So it's officially politically incorrect...

To be mean to John Brogden, ex NSW Liberal Party leader. But Gam's hilarious picture was made before the violins came out for politicians who find the consequences of being busted for making racist & sexist 'jokes' too tough, so I'm posting the link here anyway because I laughed my arse off at it when I saw it.

More Random Photos

This is how my arm looked for the whole July holidays! How tough am I?! *flexes muscles* Actually it really hurt and I got really sick, but the pictures are cool (I sent them to my parents). I only regret not being in the right state of mind not to get a photo of the day it was cut open to drain... that would have made the most spectacularly gross photo. Sorry Gam!!

Insight: Australian Muslims

Insight is always a really interesting show. An incredibly infuriating show. It's a great concept and it's invariably riveting, except for the fact I don't really like seeing Phillip Ruddock on TV so often. Tonight's show is possibly more infuriating than anything, with Jenny Brockie appearing to play the devil's advocate for the shock-jock-listening, Channel-Nine-watching, Liberal-voting white majority against intelligent, articulate muslim Australians, who more than anything seem bewildered by the fact that Australia is unwilling to listen to common sense. The only reason I can think of for Jenny Brockie running this episode in such a manner is that it's a sly way for her to get both 'viewpoints' on the program without having some rabid Young Liberals (or old crusty liberals) dominate the debate; a way of allowing more Australian muslims to have their say. About time.

The hypocrisy of criticising Australian muslims for not condemning the actions of foreign extremists who happen to share a religion in name, though not belief, just blows me away. My message to Australian muslims would be to tell anyone who self-righteously commands them to 'reject terrorism' to blow it out their arse. I was raised in a white, christian family, but I don't feel the need to be apologetic when a foreign 'terrorist' who happens to share with me the characteristics of white skin and protestant religion starts bombing innocent civilians in foreign countries (George Bush). I didn't vote for the guy, just like muslims in Australia didn't vote for Osama bin Laden or any other terrorist cause. I find it disgusting that every time anyone who is muslim tries to raise the issue of how US and Australian foreign policy contributes to more people sympathising with extremist causes; how many innocent men, women and children have been slaughtered, or 'collaterally-damaged', by the US (and therefore Australian) foreign policy, they get shouted down and told to 'reject terror'. Bloody hell, if I was a muslim I would be so sick of it by now. Don't get me wrong, I don't support the religion, or rather certain aspects of it, any more than I support christianity. I don't like any religion that would condemn me to burn in hell for eternity along with murderers, paedophiles and rapists if I happened to be gay or enjoy sex in anything other than the missionary position. Actually, given the record of the Catholic and Anglican churches overseas and in Australia, the church would be more likely to offer forgiveness to a paedophile than to a gay man or woman in a loving, monogamous relationship. My good christian auntie has already proclaimed that Gam and I are going to hell (along with all the unrepentant gay people and rapists and murderers) because Gam is an atheist and I don't go to church any more (mainly because I don't like to associate myself with people like her, John Howard and George Bush... OK that was a bit mean- she's actually very nice, just has a few fucked up beliefs)

I just don't like hypocrisy, and it abounds in Australia. I think the main reason so many white Australians are so antagonistic towards muslim Australians is the latent racism in the community that no-one is willing to admit exists. The elephant in the corner. Before the 'muslim hordes' we had 'Asians stealing our jobs' (John Howard jumped aboard that bandwagon too, back in the day), and before that, in the days of the White Australia Policy, we had 'Wogs' as the resident punching bag, because they were the brownest thing we had to pick on apart from Aborigines, who were so few and still didn't have the right to citizenship of their own country anyhow. Yet it's somehow politically incorrect to so much as insinuate that racism is not just confined to crazy extremist nutbags like Jim Saleam, that it is rampant in many parts of Australia. We like to act racist but not admit to racism, because that might mean there is something wrong with us. We prefer to tell ourselves that John Howard won the 2001 election on 'economic issues' not because of the fact he demonised refugees who came from the very countries he would later help to invade. How sad.

Anyway, good on Insight for giving people a voice. Whether I like or agree with all those voices or not, it's at least good to know they exist.

A-League Football Begins

I went with the rest of our football team to see the first game for Queensland RoarVs New Zealand Knights at the Suncorp Stadium. The game itself was very exciting. The 2-0 score isn't really indicative of how evenly matched both teams were; New Zealand scored a goal which was disallowed because Kiwi striker Sean Devine was judged, dubiously I think, to have fouled the Queensland goal-keeper, and were just downright unlucky to have 'The Roar' (*cringe*... what an embarrassingly lame name!) score a second time against them. The first goal, however, was a beauty. Alex Brosque just let fly, and it sailed perfectly into the corner of the net. I felt sorry for the NZ Knights goalie, Danny Milosevic, because he did a damn fine job. He could really boot the ball up the field, unlike Queensland's lame-arse goalie, Tom Willis, who probably couldn't outkick me (and I'm crap). He was lucky the Knights only had about 3 shots on goal. I predict he will be a weak point in the team in the games to come. Lucky we have another goalie, Scott Higgins, for when that happens. Queensland have some really good players.

The compere for the match ought to have been pelted with crap footy-food for gross incompetence. I can't believe they paid that git. He knew even less about football than I did; I think he barely knew he was at a football match, not a 'Rugby Loigue' match. He introduced only the Queensland players’ names, not the NZ players (really rude, seeing as they’re guests) or the referee (it always pays to know where the ref. is from), didn’t tell us who scored the goals, and kept yelling into the microphone “GIVE ME A ROAR!!”. Wanker.

So I have a hard time even knowing who was playing because of the inadequate attention paid to players and their numbers by the dickhead compere and whoever runs what goes on the big screen (oh but there was plenty of Hyundai advertising... they got their money's worth alright!). Seeing as it was the first match of the season you'd think they'd put a little more effort into introducing the players. I liked the Korean player Hyuk-Su Seo, number 16. The only reason I remember his name and number is because the compere read it out as simply 'Hyuk-su' (sounding more like 'yuck sue'), and neglecting to read out the 'Seo' which was printed up on the big screen. Of course he didn't make that mistake with the more anglo names, although he was that dumb it wouldn't have surprised me.

Given the length of my whinge you might think I didn't enjoy myself as much as I should've. Well I did! I just feel incredibly frustrated that I didn't get to hurl something heavy at the fuckwit who was compere... I'd probably go to another game just to get a chance to do that! I think Queensland are playing Melbourne Victory for the next game in Brisbane, on the 18th of September.

The Average Worker Doesn't Receive an Average Income

The Howard Government is always trumpeting its tax cuts for the rich. We all know that. But they defend this by saying how much the 'average income' has risen in the years they've been in power. Could've fooled me when I was working as a secretary for $11.70 an hour. As any idiot knows, if you add a few huge figures to a bunch of small figures and divide the lot by the total number of figures, the average goes up. Pity the Australian public isn't just half made up of any idiots, however. It is made up of exceptionally ignorant idiots who believe anything they hear on channel 9, despite their bank balances telling them otherwise. Despite John Howard's claim prior to the last election that average workers have received a 14% 'real' pay rise since 1998, the University of Sydney's centre for Industrial Relations research has showed that the 14% increase in pay only applied to the top 10% of income earners. The actual average wage rise has been 3.6%, with a median of 2.6%. The bottom 20% of earners received only a 1.2% pay rise.

