Australian Budget Surplus

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the USA

http://www.budget.gov.au/

Doctor... The enemy within

2 Facts

1. Sometimes the doctor claims to be your ally, but is actually your enemy.

2. If you ask enough tricky questions, he will slip up..............


PROOF?

YOU WANT PROOF

OK



Brendan Nelson once famously declared that he would never vote for the Liberal Party.....



AND THEN

"The defence update we're releasing today sets out many priorities for Australia's defence and security - and resource security is one of them," he said.

"Obviously the Middle East itself, not only Iraq, but the entire region is an important supplier of energy, oil in particular, to the rest of the world."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/05/1970275.htm

AUSTRALIA

IRAQ

OIL

GAME

SET

MATCH

Justice.... What Justice?

Mohamed Haneef, the foreign doctor charged with "recklessly supplying material support to a terrorist organization", has been released on bail and then incarcerated again as the Federal Government withdrew his visa.
The judge who heard his application for bail after more than a week in detention without charge commented on his release that Haneef had no known links to a terrorist organisation and that police were not alleging that his SIM card had been used in relation to the British terror plot.

The Australian government stopped Haneef's bail release by cancelling his skilled migrant visa and ordering him placed in Sydney's Villawood immigration detention centre.

Note:
Haneef has not been tried.

The case against Haneef appears weak.

The responsible minister, Kevin Andrews, indicated that Haneef would be detained and deported even if he is found innocent.




even

if

he

is

found

innocent





What the hell is going on.......................?

I feel sick....

Ausrock

Those who love Australian rock music might be interested in the Ausrock blog.

My Mac

So I did it. I ordered my iMac.

It's very exciting.

I haven't even seen one in real life yet, let alone used one.

My friend Dave (who I suggested get an Apple laptop two years ago) now swears by his.

It's been a week.

Is Steve Jobs building it personally?

Maybe he's been preoccupied, catching up with Bill.

WTF do these two talk about?

Bill: "What's with those insulting bloated op-system ads, Steve?"

Steve: "Oh, yeah sorry Bill, marketing, you know, that's all, nothing nasty"

Bill: "Well, OK, but I was a little hurt. You know my OS has 95% of the world market?"

Steve: "Yeah Bill, so you keep saying."

John's Diary

 

An excerpt from JoHo's diary entry for 1 June 2007

"So lets see, we've put a decision on carbon trading off till at least next year, but likely 2012, yep, OK.

"Hicks is home and holed-up till next year. Good.

"The AWB debacle has been put on ice till 2008.......and none of us got sacked...yeah go me!

"And we've erased Workchoices from the vernacular.........

"Tax cuts. Check

"Ad campaign. Check

"Oh. I'm hot. I'm smokin' "

Shane Maloney

I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Australian author Shane Maloney this weekend.

He was charming and funny and informative. He also signed a book for me!

Go Shane.

Buy his books.

 

 

 

 

Oh, he gave a very amusing speech at a Melbourne public school in 2001.

Government fails to bust AFL drug policy.

In a desperate display of grandstanding, the Liberal Federal Government has attempted to tackle the Australian Football League on its "out of competition" drug policy.

The Goverment Minister responsible, the silly Mr Chris Pyne, came away bloodied and bruised, claiming he wanted the AFL to adopt the government's "zero tolerance" drug policy.

Unfortunately, the bumbling Mr Pyne was unable to comprehend that the AFL policy was directed at player welfare and rehabilitation rather than criminality.

The government clearly thinks that there are some votes to be won in the charging of sportsmen for illicit drug use.

Andrew Demetriou, who has prior offences in regards attacking the JoHo Government, walked away with a 1-0 scoreline and plenty ammunition in reserve.

RIP Windows

I came home to find that the Microsoft Moviemaker2 (the easy to use, but slightly flakey video editor)won't work.

Easy fixed, I thought, probably just uninstall and reinstall.

.

.

.

.

Hmmmm, can't uninstall moviemaker2.

.

.

.

Google search.

Multiple conflicts between MM2 and other audio/video applications. Disable some codecs. Still wont run.

Clash with IE7. Uninstall. No better.

Must uninstall.

.

GOOGLE.

.

.

.

No-one can uninstall MM2 from XP. It's there, forever and won't run.

.

.

.

Beat (Sorry Fitz)

.

.

Bill, you lost me.

I'm off to the White Zealots Store.

I'll report back.

PM backflip, dodge, squirm

PRIME Minister John Howard has scrapped plans for a $540,000 extension to a private dining room in his Parliament House suite.

