Smith issuing threats?

I was just watching the press conference with Defence Minister Stephen Smith and the Justice Minister Jason Clare on the ABC's news channel, and I caught some kind of threat issuing from Smith to the effect that someone will come down like a ton of bricks onto dissenters. Smith and Clare have declared their support for Gillard. I recall various media reports that there was some nasty threats and bullying within the ALP behind the scenes from the pro-Gillard camp in the lead-up to the 2010 ALP leadership spill. I wish I could locate a video of today's news conference in full to check Smith's exact words. Such ugliness.

A nod of the head still means "Yes" last time I checked - Gillard lies like a rug

I've just seen a video of an interview of PM Julia Gillard broadcast on ABC News 24 in which she was posed the loaded question of whether or not she was ever a disloyal deputy to Rudd. Her verbal reply was an insistent negative answer, while her head nodded like it might shake itself loose. I've already written about Gillard's odd habit of displaying body language that gives the opposite answer to her verbal communication when asked a loaded political question:

A nod of the head means yes.
by Lili Marlene
Blond Ambition.
September 3, 2011
http://neverheardofthebloke.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/nod-of-head-means-yes.html

Rudd and Rein urge voters to share their views on ALP leadership with local members

Now is certainly the time for Australian voters to call their local Labor MPs and senators to tell them who they prefer as Labor leader. One can only hope that someone might give a f***.

Therese Rein mobilises 'ordinary people' for Rudd
ABC News
Updated February 23, 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-23/rudd-camp-turns-to-people-power/3847458

Don't get in Gillard's way....

you might end up crushed!
http://media.smh.com.au/news/national-news/cameraman-hit-by-pms-fleet-car-3064862.html

Is there an elephanty smell in the room?

Is there an important matter which most high-profile federal members of the ALP have been constantly failing to acknowledge? Kevin Rudd is popular with the voters, while the same cannot be said of much of the rest of the federal ALP team. Rudd at one time was extraordinarily, unprecedentedly popular with the world outside of the ALP. Simon Crean and Julia Gillard as leaders were just about as popular with voters as pork chops at a bar mitzvah. Rudd knows the secret of voter popularity. So many of his critical colleagues don't. Surely the envy and damaged egos of the has-beens and the never-weres who have witnessed spectacular electoral success must be a factor in Rudd's much-discussed unpopularity within his own party.



Source of this image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seriykotik/5458307408/in/set-72157625756142997

I'd like to think that this lovely picture depicts Rudd's onging love affair with Australian voters, the big ugly animal in the room being the resentment of his ALP colleagues.

Rudd resigns from job as foreign minister unrepentant, commentators set to chatter themselves hoarse

Rudd's resignation speech as foreign minister.
Sydney Morning Herald.
February 22, 2012.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudds-resignation-speech-as-foreign-minister-20120222-1tnue.html#ixzz1n5s37keV

Cussin' Kevin

I can't stand f***ing swearing!

They are still talking about the Ruddocalypse, after all this time

Did Gillard and her colleagues believe that Rudd and the events of June 2010 would fade from the collective memory and fall back into the pages of history books? Dumb call.

I don't get why it is still such a live question as to when Gillard started planning her coup. Fowler unsuccessfully tried to get an answer out of the PM about some new evidence that she had planned well in advance, destroying the story that she was a party to the coup only as a last resort. It was reported by Patricia Karvelas on the front page of the Oz way back in December 2010 that months before the spill the "faceless man" Don Farrell told the US embassy that Gillard was campaigning for the leadership, according to a Wikileaks diplomatic cable release. I wrote about the lack of apparent impact of this story shortly after it was published. At the time it appeared that the ABC had not reported the story.

The Comeback Kid?
By Andrew Fowler and Peter Cronau
Four Corners
ABCTV
February 10th 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/02/10/3427070.htm

"Julia Gillard 'after top job a year before coup': WikiLeaks"
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
December 17, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-fn59niix-1225972416553
http://www.news.com.au/national/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-e6frfkvr-1225972601117?from=public_rss

Aussie psychiatrist Prof Ian Hickie at centre of controversy

Psychiatrist claims campaign to discredit him.
The World Today.
ABC Radio National
February 13th 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3429115.htm

The drug Agomelatine and the medical journal The Lancet are mentioned in this report, subjects that I've written about before in connection with Prof. Hickie.

Also see this recent newspaper article:

Dunlevy, Sue
'Campaign' targets depression guru Ian Hickie.
The Australian.
February 13th 2012.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/campaign-targets-depression-guru/story-e6frg8y6-1226269135293

Quote from this article:

"West Australian Labor MP and anti-ADHD drug campaigner Martin Whitely called on Professor Hickie yesterday to step aside as a mental health commissioner over the row "and if he doesn't (Mental Health Minister) Mark Butler should remove him"."

I recommend the website Speed Up & Sit Still by Martin Whitely as a great place to get all the details of this controversy, which I have written about here in past posts:
http://speedupsitstill.com/

Police threaten Aboriginal protester with a tear gas cannister on 40th anniversary of Aboriginal Tent Embassy

See photos number 5 and 11 in this interesting gallery of press photos.

"A policeman threatens protesters with a tear gas cannister in Canberra. Picture: Lukas Coch / AAP".

