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Remember this cop, who chucked this young Jamie Jackson to the ground like he was a leaf at this years Mardi Gras?
He's been linked to this bashing too of Bryn Hutchinson, who received these injuries for crossing the road before the cleaners had time to sweep the street.
I've been waiting for some of this shit to go through the courts. I don't believe one word of what came out of those cops mouth about these violent incidents.
CCTV footage taken from the Colombian Hotel at around 11:28pm on the night of Saturday March 2, the night of the 2013 Mardi Gras parade, shows police officer Goya Hedayat, badge identification number Fairfield LAC 266, involved in the detainment and arrest of 32-year old gay activist Bryn Hutchinson, who suffered bruises and contusions during the arrest and was charged with assaulting police.
The Colombian CCTV footage was shown at Hutchinson’s court hearing at Downing Centre Local Court last Wednesday, where it was revealed that Hedayat was the officer to place handcuffs on Hutchinson, and was also named as one of the officers who lifted Hutchinson up from the ground.
Amateur footage of a separate incident, taken on the corners of Riley and Burton Sts between 11 and 11:30pm the same night, shows the same police officer throwing a handcuffed 18-year old man, Jamie Jackson, to the ground. The footage went viral shortly after it surfaced online in March and triggered an outcry from the LGBTI community and the wider public into the conduct of police officers at Mardi Gras and other LGBTI events. The Jackson incident was not mentioned in Hutchinson’s court hearing.
Hutchinson, who first came forward on his incident back in March, told the Star Observer at the time that he was “grabbed from behind by several officers and thrown down on [his] back” after trying to cross Oxford Street after being verbally warned off by an officer, before being flipped over and kicked several times. more
I love it! They're talking my talk!
Well the drums of war a beating again. The US president is banging on about the UN not being gun ho enough and the US going it alone outside the UN. Australia, the US lap dog, has our PM Kevin Rudd making the same noises as Obama. And for what reason? They claim the Syrian gov is responsible for using chemical weapons against it's own people. It's all sounding very familiar isn't it......
For a start, did the Syrian gov actually do this? Or was it the enemy blaming the gov, so as to get the west involved in toppling it? The whole reason the UN isn't diving in with all guns a blazing is that there's sufficient doubt about this not to warrant attacking a foreign gov.
Despite U.S. claims of “little doubt that Assad used these weapons,” there is significant doubt among the international community about which side employed chemical weapons. Many view the so-called rebels as trying to create a situation to provoke U.S. intervention against Assad. Indeed, in May, Carla del Ponte, former international prosecutor and current UN commissioner on Syria, concluded that opposition forces used sarin gas against civilians. more
How about the idea that we should go in there (the middle of a complicated and bloody civil war) and blow the place up, intervening for humanitarian purposes to stop this evil (allegedly) gov? Surely the UN charter would agree with that? Think again....
President Barack Obama admitted, “If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a UN mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it . . .” The Obama administration is studying the 1999 “NATO air war in Kosovo as a possible blueprint for acting without a mandate from the United Nations,” the New York Times reported. But NATO’s Kosovo bombing also violated the UN Charter as the Security Council never approved it, and it was not carried out in self-defense. The UN Charter does not permit the use of military force for “humanitarian interventions.” Humanitarian concerns do not constitute self-defense. In fact, humanitarian concerns should spur the international community to seek peace and end the suffering, not increase military attacks, which could endanger peace in the entire region. more
Typical if the US isn't it. First reaction is reach for the gun and shoot, and fuck the consequences. Fuck everyone who doesn't agree. Judge, jury, executioner.
How about the moral position itself (Australia is particularly self-righteous about this) that chemical weapons are evil, and even more so if used by a gov on it's own people. There are a number of hypocritical facts involved with this as far as the US, England, Canada, and Australia go. Australia in particular. It's not widely known, but in north Queensland they used chemical weapons against Australian troops, to experiment as to how effective they'd be in tropical heat. The troops were "volunteered" with little or no knowledge of what was involved. Anyone who doubts this I'd direct to this book. It has pictures too, this was the after effects of mustard gas exposure:
There were also British and American overseers of the experiments. The reason for these experiments was because the allies feared the Japanese were going to use chemical weapons against them. Many of these people got sick and died of cancer and the like years later, but because the Australian gov saw the experiments as top secret then there was little or no money that came their way in compensation. Try telling Centrelink that you were involved in chemical weapons experiments in QLD in WW2.
The US also has an even worse history of chemical weapons use, and much more recent. The smell of Napalm in the morning anyone?
The self-righteousness of the United States about the alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad is hypocritical. The United States used napalm and employed massive amounts of chemical weapons in the form of Agent Orange in Vietnam, which continues to affect countless people over many generations.
Recently declassified CIA documents reveal U.S. complicity in Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war, according to Foreign Policy: “In contrast to today’s wrenching debate over whether the United States should intervene to stop alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government, the United States applied a cold calculus three decades ago to Hussein’s widespread use of chemical weapons against his enemies and his own people. The Reagan administration decided that it was better to let the attacks continue if they might turn the tide of the war. And even if they were discovered, the CIA wagered that international outrage and condemnation would be muted.”
