The Daily Boomerang

This Shepparton man is quite lucky that he won’t be spending any time in jail:

A MAN considered too fat to be jailed has spoken out after escaping time behind bars because of his weight.

Shepparton man Claude Jackson was ordered to do community service for smashing a glass over another man’s head at a Shepparton bar on January 14, 2007.

The victim, Tim Kirkman, received a 4cm cut to his neck in the incident and required hospital treatment.

Jackson pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury and affray.

A medical report submitted to the County Court sitting at Shepparton said Mr Jackson, who weighed 190kg, had suffered three heart attacks earlier in life and suffered from ongoing arthritis, sleep apnoea and other weight-related ailments.

It said he had once weighed up to 234kg and that “morbid obesity” had been present all his life.

The medical report also warned that a jail term would “create great problems” for his health.  [Herald-Sun]

If there was ever an ideal candidate for Australia’s Biggest Loser program this guy is it.   Can you just imagine this guy being trained by Commando Steve?  By the way how old does everyone think this guy is?  Check below the fold for the answer:

Read the rest of this entry »

I had to read this article twice to believe what I was reading:

QUEENSLAND authorities should be removing children who have underage sex from dangerous and illegal situations, instead of implanting them with contraceptive devices, the state opposition says.

Queensland Health has admitted giving girls as young as 12 the contraceptive Implanon - a small plastic rod containing the hormone progestogen which is inserted into the arm and lasts three years.

Opposition child safety spokeswoman Jan Stuckey yesterday told state parliament she discovered the practice on a visit earlier this year to two indigenous communities - Aurukun on Cape York and Woorabinda, west of Rockhampton.  [AAP]

Let me get this right, children of Aboriginals as young as 12 years old are victims of sexual abuse and the Australian government’s response is to give them a contraceptive?  Does anyone think if these children were non-Aboriginals that this is what the government’s response would have been? 

My wife and I had a surprise this morning when we found out we have a new resident in our backyard:

I have blogged before how I live next to some adjacent bushland inhabited by a mob of kangaroos and now one of them has decided my backyard is good place to get some chow:

We have been watering our grass with the gray water from the washing machine which keeps our grass greener then what this kangaroo is probably used to eating out in the bush where it has been quite dry the last month and a half. The kangaroo is actually doing me a favor because I may not have to mow my grass at the rate he is eating my grass.

My wife and I were watching him from our kitchen window and he decided to hop on over and see what we were doing:

He took off later on in the day when my wife went outside to drive off in her car and the kangaroo got scared from the car noise. However, it will be interesting to see if the kangaroo decides to come back or not because he still has plenty of grass to eat to save me from doing some lawn mowing.

If people find the Victorian surfing capitol of Torquay a little bit to cool for them, then a great place to go to get away from the hip crowds of Torquay is just a short ride down the Great Ocean Road to Angelsea:

Angelsea is the family friendly answer to Torquay. The town is a small, family friendly town with plenty of places to camp. Best of all is the beautiful ocean scenery all around the town:

Australians first started traveling to Angelsea in the 1860’s, not to holiday but to fish in the Angelsea River that runs through the area and the nearby ocean as well as hunt for kangaroos and rabbits that frequent the area. The first permanent settlement at Angelsea didn’t happen until 1883 though, when Anna and Agnes Murray opened up a boarding house at Angelsea to take advantage of all the sportsmen hunting and fishing in the area. More would follow which would lead to the establishment of the actual town of Angelsea a few years later.

The holiday atmosphere in Angelsea continues to this day. Angelsea only has a full time population of 2,000 people but during the peak holiday periods up to 10,000 vacationers pack this small town with 3,000 of them being campers.

Many of these people on vacation begin their holiday in this wonderful seaside town by taking advantage of the many water sports available on the Angelsea River:

There are plenty of kayaks, rafts, and other boating equipment for anyone to have fun on this nice little river. Other holidayers would rather hit the links and play a round of golf with Angelsea’s favorite mob of kangaroos that inhabits this well known golf course in Victoria:

However, most people come to Angelsea to simply hang out at its beautiful beach:

The beach at Angelsea is located in a stunning cove that is protected by the long, rocky peninsula capped by Point Roadknight:

Since the cove is protected it provides plenty of gentle waves to do everything from wading in the ocean, body boarding, or even taking out a sea kayak:

Like I said before, for those looking to get away from the glam of Torquay taking a short drive down the Great Ocean Road to Angelsea is a good alternative.

I really hope when the Beijing Olympics torch passes through Canberra that the protests will be as peaceful as people are claiming they will be:

FREE Tibet activists say they are delighted with the protests dogging the Olympic torch, and promise a strong but non-violent protest in Australia.

The Olympic torch relay is set to arrive in Canberra on April 24 following wild protests in London and Paris.

It arrived yesterday in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam to start a drastically curtailed African leg.

Voice of Tibet Australia spokesman Tenpa Dugdak said he was pleased with the protests because they had thrown the spotlight on human rights abuses in Tibet.

“I think it was fantastic,” he told the Nine Network. [AAP]

Fantastic? How do you call the fact a handicapped Chinese woman carrying the torch was attacked by a bunch of thugs “fantastic”?:

The torch bearer Jin Jing is a Chinese para-Olympics athlete with one leg who was attacked by protesters on the Paris leg of the torch relay. She was attacked multiple times by the protesters who pulled her hair and punched her in the head, but she fought off the attacks each time to protect the torch.

This picture of Jin Jing is currently the most famous photo in China:

You can see more pictures of Jin Jing and the attack here.

