Category: General Musings

CIA Torture

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The US Senate Intelligence Committee has a Democrat majority and therein lies the rub. Republican members of the Senate committee that released a highly critical report on CIA terrorist interrogations say the study draws inaccurate conclusions about the usefulness of information obtained from detainees through “enhanced” questioning.
“We have no doubt that the CIA’s detention program saved lives and played a vital role in weakening (al-Qaeda) while the program was in operation,” conclude six of the seven GOP committee members, Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Richard Burr of North Carolina, James Risch of Idaho, Dan Coats of Indiana, Marco Rubio of Florida and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
Senator Susan Collins, the other Republican, voted to release the report but was disturbed that it had not been conducted in a bipartisan manner.
……in June 2013, I asked that we hold a hearing prior to a vote to declassify this report that would have included CIA witnesses. Such a hearing would have permitted a robust and much-needed debate about the claims made in the report compared to the rebuttals in the Agency’s formal response. Unfortunately, this hearing did not occur.
I therefore put in the same category as an ALP report recommending we waste billions of dollars on climate change. I actually don’t care if a terrorist sub-human is waterboarded. If he plans to murder thousands of Westerners or just decapitate one then I think it’s OK that we try and find out before the event. UPDATE: On Monday CIA Director John Brennan rebutted two of the central premises of the Democratic Senate report on CIA’s enhanced interrogating techniques. Brennan said the controversial program produced evidence that helped avert potential strikes against the U.S. Today he admitted the information led to Bin Laden.
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General Musings, War on Terror

Nova Peris in the news

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LABOR senator Nova Peris has asked federal police to investigate the leaking of private emails that led to allegations she sought taxpayer funding for a secret lover and sent him ­racially charged emails claiming white Australians “hate black people”. That’s fine but I trust the AFP are also looking into the question of whether she actually used public monies to pay for Trinidadian sprinter Ato Boldon to visit Australia so they could pursue an extramarital affair. Just curious. Warren Mundine said taxpayers could ignore Senator Peris’s private life as long as they “got bang for the dollar”.
“If it’s true (she made racial comments), it was a silly statement and she needs to say something about that. Otherwise there’s nothing in it for me.”
Therein lies the problem. Warren is suggesting so long as Nova does a good job as a Senator then it doesn’t matter if she makes racist comments. Not the point, Warren.  The point is; did she, or did she not use public monies to satisfy her libido?
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General Musings

Booker prize winner out of order

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Man Booker prize winner Richard Flanagan says Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s environmental policies make him ashamed to be an Australian. Well mate, I’m ashamed that as an Australian you denigrate our country in an international forum and I’m worried that citizens of other countries might believe your left wing ramblings actually represent Australia. They don’t. From Cut and Paste at The Australian; Guardian Australia online, yesterday:
THE winner of the Man Booker prize, Richard Flanagan says he is “ashamed to be an Australian” because of Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s environmental policies …
Flanagan, The Guardian, December 16, 2010:
AUSTRALIA does have a dismal public life largely bereft of courage or humanity
More shame! ABC television’s Q&A, August 27, 2009:
RICHARD Flanagan: I must say I felt deeply ashamed to be Australian through the Howard years
Flanagan, The Guardian, November 28, 2007:
Every mainland capital city now has a water supply crisis so severe that people have been murdered by neighbours for watering gardens.
Flanagan, The Good Weekend, ¬October 21, 2006, on his new book, The Unknown Terrorist, dedicated to David Hicks:
(David Hicks is) just a naive young man who, through the romance of adventure, ended up in bad company …
Flanagan in The Unknown Terrorist, 2006:
…Jesus is history’s first, but not last, example of a suicide bomber.
On all accounts his book is readable and maybe even worthy of the Booker prize that he’s been awarded, but I think I’ll pass on spending good money on buying the book. I wouldn’t want to encourage him or give him any oxygen. There is plenty of good literature available written by people with a greater grasp on reality than this clown, penned by authors who  appreciate what a great country we have and would never think of  denigrating it publicly like he has.
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General Musings

Local killed in Syria

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A QUEENSLAND man has died after travelling to Syria to fight for the terrorist group Islamic State (IS). Good! AFGHAN-BORN Zia AbdulHaq, 33, was killed during the conflict on October 3, The Australian newspaper reports. A foreign fighter believed to have been part of AbdulHaq’s unit confirmed the death to The Australian on Monday, but he has yet to detail how or where he died. AbdulHaq migrated to Australia in his 20s. He lived in Logan, south of Brisbane, with his now ex-wife and son before travelling to Syria to join IS in August.
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General Musings, War on Terror

