Russian Spring

A source just returned from Russia.

He reports his impression that the Russians don't care about global warming; well, they do a little: they're looking forward to it because it will make some parts of Russia much nicer to live in.

So you lose a little bit of coastline, so what? That's no reason to stop drilling for oil everywhere and selling it to whoever wants to buy it.

Insert "I'm dying for a cigarette" Jokes Here

The ABC reports last week that a 34-year-old French woman plead guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court to a charge of endangering safety on an aircraft, when she attempted to open the cabin door to have a cigarette.

Sadrine Helen Sellies' flight was 39,000 feet above North Qld on a flight from Hong Kong when she was noticed by a fellow passenger tampering with the plane door holding a cigarette lighter and an unlit cigarette...

Do not forget Scott Parkin.

The Scott Parkin incident is one of the most reprehensible things the Howard government has done all year. We should not forget it.

Also, why I'm on the topic, it is disgusting to arrest someone and then charge them shitloads for their accommodation in a detention centre. You could get a room at the Hilton for that.

Geez, I forgot Hurricane Season was still going...

Tropical Storm Gamma hits central America; toll rises as storm lashes Honduras.

From the ABC: "Gamma was expected to curve to the north-east as it neared the Yucatan, which is still recovering from a battering by Hurricane Wilma three weeks ago, and move over western Cuba before taking aim on southern Florida, where Wilma also wreaked havoc."

Murder at Slacks Creek

A 37- year old man was due to appear in the Beenleigh Magistrates court on the morning of Friday November 18th charged with murder.

The arrest follows an incident at a residence in Deborah Court, Slacks Creek, Logan City on Thursday. A 33-year old woman was found dead by police at 9.10am. The police were conducting a "welfare check" after receiving information.

There were no signs of forced entry at the house.

The woman is yet to be formally identified.

Logan City Crime Update

Assault and armed robbery, Homestyle Bakery, Springwood.

US investigating whether Zarqawi among Iraq dead

"US authorities are looking into whether Al Qaeda's Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in a gunfight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an US official says..."

The spokesman said the U.S. is also investigating whether Usama bin Laden, Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan and the current Ayatollah are among the dead. Possible quote:

"We're not saying it's likely that they are, but since we're never going to follow up this announcement, we hope to leave at least some of you with the impression that it might have been possible."

We have world-class religious wackos, too, you know.

A "retreat" run by a person who claims to have eaten nothing since 1993, surviving only on air and light, is under surveillance by French authorities, a French newspaper reports.

Australian "guru" Ellen Greve teaches that people can live almost entirely without food or water; an approach she calls "breatharianism".

Le Parisien newspaper claims French are worried Ms. Greve runs a dangerous cult that has had a role in the deaths of three people around the world.

Today's plane crash

Russian MiG crash-lands at Bathurst.

Logan City planning "Wireless Broadband" network

Wireless broadband across Logan will be up and running in early 2006 with the final stages of planning now underway.

The Battery Ad Wars Continue

Gillette Australia Pty Ltd and the Gillette Company v Energizer Australia and Eveready Battery Company, Inc.

From the Federal Court: "The last round concerned a television advertisement known as the 'Race Bunny' advertisement, in which Gillette claimed that the Duracell alkaline battery provided 'up to three times more power' than the Eveready Super Heavy Duty battery. The present round concerns a television advertisement referred to by the parties as 'the Chariot advertisement', in which Energizer claims that the Energizer lithium battery performs 'up to seven times longer' in high powered devices (such as digital cameras) than Duracell's standard alkaline battery."

Why we should never have electronic voting in Australia

I've long maintained that it doesn't matter how unpopular Bush gets; his popularity would still have to drop a lot further just to beat the in-built bias in the voting machines. It's getting worse:

Bob Fitrakis/Harvey Wasserman: Has American Democracy Died an Electronic Death in Ohio 2005's Referenda Defeats?

