Guest post by Alec Rawls
Andrew Bolt has been blogging for the past week about the totalitarian tendencies in the just released “Media Inquiry” commissioned by Australia’s Labor government.
This “Finkelstein Report” advocates unlimited regulation of virtually all published and broadcast speech in Australia.
The actual proposal can be scanned in a few minutes (pages 290-300 here). It would set up a 21 member News Media Council, charged to enforce at least some level of oversight:
While the setting of standards should be left to the News Media Council, they should incorporate certain minimum standards, such as fairness and accuracy [§ 11.52, p. 291].
But there is no corresponding limit on how much the Council is allowed to regulate. Just the opposite, the Report explicitly declares that protecting freedom of speech is not part of the Council’s mission! §11.55, p. 292:
The News Media Council requires clearly defined functions. It is not recommended that one of them be the promotion of free speech. There are ample bodies and persons in the community who do that more than adequately.
Really? In a country that has no constitutional or statutory protection for speech, how are non-governmental “bodies and persons in the community” more than adequate to protect speech from a governmental body that is endowed with unlimited power to regulate speech?
The report explicitly calls for opinion to be regulated along with news (§11.64, p. 294) , and while low-readership blogs would possibly be exempted, Bolt notes that the suggested threshold for regulation would cover any blog that averaged even one reader a day, and even that would be at the complete discretion of the Council (§11.59, p. 293).
In addition to making whatever rules they want, the Media Council will also sit in judgment (§11.70, p. 296):
If not resolved informally, complaints should be dealt with by a complaints panel consisting of one, three or, only in exceptional cases, five members of the News Media Council.
Envisioned remedies (§ 11.74, p. 297-8) include forced corrections, forced withdrawals, and forced publication on the offender’s website of contrary views.
Crime and punishment
Elsewhere the Media Inquiry makes perfectly clear which views are to be corrected: global warming skepticism and criticism of the Labor government.
Skeptics could even be forced to take their own views down and post contrary views in their place. Just impose all the contemplated remedies at once, and why not? There are no stated limits. There are no limits on scope: that political speech is to be granted wide play, or even whether challengers for office must submit to oversight on their claims about the incumbent regime. Neither are any procedural limits imposed. The Council can make up whatever rules it wants. And if people refuse?
Failures to comply (§11.77, p. 298) are to be turned over to existing courts (civil or criminal not specified) which would be called upon to punish non-compliance as contempt of court (i.e. running fines or jail until compliance is forthcoming). In other words, unlimited punishment.
In the name of efficiency there are to be no “internal” or “external” appeals (§278, p. 299), but judges deciding on contempt charges would be allowed to review Council rulings if they feel that their dockets are not full enough already (§11.79, p. 299).
Orwellian “benefits”
§11.86 (p. 300) lists the proclaimed benefits that justify this system of unlimited regulation. Compared to the barbaric system of liberty, where people compete to offer the most convincing arguments, having the government be the arbiter of truth will:
[enable] the public to have confidence that journalistic standards will be upheld and that complaints will be resolved without fear or favour.
Yes, government is well known to never play favorites, and Solomonic power is famous for its even handed wisdom: “Cut the baby in half!” Liberty is way overrated.
Solomon did not actually cut the baby but we can be certain that this 21 member Council, all appointed by a single “independent committee” (like the authors of the Finkelstein report!), would be an abattoir.
“Independent” the report clarifies (§11.46, p. 291), means “Independent from government” (emphasis added), and yet it is to have the power of government. In other words, it is to have unaccountable power, and this independence from accountability is to be conferred upon a well known permanent Labor constituency, Universities Australia, which would get to appoint a majority of the “independent committee.”
Thus the entire enterprise would have the great virtue (from the Labor point of view) that unlike the sitting government, the voters cannot “throw the bums out.” Here the appointing committee and the appointed Council will violate the fundamental principle of republicanism as articulated by Alexander Hamilton, who appealed at the New York Convention that:
The true principle of a republic is, that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.
Too bad the Australian Constitution also lacks a republican guarantee.
The final punctuation mark on Finkelstein’s plan, the last proclaimed benefit of allowing dissidents to be swallowed whole by the Ministry of Truth, is timeless virtue:
Enhancing the public flow of information and the exchange of views.
“War is peace,” and “we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.” As Brendan O’Neill writes in The Australian:
…we’re witnessing the unravelling of many of the values and virtues of the modern era.
All in a knee-jerk snit over the fact that the left-dominated media does not yet have a complete publishing monopoly. Dissenting voices can still be heard, and Finkelstein finds that very disturbing.
Negative liberty: non-existent in Australia and in peril in America
To an American, what is most striking about the Australian plan is the complete absence of any statement of negative rights, or freedom from restrictions on speech. Our entire concept of free speech is framed in negative terms: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.” The Australians have no constitutional protection for speech, but it is still astounding to see how readily the left would overthrow this pillar of Western liberty in exchange for partisan advantage.
The same totalitarian ambitions are at work in America too. They face greater legal obstacles here, but key actors are powerfully placed. Obama’s “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein wants to use the system of “notice and takedown” from copyright law to shut down “conspiracy theories.” As an example, he wants to suppress claims that:
the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud.
If SOPA had passed then all of the necessary machinery would have been in place, ready to expand from copyright infringement to the suppression of conspiracy theories at the drop of a one-line rider on any bill. At that point our freedom to speak our minds would lie in the hands of Sunstein booster Elena Kagan (who brought Sunstein to Harvard, calling him “the preeminent legal scholar of our time”); the racist Sonya Sotomayor (a long-time member of La Raza, or “the race“); and a borderline Court-majority of similar un-worthies.
We dodged a bullet and it looks like Australia will too, given how well the Finkelstein report is being received down under, but dodging bullets is a precarious business. If we don’t somehow manage to effect a fundamental retrenchment of liberty it won’t be long before we lose it.
After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
ONLY hours after the Finkelstein media inquiry report was released last week, lecturers from four of Australia’s top journalism schools delivered their instant judgment on the academic website The Conversation.
Each of the four — Brian McNair from the Queensland University of Technology, Johan Lidberg from Monash University, Alexandra Wake from RMIT University and Andrea Carson from the University of Melbourne — enthusiastically embraced Ray Finkelstein’s central recommendation for a new government-funded regulatory body to sit in judgment of news reporting.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/finkelstein-report-medias-great-divide/story-e6frg996-1226295437607
how are non-governmental “bodies and persons in the community” more than adequate to protect speech from a governmental body
Though the use of the ballot box. Throw them out.
I would tactfully suggest that as the sceptical viewpoint seems to be getting heard more here in the UK at the moment that our ozzy friends consider making sure that your head of State can step in and get rid of the muppets.
Not ideal be any stretch
But JHC! – if this is true – your politicians need a wake up call in democracy.
They forget that they govern at the pleasure of the citizens. Maybe they’ll need to see a very large mass of people marching over the hills with pitchforks and shovels. That is the alternate ballot, as I recall.
Thank you for putting this up on your website. We already have the situation that at least 50% of the press is too scared to print serious investigative journalism in Australia. Newspapers that criticise the Government are threatened, daily. We have the 5th highest level of internet censorship in the world being imposed. A sitting State government is allowed to use outright slander to make the opponents look bad – it’s legal. All this to “protect” us from discussing our beliefs.
Bottom line, I get all my AGW information from the web, almost all from international sites. Global Warming discussion in Australia is largely closed down except for a few brave souls.
…and really scary for us in New Zealand, is the growing desire for closer “ties” with Australia
“The Australians have no constitutional protection for speech, but it is still astounding to see how readily the left would overthrow this pillar of Western liberty in exchange for partisan advantage.”
The lefts sole and only goal is to overthrow western liberty… the US Constitution the most rightwing document ever created is a threat to all leftists throughout the world and they will do anything to destroy it or even better to subvert it to prevent that somehow it says they are correct in oppressing the masses.
This subversion has be very successful in that many many people believe left and right mean left and right socialists… pravda had a great line about it… stalin is a moderate hitler is rightwing… and that has become our “new” political world…
Until people turn away from the left and the center and embrace the rightwing ideals in the US Constitution the US won’t be far behind.
My open letter to Australia*:
Dear Australia*,
Please go f**k yourselves. No, seriously. You’re all insane.
Thanks.
Yours truly,
Jay
*In this instance, Australia means the Australian government — all of them, elected or otherwise. Also, Simon Chapman and Nicola Roxon. And global warming alarmists. And most of Australia’s journalists for being pussies. Oh, and that taxi driver who drove me from the airport to Manly Beach. Yeah, you.
This is going to be great!
I cannot wait for this law to be passed, because it will give me no end of pleasure to make the life of those who try to enforce it utter hell.
Doug UK says (March 15, 2012 at 4:49 pm)
“that our ozzy friends consider making sure that your head of State can step in and get rid of the muppets.”
——-
Um, I seem to recall that happening in 1974, and it didn’t go down too well. 🙂
——-
Meanwhile, in the UK the head of the Press Complaints Commission, Lord Hunt, wants to introduce a voluntary ‘kitemarking’ system for blogs. The kitemark with indicate that the blogger has agreed to strive for accuracy, and to be regulated. Bloggers would lose their kitemark if complaints against them were repeatedly upheld. Blogs that cover current affairs will be first hit. Hunt says “At the moment, it is like the Wild West out there. We need to appoint a sheriff.”
This sounds just as bad! Richard Black from the BBC will get a kitemark from the ‘sherriff’ for supporting the ‘proper’ ‘scientific’ view of AGW, while WUWT will be blacklisted after enough warmist complaints about it being ‘anti-climate’.
We can’t even blame this one on the EU!
Atrocious and unbelievable!
The same policies have been tried mutliple times in recent history; Russia in the communist takeover and Germany with National Socialism in the 1930’s come to mind.
We all know – or should know – how that turned out.
Aussie servicemen have fought valiantly and died to help rid the earth of many of these curses on civil liberites. Let us hope the general populace will rise in righteous anger and ban any such possible legislation.
This is outrageous. I doubt the aussies will stand for it.
The true battle mankind has to face, fight and win in this 21st century is for democracy. Democracy as people understand it to be is already largely gone in Europe with laws being made by an unelected, unaccountable group along with the politburo within the EU which are binding upon the democratically elected ‘governments’ of EU member states. These ‘Governments’ where now some 80% of laws they make are dictated to them by the unelected in Brussels are in reality little more than puppet governments of the EU and there to provide the fig-leaf that people still have democratic governance.
The global elite’s determination to control the world through the careful eradication of democracy hidden behind smoke-screens giving a semblance of democracy are gathering strength and this example from Australia is just another manifestation of it.
AGW is, as we all know, another manifestation of the same aim.
The true challenge we all face, regardless of the battleground we fight it on is for truth, honesty and above all the restoration of democracy where it has been eroded or traduced and finding the way to create stronger democracy through public involvement in referenda to ensure that the will of the people will never be trampled and destroyed by the greed and desires of the few.
In Europe the battle to restore democracy has yet to begin although the majority of the public in the UK now understand to some extent that the EU has been terribly damaging to the UK and want us out of it. Other people across europe feel the same way and this is why the EU and member governments use every means to avoid the public having any say in their nations continued membership of the EU. It is more akin to the USSR than to democracy and is now widely nicknamed the EUSSR. Any individual who has worked for the EU in any position and is in receipt of a pension automatically loses that pension if they ever say anything publicly which is critical of any part, operation or aspect of the EU.
Mankind has a major battle to fight and the first stages (which I believe are already underway) are to bring realisation to the public in democracies of the nature of the threat; it seems the Labour party in Australia may be bringing that realisation to the people.
We have to win this fight.
I’m not against judgement of news reporting as long as it is fair, so that alarmist propaganda receives scrutiny and suffers penalties for inaccurate and/or misleading reporting.
My main concern is who is to make such judgements, and whether there is sufficient right of appeal.
I agree with Scottish Sceptic; these guys need to be careful what they’re wishing for.
This is strangely in line with the United Nations’ “Education for Sustainable Development” which says that more highly educated people accumulate more “stuff” and have a bigger environmental “footprint”. The less educated poor live simpler and have a smaller environmental “footprint”. So they conclude that providing a lot of general education is not sustainable and that the people should be educated only to the extent that they need to be in order to perform their (assigned?) work tasks.
