Palin pics

McCain has chosen Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. I'll let others do most of the commenting but here are a few pictures.

She like bikes.

Thats the family seaplane.


PETA are not going to like her.

Seems a good choice to me.

Architects don't like houses

If the Royal Australian Institute of Architects has it way we will all be living in apartments and town houses:

AUSTRALIA'S big cities are being urged to ban outer suburban housing estates to cut urban sprawl and be more like London and Rome.

The nation's peak architectural body wants Australian cities to focus on boosting their inner and middle suburbs' density rather than release land in outer areas, to become more sustainable.

Sorry, this has been the curse of the Sydney housing market for years. The limitations on land availability has forced land prices up destroying the Australian dream of home ownership. The architect's hated of suburban sprawl is not shared by ordinary Australian's who love their MacMansions. The government should do the reverse, to open as much land as it properly can to maintain proper supply. As to the concerns over transportation, the answer is to foster commercial development in reginal CBDs like Parramatta and Liverpool so outer suburb residents don't have so far to travel.

I hazard to guess that many of these architects are inner city types who would benefit from the higher housing prices their policies would cause.

I have been published!

Went down to the local bookshop during lunch time today and saw the new cook book 4 Ingredients 2 . I favorably reviewed the first book and even sent them some recipes. They must have liked them because two have been included. They are:

Maltese Cheese pie

ingredients:

3 beaten eggs,
500-600 grams ricotta cheese
1/4 cup chopped parsley
two sheets puff pastry

Method.

Combine the eggs , cheese and parsly in a mixing bowel but keep a small amount of egg for basting. Season to taste. Line a sheet of pastry in a pie dish. Fill with mixture. Cover with the other sheet and seal edges with a fork. Paint the top of the pie with the remaining egg mix and cut a few air holes in the pastry. Bake for at 180 deg for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown.

Yummy when hot but I like it cold too.

Bread and butter pudding

ingredients:

4 slices of cafe' style fruit loaf toast bread (or 5-6 of the ordinary type)
2 tablespoons or so of butter
2 1/2 cups milk
1 small packet of Fosters' Egg Custard

Method

Butter the bread on both sides , then cut in fours and place in a greased oven proof dish. Mix the milk and egg custard in a mixing bowl until the powder is dissolved. Pour over the bread. Let the bread soak up the liquid for 30 minutes then bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

NSW's real problem

You know, New South Wales real problem is not power generation, or transport or hospitals, its not even the imbalance between federal and state taxation. All those are a symptoms of a much bigger problem, the quality of the people in government.

After hearing about the depressing nonsense in parliament today I came across this: Westpac CEO Gail Kelly, is regarded by Forbes magazine as one of the world's most powerful women. What can we do to get people like her in parliment? The Americans can get top leaders from the private sector in politics, Mitt Romney comes to mind, but the only Australian that that I can think of is Malcolm Turnbull. Frankly if money was the issue I would be happy to pay them 10 times a pollies salary.

Rudd and Schools

Prime Minister Rudd has received general applause for his education policy announced today. And with good reason too, he wants greater transparency, sack slack teachers etc. However I can't help feeling uneasy about this. He is the Prime Minister, not a state Premier. The states still run the schools. The plan may start out OK but a decade down the track don't be surprised if confusion between two governments leads to a mess like hospitals.

To those who say the Commonwealth has a responsibility to step in if state governments fail I say why? Ineffective state governments can be changed by voters at election time. If the feds bail out slack states then there is less likelihood of a change in government. Considering that all state governments are currently Labor maybe thats one of the real aims of this policy.

Sophie eats

Aussie singer, actress and vegetarian Sophie Monk has been caught out buying takeaway from KFC. Considering her support for PETA criticism has followed:

AUSTRALIA'S sexiest Hollywood export Sophie Monk has been criticised for being two-faced, after she was snapped with food from a KFC restaurant - a fast food chain she has bagged in the past as a vegetarian.

Celebrity gossip websites have reported seeing Monk walking out of a KFC in Hollywood, with photos that reveal her holding a take away drink and a bag filled with KFC fast food...

Frankly I hope she is getting stuck into the Colonel's secret herbs and spices. Have a look at her, the girl needs a good feed. If she was my girl friend I would take here to Merrylands Bowling Club, they have a real good all you can eat.

A good whipping

Hilliary Clinton is forming a "whipping Team" to keep her unruly supporters in check.

