http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/978444/abbott-excites-anti-abortion-group
Abbott excites anti-abortion group
An anti-abortion group says it is excited about Tony Abbott leading the federal opposition.
Mr Abbott, a conservative Catholic, has said on the record he believes abortion is a stain on Australia's national character and should be reduced.
Right to Life Australia president Veronica Andrews said she hoped Mr Abbott would use his position to speak out against abortion and voluntary euthanasia in parliament.
"He hasn't promised us anything for sure but we're excited by the idea of Abbott," Ms Andrews told AAP on Tuesday.
"I don't think he'll have the time to devote to our issue."
Having an anti-abortion advocate such as Mr Abbott leading the Liberal Party was "quite rare", she said.
"We'd like to think we'd get one all the time from now on but I don't think it's likely."
Ms Andrews said former prime minister John Howard was not receptive to her group's concerns about allowing the morning-after drug RU486 into Australia, adding that former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull did not share its anxieties.
In October 2006, as health minister, Mr Abbott refused to allow the abortion drug to be made available in Australia.
This led to a conscience vote in the Parliament that deprived the health minister of regulatory control of the drug.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/144212/27_reasons_to_give_thanks_
27 Reasons to Give Thanks
We’re thankful President Obama is thinking long and hard about committing more troops and money to Afghanistan.
We’re thankful President Bush feels liberated now.
We’re (not) thankful Dick Cheney has elected to move from his undisclosed location to the media spotlight.
We’re thankful Al Franken has gone from playing self-help guru Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live to helping rape victims receive justice from their employers.
We’re thankful for the healing power of beer.
We’re thankful there are some on the right who think Glenn Beck is “incoherent,” “mindless,” “erratic,” “bizarre,” and “harmful to the conservative movement.”
We’re thankful for long hikes on the Appalachian Trail.
We’re thankful Michael Steele understands that he can’t “do policy” and that no one has any reason to trust his “words or actions.”
We’re (not) thankful for “birthers,” “deathers,” “tenthers,” or “tea baggers.”
We’re (not) thankful conservatives believe they love America so much that they can root for our President to fail and for our nation to lose out on hosting the Olympics.
We’re thankful NFL players refused to “bend over and grab the ankles” for Rush Limbaugh.
We’re thankful six companies have resigned from the Chamber of Commerce due to its denial of climate change science.
We’re thankful Falcon “Balloon boy” Heene wasn’t actually in the balloon.
We’re thankful Lt. Dan Choi and Lt. Col Victor Fehrenbach bravely spoke out against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
We’re thankful Shep Smith doesn’t always drink the Fox News kool-aid.
We’re thankful more than 80 companies refused to lend their sponsorship to Glenn Beck’s hateful rants.
We’re thankful there are progressive organizations in D.C. lobbying for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
We’re (not) thankful for the filibuster.
We’re thankful that more than 20,000 of you stood up to Bill O’Reilly’s harassment machineand called for impeachment hearings against torture advocate Jay Bybee.
We’re thankful that Iran’s authoritarian rulers live in fear of their own population.
We’re thankful we’ll no longer have to listen to nativist rhetoric on CNN and global warming skepticism on ABC News.
We’re (not) thankful for bailed out CEOs who think they’re doing “God’s work” by doling outbillions in bonuses.
We’re thankful for the legacy of the Liberal Lion.
We’re thankful Bill O’Reilly won’t be following us home for Thanksgiving.
We’e thankful a “wise Latina” sits on the Supreme Court.
We’re thankful our boss helped rescue imprisoned American journalists in North Korea.
We’re also very thankful to have the support of readers like you! What are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments section.
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Each country values its traditions. Tradition gives us values with which we can identify. It also gives us a sense of community; a sense that for all our differences we are essentially human beings, trying to survive in, and make sense of, the bewildering cosmos in which we find ourselves. We have our myths, our religions, and our customs that help to give us that shared identity; something for us to cling to, and give meaning to our lives; something that defines us. And that is good. One tradition that I greatly admire, which we don't observe in Oz, is Thanksgiving. That is one custom that I think we could well borrow from our American cousins, without fear of our Australian identity being compromised.
