@TheBabylonBee Musk Announces Plan To Buy MSNBC And Turn It Into A News Network
Open Thread – Wed 7 Feb 2024
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
- From darkness to the promise of light
Put down that exotic chicken and walk backwards with your hands in the air. Texas Farmer Faces Hefty Prison Term…
They really are trying to start WWIII @MarioNawfal FRANCE AUTHORIZES UKRAINE TO STRIKE RUSSIA WITH FRENCH MISSILES France declared Ukraine…
Since the November 5 election, I’ve been regularly watching Fox News — the first time since Fox sacked Tucker Carlson…
WATCH: Pro-Hamas Simps Destroy Montreal While Justin Trudeau Dances at a Taylor Swift Concert
“Can we set aside our differences for a week to build a new village well”
Im going to hell for posting this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3IMTJjzfo
Also – there are turdlets posting versions of this with “palestine” bits added in…
FMD.
You’d have to trawl through the official documentation since Vatican II on that, dot, but they’ve been moving fairly consistently to an abolitionist position since JPII.
There is no issue worth becoming pals with Islam. Not a single one. For the simple reason I see the Church as fundamentally quite weak and therefore will tend to cave to Islam during the inevitable negotiations. And we all know where appeasement leads. It’s a disastrous proposition with no upside for Christianity. Therefore quite dumb.
Quite weak in the west, I mean.
Bolt interviewed the guy (on the Bolt Report) a couple of days after the “alleged” incident. The interviewee was fairly adamant about what had happened during the “interaction” in question.
Nice to see Shazza pointing out last night that moozley sh*tbags were bellowing “kill da Jooze” on the night of October nine in Sydneystan. Presumably no “independent scientistic experts” were needed by NSW Waffenplod to try and decipher what was bellowed, just easier to memory hole all the footage in question.
(It’s not really banned in the utmost worst cases, but Francis is a lunatic. A future Pope is going to have to untangle this Social Justice Warrior Princess mess).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_capital_punishment
Sure, let’s give Martin Bryant and Brett Cowan parole.
Over at Quadrant: Bruce Pascoe, Comfortably in the Black
The problem with that change is that, not only did it contradict Scripture and Tradition, but it did so through equivocation and confusion by using the word “inadmissible”; ‘inadmissable’ is not quite, intrinsically evil/ wrong.
@Roger
Feb 7, 2024 11:21 AM
Withe the greatest respect … Forget Vatican II Saint Thomas Aquinas was not the only one to opine and that not recently … St Augustine had his views.
It goes back to …
“Cast the Other Cheek … ”
And if you get smashed a second Time …go Hard . You have given your Brother a chance to mend His Violent ways …
“But If Not”
It get’s ugly …
Thinking of a quick trip to Sydney next month and am interested in the Gold of the Pharoahs exhibit at the museum.
Has anyone seen it? Is it worth it? How long should I allow to see it properly – an hour or so, half a day, full day?
Perhaps John H. could illuminate further on what his RC interlocutor meant by “common ground”?
Was it on secular or religious matters?
Don’t rule out the latter as a matter of course.
I think it was Lysander who reported here recently re an imam being invited to participate during the consecration in a RC Mass, i.e. the most sacred part of the ritual.
If that wasn’t approved of by the local bishop, it would certainly have had the approval of the presiding priest, which is bad enough.
@Dot
Sure, let’s give Martin Bryant and Brett Cowan parole.
NO definitely not !! You cannot allow such individuals back into society … We must defend ourselves.
But we leave them alive in Prison and maybe God might Heal them? Maybe not . But it is not for Us to know or Judge …
You need more random caps and intentional misspellings to keep this charade up Bird.
Helen Davidson (nmrn)
Feb 7, 2024 11:38 AM
I saw a version of this show quite a while back.
Loved it, was there for an hour and a half but could have made it 3 (date was boooooreeeed) if I was there by myself.
‘Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,”[1] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.’
“The Church teaches, in light of the Gospel…”
That certainly sounds like a form of magisterial teaching to me, but is it the form which requires “religious assent” or “external conformity”?
@Dot
Also that is not a valid argument … It is a “whataboutism’ which serves you poorly …
With the greatest Respect… I dont know if you have learn from the “Book of Life” or Learn from The Life of Books … Both are well worth While
Peace .
I’m still pissed about the Welcome to Country at a Confirmation Mass where I sponsored a “nephew” of mine.
The Bishop HAD to approve that because he was the officiating, obviously.
Finding common ground where it is present for the sake of the issue at hand doesn’t mean you have to be pals.
Further, finding common ground where it is available isn’t appeasement. Appeasement would be giving way on a matter of principle out of weakness.
@Dot
Oh Gosh and Oh Golly !! That gwubby chap Jolly well went and got my dander up again !!!
Nice one Dot
Out to You …
He wasn’t very clear on that point but the general drift was on religious matters. Anyone from any belief system of any category can usually find common secular ground so I’m not impressed by those examples.
It’s been a long time for me but my memory suggests Christians should not tolerate or encourage false beliefs. Yet it seems from the document you provided and the discussion I had that there is a desire for Christian-Islam love in.
Perhaps I’m over the top on this issue because I think we have been far too tolerant of Islam. Oil! Again, being ignorant, my impression is that the ultimate goal of Islam not to just be a dominant religion but to create a theocratic state.
OK…back later, D. v.
Went last weekend. It’s a two hour exercise max. Lots of nice gold and impressive jewellery. Most of the artefacts are of adjacent periods and locations, as there is not really a lot of Ramses artefacts known apart from his coffin and mummy. Very good. Worth the outlay. Museum shop stuff is a bit pricey.
What does ‘inadmissible’ mean here? If it means ‘intrinsically evil’ than he’s saying the Scripture and Tradition (Magisterium) have condoned ‘intrinsic evil’. I don’t think he is saying that, which is why the equivocation is present. My inclination is to read this in the most charitable light given Scripture and Tradition; namely that he is making a prudential argument about capital punishment much like JP2 did but in a poorly worded manner that will need to be clarified in the light of Scripture and Tradition.
I was SSSSOOO pissed of last time I went to Church … not often I do … that my fellow Catholics were so sangunie about what was being done to George Pell …
I excoriated them … If we were Moslems we wouldnt stand for this utter outrage … this utter injustice… !!
and they smiled and nodded …
IIRC about 3 years ago a man was leaning on Flinders street station in Melbourne, wearing an Australian flag cape. Plod threatened him with arrest for wearing it – repeatedly, as he (understandably) did not easily process that wearing a flag cape was an arrestable offence.
The whole interaction was captured on video – which probably kept the coppers towing the line instead of getting sassy. I’ve got the video in my collection, somewhere, but couldn’t be bothered digging it out at this time.
It is possible that Avi Yemini’s team were the videographers.
Indeed, such as blessing same sex relationships. And allowing the Vatican to become a hive for homos. Appeasement from weakness on full display.
@Salvatore, Iron Publican
Feb 7, 2024 11:57 AM
Coppers arent arbiters of Philosphy or Free Speech … they just want to hose off potential trouble … they just want to go home in one piece.
What ever they can do to calm a situation down they will do it …
If by this we mean something like the doctrine of the two powers, then, again, yes, we can find common ground.
AgReeD. He’s no Keyser Soze.
Vikplod are the armed wing of the Labor Vic Govt. Therefore worthy of nothing but the most aggressive loathing.
Helen Davidson (nmrn)
Feb 7, 2024 11:38 AM
Thinking of a quick trip to Sydney next month and am interested in the Gold of the Pharoahs exhibit at the museum.
Has anyone seen it? Is it worth it? How long should I allow to see it properly – an hour or so, half a day, full day?
Gee, thanks for the reminder, Helen. After reading previews, I had forgotten about it. Will try to arrange to go when next in Sydney.
John Paul The Great on capital punishment:
I don’t favour the death penalty. Much better to sentence perps to solitary confinement on bread and water, with a Bible. And broadcast exegetical Moore College sermons into their cells 12 hours a day. As well as being good for their souls, it’d be a fine deterrent to prospective criminals. I predict crime rates would be down 98% within a month!
Is it really?
I mean they are clearly marked “Sponsored Content” on the header of the preview, so very easy to scroll without even opening.
Have you been actually reading them assuming they are journalistic or editorial content? Even if you somehow missed the “Sponsored Content” tag you only have to read 1-2 paragraphs to pick up that it is an advert.
Tell me, Duk.
Do you get confused between the KFC bucket-head backyard cricket ads and the actual game being televised?
Something like? The examples of Islamic theocratic states is not something like two powers.
The other day my 4-year old granddaughter said: Nonna do you know what my favourite food is? What is it tesoro? She said: mushrooms, chocolate and meat — and she said meat with such emphasis — so glad her parents do give her meat because she obviously loves it, especially italian sausages.
The bread may be stale, but they can have all the water they can drink.
One for the diaries for WA Cats. Check out the freak they have got as speaker. Moderated from RTR – you might want to bring back up.
https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/boolabardip/conversation-sharp-right
@ dover0beach
Feb 7, 2024 12:04 PM
Sorry Mate , much of the contentions you have made flew above my head.
Wrent we Westerners once a Theocratic State anyway?
God Rules our Morality and the King is His Representative on Earth … The King does not Rule by Devine Will .. He is a condiut …
And the King must sleep .. and if the people arent happy .. Richard II .. gets peckish . Feel Me ?
Unlike what we are Ruled over by now … a pack of unrepresentaive NGOS and TLA …NEDs .. uncountable Think Tanks .. completely unaccountable …with ten thousand eyes that never sleep.
Judaism and Christianity acknowledge the separation of religion and the state, that is the separation of the temporal and the spiritual.
Islam does not, Islam never has, Islam never will. Sharia law triumphs everything. Also, Sharia law is not just applicable to Muslims, it is also to be applied to people of the book.
Gay muslim, gay catholic, thrown off a roof in Gaza, land on common ground.
All the dickless LNP has to do to win the next qld election is to walk around with a photo of grannie on their t-shirts saying stabbed by the premier. Do you think they will?
Apparently 40% of voters north of the Tweed have never heard of Chrisifulli. Says it all really.
I’ve seen the ALP are going to run on a campaign that the man has no backbone. He regrettably has form with treaty negotiations, the referendum, talk on crime but throw more money at the same failed programs, preferencing greenslime above Labor. I could go on…
I still think at present trajectory he’ll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
H B Bear
Feb 7, 2024 12:16 PM
Checked my diary, unfortunately it clashes with my annual “masturbation with steel wool” session, how regrettable.
If had been a clash with something less essential id be there.
Classroom chaos linked to Aussie teaching styles
Sexual assaults by students, punch-ups in the playground and drug deals in the toilets are bringing teachers to ‘breaking point’. Is a ‘behaviour curriculum’ the solution?
By NATASHA BITA
Teachers should instruct rowdy students in good behaviour and use back-to-basic teaching methods, a senate inquiry into chaotic classrooms will recommend on Wednesday.
Schools need closer ties with health services to give students faster access to psychologists, social workers and behaviour specialists, the Senate Standing Committee on Education has concluded after a 15-month inquiry into the issue of increasing disruption in classrooms.
