Pope Benedict XVI attacks

Finally a Western leader with the guts and the ability to fight the war against the Islamist in the most important battle field of all, the battle field of ideas. :

The mustard seed in global strategy

By Spengler

A self-described revolution in world affairs has begun in the heart of one man. He is the Italian journalist and author Magdi Cristiano Allam, whom Pope Benedict XVI baptized during the Easter Vigil at St Peter's. Allam's renunciation of Islam as a religion of violence and his embrace of Christianity denotes the point at which the so-called global "war on terror" becomes a divergence of two irreconcilable modes of life: the Western way of faith supported by reason, against the Muslim world of fatalism and submission.

As Magdi Allam recounted , on his road to conversion the challenge that Pope Benedict XVI offered to Islam in his September 2006 address at Regensburg was "undoubtedly the most extraordinary and important encounter in my decision to convert". Osama bin Laden recently accused Benedict of plotting a new crusade against Islam, and instead finds something far more threatening: faith the size of a mustard seed that can move mountains. Before Benedict's election, I summarized his position as "I have a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it." Now the mustard seed has earned pride of place in global affairs. ....

The Cold War was not won just by military and economic superiority but because we had intellectuals and leaders like Ronald Reagan and John Paul II who fought the war of ideas. Islam is an ideology which deserves no special treatment.

A Real Hero

This is just incredible! I expect his back was sore for several days. Hope he gets a VC:

A ROYAL Marine has told how he threw himself in front of an exploding grenade to save his colleagues - and escaped with just a nose bleed.

Lance Corporal Matt Croucher has been recommended for a Victoria Cross, Britain's The Times newspaper reports.

He and three other soldiers were on patrol in southern Afghanistan when Lance Corporal Croucher hit a tripwire attached to the grenade.

The soldier told The Times: “I thought, I’ve set this bloody thing off and I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect the others. I’m very tight with the three other guys. There have been a few times when they have saved my bacon.

“I knew a grenade like this has a killing circumference of about five metres. So I got down with my back to the grenade and used my body as a shield. It was a case of either having four of us as fatalities or badly wounded, or one.”

While Lance Corporal Croucher was thrown into the air, his backpack took the full force of the blast.

He suffered a nose bleed and the rest of the patrol had minor cuts and bruises.......

Islam is not a race

Our foreign Minister Stephen Smith doesn't like Dutch politician Geert Wilders anti Islam film Fitna. Others like Andrew Bolt, are critical of Smith on freedom of speech grounds but what really annoys me is this part:

"In Australia we believe in the right to freedom of expression but we don't believe in abusing that right to incite racial hatred."

Mr Smith, what race is Islam? Some Muslims seem to think otherwise but people are not born with an Islamic gene. Islam is a religion, a belief system like Christianity, Communism etc. As such it can be attacked and criticized like any other ideology.

To call Islam a race is to condemn Muslims. It means like, skin color or height, it can not be changed, if you are they are born Muslim you must stay Muslim. In a secular society this is unacceptable. We wouldn't expect that sort of restriction on Christians so why do you want to force it on Muslims Mr Smith?

A response to Air Power Australia

I'm still reading reports on the supposed superiority of the F-22 over the F-35. Two names usually pop up Carlo Kopp and Peter Goon from the Air Power Australia website. Below is a response to a recent APA article from defence writer Abraham Gubler who has kindly given me permission to re-post it here. Originally posted in the Fifth Column Bulletin Board, it explains why the F-35 is the jet fighter for Australia.

What’s wrong with the Air Power Australia “NOTAM # 17” of 18 February 2008

Claim 1: F-22A carries twice as many Air-to-Air missiles as the F-35A

Misleading

The F-35A has much more useable volume in its two internal weapon bays compared to the F-22A’s three bays. However the initial configuration for the F-35A only includes capacity to carry four beyond visual range (BVR) range AIM-120 “AMRAAM” missiles compared to six in the F-22A plus two of the within visual range (WVR) AIM-9X “Sidewinder” air to air (ATA) missiles. AMRAAM is the key ATA weapon of western air forces, since its introduction in the early 1990s every missile fired has destroyed its target and no other weapon has been used to shoot down an enemy aircraft. AMRAAMs were used to destroy five MiG-29 fighters during the Kosovo War without any friendly ATA losses. Both the F-35A and the F-22A can carry more weapons externally under the wings but this will compromise their low observability to radar.

