Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

No matter that Pacific Clothing say that they're still an Australian company; the heart of its trade, I reckon they'll find, is centred on the fact that their brands are synonymous with an Australian clothing manufacturing industry. While we could wear these brands we knew our country could always be self-sufficient in putting shirts on our backs. With the brands about to be accompanied with a "Made in China" tag, any such faith and trust is most likely about to be eroded.

"We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal.  Now we must be that nation again.  That is why, even as it cuts back on the programs we don’t need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future:  energy, health care, and education. "- U.S. President Obama

So what of the other charities that have been helping to assist?  It's great to see that Sony has put out a fundraiser album (many top-flight musos donating tracks) with proceeds going to the Salvos.  So what about Vinnies?  Wesley Uniting?  Are the Christian church based charities being swept aside as Red Cross becomes the Walmart of charity?   I worry that we're putting too many eggs in the one basket.

"Alexandra was organized chaos with the high school and basketball courts acting as emergency refuge centers. Countless volunteers tried their best to assist with no power, high temperatures, wind, smoke and very limited information. Little did we know a lot of Victoria was in a similar condition and that the authorities information was way behind the conditions on the ground. "- "David"

Until recently, whenever climate research organizations reported increases in Arctic Sea ice melt rates , advocates of global “cooling” have been making references to the Antarctic continent as supposed counter argument. Referring to small stable or slightly cooling parts of east Anarctica, a plethora of bogus climate websites claim Antarctic warming is not a part of global warming. Presumably regarding Antarctica as part of another planet?

Mrs. Clinton went on: "There is a pent-up desire on the part of the United States government under the Obama administration, as well as partners around the world, that we begin to work together to solve a lot of our common problems...

Can we continue with the business as usual approach or should we make dramatic changes to how we do things? Unless we are willing to change, the world in the latter part of this century maybe unfit for living.

You identified with the broken-hearted, with the wounded spirits, with the loss, the grieving and the terrible unprecedented trauma that is being experienced right now. I know there are people who will wake every morning believing that it was all a dream; that it did not happen. And then they will realise it was not a dream and they will cry and they will cry again. (Russell Broadbent)

With the fifteen bodies identified this morning, Victoria Police have now confirmed that 108 people have perished. One small area, Kinglake/Kinglake West, has tragically lost 30 from its community. How many have been injured?

The only trouble is that these people, to the casual observer, probably couldn't organise a fart in a baked bean factory! Surely the fact that an ASIO officer found himself with more knowledge than they about exploding a tree stump suggests to anyone that there was bugger-all likelihood of the MCG ever going up in smoke, no matter how much the evidence of a witness found by the court to be a liar and a cheat had been previously publicised.

As the punters get their pink slips one day, their credit card bills the next they are going to find it increasingly difficult to survive; the dole queues (across the globe) will grow and more and more people will be forced to deal with the government for their survival. And it won’t be pretty. After our initial sympathy for these victims wears off, they will become a nuisance to some and an embarrassment to others. Their numbers will grow as the black dog runs wild.