Beer Garden

[rev]

I got better(and more important) things to do today with what's going on out there, so I'll get around to replying to the ignorant people eventually.

But to reply to Shuz's post above, the boats have been stopped. Well, up till about a few months ago anyway. I can't say with certainty if it's still the same.
I've got a handful of mates who are in the ADF who were directly involved with those operations who confirmed it was true. Haven't spoken to them in months since they aren't home..life of our service people and all.

While Abbott may have lived up to his promise to stop the boats, that's all he's done. The boats have stopped, or were stopped, but the arrivals HAVE NOT.

Intake has actually been increased by 7,500.
Certain visas have been reintroduced etc etc.

And it's not that the media aren't allowed to report on it, it's that the government isn't releasing information about what's going on.

[Ho Really]

Abbott might have stopped the boats... I think. We don't know because the media isn't allowed to report on that anymore, nor will the Abbott Government disclose information about asylum seekers... sorry, I mean, "illegal maritime arrivals".

Yes, we do know. So stop this conspiracy about the media not reporting anymore. It's because it has stopped. The media can easily circumvent any attempts by the government to hide things if there were any.

How can anyone possibly say the economy has gotten better under an Abbott Government? It's actually gotten worse... much worse! [...]

The economy is just fine. You're still having two-three meals a day, clothes on your body, a shelter over your head, the gov paying benefits, etc., and you've got some spare cash? If the economy was as bad as many of you make it out to be you'd all be starving and in the streets killing each other. Explain to me why Australian's have blown billions of dollars over the last few weeks. If our economy was that bad people would not spend. I will concede that the unemployment rate is higher, but I'd blame that partially on Labor and on world circumstances. Labor overspent and did not foresee a downturn. We now have to repay debts. It's a vicious cycle. A one-term Abbott government cannot fix anything. Shorten can't either, besides he hasn't come up with any solutions... The future closing of Holden, Ford and Toyota are not our fault (Labor or Liberal). The mining industry slowdown the same. Building submarines or warships in Australia was always going to be hard. We are too expensive. Our productivity is also bad. What keeps us alive is our agriculture. As long as we've got that we won't starve!

Shuz, 2015 will be a watershed year for all economies. Keep your cash handy because soon you won't have any and that's not because of Abbott either!

Cheers

[The Scooter Guy]

Looks like we're having very unbalanced weather!
In the past weeks, it was very hot with bushfires and now, it'll be back to wet with thunder-n-lightning in a snap of the fingers!
So I could be right, Tony Abbott's abomination has triggered some kind of apocalyptic disaster!

[rev]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/worl ... 7178925700

Charlie Hebdo attack: Police close in on two armed massacre suspects as manhunt continues across France

Hope the French police give these bastards what they deserve.

[Will]

An interesting and thought provoking opinion piece, considering the current circumstances.

From news.com

Radical Islam and western values cannot coexist peacefully

Rita Panahi
Herald Sun
January 09, 2015 3:07PM


LET’S get one thing straight; every attack perpetrated by Islamic extremists is an attack against freedom of speech, whether they’re terrorising journalists and cartoonists at a satirical magazine in Paris or bystanders having a quiet coffee in Sydney.

These callous cowards seek to silence dissenting voices by waging a war of terror against anyone who dares question their twisted, totalitarian worldview.

The time for weasel words and treading on eggshells is over. We owe it to the growing number of victims to open our eyes and acknowledge the unmistakable reality that radical Islam and Western values cannot coexist peacefully.

These extremists despise our way of life; our freedom, openness and diversity are an affront to their despotic, backward attitudes.

We must stop pretending that these incidents have nothing to do with Islam. They quite clearly have everything to do with extremist Islam and the sooner we admit this truth the better we can work to protect our people and values from this ever-present scourge.

Islamic extremism is a global problem that moderate, peaceful Muslims need to unconditionally condemn and help solve instead of engaging in games of deflection.

The viciousness of these subhuman savages was on display on the streets of Paris as they walked up to an injured policeman lying helpless on the ground and shot him dead at point-blank range without missing a step. It mattered not that Ahmed Merabet was himself a Muslim. They didn’t care that his arms were raised in surrender; he was shown no mercy.

These are not people who can be reasoned with or counselled into adopting our values of humanity, tolerance and liberty.

We in the West must stop blaming ourselves for these acts of brutality. There are those among us, the so-called “progressives”, who seek to explain the behaviour of terrorists by pointing the finger at the victims.

