Australian Open: amazing Nadal-Verdasco semi-final

I'm not a fan of Rafael Nadal and was hoping to see him go down last night to Fernando Verdasco. But both men provided such a fantastic game of tennis- the longest in Australian Open history, apparently, that whoever won well deserved to do so. In fact, as Nadal proclaimed afterwards, Verdasco deserved to win too! Forget about the Federer/Roddick match-up in the other men's semi-final: this was in another league altogether.

It was brilliant- even despite knowing the results well in advance thanks to Channel Seven being a pack of arseholes and refusing to air the match live, it was worth watching for the incredible tennis being played. To give you some vague idea of the standard of play witnessed, Verdasco did not make a double fault until well into the fourth set. Just incredible.

While it was rather pathetic of Seven to be still screening the match at around 1am, long after every other media outlet had finished their reports on the results, I suppose in this case we should be glad they deigned to screen it at all.

Surely the men's final is going to be something of a letdown after this... but at least it might be screened live for once, right?

Documenting more Israeli war crimes

A pattern of behaviour. From The Weekend Australian:

THREE witnesses have claimed that Israeli soldiers shot in cold blood two civilians who had their hands in the air on the second day of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

In an investigation by The Weekend Australian in Gaza, the three people making the claim were on a tractor that was stopped by Israeli soldiers about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of January 4 in northern Gaza - the second day of Israel's ground operation.

Two of the witnesses were on a trailer being pulled by the tractor and the third was sitting on one of the wheel coverings.

They say Israeli soldiers who had taken over a house they were driving past shouted from a balcony for them to pull over.

When two of the men, Matar Abu Halima, 18, and Mohammed Abu Halima, also 18, got off the tractor with their hands in the air, they were shot several times in the chest. One died instantly, the other shortly after. A few minutes later, two others on the tractor, Nabeela Abu Halima and Omar Abu Halima, were also shot, but did not die - a woman says she was shot in the arm because she refused to leave the scene, saying she wanted to help the injured, and a man says he was shot through the arm because he refused to strip naked.

Israeli Defence Forces are investigating the allegations, but said the two people shot dead had been terrorists.

The tractor was taking to hospital two injured people and the body of a 15-month-old girl who had died shortly before in a fire following an attack by an Israeli rocket.

The witnesses say following the incident with the tractor, the charred body of the girl lay by the side of the road for eight days. Her legs and stomach were eaten by dogs.

The Weekend Australian has seen a picture of the girl taken by medics who finally picked her up - her head and torso are recognisable, although black with burns, while her legs are stumps with only the bones remaining.

Her brother is keeping a copy of the photograph in his mobile phone.

The incident occurred outside a primary school in the northern village of Beit Lahiya, which the IDF had taken over as a base for tanks.

The woman, Nabeela Abu Halima, says soldiers also violated her house, defecating in her pots and pans by cutting the seats out of furniture and placing pans underneath.

She says they wrote graffiti on the walls, including, in Hebrew, "Next time it's going to be harder" and "You have chosen Hamas!!!", a map of Israel with a fist next to Gaza and the drawing of a naked woman.

Twenty-four hours after The Weekend Australian put the allegations to the IDF, spokesman Captain Benjamin Rutland said the IDF was investigating the matters raised. "They are working on this .. issue. It is more important to the IDF to conduct a very thorough investigation than to complete it speedily."

Captain Rutland added: "The IDF trains its soldiers to minimise injuries to civilians and to respect all civilians on the battlefront."

Later, the IDF issued a statement saying: "In this incident, two armed militants were spotted riding a tractor along with an infant's body. The militants opened fire on IDF troops, and both the terrorists were killed in the following exchange of fire."

An IDF spokesman would not provide an answer to why, if there were two armed militants on the tractor, four people were shot - two shot dead initially and two shot through the arms later - and why the body of an infant was left by the side of the road for eight days.

And he would not say what the preliminary investigation found about whether the soldiers had defecated in Nabeela Abu

Halima's kitchen utensils, drawn graffiti and stolen her money.

Human rights investigators have begun working on the incident, which they say fits the definition of a war crime.

The two who survived both say they would give evidence about the incident to any official inquiry.

