Interesting editorial in the Hun today regarding Hamas' win in the Palestinian elections.
Hamas has sponsored at least 60 suicide bombings against Israelis -- so how can we continue to support Palestine's fledgling Government now it is dominated by a terrorist organisation?
Simple. We don't. Hamas have not renounce their
Charter, which calls for the annihilation of Israel. In fact, they show no inclination to treat with
Israel. Hamas won fair and square.
To deny its legitimacy would be to trumpet that our support for the region becoming democratic comes with strings -- we play ball only if we like the winner.
On the other hand, Hamas has not yet grown far enough from its violent roots to be welcomed into the international community on trust alone. Israel is entitled to fear the worst until proved wrong.
Our dilemma is that we must not judge politics in Palestine by Western rules -- not if we are truly committed to ending the bloodshed.
Okay, Hamas did win. Nobody is disputing that. As for placing conditions on our dealings with them, what is wrong with that? Hamas have a proven record of terrorist activities, they have a vision for the future which involves wiping out another country (to start with, at least; I'm sure they won't stop there).
What guarantee is there that playing nice with Hamas will ensure peace?
As for judging MidEast politics by Western standards? Our governments have been doing that for far too long.
Dialogue and diplomacy have accomplished as good as nothing.
All of the aid in the world, a reported $1bn a year, has not helped the Palestinian people who need it the most. If it's not getting to where it should be, then why continue throwing good money after bad?
Perhaps if the powers-that-be in that part of the world didn't receive "aid" money then perhaps they might find other things to occupy themselves with rather than making war on their neighbours.
Maybe we should play politics by their rules; last man standing wins.
Do you want your Scot Shayken or stirred?
I recently mentioned a
message for the Pope from one Shaykh Dr Abdalqadir.
It seems that the good Shaykh is a convert
whoFor most of his life, the sheikh went by the proper Scots name Ian Dallas.
In the 1960s, he worked as an actor and promoter, making the scene in London and Paris and hanging with Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles, and other hippie icons. Increasingly disillusioned with the counterculture, Dallas wound up in Morocco, where he met the Sufi spiritual leader Sheikh Muhammad ibn al-Habib and became a Muslim. Sheikh Muhammad had a vision: The modern revival of Islam, he believed, would come from, as he put it, "the people who pee standing" - from Westerners. Ian Dallas, now Abdalqadir, was anointed to take the lead. "Go to your land and see what will happen," Sheikh Muhammad told him, and he went.
Imdb have two entries for Ian Dallas
here and
here. He appears to have had only small acting success, with a high note of being cast in Fellini's
8 1/2. I guess all that hobnobbing paid off.
He has, however, had more success with Islam, and is apparently
the strongest opponent of suicide terrorism in the whole of the Muslim world. That may be, but he also has managed to upset other Islamic leaders.
According to
GF Haddad, Dr Abdalqadir is a bit on the heretical side.
Even better, there is a whole site devoted to exposing the erstwhile Mr Dallas as having ties to the Nazis and Freemasons. Check out
The Murabitan Files for some interesting reading. Whether this is fact or fiction, is
debatable.In my opinion, it looks like the Dr found Islam suitable to his needs at the time, and has since built himself quite a niche. With his selection of books for sale, and an annual subscription to his newsletters of 120GBP he's got something good going on.
The TMI Files. Learning Languages the Ebay Way.
Since buying
My Neighbor Totoro off ebay, my daughter now speaks Japanese.
I should have checked that it was dubbed in English - it isn't. It has Chinese dubbing, and both Chinese and Japanese subtitles.
I don't speak Japanese, but now Magilla does!
I have no idea what she's saying, but she sings along with the dvd, repeats the dialogue and has a great old time.
Luckily for us all, it's a great movie for the little ones, and you don't actually need any words. It's beautifully drawn, and a wonderful moving story.
I can't recommend it highly enough (although I'd still like to check it out in English).
The TMI Files. I Spawned a Coke Fiend.
We had pizza last night as a bit of a treat. None of us are big pizza fanatics, but every once in a blue fit is alright by me.
With the pizza came some dodgy garlic bread - bleh - and a bottle of coke.
You can guess what's coming.
I was silly enough to let Magilla have a small amount of caffeine-in-a-can.
Bear in mind that this is a child who doesn't like tinned food. She likes fresh food, fruit, that sort of thing.
She rarely has anything with many preservatives or additives. I see no need for her to get into the chemicals so early. Plenty of time for that when she gets a bit older - lke 43 or thereabouts.
She spent the next couple of hours bouncing off the walls. Talk about hyper!
