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2013
Nov 12, 2013 21:03:18 GMT 10
Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Nov 12, 2013 21:03:18 GMT 10
Woah www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-12/new-laws-in-nsw-to-double-maximum-jail-penalty-in-wake-of-thoma/5086768So the NSW parliament is passing laws entirely in relation to media/public outrage over individual cases. That's messed up. I will qualify this - I actually don't have a "feel" for the length of prison sentences. I personally think that 5 years in the clink is a long time. The only way that ISN'T a long time is in comparison to, say, 10 years. Or 20. Say if after me: 5 Years In Prison Is Not A Slap On The Wrist. That's just my opinion. On the other hand ... Yeah, I think Australia still has the lingering hangover of an era when thugs were seen as real men. In this particular case there was clearly no accident - the attacker was a thug, a creep, and I actually don't mind (on a gut level) too much if he doesn't see sunlight for a decade. But it won't prevent more people dying. I'm baffled that more attention isn't drawn to how easy it is for a bit of biff to go horribly wrong. Somebody, let's say, 'teaches a c^$# a lesson' after a few drinks and somebody trips over or slips, or somebody just gets punched on an unfortunate angle. Target falls over, hits his/her head and now a drunk fuck^@#% is a murderer. A family is without a sibling, or a parent, and some idiot's life is destroyed. It will keep happening, too. Australia has a drinking problem, and it's implicitly connected to violence.
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2013
Nov 12, 2013 21:11:07 GMT 10
Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Nov 12, 2013 21:11:07 GMT 10
"He doesn't fit the mould"
He's a berk. I think "berk" is safe to say. I don't like him. I think he's going to be entertaining at times, but ultimately bad for parliament and probably also for the country. My sense of amusement to date has only been fed by the fact that the party that is most going to suffer politically from his extremes is the one that made him in the first place (and also the fact that there's absolutely nothing I can do about it). I'm not impressed by his affable nature, I don't believe it.
The liberals will deal with him when they have to, if the margins are thin enough he'll get some of what he came for. He isn't in Canberra to reform anything - if he was, he'd be way more eager to turn up. He's in town for something, and I don't think it's your best interests.
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2013
Nov 13, 2013 18:43:28 GMT 10
Post by angra on Nov 13, 2013 18:43:28 GMT 10
Noel Pearson has gone off script (for the Liberals) and is talking about land rights, the racist treachery of Bjelke-Petersen and the stolen generations.
And he talks of the need for amending the constitution to recognise original inhabitants and to repeal those sections which are based on racial discrimination.
"The founding fathers erred...race should be no basis for legal difference."
Bolt must be having a heart attack. Is he now going to call Pearson a racist?
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2013
Nov 13, 2013 20:32:43 GMT 10
Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Nov 13, 2013 20:32:43 GMT 10
"Is he now going to call Pearson a racist?"
I doubt that the word "racist" would be used in any active sense - I think Pearson has the stature and (possibly) the resources to fight back.
To harp on conspicuously about a particular topic, I did quite like some of the things that Pearson said about dealing with alcoholism - i.e. "taking the money away". It's not clear that the approach taken worked, though.
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2013
Nov 19, 2013 7:32:34 GMT 10
Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Nov 19, 2013 7:32:34 GMT 10
I tend to agree with some of our prominent wingnuts about the oppo trying to put the guv on the spot about things that the oppo did in office. It's a bit rich.
On the other hand, I think it's hillarious that "journalists" would suggest that fairfax and the ABC should have just kept schtumm about Australia (and the US, one presumes) trying to track the Indonesian president's wife's mobile phone (whatever that means), because talking about it might be inconvenient to Tony's policy on asylum seekers. Nah, sorry, that doesn't fly.
These are the same people who went to town on the bullsh1t inferences about a defence minister being influenced by a chinese government operative, spruiked the whole "rat @#$%er" thing and did everything possible to undermine the various negotiations on "solutions" under the last lot while megaphoning to asylum seekers and their business partners that nothing the guv said actually meant anything so just come on over.
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2013
Nov 20, 2013 11:36:18 GMT 10
Post by angra on Nov 20, 2013 11:36:18 GMT 10
Is anyone else having trouble accessing certain sites over the last 2 days? Eg. Fairfax, News Ltd plus others time out, but other sites are fine.
