Ixnay on the Omelet posted:

So in other words you have no logical arguments, only emotional claptrap.

freebooter posted:

Something that just occurred to me: why the gently caress did Leyonhjelm get re-elected and Muir not?

norp posted:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-20/bill-leak-cartoon-accurate-reflection-karl-ocallaghan-says/7951320?pfmredir=sm

Seriously? Why would you bring that cartooon back to the fore and hitch your wagon to it?

Just remember that this "top cop"'s son nearly blew himself up while hanging out in a meth lab with his buddies a few years ago.

Milky Moor posted:

Anyone seen that stuff about the Melbourne High speech?

quote:

A scathing speech by a Melbourne High student has provoked a fiery response from the principal of the select-entry school, who responded by condemning the "meat market mentality" at the senior social.

In an extraordinary newsletter, principal Jeremy Ludowyke said the school had stamped out a strip show tradition at the Year 12 formal known as the "House Captains' Strip", which triggered complaints from female staff members and guests.

He was responding to a final-year speech delivered on Wednesday by Year 12 student leader Ben Qin, who declared that he "no longer believed in Melbourne High".

Mr Ludowyke said that while he disagreed with most of Ben's speech – which created a stir on social media – he congratulated the Year 12 leader for the "courage and eloquence of his presentation".

According to Mr Ludowyke, the criticism stemmed from the school's decision to change three social events.

Mr Ludowyke said the house captains strip was the product of a problematic "locker room culture" – noting that it was a phrase US Republican candidate Donald Trump used to justify his own misogynistic comments.

He said he axed the social because students' discussion of the event on social media had "descended into sexist and misogynistic puerility".

Melbourne High principal Jeremy Ludowyke.
Melbourne High principal Jeremy Ludowyke. Photo: Scott McNaughton
"Several times across the course of this year, we have seen the consequences played out in the media of football clubs, board rooms and schools where a locker room mentality has been allowed to flourish unchallenged," the principal wrote. "It is the responsibility of all men to redress this uncomfortable truth about our own culture." He did not resile, he said, from addressing it at Melbourne High.

The principal said he also cancelled a "Milk Run'" where students drank milk and lemon juice until they vomited.

Ben Qin giving his speech at Melbourne High.
Ben Qin giving his speech at Melbourne High. Photo: Supplied
"For the past two years, the Year 12 leaders have been charged with cleaning up afterwards and on every occasion it has been left to the staff to undertake the very unpleasant task of cleaning up a substantial amount of vomit," he said.

In the speech, Ben accused teachers at the sought-after school of being out of touch with "disillusioned" students who "stopped being gentlemen a long time ago".

"Melbourne High students are not gentlemen. We stopped being gentlemen a long time ago. We stopped being gentlemen when the demographic changed. We stopped being gentlemen when the world changed.

"Someone who once wholeheartedly believed in this school is telling you, 'you don't understand your students anymore. You don't know who and what we are'."

Ben, who is the student representative council vice-president, also took aim at the school for suggesting that the Year 12 students' legacy would depend on their fundraising efforts.

"A threat about a month ago that our legacy as a year level was contingent on demands of $50 donations ... I hardly think this was ever a good attitude," he said.

"Don't we give back our intellect and our academic ability? Don't we give back our physical, artistic and musical talents? We thought this was valuable. Don't we, every year, give back in leadership, student representation?"

"Don't our parents pay? Don't they donate yearly to the school?" The school raised nearly $4.5 million in donations, fees and other private sources in 2014, the latest MySchool data shows.

He criticised the school for a recent clamp down on muck-up day – an Australian tradition where students dress up and carry out pranks to celebrate 13 years of schooling coming to an end.

Melbourne High School now requires students to register their pranks and have them approved by senior staff. Many students say this has taken the fun out of the event.

The Year 12 student told a crowd of students assembled for the end of the year that the school had failed to treat students respectfully, drawing loud applause from the audience and a standing ovation.

Ben hinted that the school had mishandled a 3000-word submission that students wrote for a curriculum review, and said student consultation on a summer uniform change was insufficient.

The student told Fairfax Media that he wrote the speech because his year level felt disillusioned and "needed something". He never expected that it would uploaded to Facebook, and watched so many times.

The 17-year-old said the select-entry school did not spend enough time listening to students or trying to understand them.

"It was a big regret that we weren't able to feel connected to the school," he said.

But despite his concerns, Ben said Melbourne High was a good school that gave students great opportunities.

"It's the culture I have an issue with," he said. "The speech was never meant to bash the school, I was trying to raise student concerns. It is about trying to understand students as they are today, we don't fit any caricatures."

Zenithe posted:

Muir got elected on how many votes again?

quote:

Breastfeeding mum angry over Muslim woman praying in parents’ room cubicle at Doncaster

A DONCASTER mum says she was inconvenienced while breastfeeding her three-month-old son in a parents’ room at a shopping centre because a Muslim woman was using a private cubicle to pray.

And now Tatjana wants Westfield Doncaster to put signage above the cubicles saying they’re for the exclusive use of nursing mums.

But Westfield Doncaster says it will only police the use of the rooms if it discovered “publicly indecent or dangerous activity” was taking place.

Westfield Doncaster does not have prayer rooms.