According to these enlightened souls, homegrown terrorism is really our fault. We are to blame for not being welcoming enough, for creating an underclass of disenfranchised young men, for being part of the US-led coalition in the Middle East, for supporting Israel’s right to exist, for printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, for raising the terror alert level … indeed, if you rationalise hard enough, any act can be considered provocation to Islamic extremists. For some tyrants, free speech is itself an incitement to violence.

This mass-scale victim blaming is an insult not only to the victims but also the overwhelming majority of Muslims migrants who appreciate the abundant freedoms and opportunities available to them in countries like Australia.

It’s a mistake to presume that all Islamic people want us to change our ways or laws to better fit the values of their homeland.

But there is undoubtedly a minority of troublemakers who seek to change our free societies into the type of place they fled from and, as we have seen around the world, it only takes one radicalised attacker to cause wide-scale mayhem.

The barbaric death cult that is Islamic State has inspired a new legion of radicalised Islamic men, and even some women, to commit atrocities in the name of Allah against Western targets. But let’s not forget that it’s other Muslims who are the biggest victims of Muslim extremism.

On the same day that three heavily armed gunmen butchered 12 innocent people in Paris, there was another terror attack in Yemen where a suicide bomber killed dozens of police recruits outside a station. The death toll stands at 37 and is expected to grow.

However, it’s when these acts of base brutality occur in Western nations that many fully appreciate the threat radical Islam poses to the world. We should feel comfortable to readily call out elements within any culture or religion that are incompatible with our cherished values of equality, freedom and democracy.

It’s time politicians, including the Prime Minister, stopped tiptoeing around issues involving cultural or religious sensitivities for fear that they’ll be labelled intolerant.

Nothing is gained by pandering to extreme elements in the vain hope that we’ll impress upon them that the path to assimilation is preferable to fundamentalism.

The fear of Islamophobia and the illusory nonsense of a redneck backlash against the Muslim community have become a bat to beat down all valid criticism.

It is worth noting that while the French satirical magazine CharlieHebdo poked fun at Islam, it also regularly satirised Christianity and Judaism, and yet there have been no attacks by enraged Catholics or Jews. This reveals the lie that all religions are equally bloodthirsty; in the 21st century only one religion is at the centre of terror attacks around the world.

Only followers of one religion who think they are entitled to butcher those who offend their prophet. Frankly, if your all-powerful deity is so fragile that a cartoon poses a threat then you may want to reconsider your belief system.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo, Stéphane Charbonnier, said in a 2012 interview, a year after his magazine’s headquarters were firebombed by Muslim extremists angry with a satirical cartoon, that they would continue “until Islam is made as ho-hum as Catholicism”.

Shamefully, at the time, there was no shortage of progressives willing to blame the magazine and its staff for “inciting” the attack.

In the same interview Charbonnier said: “I’d rather die standing than live on my knees.” Tragically, he was among those murdered this week by Islamic extremists.

We cannot be scared into silence or intimidated into self-blame; the problem lies with radical Islam not our Western democratic societies.

RITA PANAHI IS A HERALD SUN COLUMNIST

[crawf]

Adelaide Oval tonight. Courtesy of News Limited

[PeFe]

From the 'Tiser

SA bidding to host 240 Chinese billionaires and 3000 delegates



Adelaide Convention Bureau CEO Damien Kitto. Picture: Mark Brake


TWO hundred and forty Chinese billionaires will be descending on Adelaide over one weekend should an international congress bid prove successful later this year.

The somewhat surreal scenario will open up opportunities for Chinese investors to invest in South Australia’s hotels, wineries, agricultural businesses and more according to Adelaide Convention Bureau chief executive Damien Kitto.

Adelaide will find out whether it has won the right to host the 2017 World Chinese Entrepreneurs congress, which will bring 3000 Chinese business visitors in total, in June or July.

Mr Kitto said domestic backing for the bid has been universal he said.

“The Premier has been an absolute key supporter. He has realised the bid for the World Chinese Entrepreneurs congress is a huge free kick for trade relations not only with China but with independent Chinese business networks around the globe.”

Federal ministers Andrew Robb and Julie Bishop have also backed the Australian bid for the three day, biennial event.

Adelaide is one of just three cities in the running but can expect heavy opposition from the two competing bids — Vancouver, and London.


London is Adelaide’s bid rival ...

along with Vancouver. Pictures: Thinkstock

There is a possible ace in the pack for Adelaide however.

