Prancing Twits and Slapped Suckers

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer says he has no regrets over the way the Howard government handled the case of confessed terrorism supporter David Hicks.

While Mr Downer conceded the US government had mishandled the Hicks case, he had no regrets about the actions of the former Australian federal government, ABC reported.

"I have no regrets about what we've done in relation to Hicks," Mr Downer told ABC television.

He described Hicks' acts as evil and treacherous.

"Well, I think what he did was evil. It was an act of real treachery to take up arms against the coalition in Afghanistan, to train with al-Qaeda."

SMH

After abandoning an Australian citizen to be tortured by foreigners in a pathetic display more fitting of a third rate vassal than a real country (even Vanuatu will stand up for its citizens accused of crimes overseas), the worst thing to happen to Australian foreign relations for a generation has no regrets. In fact the vacant nincompoop has the hide to try the lie about Hicks taking up arms when even his American clients admit that Hicks never fought against anyone, let alone coalition forces. Thank sweet zombie jesus that this fat headed buffoon is doomed to languish on the opposition benches instead of having his manicured hands on any levers of power.

While we're on the subject of Hicks... George Newhouse, possibly the dumbest candidate to contest an election for a good long while, had this to say about him. Hicks should "reassure Australian Jews that he no longer wants to rob or kill them"

For these alarming claims, Newhouse was relying on a Time magazine report earlier this year of allegations by the British Guantanamo detainee Feroz Abbasi that Hicks had spoken of slaughtering Jews.

Time reported: "He once told me in Afghanistan that if he were to go into a building of Jews with an automatic weapon or as a suicide bomber he would have to say something like 'There is no God but Allah', etc, just so he could see the look of fear on their faces, before he takes them out."

Newhouse conceded he was unaware Abbasi had repudiated those claims in a signed statement after his release from Guantanamo in 2004. The same Time report notes Abbasi describing his earlier allegations against Hicks as "ludicrous in their content (yet believed by dense interrogators)".

Pointing to a number of anti-Semitic remarks in Hicks's letters home, Newhouse said: "I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Mr Hicks to renounce terrorism and anti-Semitism." But he acknowledged they contained no threats of violence to Jews in Australia.

After speaking to the Herald, Newhouse alerted AAP and late yesterday an amended report went out on the wires stripping out all reference to Abbasi.

SMH

Looks like Overington knocked a screw loose when she slapped the idiot.

Democracy dead before Bhutto

When the US decided that Benazir Bhutto would become the next leader of Pakistan and paved the way for her to return and run in the elections, all the Western media wanted to talk about was how good she was for democracy. After her death a couple of days ago the hyperbole being spouted increased to incredible levels.

Now, Bhutto's 19 year-old puppet son has been made leader of the party she led, as per instructions contained in her will. Of course, we know the 19 year old son is a proxy for the massively corrupt husband of Bhutto who looted billions of dollars from Pakistan- his sins of corruption so great they apparently can't be redeemed even by the blood of his wife.

Funny though, I never thought the democratic process worked that way.

I suppose it was a similar phenomenon that led to 3 generations of Downers in the Australian parliament. But even dear little Alexander wasn't 19 when he was elected, and he actually was elected, unlike Bhutto's son.

Bahahaha!!!

THE $6.6 billion purchase of 24 Super Hornets as a stop-gap fighter jet could be jettisoned by the Federal Government as it reviews all aspects of the program to give Australia a critical edge in regional air combat capability.

The Herald understands that Department of Defence planners have been asked to present an analysis on all the fighter jet options to the Federal Government and how they stack up against likely adversaries, the first time such a study has been done for at least five years.

All projects in the $30 billion program will be scrutinised "with fresh eyes". That includes what aircraft are to be bought, how many, when and at what price. "Absolutely everything is on the table," a Government source said.

Even if contracts have been signed, as is the case with the Super Hornets, the Government is prepared to break them if the case is compelling. This is a shift from previous Labor thinking.

The air combat program is supposed to deliver air superiority in the region, long-regarded as fundamental to Australia's strategic doctrine given its large land mass and isolation.

The coming year is looming as a critical one. A final decision must be made on the centrepiece of the air-combat project - a $15 billion outlay on up to 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, a high-stealth aircraft yet to be developed, has been troubled by delays and is at risk of big cost blow-outs.

The prevailing view in the Government is that it makes sense for the entire air combat force structure to be re-examined at the same time. The Defence White Paper - outlining the nation's long-term strategic priorities and being developed next year - is also likely to guide the review.

Writing in his local newspaper last week, the Minister for Defence, Joel Fitzgibbon, made clear his concerns with the Super Hornets, a purchase pushed through with great haste by his predecessor, Brendan Nelson, who is now the Opposition Leader.

"Few decisions of the Howard government were more controversial than its commitment to spend more than $6 billion on 24 Super Hornets without proper due process or capability justification," he wrote in The Newcastle Herald.

Dr Nelson sold the Super Hornet option to cabinet's National Security Committee this year without the co-operation of defence chiefs or undertaking the long due diligence and comparative analysis that usually precedes acquisitions of such scale and expense.

Before his pitch, RAAF planners had said an interim jet was not required. Defence analysts say it is the wrong aircraft anyway, lacking stealth and power.

SMH

Heh, and I read on some blog that Fitzgibbon would be completely out of his depth in the defence portfolio. I'm betting this white paper will be a rod for Brendan's back for the next three years.

Cosmpolitan recipe

I'm one of those people that go mad for food cravings. The other week when I was craving Earl Grey tea I swear I kept smelling it everywhere I went. Then, after I'd got my Earl Grey fix, I was convinced I was having an olfactory hallucination when we were at the bus stop and I could distinctly smell my latest craving, my favourite liqueur in all the world, Cointreau. This time I wasn't going crazy- it was just some guy eating slices of orange with the skin on (hence the Cointreau-like smell) from a little tub of fruit salad.

Today, Gam triggered a cranberry juice craving by mentioning how he liked SPC cranberry sauce better than the Ocean Spray brand we bought for Christmas. I disagreed, saying I preferred the Ocean Spray brand because it was a bit less sweet, and then mentioned how I find all cranberry sauce too sweet in comparison with the delicious tartness of cranberry juice. Of course, at the mere mention of cranberry juice my mouth started watering...

I just so happened I had half a jug of cosmopolitan in the freezer from our BBQ the other day, so I decided to have a glass or two of cosmopolitan 'granita' to sate my cranberry craving. It's better than that- it contains Cointreau too... mmm.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the love. I remember I posted earlier this year about how alcohol can increase the bioavailability of antioxidants in fruit- here's a recipe for the 'healthy' cosmopolitan just in time to help everyone see in the new year!

Note- I think my recipe is actually less potent than the real thing, but I'm giving it in quantities to make up a 2L jug to my idea of what tastes good, which is what I do for parties, rather than making up to a recipe one glass at a time. In winter, when limes are damn expensive, I buy lemons, but I recommend you never buy lemons in Summer because they're all imported from California rather than being grown in Australia. Besides, it's better with lime :)

250mL Cointreau
250mL Vodka (buy a good one- cheap ones give you hangovers)
Juice of 3-4 limes
1.5L Cranberry juice

Mix it all up and stick it in the freezer. Even if it freezes you can smoosh it into a granita and it is soooo good.

Peaches and other bawdy tales

My first encounter with Peaches was when Gam and I were watching one of those Friday night 'porno' documentaries on SBS a few years ago. I don't remember what the doco was about, but it had footage of Peaches (and 'the Herms', I believe) dancing around to a song called 'shake ya dick' wearing some massive strap-on dildos. I guess the song can't have been particularly fantastic or I would have been onto Peaches earlier, but when we went to Blue Smoke a couple of weeks ago our friend Sophie mentioned a song by Peaches she'd heard, called 'Two Guys', and recounted some of the (appropriately filthy) lyrics.