Tatjana, who asked that her surname not be used, said she went to Westfield on October 14 to pick up her older daughter from work and while she was waiting, needed to change and feed her baby boy.

She went into the parents’ room, hoping for the privacy of an individual cubicle with a curtain to feed him, but they were all occupied.

Tatjana said she reluctantly decided to feed her son on the couch in the shared area of the room, with other kids running about and playing.

She said one of the kids opened the curtain to a private cubicle to reveal a woman, who was covered by shawl, on the floor praying.

“As I continued to sit there and feed my baby, one of the toddlers whom I assumed was her child, pulled open the curtains and there was the woman on the floor praying,” Tatjana said.

“Now I don’t have issues with religion or praying, but I was shocked that this family thought it was OK to take up this room to pray, while my son was denied a feeding room.

“I hope no other mother has to endure this, and I would like to see signage in these rooms explaining what they are used for.”

Tatjana said she preferred to feed her son in a private cubicle because he was easily distracted.

“I know I can feed anywhere I like, but at the moment, he’s so inquisitive that he wants to pull his head out all the time and it’s just easier to be somewhere quiet and private,” she said.

Tatjana said she contacted centre management but was disappointed in their response.

In an email seen by Leader, centre management told Tatjana it would only police the use of the cubicles if “publicly indecent or dangerous” activity was taking place.

Tatjana is not satisfied: “I thought it was a cop-out and brush of the shoulder response. I’m sure if I was in a prayer room feeding my baby, there would be outrage.”

Westfield Doncaster spokesperson Julia Clarke told Leader that “we rely on shoppers’ goodwill to use the amenities for their primary purpose”.

“In this case that applies to parents’ rooms which are an amenity provided to customers for the caring needs of infants and children while at Westfield’s shopping centres,” she said.

freebooter posted:

I thought Leyonjhelm's party only got in because they had the word Liberal in their name and confused people.

Bargearse posted:

Also the Ringwood RSL makes the shittiest chicken parma on god's green earth

Nibbles! posted:

Tatjana's head would spin if she knew I parked in the parents with prams spot whilst childless.

quote:

Government funded Lomborg’s ‘vanity’ book: Senate Estimates

Taxpayers contributed $640,000 to a book edited, written and published by Bjorn Lomborg and his Copenhagen Consensus Centre which was ridiculed in Senate Estimates on Thursday as “vanity publishing”.

The book, The Nobel Laureates Guide to the Smartest Targets in the World, also came under attack for receiving special purpose funding without having to undergo normal peer review processes of Australian researchers.

Labor’s Deborah O’Neill pushed departmental officials and Education Minister Simon Birmingham on what the $640,000 bought, but there was little clarity after thirty minutes of questioning.

Bureaucrat Virginia Hart initially told Senator O’Neill the money had been used to support “extensive consultations through youth forums, media discussions, meeting with world leaders, including interactions with Australian dignitaries and officials, a number of papers that were commissioned from academics in areas that were relevant to the millennial development goals”.

But it was unclear which academics contributed to the book — none appear to be attributed — or what they produced. It is also unclear about the other activities under the funding.

“This is a book that has been paid for by the Australian taxpayer. We’ve established it hasn’t had to meet the rigorous standards of other research projects, it’s a book edited and solely attributed to Mr Lomborg and published by him. And Australians have paid $640,000 toward it,” Senator O’Neill said.

Senate Estimates also heard that the $640,000 was a contribution to the book with the rest coming from the CCC, but the Education Department did not know the total cost of the project.

Senator O’Neill also asked Senator Birmingham why the project received money under special purpose funding.

“The purpose was that the then Prime Minister and Mr Pyne had initiated a process that sought to establish an Australian Copenhagen Consensus Centre and bring its approach and methodology to Australia. Certain works were commenced while the discussions commenced as to how and where such a centre may be housed. In the end, the government made the decision not to proceed,” Senator Birmingham replied.

He also accused Labor of indulging in pet projects special funding, naming the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney as one example.

While Senate Estimates was told the book was freely available on the internet, it appears it is only available for purchase. Amazon lists the book at $US11.99.

G-Spot Run posted:

Bless the Herald Sun, taking the easy approach of interviewing the anglo mother about her inconvenience of 1 fewer feeding rooms available instead of local muslim women (the woman was probably a staff member) about having no choice but to pray in the bog.

Ixnay on the Omelet posted:

Why should private businesses have to provide prayer rooms?

Zenithe posted:

why are multiple people going to RSLs?

Cartoon posted:

Got to strap the suicide vests on somewhere.

Nibbles! posted:

Tatjana's head would spin if she knew I parked in the parents with prams spot whilst childless.

Nibbles! posted:

Tatjana's head would spin if she knew I parked in the parents with prams spot whilst childless.

Ixnay on the Omelet posted:

I'm seriously considering buying an Adler as a "gently caress you" to the anti gun nuts.

Ixnay on the Omelet posted:

I'm seriously considering buying an Adler as a "gently caress you" to the anti gun nuts.

Ixnay on the Omelet posted:

I'm seriously considering buying an Adler as a "gently caress you" to the anti gun nuts.

ScreamingLlama posted:

My mother once admitted to giving me Valium when I was a baby for the same reason.


(DO NOT DO THIS TO YOUR CHILD.)

I would blow Dane Cook posted: