Saturday, September 28, 2013

White widow is Muslim convert






Samantha Lewthwaite, a white 29 year old English woman, is now Interpol's most wanted female terrorist. It's alleged that she is the spokeswoman for Al Shabaab, the group behind the Nairobi massacre. So how did it come to this?  There are 2.7 million Muslims in Britain and 78,000 of those are converts.  Samantha Lewthwaite is one of them.

She grew up in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, an English town with a small Muslim community.  She was a bright student and teachers loved her and when she was 17, she converted to Islam.






Against her family's wishes, she married one of the London bombers, Jermaine Lindsay, who blew himself up on the London tube along with 26 passengers in 2005.  Her husband and his mother, a West Indian, converted to Islam together when he was 15 and they met on a Muslim chatroom.








Her family moved from Northern Ireland to Buckinghamshire in the early 90s.  Her mother is an Irish Catholic and her father was a soldier who served in Northern Ireland in the 70s.  When she was 17, her parents split up.







Terror experts believe Lewthwaite is a member of the Somali terror group Al-Shabaab and was involved in the Nairobe massacre, but they can't prove it.  And even though Interpol has issued a Red Notice for her arrest and put 190 countries on alert, the warrant is carefully worded.  It reads she is "wanted by Kenya on charges of being in possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony in December 2011."



Friday, September 27, 2013

Mark Latham's attack on Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese (Albo)



During the lead up to the election, Mark Latham said that Kevin Rudd had betrayed his party for personal gain and was a disgrace to the great Labor movement.  But yesterday he said that Rudd actually got it right about asylum seekers.  In the Financial Review he wrote:  On the human tragedy of boat people drownings, Kevin Rudd belatedly got it right.  His PNG deal ended Labor's flirtation with woolly-headed leftist thinking. The party should now offer bipartisan support to the new government and get this horrible problem off the agenda.




Mark Latham




Some might wonder why anyone would care less what Mark Latham says, a bitter, angry man, who lost the election to John Howard and left politics in a huff.  But now the media, who he once passionately hated, love him, and he's in constant demand.  Why? Because what he has to say is usually worth listening to.

Kevin Rudd had a brilliant idea, one which he will be remembered for - to take half the power away from Caucus in electing a leader. For the first time ever, Labor members will have a 50 per cent say in who leads the Labor Party and caucus will have the other half. Only two men put their hand up, Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten and the winner will be announced on October 10.



Bill Shorten


Mark Latham is backing Bill Shorten.  I agree with his assessment so far, it's been a mutual admiration farce with no mention of major policies or any drastic changes that should be made.

But that's not all, he called Albo an "intellectual lightweight" and went in for the kill.  He writes:  He was wrong to support an open-door asylum seeker policy, he was wrong to endorse Doug Cameron's push for protectionism, he was wrong to white-ant Labor leaders and most damaging of all, as a sub-factional warlord, he was wrong to prop up the corrupt NSW minister Ian Macdonald.  Then during the election campaign, he was wrong to associate with a union rorter like Craig Thomson.

And then:  The caucus and party membership have no choice but to vote ABA:  Anyone but Albo.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

New Zealand loses America's Cup



Jeremy Lomas (left) tries to console skipper Dean Barker 






It's a very sad day for our cousins over the ditch.  The Kiwis were ahead eight races to one and only needed one more to win when suddenly the wheels fell off.  The Kiwis woke this morning to the terrible news - Team USA crossed the line in the last race, 44 seconds in front, and won the 134th America's Cup.







But it wasn't really Team USA at all because there were only two Americans on board.  It just goes to show, if you want to win a yacht race, all you need is lots of money to buy the best people in the world to do it for you and Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle, did just that.




Winners are grinners



Aussie crew members on board were skipper James Spithill, strategist Tom Slingsby, wing trimmer Kyle Langford, grinders Will McCarthy and Sam Newton, and coach Darren Bundock.  



James Spithill




The yachts have changed since Australia won the cup way back in 1983, they are now high tech catamarans that can travel very fast, up to 50 miles per hour.



NZ skipper Dean Barker



New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, watching from New York, simply tweeted the word 'bugger'.   NZ skipper Dean Barker said he was gutted.

But they should take heart because they are one up on Australia, they won the cup in 1995 and 2000 and became the first team outside the US to win and then to defend the cup.  Chin up mates, maybe next time.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

What is the most evil corporation in the world?



On Reddit.com today, the question was asked - What is the most evil corporation in the world?  These so-called American charities must surely qualify. This is incredibly immoral yet has been allowed to continue for years.
Here are the 50 worst, ranked by money blown on soliciting costs. Totals from the latest 10 years of available federal tax filings
Rank
Charity name
Total raised by solicitors
Paid to solicitors
% spent on direct cash aid
1
$127.8 million
$109.8 million
2.5%
2
$98.0 million
$80.4 million
0.9%
3
$96.8 million
$63.6 million
10.8%
4
$80.8 million
$59.8 million
5.3%
5
$63.8 million
$54.7 million
8.4%
6
$63.9 million
$44.8 million
2.2%
7
$57.2 million
$41.4 million
0.5%
8
$70.2 million
$36.9 million
7.8%
9
$45.0 million
$36.0 million
8.6%
10
$37.5 million
$29.2 million
5.3%
11
$34.7 million
$27.6 million
0.6%
12
$29.7 million
$24.5 million
0.8%
13
$26.9 million
$23.8 million
0.8%
14
$23.2 million
$20.8 million
3.1%
15
$51.5 million
$20.4 million
0.0%
16
$22.3 million
$18.1 million
3.5%
17
$19.6 million
$16.1 million
0.0%
18
$23.1 million
$15.9 million
0.6%
19
$18.1 million
$15.9 million
2.9%
20
$34.9 million
$14.8 million
0.8%
21
$41.5 million
$14.0 million
1.1%
22
$14.5 million
$13.7 million
0.4%
23
$16.4 million
$13.4 million
0.8%
24
$15.7 million
$12.9 million
2.3%
25
$33.0 million
$11.0 million
3.4%
26
$12.2 million
$11.0 million
10.5%
27
$14.3 million
$10.5 million
2.3%
28
$12.4 million
$9.8 million
4.6%
29
$13.8 million
$8.3 million
0.1%
30
$10.3 million
$8.1 million
2.5%
31
$9.9 million
$7.8 million
5.8%
32
$10.3 million
$7.8 million
0.1%
33
$8.7 million
$7.7 million
1.1%
34
$7.9 million
$7.6 million
1.0%
35
$9.0 million
$7.6 million
1.0%
36
$8.2 million
$6.9 million
0.1%
37
$9.8 million
$6.8 million
11.1%
38
$11.6 million
$6.6 million
6.3%
39
$8.0 million
$6.2 million
1.3%
40
$7.8 million
$5.7 million
6.5%
41
$7.6 million
$5.0 million
5.7%
42
$7.7 million
$4.8 million
0.0%
43
$5.6 million
$4.6 million
3.2%
44
$4.7 million
$4.1 million
1.6%
45
$4.8 million
$4.0 million
0.0%
46
$5.2 million
$3.0 million
0.0%
47
$2.6 million
$2.3 million
2.3%
48
$8.4 million
$1.8 million
0.0%
49
$2.0 million
$1.7 million
1.5%
50
$1.9 million
$1.6 million
0.5%