02/19/2006 - 02/25/2006

Saturday, February 25, 2006

: "Former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Treasurer Peter Costello's comments that people who come to live in Australia should show loyalty to its values were a vindication of her own views. Ms Hanson said she was "crucified" and called a racist during her political career. "I could foresee what was happening to our country," Ms Hanson told ABC radio.

In a speech last night to the Sydney Institute, the Treasurer said people who wanted to live under Islamic sharia law should move to a country where they would feel "more at ease". He said anyone not prepared to accept Australian values, and who had citizenship of another country, should not remain an Australian citizen. Ms Hanson called on Mr Costello to follow through with his claims.

"If Peter Costello is wanting to be a future prime minister of this country he needs to take a tough stand on this," she said. "He needs to deal with it harshly. "He needs to throw these people out of this country who do not embrace Australia".

: "Prime Minister John Howard has reignited the nuclear energy debate in a wide-ranging interview to mark his 10th anniversary next week as prime minister. Mr Howard said he "had no hang-ups at all" about taking advantage of nuclear energy when it was economically viable. "I can't for the life of me understand why (Opposition Leader Kim) Beazley has categorically ruled it out," he said.

Mr Howard said he did not think there was any argument that continuing to use fossil fuels and making them cleaner was more in Australia's long-term interest than renewable or nuclear energy. "That doesn't mean to say you stop the other two, but you can't ignore market forces," he said. "But we also have vast supplies of uranium.

The economics of nuclear energy might change and if it does, well, we'll take advantage of it. But I have no hang-ups at all about nuclear energy."





: "One of New South Wales's most senior detectives has warned Cronulla's rioters they have a week to come forward or face being hunted through the national media.

Strike force Enoggera has already arrested 54 people in connection with the December 11 riot and the reprisals that followed. Enoggera boss Superintendent Ken McKay yesterday revealed he has another 50 in his sights. If they do not give themselves up in the next seven to 10 days, 25 of those will find their faces splashed across the national media.

The blunt warning came after police announced 10 more arrests - seven yesterday in dawn raids across southwestern Sydney. These seven people of Middle Eastern appearance, aged 19 to 23, allegedly pelted police and ambulance officers with rocks and projectiles at Hashem's car park in Brighton-le-Sands on the night of December 11. Supt McKay vowed those whose pictures will be released will be identified and arrested.

" [The Muslims will get off with a slap on the wrist, of course]






: "A Sydney magistrate yesterday lashed out at police inaction over a group of alleged rioting ringleaders. A group of men were yesterday charged almost three months after they allegedly pelted police with projectiles and verbally abused the officers called in to quell unrest at Brighton-Le-Sands on the night of December 11. As one of those arrested, Ahmad El-Ahmad, applied for bail in Sutherland Local Court, magistrate Paul Falzon expressed disbelief why the police arrested the men that night, took their details and then released them.

"Wouldn't it be better to stop the civil unrest by putting them in the back of the truck?" Mr Falzon said. "[Police] let them go at the height of what was happening, then 2 1/2 months later you go and arrest them.

" When the prosecution asked him to refuse bail, Mr Falzon said El-Ahmad was unlikely to flee the jurisdiction or commit further offences, and so granted him bail. El-Ahmad will reappear in the same court on April 5."


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What Ivory Tower?

The Ivy League has lost another one. .
Over his time at Harvard, Summers has brought the university back into public light, and tried to make the university more accessible.

Unfortunately, he has made unfortunate comments such as :

He offered three possible explanations, in declining order of importance, for the small number of women in high-level positions in science and engineering. The first was the reluctance or inability of women who have children to work 80-hour weeks.
The second point was that fewer girls than boys have top scores on science and math tests in late high school years.

"I said no one really understands why this is, and it's an area of ferment in social science," Summers said in an interview Saturday. "Research in behavioral genetics is showing that things people previously attributed to socialization weren't" due to socialization after all. This was the point that most angered some of the listeners, several of whom said Summers said that women do not have the same "innate ability" or "natural ability" as men in some fields.

Asked about this, Summers said, "It's possible I made some reference to innate differences. . .

I did say that you have to be careful in attributing things to socialization. . .

That's what we would prefer to believe, but these are things that need to be studied."

Of course, at the bastion of liberal sensibilities that is Harvard, that comment did not go down well, as there's no possibility that a white male could have any purpose in mind other than to degrade, denigrate, and disreard womyn. Right.

And now, the flickering light of sanity that Summers was trying to bring to the ivory towers of the Ivy League is to be extinguished. And Summers isn't completely coy about :

Working closely with all parts of the Harvard community, and especially with our remarkable students, has been one of the great joys of my professional life. However, I have reluctantly concluded that the rifts between me and segments of the Arts and Sciences faculty make it infeasible for me to advance the agenda of renewal that I see as crucial to Harvard's future.

I believe, therefore, that it is best for the University to have new leadership.

Look for the "liberals" now to proclaim that the hens have chased the fox out of their house. Of course, never having been out of the coop, it may be easy to mistake a guard dog for a fox.

: "Sending 200 more Australian troops into Afghanistan was the right thing to do to battle terrorism, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said today. "I think it's the right thing to do. Afghanistan is terror central," Mr Beazley said n Perth today.

