An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
I’m being a bit haunted by this this morning, for obvious reasons.
RIP to Captain Beefheart and Ruth Park. Strangely enough, like Ampersand Duck from whom I got the info (“Terribubble”), I wasn’t even aware that RP was still alive, but I was in the Paperback bookshop in Bourke street and a copy of the Muddle Headed Wombat sorta fell into my hand while I was looking for an eight-year-old girl present. Coincidence!
Harp in the South and Poor Man’s Orange were two of the great reading experiences of my youth, and contributed to my radicalisation. They helped pull me out of the comfortable suburbia of my youth and are books I have never forgotten.
Morgan poll has the Coalition on an election-winning 51.5% of the TPP vote.
And to think, when Labor’s poll results get this bad, they replace their leader!
Chris Hedges and others chained themselves to a fence in Washington to protest US wars. I think 130 or so were arrested. They have given up on softer campaigning methods. I’d love to see this kind of protest here. Watch some of the speakers before the arrests here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8iVBLnkZgA
Curious, kind of, the lack of media coverage. Anyone else have any links?
Oh damn, did Don Van Vliet pay his bill?
All flags at half-mast, please.
“Ah, it’s a shame.
Say, it’s a pity.
Gotta putt out a’ Carson City.”
So long, Don.
I’ll go around all day with tha moon stickin’ in my eye.
*snf*
I love you, you big dummy.
Mercurius, re Morgan poll, yawn. Nobody is paying attention, at Christmas time, just after a federal election.
The Poll Bludger analyzes the Morgan poll. Short version – by the standard means of calculating the 2PP, it’s 50-50.
Putting aside its significant errors (at one point it had the ALP seriously ahead in the run up to August) the other fun thing about the Morgan Poll is that if one relied on it one might conclude that the current reactionary pandering stance of the Gillard regime were a failure.
One a side note I heard Lyndal Curtis speaking with Chris Evans yesterday on their ABC. Amusingly, she put it to Evans that his stance on asylum seekers was “middle of the road” and that if it had failed shouldn’t we “get tougher at both ends”. A rather scatological pun occurred to me but I will let that one slide by.
What was telling was that on their ABC the idea of treating the matter with humanity apparently wasn’t worth even dismissing out of hand as the idea of the humanitarian fringe. (Perhaps better to keep comments on this one in the Boat People tragedy thread)
On a separate note I heard “Dave Morrow” ranting about the decision to rest Mitch Johnson from the second test and relieve him from Shield commitments so he could work on his fitness and bowling action with Troy Cooley.
Morrow had a real spray, playing the common sense every man to cricket’s ivory tower boffins who were driven, in this matter if you can believe it, by political correctness.
Now this seemed initially mad to me, whatever one thought of the wisdom of the Mitch Johnson fitness/technique response. PC? WTF?
After reflection however, that claims of “PC” have morphed to encompass every instance where the wisdom of the authentic common man (a.k.a the common ranter) collides with the insights/conduct of people who apparently know stuff and have pertinent experience. This applies as much in cricket as in climate change, asylum seeking, matters of gender rights or anything else.
It may well be that this theme the wisdom of the authentic common man when it coincides with the predisposition of conservatives may well be the key “intellectual” fashion of this decade. To say this was PC, early 21st Century style might be too paradoxical.
I might post this in Robert’s thread.
PS: Given that Mitch managed 6-35 yesterday including two bursts that ensured Australia led on the first innings on a good pitch, and did it by bowling in the right place and with swing pretty consistently, I can’t wait to suggest Morrow explain why it never occurred to him that people with relevant training, experience and a track record of success might just possibly happen to know what they were doing.
oops: Brian’s thread … apologies.
Regarding the ABC, every TV news bulletin now seems to include a trip by a camera crew to Myers, Grace Bros or DJ’s.
Advertorial content to supplement their grooming allowance, no doubt.
Their ABC is going steadily downhill under the right wing directors.
Captain Beefheart’s dead? Fuck! Why wasn’t I told?
….
from above a living mail thriving dot
in perfect sympathy
with the cardboard cutout sundown
….
There is probably an intersection in the vast forever, where Frank and Don are musing.
Not quite ready to die to get there.