Nabeela Abu Halima is the mother of Matar. She said that as well as watching her son shot dead, her other son, Ali, 15, who was in the tractor, also saw his brother killed.

She said they had been travelling to the hospital when Israeli soldiers shouted from a balcony, "Stop! stop!"

"So we stopped," she said. "We raised our hands. Mohammed and Matar raised their hands too and got off the tractor, but Israeli soldiers shot them."

She said most of the bullets were in the chest of the two men; Matar appeared to die immediately but Mohammed was still alive.

He died some time later.

"An Israeli soldier shouted 'Leave! leave!' and I said 'Just let me take Mohammed and Matar.' They kept telling me 'Leave! leave!' and I said again, 'Just let me take Matar and Mohammed.'

"After that, they ordered Mohammed (a second Mohammed on the tractor, the brother of Omar Abu Halima) to take off his clothes. He tore his clothes off and was completely naked."

Nabeela Abu Halima said they then ordered Omar Abu Halima to strip naked and he refused. She said they then shot him through the arm. When she again refused to leave, she says they then shot her in the arm.

She said other people in the village said after they left, a tank turned the tractor on its side then ran over it, crushing it.

She said the incident and what she said Israeli soldiers did in her house have turned her from opposing Hamas to supporting them.

Apart from the graffiti, she says Israeli soldiers broke a cupboard and stole her life savings - about 30,000 Israeli Shekels (about $12,000).

She said she kept the money at home because "we don't know how to deal with banks or investments".

She said only a year ago she confronted Hamas fighters in her street who wanted to fire rockets into southern Israel, saying they should not because it would bring retribution upon her neighbourhood and that it would be people like her who suffered the consequences, not the fighters who would leave the area.

She said Hamas had threatened her when she had said this.

She added: "Now if Hamas members come back, I swear to god I will help them fire rockets into Israel."

Is there anyone who thinks they wouldn't, in her shoes?

Again, this is happening on our watch. We are in league with a government, the US, that actively supports the government of Israel, financially and militarily. Australia abstains from votes condemning Israeli war crimes in the UN. Why? What kind of monster do you have to be to be ambivalent about whether the kind of actions detailed above constitute gross crimes against humanity?

Did He Really Mean To Say That?

No, the video isn't funny at all.

"Neo-liberalism and the free-market fundamentalism it has produced has been revealed as little more than personal greed dressed up as an economic philosophy. And, ironically, it now falls to social democracy to prevent liberal capitalism from cannibalising itself."

-Kevin Rudd

Wow, he might as well have started quoting Karl Marx as far as the Australian is concerned. Rupert is probably already on the phone screaming instructions. Let's see if Rudd's intervention and regulation extends to more than handing over tax payer cash to rich losers. It's funny how the riche hate hate hate government interference and intervention, except for when it comes in the form of a bail out for their eminently foreseeable fuck ups. Seeing an Aussie PM amp up the rhetoric against neo-liberalism and Thatcherite Howard-style trickle down economics is, well, like a Swiss politician railing against charging interest.

Now if he could just put some distance between the himself and the cruise-missile left...

Channel Seven SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Channel Seven sucking is nothing new. Their incredibly shit coverage of the Olympics is surely beyond compare when it comes to suckfulness. Still, I believe they've reached new heights with their latest effort. Get this:

The Australian Open men's quarter-final between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fernando Verdasco is in progress. It's a good match, not a wipe-out, it's going to go to at least four sets, with Tsonga having won one and Verdasco two (at the time of writing this post). At the end of the third set, at 5:30pm, Channel fucking Seven cuts its coverage of the Australian Open men's tennis quarter final for... Deal or fucking No Deal. Un-fucking-believeable. Followed by their crappy turn-your-brain-to-mush 'news' and Home and-a-fucking-Way. The fucking cheek of it. It's a once-a-year event, the marquee event for Australian tennis, our only Grand Slam, and they fucking cut from the quarter final to show Deal or No Deal. Pricks.