When we got home, Gam looked it up for me. Can I just say, Two Guys is an awesome song. I'm sure it will be underappreciated by most males out there simply because of the bawdy, homoerotic lyrics, but it not only has great lyrics, it sounds good too. The live performance on YouTube featured above doesn't really do the song justice, but the lyrics are there in all their filthy glory.

Needless to say, Gam isn't that impressed that I now play the song all the time, but I thought I should issue a big thankyou to Sophie for putting me onto it! I love bawdy songs (as long as they impress me musically, mind, as I'm not very good at listening to lyrics generally). The early Blues artist Bessie Smith has some real classics- "Need a Little Sugar In My Bowl", "Me and My Gin" are two of my favourites- Aggravatin' Papa is another one to check out, though not really bawdy (this site actually has recordings if I recall correctly). The Red Elvises have 'Love Rocket', which Gam kindly featured in one of his music posts despite professing to be appalled at the lyrics, and there's the AC/DC classic 'Big Balls'.

Can anyone else think of some bawdy/filthy classics for me? I'm always on the lookout for new favourites, partly because I love to listen and partly because I love to infuriate Gam :)

Dead or Alive 4

When playing DoA4 against your male partner, suddenly and loudly realising you also have large, distracting jiggling ah... bosoms of your own is considered CHEATING and is a practice engaged in by cheating cheaters who cheat.

Also it's surprisingly fun to force your opponent to endure being sat on by a hairy biker, muahahaha, sniff that t'aint!

Hicks does not owe apology

I was glad to hear that David Hicks didn't apologise when he was released from prison this morning for the 'inconvenience' he caused the Australian public by being captured, locked up on false charges (remember the 'attempted murder' charge the US tried to pin on him for years before dropping it because there was no evidence of any such crime?), tortured and held for prolonged periods in solitary confinement for over 5 years.

It would be so easy to be sarcastic about the 'trauma' he's put us all through by being tortured at the hands of the US with the complicity of the Howard government, but fuck it. Hicks is owed an apology, not the other way around.

Brendan Nelson, who was part of the conga-line of suckholes in the government that supported the US in its unlawful 5-year detention of David Hicks, has strutted out to demand that Hicks apologise.

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said, while Mr Hicks was entitled to a "fair go", he must first deliver an apology to the public.

"Whilst it is understandable that Mr Hicks thanked those who helped secure his release, the rest of the country will expect nothing less than an unqualified apology for his self-confessed material support for terrorism," Dr Nelson said.

Brendan Nelson clearly fails to understand that a man who has been tortured for 5 years is unlikely to make a principled stand to clear his name when doing so means an untold number of additional years of suffering. Hicks pled guilty so he could regain his freedom. He pled guilty under a farcical system of US military 'justice' with standards of proof that would never be applied under Australian law. It was to this country's shame that we had a so-called leader at the time willing to allow our own citizens to be tortured at the hands of the US as a way of showing unwavering support for Bush's various disastrous wars.

Funny how Brendan Nelson is a big fan of saying 'sorry' when it's not him who has to do it.

Pakistan

What's going on in Pakistan? I don't know. I can talk about what I think is going on there based on educated guesses.

1) The US had decided a while back to get rid of the current dictator (Pakistan is always run by a dictator). Musharraf is a bit of a victim of circumstance. The US blame him for the consequences of a war he warned them against and predicted the outcome of. The Taliban/Al Qaeda/rebellious tribesmen have fled to Pakistan where it's suddenly Musharraf's job to fix it. As discussed before, the invasion of Afghanistan was a mistake.

2) The US invest their hopes in Benazir Bhutto, who's making all the right noises about cracking down on The Taliban/Al Qaeda/rebellious tribesmen (how she's going to succeed is anyone's guess but this is Bushian foreign policy). This comes in the middle of great unrest as Pakistanis start to get tired of Musharraf and US pressure in Afghanistan forces more Taliban/Al Qaeda/rebellious tribesmen into Pakistan, further destabilising it.

3) Bhutto is assassinated, under somewhat unlucky circumstances, for her. End result, the US tried to change horses in midstream only to have the new horse washed away. They are left with a range of bad options. They can go back to Musharraf and the military, knowing he will be calling the shots for a little while. They can push for elections without Bhutto, which means Pakistani nationalists like Imran Khan will see big gains which the US won't like.

4) Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, European and UN diplomats have been thrown out of Afghanistan by the Americans, er, the sovereign government of Afghanistan, for pursuing the kind of policy that actually will work, namely form an alliance with enough ot The Taliban/Al Qaeda/rebellious tribesmen and the puppet govt. organise a ceremony to declare victory and leave.

As usual this situation bears the hallmarks of Bush foreign policy. A childlike, Manichean view of the world. A refusal to listen to wise counsel and a penchant for painting oneself into corners with one's 'resolve'. It's also a lesson on the unintended consequences of an ill thought out war. The war in Afghanistan, which won (centre) left and right support, has destabilised Pakistan, a country with nuclear weapons. I don't believe the hysteria about civil war in Pakistan but the instability is bad enough. Wars don't build institutions and they tend to turn out in ways you don't expect.

Current status is that US policy in Pakistan is effectively nowhere. Musharraf gets a free hand to do whatever he likes. Who's going to stand in his way if he postpones elections indefinitely? As it is the winners from Bhutto's death are the Taliban etc. and Musharraf. Musharraf more than anyone else. The Taliban etc. don't benefit from another rod for their backs in Musharraf's hands (hence their denial of involvement after the Pakistani govt. initially blamed them, literally hours after the event) and Musharraf gets a reprieve from judgment at the ballot. He might not necessarily have engineered her death, but let's just say that there are plenty of people around him who could have, without necessarily having him know about it. Who will rid me of this troublesome priest and all that.

This is basically about 50 years of history crammed into a few hundred words. If you want to know more, and depress yourself thinking about how stupid western governments are to be getting into intrigues in this part of the world, start here.

Say no to another dumb ad

Gam and I went to see the Alien vs. Predator: Requiem movie yesterday, which in Gam's words was "A totally awesome movie". The audience was fairly young- thankfully not many under-15's, and those that were there were accompanied by a long-suffering mother.

To my mind, the most memorable part of the experience was the pre-movie advertising in which the audience was treated to another one of those dreadful 'Make up your own mind about drinking' ads. It featured a young woman playing pool who 'said no' to another drink and was immediately transported into a whole heap of fantasy scenarios where she was a 'winner'- climbing mount everest (in a singlet), winning a swimming race... I can't think of any others but they were all about how totally awesome she was and was having a great time having 'said no'. I must have missed the bit where she actually 'said no', as I was having a what-the-fuck moment right up until I saw the Queensland Health blurb and the preachy bit about not drinking.

There was open laughter and jeering in the cinema as people mocked the ad- it was seriously lame.

I'd call that a fail.

Not to mention the fact that a lot of young people don't drink because they're pressured to, they drink because they like to. I personally can't fathom why someone could drink until they threw up and then call it a good night, but that's what I overheard a lot of my highschool and uni peers talking about in my late teens/early 20s. The biggest problem isn't with young people who want to 'say no' but feel peer pressure not to- it's with young people whose idea of having a blast is getting totally and utterly wasted. We wouldn't have such a widespread culture of binge drinking if people didn't derive some enjoyment from it.

Unfortunately the Queensland Health website isn't up to date with their ads so I can't link to the videos, but there are a couple of equally lame ads already up there, including the infamously lame 'it's not the end of the world' ad with Bec Cartwright.