Notice how the older Aboriginal-looking man in photo number 15 was shoved aside on a stairway by the cops and security people rushing the PM away from the restaurant? PM's welfare is more important I guess.

This whole debacle was sparked by stupid and ignorant comments about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy made by Tony Abbott. Nice work, Tony! Abbott is clearly a man who cares about nothing and no-one except himself and his own career. He has proven himself over and over again to lack anything like the character that is required to be the leader of any organization, let alone the leader of a nation.

Note to the Prime Minister - Prince Charming does not have your lost shoe, but nevertheless I'm sure it has gone to a nice home.

Protesters trap PM, Tony Abbott.
The Australian.
January 26th 2012.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/australia-day/gallery-e6frgdbo-1226254476537?page=14

Why behind a paywall?

It's such a pity that this old British Medical Journal paper is now hidden behind a paywall, because it was one of the few journal papers by Prof. Patrick McGorry, psychiatrist and former Australian of the Year, in which he disclosed much at all in the section found in most journal papers in which conflicting or competing interests are supposed to be disclosed by the author of the paper. This BMJ paper had an uncharacteristically long disclosure by McGorry. Now you readers will have to just go by what I've written about the disclosure, try to access the paper thru a library or pay to read the paper yourself. So much for freedom of information!

Is early intervention in the major psychiatric disorders justified? Yes.
British Medical Journal. 2008;337doi: 10.1136/bmj.a695
August 4th 2008.
http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a695?tab=full

You know things aren't going well in your medical practice when....

....a shitload of disgruntled ex-patients get together to form themselves into a support group, and a class action lawsuit looks probable. It looks like the misdeeds of the Australian psychiatrist Professor Graham Burrows are finally catching up with him. Why has it taken so long?

I find it rather interesting that Australia has two controversial psychiatrist professors, Dr Graham Burrows and Prof. Patrick McGorry, who have both been the subject of serious ethical objections to their trials of the same drug - Seroquel, which has the proper chemical name of Quetiapine and also goes by other brand names, and is manufactured by the drug company AstraZeneca. According to the Seven News report Burrows was being funded by the manufacturer of Seroquel to trial the drug on eating disorder patients, and Prof. McGorry tried to get a trial of Seroquel as a treatment to prevent the onset of psychosis happening in Australia, but that trial was closed down on ethical grounds after an international collection of health professionals and researchers lodged a formal objection to the trial, known as the NEUROPRO-Q study. Like Burrows McGorry has been the beneficiary of funding or assistance from AstraZeneca, which he has disclosed at least once in a medical journal paper. Another thing the two profs have in common - both Burrows and McGorry have been accused of practicing psychiatry in a way that results in or probably would result in patients being incorrectly diagnosed as schizophrenic. McGorry should take a tip - looking this similar to Dr Graham Burrows is not a good look, and this is true now more than ever!

Class action against Burrows.
reporter Louise Milligan
7News (Melbourne)
January 15th 2012
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/vic/-/watch/27901358/class-action-against-burrows/
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/vic/watch/27901358/

Seroquel XR: 0:28 of advert, 1:02 of horrible side effects!
YouTube
http://youtu.be/vUBjO7J_UpM
[This is an unintentionally hilarious and scary advertisement for the drug Seroquel from the US, in which the disclaimer about serious side effects (which presumably must be added by law) takes up most of the time of the advert.]

Wikipedia contributors (accessed 2012) Quetiapine. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quetiapine&oldid=471222206

I can't understand why Dr/Prof Graham Burrows is still practising medicine

A quote from today's shocking 7News report about the controversial Australian psychiatrist/professor Graham Burrows:

"I can't describe it as anything other than disgusting."

I agree.

Burrows patient used as "guinea pig".
Milligan, Louise
7News.
January 12th 2012
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/sa/watch/27859872/248154/

http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/burrows-patient-used-as-guinea-pig-27859874.html#crsl=%252Fvideo%252Fworld-15749633%252Fburrows-patient-used-as-guinea-pig-27859874.html


and from late last year this report of an incredible bit of conduct:


Mental health charity probe.
McArthur, Grant
Herald Sun.
December 23rd 2011
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/mental-health-charity-probe/story-fn7x8me2-1226228855616


another damning report from 2011:

7News exposes medical scandal

https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/9690341/7news-exposes-medical-scandal/

Serco Ruins Christmas for Children in Detention

What kind of miserable f***s would prevent children from being given gifts at Christmas-time? What kind of power-crazed c*** would forbid children from having coloured crayons or coloured pencils outside of formal classes?

DASSAN Press Release: Serco Ruins Christmas for Children in Detention
Refugee Rights Action Network
5 January 2012.
http://rran.org/blog/2012/01/dassan-press-release-serco-ruins-christmas-for-children-in-detention/

Serco drops ban on coloured pencils and crayons for asylum-seeker children
by Kirsty Needham
Sydney Morning Herald.
January 7, 2012.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/serco-drops-ban-on-coloured-pencils-and-crayons-for-asylumseeker-children-20120106-1pogh.html#ixzz1ilC5Sacc

Serco drops ban on coloured pencils and crayons for asylum-seeker children
Refugee Rights Action Network
7 January 2012.
http://rran.org/blog/2012/01/serco-drops-ban-on-coloured-pencils-and-crayons-for-asylum-seeker-children/