Feb 10 - 2010

Front Page

What a surprise the Labor government's NBN is the most expensive per head than any other nation on the planet. Also while others are delivering 1 Gb per second and costing less we will be stuck with a fixed line network.

I'm somewhat confused by the definition of "indigenous". The picture of a pretty girl on the front page is not look anything like a full-blooded aboriginal. Indigenous then, must mean anyone who was born in Australia. For the purposes of integration that term "closing the gap" is somewhat absurd because separating one group out because they may have a few strands of aboriginal DNA should be called "broadening the gap". As Mr Cameron from the UK recently said multiculturalism doesn't work. Separating out aboriginals is a form of multiculturalism and it doesn't work.

Page 2

As expected anybody from military making a comment on what Tony Abbott said he is fully behind him and completely against the reporter. It doesn't matter whether they are VC winners or rank and file, they will understand what he meant.

It is becoming somewhat obvious that Julie Bishop is positioning herself to challenge the leadership, mostly over petty stuff.

Page 3

If anybody has ever done Certificate IV in training and assessment, or anything similar, to understand what units of competency are. They are simply a set of standards, both theoretical and practical that an individual must demonstrate to meet a set of requirements set out by some kind of standards body.

In the case of teaching when they say that every teacher will have the same level of competency has any other teacher in any other classroom this does not mean that the individual will be good at getting knowledge and skills across to students. None of these levels of competency can produce an individual who can get the message across well. Building such structures does satisfy some kind of overseer role of the government will never address good teaching. What it will do his foster a culture of teachers who will study and take the next competency units, pass them, and be judged "excellent".

Could not help from laughing out loud at the contention that an iPhone and iPad application, or Android application would be 100% secure. Only non-IT professionals make such statements.

Page 4

The concept that individuals are becoming reluctant to take out insurance while expecting governments to pay up automatically follows from the current round of handouts to the non-insured by the government in wake of the current severe weather events. It is after all basic psychology 101.

The dengue fever outbreak could be handled quite easily by using DDT, he was after all what it was designed for, to kill disease bearing mosquitoes. We can thank the Greens and other do-gooders are not being a will to use the scientifically proven safe technology. My sympathies to those who will catch dengue.

Page 6

So the Liberal Barry O'Farrell wants a bigger Sydney. I guess he must be an economist. If I was living in New South Wales this statement alone is enough to have me worried about voting Liberal.

Page 7

The Victorian police force has shown itself to be essentially useless. There are certain things or crimes that should always be a high priority and high focus. One of these is the protection of children from sex offenders. To use the excuse that they needed additional funding to manage this aspect of the policing spectrum shows how morally poor that group in Victoria has become.

Page 8

Good article on the United Nations needing to condemn blasphemy laws. As highlighted the reason they exist is the 47 member Organisation of the Islamic Conference who have supported this purely to prevent any comment, discussion, analysis or examination of Islam. The resolution has been used to justify the killing of those who make comments on Islam. It has never been used against four example people who have made any comments on Christianity, or Judaism. Yes such a law is a direct violation of freedom of speech, but that doesn't matter to the UN.

Page 9

I'm sure there are a lot of people who would disagree but I and I suspect many others fully support the US threat to cut aid to Pakistan unless the American, with diplomatic immunity, is released. I am somewhat confused as to how somebody with a GPS navigation system in a foreign country is unusual. There are many people in their own country use a GPS. It is also fairly standard practice amongst US embassy employees in countries with high level of violence, like Pakistan, to carry a personal weapon.

Page 11

Stephen Conroy must be proud, he is after all the father of the most expensive commutations baby on the planet. He is also have no surprise that basic maths is being stripped away as an ability. The article reads that we come in at number nine at 16 nations. Looking at the chart where you come in at 10. Anybody who is ill watch golf, as an example, will know that when people are tied those making up the tied number used all of the values they represent. In this case two countries were tied at fourth using up the fifth position. I guess saying we came ninth is better than saying we came 10th.

Page 11

Another excellent analysis by Greg Sheridan. In reality the majority of commenters know nothing about the realities in Egypt, the religion of Islam, and the process of jihad.

Page 12 – Letters

Lots of letters in support of Tony Abbott and the gutter journalism of Riley. Having served in the military comments from the air force individual is not surprising. They always considered themselves "better" and "above" the other services. Brett Allen standard ad hominem attack with no substance. Tom Nilsson has an help our national interest to make sure that hundreds of thousands of children in our nearest, largest neighbour get a thorough education in the tenets of Islam? Linking Tony Abbott to Pauline Hanson is a simple and cheap trick.

According to the president of the Australian veterinarian Association is no solid evidence that treating animals with antibiotics has a significant effect on the spread of mutant superbugs. The medical community at large has an opinion on this. Part of the problem are too many people taking antibiotics when they don't need to. This is however only part of the problem there are studies that show that statistical link between feeding antibiotics like Ethromycin two chickens and other animals helps to build up an antibiotic immunity.