A background paper available from the Queensland Health website claims that these ads have been successful in creating a shift in behaviour towards less risky drinking patterns in young women aged 18-22, despite claiming that the ads were aimed specifically at 'empowering' young women who already wanted to 'say no'. While I'm no longer in their target demographic and went through only the briefest of periods of alcohol overconsumption when I was 18, I was within the age group targeted when the 'End of the World' ads came out. They seem no less lame now than they did then, and if I had to give this latest one a rating, I'd say the Bec Cartwright one would be a 5 out of 10, while the latest one would be a 1.

I think one of the problems with measures like these is that they specifically target young women. This seems to imply that there is more of a problem with binge drinking among young women than with the young men who make up a significant part of their peer group. Or that binge drinking is somehow less acceptable for women to take part in than for men to take part in. It ignores the social reality of young women and men drinking together. I also think it's probably much less socially acceptable for the average young Aussie male to cut back on their boozing than it would be for a woman, as there is a sort of machismo attached to alcohol overconsumption.

Overall, I would say the ads have been recognisable but only because they're so lame. If there is a reduction in risky drinking behaviour among young women (which, despite the claims of the background paper I seriously doubt) I'd guess that there has to be another reason behind it.

I don't wish to undermine the importance of measures to curb overconsumption of alcohol, especially among young people (although their adult role models should probably take a good hard look at themselves too), but I really think ads that miss their mark so widely will only serve to undermine the cause by making the idea of saying no to a drink an object of ridicule among the target demographic and their immediate peer group.

Finally, don't Queensland Health use a test audience for their ads before they run them? Making ads that are openly scoffed at and jeered does nothing for their credibility when they finally do come up with an ad that hits home.

Equal rights for women still 'left wing'

Sorry kid, your rights are just 'politics'.

I just love how this article in The Australian accuses Oxfam and other aid groups of spending money donated for the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami on "politically correct projects promoting left-wing Western values over traditional Asian culture."

It goes on to single out a travelling play funded by Oxfam to promote women's rights as being an example of this.

I don't know what the author of the article thinks about the 'left wing' notion that women should have rights, but in parts of the world where men traditionally have enormous amounts of power over women horrible things happen.

Ean Higgins, paying false deference to 'traditional asian values', might label a girl's right to an education or to financial or reproductive rights 'left wing', but even where these 'traditional' values don't lead to outright atrocities in the manner of the article linked above, they are nonetheless inextricably linked with violence against women. I'm sorry, but in this case tradition can go get fucked. Higgins and The Australian should be ashamed to take such a stance.

Critics say the aid agencies have exceeded the mandate provided to them by mum-and-dad donors from middle Australia who thought they were giving money to rebuild houses and lives shattered by the tsunami, rather than forcing the ideological views of the Australian Left on traditional Asians.

[...]

Oxfam Australia chief executive Andrew Hewett yesterday said his organisation initially concentrated on immediate humanitarian relief, including providing food, shelter and medicine to those affected by the tsunami.

It had since then turned to reconstruction, and rebuilding the ability of those affected to earn a living.

But Mr Hewett said Oxfam "did not shy away" from its concentration on those less well off and less empowered, including women, indigenous groups and the low caste, saying it was a practical issue of delivering aid for maximum effect.

"Women, like it or not, fare least well when it comes to resources and political power, including within a village community, and those who are disadvantaged often suffer most when disaster hits," he said.

*Picture from Bec's blog from her time in Banda Aceh after the tsunami.

Labor's first misstep: Bennett must go

The Rudd government must be deranged if they think Barbara Bennett, spruiker for the Howard government's WorkChoices legislation, is an appropriate person to be running anything, let alone the new government's interim arrangements for the workplace relations system.

The Opposition might be trying to throw up all the roadblocks it can get away with in preventing the Rudd government from dismantling WorkChoices, but they don't have control over whether Bennett's head rolls, and that should occur not just because of her demonstrated partisanship on the issue but also as a symbol that they really mean business when it comes to getting rid of WorkChoices. There should be no excuses here- Australia voted for dumping that awful piece of legislation.

Bennett threw in her lot with Howard when she agreed to become a public face of Howard's taxpayer-funded pro-WorkChoices advertisements, so she should suffer his fate. Without the $300k p.a. super and cushy, taxpayer-funded retirement benefits that he so undeservedly gets, of course.

Cyclone comes early

We've been having a 'Summer' in Brisbane that seems to be largely a continuation of the recently departed winter, interrupted only briefly by a few hot days in late August and perhaps a few in October- so long ago I can't remember.

A cold Summer hasn't figured in the planning for our wedding, but I suppose it's the one day where the cold weather we've been having would go down rather well given that we wouldn't be able to sit around in our underwear or swimmers all day as we would normally do on a hot January day. A scorcher or a cyclone were the two possibilities I've been counting on, though the cyclone bit was more tongue in cheek than anything.

But whaddya know, a cyclone can show up at this time of year, and despite us having lived in Brisbane since 2002, this will be the first time we've heard a warning about a cyclone affecting weather in the South East corner. Lucky for us (and our guests) it looks like the cyclone will be a couple of weeks early, if it eventuates at all.

Meanwhile, I'm in jeans, a singlet and socks and feeling rather chilly. Bloody ridiculous. 'Summer' my arse... if this was a real Summer I'd be in undies and a singlet and Gam and I would be sleeping as far apart on the bed as possible every night so as not to be lying in a combined pool of sweat. As it is, I still cover up with the doona at night. Being able to cuddle up without sticking together is definitely a plus, but overall I feel very ripped off. I put up with 6 months of cold weather only to put up with crappy 26-27 degree days?! I want to move to Darwin or somewhere that doesn't skimp on the hot weather.

Feed Schapelle- only AUD$10!

Anyone who doesn't share Miranda Devine's opinion on Schapelle Corby should get a bit of a laugh out of this: Schapelle Corby Tours.

Schapelle Corby is a convicted Australian drug runner, and my tours allow people to see Schapelle in her cage at Kerobokan Prison in Bali.

[...]

Watch Schapelle being fed at either lunch or dinner. Optional extra: for just $10 AUD more you can feed Schapelle yourself – watch her face light up as you throw various pieces of food to her.

*snort*



... Yes, in my heart of hearts I know it's horrible to laugh at someone else's misfortune, but honestly, the blowjob this particular drug smuggler has gotten in the Australian media means she's fair game, I reckon.

Happy Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a nice Christmas. This is the third Christmas for this blog, and the sixth Christmas for Gam and I together... definitely the most peaceful one we'll ever have, I think! Just Gam, me and Feifei at home.

I had a brief phone call from my parents this morning, and spoke to my cousin as well- they're all in Kempsey. Did the whole church thing, as usual- I must say I felt a little pang of relief at not having to undergo the annual nagging about attending church. My parents don't really do it anymore, but we still undergo nagging carried out with an evangelical zeal by my Grandma and Aunt. For crying out loud, if we went it would only be to shut them up, but they'd be happy with that, convinced that some religion would rub off on us if only we'd sit in a church once a year. There's some things I miss about Christmas with my family, but that's certainly not one of them.

Gam cooked a delicious lunch of cherry-glazed baked ham and free range turkey with pommes parisienne, and I made a salad- of which Gam picked at a lettuce leaf or two (I wasn't going to nag him about eating greens at all seeing as it's christmas!). To drink we had a couple of nice German beers. I also made some ginger biscuits using a brandy snap recipe in Every Day in the Kitchen that I'd never used before- the recipe didn't actually mention how hot the oven was supposed to be, so I put in a trial batch of 4 biscuits for approximately 5 minutes at 180 degrees C and pulled them out before they were properly cooked (a dark gold colour all over rather than the dark brown edges and pale centre described in the book)... the first batch were like a delicious chewy ginger toffee, and I actually preferred them to the properly cooked ones that I made later.

