Leyonhjelm and his "look at me" enquiry

So the Bald One with interests in seriously minority views on anthropology, inaudible sounds,  climate change, compulsory voting and gun control is now wanting to hold an enquiry that will include the following topics in bold that the Commonwealth doesn't even legislate about?

So we'll be looking at the sale and service of alcohol, smoking and e-cigarettes, bicycle helmets I've already mentioned, classification of films and video games. That sort of stuff.

OK, the Commonwealth taxes alcohol, but AFAIK it doesn't legislate about opening hours and who it can be served to.   Bicycle helmets probably have a national standard, but that's it for the Commonwealth.

Even most smoking laws are State based, no?  

But anything to have an attempted "look at me" moment, hey?; pretty much like the way the Republicans call pointless committee meetings that invite that handful of climate change contrarian scientists to give evidence again and again each year while their actual reputation in mainstream science diminishes.

Leyonhjelm and anthropology

Apparently, David Leyonhjelm is up on anthropology to a much greater extent than the average person who has a fair idea that aborigines as a group who looked pretty much like the ones when the First Fleet arrived had been here for some thousands of years previously.

He's quite the woo-meister, hey Jason?

I'm interested in his views on UFOs too.

The worst thing about the ABC...

...is listening to them being enthusiastic about women's team sports.

It's unnatural and there ought to be a government inquiry into it.

(Even allowing for the fact that I can barely muster interest into men's teams sports more than 3 times a year, I still have my doubts more than perhaps 10% of the total population have any interest at all in women's team sports.*  And every single one of them apparently listens to the ABC.)    

*  women who do well at individual sports like swimming or running - that's different.

Grow up, media

A minor kerfuffle going on about Bill Shorten lying about the leadership situation.

Come on, media morons.  Everyone knows politicians on all sides of politics lie to the media in the lead up to a spill.  It's unfortunate, but routine. 

California drought charts

CA H2O | Open Mind

I'm not sure if El Nino is likely to put a sudden end to it, but here are some worrying graphs about the current state of the Californian drought.

What an absurd, glass jawed, posturing government we have

I was reminded on Radio National this morning that on Q&A years ago, John Howard had a shoe thrown at him, was offered immediate and sincere apologies by a clearly upset host, and he (Howard) reasssured Jones not to beat himself up about it.

Fast forward to the obnoxious Abbott government, and a posturing minor figure in it gets to tell someone that he deserves to be booted out of Australia under laws which in fact will not apply to him (assuming the reports I read are correct that the guy in question is not a duel citizen, just an Australian citizen.)    The ex-crim in question, who has appeared on other shows without the hosts being in fear that he was going to knife them live on screen, then says that this sort of talk encourages some to go join ISIS. 

Well, according to the Murdoch press, this is the biggest outrage to have ever occurred in the history of the ABC.

This government is a clown act supported by a clown press.

How do the "middle of the road" Murdoch journalists live with themselves?

Malcolm putting on a show?

The Coalition's reaction to Mallah's appearance on Q&A is completely over the top, with our proto fascist  PM delivering his obnoxious "you're either with us or agin us, ABC" line again today.



But not only that, in what one suspects is a bit of Malcolm turning it on to placate the idiots in his own party, we get this:

Politics Live: June 23, 2015: 3:03pm: Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is asked about Zaky Mallah's appearance on Q and A.

Mr Turnbull essentially asks what would have happened had Mr Mallah threatened the safety of guests and audience and crew members present for the filming.

"Mr Mallah was a known quantity....It beggars belief that he was included in a live audience. Surely we have learned to take threats of this kind, people of this kind, extremely seriously. The idea that there were no physical security checks on this audience or that this man was allowed in is extraordinary."

 I presume he hasn't read what appeared on the News.com website today:

Back home he has spoken out against clashes between the Islamic
community and police and actively discouraged radicalised Australian
Muslims from joining the Islamic State.

“Young people in Sydney
and Melbourne who are considering joining ISIS, you don’t know what
you’re doing to your family,” he told The Project.

“You are harming yourself, you are harming the Islamic community.”

He called young Australians fighting in Iraq and Syria “idiots and wankers who are giving Islam and the Muslim world a bad name.

“I hope ASIO is on to you, I hope your passport is refused and I hope you’re arrested and locked up.”....

Mr Mallah said: “The Islamic community in Australia is one of the worst communities in the world.

“Every
time I jump on Facebook, all I see is negativity ... Look at what we
have become. I don’t care if you follow a specific ideology or school of
thought, the Islamic community has dropped to a new low.”

Sure, the Mallah's still an idiot for his temper tantrum too, but it sure doesn't sound like he's someone who's a threat to a studio audience.  Can everyone calm down?

 

Victoria gone thoroughly Labor

Wow.  Even with the total cost of the cancellation of the East West link now known, Victorians appear completely happy with their new Labor State government:

Matthew Guy shrugs off Newspoll gloom on Victorians voting Liberal | The Australian: Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has shrugged off polling showing less than one third of Victorians would vote Liberal if a state election were held now.

Responding to the latest Newspoll in Victoria — the first major published poll since the election — Mr Guy said today it was early days and his personal numbers were strong.