LOL! I win the TwoShortPlanks Award for January, 2006, I guess. Not one of my brighter moves.
In the end, it was an early night for me, and a late night for her. I was asleep by 10, and she was still awake. I got a good night's sleep, though, so it wasn't a complete loss.
Won't be doing that again.
The TMI Files. Wanted. Urgently. Swimming Instructor.
Today was a public holiday and the start of a four day weekend for many around the nation. Australia Day is great for that.
Today, in the Heart of Bogan Central, there was a family fun day at the local swimming hole. It's a really nice pool, with shade sails over the pools for the little tackers, water slides, and today they even had multicultural food, a band, a jumping castle and lots and lots of little aussie flags.
Magilla is a water baby. That child has no fear of water (or anything else for that matter) and is slowly developing caution around it. Snorting the bathwater a few too many times has helped on that front.
We have a good sized paddlepool in the backyard, but that's not the same as the Big Pool with Lots of Friends there.
So we took time out for the Big Pool.
It was a cack!
Magilla has discoverd the joy of water slides. At 3.5 you would think that she's a bit young for those, but remember... this primate swings upside down on the monkey bars at the local park. She climbs the trees in the yard when she can reach the limbs. I'm losing count of how many times I've had to bail her out of the lemon tree!
Water slide? Piece of cake!
And it was, too. Her first time down was a big surprise, but she loved it. Had to go again. The next few times she went down she had me in stitches - sitting very straight, holding her nose with her face screwed up tightly for when she went face first into the pool. Then she tried lying down. She really cracks me up at times like that.
She does need to learn queueing etiquette, though. She uses her size to slease her way ahead of the people in front, and a couple of times I had to haul her back to her place in the line. She wasn't very impressed with me for that, but there is no excuse for bad manners, and queue-jumping is
very bad manners.
She also needs to learn how to swim. I learned to swim when I was around 7, but Magilla won't last that long. She's trying to swim now, and that's deadly to watch.
She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and throws herself at and under the water. Then she proceeds to thrash around like a mako in a feeding frenzy. She rolls around underwater, flails like you wouldn't believe. First time I saw it I thought she might be in difficulty.
Nope. Far from it. She's swimming and don't you forget it!
I did offer assistance, as have others, but she won't accept it. She's doing fine as she is and doesn't need any help.
I need help, though - someone to stop me from breathing in the water when I fall about laughing. :)
Happy Australia Day!
Of Popes and Publicity.
When the most towering religious figure in the western world has apparently recognised Islam as being
incapable of reform, you would have expected a huge uproar.
Nope. As Diana West says in her
article:...this is one bombshell that has yet to explode because no one wants to touch it.
As I was thinking about this last night, I did a bit of
googling and she's pretty much on the ball. There's a lot of commenting on the original report by Hugh Hewitt and the few other online reports, but not much else.
I did find an interesting response to the idea coming from the Vatican that Islam cannot be reformed.
Dr. Abdalqadir has gained a place in my esteem occupied by the Mufti Ebrahim Desai of
Ask an Imam fame.
As far as Dr. Abdalqadir is concerned, there is nothing wrong with Islam or the Qu'ran, and the sooner we realise it the better.
Before I get into his collected works, back to Pope Benedict. The message for our Holy Father is:
There is no dialogue - only da'wa.Can't get more straightforward than that.
An insightful look into the mind of a muslim scholar, there is a singular lack of respect for members of other religions. This is, of course, to be expected, because
there can be no illusion of any intellectual intercourse with the kafirun, that is to say there is no dialogue with them. It is categorically forbidden.
Communion is a con:
The binding ritual of the jewish people was the celebration of the Passover, which was a memorial re-enactment of how they were saved from the intended slaughter of Pharaon. Ordered by the Angel to remain in their houses till the killing was over, they had to eat unleavened bread. Saint Paul, himself a jew, took this ritual and connected it to the Gospel event of ‘the Last Supper’.
........
The Passover Biscuit of the jews was transformed into the Holy Biscuit of the christian Sacrament.
So therefore,
you must not fail to see that what Saint Paul was selling to people was what in modern language is called ‘a package deal.’
I'll have to disagree with the good Doctor on that one. Speaking for myself only, I've felt the hand of God around my heart, and there's no way it can be mistaken for anything but what it is. Somehow I doubt that Dr. Abdalqadir would have felt what I felt.
Of course, it continues on.
Without an Apostolic Succession the transubstantiation could not take place. The new religion is founded on ‘outside the Church there is no salvation.’ Yet the heart of the matter remains that its central claim to save its members is based on the belief that bread and wine become the flesh and blood of their ‘Saviour’. This is actual anthropophagy.