Desert boogie au Captain B., with a side of l’art brut.
“It’s a bush recording. We’re out recording a bush.”
– Don Van Vliet
Dont Ask, Dont Tell is dead!
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/12/18/Senate_Passes_DADT_Repeal/
Not just a big win for the gay and lesbian community but also a big win for Obama, who lets face it, needs one right now! Six Republican Senators voted in favour of repeal.
For the fine young people following along at home, here is today’s Lesson On Style:
Observe for yourselves how a bunch of perfectly nice, reasonably talented people with all the good intentions in the world, can turn something stark, truthful and extraordinary into something merely sort of pleasant and easily forgotten. It’s the same song as the one I posted in the previous comment, but this time, competently drained of style.
Like a great man once said, Seek electricity.
Soon on Fox:
“Did a “Gay General” order regular American troops to their certain deaths by deploying them into the teeth of a Taliban metal storm?”
When I buy my new set top box next year, I won’t be getting it from any of these greedy bastards.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/shopping/tax-break-a-net-result-for-overseas-shoppers-20101218-191bb.html
Its a wet summer. People don’t want to go out shopping in the rain. They don’t need to buy the usual summerwear. We’re watching events overseas in the UK, Ireland, Greece, etc and we’re shit scared it might happen here so we’re not spending money. On top of that rents and utility bills have hit the stratosphere, home-buyers are hit by bank interest rates way beyond the rate set by the Reserve Bank. Its not only that consumers are spending money hand over fist on line.
And of course this Government will cave in to the giant retailers. Its already shown that it completely gutless.
And just as an aside, the reason I buy most of my books on-line is because three quarters of them are out of print or simply can’t be bought in local retailers. I know. I’ve tried. And if there’s a book in the local bookshop I want, of course I buy it, along with DVDs from the bookshop and from Sanity.
‘Dont Ask, Dont Tell is dead!’
Nearly. Obama signs the Bill next week and the Pentagon then needs to formally report to Congress on the implications for military effectiveness and the transition process involved. Congress can refer the report to committee for hearings etc.
If the report is accepted, 60 days have to elapse before the new policy takes effect, so it could take a few more months. There will also no doubt be some high profile military resignations and the US ‘Family’ movement will noisily embark on wreaking a terrible revenge on the Republican defectors.
But it’s a great day nonetheless and the US will discover, in retrospect, that it wasn’t such a big deal after all – just like all these places already have:
Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, UK, Uruguay
A Xmas post.
http://beingahistoryheadandotherthings.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-in-and-around-boston-1775.html
Did anyone read Leonore Taylor’s Opinion in the National Times of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD!?I went to David Irving’s Online Report to get a sense of balance!The Saudi Arabia WikiLeaks reference is a falsification of the Leak by the New York Times.Seems some people who may call themselves Jewish in some way,have not learnt to be just good journalists.If they learnt that,who cares if they call themselves Jews.The Iranian Leadership doesn’t repress the Jews of Iran,so why is it that , that matter isn’t given the light of day!? They are free to go to Israel.
Thanks for the Beefheart, japerz – a real pleasure, and, as a bonus, it led to the Mighty Woof’s Evil.
jpz…david….
No more acid gold bars…Webcor Webcor.
deeply sad actually…we were ok if we knew he was out in the desert somewhere painting…now what are we gonna do?
go down to n’orlins, get ouselves lost and found.
And just as an aside, the reason I buy most of my books on-line is because three quarters of them are out of print or simply can’t be bought in local retailers. I know. I’ve tried.
Yes. That is the problem. I reckon the bigger stores should buy machinery and do POD. I think that’s the way to go. I ordered a book online a while ago and it was POD – my first experience of it. The way they presented the chapter and section breaks was really crappy, but that should be something easy to fix.
Helen,
I’ve got quite a few POD books, all 18/19th century primary sources, and the majority of them have been excellent quality. Occasionally you miss a map or a folded map obscures a page, but even that is pretty rare in the ones I have. Though sometimes the map and picture reproductions are lousy. But, hell, sometimes they’re lousy in Penguin paperbacks too.