Senate Inquiry stinks

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Wow, simply wow! A Senate public inquiry has been initiated into the Newman government based on the fact that  Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney refused to give Clive Palmer preferential treatment and approvals to enable development of Galilee Basin coal assets. The Greens supported this move and can I say again “Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney refused to give Clive Palmer preferential treatment and approvals to enable development of Galilee Basin coal assets” That’s funny, I thought one of the Greens major ambitions is to see the coal industry closed down and yet here they are backing a coal baron. Mmmm… maybe they have other priorities. The Senate inquiry is due to be released a week or two before the Queensland elections……Gee, I wonder if the whole idea is just to sling mud at Newman in the state election. Couldn’t be, could it? Pup, the Greens and the ALP wouldn’t stoop that low, would they? The select committee, which will consist of five members but only one from the Coalition, has a reporting date on or before March 27 next year, very close to the date of the next Queensland election. Palmer, who isn’t even in the Senate, and coincidently is seldom in the House where he is charged with working in the interests of Australia, not his business interests, had to get his minions, Senator Private Lambie and Senator, The Brick, Lazarus to move the motion for the inquiry.
Senator Lazarus said people were on the phone to him crying about the way [the LNP] are running QLD – sure this warrants investigation?
Yes folks, that is an adult saying that and actually using the sentence in the debate. As a matter of interest, The Queensland Paliament is accountable to the Queensland people, not the Australian Senate.  The whole exercise is setting a dangerous precedence and is obviously a vengence attack on the Queensland LNP by a businessman who has been refused preferential treatment, as he should have been. I wonder if the Terms of Reference can be broadened to include investigation Clive’s withdrawal of $12 million from a mining development bank account funded by a Chinese partner which Palmer used in his campaign to get the balance of power in the Senate. A balance shared by Lambie and Lazarus. God help us.  
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General Musings, Politics

Subjugation of women not on

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22_niqabgraphic2   Personaly, I think the Niqab, Burka and Chador represent subjugation of women but that’s just me.  If the woman is brought up in a 7th century environment I can see how they wouldn’t think of it like that.  It’s just life, they would think and that is true from their perspective but the rest of the world has moved on. In the West we depend a lot on body lanaguage and no way would I have dealings with some one who is hiding their identity for whatever reason.  If they choose to hide their faces, then in my opinion they choose not to partake of life in Australia.  They can’t enter banks, houses of parliament, shops, Police Stations or any government offices.  I’m not allowed to enter any of these institutions wearing a balaclava so why should they get a free pass.  They also choose to deny themselves the right to a drivers licence and passport. They need to move on but in the meatime I think they should be denied services whilst dressed like a bank robber.    
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General Musings, War against Terrorism

Sleep learning

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LISTENING to revision tapes during sleep may sound like a slightly desperate revision tactic, but now scientists have found evidence that it may not be such a bad idea. The study found that human brains were able to process the meaning of words while we sleep, suggesting that it might be possible to train the mind in particular tasks while we lie slumbering. Sid Kouider, a neuroscientist who led the work at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, said:
“The sleeping brain can be far more ‘active’ in sleep than one would think. Far from falling into a limbo when we fall asleep, parts of our brain can routinely process what is going on in our surroundings.
grundigIn 1966 I was studying Bahasa Indonesia at RAAF Base Point Cook and still remember taking a huge reel to reel tape recorder back to barracks, setting it on ‘play’ before going to bed with a speaker under my pillow. I qualified so maybe it worked but my experience with sleep learning was 9 years before Sid Kouider was even born proving again that what’s new, isn’t. I might add one had to be young and fit to carry the old Grundig but it did work in a clunky manner.  If the Language School is still using sleep learning I guess there is an app for the students to load in their IPhone.   The more things change……
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General Musings

I whish Wilson would go away

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Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Greens Senator from Tasmania claims he served in the Royal Australian Army in his recent speech in the Senate His service is as a cadet at ADFA and RMC.  He joined to fly choppers but according to him he was medically discharged.  Either way he didn’t serve in the Royal Australian Army as it doesn’t exist.  He simply served in the Australian Defence Force Army and then only as  a cadet. He confirms his error on his Senate web site so one wonders how much he can be on top of his portfolio when he doesn’t know, or bother to look up, in what organization he actually served. In his speach to an empty Senate as Green’s Veterans Affairs minister he mentions how he had been at the dinner the government hosted for the Japanese PM recently and was hoping to, and eventually did, give him a letter from Paul Watson, the Sea Sheppard pirate, anti whaling activist and general all round anti-west usefull idiot. Click on the link to read about Watson but this quote gives an indication as to his character and ethics;
Watson feels that “no human community should be larger than 20,000 people,” human populations need to be reduced radically to “fewer than one billion,” and only those who are “completely dedicated to the responsibility” of caring for the biosphere should have children, which is a “very small percentage of humans.” He likens humankind to a virus, the biosphere needs to get cured from with a “radical and invasive approach,” as from cancer
For Wish-Wilson’s to mention Watson in his first speech as the Green’s Veteran’s Affairs spokesman says it all. Dropkick!
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General Musings
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