The F-35A in its current configuration can only carry four AMRAAMs because each of the two bays only has two attachment/ejection points for weapons. IN a normal multi-role strike configuration these will be used to carry two AMRAAM missiles and two large air to ground weapons. The F-35 Project Office has been investigating capitalising on the large weapon bay volume of the F-35A to provide additional internal weapons carriage for ATA missions. A project is underway to fit the F-35A with the capability to carry eight AMRAAM missiles internally. This capability should be available in the mid to late 2010s.

Further the US has launched the development of AMRAAM’s replacement, the Joint Dual Role Air Dominance Missile (JDRADM) that unlike AMRAAM will be designed from scratch for internal carriage in bays (ie have retractable wings). The F-35A should be able to carry as many as 16 of these weapons while an F-22A will be limited to only eight.

Currently the F-22 can carry 1.5 times more BVR ATA missiles than the F-35A. By the mid to late 2010s the F-35A will carry 1.33 times more BVR ATA missiles than the F-22A and by the 2020s twice as more.

Claim 2: In combat, the F-22A is flown at almost twice the altitude and twice the speed of the F-35A. This increases the range of the F-22A's Air-to-Air missiles by almost 40 percent, increasing lethality, while it doubles the range of guided bombs like the JDAM

Wrong.

While flying a strike mission with laser guided bombs (LGB) or requiring the fighter to locate and identify targets with an optical sensor (missions the F-22A is incapable of performing) the F-35A will fly at altitudes of around 20,000 feet. This is not a design limitation of the aircraft but simply to enable optimum performance of the optical sensors and guidance systems. However when engaging in ATA missions or strike missions with GPS guided bombs (JDAM/SDB) the F-35A will fly at higher altitudes of 40,000-50,000. The F-22A can fly at altitudes of up to 60,000 feet, the F-35A’s maximum altitude has yet to be established. Flight over an altitude of 50,000 feet requires the use of a full pressure suit for the pilot. Routinely operating aircraft at such altitude is a practice the RAAF is not experienced with and would require considerable expenditure in new equipment, medical research and flight practice.

Both the F-35A and F-22A’s most efficient flying speed is a subsonic cruise at about Mach 0.7-0.8, when flying at this speed both aircraft have a similar range of around 1,200 NM. The F-22A can sustain supersonic cruise at a higher speed of Mach 1.7 without applying reheat to the engines. But “supercruising” reduces the F-22A’s range to 840 NM of which only 200 NM can be flown supersonically (640 NM at Mach 0.8 plus 200 NM at Mach 1.7).

However when any fighter is set to launch an ATA missile or to ‘toss’ a bomb they accelerate to the maximum drop speed of the weapon and launcher in order to impart more energy into the weapon to increase its effective range. The F-35A can accelerate to Mach 1.8 when needed to launch weapons, just as the F-22A would. With long range onboard sensors and networked broad area sensors like “Wedgetail” airborne early warning and control (AEWC), “Jindalee” over the horizon (OTH) radar and the future global aircraft tracking “Siberia” Space Based Infra Red System (SBIRS) plenty of warning is provided for rapid acceleration before weapons launch.

Claim 3: The higher speed of the F-22A vs the F-35A allows it to control twice the area, when targets are mobile and time sensitive. In such situations, a single F-22A can do the same work as two F-35As.

Wrong.

The F-22A’s supercruise speed is limited to only 13% of its airborne time in a mission that has 70% of the radius of action of the F-35A. Further the need for rapid response to threats (time sensitive) is diminished in the network centric warfare (NCW) environment with broad area sensors (see above). The short range of the F-22A’s supercruise reach within the context of the ‘launch to landing’ warning of threat aircraft provided by the broad area sensors provides minimal advantage.

Claim 4: F-22A is much more lethal than the F-35A. It is also much more survivable than the F-35A [The much better stealth capability and supersonic cruise capability, and more powerful radar, are the reasons why the F-22A is so much more lethal and survivable.]

Wrong.

The “much better” radar low observability claimed for the F-22A is unsubstantiated and based only on amateur reflectivity studies not taking into account classified information on radar absorbing materials (RAM). Supercuise provides increased survivability only when the aircraft has been detected and tracked by threats a somewhat superfluous requirement considering the stealth, NCW, electronic attack (EA) and aggressive nature of friendly force capability and tactics. Claims that the F-22A has a more powerful radar are based on aperture size and do not take into account the rising importance of software processing with contemporary active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar technology.

The F-35A also has a range of additional lethality factors the F-22A does not have, including: long range air to air infra red search and track (IRST), laser rangefinder/laser designator (LR/LD), distributed aperture sensor (DAS), helmet mounted display (HMD) higher level sensor fusion and a more advanced cockpit interface. It will also have a lower infra-red signature to help counter increasing threat force attempts to use ISRT to bypass radar low observability.

The F-35A can carry many more types of weapons than the F-22A including the longer range AIM-132 “ASRAAM” WVR ATA missile (compared to the F-22A’s AIM-9X) and a much larger and more lethal arsenal of air to ground weapons including JSOW, JASSAM, 2,000lb JDAM, LGBs, NSM (anti-ship) and Brimstone (anti-tank). Further the F-35A benefits from a more sustainable software capability enabling more complex and effective capabilities to be developed and integrated over the lifetime of the weapon system.

Claim 5. F-22A provides around three times more capability than the F-35A, yet costs only around 23% more per unit.

Wrong

The additional capability claim has been disproven above. The claim that the F-22A costs only 23% more per unit is flawed as it assumes the export of the F-22A from the existing USAF production line, something that is prohibited by US law. It also does not take into account the significantly increased through life cost of the F-22A compared to the F-35A.

If the F-22 was to be released for export it would be in a new exportable configuration to preserve certain technology, hardware, software and manufacturing methods the US Government has deemed to be US access only. USAF officers at the 2007 Avalon Airshow publicly stated that to develop an exportable F-22 without the classified technology that the US doesn’t want to export would cost between $1-2 billion. This cost would have to be covered by the customer.

Further the only reason the F-22A is coming of the US production line at its current ‘cheap’ level is because this is an established line at what is known as the ‘sweet spot’ of production efficiency. Production of an export F-22 would have to start from scratch and would not leverage these efficiencies. Since the bulk of an Australian order would not be high 50-100 units much of these efficiencies would not be gained.

In addition all of the expenditure for the F-22 would go overseas to the USA. As a partner in the F-35 project Australian industry is receiving considerable domestic work orders, supposedly to the value of our overall commitment. Money spent in Australia has a range of flow on effects to the Government’s financial position such as a return through taxation, defraying of social security costs through employment growth, etc. In addition establishing domestic defence capability considerably reduces through life expenditure to maintain the capability through its life.

Claim 6. F-22 is currently in production, yet the planned Initial Operational Capability for the F-35A is 2013 and this is at the Block 3 configuration level, with the prospect of further schedule slippages with commensurate increases in cost.

Wrong

The F-22A for the USAF is in production, not an exportable F-22. While this aircraft would leverage much from the existing project and should be considered low risk it would still need to be development and would run all the risks associated with such a development. Further all this risk would be borne solely by Australia as the only customer of the export F-22 rather than shared with the extensive international partnership of the F-35. In addition the F-22A lacks a range of capabilities essential to the Australian requirement. To add them to the aircraft would add risk and cost.

Last edited by Abraham Gubler : 14-03-08 at 03:34 AM.

Female mutilation in Australia

What a contrast to the post below. While western Aussie culture celebrates female sexuality other want to destroy it:

FEARS that Australian-born girls as young as three months are being flown to Africa to undergo barbaric circumcision operations have been reported to the Department of Child Safety. The Sunday Mail has learned that Family Planning Queensland has approached the State Government asking that a process be established to protect the children. The organisation fears that female genital mutilation is on the rise in Queensland with the increased number of African refugees arriving in the state in recent years.

African girls face genital mutilation under the cultural traditions of countries such as Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Mali and Liberia.....

Feminist Bikinis

As a Ralph I certainly agree with this:

FORGET burning bras – today's young self-styled eminists prefer to show their girl power in a skimpy swimsuit.At least they do if they're participants in one of Australia's biggest bikini pageants being held next week on the Gold Coast.

Entrants in the annual Ralph Australian Swimwear Model of the Year contest insist they were not merely sex objects . Serial pageant entrant Ilia Valdez, 20, said far from demeaning and objectifying women, the quests empowered them.

"There are always going to be people out there who say what we do isn't right, and that it's going to be degrading for women and such," said Ms Valdez, a finance manager with a boutique investment firm.....

A Bridge too Far?

Looks like Bering Strait tunnel/bridge proposals are back again:

RUSSIAN-born billionaire Roman Abramovich has bought the world's biggest drill, prompting speculation he wants to tunnel to America.