The committee will recommend that the Senate begin a follow-up inquiry, to investigate Australia’s declining academic standards, focusing on literacy and numeracy.
Its final report contains fresh data from student surveys in the latest global testing of 15-year-old students in maths and science, the 2021 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment).
A startling 83 per cent of students responded that “students do not listen to what the teacher said’’ in mathematics lessons.
Ten per cent said students failed to listen in “every lesson’’, one in four said classmates did not listen to the teacher “most lessons’’, and half said students failed to listen during “some lessons’’.
In contrast, just 1 per cent of students in Japan – one of the highest-performing countries – said students failed to listen in every lesson. Only one in 20 Japanese students said classmates ignored the teacher in most lessons, and one-third said students failed to listen in some lessons.
An analysis prepared for the senate committee found that the “disciplinary climate’’ in Australian schools was the fifth-lowest among 37 nations in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development).
The senate inquiry, chaired by Liberal Party Senator Matt O’Sullivan, will recommend the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) devise a “behaviour curriculum’’ to teach students how to behave in class.
It calls on teachers to use evidence-based teaching methods, including “explicit instruction’’ with step-by-step explanations, and practice and testing to ensure all children mastered each lesson.
The committee has called for an end to open-plan classrooms, which can be noisy and distracting for teachers and students.
Teachers told the inquiry that out-of-control students had sexually assaulted and threatened to kill them, punched classmates, and dealt drugs in the playground.
The National Catholic Education Commission said principals were the victims of physical violence at 11 times the rate of average Australians. The Australian Psychological Society said disruptive behaviour could be linked to low levels of literacy.
Children and Media Australia said violent videos and games were a risk factor for aggression among children and teenager.
Vaping was singled out by the NSW Primary Principals’ Association.
The Australian Secondary Principals’ Association said many teachers were at “breaking point and the addition of disruptive youth adds to this load’’.
Oz. Diogenes come on down!
dover0beach
Feb 7, 2024 12:04 PM
Again, being ignorant, my impression is that the ultimate goal of Islam not to just be a dominant religion but to create a theocratic state.
If by this we mean something like the doctrine of the two powers, then, again, yes, we can find common ground.
When principle tenets of Islam it to slay non believers and it is ok to lie and deceive in the name of Allah, there is no roadway to common ground.
Even those Muslims who would accept a degree of integration and tolerance are 100% prevented from doing so by the mere act of a knock on their front door by a radical who tells them that Allah commands them to slay their infidel neighbour. To not accept Allahs command is a fatal response.
Thanks for that link, TE, regarding the ‘Legz Akimbo’ level theatre (or contemporary Australian theatre) that is the Bruce Pascoe Circus.
Years ago on The Doomlord’s Cat someone, mocking the economic ineptitude of some politician or other who thought we could enrich the economy with just making up jobs for people, said with mock enthusiasm something along the lines how great it would be if we completely did away farm machinery and did everything by hand! We would all be wealthier!
And then we have this from a UTS podcast with Bruce and cited in the article in your link:
What was an obvious joke and pithy observation of stupidity to everyone else, is another genius idea from Pascoe.
This also in the article linked:
Interesting development. I am sure they have all sorts of obfuscatory rhetoric to not explain this. If one egotistical person who prides themselves on being smarter than everyone else has difficulty admitting to being duped, imagine how much more reluctance from a herd of them who not only pride themselves and the company they keep, but also an institution that does so.
Are you sure of that? It certainly looks like something explicable in those terms.
WA Museum doing its best to emulate their ABC by having three far Left speakers, discussing the “problem” with Conservatives.
Your taxes at work.
He regrettably has form with treaty negotiations, the referendum, talk on crime but throw more money at the same failed programs, preferencing greenslime above Labor. I could go on…
So the perfect leader for the SFLs. or the SFLNs.
The Wall Street Journal
Denying Trump’s Immunity Is Bigger Than Him
by The Editorial Board • 1h
The first criminal trial of Donald Trump might soon be back on the calendar, after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that the former President isn’t immune from prosecution.
Yet the sweeping nature of the ruling means that it also risks weakening the office of the Presidency, so perhaps at least four Supreme Court Justices will be interested in having the last word.
This is the federal case against Mr. Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election, which Judge Tanya Chutkan originally scheduled for a March 4 trial. In an unsigned opinion, the D.C. Circuit’s three-judge panel makes short work of bad immunity arguments, such as the claim that Mr. Trump can’t be criminally indicted because he was already impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate. This isn’t double jeopardy. It’s legal sophistry.
Yet the court also makes too-short work of better arguments. In Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982), the Supreme Court said the President has “absolute immunity” from civil liability for “official acts.” That case involved a federal worker who argued his layoff was political retaliation. “Because of the singular importance of the President’s duties,” the High Court said, “diversion of his energies by concern with private lawsuits would raise unique risks to the effective functioning of government.”
One question posed by Mr. Trump’s case is whether his actions in the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021, were within the “outer perimeter” of his official duties, as Fitzgerald put it. Mr. Trump betrayed Mike Pence on Jan. 6, but if a President asks a Vice President to perform a legislative maneuver in the Senate, that looks like official conduct. What about the other allegations in the indictment, though, such as that Mr. Trump and his aides convened “sham proceedings” to cast phony electoral votes?
The D.C. Circuit blows past the question, because it categorically refuses to extend the logic of Fitzgerald. “We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter,” the panel says. The judges are justifiably outraged at Mr. Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election, which they call “an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government.”
But if the President could be hobbled by civil suits over official actions, where is the concern that he might be paralyzed by the thought of partisan indictments the moment he leaves office?
The panel says the criminal process has safeguards in grand juries and the ethical obligations of prosecutors. Grand juries? Really?
“This is the first time since the Founding that a former President has been federally indicted,” the judges write, with confidence that may not age well.
“The risk that former Presidents will be unduly harassed by meritless federal criminal prosecutions appears slight.”
Mr. Trump is all but promising that if he wins in November, he will ask his Justice Department to charge President Biden. “Joe would be ripe for Indictment,” he fumed last month. For what crime? Who knows, but the federal statute books are voluminous.
The Supreme Court last year upheld a law that gives prison time to a person who “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States.”
Mr. Trump’s claims of total immunity for anything a President does are obviously wrong. But the D.C. Circuit has gone overboard in the other direction by declaring a President has no immunity. By the D.C. Circuit’s logic, a former President could be charged with a crime for violating any Congressional statute. Harry Truman might have been prosecuted for seizing steel mills. (He was blocked by the Supreme Court.)
Mr. Trump will appeal, and the Supreme Court may understandably want to avoid getting pulled deeper into the legal-political maelstrom of the 2024 election. Had the D.C. Circuit ruled against Mr. Trump on narrower grounds—e.g., that his post-election actions were electioneering, and not part of his official duties—the Supreme Court would have found it easier to turn down a Trump appeal.
But now that would mean giving three lower-court judges the final say with a ruling that would seem to permit a victorious Mr. Trump to appoint an Attorney General who would try to prosecute Mr. Biden. Your move, Justices. As is often the case with Mr. Trump, he and his opponents leave everyone else with only bad choices.
@Cassie of Sydney
Feb 7, 2024 12:18 PM
Sharia Law works on the principle that the Judge Must mete Justice according to Divine principles.
The Civil Code works on the principle that the Prosecuter isnt there to get a conviction but to get to the Truth … and His most Glororious achievement might be to aquite an Innocent Man dwesipte the howls of the Mob ..
English Law works on the principle that both sides of the room lie to a bunch of bored morons to cop a pay day … the uniform of english Lawyers is a little bag on the back of thier robes … They dont say anything till they feel the weight and hear the “Clink” ..
Boeing 737 Max in door panel blowout lacked four bolts, regulator says
Preliminary report by NTSB finds part that detached had been removed at Washington factory
A 737 Max jet left a Boeing factory missing four bolts designed to secure a door panel that blew off in mid-flight last month, according to a preliminary report by a US regulator.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s report on Tuesday is the first official account of how the door plug could have fallen out of the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane 16,000 feet over Oregon on January 5. The incident has raised questions about manufacturing and safety processes at Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which builds the Max fuselages.
The NTSB said that “four bolts that prevent upward movement of the [door] plug were missing” before the plug detached from the plane.
According to the report, the fuselage arrived at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, in late August 2023. An inspection there uncovered five damaged rivets adjacent to the door plug that later blew out.
In order for a team from Spirit to replace the rivets, the door plug was opened in September, according to the report. A photo shared via text message by Boeing employees after the rivet work showed the door plug later closed again without three of its bolts, while the location of the fourth bolt was obscured in the photo, according to the NTSB.
Dave Calhoun, Boeing chief executive, said in a statement responding to the report that “whatever final conclusions are reached, Boeing is accountable for what happened”.
“An event like this must not happen on an aeroplane that leaves our factory. We simply must do better for our customers and their passengers.”
Spirit said: “As we review the NTSB’s preliminary report, we remain focused on working closely with Boeing and our regulators on continuous improvement in our processes and meeting the highest standards of safety, quality and reliability.”
The blowout has intensified scrutiny at Boeing, which had been recovering from two fatal crashes of 737 Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019. The NTSB said its investigation was still in the process of determining what documents were used to authorise the opening and closing of the door plug during the rivet replacement.
Mike Whitaker, the new head of the Federal Aviation Administration, earlier on Tuesday told lawmakers in Washington that the regulator would put “more boots on the ground” to monitor the plane maker and review potential conflicts of interest associated with its long-standing delegation of some inspection and certification steps to Boeing.
The FAA is about halfway through an audit of Boeing and Spirit. Whitaker said the overall oversight approach needs to involve more direct surveillance of the companies.
The FAA has 20 inspectors at Boeing and six at Spirit auditing the companies’ production and quality control practices. While the audit has not found anything requiring immediate action, the agency is shifting to an oversight approach involving more direct surveillance rather than just signing off on paperwork.
“Going forward, we will have more boots on the ground closely scrutinising and monitoring production and manufacturing activities” Whitaker told the hearing. The FAA would need more inspectors for aircraft certification, he said, and the regulator was likely to keep some in place at Boeing and Spirit facilities after the audit.
The FAA was “specifically” looking at the potential conflicts of interest that came with its long-standing delegation of some inspection and certification steps to Boeing. The agency had asked an outside group “to give us options on delegation and where we might bring in a third party, for example, in quality control, or quality assurance, to make sure you have a neutral set of eyes”.
Whitaker said the “current system is not working because it’s not delivering safe aircraft”. Boeing’s culture and incentives needed to be looked at, he said, because “if you don’t have that safety culture, I think it’s hard to make safe aeroplanes”.
Boeing has been accused by industry insiders and observers of prioritising its investors over safety considerations. “Regardless of their other motives, they’re not going to be able to build more aeroplanes until they meet those standards,” Whitaker said. The FAA has ordered Boeing not to expand its 737 Max production until it resolves its quality control issues.
The FAA chief also said he would meet chief executives of US airlines on Wednesday to discuss how to “share information more transparently and improve our safety management systems”.
Whitaker also encouraged Boeing employees to report safety concerns via an FAA hotline. “We will consider the full extent of our enforcement authority to ensure Boeing is held accountable for any non-compliance,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Spirit said it would withhold its financial guidance for the coming year until there was “further clarity” on when the plane maker would be able to increase the rate at which it builds the aircraft.