"We got involved in Afghanistan after the 9-11 events and we evoked the ANZAS alliance and we sent troops." Prime Minister John Howard yesterday announced deployment of a 200-member Australian Defence Force provincial reconstruction team (PRT) into Oruzgan province in south-central Afghanistan. The announcement came as General John Abizaid, commander of the US Central Command, warned Mr Howard of a rising tempo of violence across southern Afghanistan.

: "Some University of Queensland students aim to put a dampener on moves to set fire to an Australian flag. The university's Liberal Club president Julian Simmonds says he has several buckets of free water available today to anyone who objects to "the madness". Youth Socialist group Resistance has been selling $5 flag-burning kits in the Great Court of the university's St Lucia campus.

"We have seen them around, they have been selling them but no-one has lit up any flags yet," Mr Simmonds said. "We are just trying to show people this isn't the way to go. "So, if someone exercises their free right to burn the flag, we will exercise our free right to throw water around.

" "They haven't been game enough to burn a flag yet, but we will be watching them." The Federal Government, the Opposition and the RSL have denounced Resistance's plan to sell the kits."





: "The [NSW] State Government faces intense pressure to dump a scheme in which hundreds of "displaced" public servants are paid full salary even though they have no job to do and which costs taxpayers more than $17 million a year.

An audit of the Government's finances is expected to heavily criticise the displaced person's list when it is released tomorrow. Almost 300 public servants who have left or been sacked from their jobs are employed by the Premier's Department under the displaced persons list. More public servants feature on similar lists in other departments but the Government has so far refused to reveal how many.

Heavy-hitters who were on the list include: the former RTA chief executive Paul Forward, who spent two months on the list on a $342,000 salary before receiving a payout from the Government; and the former Housing Department chief Terry Barnes, who was sacked last month and was on a salary of more than $290,000. Sue Sinclair, who resigned as Sydney Ferries chief on Friday, is on leave but will go on the unattached list if the Government does not find her a job on her return. She is on a salary of $265,000.

The list, also known as the unattached list, was introduced by the Carr Government in 1996.

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Just a few items that I personally found interesting:



: "It's a face her mother hardly recognises: Leisel Jones, rosy-cheeked with golden, braided hair, staring out from the cover of a glamour magazine.

It marks the 20-year-old Queensland swimmer's transition from precocious talent to confident world beater. "I went and bought it yesterday and showed Mum," the world's dominant female breaststroker said of the magazine. "Mum thought I looked like Paris Hilton.

I would like to look like Paris but I would not want to be like her. While Hilton's never been accused of lacking self-esteem, Jones revealed this month that she battled personal demons. After bursting on to the scene at 15 with a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she failed to fulfil her expectations and grew to hate herself.

But that's finished. About three months before she revealed her battle with low self-esteem, she stripped to a G-string and some electric blue orchids for the February-March edition of Aura magazine. "It was a little bit daunting at first.

I've never done anything like that before but I really enjoyed it," she said."





: A socialist youth organisation wants to sell hundreds of flag burning kits to university students next week ..

to highlight anger at the Federal Government. Resistance says the kits contain an Australian flag, a lighter, a fire lighting cube and Resistance material. They'll be sold during university orientation week for five dollars.

But National President of the RSL, Major General Bill Crews finds the plan highly offensive. He says the Australian flag shouldn't be a vehicle for protest and burning it should be a criminal offence. [The libertarian view is that they are entitled to burn it if they own it]





: "Smokers have just 11 days before being banned from puffing away at train stations.

From March 1, smoking will be banned in the sheltered areas of bus and tram stops as well as railway stations. Public transport ticket inspectors will have the power to fine offending commuters. The new laws, passed by State Parliament last year, will also clamp down on so-called buzz marketing and non-branded tobacco advertising.

Smoking, and the sale of cigarettes, will be banned at underage music and dance events. The new bans will extend to all enclosed workplaces, with the exception of licensed premises. Drinkers can continue to smoke with their beer until July next year.

Other workplace exclusions include sole-operated businesses not frequented by visitors, inside vehicles, prison cells and exercise yards, immigration detention centres and Crown's high-roller rooms."






: "Fallout from this week's heated showdown over abortion continued yesterday after supporters of the new law were pictured celebrating their victory. Victorian Liberal MP Chris Pearce criticised a group of female MPs and senators for sipping champagne soon after Parliament paved the way for RU486's use in Australia.

Senators Lyn Allison, Judith Troeth and Fiona Nash, and Labor MPs Kelly Hoare and Julia Gillard were among those drinking to their success after the conscience vote. Mr Pearce, who backed the Bill, said it was a tasteless gesture. "Pictures of the women sipping champagne was outrageous and over the top," he said yesterday.

"Members and senators had to dig very deep to make decisions on this. That kind of celebratory behaviour is very wrong." With many on both sides of the debate agreeing there are too many abortions in Australia, the Howard Government is to consider a $60 million plan to boost counselling for women with unplanned pregnancies.

Medicare-funded counselling and a 24-hour phone hotline are among initiatives to be examined. But Ms Gillard, who said no offence was intended by the champagne, said counselling should not be restricted to abortion".

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