The debate about saving the environment and rapid population growth/ immigration are intrinsically linked. You can’t seriously have both.

So how is it possible that groups like GetUp are both running open door immigration campaigns and save the environment campaigns?

You can’t rapidly increase population without the services to support the population. That means further development including roads, buildings, water and power.

Even if you won’t build new dams, you’re going to have to eventually increase water supply. Sure, there’s gray water, but that’s not going to supply all the water you need.

You need desal, and what does desal consume a lot of?

And then you have the contradiction of Australia being anti-nuclear power. Wind and sun doesn’t provide base load electricity, so you’ve got gas and coal left.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Did someone say theocracy? 🙂

SMH: ‘Raunch culture’ worries government

The federal government says young people need to be more vigilant when it comes to sharing raunchy images of themselves.

Minister for the Status of Women Tanya Plibersek says there’s a lot happening in the youth culture that “completely passes adults by”.

She is especially worried about the “raunch culture phenomenon”.

Anyone would think there was an election this year and Chairman Rudd was chasing the elderly vote 🙂

This has to be a joke, right?

The Age: Review for house market

THE federal and state governments are moving to ease the pressure on house prices by commissioning a review of factors curtailing the supply of new houses and artificially pushing up the demand for housing.

They should pay me to head the review, or my 7 year old son who clearly has a better grasp of supply and demand than either the Victorian and Australian Governments.

Problem is two fold:

-not enough land available for housing
– builders artificially restricting supply to keep prices up even when there is land (this was particularly so in WA)

Both restrict supply in a market that due to natural and artificial growth (specifically immigration) has a never ending upward trend in demand.

Land is like water in many ways: we lack in neither, but the supply of both is restricted by Government action, or inaction as the case may be.

And no Government in this country is going to change a thing, because the moment house prices start seriously coming down due to an increase in supply, every man and his dog with a mortgage or who already owns a house is going to be beyond pissed, and politicians don’t risk that many votes.

The Age: India warns on student attacks

INDIA has warned the Brumby government over continued attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, complaining about a lack of official data on the nature of the violence.

The Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal [said]..”Though the incidents have been on the decline, they still continue to happen, and this is a matter of deep, deep concern to us,” he said.

”We do not have the benefit of the data, and we would expect the state government to actually share that data with us.

Let met get this right; VicPol and the Victorian Government are addressing the issue and the attack rate is seriously down (actually, the murder rate is up but only because Indians keep killing each other here), but that’s not good enough because the Indian Government believes that VicPol should be providing data on the ethnicity of attack victims in Victoria to them.

Which part of non-discriminatory policing don’t they get? Or is it a case that the Indian Government believes its citizens are somehow more important than citizens from other countries in Australia, or even locals?

And here’s another thing: attacks continue to happen in Victoria to everyone….just like they do in places like….lets see….India. No one likes it, but it’s a sad fact of life in a modern society…even a place like Victoria which doesn’t have a caste system.

The Age: Put soft porn out of view: experts

MORE than 30 of Australia’s leading child experts are calling for an unprecedented ban on the sale of adult magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse and other ”soft porn” material from newsagents, milk bars, convenience stores, supermarkets and petrol stations.

Lets ignore the implications for the ever increasing Australian theocracy the proposal offers, and look at the part I emphasised.

So who’s on this list of “child experts” you may well ask?

Tim Costello, CEO World Vision

What they left off was Tim Costello is the Reverend Tim Costello. Yep, people in charge of churches are most definitely children experts

Noni Hazlehurst, AM, actor, child advocate

Yes, an actress who is most famous for having hosted Play School. Definitely an expert

Clive Hamilton, AM, Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethic

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Clive Hamilton shouldn’t be let near adults, let alone children.

There are others as well. Hetty Johnson springs to mind: when did never shutting the fuck up qualify you as an expert on children exactly?

There’s names on the list I don’t recognize, but since when does a law degree or MBA make you a expert on children again?

ABC: The Federal Government is set to introduce changes to the way painkillers containing codeine are sold over the counter.

1 in 10,000 people probably shouldn’t drive cars (in particular, anyone who lives in Balwyn) but the Government doesn’t check their names when they leave their driveways to see if they’re abusing the road or not. Why exactly are we being punished here again?