We must be the only family with a cat that doesn't continually hang around the kitchen when a huge lump of meat is being cooked. I always encourage Feifei to try meat or fish if we're having some- sometimes he deigns to taste it and sometimes not. When Gam pulled the baked ham out of the oven and gave me a small piece to taste, I allowed Feifei to smell it and he danced on his hind legs, meaning he wanted to try some. He ate one tiny piece and then another before walking off, then I followed him to his tower with some scraps of meat from the turkey neck that Gam had cooked... he very grudgingly ate a small amount of turkey. I ask you- is there any other cat in the world that shows so little interest in meat? While we were eating lunch I gave each of the Siamese fighting fish (our own Attila plus a male and a female we're babysitting for two of our friends while they're in Malaysia) a 'worm' of turkey meat... just a single strand of the muscle... they thought it was great!

As far as the shitty grey weather we've been having lately goes, the one thing I can say in its favour is that it at least it makes eating loads of food more bearable... hot weather takes away my appetite for everything except fruit, sorbet and ice-cream. I still wish we could have some hot weather though- it looks to be heading for another record cold summer at this point... I live for summer and sunshine, so it's just not fair to go through winter and then have this unending greyness foisted upon me!

Gam and I didn't do Christmas presents this year, but our friends Niall and Sophie gave us a present before they left. I think it's more of a wedding present than a Christmas present, as they'll be someplace in Europe when we get married (we didn't intend for anyone to get us presents, hence no gift registry!). I had such a tough time protecting it from Gam's predatory hands that I consider it a triumph that we made it to Christmas before opening it (I have to hide presents from Gam or he demands to open them right away... hiding them makes it more fun, though). It turned out to be a set of cocktail/martini glasses and a cocktail shaker, which is just an awesome present- thanks guys! Martini glasses are something I've been lusting after but I considered a bit of an unjustifiable purchase while we don't have jobs... if I could have picked a gift, martini glasses would have been the second thing on my list after a puppy... okay, I'm dreaming there.

Speaking of puppies, spare a thought for the thousands of animals that wind up at RSPCA and other animal shelters around the country over the Christmas period. The Fairfield RSPCA was in the news a couple of weeks ago thanks to an influx of kittens and the fact that over 1000 animals were put down in November. The shelter is running above full capacity. We got Feifei from the Fairfield RSPCA in late January or early February 3 years ago- he'd been there since a couple of weeks after Christmas, we were told at the time. While I know that there are circumstances that can force people to give up their pets (finding a place to rent when you have a pet is almost impossible, and the phenomenal rate of rent rises in Brisbane could be forcing some people to seek new rental accommodation), the vast majority of young animals that are in there are there because their owners were too slack to get their pets desexed. It is so, so very wrong that thousands of perfectly lovely animals who would love a good home get put down every year because of irresponsible fuckwits who can't be bothered to do the right thing.

As for sparing a thought for people less well off than we are, I had to laugh at federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson's Christmas message in which he brought out the violin for people who are forced to rely on charities like the Salvos or St Vinnie's- these are the same charities that were forced to pick up the pieces when the Howard government that Nelson so willingly played a role in fucked people over on their Centrelink payments and left them even more destitute than usual. Thankfully that awful situation appears about to change under Kevin Rudd- that's the best Christmas present Australia has had in over a decade: getting rid of John Howard and his scummy government. Brendan Nelson getting all righteous and urging people to give money to people in need is just blatant, massive hypocrisy.

I hope everyone had a nice, peaceful Christmas. Feel free to tell me what you ate for Christmas lunch/dinner- I love vicarious eating :)

Where We'll Be On Boxing Day!

Watching this!



Whee!!! The last AvP was a steaming turd, it was rated MA or something lame which turned the Alien and Predator franchises into moronic kiddy movies, geared towards selling toys to stupid children. No more. This time there's blood, lots of it. And kids die, so they won't annoy me. And it's rated R. R! No annoying brats, just real fans. I can't wait. I'm not even looking forward to Xmas anymore.

Apparently it is Xmas now. Happy Xmas, whatever, 24 hrs till AvP: R...

'Diary' entry- Where's my summer?

I want to have a whinge about the weather.

Where's the sun? I feel like we had more of a summer in August than we've been having since summer officially started! It sucks!

What's more, with me being unable to walk much on my stupid busted-up foot, it would be a perfect time to be lying by the pool during the day. Or, now that my foot isn't so painful, swimming.

Instead it's grey and we haven't had a day where the temperature hit 30 degrees C since I can't remember when. There was a nice bit of summer rain today where we had rain in the morning that was nice and warm and the air was all steamy and thick afterwards, but then it got cold and windy. What the hell is up with that? Is global warming making Brisbane colder?

As for me, apart from my interview and a couple of other outings I've been sitting on the couch playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic- the first one- on the Xbox 360. It works pretty well, although there hiccups in the game that mean the video sequences make the characters sound as if they're talking with a stutter. Oddly it works quite well- less like actors and more like real people. While it's fun sitting around and doing nothing it's really frustrating not being able to do the things we normally do like walk and ride places. Not only am I getting soft and squishy from lack of exercise, I'm not used to forking out $4 for a trip to Toowong and back for Gam and I to buy groceries- normally we'd walk.

I was able to do some housework on Friday for the first time since I broke my toe. I probably overdid it a bit on Friday and Saturday, as my foot swelled up and got a bit sore, requiring a bit more sitting around and doing nothing. Even though I'm pretty sure it's only the toe that was broken, there's a lot of bruising to other bits of my foot- I suppose the fact that the little toe was practically wrenched off my foot means all sorts of bits crunched up against other bits... So frigging annoying. Learn a lesson from me and don't run for the phone. I don't even know why I ran for the phone... I hate phones! I usually don't care if I miss a phonecall. Brain fart, I suppose.

A good friend of ours is over from England at the moment and came over for a barbeque- another friend of ours from college came up from Melbourne to see her too, and brought her new boyfriend. 'New' as in we'd never met him before- I don't know how long they've been together, but I got a good first impression of him... I'm usually spot on with those, and it's nice when a friend winds up in a relationship with a good person and not a loser... Unfortunately they all only stayed a couple of hours because they were going to stay with another person they know from college and didn't want to 'disappoint' her by not staying over at her place or something... Meh. Sucks because Gam and I probably won't get to see a whole lot more of them even though we haven't seen either of them for over 2 years (I think). I want to be bitchy and jealous about their other friend getting more time with them, but what's the point? Their choice, not ours. Plus I'm not much fun right now anyway, being crippled.

Technically it's now Christmas Eve- Gam and I stayed up to watch The Hogfather (which we found out was on courtesy of MB- thanks MB!) and then wound up watching some documentary on SBS about marriage in America. I think we'd seen part of it before. Lessons learned? 12 hour days are no good for relationships, and the relationships where the people involved talked about 'me me me' instead of 'we we we' tended to be a lot crappier and rockier. The show featured a lesbian couple who weren't technically married and had a civil union, two kids together and apparently a very good relationship... one of their interviews took place in a restaurant where some middle-aged fuckwit at another table took it upon himself to loudly proclaim that they were 'disgusting' and 'freaks'. Having to endure that sort of thing must be hell. A young woman in the restaurant got up and gave the guy a well-deserved earful over his behaviour, but the fact he felt comfortable spouting those sentiments in public in the first place is a sad indictment of the society they live in. The other thing that amazed me was the number of people who barely knew their partner when they married them. Bad idea if you ask me- committing to someone for life and then getting to know them after the fact is a recipe for disaster if there ever was one. I won't support any kids of ours getting married unless they've lived together for a good long while first.

Speaking of marriages, it's only about 3 weeks until ours. I heard on the news yesterday that there are strikes planned at Heathrow airport for the 14th and 17th of January- I think it's Heathrow that Gam's family will be flying out of, as his sister lives in London and is due to fly out on the 14th, followed by his parents a day or two later. Dear god. Wouldn't that be just our luck?