Re the quality of POD books. Kessinger, The Scholars’ Bookshelf and LaVirgine are generally excellent. General Books Inc is very poor quality (and can mostly be got in better POD editions I’ve found, after I’ve bought them.)
To all those excitable folk who congratulated Kevin Andrews and John Howard for mendaciously locking up Mohamed Haneef on trumped up charges.
Yes, you know who you.
Now Mohamed Haneef is back in Australia pursuing a claim for a large compensation for his mistreatment.
Common decency should convince you that Andrews and Howard should pay a large proportion of that compensation out of their own pockets and that you excitable folk should throw in a gold coin or two as well.
This is the least you could do as reparation for encouraging Andrews and Howard that they may derive some political advantage from persecuting an innocent man.
If you sent your money to the ATO with a covering note explaining its purpose, I’m sure that the ATO will know how to handle the transaction.
Write “A Gesture of Common Decency” in large letters on the reverse side of your envelope.
Oh, I should’ve gone out and had a look at the blood red moon or whatever it was, but I forgot. But I could feel its effects I was incredibly edgy in the late afternoon, didn’t really settle down till about 8.30. There was a raging argument in the falat next door, lots of fuck offs etc. Xmas is clearly upon us.
Anyway happy Summer Solstice.
And … can we haz the smileys back? For Xmas?
I’m gonna keep on agitating … intermittently.
I’m actually feeling pretty good today as I’ve just been notified I’m getting a refund on a book that was lost in the post and will probably come out a very slight winner because the $A is near parity.
Top ten word definitions in the online Merriam Webster Dictionary in 2010:
1.austerity
2.pragmatic
3.moratorium
4.socialism
5.bigot
6.doppelganger
7.shellacking
8.ebullient
9.dissident
10.furtive
Past winners:
2009: Admonish
2008: Bailout
2007: w00t
2006: Truthiness
2005: Integrity
2004: Blog
2003: Democracy
A brief linguistic history of the United States.
In 2003, Americans wondered what they were fighting for.
In 2004, blogs were still new (cue Streisand’s “Memories”). In 2005 and 2006, the wheels fell off off Bush’s “faith-based reality”.
In 2007 only nonsense made any sense.
In 2008 reality landed with a thud.
In 2009 Americans were looking for someone to blame.
In 2010 Americans discovered what reality means.
People are still trying to find out what socalism is? Guess there’s some hope for America yet.
This is just terrible.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/20/world/middleeast/AP-ML-Iran-Filmmakers.html?_r=2&hp
This is Panahi’s second stint in gaol. He’s a wonderful filmmaker; directed ‘The Circle’ and ‘Offside’, amongst others and his films focus very much on the issue of women in Iran, without being didactic. ‘Offside’ in particular is a very funny film about women trying to sneak into a World Cup soccer match in Teheran.
Fine @ 35,
Sort of leaves you breathless with shock, doesn’t it? Is there any kind of international campaign hoing for these film-makers’ release, or has this just hit the wires? What can people do to help them?
I’m having a look round Paul and I’ll let you know.
OTOH, Assange is hardly covering himself in glory with this public statement.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/22/3098898.htm
Poor little girles were simply ‘bamboozled’ by the police because they were is such a ‘tizzy’.
At least Dr Haneef has received some sort of justice. Not that Kevin Andrews has anything to apologies for or anything.
Sighh…apologise for…
Only a million pound to Haneef after having his reputation destroyed around the world. Not enough I reckon. They should have given him at least 3 million.
As for Assange, I’m waiting for the outcome of the trial before I make any further comment on the rape charges.
Fine @ 35,
Apart from Amnesty, maybe PEN could help. After all, the film directors are also script-writers.
On the other hand, Guy Rundle lists a series of “irregularities” as long as your arm in the way in which Swedish authorities have pursued the Assange case
-the lack of a full record of the women’s statements
-no video or audio record
-one of the complainants was interviewed by phone
-the procedure is contrary to reforms introduced in 2005
-witness statements are contradictory
Rundle quotes a Swedish legal expert, “I’m seriously surprised at how many mistakes were made in such a short time.”
And the question of the mysterious disappearance of internet material and the issue of perversion of the course of justice remain unresolved.
It is invidious to deny the suffering of one person because another appears to be suffering more.
