Who wants to marry a 12 year-old?

It's terribly shallow of me, I know, but I've been wasting time online looking at wedding dresses, trying to gain some idea of what I'd like to wear when Gam and I get married in January. Most of them are pretty crap, and they all start to look the same after a while, a phenomenon I've decided to call 'Wedding Dress Fatigue'. Well, they do all kind of look the same- so many designers have pinched ideas from each other.

What got me was the Vera Wang website. I don't know what women are supposed to think when they're searching for a nice wedding dress and they see an entire collection of dresses modelled by gaunt 12 year-olds who look like they've been playing dress-ups with the contents of Mummy's sewing basket. I found it really off-putting.

An Obstacle to Peace

Mikey links to an article in the SMH on how the Irish peace process of power sharing gives hope for the Palestinian issue to be resolved. I was going to reply to his post in comments but it got a little long. This is not an examination of Mikey's post but a criticism of the article and a suggestion that even though it says one good thing, which Mikey picked up, it continues another bad thing, which he might have missed.

"Almost every armed struggle is underpinned by grandiose claims of ideological purity. Any engagement with the electoral process erodes those justifications, because it brings the would-be revolutionaries into the messy business of realpolitik, however reluctantly, and makes it more difficult for them to ignore the will of the broad mass of people, who are almost never as radical as the guerillas themselves.

Making peace with erstwhile violent groups is a delicate business: it requires not merely pressure or concessions, but a nerve-wracking combination of both. But now is the time to engage with the Palestinians.

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat used to talk about a "peace of the brave". He never showed that bravery. Neither Israel nor its friends in the West should be found wanting now."

Say what you like about Arafat's legendary corruption but he was prepared to accept the Oslo agreement which would have turned Palestine into a series of Bantustans connected by strips of Israeli held territory. He was prepared to give up the right of return for Palestinian refugees. He recognised Israel, despite the fact that Israel has never and will never recognise Palestine. He marginalised the kill 'em all radicals in the Palestinian govt. Even while radicals in the Israeli government (Netanyahu, Sharon) became prominent.



Gush Shalom describes Arafat's lack of bravery in negotiating with Israel.

All Arafat ever got for his trouble was constant undermining and closed doors. Starting with creation of Hamas by Israel to oppose his secular Fatah. The murders of moderate opponents of Israel in Palestine, the marginalisation of moderate voices and an endless supply of guns, money and political support from the west to Israel to terrorise him and his people. Not once did Israel or the west ever allow Arafat to go back to his people with something to say, "We have been heard." Every opportunity to humiliate and belittle him was taken. Even when Palestinians hold elections and the wrong people win we hold an entire nation hostage and slowly starve them to death simply for exercising the rights and values we spent decades screaming at them to exercise.

After all that he gets derided in an article purporting that, "all armed struggle is underpinned by grandiose claims of ideological purity". Goddamn right. Even when faced with an example of a leader forced to compromise and detested by many of his people for it, the author is unable to sully their ideological purity and entertain the concept that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is not entirely Yasser Arafat's fault. Western purity rules demand that no Palestinian can be thought of as willing to make peace. All Palestinian demands are outrageous while Israeli demands are reasonable. When Palestinians accede to an Israeli demand Israel has no obligation to accede to one of theirs. All of this stems from the exact same ideological purity the author claimes to detest while busily employing it against Palestinians.

To sound like a broken record, it's nothing new. The same purity laws once applied to the notorious terrorist Nelson Mandela and his organisation the ANC. It was Mandela who didn't have the courage to make peace, the ANC whose demands were outrageous and apartheid that seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Practically every government in the world, including the one of this country, supported apartheid. Today, you can't find an apartheid supporter (I'm looking at you, John Howard) and this is something that hasn't even been dead for 20 years.

We have killed, marginalised and ignored anyone who would negotiate with us. We repaid attempts to talk with death and suffering. We have destroyed whole countries to preserve our right to change Arab leaders like light bulbs. All the while, even now, not once have we ever considered that we might be the ones adhering to intellectual purity laws that portray us as angels and our enemies as demons.

Am I wrong? Go back to the beginning of this post and look at the picture, examine your feelings and think about what you thought when you first saw it.

Thorpie's crown slips a little

While I've got to say that I hope L'Equipe is wrong about Ian Thorpe testing positive for luteinising hormone and abnormally high testosterone (luteinising hormone stimulates production of testosterone in men), I have been waiting for something to blow the lid off Australian swimming for some time.

I honestly don't think there's a sport as competetive as swimming that isn't riddled with drugs. The problem of drugs in athletics is common knowledge, and the BALCO scandal showed that the drug cheats are often years ahead of scientists when it comes to discovering performance enhancing drugs. Are we to believe that swimming has somehow remained pure? That Australia is a country magically free of taint?

The fact that ASADA seems to have essentially thrown Ian Thorpe's positive test in the bin due to 'lack of evidence' shows that they have the same head-in -the-sand attitude as USADA and no doubt every other national anti-doping agency. They're all very vocal about drug cheats in other countries, and all very protective of their own athletes. It's an understandable attitude, given how unfair it must seem to have athletes competing with foreigners who are doped up but simply not getting caught.

In the case of female swimmers, it simply doesn't sound plausible when their abnormally beefy bodies and masculine shapes are defended as the result of a fantastic new 'training regime'. Female swimmers are always kind of big, but there's only so much muscle the body can pile on without the help of hormones.

If Ian Thorpe has been a drug cheat, then it raises questions about every single one of his competitors over the past few years, particularly Michael Phelps, who just broke Thorpe's 200m world record, and several other records, at the current World Championships.

Then again, the Lance Armstrong scandal blew over in next to no time, with Armstrong essentially getting off scott free, so it would be little surprise if that happened here too. Thorpie has a lot of good will in this country because he always came across as being a very nice, humble guy. A positive test wouldn't mean he's suddenly sprouted horns and a tail, but it would rock the image of Australian swimming.

It should also be remembered that Thorpe won his first World Championship race at the age of 14- we're talking a naturally fantastic talent. If he felt the need to take drugs to boost his performance, it says a lot about what he thought he was up against.

David Hicks' election lockup

David Hicks is to be released from jail in Australia after 9 months, pretty much straight after the federal election.

From the SMH.

Deal criticised

The plea deal agreement has drawn criticism from civil liberties and human rights lawyers monitoring the trial.

They were especially critical of the order forbidding Hicks from protesting any mistreatment, saying such a requirement would be unconstitutional in a civilian US court.

