Bikies protest

News reporter said that some bikies, 1% and recreational riders, staged a protest ride 300km from Ipswich to Marburg and back.

Bad news, luvvie. It's only about 15-20 minutes drive from Ipswich to Marburg. About 20 kilometres.

War widow not so broke...

Breeanna Till, war widow mentioned in this blog recently apparently won't be so broke.

While it's very sad that she's lost her husband and has three kids and another on the way to raise without the support of her husband, it appears that she will not be left destitute:

War widows review a lump sum payment of about $122,000. They can then either choose to be paid a further one-off payment of about $507,000 or receive an indexed pension of about $335 a week. The pension is uncapped and not taxed.

Dependants receive approximately $73,000 as a lump sum, an $81-a-week payment while they are dependants, and education support. Widows and dependants also receive a gold card, which entitles the holder to departmental funding for all healthcare services. Opposition veterans affairs spokeswoman Louise Markus said the case highlighted the need for urgent reform of the compensation system for veterans and their families, and called on the government to step in and fix the system. (From The Australian, link.)

So financially I don't think they'll suffer.

Was Mrs Till complaining, or was her murmur picked up by the Telegraph to bash the government? That's the theory of one blogger.

Found at Leon Bertrand's blog, link to Cosmicjester's blog.

"Policeman nearly run over at breathalyser"

Tonight on the news was an item about a breathalyser policeman who was almost hit by a car at a breathalyser stop.

The film crew for the news item were filming when it happened. The report said that the car hit the light wand held by the police officer trying to stop the car.

Now, I know that you must stop when the police order you to.

However, I have seen some foolish actions by police who have stepped out in front of speeding cars - I don't know what they were thinking, if the driver is speeding or drunk they may not be paying attention and could therefore not be able to stop in time.

In this case the policeman stepped out of the way as the car went past, and he threw the light wand at the car's windscreen. The car did not hit the light while he was holding it.

The police pursued the vehicle but lost them, but they have the car's rego.

Having said all that, the book should be thrown at the driver who drove through the stop, he/she was clearly being signalled to stop for the breathalyser.

Major three hour rescue on the Gold Coast

to save a whale.

This was the headline news, first item.

I think their priorities are skewed - it was presented so that you would think it was the rescue of a human.

Elderly schmelderly

Ok, you guys.

This is I heard this on Channel 7.

Tell me that the news reader's got it right....

"Elderly couple found dead in their home..."

Elderly?

ELDERLY?

He was 59, she was 46.

At least the news on the net says they're middle aged.

Elderly?

Pfft.

Swine Flu in Brisbane - I'm not bothered

A NSW woman who arrived in Brisbane on Thursday on a flight from Los Angeles has tested positive for swine flu in Australia's first confirmed case of the illness.

The woman, who remains in Brisbane with family, is no longer infectious and had a weak strain of the virus, authorities say.

More here.

Pauline pix apologies from papers

Daily Telegraph editorial apology.

LAST weekend, this newspaper published pictures we believed were of Pauline Hanson. Many people across the nation have had a say.

The pictures have also prompted a strong reaction from you, the readers.

The central purpose of The Sunday Telegraph is to serve our readers and the paper acknowledges many of you believe the paper overstepped the mark.

We received phone calls, letters and emails saying that, whether or not it was Pauline Hanson in the pictures, they should not have been published.

And then it turned to justification of publishing the pictures. I think that's wrong.

Sunday Herald Sun

TODAY the Sunday Herald Sun unequivocally apologises to Pauline Hanson. We acknowledge Ms Hanson was right all along - and we were wrong.

The pictures the Sunday Herald Sun and four other News Ltd Sunday newspapers across Australia published were not of her.

We accept our decision to publish the pictures has caused Ms Hanson and her family hurt and embarrassment.

Last night, fresh questions emerged about the credibility of Jack Johnson, the man who sold the pictures claiming they were of Ms Hanson.

Although Andrew Bolt is right that any pictures should not have been published at all.

Hypocrisy and the war in Gaza

What about the fact that this war didn’t start on December 27? Since 2001, Hamas has been shooting rockets into Israeli cities. Not military installations, but cities. When Israel withdrew from every inch of Gaza in 2005, the rockets increased, not decreased. So for eight years Israeli cities were brutalised by Hamas rockets, but the media took notice only when Israel responded.

And when Israel did respond, people accused it of using disproportionate force. What do they want Israel to do? Would a “proportionate” response be to lob an Israeli rocket at a random Palestinian city for every rocket fired at an Israeli city? Would critics have Israel respond to a war crime with a war crime?

By Ben Carlill, On Line opinion.

On Line Opinion has a survey for Queenslanders.

This is just a quick reminder that our first poll of the year (which is on Queensland politics) is closing tonight at midnight. We've had a reasonable response so far, particularly given the time of year, but I'd like just a few more. If there is an early election, I'd like to be well-prepared
The poll is at:
http://polling.nationalforum.com.au/index.php?sid=39517&lang=en

Nicholson - Today's Australian 08/1/09

More Nicholson here.

Thanks Splice!

(Is that Rachel Corrie under the bulldozer?)

(Hmm, the arab buildings on the left are really badly damaged... the modern ones on the right only have a few little holes and grazes...)

MSM, Gaza, Israel, "the news"

I've been on holidays for a few weeks so I have been home to see "the news". Looking at the news reports and the bias and spin, the misplaced emphasis on the seriousness of some things which they report as "news" but which are merely fluff, I can see why I no longer bother with "the news".

Regarding Gaza and Israel, Kerplunk says it so much better than I.

And Blair here and here, read the comments.

Update: And this:

Hamas' unending barrage had forced hundreds of thousands to live in fear, yet the onslaught drew barely a fraction of the outrage now directed at Israel's exercise of self-defense.

Israel is not the cause of terror*

The Australian editorial (part A) makes this amazing claim (well, not for the Aus, but for other MSMs it is).

Islamist terrorists see these many millions of Muslims as enemies, just as they hate the Americans and Europeans, the Africans and Australians, the people of every and no faith who they murder whenever they are able. And they will use any explanation they can come up with to excuse the gratification they take in ideologically driven killing. Osama bin Laden used to explain that US bases in Saudi Arabia were an affront to his faith, but he did not call off al-Qa'ida when the US pulled out of the kingdom. And, short of every Jew leaving the country, there is nothing Israel, or any other nation can do to placate the Hamas ideologues and their allies. Last week, the Taliban banned girls attending school in a frontier province of Pakistan. To show people they meant it, a few days later a suicide bomber murdered 13 schoolchildren just across the Afghan border. It is the same sort of strategy that Hamas suicide bombers have used to kill people in Israel, Jews and Muslims alike. Such savage nihilism serves no rational purpose in the world of practical politics. But the men who design doctrine for Hamas and the Taliban, and the many terror cells who follow their lead, are not much interested in the world the rest of us live in.

*That's one for the NSS file (No shit, Sherlock?)

Press baying for a reason for the FA18 crash in CA

Totally ignores the facts... which are unknown, and also the sentiments of the bereaved father/husband/son-in-law of those killed in this terrible accident.

Read more here at The Home of Two Jonahs.