMD Reuters are giving a tacit nod and wink to this bullshit

There are many in our society who are behaving like 10 year old children who think there will never be any consequences for their behaviour.

Winston Smith
January 6, 2024 12:19 pm

thefrollickingmole

Jan 5, 2024 3:51 PM
with the changes to remain in place for the next decade.

Nothing more permanent than a temporary “levy”…

In Australia we have a lumbering monster bureaucracy that continues to devour everything in its path, and leaving behind is its spoor of regulations and impoverished peasantry. Until the peasants kill this beast, it will continue to ravish the land, their wallets and the economy.
Only an idiot cannot understand the fine balance that is necessary for wealth creation as opposed to wealth destruction.

JC
JC
January 6, 2024 12:21 pm

But, the bureaucracy has a “social license”. The matron appears to be pretty big on the social license jig.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
January 6, 2024 12:30 pm

it was time to talk about industry ­investment in remote communities.
So that’s just a new cash cow in their sights.
What’s blindingly obvious is that no matter where the investment comes from- charity, government, the political-industrial complex- no matter what the investment is- blood, treasure, bricks n mortar, Landcruisers- there will be no building of wealth where communal ownership and big man rule reigns.
And here’s another truism for humans- people do not value what they don’t have to work for.

Kneel
Kneel
January 6, 2024 12:30 pm

“The original justification for speed cameras was to prevent accidents in specific locations. “

Can’t say about Vic, but in NSW the justification was that more than 50% of fatal crashes had “speeding” as a significant factor.
A perusal of the fine print elucidates that “speeding” includes both exceeding the posted speed limit, as well as “driving too fast for the prevailing conditions, even if less than the posted limit”.

Upon request the (then) RTA advised me in writing that the ratio of “exceeding the posted limit” to “too fast, even if less than posted limit” was about 1:7 – that is to say, even if draconian enforcement or other measures completely eliminated all driving in excess of the posted limit, “speeding” related fatalities would likely not decrease by more than 15% and probably less than that. I made both my local MP and the minister aware of this information at the time (early naughties), and nothing changed.

They are manipulating you with definitions, and making important what they can measure, rather than measuring what’s important.

Clearly using “the physics” as justification is also incorrect – that is “you should go slower because faster equals more damage and deaths when you crash”. That’s clearly incorrect because it would imply that the roads with the highest speed limits (motorways) are the most deadly, when in fact they are the safest.

It is well known from many international studies, including some in Australia, that the speed limit that creates the most compliance and the least fatalities is the “85th percentile” – that is, the speed that 85% of drivers will not exceed when there is no guidance (no posted limit etc). Yet no government in Australia uses this as the basis for what speed limit should apply to any or all roads – not a single one uses worlds best practice in this regard. I leave it to the reader to infer why.

Winston Smith
January 6, 2024 1:31 pm

Roger

Jan 5, 2024 6:54 PM
Roger – Same social phenomenon as in London ULEZ and the stupid Welsh 30 km zones.

But, as I’ve mentioned previously, it would be more effective to refuse to pay the fines en masse.

Civil disobedience on such a scale is very difficult for government to handle. As it is, they’ll just replace the cameras.

Roger, Civil disobedience would give the Victorian government the opportunity to “make an example” of several citizens. Just to drive the message home that the government is running things – not the citizenry.
Do not underestimate the lessons learnt by them watching the Obama/Biden government get away with murder after the so called Jan 6th “Insurrection.”

Winston Smith
January 6, 2024 2:14 pm

Boambee John:

What causes the unhappiness? Is it an extremely strict application of the limits? One k over the limit cops a fine? Maybe a bit of leeway would help, but that is contradicted by the mantra that “Every k over the limit is dangerous”, which is a particularly inane position to take, “60 kph, perfectly safe, 61 kph, deadly”.

I suspect it is similar to the straw breaking the camels back. Those who want to be left alone are the first to get cranky about the overwhelming weight of bureaucracy, then those who are a bit more easy going start to get the shits with the growing weight of unreasonable demands from those who rule us. Eventually the weight will hit a point at which people refuse to put up with it.
That point is rapidly approaching among its victims in Victoria.
When the demands of government exceed the benefits, then you get the reaction that the ULEZ regulations have generated in Great Britain.

Winston Smith
January 6, 2024 2:29 pm

Petition for dismissal of cabin crew of Qantas flight.
This is about people who have politicised a non political part of society.
It needs to stop.

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