From the SMH:

Other research, conducted by John Shields of Sydney University, found that over the same period the incomes of the 50 highest-paid Australian chief executives had increased by 194 per cent between 1999 and last year.

But it wasn't just the 50 highest-paid CEOs and the top 10% of income earners who voted for John Howard, was it?

Oops! We Shot Another Journalist!

The US Army have capped another brilliant day in Iraq with the killing of Reuters soundman Waleed Khaled and wounding of Haider Khadem, a cameraman. This is probably another 'whoops, I thought the camera was a rocket launcher!' incident. Except a sniper would have been able to tell it was a camera... but let's not be too hard on the guy. After all, brown people holding things tend to look dangerous. I'm sure they'll send a nice card to Khaled's pregnant wife (now widow) and now fatherless 7 year old daughter. Poor guy. Poor wife and kid. Haider Khadem is being held incommunicado by the US after they shot him.

From the SMH:

Reuters TV soundman killed in Baghdad

August 29, 2005 - 8:29AM

A Reuters television sound technician was killed and a cameraman was injured on Sunday while trying to cover a Baghdad gunbattle involving insurgents and US troops. Police said the men were fired on by American forces.

Waleed Khaled, 35, was killed and cameraman Haider Khadem was wounded while driving to the scene of the clash in the western Baghdad district of Adil, said Alastair MacDonald, Reuters' chief correspondent in Baghdad.

The two appear to have been targeted by a sniper, and Khadem was detained by US troops after being shot, MacDonald said.

Major Mousa Abdul Karim of the Ghazaliyah police said US soldiers opened fire on the two men near Umm al-Qura mosque.

A statement from the US Army's Task Force Baghdad said troops responded to an attack on an Iraqi police convoy that killed and wounded several officers.

"One civilian was killed and another was wounded by small-arms fire during the attack," the statement said. "After discovering an abandoned car with explosives material, weapons and a mobile phone, units began searching the area for the terror suspects who were believed to have fled on foot."

Task Force Baghdad spokesman Lt Col Robert Whetstone said US troops evacuated one wounded civilian from the scene, and the incident was being investigated.

MacDonald said Reuters had not heard from Khadem since he was detained and could not find out where he was being held.

At a news conference, a Reuters correspondent asked US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad about the incident, saying US soldiers shot the men.

Khalilzad responded that military operations were not an exact science and "sometimes mistakes are made."

"If they are made, we investigate and then report on our findings," he said.

In a story on the Reuters website, Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said: "This tragic incident must immediately be investigated thoroughly and impartially.

"A brave journalist has lost his life and another has been wounded and detained when their only actions were as professionals reporting the facts and images of the war. We are deeply saddened at this loss."

Waleed is survived by a 7-year-old daughter and his wife, who is four months pregnant.

Schlesinger later told The Associated Press in London that Khadem was still in custody more than 12 hours after the incident.

"We would like to have him out to talk to him and have him cared for," he said.

Iraqis complain frequently about US troops firing at civilians near checkpoints and other locations, and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he had raised the issue with American authorities.

US officials blame the problem on a rise in suicide car bombings that have killed dozens of American troops in recent months.

In March, US troops mistakenly killed an Italian intelligence agent and wounded an Italian journalist driving to the Baghdad airport after the journalist was freed following a month as a hostage of insurgents.

US forces killed two Reuters cameramen during the invasion of Baghdad in 2003, when a tank shell was fired at the Palestine Hotel where they were based.

A third Reuters cameraman was killed by a sniper in Ramadi in November in unexplained circumstances. The agency said it was seeking an explanation from the US command.

At least 52 journalists and 21 media support workers have been killed as a result of hostile action while covering the war in Iraq since March 2003, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

© 2005 AAP

Muslim Girls Call for Ban on Bronwyn Bishop's Hair

Well maybe they should. Hair like that is unaustralian. Its purulent stench of excessive hair spray and attitude of cynical defiance permeates our clean and temperate Australian air. Defiance not only of gravity, but of our very way of life- our carefree, outdoorsy, sport-loving Australian way of life. Hair like that is for embalmed corpses, for wax-figurines, for the English. Hair like that should be banned. In an ideal society, of course, you don't ban anything. But this hair has been forced upon us, it has been used as an iconic item of defiance of the values Australians hold dear. By its very presence it ensures that our society is no longer 'ideal'.

Of course, if individuals wish to indulge in such hair in the privacy of their own homes, they are welcome to practice their perversity. But when this style is displayed in our very own House of Representatives it becomes an emblem of this cancerous defiance of true blue Australian values, and this is the reason why Bronwyn Bishop's hair should be legislated against.

From the SMH:

Push to ban headscarves divisive: Dems

August 28, 2005 - 3:46PM

A push to ban Muslim girls from wearing headscarves at state schools was "deliberately divisive", Australian Democrats leader Senator Lyn Allison said today.

Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop has backed the proposal, describing the use of head scarves at public schools as an iconic act of defiance.

Ms Bishop backed the view of outspoken Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos, who last week said she was concerned about Muslim women not showing their faces when they posed for photographic identification.

But Senator Allison said Ms Bishop's comments encouraged religious and cultural separation.

"I think [Bronwyn Bishop] is being deliberately divisive. I think that it is insensitive that young women for religious reasons who chose to wear a headscarf are somehow provoking a response from others," she said.

"It seems to me that by saying that young people who go to state schools wish to wear a head scarf they can't but they can wear a head scarf if they go to a religious school.

"What that says is that we want to be separated. It doesn't say we want integration and that we want to improve relations between cultural groups and religious groups.

"It says if you are religious, you should go to a religious school.

"I would argue that it's time to examine, not that they are wearing headscarf or not, but examine whether the curriculum is the same, whether girls are being given the same opportunities as boys in those schools."

Ms Bishop today said the issue had been forced upon Australia, which was experiencing a clash of cultures.

"In an ideal society you don't ban anything," she told the Seven Network.

"But this has really been forced on us because what we're really seeing in our country is a clash of cultures and indeed, the headscarf is being used as a sort of iconic item of defiance," she said.

"I'm talking about in state schools. If people are in Islamic schools and that's their uniform, that's fine. In private life, that's fine."

But Maha Krayem Abdo, president of the Muslim Women's Association, said such a ban was dangerous, and that girls should be free to follow their religious beliefs at any Australian school.

She agreed that in an ideal society nothing would be banned and said Australia had a leadership role to play on such issues.

"I think it's so dangerous to go down that path if we think ... that in an ideal society we would not ban anything," she said.

"And I think Australia takes on a leadership role in the world, that it is a fair-go society.

"I don't see anything contravening that fair go and equality that Australia strives for - so the hijab, no way would it in any shape or form, contravene that."

Ms Krayem Abdo said she found it difficult to comprehend the Government's stated support for the freedom of Iraq, yet Ms Bishop's proposition was to prevent Australian Muslims from exercising freedom of religious rights.

Last year France's Parliament voted overwhelmingly to outlaw the wearing of Islamic headscarves in state schools, although concerns remain over whether that decision merely deepened divisions within French society.

The Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, said last week that he did not support a ban on headscarves.