Christmas this year will be a first- we're not spending it with either Gam's family or mine. The one time we spent Christmas in Brisbane my parents came up, but this time we're on our own. No traditional family fights and dramas. While I like Christmas in Kempsey, the blow-ups that occur every year are a bit draining, as are the naggings about not attending church. This year would no doubt have been even worse, as Grandma would have spent all her time doing a woe-is-me over the prospect of our impending marriage. We've bought a free-range turkey and a piece of ham to do a Christmas lunch of our own- way too much for just the two of us, really, but it would suck to miss out on all Gam's delicious Christmas cooking just because we're on our own. All I want for Christmas is a stinking hot day. Even a storm, so long as it's not followed by a power-outage.

Australia?

This is just disgusting. I read about the racist attack on Menachem Vorcheimer when it first made the news, but the idea that the very police who are supposed to bring to justice the scumbags who attacked him are in fact helping the racists is just sickening. No wonder the guy whose statement was altered didn't realised what had happened when he signed off on a statement that the police had prettied it up in favour of the attackers and Senior Constable Terrence Moore, the off-duty police officer who aided them- who actually expects police to behave like that? Scumbags like Moore give police a bad name. Senior Constable Terrence Moore shouldn't just be 'disciplined', he should be out on his arse in disgrace.

Cronulla II

There are fears a Cronulla-style riot may be brewing as tensions grow over plans to build an Islamic school in southwest Sydney.

Police are believed to be investigating a series of mobile phone text messages circulating Sydney, purportedly inciting violence.

"We have come together to call for calm after becoming aware of text messages being sent around targeting young Australian Muslims," Independent Centre of Research Australia Youth Centre president Fadi Abdul-Rahman told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Police have confirmed they are investigating.

"We are extremely concerned as this is exactly what happened with the Cronulla riots."

Mr Abdul-Rahman was joined by Uniting Church Minister Dr David Millikan in condemning the texts.

Dr Millikan launched an attack on Christian Democrats leader Fred Nile, whose comments in the past week may be seen as having added fuel to the fire.

Tensions escalated at Camden on Wednesday night at a public meeting to discuss the proposed 1,200 student Islamic school.

At the meeting Mr Nile spoke of Islam's opposition to Christianity and also claimed some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

Camden Council has received more than 300 submissions on the proposal and will make its decision on the development in March.

Early in November, 1000 residents protested against the school, with some saying it would damage the area's social fabric.

Later in November two pigs' heads were rammed on to metal stakes and an Australian flag draped between them on the site of the proposed school.

SMH

Like Cronulla I'm sure it's all the Muslims' fault. The cops went in really hard there, on the mostly Muslim perpetrators of revenge attacks, as opposed to the hundreds of people caught on camera assaulting ambulances and cops. Nice of Fred Nile to pick this way to celebrate Xmas, supposedly the birth of the 'prince of peace'. Forcing innocent people to live in fear under the guise of 'protecting' one's culture. Nice.

Don't Get Hurt Kev!

Am I the only person who now feels a thrill of worry when they hear the PM has made a surprise visit to Iraq/Afghanistan? Not too long ago I wanted the previous incumbent sent there without an escort or flak jacket.

Reply From Camden Council

RDOW:KC

20 December 2007

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RECEIPT OF SUBMISSION - DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION NO: 895/2007

SITE DESCRIPTION:	10 Burragorang Road CAWDOR
	DP 579345 Lot 1
PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT:	Proposed Educational Establishment

I wish to acknowledge receipt of your recent correspondence in respect of the proposed Educational Establishment at 10 Burragorang Road, Cawdor and confirm that your written submission will be considered in Council’s assessment of the Development Application.

All submissions received will become public documents and will be made available for inspection if requested in writing.

Please be advised that Council will endeavour to keep the public informed on the progress of the application and will advise you when the proposal will be reported to Council. This will not be until February, 2008, at the earliest. Council meetings are held on the 2^nd and 4^th Tuesdays of each month and commence at 6pm. An opportunity is available for persons to address Council in relation to a matter at the commencement of the meeting however, in this case, it will be necessary to restrict the number of speakers at the meeting. Council’s usual practice is to allow a maximum of seven (7) speakers at each meeting and as other items will be debated on the night, it will not be possible for all persons being provided an opportunity to speak. You are therefore urged to nominate a spokesperson who can represent your views in relation to the matter.

A fact sheet has been prepared which outlines the process to be followed by Council in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, 1979. Should you, however, require additional advice, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned during normal business hours.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Ron P Dowd

URBAN DESIGNER(Development Branch)

We got that back in response to our earlier email. Good of the Camden council to get back to us, even though we don't live there. I'm taking it as an indication that they're serious about this. On a related note I saw a news article about racist bogans protesting outside the council meeting. It was a mob that probably didn't even have 32 teeth between them. They were seriously feral, the worst stereotypes imaginable, complete with mullets and flannos. I honestly thought it was a chaser joke at first but after the first critter screeched, 'we don't want 'em here!' and Fred Nile appeared to address his orks it was obvious it was real. Among the views put forward by this erudite aggregation of humanity were:

1. The school will teach children terrorism.

2. Islam doesn't recognise any other religions.

3. Everyone should be forced to celebrate Xmas in the 'Australian way'. What exactly that entails in an exercise for the reader.

I suppose that all we can do is hope that this noisy, unhygienic element do not represent a majority in Camden. The idea that a small segment of the 400,000 or so Muslims in Australia are seeking to impose a way of life on other Australians is so stupid that it hardly bears scrutiny. The mere presence of Muslims, a religion that doesn't proselytise, somehow means they're 'pushing' their way of life, simply by living. That argument leads to an evil conclusion. A conclusion we like to imagine isn't a possibility anymore but really isn't nearly so far away.

I'm in!!

Had my interview yesterday. I wrote about how nervous I was because the lady who arranged the interview told me to bring in a resume- Gam made me up an academic resumé and omitted all my 'real jobs', which were irrelevant anyway... the professor barely looked at the resumé, just asked me about my project and why I wanted to do it, tested me a little on background knowledge on basic stuff like the NHMRC guidelines for feeding of infants (related to my project) and said he was keen to supervise! He already has an interest in the area of maternal and child health, which is fantastic, and he seemed genuinely interested in my project!

He did say it was hard work and that I needed to ensure I could be supported financially, as it is next to impossible to obtain first class honours if I have to hold down a job as well. I have my first meeting in mid January... exciting stuff! I expect it will be a really full-on year, but I get to do something that I'm genuinely interested in rather than having to plod through subjects that are irrelevant to me like I usually do. Plus what I'm doing will be useful to people working in public health, if I do a good job of it. I can't wait.

Thanks to Gam and Niall for all their advice :)

UPDATE: I just realised I should also be especially thankful to someone who doesn't read this blog- Victor's nutritionist friend Liz, who took the time to sit down with me and think of projects that will help fill a knowledge gap on target populations for public health nutrition and hopefully look good on my resumé someday. If I make it through the honours year I'll have a lot to thank her for, because my biggest worry was finding something I could stay interested in for a whole year- and thanks to one of her suggestions I think I've got it. We'll see.

Feral books...

When Gam and I were riding to the Greens' 2007 Queensland campaign launch back in October we spotted a comic book (I forget what it was, but it was a good one) in a plastic sleeve hanging from a bottlebrush tree.

I wonder if it was one of these?

God's Will decrees that Sarah be annoyed by phonecall

My Mum ambushed me with a phone call from my Grandma. I suppose she couldn't very well say no if Grandma came in and asked her to phone me so she could talk. I'm on the phone right now. Goddammit. To her credit, Mum has been intervening every time Grandma starts to voice her 'concerns' about me marrying Gam.

Right now she's raving on about the second coming. No shit. Somehow- I'm not really grasping the link- it relates to our marriage!