In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member "whip team" at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning.....

"If people get down there on the floor and want to start blowing kazoos and making a scene, we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs," said a person involved in the planning...

Which is perfectly proper, in fact a bit of S&M could be good for them. Thats what an Australian researcher has found:

Our findings support the idea that bondage and discipline and sadomasochism (BDSM) is simply a sexual interest or subculture attractive to a minority," Associate Professor Juliet Richters and her colleagues wrote in the Journal of Sexual Medicine......

In fact, men who take part may be happier, with results showing they score significantly lower on a scale of psychological distress than other men.

The researchers did not study why this was, but suspect it might simply be that they're more in harmony with themselves because they're into something unusual and are comfortable with that.....

Gary Glitter demands protection

Former rock star and convicted pedophile demands round the clock protection:

Gary Glitter flew into London last night with a demand for around-the-clock police protection.

He fears he could be murdered for his vile crimes against children.

The former rock star has told solicitor David Corker he fears "a nutter will step out of the crowd with a big knife".

Glitter, 64, who was ordered out of Vietnam this week after serving nearly three years in jail for molesting girls, said he wanted to be guarded from the moment he landed at Heathrow.

He was last night greeted by a mob of photographers and police .

There's a perfect place for him were he will have lots of protection, gaol.

Craig Emerson speaks

The Hawke/Keating Labor government was fortunate in having a several free market reformers. They privatized Qantas and the Commonwealth bank, deregulated the dollar and generally tried to make Australia more competitive. The Rudd government seems to have very few. They seem much more interested in protection and anti-competitive regulation. (think Fuelwatch). However they do seem to have at least one, Small Business Minister Craig Emerson.

But now mysticism and superstition are making a comeback. Their revival began in the '80s with attacks on economic rationalism. Rational economic thinking was condemned in favour of economic irrationalism: ongoing protectionism, deficit financing by printing money, maintaining airlines and banks in public ownership and expanding the role of the state in the commercial world through clever devices such as WA Inc and the Tricontinental merchant bank.

By the '90s, economic irrationalists had declared competition as the new heresy, attacking the Keating government's National Competition Policy which is estimated to have increased household incomes by $3500 per annum. Twenty-first century mysticism and superstition is finding expression in the big environmental debates. Deep green extremists yearn for a return to a pre-industrial society, before the Enlightenment when faith and dogma prevailed over rational thinking and evidence-based science. In this gentle agrarian society (absent environmentally destructive hard-hoofed farm animals), human beings are tolerated, as long as they leave no carbon footprint. These deep-green crusaders have declared their opposition to coalmining even if emerging technologies were to reduce its emissions to zero, since coal is regarded as an ugly reminder of an industrial society.

Well worth reading in full, to bad he has no real influence on the governments' direction.

nuclear Australia

A few days ago the Californians announced they will build the world's largest solar energy plants. The two plants will produce a total of 800 megawatts comparable to a decent sized coal or nuclear power station. Being solar they will be sustainable and produce none of those C02 emissions that Penny Wong doesn't like. That's the good news. The bad news is that 800 megawatts is only available for a few hours a day most of the time it will be far less. Also they are only being built because of a government mandate and the really big drawback they take up 12.5 square miles of land!

The fact is neither solar or wind can operate in the real world without conventional base-load power stations. When the sun don't shine or the wind don't blow you got to turn on the real stuff. That means burning some type of hydrocarbon or a nuke. Which brings me to Liberal frontbencher Ian Macfarlane, whose giving a pro nuke speech tonight.:

Liberal frontbencher Ian Macfarlane opened the latest round of the radioactive debate when he talked up "yellowcake'' in a speech.

"It's a black and white answer. Or should I say a black, green and yellow answer,'' he said in the speech, to be delivered in Brisbane tonight.

"Clean coal, renewables and yellowcake - we must include nuclear in our future baseload clean energy mix.''

Brendan Nelson seems to be supportive too:

Liberal leader Brendan Nelson backed Mr Macfarlane's fresh nuclear push, saying he had "a very strong argument''.

"Our view is that there needs to be consideration in Australia given to the development of a nuclear power industry,'' Dr Nelson said.

"We need more rational discussion about nuclear power in Australia and much less of the emotive, political debate we've had in the last few years.''