"If the United States were not ashamed of its conduct, it wouldn't hide behind a gag order," said Ben Wizner, staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The agreement says he wasn't mistreated. Why aren't we allowed to judge for ourselves?"

'Through hell'

Mr Hicks said his son had been "through hell" and should never have been made to endure the conditions at Guantanamo Bay.

"The Americans made David sign a paper to say he was never abused... when we knew he has been - David told us," he said.

Mr Hicks said he believed his son opted for a plea bargain to ensure his release, saying he would have been "crucified and nailed to the wall" if he pleaded not guilty.

"Military commissions aren't the way to go - they're set up to find people guilty and i think it's been proven particularly when the sitting judge can sack two of David's lawyers," he said.

"What I saw of that commission was that nothing had changed from the first time around - it's still the same."

Mr Hicks criticised the gag placed on David from speaking to the media for a year from his sentence.

"It's very strange that will fall during the election," he said.

"John Howard will probably be putting his head up saying `see, he's a terrorist.'"

Mr Hicks, who last spoke to David four days ago, said his son would just be looking forward to returning to Australia.

"All David would be thinking about at the moment is coming home," he said.

What David Hicks was tried under was not a justice system.

What David Hicks received was not justice.

John Howard supported the process all the way, getting antsy with the Americans only when the inhumane treatment meted out to Hicks looked like becoming an election issue.

I haven't forgotten John Howard's treatment of asylum seekers, and I won't be forgetting his treatment of David Hicks either. Nothing could convince me to vote for someone with no respect for human rights.

Beef up sperm count by eating organic?

Beefing up is best done naturally...

From the BBC:

The University of Rochester found men whose mothers ate a lot of beef during pregnancy had lower sperm counts.

The Human Reproduction study found they were three times more likely to have a sperm count so low they could be classified as sub-fertile.


It confirms that Europe was justified to ban the use of these hormones when they did
Dr Allan Pacey
University of Sheffield

The use of growth promoting chemicals was banned in Europe in 1988.

But although the US banned the use of some growth promoters in 1979, others, such as the sex hormones testosterone and progesterone, are still in use in the beef industry.

The issue of growth hormones being fed to cattle is one that has concerned me ever since I first read about it. As I first read about it in a US context, and noted that the practice had been banned in Canada and Europe, I thought surely Australia wouldn't allow it.

It turned out that they do. I should have known better. Consumer health is always placed behind the interests of corporate profiteers on the list of government priorities.

I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't start sticking shit in our food until it's proven that the stuff isn't safe. Rather, the farmers (or manufacturers, or whoever wants to tamper with the food) should be compelled to prove the safety of the product. Even then, it should be listed on the packaging. Consumers have the right to know if the cow they're eating has been pumped up on hormones, or if the chicken they're eating has been fed antibiotics to increase its growth rate; the practice of feeding antibiotics to animals being raised for meat is now known to be responsible for the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Another case of sticking unnecessary shit in the food supply to the detriment of consumers' health.

If the government forced producers to fully inform consumers of unsavoury practices such as pumping beef cattle full of hormones, consumers would probably revolt. Instead, the government allows the practice to continue until research uncovers the possibility that women who eat a lot of beef give birth to sons with low sperm counts.

This study is not conclusive by any means- it merely provides justification for future research on the effects of using hormones on animals raised for meat.

In the meantime, buy organic.

Lara Bingle's nudie blues

Lara Bingle nude.

I really dislike the approach the Sydney Morning Herald is taking with its story on Lara Bingle, who, the SMH reports, is proceeding with her lawsuit against cheap'n'grotty men's mag Zoo Weekly "even though she appeared nude in Germany's GQ magazine".

Oh dear god- I just googled 'Lara Bingle GQ' and reached the Daily Telecrap article on the matter. The Tele have done the typical tabloid finger-wagging, before linking to the nudie-pictures for all their undoubtedly morally outraged readers. They're quite good pictures, by the way, although it appears that most of the photos aren't even of Bingle. You can enjoy the nudie pictures here without having to wade through the Telecrap warning links.

The angle that the SMH and Daily Telecrap are taking on this seems to me to be in a similar vein to the approach that defense lawyers in rape cases use, where if the victim is not a virgin, or (god forbid) has had sex recently, they may as well be spreading their legs for the entire country; in this case, you pose nude once and suddenly it's a free-for-all: you have no right to complain about the pervert with the mobile phone taking photos of you in the shopping centre toilet cubicles because you posed nude, let alone complain about a lowbrow men's mag.

On the other hand, Bingle and her lawyers really aren't doing anything to disabuse us of the notion that posing nude is for skanks, given their claim in the lawsuit that the publication of Bingle's photo shoot in Zoo sent the message that she was "prepared to demean herself for money by being photographed scantily clad for a smutty men's magazine". That pretty much implies that every girl who chooses to pose in one of those magazines is demeaning herself, and that's quite an offensive claim.

Speaking generally, as I have never read a Zoo Weekly magazine, the lowbrow mens mags (FHM, Ralph and Zoo) habitually accompany their photographs of women with crude commentary and innuendo. Playboy, GQ and other so-called 'high-end' magazines, do not. That's not to say there is anything wrong with a photograph of a scantily-clad woman being accompanied by smutty commentary so long as she is fine with it. Clearly, in Lara Bingle's case, she's not.

As soon as she gained some notoriety for her appearance in the tourism board's "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign, the photographer who owned the shots shopped them to Zoo. I'm aware that the photographer owns the copyright to his images, and quite likely the right to shop them around without Lara Bingle's consent. That would probably depend on the kind of release she signed. It doesn't seem quite right, whatever the legalities are, that photographs of her should appear in a magazine such as Zoo with a tagline implying that she posed specifically for the magazine. The magazine, of course, should have the right to buy whatever pictures are on the market, but that doesn't mean it should be a free-for-all on smutty commentary about the model.

Unless Zoo readers are really so dumb that they haven't got the imagination to manufacture their own smutty commentary.

Not Lara Bingle but hey, it's a nice photo.

Family Values

Having a baby should not mean that a woman's career is effectively destroyed. The fact that many professional women are failing to take leave to spend time with their newborn baby, or deciding against having kids altogether means that something is not being done right.

A $5000 baby bonus can't replace lost opportunities at work, and nor can it replace a parent's time with their children. The fact there is a growing body of evidence testament to the detrimental effects of childcare on a child's development means that governments need to seek solutions most suitable for parents and children, not just the interests of the business lobby groups.