Channel Seven don't deserve the tennis. The ATP (if they aren't money-grubbing whores and actually take the sport seriously) should give the coverage to SBS or the ABC to maintain the integrity of the event. Deal or No Deal takes precedence over the men's quarter final at Channel Seven, for fuck's sake. It's bad enough that half the time I can look up the scores from the night matches on the Australian Open website on Google and find out the result of a match that is still being played on Channel Seven because they've delayed the screening so they can show Home and Away. Cutting away from a great match half way through, however, is an even worse insult to viewers and the game.

Andrew Roberts, Dumbest Man Alive

This chimpanzee would show more foresight and thoughtfulness in using its firearm than George W Bush showed running an entire country. Quite frankly I'd feel safer with it pointing the gun at me than Bush running the US. At least I can be sure that it isn't drunk, dumber than a 6 year old or being gently fondled by a short bald man with bushy eyebrows.

Sarah sent me a link to an article in the Australian by 'Andrew Roberts' (surely he can't have used his real name) entitled "History Fairer to Bush".

I won't bother linking to it, but dear reader, it is an orgy of stupid. A massive stockpile of dense, radioactive, weapons grade stupidity. At a time when only lobotomy victims, chronic illiterates, and Liberal Party senators (oh but I repeat myself) still support Bush I seriously thought this was a spoof.

After all, anyone who could say this:

"The conspiracy theories believed by many (generally, but not always) stupid people - that it was "all about oil", or the securing of contracts for the US-based Halliburton corporation, and so on - will slip into the obscurity from which they should never have emerged had it not been for comedian filmmakers such as Michael Moore.

Instead, the obvious fact that there was a good case for invading Iraq based on 14 spurned UN resolutions, massive human rights abuses and unfinished business following the interrupted invasion of 1991 will be recalled."

Is demonstrably not in control of their mental faculties. What next? History will show John Howard was a six foot tall Aryan superman who spent his days not in parliament as a surf lifesaver? Brendan Nelson just needed a little more time? Britney Spears was actually a good mother? Ivan Milat was just misunderstood?

We're talking about events that precipitated probably the greatest global collapse of one nation's economic and political power, prestige and influence. In eight years Bush did what took Vandals, Goths and a succession of profligate emperors to accomplish. In human history I dare you to find one man who has brought so many so low so quickly. Mission Accomplished, Bring em on, heck of a job Brownie PEANCE FREEANCE!!?? Take heart, at least this absolute nitwit is British, not Australian, thank God. Only the Australian would publish this. Everyone else probably thought it was a joke.

Campbell Newman's cyclist death-trap

Campbell Newman is trying to kill the people of Brisbane. And maybe the odd tourist.

That's the only conclusion I can come to upon seeing the implementation of his hare-brained 'Paris-style' (yeah right!) bike-rental scheme, which has arrived without a skerrick of effort on his part to improve safety for cyclists in Brisbane.

Now we just await the first death to occur for some poor sucker riding one of Killer Campbell's bikes of doom... of course it goes without saying that the pathetic little publicity-stunt-man won't be giving up his chauffeur-driven V6 for one of his bikes any time soon.

Today a Texan village gets its idiot back

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.' The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H L Mencken - Baltimore Sun (26 July 1920)

1 year

Today, we've been married for one year. More importantly, we've been together for nearly 7 years... and it's all been good. For me, the milestone I'm looking forward to isn't 10 years of marriage or 10 years together, it's 18 years together. That's the point at which I will have spent half my life with Gam and I'll be able to say I have lived half my life as happy as any person can ever be. I'm so lucky to have him :)

Quaddro II

Quaddro II with fly.

The day before yesterday I saw a little huntsman spider sitting on one of the stairs in the front foyer. With only 4 legs, all on one side of its body, and a shrivelled little abdomen I figured it must be dead, but I poked it and it moved so I went into our place to get a glass and a piece of paper and capture it.

Quaddro I had two pairs of legs on opposite sides of his body; I thought for sure at the time that he'd been very lucky not to have lost 4 all on one side, thinking it must be impossible for a spider to survive. After all, Quaddro I was significantly movement-impaired, forced to engage in a slow and deliberate walk rather than a huntsman's speedy scuttle.