The Liberals are not the only people supporting a local nuclear industry either. Former Labor Premier Bob Carr and unionist Paul Howes have come out in support recently so has Bob Hawke.

You can bet we will hear more about this debate in the coming months.

The ugly truth

Mount Isa Mayor John Molony believes plain looking women could do well in his town.:

...."with five blokes to every girl may I suggest that beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa".

"Quite often you will see walking down the street a lass who is not so attractive with a wide smile on her face. Whether it is recollection of something previous or anticipation for the next evening, there is a degree of happiness,"

Cr Molony said. "Often those who are beauty-disadvantaged are unhappy with their lot. Some, in other places in Australia, need to proceed to Mount Isa where happiness awaits."....

His comments have been criticized but lets get real. Considering the five to one ratio he's properly telling the truth.

Georgia today , Ukraine tomorrow?

Could the Russians be planning an attack on Ukraine? If this story is verified they could very well be:

Ukraine is investigating claims that Russia has been distributing passports in the port of Sevastopol, raising fears that the Kremlin could be stoking separatist sentiment in the Crimea as a prelude to possible military intervention.

The allegation has prompted accusations that Russia is using the same tactics employed in the Georgian breakaway regions of Abhkazia and South Ossetia in order to create a pretext for a war.

Russia handed out passports to the residents of the two provinces, which have long looked to Moscow for support, five years ago. The Kremlin has justified its invasion of Georgia in terms of defending its citizens in Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgian "aggression".

Mykola Stretovych, an MP with Ukraine's ruling orange coalition, claimed that Russia was engaged in a massive operation to hand out passports in Sevastopol, home to 400,000 people, many of whom have historic ties with Russia.

Anatoly Gritsenko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's national security committee, launched a probe into the claims which, if true, would represent "a threat to national security", he said........

Which would explain why the Ukrainians have agreed to help the West with missile defence:

Ukraine says it is ready to make its missile early warning system available to European countries.
The system has until recently been used jointly with Russia.
Ukraine is now more desperate than ever to embrace the West as its fear of Russia intensifies.

Russia may still be Ukraine's largest trading partner, but political and military relations are in steep decline.

Everything that has happened in Georgia tells Ukraine that Russia is determined to prevent any more of her neighbours joining NATO.

Aspirationals

According to Gabrielle Gwyther aspirational is now a derogatory term used by eastern suburbs types to mock us westies.

" 'Aspirational' is used by people outside western Sydney with the same kind of moral undertone that was used with 'westies', without an understanding of why people live the way they do."

Dr Gwyther - a "born-and-bred westie" - says outsiders think people in the west are middle-class wannabes who think they have risen up the social scale because of their McMansions.

"You can have a big house in the eastern suburbs and you're not greedy, but if you have a McMansion and a 4WD in western Sydney, you've become greedy.

"There's a different morality, so the big house, car and big plasma screen become items of ridicule."

You know, I don't care what they think. These are people who think an old one bedroom unit without a balcony and without a garage like this (in Mosman) is worth more then $300,000:

With $300,000 westies can buy themselves a two bedroom unit with a garage like the one below (Wentworthville) and still have change.

They just don't like that a westie office worker gets a better deal then a lawyer in Mosman.

Labor wants Growler

After first spending months attacking Brendan Nelson for having the good sense to order the Super Hornet the government now wants to order more. Several FA-18G versions, the electronic warfare version known as the Growler. Not that I object to the order, the Growler is a remarkable aircraft that will provide the RAAF an extra very useful capability.

THE Rudd Government has sought US export approval for a cutting-edge electronic-warfare aircraft, the Growler, which is capable of performing escort and radar-jamming missions.

Designed for the US Navy, the Growler is a carrier-based electronic warfare version of the two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet, 24 of which Australia has ordered at a cost of $6.7 billion.

Details of the approach were confirmed yesterday by the aircraft's maker, Boeing. Canberra has not formally placed an order for the advanced military jet, but wanted clarification from Washington on whether the aircraft could be purchased at a future date.

Boeing's Super Hornet program manager, Carolyn Nichols, said from the company's St Louis head office: "The RAAF has submitted a formal request for release for the Growler to the US Government.

The export release of the Growler to Australia is still in review and in progress. "Boeing does not have a marketing licence to market the Growler to Australia, so we did not participate in US Government top-level briefs that have been conducted on the Growler capability to the RAAF."

