The Cassandra Complex

Just heard the foreign minister being simultaneously offended and dismissive of an Indonesian cartoon portraying him and John Howard fornicating in dingo form, and I was so curious I had to go looking for it...

(From news.com.au)

This piece of low brow satire (whose ability to invoke discomfort in its subjects makes me smile just a little bit) has been prompted by Australia accepting the asylum claims of refugees from Papua, offending the Indonesian government. You can read an ABC article about it here. I do feel sorry for the single Papuan who was sent home, though... conspiracy theorists in Indonesia are apparently suggesting that he's an Australian spy.

If he didn't deserve refugee status before, that single claim ought to get that decision reversed on the spot because I think he just became a target.

The other thing that bothers me about the government's conduct in this is that their public statements in no way seem to condone the decision by the Immigration Department to grant those people asylum in the first place. They are very much taking a "sorry, that's our law, it's not our fault" line. I suppose in a way they have to for diplomacy reasons, but I wish that, having actually done the right thing with regard to a group of refugees, they'd stand up for the decision a little bit...

I love John Stanhope. A politician who'll get his kit off and dive into a dam to save a drowning helicopter pilot. A politician who puts draft legislation on his website so everyone can read it when the government doesn't want its contents known.

He made me smile again today with a quote on the issue of civil unions. The ACT Government is planning to introduce legislation later this year to give gays and lesbians who get a civil union the same legal rights as a married couple, thereby removing descrimination.

Phillip Ruddock (who is (allegedly) a right wing bastard) has come out on behalf of the federal government today and said that if Stanhope does so, then the Commonwealth will move to block it because that threatens the (holy sanctity of the) Marriage Act, which is Commonwealth turf. He also said that it was misleading to the (poor misguided) gays and lesbians, who might actually believe that what they have is a marriage! Gasp!

Ruddock will stop this (godless) legislation by either amending said Marriage Act or, even more offensively to my mind, using the Territories Act to screw the ACT specifically.

John Stanhope's quote in response to all of this, which made me grin from ear to ear in my heathen and godless way, is:

"Mr Ruddock needs to be asked, what is his real concern about the ACT legislation? What is his real concern about my commitment to remove discrimination and to show respect to same-sex relationships? One has to pose the question of whether or not the real reason is that there is no place in John Howard's Australia for homosexuals."

Tellin' it like it is! :)

(ABC news article here.)

It's been a while since I've done anything in Photoshop (damn WoW); this was the last piece I uploaded to my dA account, back on 12 March.

Larger Image here.

I mentioned a while back that I'd been offered a transfer into a section which has more upward mobility prospects than than the one I am in now.

Things have slowly progressed, and I'm at the point where as of next week I am going over there for six weeks. For the last five of those six weeks, I will be filling in for someone while they are on leave, with the commensurate increase in pay.

My boss here has said she's only happy for me to go for the six weeks at first because that way I can come back here and decide whether I was happy there before making the decision to move permanently. It's probably not a bad idea, though I suspect that she's more hoping that my change-averse nature kicks in and I decide I hate it based on that alone so that I don't actually leave...

My biggest worry is that there is, as I predicted, no one to fill in for most of my work over here. So I probably will end up doing one and a half jobs (maybe one and three quarters) and it's going to be really stressful! :(

The other day someome told me that they love my handwriting and that it always makes them smile.

Apparently it has something to do with the way I do a o above my i and j rather than a . ...

I think it's just about the most off the wall compliment I have ever been paid!

Wanna buy an Army Barbie for your patriotic little American daughter to mutilate? Can do!

Salute Sergeant Barbie! Barbie wears authentic desert battle dress uniform of camouflage material, like those worn in Desert Strom campaign. You can tell by the insignia on her maroon beret that Sergeant Barbie is a medic, and ready for duty with two medical cases! A proud and patriotic American serving her county wherever she is needed.

Barbie even comes in two different colours!

White Barbie

Black Barbie

How much?

Well, white Barbie is $28.50. Black Barbie was $26.00 but is now $10.99!


... I am not sure what the discrepancy in price is all about - the site is selling boxed Barbies so you'd assume black Barbie has more wear and tear. The part that confuses me is that they have an unlimited number of white Barbies and only one black Barbie ... so surely black Barbie would be more of a collector's item?

I am sure that the company would argue that it's the economy of supply and demand... :|

Is it vain of me to be contemplating booking a hairdresser appointment prior to going to the government shopfront to get my licence renewed?

It's probably futile, given that it's statistically impossible to look good in any passport style photo.

Another AM golden moment, this time from last Thursday. It's taken the ABC people till now to upload the March transcripts to archives, or I would've posted it sooner (usually they have them up the next day)...

The subject of the conversation was the fact that we're planning on playing our national anthem rather than "God Save the Queen" during the opening of the Commonwealth games, and that a lot of people see this as a snub to the queen, who will be there. Amanda Vanstone is a big L Liberal but also (surprisingly to me) a republican. Here was the bit of conversation that made my eyebrows fly up into my hair somewhere:

MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: Why do you think the people organising the Commonwealth Games have decided not to play 'God Save the Queen'?

AMANDA VANSTONE: Well, I have to say, I'm a bit suspicious. I'm a bit suspicious because Australia voted no to becoming a Republic. In other words, they voted to retain a foreign monarch, and therefore you'd think would want to show due respect on one of her rare visits to Australia.

So the only reason I can think for not doing so is because the Games organisers realise that to a large crowd of Australians it will seem quite anachronistic, people will think, "Well, what's going on here? Oh, heaven's above, yes, we really do have an English Queen as the Queen of Australia!" and that would jar with some Australians.

Go Amanda! You wacky conspiracy theorist.

It's probably true though... :|

The full transcript is here.

I just checked the mail, as you do when you get home, and found two envelopes from Urban Services. "Uh oh," I thought. I have just renewed my rego for the car, so I was expecting one envelope, but what could the second be? Had I accidentally earned myself a speeding fine?

Nope.

It's my licence renewal paperwork! :(

Where I live the licences are renewed every five years, so this is the first sign of the impending 30th birthday.

I don't want to have to renew my licence. The picture on the old one is better. I was 25 then!

Damnit.

It's the 10th anniversary of Lil Johnny (long may he rule us) coming to power, and on the local ABC AM radio station, 666, played a song that they said was a dedication request to him, by someone called P. Costello. The song was "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds:

Don't you forget about me
Don't don't don't don't
Don't you forget about me

Will you stand above me?
Look my way, never love me
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down

Will you recognise me?
Call my name or walk on by
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down, down

By strange coincidence, I was thinking not too long before they played this that the song from the Australian voters to John Howard is "Better the Devil You Know" by Kylie Minogue:

I'll forgive and forget
If you say you'll never go
'Cos it's true what they say
It's better the devil you know

Our love wasn't perfect I know
I think I know the score
If you say you love me, oh boy
I can't ask for more
I'll come if you should call

I'll be here every day
Waiting for your love to show
Yes it's true what they say
It's better the devil you know

Now I am even more depressed - ten years combined with early Kylie pop in my head. So I thought I would share the pain with everyone else! :)