NATIONAL

- OLYMPICS & BANDS

It is good to see that our government crony management of SOCOG has come to it's senses about inviting USA & Japanese bands to the Olympics opening ceremony.

The NSW government's management cronies at SOCOG are losing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.  The NSW government has said the Olympics will not lose money.  The penny-pinching of the NSW budget in retiring TAFE teachers and robbing the Water Board's kitty indicate that the NSW government might be dissimulating.

We need direct government in this country to put an end to this corrupt political cronyism.

- GUNS & AIDS

I sympathize with those Melbourne doctors who attempted to explain that despite the risk of AIDS infection, blood transfusions save more people than they kill.

It is the same problem as explaining the lifesaving advantages of access to handguns by the people.  John Lott has proven beyond reasonable doubt that allowing people to carry handguns reduces murder and violence in the community.  Yet every time there is an "incident" with either AIDS transfusions or gun killings, all that the media finds worthy of reporting is the personal tragedy.

Instead should be published facts such as the number of lives saved by blood transfusions compared to the number of lives destroyed by transfused infection by AIDS or Hepatitis C, or the number of muggings, home invasions, murders and rapes averted by the reduced crime resulting from criminal's fear of armed victims, compared to the number of muggings, home invasions, murders and rapes where the criminal used a handgun.

If this were done, then Spin has little doubt that transfusion resistance would disappear and that the gun control lobby would be finished.  Within a few years Australian politicians would probably find themselves compelled to pass legislation subsiding the purchase of handguns to those who are most at risk and least able to afford a handgun.

INTERNATIONAL

- INDONESIA

Australia's foreign minister Downer (no kidding, that really is his name!) recently visited the conquered province of Timor.  Of course if it weren't for then Prime Minister Whitlam's acceptance circa 1975 of Foreign Affair's advice not to oppose Indonesia's invasion, Timor would never have happened.

At least Downer's visit persuaded presidential front-runner Megawati to affirm that she would abide by the Timor referendum.

I have nothing but admiration for the way that the people of Indonesia are working on their future political system.  If the matter is hurried, then mistakes will be made.

The Chinese should look at what happens to those governments that attempt to unite diverse cultures by force.  The list grows longer every year.

- USA

In the USA it is predicted that there will be a surplus of taxes collected over government expenditure.  In a nutshell we see revealed the difference between conservatives & liberals.

1. Conservatives believe that government is a service that we pay for, and that any inadvertent surplus in the funds collected should be refunded.
2. Liberals believe that government is a shield from anarchy, and that any inadvertent surplus in the funds collected should be set aside until a good cause appears.

This page published 1 August 1999.

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