The Chelsea Football Club's owner has paid $174 million for the boring machine, which will have a 19m diameter, almost a quarter wider than its nearest rival.

There was immediate speculation that the drill would be used to build a tunnel linking Russia and America under the 88km wide Bering Strait.

The tycoon is thought to share outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin's vision of a "WorldLink" tunnel connecting the frozen wastes of Chukotka, the Russian region of which Mr Abramovich is governor, to Alaska.

"It is one of Putin's dream projects and he has already had secret talks with Washington about it," claimed an insider.

"He sees Russia as the hub of the world and wants Europe to transport its goods, as well as his own, across his country to the US."

The idea of building some sort of crossing across the strait has been around since at least the 19th Century. One problem is that its no use building a tunnel unless theres a road or rail on the other side to take the traffic.

Now people like Mark Steyn don't believe Russia will be around much longer anyway, at least not in its current form. Its declining population will see much of it eastern territory break up into Moslem stans or sold to the Chinese. But how about a deal with the Americans? They help finance the crossing and the necessary road/rail network in return for a slice of Siberian territory. The US brought Alaska of the Russians after all.

Rudd to bother the world

Apparently we are going to be an "activist" nation:

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd wants Australia to be an "activist" middle power on the international stage, as he seeks to better integrate domestic and foreign policy for challenges ahead.

On the eve of his first major overseas tour, Mr Rudd has put forward a foreign policy agenda designed to help Australia deal more effectively with the uncertain global financial outlook, as well as problems such as climate change and terrorism.

The key priority of his 18-day tour of the US, Europe and China will be to engage political and financial leaders about the global credit crunch, looking at ways to cushion the impact on the domestic economy while prosecuting Australia's case as a stable and well-regulated financial market..

I'm concerned were this will lead us. What new treaties and agreements will we be signing on to? We will need to do more then attend gabfests so how much will this cost us?

Arm Ripping

Has some journo completely misunderstood what was said or has Prof Babbage been smoking the funny tobacco?

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) of the future may need advanced capabilities to allow it to "rip the arm off" any threatening Asian power, a new paper says.

That could include up to 400 advanced combat aircraft, 30 submarines, ballistic missile defence and an ability to conduct cyber-attack.

Study author Professor Ross Babbage said the primary challenge for the upcoming Defence White Paper was to shape Australia's security approach to around the year 2050.....

Theres no way we could afford or man so many jets and ships. Besides, we are part of the American alliance so that if things got that bad the Great Super Power can come to our aid. Does Babbage think the alliance will collapse?

Frankly, even if it did and we found ourselves alone in a hostile world we still wouldn't go for that level of military build up. We would go for a cheaper alternative, nukes.

Wowsers Again 2

Here is a Labor remedy to the supposed problem of binge drinking, a beer tax. So its OK for the chardonnay socialists to drink their wine but beer, the traditional working mans drink, has to have an extra tax. Remember this is coming from a Labor government. Theres some room in the garage so I think I'll invest in one of these.

Wowsers Again

This is just wowser crap, a way to secure the support of Sen. Fields. We are treating adults like children, you are SUPPOSED to do stupid things when you young , its the way we learn. Besides does anyone really think 18 year olds don't know over drinking its bad for you?

Its just anti- Australian and the f*&^% useless Liberals are going along with it!

However I can't see it happen. Imagine buying a beer or wine bottle with a picture of a dead liver on it. Somehow I don't think this will get anywhere.

Organs for a fee

There seems an obvious solution to the problems identified by the article below , allow people to sell their organs on their death. I would think if people could add several extra thousand dollars to their estate this way many will do so.

THE nation's organ donation system is in unprecedented crisis as the transplant rate remains one of the worst in the world - and falling.

And experts fear the situation could worsen and rates plummet even further with the closure of one of the nation's leading organ donation groups.

The Daily Telegraph reveals Australians Donate, the driving force in raising awareness since 1998, has been axed.

Despite nearly 5.5 million registered organ donors in Australia, there are almost 1800 Australians waiting for a transplant.....

Mikhail Gorbachev a Christian

This makes me wonder how many other Christians have had to pretend to be secular atheists, and not just in Communist countries either.

Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Last Updated: 3:04am GMT 19/03/2008

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.

Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian newspaper."

St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added.

Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians.

In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a "closet believer"......