Quaddro II isn't nearly as movement-impaired as I had expected, luckily for him/her/it (hereafter I think Quaddro II shall be a 'he') that doesn't seem to be the case. He doesn't move around much voluntarily, but when I put a fly in he had no trouble pouncing on it. Believe it or not, the day I found him was so hot I could not find a single fly- normally the little bastards are crawling in through holes in the flyscreen or flying in as soon as the screen door is opened for a millisecond. We also don't have a grasshopper problem this year, so no baby grasshoppers either. It was almost 24 hours before I could find Quaddro II a single fly, but I had put a drop or two of water in the glass so he could have a drink if needed. He certainly looked happier once I gave him the fly, not letting it go until it was an unrecognisable scrunched up little black ball. Hopefully in a week or two he will have grown some new legs and life won't be so precarious.

Fat and happy after eating the fly!

Xiaoxiao, 2 months on.

Hiding in a doona that was headed for the wash, a couple of weeks ago.

Xiaoxiao, as expected, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's more noticeable with her than it was with Feifei, as Feifei was ~12 weeks old when we got him, as opposed to Xiaoxiao's 6. She also has one heck of an appetite. Feifei really lives up to his name ('Fatty') these days, but for years his dainty eating habits meant he stayed pretty slim. Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, inhales her food and seems to grow before our very eyes.

She's much sookier than Feifei- clingy, even. But that has diminished somewhat. She no longer cries if she is left alone in a room, for instance, but she will cry if she is left alone in the house (and vocally remonstrate with us upon our return if we leave her alone without Feifei for company). She still purrs when I pick her up for a cuddle... I can't remember if Feifei ever used to do that all the time, but I think he used to be fairly intolerant of cuddles when he was little... these days he likes them but he doesn't purr as readily for me as he does for Gam... he adores Gam. Xiaoxiao adores everyone, but adores Feifei most of all. He still grooms her every time he gets a chance, as if she's still some dirty little urchin. It's so cute to watch. One thing I love about her is that when she gets tired she gets really clingy and climbs onto my lap for cuddles... awww :)



I would say she's not so much of a handful as she was now that she has grown up a bit- my hands don't seem to constantly be covered in bites and scratches from small, sharp teeth and claws, for instance. Previously, interactions consisted of two extremes: battles and cuddles and nothing in between. In the last week or so it seems she really only has battles with Feifei, and god is it hilarious to watch them going after each other. Now that she is a bit bigger, they have 'boxing' matches... Feifei is still capable of just throwing her to the ground with one paw if he gets sick of the action, but Xiaoxiao fights dirty, leaping on Feifei from behind if he pauses for a drink or to wash himself. We've had hours of free entertainment just watching them go at each other.




One more interesting difference between Feifei and Xiaoxiao is that Feifei has never liked to be covered- not by bedsheets or boxes or anything. We wondered if maybe he'd had a negative experience with being covered before we adopted him... Xiaoxiao, conversely, finds endless entertainment by hopping into the blue woolies or coles chiller bags and hiding out, or hopping into boxes or under the sheets (when it's warm enough to use them). She really is much more 'cat-like' than Feifei. We haven't bought her any new toys because she is constantly amusing herself with other things- one toy belonging to Feifei has been plenty, along with shopping bags and screwed up balls of paper... thankfully she seems to have stopped raiding dirty tissues from the bin and carrying them around the house in her mouth, though.

Best of all, we've had no 'little accidents' (or deliberates) around the place- she seems to be very conscientious about using the litter tray these days... and thank heavens for that.

Upon my Mum's suggestion, we took her for a ride in the car the other day. Mum (clearly thinking of us going to visit with her 'grandcats' in tow) told us we should try and get her acclimatised to riding in the car... Mum used to have a cat who loved trips in the car, mostly because she received treats, but also because she started the rides at an early age. So Xiaoxiao came to the video store with us- and actually handled the trip very well. By the end of it she was sitting behind the front seat purring and not wanting to get out! Must try and get some photos next time...

John Israel vs Pauly Stine

My neighbour and i don't get along, we've been having a property dispute. The local council redrew our plots and i now own part of what used to be his property. My neighbour wasn't too happy with this, even though it was authorised by the local council! I told him that the council owed me for doing nothing to fix a traffic crossing that killed my grandfather, oddly enough that didn't seem to be enough for him. Imagine!