Last November’s historic China-Australia free trade agreement, which will remove certain barriers to future trade between the two countries, can only boost Adelaide’s chances of a win said Mr Kitto.

“The fair trade agreement is a game changer for all economic reasons and will make a real difference,” he said.

“The congress is a chance to really increase the whole trade import and export opportunities for the state and China and the Chinese networks

“It’s a significant opportunity and it all starts with a simple conference.”

Global attention, courtesy of big name delegates, should not be ignored either. This year’s Chinese Entrepreneurs conference will be held in Bali in September with US president Barack Obama and China president Xi Jinping listed as speakers.

The Adelaide Convention Bureau currently bids for around 100 conferences annually with many smaller and medium conferences held across SA with the Barossa, Port Lincoln and Fleurieu Peninsula former hosts.

The ACB recently won the right to stage the International Astronautical Congress in 2017 which is estimated to be worth around $18 million to South Australia in direct and indirect benefits.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/ ... 7180089415

Go for it I say....new Chinese investment is just what the city needs in the next 5 years to counter the closing of the Holden factory.
If a whole lot of rich Chinese decide to buy apartments and houses in Adelaide..good. Sure there is a possibility that this would create artificially high realestate prices, but the reality that will happen is very slim.
Any boost to the apartment market (and maybe a flow on to the education sector via the "sons and daughters" studying here) will only bring positive benefits to the city.
I am old enough to remember the 1980's and the doomsayers warning about Japanese investment.... "because by 2015 we will all be working for the Japanese if they are allowed to buy so much Australian property and businesses..."

[rev]

Buying hotels and wineries isn't going to counter the closure of Holden and dozens of parts suppliers.

That's not the sort of foreign investment that should be targeted.
What they should be doing is coming up with viable projects that create jobs, new industries for high and advanced technologies, etc, and seeking investment in them.
That's what will counter the demise of the auto manufacturing industry in this country.

We need new, high tech and advanced tech industry. All the old manufacturing that helped build our economy and the national economy is long gone. The remnants of that will be gone soon too.
Thanks to globalization and the fat cat elites at the top of the pyramid, those are jobs for the developing world now only.

[PeFe]

Buying hotels and wineries isn't going to counter the closure of Holden and dozens of parts suppliers.

That's not the sort of foreign investment that should be targeted.
What they should be doing is coming up with viable projects that create jobs, new industries for high and advanced technologies, etc, and seeking investment in them.
That's what will counter the demise of the auto manufacturing industry in this country.

We need new, high tech and advanced tech industry. All the old manufacturing that helped build our economy and the national economy is long gone. The remnants of that will be gone soon too.
Thanks to globalization and the fat cat elites at the top of the pyramid, those are jobs for the developing world now only.

I don't disagree with you in general, but what you are talking about is medium to long term structural change (which every other first world economy is attempting to do) I am talking about a short term injection of cash and by that I mean this year or next.
A sudden influx of Chinese money would not solve Adelaide's employment/industrial decline problem, but it may be one of many small short term solutions.
Lots of Chinese money has poured into Sydney and Melbourne property markets, why shouldn't Adelaide try to score a percentage of that?

[monotonehell]

Coming in at number 24 is...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015 ... .html?_r=1
(Warning website is picture heavy.)

[crawf]

Go Adelaide!

Thanks for sharing.

[The Scooter Guy]

Hot Chip Vending Machines Are Rolling Out Across Australia! Seriously!
http://www.triplem.com.au/adelaide/stuf ... -machines/


Not even Back To The Future 2 predicted that Hot Chip Vending Machines would be a reality by 2015.
But thanks to the hard work of The Hot Chips Company, they are to be distributed nationally BY THE END OF THE YEAR!
What an age we live in.
The Perth based company has spent over five years developing the machines with WA potato processor Bendotti Exporters.
Bendotti director Stephen Bendotti said four prototypes of the machine are currently being tested in Perth and Adelaide.
"You put your money in and it goes from frozen to the fryer and in your cup within two minutes and 20 seconds," Mr Bendotti told ABC news.
No word yet as to how much they'll cost but we can presume they'll be as cheap as chips.

[monotonehell]

Not even Back To The Future 2 predicted that Hot Chip Vending Machines would be a reality by 2015.

[Nathan]

There used to be a hot chip/fries machine in the underground carpark of the Hilton Shopping Centre years ago.

[Hooligan]

Remember those instant pizza vending machines they tried a few years ago?

It did not end well.