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States used cluster bombs, depleted uranium, and white phosphorous gas. Cluster bomb cannisters contain tiny bomblets, which can spread over a vast area. Unexploded cluster bombs are frequently picked up by children and explode, resulting in serious injury or death. Depleted uranium (DU) weapons spread high levels of radiation over vast areas of land. In Iraq, there has been a sharp increase in Leukemia and birth defects, probably due to DU. White phosphorous gas melts the skin and burns to the bone.
The Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War (Geneva IV) classifies “willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health” as a grave breach, which constitutes a war crime. more
But the US has taken it even further lately. They're not even bothering anymore with chemicals, they're just dropping drones wherever the fuck they feel like it.
The arrogance, the self-righteousness, the delusion that bombing the fuck out of somewhere will majically solve a bitter and drawn out civil war. The complete stupidity.
Abbott yesterday released his education policy. To do so he chose a Pentecostal private school in western Sydney as the site of his policy launch. A site it turns out is actually a bastion of homophobic ignorance.
Fuck knows what his policy launch was as far as policy goes. I don't think many people cared after recoiling in horror at the schools statement of faith. Among it such gems as this little homophobic bible bashing bullshit:
Hmmm.... Did Abbott know the school had such a policy? Of course he must have. The whole thing is a dog whistle to redneck homophobes.
Again, our politics aims to the lowest point.
Australian troops have a reputation in the world gone by. Our troops are known as full on hard but smart fighters, with a conscience of what the correct behaviour is appropriate during conflict. Now it seems we have joined the US in Afghanistan in more ways than just military support. It appears now the US affliction of their troops not following the laws of war have been afflicted upon our troops too. :
The Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley, said in a statement released on May 8: "An incident of potential misconduct during the operation has been raised through the internal national command chain."
The ABC understands that the detail of the misconduct he alluded to involves the removal of hands from the corpse of at least one Afghan insurgent.
Australian troops are required to collect fingerprints and eye scans of every Taliban fighter who is killed, if it is possible to do so.
The ABC has learned that an investigator from the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service (ADFIS) lectured a group of special forces soldiers and told them that it did not matter how the fingerprints were taken and that if they could chop off the hands of the dead and bring them back to base for fingerprinting, that would be acceptable.
The ABC understands at least one pair of hands was present at the Australian base in Tarin Kot.
The mutilation or mistreatment of the bodies of the dead is a violation of the laws of war. more
It's the only way I can even start to get my head around this one.
Australian troops, recommended to do so by Australian troop superiors, cut off the hands of an Afghanistan suspect's dead body, and took them back to the Australian base at Tarin Kot (no idea where that is). clearly against the Geneva Convention:
Article 15 of the first Geneva Convention says: "At all times, and particularly after an engagement, Parties to the conflict shall, without delay, take all possible measures to search for and collect the wounded and sick, to protect them against pillage and ill-treatment, to ensure their adequate care, and to search for the dead and prevent their being despoiled." more
I feel incredibly betrayed. I'm an Australian, and these glorified fuckwits are doing that in my fuckin name..... and not by some underling troops on the ground, but by people who should fuckin know better: the fuckin Special Forces FFS!
It started with Coca cola and pouring out bottles of it in Times Square, NY. Now it's spread to all major sponsors; a call to pull all sponsorship out of the Sochi games. So far it's up to over 200,000 signatures. It needs to be a lot to get these companies to take notice of how we feel about them making money out of the gulag games.
To:
Coca-Cola
Panasonic
VISA
Samsung
Procter&Gamble
Stand for human rights and pull sponsorship from the 2014 Winter Olympics! State sponsored homophobia should not be endorsed by your company. Tell Putin you do not support imprisoning and endangering the freedoms of gay athletes, fans, family, friends, and citizens!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Sign here.
Whilst it's not actually law yet, this is what's in the pipeline in Russia. Think the laws are already bad enough? Think again. This law will give the state the right to take children off gay parents.
I can't think of anything more horrific, being a father myself. WTF would they do with these children after saving them from the so called evil clutches of their parents? Put them into their neglectful and abusive foster care system?
Mizulina has said the family committee she is chairing in the Duma lower house is writing a new family policy based on “traditional” values like registered heterosexual marriage and refusal of abortions.
“We are looking into the possibility of creating a legal basis for taking children out of families that are de-facto gay marriages,” said Mizulina, who has also sponsored a bill banning adoptions by foreign same-sex couples. more
Hot on the heals of Pat Robertson's strange (to say the least) assertion that gays spread HIV on purpose with sharp rings, we've got this right wing nut going for it for all he's worth. It's the most unhinged, hate full rant I've ever seen or heard broadcast. Is this legal over there? The guy would find himself in court very quickly here, and not before getting taken off air. Our so called shock jocks here know all too well.
So what's going on over there in the US? It's like they've run out of arguments and just lay their bigotry out for all to see, as if that's an argument in itself. Or he's just given completely up and his chucking a tantrum.
