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January 2007

Amazing coincidence besets Liberal Party

In an astonishing set of coincidences, political advertisements placed in three Tasmanian newspapers early in 2006 condemning the Greens on behalf of the Exclusive Brethren were recorded as being paid for out of Liberal Party electoral accounts.

Three separate and entirely unrelated "administrative bungles" at the Hobart Mercury, Launceston Advocate and Devonport Examiner caused sales records to give the totally and utterly absurd impression that the Liberal Party was colluding with the Brethren.

Howard's reshuffle and the Cultural Revolution

Never mind the personnel changes announced this morning in John Howard's ministerial reshuffle (though I'll get to those shortly). The thing that struck me on first reading through the press release was the changes in vocabulary.

MIDEAST: Hebron Occupied, And Deserted

Jimmy Carter has been pilloried for using the term "apartheid" to describe Israel's treatment of Palestinians, but what else could you say about the situation in Hebron?

MIDEAST: Hebron Occupied, And Deserted
- HEBRON (Occupied Palestinian West Bank), Jan. 22 (IPS) - As the illegal Israeli occupation grinds on, the daily situation for Palestinians worsens by the day. Hebron presents a vivid picture of the cumulative face of this colonial project.

More on:: 

CSR at the supermarket

For today (January 23), Woolworths Limited (ASX:WOW) have stated that they will donate the day's profits from their Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets across Australia to the Country Women's Association of Australia for "distribution to farming families in need across Australia and research into sustainable farming practices".

Use and abuse of the flag

ELLEN FANNING: Prime Minister, part of what was chilling yesterday was seeing a lot of people in between the violence doing things that you'd see at the cricket, singing "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi", wrapping themselves in the Australian flag. What do you say to people who use the Australian flag in that way?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, I would never condemn people for being proud of the Australian flag. I don't care – I would never condemn people for being proud....

An ODI just like the good old days

New Zealand all out 218 in 47.4 overs.
Australia 224/8 in 48.4 overs.

Almost an identical scenario to all those games in the B and H World Series Cup back in the early 1980s. One team gets around 215-220 runs in the first innings and the team batting second just gets over the line with a handful of balls to spare. Usually accompanied by Bill Lawry wetting himself.

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