Logan City Crime Update

November 9, 2005
Crime drops 10 percent in Gold Coast and Logan

November 10, 2005
Break and Enter, Rochedale South

November 11, 2005
Reported Abduction, Browns Plains

Sony recall spyware CDs

From Wired News: Sony Folds Tent, Recalls CDs

and: Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit

Lucas Heights

Bugger. Yet another co-incidental link between me and "terrorism".

I once stayed at the Lucas Heights Motel; you take the same driveway as for the nuclear reactor.

I probably haven't mentioned other links yet. One is that my brother in law is a Muslim who is learning to become a pilot. There are a few others that escape me at the moment.

This is why I don't like the terror laws. I don't trust ASIO and the others to get it right. They'll see a few co-incidences and think "Bingo!"

Today's plane crash

A Colombian single-engine plane. Six dead.

Kevin Andrews: also a tool.

When you're arrogant pricks who don't really give a shit about workers, why would you be fazed?

David Hicks (2)

Hicks "court" case in doubt after U.S. senate vote. From the ABC.

Since I've had this blog...

...I yell less at the TV.

Hey, mate. Would you like to say anything to this bloke here?

Yes. Get the fuck out of my way or I'll hit you again.

It should not be an offense to hit TV cameramen. They are even scummier than TV journalists. (I'm a 'never worked as a journalist' journalist myself.)

Kevin Andrews says Australia can't afford to stand still

So he wants us to go backwards.

America's double standard on terrorism

How Luis Posada Carriles, the man labelled "the Osama bin Laden of Latin America", is getting a free ride thanks to President Bush, by Saul Landau.

Opening paragraph -

Cuban expatriate Luis Posada Carriles, an old U.S. terrorist chicken, has come home to roost in Bush's nest, exposing the president's anti-terrorist policies as a hoax. Posada, 77, unabashedly embodies violence as Gandhi stood for nonviolence. His resume contains a long list of terrorist "accomplishments," including the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner over Barbados in which all 73 people aboard died.

It's my wife's birthday today!

Happy birthday to her, happy birthday to her...

The first episode of *The Five Doctors* - the most tedious 24 minutes of TV ever? (Updated further)

Seriously, I've been watching a few of the old Doctor Who episodes from 1983 on the ABC because my brother wants me to tape them while he's out of the country. When I say "tape", I mean record on my Foxtel iQ and then dub it down on my DVD recorder. Anyway, the first episode of The Five Doctors is one of the most boring things I've seen recently - and I watch a lot of TV, so I've seen a lot "recently". Most of the episode is spent watching left over footage of the previous four doctors being kidnapped by a large black triangle that looks lower tech than Pong.

I'm up to part three now, and my point is the show itself is okay -- the series, not The Five Doctors, which is the biggest load of thrown-together crap I've ever seen, Tom Baker did well to stay away from that one -- they aren't even bothering with cliffhangers at the end of the episode -- even if the really low budget was beginning to really bite; but the picture quality of the filmed exterior shots it so bad they should have stuck to stories that could be done inside. The videotape might look tacky, but cutting from clean tape to dark dirty film is just jarring.

Not sure what I think about the new spin-off that was announced.

~November 7, 9.50pm

syme points out that it was originally made to be broadcast whole. That doesn't explain why the entire story was so bad. Especially since this was an anniversary special.

Poor old Jamie. Old being the operative word. Still, at least he wasn't dead.

~November 8, 10.50pm

Thanks for the info, syme. (See comments, imaginary other readers.) I guess it was just a shame the 25th anniversary came up during what seems to be a low budget period. Especially compared to the glory days of the 4th doctor.

Paris

Yes, but the important point is they're immigrants -- i.e., not considered really French -- not that they're muslims.

I'll admit there are some funny lines

Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.

Contact Lenses

Barbara T. Dreyfuss' article Eagle-Eyed Regulators brings something to mind. Not the Bush cronyism and habit of appointing to head agencies people who have spent their life opposing what the agency stands for, that's pretty old news and lots of people have done articles on that.