Concerned about an electoral backlash, JoHo has decided to pass on the renovations. The potential cost came to light as the quote passed through an senate estimates committee.

In more populist sneakiness, JoHo has avoided causing waves within his own coalition by effectively deferring the decision on the AWB wheat single-desk issue till after the next election.

This non-decision was dressed up as as a staged change to the wheat-desk system.

Don't be fooled, its status quo.

AWB, the great supporter of the Saddam Hussein regime , is being further supported by the JoHo government.

Reactive, populist snake.

JoHo bully and hypocrite

So on Monday JoHo is banging on about schools tackling the problem of bullying and being penalized if they don't toe the line.



Then this from the Telegraph on Tuesday.
The story regards a newborn abandoned at a hospital in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs.
Note the indignant headline, for which the newspaper copped criticism from community groups including beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett.






But not from our JoHo.

Mr Howard said the newspaper's headline reflected most people's reaction.

"In defence of the Tele, that's what most people say," Mr Howard told ABC Radio. "How could you abandon a little baby?"

How indeed JoHo? How distressed, confused and desperate would you have to be?

And....

How exactly do you think acerbic headlines and bullying comments from the country's Prime Minister is going to frickin' help?

Bully.

Turd.

Class Action

I've just found out I'm involved in a class action.This only came to light when I received an offer to "opt-out" from the organizing lawyers, a big player in class actions in Australia.

It seems I have a couple of options.

I can remain in the class action and incur no costs even if the proceedings are unsuccessful. If the matter is settled, the court will rule on a penalty and/or compensation.

I could opt-out.  This would be suitable if, for example, I regarded the action as a cynical, money-grubbing waste of the court's time.

If I remain as a plaintiff and the case is not settled, I will need to prove individual loss and damage, which may require me to have legal representation and risk the costs being in excess of the potential settlement.

 The organising lawyers have offered to represent me, by entering into a fee arrangement with them. I guess it will be a no-win, no-fee number.

Alternatively, I can organise my own representation, risking a loss and potentially incurring higher costs if the court needs to assess loss on an individual basis.

I know who the winners are going to be in this little legal merry-go -round.

Keating back in the fray

Ex-PM Paul Keating has re-joined the political debate this week calling PM JoHo a "pre-copernican obscurantist". I nearly fell over in my rush to consult the dictionary.

Oh yes, JoHo, you  deliberately vague flat-earther.

This, on ABC yesterday -

"The right to collectively organise pay and conditions of work is a basic civil right, it's the thing that cuts out the template on a democratic nation."

"When you say to people, 'you can't get together at work, you can't organise your conditions', you're back to the earlier part of the industrial revolution, and that's where Howard belongs."

"He's a pre-Copernican obscurantist. That's where he belongs, but let's not have all these turkeys in the business community saying, 'well isn't this shocking'."

"I mean, we've got a profit share in GDP today, like you couldn't jump over, that's why the stock market's so high, out of the last Labor government's IR policies."

Facebook

Facebook is MySpace for grown-ups. Discuss, citing examples.

WHO criticises Australia's indigenous health

A WHO report has taken a swipe at the state of aboriginal health.

The report labels indigenous health " a century" behind other Australians. Further, Australian aborigines fare worse "on all health indicators" when compared with New Zealand's native Maori population.

The report also criticises the Australian Government's failure to apologise for the past.

WD USB HArd Drive

Completely happy with the purchase of a Western Digital external hard drive.

About as big as a PDA and powered only by the USB port, the WD Passport Pocket Drive provides heaps of storage with mobility and easy, in-built software.

Highly recommended for back-up.

Remember, there are two types of hard drive. Those that have failed and those that are going to fail.

Epidural video

I can't believe there has been no comment on the epidural injection posting (April 8).

Come on, it even had the oblique reference "Broad appeal".

What? No War on Terror?

British High Commissioner and former Blair Government Minister Helen Liddell has declared that the British Government did not view Iraq as part of the "war on terror."

Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon Ms Liddell said "Our raison d'etre for our involvement in Iraq has not been about terrorism." "We have never seen Iraq as part of the war on terrorism."

Further, British Labor politician Hilary Benn said at the Center on International Cooperation of New York University that the term "war on terror" was a counter-productive one and one which the British Government avoids.

WTF?

What about the fricking war on terror?

We've (Australia) sent stacks of troops. The Yanks have lost over 3000 (three thousand) troops and at least 100,000 ( half a million litres of blood) Iraqies have died.