This would be the logical follow-on. Since the people would then be too stupid to decide issues in an intelligent manner, we might as well get rid of voting altogether and have some UN commissions (I believe they call this aspect “World Governance”) decide everything.
What they don’t mention is that in the US and probably Australia, too, the percentage of the population with a college degree has never been higher. The population is more educated on these matters than it has ever been in history and MORE qualified to govern itself. And what, pray tell, makes one qualified to make these decisions from simply having won an election? What makes a politician so much more qualified than their constituents in deciding matter?
The entire argument is absurd. These people need to be taken by the scruff of the neck and hauled off to some place as far away from the seat of government as possible.
Its time to remove any government that even attempts to impose such draconian limits to free speech; any government that even proposes such ideas instantly forfeits themselves as the government and is automatically no longer the government but becomes the enemy of the people. Unbelievable that a country like Australia would fall prey to such busy body fascist big brother control freaks.
Do you Aussie’s have a national health care system that requires mandatory ‘payment’ (i.e., requires you to ‘pay into the system’ in some manner way, shape or form)?
Finkelstein, seems like a reasonable fella, mind you someone probably said that about, Pol Pot.
Looks like we’re heading back to the good old days of letterbox drops in the dead of the night. The Man will NEVER stop the resistance
Scottish Skeptic has the key. The tyrants who wrote this law forgot about the Internet. Small bloggers in Australia can keep the tyrants VERY BUSY for a very long time, because most blog ISPs are outside Australia. If the tyrants then try to ‘isolate’ the Net like China, they’ll run into even bigger trouble from ordinary folks who want to pick up tunes from Apple or movies from Disney. And when you start cutting into Apple and Disney profits, that’s when things get serious.
Where’s Guy Fawkes when you really need him?
I will be volunteering.
Yes, I will sign up on the first day of enlistment, to be a member of the army that will be required to liberate Australia from the occupying forces of evil.
I’m certainly hoping I won’t be called upon to liberate and/or rescue people from the inevitable re-education camps, but hey, I’ll do whatever I have to.
(I can’t be any more obvious without someone screaming “Godwin’s Law!”)
One thing Alec Rawls left out was the so-called “fairness doctrine” law proposed by Democrats which was specifically aimed to silence right-wing media by requiring stations to air opposing points of view. Thankfully, that law is dead. But if there is anything I’ve learned over the year is that people who thirst for power don’t give up until they have what they want. Two things corrupt more than anything else: money and power. Climate scientists have been corrupted by both.
Is it just me or is the world becoming more and more like the world of Atlas Shrugged.
What is happening to Australia? Are we picking on them with these outlandish rants or is it all true?
In Canada we face a problem of silencing government scientists who want the right to speak independently from the government about their research. It seems that the government is subverting important information such as catastrophic global climate change, so if only the scientists could by-pass official government channels and speak directly to the people all would be well.
I agree with the Canadian government that they should control the information that their scientists generate. This does not apply to university scientists. But is Australia applying this concept to all groups – private as well?
Rants on blogs are one thing. But understand who has the guns. And I’m not talking about shotguns. Look closely at Syria. Are you who object to this News Media Council in Australia willing to die for your freedom? Because if you’re not, you lose.
Ditto the USA.
Head post: To an American, what is most striking about the Australian plan is the complete absence of any statement of negative rights, or freedom from restrictions on speech. Our entire concept of free speech is framed in negative terms: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.”
Can you turn that around as ‘placing limits on government‘? (Note also that was an amendment to the original document.)
This ‘negative rights’ business does not make sense …
.
No laughing matter. This is draconian imposition. 1984 anyone?
well, let’s see-
liberty is funded by… er….
well, oppression is funded by your tax dollar so there’s at least a zillion to one financing imbalance.
so i guess the game is gamble the farm on impossible odds.
and because the certainty of being ripped off is always so easily masked by false hope,
the anemic patient will always call for more leeches – just different ones.
and so nature takes its course – and that’s the same as it ever was.
dream of change? heh.cum mula peperit.
The government regulating the media rather than a media appointment body in combination with the court system. What an incredible proposition. And utterly reprehensible.
AndiC says: “…and really scary for us in New Zealand, is the growing desire for closer “ties” with Australia.”
Reminds me a lot of the throngs of Austrians eager for closer ties with Nazi Germany. Can anschluss be long in coming?
We had a classic case of what news and current affairs would be like under the Finkelstein regime last night when the ( national broadcaster) ABC’s Lateline program ( one of their flagship N&CA shows) conducted a 15 odd minute “interview” with …. Professor Michael Mann! Professor Mann was fed porridge with honey sprinkled with dorothy dixer questions about the Hockey Stick, Mike’s Nature Trick and of course good old Hide the Decline. He batted them away in his easy, greasy, smug style with po faced denial closely followed by predictable blather about how they were out to get him and the rest of the team etc.
I am sure this utter pap is what the brave new Finklesteined world will look and sound like if the proposed Anti Free Speech Einsatzgruppen ever gets off the ground.
But, there is hope. Queensland’s ALP government are headed for oblivion in a week or so to join that of New South Wales. Victoria’s has already gone as did Western Australia’s a couple of years ago. That means the three most populous states ( Qld, NSW, Vic) and the two mining boom states (WA, Qld) for a total of about 90% of the population will be outside the tent pissing in with firehoses. Tasmania’s ALP-Green fruitcake will be next.
The other thing to keep in mind is that while we have no explicit constitutional right to free speech like the US, our High Court ( i.e. the highest in the land ) has form in this area and it is on the side of liberty. Some years back the ALP tried to ban political advertising and comment in the last few days before an election ( always on a Saturday here). It was in response to a particularly devastating ad by the (conservative) Coalition in the previous election run over the last couple of days with no chance of rebuttal (BEWARE Labor’s WEALTH TAX !! ). The high court threw the restriction out on the basis that our democratic electoral arrangements made no sense without the right of free speech. This was in reality a common law confirmation of free speech as a fundamental right rather than a constitutional one. So fear not too much, dear friends.
This post is my therapy for having to suffer Michael Mann last night.
Australia is scary like that. They literally have no civil rights protections other than the whims of bureaucrats who only adhere to the far left.
If that day comes in the US at least our electrical problems will be solved. We’ll just need to wrap the bodies of our Founding Fathers in copper wire, mount some magnets near them and, voila, an instant supply of power as their bodies spin unendingly in their graves. Other than that, I can’t think of anything to recommend a proposal such as this.
Are there any well-known champions of free speech in Australia whose name you can rally behind? Or at least dead ones you can harness for electrical power in the event that this crazy proposal goes through and becomes law?
It amazes me how theoretically sane people can’t see the purpose in the ideas behind the First Amendment. There is no “truth” in the absolute sense that one person or one set of people can possess it. The only way a committee like this could function effectively (and morally) is if they were omniscient and new all truth without possibility of error. Since that is patently impossible for human beings, the only reasonable and sane thing to do is for people to be free to speak and make their best case and let the marketplace of ideas decide. The hubris in this proposal is mind boggling. As well as it’s obliviousness in putting a small group of people in charge of determining what can and can’t be said across a whole society. Do they not see the overwhelming danger in concentrating power like that? Or are they so mesmerized by the idea of sticking it to those they disagree with that they can’t see that the same tool can be turned against them (c.f. French Revolution).
If you take away freedom of speech, the once free people will very often resort to action instead.
Things could get quite ugly !!
Perhaps Lord Monckton needs to make another visit down under? Maybe he already has a trip in the works. Best of luck to all our freedom loving friends down under. The Marxists and all of their ignoramus followers are hard at work trying to destroy western civilization and they are well entrenched everywhere.
As I have stated before they will not stop until they rule us all and they mean to do it one way or another, at some point they will attempt to do so by force. I sincerely hope we can stop them before it is too late.
Anti democratic forces here in Australia want ever encroaching limits on free speech and critical debate.
Forced myself to watch Michael Mann’s bland interview on ABC last night 🙁
Get yer message t shirts.
Write yer letters.
Do yer protest marches.
It’s gonna be on fer one n’ all !
Seriously stupid idea. I hope it is laughed out of town or, if not, its supporters voted out soon and forever. If it does take effect and remain in force, it will succeed only in driving resistance underground. When that finally erupts, there will be a terrible reckoning.
You know how most of the worlds troubles come from dodgey little 3rd world countries?
We’re trying to turn ourselves into a dodgey big 3rd world country.
Not long now.
I have my Backtrack , IPCop and Tor Linux ready 🙂
It is inevitable.
Governments have always controlled ‘their’ people by feeding them the desired story at the desired time, and have avoided scrutiny of major stuff-ups, distasteful legislation, and outright robbery by creating major distractions. In the old days, these distractions consisted on an SOP of finding an enemy, creating a crisis, then starting a war. More recently, but before the age of the Internet, created or real environmental or economic ‘crises’ have sufficed (a proviso, if you are American, then wars remain the preferred method).
The Great Global Warming Indoctrination Failure (GGWIF) will be followed by gradual but relentless tightening and restriction of ‘freedom of speech’ on the Internet. Individual government will find new ways to manufacture new crises, and use them as an excuse to gradually edge us back to the ‘good old days’, when information moved slowly, and most people only saw the desired side of the ‘argument’.
Green totalitarians. Hopefully Australians will vote these politicians and their sycophants out… Clearly such blattant bias cannot be established without powerful financial forces at work.
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings and commented:
Scary people in scary places
I certainly do not mean any offense to my many Aussie friends (I lived there for 3.5 years, 20 years ago now), but am I ever glad not to be there now!
My Dad passed last year. His favorite t-shirt had a picture of a pile of guns on it. You know, the ones the aussies confiscated about ten years ago. I think it was an nra t, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to see if mom still has it. Anyway, He always preached that the reason they were taking the guns away, was to restrict free speech. He kept waiting for it to happen. I find his wisdom remarkable. Take care of your house, Australia.
The next logical step is to “limit” the content of ballots–meaning that only “correct” ballots will be counted. Then even the time-honored and ultimate means of eliminating such nefarious control will itself be eliminated.
Anthony, see this post of mine regarding the constitutional powers of the Australian federal government to regulate bloggers.
Finkelstein claimed that any organisation with “more than a tenuous connection” to Australia would fall under the jurisdiction of the NMC. But in reality, unless the blogs are a legal corporation, the government has no such power. The advice, from the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, was conveniently omitted from the consultation page of the Inquiry (until I emailed them and they were forced to put it up):
Legal advice sinks bloggers’ Finkelsteinian nightmare”
It will be a lawyers dream, if such legislation ever reached the statute books.
Simon
Editor, Australian Climate Madness (and lawyer)
It is a generational thing.
The movers and shakers in our civilisation are usually aged between 55 and 65. That is when people reach the apex of their careers and tend to have the most influence over their chosen spheres of life. People tend to form their political opinions at roughly the age where they go to university. Lets say 18. That means the movers and shakers of our society right now formed their political viewpoints in the years 1965 – 1975. If you think about what was happening in universities back then you will understand a lot better where most of this nuttiness is coming from. This is the generation that invented political correctness and saw it is a desirable thing.
Wait ten years for the next more cynical generation (of which I am a member) to arrive at their peak of power. That generation that used “political correctness” as a term of disparagement.
Well, so you disseminate information via websites that switch off after the 14,999th click.
That’s still much better than Xeroxing leaflets. Finkelstein is an amateur totalitarian.
I know it was a big leap in my intellectual understanding when I was growing up when I finally realized that, at the highest levels of power, there is no independent, unbiased authority, there’s no absolute truth. There’s only what you can sell and what you can get away with. At lower levels, things operate on automatic pilot, so to speak. As children we’re taught that there are the police and the courts and everything and if you break the law, you get arrested, you get tried and convicted, and you go to jail. All very impersonal. But at the highest levels, it’s very different. Everybody knows everybody and automatic pilot no longer works. Crimes don’t get prosecuted automatically, they get prosecuted if it’s in the interest of those in power to prosecute (or if they are shamed into it against their will). And so “truth” and what “really happened” and what is really a crime is hostage to political intrigue, party affilitiation, and personal relationships. There is no absolute truth because there is no one at that level that is unbiased or uninvolved to render an indepedent judgment.There are always ulterior motives and personal relationships involved. Government, you realize, is no more than a group of flawed human beings fighting among themselves for advantage.