No, it's more something about the "originalists" and how they're fairly indistinguishable from libertarians on this point. No regulation, fantastic - but what about the effect on the customers. The article mentions breast implants. That's even scarier than the contact lenses referred to.

If you buy something from a beachware store on a sand-blown beach front and then stick it in your eye, that's really your choice. I haven't heard of too many women who self-install breast implants. And I'm not sure if it's a local or a general anaesthetic, but either way, you're putting all your trust in someone else's hands. And they might be totally trust-worthy, it's just that isn't going to be any good if they turn around later after the catastrophe and say "Sorry, but these didn't turn out to be what the manufacturer said they were. And sorry, because they're self-regulating, there isn't really anything you can do." If you argue that the manufacturer has a right to do whatever they want free of regulation, doesn't that potentially infringe on my right not be killed by your product?

It's like the whole gun thing. The argument, if I get it right, is that people should be free to do whatever they want so long as it doesn't affect other people. Well, that would be okay so long as your gun isn't loaded. But once the gun is loaded, it is ready to fulfill its purpose, which is to propel a solid projectile over a long distance. Now, my neighbours' houses are 10 -15 metres away. If they have a gun and it goes off, that bullet isn't going to stop at my fence-line. There is really no way a person can exercise that "right" without potentially infringing my right not to be hit by a speeding deadly projectile.

Here's the thing. Guns are dangerous. Maybe that's why the framers of the U.S. Constitution thought it best that they be limited to members of "well regulated militia[s]."

A few thoughts about the arrests

I don't have time to put what I'm thinking about this together coherently, but here's a few things.

1. I have no problem with last week's changing of the words from "the attack" to "an attack", because if you stop someone before they make an attack then you can't point to "the attack" they're to be charged with. But the timing of the dramatic parliamentary session was dodgy - intelligence agencies have wanted this for 18 months but instead we have to recall parliament? I'm with Bob Brown, it was a stunt to keep the minds of the masses away from other things. And then, after there was criticism they were just fear mongering, the next thing we know there's dramatic, news-cycle hogging raids? I'm suspicious. I'm alert. In fact, I'm darn alarmed.

Or maybe, it was just a stuff up - they're briefing the PM on the op and have to take the opportunity to again remind him that there's a word standing in the way of arrests.

2. The police and services who caught the people would be the same no matter who the government of the day is. This operation had been underway for years. The same public servants would have done the same thing if we'd kicked Howard out at the last election or the egregious Tampa election before that.

3. If, as NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has suggested, the arrests have disrupted "the final stages of a terrorist attack", that's one thing - that implies planning and preparation, and that means some action has been taken by the accused to justify the arrests. However, if, as has been suggested, some of these people have committed "membership offences", which means their offence is merely being a member of an organisation, I'm not sure what I think about this; the whole idea of banning an organisation seems wrong to me.

It seems like saying this group talks about things that we don't want you to hear. We can't trust you to make the decision for yourself that what they're talking about is not for you. You are an easily-led child and we are here to protect you from yourself, even if that means retarding your development of critical decision-making facilities.

And now some of them are in court and it seems all they actually did was talk rather than act, so it's all very murky.

4. At least the accused are in court - civil courts - and we will get to hear what they were charged with. And they will be able to talk to lawyers and the Red Cross will be able to visit them. They won't be disappeared. They won't be rendered anywhere in a Gulfstream V.

5. Despite John Howard's weaselly-worded gloating, this doesn't justify the new terror laws. It seems from what the police are saying the only relevant issue was the "the/an" amendment from last week, which enabled charges to be laid before anyone had done anything. But I'm not sure why these raids vindicate passing a law that makes it an offense to criticise old Lizzie.

UN nuclear chief searched at US airport

So Dr El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was searched at Boston airport. It's unclear as to whether the Doctor "felt the incident was 'not important'," or "was 'really angry and embarrassed by the incident'," but what I think is funny is...