I'm not a religious scholar - anything I inflict upon readers is my opinion from reading and experience.
Regarding transubstantiation and the Church, ultimately your relationship with God is yours and yours alone. It is based upon love and respect, and an acknowledgement that we are born into a state of sin, which can be absolved through Jesus Christ if we choose. Therefore, whether you take Communion or not is not relevant. It is how you approach God in your heart.
Some prefer to speak with Him in the privacy of their minds, others approach Him in the company of others. He knows what's in our hearts, so there is no need for hypocrisy in your religion.
I love Communion. I feel closer to God when I take the wafer. He's always with me, never doubt that, but I'm that little step further on my way.
The most vital task facing Pope Benedict XVI is twofold. Firstly, he must take a long hard look at the dubious history of both the papacy and the Roman Church. Secondly, he must without illusion grasp the reality of the present Atheist World Order. This dual understanding is what the polish peasant who preceded him singularly failed to do. His inability to resolve the contradiction between these two historical realities was exacerbated by his disastrous solution, his enthroning of the Doctrine of Mariology. A historical survey of the Roman Church demonstrates that its survival over centuries was due to the Church’s power over people and Princes. Disobedience was punished with execution, torture and burning at the stake, as well as war. Its historical record is positively genocidal. The Crusades and the Inquisition were the Church’s necessary instruments of control and intimidation. These were the only means to force intelligent men and women to believe that God was three, and that somehow three equalled one, let alone that some men, the bishops, could initiate other men into the capacity to turn fresh bread and wine into thousand year old morsels of Jesus’s flesh and blood. The Doctrine of the Sacrament asked the reasoning mind to accept that millions of people over hundreds of years could continue to feast off one poor human body.
Goodness, what drama. Sounds like something
Ridley Scott would want to direct.
There is more in this offensive tone, but too much to relate here. Rather than continue providing examples of his reasoning why dialogue with kafirs will never work, I'll give Dr. Abdalqabir the last word.
The People of the Book who are kafir and the mushrikun
Will be in the Fire of Hell,
Remaining in it timelessly, for ever.
They are the worst of creatures.
That's a message that should be getting out.
Sherri Carlson has a few issues.
I think the first thing she should do is
get over herself. The next thing would be to call
Supernanny Jo and get a few clues.
If she has so little rapport with her children that she can't deal with their whining, then she should maybe look within rather than blaming the big bad corporations.
Do Kelloggs market at the children? Of course they do! Blind Freddy can see that it works. Kids have a way of bleating, and bleating, and bleating until the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard resembles
Rachmaninoff. The trick is to demonstrate the meaning of the word
NO! in no uncertain terms.
Sure, I'm lucky in that Magilla doesn't like MacDonalds. She doesn't like KFC or sugary cereals. She does, however, lerv chocolate, and she discovered lollies when she was around 2, so that's something to deal with when shopping.
Magilla is aware, also, that there is a line that is not to be crossed. Usually a particular tone of voice will give her notice of that. I'm not talking harpy; just firm and forceful. She knows when I'm likely to cave in, as I sometimes do.
But back to the litigation.
"But then they turn on Nickelodeon and see all those enticing junk-food ads," Carlson said. "Adding insult to injury, we enter the grocery store and see our beloved Nick characters plastered on all those junky snacks and cereals."
Carlson and another plaintiff, Andrew Leong of Brookline, Massachusetts, spoke at a news conference organized by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
......
"For over 30 years, public health advocates have urged companies to stop marketing junk food to children," said Susan Linn of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "Even as rates of childhood obesity have soared, neither Viacom nor Kellogg has listened."
What ever happened to switching off the tv? Why not regulate what your children watch? I can only speak for myself, but sure, Magilla loves to turn on the teev in the morning, but she has no concept of how commercial television actually works. She has her selection of dvds and videos, so she thinks that she is in charge. She's been working the tv since she was about 18 months, and couldn't tell you about the golden arches. She's been there, but only for the playground. She won't touch the stuff unless she's exceptionally hungry.
(Not like me - I love a good quarter pounder!) On an even more serious note, if Sherri and her pals win this case, the outcome would not be favourable to anybody. Not the television stations, not the marketers, and most importantly of all, not the parents.
When we demand legislation for our lack of decisive action in parenting, then we are demanding that the State raise our children. Then we end up with the State deciding how much input we can have into our offspring's
education.Among other things.
Where does the buck stop?
In this household, it stops with me.
In Sherri's, it stops with Kelloggs and Nick.
Jihad in Trinidad and Tobago?
