from Crikey ….

It's hard to recall a pre-budget process in which a government's messages have been more confused than this one.

NSW'S E10 unleaded fuel mandate is a ''debacle'' and is costing the state's motorists millions, according to an international study.

The Texas Tech University research found motorists had a ''significant aversion'' to the ethanol blended product.

With the push for E10 reducing the availability of regular grade unleaded, motorists had instead flocked to the more expensive premium petrol because of concerns about E10's potential engine damage as well as fuel efficiency.

http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/mandate-on-ethanol-fuel-costs-drivers-dearly-study-20140427-37c6j.html

from john passant …..

Ruling classes around the world have their national myths. These attempt to tie working people to the capitalist class through the false idea of nationhood – a recent historical development.

A new study of homeless men found that 45% of the subjects surveyed had experienced traumatic brain injuries in the past. Brain injuries can cause both cognitive and personality problems that researchers don't yet fully understand

An American defense system corrupted from within by an organisation planning to use cyberdata tracking for the purpose of eliminating 20 million people, thus bringing order to seven billion.  No, it's not the beginning of a new Michael Moore book- it's the plot for Marvel's dark new offering, "Captain America- The Winter Soldier".

The prime minister's sycophancy towards the British monarch’s grand-descendants has become too much for the many Australians. On behalf of millions, the ARM national director has written Tony Abbott an open letter. History editor Dr Glenn Davies reports.

Whatever we do has no bearing on the status of the universe. Whatever we do has only an influence on the localised activity and reactivity of life on earth.

From the subject of prime ministerial launches promising solutions for the moral challenge of a generation, to a lonely minister holding an afternoon press conference in the shadow of the nation’s most revered public holiday: climate change policy has fallen so far in Australia’s political life that the government gives a good impression of hoping we ignore it.

In this case, the low-key treatment probably makes sense.

The Guardian has judged him as ‘’politically incorrect to the point of dementia’’

Last year, on land set aside by a caring family who'd lost a loved one in World War Two, the RSL conducted (first time since the 1960s) an official remembrance ceremony. A few hundred turned up, many I talked to who'd come all those years ago and had returned to show that this was still their place for those memories.

I came to this site via the kindness of Margo Kingston, who saw me flailing about the cyberverse about Halliburton in Adelaide and offered me a spot here. My first blog became the only Australian blog linked from the pages of HalliburtonWatch.  My jokes about St Clair being a HAL-based project came true when KBR finally published their work on the gig as an ad on their website.  If what happened last year occurs again today, as I'm sure it will, then maybe the work of a War Company that's morphed into real estate is going to backfire because of their violation of a decades-long war tradition.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the multi-billion-dollar program to purchase new jet fighters for the Defence Force does not involve any "new spending" by taxpayers.

The Government has given the go ahead for the purchase of 58 more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) at a cost of $12.4 billion - making it the nation's most expensive Defence asset.

Clive Palmer has declared the Abbott government's Direct Action policy is "dead", saying his Palmer United Party will use its numbers in the Senate to block the Coalition's policy to replace the carbon tax.

Mr Palmer said on Monday the controversial policy, which aims to reduce emissions largely through payments to businesses, was “hopeless” and would be "gone" if his party,  Labor and the Greens all vote against it, as they have previously indicated.

“It’s goodbye Direct Action,” Mr Palmer told Fairfax Media.

“It’s gone.”

Where do Easter and business intersect? Well, what about at greed.

According to Dr Brian Rosner, principal of Ridley Melbourne, an Anglican theological college, greed has been glamorised by the market economy and is a forgotten sin.

Maybe it's this that allows those Christians who are business people, economists and politicians to share their colleagues' commitment to unending economic growth and an ever-rising material standard of living.

From the SMH...

...

Three months later an opening arose when corruption allegations forced the resignation of the now jailed union boss Michael Williamson, who had been appointed to the State Water Corporation in the last days of the Labor government by treasurer Eric Roozendaal.

Mr Baird and then finance minister Greg Pearce signed off on the appointment of Mr Di Girolamo to a three-year $100,000 directorship of State Water Corporation.

''[Mr Di Girolamo] has legal and water sector experience,'' the briefing note to Mr Baird states. ''He is currently a director of Australian Water Holdings and Chairman of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry''.