It wasn't intentional -- if you believe what the U.S. Government says, an important caveat -- they weren't trying to do a Cat Stevens on him, it was just a mistake.

"The point here is that the (US) administration has been very thoughtful in making sure that all aspects of the trip go well," [IAEA deputy director general] Mr Waller said.

They just couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

David Hicks

David Hicks is alleged to have fought with the Taleban (at the time, the government of a sovereign nation) against "U.S.-led forces". The critical thing to remember is that the Taleban were fighting the "Northern Alliance" in a civil war and then the U.S. butted in and took sides.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. has said it will continue with Hicks' "trial" despite the U.S Supreme Court finally agreeing to hear Hamdan. They've got the gift situation of a foreign government that is so busy sucking-up it's not interested in looking after the rights of its own citizen, and anyway, the U.S. knows the trials are illegal, so the Supremes telling them won't change anything.

I will defer to the health expert

I got it wrong about being exposed and being immune. I think I was thinking about vaccines, such as for polio, that give you a mild case of the disease.

Still something seemed wrong about killing those birds that had successfully fought off the "killer flu"

"We do not torture" terrorism suspects: Bush

Money quote: "Anything we do to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law." [Read article]

However, just to be sure; we are not limiting our actions to keep within the law, we are broadening the law to keep our actions within it.

PM - "No one actually read it."

The Prime Minister has explained why half a million brochures about the Government's proposed industrial relations changes were pulped. "In fact there were some content errors in the document. That's why the change was made," he said.

Howard confirmed more than 400,000 booklets had been destroyed at a cost of $152,000.

Two things occur to me, first, is $152,000 the cost of just the destruction, or does it also include the cost to design and print them in the first place?

Second, are you telling me that we've spent $152,000 (at least) because no one bothered to check the proofs before giving the okay to the printer?

They don't hate us because of Iraq

They hated us because of East Timor. They kept on hating us because of Iraq.

Without a hint of bias, I can say that Santo Santoro is a tool.

I haven't read the Senate Estimates transcript yet. I'll get to it, but the gist is Santo hates the ABC. Santo complains that it is bias for the ABC to have a rule that they do not refer to Australian Troops as "our troops".

Santo claims this is "Orwellian", saying it is "perfectly feasable for an Australian broadcaster to refer to 'our troops' while still presenting balanced and objective reporting'..."(Crikey email, Monday, November 7.)

Santo is a tool who doesn't understand that a news organisation should not identify with any side in a conflict.

But it does bring in something that I've been thinking about and which I have a half-formed theory about. I read a lot of American stuff and there's the regular complaints about the left-wing bias of the media. But I never see anyone complaining about the right-wing bias of business. Or the female bias of the teaching and nursing professions. Or the male bias of the medical profession.

The point is, if you boil politics down to its most simplistic it comes out like this: small-l liberal/"progressive": likes new things; conservative: likes things the old way. Thus news, by virtue of the fact that its job is to tell people things they don't already know, is inherently liberal.

And the media will always be biased against the government, simply because the government (all governments) like to keep things hidden, and the job of the media is to find new things and tell them to everyone.

US marine, rebels killed in battle on Syria - Iraq border

The ABC reports that "at least one US marine and 17 alleged Al Qaeda fighters were killed as US and Iraqi forces moved house-to-house in their fight to take control of a town near the border with Syria ... The operation is aimed at preventing foreign fighters from entering the country."

Although, if you were unremittingly cynical, you might think that it is all a cover for U.S. missions into Syria to destabilise the country.

Lie to police, get your story reported everywhere

On Wednesday October 26, Queensland Police issued a news alert regarding a complaint by an 11 year old girl that a man attempted to entice her into a car. According to the bulletin

"a man pulled up beside her and asked through an open window if she wanted a lift to school. The girl said no and the man drove away. The man appears to have driven around the block, again pulled up beside her asking if she wanted a lift to school. The girl again declined and the man drove off. He returned a third time and began yelling abuse at the girl who then ran into the school on Elm Street to report the incident." (emphasis added)

The next day, the Police reported that the incident was not an attempted abduction:

"A man driving his grandson to Cooroy State Primary School did stop and offer the 11-year-old girl a lift to the school, but after she refused he drove on. The girl had been taught never to accept lifts and she became concerned about the offer."