I was having a look over at
GoV for the first time in a while, and Dymphna and the Baron have linked to a new blog,
Eleven North. Uncle Pavi has written
here about some antics over in that part of the world.
This is getting way beyond a joke, but at least I've still got my sense of humour.
Next we'll have fanatic islamists turning up in Antarctica.
Sea Shepherds coming to Melbourne.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sea Shepherd Supporter,
Open Invitation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW Invitation:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=> NEW DATE: TUESDAY 7th FEBRUARY, still at 7 pm and at 288 Brunswick st, Fitzroy, near Johnson st.
=> Also, Sea Shepherd's standard Volunteer Information Form is attached. I will be traveling to Melbourne at the end of this month and will want to meet as many of you as possible before the meeting. Please complete and return the attached form and I will get in touch with you.
=> Supporters in the Sydney / Canberra areas, or Byron Bay / Gold Coast / Brisbane areas - Please see the additional information at the bottom of this Invitation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is starting a chapter in Melbourne Australia which will, initially at least, represent the whole of Australia. We are looking for volunteers to make it happen!
A meeting is being held Tuesday 7th February at 7pm 288 Brunswick st Fitzroy, near Johnson st.
The purpose of the meeting is to bring together people who wish to work on Sea Shepherd campaigns which largely involve:
Fund and awareness raising.
Networking, finding contacts in Melbourne for when the ship comes in.
Developing a support network for the Sea Shepherd in Australia.
There will be some Administration.
Anything that will help Sea Shepherd that people wish to undertake.
An office has been donated free of charge, our only out goings will be phone calls. This chapter of Sea Shepherd will be making its main objective to support the Sea Shepherd in any way we can, learning from past mistakes from other Sea Shepherd chapters and respecting Paul Watson's / Sea Shepherd's decisions and past leanings. We primarily want to help Paul Watson do his job.
Please send this invitation to anyone that may be interested in joining/donating to Sea Shepherd and/or volunteering time for the Sea Shepherd Australia.
RSVP Tim Midgley -- tim@seashepherd.org
Tuesday 7th February at 7pm 288 Brunswick st Fitzroy, near Johnson st.
Tim Midgley
International Director
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
PO Box 2616
Friday Harbor, WA 98250 USA
Home/Office Tel: +1-310-649-0441
Home/Office Fax: +1-360-326-1988
Headquarters Tel: +1-360-370-5650
www .seashepherd.org
tim@seashepherd.org
If you live in the Canberra / Sydney areas or in the Brisbane / Gold Coast / Byron Bay areas, and are interested in getting involved in Sea Shepherd branches in those areas, please get in touch with me. I hope to travel to those areas in the week following 7th February.
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to info@seashepherd.org with 'unsubscribe' as the subject
Unfortunately for me, I'm unavailable that night, so I'll have to pass. If anyone in Melbourne is going along, please let me know so we can follow up.
I wonder why that would be?
The new spin doctor for Hamas is going to have his work cut out if he wants to make them look good. How can you gussy up a penchant for kitting up your people with bomb vests and sending them off to murder innocent people?
Maybe he can make sure that we all know that infidels are never innocent, especially Israelis. After all, as
Dr Ghazal says:
"You should know that every Israeli is an army member."You can't get more succinct than that.
(ht.KK over at
Tim Blair)
I decided to have a quick scan through
alt.religion.scientology for the first time in months. Since today has been such a scorcher, I'd been watching dvds all day, and laying low under the aircon.
One of the posts mentioned a site: www.scientomogy.info, which has made available
Southpark Ep 912 - Trapped in the Closet. Apparently this episode has upset the Chruch of Scientology with it's deptiction of chruch beliefs and major pisstaking of Tom Cruise (with a bit of John Travolta thrown in for fun).
If you know anything about scientology, that will not surprise you - they have made a habit out of letting people know they are upset for years and years. Just have a squiz through
Chilling Effects for a quick sample.
While I didn't find the episode hysterically funny, I did get a few snickers from it.
What I liked most about the
ScienTOMogy site is it's collection of videos related to Tom Cruise's carryings on since he got involved with Katie Holmes and went somewhat over the top. Or is that over the couch?
Regardless, I also like that the site owner is happy to post all the wonderful cease and desist emails he's been receiving from said chruch.
Well done, and good luck, Mr Stollery.
.....Refraining from performing jihad, which is sanctioned by our religion, is an appalling sin. The best way of death for us is under the shadows of swords.
Do not be deluded by your power and modern weapons. Although they win some battles, they lose the war. Patience and steadfastness are better than them. What is important is the outcome.
We have been tolerant for 10 years in fighting the Soviet Union with our few weapons and we managed to drain their economy.