The main theme of the phone call has been 'God's Will', and whether it's God's Will that Gam and I get married or whether God himself might intervene and stop the marriage (I told Mum earlier I could handle Grandma myself and actually stopped Grandma at this point and told her that the very implication that Gam and I should be split up by an act of god was offensive- she replied "Oh, is it? Oh I'm so sorry" and kept going into little sniffles). That's the weird thing about this all- she's so deranged that she believes she's acting as a messenger from god. I'm not kidding- she even said she received a message from God. It doesn't enter her head for a minute that she's actually doing something horrible. That's why it's impossible to hate her or even experience more than just frustration and annoyance this nonsense- she's just stupid, naive, deranged, whatever you like to call it, but not malicious.

Mum or Dad obviously just decided I've endured enough and just tried to rescue me by pushing buttons on the other phone to make Grandma (not very technologically savvy) believe that the phone was making beeping noises because it was about to go flat. She started to wind it up, but forgot that she was supposed to hang up and launched into another sermon on this book on the second coming (she tends to say the same thing over and over), so Dad clearly got the other phone and did something to it to make the signal go all funny so Grandma and I couldn't hear each other properly. I was laughing out loud by this point, but Grandma was so engrossed in her sermon that she didn't notice.

Even with the 'God's Will' thing she had her bases covered. I tried to point out that if god didn't really want the marriage to go ahead then we wouldn't be getting married in the first place, and she said "Oh no, we have free will as well, so we can do things that are against God's Will". So in her mind, no matter what happens, our marriage will be against God's Will. Personally, I worry that if anything bad happens, such as if Gam were to be hit by a car in the next month, she will believe that he was struck down by God in an effort to thwart the marriage...

Unsurprisingly, she also took time to lament the fact that we're not having "God's representative" (i.e. a priest) perform the wedding ceremony... I pointed out to her that Gam's own parents are also disappointed by this fact and that if we had an Anglican ceremony we'd have to have a Catholic one as well. Even that wasn't enough to scare Grandma- she has clearly decided that any religion is better than no religion!

I also told her I wasn't going to Kempsey for Christmas- Gam and I have told everyone we're staying in Brisbane for Christmas (well, I told Grandma I'm staying in Brisbane for Christmas)- she offered to fly me down and pay any expenses entailed. I can see right through that- all she wants is to be able to sermonise at me the whole time in a last ditch attempt to convince me not to marry Gam. Does she really think that a marriage is entered into so lightly that someone would give it up at the entreaties of another person? Gah!

Gam at one point came in and reminded me of the story my Dad likes to tell of when my Mum and Dad decided to get married and drove up to Kempsey to tell Grandma and Granddad, Granddad was absolutely fine with it... then ominously said "Now we'll have to go and tell the women" (referring to Grandma and Grandma's unmarried sister who lived with them). Grandma shrieked "You can't marry my daughter!", which was echoed by Auntie Clarrie with a "You can't marry her daughter!"... When I mentioned this fact to Grandma in light of my parents relatively successful marriage (25 years and counting, not that staying married in itself is an indication of a strong marriage), Grandma said she had a reason for not wanting Dad to marry Mum, but conspiratorially said that she couldn't tell me over the phone and that I'd have to come to Kempsey so she could tell me. Ha! I didn't think Grandma had a devious bone in her body! But it was a pretty transparent attempt at getting me to come to Kempsey for Christmas. Geez.

Honestly, I would love nothing more than to tell Grandma that we've been living together and for her to just deal with it. Mum is always worrying that if Grandma finds out she'll write me out of her will. While Mum is concerned for our financial future, I've always found the idea of waiting for someone to die in order to get a bit of their money rather distasteful. Not that I wouldn't like to have more money, but I don't believe in compromising principles for monetary gain. The reason I've been able to hold my tongue (and despite the bucketloads of evidence, Grandma wouldn't believe we're living together unless someone actually said it to her face) is because her constant sermonising and nagging makes Mum's life hell... and if she found out it would be somehow Mum's fault for 'letting' it happen.

Grandma finished up by saying that she loved me and she would support me and do anything for me- all reasonably true. I replied by saying that if she would do anything for me then all I would ask is that she be happy on our wedding day, at which she sounded surprised and said "Oh, I will be, dear!".

So, er, what was all that about, again?

Truly, the unions were worse!

Denis Shanahan has authored a bitchy little article about how Liberal Party executive director Brian Loughnane has been whining that unions were the 'third party' in the last federal election campaign because they spent $14 million over the last 12 months on anti-WorkChoices advertising.

I have one thing to say to Brian:

At least we weren't bloody well forced to pay for it!

The Howard government spent over $100 million of taxpayers' money advertising WorkChoices. I suppose it's arguable that we held them accountable for that flagrant waste of money at the election, but 3 years is a long time to wait while someone spends $100 million trying to force a change of public opinion on what was one of the most unpalatable pieces of legislation ever foisted on the Australian public.

The unions in spending money on advertising were just doing what the people they represented wanted them to do- protect their rights. The Howard government weren't doing what their constituents wanted because what they were doing was screwing them over and taking away their rights at work, then spending their tax dollars on ads designed to convince them to like being screwed. There is no comparison.

Brian Loughnane should just go home and cry into his expensive pillows- the Howard government were rightly routed at the last election, and trying to spin the loss as somehow being due to 'teh evil unions' advertising to expose WorkChoices for what it was is a bit rich.

Is Brian whinging because he's out of a job or being forced to take a pay cut? Oh how ironic that would be...

Loughnane: Not poor, just humiliated.

Britney's sister pregnant at 16. Why?

I don't think anyone could be particularly surprised by the news that Britney Spears' sister Jamie-Lynn is pregnant at 16. They are, after all, the First Family of the nation of White Trash.

But I'm pissed off at the angle the media is taking on this piece of news. Instead of badgering the pregnant youngster about whether she 'condones premarital sex', they could be asking questions about safe sex and taking responsibility for contraception. Perhaps they could even be adding a little bit of information at the bottom of the article for teens who are sexually active about where to go for advice on safe sex and contraception in the same way they add the Lifeline number at the end of articles concerning suicide.

Typically, however, we get a beat-up over premarital sex. Premarital sex is normal. It's not an issue. Safe sex is an issue, as is proper use of contraception. It would be nice to see the media taking this opportunity to focus on those instead of whipping up a frenzy over premarital sexual activity.

Talk about backward.

Scarleteen is a good resource for teens with questions about sex etc.

Lickspittles

Christopher Pyne earns himself a free whale burger

Anti-whaling activist group Greenpeace welcomed reports the leased customs vessel Oceanic Viking - armed with machine guns - might be deployed to the Southern Ocean as part of beefed-up monitoring of the Japanese whale hunt.

But opposition justice and border protection spokesman Chris Pyne said more caution was needed over an issue that could threaten Australia's relationship with Japan.

"So this smacks to me of Labor trying to get cheap headlines and being seen to be doing something about whaling rather than anything of any substance," he said.

So it's perfectly OK to excise all territory outside parliament house. It's ok to send the navy after Indonesian fishermen in our exclusive economic zone. It's ok to send the navy out to watch asylum seekers drown but it's imprudent to use the navy to collect evidence of Japanese commercial whaling and enforce our rights because the Japanese might not like it.

National Whale Watch Association secretary Frank Future said whale-watching was now worth $300 million a year to the Australian economy.

"There's tens of thousands of tourism jobs completely dependent upon whales," he said.

"So I think the Rudd government should be honouring its commitments ... and I think the young folk of Japan, I know I have loads on my boat, come out here and they can't even believe that they're killing whales."

He said with continued hunting there was a danger whales would develop a fear of boats and avoid whale watchers, damaging the industry.

