Following on from my previous post, academics were whinging about the anti-terror laws on Monday, and the Victorian and Queensland premiers got a sniff of opportunity to whinge last night about the shoot to kill policy - now, tonight Western Australia, New South Wales, South Australia and the federal opposition have waded in. Peter Beattie (Queensland) said that there was capacity in current laws to shoot to kill without needing new laws, while the Prime Minister said today that it wasn't the legislation's intention to chase innocent people and shoot them in the back.
About this time last week, wasn't everyone bagging the ACT Chief Minister for leaking the legislation? Even though it's been due to political opportunism, hopefully some real debate comes out of this. Of course, the majority of the population is still having withdrawals from the end of footy season and watching Australian Idol rather than worried about terrorism or civil liberties hmmph.
Is anyone else bored with the Workchoices ads? We should be, fifteen million dollars have been spent on the thing, and the experts in the advertising industry say it has gotten to saturation level. People are switching channels rather than watching it, apparently - glad to know it isn't just me.
And the STUPIDEST ad is the one which states 'simpler, fairer system' while a mother walks a child along a footpath, and the child drops her lunchbox. WTF has that got to do with industrial relations LOL? And why on earth is the official website a secure site? Worried about cyber vandals or hmm terrorists perhaps?
Hmm, alleged Australian Taliban fighter David Hicks is in the news again. Apparently the four years he has been kept in prison without charge won't go towards any sentence the military tribunal hands down. And then the Australian Foreign Minister jumped up today and said that it should - as if, at any time in the last four years, Australia has given a damn about the guy. Every other country has been petitioning the US to get their Guantanamo Bay detainees released home, either to detention or something else, but no, not Australia. We can propose shooting people in the back and locking people up for telling friends and family that they are locked up, but we can't make any laws retroactive to keep alleged terrorists in prison if they come home from Cuba.
Well, with the Immigration Department's recent record, deporting Australian citizens back 'home' the the Philippines, maybe it's best if Hicks does spend an additional four years in Cuba. Hmmph, in full rant mode here LOL.
Hurricane Wilma deepened into the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history overnight. Is due to weaken a bit before hitting the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba over the next twenty four hours, before probably heading on to Florida - yes, my head was spinning at that route for a bit, Wilma started off in the deep south of the Caribbean. There have been 21 tropical storms in the Atlantic this year, and twelve have developed into hurricanes - with six weeks to go in the season, they have run out of 'official' names, and whatever forms next will have Greek alphabet names (alpha, beta, gamma etc). First time in 150 years, since hurricanes started being monitored, that has happened.
And what with Katrina being the second worst hurricane ever (while out at sea), and then Rita developing into the worst hurricane ever, and now with Wilma beating even that, it's been a weird season. Although four hurricanes hitting Florida in six weeks last year was just as weird.
Enough news and ranting, for now. I could say something about avian flu being located in Greece now (the EU, even if only the fringes), and some pigeons imported to Australia, from Canada of all places, having the disease, no doubt being destroyed after that discovery. But nah, I'm too tired, and have already put enough thought into the ranting above :)
Pauly
About this time last week, wasn't everyone bagging the ACT Chief Minister for leaking the legislation? Even though it's been due to political opportunism, hopefully some real debate comes out of this. Of course, the majority of the population is still having withdrawals from the end of footy season and watching Australian Idol rather than worried about terrorism or civil liberties hmmph.
Is anyone else bored with the Workchoices ads? We should be, fifteen million dollars have been spent on the thing, and the experts in the advertising industry say it has gotten to saturation level. People are switching channels rather than watching it, apparently - glad to know it isn't just me.
And the STUPIDEST ad is the one which states 'simpler, fairer system' while a mother walks a child along a footpath, and the child drops her lunchbox. WTF has that got to do with industrial relations LOL? And why on earth is the official website a secure site? Worried about cyber vandals or hmm terrorists perhaps?
Hmm, alleged Australian Taliban fighter David Hicks is in the news again. Apparently the four years he has been kept in prison without charge won't go towards any sentence the military tribunal hands down. And then the Australian Foreign Minister jumped up today and said that it should - as if, at any time in the last four years, Australia has given a damn about the guy. Every other country has been petitioning the US to get their Guantanamo Bay detainees released home, either to detention or something else, but no, not Australia. We can propose shooting people in the back and locking people up for telling friends and family that they are locked up, but we can't make any laws retroactive to keep alleged terrorists in prison if they come home from Cuba.
Well, with the Immigration Department's recent record, deporting Australian citizens back 'home' the the Philippines, maybe it's best if Hicks does spend an additional four years in Cuba. Hmmph, in full rant mode here LOL.
Hurricane Wilma deepened into the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history overnight. Is due to weaken a bit before hitting the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba over the next twenty four hours, before probably heading on to Florida - yes, my head was spinning at that route for a bit, Wilma started off in the deep south of the Caribbean. There have been 21 tropical storms in the Atlantic this year, and twelve have developed into hurricanes - with six weeks to go in the season, they have run out of 'official' names, and whatever forms next will have Greek alphabet names (alpha, beta, gamma etc). First time in 150 years, since hurricanes started being monitored, that has happened.
And what with Katrina being the second worst hurricane ever (while out at sea), and then Rita developing into the worst hurricane ever, and now with Wilma beating even that, it's been a weird season. Although four hurricanes hitting Florida in six weeks last year was just as weird.
Enough news and ranting, for now. I could say something about avian flu being located in Greece now (the EU, even if only the fringes), and some pigeons imported to Australia, from Canada of all places, having the disease, no doubt being destroyed after that discovery. But nah, I'm too tired, and have already put enough thought into the ranting above :)
Pauly
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