Update - it appears to be a Telstra "mass service disruption' . Here's their bulletin -
20131111-NSW-E-C-P-NORTHERN-NSW
11/11/2013 - 06/12/2013
Mid North Coast, Hunter, Northern Tablelands and North West Slopes and Plains Districts of New South Wales
Extreme Weather Conditions
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2013
Nov 21, 2013 16:47:07 GMT 10
Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Nov 21, 2013 16:47:07 GMT 10
I briefly saw some strange youtube behavior last night, and just assumed it was the NSA spying on me. It only lasted a few minutes - all the layout was missing and the videos didn't work.
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2013
Nov 21, 2013 16:57:37 GMT 10
Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Nov 21, 2013 16:57:37 GMT 10
Putting partisanship aside for a minute - I'd say this no matter who was in guv - I don't think Australia's response to this Snowden thing has been particularly astute. The actual incident was pretty insignificant - basically just tracking phone numbers over a number of days. It was probably just a technology exercise, somebody showing off and not focused on gathering real inteligence (which you're not going to get from the a leader's missus' phone, really). We could have just said "hey, we're sorry, it wasn't an official operation and the PM wasn't aware of it, it just underscores the risks of mobile communications and here's a couple of koalas to make it up to you". What would that have cost us? There wouldn't have been any actual need to promise anything going forward, just as we wouldn't expect any promises in return - we're in a world that plays for keeps, and no country is going to promise never to gather intelligence about anyone. That part's easy. I think the whole thing could have been over in a few days.
Instead we've gone with "don't bother me, little man", in the leadup to an Indonesian election period, and I honestly think it was unnecessary. The escalation since doesn't seem (to me) to be caused by the actual surveillance, it's been the way we've handled the reaction that's getting backs up.
I think somebody's botched this, and it's nothing to do with asylum seekers or who was in government when that data capture happened.
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zoot
Junior Member
Posts: 58
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2013
Nov 21, 2013 23:18:32 GMT 10
Post by zoot on Nov 21, 2013 23:18:32 GMT 10
I've always said Abbott didn't have the skills required to be Prime Minister. I didn't expect to be proven right this quickly.
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2013
Nov 22, 2013 14:57:27 GMT 10
Post by angra on Nov 22, 2013 14:57:27 GMT 10
My three-way Goodmans picked up at a car boot sale fore $25 are a bit disappointing. Yep, treble and mid-range are good, but the boofers are a bit sad.
Depends on the music. Give 'em some modern rock and they are adequate. C&W is better. If you want to blow the socks off 'em, try Bach Organ music, with 40 watts. (The neighbours aren't happy)
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2013
Nov 23, 2013 7:40:40 GMT 10
Post by angra on Nov 23, 2013 7:40:40 GMT 10
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2013
Nov 23, 2013 8:26:25 GMT 10
Post by jack on Nov 23, 2013 8:26:25 GMT 10
The dead POTUS's nephew... [Alan] Dulles, fired by JFK after the Bay of Pigs, returned to public service when LBJ appointed him to the Warren Commission, where he systematically concealed the agency's involvement in various assassination schemes and its ties to organized crime.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/john-f-kennedys-vision-of-peace-20131120?page=3 Well, that's intriguing... but then he just waffles on about JFK's efforts to end the Cold War and pull out of Vietnam. Where's the meat?
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2013
Nov 23, 2013 8:30:26 GMT 10
Post by angra on Nov 23, 2013 8:30:26 GMT 10
Funny thing is the motive for killing JFK.
Lot's of vested interests had a motive, but Oswald? He was actually a Kennedy supporter.
And Ruby killing Oswald? What was that about?
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2013
Nov 23, 2013 8:35:06 GMT 10
Post by jack on Nov 23, 2013 8:35:06 GMT 10
Hey, this is an exciting product: Software-defined high-performance VHF/UHF receiver, 9 kHz to 1800 MHz (I thought 9kHz might be LF, but what the). www.winradio.com.au/home/g315i.htmAn Aussie outfit, apparently; but it's rather a niche product, so you'll get virtually nil change out of $2K.
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2013
Nov 27, 2013 7:43:17 GMT 10
Post by angra on Nov 27, 2013 7:43:17 GMT 10
Oh Nigella! Your soufflé has gone flat! How the mighty have fallen.
"Nigella Lawson was 'off her head' on drugs" SMH
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