The Journal
Current Affairs
-
Worst Fires in Australian History
Not the biggest, but the deadliest. So far 108 people reported dead. This figure is likely to increase because some bodies are still in burnt homes and vehicles. 750 homes destroyed. Whole communities have disappeared into…
-
Tamil Tigers Almost Defeated
I don’t know what I think about this. The Tamils have not been treated well by the majority Sinhalese. Tamils are in the majority in the north of Sri Lanka. I can understand their wanting a…
-
Villainous Capitalism to Blame – Not
Greedy or stupid policiticans, probably… Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gets one thing right in his 7,000 word reiteration of the destructive Whitlam era philosophy that big government, big spending and high taxes are good. The thing he…
-
And Now Solis
After Geithner, Daschle, Richardson, Killefer, et al, further consideration of Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis has been postponed because her husband ‘only yesterday paid off tax liens, some of which had been pending for up to…
-
A Better Package
Interesting to compare New Zealand’s stimulus package with those proposed in Australia and the US. New Zealand has a conservative government made up mostly of people who have actually run things before, including in many cases their…
-
Drought Fears – Walk Across The Murray
There’s always something to be scared about. But in the history of things to be scared about, this has to be at the very bottom of the list. The Murray is Australia’s largest and longest river.…
-
Battle of the Bagpipes
A brave busker versus the Evil Dunedin Council of Doom (EDCOD, P.O. Box 666, Dunedin Central). Ha ha. I learned the pipes as a teenager, and love pipe music. But I am also a business owner.…
-
Obama Charges World Into Debt
I was in the airport in Auckland the other day and saw this headline. Well, it didn’t actually say that. The magazine was upside down, and that’s what it looked like. It actually read ‘Obama Changes…
-
90,000 Sex Offenders Booted Off MySpace
Given the well documented use of the internet by sexual predators, I don’t know whether to be alarmed that so many registered sex offenders were users of just one of many social networking sites, or delighted…
-
Daschle Out
This is a good thing, not just for Obama’s administration, but for the credibility of the US overseas. Daschle may be talented, but his appointment would not have passed the ‘smell test’. Tax issues with Killefer,…
-
Britney Spears Sued by Former Manager
Poor Britney. She has made some very foolish choices. But it seems to me she is basically a decent person, who like most decent people, assumes everyone else will do the right thing. She does not seem to have…
-
We’d Be the Heroes. Yes, Sure
Via Kathy Shaidle, this report from the Catholic Register. ‘In elementary school, teachers tried to deprogram students of any anti-Jewish sentiment we might have heard at home. In high school history class, we watched footage of…
-
Bad for Phelps, Bad for Swimming
If it is true that Michael Phelps was smoking dope at a party, then he is a very silly boy. The four year ban for drug taking means that he would not be able to compete in…
-
Octuplets and the Cost of Raising Children
I came across this self-righteous article yesterday. Apparently the mother of the octuplets born in California last week, had once filed for bankruptcy, and already has six children. According to the report this ‘casts an unflattering…
-
No Wonder the Children are Thugs
A group of Melbourne girls invited a sixteen year old intellectually disabled girl to their home, saying they would be her friend. Then they took her to a nearby park where they beat her up so badly…