Yet the people who propose commissions like this seem utterly unaware of the true nature of politics and government at those levels. They are still laboring under the child-like belief that “government” is somehow set apart from all that. That it is objectively wise, and fair and noble and can determine what is right and wrong without bias and transmit that “truth” to us mere mortals. But it can’t because it’s none of those things. It’s an association of flawed individuals with independent agendas operating under a loosely enforced set of rules and conventions. In the short term it’s answerable only to itself. It’s naive in the extreme to give the power to determine “truth” to such a group and then further to give it power to enforce that determination by penalties that force one to violate one’s own conscience or prohibit one’s speech. It’s remarkable that such a naive attitude about government and its role in society could survive into adulthood for so many people. They need to grow up. And the sooner the better.
I think you meant the Ministry of Love.
Вся власть советам!
It is time for an Aussie Spring!
How can the Aussie public be so complacent about the eroding of Democracy that the brave men and women fought so bravely for in the past?
Labor Governments across this continent are being cast out. The Federal one will be utterly annihilated at the next election…. Labor is it’s own worst enemy. Their lies, deceits, maladministration and totalitarianism is there for everyone to see. However it is not our elected officials who are the problem, the problem lies with our vast unelected Ecofascist and Socialist bureaucracies that remain while anting Australia’s democratic processes in between Labor Governments and asserting themselves, like the Finkelstein enquiry, when Labor Socialists gain power.
There comes a time when one must amputate what has become rotten….. We, in Australia, are just about at that unhappy place. The Socialists know it too and strive to to beat back what is surely about to beset them.
…. They will rue the day they distorted truth, science and society to gain power.
I fear for my beloved homeland. This Govt is the most dangerous Govt ever in the history of Australia.
In other news, Australia’s Carbon Tax is being challenged in the High Court. There are a number of avenues for challenge (under the Constitution) but the strongest appears to be that the Federal Govt cannot impose taxes on State property, and some of the 500 targets of the tax are State owned (such as power generation and waste disposal).
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/government-brushes-off-palmers-challenge-to-carbon-tax-20120315-1v8al.html
Just one more reason to never step foot in that country…not that I ever considered. Good luck Aussie.
Wow. This is quite chilling to read about this. I assure you, if something similar were to happen in this country, we here in Texas would be taking up arms. We do not sacrifice or surrender our fundamental freedoms.
Can you say George Orwell and Animal Farm?
Peter says:
March 15, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Global Warming discussion in Australia is largely closed down except for a few brave souls.
______________________________________________________
So true, but many of the brave souls who have been out there and speaking out, are weary at belting their head on a brick wall of government, bought and paid for propaganda. What needs to be understood that even when the now opposition was in control of Federal Parliament, we had almost wall to wall Labor Governments at state level. Think Californian style eco-loon government across America and Tammany Hall styled labor and Green controlled local government (Town Councils) where the greens ruled, that in fire prone areas, trees could not be removed or shrubs cleared, fire breaks or land clearing prevented because that would disturb the natural environment. This absolute power backed by punitive regulations and crippling fines. Hardly surprising that our annual summer fires in dried out bush caused such havoc and loss of life.
Those green tyrants don’t change their ways. They wait in the wings for the opportunity to grab power again. We are slowly changing away from Labor governments as a result of the abuses of power, the financial waste and crippling debt expenditure on left wing adventures. But even that battle is far from over as we have learned how the cornered fight dirty, like the ludicrous attempted smear in the past few days by the Queensland Premier.
Of course over the top of all this is the Federal Labor government, accused of “pork barreling” key electorates with monetary handouts, fighting tooth and nail to keep the inquiry reports secret, to prevent exposure or publication. The insatiable reach for the ability to regulate first the newspapers, then the internet, and no we could not have wireless based internet, we must have more expensive easily monitored for content and censorship via the National Broadband Network where internet traffic is channeled through the network cable.
I fear we will become the infamous “Australian model” or case study that is put up as an example of how easy it is to destroy an easy going democratic nation. We won’t be as trusting in the future. One thing I would point out is that regulations work often in unintended ways so as new governments come in, those that proposed such wide regulation, might just lament with the benefit of hindsight.
“Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it”
George Santayana
I hope those down under can appreciate our 2nd Amendment. For those with blinders on, it is not about hunting, target shooting or self defense. It is about being able to throw the bastards out using force if necessary.
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”
Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
The green/warmists here are suffering what I call ‘Australian Water Torture’. Every shower, every rain cloud, every cool day, every brimming reservoir, ever gleaming floodplain and desert bloom, eats away at the foundations of their Faith. That Faith was based on the ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that the climate was getting hotter and drier. The idiots even went on the record with this assertion (See Dr Tim Flannery).
As common sense prevails and The Australian People gradually realize that the doomsday scenarioi is simply not happening the ‘authorities’ are getting desperate.
This Finkelstein effort is just a sign that they are losing the battle for public opinion and are madly trying to prevent the spread of Doubt …they lost the science argument long ago.
Australians have no constitutional protection for speech, equivalent to the 1st amendment of the U.S. constitution?
Let’s hope they have something equivalent to the 2nd amendment of the U.S. constitution.
“In times of universal deceit [Global Warming Hoax], telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” (George Orwell.)
“Those who don´t know history [Global Warming Hoax Propagandists] are destined to repeat it.” (Edmund Burke.)
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [Global Warming Hoax Apologists] do nothing.” (Edmund Burke.)
“Silence [Global Warming Hoax Apologists] in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer.)
Global Warming Hoax is EVIL AND WRONG.
SAY NO TO GLOBAL WARMING HOAX
SAY NO TO JUNK SCIENCE
SAY NO TO GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Please be accurate. The US Constitution does not grant the “freedom of speech.” This freedom is part of the “certain unalienable rights” that we all have regardless of whether our government recognizes it. Many argued at the time that the Bill of Rights was unnecessary and were concerned that listing some rights would lead the government to conclude, in error, that rights not enumerated could be limited. They appear to have been correct in their concern.
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”
Louis Hooffstetter says:
March 15, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Australians have no constitutional protection for speech, equivalent to the 1st amendment of the U.S. constitution?
Let’s hope they have something equivalent to the 2nd amendment of the U.S. constitution.
They sadly gave that up 10 years ago or so…..
Alec Rawls reckons
Really? In a country that has no constitutional or statutory protection for speech, how are non-governmental “bodies and persons in the community”
———-
It’s called the courts Alec.
Andrew Bolt should know that. Afterall he was recently smacked on the hand for attempting to discredit people and damage their livelihoods by making up s???t on his blogs.
The legal judgement specifically balanced freedom of speech against the right of vicious political commentators to make s???t up.
Andrew is just trying to bury what he did. Don’t fall for it.
I would be demanding heads. Whoever was involved in this report should lose their jobs. Quite frankly, I don’t know why Australians are not screaming bloody murder right now.
“Doug UK says:
March 15, 2012 at 4:49 pm
But JHC! – if this is true – your politicians need a wake up call in democracy.”
That’s what you get when you have a Fabian Socialist at the helm of power in OZ. It’s called Control Freaking! We had similar attempts at control freaking on certain issues here in NZ under our former Labour Lead Govt under another Fabian Socialist leader with a Marxist leaning Helen Clark.
The previous Labour Govt in the 1980s under David Lange scrapped any rights, etc pertaining under the Magna Carta!!
in the name of CAGW, the Wivenhoe Dam in Queensland, Australia, which holds enough water for many decades was allowed to fill to capacity, instead of being kept below levels to allow for flood mitigation, and the engineers are now at the centre of a damning report regarding the floods last year. best to read it here for now:
16 March: Andrew Bolt: Queensland flood inquiry report released
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/queensland_flood_inquiry_report_released/
12 March: Courier Mail, Australia: Flood victims sign up to sue State Government over January 2011 disaster
AN ATTEMPT to sue the State Government for the damage caused by the January 2011 flood is shaping as the largest class action Australia has ever seen, a group of flood-affected residents was told yesterday.
The move to sue the Government for damages is gathering momentum, with nearly 300 people packing a community meeting in Chelmer yesterday.
There are believed to be more than 1000 people signed for the “no win-no fee” action…
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/flood-victims-sign-up-to-sue-government/story-e6freoof-1226296493281
let this be a lesson to those people who put CAGW ideology ahead of scientific integrity.
Alec reckons
If we don’t somehow manage to effect a fundamental retrenchment of liberty it won’t be long before we lose it.
———-
Yep.
Let’s take a lesson from history. The Nazi Party was elected to office via lying, cheating and manipulation. The lesson to be learn’t is that freedom of speech that allows unlimited rights to lying cheating and manipulation is a bad idea.
We should not be able to lie and then justify it by claiming its free speech.
We should not be able to cheat and then excuse it as free speech.
We should not be able to manipulate the public and claim that’s Ok since it’s free speech.
Both sides of politics should be able to cooperate for the common good, even if they disagree. That requires a certain level of trust and respect. Lying, cheating and manipulating in the name of free speech will eventually destroy good government and destroy freedom, as the Germans discovered.
As a Canadian, I have witnessed what socialist Governments can do from The Federal government, Provincial to the Municipal we are neck deep with the same socialist’s and principles Australia is experiencing with the Labor/socialist. but thank god we have a relativity sane Conservative government at present, yes they have warts but compared to what goes on in Europe, Australia and the USA under Obama. Canada is in great shape! We don’t buy the Global warming fraud thank god. Good luck Aussies you have a terrible up hill battle ahead of you but I’m confident the majority will fight back against these Control freak socialist criminals!!!
Sounds like Australia is on a fast track to an oligarchy. I hope you guys can derail that train.
without the investigations of Hedley Thomas, the truth might never have come out:
16 March: Australian: Hedley Thomas: Dishonesty, collusion and flood victims taken for mugs
IT is now official – the final report of the floods inquiry has found there was a serious cover-up over the devastating floods last year.
It involved collusion, dishonesty and lying. The inquiry found three engineers presented false evidence after the event in an attempt to protect their professional reputations.
The cover-up concealed a breach of the operating manual for Wivenhoe Dam, Queensland’s most dangerous and powerful infrastructure, between 8am on January 8 until the evening of January 9, according to the findings…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/dishonesty-collusion-and-flood-victims-taken-for-mugs/story-fn7iwx3v-1226301577641
I would foresee a near instant invention using akin to the old unernet (which I believe is still operational) forming. Alternatively, a bit torrent style user sharing arrangement where documents are shared but not stored. Email notifications or distribution of articles, would do much the same thing as a web article with no discussion area.
People will outsmart both the politicians and the law 10:1 every time. They are chasing cats with a broom on this one. Not that they would understand that untill they spent the money and effort.
jim says:
March 15, 2012 at 6:29 pm
My Dad passed last year. His favorite t-shirt had a picture of a pile of guns on it. You know, the ones the aussies confiscated about ten years ago. I think it was an nra t, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to see if mom still has it. Anyway, He always preached that the reason they were taking the guns away, was to restrict free speech. He kept waiting for it to happen. I find his wisdom remarkable. Take care of your house, Australia.
===========================================================================
Here’s an example of your free speech, Jim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29
And to borrow a line from Jay above :
Go F**K yourself with your AK47.
Time to choose sides.
Time to take names.
This direction towards censorship should be dubbed “Suzukism” and supporters of such fascist ideas as “Suzukists.”
It follows fast on the footsteps of David Suzuki’s latest “Deny the Deniers the Right to Deny” article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-suzuki/climate-change-denial_b_1325198.html
That followed his plea to students that they find a way to jail politicians who don’t believe in climate science (his version of climate science.)
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=290513
LazyTeenager says:
March 15, 2012 at 7:48 pm
Andrew Bolt should know that. Afterall he was recently smacked on the hand for attempting to discredit people and damage their livelihoods by making up s???t on his blogs.
The legal judgement specifically balanced freedom of speech against the right of vicious political commentators to make s???t up.
