Sixty percent of polled Australians say it's well nigh time our defence forces came home from the quagmire in Mesopotamia.

George W Bush has been quoted as claiming similarities between the current situation in Iraq with the Tet Offensive era during the Vietnam War. This is a major admission from the American administration that events in Iraq are clearly degrading and causing more than a little concern in Republican political circles.

Human remains - some reportedly as large as arm or leg bones -have been found at the site of the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York.

Chinese food as served up in the western hemisphere is just never as eclectic as this. One wonders........does eating this stuff equate to beastiality?

Global warming is now clearly a real issue. Why do I say this? Well, it must be because John Howard is admitting so, judging by his subtle, but defined sidle up to the stance.

Unpredictable National Party Senator, Barnaby Joyce seems to be moonlighting on his constituents. He appears to be sidelining as a financial advisor.

Here’s a little free advertising. In fact, here’s some gratuitous plugging on behalf of both this website and the discussion forum which compliments it.

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Join us and broaden our horizons.

A disturbing article in the Guardian concerning the reprehensible procedure known as ‘extraordinary rendition’. It’s not sufficient, in my mind, that this process is hinted at as having occurred or might have occurred. It happens. Present tense. Read the article and you’ll get a repetition of yet another tale of a human being being spirited away on a clandestine flight to a part of the world where normal standards of behaviour simply don’t exist. Where people…..human beings…..are treated as semi-sentient animals from whom information is to be extracted. What fascinates me more than anything else in regard to this disgusting process, is the collusion between supposed hated enemies. The US will align itself with whomever it needs to to achieve any unstated aim. Publically reviled enemy states like Syria are freely flirted with in this process of ‘extraordinary rendition’. This, above all else, is what makes the process of intelligence gathering in this manner all the more appalling.

As a member of the so-called civilised western society of humanity, I am appalled at such behaviour, yet I know full well many, many more, especially those in authority in the most powerful nations, are not. They sanction it! All the while they stand resolute, claiming that “American does not condone torture ”. So much bullshit! It’s a time-honoured understanding that America will do whatever America has to do to protect it’s own……even unto its own. The lines have become badly blurred and no ends is justified by the means.

I don’t care who you are or where you’re from. Who you’ve lost to what fundamentalist action in what time frame and under which government. When we surrender humanity and all it stands for, we’ve surrendered the right to call ourselves human beings. Condoning the behaviour I allude to above is tantamount to surrender.

We’re back, Ladies & Gents. I’ve just emailed Tim Dunlop of ‘The Road to Surfdom’ to let him know that the previous blog is now a dead duck, but that this one is up & running. I expect we’ll see the usual initial flood of lame-brained name-callers from the Tim Blair’s sycophant stable dropping by shortly to crap on anything and everything within their fecal range. Fear not though, dear reader. This blog is deliberately intended to be different to its previous incarnation in that it will NOT be quoting or promoting any other Oz blog in this tome. You see, I’ve come to the belief that this is how the Oz ‘Sphere survives. It literally feeds off itself. The Australian clique is so small and sharply defined that no-one from without the Oceania region of the ‘net is likely to be interested in what goes on downunda, so there’s a constant brawl going on for premiership. I’m not in the least interested in such carry-on.

Here’s the rules of this author’s game:

• I write for me;
• If you read it, lector caveo;
• If you comment, on your head be it;
• I retain all rights and privileges to what appears in this domain, just as Andrea Harris does on hers.
• all opinions expressed here are those of the author and are copyright. I am not a member of any political party, nor desire to be.

Don’t forget…..if you have an opinion to express and want somewhere to do it, where it won’t be censored, banned or otherwise smothered no matter what it might be, there’s always the ThinkTank.

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Truthdig - Reports - After Pat’s Birthday.

Read it. Honour the memory of a man who died believing what his country fed him. He died misled. He died a lie.

Now some of the cleric's fellow Muslims, including the Islamic Council of New South Wales, are calling his comments comparing immodestly dressed women to "uncovered meat" as "unIslamic, unAustralian and unacceptable."

Far from building bridges with the wider community, he seems to have dug himself an almighty hole.

Full story reported here: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Australia's Muslims fear backlash.

The images might not be as shocking as the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs showing US troops abusing Iraqi prisoners, but they have sparked widespread revulsion,

BBC NEWS | Europe | German army acts over skull row.

I read this article and found myself wondering just how much NATO has to do in Afghanistan if it’s so damnably concerned about a couple of it’s troops fucking around with a skull. The bloody place must be littered with human remains given the carnage of the last twenty years. So a couple of guys found a few skulls and played black humour games with them. Big fucking deal!