They became history, with God's help.
You should learn lessons from that. We will remain patient in fighting you, God willing, until the one whose time has come dies first. We will not escape the fight as long as we hold our weapons in our hands.
I swear not to die but a free man even if I taste the bitterness of death. I fear to be humiliated or betrayed.
(emphasis mine)
While I know that a lot of people will share Mike's
opinion over at A Western Heart (I do too, to an extent), let's not lose sight of the fact that this man is considered to be the embodiment of the Islamic fight against Western (or should that be "Restern") oppression. After all, plenty were happy to
great man vote for him in a popularity contest for the 'Greatst Arab' a few years back.
By not allowing
sharia law to rule our countries, or accepting our
dhimmi status, we are condemning ourselves to endless jihad from those who wish to live in the Ummah. It is not enough that we politely suggest that we would rather not live accoring to those lights, or that we tender a gentle suggestion to shove off to countries that
do live that way.
In the Islamist mind, the world was given by Allah to the muslims, therefore we should just roll over and give in.
Peacefully would be nice, but putting up a fight would be even better. After all, if you happen to take a few muslims with you (men, anyway), they get to go straight to Paradise.
From where I sit, Osama could be bouncing off rubber walls by now and it wouldn't change a thing. We would still have the bleating of those who want us to roll over and stop upsetting the muslims who can't or won't adapt to our way of life yet insist on living here.
"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."(eternal gratitude to
T.S. Eliot)
Letter to Bob Brown. 7th Jan 2006
Dear Mr. Brown,
First of all, I hope you and yours had a great Christmas break – it’s been great here in Melbourne.
I've been reading your site with interest. In particular with regards to the need (or not) for more stringent laws to deal with 'terror' in our country.
I note that "The Australian Greens define terrorism as premeditated acts of violence directed at non-combatant targets with the aim of intimidating others to agree to a political, social, cultural or religious demand. We regard such acts, whether they are carried out by isolated ‘militants’, political organisations or by governments themselves, as terrorism."
There doesn’t seem to be any discussion on the fact that the majority of ‘premeditated acts of violence directed at non-combatants’ are demonstrably carried out by members of one particular ideology. Also, there are proponents of said ideology here in Australia.
Does this hold any real concern for you and the Greens as a whole?
This group, irrespective of whether it consists of a few extremists or also contains many quiet sympathisers, stands against everything you stand for.
As was recently noted in a letter to The Guardian:
Islam is demonstrably a threat to women and gay people, who are routinely tortured and murdered in Islamic countries, such as Iran.
This letter was from Andy Armitage, the former editor of Gay & Lesbian Humanist. Full details of why Mr. Armitage is no longer editor of this small magazine can be found here: http://www.mfebooks.com/G&LH/Dossier.pdf
Mr Armitage has provided a very detailed document outlining why he resigned, and includes plenty of information on how Islam cannot conceivably be called a humane or moderate religion, or ideology (my preference).
Are there peaceful muslims? Absolutely.
Are there rabid, extremist christians, for example? Absolutely, yes to that, also. The difference there is that the christians are not seen to be the group most likely to take violent action against you in response to disagreement.
Please excuse me if I seem to be a bit roundabout in my mail – it’s a consequence of living here in Victoria under Mr Bracks’ draconian Racial and Religious Tolerance Act. I am against political correctness as a practice, as it stifles freedom of thought and speech. While I have the right not to be offended, I also have the responsibility to act like an adult if I am, and get over myself.
I would also love to know if you have read the excellent book, Mr Robert Spencer’s “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)” (ISBN 0895260131) If you haven’t, I would be more than happy to post you a copy of it.
There are also plenty of websites available with much information on what is happening in the world at large regarding ‘terrorist’ activities and how they may impact upon us Australians in the future.
I prefer http://www.faithfreedom.org as a good place to start, as it was started by an ex-muslim, and the contributors are many and varied.
For overwhelming statistics, http://www.thereligionofpeace.com keeps a table of atrocities that occur around the world. For a peaceful religion that has been hijacked by a tiny number of extremists, there is an amazing amount of death and destruction in the world today. So far, Australia is not represented on that table, but that is more due to luck than good management, I think.
I would prefer that we do keep off the table of incidents at thereligionofpeace.com and if that means further restrictions, then I guess I’d have to accept them. I don’t like it, but if it means a safer existence, then it can’t be as bad as the alternative.
Thank you for your time and for reading this far.
Regards,
Nilknarf
http://rightwingdeathbogan.blogspot.com
nb.I have a policy of posting correspondence on my blog. If you would prefer that this correspondence remain private, please let me know within seven days, and I will not post it. Thanks, and enjoy!