Premier promises "Quantum Leap" in transport

Our Premier announced yesterday a new public transport system:

NSW Premier Morris Iemma today revealed plans for a $12 billion European-style metro line from the CBD to the city's north-west, which will result in travel times from Rouse Hill to Wynyard being reduced by as much as 45 minutes.

Mr Iemma said the single-deck metros would run every four to five minutes and would link to interchanges with existing CityRail and bus routes.

There would be 17 stops between the CBD, under Victoria Road and to Rouse Hill.

It is likely the trains will be driverless and will be underground for about 32 kilometres and above ground for five kilometres....

Call me a cynic and sceptic if you like but I'll believe it when I see it. If it ever come about it will be redundant anyway as we will have Star Trek transporters by then. Not that will stop Iemma the Incompetent re-announcing the plan every few months.

Hideous dancing

Meryl Tankard from the Sydney Dance Company doesn't like "So you think you can Dance"
she thinks its hideous:

NETWORK Ten's hit reality dance program has been dismissed as "hideous" by one of Australia's most respected choreographers.

Former Australian Dance Theatre director Meryl Tankard says the performances on So You Think You Can Dance Australia are so awful they shouldn't even be considered dance.

"It's like a fast-food version of dance,'' she said today.

Although conceding the popular show had increased public awareness of the artform, Tankard urged people to go to the theatre if they wanted to see real dance.

How much government grants did you get this year Meryl? At least the TV show doesn't have to bludge money of tax payers. Silly elitist.

Dumb idea of the day

Saw this in the morning paper:

SYDNEY'S traffic and public transport woes are so serious and journeys so long that unions want commuting time included in the official work day.

They say new technology allows employees to clock on while in transit.

The secretary of Unions NSW, John Robertson, says many employees who commute from the Central Coast, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains could save themselves the equivalent of one working week a month if they could work during their journey.

Ok, your employer gets your 7 1/2 hours from you at work and you are now supposed to put in extra hours while travelling to work? Is the employer going to only pay people who live some distance away? How will your productivity be checked? The main result of such a proposal will be to discourage employers from hireing people who have a long commute.

Super Hornets approved

For weeks now Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has been bagging Brendan Nelson for ordering the Super Hornets. Today Fitzgibbon has had to back flip like an Olympic gymnast and confirmed the order.

Now the fighter is the best thing since sliced bread.:

Mr Fitzgibbon said the Super Hornet was an excellent aircraft capable of meeting any known threat in the region.

"It is the only aircraft which can meet the small delivery window created by the former Government's poor planning processes and politically driven responses,'' he said..

This should come as no surprise to any reader of this blog, I have been saying we will be getting the FA-18F for some time. It should have been obvious to anyone who bothered to look at the facts. But what really pisses me off is that complete civillian like me can work it out but a "defence journalist" like Ian McPhedran, who is getting paid to do research and write articles can't and come up with crap like this. Leftest moron.

Binge Breeders

This is a new one for me, John Gillebaud from the World Health Organisation, thinks binge drinking is the world's greatest danger because it leads to teenage pregnancies:

UNWANTED teenage pregnancies following bouts of binge drinking are contributing to the world's unsustainable population growth, a World Health Organisation academic says.

John Gillebaud, a leading academic on birth control, reproductive health and population issues, told a conference in Canberra that unprotected sex leading to unwanted pregnancies is the greatest threat to mankind....

And of course theres a politician who's going to agree with him and this time its a Liberal:

Liberal MP Mal Washer and outgoing chair of the parliamentary committee on population and development, agreed with Mr Gillebaud saying binge drinking was the leading cause of unwanted pregnancies among teenagers in Australia.

Although Australia's birth rate has gone up in the last few years its still below replacement level. Don't see much chance of overpopulation if that keeps up.

Which brings me to the other breeding story of the day, a couple of academics want the government to abolish the baby bonus and "stop paying the well off to breed".

Look, I'm a small government bloke and realise the bonus is tax churning, but just who do academics want to have babies? Academics? God help us.

However I do think it was a mistake for the Howard government to rely so much on handouts to help families. It would have been better to have given more substantial tax cuts. They would have been harder for Labor to take away too.

Wowser time

What really pisses me off is the never ending attempts by leftest to suck enjoyment from our lives. Mr Rudd thinks we have a big problem with binge drinking and is going to solve it by spending $ 53M on a National Binge Drinking Strategy. Sporting clubs will have to toe the party line or risk funding cuts (I'm not sure why sporting clubs need Commonwealth funds in the first place but lets put that aside for the moment) . My local member ,Julie Owens . has this to say:

"Parramatta, where I live, has a long history with alcohol," Ms Owens said.