SMH

Clearly our $300 million whale watching industry isn't worth pricking the sensibilities of the Japanese government, which is engaged in an activity unpopular even in Japan. The Liberals are just bitches who wee themselves at the thought of annoying any country bigger than the Solomon islands. What a pathetic bunch of jellyfish. I suppose after 11 years of bartering our national interests for a pat on the head and a 'good doggie' what else do you expect?

Not much has changed

Friday, August 19, 2005

Up the Khyber

"Welcome back, Australians, we've been waiting."

This is from a book used in madrassas to teach 9 year olds during the Afghan war against the Soviets.

“One group of mujahideen attack fifty Russian soldiers. In that attack twenty Russians are killed, how many Russians fled?”

And, a year later, Afghan 10 year olds progress to questions like:

“The speed of a Kalashnikov bullet is 80 metres per second. If a Russian is at a distance of 3200 m from a mujahid and that mujahid aims at the Russian’s head, calculate how many seconds it will take for the bullet to strike the Russian in the forehead.”

-Good Muslim bad Muslim

Where do they learn such hate? No wonder we need to close down those madrassas, all they do is teach children hate. It's terrible how Muslim children are preyed upon by Muslim radicals and injected with this stuff. Have they no shame?

The textbooks were the result of a $50 million dollar grant to the university of Nebraska to develop an appropriate curriculum for children in US govt. supported madrassas. Yes, that's right. The US govt. developed these textbooks. Seems we're not above injecting children with inchoate hatred when it serves narrow political goals, who knew.

$50 million dollars and 25 years later these children are adults, the ones we're signing on to fight now. That's right folks. John Howard (and his pathetic, spineless trifle opposition counterpart) want us to sign on to an open ended commitment costing who knows how much and lasting who knows how long to destroy America's self created enemies. Osama's long gone, Mullah Omar likewise, all we'll be doing in Afghanistan is killing more Afghans to prop up an American puppet regime, oh and the warlords in the rest of the country, you know, the kiddy raping opium peddling warlords who were so bad that the TALIBAN were able to stage a popular takeover of Afghanistan? Well they're on our side now.

You hardly need to be told that, just like in the 80s, this won't end well.

I wrote that 2 years ago. Surprise surprise, the grand adventure to... well, no one really knows what we're there to do, has failed. The only reason we got into this brainless adventure in the first place was because Howard's leadership was stalling, he needed an external issue to divert attention away from the emptiness of his domestic leadership. In 2001 Christmas came early and we were off to Afghanistan, along with an opposition to terrified to do anything but agree.

Before we invaded Afghanistan we knew where Mullah Omar lived, we knew where his house was. We knew where Osama was. Omar offered to hand Osama over to a neutral country to be tried for the Sept 11 attacks. In a sign of things to come, Bush refused to negotiate and invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban, freed of the demands of running a state, reverted to lean, efficient resistance cells and dispersed, along with Osama, destabilising Pakistan in the process. We forged two disparate groups (Osama's forces were mostly a pain in the ass for the Taliban) into an alliance. Now the Taliban/Al Qaeda have bases in Pakistan and can mount effective resistance in Afghanistan.

ISAF forces in Afghanistan aren't even capable of building a road across the country, let alone schools and hospitals. The fact is, they can't build anything anywhere except in Kabul. One of the reasons is that the west trained the Mujahedeen to attack schools, hospitals, government workers etc. this was part of destabilising the country being run by the Soviets. Unsurprisingly they're using these effective tactics against us. This, coupled with Bush's disinterest in Afghanistan in favour of pursuing the neo-conservative/likudnik programme in Iraq, means Australia is in a bad situation in Afghanistan.

Nato are never going to stump up enough troops to accomplish any mission in Afghanistan. Moreover it isn't even going to decide what the mission should be. The Americans, having declared victory in their media, don't really care anymore. That means all the minor nations who went off half cocked looking for glory are left holding the bag. I'm hoping the Fitzgibbon's statements that we're losing the war in Afghanistan are an indication of the government considering cutting our losses and stepping back. It's not so much that we are losing that we have already lost. The current government of Afghanistan is already full of ex-Taliban. The 'National' army is a joke, made up of soldiers more loyal to their tribal leaders than to Hamid Karzai, mayor of Kabul. The Taliban show no signs of being defeated and the only avenue for escalation is to invade Pakistan as well. Whether they know it or not, it's over.

Why I'm 'not home' today...

Just a moment ago I got a phone call from my mum. I was on the phone to her for almost an hour last night, so this was rather surprising.

The reason for the call? My Grandma has taken to getting weepy and ranting to Mum and my aunt about everything from the fact Gam and I did our wedding invitations ourselves (i.e. they didn't come from 'Mr and Mrs Sarah's dad's name'), that we're not getting married in a church, and that Gam is 'not a believer' and has clearly brainwashed me into not attending church and marrying some nice, asexual white boy. The real problem, of course, is that Gam is black, but my family have shouted Grandma down whenever she's voiced her concerns about this particular fact, so she's searching for a more socially acceptable reason to disapprove of Gam.

After a particularly annoying phone call this morning from Grandma to my aunt, who is currently recuperating from a hysterectomy and post-operative infection, my aunt got fed up with hearing all about it and said that Grandma should be whinging to me instead. So Mum phoned me to warn me of an impending phonecall from Grandma and to let me know that Gam shouldn't answer the phone because no-one has yet told Grandma we're living in sin (this is our 5th year living in our current place, and we were 'living in sin' in college too!).

My answer to Mum was that I'm going to ignore phonecalls for the day. Mum wasn't very happy about that- she thought I should just answer the phone and let Grandma rant for a while before pressing some buttons to make the phone beep then tell Grandma the battery has gone flat before hanging up. The problem is that Grandma tends to go into annoying religious blathering at the best of times- even a birthday phone call will turn into a sermon. I can only imagine how much worse it will be when she's all worked up over our wedding.

It's not like I can pretend I'm out for the day because I've got a broken toe and am supposed to be sitting around with my foot up. I suppose Mum wants me to make an effort because if I don't answer the phone then she is going to cop another rant, and being stuck next door to Grandma (in a semi-detached house, or whatever you call it) means there's really no chance of an escape for Mum. She cops it all the time, and while Grandma's not too bright (a bit deranged, even) she does know how to go on and on and on.

While I feel sorry for Mum and Auntie Anne, I'm not of the opinion that the misery must be shared- I'm not exactly happy to drop them in it, but as I said to Mum, Auntie Anne can just stop answering her phone too!

Can you believe that after all this, Grandma is still coming to the wedding? Probably so she can weep and rant and make a spectacle... I've fantasised about de-inviting her, I've told my parents they should tell her I'm pregnant and give her something else to worry about so the marriage will seem like something of a relief (my dad said, almost hopefully, "are you pregnant?"). I've even toyed with asking our celebrant if we can sign all the legal papers a week or so beforehand so the ceremony is just a formality and I'll have an excuse to tell Grandma we're living together and there's nothing she can do about it.

This is so ridiculous. I thank my lucky stars my own mother is so wonderful. I don't think I'd be able to sustain a relationship with someone who displays this level of obnoxiousness.

Pathetic

Scott Free, aka Peter Meakin.

Australia is a country where you can practically get away with murder.

I don't understand how Australia's courts fail to take drink driving seriously. Someone who drinks alcohol and then chooses to get behind the wheel chooses to put the lives of innocent people at great risk. It's a prelude to vehicular homicide.

Someone like Peter Meakin, who chooses to drink and drive three times and then had the gall to challenge not only his sentence of weekend detention but his convictions as well... I just don't have words for what kind of scumbag does that. He should have been in jail for a solid stint in the first place, not just weekend detention. Then to have that overturned and his sentence reduced to a puny 250 hours community service is pathetic.

Peter Meakin committed the crime of drink driving once. I don't believe in jailing for a first offence- they should have confiscated his licence for a period. Six to twelve months for a first offence would hopefully provide a real deterrent.