I'll apologise for any typos or clumsiness - I have a tendency to send out emails late at night. That's when I get the time to sit and compose things. I also don't sent html in my emails, hence my linking might be a bit off.
The TMI Files. Moron Discipline.
Sometimes, I do wonder how on earth people raise children at all. We all know that they don't come with rego or rulebooks, and while winging it seems haphazard, it generally works.
I think children grow up to spite parents.
I've been having fun with Magilla lately. She's getting used to the new housemate who is, after all, the old housemate, and starting to push boundaries.
The Godmother and I laughed ourselves sick yesterday.
Magilla has a tendency to remove clothing at home. She has a great Paris Hilton all over suntan. It helps that she's got wonderful olive skin that loooooves the sun. She's cool with clothing when we're out and about, but obviously the convenience of going commando makes more sense than having to drop daks, negotiate clambering all over the toilet, doing your business, wipe, get down, pull daks up again, flush and wash hands. It's all so much easier sans daks altogether.
However... yesterday she hadn't gotten around to removing her knickers, and was bleating to me about wetting herself. She wanted to take her kit off. I said no, which was when she told me again about wetting herself. I checked, and she was dry.
Not happy.
So I tried to discuss 'lying' with her.
Dumb idea. Stupid idea. Discussions with three year olds involve dumbing complex ideas down to words of one syllable or less. Words that we read in Dr Seuss or hear on Sesame Street.
Morality, responsibility, consequences are words that can't be explained, only experienced at that age.
Unfortunately, when I'm falling about laughing, I don't do a very good job of imparting wisdom.
She has this habit of pulling little faces at me when I'm trying to be serious. Most of the time I can bite the inside of my cheek and work through the giggles. Sometimes I can't.
Yesterday, trying to explain lying (1st time attempt, so cut me some slack!), she kept looking away from me or hiding behind her fringe. I brushed the hair out of her eyes, looked her in the eye and demanded she look straight at me. Look at me in the eyes.
So the little ratbag did just that. She looked me straight in the eye, then reached up and with one finger pulled one lower eyelid down. Shades of A Clockwork Orange and Alex's aversion therapy.
She had this very solemn expression on her face, no smirk that I could detect, and I lost it.
That child is going to be either a comedian or a lawyer. She's a genius at splitting hairs, but she also cracks me up like you wouldn't believe.
The Godmother was sitting behind Magilla while all this was going on, and her stomach was hurting from holding the laughter in. When I lost it, so did she, and the opportunity to impart
*cough* wisdom
*cough* likewise was doomed.
Lying is not something she makes a habit of, however, so that's a good thing. I try to be consistent and if I don't see something, I can't discipline her for it. Also, I don't punish accidents, so she's more than secure with me. (Actually, I get accused of being a pushover at times. I am, but there is a line that is not to be crossed. Magilla knows that.)
I think it's a lesson we'll have to leave for a bit later on.
Letter to the Danish PM 31st Dec 2005
Dear Mr. Rasmussen,
I'm am simply writing to congratulate on your stand against the furore over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in the Jyllands-Posten earlier this year.
Whether you are aware of it or not, the courage you display in this fiasco is admired and applauded around the world by those who have been watching Europe slide into the abyss of appeasement.
Please keep up the good work, and as Winston Churchill once said... "Never surrender."
Warmest regards and God bless,
Nilknarf
http://rightwingdeathbogan.blogspot.com
(please note: as a rule, I like to publish correspondence on issuse that concern me on my blog. In the interests of courtesy, I do not post immediately. If you would prefer that I do not post this letter, please feel free to infom me. If you do have a reply, please advise me of whether you have any objection to its being made public. Thank you again)
I've not heard back from Mr. Rasmussen, but I didn't expect to. Jsut so long as he gets the message and knows that there are many out here who support the stand of the Danish people against oppression.
I know that since I sent this letter, it appears that Denmark may have caved somewhat halfheartedly, but I don't know the whole story yet. I'm still catching up on my JW reading.
I was pretty well gobsmacked to read of an airline dictating that crew members not wear crosses or carry teddy bears or bibles, so I sent them a letter.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to express my dismay at a recent article in the Sunday Mirror (found at http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16559713%26method=full%26siteid=62484%26headline=british%2dmadland-name_page.html) and outlining your regulations regarding the religions of your staff members.
I have been checking out your website for any sort of statement that Christians need not apply for employment in light of this article, but it appears that there is not one.
If your employees are not allowed to wear religious symbols that may offend persons in another country, is it not possible that at some stage your customers might also be enjoined to refrain from anything resembling religious expression?