As we speak, a roll-call of the Fortune 500 Corporations of the US is trying to unperson Assange. As far as I know this treatment is unprecedented.
But I’m not talking about how the Swedish authorities have handled the case, Katz. But how Assange is talking about the women. As the estimable FDB pointed out some time ago, there seems to be an ‘f’ and an ‘l’ missing from his name.
In the circumstances as outlined by my previous comment, I believe that Assange may validly question the bona fides of his two accusers.
On the face of it, especially the contradictory witness statements and the laundering of the internet, these two accusers are participating in a miscarriage of justice.
Hang on Katz, if the Swedish authorities have stuffed it up how does that make the women who made the complaints liars? I’m not sure I follow your logic there. Are they solely responsible for the Swedish legal system? I think your miscarriage of justice is just a bit OTT.
Did I say they were “solely responsible”?
And in any event, Assange himself has said that hew has no intention of attacking either woman as one can’t know the particular pressure, presumably from the Swedish state or others, attending the matter.
That seems fair enough to me.
Clearly, the validity of any complaint the two in question may have against Assange is an entirely separate matter from the way in which the Swedish state or any other agency deploys or prosecutes it.
Using the word “tizzy” to describe two women being concerned about sexually transmitted diseases is, to say the least, a very unfortunate choice of words. That’s what I interpret Fines comment to refer to.
I consider myself fairly neutral on this aspect of the wikileaks saga, but I found the words Assange chose to use, as heard in the interview on AM this morning, to be in extremely poor taste, exceedingly dismissive, and actually I do think it was an attack on the integrity of the women.
Exactly, furious balancing. Katz, you persist in conflating two different things; whether the Swedish investigation has been completely above board and Assange’s reference to the women. He could quite easily question the investigation without referring to the women in such a partronising and ugly way.
This is a misrepresentation of what I am saying.
I am saying that the Swedish state may not be completely above board.
AND
I am saying that Assange can legitimately claim that one or both of Assange’s accusers may not be completely above board.
In the light of the second, perhaps “tizzy” is an inappropriate word for Assange to use.
Assange hasn’t even been charged let alone convicted under which circumstances, with a week in solitary in his recent memory, I’d suggest that describing the complainant’s as “tizzy” is generous.
You can listen to the interview here:
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s3098995.htm
here’s the quote:
“JULIAN ASSANGE: They did not want to make a complaint. What they say is that they found out that they were mutual lovers of mine and they had had unprotected sex and they got into a tizzy about whether there was possibility of sexually transmitted diseases. And they went to the police.”
Here’s a petition asking the Iranian government to free Panahi and his family, for anyone who is interested.
http://www.petitiononline.com/FJP2310/petition.html
Here’s a much more detailed article about the Iranian arrests.
http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/shownewsarticle.asp?email=true&newsID=35845
“JULIAN ASSANGE: They did not want to make a complaint. What they say is that they found out that they were mutual lovers of mine and they had had unprotected sex and they got into a tizzy about whether there was possibility of sexually transmitted diseases. And they went to the police.”
This is an interesting quote. Let’s list the actions of the persons concerned in this passage.
1. Assange has unprotected sex with Woman A. Woman A knew at the time she had unprotected sex with Assange.
2. Assange has a sexual encounter with Woman B. This encounter, according to Woman B, was more complicated. Among other issues, she claimed that she did not want to have unprotected sex with Assange, yet made no immediate complaint after she discovered she had had unprotected sex with Assange.
Did both women think that Assange was having sex for the first time in his life with each of them? Did they think that Assange had never had unprotected sex with any other person?
3. After each woman discovered that the other woman had unprotected sex with Assange, they agreed to visit together a police station to enquire about the legal standing of their sexual encounter with Assange. This visit, I believe it is correct to say, was motivated solely by their concerns about unprotected sex and about no other issue. (Thereafter, the police and prosecution authorities assisted to the complainants to evolve more diverse and elaborate complaints.)
On the face of it, I believe it is correct to say, that initially the complainants were concerned only about Assange’s sexual history with each of them, not about his possibly active sexual history, which may well have included much unprotected sex with a multitude of partners, before he found himself sharing a bed with each of them. For persons who claim to be sufficiently concerned about STIs to visit a police station, this is very strange behaviour.