There must be a  frickin' war on terror.

Remember this - In his address to a joint session of Congress following the attacks on September 11, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush defined the "war on terror", thus, "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

Well, bring it on !

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Australian radio that Iraq was the "frontline" in the war against terror.

Phew!

He pointed to overnight bombings in Baghdad by suspected al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-inspired organizations as proof.

Go get 'em Alex!

Bring on the next election.

JoHo and Friends: JoHo in Jones town

A double dose of physically ill.


Read the book, Jonestown.

Is this really Victoria's first Hoon?

I'm not sure I buy it.

The Herald Sun reported on April 3 that a 43-year-old man from regional Victoria has become the state's first driver to permanently lose his car under anti-hoon laws.

Laws introduced in July last year meant that drivers caught drag racing, doing burnouts or committing other hoon acts can have their cars impounded for 48 hours for a first offence.
Drivers face a three-month impound order for a second offence and the permanent confiscation of their car for a third offence.

Now, when I think of "HOON", I don't normally think "middle-aged country gent".

That's unusual enough; but the icing on the cake in this conspiracy theory is the car that has been impounded.

V8 Falcon?
SS Commodore?
Subaru WRX?

NO

NO

NO







1980 Toyota Corona Liftback








WTF?

Youtube epidural injection video

An epidural injection instructional video uploaded to Youtube not only helps anaesthetists to hone their technique, but may also help to dispel the fears of patients.

See what you think.

I think it has Broad appeal!

First Crack in the DRM Wall?

EMI has announced that it will release its music catalogue DRM-free.

Although single tracks will carry a higher price (AU pricing nor confirmed), downloads will be offered at a higher bitrate and complete albums will NOT carry a price premium!!!

Could this be the start of the collapse of DRM?

EMI is obviously hoping to increase sales and revenue, but certainly,  the consumer is the big winner here.

This move comes at a time when DRM is coming under increased pressure.

Graham Philipson gives a good summary of the current stand-off between music companies and music consumers HERE.

Recording industry claims of huge monetary losses from piracy  have long been considered 'rubbery' at best. In disputing estimates, detractors argue that not every downloaded file represents a lost sale. Industry claims are considered to be a desperate attempt to maintain an outdated (and expensive) business model.

The Recording industry may be coming around.

Meanwhile, Google Chief Executive, Eric Schmidt, recently questioned the valuations that media companies put on their copyrights. Traditional media argues their content has a certain intrinsic value, while Google says "prove it," he said.

Google is currently facing legal challenges to their video uplaod service, Youtube.

Read more at Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Helen Coonan's Pies in the Sky.

 

Its bloody raining pies!

LISTEN AND WATCH

JoHo and Friends 2

Er John. Why don't you just skedaddle down that there drug store ....pick me up some bourbon and beef jerky. Me and Cheney are goin' shootin'...

Saying Goodbye to Zone Alarm

I have just uninstalled the highly rated Zone Alarm free personal fire wall program, which I have used for many years.

Zone Alarm had, till recently, frequent updates, which included offers to upgrade to a more complete security suite. I was already happy with my anti-virus, so I declined Zone Labs' offers and only ever reinstalled the firewall.

However, the new upgrade to the ZA firewall included an obligatory trial version of the ZA antivirus, which clashed with my existing AV and refused to install unless I removed it.

So, sadly, I removed ZA firewall and installed the equally well-credentialed Comodo firewall.

It's a consumer society and the tech crowd is fussy.

My David Hicks checklist by J W Howard

Expedite David's trial to save face before election - Check

Ensure guilty plea to justify mistreatment - Check

Ensure David cannot profit from telling his story - Check

Sentence to six years so David is behind bars till after next election.

Repatriate David before election; look like hero.

Release Mr Hicks from prison; smear.

JoHo and Friends Part 1

JoHo with reclusive Sydney bussisman Eric Krecichwost, the founder and owner of failed finance business, Fincorp.
Fincorp is in administration owing $300 million to financiers and investors.

Fincorp advertising and The Age

Last weekend, Fincorp, one of Australia's most prominent property finance companies was placed in administration, with debts of three hundred million dollars.

Fincorp has been offering unsecured high interest to investors willing to part with their money; money used to fund property development projects.

Fincorp is now dead in the water and most investors have done their dough with little hope of recompense. Most investors approached Fincorp directly because the company was a big advertiser. Unlike the Westpoint debacle, there was little referral from financial planners, the middle-men who may be held responsible for the Westpoint losses. Simply, there will be no-one to sue.