AAP

Banning Extremists

Gam beat me to it, but after hearing a snippet on SBS news last night I searched like hell for information on one James Saleam, white supremacist, neo-nazi and general all-round crazy nutbag (pictured left). I came up with practically nothing.
Given that this guy has previously been jailed for the 1991 attempted murder of the African National Congress' representative in Australia, and is still active in the Australian 'nationalist' (white supremacist) movement, you'd think it would be in the interests of all Australians to know about this guy and the threat he poses to our society. Not a chance. The Federal Government talks big about banning extremist groups, but what they mean is banning muslim extremist groups. Why is it so hard to find information on this guy? Why didn't the other channels so much as touch on this in their news bulletins? Why has there been no talk of banning white supremacist organisations who have members who have actually demonstrated a willingness to commit murder? The only reason Jim Saleam and the Immigration Department made the news last night was because this organisation kicked up a stink about a Far-Right German MP named Holger Apfel (or was it Gerd Finkenwirth? They're all the same kind of scum, anyway) being on the verge of getting his visa to Australia granted. Typically, the racists painted this as an issue of 'freedom of speech'. Of course, the hypocrites don't believe in freedom of speech for fanatical imams, or any non-white person for that matter.

I'm of the opinion that anyone who commits a racial hate crime and then continues to associate with racist organisations should be jailed. Racism is a bigger danger to Australian society than anything. It frightens me more than anything. I don't believe in freedom for people who have demonstrated that they pose a threat to our society, whether they be people guilty of attempted murder, actual murder, child sex abuse, rape, repeat incidence of domestic violence and assault, or whatever, no matter what colour they are.

Confirming the Utterly Obvious

... about the Labor Party and Politicians in general really. So there is cronyism and nepotism in a party where the people who succeed are the most ambitious and willing to tread on the backs of the most people in their push to the top? It seems quite obvious, really, given that these are the sort of people most likely to succeed at anything in our society, that politics should be no exception to the rule. Politicians are, by and large, self-interested, self-serving scumbags. The Greens are somewhat spared of this, seeing as anyone who has the burning ambition to obtain all the perks and power of being a politician would be incredibly frustrated if they joined the Greens... mainly for the obvious reason that they lose all the time. I vote Green. Their lack of ambitious, amoral candidates suits me fine, even if they mostly do choose as candidates stereotypical, inarticulate hippies who have a snowflake's chance of hell in winning.

Professor Peter Botsman isn't going to be a very popular guy among NSW Labor Party members, but what he says is true of the Australian Labor Party as a whole, really:

'Arrogant, unelected brats' ruling ALP

By Alex Mitchell, State Political Editor
August 28, 2005
The Sun-Herald

THE best way to get ahead in the NSW Labor Party is to become a friend, lover, wife or number-cruncher for the dominant right-wing faction known as the Terrigals, a leading Labor academic says.

Professor Peter Botsman launched a blistering attack on the Terrigals last week, saying they were killing party democracy and causing rank-and-file members to leave in droves.

"They have no respect for tradition, seniority, the rules of the party, common human courtesies or the customs of democracy," he said.

"They live for one thing: becoming a minister or a premier in the shortest possible time.

"Their code of behaviour has become a model for ambitious party apparatchiks in all factions. They represent the greatest threat to the longevity and honesty of the ALP."

Professor Botsman, who previously headed the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney, said: "This group is increasingly made up of people who have never been properly elected to represent the Labor Party but have come to their positions by fiat of the Labor administrative machine.

"Many have never faced a democratic ballot. Many have simply used their positions as party bureaucrats and administrators to win automatic passages into the parliament.

"Many have become ministers and MPs through administrative rulings of the head office of the party.

"Many are simply wives, girlfriends, friends of people who have administrative power within the NSW Labor Party machine."

Professor Botsman, an inter-disciplinary public intellectual, writer and researcher, said the right-wing subfaction represented "a new level of audacity and arrogance".

Sketching a portrait of the average Terrigal, Professor Botsman said: "Terrigals do not believe in rank and file preselections or party democracy. It's winner take all and the survival of the smartest and the most ambitious."

Writing for the online policy journal Australian Prospect, Professor Botsman said former premier Bob Carr had grown tired of the influence the Terrigals exerted.

In turn, the Terrigals resented Mr Carr when he corrected and penalised them for their mistakes, while those who were demoted "formed a festering, simmering pool of resentment, constantly angling for new breaks, higher positions and more power".

Professor Botsman accused Mr Carr of "turning a blind eye to the incest, brashness and arrogance of the new breed of Labor brats, thereby allowing them to flourish and take over".

He said Mr Carr's secrecy in planning his resignation was bewildering, adding: "He wanted to plant the last big story. But one suspects he was also sick of his own mob."

The Terrigals, so named because they formed 15 years ago at a Terrigal beach house on the Central Coast, played a key king-maker role after Mr Carr's resignation at the end of last month.

Bahahahahaha

I just found this blog post via Defamer. The picture as you see it on the Defamer site is funny enough: young Tom Cruise all prettied up with lipstick and dresses and loving every minute of it. But when you see it here, at left, you realise that Defamer covered up a hilarious detail in the photo: Tom Cruise actually hiking up his skirt and flashing some thigh!

Not that I'm trying to impinge on Tom's uber-heteroness or anything *cough*, but that's mainly because I'm pretty sure there are some photos of my little brother aged about 6 in full drag, striking inappropriate poses while playing 'getting married' with his best male friend, and he's grown up straight (no gay man could pretend to be a heterosexual aussie male yobbo as well as that!).

The last thing I have to say is that he was much cuter as a kid than he is as an adult. How did anyone ever think he was good looking?

Update: Defamer have been forced to state that they do not believe that Tom Cruise 'regularly' dressed as a girl, with regard to the photo which Tom's lawyer reckons is of his 'sister', and Tom only ever wore the costume once, so there! And he absolutely hated it, I'm sure.

Fluoride Conspiracists Chalk up Victory for Tooth Decay

Since the day I first sprouted a tooth my parents were utterly pedantic about dental care. They brushed my teeth for me twice a day up until an embarrassingly high age (probably about 8 or 9), fed me a little pink bubblegum-flavoured fluoride tablet once a day, and made sure I had regular dentist visits. Which, I must say, were loads of fun, because you always got a sticker and a brand new toothbrush out of it. At some stage I'm pretty sure I had sealant treatment of my back molars. The short of it is that I have never had a cavity. Braces, yes- fluoride can't change your genes- but no cavities.

I do remember, however, that the reason my parents gave me fluoride tablets was because the local water supply wasn't fluoridated. The WHO recommends that where possible, water be fluoridated to a level of between 0.7 and 1.2 ppm. In rural NSW, however, authorities like the WHO don't wield as much influence as rabid scaremongers, and I remember the sorts of letters that used to appear in the local paper whenever the council so much as thought of fluoridating the water supply. To say they were ignorant, alarmist and downright false would not be doing them justice. These letters proclaimed a vast conspiracy to poison the populations of towns all over Australia with the Great Fluoride Menace. While it is well known that excessive levels of fluoride in water lead to dental and skeletal fluorosis, there is overwhelming evidence that small doses of fluoride reduce tooth decay. In today's news from the SMH:

Message in a bottle - tooth decay is back

By Mark Metherell
August 26, 2005

After years of falling tooth decay rates, cavities in children have risen sharply and sugar-rich food and soft drinks are not the only culprits.

The rate of decay in children aged 12 to 13 has jumped 75 per cent in the past decade according to a South Australian study, results likely to be reflected across the country.

Complacency about the benefits of fluoridation, which led to the widespread decline in cavities, may be a factor in the reversal of the trend since the mid-1990s, said John Spencer, director of the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health.