Andrew is just trying to bury what he did. Don’t fall for it.
Lazy Teenage Idiot. You are a piece of work Andrew Bolt was railroaded by this same system you witness today in Auss. Andrew Bolt has done more to fight the likes of you and the big brother socialist government world wide that you seem to love.
@LazyTeenager says:
Andrew Bolt should know that. Afterall he was recently smacked on the hand for attempting to discredit people and damage their livelihoods by making up s???t on his blogs.
The legal judgement specifically balanced freedom of speech against the right of vicious political commentators to make s???t up.
Andrew is just trying to bury what he did. Don’t fall for it.
============================
Remarkably misinformed statements Lazy. Andrew Bolt asked the question: What is aboriginal identity? Should people who for all intents and purposes look white, be given resources from the limited pool of privileges and benefits that the government funds? Are these benefits reaching those aboriginals who are most disadvantaged? i.e., in outback communities?
Tough questions to answer. But reasonable to ask. How you asking such questions become “vicious political comment” ? This is a perfect example of why media control by the government in a liberal democracy is a bad idea. Hint hint: because people like you will censor based on political rhetoric.
First of all, I’d like to correct a common misconception that America was founded as a democracy, which it certainly was not.
It was established as a Constitutional Republic, as America’s Founding Fathers knew that democracies always, without fail, lead to the tyranny of the majority (or “consensus” as the case maybe…)
Under a Constitutional Republic, men are bound by the rule of law (Constitution) not the whims of the simple majority. The Federal government was only granted a few powers: tax, coin gold-backed money (not print fiat currency), build infrastructure, regulate INETERstate commerce (not intrastate), man an army, deliver the mail, issue patents, make international treaties, declare war and pass laws directly related to the powers granted and establish courts. That was it.
All other matters were to be handled by the states, local governments or individuals. Additional powers could only be added to the Federal govt only with 66.6% of BOTH the Senate & House.
By threatening the Supreme Court, Presidents Wilson and FDR won some key SC decisions, which trashed the Constitution to the point where it could now be reduced to one sentence, “We the people allow the Federal government to do whatever the hell it wants.”
So, yes, the US is now a democracy on the brink of collapse and is no longer a Constitutional Republic.
The fundamental BILL of Rights Is under constant assault, and unless America’s Constitutional Republic is reestblished, freedoms of speech and the press will be curtailed through unconstitutional legislation such as “The Fairness Doctrine”. It’s just a matter of time.
And so it goes…..until it doesn’t…..
If the Australian government can act as an authoritarian despotic entity who’s to say they can’t rig the next election with the collusion of the media???
Visited Oz in 2005 – what a great country!
Really nice people, great climate, beautiful vistas.
Cairns, the Tully River and the Great Barrier Reef – outstanding!
Oz has a proud history and a great future – IF you don’t let the watermelons drag you down into the mire.
The world already has too many dirty little dictatorships – we don’t need one more.
__________________________________
If you want to understand your “alternative future” under a watermelon dictatorship, read my first-hand description of East Germany in 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, at
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/02/quote-of-the-week-alarmists-missing-targets/#comment-911452
LazyTeenager says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:02 pm
“Let’s take a lesson from history. The Nazi Party was elected to office via lying, cheating and manipulation. The lesson to be learn’t is that freedom of speech that allows unlimited rights to lying cheating and manipulation is a bad idea.
We should not be able to lie and then justify it by claiming its free speech.
We should not be able to cheat and then excuse it as free speech.
We should not be able to manipulate the public and claim that’s Ok since it’s free speech.”
You don’t know anything about history. Hitler outlined his ideas in detail years before he came to power in a book called Mein Kampf. He was pretty open about his ideas.
He was actually elected by a majority because, again, he openly announced that he would break the Versailles treaty. That was the reason people elected him. He gave a promise and held it after the election.
Also, there were many voices warning against the expected end to democracy before he came to power. The electorate was actually in favor of that as the Weimar republic was a democratic yet rather dysfunctional entity.
Just saying Hitler and then railing for whatever anti free speech legislation you want shows you for the piece of work you are, LazyTeenager; you are a totalitarian SOB.
I wonder if some day we’ll see a “Radio Free Australia” ?
They’ll need it!!!
REPLY: Probably pirate radio ships ringing the continent with directional antennas will be the tool of choice – Anthony
Our fight is for freedom! We are endowed by our Creator with the inalienable rights to pursue life, liberty, and happiness as we bloody well please, with out the damn socialists trying to force us to do what their twisted souls deem to be ‘good for us’. Doesn’t matter whether we are Yanks, Aussies, Brits or Kiwis. Doesn’t matter what country you come from, what ethnic group you claim, or the color of your skin. It’s the same rights, the same fight and, aye, every generation must win it again, that mankind’s spirit may always have the liberty to sail unhindered to the next horizon.
Why? Because it makes us happy…. and we will fight… and die, to keep it ever so!
When freedom of speech is directly imperiled, the time for talking is over! Either they will muzzle and control you or you will throw them out on their ears.
C’mon Mates! Put the boot to their arses – HARD!!!
A written constitution isn’t as important as you might think. Some of the most repressive places on the planet have constitutions that look pretty good on paper. What matters most is the cultural norms of society. Places which are free are generally places where free speech is strongly valued. Rights are not created by some writing on a piece of paper. Rights are what people are prepared to stand up and fight for.
Lazyteenager says:
“Let’s take a lesson from history. The Nazi Party was elected to office via lying, cheating and manipulation. The lesson to be learn’t is that freedom of speech that allows unlimited rights to lying cheating and manipulation is a bad idea.
We should not be able to lie and then justify it by claiming its free speech.
We should not be able to cheat and then excuse it as free speech.
We should not be able to manipulate the public and claim that’s Ok since it’s free speech.
Both sides of politics should be able to cooperate for the common good, even if they disagree. That requires a certain level of trust and respect. Lying, cheating and manipulating in the name of free speech will eventually destroy good government and destroy freedom, as the Germans discovered”
You should change your name to LazyThinker. The Nazi’s came to power through violence and intimidation and maintained it through violence, intimidation and control of media. God help you if the lesson you take from the rise of the Nazis is that free speech was the cause.
Athelstan. says: “Finkelstein, seems like a reasonable fella, mind you someone probably said that about Pol Pot.”
Odds are Noam Chomsky said essentially that very thing, at one time or another. He’ll deny it of course. Then he’ll deny the denial. .
Ted G.
Andrew Bolt is a buffoon, idiot and fool.
Read this:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/bolt-from-the-past-a-heartfelt-history-lesson-to-the-man-i-loved-20111021-1mcio.html
How anyone can take the man seriously is beyond me.
SAMURAI,Error in basic principal. The USA is a republic, meaning simply that it is not a Monarchy, governed by a democratic system. Do not confuse “State” and Administration.
Thus you have communist republics and constitutional monarchies such as Uk, along with democratic republics and theocratic republics such as Iran.
Lazy Teenager, a lie is a lie and is not limited to Free Speech. Freedom of speech specifically allows for lies to be unmasked and discredited. It is also a political freedom not a social one.
but the “climate gods” can precisely predict the climate a hundred years from now!
16 March: SMH: AAP: CMC should investigate dam engineers
She found flooding in Brisbane and Ipswich could have been reduced to some degree, if capacity in the dam had been freed up before the December deluge.
But she (Commissioner Catherine Holmes ) said it simply wasn’t possible to have forecast what was to come.
“… to appreciate what the magnitude of the rain would be and that it would fall in the dam area would have required a more than human capacity of prediction,” she found…
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/cmc-should-investigate-dam-engineers-20120316-1v95d.html
In Australia we are not berefit of the lingual ability to respond to high-fallutin’ airheads and their obscene dreams. Why, even in our extreme youth we study:
Time now to use that knowledge (trimmed some, I guess) to answer these foolish virgins of reality and wisdom.
LazyTeenager says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:02 pm
When troops confiscated all the guns is when the Germans destroyed “good government”, Lazy. THAT’S your ultimate protection, even now–and far more effective than your suspicion of “free speech” (which is ALSO free speech, by the way).
My gosh, I’d recommend you bone up on some history before making an abject fool of yourself, but then we wouldn’t have anything to laugh at, now would we?
@richard deSousa says:
If the Australian government can act as an authoritarian despotic entity who’s to say they can’t rig the next election with the collusion of the media???
============================
When people get suspicious of the media they turn to the internet, which has it’s good and bad points. But part of the point of this legislation is to attempt to regulate opinion on the internet, such as is done in China.
The justification for this is to suppress the point of view of “vicious political commentators” as Lazy correctly asserts. But what does “vicious” mean? If we already have racism laws, libel laws, etc., “vicious” must mean something else. Perhaps it means criticism of government policy. Now, if people are over-the-top in their criticism of a political group, then sensible people ignore those argument because they fall apart under scrutiny. The point of this legislative proposal seems to be merely to suppress the possibility of dissent.
This proposed censorship is appalling, but unlikely, in my opinion, to make it onto the statute books as the leftards pushing it will be annihilated at the next election, which would be triggered anytime by just one defection/death/criminal conviction in the government.
Insane, if that passes it will be the match that lights the flame for the free worlds loss of one of the most basic rights. I could see our idiots in the US thinking they could get away with it here. Aussies you really need an alternate media outlet.
15 March: Business Week: Sally Bakewell: U.K. ‘Wasted’ 4 Years on Failed $1.6 Billion Carbon-Capture Plan
The U.K. must learn from a failed 1 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) carbon-capture funding program that “wasted” four years, as it prepares to open a second financing competition, the head of a panel of lawmakers said…
By last year, Iberdrola SA (IBE) was the only utility left in the contest after developers including BP Plc (BP/) and EON AG (EOAN) shelved projects. The final bid was scrapped in October as Iberdrola was unable to build its proposed Scottish plant within the budget or agree to the contract terms.
The government is preparing a new funding program, with a view to starting commercial operations in the 2020s, Energy Minister Charles Hendry said Feb. 27…
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-15/u-dot-k-dot-wasted-4-years-on-failed-1-dot-6-billion-carbon-capture-plan
——————————————————————————–
LazyTeenager says: ” Yep. Let’s take a lesson from history. The Nazi Party was elected to office via lying, cheating and manipulation. The lesson to be learn’t (sic) is that freedom of speech that allows unlimited rights to lying cheating and manipulation is a bad idea…”
Lazy, it’s clear from your statement that not only is your command of English poor, your knowledge of history is minuscule. The Nazi Party was never “elected to office.” Hitler never got over 37% of the popular vote in Germany. Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor, probably as a result of extortion. Hitler used his new position to illegally add to his power and to prevent prosecution of P. v. H. Limitation of free speech is a bad idea, since it also prevents publishing the truth and refuting lies.
Last week I wrote to the Prime Minster Julia Gillard, Senator Stephen Conroy, and my local MP as follows:
————————————————– INCLUDED TEXT
REGARDING: Finkelstein Independent Media Inquiry recommendations
Dear Prime Minister,
I have just been reading about the recommendations of the recent Finkelstein Independent Media Inquiry.
I’m a really calm, logical, sensible, conservative sort of chap. But if your government adopts such dreadful recommendations that restrict the freedom of speech of ordinary Australians, well, not only will the Australian Labor Party) earn my undying opposition but you will also turn me into a political activist.
Surely the ALP doesn’t want to do anything so silly as to turn people like me into political activists?
Does the ALP really believe it can control the people’s right to speak? You need to tell your colleagues Prime Minister: tell ’em they’re dreaming! Its a bad idea. Its bad policy. Its political death for the ALP if you are seen to be removing people’s basic rights.
Please allow me to remind you of something:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
— Article 19 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
We are a signatory. That should be the end of the discussion.