Financial scribes including those writting for The Age "Money" liftout on Wednesdays have been warning investors to be careful of such "mezzanine" funds for some time.

However as recently as last week, Money has been running large advertisements for Fincorp.

In today's edition of Money, John Collett has written an article "Trouble at Fincorp", outlining the company's woes.

I hope Collett's readers didn't respond to Fincorp's ad last week.

ASIC has advice about investing with this type of company.

AFL player manager blues

AFL player welfare officers spend a lot of their time pulling players out of scraps and out of pubs and nightspots.

Helps to protect the player, the club and The Game.

Whilst inconvenient, its usually not that difficult  to enter a pub, way after curfew, kick 'budding-champion' in the backside and lead him by the collar back to Mummy's.

Not so easy at the West Coast.......

 

Player manager knocks on door of bikie club headquarters.....

Large metal door opened by large, annoyed bikie-type....

Player manager - Good morning. I'm the player welfare officer from the West Coast Eagles.

Bikie - Grrrrrrrrr

Player manager - Are any of our players here??

Bikie - Grrrrrrrrrr

Player Manager - Its past their bedtime..........

Bikie reaches for baseball bat.

Player manager - Can I have my players back.....Please.......If that's OK.

Bikie - Grrrrrrrrrrr

Closes door.

John Howard on Drugs

JoHo waded into the illicit-drugs-in-sport debate this week, criticizing the AFL approach to the issue.

His comments were predictably short-sighted and reactionary - calling for an "overdue review" of the policy and for a "zero-tolerance approach to illicit drugs".

One wonders whether JoHo, who knows little about the AFL and has historically shown no leadership in drugs policy, saw an opportunity to score some points against Andrew Demetriou, the League's CEO, who delivered scathing criticism of JoHo's government in a speech in 2005.

In fact, JoHo may have confirmed this as his motive by denying it thus, "I am not taking the opportunity to have a go at Demetriou or the AFL Commission, it's not an easy job".

Pauline Hansen tells all

Oh........










Oh .........









Oh.........









Oh........









Oh David......no..................

Bolt says pull troops out of Iraq

Andrew Bolt, appearing on Ross Stevenson's 3AW breakfast show this morning, said that Australian troops should be withdrawn from Iraq prior to this year's federal election.
Good on you Bolta, I knew you'd come round.

How's your War on Terror looking?

 

Feeling more comfortable with your War on Terror.

The West slowly getting the upper-hand? Huh?

The world's becoming safer; more peaceful. Right?

You want fries with that?

This is the Coalition of The Willing's  drive-through war. Quick, healthy and piping-hot victory against the threatening hordes.    

Yep.  

McVictory!

 

Paul McGeough, Fairfax Journalist, currently in Islamabad,  offers a sobering review of the War on Terror here.

Sorry to spoil your day.

Save the Tasmanian Devil

Isn't this a cute little critter.

Named for their fearsome growl and their horrid table manners, the Tasmanian Devil is the Apple-Isle's last remaining native mammal.

Unfortunately, Devils are under threat from a malignant mouth ulcer disease that is spreading throughout the Devil population.

As research continues into the cause (likely to be a micro-organism), plans are being made to isolate a population of healthy beasts to protect against extinction.This may be in captivity or on Marie Island on Tasmania's west coast or on the Tasman Peninsula, south of Hobart.

Help Save the Tasmanian Devil.

See Devils at play here.

More info on Tassie Devils.

Sign a petition to help save the Devils.

Cracked Coconut

Australia's PM, John Winston Howard (from here on referred to as Joh-Ho) is starting to look just a little nervous.



Sacrificing Human Services Minister Ian Campbell, in order to smear more Brian Burke dirt on Kevin Rudd seems to have backfired, with the muck falling away from Rudd like fried egg from a teflon saucepan.

Joh-Ho's army of sycophantic cyborgs - Ruddock, Abbott, Nelson, Minchin - will continue to spew the Government's doctrine, but some of the government backbenchers must be uneasy.



Its only 241 days till the next election - Thanks Ms Fits .




Backbencher 1 - "If the big coconut doesn't stick his finger in the dyke, it the end of me."

Backbencher 2 - "I don't feel like being flushed down the U-bend with that big turd........cant we do some thing."

Backbencher 1 - "We can't put Costello in charge.....The iceberg won't survive being towed to Canberra.......not enough substance"

Backbencher 2 - "Public won't buy it.....look at that smirk....you think he'd get that surgically corrected."