4. To contextualise this quote, some time soon after, the internet presence of the two complainants was radically altered. Some allege that only professionals could have laundered the internet so thoroughly.
These events are very mysterious … defence lawyers would be remiss not to refer to them in an attempt to undermine the credibility of the complainants and in Britain at least, to argue against Assange’s extradition to Sweden.
As akn observes, “I’d suggest that describing the complainant’s as “tizzy” is generous.”
Assange features in Rap News Video
Amusing …
Non-deist season’s greetings Fran and thanks for that link!
Thanks Fran@56. It is pretty good when you see the whole thing. They have been playing little bits of that vid on the news services but they do not do it justice.
Rather like …. but I have sworn not to go there, any further; not on this blog, anyway.
What’s the basis for this assertion Katz? It’s pretty weird.
The women were concerned with Mr Assange’s potential HIV status and also the potential for him to go on having multiple partners without condoms. I have seen nothing to suggest that they thought A was having unprotected sex for the first time.
At least two people, I believe, have been charged and/or convicted in Victoria (from memory) for deliberately and maliciously spreading HIV. If A. is HIV positive, then that’s what he would be doing. If negative, then he is knowingly increasing the risk, which is completely unethical, although I don’t know whether that would be actionable. If he has some other STD, that would at least constitute the equivalent to GBH, I reckon.
It’s a question (actually two), not an assertion.
Your answer to the question is that the women might rightly be concerned.
I agree. This is the crucial point.
Yet there is no evidence that either woman acted urgently on that concern.
And then there is the expunging of the tweets that motivated the women to go to the police…
Katz – there’d be nothing surprising to me about someone’s minor nagging concerns about unprotected sex becoming much amplified by the discovery that their sexual partner has engaged in it with someone else within hours.
That lack of surprise being driven by a worrying degree of ignorance about the nature of STIs, whose infectiousness lasts years, not hours…
No, I’m referring to being abruptly confronted with evidence of high-frequency unprotected promiscuity. Whatever the two women knew or believed about JA before talking to each other, or about their own sexual contact with him, hearing each other’s story would have changed a lot (and would not be limited to feeling jilted).
That may be an explanation, though not a likely one.
Perhaps the missing tweets may have thrown some light on to the state of mind of the women at that important moment of realisation…
Katz, please don’t try to reduce human behaviour to what would be rational. It almost never is.
It’s unfortunate we’ve had Assange’s behaviour strained through the tabloid lens, but it looks like he’s behaved (being charitable) badly. It really needs to be tested in court.
Having a bout of insomnia. But I’d be up and showering in about an hour or so so I don’t suppose it really matters. Just that I got heaps of active sort of things to do today – pay bills, meet someone for morning tea, go shopping for groceries etc. Contemplating buying Xmas pudding and cake, + ham, chicken, sliced pork, frsh tomatoes, block of good cheese, salady type onion,for a Xmas day salad- don’t really like lettuce except with vegemite sandwiches + maybe some custard, a good bottle of dry white,+ my normal shopping.
Excuse the raving, but its the middle of the night and I can’t get back to sleep. And anyway if I did I’d never wake up in time to do stuff. Edgy but not that tired. Hope it doesn’t mean some serious big shit like 9/11 is going to go down in the next few day – probably not. Scrap that, just early morning blues in the middle of the night. I wouldn’t have a clue.
And according to one of the booksellers I deal with on the US East coast the weather is so bad over there that they can’t get the books from the warehouse to the aerodrome.And even if they could its probably too cold tp get the planes off the ground. (These soret of things occur to one very early in the morning when you’ve showerted three-quaretes of an hour earlier than normal, just for something to do.
I don’t like insomnia. It makes me even more eccentric than I already am. Still, most of the people I hang out with find me quite entertaining.
Must be pension day. I’m starting to hang out for a cigarette, which I haven’t done for over a week and a half. It is pension day, of course, but renewed nicotine cravings always remind me. That it is.
DI(nr), I’m not being prescriptive about the sources of human conduct. I’m merely pointing out how a conscientious defence lawyer may invite courts to view the processes that have attempted to bring Assange before those courts.