We do Julie, and I'm proud off it. How far do you want to go back? The Rum Rebellion?

"It is something now that parents and community groups are very worried about. "It's about time that the government started working with parents and community groups to do something about this."

The mums and dads don't seem to be very worried at my club Julie, they seem to be enjoying the cheap beer.

Ms Owens admitted that her local NRL team, the Parramatta Eels, had not always been the best ambassadors for safe drinking.

"It goes through all levels of sport," she said.

Julie, whats the use of being a jock if you can't go drinking with your mates and get the shelias?

I think John Cobb is about right:

Mr Cobb said binge drinking had become a pet media subject and was suddenly a major problem.

"It's just like footballers today - I doubt they play up more than footballers ever did but it sure as hell is being reported more."

I better stop here and have my beer before Mr Rudd's wowsers introduces Prohibition.

Haloscan installed

I have just installed Haloscan in comments which unfortunately wipes out older comments. If anyone has a problem with the new system please e-mail me.

Plastic bags rubbish

Thanks to our new environment minister , Peter Garrett, we could soon be paying a dollar for each plastic supermarket shopping bag. Plastic bags are recycled anyway, as liners for rubbish bins. but the greenies don't like them. Their objections to the humble plastic bag seem dubious to me , but hey, what would I know, I'm not a former rock singer like Mr Garrett.

At the moment the retailers are resisting but don't expect that to last. Lets list the benefits to the retailer:

a) Saving the expense of having to provide plastic bags.

b) Increase in sales of bin liners.

c) Increased sales of reusable bags.

And the benefits to the consumer are Mr Garrett?

Rudd cuts pensions

We shouldn't be surprised by this. One of the first thing the Hawke Labor government did was cut pensions, they introduced a means test on older seniors (over 75 if memory serves ) and brought in an assets test. I was working for the Department of Social Security at the time and remember the outcry, Andrew Peacock nearly win the following election.

People believe that because they paid tax all their lives they should be entitled to a pension. Unfortunately they are mistaken. The social welfare system is an income distribution scheme not an investment plan. Governments will cut and change it to meet their own priorities.

The only way I can see to provide people with the financial security is to increase personal wealth. Thats why I'm a supporter of Saunder's Private Future Fund scheme. Replacing welfare with something better makes more sense to me then simply cutting payments.

RAF bans uniform

I like to know more details about the backgrounds of the abusive civilians.

ROYAL Air Force (RAF) personnel at an air base in England have been ordered not to wear their uniforms in public following a spate of threats and abuse from civilians.

The move comes amid a push by the Government to persuade more soldiers, sailors and airmen to wear their uniforms in public to try to improve ties between the defence forces and the public.

But RAF commanders at a base near Peterborough have banned personnel wearing their distinctive dark blue uniforms in public after servicemen and women were targeted over their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as they walked through the Cambridgeshire town....

Monaro revived?

We just may see that classic Aussie muscle car the Monaro make a comeback and its flex fuel too.

The Holden Monaro has been born again – at least as a concept in the form of the radical Coupe 60 unveiled at the 2008 Melbourne motor show.

In an elaborate reveal in the year Holden is celebrating its 60th anniversary of local production – hence the Coupe 60 name – Holden pulled the covers of one of its most eagerly anticipated concept cars.

Holden stopped short of calling the Coupe 60 concept a Monaro but admits it is a hint that the legendary two-door Holden could make yet another comeback.

“It is production capable,” says GM Holden design boss Tony Stolfo of the Coupe 60. “But this is pure concept. Right now there’s no intention to go into production with this car.”....

The Man of Steel speaks

I wanted to blog something on John Howard's recent speech yesterday but it was so good I just didn't know were to start. If you got a few minutes have a read. Looks like a few months away from Canberra has cleared Howard's head.

I'm more socially liberal but he even provides an explanation for his social conservatism that I can't really disagree with:

Economic reform and change – inherent in globalisation – can involve dislocation for communities and individuals. The anxiety this brings cries aloud for consistency and reassurance in other aspects of people’s lives; the sense that not everything is changing.

What a contrast to Marise Payne's article, her solution to the Liberal's woes is to move them more so far left they might as well merge with Labor. According to Marise the Libs need to show more compassion. I'm reminded George Bush calls himself a compassionate conservative, which in practice means more government spending (not that Howard was all that tight fisted) and government interference.