The rise in the use of low-fluoride toothpaste to reduce discolouring of children's teeth and a decline in sealant treatment for children, which prevents decay, were among the factors thought to have triggered the growth in caries, Professor Spencer said.

While sugary drinks and snacks were likely to be significant contributors, so too was the widespread use of bottled and filtered water, which contain no fluoride.

"You don't have to shift the balance between risk and protective factors very much and you can see more caries emerging," he said.

The study revealed significant rises across all age groups between eight and 15 since the mid to late 1990s, after years of decline in decay rates.

One of the most marked rises in cavities was for the 12-13 age group, whose average of decayed permanent teeth rose from 0.53 in 1996 to 0.93 by 2002.

"This is a worrying trend for future adult oral health, as this is occurring despite nearly every child and adolescent using dental services in the last two years, mostly at a school dental service clinic," Professor Spencer said.

The trend in South Australia, whose school dental scheme compares well with other states, would reflect the position in other states and had been indicated by earlier national figures.

The study found that while most adults were satisfied with their dental care, many avoided or delayed treatment because of the cost.

That was even though more than half of South Australians had dental insurance, higher than the national average.

For those depending on the public dental service the position was even more painful. Tooth decay among these people had increased in the mid-1990s, with toothache reported by up to one in four adults each year.

Remember Rupert's $20 per Barrel Prediction?

Gam did, and he posted the actual quote a little way down the page. Seriously, if I ever said something that dumb, I could never show my face in public again. Hehe... Rupert Murdoch, world-class dumbass. That man is the reason I changed my mind about studying journalism.

More Random Photos

Up the top is me feeding a bunch of birds at the uni ponds sometime earlier this year. They're so cute, it's kind of like substitute pets.



Second pic is my Grandma at my parents' home in NSW, as photographed by my dad, trying out his brand new digital camera. I really like this photo. Grandma is just the epitome of a sweet little old woman, only about a million times as scatterbrained as you'd expect for someone who is nearly 90. The only time she's not sweet is when the subject of Gam comes up. It's not that she doesn't like black people, it's just that they're all meant to be starving in Africa, where she sends them all money through good Christian charities, not dating her granddaughter. So she regularly entreats my mother to pray for my soul. And no, she doesn't know we live together! Mum frets that she would write me out of her will if she found out. It's so funny. One of the last things Mum said to me before I headed off to the wide world of uni, and she was half serious, was something along the lines of "don't come back with a black boyfriend because I don't want to have to deal with Grandma!". Four months later... well I swear I didn't fall in love with Gam just to spite anyone, that's for sure! I wonder if Mum even remembers telling me that?

Last photo is of my babies, Kenny (white) and Seven. They were a birthday present in 1998 from a highschool friend of mine... Seven liked to try and kill people (sorry, Gam, I should have warned you!) but really he was a big sook who liked cuddles and who fretted helplessly when Kenny was gone (i.e. on the nest). His favourite food was sultanas. My mum and dad had been looking after them for me since 2002, but this year they asked my permission to give them to a lady who lived on a farm because they worried about Grandma having a fall on the path when she was left to look after them when mum and dad travelled. I made sure the lady wasn't the sort who liked to kill chooks once they passed their most productive years, not that Seven ever had a productive year, and Kenny was never a reliable layer, and also that she was able to forgive Seven if he happened to conduct an attack on her or her children, and not have him beheaded for it. Kenny couldn't cope without Seven. She literally can't see out from that puffball on her head, except for the tiny bit of ground she's standing on, so she relies on him to be her eyes and to find her tasty things to eat. Once I'd established that they were going to a good home I said yes, even though I was looking forward to seeing them at Christmas, because Dad was going to have his knee replaced, and I didn't want them having to worry about getting the chickens looked after. I think my Dad was pretty upset at giving them away too, despite how he talked tough over Seven's bad habits and Kenny's being a useless egg-layer. I know Kenny and Seven barely remember who I am now, but I feel bad about not living up to my responsibility to them as my pets. To me, it's anathaema to hand over your pets. You owe them something, and it's horrible to have to part with them. I wasn't able to live up to my responsibility because I live in a unit; I would have loved to have a yard they could live in!

About Time! Cyclist-Killer Faces More Charges

When the news came out a while back that prominent Adelaide lawyer and former Police Prosecutor Eugene McGee (pictured left) had hit and killed a cyclist, Ian Humphrey, left him to die in the road, and finally got off with a charge of 'failing to stop at the scene of an accident' and a fine of $3100, I was pissed off. His family, unsurprisingly, were pissed off. Cyclists around Australia were pissed off. When is a person's life worth only $3100? McGee had been at a function where he consumed alcohol (a whole bottle of wine) prior to hitting and killing Ian Humphrey, and he buggered off home instead of stopping to help the poor guy just so he wouldn't face extra charges of dangerous driving while under the influence of alcohol. According to the ABC's Stateline:

"McGee fled the scene, minutes later pulling into a side road to ring friend David Edwardson, one of the state's top defence lawyers who specialises in road traffic cases.

McGee then made many other phone calls to friends and family before his brother drove him back past the accident scene to Adelaide.
Crucial in McGee's defence was the evidence of psychiatrist Sandy McFarlane who said he was suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Attorney-General Michael Atkinson says that evidence was introduced late in the trial and the prosecution couldn't find anyone to rebut it."

If you ask me, the Police who took two hours to show up to the accident scene and failed to administer a test for blood alcohol as well as the Judge and Jury who found him not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving are suss too. I mean, how else did the poor guy die?

Anyway, I'm glad to read that following a Royal Commission into the trial, more charges are now to be laid against that scumbag. South Australia's DPP has recommended that Eugene McGee and his brother are each to face charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Pity there isn't an extra charge for succeeding in perverting the course of justice as well. I hope the son of a bitch goes to jail. I'm a cyclist, Gam is a cyclist. We're both worth a hell of a lot more than $3100, as was Ian Humphrey. The Judge and jury who let McGee essentially get away with murder ought to be ashamed of themselves. People so lacking in empathy and human decency ought not be sitting in judgement of others.

Lawyer faces charge over cyclist death

August 25, 2005 - 8:44AM

Prominent Adelaide lawyer Eugene McGee is likely to face fresh charges over the hit-and-run death of an Adelaide cyclist.

South Australia's Director of Public Prosecutions Steve Pallaras said he had recommended to police that McGee and his brother Craig each be charged with one count of conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice.

The move was welcomed by Premier Mike Rann who said it vindicated the government's decision to hold a royal commission into the case.

The basis of the conspiracy allegations against the pair is unclear as the commission report has not been made public.

Earlier this year, Eugene McGee was found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving but guilty of driving without due care. He had earlier pleaded guilty to failing to stop at an accident scene.

All the charges related to the death of cyclist Ian Humphrey who was hit by McGee on a country road, north of Adelaide, in 2003.

McGee was fined $3,100 and lost his driver's licence for a year, a penalty which outraged the community including Mr Humphrey's widow Di Gilcrist.

The move to lay a further possible charge against Eugene McGee comes six weeks after the end of the royal commission into the case which examined the police handling of the investigation and prosecution, especially why he was not alcohol tested.

Mr Pallaras said he had advised both the government and Ms Gilcrist of his decision.

"I have informed the government through the attorney-general of my decision in this matter," he said.

Premier Rann said he felt an injustice had been done after McGee's trial.

"I am pleased to see that the closed report of the royal commission has led to charges finally being laid after a delay of almost two years," he said.

