NEWS BRIEFLETS

* Arthur Chrenkoff has yet more crazy tsunami quotes.

* Headline in The Guardian: "Iraq's Allawi Warns of More Violence." How many prisoners is he planning to kill this time? Only Paul McGeough knows for sure.

* Talk about your root causes: "A high-profile Australian charity headed by a Catholic priest has backed away from plans to set up an orphanage in tsunami-shattered Aceh after the plan enraged hardline Muslim groups." Aceh observes sharia law, so naturally it opposes orphan assistance from wicked Australians.

* Hippos and Aldabran tortoises seem to get along okay, however.

* Richard McEnroe and Sam Ward present exciting new fashion options for the New Year.

* A mere billion-dollar aid package? That's not enough for The Age's Bruce Petty.

* The SMH's tragic Marian Wilkinson receives a fact-checking from Professor Bunyip; so does Tim Dunlop, who unlike Wilkinson at least acknowledges any errors he may have reported.

* Congratulations to the winners in the 2004 Asia Blog Awards.

* Attention, insurgents! Even 1,000 yards away, you aren't safe from Marine sniper Sgt. Herbert B. Hancock.

* "He has the righteous rage of a fiercely moral teenager," writes Mark Dapin about John Pilger. Scott Campbell further examines the teeny moralist.

"Sheriff's posse nabs kangaroo
By Rodney Dalton
January 8, 2005

COVERED in snow and a long way from home, the red kangaroo offered no resistance when cornered by the sheriff's men on a Wisconsin farm.

The US capture came in the nick of time, as the wandering marsupial would not have survived a night of sub-zero temperatures..."

I was going to make a smart remark about how I never see headlines like this in American papers, then I noticed the location of the aforementioned roo...

Many thanks for the plug! Could you fix the link:

http://www.cafepress.com

My bad, I 'spect.

*grumble* Early morning here...

http://www.cafepress.com/BVPrints

From Cherenkoff: "Tsunami devastates DiCaprio..." Which is odd, because he didn't seem too upset when he was wrecking a protected wildlife space to make the wretched The Beach...

Anybody else have "Axle's Theme" running throught their heads while reading about Sgt. Herbie Hancock?

Just me, huh?

Ushie — Worse, the roo has claimed asylum, alleging his student visa was stolen by Bernard Kerik's housekeeper...

"He has the righteous rage of a fiercely moral teenager"

Also the pragmatism, intellectual discrimination, accumulated wisdom and sense of proportion of one.

What d'you suppose the roo is studying?

It's maddening that the jihadists are starting to tighten things up in Aceh. I guess ensuring sharia law is observed is more important than anything.

Diplomad has an update. A real GOOD one. Head over and read:

Diplomad

If you are what you eat, John Pilger must eat a lot of arseholes.

Phillip Adams in the Australian magazine 7 Jan is challenging for the greatest number of lies and half truths ever in 800 words.

Can anyone provide details of his involvement in the Communist Party - date joined and left, reasons for exit, his story of this, date of apology etc?

Ushie — Evolutionary biology: "No, seriously, prof, what is it with the freaking platypuses?"

I love it - sniped from over 1000yds! Never give Marines a reason to fight you!

Axel's theme was Jan Hammer, not Herbie Hancock.

did herbie hancock do beverly hills cop?

or was he involved with the lovebug?

Richard, when I see a picture of a platypus, I feel the same way.

Re: Sgt. Hancock

"No better friend; no worse enemy."

He has the righteous rage of a fiercely moral teenager

Re: Pilger

Alexander Waugh's new book 'Fathers and Sons' contains the following quote from his father's (Auberon Waugh's) diary:

"Something about the bottomless stupidity and deviousness of Pilger's face had me in stitches.." pg. 431

This was written in 1976!

Paul McGoo characterises the Arabs as seeing the world through the "prism of pain that is Palestine" - meaning presumably that Israel has no legitimacy. Did he train with the BBC?
It is apparently no problem for Islamic states to be created, to witness Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangla Desh, (Kashmir?).
Pilger has not been a teeny for quite a while, but he will be forever a weeny.
Petty should be ashamed of that effort. He is certainly capable of so much better. Cartoonists should not be immune to criticism any more than journalists. They have places reserved for them in a prominent part of major newspapers and they should produce something worth their pay.

"A high-profile Australian charity headed by a Catholic priest has backed away from plans to set up an orphanage in tsunami-shattered Aceh after the plan enraged hardline Muslim groups."

Weirdly, I'm on the side of the Muslims on this one. A Catholic priest is not someone I'd want running an orphanage these days, especially if it has little boy orphans.

Ken, that's unworthy of you. All Catholic priests aren't pedophiles.

Hmmm! Ken might want to consider what happens in Islamic societies where it is forbidden to fraternise with women. All that pent up sexual drive has to go somewhere - if he thinks the catholics, or any country has a monopoly on bad behaviour vis a vis boys ... sorry, old chap.

"Weirdly, I'm on the side of the Muslims on this one."

What, the under side?

Bite the pillow, dream of blighty and enjoy Ken

"Axel's theme was Jan Hammer, not Herbie Hancock."

We're both wrong. It was Harold Faltermeyer.

Jan Hammer was Miami Vice.

And Vangelis was Chariots of Fire.