Pat Shanahan, interim chief executive, said Spirit was taking a “hard look” at its processes following the Alaska incident.
A significant portion of the fuselage work was done manually, Shanahan told analysts. The answer for increasing the production quality of the 737 is “less manual [work], less interpretation, more inspections”, he said.
Trump is an orange Hercules fighting the US “justice system”. You wouldn’t bet on the outcome.
Thanks ‘mole and Barry. Sounds like hubby and I will be spending a morning at the museum.
You’re welcome for the reminder Vicki. I’ll probably be there sometime after school holidays in March. If you get there before that, post a review.
Important safety news from the world of science.
Reasons not to hug, snuggle or kiss chicks and chickens (Phys.org, 6 Feb)
Do not kiss that animal, it might be a stressed chicken.
It calls on teachers to use evidence-based teaching methods, including “explicit instruction’’ with step-by-step explanations, and practice and testing to ensure all children mastered each lesson.
It is staggering that “explicit instruction” teaching techniques have apparently disappeared in this country. Somehow, the absurd notion that children teach each other in these pathetic large tables set up in primary schools has actually been the accepted belief for a generation. The world standing of Australian education has dropped accordingly.
These appeals to “return to basics” have been aired and ignored for years now. The breakdown in respect for teachers – and indeed, adults – I believe is partly the result of the lack of an adult at the front of a classroom TEACHING children. So much stems from this decline in instruction.
Let’s test that. Who wants a holiday in Kabul carrying a bible with a cross on the front and backs of the shirts they wear?
It pays to be well informed. Yesterday I was walking around a lake and there was an advice posted warning not to feed the swans because it kept them out of the water too much and could damage their gut.
Bullock’s Q&A was what the RBA’s been missing
Gone are the days of Alan Greenspan-like, inscrutable “Fedspeak”. The straight-talking governor’s first media conference was all killer no filler.
Richard Holden Economics professor
Monday and Tuesday’s meeting of the Reserve Bank board was the first under the new regime, ushered in by last year’s review of the bank.
As an external observer, it’s impossible to judge the quality of deliberation and debate under the new regime. And the board statement issued at 2.30pm was similar in structure and contained much of the boilerplate language that we’re used to.
By contrast, the first regular post-meeting press conference of governor Michele Bullock was something of a revelation. This kind of frank Q&A is exactly what we’ve been missing. Gone are the days of Alan Greenspan-like, inscrutable “Fedspeak”. Bullock is a straight talker, answering questions directly. It’s reminiscent of how Janet Yellen conducted herself as Federal Reserve chairman. All killer no filler.
Bullock pointed out that “people are doing it tough … because of inflation” and “the best thing we can do to help households … is to get inflation down”. This is both correct, and refreshingly candid. She pointed to the risk of inflation expectations becoming unanchored.
When asked by a reporter how she explained the board statement sounding so “hawkish”, Bullock reiterated that inflation expectations are crucial, and that she wasn’t ruling out further rate increases.
The Australian Financial Review’s Ronald Mizen pointed out that markets have two rate cuts priced in this year; Bullock said that “we’re not driven by market pricing … we focus on the data”. She later explained the differences between the United States and Australia in terms of inflation and interest rate outlooks clearly and succinctly.
The outcome of the Monday-Tuesday RBA board meeting was never in doubt. Everyone expected the bank to hold official rates steady at 4.35 per cent. And they did.
But we learnt something about how the RBA sees the economy and interest rates evolving over the coming months.
If monetary policy is part art and part science, then the art of central banking at present is disentangling the two.
The most recent inflation numbers have the underlying inflation rate at 4.2 per cent. This is both welcome progress from the peak of 6.8 per cent in the December 2022 quarter, and also quite far from the RBA target of 2.5 per cent.
It’s pretty clear that, like most advanced economies, Australia has suffered from both a supply shock and a demand shock. If monetary policy is part art and part science, then the art of central banking at present is disentangling the two.
The supply shock came, in part, from disruptions to international supply chains stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. It also came, in part, from the need to adapt to the post-pandemic world. During the pandemic businesses were reconfigured, workplace arrangements were changed and some firms closed. The supply side of the economy has needed to adjust to the new public-health reality.
And on the demand side, an enormous savings buffer was built up during the pandemic, minimum wages and wages in aged care have increased significantly, and private sector wages have been growing at 4.2 per cent a year – well above what is justified by a 2.5 per cent inflation target and current levels of productivity growth.
The series of interest rate increases that have taken the cash rate from 0.1 per cent to 4.35 per cent have done a lot to address the demand-side problems. And they have done so while keeping unemployment at just 3.9 per cent – very low by historical standards.
The real question is whether the supply shocks have been fully worked through. If so, the remaining above-target inflation is due to remaining demand-side factors. That makes the “last-mile” problem of getting inflation sustainably from 4.2 to 2.5 per cent rather challenging.
New meeting structure
The written RBA board statement affirmed this view. It said: “Goods price inflation … has continued to ease, reflecting the resolution of earlier global supply chain disruptions and a moderation in domestic demand for goods. Services price inflation … remains high. This is consistent with continuing excess demand in the economy and strong domestic cost pressures, both for labour and non-labour inputs.”
The new arrangement is for the board to meet eight times a year (each month except January, April, July and October), and the meetings now take place over two days. The rationale for this is, according the RBA review, “to allow for more in-depth discussions, including of the forecast, strategy and other monetary policy issues”.
The new meeting structure is designed to “allow sufficient time between initial discussion of the issues and the final decision for members to reflect on the issues and request follow-up analysis as necessary” and to “provide opportunities for the Monetary Policy Board to hear the views of a wider range of RBA staff on issues that would inform the decision”.
And there is now the press conference at 3.30pm by the RBA governor on the Tuesday, an hour after the board’s decision is announced.
This is all similar to how meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee in the US are structured. Importantly, we learned yesterday something about how the RBA has adapted to its new meeting and communication regime. This will have implications long into the future.
Another important component of the RBA review wasn’t seen in action on Tuesday – the yet-to-be established Monetary Policy Board, consisting of the RBA governor, deputy governor, Treasury secretary and six external experts.
The big question is who these external members will be. Will they be genuine, world-class experts in monetary, financial and labour economics as is typical in the US? Or will we end up with a B-team of political hacks and insiders?
As former governor Philip Lowe was fond of saying, “time will tell”.
There’s a guy on twitter who has been posting disgraceful things about his praise for Adolf; things like “Hitler should’ve finished the job.” His face and location are easily recognisable.
I reported him to NSW Police and they told me that they don’t investigate these things.
F#$cking pigs.
This is not satire, it’s a real science article.
Exploring the eating experience of a pneumatically-driven edible robot: Perception, taste, and texture (TechXplore, 6 Feb)
Japanese scientists are weird. Someone should nominate this one for the Ignobel Prize for Biology. It’d be unbeatable.
Time will tell
This too, shall pass
It’s tough out there
Haven’t we been here before
Swings and roundabouts
BINGO!
I wonder if he pointed out that trans have a 41% self deletion rate.
Something to also be mindful of is the potential stress holding and petting chickens may put on the animals.
“Stress can lead to reduced egg production and reduced immunity,” Archer said
What crap! My chooks LOVE being picked up. Indeed, they fuss around my feet, nearly tripping me, until I do. And, contrary to this “expert” they are excellent layers.
Cows generally only like being patted if they have been raised by hand as “poddy calves”. Consequently, I only have a few in my herd who like being handled – even though they have a lot of human contact & have never been mistreated.
I do have an Angus cross bullock – who is a monstrous 2m at his hindquarters – who enjoys being stroked on the shoulder – but not on his head. He is a massive size and intimidates visitors – even though I tell them his name is “Mary”, because he is a sook. We have kept him because he is such a character. He is fascinated with men working – & has been known to walk up quietly & pick up tools in his mouth. Scares the daylights out of them.
Another brand to avoid:
Bonds faces backlash after using a non-binary model with a beard to show off its latest bikini
…boycott Bonds after the underwear company used a bearded, non-binary person to model a bikini.
The iconic Australian underwear brand used two non-binary models with ‘they/them’ pronouns to advertise its $18.99 ‘Retro Rib™ Seamless Tonal Hi Bikini’ as part of its Pride 2024 range.
The collection is aligned with a Pride campaign showcasing transgender models, drag queens, as well as people who identify as gay, bisexual and pansexual.
Daily Mail
Cop that!
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/07/clare-nowland-tasering-case-nsw-police-officer-kristian-white-trial-manslaughter
We will not tolerate our police officers being subject to fanciful stories that have not been fact-checked. We will not cop that,” said Angel.
Start by introducing your own mandatory use of body cameras for *all* public interactions, mandatory retention of all vision so captured, and mandatory release to the citizen involved, upon their request…. backed up severe sanctions for the officer that fails to comply.
They will be maaates of the Marxists.
@Lysander
Feb 7, 2024 12:43 PM
No coppers dont do that … they pull people out of car wrecks … stop Domestic disputes from degeneration into a blood bath … stop crims from taking over..chase down Meth Heads in stolen cars whilst driving so carefully they dont prang into a civilan.. … Shut down gangs dealing in all sorts of mayhem …
Aint No Easy Job …
And I have know some who had seen one too many self inflicted gun shot wounds and .. harrowed .. had to go find something else to do for a living …
Best we can do is give them our Thanks to keep the Good Ones cheerfull.
Britain is abandoning hard work in favour of welfarism and idleness
It’s as if we now live in two countries, with millions thinking there is no stigma attached to not working
PHILIP JOHNSTON
Travelling on a crowded Tube train into central London yesterday morning, you could have fooled me that millions were no longer working. I struggled to look at the newspaper story about growing economic inactivity and might have laughed out loud had I been able to breathe. Weren’t people meant to be working from home in their droves or swinging the lead on an industrial scale?
We are, truly, two nations.
The great majority of those of working age are still active and want a job not merely to survive but because otherwise they’d have to live off someone else’s largesse.
Once upon a time, the alternative to work was penury. In the era of the welfare state, a generous benefits system offers – even encourages – idleness without the risk of destitution.
This is not an argument for the return of the workhouse or all the attendant moral miseries of Victorian England. But you don’t have to go back very far to a world in which to be deliberately idle was seen as a sin to which stigma was attached.
Indeed, the so-called “five giants” – evils that William Beveridge set out to slay with his 1942 report – were ignorance, disease, squalor, want and idleness.
The first four have largely, if not entirely, disappeared from British society through advances in agriculture, education, housing and medicine.
But idleness has become entrenched in large parts of the population and yet no politician dare say so.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produced figures on Monday that were truly startling. On the one hand, unemployment – that great scourge of the 1930s and 1980s – has fallen below four per cent. Theoretically, we are close to an era of full employment defined as slightly more vacancies than there are available workers.
But the reason for that is that the pool of available workers has shrunk dramatically.
The ONS reported that the total number of Britons neither working nor seeking work now stands at 9.3 million, more than a fifth of the population aged 18 to 65.
This is an increase on recent estimates following a revision of the data from the Labour Force Survey.