"While nothing can assuage the grief the family of Mr Humphrey and especially his wife, the prosecution of the McGee brothers vindicates their persistence in pursuing justice.

"This shows that the royal commission was not just a politicians' picnic."

Mr Rann said the government would also make a series of announcements in the coming months in relation to the royal commission report, including moves to change some court procedures.

"As a first priority I want to see the law changed to make sure that defence counsel do not ambush the prosecution at trial with expert evidence which cannot be rebutted," Mr Rann said.

© 2005 AAP

This is why I'm still a Student...

A Manolo is just like Sarah Jessica Parker: despite the hype, it's as ugly as shit.

It scares the crap out of me that this might be what Gam and I have to look foward to when we finish uni. I don't know about most people, but I actually like spending time with my boyfriend, my cat, a book in the sun, friends, sport etc. etc. Slaving at a job I probably won't like to pay for an expensive car, LV bag, weekend binge-drinking, Foxtel (TV as shit as the free channels for 'only' $60 a month!!) and whatever else wage-slaves do would probably make me want to jump off a cliff. Seriously. Realistically, most people don't have their 'dream job', and often can't afford to get their 'dream job' until they've slogged away at a job they dislike for years. Some people can't afford to get their 'dream job' because it pays next to nothing and they have a family to support and bills to pay. All those people doing all that overtime at jobs they don't like don't realise it is probably making them sick. It's probably at least partly responsible for the huge jump in antidepressant use over the past decade. I really want to wind up doing something fulfilling and enjoyable in any future career I have, because what's the point in spending more than half your waking life at work in order just to feed yourself so you can make it through another miserable day at work? So you can wear your new Manolos or LV bag (put on your Visa card) out on Friday night while you get absolutely smashed in a club before stumbling home in the am for a huge sleep in on Saturday, a day to yourself on Sunday, steeling yourself for another sucky week at work starting the very next day? I guess some people don't even have the luxury of having that much fun, but I hope I can live my life without a 'must-have' mentality for things I honestly don't need, and afford to have a real life outside of work.

Workers slaving for consumer lifestyle

August 24, 2005 - 1:24PM

One in five Australian workers puts in more than 50 hours a week at work as they try to cover the costs of an increasingly expensive consumer-driven lifestyle, a new study has found.

Compiled by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, the study found around 22 per cent of employees work at least 50 hours a week.

In about half of these cases, the people have been working extended hours for at least a year.

One of the study's authors, Mark Wooden, said it appeared many of those workers putting in long hours were doing so because they had to cover the costs of their lifestyles.

He said it seemed these people were in a "work and spend" cycle, as they used the income gained from long hours to pay for an expensive lifestyle, but because of their financial commitments they could not reduce the hours they worked.

"It is startling how many employees are working such long hours year after year just to help pay off their debts," he said in a statement.

"A clear implication of the research is that reclaiming leisure and family time will require many households cutting back on expenditure."

The study found highly educated workers, with good promotion opportunities and flexible work hours arrangements, were most likely to work extended hours.

Among those who work persistently long hours were teachers, academics, lawyers, broadcasters, actors, journalists and pilots. Road transport and railway workers also put in very long hours.

People in country areas are also more likely to put in extended periods at work.

"The prevalence of long working hours increases as we move away from the major cities towards increasingly remote areas, a finding that may be related to the types of employment available in the outback and farming areas," it found.

Self-employed people are also more likely to work long hours than those in the public sector.

The study's authors said the results should be a warning bell for the government as it tries to find a system that balances work and family commitments.

"The analysis strikes an ominous note: long hours at any point in time are in fact often persistent," they said.

In an unexpected result, the paper also found that while some fathers put in extra hours to cover the costs of their children, others reduced their hours to spend more time with their offspring.

"Many fathers ramp up hours as a breadwinner response to child-rearing," the study's lead author Robert Drago said.

"But there is also another group of fathers behaving quite differently, and avoiding long hours to spend more time with their children."

© 2005 AAP

British Army's Undercover Lesbian Investigations

I can't believe this sort of thing stopped only 5 years ago in Britain.

Forty-year fight against Sapphic service

By Alan Travis in London
August 24, 2005

A secret "observation list" of women engaged in "suspected unnatural female friendships" was maintained for more than 40 years by the Women's Royal Air Force, government files released at Britain's National Archives show.

The list was devised in the 1950s of women who were suspected of lesbianism but where there was no evidence. They were placed under constant surveillance and subjected to a quarterly "check-up" by the women's air force police.

The documents show that women were also targeted through flying visits from the special investigations unit. Officers would search their kit, read their letters and question them about their relationships. A shortage of women air force investigators meant the inquiries were often undertaken by male air force police with a "chaperone" present.

An entry on the observation list meant applications for new jobs or postings overseas were subject to a special screening process, known as the "lesbians index". It is believed this was still in force in the late 1990s.

The creation of a system to track down and expel lesbians from the women's air force came as the RAF was panicking at the scale of male homosexual activity within its ranks. Air force commanders were alarmed in the 1950s at the discovery of gay "rings" at RAF bases.

Military police complained that gay airmen were using innocuous classified ads for "riding breeches" to contact each other.

Britain's ban on gays and lesbians in the armed forces was lifted only five years ago and the air ministry files show they were ruthlessly targeted by the air force's special investigation police.

The legalisation of homosexuality between consenting adults in 1967 provoked a review of attitudes in both air services but the dismissals went on. In 1971 the WRAF's provost marshal, Squadron Leader A.P. Doran, worried that the number of lesbian cases had exceeded previous records.

In 1970 the number of cases had peaked, with 57 airwomen being dismissed for lesbianism. Squadron Leader Doran was keen to revise the regulations while ensuring the force "must not become a happy hunting ground for lesbians".

The Guardian

I know it's no use asking just how being lesbian interfered with these airwomens' duties, because bigots always put common sense in the back seat when it comes to things like this, but shouldn't these arseholes be apologising for how they treated gays and lesbians, or is apologising something 'real men' don't do?

Baked Chocolate Pudding

This is my recipe for baked chocolate self-saucing pudding. It not only tastes great, it's also foolproof! I adapted it from a recipe my Grannie gave to my mum... mum probably gave it a few tweaks herself: I suspect that's how it wound up using vegetable oil instead of butter (that's what happens when your mum is a health-nut!) Anyway, I fixed all that because I believe that if you're going to eat something yummy but unhealthy, go the whole hog and make it as unhealthy as you like, just make sure you eat your veges the rest of the time. So my version has butter, real chocolate and cocoa! As every chocolate-lover knows, the trick when cooking with chocolate is if the recipe calls for cocoa, find a way to add real chocolate, and if the recipe calls for real chocolate, add a couple of tablespoons of cocoa too...mmm... extra chocolate...

A word of warning though: Small portions are a must unless you have an iron stomach! I've been in trouble on more than one occasion for allowing people to have second helpings because they feel totally wrecked afterward... I have an iron stomach for chocolate pudding, though, so I always get second helpings :)

baked chocolate pudding:

sift together:

1 cup plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp cocoa


add:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

2-3 tbsp butter melted with about 3/4 block of good quality dark chocolate (~200-250g)


stir well and then pour mixture into small, square baking dish (estimate: 20x20x5cm?) and then pour on a mixture of:

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

remainder of chocolate block, melted

1 cup boiling water



bake for 45-60 minutes in a 150-180 degree oven.