Here's the text followed by the video.
Jews, homosexuals, blacks, gays, Islamists, you may think they’re disparate groups, they’re not, they’re all tools. Because while we’re mad at these two punks, we’re mad at Trayvon Martin, that thug that deserves to be dead and I’m glad he’s dead.
Pieces of crap, homosexuals like what’s that one guy’s name? [Dan] Savage. That faggot. That horrible, awful, terrible excuse for a human being who is at the White House promoting attacks on Christians. I hope he dies — he probably will — of every disease known.
Pat Robertson's bizarre "fact" that gays spread HIV by purposefully infecting people with sharp rings, is still getting a lot of flak. In this case Anderson Cooper has an hilarious take on this old bloke. Think it might be time for the guy to be retired.
Just a little note to G'day to some more recent readers that have shown up here from China. Was just looking at the stats and noticed this graphic there.
I'm not sure if there's been many views at all from China since the very beginning of the blog. Now all of a sudden the graphic shows China as shaded a bit on it, meaning there's been enough views to change that graphic colour of China. Looked on the first ten countries from the last week's viewing, and China was over 200 views.
So to China, welcome to my world .....
I wonder if Putin over there is starting to realise yet that things are getting serious now for his country's homophobia? So far the protests have been largely symbolic, knee jerk actions that people do because they feel like they have to do something to bring the situation to light in the west. Now it's looking like the west is starting on a more permanent form of action that will surely at least raise a few eyebrows in Russia. Already Coke is being targeted as a sponsor of Sochi, which I'd expect they'd be keeping a very good eye on to see where this issue goes. Now there's something in the wings that goes even further.
This to me, if it gets passed (very likely by the looks) I'd call it almost an economic sanction. It's not coming from any federal gov, but from the US state of California, which has one of the biggest economies in the world in it's own right. They are planning to de-invest the states public service retirement funds out of Russia. These funds are worth a mint, and include not only public servants but teachers as well. The biggest fund has $1.4 billion invested in Russia at the moment. It looks like it's very willing to pull the plug on Russia:
‘As the host of international events, including the Winter Olympics and the Miss Universe Pageant, it is unacceptable that Russia promote discrimination against people based solely on sexual orientation or gender identity. California joins the worldwide outrage against these new laws and is in a unique position as one of the largest economies to make a strong statement that we will not tolerate nor invest in blatant violations of human rights.’
CalPERS, the largest employee pension system in the US, has $266 billion invested globally, of which $1.4 billion is currently invested in Russia.
Earlier this month in response to Leno moving his resolution CalPERS said it would factor in human rights issues in how it invested.
‘CalPERS is a strong defender of human and civil rights across the globe,’ the fund said in statement.
‘CalPERS will continue its prudent review of all investments and will consider current developments as it abides by all applicable laws.’
- See more
Here's is the Bill Text of State Resolution 18. The bit about pulling investment is at the bottom. The bill has already passed in a bipartisan vote in the state senate committee and is on the way to the full senate floor to be voted on and passed. This is the relevant pension fund bit:
Resolved, That the Senate strongly encourages the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, whenever feasible and consistent with their fiduciary responsibilities, to cease making direct investments in Russia and to encourage companies in which employee retirement funds are invested and that are doing business in Russia not to take actions that promote or otherwise enable human rights violations in Russia SR 18
I mentioned this the other day, but much to the angst of many around the world the YouTube video of it was deleted shortly after it started going viral. Now a shorter version has made it's way to You Tube, so in the interest of the free flow of information, here is the video of Robertson saying that gays spread HIV on purpose:
“You know what they do in San Francisco, some in the gay community there they want to get people so if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger,” Robertson said. “Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”
Vodka isn't the only thing being poured down the gutter over Sochi and Russia. From Towerload, now people are pouring Coka Cola out in protest at their sponsorship of the Sochi gulag games. This was the protest in New York's Times Square:
You can also read the media release from Queer Nation here: Along with a summary of why they're targeting Coke, there's some good graphics there too. These are their demands:
Coca-Cola must:
Withdraw its sponsorship of the 2014 Winter Games in Russia.
Release a statement in English and Russian that condemns workplace discrimination, harassment, and bullying directed at customers and employees based on gender identity and sexual orientation
Publish and publicize its LGBT employment policies on its Russian website in Russian and on physical bulletin boards and websites at all Coca-Cola owned and operated facilities.
Conduct periodic company-wide sensitivity trainings about its LGBT employment policies worldwide.
Institute a long-range policy to widely distribute its LGBT employment policies in human resources documentation and internal communications at all owned and operated facilities worldwide.
Require that all Coca-Cola bottlers, distributors and vendors implement LGBT employment policies as a condition of their contract with The Coca-Cola Company.
more
This notice to tenants was put on a building in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia. It's chilling in its witch hunt and demonisation of gays, and in in my opinion completely reminiscent of Hitler's Germany and his persecution of the Jews. First the actual notice, with a translation below.
Dear Residents,
According to our observation of your building, during 1-2 quarter of 2013, in your building we discovered persons who are queer (gay, lesbian and etc…). At the moment these people are in the process of explanatory work.