After I tore down what used to be his kids' playhouse, he got really upset and bought a big dog and tried to get me to leave my new land. Fortunately my friend across town gave me an m4 to deal with the dog. It was a bit of overkill I admit, but it was free (did I mention my friend across town gives me stuff for free?) Anyway my neighbour decided he wanted to negotiate a solution, he said he'd be happy with 1/4 or so of the land back and I could keep the rest. It seemed like a good deal, but I'm afraid i couldn't deal with him because he wasn't a Christian.

Time passed, dogs got shot, eventually the old man of the house died and my neighbour's family got together and decided to try Christianity so we could negotiate. Unfortunately they decided to become southern baptists, so I cut off their water. And burned down their garage. The council didn't seem to mind. Also there was an unfortunate incident with their daughter while I was aiming at their new dog.

I kept telling them, in between clips of 5.56, that I wanted a period of perfect calm before we could try negotiating again, and that I wouldn't negotiate with any damn southern baptists, and it had to be an overcast day on the second thursday of an odd numbered year, and they had to find me a shrubbery. And well that's kinda where we are today. Their kids keep throwing bottles on my lawn. I don't understand why they hate me so much.

I've had to take over more and more of their land to protect myself. I need to keep the bottles off my lawn. To fund my expenses, I've built condos on the land I've been forced to take and let my cousins move in them, It seems to be working out well but they keep trying to take more land and I'm not sure it's such a good idea but they're my cousins. They keep going on about how all the land is rightfully mine. I'm not sure I should listen to them but my friend across town who gives me free stuff thinks it's cool so I don't really have anything to lose. Lately my cousins and I have planned a raid on the outhouse that now houses my neighbour's family. I think that should put an end to the bottles.

Happy January... Gaza

While we were sleeping drinking...

Apologies for the posting drought- I came down with a virus a couple of days after Christmas and have mostly been too tired to do anything (and I'm now back at work) and Gam has been back at work since the 2nd. So, a belated happy new year to everyone... Well, everyone except the poor sods stuck in the hellhole called Gaza. We all have a responsibility to stay aware of what's happening there. The world still pretends people didn't know what was going on during the first Holocaust, but there should be plenty of people alive to call the bastards liars when they finally claim not to have known the true extent of the humanitarian catastrophe being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people this time around.

People who actively supported the killing of these small children:

• George W. Bush, President of the United States of America
  
• Dick Cheney, Vice-President of the United States of America
• Harry Reid, Democrat Senator, Nevada
• Dick Durbin, Democrat Senator, Illinois

... god the list would be a long one if I included everyone who has voiced support for Israel's actions in its war on Gaza. The entire staff of The Australian, it seems, for one.

If I were to include everyone who has tacitly supported the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians- women, children and men, despite the apparent assumption by Israel and every member of the western media that every male over the age of 14 is a terrorist- the list would be even longer. Most members of the Rudd government would be on it, most members of Malcolm Turnbull's Opposition would be on it. Barack Obama, who has also failed to condemn the state-sanctioned mass murder of Palestinians, would be on it.

The excuse de jour for Israel's 'collateral damage' seems to be the old 'Hamas are hiding in civilian areas' bullshit. What no-one in the western media sees fit to point out is that Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. There are no wide open spaces, Hamas has no tanks, no planes with bombs to drop on Israeli houses or troops- they have ordinary guys with guns and pathetic rockets that kill one or two Israelis per year. Complaining that Hamas is 'hiding' behind civilians when they exist in this tiny, densely populated ghetto created by Israel, is a bullshit excuse for blowing up children. Those deaths can never, ever be justified, and it takes a special kind of inhuman scum to even try it.

UPDATE: Good article from Online Opinion by Greg Barns, who comments on the rank hypocrisy of the Australian and US governments in their positions against Hamas and the Palestinian people:

In Australia you can go to jail for donating money to a cause like Hamas, which runs the lives of 1.5 million Palestinians on the Gaza Strip.

However, it is not an offence for you to support organisations in Israel, which actively disrupt the lives of Palestinians by ripping up their olive groves or financing illegal settlements in areas of clear dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hypocritical? You bet.