The poll put Daniel Andrews’ Labor government in a commanding position with a 58 to 42 lead after preferences that would translate to a landslide victory if replicated in an election.

Judith Sloan must be contemplating a permanent move to Queensland.   Oh wait - Labor seems pretty settled here too.  New South Wales then, which might be the main place where Liberals are looking strong(ish).   

As noticed on Landline

I forget to watch it most weeks, but Landline remains a quality show (and of the kind a commercial TV network is never likely to make.)

Two interesting things in last Sunday's episode.  First, this commentary on free trade agreements:

The Australia-America freed trade agreement signed in 2005 is a classic example of how hype rarely matches reality.

Australia was promised an el-dorado - but as far as benefits go, we've ended up in that well-known proverbial street.

The figures don't lie - the bilateral trade gap between the United States and Australia continues to grow - in America's favour.

American goods exports to Australia in 2013 - 26 billion dollars - Australia's exports to the U.S. - 9.3 billion.

So the lesson is - when politicians talk about the Australia-China free trade agreement meaning an 18 billion dollar boost over ten years - take that advice with a cupful of salt - and remember what was said about the deal with America.

However, on the plus side - farmers and graziers should be happy - in fact Chinese dairy farmers are said to be very unhappy - which can only be a good thing for our dairy farmers.

 And second, this fascinating story (you must watch the video) about cave diving beneath farms in South Australia.  Wish I could embed the video...

Gravity and that Cat

I strongly suspected that there was some poor science reporting going on with that story in Nature News "How gravity kills Schrodinger's Cat".  And I was right.

Go read Bee's explanation of the matter to understand it properly.

Quite a range

Charles Aznavour: 'I wanted to break every taboo' | Music | The Guardian

Well, who knew this guy was still out there, making music?  

In truth, I know little about him, but am kind of amused to read about the topics of his songs:

When Aznavour began writing in the 1940s, sex was something that
happened with the light off. It was OK for women singers to howl over
their broken hearts, but men didn’t sing about their own emotional
despair – and later their dodgy prostates. Aznavour shone a spotlight on
masculinity and libido, singing about depression, sex, prejudice and
rape. His hits ranged from the 1970s story of a gay transvestite in What
Makes a Man, to the once-banned ballad of muggy, post-coital
exhaustion, Après l’Amour, and the controversial You’ve Let Yourself Go –
the plea of a man whose wife has grown dowdy and fat (“I gaze at you in
sheer despair and see your mother standing there”).

Apart from what must be a poor reputation amongst feminists, he's written a song referencing prostate problems?  

Um, what are the chances that Adani donates to the IPA?

The life saving potential of coal | Institute of Public Affairs Australia

According to Four Corners last week, the high cost of getting coal from Queensland's Galilee Basin to off shore markets make it a marginal proposition, at best.

Never mind, here's the IPA with its attempt to convince everyone that coal is the only way to make the poor in India get the electricity which they presumably are meant to use to run the air-conditioner without which they will increasingly die during heatwaves caused in part by the CO2 burnt from the Galilee Basin.  [Not entirely sure that airconditioners are commonly afforded by the poor in India, even if they have electricity, but that's a minor detail when it comes to Coal Being the Glorious Future! (Trade Mark, the IPA.)]

Update:  I see that it is Pakistan's turn to be having lots of heat stroke deaths.

Marxist racism

You Have Only Your Chains to Lose (Unless You Are African) - Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Beachcombing reminds us that Marx was certainly not above the racism of his century.  Quite the opposite, in fact.

Big, fast money

I see that Jurassic World is already close to making a billion dollars, and will cross that line in record time:

And that globe continues to be dominated by Jurassic World. Add its overseas take of $583.1M to its estimated domestic take of $398.2M and the film sits with an estimated worldwide cume of $981.3M in worldwide grosses. Given that pace World will likely handily beat the record for fewest days to $1B worldwide, on its 11th or 12th, whereas the previous record holder, Universal's Furious 7, did so in 17 days in April. World has opened in all territories save Japan where Universal says it's now opening August 5th.

One thing I've noticed in the discussion of the film is the enormous goodwill that people now seem to feel towards Jurassic Park.   (Many words have been written on how well the special effects in that film hold up.)

I haven't seen World yet; probably next weekend.

About that flag...

I was last in the United States in, I think, 1990, and was surprised to learn that some of the southern states still flew the confederate flag on government buildings.   I remember a Canadian in the circle I was in during the visit thought this was nuts;  I did too, but neither of us made our views know to the others in the group, as it was clear there were some there (from the south) who disagreed.

So it's interesting to see that, finally, some Republicans are telling a hold-out like South Carolina that it's time to ditch the symbol, and for reasons that were obvious to an Australian and Canadian 25 years ago.

This is causing major ructions within the Right wing websites such as Breitbart (plainly for the flag and putting the boot into Romney), Hot Air (against the flag and getting a hiding for this position in comments) and even National Review is having a bet both ways, but I see the "don't remove the flag" article has got 14,500 "shares".   (Actually, one of the smaller entries for its removal in NR notes that a report in 2000 make a compelling case that by the 50's and 60's, the flag had been adopted by some States as a clear symbol of their resistance to racial integration.)

Obama was wise to let some Republicans make the running on this.   It will be interesting to see what happens...