Mandatory Post

If I'm not careful I won't be able to keep up my brilliant record of posting every day. I'm tired and I was about to head off to bed... can't think straight enough to make a sensible post. Have a picture instead... this is Feifei drinking from the salty, chlorinated pool. Mmmm. And here is me reading playboy catching some sun on my blindingly winter white skin but not actually swimming cos it's too cold... these are for you, Gam :)

Libs Win QLD By-Elections

Disappointingly, the Liberals took out both seats in the Chatsworth and Redcliffe by-elections yesterday. It's not that I don't think Peter Beattie has been at best complacent on the issue of hospitals, and not just lately either; this current problem has been a while in the making. I'm all for punishing governments through the polls. There's nothing more satisfactory than seeing smug bastards get their comeuppance. This time, though, I hope the backlash stops here, because the alternative is so much worse . That's all there is to say, really. Peter Beattie might be getting what he deserves at the polls, but god knows what will happen to Queensland if Labor loses the next State election. It's only recently become civilised here...

Stuff On My Cat

Best site ever!!!! This one has 3 legs and is called 'Tripawed'. Awwww!! I'm going to have to make a submission featuring Feifei...

Tri-Nations Rugby

I'm an honorary Kiwi when it comes to the Rugby for the simple reason that Joe Rokocoko (left) doesn't play for Australia. Mmmm... he also happens to be a very talented player... Tonight, however, it's the Wallabies vs Springboks, so I'll be cheering the Aussies while Gam does his turn as traitor and barracks for the Springboks. I wouldn't put money on the Wallabies to win, given their current track record, but here's hoping they wipe the floor with the boks while I look forward to the next match featuring the All-Blacks!

Update: curse them, we lost!!

I love the herald cartoonists

And I'm a big fan of Barnaby Joyce. I know he's a moron who believes in censorship of anything on TV that he finds personally confronting (we have that already: it's called the 'off button', mate), but anyone prepared to stick it to John Howard, and actually represent the people who voted for them (which is apparently a bad thing, if you listen to MPs) deserves a pat on the back. My personal opinion is that voting National is for the ignorant and backward, but in a democracy you have a duty to represent the people who voted for you, and Barnaby is doing his damn job. If democracy is worth invading foreign countries over then fucking well uphold the principles at home, Johnny boy.

As for Telstra, service in the bush is never going to match that in the city. One good thing is coming out of the fuss that ol' Barnaby is kicking up though, and that's the fact that Telstra will be split up. Thank god. Maybe then they'll be forced to actually compete on price and service instead of just making things as difficult as possible for their competitors (whose access to the network they control). It was never fair to flog off the infrastructure that generations of Australians paid for just to buy John Howard's next election.

Bullets for Stones While Acid gets Roses

This isn't exactly what you'd call shocking, in the sense that its inherent injustice is what people expect from Israel, but this is yet another story that highlights the level of hypocrisy in their actions. Where else can a kid throwing stones, or a bunch of peaceful protesters be gunned down without mercy, yet a bunch of religious extremists who hurl acid at policemen, injuring 24 merely get arrested and promised 'the full force of the law'? From the SMH:

Acid and arrests as Gaza evacuation erupts

August 19, 2005 - 8:18AM

Israeli forces storm the roof of a synagogue in the southern Gaza Strip settlement of Kfar Darom.
Photo: AFP

Jewish protesters hurled acid at police trying to evict them from a Gaza Strip synagogue, in the most violent confrontations since Israel began its historic pullout from the territory.

The incident in the isolated settlement of Kfar Darom, which wounded two dozen police, came as Israel pressed on for a second day to remove remaining settlers and protesters who have refused to obey orders to quit Gaza forever.

Troops succeeded in dragging out almost all the protesters in the synagogues at Kfar Darom and in the main settlement of Neve Dekalim as Israel's withdrawal from the territory after 38 years of occupation proceeded apace.

More than half the 21 settlements were reported empty and Israeli officials were predicting that Israel's first ever withdrawal from Palestinian territory would be over by early next week.

The scenes of Jewish soldiers locked in confrontation with settlers and their sympathisers were repeated elsewhere in Gaza, with security forces finding themselves the targets of insults, rotten eggs and tins of food.

"We have several policemen who have been wounded by acid and we will apply the full force of the law," General Dan Harel, in charge of the pullout, told reporters.

Medical sources said that 45 people, including 27 police, were wounded during yesterday's operations. Some 100 radical Jews were arrested after the Kfar Darom clashes.

Some officers were seen leaving the synagogue in only their underwear and were seen washing themselves down with water after they were sprayed with the liquid.

A young woman clutching her child was among those who were herded out of the synagogue, whose foundation stone was ironically laid by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the settlers' one-time champion now turned foe.

But as the brilliant blue skies gave way to nightfall, it appeared that the security forces had gained the upper hand, with screaming protesters being hauled out one-by-one by their hands and feet to waiting coaches.

One Israeli soldier was seen refusing to carry out his orders to drag out the settlers before being pulled away by other soldiers and policemen.

Similar dramatic scenes were played out at the synagogue in the main settlement of Neve Dekalim, as Israeli forces pushed forward with the first ever withdrawal from occupied Palestinian land that many Jews believe was promised to them by God.

There, teenage and adult religious Jews were being carried out by their arms and legs, screaming abuse at the unarmed police who raided the synagogue after the estimated 2,000 inside defied an ultimatum to leave voluntarily and end a two-day standoff.

Israeli troops also cleared the messianic beachside settlement of Shirat Hayam, believed to be the most radical of all, dragging settlers out of their homes and manhandling them onto buses.

In the Kfar Yam settlement, scores of Israeli soldiers raided a house where an armed Jewish settler and around 30 people, including children, had barricaded themselves inside.

On the second day of the forcible clearance of the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, seven settlements had been completely evacuated, while another seven are virtually empty.

Meanwhile, a West Bank settler who gunned down four Palestinians on the first day of the forcible evacuation yesterday said he had no remorse, as thoughts turned to the future of Gaza after the withdrawal.

"I am not sorry for what I have done. I wanted to stop the pullout and I hope someone murders Sharon as well," Asher Weisgan told reporters as he was brought by police to a court near Tel Aviv.

AFP

Thieves and murderers get better treatment than Palestinians.

Random Photos

I'm a horrid procrastinator and in the middle of an assignment (a piddling 1200 words, but you can procrastinate anything, you know!), so I'm going to post some random photos: grooming the pork beast for dinner; our furry grey angel (that's for you, Gam!); and, finally, 3 guinea-fowl from the duck ponds at uni... aren't they cute? Back to work...

Krispy Kreme Employees Forced to Take it in the Doughnut

The whole point of the AWAs seems to be to give Australians an American-style workplace where the employee always comes last. No big surprises then that an American company is so keen to screw its workers over by forcing them to sign AWA contracts instead of union awards... In the SMH today:

No icing for doughnut employees

By Nick O'Malley, Workplace Reporter
August 18, 2005

Krispy Kreme doughnut workers were bullied into signing individual contracts that left them thousands of dollars a year out of pocket, two former employees have said in submissions to a Senate inquiry.

One former staff member, Thea Birch Fitch, 22, wrote that she felt she was "left with no choice" but to sign the agreement.

"I sat in the manager's office in tears whilst I was told that I had to sign the agreement or I wouldn't get any hours and I wouldn't be promoted," she wrote.

Her submission to the inquiry into Australian Workplace Agreements said that under the contract she signed workers could be expected to work 10 consecutive days without overtime pay, work more than 12 hours without overtime and work split shifts without overtime.