A survey of 1953 professional women has found more than half do not have children, well above the 25 per cent childless rate recorded for women generally by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Of those working women who had children, 34 per cent had not taken maternity leave. Among those who took it, 26 per cent received no paid leave, meaning 60 per cent of respondents with children received no paid maternity leave.

About 57 per cent of respondents with children said they believed that taking maternity leave would be detrimental to their careers.

The survey, conducted by the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers of Australia, mainly questioned professional women working in the science, engineering, business, computing and pharmacy sectors.

The association's national women's co-ordinator, Erin Wood, said the survey results showed a reasonable work-life balance was out of reach for many professional women working in technology.

"The reality for professional women is that many are being forced to choose between work or family," Ms Wood said.

"The lack of flexibility in working conditions, access to part-time hours and paid maternity leave is a barrier for professional women, who are either choosing not to have children or leaving their professions," she said.

Burger King to phase out cruelty food

Congratulations to Burger King in the US for taking a step towards phasing out cage eggs and meat from crate-immobilised pigs.

Mind you, if Western governments weren't beholden to the industries that carry out these practices, they would have been banned long ago on the grounds that such treatment is cruel and inhumane.

Photo from Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania.

Smouldering singles free to fantasize about Firth

If you want my body...

I know that the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald was a little misleading, given that the study involved only women aged 40-70+, but the article 'Single women reach orgasm more often' contained the trite, misleading nonsense typical of the stereotypical media portrayals of women and sex. What was surprising is that a 'medical sex therapist' was the one spouting the nonsense:

"Arousal is a lot about what erotic thoughts go through the mind, and for women that's very different to men," Dr Howard said.

"It may be focusing on Colin Firth's smouldering eyes, some romantic novel or a waterfall or whatever."

A waterfall? A waterfall? I thought people imagined a waterfall if they were having trouble peeing, not if they were having trouble getting off. And Colin Firth? Enough said.

If there's one thing about sexual tastes, it's that it's nigh impossible to make generalisations about them- the sheer variety of internet porn (particularly the amateur stuff), sex blogs, forums, whatever, should be enough to tell anyone that arousal is different between individuals, not just between the two sexes.

For me personally, the thought of a romance novel, Colin Firth and a waterfall is the arousal equivalent of three cold showers. Trust the media to go promoting the same old gender stereotypes when it comes to sex.

An imprisonment of convenience

Inhuman minds think alike: Miranda Devine and John Howard

Here's a massive surprise- David Hicks' imprisonment will continue until after the federal election.

Coincidence, of course.

John Howard is a monster. He has an appalling record on human rights, but he's smart enough to know how to work the 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality on the Australian public. He's blown George Bush enough times to know he could pull this one small favour; it wasn't much to ask from the Americans, seeing as Hicks was so desperate to get out of Guantanamo they could be sure he would plead guilty and give de facto legitimacy to the illegal torture camp and military kangaroo court they're running.

Miranda Devine (I do hate to admit reading one of her screeds) has taken it upon herself to ridicule the people who think that maybe, just maybe, Hicks wasn't subjected to a fair process over the last 5 years. I don't like to legitimise her ongoing employment with Fairfax by linking to her column, so anyone who wants to experience the entertaining juxtaposition of her assessment of Schapelle Corby's trial with what she had to say about David Hicks' 'trial' can go here.

Here's a taste...

On Schapelle Corby:

The Australian public has seen what Corby's defence team saw long ago: a transcendent grace that makes her guilt implausible. Her strength of character, not to mention the careful styling and stunning good looks, improved in recent months by jail-time weight loss, have bolstered her claim she is innocent and that corrupt baggage handlers planted the drugs in her boogie board bag.

On David Hicks:

He was a well-trained terrorist, an al-Qaeda "golden boy" who had watched footage of the September 11, 2001, attacks which killed 3000 innocent people, including Australians, on a friend's TV in Pakistan, who "approved of the attacks" and went back to Afghanistan to fight the US and its allies with his terrorist mates. He was the enemy traitor when Australian troops were on the ground.

Heh. The first one is such a wankfest it almost reads like a piece of erotic fiction.

Trumped

Everything Donald Trump does smacks of sheer desperation to maintain the illusion of wealth. Everything from suing people who claim that he is not really a billionaire, to introducing an eponymous line of tacky homewares.

It's enough to make me wonder if there's a betting pool on how long his latest trophy wife will stick around when his tawdry empire collapses. And whether his hairstyle will improve when he can't afford to keep the roadkill 'do he's sported for way too many years.

Howard's HECS double standard

Ross Gittins usually writes interesting columns that are easy to read for a relative economics dummy like me. This week he raised the prospect of a HECS-style scheme of income-contingent loans for things like drought assistance for farmers.

Which got me thinking- it's a great idea of course-

Education minister Julie Bishop, Peter Costello and John Howard are always bleating about how 'taxpayers foot the bill' for university education, despite the fact that students pay back a large proportion (one that has increased enormously under the Howard government) of the cost. So... when are we going to see Costello, Howard and minister for agriculture Peter McGauran whining about how much money taxpayers fork out to support farmers? Gittins points out:

Shifting from grants to loans would be fairer. Why? Because the average owner of a drought-stricken property is a lot wealthier than the average taxpayer is. The farmers' problem isn't poverty, it is lack of ready capital to tide them over. Income-contingent loans would give help when it was needed while allowing repayment when it could be afforded.

A lot wealthier than the average taxpayer.

A fuckload wealthier than the average student.

Copping it sweet

Terrorist Miranda Devine pleads guilty

Nanjing 29 March 2051

Supporters of disgraced former columnist and convicted terrorist Miranda Devine have egg on their faces following her guilty plea. The plea came on her first appearance before a Chinese military court. Devine pleaded guilty to supporting Tibetan terrorists and the insurgent group the "Red Eyebrow", currently part of the insurgency in the Northen Territory Protectorate and Far North Queensland Concession administered by China following a war to liberate Australia from the tyrannical rule of the Howard despots.

Supporters of Ms Devine allege her guilty plea comes as a result of having been 'tortured' for years in a prison in Syria and claim that her trial is a mockery of justice. It is alleged that her plea is a desperate attempt to escape further torture and that she 'just wants to go home.' Her defence team were not available for comment having been arrested for terrorism offences.

News of Devine's guilty plea comes hot on the heels of the capture and execution of the last surviving Howard regime member, Phillip Ruddock for crimes against humanity. It is expected that the execution of the elderly Ruddock marks the turning point of the battle against the insurgency.