As there is no reference to the second and third "attempts", what is not clear is whether the girl had also been taught to exaggerate to make her story sound better.

small-L liberal

In Australia, one of the conservative parties is called the Liberal Party of Australia.

But because liberal means the opposite of conservative in most of the world, when we want to refer to the concept of "believing in or allowing more personal freedom and a development towards a fairer sharing of wealth and power within society" and not the party, we say "small L liberal", since the party is a proper noun with a big L.

Not that I have any readers, but...

I had to turn word verification on for posting because of the spam for highway construction shit.

Is the terror threat real?

Well, here's the thing.

For you, maybe.

For me, I live in the third largest city in the third most populous state in about the 40th most important country in the world. I ride 10km to work each day along back roads. There is an Office of Child Safety downstairs, so there's always the chance of a disgrunted non-custodial parent, but that isn't terrorism.

So, the terror threat isn't real for me and for a lot of other Australians, and for this our freedom is being taken away. Not to mention Australian political satire is in danger.

What can we do? I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say "take to the streets"?

Some people just don't listen during orientation

It seems an immigration department officer plead guilty to accessing confidential information about people entering and departing to Australia. She accessed the system, which holds entry and exit records, to look up information on people travelling.

The defence counsel said she had accessed the database "out of fear for friends and colleagues going overseas." She 'd freaked out after September 11 and " she just wanted to ensure people she knew were safe when travelling."

The ABC reports the defense "told the court there are times when good people do the wrong thing with the very best of motives and this this was one of them."

And there are times when there are just stupid people and she was one of them.

Will someone please explain what's wrong with this exactly?

All public servants in Queensland could be forced to gain approval from management for a second job. Premier Peter Beattie will ask for a directive from the Public Service Commissioner on the issue after it was revealed a teacher was also working as a prostitute.

To be fair, she was only a part-time teacher. (Update- Actually, this is wrong - that was a similar story on the same page of the paper.)

My wife also loves Stuart MacGill

In addition to Anderson Cooper, my wife is also a big Stuart MacGill fan.

What happens to us if the U.S. doesn't cancel the Joint Strike Fighter?

According to the very animated discussion on the wiki page for the F-35, - I love reading between the lines on wikipedia - our support for it is wavering and it will probably be a piece of crap anyway.

What happens to us if the U.S. cancels the Joint Strike Fighter?

I can't give you any sources on this because the article I read was too long ago, but I thought I read somewhere that the U.S. was considering cancelling the Joint Strike Fighter. We're counting on that plane to replace our F1-11s. What happens to us if they cancel it?

I'm reading Molly Ivins and she thinks the F/A22 is a waste of money. Is that the JSF? I'm not online as I compose this; I'm sure I could check it out, but part of my reason for having a blog is so that I can re-read notes I've made, like this one, and pay attention when I read another article on the same subject.

Eventually I'll work it out

UPDATE - A little later... no, the Joint Strike Fighter is the F-35 JSF, so it isn't what Molly Ivins was talking about, but I still think I read somewhere that it was being considered for cancellation, or someone was suggesting it.

Queensland Roar, Queensland Roar. Only one goal? We want some more.

Okay, so Qld won 1-0 on Friday night against Melbourne.

I'm pretty sure that if you carry anti-bodies for an illness, that makes you immune.

I studied biology at school and I'm pretty sure that if you carry anti-bodies for an illness that means you've been exposed to it but that you have fought it off and are unlikely to catch it again. So why are we killing all these poor birds who have done nothing, unless you count already having beaten a supposedly killer flu?