Ms Birch Fitch said that as well as losing allowances for uniforms and transport, she was paid $53 a week less under the contract than she was paid under her award.

The Federal Government is pushing workplace agreements as part of its proposed workplace changes. The Prime Minister, John Howard, says they will provide a more flexible workforce and a stronger economy. While it is illegal to force workers to sign such agreements, the state secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, Gerard Dwyer, said it was common for workers to be put under pressure.

Another Krispy Kreme employee, Jasmin Smith, wrote: "My manager approached me every shift and asked where my signed agreement was."

Ms Smith, who was 18 at the time she was presented with the agreement in 2003, said that she lost overtime rates between 12pm and 6am, fixed Saturday loadings, 50 per cent penalty rates on Sundays and a uniform allowance. Her base hourly pay rate was also cut.

She said that on the day the Penrith Panthers celebrated a minor premiership win in 2003 she worked 16½ hours without any overtime loading.

She later resigned after lodging a sexual harassment claim against a manager, which she says was ignored by Krispy Kreme.

The two submissions were prepared with the help of the union.

Last night a spokesman for Krispy Kreme denied any workers had been forced to sign individual contracts. He said those on contracts received hourly pay rates above the award.

"All [agreements] are assessed by the Office of the Employment Advocate to ensure that no employees suffer any disadvantage working under those terms and conditions," he said.

"Any allegations of inappropriate behaviour are taken extremely seriously by the company, addressed promptly, thoroughly and dealt with in accordance with a clear published procedure made available to all employees."

The secretary of the ACTU, Greg Combet, said the "holy grail" of the Government and business was to eradicate all penalties and allowances through workplace agreements.
+==================================================================+

Of course Krispy Kreme just issued a blanket denial, which is undoubtedly untrue and which undoubtedly will never be called to account, but hey, it's what we get for voting John Howard and his Great Wet Dream Called America into office. Expect more stories like this one... until AWAs become the norm and it won't be considered newsworthy any more.

Skanky Tara's Terrible Tummy

Not that Tara Reid was ever anything less than skanky, but when she goes from looking like she does in the picture below to this (pictured next to 2 normal human beings):

Yeeuuchh!!!

The Wedding Crashers

Saw it this afternoon on the big screen in Southbank Cinemas. It sure wasn't as funny as I'd hoped; I expect more from something with Owen Wilson in it, but Vince Vaughn was way better in this one, although that's really not saying much. 'The Butterscotch Stallion' and his entire storyline this time were, well, rather limp-wristed. I don't expect much from a comedy other than it should be funny, and this movie didn't live up to that. Lucky Southbank is so cheap, especially for students. $5!! BCC can go stick their $8.50 student 'discount' up their collective arse!! No wonder DVDs are killing the box-office. Not only that, the candybar at Southbank is nowhere near as big a rip off as any other cinema I've been to. Southbank charge only $1.80 or something for their water, as opposed to $3.50 at BCC in Indooroopilly. The first time I bought water at BCC (I usually take my own) I misheard the price and handed over $2.50, still thinking it was a rip-off. Bloody water mercenaries...

Anyway, back to the movie: I'm usually the first person to criticise the fact that every time an Australian gets the tiniest part in a Hollywood movie the Australian media fawns all over them like ants on a squashed cockroach, and heaps on them much more praise than they deserve for their generally mediocre acting. This time, however, I have to say that my favourite thing about the whole movie was Isla Fisher. Not ever having been a 'Home and Away' watcher I am not familiar with her previous 'work', and being quite the anti-soapie-fan I might have started out even the tiniest bit prejudiced against her in 'Wedding Crashers', but dammit, I like her. She's extremely hot and actually a good actress, from what I could tell from the film. Plus she isn't all plastic and american looking, so she gets double points from me. I hope to see her in more films in the future.

Drunk in a Taxi: Now that's a crime?

A female friend of ours moved to Melbourne from Brisbane at the beginning of this year, leaving behind her parents, childhood friends and her friends from university (of which I am one). We hear from Lily occasionally, but no more than you'd expect from a young person holding down a job and completing her studies at the same time. Last week, however, we heard from another mutual friend that Lily had been arrested. For what? It wasn't as long a story as you might expect:

Lily had gone out partying on Tuesday night with her workmates, getting very drunk in the process. Early on Tuesday morning, she caught a cab, directing the driver to where she lived, which was about half an hour away. En route to her house, Lily fell asleep. She awoke to a strange noise, finding that instead of driving her home, the driver had driven her to a police station. Why? Because he 'thought he wasn't gonna get paid'. Did he make any attempt to ask her for payment either before or during the journey? Nope. When she discovered this did she provide evidence that she in fact had more than enough money to pay the cab driver with? Yes. Did this stop the 2 male cops and one female cop from arresting her and interrogating her in the presence of the cab driver, poking fun at everything from what she was wearing to why she had started crying after they refused to tell her why she had been arrested and refused to let her go? No. They took her handbag and went through everything in it, which I assume they are entitled to do in some circumstances, but no explanation was given.

They shut her in a cell without so much as a phonecall until around 2pm in the afternoon, when they let her go, charged with public drunkenness. What the police told her is that a taxi is public property, and she had been drunk in the cab. In her handbag she found a note from the taxi driver with his name, phone number and how much money she owed him. For what exactly? He made no attempt to get her to her destination; he essentially kidnapped her and took her to the police station instead. Luckily the bastard did leave his details though, as this will enable her to make a complaint to the taxi company and hopefully ensure he soon won't have a job and thus the opportunity to put any other young woman through this. Lily is black, so it's easy to make assumptions that the guy wouldn't have done this to a white woman travelling alone, but who knows? I gather, however, that the taxi driver and all 3 police were white.

Now, if it was illegal to be in the back seat of a taxi while your blood alcohol content is above a certain level, drivers would be out of business. Lily, as you might expect, is more than a little intimidated by this whole thing and wants nothing more than for it to just go away. My boyfriend had to spend several phonecalls convincing her to see a lawyer over this, and that was before we found out that her court date is only 10 days away. Lily can more than afford to see a lawyer. Her parents are more than able to afford to pay for it, although sceptical that anything Lily says in court will be taken into consideration given that there are 4 witnesses against her and she was drunk. She still doesn't really know the essence of the charge against her, let alone what to do about it, but everyone she has talked to aside from us has essentially told her to cop the charge.

Given that her circumstances, i.e. returning home drunk after a night out, are hardly unusual, I hope to god she gets a decent lawyer and the judge not only throws out the charge but rebukes the idiot cops who laid it on her or heaven knows who else it could happen to.

No wonder the fucking Victorian Police have such a bad name.

From the BBC:

Warning over suntan 'addiction'

The study asked 145 beach-goers

Scientists at the University of Texas have found that some people might be addicted to getting a suntan.

The research, published in the Archives of Dermatology, suggested up to 53% of beach-goers could be dependent on getting a tan.

Cancer experts said it provided "an interesting insight into why people continue to binge-sunbathe".

However, an addiction scientist said it was more likely to be an "extreme behaviour", rather than an addiction.

'Aware of risks'

The scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston used recognised criteria for assessing whether patients have drug or alcohol dependency.

They asked 145 beach-goers about their sun-seeking habits, using questions such as "do you try to cut down on the time you spend in the sun but still find yourself sun-tanning?"