The figures include people who have chosen to retire early (often because they are fed up paying for everything), students and people, mainly women, taking time off to raise a family.
In fact, the current inactivity rate isn’t much different from the 1970s.
It was 25 per cent of the working age population in 1971, but that was a time when women with children were much less likely to be working.
The most recent rise started during the Covid-19 pandemic; and while this was true everywhere it has remained high here while falling back in other countries.
The biggest group of all is the long-term sick.
Around 2.8 million people – 200,000 more than had been thought – claim to be too ill to work.
Is this a legacy of the coronavirus pandemic, the manifestation of “long Covid”? Yet a report by Demos and the Physiological Society said, “if long Covid-19 was a key reason for the rise in economic inactivity, it is surprising that this is not observed in other countries which also had high rates of Covid-19 infections during the pandemic”.
Is there something unique to Britain that is driving sickness?
The rise has been most rapid among 16-24-year-olds, especially mental health problems.
But how are these diagnosed and are they ailments that in the past would have been normal anxieties and worries but which now merit withdrawing entirely from the labour market?
The number of new claims for benefits related to long-term health conditions have doubled.
The welfare budget is spiralling out of control, even as the workforce needed to pay for it shrinks and we are importing immigrant labour to fill vacancies.
The growth needed to generate wealth is stalled by low productivity.
It is a vicious cycle that needs to be arrested but our politicians seem unable to do so.
Something that is unique to this country is the NHS, which is clearly part of the problem since the backlog in treatments and operations continues to grow as even Rishi Sunak conceded this week.
The rational response to evidence that the way our health system is structured is contributing to sickness rather than curing it would be to reform it, root and branch.
Yet despite an acceptance by Labour that throwing more money at the NHS is no longer the answer, it is not entirely clear what the party thinks the solution is beyond tinkering at the margins.
However, is it really likely that almost three million people cannot work because they are sick, with many claiming to be depressed or anxious?
Have many years of welfarism created a society in which hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, choose to live off their fellow taxpayers and consider that they are entitled to do so?
Terrified of passing any moral judgments, ministers reach for futile technocratic solutions.
Benefits can be linked to a willingness to work, for instance, but this is only effective as a sanction if they are actually removed if a job is declined.
The Government recently announced that claimants who fail to find a job for more than 18 months will have to undertake work experience placements and will lose their payments if they refuse.
Why wait as long as 18 months?
Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “Our message is clear: if you are fit, if you refuse to work, if you are taking taxpayers for a ride – we will take your benefits away.”
But the message is not clear at all, even 14 years into a Conservative-led government.
Some blame financial insecurity for the inertia, particularly among the young.
Yet that used to be a spur to work, not a reason to do nothing.
On the other hand, if benefits are sufficiently generous to live on rather than get up early to trudge into work to what for many will be a poorly paid job, then perhaps it is hardly surprising that thousands choose to avoid work.
The old stigmas that attached to doing so have long gone and were buried entirely during the pandemic.
That is a significant cultural shift which will have profound implications, not least to our public finances, for years to come, or at least until all our jobs are taken by robots.
At least then I will get a seat on the train.
They do aIl seem to don the Off-the-Sky-Studio-Rack bright coloured jacket for days when they are not afterwards going out for dinner wearing something of their own.
I doubt that Liz Storer wears things that Sky provides.
She has immaculate grooming and dress sense.
Last night’s white dress with scarlet floral splashes that matched her lipstick was superb. She is also, along with Rita, one of the smartest women around. Sharri is thoughtful but for me she sometimes misses the mark in separating news wheat from chaff. She was excellent last night though giving the NSWaffen a serve.
Hairy was fantasising about having a choice between Liz Storer and Esther Krackow. As red-blooded men tend to do.
I’d enjoy a dinner with James McPherson, I say mildly.
I’ve met him IRL and he is as pleasant and incisive as he is on screen.
Caleb Bond is a sartorial treat, I agree, but just a young lad really.
Really?
Like, thanks for shooting us with rubber bullets or… thanks for making up sh!t about “where’s the jews?”
You’re living on another planet Marko.
As you can see Sir, It is Fully Electric!
A staggeringly stupid ol’ cow who appeared to have no idea who she was, what her job was, what day it was, or what planet she was on. All incompetence, zero substance.
J’ismists – when too much fundament tonguing of fellow collectivist cretins is barely enough.
“Anyone have a shooting war between Texas and Alaska on their 2024 bingo card?”
I can only imagine this sort of thing being really, really bad for Sleepy Joe – Alaska NG may say “no”, but even if they say “yes”, with even people in NYC and Detroit complaining about illegal immigration, how does it look for the government applying force to allow more immigrants into the country?
… to their feet.
Have they considered whacking the little shits with a bamboo cane as soon as they start acting up? It worked in the olden days, before modern educational theories came in, and when standards were a lot higher.
@Lysander
Feb 7, 2024 12:53 PM
Yes I saw what those two scum did to that lady … pushed her over then pepper sprayed her during a coof demo. And agree tottally utter filth … !!
Only way we can keep the shit bags capable of such outrages is to support the Police . To purge the system of those capable of such things.
None of the coppers I know would dream of such savagery …
@Rabz
Feb 7, 2024 1:00 PM
“… to their feet.”
Not quite …. First Responder on a Welfare Check …Gotta tell the Family .. I wouldn’t like to be that copper …
Helen, the Aust Museum Egyptian tour includes the Ramses 11 sarcophagus, but I wonder if the solid gold head is also included, possibly not. However the sarcophagus alone is well worth the visit as well as the rest of the artefact display. We saw it all in the Egyptian National Museum where the Ramses finds are kept in a special glass room you wait to enter. Apparently the Aust Museum also provides multi-media enveloping display of the places associated with Ramses and other kings, which may make it seem very real. Anything this good from the period would be worth a look as Egypt rarely lets its best stuff tour.
The ONS reported that the total number of Britons neither working nor seeking work now stands at 9.3 million, more than a fifth of the population aged 18 to 65.
N
.
E
E
.
T
life forever!!!
coppers arent arbiters of Philosphy or Free Speech … they just want to hose off potential trouble … they just want to go home in one piece.
What ever they can do to calm a situation down they will do it …
like beating up grandmothers and arresting pregnant women …. for their health?
Rowan Atkinson blamed for poor electric car sales
House of Lords report suggests that the Mr Bean actor was partly at fault for ‘damaging’ public perceptions of EVs
Gareth Corfield and Nick Gutteridge, WHITEHALL CORRESPONDENT
Rowan Atkinson has been blamed for poor sales of electric cars in a report by the House of Lords.
Atkinson, known for Mr Bean and the Blackadder series, found himself the centre of a real-life drama on Tuesday.
The Lords’ environment and climate change committee was told that the actor, 69, was partly at fault for “damaging” public perceptions of electric vehicles (EVs).
New petrol and diesel cars are set to be banned from 2035 under the Prime Minister’s net zero strategy.
That ban is supposed to encourage motorists to start buying EVs, but adoption has been slower than the strategy’s advocates have hoped.
“One of the most damaging articles was a comment piece written by Rowan Atkinson in the Guardian which has been roundly debunked,” the Green Alliance pressure group told peers.
Atkinson described EVs as ‘soulless’
Atkinson, who has degrees in electrical engineering and control systems, described EVs in a June 2023 opinion article as “a bit soulless” but “wonderful mechanisms”.
He wrote: “But increasingly, I feel a little duped … I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing.”
His article prompted a backlash from EV advocates, who accused him of misrepresenting the current state of battery technology.
Simon Evans, of the Carbon Brief website, wrote: “Mr Atkinson’s biggest mistake is his failure to recognise that electric vehicles already offer significant global environmental benefits, compared with combustion-engine cars.”
A combination of higher purchase costs, insufficient charging infrastructure and mixed messaging are deterring some motorists from making the switch to EVs, peers warned in Tuesday’s report.
Surface transport UK’s highest-emitting sector
Baroness Parminter, who chaired the committee’s EV inquiry, said: “Surface transport is the UK’s highest-emitting sector for CO2, with passenger cars responsible for over half those emissions.
“The evidence we received shows the Government must do more – and quickly – to get people to adopt EVs,” she continued.
“If it fails to heed our recommendations, the UK won’t reap the significant benefits of better air quality and will lag in the slow lane for tackling climate change.”
Witnesses who testified to the committee about the EV rollout “raised concerns about a lack of clear and consistent messaging from the Government,” something which allegedly “provided a vacuum for inaccurate press reporting to fill the void.”
In support of that claim, the committee’s 128-page report cited a submission from the Green Alliance pressure group, which directly sought to blame the Blackadder star for poor public perception of EVs.
The submission, which accused the actor of “damaging” the public’s view of EVs, was cited by peers as proof of misleading reporting about the drawbacks of electric cars and battery technology.
Two committee members drive EVs
Just two members of the committee have said they drive electric vehicles themselves, even though the report warned that the Government’s target of achieving “mass ownership” of EVs risks being delayed.
Chairwoman Baroness Parminter drives an EV, as does Labour peer Lord Grantchester. His political comrade Lord Whitty drives a hybrid car, making him the only other one of the committee’s 13 members to drive a non-petrol or diesel vehicle.
Greg Smith, a member of the Commons transport committee, said politicians who promoted pricey electric cars were “just not operating in the real world”.
He added: “It’s total hypocrisy for people that don’t even drive EVs themselves to have the bare-faced cheek to tell others they should drop an absolute ton of money on one,” he said.
“People should be free to choose what cars they buy and drive. The reliability issues with battery electric cars are real and to try and sweep that under the carpet is just potty.
“EVs are expensive, unproven and environmentally questionable given carbon footprint of construction and disposal. Let people choose for themselves.”
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said:
“Many of the recommendations have already been highlighted by industry, such as charge point rollout ahead of need, equalising VAT on public charging to home charging and the importance of purchase incentives, which could be delivered by a VAT cut.”
VAT is charged on domestic electricity bills at five per cent, but supplies to businesses – such as charging points at motorway service stations – are taxed at 20 per cent.
Critics say this discourages motorists from using public charging points because it inflates the cost of topping up their batteries.
Atkinson’s agent was contacted for comment.
That accords with my understanding.
Anything less than that is tolerated as a means to an end.
And, dover, with respect, I think you are equivocating on Rome’s teaching about capital punishment, not the pope or the catechism, which are quite clear.
I’m reminded of C. S. Lewis’s objection to becoming RC, as expressed in a letter to a RC inquirer, his problem being not so much assenting to what the pope teaches today, but what he might teach tomorrow.
On Islam accepting a separation of mosque and state comparable to what pertains in Judaism or Christianity, that is.
The electric vehicles farce has reached a shambolic new low
If the industry wants to survive, it should stop making bad cars nobody wants to drive. It appears to want subsidies instead
ROSS CLARK
When the electric vans startup Arrival announced that it was seeking to focus its business on the US market, it seemed like a good move. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was offering massive subsidies for the green industries of tomorrow; the market would surely surge, and Arrival’s fortunes with it.
They did not
The “British Tesla” as it was once known, which was valued at over £10 billion on the Nasdaq at one point, has seen its UK arm enter administration.
It follows that other darling of green industrial policy, Britishvolt, which collapsed last year (it was later bought by Recharge Industries).
