It's not racism, we just don't want foreigners.

[Stark]

There's an Islamic school I know of in Brisbane, and it's even down in a low-income white people area. It wouldn't surprise me at all that they're subject to a lot of pressure there (especially the students, who are probably for over a wide area of the city), but hey, people don't believe me when I say Australia is disgustingly racist.

It goes without saying that these people watch Today Tonight.

[thejester]

Something like 14,000 hectares of forest is logged in tasmania per year, and it's not much better elsewhere in Aus. Apparently it's less than it used to be but it's pretty terrible. The amount of protected forestry is also completely laughable, and the farming methods used on the cleared land are of questionable value, and now have led to serious salinity issues.

I would be willing to bet large amounts of money that fire would destroy far, far more forest each year than is logged - for a random figure, in the 2006 Grampians fires 90,000+ hectares was destroyed by fire, in a year that also saw significant burns in the Victorian Alps and the Brisbane Ranges, and that's just in Victoria. Whilst the logging of old growth forests (particularly in Tasmania) sadly continues due to political concessions, to suggest we're in a race with other countries to wipe them out is a bit...extreme.

No. You are just an idiot. Fire is a natural process that does not actually destroy forest. It recycles it, re-enriching the soil and promoting the long-term health of the forest. Of course the fire policy has been shit across the western world for some time, so the fires are larger than they should be, but still, the only way to reset the clock so to speak is with fire.

O rly?

No shit fire is a part of the natural cycle, but re-generation takes time and this is exacerbated by the drought. This coupled with in the past 15 years a steady reduction in the amount of public forest available for logging and a huge increase in plantations means that losing ~15,000 hectares of Tasmanian forest (which would almost certainly be replanted) is hardly catastrophic compared to ~200,000 hectares of forest that will takes years to regrow being burnt down every few years; and certainly demonstrates Australia is not racing to destroy the rainforests.

[The Yosemite Bear]

All I can say is that woman looks like she could be an american klan idiot.

[mr friendly guy]

There's an Islamic school I know of in Brisbane, and it's even down in a low-income white people area. It wouldn't surprise me at all that they're subject to a lot of pressure there (especially the students, who are probably for over a wide area of the city), but hey, people don't believe me when I say Australia is disgustingly racist.

It goes without saying that these people watch Today Tonight.

There is an "Islamic" school here (Perth) which has had five acts of vandalism in so many months. These include graffiti telling Arabs to go home ( even though most of the students are of Turkic speaking background). The funny thing is, this school is a secular school, but most of its students are Muslims because its in an area where these families have settled.

Then again, no one claimed racists are interested in the facts. Facts, what are those.

[Gandalf]

All I can say is that woman looks like she could be an american klan idiot.

There's a neat rule for watching the Australian news.

Beware of anyone wearing a flag.

[The Yosemite Bear]

All I can say is that woman looks like she could be an american klan idiot.

There's a neat rule for watching the Australian news.

Beware of anyone wearing a flag.

it's not just the Austrialian flag western hat, though that is a big part of it. The semetry of the face, the style of hair, the big ass western hat indoors, the cut of her blouse. All assembled together they scream "Redneck" (Though I understand "Bogan" is the Austrialian term)

[Alyrium Denryle]

O rly?

No shit fire is a part of the natural cycle, but re-generation takes time and this is exacerbated by the drought.

A drought which you exacerbate with your shitty water-wasting policies (not that my home state of Arizona is innocent here by the way).

This coupled with in the past 15 years a steady reduction in the amount of public forest available for logging and a huge increase in plantations means that losing ~15,000 hectares of Tasmanian forest (which would almost certainly be replanted) is hardly catastrophic compared to ~200,000 hectares of forest that will takes years to regrow being burnt down every few years; and certainly demonstrates Australia is not racing to destroy the rainforests.

First off you confuse "forest" with "rainforest". the land in australia that typically burns is not the nice, wet, fire resistant rainforest Maya and I refer to. It is the desert scrub, and more dry forests that exist across the continent, dominated by eukalyptus. Those areas actually require fire for their patterns of succession and for the germination of a lot of their plant species. Fire is necessary, and the local ecosystem has adapted to fire to such a degree that the idea that the forest should "recover" from fire is silly, precisely because if it was not periodically burning, it would be unhealthy. The animals and plants have evolved to co-exist with it. It is not destruction by any decent metric given to you by a biologist worth their salt.

Conversely, if you have a burning rainforest, you have a big fucking problem, that I guarantee you is human caused. Hell, by pulling down one tree in a rainforest you have opened up a gaping hole in the canopy, a hole that is not supposed to be there until the tree died of natural causes a few hundred years later, that in itself will take a few centuries to recover. By clearcutting a rainforest you dont just remove X hectares of forest, but you have just there driven probably hundreds of animal and plant species to extinction. For a few hectares of wood for what? Designer furniture?

So by even trying to compare the two, to say nothing of the long term effects of logging and agriculture on areas, rainforest or dry woodland that I have already laid and and you tactfully ignored, you prove yourself to be a fucking idiot and you need to sit down, and the shut the fuck up.

[loomer]

God fucking damn it, I'm getting tired of this shit...

Probably part of why The Herd appeals to me so much right now.

[weemadando]

A great quote from that crazy flag-hatted bitch [allegedly]:

"Islam should go back to Islam where they belong"

YEah. That makes perfect sense.

[Justforfun000]

"Muslim" isn't a race, it's a faith.

A VERY important fact to remember when dealing with this shit.

I get really aggravated and intolerant when I'm constantly reading news stories about people who try to treat their cultural faith as an actual IDENTITY. You're belief system is nothing more then the first part of your title. Belief. I'm sick and tired of national policies, special interest groups. Theological organizations, etc... etc...constantly whining about their "special" statues. In other words, too "special" to involve critical thinking.

While I deplore the opposite end of the scale, witch hunts and heresy excommunications,We have to find a middle ground enabling us to allow personal morals to inject an opinion, but not truly determine what is "right or wrong" just because of ancient manuscripts.

[Justforfun000]

Just to expound on that a little, hell. I'm human! I'm here on this Earth as a finite span of existence, and I know shit all. I wish, hope, pray, believe, etc...that I could actually GUARANTEE an eternal existence. But I'm well aware that I'll likely go to my grave not knowing any more then I do now.


I see these people blowing themselves up in the name of religion....what's even more disturbing is the major religious clashes in this world are the damn arguments between the basic originating FAITHS. Islam, Judaism, Christianity...they are all worshiping the same damn God. \

Yet they are the most contentious and warlike people in the current time period and they don't even have a really good reason for it. I echo that statement that I forget who it was attributed to....I weep for mankind.

[mr friendly guy]

A great quote from that crazy flag-hatted bitch [allegedly]:

"Islam should go back to Islam where they belong"

YEah. That makes perfect sense.

more on that woman in question

Am I the new Pauline Hanson? I hope so


Damien Murphy
May 31, 2008

THE hair is assisted blonde rather than red, but the rawness of Kate McCulloch's words curiously echoes Pauline Hanson's redneck worries about dispossession and the need to curb Muslim immigration, especially in the white-bread community of Camden.

Mrs McCulloch, a Catholic mother of four, became the poster girl for Camden's Muslim-shy residents this week when local councillors voted unanimously "on planning grounds alone" to reject a Quranic Society proposal for a $19 million Islamic school on Sydney's rural outskirts.

Having railed against Muslims who "take our welfare", Mrs McCulloch, 45, now says she is considering following Mrs Hanson into politics. She met the Queenslander when she pulled into Camden last November to help oppose the Islamic school as part her failed crack at a Senate seat.

"Look, scores of people are coming up to me and saying, 'Good on you, Kate … you're saying what we're too scared to 'cos of racial vilification laws, but we all think it.' I would like to keep our place like it is and I guess [joining the] Liberals would be natural," she told the Herald.

Is Mrs McCulloch scratching the surface of an Australian heart of darkness, as Mrs Hanson was accused of doing? Mrs Hanson's trademark image of herself draped in the Australian flag inspired Mrs McCulloch. For Tuesday night's council meeting, she complemented her patriotic green and gold dress with an Akubra hat adorned with Australian flags. She said the victory vote was in keeping with the spirit of Camden's status as the birthplace of the nation's wool industry. "The Macarthurs will be proud of us," she said.

Mrs McCulloch, who owns a hospitality business in Camden, accuses Australia's Muslim leadership of saying nothing while mothers and children are used as suicide bombers.

"The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don't want to accept our way of life," she said after the council vote. She told the Herald later in the week: "I want Muslims in Australia to attend our schools so their children can grow up with our values, and more importantly, so that their mothers can meet Australian mums and see how they don't have to put up with the sort of treatment they sometimes endure."

However, not all of Camden is behind her. A 72-year-old farmer in Argyle Street, Camden's main thoroughfare, said giving Mrs McCulloch publicity was the best way to silence her: "Eventually she'll choke on her own words."

A local shopkeeper said many bad ideas received widespread support. "Most probably favour capital punishment but the hanging of that man in Melbourne, who they pardoned this week, shows it's a bad thing," she said. "The Muslims will get here eventually."

Mrs McCulloch voted for the Liberal MP for Macarthur Pat Farmer. He opposed the school, too, but just survived a 10.4 per cent swing against him. He is now on the nose because he has run off to live at Mosman, and is not expected to seek preselection.

The Herald called Mrs Hanson about her would-be successor. She hung up without offering a word.

If her racism wasn't blatant enough before, being happy to seen in the same light as Pauline Hanson kind of homes the point in. Except these dumbshits don't know what the hell racism is, so therefore they will continue to say they aren't racist.

[hongi]

Mrs McCulloch, who owns a hospitality business in Camden, accuses Australia's Muslim leadership of saying nothing while mothers and children are used as suicide bombers.

How would she know?

"The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don't want to accept our way of life," she said after the council vote. She told the Herald later in the week: "I want Muslims in Australia to attend our schools so their children can grow up with our values, and more importantly, so that their mothers can meet Australian mums and see how they don't have to put up with the sort of treatment they sometimes endure."

Oh, so she wants Muslim mums to meet Australian mums (as if Muslim mums aren't Australian?) and taken on the Australian 'values', all for the benefit of themselves! Such pure-hearted goodness! She can't be a xenophobe if she wants to help them!