It does provide some interesting insight into why people continue to binge sunbathe, despite knowing the risk Dr Kat Arney, Cancer Research UK

Using a questionnaire based on an internationally recognised check for assessing alcohol dependency, 26% of those interviewed were classified as "ultraviolet light (UVL) tanning dependent".

But when questions from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders were adapted for the sunbathers, 53% were classed as dependent.

Professor Richard Wagner, who led the study, said: "It's interesting that slightly modifying tools used to identify substance-related disorders, we can actually see an objective similarity between regular tanning and those disorders."

"Dermatologists often talk about people who are 'addicted to the sun' - people who know it's not good for them to be bronzed all the time, but don't seem to be able to stop tanning."

SUNSMART ADVICE Stay in the shade 11am-3pm Make sure you never burn Always cover up with a T-shirt, wide brimmed hat & sunglasses Remember to take extra care with children Then use factor 15+ sunscreen Source: Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK's SunSmart Campaign is the UK's national skin cancer prevention campaign, and estimates that skin cancer claims around 2000 lives per year in the UK, with 65,000 new cases being reported.

Previous studies have shown many people who regularly expose themselves to UV rays in order to get a tan know they are increasing their risk of developing skin cancer.

Chemical changes

Dr Kat Arney, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This is a small study but it does provide some interesting insight into why people continue to binge sunbathe, despite knowing the risks."

However Colin Drummond, professor of addiction psychiatry at St George's Hospital Medical School, London, said: "I have concerns about calling everything in the world an addiction."

"There's a tendency to translate extremes of behaviour into addictions."

Professor Drummond said addictions meant a particular chemical mechanism occurred in the brain which determined a person's behaviour.

Such a mechanism had not yet been established for sunbathing, so the habit could not be labelled an addiction.

He said people tanned because they wanted to conform socially, not because they were addicted to the feeling.

I know it's pretty ridiculous to go defining sun-tanning as an addiction without the chemical evidence, but given the existence of things like Seasonal Affective Disorder, and the fact that ultraviolet light does induce some chemical changes in the body, such as the synthesis of Vitamin D from a cholesterol derivative, it's probably worth a real scientific study to try and determine if there is such a thing as 'sun addiction'. My suspicion is that there is not, at least not any more than there is such a thing as 'chocolate addiction'. I think there is a distinct possibility that sunbathing may trigger the release of endorphins, but it's quite a stretch to claim to be addicted to it.

Aside from that, I want to know who on earth follows the advice to 'stay out of the sun' from 11am-3pm, and 'cover up' with a 't-shirt, wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses'. Any Aussie who lives near a beach knows that that advice is a huge crock of shit. Sure, it's alright if you hate having fun, but exactly how can you swim, surf, kayak or do basically anything other than sit on your arse at the beach if you're dressed in all that? Where is Joel Parkinson's wide-brimmed hat? By all means, wear sunscreen and don't roast yourself until you resemble a lobster, but the people who give that advice really ought to be realistic about it or people will just ignore what they have to say.

It seems to be a theme...

This is one Gam sent me from Lenin's Tomb:

The catering firm at the centre of the Heathrow travel chaos considered provoking strikes last year to replace staff with cheaper labour, a leaked memo reveals.

A secret briefing presented to bosses at Gate Gourmet outlined plans to trigger a dispute.

It reads: "Recruit, train and security check drivers. Announce intention to trade union, provoking unofficial industrial action from staff. Dismiss current workforce. Replace with new staff."

The draft document, prepared in 2004 and now obtained by the Daily Mirror, sets out a 15-week timetable for goading employees into striking so they could be replaced with lower-paid Eastern European labour trained in secret.

But of course, there's a denial:

"Current management discarded the plan and its recommendations as entirely inappropriate and undesirable."



"Gate Gourmet sacked 670 workers following an unofficial stoppage over the employment of 130 casual staff. The move led to wildcat strikes by 1,000 other airport workers which stranded up to 100,000 BA passengers, some of them for several days."

So if they 'discarded' the plan, how the hell did it mysteriously go ahead just like the memo said? The motto of companies in so many situations is "If you get caught with you pants down, pull them up and lie about it" because they can get away with doing just that. A denial is all it takes for the issue to go away. Sure, they might have to abandon one particular sordid plan, but they're free to go ahead with the next one. Those people need to feel pain before they start behaving honorably. Tighten the law surrounding this issue. Make the directors pay huge fines, or forfeit their jobs. If their livelihood is at stake then perhaps they can be made to act above-board in the future.

Link here
Original story here

Some Animals Have More Choices Than Others

Alright, so I created this blog because, well, there is a new blog created every second and blow it if I can't own one of those very seconds for myself. Add to that the fact that I'm a huge procrastinator and I like to whinge about things that I may, one day, get off my arse and do something about, what better forum is there for it than this? Sure, it's pissing in the wind, but don't you feel a sense of relief afterward anyway?

And now to the not really 'breaking news' that John Howard and his party of clones minus one malfunctioning National Party Senator are still screwing Australian workers up the arse sideways which I'll post here because the Sydney Morning Herald like to make you pay for old news:

Employers block certain super funds

August 15, 2005 - 4:59PM

Some firms are blocking employees from choosing super funds that require employers to comply with their terms, while others are using workplace agreements to remove the choice option altogether.

ANZ Bank won't allow employees to select a fund with a `participating employer' requirement - which requires firms to abide by a super fund's trust deed - because of the extra "administration and obligations", a spokesman said.

A number of industry funds introduced the clause several years ago, largely to require employers to make monthly fund contributions.

But signing such agreements could also leave employers open to future changes in the trust deed, Minter Ellison special counsel Paul Callaghan said.

"It's more because of employer concerns of signing up to something that may impose additional or unknown obligations, because once they agree to participate they must abide by the terms of the trust deed," he said.

Choice of fund legislation, which was introduced on July 1, gave an estimated 5.5 million Australians to chance to choose their own super fund.

Labor senator Nick Sherry said the government should remove the `participating employer' legislation as well as stop employers from using Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) to exclude choice.

"I've had a number of complaints from individuals who want to use a particular fund and the employer has said `no' on the basis of a workplace agreement," he said.

But Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer Mal Brough said the government's choice model balances the needs of employees with those of employers.

"AWAs are already providing choice and the government has stipulated that we won't create an unnecessary burden for employers by forcing them to sign up to a fund that has requirements above and beyond those in the legislation," he said.

Other than ANZ, the remaining big four banks have not yet excluded such funds.

National Australia Bank (NAB) will allow employees to choose funds with the requirement if its conditions are not onerous, a spokesperson said.

One employee has selected such a fund and NAB has requested the trust deed to review, she said.

A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said the bank will allow employees to select a fund that it is "reasonably able to contribute to", while a Westpac Banking corp spokesperson said the bank offers "full choice".

© 2005 AAP

I love the part about AWAs providing 'choice'. For employers they do! If you're a prospective employee who doesn't have another job to fall back on and you're offered an AWA contract you bloody well take it or you might not be able to afford to eat for the next half a year or so. Choice!

The Australian Government's huge taxpayer funded Super Choice campaign should be subject to the same rules regarding false advertising as anyone else. Their claim that "From 1 July 2005, millions of Australians will be able to choose the super fund that works best for them." either requires rewording to "may be able to choose" or the addendum "if their employer deems it best suited to their own needs" because it sure isn't about giving the average employee a better deal. An article in last weekend's SMH asserted that Super Choice was "seen as a way to erode union influence" over the Super Industry. Big Surprise.