0300 Mezze Prison Damascus 2050

Hafez: Adar it's your turn to rape the Aussie.

Adar: What!? I did it yesterday! I'm not doing it again...

Hafez: Well someone has to... We need results, they want to put her in court so we can't mark her too much.

Hafez & Adar: Aaaaaabduuuul..... It's your turn to rape the prisoner!

Abdul: Fuck you guys. I just got transferred here and I have to do her first? No way.

Adar: Come on man, it's not so bad...

Abdul: Not so bad!? Have you read her columns? She's a witch!

Hafez: Look Abdul we all have to take one for the team sometimes. I mean look, years ago I had to rape this Canadian guy for the Americans. Let me tell you, I don't know where they got their prisoners but it sure as hell wasn't a Victoria's Secret catalog... They were good tippers though, I'll give them that, but it's nice not having to shower after every shift *shudder*.

Abdul: No fucking way man!

Adar: Look, I had to do it yesterday goddamit! Do you think I liked it!?

Hafez: Wait wait... rock paper scissors?

Adar: How can we do that? There's only three of us... Oh. I get it. Got my back hey Hafez...

Hafez: Rank has its privileges.

Adar: Ok Abdul, on three... One, two, three!.....

Abdul:.... Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I'll get you guys for this...

Adar: Just remember, you can't beat her, much!

Hafez: It's like that show hey? "One of these days.... pow! right in the kisser!"

Adar & Hafez: Hahahaha!

Abdul: Fuckers...

Brisbane City Council #%@$*#!!

"If it's not in my backyard, it may as well not exist!"

Last year a development application notice went up at an old house down the road from our place. The council approved the development of 5 townhouses on this small-ish block of land.

One day during the exam period, a massive truck arrived in the street and workers spent the entire day moving the old house onto the back of the massive truck.

At midnight, the entire street was filled with an incredible noise as this truck slowly manoeuveured its way out of the driveway and into the street. There were cops there, and Gam went down to ask them why on earth this had to be going on in the middle of exams (I think Gam had an exam the next day). The cops said that permission had been granted for the move on that night and that was that.

After the house had been moved, and exams finished only a couple of days, the block was left derelict, with old ovens and washing machines and assorted rubbish strewn across the space where the house had been. It stayed that way for 3 months. Nothing was touched. You'd think the fuckers could have left moving the house for a week, seeing how it was so non-urgent a job that they left the site derelict for 3 months. Council didn't even bother to make them notify residents about the impending disruption- probably because 90% of the residents of our street are students. I bet they would have if it was in, say, a neighbourhood that a councillor lived in.

Uni started again, and finally the developers decided it was time to get to work, cleaning up the debris and levelling the block. Truck after noisy truck has been arriving, usually bang on 7am, but often as early as 6:30-6:45am.

They keep running out of space for their trucks out the front of the puny block, and have taken to parking out the front of our block of units (which is several doors down from the construction site). The air in our unit is regularly filled with thick, stinking diesel fumes, as the truck drivers seem to prefer to leave their trucks running endlessly as they get out to do various jobs.



I've BCC an email, but given that the fuckheads didn't even look into putting up a guard rail on Carmody Road last year when a car mounted the footpath and seriously injured two girls, I doubt they're going to give a shit about noise and air pollution.

I've kept the letter those pricks sent me regarding my concerns about safety of pedestrians on the footpath along sections Carmody Road; it said they had no intention of doing anything to improve safety on the footpath. I've taken photos every time there's evidence that another car has lost control on the bend, and when someone finally dies there (assuming it's not me) I'm going to make sure their pants are pulled down in public, particularly if they pull the typical council trick of claiming that they were just about to fix the problem when tragedy beat them to it. Arseholes.

Brisbane City Council: prioritising developers' desires over quality of life for residents.

Lenny Hendrix

Lenman records his first album, 'Apartment Life'...

Anthony Callea not in the closet

So Australian Idol's Anthony Callea is gay. That's not news.

News would be if Guy Sebastian came out of the closet, seeing as he's a Hill$ong member and devout christian.

I suppose one good thing about attending so much church is that you get a lot of practice kneeling... although I'm not sure Hill$ong makes its members kneel during services- it might make their wallets less accessible.

Private health: the aged care lottery

"Please, give me the insurance I paid for"

For a picture of the future of healthcare under the Howard government, one need look no further than the USA. From the New York Times:

Mary Rose Derks was a 65-year-old widow in 1990, when she began preparing for the day she could no longer care for herself. Every month, out of her grocery fund, she scrimped together about $100 for an insurance policy that promised to pay eventually for a room in an assisted living home.

On a May afternoon in 2002, after bouts of hypertension and diabetes had hospitalized her dozens of times, Mrs. Derks reluctantly agreed that it was time. She shed a few tears, watched her family pack her favorite blankets and rode to Beehive Homes, five blocks from her daughter’s farm equipment dealership.

At least, Mrs. Derks said at the time, she would not be a financial burden on her family.

But when she filed a claim with her insurer, Conseco, it said she had waited too long. Then it said Beehive Homes was not an approved facility, despite its state license. Eventually, Conseco argued that Mrs. Derks was not sufficiently infirm, despite her early-stage dementia and the 37 pills she takes each day.

After more than four years, Mrs. Derks, now 81, has yet to receive a penny from Conseco, while her family has paid about $70,000. Her daughter has sent Conseco dozens of bulky envelopes and spent hours on the phone. Each time the answer is the same: Denied.

[...]

In 2003, a subsidiary of Conseco, Bankers Life and Casualty, sent an 85-year-old woman suffering from dementia the wrong form to fill out, according to a lawsuit, then denied her claim because of improper paperwork. Last year, according to another pending suit, the insurer Penn Treaty American decided that a 92-year-old man had so improved that he should leave his nursing home despite his forgetfulness, anxiety and doctor’s orders to seek continued care. Another suit contended that a company owned by the John Hancock Insurance Company had tried to rescind the coverage of a 72-year-old man when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease four years after buying the policy.

Of course, this sort of thing is as unlikely to affect our politicians as theirs; Howard and his ministers know their future is well secured, with abundant taxpayer-funded superannuation and golden handshake-style lifetime perks.

Incidents of this sort, when they arise under a private healthcare system, inevitably affect the lower and middle classes- the people who make up a majority of voters.

I hope Australians will learn how to vote in their own long-term interests before we wind up in the same kind of healthcare shithole that America has found itself in.

