Greg's View of Todays News - 01/25/2009

This is an automated post featuring local news, press releases and syndicated news stories that I felt compelled to comment upon

• Efficiency the key to slaking our thirst | Weekly Times Now

  The world's and Australia's food reserves are at their lowest for 30 years and both the world's and Australia's population continue to increase.

  tags: blogger

  • Australia is importing food from various countries to the detriment of local industry: for example, orange juice concentrate from Brazil, peaches from China and so on.
    • The only way we can get back to feeding ourselves without depending upon imports is to bring in protectionism that prevents imports being sold at a lower price than the locally produced product.
      
      As the value of the dollar goes down and the cost of transport goes up, we can hope a breakeven point is found where it will be cheaper to buy Australian grown food rather than the imported product - post by gnaylor
  • He points out that one of the factors contributing to this is that cities are taking an increasing share of water resources.
    • The first priority of any government is to protect the sovereignty of the state. If it means that they take water from 200,000 people in rural areas to prevent the rioting of the 2,000,000 in the cities, then it will happen.
      In the country, we have to learn to live with that concept and be satisfied in finding ways to provide ourselves with enough water - or - we can move to the city to become part of the 2,000,000.
      If that happens, God knows how Australia will ever feed itself. The problem is too many people! When are we going to debate that? - post by gnaylor

• Turnbull observes carbon capture technologies - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

  tags: blogger

  • Visiting Newcastle today Mr Turnbull witnessed how biomass, like wood chips, can be used to create energy and the waste charcoal stored in the ground safely.
    • Now, would that be something like torching our forests as Parks Victoria are supposed to do but never get around to it.
      I haven't heard of storing charcoal in the ground as a carbon reduction process - anyone have information on that? - post by gnaylor

• Brazil model dies from infection | BBC

  A prominent Brazilian model whose hands and feet were amputated because of an infection dies in hospital.

  tags: blogger

  • 
  • A 20-year-old Brazilian model whose feet and hands were amputated due to an infection has died in hospital.
    • Could there be anything worse?
      In the prime of her life with a promising career and a beauty pageant contestant to boot, this young woman has died from complications of a rare disease that has required her feet and hands to be amputated. If the disease did not kill her, the added burden of depression would certainly do it. - post by gnaylor

• No Bailout: Russia To Cut Vodka Taxes - ROGUEGOVERNMENT.COM

  tags: blogger

  • 
    The head of the new state alcohol agency - gleefully dubbed the "ministry for vodka" by the press - was advocating cutting taxes on the national tipple to make it more accessible, the Izvestia daily reported.
    • Now, there's something positive to get us through this financial crisis - reduce the excise on beer. On the one hand, we will keep the money circulating whilst, on the other, we will be too p*ssed to notice the recession. - post by gnaylor

• President orders air strikes on villages in tribal area | The Guardian

  Four days after assuming the presidency, he was consulted by US commanders before they launched the two attacks. Although Obama has abandoned many of the "war on terror" policies of George Bush while he was president, he is not retreating from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.

  tags: blogger

  • Barack Obama gave the go-ahead for his first military action yesterday, missile strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan which killed at least 18 people.
    • This is the first indication of how the new president will conduct his foreign policy. There have been no comments about the Afghanistan war or whether he will scale up American involvement - post by gnaylor

• Obama reverses abortion-funds policy - Los Angeles Times

  A White House spokesman, Bill Burton, said Obama signed an executive order on the ban, without coverage by the media, late this afternoon. That was in contrast to the midday signings with fanfare of executive orders on other subjects earlier in the week.
  
  COMMENT: Obama change is continuing and can only restore confidence in the American population with their new government. This change helps separate the fundamental Christian influence from the state as happened under the Bush government

  tags: blogger

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