As the sun sinks on Australian Test cricket supremacy, time for me to catch up on the vote count for The Kepler-Wessels for the first four days of the Melbourne Test, which should reach its conclusion in an hour or so.

Day One:
3 pts - Ricky Ponting;
2 pts - Simon Katich;
1 pt - Dale Steyn.

Day Two:
3 pts - Peter Siddle;
2 pts - Michael Clarke;
1 pt - Graeme Smith.

Day Three:
3 pts - Jean-Paul Duminy;
2 pts - Dale Steyn;
1 pt - Paul Harris.

OK, maybe it's time to start taking Mitchell Johnson seriously. He even has the DKL Seal Of Approval now after taking 7/42 on Day Two of the Perth Test against South Africa. It looked like the visitors were going to amble to the upper hand (sorry about the metaphor trauma there) until Mitch started to hum.

The Kepler-Wessels BoG points for Day Two:
3 pts - Mitchell Johnson (Australia)
2 pts - AB de Villiers (South Africa)
1 pt - oh god do I have to award points to Jacques Kallis? (South Africa).

5% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. (Maybe 15% if the rest of the world pitches in.)
$4 billion compensation package to the coal industry.
Stacks of free emissions permits on offer.
Emissions from logging/deforestation exempt.

More later. Pardon me while I take my shoes off...

One of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history has come to an end, with the commencement of the withdrawal of our combat troops from Iraq.

The withdrawal came more or less with a whimper, and certainly not telegraphed in advance. Earlier this year the Senate Estimates Committee was told that Australia's role in Iraq was complete, and this was confirmed by Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston yesterday (video). We, of course, should never have been there, an aggressor nation (along with the USA, UK and numerous smaller members of the "Coalition of the Willing") invading a sovereign entity on the other side of the world, on the basis of fabricated "intelligence". The acronym for the original (subsequently discarded) US name for the invasion, "Operation Iraqi Liberation", sums up the underhanded motives fairly well.