We ask you to show vigilance towards people who are doing propaganda of homosexualism.
Please note, that propaganda of non-traditional relationship by such people can be determined non only directly, for example describing the advantage of living as a homosexual, offering you or members of your family to have sexual relationship with you; not only by unusual style of dressing or unnatural behavior but also propaganda can be started little by little, holding homosexual propaganda in house for several years.
Please remember, that homosexual can be dressed quite simply, he looks like you, he can be nice in communication and you can even know him. Remember that homosexual doesn’t know the age limit and a person who does homosexual propaganda can be a person who just graduated from school or an old man.
Increase your vigilance when you talk with your neighbors, when you are checking your mail and in elevators. You can easily become a target of homosexual propaganda and there is a one step from being homosexual and to start propaganda of homosexualism and molesting decent people.
If you become suspicious of one of your neighbors who does homosexual propaganda, immediately inform internal affairs bodies, local police officer or by phones: 02 or 240 60 30.
Administration.
Source
I can't understand how any athlete with a conscience could even consider going to Russia with this going on there. Medals are just not that important as far as I'm concerned.
Melanie Nathan of oblogdeeoblogda says it beautifully:
You will note that the notice refers directly to the anti-propaganda law and the “administrator” is providing the impetus to for vigilante’s to physically hurt gays. A problem which has become endemic in Russia. This is exactly how the laws started in Nazi Germany, against the Jews. At first the discriminatory law seemed excusable by those who tried to justify them, because they touted as insignificant and couched in lies based on the idea of feigning the protection of people. And then they became increasingly worse. Did we not say “never again?” And are we really going to repeat history by showing up for the Olympics in Sochi 2014? more
Saw the psychologist on Monday like I mentioned the other day I was going to. Had rather an episode over the weekend and have been letting the dust settle and figuring out what exactly led to it. Haven't even written about it as think I was in mild shock for about a day afterwards. As I said though it was lucky I had the psychologist appt on Monday morning.
They say that couples argue when the child comes along, which is very true. This wasn't so much an argument though as a lack of communication at exactly what each other was saying. David and I got into a strange conversation about my daughter (she's 22 now) and he wanted her to move out very shortly so we could have the place to ourselves. Well yeah OK we'll get there in the end, was my position. Also that I'm not going to boot her out in some agro way for no reason other than she's living there. She's working on her moving herself anyway, studying still for the child care qualification, as well as working full time. I have to be aware of her situation as well being her father of course.
This led on to an even stranger discussion, where I said "She's my daughter, she's always gonna be my little girl, ...." and such things like that. At which point David said (and these were his exact words) "It's either me or her".... WTF? Really unfair. Um, we'd both had a few beers BTW, the first time out to the pub in about 2 weeks after the poverty episode, and had drunk more than usual on this occasion. Anyway, he wanted to go see our friend round the corner but they'd has a disagreement earlier and I didn't want to be in the middle of that so I went home and he went to our friends.
Then on the way home on the bus my head starts going bananas. I start thinking, and as I'm a bit drunk there didn't seem to be any effective strategy to stop it with me bing like that. Started thinking "Oh he's gay, doesn't understand about the having kids thing and the love that exists between a father and child. It'll be this big obstacle and then I'll end up losing him". And as if to confirm, he rang and we had a short conversation, one in which I finished with "Yes my daughter always comes first". And that was it, like a trigger. The pain from the past engulfed me; the pain of loss and grief all came flooding back. And there I was, again, in that pain and not being able to stop it. I know this now after things being clarified with the psychologist.
When I got home I did completely the wrong thing and drunk the last two beers in the fridge quickly. After that my memory gets quite blurry. Apparently I rang and texted David something about not being able to deal with the pain anymore. It was like I was on auto pilot, like my head went straight to the suicide option as that seemed the only thing that would stop this pain. I remember becoming very determined and proceeded to consider the suicide option again for the first time in many months. Ended up tying myself to a thick curtain railing and jumping, but it wasn't strong enough and the whole lot came down. Don't remember much after that until David got home in a panic about WTF I might be doing. Needless to say he was shocked. It was a serious attempt. I went into shock the next morning.
I'd been so good for so long, and in the space of only 2 or so hours I went from being OK to that. How could this have happened? Said to David, "Oh my psychologist is gonna love this one!" I saw him the next morning to discuss it all.
It was the first time I'd ever heard him sound a touch unprofessional, such was the shock for him too after I told him. "Wwhhaaattt?..." he exclaimed! At which time I related what I'd said to David "Yeah I knew you were gonna love this one".
We went on to discuss what was involved and what specifically contributed to me endng up like that. Number one of course was too much alcohol. Another (likely because David had been drinking a lot too) was David giving me an impossible choice; either him or my daughter. How could I chose between that? I can't abandon my daughter, so to me it looked like I was going to lose David (well in my beer state head it did anyway). Being as I've had so much loss in my life, there was the trigger.....