Backbencher 1 - "No-one else....we're stuffed.... the cabinet's full of frickin apple-polishers. No talent"

Backbencher 2 - Except......

Backbencher 1 - You thinking about.......

Backbencher 2 - Yep.....

Backbencher 1 - He's in a hurry. He's not interested in support positions. He's.....

Backbencher 2 - A republican! Yeah...........Joh-Ho's battlers will like that!

Backbencher 1 - Turnbull....you bloody lifesaver!

Real Apple Innovation

Whilst Apple Inc often claims innovation, the current rumour that it may be about to introduce a flash memory based notebook would be real innovation.

Flash memory has the advantages of ruggedness and low power consumption compared to traditional hard-drive storage.

The hard drive is the staple storage medium because it has huge capacity and is very cheap. Hard-drives though,are fragile and prone to failure.

A scaled-down notebook with flash-memory and a full-sized operating system would be a real breakthrough (also the final nail in the coffin of the PDA and a real threat to the smartphone).

Confusing headline

 

"Turkey slaps ban on YouTube"

 

What?

 

No more turkey-slaps on Youtube?

 

Am I going to have to start watching "Big Brother" again?

 

Apparently not.

Some sub-editor at The Age is basking in the glory of this amusing double entendre after the Turkish national telecommunications provider, Turk Telekom, was ordered to block access to Youtube by a local court.

Prosecutors alleged that videos on Youtube had insulted the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Ataturk is famous, in Australia, for his quote:

 

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives.. you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours..

You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now living in our bosom and are in peace.

Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

 

 

The statement was popularised by Midnight Oil in their song "Blossom and Blood".

QC Lets Fly

As the tide of public opinion turns in favour of David Hicks, Robert Richter QC launched a stinging attack on Ruddoch, Howard, Downer and Co. here in the article from The Age 18 Feb 2007

Hypocrites breaking our law at every turn

More power to him.

Rate Your MD?

Now this is strange...kinda fun though.

Canadians rate their doctors for all to see.

Some of the feedback is interesting.....

 

"NEVER ON TIME!"

"I waited a year and half to see him because of endometriosis, only to have him tell me to give up my career and get pregnant. "

"It really bothers me how many prescriptions she currently has me on, and I don't even know what they are for."

"I find the Dr. very disorganized. This Dr. needs a palm pilot."

and I REALLY love this one.....

"Inexperienced; inefficient; surly bedside manner; rough and incompetent during physical exam (in 50 years I have never been told by any doctor that they couldn't FIND my cervix!)"

This website is pure GOLD.

http://ratemds.com/canada/index.jsp

Things I Once Enjoyed

Ageing is by definition both insidious and relentless.

Whilst you hold on, in desperation, to those memories of experiences dear to you, the influx of new information crowds, distorts and hides them.

Occasionally, the dam of irrelevant trivia will burst, allowing memories to flood your sensorium. The trigger might be a smell, a sight, a sound or some other prompt.

I recently had the opportunity to lay on the beach, in the sun, undisturbed.

How I loved doing this years ago. The warmth on my skin. A faint cooling breeze. The silence.

Other things I liked, but never do now...

Sleeping in till 12 noon.

Walking to the City and back for no particular reason.

Talking to someone I don't know  in public.

Reading at the park.

Photographing stuff.

Playing music REALLY loud.

Walking around at home in my jocks.

Eating raw carrots.

Rockwiz Star

You might have seen a delightful performance by Kate Miller-Heidke on Rockwiz last Saturday night.

I'm not familiar with this Australian singer-songwriter, but her solo at the start of the show was excellent.

She followed up with an interesting duet with Paul Dempsey, singing a Wham! classic from the Eighties.

What a great new talent. There are some free music downloads on her website.

Demand and Supply.

A Meo245 cd available on eBay at $65.

Is that good value?

Right Wing Art?

 

I came across a short article recently where the author lamented children not being exposed to right-wing poetry at school. Our scribe opined that such is the prevalence of left-wing writing, the young of today may not even be aware of the existence of such verse.

I was gob-smacked.

Like today’s neglected youth, I too am ignorant of this great body of work.

The odes of Andrew Bolt, verse of Franco and the limericks of Ronald Reagan have all escaped me.

To give them their due, they must be some wordsmiths these conservative poets. It’s no easy task finding words to rhyme with 'detention centre', 'xenophobia' and 'axis of evil'.

Hmmmmm.