And Tangerine Dream was Blade Runner.

Any other electronica soundtracks we should clear up in advance?

Well said Andrea.

Father Chris Riley and his organisation, Youth Off The Streets, has a well-earned reputation in Sydney for working with victims of child sexual assault.

mike hammer's son, right?

Dave S.

Blade Runner was Vangelis.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002KYK/qid=1105233556/sr=2-2/ref=pd_ka_b_2_2/002-9551723-4244017

:^)

Damnit!

This one:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002IZM/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/002-9551723-4244017?v=glance&s=music&st=*

Oh, I know all that. I just couldn't resist a cheap shot because the church hierarchy has still not made serious attempts to address the problems.

Well, complain at a more appropriate venue. Does this look like the Vatican?

Oh heck, and while I'm wound up --

How would you like it if someone walked up to you and said "Hey, you or your cause deserves mockery and putdowns because (enter some fundamentalist rightwing Republican's stupid comment about gays or something)." Yeah, you'd hate that. Wouldn't you?

Jesus. Can we put a sock in the bullshit for this one hour? We have orphaned kids, who through no fault of their own had their home and families wiped out, and some priest trying to do good who's had his offer of help trod into the shit by some cretins, and you hop in to help the cretins because you can't control your little inner cheap shooter. Please do go punch yourself in the nads, Ken. And then explain to me why it's cute to drag in some OTHER TOPIC which has nothing to do with the situation at hand, but somehow it's not okay when trolls do it. Yes, as you can see, I am really quite pissed off.

Yes dear. Consider them punched.

I'd like to know how much of his millions Osama Bin Laden has contributed to the tsunami victims appeal. He seems strangely quiet on this issue, given that it is the people of the world's largest Moslem country who have suffered the most.

For that matter, I'd also like to know how generous the oil-rich nations of the Middle East have been to their brothers.

"Blade Runner was Vangelis."

Goddammit.

OK, so what soundtrack did Tangerine Dream do?

Dave S try "Risky Business"

Nothing like the "righteous rage of a fiercely moral teenager" to brighten one's day.

He must be sort like Lisa Simpson without Bart around for the laughs.

Notice Pilger gives his stamp of approval to the Green Left Weekly.

You know that 'newspaper' righteous raging fiercely 'moral' juveniles try to sell to you while you're slurping a beer in the University pub or looking for a shop that sells fur coats in the Queen Street Mall.

tangerine dream

Another who seems strangely silent is Professor Alison Broinowski. I've been expecting her to say all those foreign tourists on the beach at Phuket deserved to die: the cleansing power of the tsunami in washing away Western corruption and decadence - that sort of stuff.

Perhaps, after all, she learnt her lesson after Bali.

"I've no reason to trust the Herald, but I won't hold you accountable for the sins of the Herald" - Pilger

He has no problem getting his pieces published in the Herald, though. Though he probably considers the paper far too right-wing for him - his usual Australian outlet is the Green Left Weekly.

In one of his books - forgive me, I don't remember them all by heart - Pilger actually calls the SMH a conservative paper.

Ken Summers:

Let's go back to the root causes - second above - story, shall we?

And let's read down to the very end of the story, where the real point remains, burning like an ember yearning to burst into flame:

'Hilmy's organisation, known as FPI, is known for smashing up bars and nightclubs in Jakarta and elsewhere deemed to be un-Islamic.'

'Australian travel warnings for Indonesia warn travellers about the "sweeping operations" the group conducts.'

And let's go back to the priest who rightly wanted to help. But was stymied by the muslim fuckwit. But the priest was more a fuckwit for falling over. As they all do. Politically correct, in the face of Islam. Untouchable Islam.

And Ken Summers steps in and makes a stupid point about sins of the church.

Which is made even more stupid, because those of us who remain -precious few - defending the church, would happily put a bullet through the heads of pedophile priests. I certainly would. Oppose that, anti-capital-punishment lobby.

'Yes dear.'

How debate crashes like an uprooted tree into the abyss when confronted with serious rejoinder.

Concerning root causes, I just heard that some Aceh rebels attacked the UN headquarters there. Will Kofi Annan be asking "why do they hate us?"

Dude, let it go. I made a sarcastic comment, it blew up. I take it back. End of story.

Joe Vialls, the nut Chrenkoff quoted who thinks the tsunami was the result of a US nuclear explosion designed to give John Howard's cronies lucrative reconstruction contracts in Indonesia, writes the following on his web site:

Predictably perhaps, I remain permanently barred by American multinationals including Yahoo and PayPal, and more recently have had completely unacceptable restrictions placed on my web page layouts and graphics by others, who for the present will not be named. Life is never easy for a former combat veteran living on a miniscule disabity pension... If you appreciate these intelligence reports ...please direct the funds to my Western Australia bank account shown here. Thank you for caring.

Account name: J. Vialls
Bank Name: Bank West
Swift Code: BKWAAU6P
BSB: 306-474 Account #: 0574527

I sure hope no sons of former Nigerian Oil Ministers are reading his site.

2dogs,

yes, right after he figures out where all the people have gone.

Bruce Petty...I can't think of a more appropriate name for him, can you???
The silly old bastard!

Paul McGeough...even complete disgrace can't get him to go away!