Permanent link to news article here.

Howard's helping, Rudd's rorting- really!

Somehow there's a difference between Kevin Rudd's decision to use money from the Howard government's 'Future Fund' to fund his proposed rollout of real (so-called 'superfast') broadband across Australia, and the Howard government's decision to pocket money that was destined for the future fund in order to secure themselves the cash for some election-year pork-barrelling.

Whatever that difference is, I must have missed it, because the Howard government's stance just looks like sheer hypocrisy to me.

Webcam suicide

Regardless of how dreadful this story in The Australian is, I don't think we can get around the fact that the people who were allegedly 'incited' to commit suicide were adults. Adults with problems, sure, but adults nonetheless. I'm not sure it's possible to convince someone who has no inclination to kill themselves to do the deed anyway. Suicide is much older than the internet.

SBS gets shat on by Downer

SBS covers news and current affairs more comprehensively than all the other stations in this country, so I suppose it's no surprise to hear that they've been the victim of regular heavying from the office of right wing lobby groups and Alexander Downer's office. Apparently reporting fairly and objectively counts as bias against the government; the ABC is constantly exposed to similar accusations by members of the Howard government.

I suppose the Libs won't be happy until the reporting from both stations resembles a Nazi propaganda reel circa 1939.

Kazuki, Sachi's baby

Just a couple of minutes ago I got an email from my high school best friend Sachi- I haven't emailed her in a while; at least 9 months, it seems, because 10 days ago she had a baby boy, Kazuki. I suppose her hubby Tetsu (whom I haven't met) must have had something to do with it, of course :) I can't even explain how excited I am... and her baby is just beautiful...

I gave a birth to my son on 15th March 3:30 AM. His name is "Kazuki". Meaning "bright one". (kazu means "number one and only one" and ki means "shine") labor took me 25 hours in total but me and baby are fine.

Ahhhh :) I am so happy for her... she was the greatest friend to me in high school and I still miss her...

Political porn

"I saw nothing!"

The NSW election is over, but the 'porn' headline in The Australian caught my eye... of course. Apparently it was supposed to be a big deal that a porn video was shot at the property of a NSW Liberal MP 17 years ago, and her husband appeared in the video- not as juicy as it sounds, unfortunately, as he was filmed candidly, playing cricket and doing other boring stuff.

Of course, the Liberal MP, Shelley Hancock, denies knowing anything about the fact that porn was being filmed, and claimed that as soon as she realised that the film company staying at their property wasn't working for Disney she booted them out.

Yeah... sure. But who cares? The real story is the Nazis who currently run the NSW Liberal Party, not some 17 year old porn movie.

Pre-marriage cohabitation

House of Sin

There's an article on the Brisbane Times website about how cohabiting prior to marriage is no protection against divorce.

It's not until the 5th paragraph of the article that it goes on to mention:

The explanation lies in the kind of people who choose to live together in the first place. They are less likely to be religious, or bound by traditional or cultural values. Dr Hewitt said they were likely to be more open to divorce as a way out of a bad marriage.

The remainder of the article, however, goes to talk about divorce as if it's the worst outcome for a couple. To my mind, being trapped in a bad marriage because your religion, your family or your culture places a stigma on divorce would be far worse. That's not to say a lot people don't get married for the wrong reasons, but that group includes youngsters taking the traditional god-fearing route, only it seems that for them, a bad marriage might be far harder to escape from.

Smile if you believe in public dental health care!

Another topic that caught my attention during the week was Tony Abbott's typically slimy response to the question of why the Howard government has failed to provide a public dental health care system.

First, Abbott said:

"[The states] need to take responsibility and I think that public dental care is appropriately in their domain."

Then, when faced with Kevin Rudd's plan to restore the national dental health care programme abolished by the Howard government, Abbott said:

"Why would you trust [Rudd] to fix dental services when state Labor governments have been responsible for stuffing up public dentistry?"

So... trying to wrap my brain around Tony Abbott's twisted logic, the state governments have failed to provide adequate dental health care, the Howard government is refusing to take responsibility, and we're supposed to ignore Kevin Rudd's plan to implement a national dental health care system because the state governments are all Labor governments. Which means... what? We're supposed to leave everything just like it is right now, with Tony Abbott happily washing his hands of the whole thing?

Dental health care is a medical issue. Peoples' dental health affects their overall health.

Tony Abbott is happy just to let people quite literally rot, conveniently blaming the states for not picking up the slack left by his party's abolition of the national dental health care programme. There's no-one who would say that the states are doing a good job of taking care of Australians' dental health care needs. But there's also no-one in their right mind who would say that we should refuse to give Rudd's plan a go- it's not like the Howard government has anything better to offer.

Stress = pimples

The 'Really?' column in the New York Times has confirmed what I always suspected- exams result in pimples!

A new study this month, the largest on the subject to date, was able not only to confirm the relationship, but also to provide a possible explanation.

The study, conducted by researchers at Wake Forest, followed 94 high school students with mild or moderate acne for several months. Acne is generally associated with high levels of sebum, the oily substance that coats the skin and protects the hair. Because sebum levels are known to wax and wane with variations in weather, the study was conducted where the temperature and humidity rarely change, Singapore.

Using a standard measure of stress, the researchers showed that in periods of high emotional strain, like before major exams, the students were 23 percent more likely to experience breakouts. At the same time, their sebum production did not vary much whether they were experiencing high or low stress, indicating that levels of the substance had little or no role. Instead, the results may have more to do with inflammation. Other studies have shown that stress can provoke inflammation, and acne is an inflammatory disease.

Smoke bans lead to idiotic reporting

Suck it up...

The headline of this story in the SMH caught my eye earlier in the week- 'Smoke bans lead to butts in the streets'.

As if smoking bans are to blame for the presence of cigarette butt litter. Smokers lead to butts in the streets (and bums in the streets, if the hordes of addicts standing in gutters outside pubs and restaurants sucking down their nicotine on a Friday night is anything to go by) . Even prior to the ban on smoking in pubs and nightclubs in Queensland I witnessed countless occasions where a smoker would finish their cigarette while standing mere metres from a bin- many with a dedicated ash tray- and throw it on the ground. At uni, at bus stops, in parks, outside workplaces- the places that smokers gather turn into a stinking ash-tray. Until it rains and washes the cigarette butts into the drains and eventually into the river.

What's needed is not more bins but more people to hand out fines for littering and smoking in 'smoke-free' zones. I read on a Queensland government website before the full ban came into effect that they have only 80 of these officers to police the whole of Queensland.