Related all this to David when I got home. Said in a way it was a compliment to him, like "that's how much I love you". He's been reassuring me ever since. Like I said, he was shocked. It was a serious attempt.
Asked the psychologist, am I gonna have to deal with this shit for the rest of my life? Unfortunately the answer is yes, but that it's just who I am now. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy and live life, it just means I'm not exactly firing on all cylinders.
That loony tunes Pat Robertson in the US is well known over there for being a lying nutter when it comes to gays, and I don't usually bother paying any attention to his vitriol. Other than to note the Christian fundies seem to be going a touch hysterical over there of late. In doing so the lies are getting stranger and stranger, and more desperate. Losing against the evil gays, it appears the likes of Robertson are grasping at straws. Meh, whatever, let them thrash around in their own ignorance, people are just getting way over these wackos.
This one however is in my opinion bordering on hate speech. Roberson has instructed his following on his show that you aren't allowed to talk about AIDS (WTF?) and that gays have special rings that when you shake their hand they cut you with it (I assume they'd have to be cut themselves as well) to purposefully spread AIDS. BTW, even his use of the word AIDS is ignorant as there's no mention of HIV).
“There are laws now, I think the homosexual community has put these draconian laws on the books that prohibit people from discussing this particular affliction, you can tell somebody you had a heart attack, you can tell them they’ve got high blood pressure, but you can’t tell anybody you’ve got AIDS,” he continued.
Despite Meeuwsen’s best attempts to steer the conversation away from Robertson’s anti-gay paranoia, Robertson insisted that gay people use special rings to transmit the virus.
“You know what they do in San Francisco, some in the gay community there they want to get people so if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger,” Robertson said. “Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”
- See more
This is the sort of lies and ignorance that you'd expect to come out of the likes of Africa or Russia. But here it is coming out of the US itself. I don't know what the laws are regarding this in the US, but like I said to me it's bordering on hate speech. It demonises HIV+ gays and increases the HIV stigma that still exists in western countries.
This so called Christian/preacher of hate doesn't appear to care at all about helping the sick. He's going about making life just that little bit harder for all of us who suffer from HIV/AIDS.
It's no secret here that I'm a political leftie. Which doesn't mean a hell of a lot in Australia as on an overall scale Australians have views that are centre left compared to other like minded free countries. This can create the odd misunderstanding online to those not so familiar with Australia's local political stance. My being a leftie Australian, given that we Australians (particularly Kiwi Australians like me) are to the left of many other countries, it's no surprise that some on the far right of US politics (what we here call the extremist right) would find themselves aghast at some of my particular take on things being from Australia's political left (or what they would call the extremist left).
Perhaps such extremist righties may just imagine what it's like to be an Australian leftie "extremist" as we're sometimes called, as this particular subject may well send US extremist righties into a full on hissy fit. I would ask them to just relax right now, and just imagine that you're not a US citizen.
Imagine you live in Pakistan under the drones, and you've had friends and relatives killed. Imagine being on the receiving end of a bomb that the US had made judge, jury, and executioner. How would you feel? Imagine you're the relatives in the good Samaritan video leaked by Wikileaks.
Watch it, all of it. Imagine you're the father of the children in the van. ...
Now watch this......
How do you feel?
Something that was said to me a few times by Simon, was that "Wherever there is humanity, there will be gays".
It's only the last century or so that gay people have been singled out and entirely demonised. Before that it was just seen as a part of humanity sort of, I think. Like an acceptance that they existed, had the right to do so, and were actual human beings and not some kind of satanic invention. The old clothes the rich British blokes, for example, was positively feminine. Nobody seemed to care that much. It's only last century that mens clothes were butch, and womanly clothes were Popish feminine. Cross dressing appears to have sprung from the hug difference now with mens clothing, in that men used to be able to touch their femininity with the clothes they usually wore. Now they can't? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, I've seen old black and white pictures of the old days of us, but I've never seen a video put together of it. I stumbled across this during a search. I watched it and got quite teary darlings. It just goes to show that the lurch to religion in the last century that has so hated us, is a late invention indeed. Indeed we were around before that latest century of gay hate.
We always have, and always will be around. We're part of the human race just like every other single person. Even if gov's say we don't exist in their country, we do. .............
This has to be one of the lowest points of the federal election campaign. Literally.
Clive Palmer, who started some party of his own after resigning from Queenslands Liberal National Party in disgust, has come up with something (some would say) disgusting of his own. In a horrifying performance of man meat, both him and radio host Kyle proceed to do a Miley Cyrus "tweerk" in a weird sort of over caffiene-d interview about Clive Palmers new party on the radio this morning.
Just a warning, the little video below is entirely horrifying and may offend some viewers. It's also like a train wreck that you can't stop watching as well. The sight of Kyle doing a "tweerk".... I'm sorry but I get this feeling of complete revulsion...... but I do like horror movies so decided to watch Clive Palmer's tweerk as well. ..... I'm sort of in stunned shock at the moment......
Here is Kyle and Clive (Clive wants to be prime minister .....)