Yours sincerely,
etc
The only thing Andrew Bolt was convicted of was thought crime. And for that you ought to be ashamed.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
LazyTeenager says: ” Yep. Let’s take a lesson from history. The Nazi Party was elected to office via lying, cheating and manipulation. The lesson to be learn’t (sic) is that freedom of speech that allows unlimited rights to lying cheating and manipulation is a bad idea…”
==============================================
What inane ignorant thoughts, well reflecting your choosen handle. Hitler used the leftist writing of Max Weber to institute rule by decree, which is percisely what this Aussie “Ministry of Truth” proposal is striving for. In the marketplace of free ideas, lying, cheating, and manipulation has to swim against truth. The debate between CAGW advocates and skeptics is an example of how the small independent grass root skeptics, in the internet of free ideas, are steadily winning the debate against CAGW advocates who have hundreds of times the funding. Peter Glick, Mann, Hansen, and other members of the team are a prime example of how lying, cheating, and manipulation only work when free speech is supressed.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep arguing over what is for dinner. Our aim is to have the same argument but with a well-armed sheep. — Benjamin Franklin
Another evil force is still with us, appealing to the fools in our midst, especially the angry young ones.
SPM says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:10 pm
jim says:
March 15, 2012 at 6:29 pm
My Dad passed last year. His favorite t-shirt had a picture of a pile of guns on it. You know, the ones the aussies confiscated about ten years ago. I think it was an nra t, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to see if mom still has it. Anyway, He always preached that the reason they were taking the guns away, was to restrict free speech. He kept waiting for it to happen. I find his wisdom remarkable. Take care of your house, Australia.
===========================================================================
Here’s an example of your free speech, Jim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29
And to borrow a line from Jay above :
Go F**K yourself with your AK47.
=============================
Nowadays, the only members of the public that are armed in Australia are the bikie gangs … an AK47 is childs-play for them. Pictures of their captured arms caches are unbelievable as is the identification with many of the proponents being ex-Iraq military personal … that came here as illegal immigrants. The police force is petrified of them !
They will hang themselves with their own words. Problem is, people need to be made aware of these what these persons say. I go by the supposition that 50% of the people are uninformed (such as misinformed, don’t know exists, heard something different, believe the lies, etc.). You can more or less add on ‘stupid’ to this group where they can’t differentiate or zealous bigots.
When government no longer fears the people, a tyranny it becomes. You must show through demonstrations that you are aware. Doing that will simultaneously inform the ignorant, as well as, inform the would-be-tyrants, there are peoples willing to act. No one likes to have something taken away, everyone likes to get stuff. Which is why the conversation is couched in what people will receive. Inform them what they will lose. Explain that without this report, those voices for which it pretends to speak, are already heard. Net result is a loss.
LazyTeenager says: ” Yep. Let’s take a lesson from history. The Nazi Party was elected to office via lying, cheating and manipulation. The lesson to be learn’t (sic) is that freedom of speech that allows unlimited rights to lying cheating and manipulation is a bad idea…”
==========================
Yet another appallingly ignorant claim… Hitler got into power by declaring a state of emergency when his own group burnt the Reichstag. He also had in possession a private army of thugs to intimidate people and so on. 70 percent of the German people *voted against* Hitler in the national elections… to suggest he got into power because of his undue media influence… honestly. It’s worrying what teenagers know about the world or history…
As a completely stunned Australian I am now discussing the likelihood of whether ‘publishing’ your own Tshirt (eg I love CO2) would be regulated?
another potentially very expensive result of the CAGW scam:
16 March: Ninemsn Australia: Qld flood report strengthens case: lawyers
Maurice Blackburn partner Rod Hodgson said the report, including its finding that Wivenhoe Dam’s operating manual was breached during the disaster, confirmed victims’ suspicions.
“… too much water was allowed to accumulate in Wivenhoe Dam and the strategy for water releases was botched,” Mr Hodgson told reporters after the report’s release on Friday.
“This extraordinary report says that beyond any doubt that dam was not operated the way it should have been.”
He said the findings gave the firm confidence to recommend a class action to any flood-affected businesses, community groups and home owners downstream from the dam.
But he said a class action was not a fait accompli.
“Further investigation work is needed to be done,” Mr Hodgson said.
“The investigations need to include how much difference to the flood level the proper operation of the dam would have made.
“We sense that it would have made a significant difference, but we need to conduct independent hydrodynamic modelling.”
He said he expected that would take some months…
Ipswich Councillor Paul Tully said the report was not the whitewash he’d expected.
“It is quite explicit. It really opens the doors for a class action,” he said.
“It is an opportunity for people who were not insured and lost everything to be able to recover something.”…
The lawsuit could potentially run into the billions…
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/floods/8436441/qld-flood-report-strengthens-case-lawyers
It appears the attempt to regulate blogs may be illegal.
http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/2012/03/legal-advice-sinks-bloggers-finkelsteinian-nightmare/
It will be interesting to see if they ignore the law.
SPM says:
March 15, 2012 at 9:09
Typical foul mouth. You hate and I emphasize the word hate, Andrew Bolt because he is understood by the ordinary people in the street in Australia. He tells it like he sees it, and you can’t stand that but others appreciate his commonsense. He took on the cabal of leftist academics, the demigods you put on a pedestal despite them lying in their reconstruction of history, and challenged them to put up or shut up. They could, not because they were wrong, their lies didn’t hold water or stand scrutiny.
You and your like can’t stand being bested, you want the mailed fist of radical power to achieve your agenda, right or wrong, you don’t care, Its the cause and you don’t want to ask, happy to use anything, lies, force,violence to achieve your own ends, a veritable white ant munching away at the structure of the country. so cop a bit of your own slop!
The climate change argument is a new form of Lysenkoism the purpose of which is to achieve Marxist Revolution without War. Until 1997, it even appeared to be true despite Hansen’s outrageous claim in 1981 that present GHG warming is 33 K, when he concatenated lapse rate and the much lower real GHG warming [~9 K].
However after 1997, the subject has been based on altering past data: hockey stick and the ongoing reduction of past temperatures to pretend modern warming is unprecedented. In parallel with this the left, uniquely in politics in association with the right in the form of the carbon traders and windmill makers, has been steadily attempting to close down free speech before the public realises it’s been conned.
In the UK there is a sea change as academics decide that the destruction of the ethos of science for political purposes has run its course and the counter revolution by the people against the rent seeking landowners, who Cameron represents, is in full cry.
As for Australia, it is the bellwether for international Marxism. To enshrine Marxist academics with the right to close down free speech would be a last desperate move with the next step being to use the threat from the Right as an excuse to delay elections.
Old England says: @ March 15, 2012 at 5:22 pm
….Mankind has a major battle to fight and the first stages (which I believe are already underway) are to bring realisation to the public in democracies of the nature of the threat; it seems the Labour party in Australia may be bringing that realisation to the people.
We have to win this fight.
_____________________________________
Amen.
This fight is not just in Australia but all over. The Regulating Class lost their bid for a world government where our national sovereignty would have been ceded to an unelected group of global bureaucrats. Thankfully China and India torpedoed the “Copenhagen Treaty” in 2009. As Dr. Evans has said the Internet broke the MSMs monopoly on the news just as the printing press centuries earlier broke the Church’s monopoly. The free exchange of information is not only necessary for freedom but also necessary to prevent stagnation.
But do not think the Regulating Class has given up because they have not! World Trade Organization Director, Pascal Lamy is pushing Global Governance for all he is worth as are many other “national leaders”
http://theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5740
http://theglobaljournal.net/article/view/56/
In looking into the USSR laws against freedom of speech, I came across the following: Law and Human Rights in Russia and the USSR. According to that essay, it would seem that most of our nations have signed treaties protecting our human rights. The key section was entitled “Respect for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Including the Freedom of Thought, Conscience, Religion or Belief.”
I would suggest that every Aussie send reminders to their representatives, friends and the news media about how “relatively minor Soviet laws” in the hands of zealots were used to jail many literary, journalistic and philosophic critics. Reading Law and Human Rights in Russia and the USSR should remind us exactly what we stand to lose and what international treaties were put in place to protect us.
yokomo99 says:
March 15, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Is it just me or is the world becoming more and more like the world of Atlas Shrugged.
___________________________
No it is not just you. Read Climate Coup — The Politics If you want some real nightmares.
There are some people out there who want an worldwide totalitarian government using the EU as a model. Just google “Global Governance 2025” or World Trade Organization Director, “Pascal Lamy” and “Global Governance”
I’m wondering if this Finkelstein has been coordinating his message with Media Matters the way Media Matters has been coordinating their message with MSNBC? Anytime some “think-tank” dictates the lies carried by a “news organization”, the truth suffers and people are mislead into believing lies.
So is this a global effort? I personally believe it is–there’s a sense of coordination on several fronts that makes it appear almost like a conspiracy, but not as secret as a conspiracy requires; it’s there for everybody to see.
julie says: March 15, 2012 at 11:39 pm
It appears the attempt to regulate blogs may be illegal.
http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/2012/03/legal-advice-sinks-bloggers-finkelsteinian-nightmare/
It will be interesting to see if they ignore the law.
Julie, the one thing we know by now is that they always ignore the law. Whether it is the law of FOI, the law of theft, forgery. The laws of science, that the evidence must support your assertions not that you can say anything you damn well please which isn’t disproven by the facts.
In all respects, they are law breakers … of course they are going to ignore the law!
SPM says:
Andrew Bolt is a buffoon, idiot and fool.
=================
Coincidentally, I happen to hold the view that people who describe Bolt as above, are in fact buffoons, idiots and fools… Don’t agree with everything he writes but then again I don’t know anyone I completely agree with on most issues. But it’s interesting that your rebuttal of Bolt’s credibility is based on an ex lover who doesn’t now like him recalling events from 32 years ago. Doesn’t that say more about your credibility than his? 😉
Ian H says:
March 15, 2012 at 6:34 pm
It is a generational thing…..
_________________________________
I disagree. I was of the 1965 to 1975 generation, a member of Green Peace, Sierra Club and all. But I grew up and figured out they were “wacho” organizations within a few years of graduating.
What we are seeing is just plain GREED for power and wealth. As Dr Evans stated and I figured out separately, the “Regulating Class” is getting tired of having to manipulate public opinion to get elected and stay in power. They have tried different methods and have come to the conclusion that something like the EU works best It lets the “Great Unwashed” think they have a democracy by in actuality 80% of the laws are made by an unelected bureaucracy. That is why the World Trade Organization was set up. To become the worldwide version of the EU.
George says: March 15, 2012 at 10:32 pm
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep arguing over what is for dinner. Our aim is to have the same argument but with a well-armed sheep. — Benjamin Franklin
At the time of Benjamin Franklin, the meaning of democracy was “ordinary people”. What he was actually saying is that ordinary people shouldn’t be allowed to decide things, and instead it should be up to people like him. In fact, the modern idea of voting = democracy, is a wholesale misunderstanding. Democracy actually was a system to prevent isolated power groups like institutions, wind lobbyists, greenspin, political parties, wealthy individuals from dominating in the public forum and instead allow people like you and me a real say.
Like now, the big danger was that powerful interest groups (the wolf) would buy up elections so that is why the Greeks were against elections as the following show:
It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot; and as oligarchic when they are filled by election. (Aristotle, Politics 4.1294be)
The rule of the people has the fairest name of all, equality (isonomia), and does none of the things that a monarch does. The lot determines offices, power is held accountable, and deliberation is conducted in public. (Herodutus)
Louis Hooffstetter says:
March 15, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Australians have no constitutional protection for speech, equivalent to the 1st amendment of the U.S. constitution?
Let’s hope they have something equivalent to the 2nd amendment of the U.S. constitution.
_________________________________________________
The gun control laws hit Australia first (1996) The totalitarians are not dumb.
LazyTeenager says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Let’s take a lesson from history. ….
___________________________________
You would be right at home in the USSR.
In 1966, a section was added to the Soviet penal code (Article 190-1) which banned “systematic spreading… of deliberately false fabrications defaming the Soviet state and social system.” In the hands of zealous prosecutors, such an open-ended criminal offense was used to prosecute and jail many literary, journalistic and philosophic critics of even minor failures in the Soviet system.
I found the “Finkelstein Report” frightening. It strikes me as a group of people behaving in a very defencive manner. They are aware questions are being asked, and they don’t want to answer the questions. However there is a point where defenciveness becomes offencive.
It is one thing to “circle the wagons,” and defend yourself from critics. It is quite another to launch a pre-emptive strike from your circle of wagons, attempting to take out all critics, and in this manner to avoid the bother of having to answer questions.
