Police raid book shop

Surly the police have better things to do with their time:


Military police seize old training manuals from book shop
April 18, 2011 - 4:58PM

Military Police have raided a Canberra bookstore to confiscate what they described as classified material, even though the books they took were old training manuals that are easily bought on the internet or found in the Australian War Memorial library.

Some of the books date back to 1937, rendering them obsolete.

The Beyond Q Bookshop and cafe lost about $700 worth of its second-hand book stock last week when someone employed by the Australian Defence Force alerted Military Police to the existence of what Defence calls ''pams'' military doctrine training pamphlets.
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Twenty-one books were taken on Thursday, with the store's proprietors being told they were classified documents.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/military-police-seize-old-training-manuals-from-book-shop-20110418-1dlcn.html#ixzz1JxxezX1z

Govt to make cigarette packs olive green

Image via WikipediaI really do think it time the government left smokers alone.

Govt to make cigarette packs olive green: "The government wants all cigarette packs to be olive green, the least attractive colour for smokers."

Say no to raising drinking age

Image via Wikipedia

Fred Nile wants to raise the drinking age to 21 and our American Premier, Kristina Keneally,  wants to have a debate on the subject.  The only reason I can see is to divert peoples attention from the self destruction of her own party.  If  18 year olds can be expected to vote the can be expected to drink responsibly. Bad behavior caused by public drunkenness are a policing issue. Fortunately Barry O'Farrell has rejected the proposal.

Freedom wins one in Parramatta

A few months ago the nannies , lead by Big  Nanny Clr Michael McDermott, managed to ban smoking from out door dinning in Parramatta.  Fortunately thanks to a campaign by the restaurateurs, the ban has been overturned. 

The council’s turnaround of its July decision came after a restaurant advocate addressed councillors on Monday night before a 8000-signature petition against the ban was presented by Cr Lorraine Wearne.

The restaurant advocate, Michael Rihma, made an impassioned plea that restaurants would lose business if the smoking ban was imposed.

“This is not an issue about supporting smoking - this is a fundamental issue of our democratic right,” Mr Rihma said in the council’s public forum.

“The council made a decision without due diligence. Not one business out of over 100 in the Parramatta region I have spoken to was consulted about this decision before it was made.”

Cr Wearne, supported by Liberal councillors and former lord mayor Paul Garrard - who reversed his earlier position - voted to overturn its July 25 resolution.

They voted to have “broad consultation” with diners and restaurateurs over the next 12 months before deciding which stance to take.

A shaken deputy mayor Cr Michael McDermott, who drove the smoking ban, was caught unawares by the motion, which was not on the business paper.

He told the Advertiser that he “feels betrayed” by the Liberal councillors, led by Cr John Chedid, who gave him no indication that the issue was to be debated on Monday night.

McDermott feels betrayed?  Clr McDermott should know all about betrayal . He was a member of the Liberal Party who left to stand against Liberals as an independent. Apparently he will be standing  in the up coming state election as an independent too.

Mad Max and Robocop covered up

How did we let those Family First creeps get this one through?

R-RATED action movies such as Mad Max and Robocop will be placed alongside soft porn movies in South Australian shops, under new laws introduced last week.

Retailers without adults-only sections can display the DVDs only if their original covers are replaced by plain versions featuring simply the film title.

The laws, designed to prevent children from being exposed to disturbing or pornographic covers, have been condemned by distributors as "creeping conservatism".

Introduced by Family First MP Dennis Hood, it applies only to R-rated films. While movies such as 2009 comedy The Hangover - which features on its cover a picture of three men holding a baby - will be affected by the new laws, MA15+ films with covers showing scantily-clad women - such as Lesbian Vampire Killers - won't be..........

Rudd Censors the Internet

The tests may have been a complete fraud but thats not going to stop the government.  We will soon be joining those great free nations China and North Korea with mandatory internet censorship. There's no need for it and its an attack on our basic freedoms. The government is using the old excuse of protecting our children. Well, that's the parents responsibility. Any parent can install a net filter, in fact the Howard government purchased a license to one and made it freely available. The Rudd government let the license lapse.

This is a chance for the Liberals to stick to their principles of freedom and responsibility. I know some like Alex Hawke and Jamie Briggs feel as I do. The Australian Liberal Students are against it too. The question is what will Tony Abbott do? Will he revert to a ban it for our own good conservative, or will he fight the nanny state?

Nanny State on the rampage

Dear God, the Preventive Health Task Force wants the government to control our lives at unprecedented levels:

New tax breaks worth up to $500 for parents who enrol children in sports were also proposed, while schoolchildren should be forced to do two hours of physical activity each week at school.

The task force also proposed a series of sin taxes on alcohol, tobacco and junk food. It wants to cut the proportion of the population smoking daily to just 10 per cent, halt the rise in overweight and obesity rates and reduce binge drinking to save almost a million lives by 2020.

The task force wants tougher restrictions on the number of venues selling alcohol and their opening hours to combat binge drinking.

The price of a pack of cigarettes would rise by about $7 to $20 in a bid to slash smoking.

It wants the crackdown on junk food at school canteens extended to the work canteen and said employers should face a workplace activity levy similar to the training levy to encourage work-based fitness programs.

Restaurants would be required to list the calorie content of the foods on their menu under another task force recommendation.

I think reports like this shows we spend far too much money of tertiary education. The nation would be better served in the people on the committee did something useful, like flip burgers. Luckily its only a report which I hope will just gather dust. In the meantime I will be investigating home brewing its.

Obesity myth

The obesity "epidemic" is really about expanding the nanny state:

A new research study from the University of South Australia has found obesity rates among children hit a plateau in 1998, and have not moved since.

The revelations cast serious doubt on previous warnings childhood obesity is increasing every year.

Some honesty at last:

"People are always reluctant to let go a notion which is their life work," he told The Australian.

"I include myself in that because I've written quite a few papers predicting that exponential increase, but we've got to look at the facts and the facts don't bear that out."