Perhaps you should advertise for muslims only. It would make more sense.
Yours in dismay,
Nilknarf Arbed.
Please note, as a matter of public policy, this letter and any reply will be posted at the blog: http://rightwingdeathbogan.blogspot.com.
Thank you.
This is an appalling turn of events.
So much for human rights. It's looking like we have the right to cower away at the risk of offending people who may take violent exception to expressions of our belief.
Excuse me if I come across as being somewhat... unimpressed.
I am. Severely so.
A Picture of a Present is Worth a Thousand Words.
Note for non-aussies: "Root" is another word for "fornicate."
Women's rights under sharia:Abomination.
This leaves me godsmacked. I don't doubt that my word will offend muslims around the world, but there is nothing else to say, really.
Well, yes, there is.
If you are muslim, and a woman, how can you countenance something like this? If you believe that we should live under sharia, how can you, being less than a man, consider giving up the freedoms you have in a western, democratic society?
You cannot dress freely - at least here you can be as modest or immodest as you wish. Nobody will beat you for it, nobody will throw you in jail for it, nobody will call you a whore or a slut for it.
You cannot leave the house without being accompanied by a man who is your relative - husband, father, brother, keeper.
You should not be educated, as you are considered of lesser intelligence than a man and you should be providing more children for the Ummah.
It is an extreme example of the
Madonna/Whore syndrome.Women are placed on pedestals as mothers and clay figures to be honoured as lifegivers. The minute we step out of line by saying something undesirable, we have fallen, and are branded whores, to be used and abused as seen fit.
Read
4.34.Then read it again.
Renovation Retards. The Kitchen.
It has begun....This morning, the Godmother and I started in on the kitchen.
The House in Bogan Central, as it's come to be known, is an old
commission house from the 50s. These buildings are made from slabs of concrete and tend to be rather boxy and not at all beautiful.
However, when they have been looked after, they are wonderfully solid and quite okay in the insulation department. If they haven't been, then rising damp, dodgy stumping and the like can become a nuisance.
This one's been looked after.
BUT.... (there's always one, I know)
A previous owner was a bit too free with the carpet budget. We are talking carpet everywhere apart from the loo, the laundry and the entryway to both at the back door. That means, for those a bit slow on the uptake, that carpet has been applied to other wet areas in the house. Like the kitchen and the bathroom.
Not no more. For the kitchen, at least.
Today, we ripped up the carpet. Under the carpet were vinyl tiles which would have come with the house originally, and they were still in pretty good nick. They might have been a bit faded, but serviceable. The carpet was disgusting, though. I've got pictures to be posted, but they will have to wait until we lay down the new vinyl tiles. That'll be tomorrow.
The carpet was soooo disgusting. It had obviously been there for 30+ years. We are talking dirt and dust filtering through it and piling up underneath so that the floor was uneven. I had thought it must have been something under the vinyl beneath, but I was wrong. The vinyl had been laid to last, and it did.
I don't know what sort of nufnuf would put carpet in a kitchen, but someone should hunt them down and smack them upside of the head.
The cabinets are also original, but we are going to replace those. We need a dishwasher and more bench space. They will come shortly. It's the floor for now. It's not hygienic, especially with a rugrat and a fat cat.
Unfortunately, since we've not had any use for power tools so far, there are no photos of chicks with hot toys. Maybe later.
Even Magilla has been getting in on the fun; stuffing the vacuum cleaner full of half-disintegrated underlay, trying to prise up tiles with her own little screwdriver. It's not been a dull day at all, with more fun tomorrow.
To be continued.....
The TMI Files.Hunning for decent driving music.
When driving, music is essential. It's just the passengers that get in the way of your listening pleasure.
One of my driving favourites is the band
Hunters and Collectors, affectionately known as the Hunnas. I discovered them in my teens - when I was 18, the first gig I ever went to was a pub in Ballarat to see these guys. I went on my own, which was pretty daring for me in those days. And in these days, too, now that I think about it.
I lost count of the number of times I saw them around Melbourne and the inner suburbs. I saw them at the Seaview Ballroom, at the Greek, at the Corner and plenty of others. (It pains me to admit that I never saw them at the Espy. My bad.)
They had one of the most electric live presences I've ever experienced.
And as a good friend once commented: a Hunnas gig was the ultimate male bonding experience. There is nothing like a room full of a couple of hundred drunken blokes screaming out
"You don't make me feel like I'm a woman anymore!"Okay, I'm not a bloke, but it was always something to be treasured.