Defence analysts told The Australian that about six Growlers would be needed to complement the Super Hornet fleet, the first of which will be delivered to the RAAF in 2010.

So far, the US Navy is the only operator of the Growler, which is designed to accompany F/A-18Fs on attack missions, performing radar jamming and other electronic warfare tasks. Any agreement would come under the US Foreign Military Sales protocol covering advanced military equipment......

Russians annoyed

The Russians are objecting to the USA placing interceptor missiles in Poland.

THE timing of a US-Poland missile defence deal announced this week amid the crisis in Georgia indicates the system is aimed at Russia, Interfax news agency quoted a foreign ministry source as saying.

"In reality this project has no relation to the Iranian missile threat but is aimed against Russia," Interfax quoted the senior Russian ministry source, who it did not identify, as saying.

Warsaw and Washington signed a preliminary deal yesterday on basing part of a US missile shield in Poland, in the face of Moscow's vehement opposition and mounting East-West tensions over Georgia.

Well, the only way those missiles can be a threat to the Russians is if they attack Europe. They are meant to stop a missile attack after all. So what are they planning? Considering recent events in Georgia I getting concerned.

Joel Watch 2

Here's our Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, mighty warrior, man of action hero of the nation. What. A. Wanker.

Chevrolet Volt

The electric Volt will be an example of supreme American know how or the end of General Motors. I hope its a success. And yes, Michael Simcoe is an Aussie, he was a designer for Holden.

Nostalgia

Heres some music from the good old days.

Aussie Special Forces catch Taliban leader

This is a lot more useful then getting Olympic gold.

AUSTRALIAN special forces have caught a Taliban leader behind a host of bomb attacks in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province, potentially dealing a blow to future terrorist assaults.

The Defence Department today revealed that the elite Australian troops last week captured Mullah Bari Ghul, whom coalition forces believe was a key figure behind extremist operations in the province.

NT swings against Labor

I wouldn't read too much into this as I expect local factors were at work. However a one party state just isn't right. Theres a couple of elections due soon, the WA state election and the NSW local government elections. It will be interesting to see what happens, there may be a reaction against Labor in NSW as a protest against Iemma the Incompetent.

The shock result stunned Chief Minister Paul Henderson, whose party has suffered a 9 per cent swing, which claimed the scalps of three of his ministers.

It is a humiliating setback for the former fitter, who was tested for the first time in the polls as leader.

"It is obvious that there has been a strong swing against the Government,'' Mr Henderson said.

Russia at war ? huhh?

Whats going on here? I wake up today and find out that Russia has been in a war with Georgia.

Russian and Georgian forces have been engaged in battle in the region for two days, after Georgia launched a large-scale offensive to restore control over the province.

Russia has accused Georgia of launching a "policy of ethnic cleansing" in the region, which lies below the Russian region of North Ossetia.

South Ossetian separatists say up to 1600 people have been killed in the fighting so far, with reports of Russian warplanes bombing a civilian building in the town of Gori...

Are all the reporters in China? How come we are only hearing about it now?

China's Olympics

The lack of any reference to Chairman Mao was obvious to me to but Andrew Bolt got to blog it first:

Missing from the Beijing Games’ opening ceremony?

Any mention of Mao or Marx. In fact, the ceremony only confirmed the utter defeat of the monster and his muse, whatever lipservice the Chinese regime may still pay to both in internal propaganda to the men who bequeathed to them their authoritarian state.

Also was I the only one left cold by the opening ceremony? It looked like something done by 100,000 robots.

Immigration and Rudd

Paul Sheehan writes on the government's immigration plans:

Did you know the Rudd Government is implementing the biggest immigration program since the end of World War II, and the biggest intake, in absolute numbers of permanent immigrants and temporary workers, in Australia's history?

Did you know the migration program for 2008-09 has set a target of 190,300 places, a robust 20 per cent increase over the financial year just ended?

On budget night, May 13, amid the avalanche of material released by the Government, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, issued a press release stating, among other things: "The use of 457 visas to employ temporary skilled migrant workers has grown rapidly in recent years. A total of 39,500 subclass 457 visas was granted in 2003-04 compared with an expected 100,000 places in each of 2007-08 and 2008-09." That is a 150 per cent increase in four years......

Well I didn't know but do now. I'm a supporter of a strong immigration policy, we need people to properly develop the nation , increasing the wealth for all. However its important to maintain quality control and insure immigrants understand they are expected to integrate into the wider community. If anything citizenship requirements should be tightened.