Here’s an example of your free speech, Jim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29
And to borrow a line from Jay above :
Go F**K yourself with your AK47.
————-
Enjoy your tyranny! It will be well deserved. Oh and way to go blaming societies’ ills on an inanimate object, you dolt.
SPM says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:10 pm
jim says:
March 15, 2012 at 6:29 pm
My Dad passed last year. His favorite t-shirt had a picture of a pile of guns on it. You know, the ones the aussies confiscated about ten years ago…..
===========================================================================
Here’s an example of your free speech, Jim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29
________________________________________
Ours in Texas was a heck of a lot worse. It included 76 people including more than 20 children, two pregnant women,. The only problem was it was the G.D. FEDS who responsible!
cui bono says:
March 15, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Doug UK says (March 15, 2012 at 4:49 pm)
“that our ozzy friends consider making sure that your head of State can step in and get rid of the muppets.”
—-
Um, I seem to recall that happening in 1974, and it didn’t go down too well. :-)”
On the contrary cui bono, It went down very well with the majority as they clearly demonstrated in the next general election having gratefully been given an early chance, when they absolutely decimated the failed Whitlam Labor Government!
We only wish it could happen now as our current lot are going to cause more long-term damage than ever contemplated under Whitlam! However, to call the G-G stepping in extremely unlikely is to understate the position as our current Governor-General is the mother-in-law of Labor MP Bill Shorten, touted by many as the next leader of the Labor Party and Prime Ministerial material!
We unfortunately have to bide our time until the next election unless matters become completely intolerable, which they may well do when the true costs of the carbon dioxide tax really start to bite and the reality of the attempt to censor and/or silence critics hits home!
We are already finding out that as well as mining and power generation companies, it appears that Julia Gillard’s Top 500 “derdy polluders” (as she calls them) who are going be slugged with this useless tax also include Hospitals, Health Care providers, Churches, Universities, Butchers, Food Producers, Supermarkets and many other retailers,Theme Parks, Entertainment, Hospitality and Tourism companies, Transport and Freight of all kinds, Shipping, Airlines, Airport Owners
Property Groups, CSIRO etc., etc.,. In short, there is scarcely a category that won’t be hit and will have to pass on those increases.
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/national-greenhouse-energy-reporting/publication-of-data/nger-greenhouse-energy-information-2010-11.aspx
It’s not only the actual cost of the carbon dioxide tax but the added costs of each firm in having to employ people to wade through the mountain of regulations and reporting requirements in order to comply with all the red tape which will be attempted to be administered by an army of public servants in several bureaucracies created for just that purpose.
Nearly every “green” scheme this government has introduced has resulted in bureaucratic bungling and waste on a massive scale, characterised by woeful supervision, mismanagement and bedevilled by shysters who have revelled in finding ways to rort and rip off “the system”, this destructive carbon dioxide tax will do little for the environment and is likely to never have any measurable effect on either the weather or the climate.
Given those facts, the coming carbon dioxide tax debacle shows all the signs of being the worst and most expensive stuff-up in Australia’s history!
Talk about the law of “unintended consequences”!
Poor Australia – I am so glad I was able to leave! Brainwashing is alive and well – my 4 yr old granddaughter gave me (verbatim, I suspect) the treatise given to her by the Labor loonie who gave her a Labor balloon and a lecture on how it is environmentally irresponsible to fill balloons with helium these days because if a child should let one go, it will fly away and end up in the sea where it will kill the fishes! This is, of course, in the left loonie national capital which has been in the vanguard for outlawing plastic bags from shops!
God help Australia!
The problem with censorship is ********************
Fortunately, the Interwebs now exist. Dissent can no longer be crushed. It will just pop up somewhere else. Any tech-savvy person can generate thousands of anonymous dissenting posts with only a few hours of effort.
Long live the Interwebs!
[last post (not the censorship one) was moderated into oblivion? was there something contentious in it?]
Chilling stuff, but let us keep our eyes and ears open. The steady tramp of jackboots is being heard in most of the First World at present, not only in Australia. Be prepared to see something only slightly less outrageous put in place, and be prepared for a dirty fight.
I cannot think in my wildest imaginings theat the Aussies will tolerate this kind of thinking. How the hell can a so called democratic country come up with this nonsense, if it was tried in the UK and there are some who would try it, there would be a spot of bother I suggest. It is gently creeping into the UK in areas of PC, however we are free at present to call the Gov’t stupid if we wish to and we can also write it.
Time to move to NZ you Aussies, maybe you get the Gov’t you deserve.
I assume that when Labour gets boot and if Abbott gets the leadership then the warmist’s may be the one’s that get censored ?
Who really thinks that the government in office wouldn’t be able pull the strings of the proposed “News Media Council”.
The madness just doesn’t stop in Australia, speed camera’s, vehicle roadworthy squad’s, the councils all use the eye’s in the sky to watch over the peasants, you can’t even put a for sale sign on your car window in many place’s, there is so many bloody rules and reg’s it make’s your head spin.
Any bets on how long it takes before the “Media Council” gets renamed to somethign like the “Ministry of Propaganda?”
Alberta Slim says:
March 15, 2012 at 7:02 pm
It is time for an Aussie Spring!
How can the Aussie public be so complacent about the eroding of Democracy that the brave men and women fought so bravely for in the past?
========================
yes! a LOT of us would agree, however unless some nice country will send US guns and ammo to oust the bastards we have sticks stones and maybe a boomerang or two for knocking some sense or senslessness into this ship of fools busy sinking our freedom economy and the very essence of the aussie larrikin who tells it true and shame the devil..
there really WAS a False flag in pt arthur to get our guns..
This is indeed an astonishing development, a full-on ruling-class war on free speech. Coupled with the irony of having a hated Prime Minister that found her way there from the old empire’s home office, the future history books will show this time as a perfect storm. You just can’t make this stuff up! I never ever thought Australia would become Ground Zero in the coming Socialism Wars [©®™] of the 21st Century. But it sure looks like you will be up first.
What a series of brazen attacks by the leftist neo-Communist Socialists, first with the gun outlawing and then the infamous carbon tax and now the real deal, shutting down the enemies voice. You know what? In a less-civilized society the likely antidote would be a military coup taking down this government and sending all the named perps to the hereafter. But in Western societies of course this is frowned upon because someone might just call it fascist or right-wing.
To be sure, this is going to happen everywhere including the UK, USA, Canada (maybe dodged a bullet for a while). I’ve long said that the next wars will be a worldwide war on Socialism once free speech and Internet saturation penetrates sufficiently and people awaken to the enemy within their respective nations. The enemy is those among you that continually press for global government, wealth redistributing, speech censoring and lifestyle dictating. They are the neo-Communist Socialist left, that has foothold of various degrees in all the Western world. They are the seeds that Marx and Lenin planted and will have to be dealt with, or else your descendants will have no chance.
Keep in mind that the SOPA and all other Internet regulations disguised as copyright laws are exactly the same thing – the attempt to get the ruling class edicts and censorship machinery placed inline in between the free citizens along with the ability to stop them from communicating at will. It is real, it is here, and it is happening, now. It is truly a time of ‘do or die’ for free people. Two thousand years ago the threat was public speakers and you could just track them down and nail them to a cross or stick them in a dark tower. That worked for fifteen centuries Then Gutenberg messed up everything for the ruling class and enabled people to mass produce and really spread the written word. Book burning and early censorship laws have been partially effective. But now we are entering the final act. Instantaneous communication is the gravest threat to the Socialist Feudalists along with their pet aristocracies and nobility. This is exactly why the SOPA and related issues are alive today. All the governments are aware of this and they are making moves now. Wake up people. Don’t be stupid and vote for any Socialist any longer regardless of the bribes they offer you. It is game time. It is for keeps.
They want to be the arbiters of truth as described below.
The rank of Arbiter, in the video game Halo 2, is bestowed upon a Covenant Elite (Sangheili) by the High Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret during a time of need.
Their only problem is freedom of speech needs no arbiter to decide truth or even who should speak and be heard.
Gail, you should know full well by now that the Title III Intercepts (listening devices) inside the compound picked up Vernon Wayne Howell issuing the order to ‘light the fires’ that caused those fatalities; autopsies later determined close-quarters self-inflicted gunshot wounds killed Vernon (and his first lieutenant as well.)
There was no way Vernon was going back to jail or face a trial as he had a few years earlier for taking part in a gun battle with the former Branch Davidian ‘leader’ … if one takes careful note, too, the only children released from the compound were the one Vernon did _not_ father …
Final Report to the Deputy AG
.
Oops, my erratum; that last part should read: “[the] children released from the compound were the ones …”
Stop yer whinin’ and start yer shootin’!
We’re in a bit of trouble with our current crop of “leaders”. I agree with the generational analysis someone posted above, this is the hippie generation in power. MKULTRA’s flower children behind the wheel. Though I doubt Jules inhaled. 🙂
“Andrew Bolt should know that. Afterall he was recently smacked on the hand for attempting to discredit people and damage their livelihoods by making up s???t on his blogs.”
You’re not just a Lazy Teenager, you’re a lying one, too.
“We should not be able to manipulate the public and claim that’s Ok since it’s free speech.”
Then stop babbling about how “climate change” dooms us all, Lazy.
Lazy Teen has demonstrated exactly how and why history will repeat itself.
_Jim — citing the whitewash is not convincing. Regardless of how the situation ended, it should not have started the way it did.
As of a couple of days ago if you try to go here:
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
and do not let them put cookies on you computer or read the cookies on your computer then they send you here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nocookies
I think that put Robert Bolts comments off the list for anyone that values their privacy, which I’m guessing is a lot of intelligent free thinking people.
NOT whitewash; rather, the facts.
I followed that ‘story’ in real time as events unfolded from the day (closer to “the hour”) it began, and reviewed every available shred of released intel and evidence (including multi-media) including ‘background’ from individuals involved with the players (like Vernon) from prior years; unlike so many who take their info from various ‘artful’ productions (by McNulty and others), websites (various) and books (various) which seek to make ‘mileage’ and hay from that event for their own selfish purposes, or for their view for their cause of ‘uber-patriotism’ (as they see it).
As to how the event precipitated and were handled, that is a WHOLE ‘nother subject and not suitable for this venue (we spent years at FreeRepublic debating this from all sides).
You want to base law and changes therein (or the basis for your or a particular ’cause’) on an aberrant case like Waco (or the Martin Bryant shootings at Port Arthur, Aus), that is your privilege, but at least be cognitive of the known facts.
.
“Art and science, research and teachings are free.
The Federal Republic of Germany is a democratic and social Federal State. All government authority proceeds from the people. It becomes from the people in elections and votes and by special organs of the legislation, which carrying out force and the jurisdiction expenditure-practices. The legislation is to the constitutional order, which is carrying out force and the jurisdiction at law and bind right.
Against everyone, which undertakes it to eliminate this order all have German the right to the resistance, if other remedy is not possible.”
(Grundgesetz)
If dancing people in governments are claiming authority and/or power against other people, these people have the right to resist.
Looking for the basics of science, philosophy, it is to be recognized as true, that something cannot be true and in the same time be untrue. Physicians respect this recognition, timeless and alocal, in one order of nature. There is no difference in CO2 molecules from Australia or Iran.
Looking for the basics of science, philosophy, it can be recognized that morality is different to ethics. Morality is a non timeless and local social convention of old man (or exwombman). Ethics is the science of the inalienable dignity of all living substance. From this, morality law is simple incompatible to the timeless and alocal one order of nature; it is in contradiction to the one order of nature. Democracy is not alienable, because it is the inseparable yourself. He, she, who gives his, her voice to politicians, have no voice anymore. Ethics (and science) is linear and not corruptible. Politics is nonlinear and corruptible.
“Acclaimedly, towards the end of Kaliyuga, when righteousness turns into unrighteousness, light into darkness, good into evil, virtues into vices, believers into non-believing profanes, community of man into thieves and evil doers and the faith in God is lost and the Vedas are misinterpreted to serve adharma, Kalki would be born in the house of Vishnuyashas, a Brahmin and the priest of Yajnavalkya, at the village Shambhala.”