Bush's pockets as full as his brain

And I'm not talking about Karl Rove here.

Logan City Crime Update 3 November

Armed Robbery, Slacks Creek, Evening, 2 November 2005.

Attempted Murder, Logan Central, Morning, 3 November 2005.

Queensland Roar, Queensland Roar. Can defend, can't score.

I have to admit that it slipped my attention also that Queensland were the equal best defence in the A-League.

Probably because I was busy pulling my hair out as we squandered 33 -- count 'em, thirty-three -- shots on goal against Perth.

Iran allows UN inspectors into military complex

"Iran has allowed United Nations (UN) nuclear inspectors into its Parchin military complex, a place previously off limits to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ... A western diplomat, who did not want to be named, said it was a positive sign." [Read Article]

I read something earlier this week where some American politician said something along the lines of 'they've got loads of oil, it doesn't make sense for them to use nuclear energy for civilian power'.

Drill more oil, or invade the people who do, this is the American way.

If you have high emissions standards and then enforce them, nuclear power is fairly environmentally friendly (barring an accident, of course). It's certainly greener than burning petrochemicals. And if you have wackos on the other side of the world who want to buy all the oil you can produce at really, really high prices, why not let them subsidise the infrastructure you will need for a sustainable future?

Now remember, these are ill-informed comments from off the top of my head, but it boils down to this: no one with even a single nuclear weapon has the right to criticise anyone else for trying to acquire them. If you do and you do, then you're just a hypocrite who thinks you're entitled to things that others aren't.

I'd love to care, but we have our own hunger strikers to ignore.

The ABC reports that refugee advocates say they are concerned for the health of six Chinese asylum seekers who have been on a hunger strike for 16 days at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre. [Read Article]

The Terrorble Laws

The ABC reports that coalition MPs have forced some major changes to the Federal Government's counter-terrorism laws, which have been introduced into Parliament. The definition of what constitutes incitement has been tightened, apparently "addressing some freedom of speech concerns.

But not mine: as Hugo Kelly reports in Crikey (daily email, 3 September, 2005), this is the final clause in Section 30A:

" ...seditious intention means an intention to effect any of the following purposes:
(a) to bring the Sovereign into hatred or contempt;
(b) to urge disaffection against the following:
(i) the Constitution; (ii) the Government of the Commonwealth; (iii) either House of the Parliament"

So there will be a review of the new laws by a former judge, so what? The judiciary is a part of the Government of the Commonwealth so it would be illegal to criticise any decisions they make. Mind you, it looks like 30A(b)(ii) would make it illegal for members of the House of Reps to criticise the Senate...

Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Howard has strongly rejected suggestions that his warning of "specific intelligence" of a terrorist attack and the introduction of urgent legislation to deal with that threat is a political conspiracy.

This is a straw man, surely? We don't think it was a "political conspiracy", we just think it was a politically cynical move. He can deny it, but, given that almost everything Howard does comes from the Karl Rove playbook -- that is, if they did it in the U.S. last year, they'll try it here this year -- does anyone believe him anymore?

Sadly, yes. But not me -- Time wasn't of the essence: Howard was happy to wait for 24 hours until the legislation passed, so it wasn't that urgent. What was important was getting the WorkChoices and Terrorble legislation off the front page.

Attorney-General Philip "Zombie" Ruddock also says the timing is a coincidence. "I don't manufacture advice that we have received," Mr Ruddock said.

No, we probably get the Americans to manufacture it for us. Or the Italians - that's more their style.

Understatement of the day: Opposition leader in the Senate, Chris Evans: "There is a well founded perception that the Government has not always played a straight bat on these issues."

Terrorism experts have speculated that attacks being planned on Sydney and Melbourne were behind the urgency to force new anti-terrorism legislation through Parliament. I have speculated that someone heard that my wife was off to Melbourne at Christmas to visit her sister.

I'm confused, you mean people didn't know the CIA had secret prisons?

But surely no one is surprised they're denying it.

