David Hicks

I hate to go on about things, but...... No wait, I don't, I love it!

Hicks has been in that illegal prison for 5 years and he is about to be charged again by an illegitimate court spouting conveniently made up laws.

Our own Attorney General Ruddock says the laws are based on American law. But Hicks is being charged in Cuba for crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan. How does this work? Nobody knows, as it is being made up as it goes.

If it's a criminal law, then why not try him on US or Afghan soil? If it is war related he is a prisoner of war, the Geneva convention needs to be addressed.

Thats all.

an American talking rationally about people who dislike America

Very rarely do we read or hear a metered and considered analysis to Anti-Americanism from within America. Most US commentators are of the opinion that "if you're not with us, you're against us" when faced with people who dislike America and its role in the current world environment.

Neil Gross is assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University and wrote this article, which appeared in the Boston Globe and the New York Times. He concedes that there are reasons for Anti-Americanism besides war and jealousy. He also believes that it can and should be remedied through the US behaving differently (better) in world affairs.

Read Neil Gross' article here: The Many Stripes of Anti-Americanism.

Black Hawks Back?

'Our benevolent benefactor' has bombed Somalia, again. Apparently they were after an al Qaida agent... which leaves me a whole lot more relieved that when the US strong-armed local authorities, they had 'a good reason'. Sure, the US have 'permission', but permission obtained by threat of force or deprivation of aid, is no permission at all, but it looks better if the Somalis say they grant permission, sorry "They have our full support for the attacks"(which is scared politician-speak for 'do you want to be the one to say 'no'?') . Pakistan have claimed that they've only cooperated with the US because Bush promised to "bomb them back to the stone age" if they argued. Yemen lost vital aid after voting against US in the UN (aid cancelled the following day). You just don't say 'no' to Dubya when his people have 'intelligence' (yes, that's a tired joke that's no longer funny, although... I believe their 'source' was 'tweetie-pie', who's reported as saying "I tort I tore a terrorist!"... which seems far more credible than previous sources... still waiting on those WMD's George!). This is what George means when he says "you're either with us or against us", keep out of the way, and let us bomb who we want, when we want.

Some of you may remember a previous US interference with Somalia, colourfully represented by Ridley Scott in the film 'Black Hawk Down'. That incident was a major 'black-eye' for the USA, it seemed to all the world that that an untrained, poorly equipped rabble from a third-world country could drive-out the mighty US. Somalia has been a bête noire that the US have had to revisit, and there was no better time than now, when Iraq is going the same way, it's a confidence boost (just don't tell the families of those killed).

If there is one thing the US armed forces learned from the 'black hawk down' incident, it was to bomb the site flat from greater altitude with AC-130's instead of engaging the enemy. There's nothing 'surgical' about this approach, just indiscriminate death across a large area. It's got that Kurtz (Heart of Darkness) "Exterminate all the brutes" feel to it. Or maybe it's like Pope Innocent III who advocated the killing of 20,000 faithful to get 200 heretics "Kill them all. God will know his own".
It seems that it's ok to bomb innocent civilians if you are trying to kill a terrorist who may or may not have been there.

The question is: when does this war against terror, become a war of terror?

...And the guest of honour Fazul? The Americans don't know whether they got him (and may not for weeks), but I'm sure all the Somali affected are comforted by the news that their loved ones were killed, and their world's been turned upside-down, for a good reason. After all, the Americans were trying to stop a terrorist! Left unchecked this terrorist could bomb their loved-ones, and destroy their livelihoods. It a good thing for the people of Somali that America feels so strongly about terrorism, someone could have gotten hurt!

Then there's the US-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, but that's another story, for another time... and yes, you guessed it there's oil involved.

I didn’t vote for God

CHURCH AND STATE: Politics, Religion and Policy in Australia

Since the Howard government was voted in over 10 years ago, the line between government and religion has become less discernable. This has helped shape a conservative landscape turning the clock back on hard won rights for average Australians.

This is probably one of the main reasons our allegiance (which many refer to as blind allegiance) to the USA has become such a powerful influence particularly in reference to foreign policy.

The US has known this sullying of the division between church and state for many decades now, recently culminating in the reign of the Bush family. G W Bush is a born again Christian, an evangelical fundamentalist who wages war on anything that is not White, Anglo Saxon, Christian, Heterosexual, Nuclear Family (“Nucular”) and above all, Capitalist Democracy.

And Australia continues to follow along behind.

Do we need to re-instate Capital punishment before people sit up and take notice? I certainly hope not.

But why is this happening? Are we, as a nation, becoming more religious? The answer is no. In fact, the answer is that Australia is less religious than before. It is our politicians, harvested from the conservative elite in society, who are becoming more religious. And why not? They have easy lives, many being born into wealthy or political families. They go to good schools (religious schools) and attain influential positions in our society. They can thank God or anyone they like each and every day for the bounties bestowed on them.