Marise, if you make the Liberal Party a copy of Labor then why should I bother voting for you?

Limbo Party

With Brendan Nelson's approval ratings approaching Limbo lows its good to see people like Chris Pyne coming up with new ideas. He has made the radical suggestion of allowing Liberal members to pick the parliamentary leader. Sounds like worth considering to me. At the very least voters would have a better idea of what the party stands for, something which certainly can not be said now.

What I disagree with is his claim the Liberals have " hard right policies" What hard right policies is he referring too? Supporting Kyoto? Abandoning AWA's ? I wouldn't even call the Howard government "hard right". If it was it wouldn't have stayed in power for so long.

Water pricing

There seems to be renewed interest in letting the market ration water rather then government restrictions.

Professor Peter Cullen, from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, said such a move would mean water restrictions would be used only as a last resort.

"We don't ... ration petrol," Prof Cullen told ABC Radio.

"As petrol gets scarcer the price goes up and we make our individual choices.

"So the opportunity to really use the water market to confront the water scarcity that we are now (facing) is very important."

Prof Cullen's comments came after Treasury Secretary Ken Henry proposed a national user-pays water trading system, in which water use would be controlled by price instead of restrictions.....

The Center of Independent Studies has been looking at water markets too. They make this observation:

The first thing we notice about the price of water is that it is astonishingly cheap. The current price of urban water in most Australian cities, excluding fixed charges, is between $1 and $2 per kilolitre. That is less than 0.2c per litre delivered to our homes. It is hard to think of anything else that we pay to consume that is even close to that cheap.

We have a reasonably good understanding of the costs of alternative sources of supplying water. These include a range of options from the very small (rainwater tanks) to the very large (desalination plants). It has been estimated that the cost of desalination ranges from $1.15 to $3.50 a kilolitre, plus an additional 6 to 18c a kilolitre if we wish to include the costs of greenhouse gas abatement.(11) This is still very cheap, so we might ponder why we would have restrictions if people were prepared to pay this price....

Water markets make sense to me, if people choose to water their lawns why shouldn't they if they are willing pay for more expensive water? If there was demand for more water expensive alternatives such as desalination would have clearer justification.

Rental crisis

Here we go again, politicians trying to “fix” something which can better be left alone.

Under the scheme, investors can claim a tax credit of $6000 a year for 10 years for new properties that are rented at 20 per cent below the market rate.

All that does is lower the market rate which means theres less incentive to invest in rental property. Rents should be going up now. With housing in a down turn theres more demand for rental properties so rents need to rise Also investors have to cope with higher interest rates . Its just the normal building cycle, a few years ago units were going up everywhere in my street. Theres not much happening know but you can bet it won't be long before we see more pooping up.

Besides, the Commonwealth government already subsidies rental properties by allowing negative gearing, I like to know how much that costs.

On a related matter, the Daily Telegraph had this story on the front page today. One day they are running stories on the lack of affordable housing, the next day its the problem of a real estate “landslide”. The two seem to counter each other.

Iron Man

The latest Iron Man film trailer looks great. I hope it doesn't degenerate into predictable Evil Amerika crap.

Rudd tells the intellectual left to get stuffed

Stiff cheese lefties, under the Rudd administration you can still forget about radical cultural or social change.

KEVIN Rudd has assured mainstream Australia he will avoid radical social and cultural change by resisting calls to broaden his reform agenda and by sticking to his election promises.

The Prime Minister warned that people had "elected the wrong guy" if they believed that once he was in power he would unveil a secret left-wing reform agenda or suddenly yield to pressure from sectional interests.

Calling for people to move beyond "the classical Right-Left divide", Mr Rudd said he had been upfront about his election promises and would focus on delivering them in full.

"There's nothing terribly complicated about me," Mr Rudd said.

"If you obtain the people's support, that's what you go ahead and do."

I also like this part, he seems to be considering privatizing government administration, something I have advocated for some time.

Mr Rudd, whose wife, Therese Rein, built a successful job-placement company by delivering Job Network services for the previous Howard government, said the quality of government service was more important than the delivery mechanism.

Citing the example of his election promise to lift indigenous life expectancy and literacy standards, Mr Rudd said: "It's not who provides services to indigenous communities, it's who most effectively provides those services to deliver what isthe agreed national set of policy outcomes.