It has been clear for a long time now that electric vehicles have run up against one of those concrete blocks the automotive industry uses in crash tests.
In spite of huge subsidies over the years, and a tax regime which continues massively to favour owners of electric cars over petrol and diesel ones, the motor industry still struggles to shift its wares.
Last year, for the first time, the market share for pure battery-powered cars fell back for the first time, from 16.6 per cent in 2022 to 16.5 per cent in 2023.
Private buyers lost interest a while ago, and now fleet buyers are losing faith too: the US arm of car rental firm Hertz recently announced it was planning to sell off a third of its electric vehicle fleet and reinvest in petrol.
In a sane world, this would be a signal for manufacturers to cut back production.
Unfortunately, the Government thinks otherwise, and since 1 January manufacturers have been under a mandate to make sure that at least 22 percent of the vehicles they sell are zero emission, a proportion that is due to rise to 80 percent by 2030.
Fail, and they face stiff fines.
Given that people don’t want to buy these cars, it’s causing a considerable headache.
The preferred solution of the car industry, of course, is simple: ask the Government for more taxpayer-funded handouts.
Industry figures are already complaining that grants for plug-in cars, which at their height offered bungs of up to £4,000 per vehicle, were phased out in 2022.
They should consider, however, that electric cars continue to enjoy substantial fiscal incentives.
Buy a litre of petrol and around half of what you pay is tax; charge your EV at home and all you pay is 5 percent VAT.
Electric cars won’t even be liable for road tax until next year – after years of using the roads for free.
If your industry has this many state-mandated advantages over its competitors and still can’t persuade people to buy, the answer isn’t to double down on your lousy product, and beg the Government to save you.
It’s to stop making bad cars nobody wants to drive.
As for the state, it’s time for it to step back and stop throttling the sector with ridiculous rules.
How many times will we have to learn the lesson that governments waving massive subsidy cheques make for awful investors?
Throwing yet more money at the electric vehicle industry won’t make the vehicles better.
They’ll keep being expensive, slow to charge, excessively heavy, and lacking in range compared to their far superior petrol peers.
The Government should end this farce.
Surely Jeremy Clarkson gets an assist? I think I’m now going to call EVs “Mr Bean Cars”.
Coppers…. also arresting people with Israeli flags, Australian flags, Cardinals, conservative protestors, tasering grandmothers, arresting covid social posters, publicising gun owner locations….
Unfortunately, the list goes on…. and on…
I lost respect for them when I got pulled over and the cop (who was a f@#cking a$$hat) told me I “was over the booze limit.” I told him I hadn’t had a single drink,and he was wrong. Literally, chucked me in the back of the van (cos I was being seditious) and drove me back to the station where I blew 0.000. Told me, a full hour later, I was free to go and I should “call a taxi” back to my car.
@flyingduk
Feb 7, 2024 1:12 PM
Forgive me but what you are doing is a “whatabout ”
“like beating up grandmothers and arresting pregnant women ”
I dont know where you live but I hear sirens constantly and I know for sure …that despite I cant get a licence for a long gun to put the occasional wild goat on the barbeque …
plenty of guns floating around .. plenty of cars stolen … plenty Meth getting cooked . and the hammer coming down on such .
Where I live is , however , safe enough – likely you too … Best We hold the bad coppers … to use the Aborigional ..Alawa munich warra nicha kulion” ..to account and get our leaders to make sure we only have the brightest and the best …
I’m not sure that is the case re the Christian tradition at least. Christians understood that the temporal and spiritual powers were distinguishable, independent in some respects, but that ultimately the former is inferior to the latter. I think that would run reasonably close to the position within Islam.
That isn’t testing what I’m contending.
Steven Miles, what’s so funny? Queensland Premier can’t stop giggling at reporter’s very serious question about youth crime after death of grandmother Vyleen White at shopping centre
Barry, re “Gold of the Pharaohs” exhibition:-
Ah, yes.
Museum gift shop price gouging.
A practice as old as the pyramids themselves.
@flyingduk
Feb 7, 2024 1:12 PM
Further .. really good principled coppers in the VicPlod have been chucking it in droves over the Coof disaster . … because of this …
So what are we left with?
Interesting link, Katzenjammer, to the Indian article about the Islamic Golden Age.
I see he endorses the Edward Gibbon version of the death of Hypatia – the murder of a pagan, the epitome of classical philosophical disciple and reason, by a savage mob of Christians indulging their insatiable hatred of any learning other than their own Christian superstition.
Even Wikipedia now accepts that Hypatia was killed due to the side she was seen (possibly unjustifiably) as having been on in some political friction between the Praefect and the Bishop – both Christians. The issue was not Christian vs Pagan, it was rich Christians vs poor Christians.
She was killed by a mob but for political, not religious, reasons. And the Great Library of Alexandria had been at least partly destroyed, unintentionally mind, by Julius Caesar’s soldiers. After that the library went into a long steady decline.
But the rage that led to her death does seem to have been fomented by the Bishop, Cyril. But she herself got along well with Christians. Neoplatonism, such as she taught, was one of the early influences of Christian thought and she counted among her students many who would become prominent Christians and Bishops who went of to maintain warm correspondence with her.
Alexandria had a long bloody history as a city constantly riven by factions boiling over into violent open conflict. In the first century it was mostly Greeks and Jews, and often required the intercession of the Emperor to impose a peaceful solution – for however long it lasted. I think in the classical period this was seen as an undeniable idiosyncrasy of the place. Perhaps observers ascribed it to heat, or crowdedness, or the water, or a combination. But there was one thing that required no speculation. Very excitable people.
For all practical purposes it is. The fundamental issue here is the physical consequences of the two religions. With Islam it isn’t about two powers, it is about the religious, legal and political powers being one.
Kookas. Damp day at the Cafe, so they’re hungry.
Junkiest of junk “science”…
Is passive vaping a hidden risk to the public? Here’s what the experts know so far
Try this wankery for size..
According to Australian National University’s Dr Raglan Maddox, who leads the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, the country could anticipate future health impacts on young people’s brain development, like those experienced from first-hand smoking decades ago.
He said some of these impacts could include:
Decreases in impulse control
Problems associated with learning and attention
Declines in mood and mental health
Nicotine addiction
Dr Maddox said while the research into the link between passive vaping and nicotine addiction is ongoing, it is likely that exposure through passive vaping has the potential to increase the risk of future nicotine dependence.
“I guess whenever you’re inhaling a nicotine product, there is that risk of addiction and nicotine dependence that comes with inhaling nicotine,” Dr Maddox said.
@dover0beach
Feb 7, 2024 1:27 PM
“Let’s test that. Who wants a holiday in Kabul carrying a bible with a cross on the front and backs of the shirts they wear?”
I have done extremely stupid dangerous things before …
I reckon that would be survivable …perhaps not so confrontationaly “heat seeking” as that .. but i was talking to a Christian Lady only yesterday who was in Kabul …
I am up for it … prefer Vietnam .. mind you 😉
My Wife called me in and I watched the Channel 9 Current Affair segment on this Family, and was impressed with the Efficiency & Organisational Skills of the Wife and the work that she does at Community Cafe, a charity in south-west Sydney that offers free food and clothing to those in financial hardship.
Struggling dad of eight kids Don Parkes who earns $125K-a-year can’t make ends meet during Australia’s cost-of-living crisis
. Aussie family-of-10 struggling to make ends meet
. Dad makes $125,000 pa as a factory manager
It’s hard to imagine that $125,000 a year is a struggle, it doesn’t make sense,’ Mr Parkes told A Current Affair.
His salary is just above the cut-off for the top 10 per cent of earners, who made at least $122,664 in 2023, according to the Wealth Report.
Ms Parkes revealed the family spends about $1,200 on groceries every fortnight despite having swapped to home-brand items to cut costs.
Health has also been sacrificed as the family reduces purchases of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat due to rising prices, and replace it with cheaper but less nutritious meals.
‘We’ve had to substitute the quality now for the quantity because we have so many mouths to feed,’ Ms Parkes said.
‘We can get a family pack from McDonalds… and that’s a better price than trying to buy meat, buy the veggies, buy everything else and cook it at home.’
The couple have has even stopped paying health insurance for themselves and their kids.
‘Health insurance is not something that’s affordable, it’s not something I could even budget into what we have,’ Ms Parkes said.
‘We need to eat first, we need to clothe the children, we need to pay our bills so they’re the kind of things that get left by the wayside that I would consider more of a luxury.’
Ms Parkes realises her family’s predicament is increasingly common, as she works at Community Cafe, a charity in south-west Sydney that offers free food and clothing to those in financial hardship.
About 200 people are now coming through the cafe every day as rising mortgages, rents, utility bills and grocery prices means many simply can not get from one pay day to the next.
The Parkes family will receive about $800 a year more from Anthony Albanese’s changes to the Stage Three tax cuts, but Ms Parkes said the situation will not improve for her family or her clients until inflation can be tamed.
‘They need to find a way to actually kind of curb that or find some sort of ceiling where they go, ok, enough is enough – how do we do that?’ she said.
The Comments on this article are pretty abysmal
I would ask Cats to watch the the 5 min 5 Secs segment and see what you think
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/dad-earning-125k-struggling-to-provide-for-family-amid-costofliving-crisis/1544d219-5635-4ee1-8034-1ea52a0f2ca6
Lets not lose sight of the real victims of the granny stabbing incident…
This is a real article headline from a real newspaper.
Queensland’s African diaspora ‘a community under siege’ as teenager faces murder charge over fatal stabbing of 70-year-old
…
Responding to concerns about threats made towards members of the African community, Det Acting Supt Heath McQueen said Ipswich police had spoken with community leaders who “condemned what has occurred here”.
“Categorically, vigilantism has no place in our society … there is no place for that, I stand before you today and I’ve told you we’ve identified the person of interest for this offence.
“What we don’t want is any more community behaviour causing any more fear or angst on any person. We all live together collectively in the community and that’s what we aim to achieve.”
Asked about comments from White’s husband, Victor, saying crime laws were “weak as water”, Miles said: “I completely understand how Victor is feeling, he’s grieving and is sad and angry … It’s an awful crime.
“But nobody can seriously stand up and say they could have prevented this further.
“I’ve heard some politicians get very close to saying that they guarantee they could have prevented this murder. That’s a pretty incredible statement to be trying to make.”
He was out on bail for an armed robbery… I think this chap is a mong.
The kookas at our beach house don’t touch the mince. So many lizards, frogs and large insects. Large porina grubs too. They carefully harvest the crop then move on, not taking too many.
@ thefrollickingmole
Feb 7, 2024 1:41 PM
Nor it the poor poppet a war traumatised refugee … he was brought to Australia as a baby apparently … “he a goooood Booy” The Sudaneese are not what we need.
Winston Smith Avatar
Winston Smith
Feb 7, 2024 12:54 PM
Indolent
That’s a very good article, Indolent. It clarifies a couple of issues that appear to have been made murky by a Leftist media.
Many upticks.
Winston Smith
Feb 7, 2024 1:17 PM
JC
Feb 6, 2024 10:59 PM
WS
My replies are delayed because I have to do stuff.