Possum's Pollytics has a most interesting article about the impending federal election. In it he raises the fact that doing a blanket two party preferred poll across the nation is misleading as far as the current election chances are concerned, with both parties very close now. He says to get a real indication you need to look at polling in individual states to get a truer picture of what's going on, and that although Labor is behind on the national two party preferred numbers, they may well be ahead in the number of seats they're likely to win. Referring to this graph, he states:
The “Swing to the ALP” figure is the change to the ALP two party preferred vote since the 2010 election. As we can see, there’s big movements to the ALP in Qld, but large movements away from them in Victoria and South Australia, with NSW and WA remaining static.
If we plug those numbers into Antony Greens Election Calculator, we get the ALP currently sitting on 77 seats, the Coalition 71 and 2 Independents (Katter and Wilkie). The Tasmania, ACT and NT results all come from small samples in either the ReachTEL or Morgan SMS results – so they’re a bit iffy, but you get the general picture.
My election simulation produces a similar result 76 seats to the ALP vs. 72 to the Coalition, with 2 Independents. more
This isn't new in Australian federal politics. There's been times before, with both major parties, where the election victor has actually gotten less overall votes than the vanquished but won more electoral seats in parliament. Last election in fact Abbott got more overall votes than Gillard, but couldn't form government. I seem to remember an election of Howard's too when he won on less votes but more electorate wins. Possum continues:
So if the headline two party preferred results have underneath them big swings towards the ALP in Qld and relatively modest swings away from them in either NSW or Victoria (but not both), then we would expect to see the ALP win more seats than the national two party preferred might ordinarily suggest (for example, what we see now with the current polling). more
Interesting. Perhaps we won't end up with the antichrist for our glorious leader after all? Not that I'm into Labor currently. Shows how bad the choice is if you're talking about who'd be worse, not better.
I just wonder how LGBT Russians, in the midst of either fleeing Russia or going underground, would feel reading this crap from a US skater off to Sochi, who says it's "a little rude" to criticise Russia. He compares (mind-bogglingly) the Russian "propaganda" laws with the interior decorating of a house:
Josh Farris, the reigning world junior champ from Colorado Springs, said he's been told "to be careful, just in case" about expressing his opinion. "My opinions are my opinions. I don't want to cause something. My decision is to not say anything."
Jeremy Abbott, an Aspen native and graduate of Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, also found himself measuring his words.
"Russia is hosting us," Abbott said. "I'm not going to go into somebody's house and be like, 'Um, the way you decorate is hideous, and you need to completely redo this or I'm never coming back.' It's a little rude, so I don't want to say bad things about a country that's hosting the world, essentially.
"Maybe I don't agree with their policies, and maybe I don't agree with some things, but that's for them to sort out. My speaking out just makes me look like an ass." more
What an insult. A medal for him is more important than who we are, and the persecution my brothers and sisters are going through in Russia. Looks like Australian athletes aren't the only ones to lose sight of what the Olympics is all about. Athletes are supposed to behave with good character as a representative of their country and an example to the public. What we have here is an athlete throwing human rights and the Olympic charter out the window for his own selfish gain; ie, a medal.
The whole Olympic movement needs a reboot. The IOC itself has lost sight of it's charter along with it's athletes. Since when do free speaking people censor themselves to please Russia? Why the fuck did we fight WW2 then?
Well I hope he doesn't win a thing. Even if he does, history will not remember him well.
This was in Amsterdam yesterday, about 2,000 people protesting Russia's "propaganda" law. Are the crowds getting bigger now or is it just my imagination? (picture source).
This is a brilliant little online tool, that quickly and easily shows you the candidates in your electorate and each of their positions on marriage equality. You just put in your postcode and away you go. Extremely informative, it also has details to email your local candidate as well.
http://www.vote4love.com.au/
I've been uming and ahing for a while now, pretty much about which particular issue will be most important for my vote this election. Right now I'm leaning towards marriage equality as being that issue.
Some really funny observations :)
Utterly utterly hilarious and clever!
I got asked once when I was in a sex on premises club if I was "clean". Didn't bother with the guy, but thought "hello, this is a sex club, how many blokes have cum up your ass because they said they were clean?"
FIFA is booked to have the 2018 world cup in Russia. I wonder if this sort of behaviour will be banned then?
The Abbot nightmare is nearly upon us. Soon we'll have Yosemite Sam as our PM who will embark on policies that don't seem to be getting much attention from the main stream media.
This piece is from last month, by Tim Dunlop in The Drum. It gives a fascinating glimpse into Abbott's vision (if you could call it that) of Australia under his leadership. To summarise, his policies include bringing back the ABCC, ending the low income superannuation contribution, undermining collective agreements for workers and a move back to individual contracts, applying to the Fair work Commission to dismantle penalty rates, sacking 12,000 public servants (he praises Queensland's fascist premier Campbell Newman who's cut so many public service health workers that health care for people must surely suffer), abolishing the mining and carbon tax, "climate change is crap", and cutting public service regulation.
Scared yet? We should be. So where is all this information on the telly and radio? Where? I know I'm pretty switched off this election but I'm still getting bombarded with political crap from both major parties. Why aren't we being bombarded with these simple facts?