When Gam and I were last at Southbank some months ago we lined up to buy ice-cream at the New Zealand Natural store. We were waiting in line next to a pretty, fresh-faced girl, probably 10 years old. While we were in the queue I smelled cigarette smoke. That wouldn't be out of the ordinary at Southbank, except they had recently enacted smoking bans; there were 'no smoking' signs everywhere. I turned around, and standing at the tables behind us- tables with a big 'no smoking' sticker stuck right smack bang in the middle- was some crusty middle-aged guy mindlessly puffing away on a cigarette. The little girl paid for two ice-creams and trotted over to the smoker- he was her dad. He dropped his cigarette on the ground next to the table, ground it out with his thong, and they left. Another man lit up at the next table (similarly signed) as they were leaving.

We don't need people blaming 'the smoking bans' for the litter problem, absolving the smokers of the act of littering. They're adults, for christ's sake- have them take some responsibility for the problems they create.

Meanwhile, research just published in the Archives of Dermatology reveals that smoking doesn't just give you a saggy-baggy face and cat's-bum lips- it makes you saggy all over. Mmm, attractive thought!

Polish abortion laws breached woman's human rights

While on the topic of bigots having free rein in a society... just take a look at what can happen when rabid anti-abortionists have their way:

When Alicja Tysiac became pregnant in February 2000, three eye specialists told her having another baby could put her eyesight at serious risk.

But neither the specialists nor her GP would authorise an abortion.

After giving birth later that year, Ms Tysiac suffered a retinal haemorrhage and feared she may go blind.

She now wears glasses with thick powerful lenses but she cannot see objects more than a metre and a half (5ft) away.

As a disabled single mother, she struggles to raise her three children on her meagre state pension.

The court ruling will not affect Poland's strict abortion laws, which some right-wing politicians want to make even stricter.

Hooray for forced breeding... the morons who created Poland's abortion laws aren't forced to lose their eyesight and bring up children on a state pension. Maybe if they were then they'd have second thoughts about inflicting them on other people.

Bigotry reigns

There was a piece by Labor MP Tanya Plibersek in the SMH recently in which she summed up by saying something I've often thought with regard to how history will view our society's attitude to same-sex relationships:

There will be people who say that gay men and lesbians do not deserve the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual men and women. We would not accept this argument if it related to ethnicity or religion. Just as we now view the White Australia Policy with regret, there will come a time when we find it strange that we accepted legal discrimination against a group of our citizens because of whom they love.

Only, I don't think the White Australia Policy deserves to be viewed with mere regret- it deserves to be viewed with disgust.

Basically, like any sane person now looks back on the White Australia Policy, or the Apartheid government in South Africa, or segregation policies in the US and Australia, as being bigoted verging on barbaric, I like to think that in the future most people will view Australian society's treatment of same-sex relationships in the same way.

Just like you'll be hard pressed to find an elected member of parliament today who would say publicly that they're against interracial marriage, I think (hope?) that 20 years from now we'll be hard pressed to find a political leader who will unashamedly paint gays and lesbians as somehow being a threat to heterosexual relationships, to marriage... even to their own children- all things that John Howard has done. Just like you'd be hard pressed to find an MP who would claim publicly that they'd be 'disappointed' if their child married someone of a different race or culture, I think that in 20 years we won't be seeing a Prime Minister of this country publicly denounce homosexuality by saying that he (or she) would be disappointed if their child was gay- something that John Howard did on TV a few years back. I think we won't be seeing questions raised about gay couples' capability as parents, and that just like people today who are against interracial marriage are rightly labelled as bigots, the same thing will happen to those who continue to denounce same-sex relationships. Because they are bigots. There is no 'debate' on gay marriage- it's just a byword for open slather on anti-gay bigotry.

Of course, despite Tanya Plibersek's column, Labor doesn't support gay marriage either, and I'm not sure whether they support allowing gay couples to adopt children or have the same access to IVF treatment as heterosexual couples. I'll never vote for a party that doesn't believe that all loving relationships between two consenting adults have the same value, regardless of the gender makeup of the partnership.

'Diary' entry

Brownie mixture... irrelevant but kind of pretty.

Really I'm too busy to post, but I've allowed myself a small amount of procrastination time. I'm getting better about it- the pressure of having to live up to the previous semester's GPA seems to be motivation enough to limit my reading and posting time. Thanks to Gam for keeping up with the posts- and some great ones at that.

This week I have a whole bunch of stuff due. I'm largely on top of it, save for suffering a kind of 'block' when it comes to the most important assignment of all- the draft proposal for my 'thesis' for the nutrition subject I'm taking is due, ostensibly, on Friday, although my meeting with my supervisor (the kick-arse lecturer who I mentioned in a previous entry) is on Thursday, so it wouldn't be fair not to have it effectively done by then.

I also have two lab reports due this week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. I've slightly more than half-finished both- I spent all last weekend doing the Thursday one (which is worth more) even though we hadn't really received any proper guidelines for doing them. We received the guidelines at the prac last Thursday; luckily I've managed to include most of the things, but because we have to write them up entirely by hand (frigging backward microbiologists...) the things I've missed are going to be bloody hard to squeeze in. Not to mention that there are pedantic little rules like having to put the label for the diagram under the diagram, not over it. I thought it merely had to be consistent and clear, but no. The label must be under the diagram or we'll lose marks. We can't just label the diagrams with the names of the culture we viewed, and the magnification it was viewed under, either. We have to make clear that it was under an oil immersion microscope. Argh! The tutor has been very helpful in giving us a sheet with guidelines that she wrote herself- something I'm pretty sure she didn't have to do, but the subject in general sucks. There is no way in hell I ever want to be working in a lab, so everything they tell us in the pracs is pretty much irrelevant to me (the guy who runs the pracs is always talking about employment in the field of microbiology, and how important lab books are if we want to get a job... ). Anyway, I can handle that, the timing of having to hand the damn report in is just poor, is all.