JC
Your replies are deliberately delayed because, for some insane reason you believe it gives you a leg up. You’re posting countless add-on fluff to other people’s comments before a trolling reply to me. The above shows your stupid strategy.
WS
I don’t sit by the computer all day pressing the reload button so I can keep up.
JC
Sure, you do. If you’re not posting stupid add-ons, you’re furiously up and down ticking comments (your own and other people’s) and trying to ruin the blog because you’re an old woman holding grudges and suffering from an inferiority problem.
WS
You really do need to get some psychiatric help.
This is classic example of your paranoia.
I made a first post today at about 1130am. This means it will appear at @1130am. Nearly half a day after your post @1059pm. Then you invent a 4 line claim that I’m sitting here half a day later, until now, dreaming of ways to get at you.
You can add Narcissistic to your Paranoid Sociopathy. on just those 4 lines alone.
You are nuts. And getting nuttier.
Look, give the blog a break for a week. Take a holiday – even buy or rent a yacht. You can afford it. You can afford it even more than you can afford the breakdown that’s in your future.
The stockmarket will take care of itself while you’re away – you’re not that big a player that the US economy will take a nose dive into the dunny while you’re lying on a beach in the Bahamas.
Islam is based on hatred, dominance and subjugation.
Christianity is based on love, forgiveness and goodwill.
Short of any workplace or legislative reforms from this government, they’ll have to raise the interest rate on your mortgage.
Welcome to the lucky country.
I did not know it was that high. Mind you, it will be interpreted not as indicating that (a lot of) these people have problems, but that society is a problem and must bend over even further to ‘affirm’ their delusions.
But there is only so much society can do. No amount of saying “You are such a brave woman!” will address them having been abused as a kid or an undiagnosed mental illness. And in the end, when they are sitting alone in their room at night and there is no one verbally rubbing their belly, and those insecurities bleed unstaunched out from their brain’s sulci and flood their mind – I suspect that is when most of them take that final step.
Unless we get one of those computer things like on demolition man that just rattles off how great you are and how you bring feelings of ‘joy-joy’ to everyone you meet. We could put it on YouTube – but then it would be constantly interrupted by ads.
@ thefrollickingmole
Feb 7, 2024 1:41 PM
Further …. the Sudaneese arent what Sudan best might benefit from …
I worked with one once and got the inside scoop… a mess.
Old Ozzie, please, where do we find the comments?
Dumb plod doesn’t want vigilantism, someone has to do it you useless mong coz you and your mong political masters won’t do a bloody thing. A bit of select vigilantism will make these arseholes pull their head in.
Cardiologist on the Over-Prescribing of Statins for Heart Disease
Towards the end of this the doctor talks about the risks to his professional career because he challenged the prevailing view. He stuck to his guns. Reminds me of what happened to flyingduk, which was much worse. Both cases highlight how an entrenched power base will go to extraordinary lengths to punish those who challenge it. Big kudos to you flyingduk.
Salvatore, Iron Publican
Feb 7, 2024 1:48 PM
The Comments on this article are pretty abysmal
Old Ozzie, please, where do we find the comments?
Salvatore,
Scroll down to the bottom
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13053349/Struggling-dad-eight-kids-Don-Parkes-earns-125K-year-cost-living-crisis.html
@GreyRanga
Feb 7, 2024 1:50 PM
Indeed .. but were you to do so be carefull … keep it clean and get away clean … If you are caught you will be used as a Political Gold mine…
also as to Vigilantism … be carefull of what you wish for …
File that under “N” for “No shit, Sherlock”.
Although there was a degree of scoffing, sneering and ridicule when some here suggested precisely that in the days immediately after the 737 returning to base without it’s full complement of doors.
The lack of evidence of “tearaway” damage on the fuselage (and also the door when it was found) led to the conclusion that it wasn’t really attached in the first place and, given the plane had only been delivered two months previously, it was highly improbable that it was poor maintenance by Alaska Airlines. They simply had no reason to touch the door at that early stage in it’s service life.
Via mole
He “guess[es]”! That’s a solid scientific basis to ban vaping. Not!
He’s rather better qualified to have an opinion worth listening to than the entire House of Lords.
When will these fatheads start to grasp that they are ignorant meddling fools?
Given that I’ve said the latest modification of the Catechism on its face contradicts Scripture and Tradition, how am I equivocating?
That same problem applies to Anglicans, its locus is simply different.
Why just a will won’t cut it for your inheritance strategy
This is why Tony – who has a family trust, a company and property in a unit trust – needs an extra 25 documents to sort control of family assets after he dies.
Peter Townsend Contributor
As important as your will is, it may be only one of a number of documents you need for reliable estate planning.
That’s because many people have their assets held in companies, trusts and super funds.
All those assets are controlled by that person, often along with their spouse, but are not actually owned by them.
If they’re not owned by them, then they can’t be dealt with in the will.
Take Tony for example.
He has a home in joint ownership with his second wife; a discretionary trust that owns his share portfolio; a unit trust that owns a commercial property with a long-term lease; and a proprietary limited company that operates his business and leases the commercial property.
His trusts are just two of the almost one million trusts in Australia, and his companies are part of the over 3.3 million Australian companies registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. That’s an awful lot of assets that can’t be automatically gifted by a will.
Tony’s task is not so much dealing with the underlying assets held in these structures but rather how he goes about transferring control of those structures.
It is facile to think that all that’s needed is to transfer the shares in the company and that effectively solves the problem of transferring control of the company – and if the company is the trustee of a trust, then control of the trust as well. This is fraught with traps.
If more than one person holds the shares jointly, only the first registered shareholder can vote the shares – which could lead to abuse. Better to give each person their own shares.
But is the total number of issued shares able to be divided easily by the number of likely recipients? If not, then a share issue or share split might be necessary.
The will cannot appoint directors.
Directorship is an office, and it is not possible for a company director to simply appoint their spouse or child as a director in their place via their will.
New directors must be appointed in accordance with the constitution of the company, and most often with the approval of the other directors. Even the appointment of a relative as an alternate director ceases once the appointing director dies.
It may be possible to arrange for the appointment of a successor director in advance of a director’s death but that will need careful attention to the company’s constitutional requirements and director or shareholder approval in advance.
Even those arrangements carry risks such as if the successor director were to later be legally disqualified from holding company directorship.
And what if the other directors were to try to undo the successor director arrangements before the successor could take office?
Control of a trust also needs careful consideration.
If the trustee is an individual, trust assets will need to be transferred to a new trustee which in some states and in some circumstances can have major stamp duty issues.
It’s better to arrange a new corporate trustee now so that all that needs to happen on the death of a director/shareholder is the transfer of shares and appointment of new directors – neither step attracting duty in most cases.
Most discretionary (family) trusts have an office called “appointor” or some such.
This person can remove the trustee at any time and is really the “power behind the throne”. If the wrong person became the appointor, they could remove the trustee and undo all the planning related to the trustee.
The deceased’s ability to nominate their successor to that role depends on the terms of the trust deed, which should be checked and, if necessary, amended to achieve the right outcome at the right time.
It is possible to tailor company constitutions and trust deeds to ensure that the deceased’s wishes are met in respect of who is taking control of those structures and on what terms.
This is particularly important where there is a blended family and the deceased wants to ensure that their second spouse is benefited while protecting the inheritance of their children from the first marriage.
In Tony’s case? Twenty-five additional documents are needed to ensure that control of the structures can be transferred in the desired manner and to set in stone how that transfer will occur.
Snuggies gunna smug…
https://twitter.com/CISOZ/status/1754992598991909314
She does bring up zoning and government costs, which is good.
It isn’t. Even so, what reception would an ‘art work’ have received called ‘Piss Christ’ in 13th century England? What should it rightly receive now?
By not accepting the authoritative teaching of your church.
Not at all, as Anglicanism doesn’t have an infallible human authority to which the obedience of religious assent or external conformity is a binding requirement.
Parliament question time — FMD. Old union hack after old union hack, who represent next to no-one, raising the finger to middle Australia as they increase taxes and excise in the middle of the cost-of-living crisis they created.
And, with the media’s help, they pretend they’re delivering “tax relief”.
There’s virtually no-one– least of all the media — the public can rely on to tell them the truth in this avalanche of lies and propaganda.
thefrollickingmole
Feb 7, 2024 2:07 PM
Snuggies gunna smug…
https://twitter.com/CISOZ/status/1754992598991909314
She does bring up zoning and government costs, which is good.
thefrollickingmole,
going further she further sums it up in 4 page paper on cis.org.au
Housing becoming a pipe dream for young Australians
Housing affordability remains one of Australia’s clearest — and most frequently cited — examples of intergenerational inequality.
Over the past 20 years, home ownership has fallen from 70%to 66%, and for young generation the uphill struggle to break into the housing market has only become steeper. Homeownership among 25-29 year olds has fallen from 43.2% to 36.1%.1
For Gen Z the situation is looking even more dire with the hope of owning their own home turning into pipe dream.
What is housing affordability?
Housing affordability refers to the ability of people with an average income to pay for a home. It does not refer to simply the price of housing in an area; which can be
driven up by high incomes but still be affordable relative to those incomes.But the term ‘housing affordability’ is often confused with ‘affordable housing’ which refers to government subsidised housing for low-income earners.
THE INTERGENERATIONAL STRUGGLE
When Boomers were in their prime home-buying years in the early 1980s, it took a little over 2 years to save for a 20% deposit on a median priced home.
When Gen X entered the market in the 1990s it took just under 3 years.
Now for a millennial household it takes over 5.5 years to save for a deposit.
A household earning the median income in Australia can now afford just 13% of homes sold across the country — and that percentage is likely even smaller in our major cities.
The ratio of median house prices to incomes has roughly doubled
from 1989 to 2023.
In 1989 it peaked at five times the amount but was less than four for most of the 1980s. By January 2023 it was 7.9 times, having peaked at 9 times during the pandemic housing boom.
So, it’s no surprise young people are struggling to purchase their first homes and the largest decline in homeownership is among those aged 25–44.5
What about taxconcessions?
Negative gearing and capital gain discounts for investors can feel like salt in the wound to young people unable to afford even a first home.
However, these tax concessions can only be credited with increasing housing prices by 1-4%.
Further they help reduce rents for those same young people struggling to save for that first home deposit.
4 Pages of Excellent Points
Hamas’s useful idiots misunderstand imperialist history
Victimhood in Indigenous Australia – The Jacinta Price Interview
In this enthralling episode of Liberalism in Question, host Rob Forsyth engages in a deep dialogue about Indigenous affairs in Australia with influential Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
Distinguished as one of Australia’s most notable figures in 2023, Price imparts a fresh perspective on her experiences and shares her critical views on the prevailing policies affecting Indigenous Australians.
Through this riveting conversation, Price unearths the damaging effects of the ‘groupthink’ mentality and the policy of self-determination that has not met its promised outcomes over the past fifty years.
She further discusses the debilitating narrative that portrays Aboriginal Australians as victims and demythologizes beliefs surrounding colonialism and modernization.
This conversation serves as an open revelation on the realities of Indigenous Australians and a call for a liberal visionary approach for their future.
In delving profounder into these intricacies, Price presents a confounding analysis of socio-cultural allusions and stereotypes prevalent in the Indigenous community.