As if that's not bad enough, this is the last bit of the Tim Dunlop piece. If you're wanting Australia to in any way remain a fairly egalitarian society, this last bit will scare your pants off. Being as I'm poor, it certainly scares mine off.
As Mr Abbott himself has said, "in the end, we have to be a productive and competitive society and greater inequality might be inevitable".
Well, bugger that.
A society with "greater inequality" isn't a society. It's a market. And a market isn't driven by values of burden sharing or a fair go. It is driven by power and wealth; it is a place where the strong prosper and the weak are blamed for not being strong enough. Why would any national leader just shrug and say "greater inequality might be inevitable"?
Inevitable?
We don't even have to imagine what happens when countries shred the social contract in this way; we only need to look overseas. Mr Abbott's approach is the same one that underpinned Margaret Thatcher's view that there is no such thing as society, and that has allowed her current successors to instigate austerity measures that have kept Britain in recession for years. It is the same approach that has seen the United States become the most unequal developed nation on earth to the endless detriment of the national economy and the majority of people in it.
The issue isn't that Tony Abbott doesn't have policies. The issue is he that he does and that they are horrible. Or at least, they are horrible if your idea of a civilised society is one in which we aren't all increasingly left to fend for ourselves. more
Anybody wanna work all weekend for normal time?
Putin has gone even further than the mere "propaganda" law, going so far as to sign a decree banning all protests at the Sochi Olympics.
Citing “terrorism,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin just signed a decree that will ban all demonstrations, rallies, and protests in Sochi, Russia, well before and after the 2014 Winter Olympics. The official order, reported in the Russian press today, bans “meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets that are not associated with the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games” that are not officially part of the Olympic Games. Travel will be highly restricted in the area, and every person will be searched. The Winter Olympics in Sochi are from February 7-23, and the Paralympics are from March 7-16, but the order covers far more time. more
By associating protests with "terrorism", any protests that go ahead will now be dealt with accordingly. This puts protests into a whole new category.
Any violation of Russia’s draconian anti-gay “propaganda” law during the Sochi Olympics is now a violation of a Russian anti-terrorism decree.
That would seem to raise the crime of being openly gay to an entirely new and dangerous level: An act of terrorism.
And what exactly is the price one pays for violating anti-terror decrees in Russia? Our Olympians may soon find out. more
Fuck.
Anyone wanna go to the gulag Olympics?
Saw this yesterday in the Star Observer, but I didn't have my glasses to read it so looked it up online today. It tells the story from 25 years ago of a gay man who was bashed whilst on his way home through Moore Park. The thugs who bashed him it turns out had gotten out of an unmarked police car; a member of the public wrote down the number plate. The police were never investigated. It's only now that the police are taking these allegations seriously and inviting people to come forward with information.
Rosendale was only saved when a local gay man – Paul Simes – who happened to be driving on South Dowling Street flashed his headlights at the assailants and slowly drove past before taking down the registration of a car he had seen them leap out of. Simes quickly called the police from a nearby payphone on Cleveland Street and upon returning to the scene found the attackers had disappeared and Rosendale, who had been taken to St Vincent’s Hospital, was nowhere to be seen. Up until this month, Simes believed Rosendale may have been killed – another victim of Sydney’s gay hate epidemic that had been silently culling members of the city’s burgeoning gay community.
For a quarter of a century, Rosendale lived with the belief he was lucky to escape with a savage beating after being randomly picked on by a group of youths who had gone “poofter bashing” – an activity which a series of recent articles in the Star Observer, as well as the Sydney Morning Herald, have suggested was rife across Sydney from the 1970s to the 90s and led to the deaths of about 80 gay men in the space of a few decades.
“It was at a gay beat and it was at about one o’clock at night,” Rosendale recalls matter-of-factly. “I had just left the Taxi Club and I was probably half-pissed to be honest. I lived in Surry Hills – and it was on the way home – so I just popped in to see what was going on, and that [gay bashing] was what was going on.”
Then a 32-year old hospitality worker employed as a front-of-desk staffer at the Waldorf Apartments on Liverpool Street, Rosendale told the Star Observer he has been in a state of shock for the past week after happening across Simes’s account of the attack in an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month.
“I’ve walked around for 24 years thinking that I was bashed by thugs, and then you find out one Saturday morning you weren’t bashed by thugs but by cops,” he says. “It’s amazing.”
The licence plate number Simes had noted down and given police matched the registration of an unmarked police vehicle. Simes was called in for a meeting with senior police weeks after the incident and told his report would be properly investigated, but was informed soon after that the officers from the ‘unassigned response unit’ allegedly responsible for the attack had been disbanded.
“The information that came out is that I was never interviewed and the only time I had contact with police was when I was being admitted to St Vincent’s Hospital,” Rosendale tells the Star Observer. “It was uniformed police and according to the incident report they put down that I had been bashed by a gang of skinheads. End of conversation.