Disturbing the peace of the dead! PFFTT! If the dead in question had really been at peace, surely their remains wouldn’t have been accessible to these German soldiers?

"It is a storm in a cup ... no worries, mate, in Australian“

No one can sack me, says defiant Hilali | News | The Australian.

Why is the Australian media so het up over the purported – translated no less – statements by a cleric of a religious sect which is a minority in this country?

So, if she isn't being pulled by a fresh opportunity, did McKew feel pushed by changing times at the ABC? A new managing director, Mark Scott, was appointed in July, and this month announced anti-bias guidelines for the broadcaster.

McKew quiet about life after Aunty | Media | The Australian.

Valid question, I’d suggest. Especially given Scott’s black-and-white view of media presentation and his reticence to be seen as anything but plain vanilla. In his recent speech to that doyen of conservative thinktankism, The Sydney Institute, Scott was quoted as stating his new editorial guidelines …

would encourage diversity "ensuring the ABC is the town square where debate can flourish and different voices [be] heard".

Clearly Scott doesn’t have a great opinion of current ABC journalism ethics. I’d say Maxine won’t be the last of the current crop of ABC journalists to seek other pastures in which to graze. Why dine where the food is always plain and boring?

Ignore this post, reader. It's simply a spider-gatherer for my Technorati Profile.

The Federal Opposition is calling on the Government to decide whether controversial comments made by the Muslim cleric Sheik Taj el-din Al-Hilali break laws against inciting violence.

Ruddock urged to decide legality of sheikh's comments

This issue of a muslim religious leader supposedly inciting violence through his preachings is now well and truly worn out. When politicians start to bat the situation back and forth, inflaming more than quelling the more controversial elements of the issue for sheer political capital, then the joke is dead, people!!!!

Leave the man alone! Leave the issue alone! It’s dead and now it’s starting to stink with the political and media-laid maggots devouring the corpse.

The origins of the tune are more complex. The discovery around 1970 of an original musical manuscript (today held in the National Library of Australia as MS9065), together with an undated letter by Christina Macpherson to Thomas Wood recalling the events surrounding the creation of the song, has finally led to Christina being accredited as the first ‘creator’ of the music. Yet as Christina openly acknowledged, she simply adapted the tune from an existing folk song.

I'm rather fond of the idea that our national song comes from an Irish folk song entitled "Ga'ng the De'il an' Shake Y'sel' ".

CATHOLIC schools have raised fears of government interference in their religious affairs after John Howard pledged $90 million for school chaplains, a move the former premier, Bob Carr, called a retrograde and divisive threat to the separation of church and state.

Catholics and Carr wary of school chaplains plan - National - smh.com.au.

On initial assessment, my thoughts were that yet again, this Howard government is attempting to manipulate social mores in order to sway ideologies. It is a mark of this government, to install greater conservative influences within the base levels of society. Non-secular religious influences, conservative school practices, raillery against women’s rights to self-determination of issues regarding their own bodies, and so on. It’s yet more fundamentalism running rampant out of Canberra. Even to the extent that this morning I hear Howard claiming that while he’s all fired up about this ‘Chaplain’ idea, he’ll reserve the right to dole out the money to those schools and individuals they wish to choose. In other words, he’ll decide the suitability of the person’s ideology, thanks very much.

To me, Chaplain means sky-pilot as opposed to what is genuinely needed in our education systems, both public and private, which is trained counsellors. Not bible-bashing pulpit thumpers. I’m with Bob Carr. Governments of any stripe must not indulge in boundary pushing on that imperative standing between church and state. Provide proper, trained and independent psychological support to school communities, but leave religion to those who really feel the need.

Prime Minister John Howard took a moment to reflect on the responsibilities of sending young soldiers to war, as he launched a new book on World War I.

PM reflects on sending young men to war.

and so he ought, although I have serious doubts that the PM has any real understanding of the responsibilities of sending young lives off to fight political wars. I firmly believe it to be the heights of hypocracy to pontificate about the moral pressures the PM may or may not have experienced, when it is clear that Australia’s involvement in the only real “war” Howard has send young lives off to is one of political convenience.

On the subject of Les Carlyon’s book, I’d be much more comfortable in recommending that readers watch Andrew Denton’s program, ‘Enough Rope’ this evening, than paying undue attention to what Howard has to say.

My current job allows me to tele-commute, which is to say, due to technology and a compliant employer, I get to work from home.

Courtesy of the Guardian’s Hilary Osborne