News
Parliamentary action and adventure yesterday after the Government,
realising it didn't have the vote of WA Nationals member Tony Crook, had to hem and haw and prevaricate its way through the day's proceedings in order to avoid an embarrassing defeat for its Malaysia Solution legislation in the Lower House. This pretty much came down to good old fashioned US Senate-style filibustering, with numerous low impact and unimportant pieces of legislation and parliamentary business receiving substantial and unwarranted debate. Having made it to the end of the day and through an emergency caucus meeting, the end result is that
refugees will be processed onshore for the foreseeable future, including mechanisms for community based processing if sufficient numbers arrive. Although one wouldn't get too comfortable with that proposition given that we are in a fairly unique position where both parties actually want the same thing – i.e. offshore processing – but just can't work out how to cooperate in order to do it. A fringe benefit of hyper-partisanship perhaps? Oh, and while we're at it, boat arrivals so far this year: 2502. Boat arrivals at the same point last year: 4989.
The Liberian flagged container ship currently spewing oil into New Zealand's Bay of Plenty was detained in Perth a few months ago due to mass safety violations. And well here we are. I, for one, am flabbergasted that the good people of Liberia would allow an under par ship sail into international waters.
Flying in Papua New Guinea seems to be about as dangerous as you'd assume, after
a plane containing 32 passengers crashed yesterday in the country's northeast. It appears at this point as if 28 people may have died in the crash, not including the Australian pilot who is thought to have survived. 20 planes have crashed in PNG since 2000. Safety first!
More trouble for Rupert Murdoch, as allegations swirl that
the Wall Street Journal has been using shield companies in Europe to buy up to 30 000 copies of the paper in order to boost circulation. Which is obviously amazing.
Well, turns out the guy who played Crabbe in the Harry Potter movies has just been arrested for taking part in the London riots. He was found in possession of a petrol bomb. Typical Slytherin. Accio justice!
The battle for Sirt: almost... allllmoooost.
Gaddafi fighters are believed to currently be trapped in a pocket 500 metres wide by 1000 metres long, which would suggest that this brutal little coda is almost at an end. There have also been rumours that Gaddafi's son,
Mutassim, one of the most wanted members of the tyrant's family, had been captured. Although given that Mutassim had already been "captured" a few times during this war, people are understandably skeptical. The National Transitional Council has said that as soon as Sirt falls they will declare victory and enter into the messy business of trying to form a government in a country where all forms of political expression have been brutally repressed for over four decades. So, uh, good luck with that.
The fallout from the supposed Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Arabian and Israeli ambassadors to the US continues to expand, with President Obama now taking the accumulated evidence to the UN and to Iran itself. While Iran pleads innocence of any wrongdoing, it appears as if certain elements of the elite Revolutionary Guard may have been involved in the outrageous scheme, which at one point was going to involve using Mexican drug cartels to take out the target. There's a Jason Bourne film in here somewhere.
Features
The BBC asks: Where in the world is Muammar Gaddafi? Oh look! A henchman in Budapest. Quick, to the Almanac, this must be a clue!... Anyone? Anyone play that game? Anyone? Bah, Carmen Sandiego is too good for you.
Why Mitt Romney is the only viable Republican Presidential candidate. As they say in the classics, it's all over bar the shouting.
Oddities/Curiosities
Now this is how you do caption writing –
The Globe and Mail's Occupy Wall Street themed captions on celebrity photos is the best thing I've seen in a good Internet minute or two.
It's hard to know how much chilli eating competitions should actually be encouraged. A world's hottest chilli eating contest in Edinburgh – that was, incidentally, raising money for a children's hospital – finished in low-grade disarray
after multiple ambulances had to be called when the contestants started vomiting and writhing in agony. One student ended up in hospital twice in five hours. But, on the plus side, she did come second. Her take: "This was for a good cause, but it came with a price. I have never endured such pain." Indeed.
Video
It's a moose in a pool. What of it?
Also, Penny Farthing racing in Tasmania!... It's Friday. I'm doing what I want. [Associated:
the 2011 championships are on November 5. Almost worth the interstate trip. Almost.]