The one thing they don’t have, is perspective. Here, like in the US they do not live in the same society as their constituents. Whilst they are spending millions of dollars on political campaigns for the honour and privileges that getting into office can bring, the average Australian struggles to scrape together enough rent money each week. The luckier ones, those who can afford to buy a house, compromise and borrow way too much to live somewhere they don’t like, spending the rest of their lives juggling repayments amid interest rate rises, land rates and the inequality of the Tax system.

The Australian Democrats have put together a discussion paper on this topic, but I wish more people would get on board.

“The churches now run more publicly funded schools and universities and public hospitals, aged care and employment services on behalf of government and can use these services to proselytise or to exclude those with other beliefs. This relationship with government can compromise the social justice function of the traditional churches in speaking out about the treatment of refugees, the attack on Iraq, on industrial relations and on poverty and indeed these churches in particular have been attacked by government for doing so.”

Churches also don’t pay tax, even for commercial endeavours.

Prime Minister John Howard is a Christian, Minister Tony Abbott trained to be a Catholic priest and even Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd (our only hope) is a devout Christian.

Whilst I don’t think that Churches dictate to government regarding policy, it is more than just apparent that the top of our political pile is dominated by conservative Christians. This has already affected Foreign Policy and Immigration. It is also beginning, through Church owned enterprises, to affect services and employment. So where does it end?

Love Me, Love My Doll - our obsession with plastic has come a long way

On Friday 5th January 2007 at 10pm SBS aired a program I can heartily recommend titled "Love Me, Love My Doll".

The show is a documentary about men who prefer "synthetic humans" to "organic humans". These “synthetic” women are life-sized and sort of life-like mannequins with movable joints, a fleshy feeling, lifelike skin, mouths and yes, you guessed it "working" vaginas.

The physiques on these things is a cross between Barbie and Anna-Nicole Smith.

There are three men in the program, each with a different perspective on the Dolls.

The first is a guy who refers to the use of his eight Sex Dolls as "the highest form of masturbation". He dresses and makes his "ladies" up on camera during the program, and informs the camera that he is having sexual thoughts while doing so. He has a real or "organic" girlfriend as well, to whom he has not divulged the extent of his Doll fetish. He decides during the show that he will tell her, and show her, on his birthday. It’s really hard to sympathise with this guy, as he really comes across as a strange pervert who knows what he is doing is just creepy. When he shows and tells his somewhat shocked “organic” girlfriend she says she is fine with it immediately, but we are not shocked to hear at the end of the program that she left a week later.

Davecat was the name of the second Sex Doll owner. He was a freaky looking man, plain and simple. A mixture of Prince, Michael Jackson and the skin suit guy from Silence of the Lambs. Davecat has only one Doll and they are "deeply in love". His dilemma during the program is that his “partner” of six years needs repairs and he has never spent time without her in their time together. He puts her in a crate and sends her off to a man who specialises in repairing Sex Dolls, almost crying as he does so.

The Sex Doll or Real Doll repair man is the third person the program focuses on. He has a house full of bits and pieces of Sex Dolls. He replaces vaginas and tightens up loose joints. He even has to replace teeth. He admits that he has had sex with some of the "prettier" Dolls. His girlfriend says she is cool with it, and has come to terms with having the Dolls all around the house.

Isn't she pretty? and clever too.

Real Doll, home of the worlds finest sex dolls.

Davecat's Blog.

A link to a story on these and other guys into Real Dolls at the Salon.

Happy New Year everyone

I was true to my word and did not celebrate Christmas. Although I attended gatherings around Christmas I remained decidedly indifferent to all the hype. But I got a couple of cool presents

So, whats news?

Saddam is dead and so is another American President (just the wrong one).

Osama is still eluding the very people who trained him, whilst over the border the 3000th US troop has died in Iraq - did you know that 1,368 Iraqis died in November 06 alone, making it the deadliest month for locals since the US started this violence?

Back home we have harsher water restrictions and children are murdering each other on our streets, but the news is dominated by a bunch of old bogans playing cricket against a bunch of wingeing poms.

2007 has to be a better year.

Howard has to be voted out of office. Bush and his cronies need to lose more ground and support over there. The whole African continent needs to chill out. Everyone will give up smoking, no-one will die and the tooth fairy will appear in Penthouse.

a backyard adventure

another dead bird. happy new year?

not a bird, but it sure is dead

Another American mistake erased

So its a new year, but the world has only changed for the worse. The US has been able to cover up another of its mistakes by killing an idiot who would have never been in power if not for the USA.

Similar to the Osama situation Saddam had a lot of help from the US to get to where he was, so the self righteous celebrations in the US indicating another despot "taken care of" are only relevant if the US changes its foreign policy and starts acting multi-laterally instead of butting in and messing things up as they so often do.

An eye for an eye? What was the first eye in this exchange?

3000 US troops dead? Who struck first and why? How many Iraqis are dead?

Why did this happen?

Who cares, because Saddam is dead?

WAKE UP AMERICA, and Happy New year.