President George W Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, says the United States will do what is necessary to fight and win the war on terrorism. "The President has been very clear we're doing that in a way that is consistent with our values..."

Look, it may be consistent with the President's values but I think it is an insult to many fine upstanding Americans for Hadley to say that everyone's values are as low as Bush's.

And so on, ad infinitum

Ha, irony. I wrote a post earlier commenting that the only comments I'd received so far seemed to be spam. Now the same people have spammed a comment in that post.

I won't link to it, because I did that in the original post and that's probably what bought my second post to the spambot's attention.

My wife loves Anderson Cooper

She fell in love with him during Katrina.

But we don't usually see much of 360 or Newsnight on CNN International.

[Yeah, sorry I know, a TimesReject abstract isn't much good as a link.]

It looks like someone's busy rigging the Sky News Active poll

Since 8am AEDT, the percentage of people who are most concerned about "neither" the anti-sedition nor anti-worker legislation has risen by about 10 points. When I woke up, "IR" (anti-worker) plus "Both" totals added up to about 87%. [The rest were most concerned about the anti-terror/sedition legislation.]

Now it's down below 80% and "neither" has jumped to 17%. It's likely workers voted early and bosses have been voting in the last hour, but it's still a suspiciously big jump.

What 'good' name?

Apparently, Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby has "declared that he wants to clear his good name..."

Which one of the above names does he think is good?

Darn, I thought I'd got some real comments for a second there

But they all just turned out to be advertisements

This shit is addictive (2)

I've just wasted 45 minutes farnarkling around with my template.

You like?

It doesn't matter how unpopular Bush gets

The useless Dems would have to poll at 90% just to overcome the inbuilt bias in the voting machines.

I won't use ATMs made by Diebold - I'm worried they'll send my money to the Jeb Bush 2008 Campaign.

I remember, back last century...

Back in 1997, I used to labouriously (sp??) hand-code html so that I could put what I used to call 'rants' up on my website. Now I just sign up to something and ten minutes later I'm sprouting shit to the world. Ahhh, what fun.

This shit is addictive

So, I'm missing Firefly, but it's okay, because it was broadcast at midnight about a week ago anyway. I love my iQ.

I'll probably talk a lot about television but I'll almost always be behind.

A space western. Apart from a few jokes, I can't see what syme sees in it, unless it's Kaylee. I just can't take Johnny from Two Guys and a Girl seriously. Syme tells me he was in Buffy, too.

Bastards.

WorkChoices - what does it really mean?

Names for fictional people

Karl McManus

You're not a real blogger until...

You write a post about a post in someone else's blog.

In this case, my friend, kungfusyme.

He talks about risk. He gets all RED-FONTED AND BOLD-FACED about investors and risk. The reason -

My landlord just put my rent up.
Fair enough - that's his call.
But when he did it he came at it like this "My mortgage just went up and I'm making a loss on this house now and I'll shoulder some of that cost but I'm going to have to put the rent up"

He wanted credit for taking on some of the cost.

I didn't ask him to buy a fucking investment property - and I won't expect him to give me some of my rent back if he makes a profit when he sells it.

Um, the problem with that is that you are renting, and renting is risky. A landlord can put the rent up any old time, their only risk is that the tenant will move out and the landlord might have to reduce the rent slightly from what they were asking to get someone else in. But as a tenant, if you want to pay the increase, stay; if not, you've got a choice -- just like the new WorkChoices shit -- and you can bugger off.

Gotta go, Serenity has a load of cattle to deliver.

Sedition is fun

So... the war on terror is over and we lost.

Very soon, possibly Monday, John Howard will have successfully taken away our freedom. Isn't that what we're told the "terrorists" wanted all along?

And loudmouthed hotheads like me won't be able to say anything that criticises the government or our Queen. (Speaking of our Queen, doesn't it make you mad when she supports the other team?)

Everybody's putting a three-piece together

So, now I've got a blog, too. How depressing.