Can you win a Walkley for explaining why a little bit of Islamism never hurt anyone?

SMH star journo Paul McGeough sees the bright side of terrorists taking over in the Middle East.

Targeting terrorists? Treason. Paul McGeough in The Sydney Morning Herald , January 27:

THE level of guidance and direction from the West in the West Bank and the extent of the collaboration between Abbas's Palestinian Authority and the Israeli defence and intelligence establishment is extraordinary. In any other country, the weaker half of the body politic teaming up with powerful foreign forces and the government of the country that occupies its land would be seen as treason.

What's wrong with Islamists? McGeough in the SMH , January 29:

BY current American thinking it would never do to have Islamists in power in the Palestinian Occupied Territories or in Lebanon and therefore they heed every despot's warning that the Islamists are waiting in the wings across North Africa and the Middle East.

McGeough in The New York Times , April 12, 2009:

OVER the long term, Hamas accepts the concept of two states in the Levant, which arguably puts Mr Mishal's terrorist movement closer to Washington than Mr Netanyahu is -- he now proposes only "economic peace" between Jews and Palestinians.

Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas) video clip, December 3, 2010

ALLAH, oh our Lord, vanquish Your enemies, enemies of the religion [Islam] in all places. Allah, strike the Jews and their sympathisers, the Christians and their supporters, the communists and their adherents. Allah, count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one.

From Working for Rupert by Hugh Lunn:

A PUBLIC servant who was not afraid to speak out, Arch Shields opposed the closure of Somerset Dam to let the Brisbane floodwaters recede. "If another cyclone comes down the coast and dumps its rain in the Brisbane catchment we will need to have the dam empty," he warned. But the politicians decided to keep the dam full so that the Brisbane floodwaters receded more quickly -- and they were highly praised for it. "Full dams hold no water," was all Arch Shields said. A week later, while Somerset Dam was still full to overflowing, a giant cyclone wandered down the coasts, but missed Brisbane. "Two degrees west and we might have lost that dam," Arch Shields said. Dams are a problem for a river like the Brisbane because politicians want to keep them full so people can water their lawns." Nowadays, every time I read that there is good news because rain has filled Brisbane's dams, I remember what Arch Shields said. And I particularly remember his observation.: "From a hydrologist's point of view a lot of Brisbane people are living in the river, not on the river."

Media release from Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, March 8, 2010:

ANNA Bligh said today continuing rain had helped push the combined levels of Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams to 93.8 per cent. Ms Bligh said "We can't be complacent; and we must treat water as a precious resource not to be wasted, whether our dams are 50 or 100 per cent."

Greens leader Bob Brown's media release, January 16:

BURNING coal is a major cause of global warming. This industry, which is 75 per cent owned outside Australia, should help pay the cost of the predicted more severe and more frequent floods, droughts and bushfires in coming decades.

Michael Knox, chief economist at RBS Morgans:

BROWN'S argument is a fairly common one, higher temperatures lead to higher evaporation, which leads to higher rainfall. Bureau of Meteorology charts suggest that, over the 100 years to 2010, the average temperature in Queensland has risen about 1C. However, the BOM rainfall tables indicate that, instead of a rising trend, there seems to be no trend, certainly no upward trend in Queensland's rainfall. The data shows the highest levels of flood in Brisbane were in the 19th century, when there was negligible economic development.

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