Peter Meakin committed the crime of drink driving a second time. He should have lost his licence for life.

Peter Meakin committed the crime of driving a third time. He wilfully put the lives of other people at risk three times. He should be in jail right now. Drink driving kills people. It needs to be taken seriously. Instead the judge said that Meakin's act of veering towards the officers attempting to conduct a random breath test constituted a mere 'failure to keep a proper lookout'. More like he nearly killed some people and he's getting away with it because the judge has labelled it a bit of a whoopsy but nothing too serious. I wonder if they'd even take it seriously if he killed or maimed someone?

I also can't help wondering if a poor person of lower status in the community convicted three times in a row for drink driving would wind up with a mere 250 hours of community service...

There is no excuse for drink driving. We shouldn't allow our justice system to make excuses for the fuckwits who do it.

A Question...

Does 'collecting stray guinea pigs' count as an interest?
[Keith Richards after a bath]

When you're going for an interview that's not a job interview and they ask you to bring a resumé so they can get some idea of 'what your interests are', what sort of stuff do you put in the resumé?

This is regarding my desired honours project next year and a prospective supervisor who apparently is very keen to meet me. I think my favourite nutrition lecturer, who it turns out is unable to supervise next year because she has to churn out a PhD in the next 12 months, put in a good word for me.

But these people have gone and made things scarier than they need to be by asking for my resumé. Given that I've never been for a 'real' job (i.e. only crappy casual jobs, not career jobs), my resumé is as pared-down as I can make it. I wouldn't say it reflects any of my interests, only my employment history and references.

Given that, what on earth am I supposed to do to give them an idea of what my interests are? I mean, I could have easily rattled off my interests if they'd just asked me. Turning this into a job-style interview is giving me a bad case of nerves!

I also have to hand over my studies report, which I would think speaks for itself. Gam recommends I include a couple of Dean's commendation letters I received last year when I got a particularly good GPA two semesters in a row, plus a breastfeeding-related literature review I did for one subject (given that my topic of interest for my project relates to breastfeeding). Does anyone have any ideas on what an interview like this might entail, and what I might include in a resumé to outline my 'interests'? I suppose they don't mean interests like playing piano and collecting Playboy magazines, or blogging, which is what I waste most of my time on.

Scary!

Cats and inflatables don't mix

In college, Gam had a cool blue transparent plastic inflatable couch. Since we moved in to our current place we've dragged said couch out of the garage from time to time to provide extra seating for visitors. Earlier this year, the couch mysteriously developed a leak we couldn't find the source of and started to deflate. Not wanting to dispose of the couch, we bought a bunch of polystyrene beanbag balls, cut a hole in the couch and filled up the outer section of the base that had developed the leak. The middle part of the base was still inflatable and provided a firm seat while the beanbag-ball-filled outer base provided stability. It was comfortable and looked pretty cool.

One interesting thing about the inflatable couch was that it terrified Feifei. For months he wouldn't have anything to do with it. Recently, however, he came to terms with the inflatable couch. Occasionally he would sit on it, though not for long. Yesterday he actually napped on it while I was sitting on the regular couch with my foot up, keeping my broken toe elevated.

Then out of the corner of my eye I saw Feifei stir and stretch. I heard a 'pop' and a 'whoosh'. Feifei had clawed the inflatable couch. He got this wide-eyed 'oh shit!' look on his face and ran and hid in the bedroom. It deflated fairly quickly and now looks all saggy and sad. Because the hole is in the top it's going to be harder to patch up without looking

Gam is no longer on speaking terms with Feifei.

Life models in the media

There's an interesting piece on the Fairfax news websites today about 'life modelling'. I thought it was a little weak of the journalist who wrote the piece to simply sit in on the art class rather than do a stint as a model- I mentioned once while relating another story that I once took up a one-off job as a life model in Brisbane, and it's a tough job.

I think the author is a little behind the times when she says it's a job that 'generates plenty of innuendo' and expresses surprise that it's not 'sexy'. First of all, what kind of innuendo can you derive from sitting around naked in front of a bunch of strangers with easels and art supplies? Most people would think that's pretty daunting, I reckon. What was surprising for me was not how 'unsexy' it all was, but how damn difficult it is to hold a pose for half an hour, even when it's a really easy one.

The group I posed for was headed by an old lady, and consisted of 8 people, half women and half guys, mostly well into middle age. The old lady picked me up in her car and on the way I asked her a few questions about what I was expected to do- I'd thought there would be a set of standard poses that they wanted me to replicate, but instead I was given a folder containing some previous work for 'ideas' and then told not to copy them but to make my own poses up!

I wouldn't say it was at all uncomfortable being naked in front of a bunch of people, but it was a bit surreal. It was cold and rainy outside, and the art class was being held in the hall of an old church. I'd arrived in winter clothes, so I suppose it was a bit more strange getting naked in that kind of weather than if it had been summer and I'd arrived wearing next to nothing.

There was a shoddy little platform containing a wooden box and some cushions (for comfortable posing), and the artists were spread out with their easels in a semicircle around the stage. That made thinking of poses really hard, as I was told to consider how it would look to all of them, as no-one wanted to be painting my back for half an hour! I also got the impression the old lady didn't like me asking questions. That was my only gripe of the night apart from the godawful weather- some more guidance would have been helpful. I'd been told that they usually had an experienced model, but on the occasions she was unavailable they'd recruit via the UQ student union employment website. $50 for 2 hours. It sounded worth a go- a good story to tell, some cash for groceries when we were short of money, but I must admit to thinking it sounded easier than it actually was.

The posing started off with a couple of 2-minute poses for the artists to practice their sketching. That was easy enough. I think it then progressed to five and ten minute poses, where I soon learned to think carefully about how I was going to pose, as by the end of the first 10-minute pose my muscles were shaking and I was close to falling over!

There was a break after the first hour; this turned out to be the most interesting part of the whole night, as I got to wander around looking at all the artists' work. It sounds odd, but it felt a bit weird putting clothes on for 10 minutes just to look at their work when they'd been looking at me naked for a whole hour and were about to do so again. It was fascinating to see how each of the artists had brought their own style, and that there were such vastly different interpretations of what (aside from the different angles they were all seeing me from) was essentially the same thing. The most memorable piece was from the 'young guy' there (late 20's, I would guess) who painted only scenes with fairies: everyone who posed for him was turned into a fairy. Somewhere out there there's a picture of me as a purple fairy- I was told he sold a lot of his works, so I may even be on someone's wall! I found this fairly amusing, as to look at me there's nothing about my morphology that suggests fairy-like qualities.

The second hour consisted, if I remember correctly, of a 10 minute and a 15 minute pose, followed by a half-hour pose. They made the half-hour pose fairly easy for me by perching me on a high stool, which had to be better than standing up the whole time, but even staying upright without shifting around every couple of minutes is surprisingly difficult to do. Not only that, it's practically instinctive to move when you start to feel uncomfortable, so I had to catch myself a couple of times when I almost shifted a limb before I realised what I was doing. I had practically petrified by the time half an hour was up.

All in all it was a good experience- something interesting to add to the list of things I've done with my life, which is not a whole lot so far. While the artists in the group I sat for said I had an ideal body for the work, I still got the impression they would have preferred someone who was experienced as a life model. I think even sitting in on a class as an artist before becoming a model would have given me a better appreciation of what was required. Though I have to say the work would want to pay better in order for me to bother with that amount of 'research'. $50 for 2 hours sounded like a lot, but I felt I'd really earned it at the end. A higher degree of fitness would probably have been a help as well, given the difficulties I had holding all those poses.

My only final thought is that I wish I'd taken a camera to get a few snaps of the artists' work- it was a pretty cool experience, but it's a shame to have nothing to show for it.