If human beings acted rationally, there would hardly ever be any litigation. Fortunately for litigating lawyers, that is not the case.
To get Assange before a Swedish judge, two conditions have to be met:
1. Credible accusations by accusers.
AND
2. Due process by Swedish prosecuting authorities.
It is becoming clear that the British courts are inclined to allow scrutiny of both elements of the Swedish prosecutors’ case. That being the case, Geoffrey Robertson and his helpful juniors may follow the line of reasoning that I have been outlining.
This is not how the European Arrest Warrant was designed to work. The EAW was designed to facilitate automatic passage of the accused to the jurisdiction issuing the EAW.
Call that a miscarriage of justice, if you like. Judge Riddle, for one, begs to differ.
I think you may be moving the goal posts there a bit Katz. You were accusing the women of a miscarriage of justice before. If you leave the women out of it – who may have a justified complaint let’s remember, regardless of how they behaved [and who is the monitor of how women should behave in such a situation and afterwards?]- then I agree that the Swedish legal system is problematic and that a miscarriage of justice is possible. But to whom the miscarriage of justice could happen, well let’s just wait and see. As pointed out above, Assange has not yet been charged with anything. But if I were his defence team I’d be asking him to keep his mouth shut and not use words like ‘tizzy’ about anyone. It doesn’t cast him in a good light. That is not to say that he shouldn’t defend himself, just that he should be careful with the language he uses. More respectful language isn’t going to hurt anyone.
My shitty situation took a turn for the better and worse yesterday.
Better – relatives money arriving in bank account in time to not be totally broke (not working for 6 weeks really sucks). Hence I’m buying and cooking a turkey today, with pork, chicken liver, sage and onion stuffing.
Worse – I stepped (well, hopped) on a very sharp offcut of sheet metal in my backyard from the roofers working next door. Somehow it was pointing straight up, under the ball of my foot, and I was only wearing socks. So much for the ‘good’ leg. Now I have all the inconvenience of crutches, with constant sharp pain!
Wheee!
It’s character-building, FDB.
I dunno, DI(nr), if I were FDB I’d be looking around my friends to see if any of them were lawyers at this point, and I’m a peaceable sort of girl as a rule. That’s really seriously not acceptable, and if they’re roofers then they should have good insurance.
My tongue was in my cheek, PC. FDB, is your tetanus booster current?
Heh, that was my mum’s first question DI(NR).
I don’t actually know. But it was a very clean piece of metal.
Is there a doctor in the house to tell me if I should worry anyway? I mean, there’s nothing magical about metal and tetanus is there… just that rusty nails are usually dirty?
I’d prefer not to bother with lawyers though. I’ll ask to talk to the foreman when they’re back at work – the job’s not done, so I guess they’re leaving it till after Xmas. I think mentioning that I could sue will likely achieve the end of cleaning up their act, and I know from experience that tin-snipping little corners off sheet metal can occasionally create a missile, which can be next to impossible to find.
The pain also helps take my mind off the infernal itching of my healing ankle and hip, so I’m looking at the bright side.
My character is in no need of further building right now though.
I’d call a week in solitary without a charge an open and shut case of miscarriage of justice. Being behind bars, even a police lockup, is a sombre experience even if the charge is political and you feel righteous about your presence there. I suggest that being banged away in solitary is a whole other experience. Mindy seems to want to prosecute the issue of JA’s sexual hygeine practices without acknowledgement of even the possibility that the complaint was turned into a charge by Swedish authorities for their own political puproses (ie, accommodating the US’s frothing fury with JA). It might be well to remember the precedent of the execution of the Rosenbergs before we accept anything at face value.
FDB, the rusty nail thing has more to do with animal faeces being driven into a puncture wound (and therefore staying there rather than being flushed out by the blood flow) than just being rusty. Stabbing yourself in the foot with a gardening fork would have the same effect.
In your position, I’d have a booster, though. Your mum was right.
I was?
Where?
I did that nail thing on a darkened backstage once. I was fully shod, but not in nail-proof shoes. The tough bit was extracting the nail from the foot through the shoe in the dark.
The experience provided some insight into the Romans’ thinking when evolving crucifixion as a punishment for pesky slaves.