This attack against Jin Jing has given the Chinese government the image they needed to unite the Chinese public like never before. These attacks against a handicapped woman has only confirmed what the Chinese state controlled media has been telling the Chinese public for weeks, that the criticisms and protests from the west over the Tibet issue is actually an attack against all the people of China.

I don’t like the current crackdown in Tibet, but these Free Tibet protesters are doing nothing to bring about change in China’s policies towards Tibet with these violent protests. In fact these protests have only garnered the Chinese government more support within China. What else bothers me about the whole Free Tibet protests is that they are being led by the anti-establishment types that we saw here in Australia trash Melbourne during the G20 summit and cause violence in Sydney during the APEC meetings. If someone wants to hold up signs or turn their backs on the torch as it passes I don’t have a problem with that, but these violent protests are an embarrassment and to many Chinese appear to be xenophobic. I actually commend Jin Jing for standing up to these thugs like she did.

People underestimate the power of nationalism in China especially in regards to how western nations forcibly colonized China in the past two centuries. From the Chinese perspective giving up Tibet would be like Australia giving up all claims to aboriginal lands. It just isn’t going to happen and the best that can be hoped for would be to have an autonomous Tibet area established like what the aborigines have today in Australia to protect Tibetan culture. The biggest threat to Tibetan culture is how the Chinese government is encouraging millions of Han Chinese to settle in Tibet. In Australia outsiders have to get permits to visit aboriginal lands which protects their culture.

Something similar should be set up in Tibet which if this issue was pursued in a mature manner could be a possibility. However, as long as handicapped Chinese women are physically attacked by these violent protesters the Chinese government will never compromise on anything in regards to Tibet. Let’s hope that the protesters in Canberra do not add to this problem.

The eco-loons from Sea Shepherd who have been responsible for attacking Japanese whalers and then lying and creating a false hostage crisis are now in search of more headlines in the Arctic protesting the annual Canadian seal hunt which is a species that is even more plentiful then minke whales.  However, the Sea Shepherd eco-loons were in for a surprise when French fishermen used Sea Shepherd’s own violent tactics, which they are championed for in the Australian media, against them:

A militant environmental group opposed to the East Coast seal hunt was forced to flee the French islands of St-Pierre-Miquelon on Friday after angry fishermen cut the mooring lines of the group’s flagship vessel.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sparked outrage earlier this week when the group’s leader, Paul Watson, said the recent deaths of three seal hunters north of Cape Breton was a tragedy, but the continued slaughter of seals "is an even greater tragedy."

On Friday, Watson’s vessel, the Farley Mowat, was confronted at the wharf by two dozen residents of St-Pierre, the capital of the French territory south of Newfoundland.

Police confirmed local fishermen confronted the activists and the ship left after its lines were cut with axes.

Fisherman Carl Beaupertuis, 47, said when he heard Watson’s comments about the sealers killed in a capsizing last Saturday, he was furious.

"We cut the ropes … because the fishermen of St-Pierre don’t accept what Paul Watson said," he said. "He’s not allowed to come in the harbour any more. It’s finished for him."

Watson later confirmed he had left St-Pierre-Miquelon after the tense confrontation.  [Cnews via Tim Blair]

What is really funny is that Watson says he is going to make a legal challenge in a French court against the fishermen for forcibly removing them from the island.  This is especially ironic considering Watson’s group has consistently assaulted Japanese whalers.  Watson should consider himself lucky the French fishermen didn’t throw acid at him like he consistently does at the Japanese.  The Canadian government also said in the Cnews article that they plan on pressing charges against Watson for interfering with the annual seal hunt.  It good to see that the French and the Canadians are not tolerating the eco-loons from Sea Shepherd. 

Do you or someone you know have a heart condition of any kind?  If so you might want to read or at least forward this link to the Heart Library.  The Heart Library is packed with news and information about the human heart to include topics such as angioplasty. This wealth of information about the human heart is definitely worth checking out or at leasting forwarding to someone you know.

I just don’t feel sorry for idiots like this West Australian man that got himself arrested for smuggling drugs into Thailand.

Are you trying to sell your house and are finding no one to buy it?  Well you are not alone as many other home owners are caught in the US housing crisis and cannot find anyone to buy their home.  You have many options available to you to sell your home such as through a real estate company or newspaper advertisements.  However, if real estate companies and other means are not getting your house sold, then you might want to check if selling you house on-line is an option for you.  One website that helps home owners sell their house quickly is WeBuyHouses.com which specializes in matching home sellers with home buyers.  Signing up for the site is quick and easy with a simple contact form on the site’s front page that needs to be filled out to add your home to the site’s listings.  Whether it’s to save on the costs of real estate agents and open house hassles, or just to sell your home fast for cash, sometimes a fast home sale now is better than a listing to sell later. Folks who need to sell a house fast are frequently under a lot of stress and WeBuyHouses.com is one way to relieve that stress. 

Here is a perfect example of why politicians love global warming:

Households and businesses had to wait six days for power to be restored after last week’s wild weather, which killed four, blacked out 420,000 homes and caused $80 million damage.  (…)

Premier John Brumby blamed global warming for the damage and warned severe winds would become more frequent.

But industry experts, technicians and the Electrical Trades Union blamed staff shortages, frail powerlines and a failure to prune overhanging trees.

"There are not enough blokes in the industry and not enough are being trained," one experienced line worker said. [Herald-Sun]

Some how I seriously doubt this was the first time in history a wind storm that dropped heavy rain hit Victoria. How can someone claim increasing wind storms are hitting Victoria when in the two years I have lived here that is the first severe wind storm I have seen hit the state.  To claim more severe wind storms are coming is just more fear mongering to obscure the issue that the government failed to prune trees and hire enough utility personnel to fix downed powerlines.