Some would say, with some justification, that Christmas fulfils the same function here in Oz. That is a time when families get together, forget their differences (or paper over them) and take a break from the onerous daily grind of survival. But it is first and foremost a Christian religious festival. And for people like me who aren't religious, it feels a bit like cheating. I suppose the American Thanksgiving has religious connotations too, although, from my understanding, it is not a Christian festival. It's a day to give thanks to whomever you want to for all those things for which we feel we should be thankful. I like that.
And as I sit here in good health, safe in my shelter from the elements, with no fear of where my next meal (or drink) is coming from, secure in the love of my family, and, through the miracle of technology, enjoying the company of my many friends both here in Oz, and around the world, I know that I have much to be thankful for. I marvel at the fortitude of my ancestors who gathered up their family and belongings, and embarked on a perilous voyage to the other side of the world, knowing full well that they would never again see the relatives and friends left behind. Then again, maybe that's why they left. God knows, the Pilgrims were happy enough to leave. I was fortunate to see the stepping off point for the Pilgrims in Plymouth. I wondered at the time if my relatives also began their great adventure from that point as well. The voluntary ones that is. It is true that at least one of my ancestors left Mother England involuntarily. Something to do with misappropriating an anchor of all things. But we won't dwell on that, will we.
I like the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty in New York. I want to see it, and hopefully, will do so next year. I like to think of the millions who entered the New World under the watchful eye of that imposing lady holding the torch of Freedom. Nothing as grand as that greets new arrivals in this country. I suppose we do have a bridge, and a funny looking building that looks like copulating turtles. I guess that's symbolic of Oz. We're an unimaginative lot. And we're happy that way.
So it is that we'll probably never have an official Thanksgiving Day, which is a pity. Then again, I suppose every day is a day for thanksgiving, isn't it. Maybe we have it right, after all.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26407576-5013016,00.html
Flatulent pig sparks gas leak fears
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November 26, 2009 11:00pm
A PIG with flatulence triggered a minor emergency near Bendigo this week when smells wafting from the 120kg porker sparked fears of a potentially dangerous gas leak.
Two Country Fire Authority tankers and 15 firefighters turned out in darkness to search the source of the leak at a property at Axedale, east of Bendigo. But the likely culprit was soon sniffed out, the pet sow startled from slumber in the dead of night."She got very excited when two trucks and 15 firies turned up and she squealed and farted and squealed and farted," said fire chief Peter Harkins.
"I haven't heard too many pigs fart but I would describe it as very full-on."
Mr Harkins said the family had done the right thing by calling 000 to report a suspected gas leak: "It's all bottled gas up here and a leaking cylinder could pose a major fire risk.
"It was because we took it so seriously that 15 volunteers still managed to attend the call out at 10.30 on Tuesday night."
Mr Harkins said the day had been both wet and warm, as well as slightly humid.
"Smells are always exacerbated in those conditions. We got to the property and we could smell a very strong odour in the vicinity.
"It didn't take us too long to work it out because we could both smell and hear her."
The pig, a family pet, was lying low yesterday, her embarrassed owners refusing media requests for a photograph of their porker.
She is believed to be a friendly and docile animal, a much loved children's pet, possibly in need of a change of diet.
The
following was developed as a mental age
assessment
by
the School of
Psychiatry at
Harvard University
..
Take
your time and see if you can read each line
aloud without a mistake.
The
average person over 40 years of age cannot do
it!
1.
This is this cat.
2.
This is is cat.
3.
This is how cat.
4.
This is to cat.
5.
This is keep cat.
6.
This is an cat.
7.
This is old cat.
8.
This is fart cat.
9.
This is busy cat.
10
This is for cat.
11
This is forty cat.
12
This is seconds cat.
Now
go back and read the third
word in each
line from
the top down.
I
betcha' cannot resist passing it
on.
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