However what really concerns me is the government's general silence about their plans. They certainly haven't taken the Australian people in their confidence. Perhaps Rudd and Co think we are all a bunch of racists who don't have the broadminded wisdom of Labor politicians. I don't think this is a very good idea, Australian's don't like being kept in the dark on important issues. Any problem with one of the groups will bring out the racist. Don't be surprised if the Hansonites come back again.

Federalism and the Qld Libs-Nats

Have a look at the new Liberal National Party website. Sure looks good and they seem serious about winning government.

They used to say that the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government believed strongly in three things , development, development and development. Thats what the core philosophy of the LNP seems to be.

Which does make sense for a State government. I'm a believer in federalism. To me the current popular trend for more central government makes little sense, why would anyone assume a Canberra bureaucrat or politician can do a better job then a local leader? As well competitive federalism means new policies can be tried and tested. A central government would make it harder to expose bad policies.

I suppose the answer to my question is that we don't have political state leaders but state managers. The state premiers have degenerated into middle managers types happy to receive the feds money and do their bidding. Any problems they can blame the federal government for not giving them enough money.

The Premiers of the previous generation understood they were there to develop the State not just manage it , and it wasn't just Joh and the conservatives either. Remember Neville Wran and the "Wran the Man" ads with Neville running around in a hard hat? They understood that by developing the resources of the state the tax base would expand allowing more expenditure on schools, hospitals etc.

The next Queensland election is next year, I'll be watching the results with interest.

Good times over?

Looks like its going to be tougher from now on but we can amuse ourselves by watching Mr Rudd trying to blame everyone but himself for our problems:

KEVIN Rudd has warned Australians to brace for tough economic conditions as he refused to rule out a recession driven by what he described as the most uncertain global financial conditions in three decades.

The Prime Minister blamed global factors and the Howard government for the turmoil, insisting his economic policies and $22 billion budget surplus had given Australia greater insulation against the worsening global situation than most other nations, The Australian reports.

Mr Rudd's admission the economic outlook was bleak and would hit family budgets came as Brendan Nelson demanded he "stop talking Ruddish" and accept responsibility for economic mismanagement.

The Prime Minister's gloomy forecast follows a string of bad economic figures, including continuing high inflation, a 1 per cent fall in retail turnover in June and the lowest level of bank lending in 25 years.

Sooner or latter blaming problems on the previous government is going to wear thin. What precisely did the Howard government do to cause any recession , tax cuts? low unemployment? lower interest rates? What Mr Rudd?

But there is one silver lining, interest rates may come down:

The slowdown has triggered predictions the Reserve Bank board, which meets next week, will cut official interest rates from their 12-year high of 7.25 per cent by October.

Coming on

Sam Newman, ex footballer and Footy Show commentator, is in trouble for supposedly sexist remarks regarding Tasmanian MP Paula Wriedt:

The scandal-plagued Newman was "horrified" his fellow The Footy Show hosts construed his remark as a sexual crudity, the Nine network says.

But lobby group Women's Forum Australia rejected Newman's claim his words were misconstrued.

“When Newman made the comment ‘worthy of coming on, her’ about Tasmanian MP Paula Wriedt on last night’s Footy Show, it was clear what he meant," WFA said in a statment "

He didn’t mean she was worth coming on the show. He meant Paula Wriedt is worthy of being ejaculated on.

”Newman's remark immediately drew the ire of co-host James Brayshaw, who berated Newman telling him: "Sam you cannot say that."...

Have a look at the clip below I think he was taken out of context. The WFA should leave Sam alone. If he wasn't a character he wouldn't be on TV and the Footy Show would be duller without him. However heres the clip, make up you own mind.

UPDATE: Women political leaders are now wanting Sam taken off air:

And Victorian Workforce Participation Minister Jacinta Allan called on the network to take Newman off air. She said: "Sam operates outside the boundary of good taste. Like most people I find the comments highly inappropriate.

and then theres this:

Federal Minister for the Status of Women Tanya Plibersek said Newman's comments were offensive to women.

"No matter what women achieve, some people apparently still see them as sex objects," she said.

And women don't see powerful men as sex objects? Remember Bob Hawke? Bill Clinton? Or how about Barrak Obama and the Obama Girl? I was told Bob Menzies sexy eyebrows got the women vote.