From the Indigenous feminist movement to violence in remote communities and the intersections of traditional culture with modern norms – this expansive discussion scrutinizes dominant narratives and accentuates the need for honest recognition of traditional society’s strengths and vulnerabilities.
Furthermore, the dialogue hones in on the individual complexities within the Indigenous community, shifting focus from race-based policies to ones centered around need and personal specifics.
The worthy culmination of this spirited chat lies in a heartfelt sharing of Price’s Grandfather’s life story – a man who defied societal norms and inspired resilience in his lineage.
This episode guarantees to be a deep contemplation of the past, a critique of the present, and an optimistic projection for Australia’s future from an Indigenous viewpoint.
It is a must-listen for all interested in gaining a deeper understanding of Indigenous affairs in Australia.
Watch here or listen here. – 34 mins 33 secs
Thanks Old Ozzie. 🙂
Your initial link was to the story at Channel Nine, & did not appear to have a comments section.
#illridewithyou
… in a stolen Hyundai after you’ve stabbed the owner to death.
These articles are not entirely honest, Tesla continues to dominate sales. The Tesla model Y was the best selling car in the world last year.
I am going throw a spanner into the anti-EV sentiment.
As a short range daily driver (up to around 50k/day) Tesla is years ahead of the competition and far superior to petrol cars.
How do I know? I bought a performance Tesla.
pros: quiet, smooth, monstrous instant torque that outperforms your typical supercar. It’s a far better driving experience then any performance petrol car and I have owned quite a few.
The car has features that petrol cars should have had years ago, like full remote control. You can turn on the aircond while having lunch and the car will be cool when you get back to it. Sentry mode records everything around the car continuously. Pin to drive means the only way to steal it is to pick it up and put it on a flat bed. No key, phone is the key, car opens on approach and locks when you walk away. Tesla issues over the air software updates every few weeks with frequent feature updates. Car notifies you of any issues via the app when you are away from it. Car parks itself, which is priceless as the wife screams in panic every time it does this trick.
The car is so quiet you can actually listen to music. The thing out accelerates most super cars, yet remains totally docile. With regen braking I can do my daily drive without even using the brakes on most days, so they last many time longer. Maintenance is minimal unlike the big ass Deutsche SUVs which after about 4 years becomes a significant expense relative to the cars value. The car is basically a powerful computer with wheels, the software is first class. Tesla have engineered the car from the ground up to squeeze every bit of efficiency out of the battery.
We were spending about $200/fortnight on fuel for a gas guzzling german SUV and now spend $70/mnth on electricity. Insurance is a bit higher. Maintenance is minimal, I doubt we will even have to change the brake pads while we own the car.
Tesla has its own charging network. The app can plan trips and includes charger stops, tells you how long you need to stop to get to the next charger etc. so there is no range anxiety. When I tried charging a polestar, 3 different charging stations had either no chargers working or the charger wouldn’t connect to the required app. Not having a charging network is a huge problem for ICE car manufacturers trying to make EVs. Android is a shit OS for cars.
So these articles are correct in that car manufacturers simply cant compete with Tesla. They are building normal cars with electric motors and an Android tablet attached. When you compare that with same brand petrol car there is no benefit. However when you compare a petrol car with a Tesla there are numerous benefits.
The other problem for ICE car manufacturers is the dealerships make a lot of their money from maintenance, which would mostly disappear.
cons: the performance Model Y Tesla is not a sport car. You would have to spend $300-$500k+ to get anywhere near the acceleration in a petrol car. It’s also not a luxury car in the same league likes as european marques. Its not a GT.
The car makes sense as a daily driver if and only if you have a home charger which we do. If you can’t have a home charger then EVs are just a pain in the ass and expensive to charge.
A couple of years ago I would have said they will pry my ICE car from my cold dead fingers, but after driving a performance Tesla I came to the conclusion the future has arrived.
Please see another solicitor.
I cannot simply ignore the previous consistent teaching of the Church.
Really, so what purposes do the synods, etc. have when determining matters of doctrine, discipline or practice at the very least of those which your diocese is a part?
@dover0beach
Feb 7, 2024 2:17 PM
Wow that thing from SA … well we all knew it was coming … Mebbe Biden can consult the Chancellor of Germany Francoi Mitterand as to which way his mouth tilts and hence which side the saliva dribbles…
Any ways … AFAIK Islam does not permit a separation of “Church” and State … it is One Authority …
PS
Having a heap of documents doesn’t guarantee smooth sailing.
This is easier to understand than that AFR article.
https://www.bartier.com.au/insights/articles/appointor-of-a-family-trust-risks-and-tips-to-manage-them
Zipster
I agree, bar the risk of combustion (external garage preferably) they are absolutely the perfect car for those doing under 200km a day.
As a short range daily driver (up to around 50k/day) Tesla is years ahead of the competition and far superior to petrol cars.
Sister has one (older model) and apart from interior fittings dad calls “1980s Magna” quality she loves it to death.
That story about Mark Latham and Rowan Dean on Facebook looks fake.
I would give this gibbering idiot a directorship of anything.
“Hey!
Can I hold every single office under a trust and a corporation but also appoint other directors and trustees and expect no possible legal repercussions ever, even malicious or unfounded claims?”
*Sure, just pile up enough paperwork*
Elon Musk Helps Gina Carano Sue Disney For Firing Her After Internet Smear Campaign
@dover0beach
Feb 7, 2024 2:17 PM
Sorry Mate but i am pulling this out of my nether regions .
Apparently Iran has some kinda Spiritual Authority that oversees a lesser Authority but a more day to day Administrative one … it isnt a separation (but there kinda is) .. because Administration takes some “doing stuff” but the Ayatollah can step in if Allah might not like what is going on ..
Forgive me my sources were vague also …
The electric vehicles farce has reached a shambolic new low
Dr. John Campbell with Dr. Peter McCullough and Nicolas Hulscher (paper authors)
Myocarditis paper
Europe’s Farmer Protests are spreading; From France to Berlin, Governments Scramble To End Chaos
Synods should be taken very seriously but they have erred when measured against both scripture and tradition.
That’s the nub of the problem Lewis raised.
Hairy was fantasising about having a choice between Liz Storer and Esther Krackow. As red-blooded men tend to do.
I’d lengthen that list (it’s a good start) as there are plenty of nice ladies – but I couldn’t in all fairness take more than three per week.
I would be wary of any use of an instrument that deals with equity that is “set in stone”.
The supervisory role of the NSW AG and probate division of the SC can’t be understated.
Then there are issues of improperly “appointed” directors (shadow directors) actually exercising their duties in good faith. I’d err on the side of the court validating acts that were made in good faith. Dealings in land are a possibility here. A private sale to sell land above market rates is agreed to and a caveat is made.
“I would not…”
*GerMan Chansselor Frank Mitterrand*
You’re trying too hard, Berd.
Katie Hopkins: The news you should have heard. (Aside from the King has cancer)
is the mushroom lady still free?
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/health/six-kids-hospitalised-after-ingesting-unknown-substance-c-13501823
Hairy was fantasising about having a choice between Van Badham and Clementine Ford. As red-blooded men tend to do.
Fixed it for you.
Why not both!
Well, sure, but what do you do when your own diocese ordains women, for instance, not merely a diocese somewhere else?
Peter Whittle: Our Country & Culture Are Struggling to Survive
Indolent, would it be possible for you to provide a brief, one sentence precis of the links you post here?
What was the news we should have heard? (In one sentence.)
Thanks to johanna for mentioning the Wodehouse book Divots on Gutenberg. And its spiritual attitudes to Golf:
Further .. really good principled coppers in the VicPlod have been chucking it in droves over the Coof disaster . … because of this …
I would give them a pass if they said *NO* at the time (like I did), rather than slink away afterwards …
Helen Davidson (nmrn)
If you attempt to walk out with some of the exhibits, count on 5 years. 🙂
I couldn’t care for this vermin……
reckon that would be survivable …perhaps not so confrontationaly “heat seeking” as that .. but i was talking to a Christian Lady only yesterday who was in Kabul …
I am up for it … prefer Vietnam .. mind you ?
Good luck, last time I was in Kabul I wore body armour and carried a Steyr and 180 rounds.
There would be three options, I think: acquiesce, protest (declaring astatus confessionis) or leave.
Yesterday at golf the chap from the couple in front of us made a point of coming back, after we had played a couple of holes, to explain that he had two months to live and he hoped we would understand if they were slower in playing.
Way to ruin a golf round.
Fortunately he spoke with my playing partner, a much nicer and more tactful person than me. Given he wasn’t that frail – a bit shaky, and his shots had been lacking a little distance and direction – but otherwise ok, I think I might have commented on his making the last great adventure and wishing him well and a pain free journey.
We didn’t make any move to play through.
So, this morning I read the editorial attached to the newsletter I receive from the UK Tablet, where it discussed the wearing of mourning jewellery and the existence of “death cafes” in the UK. I wonder if any similar establishments exist here; they might be of benefit to such as the not long for this world player from yesterday.
Also in the Tablet, the newsletter highlights an article on the Pope’s ruling on blessing of same sex couples. It seems to emphasise that the Church’s teachings have not changed, there must be “special circumstances” and it must be a couple, not individuals, and that these conditions mean it is ok.
I only get the newsletter, not the whole magazine – it’s weekly, full of content, and fairly exie. I did think P might be a subscriber, but as I’ve not seen any posts of hers quoting it, so probably not.
Heard Allan Fels singing for his ACTU supper at the NPC on the ALPBC. He is truly the Harold Scruby of the bureaucratic parasitic class.
Mmmyes.
I took the article citing 25 documents to deal with an estate of people with various trusts with a tbs of David’s Kosher salt.
Sounds like creating unnecessary complexity for the sole purpose of fee-fattening. And multiple documents opens up the potential for ambiguity, which ambulance chasers love.
Yes, you do need to address any trust assets (for most people this means superannuation) but it doesn’t require 125 kgs of paperwork.
Given the judicial penchant for overturning wills in favour of spurious adult dependancy claims, I suspect that gifting excess chunks to the preferred recipients prior to departure could be an option.
Maybe gift tax implications, but it still may be a better option than bequeathing them five years of legal angst.
Oh, right.
There is no gift tax.
Maybe I just told people that to stop them asking.
The Sudaneese are not what we need.
Behavioural traits in animals have a degree of inheritability – any dog or horse breeder knows this. It is also likely true in humans – it makes sense on first principles. Whatever behavioural/cultural traits were ‘successful’ in the parents would be beneficial if replicated in their offspring.
What this means for us regarding our sudanese immigrants is (if I may mix my metaphors), ‘import somalis, get somalia’.
There is a difference between a “matter of fact” approach to terminal illness and a “stop the world I’m dying” attitude.
We have a friend who has MND and is incredibly blunt about the future.
This is confronting, but also a relief because you know they are in control and have things sorted.
They never leave the trough.
They just get squeezed out of their old position and find a new one down the line.
Top Ender:
Shorter version of your 1223 post By NATASHA BITA:
I am going throw a spanner into the anti-EV sentiment.
As a short range daily driver (up to around 50k/day) Tesla is years ahead of the competition and far superior to petrol cars.