Back to my nutrition woes- my problem, even though I now have a relatively clearly defined set of aims, is the sheer volume of studies I've read through... I think my brain is too full to start sorting them. Usually once I've read through things once I can just start typing and things will just kind of form a logical order; I have some idea of where things are supposed to go. This time, I haven't even been able to start typing... I think I'm putting pressure on myself to produce a result comparable to the subject I took with this lecturer last semester (in a class of 20-30), but I feel so much more conspicuous in a class of two, with each of us doing a completely different topic. I was confident going into the subject that I could produce a good result, but the topic seems so vast, not to mention fairly ill-defined in some important areas (although that's partly the point- I should be identifying areas that require further research, and emerging areas of research). The pressure was magnified at the last meeting when my supervisor said that if either of us achieve a mark of over 80% she will work with us to prepare the paper and submit it for publication. Publication would be the first tangible thing I've achieved in this degree so far, and while I didn't go into this subject aiming for anything less than 90%, now I'm worried I'll screw up somehow. I must say, this lecturer is extremely helpful, and really goes out of her way to get hold of things she thinks I might find useful, but I'm kind of daunted by the task... I actually expected to have a working draft by this evening, and yet I wasn't able to even churn out anything except a couple of rough ideas for the opening sentences until this evening after we arrived home from football.

Football at Indooroopilly. We had to forfeit last week because more than half our team couldn't make it, but we managed to have 8 to show up today, which meant we had a sub. We had our arses kicked, which is nothing unusual, but it was great fun. Gam and I started running in the evenings a couple of weeks ago, but we both got sick shortly after we started- my cold lasted only for one day, but Gam was really sick for more than a week, which put paid to the exercise (I suppose I could have exercised by myself but I'm really lazy and used the excuse of Gam being sick to stay home).

Bread oops...

Bread success!

In between bouts of study I've been baking bread. I've got the hang of it (despite one hiccup where I left it to prove for a second time, forgot about it and it rose to astronomical proportions... I would have punched it down and let it rise again, but Gam wanted to see what would happen if we baked it like that!). I've even managed learn how to coax a nice crust onto the loaves by brushing down the bread with water prior to baking, and leaving a tray of water in the oven while the loaf cooks. I'll post the recipe sometime- it's the only thing I cook that I don't have to feel bad about Gam and I eating the lot of ourselves (as opposed to all the cakes and biscuits I usually cook). Organic wheat and rye flour, some barley bran and wheat bran, extra virgin olive oil, macadamia oil and some sesame oil (for flavour), brown sugar, yeast, salt and water... healthy as.



In other food news, I harvested my first sweet potato... and learned that home-grown sweet potato leaves taste a whole lot better than home-grown sweet potato. It looked good raw. It looked and smelled great cooked, but it had these really thick fibres running down the length of the entire root, rendering it practically inedible! Bummer. I'll stick to my sweet potato greens, then.



Also splurged on some avocados to make guacamole... I love Shepard avocados, it almost seems a shame to mash them for guacamole- I'm always tempted to just eat them with a spoon (and years ago when they used to be cheaper that's exactly what I would do). Back to being frugal for a while, though.

On the wedding front... that's going to be a whole new post when I have a lot of time on my hands. Suffice it to say that my parents have decided it's best that I write grandma a letter and tell her that Gam and I are getting married... I think they're trying to put off having to deal with her reaction, and I don't blame them. I won't be answering the phone for a few days after I post it... Grandma never phones, but she has my number so she can call Mum and Dad when they're in Brisbane visiting us and she's home alone... no-one seems to have any doubt that she'll want to talk me out of marrying Gam. And that's something I'm not even going to discuss, even to tell her that I refuse to discuss it. I do hope she surprises us all by being overjoyed, but pigs might fly, too. More on the whole wedding thing later. I've procrastinated enough for now... I can afford no more time.

The Heart of Evil

The Moscow Trials were a series of trials of political opponents of Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge. After Nikita Khrushchev's revelations in the 1950s, the Moscow Trials are today universally acknowledged as show trials in which the verdicts were predetermined using extorted confessions. The defendants were accused of conspiring with the western powers to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, dismember the Soviet Union and restore capitalism, according to Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code).

At the time, most Western observers who attended the trials said that they were fair and that the guilt of the accused had been established. They based this assessment on the confessions of the accused, which were freely given in open court, without any apparent evidence that they had been extracted by torture or drugging. Communist Party leaders in most Western countries echoed these views and denounced criticism of the trials as capitalist attempts to subvert Communism (it is now known, in light of revelations from decrypted Soviet codes and KGB archives, that many party leaders were ordered to support Moscow's viewpoint of the trials and subsequent purges.

And we have come full circle. Performing a Soviet show trial presenting evidence beaten out of a man in prisons the Soviets used to do exactly the same thing. After being tortured for years in an ex-Soviet Polish prison, Guantanamo and who knows where else, after we abducted and tortured his 7 and 9 year old sons KSM has confessed to:

9/11; plot to kill Jimmy Carter, and other former presidents; "the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II"; managing an anthrax and biological weapons cell; cut off "with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl"; 1993 WTC bombing; planning the Richard Reid shoe-bombing plot; the killing of American soldiers in Kuwait; the Bali bombings; plot for a post-9/11 series of 'Independence Day'-style attacks on American monuments; plot to bomb the Panama Canal; plan to attack U.S. military ships and oil tankers in the Straits of Hormuz, the Straits of Gibraltar and the Port of Singapore; plot to bomb suspension bridges in New York City; plan to use burning fuel trucks to take down the Sears Tower; a plot to destroy Big Ben, Canary Wharf tower and Heathrow Airport; attempt to attack Thai nightclubs frequented by US soldiers; a post-9/11 plot to blow up the New York Stock Exchange; plot to use Saudi planes to blow up Israeli buildings; plot to attack US embassies in Indonesia, Austrial and Japan; sending "several mujahadeen" to Israel to survey potential targets; bombing a Mombasa beach resort in 2002; attempt to hit an Israeli plane departing from Kenya with a rocket; plot to attack Nato headquarters in Brussels; plans to attack nightclubs visited by the US in South Korea; Operation Bojinka, plan to take down 12 American airliners; plot to assassinate General Musharraf; plan to attack an oil company in Sumatra which is allegedly owned by Kissinger; plot to attack Nato headquarters; plot to attack nuclear power plants in the US; plot to attack American, British and Jewish targets in Turkey.

And they called the event where he stated all this a "closed door hearing" for a secret tribunal. So the monstrous becomes normal.

In our lifetimes we will grasp the significance of the past 6 years. You will tell your grandchildren what happened when civilisation as we knew it died. Tell them that when things like the rule of law and the right to a fair trial died no one said anything because we didn't want to seem biased. That we had to equivocate between darkness and light, sew clothes of empty words for naked evil so that there could be two sides to every story.