(Agni Purana)
Greetings to Anthony ‘Kalki’ Watts.
V.
Nice photo of Anthony Perkins at the beginning of
this post. Thanks Orson.
David Ball says:
March 16, 2012 at 7:13 am
Lazy Teen has demonstrated exactly how and why history will repeat itself.
———————-
I love his posts! Every time he does it allows me to realign / recalibrate my moral compass. 180 degrees out from his is about right on.
With age comes wisdom. I remember my son at about 3 years old. The wife was ironing cloths and he kept wanting to touch the hot iron ( strange kid always had to touch stuff best I can tell that unless he touched it, it wasn’t real). Anyway she kept telling him that it was hot but he kept after it. It was hard for her to let him touch the iron. This was a bit of an extreme learning event but we never had to warm him twice about something being hot again.
I see a bit of my son in Lazy but with one major difference. He keeps wanting to touch the iron even after getting burned……
RockyRoad says:
March 16, 2012 at 1:06 am
…..So is this a global effort? I personally believe it is–there’s a sense of coordination on several fronts that makes it appear almost like a conspiracy, but not as secret as a conspiracy requires; it’s there for everybody to see.
______________________________________
Very much so. Just look at all the pictures of Bill Clinton hanging around Tony Blair and the seminars given at the London School of Economics. Look at all the world wide “Conferences” and treaties and such. Look at how the World Trade Organization and the United Nations interferes with national sovereignty.
Heck look at Tony Blair facing parliamentary probe over secret meetings with Gaddafi. and London School of Useful Idiots: How a cadre of Blair cronies, ex-MI6 chiefs and top dons at a top university supported Gaddafi for his millions and Verdict on Gaddafi exposes roles of Blair, LSE and Oxford and Tony Blair’s government tried to pressurise Oxford University into giving Saif Gaddafi a place to study – but he was refused because he was not bright enough.
ozspeaksup says: @ March 16, 2012 at 4:24 am
It is time for an Aussie Spring!
How can the Aussie public be so complacent about the eroding of Democracy that the brave men and women fought so bravely for in the past?
========================
Alberta Slim says: @ March 15, 2012 at 7:02 pm
yes! a LOT of us would agree, however unless some nice country will send US guns and ammo to oust the bastards we have sticks stones and maybe a boomerang or two for knocking some sense or senslessness into this ship of fools busy sinking our freedom economy and the very essence of the aussie larrikin who tells it true and shame the devil..
there really WAS a False flag in pt arthur to get our guns..
=======================
Aussie Spring
First the Egyptian Spring was aided by the Fabians another commenter said you already have running the Aussie government. A downloadable Fabian Society pamphlet “From Dictatorship to Democracy “ was spotted in Egypt. As journalists have sought to untangle the disparate threads that unite these uprisings, one of the most interesting revelations has been a common reference to a dusty — but still relevant — book, “From Dictatorship to Democracy.”
Fabian, ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair made headlines last year… Tony Blair will earn around £2 million a year in his part-time role as adviser to the Wall Street bank JP Morgan and will also continue to carry out his unpaid work as a UN Middle East envoy….
…..
A False flag was also seen in the USA.
If you follow what Janet Napolitano has been up to, you will note she has left the Southern Border of the USA wide open.
Administration Will Cut Border Patrol Deployed on U.S-Mexico Border – September 24, 2009 “….the Obama administration on May 7 said the Border Patrol “plans to move several hundred Agents from the Southwest Border…”
Local Officials: Border Crime On The Rise – January 6, 2011
Three of the four border states are losing their National Guard troops So what does Napolitano do? ….Ms. Napolitano attempts to justify to lawmakers a 30 percent budget reduction for U.S. Customs and Border Protection…March 17, 2010
The Secure Fence Act (2006) instructed the Department of Homeland Security to secure about one-third of the border between US and Mexico with 700 miles of double-layered fencing, cameras, motion sensors, and other types of barriers, by the end of the year to stem illegal immigration. Napolitano Cancels Virtual Border Fence Project..1/14/2011
On top of that as a background we then get Fast and Furious where our own government hands out weapons to Mexican criminals like they were candy. (Rolls Eyes)
Sure sounds like a great big set-up to me and the people it was aimed at was Janet Napolitano’s “Homegrown Terrorists” and out Second Amendment rights.
Makes a rather Damming picture does it not?
In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
What kind of people are Australians that they would accept slavery ?
Hmmm … the ‘normal, worldwide functioning of governments’?
Scary stuff … (side question: What’s it like to be a Bircher?)
.
Somebody get a rope.
“If we don’t somehow manage to effect a fundamental retrenchment of liberty it won’t be long before we lose it.”
It’s already lost. The vast majority no longer has any idea at all what “liberty” is – they think it’s what the government allows you to do.
Without a SARC tag that looks like a real low blow _Jim.
Now, Now. If you folks are going to keep ranting on about Orwell and such, we’re just going to have to disappear them along with Dante’s Inferno (Europe’s all over this as anti-Islamic) and Huckleberry Finn (not alllowed in most U.S. schools as an example of U.S. literature because it’s racist for ridiculing racists). Maybe Atlas Shrugged too.
We’re right to pay attention. And global warming is the biggest canary in the free speech coal mine potential for the biggest cave in. There’s a lot of the “there would be no problems if government had all the power” blind irreposibility about and no shortage of people looking to use it. Atlas Shrugged is dangerous because it threatens those in power with ignoring their power – not so much because it’s pro-capitalism. If they can go full Orwell, they’re betting we won’t be able to revolt in any other way – and theiy’re probably right.
We do realize that regulating “published” material is the internet right down to our posts on this site? They can’t credibly deny it if they’re willing to do it to newspapers and books right now. Power has a will of it’s own and it is always reaching. (Oops, now they’re going to have to ban Lord of the Rings, Frodo.)
LazyTeenager has really painted himself into a corner this time. Having strayed from discussing the science, he has acted out of a blind instinct to defend everything put out by those activists and propagandists who ally themselves with the liberal-left/CAGW persuasion, and he has actually staked out a position that places him with despots like Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and their respective regimes.
How ironic. What would solzhenitsyn, Havel, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela and other “free speakers” think, or have thought to hear LazyTeenager tell them that the problems in their countries stem not from too little freedom of speech, that they believed, but from too much?
How ironic also, that in his instinct to spring to the defence of these “liberal-left” icons, he has shown us not only his own, but also their own true nature. Despots all of them.
NetDr says:
In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
I doubt it. The NDAA passed easily without even being noticed by the masses.
What kind of people are Australians that they would accept slavery ?
Just like Americans – ignorant, and not wanting to deal with anything other than warm fuzzies.
Forget about all this and turn on Dancing with the Stars.
Bread and Circuses…
Wonder how many folks it would take to “police” an entire world full of blogs?
I figure I can create about 3 new sites per day, and automate the loading of stories onto them. With some careful ‘anonymizing’ I think I can tie up about a dozen folks trying to sort it all out. And if two people did it, in harmony,…, and if fifty people did it,…, they might call it a movement…
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml
As the saying goes “Good luck with that”…
Then there’s the unlimited potential for emailed news letters. I can easily see a hundred different iPod apps showing up that encrypt and circulate emails of newsletters… Frankly, given how the “War on Drugs” got an entire generation to go try them, a “Ministry of Truth” could have untold effect generating fertilizer for liberty…
(FWIW, at one time, at Apple, there was an application named Rumor Monger. You installed it on your Mac and it would find OTHER Rumor Mongers on the network. All distributed. Folks would type a ‘rumor’ into it, and that rumor would spread to any other other machine via a semi-random stochastic sharing. It became so popular that we were mandated to ‘take it down’ – as the network was filling with Rumor traffic and The Powers That Be didn’t like some of the rumors… which implied they were running it too… In the end, the only way we got it to stop was via floating a couple of New and Improved versions. Once they had displaced all the old ones, the built in timer expired them… Yes, they were suicide trojans. Now, knowing that’s the ‘kill method’, a future “Rumor Monger” app will be very hard to kill… So, all you Aussie Hackers, I suggest you start writing your Rumor Monger applications now… I would enhance it, though, to allow setting topics of interest and to allow setting a ‘trust level’ for individual “rumors”. Have each article tagged with an ‘origin code’ based on an encryption of some internal datum and then you can just tag articles that you find ‘junk’ and decline more from that source. Would also dampen spam. At that point folks will have to admit that they are trying to censor Individual Speech if they try to prevent folk from ‘sharing’… Oh, and if that encryption is done with a public / private key method, it can be made impossible to show that a given person originated it without the private key… I’d put the whole message inside another layer of encryption, so each recipient would present their public key, then get an encrypted set of ‘rumors’, for private decryption. Now you know who shared the rumor, and you know that the rumor was tagged by ‘someone in particular’, but do not know if the two are the same… If needed, you can add the finesse of having some or all rumors shared prior to decryption, so the sender has deniability that they knowingly shared a particular story. I’d thought of making this app myself, but it looks like the flow of events is demanding the idea be set free…)
What folks who want a little bit of tyranny forget is that it just grows until the Totalitarian phase results in the death of the organism…
At least there is a silver lining. Died-in-the-wool leftists and progressives can now see in full glorious color the end results of their government expanding policies, in Finkelstein and Carbon Regulation.
There is going to be a lot of self-examination in the Labor party over this attempt to regulate all speech in Australia.
I think I will go read some truly rueful and self-flagellating regrets on the part of Labor voters in Australia for their government expanding ways. Could someone point me to one please?
(Not huffpo, though, they aren’t mentioning it right now.)
Resistance at the ballot box is futile.
Government power is increasingly divested into non-democratic, unaccountable bodies which remain in place regardless of government changes.
Democracy is being short-circuited ‘in the public interest’.
…which is their way of telling Joe Public they’re too dumb to decide what’s best.
Curiousgeorge says:
March 15, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Rants on blogs are one thing. But understand who has the guns
Sorry …Australian’s were disarmed by the government over a decade ago. No right to speech or to bear arms.
E.M.Smith says:
March 16, 2012 at 2:00 pm
“Wonder how many folks it would take to “police” an entire world full of blogs? ”
Chiefio: As usual, you have nailed it! In my long life, it is clear this is the worst and potentially most damaging government in Ausralia’s history and one of their main characteristics is a “kneejerk” reaction to situations seemingly without any thought at all as to unintended consequences. Justifiable public questioning and criticism of their actions sent them off on this stupid attempted censorship path using the UK mobile phone hacking scandal as an excuse. Greens Leader Bob Brown who helped the lyiing Julia Gillard retain power after the “hung” election result, is one of the prime movers as from being a fringe player to having a key role, his Party’s wacky control freak policies have now come under the spotlight. He’s squirming under the pressure and doesn’t like it one bit!.
Your post shows the complete folly of what they are proposing as they will never be able re-bottle the Internet blogging genie. Thank you for your timely advice and ideas. We Aussies are a fairly laid-back bunch until stirred and believe me, I have never before known such open anger in the general community against the actions of a government on so many fronts.
To those from other countries, don’t judge us from what you read in any of our compliant unquestioning MSM or hear on our rabid Left-wing natonal broadcaster ABC. Look to our many excellent blogs for what the real Aussie thinks.
Oddly enough, the bikie gangs don’t seem to have any trouble acquiring guns.
E.M.Smith said @ March 16, 2012 at 2:00 pm
We need a revolution so we can install the Chiefio to become our Enlightened Despot 🙂
SPM says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:10 pm
I would say that was a good case for people to habitually carry..
1st, this guy was a looney!
2nd He had access to AU$1.5million?
Jeez. I don’t really think that crank had to buy weapons legally!
3rd If he thought there was a good chance he would be shot by one of his potential victims, would he have done it?
jim says:
March 16, 2012 at 1:58 am
Enjoy your tyranny! It will be well deserved. Oh and way to go blaming societies’ ills on an inanimate object, you dolt.[ this is not helpful name calling . . kbmod]
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I’m not blaming the gun, Jim, it’s the psychopath holding it. You know, people just like you. [ is this it now, just playground insult trading? . . c’mon guys you are better than this surely . . kbmod]
Also, it was the Liberal Party (right wing) Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, who was the driving force in having all the states adopt a National Firearms Agreement. Except for the odd cowboy, it had nearly 100% public support. If you have to ban automatic and semi automatic weapons to stop the nut jobs getting hold of them, so be it. It also eliminates the possibility of your average 3 year old getting hold of Dad’s pride and joy and blowing his or his sisters brains out.
I’ll take your version of tyranny any day. In my job I meet a lot of people and I was surprised by the number of Americans living here, some in excess of 40 years. They clearly enjoy the tyranny as well.
David A. Evans says:
Yes, he clearly is a psychopath, but at the time nobody was aware and he was easily able to acquire the weapons.
He had inherited the money apparently. Had he tried to acquire the weapons through the criminal underworld, the police may have possibly been alerted.
Given his mental state, I don’t think armed potential victims would have made any difference.
As for your comment “a good case for people to habitually carry..”, I’d say would say you have watched too many wild west movies.
Australia is a better place because of these gun laws. The criminals will always acquire the weapons they want, but they generally use them on each other or the police. They don’t appear to be in the habit of murdering innocent men women and children, en masse.
Cheers
Don’t worry, Australians, the Chinese Government will invest far more in your country with this law enacted. You just need to know what’s good for you!!!
Greylensman wrote:
March 15, 2012 at 9:10 pm
“SAMURAI,Error in basic principal. The USA is a republic, meaning simply that it is not a Monarchy, governed by a democratic system. Do not confuse “State” and Administration.
Thus you have communist republics and constitutional monarchies such as Uk, along with democratic republics and theocratic republics such as Iran.”
===================
You are incorrect in your understanding of US’ original Limited Constitutional Republic political system.
The term “States” I was referring to are the 50 individual states of the US. The US Constitutuional Republic originally severely restricted the size, scope and powers of the central Federal government by only giving it a very short list of specific and clearly enumerated powers that it could perform in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.
Even if 80% of US citizens demanded a new service be provided by the Federal government, for which it was not explicitly granted contitutional authority, the Federal government would be powerless to do so. For example, Departments of: Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, EPA, HUD, Labor, Education, Energy, etc., are all technically unconstitutional services that were not granted authority or responsibility to by the Constitution.
All these programs CAN be provided by individual States, if they so decide, as expressed in Amendments 9 & 10 of the Constitution, with the understanding that individual States are solely responsible for funding the programs and will not be bailed out by the Federal government if the programs bankrupt a state.
America’s Founding Fathers knew that if the central Federal government was granted too much power and too many responsibilities, it would eventually bankrupt the nation, once politicians realized they could buy votes with expensive programs.
The Founding Fathers hated democracies (they called them, appropriately, mobocracies) because they knew from history that mobocracies always fail, because governments eventually run out of other peoples’ money to spend.
Granted, the US has become a democracy and the US Constitution is no longer followed. That is why the US IS heading for a complete economic collapse in a few yeara with over $16 trillion in national debt and roughly $115 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities.
NetDr says:
March 16, 2012 at 9:55 am
In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
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This is why there is such a push for an EU security force. Then, when there is a serious uprising anywhere in the EU, troops (peacekeeping force) from a different country can be used against the populace, especially if there is a country with a traditional animosity available.
Steve T
SAMURAI says:
March 17, 2012 at 10:56 am
…. The US Constitutuional Republic originally severely restricted the size, scope and powers of the central Federal government by only giving it a very short list of specific and clearly enumerated powers that it could perform in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution….
America’s Founding Fathers knew that if the central Federal government was granted too much power and too many responsibilities, it would eventually bankrupt the nation, once politicians realized they could buy votes with expensive programs. …
Granted, the US has become a democracy and the US Constitution is no longer followed. That is why the US IS heading for a complete economic collapse in a few yeara with over $16 trillion in national debt and roughly $115 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities.
______________________________
One of the key issues was the the change in voting in the US Senators. The Senate was supposed to protect the interests of each state against enchroachment by the Federal Government. The The 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution changed that. Voters have elected their senators in the privacy of the voting booth since 1913. The framers of the Constitution, however, did not intend senators to be elected in this way, and included in Article I, section 3, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.” Unfortunately BRIBERY, intimidation and deadlocks were a major factor in changing to a popular vote. With William Randolph Hearst championing the idea using muckraking articles in his publishing empire.
The Second key issue is the Commerce Clause. What is the Commerce Clause and Why is it Important?
More recently here is an article by a lawyer on how it allows the US government to regulate your home garden: http://www.examiner.com/scotus-in-washington-dc/trojan-horse-law-the-food-safety-modernization-act-of-2009 Trojan horse Law the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 We have dodged that bullet so far thanks to an intense grass roots campaign, but a simple one liner amendment down the road will change it. This is the same simple one liner that changed the Animal Welfare Act after all the fuss died down and gave the Feds have jurisdiction within state. This is what tripped up the Dollarites and left them facing a 4 million dollar fine. USDA shut kids rabbit business Complete federal control of the food supply is the aim. The FDA even has a name for it. “From Farm to Fork” and it is international http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1510
The section of the original “Food Safety” bill that was removed and could be easily added reads:
To save Jim the trouble of hitting me again with his usual pro-banking snark. Here are FDR’s own words: http://www.wyzant.com/Help/History/HPOL/FDR/Chat/
Of course it doesn’t help that is own son-in-law, Curtis Dall, makes a case for FDR being the puppet of the international banking cartel…
Quotes from the book: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/New_World_Order/FDR_ExploitedFather-In-Law.html
The book itself as a PDF http://vho.org/aaargh/fran/livres4/dall.pdf
When ever Jim hits with his usual snark I am reminded of this quote.
A little OT, but related to Aus, the Govn’ts climate adviser Ross Garnout, his dirty big secret and the fact not many people in Aus know about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_Tedi_environmental_disaster
I guess his advice and support of a AU$23/tonne “cabon” tax will fix that eh Ross?
Tyranny never sleeps. The default political system is Tyranny.
To have something other than Tyranny, requires, courage, intelligence, wisdom, hard work and vigilance.
It takes only one careless generation to forfeit liberty.
We live in dangerous times (but perhaps it ever was…) and very real courage will be required before liberty is once again secured for a time.
Ian H says:
March 15, 2012 at 6:34 pm
It is a generational thing.
…
Wait ten years for the next more cynical generation (of which I am a member) to arrive at their peak of power. That generation that used “political correctness” as a term of disparagement.
This is very apt.
The US also has it’s own problems: REF: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/%E2%80%9Cwe-are-far-turnkey-totalitarian-state-big-brother-goes-live-september-2013
Plus the Patriot Act, and the National Defense Authorisation Act slaughtering the Bill of Rights.
LazyTeenager says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:02 pm
That’s what the libel and slanders laws are for – it’s already covered. Under no circumstances is it justified to limit another persons speech.
If you think someone is lying, refute them – if you can.
NetDr says:
March 16, 2012 at 9:55 am
In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
What kind of people are Australians that they would accept slavery ?
To accept slavery, you must first be aware that it exists. When Australians are aware, then they will show their true colours, and most will not disappoint.
ExWarmist says:
March 17, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Tyranny never sleeps. The default political system is Tyranny.
To have something other than Tyranny, requires, courage, intelligence, wisdom, hard work and vigilance.
It takes only one careless generation to forfeit liberty…..
_____________________________________________
And that careless generation was the “Baby Boomers” seduced in to voting themselves “freebies” mislabeled as rights while allowing their rights to be stolen with rally cries of “There should be a law….”
There were government bureaucrats in 2000 that brazenly said in a court of law “The farmers have no rights. No right to be heard before the court, no right to independent testing, and no right to question the USDA.” As part of a lawsuit in 2010 the FDA stated: “There is no ‘deeply rooted’ historical tradition of unfettered access to foods of all kinds..“There is no fundamental right to freedom of contract” And very very soon we will be losing our most basic right the right to grow food. Woman Faces 93 Day Jail Sentence For Growing Veggies in Front Yard
You know there is something very very TWISTED in a country when an ex-felon can steal a semi-truck and trailer (MINE) use it for hauling stolen cars and drugs for three months and he only gets a MAX sentence of 60 days probation yet a woman growing veggies gets 93 days in jail.
I’d like to tell you a true story which may help to illustrate the Australia character.
A few years ago a couple of men walked into a pub (can’t remember which state), balaclavas and guns, with the intention of emptying the till.
The pub’s patrons simply didn’t believe in the reality of the threat and laughed uncontrollably. If you think that’s weird the reaction of the would be bandits was odder – they left (apparently baffled and shamed by their inability to put it over). Not a shot fired and no harm done.
Australians don’t have the ‘hair trigger’ culture and, having grown up with the legend of, “the lucky country”, don’t expect the worst.
I wanted to jump back in this thread but I see that Gail is hitting home runs like Babe Ruth.
Anyway, I’ll just say what was said long ago, and that is that the 16th, 17th and 18th Amendments (Income Tax, Senatorial Elections, Prohibition) were the death sentence for our free republic. To be sure it wasn’t immediate execution but a delayed one. These set the infrastructure for all later Socialist attacks. The end result was a move toward democratic mob rule where the parasites became empowered to vote themselves other peoples’ money, including their own children’s and grandchildren’s.
Have no doubt whatsoever that this can only end badly, it is inevitable. It is why Americans are busy arming themselves to an extant never seen before. All temporary setbacks that Socialism suffers in the form of elections and unfavorable court decisions are merely delaying the final act. It may be hard to accept, and the brain-dead slave voters of the Democratic Socialist party will whine about conspiracy theories, but they did this to us. And they still are doing this as we sit here and blog.
Ponder this for example: a broke nation already with generation liabilities in the trillions decides to elect to the white house a Manchurian candidate street agitator red doper diaper baby who immediately presses for yet another monster liability added to the previous ones. New Deal – Social Security, Great Society – Medicare, Raw Deal – Obamacare … Game over. You could construct some comparative analogy using a child maxing out credit cards and then obtaining further lines of credit and maxing them out, but really nothing can make the numbers involved imaginable. The error bars for missing funds and accounting errors for the money spent on the welfare state alone dwarf the entire budgets of most of the other nations on planet Earth.
There are very few avenues left to extricate ourselves out of this mess. The easiest one (and the least likely to be exercised) is to NEVER ever vote for a Socialist regardless of party ever again, period. No matter what bribe they offer you, they must be removed from office now. Wake up people!
The greens got the labor party in, well thats how Australia voted, dont sook about the democratic process you advocate (just because your team lost), the rational and logic on the right has gone on holiday, in the case of the media review I would like to know if its someones opinion or its reporting of facts, something missing in our media, to many claiming their opinion is facts, even people convicted of presenting opinions as truth are taken seriously in Australia, how can the media be held accountable when they fund the watch dog, the fox watching the chicken, although Australia are good at ignoring recommendations contained within reports, we are a laughing stock signing up to all these agreements then ignoring the recommendations made worse by the whinging of people who didnt get their own way, that once un-Australian trait of going against the democratic process is now the bread and butter to the opposition, respect Australian laws and processes like you expect all imigrants too or leave to a country where you respect the laws and system
Reblogged this on The GOLDEN RULE and commented:
Can you believe that? Climate Skeptics to be targetted by censorship. At least that’s a sign that we are on the right track and are showing them up as unable to defend their science and proposed carbon tax. Amazing that they so blatantly abuse the public’s natural rights to free speech, hardly the Australia we used to be so proud of?
NetDr says:
“In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
What kind of people are Australians that they would accept slavery ?”
I am wondering if there is some perception distortion here.
In the USA, the public accept TSA groping and dangerous invasive X-Rays, their loved ones being killed and maimed in false wars, molesting of suspect but not dangerous individuals on the street, tasering children, unfair treatment of Wall St protesters, (an attempt at criticising and defying authority). Wall St banker thieving of taxpayer money, and a few other things. I suspect information censorship is in its infant stage already.
On the other hand, we Aussies have had our guns taken away, are about to pay an unwanted carbon tax and are slowly losing our sovereignty.
At what stage the people rise up in masses, is an interesting consideration.
The control of people and their loss of freedoms is gradually applied and many citizens do not even realize their losses.
I don’t think we are much different to the Americans.