Back in 98 when they broke up, I was in Brisbane. They were doing a national tour to say sayonara, so I gathered up a bunch of mates and we saw the Hunnas at the Morayfield. I got drunk, I danced, almost got into a punchup with some other sheila there (her boyfriend got her out of my face lol), and I unfortunately have a lot of photographs of that night in my collection out in the garage. It was a great night.
Early Hunnas are the best for driving. There is always a kickarse base line, great lyrics and melodies that stay with you forever.
Bugger. Now, I'm going to be singing Hunna's songs to myself all night.I wish I could wean Magilla off
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat so I could listen to my music more often.
Correspondence.
Well, now that my puter is working again, and I'm starting to find time (not much, though - the renovations are beginning), I'm intending to gear up my correspondence activities.
I wrote to Morris Iemma back on the 16th of December, but that one I won't post as it would no doubt get me in trouble. I've not had a response, but that's also to be expected. I'm only a voter, after all.
I also wrote to the Danish PM, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Dec 31st. I've not had a reply from that either, but at this time of the year that's no problem. I'll leave that for another week before posting, just to allow him some time to reply or not. That one was just congratulating him on the stance taken over the uproar of the
Jyllands-Posten printing of cartoons depicting Mohammed. Being an infidel, I really have a hard time getting my head around the carryings-on by Islamic countries over what happens in a secular democracy such as Denmark. So far,
Egypt discontinues dialogue on human rights with Denmark over this, the
UN has waded in, as has the
EU.This, of course, isn't to mention the countries in the OIC baying for the blood of Denmark.
And yet, there is still that deafening silence from member countries of the OIC when it comes to honour killings, the lack of rights for women (unless it's the right to be a chattel, I guess), the destruction of churches in Pakistan and Egypt, the murdering of
homosexuals and adulterers in Iran, for example.
Than again, maybe I'm just not enlightened enough to see the difference. I am, after all,
somewhat lacking in the gray matter department.
As usual, I've digressed.
This little post was just to warn any readers that my emailing activities will begin again. The only difference to last year's (tiny) correspondence is that there will be a time delay on posting it here.
The TMI Files. Addendum to the Bog Monster.
Today, we went through two
TWO! rolls of loo paper.
Magilla's getting good with it. Now I just have to get her to ease up on how many rolls she wants. I thought a few squares was fine, but apparently not.
Just as well The Godmother rocked up with a bulk pack the other day. *phew*
The TMI Files. Hippy Gnu Yar!
Okay, so I've had a half a glass of plonk. I'm not drunk, though. Not even sloshed. Just trying for something a bit different.I hope you all had a great break. Mine was good, although more hectic than expected.
I thought that I was spending a quiet time with Magilla. I've pretty much put a moratorium on Family Xmasses, but that still didn't stop the invites coming. As it was, on the day, we went to church in the morning, had lunch in the mountains with friends, and then the little tacker went off to do family things without me.
Boxing Day was spent roaming the sales with my new (old) housemate, the Godmother. We were housemates for years before, during and after pregnancy, until she moved out with her boyfriend. Due to circumstances, she is no longer with the boyfriend, and we always made good housepals.
(Bear in mind, that during this time, my monitor was playing up, so I've pretty much missed a week's worth of news. I don't know how I survived, but obviously I did.)
After one day of rest (the 27th), it was truck time. I got to go hire a truck, and we moved furniture from her old house to her new house. Luckily the big room in the place here was sort of vacant. I just hadn't gotten around to setting it up as a workshop.
Had a friend stay for a few days after that, and a pleasant visit it was. He fixed my computer and demolished my shed, both of which are eternally appreciated.
He also, I'm not sure whether to be grateful or not, introduced me to parts of myself that I've not been acquainted with for a while. Places I thought sealed off, and uncomfortable spectres have been (re)haunting me.
All those fantasies I had of living in the middle of nowhere are looking mightily attractive, even if they are thoroughly unrealistic. Where would I buy chocolate?
Time for another visit to the headshrinker, I think. It's only been about a year or so since the last trip. :) Someone to bounce things off is always nice; even better if they don't know you from a bar of soap. That way you know that there is no hidden agenda. Just an open one of $130/hr, thanks!
And, on top of it, Magilla has a bug. Okay, it's only a temp of 39.2. Not much I know, but enough to make her grumpy and demanding. She's off her food, but plenty of fluids. As usual she's running around the house starkers (yes, she's at that stage - hates clothes), but in 20C weather, she should be feeling the cold. She's not. Poor thing.
I've got to admit it, this year is certainly interesting so far.
I hope everyone else has a good one, too.
As I reportedly exclaimed when offered a C-section:
Bring it on!Cheers!