Tell them that you were afraid that demanding people like KSM get the same rights paedophiles, rapists, drug dealers and murderers get would mark you as a terrorist sympathiser. Tell them you gradually became afraid of loving justice and knowing what was right. That you nodded quietly while fools and madmen busily destroyed every last thing that made our society great.

Tell your grandkids that even after all that you gave up to be safe, you are still afraid, and the monster you created demands more from them.

The Work/Life Balance

By Larry Bonewend

PM's hands in porn king's pockets

Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper reported today that Mr Howard attended a July 2004 luncheon at Mount Cotton in Queensland at which porn mogul Scott Phillips was a guest.

Phillips was one of 20 people who paid $2000 a head to dine with the prime minister.

Proceeds went to Liberal candidate Andrew Laming, who went on to win the seat of Bowman.

Phillips is now in jail after pleading guilty to a range of violent crimes, the newspaper reports.

Mr Abbott says Mr Howard has been unfairly portrayed in the report.

"I think that particular story this morning was right over the top," Mr Abbott told ABC Radio.

"Of course it was unfortunate that this guy was at the Howard lunch, but it doesn't mean that the prime minister willingly associated with dodgy characters."

SMH

No, he just takes their money.

Unfair? You bet. As unfair and stupid as trying to tie Rudd to Burke because they had dinner together, supping with the devil as Holy Tony likes to call it. Imagine if Burke had paid Rudd $2000 to have dinner with him. Tony Abbott would still be in the afterglow of a massive orgasm. Then again $2000 is probably much cheaper than Philips was used to paying for talent.

Dum dum dum... dadum dum dum dadum

Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this
Are you hangin' on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat - yeah

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust, eh
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust

"Ey, pies ain't cheap you know!"

Federal Minister for Ageing Santo Santoro has resigned from the Howard ministry over a share scandal.

Mr Howard earlier this week refused to sack Senator Santoro, saying the Queenslander had alerted him as soon as the error was realised, and that he had donated the profit from the shares to a charity.

However, that charity has since been revealed as conservative values group Family Council of Queensland - which is not a charity.

And its president, Alan Baker, was the person who sold the shares to Senator Santoro in the first place.

"I have done this because the recent publicity surrounding my former shareholdings in CBio has brought to my attention further oversights in relation to the proper declaration of my personal investment,'' he said.

Personal investment? Don't you mean illegal financial reach around with a political interest group?

Senator Santoro said he never intended to be dishonest and deeply regretted the impact the issue had had on the government in recent days.

"None of these investments involves either impropriety or a conflict of interest and there was never any dishonest intention on my part.

"Nevertheless I have neglected to properly report a number of investments to the prime minister and to the Senate.

SMH

Oh Santo! You know you make baby Jesus cry when you lie like that. ABC radio just reported that the well padded former minister has made up to 60 [UPDATE: More than 80 trades over 18 months. He won't tell anyone the value of the trades or why he suddenly decided he needed to trade shares for 18 months, crook.] 'improper investments' he 'forgot' to appropriately declare.

In WWII the Russians tried a novel tactic to deal with German tanks. They trained dogs with explosives strapped to their backs to run under German tanks where the explosives would detonate and destroy the tank. The only problem was, sometimes the Germans wouldn't attack with tanks. The dogs would seek out the nearest tanks and promptly make the nearest Soviet tankers Heroes of the Soviet Union, posthumous. I bet the look on the dog handlers' faces as their canine kamikazes ran towards them is the same one John Howard's wearing right now.

The same John Howard who told us yesterday that because Santo gave the proceeds of his graft to a 'charity' it was all ok. So what happened John? You didn't know? Nobody told you?

Bishop blames ABC, fairies, for maternal drug use

Bronwyn Bishop is unhinged. There can be no other explanation for her assertion that the rise in pregnant women addicted to drugs is due to the media, particularly the ABC (of course) sending out "soft messages" on drugs.

Right. Our ABC- the broadcaster favoured by meth-addicted bogans.

Driving much of this increase was the use of amphetamines, including methamphetamine, drugs that Mrs Henderson said were associated with socio-economic factors such as poverty and poor education.

"We have seen a huge increase in problematic amphetamine misuse (in pregnant women)," she said. "Also our numbers are increasing around alcohol misuse."

Amphetamine use in pregnancy can cause serious bleeding, while excessive alcohol intake can cause irreversible developmental problems known as fetal alcohol syndrome.

Does the ABC send out 'soft messages' on alcohol too? Oh, wait- that's the preserve of the commercial stations who run ads for booze. Let's see Bishop call for warnings to be printed on the labels of alcoholic beverages calling for pregnant women to completely avoid alcohol, and see what the companies who make them have to say about it. While we're at it, let's see her call for government legislation to ban all advertising for alcohol- after all, it's the nation's biggest drug problem. Just ask any worker at a hospital emergency room, or any magistrate for that matter.

Come on Bronwyn, put down your glass of chardonnay and let's get tough on drugs!

VTAY foreign language service

Today we are proud to bring you a speech made by Fred Nile, a state election candidate. The previous post on Mr Nile was based on this article, written in German and published in der Sturmer. The article follows in its original form.



Führer der christlichen demokratischen Partei, Umdr., die das Hon Fred Nile LTh ED MLC ein sofortiges Moratorium auf islamischer Immigration verlangt hat.

"es hat keine ernste Studie der möglichen Effekte nach Australien von mehr gegeben, als 300.000 Moslems, die bereits hier sind," Reverend Nil sagten. "Australier verdienen eine Atempause, also kann die Situation sorgfältig festgesetzt werden, bevor islamische Immigration wieder aufnehmen lassen werden kann."

Reverend Nile addiert: "ich bete, daß innerhalb einer Dekade, Moslems in Australien offenbar ihre Verpflichtung zu den australischen Werten einschließlich demokratischen Pluralismus und die Rechte der Frauen demonstriert haben. Wir können dann festsetzen, ob moslemische Immigration wieder anfangen sollte."

"es gibt viele Gründe, warum es angebracht für NSW Wähler ist, eine Aussage auf einer Bundesausgabe so wichtig abzugeben wie Immigration," sagte Reverend Fred Nile. "New-South Wales hat den Nutzen eines grossen Anteiles Australiens der mittleren östlichen Christen. Sie werden mit Recht am schnellen Wachstum in New-South.Wales der islamischen Konzentrationen alarmiert, in dem die englische Sprache mißachtet wird und australische Familie Werte sind unbekannt oder verachtet."

In related news candidate Nile praised the performance of our brave soldiers on the ost front and predicted the quick demise of Bolshevism.