There is no shortage of topics though…….. environmental scare-mongering, dangerous refugees, single mothers, university drop-outs, abortion, sedition and those pesky indigenous races…..all grist for the mill for an eloquent bourgeois lyricist.

 

Could be a dollar in it……..

 

Newscorp and Fox need content…….

 

Let’s try…..

 

There was a young lad from SA,

Captured in Kabul one day,

Alas Mister Hicks,

For your terrorist tricks,

In Cuba you’re going to stay.

 

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Monday Movie Review

It was a busy day at the Nova Cinema in Carlton today. 

The lovely weather and discount price attracted plenty of punters.

However, "Breaking and Entering" was a major let-down. Certainly, the most daft film I've seen for some time.

Photographically beautiful and with a strong cast, this piece of fluff was let down by woeful story-telling.

Major plot twists, seemingly at odds with the prevailing circumstances, were largely left unexplained.

One sideline ended inexplicably and might have finished on the editing-room floor had it not provided the only good humour in a gloomy two hours.

While I wasn't too sure of the message here,  it appeared to be either that a good hug will fix anything or that, if you are rich and stylish enough, it is okay to exploit those less privileged than yourself.

Mind your P's and Q's

Mathew Dunkley reports in the Financial Review (Saturday 10 Feb) that there appears to be an increase in plaintiffs claiming damages, due to defamation, against authors of web-sites and blogs.

The conventional 'retraction' is also being tested in the courts in a case involving the Managing Director of the Housing Industry Association.

Bloggers may be well advised to keep to establisherd facts when expressing their opinions online.

Further, comments from readers should be reviewed and, if necessary,  edited as soon as possible.

Happiness

I was speaking to a psychiatrist today, not as a patient but as a colleague, when the topic of happiness came up.

I told her of a study I had seen which suggested that one's general level of happiness is fixed and will tend return to "normal" despite the occurance of either very joyous or very devastating events.

She told me that indeed, a person's cheerfulness is relatively fixed, but that there were some factors ( borne out by a longitudinal study of MDs in the USA) which were more highly associated with long-term happiness.

These factors were strong personal relationship(s), good health, not overexercising and sufficient funds to live comfortably.

Sounds plausible.

I am surprised that overexercising is in the mix though! I'd better be careful.

PS The tennis team played its first game. I was unavailable. We lost.

Executions in Australia

It's now forty years since the execution of Ronald Ryan in Victoria.

It was  Australia's last execution.

Last week I heard former journalist Brian Morley, a witness to the execution, describe the event on the Jon Faine radio program on 774 ABC.

I have heard Morley's description before. It has changed very little.

His description is of a ritualised killing, that so disturbed those present that some were physically ill and others, including Morley himself, remained profoundly affected for the rest of their lives.

Morley's story is harrowing. The horror of institutionalised killing is thrust into the listener's consciousness as Morley struggles to force words between sobs, such is his emotion.

By contrast, the Prime Minister John Howard coolly remarked on 3AW on August 8, 2003, "I am not supporting the reintroduction (of capital punishment) , I mean my position, let me repeat, is for reasons of pragmatic concern that the law from time to time will make mistakes".

A Four Corners report from 2002, contains some quotes from Brian Morley.

Amnesty International

PDF Reader

Those who regularly download, read and save PDF files will, like me, have found considerable frustration when using Acrobat Reader.

At best, the Acrobat product is a large download, is slow to load and somewhat flaky in its rendering of files.

I've used Foxit Reader for a couple of years and found it very reliable.

Having been recently upgraded to Foxit Reader 2, it is better than ever and I recommend it highly.

Download Foxit Reader 2 here.

Here's a Gig for You

Feb 3 2007
Lomond Hotel Nicholson St Brunswick  (Melbourne).

Guitar, rock and folk legend Dave Steel with the Welcome Wagon and Tony Hargreaves 9-30pm.

See you there.

New Year Look

A new look for a New Year. Still the garish colours but with new bio and "South Park"style pic. New font, too.
Oh , new year saw me working all day till 9.30pm then up early for a short work session from 8.30.
Note to self: Resolution - Work less this year.

Iraq Death Toll

The US military losses have reached 3000. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There were no terrorist links. Iran sponsors much of the ongoing violence and, probably, will finally conquer Iraq. Iraq is now a haven for terrorist groups. No end is in sight for the occupying forces. 

Saddam is strung up. A ritual killing performed to entertain and satisfy his enemies. The end of a brute whose rule showed no respect for human life. A demonstration that his successors have none either.

Sad.