“I gave my statement for what happened in 1989 on Tuesday of last week because no police ever interviewed me before then.” more
Perhaps this sheds some light on the police bashing of a man at Mardi Gras for crossing the road. The police involved I think were bought in from areas outside Surry Hills.
Am really bloody depressed today. To the point even of having suicidal thoughts. Was all I could do to get out of bed. As luck would have it though I've got an appt with the psychologist tomorrow morning.
Told David how I was feeling.
Um, there's something seriously wrong with this. I don't have a smart phone and wouldn't be bothered with the Grindr thing anyway even if I did and was single. But for those who do, imagine hooking up with a guy via Grindr for sex, only to find it was all a devious trap to try and convert you to Christianity:
What I find offensive about this isn't that the guy is gay and Christian (I just think it's a bit sad that gays can be brainwashed too by religion) but that it's so devious. Like false advertising. So is being sneaky and devious part of being a Christian then? Why do they think it's OK to do this? If a company falsely advertised like that I'm sure there'd be complaints against it by the public.
I had the terrible misfortune a couple of times of seeing that crazy Abbott add on the telly, crapping on about his so called plans for the future. As it's only a 30 second clip I've not had the time to find the remote and get his lunacy off the screen. In it he mentions "strengthening our manufacturing industry" or the like. I burst out laughing! Try telling that to the car industry (or what's left of it) where Abbott is going to rip out the half billion $ gov assistance to it.
Their manufacturing policy (if you could call it that) PDF can be found here. Although it's 19 pages long, it's basically an ideological document saying that they don't believe in gov assistance to industries that are in trouble. That may or may not work in massive great big countries like the US (um, it didn't did it) but with Australia and a population of only 23 million, you simply can't have a car industry without gov support. According to Abbott, you can.
Well obviously my union, the AMWU, vehemently disagrees. In their latest newsletter they rip Abbotts manufacturing policy to bits. I'd certainly trust the union at the coal face rather than some ideological buffoon in Canberra, to know what's good for them.
“Was that it? There has to be more to it,” said Mr Bastian after viewing the 20-minute press call at Volvo in Brisbane.
“They’ve had six years to develop detailed policy and the best they can do is stand there and recite a series of motherhood statements.
“There’s a million manufacturing jobs riding on this, workers need to know what Mr Abbott will do to encourage exports and innovation beyond slashing industry programs and outsourcing his industry portfolios to the Productivity Commission.”
Mr Bastian said it was gobsmacking that Mr Abbott appeared oblivious to the Labor Government’s $1 billion innovation and manufacturing jobs strategy when asked about its future.
The would-be PM mistook the question as a query on car policy, before Ms Mirabella interrupted him to confirm the 10 innovation hubs and Australian participation rules of the Jobs Plan would all be scrapped.
The cuts she didn’t talk about include $1.5 billion from Enterprise Connect, Venture Australia, Australian Innovation Partnerships and the clean technology programs.
“Mr Abbott wants to sail through on sound bites, but he couldn’t govern that way,” Mr Bastian said.
The Coalition event came hours after it was revealed the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries had estimated the Abbott policy of cutting $500 million from car industry co-investment to 2015 would cost 90,000 jobs nationally, sucking $23 billion of investment out of the economy.
The AMWU fears the toll could be eventually closer to 200,000 jobs. more
Personally I've pretty well resigned myself to Abbott winning this thing now. Labor has been too far behind for too long. soon we shall have something akin to Yosemite Sam leading us.
I sometimes buy the odd organic thing from the supermarket. They're more expensive but often taste better, and there is the thought in my mind that they're probably better for you too. Food experts though have been saying for years that's there's no difference between organic food and the usual mass produced stuff. Those of us who've tried consuming mass produced potatoes, tomatoes, or other things that are tasteless or taste like bloody flour or something, may have been disagreeing with that for some time.
I mean it's not rocket science is it. Food that hasn't been doused in chemicals surely must be in better consumable shape than the mass produced variety. Growing up on a farm in NZ everything was organic back then. I don't remember many chemicals being used at all, except for weed killing, and that wasn't in crops that I remember. We'd eat stuff growing wild too. There was a huge peach tree down the back of the farm, and blackberries would grow all over the place. We also had a big vege garden next to the house.
So this from a food expert comes as no surprise to me.
"Scientists have always said eating organic food is senseless and makes no difference as pesticides don't harm humans," says Dr Mark Donohoe, a Sydney GP with a special interest in environmental medicine.
"However, the pesticides kill certain species of gut bacteria, not us."
This causes an imbalance that contributes to obesity and poor general health, says Dr Donohoe, who is speaking at an AustralAsian Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine Conference in Melbourne on August 24.
"This thinking is becoming mainstream, particularly among gastroenterologists.
"My wife and patients have told me for 20 years that they feel better on an organic diet, but I have said there is no reason why they should."
It turns out they are protecting their gut flora, he says. more
The thing about the good bacteria in the bowels getting fucked up by chemicals in food is of great interest to me, in view of all the problems I've had in the last months with feeling ill. Fuck after that spew I did recently and nearly got taken to hospital, I'm certainly going to have a closer look at organics now.
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