How do I know? I bought a performance Tesla.
pros: quiet, smooth, monstrous instant torque that outperforms your typical supercar. It’s a far better driving experience then any performance petrol car and I have owned quite a few.
Well done Zippster – at least you put your money where your mouth is.
Our household cannot agree with you. I should really get the husband to write this post, but he is currently out on the tractor, and, in any case, is not a writer. Prefers to argue his case in person. But I know, basically, what he would say, and so I will.
We test drove a Tesla (I think it was not quite top of the range – but pretty close). We were both impressed with the incredibly comfortable seats – probably the best on the market. Also both – especially husband – impressed with the astonishing performance. So what was not to like?
Husband is a car “nut”. For many years we owned an automotive head franchise business & he has owned a huge amount of cars in our lifetime, as well as having raced cars (sedans and open wheelers) when he was young & silly. So, although you can argue he will be prejudiced by his lifetime with petrol motor vehicles, he is still an excellent judge of a motor vehicle and its safety & performance.
His problems with the Tesla? To start with, he was perturbed with the computer screen in the line of vision. In past years you couldn’t get a car passed registration with a sizeable chip in the windscreen & now they allow full screens (as well as mounted phones incidently) on the windscreen. For him, there were too many controls that the car took from the driver. At the end of the day, he is a driver, not a “motorist”. And I guess that is the story for him.
I know he has other objections – such as the massive price eventually of replacement batteries. The question of charging of the batteries is still a bone of contention. We ourselves have ample parking at both the farm (of course) & garaged parking in Sydney. But many of our neighbours (often with multiple cars with teens etc) park excess cars in the street (amazing increase in the last few years) & we have no idea how these will be charged, if electric.
We have toyed with the idea of a hybrid – only because the fuel situation could deteriorate at any time, given the crazy state of international trade routes. We could probably always charge an electric car, even with power interruptions, because we have a large solar system on the farm. But we still are not convinced.
Your Public Service working for you – not!
A scathing Auditor-General’s report has confirmed what many travellers have long believed – the Australian Passport Office is slow and inefficient, and complaining doesn’t help.
The report reveals nearly a quarter of the 3.1 million Australian passports issued last financial year took more than six weeks to process, and the office’s productivity in 2022-23 was 56 per cent down on pre-pandemic levels.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade-run office managed to process just 61 per cent of passports within its own ten day target, and only 91 per cent of priority applications – which cost $252 each – were completed within its two day target.
And the Auditor-General’s office said the targets themselves were misleading, because the performance measure “does not capture the period from application lodgement through to the receipt of the passport by the applicant”.
“DFAT has not been efficiently delivering passport services,” the audit found.
“While the department has time frame targets for processing applications, those targets are not customer focused and are not being consistently met.
“There are no resource efficiency targets; the average cost to produce a passport has increased more than the increase in the price of labour; and staff efficiency, which was improving up until the COVID-19 pandemic, has deteriorated since the international border was reopened.”
The audit found the Passport Office had no centralised means of recording and managing complaints, and priority processing fees were rarely refunded when urgent passports were delivered late.
Oz
You have heard of Elbow’s 33 cent luxury tax on hybrids?
…..trying to force everyone to be full tard EV exclusive.
End Of The American Dream
Did the EPA Cover Up East Palestine Toxins to Help Biden?
Palestinian Writer: Hamas Invested All Its Resources In A Hopeless War Against Israel And Brought Destruction Upon Gaza; The International Community And Arab World Must Act To Eliminate The Palestinian Organizations And Their Activity
That story about Mark Latham and Rowan Dean on Facebook looks fake.
What story is that?
It was the other way around.
A bunch of local traders has these triangle things they couldn’t shift when one of had a bright idea.
In Qld we did the same thing with the Big Pineapple. Just give it another 1900 years and there will be museum exhibits and speculation on how did they built it?
Moderna Scientists Warn mRNA Vaccines Carry Toxicity Risks
The U.N.’s Long History of Failure
Believe it or not
Biden Admin Classifies Martha’s Vineyard, Elite Locales As ‘Low-Income’ To Push EV Charger Subsidies
I watched a two-part documentary by David Attenborough on the weekend focussing on the role colour display and colour perception plays in nature.
A couple of things stood out as especially interesting. First is the zebra stripe thing. I already appreciate it is not camouflage – black and white stripes on a green background – but a way of making it confusing for predators when they run in all directions in alarm. What I was surprised by is that it apparently also confuses insects like flies, which plague other animals but leave zebras relatively unmolested.
Second was about tigers. I grew up being told that their stripes were also camouflage, but it always seemed odd because the orange bits stand out so much that you can always see a tiger stalking its prey. Apparently it is because most mammals lack colour vision in the red range so to the its prey (and to itself) the tiger appears green (with black stripes). They conducted a demonstration where they removed the part of the spectrum tigers and their prey are blind to and then showed the tiger lying in the grass, and damn all if it was not virtually invisible. If you know there is one there you can finally pick out the shape by the stripes because they do not mesh perfectly with the background. But if you did not know then you on a countdown to being tiger shite.
Also explains why so many mammals in the wild are brownish – to their prey and predators they are well hidden.
A cancer.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-b-1-lancer-middle-east-strikes/
A 15 hour flight of a B1 Lancer to bomb a few towel heads. That’s just showing off.
“Where’s the Jews?”
Is it fair dinkum that NSW Plod did not even ask for a copy of the original video, instead relying on downloads from Youtube & the like – (social media uploads aren’t kind to audio.)
Can find only gossip, does anybody know if this is true?
Islam cannot be joined with anything because everything which is not islam is haram, even Mars.
Pretty much the positions available to Catholics. On the point of CP, I’m taking the view given the consistent teaching of Scripture and Tradition, and given the equivocal character of the Catechism on the question of CP, that further clarification and explanation of what is being asserted and denied with respect to Scripture and Tradition on CP is needed. For instance,
What ‘new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions’? Is this new understanding itself consistent with Scripture and Tradition? And what if those ‘new systems of detention’, which the third para of 2267 depends neither adequately protects either citizens or inmates of the prison?
Joined? Who is going to join Islam?
If lex orandi lex credendi applies, you’ll likely find that in future the teaching will change as well.
It is a scam.
I posted a warning here several weeks ago.They use different celebs but almost similar texts. I wonder if Latham knows that he is being used to exploit gullible Aussies.
Old Ozzie:
Not only President Biden, but ALL the living Presidents as well.
Surely they have thought this through?
Obama and Biden are a shoo in for their deliberate mishandling of the Border Crisis.
Turtlehead
This is from the genius who makes comments about storing up on iodine because he fears rural Queensland is a red dot on a nuclear map, imagines scenarios in which the Chinese military hires commercial airlines to launch an invasion through Melbourne Airport, suggests that it would be a good idea to shoot 1000 people in the head as a warning to others, accuses people of lying when your own words are quoted back to you, believes that an injun stole your petrol without any proof, makes ridiculous claims about owning gold and placing big political wagers, and makes irrational forecasts, a la Faulty, about August 2024 being a bad month for the world. That’s just a tiny sampling as there’s more, much more. Quote anything I’ve said that comes close to this level of insanity.
Go!
I’m crazy because you start off by making dumb comments directed to other people’s posts, and then after a day, you respond to what I said, thereby prolonging arguments? I bet the blog owners loves this. You’re doing this all the time, so it’s not an isolated incident. I can’t think of anything that would cause someone to act in that way other than the simple desire to carry on a stoush in the hopes that someone else, perhaps the limey crook or the bush pig, would join in. It’s not impossible that you’re trying to play this game and for this purpose, in my opinion. I think you’re incredibly unethical. If you are unable to respond within a fair timeframe, then get over it because time has passed.
Should I? It still remains that you are a mental failure with nothing worthwhile to contribute, even if you hide behind the bush pig’s apron strings. You should grab a few of your friends and go piss off to Faulty’s blog. Since you don’t contribute anything, nobody would miss you. Not even the condescending rise doesn’t improve your blog appearance to say nothing about that you resemble a turtle. Moreover, the ticking has been tainted by you and a few others. Even that clown, the pretend owner pub owner, you’ve taught him how to do it. But let me remind you that while we are aware of your activities, nothing changes. You still sound stupid even with the massive self ticking. Nothing will change that.
If that doesn’t work, I assume you’ll threaten to sue the current blog owner, just like you did the previous one, because you feel hurt and offended?
You’re such a feral swine. If you need to reply, see if you can make it back by 30th March 2025 or failing that have the mold ridden bush pig call me a dago or something relevant like that.
thefrollickingmole
Did you notice that the immigrant population was only mentioned once, in terms of ‘doing the jobs no one else will do?’
No mention of welfare being paid out for that sector of the population. Nor for their proportion of the total welfare budget.
Hamas just got the KSA to issue a statement that there can be no normalization without a Palestinian state, but sure, some Palestinian writer we’ve never heard off said something.
It is ridiculous that anyone ever starts from the assumption that a department is working well and then looks to see where it might be failing, then adding these up as the list of issues.
They should start from the assumption that a department is inefficient, dysfunctional, filled with people who just want to take it easy and avoid work, infested by petty damaged pedants whose only joy is taking out their frustrations on the public, and with scheming managers plotting their intrigues to gather more power to themselves with blinkered vision that sees no further than their department and the people they need to suck up to.
Don’t go in to review a department and ask “Are there inefficiencies?” Go in assuming everything is. I would say 90% of the time you will be right. Don’t wonder if someone is lying to you. Look for what they are lying about and why. Don’t wonder if the people are busy. Look for all the ways they skive off already.
Bureaucracy always assumes the worst of the private sector and private citizens.
Dover
There were many attempts in the 90s, especially by the Catholic Church and the Anglicans towards reaching some sort of settlement with the muzzos. I recall reading about them in the WSJ and the Economist. Nothing came out of these talk fests. The problem that I recall was that unlike Christianity there’s no real head of the muzzos. It’s much more decentralized and far too many ” self proclaimed “leaders”
On the issue of CP, I agree you with you, DB.
I’m just not certain that you, as a Catholic, have the right to openly dissent or express reservations about the ordinary magisterium’s authoritative teaching on faith and morals*. Perhaps reservations could be expressed on the way to assent?
That’s for you to work through though, it’s not a burden I carry.
*”The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I approved 25 June last and the publication of which I today order by virtue of my Apostolic Authority, is a statement of the Church’s faith and of Catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition and the Church’s Magisterium. I declare it to be a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion and a sure norm for teaching the faith.”
—?John Paul II, Fidei depositum, part IV
And, for some reason, it had to be done by lunchtime. As if post-prandial executions have a lower impact.
I think he’s got this one arse about.
The expression is “Shoot one, educate a thousand”.
Not the other way around.
Well done sarcasm but I have my doubts the intended targets will get it, Duk.
Feser’s take on this is on the money: The problems with Fiducia Supplicans can be summed up in three words: incoherence, abuse, and implicature. Let’s consider each in turn.
RTWT.
I missed that part. I can drag up the quote he signed onto.
The pre-lunch has merit though as folks on an empty stomach are more awake especially if lunch is a carb fest.
Way too generous, MT.
Shorter Feser:
This pope is a slippery character.