My sympathies, BTW, FDB. I didn’t visit a doctor, perhaps rashly, but had no long-lasting after-effects. The sharp local pain develops into a dullish ache and lasts about five days.
You’ll be fine by Boxing Day.
I knew an elderly lady, grandmother of my partner at the time, who died of tetanus acquired weeding her back garden in suburban Adelaide. They gave her a muscle relaxant to stop the muscle contractions brought on by the infection, so it wasn’t possible to tell whether or not she was conscious. It took her three weeks to die.
This looks amusing:
Johnson law suit threatens Coalition unity
Tensions that threaten the unity of the Federal Coalition are about to be publicly paraded in a landmark court case that will rip at the heart of the Liberal-National Party in Queensland and present Tony Abbott with a major internal political management problem.
WTF?
Life imitates art.
Usage Note:
The linked article states:
Strictly speaking, WTF is not an acronym, because unlike terms like PIN, ANZAC or RADAR that are uttered in common parlance (and also declined as if they were words e.g. “ANZACs” in their “word” form), WTF never would be. MAD might be, but one suspects it would be used ironically.
WTF is an initialism.
oops … Moderator: Please close blockquote after [MAD ...] and close ital between “WTF” and “never”.
TIA
Really, the quote from Assange has nothing to do with the merits of the case against him. That the women went to the police “for advice” at all, is what he is taking issue with.
I don’t think anyone here has suggested that there is stronger case against Assange because he used such arrogant and dismissive language. I don’t think anyone here has suggested that though we may think what he said is a fairly poor reflection on his character, it doesn’t mean we think that the way the Swedes have handled the case has any more integrity.
BTW: it’s interesting to note that when the issue of women wearing burqas is discussed, some men can so vigorously defend a stance that suggests they know what is best for those women, despite the women concerned not making any complaints. Likewise, some men can somehow prosecute a case against Bill Henson’s moral integrity, again, even when the females concerned have not accused Henson of any impropriety. Yet, when it comes to a situation where women themselves do raised concern, how quickly some men seem to be able to dismiss it as a “tizzy”. It reeks of, “I’ll decide for the women what is and isn’t a valid concern.” How incredibly patronising.
BTW to your BTW f-b: I think I recognise myself in there. For the sake of clarity let me state that I wouldn’t bother with the burqa issue were it not for Muslim/Arabic women who oppose it and do so with the full authority of their feminist credentials. I refer, amongst others, to Nawal el Saadawi whose work you continue to ignore thus signalling your own eurocentric supremacism loud and clear.
Moreover, (so glad you raised the Henson issue), my view of his moral integrity as an artist relates to his treatment of minors who are neither men nor women but children on which subject, that is the treatment of children, as a man who works in a related field, I have as much right to a view as anyone else.
“You’ll be fine by Boxing Day.”
Well that’s reassuring. I’m not relishing the prospect of getting into and around the MCG, even just on crutches.
Does anyone know if the ground has a stable of wheelchairs?
DI(NR) – in deference to your, my mum’s and my very old girlfriend who was visiting at the time’s wisdom on the matter, I will call my GP and check.
By crikey this turkey’s going to be sublime, if I can deal with my flaky oven. The chicken livers smelled and looked a little off (damn you Coles!), but the el cheapo generic turkey came with neck and giblets (onya Coles!) so I’m prepared at even this early stage to call Best Gravy Ever on this one. Roasted up the neck, giblets and a few chicken wings with a carrot, 3 sticks of celery, an apple and 2 small onions, all roughly cut up. These are now simmering in some chicken stock I found in the freezer – later to be passed through a sieve, mixed with the juices from the cooked turkey, seasoned, thickened and served.
Best Stuffing Ever is also a distinct possibility – 2 parts minced pork, 1 part minced bacon, 1 part breadcrumbs, 2 medium onions diced and softened, a couple of tablespoons of chopped sage, 1/4 cup of pinenuts, and a packet of craisins. Herb butter up under the skin.
I’m getting carried away, but that’s Christmas innit?
Oh yeah, and Baby Jesus and stuff.
FDB: the threat of tetanus is real. Have a booster soon. Watch out for a surfeit of turkey as it too can be fatal.
furious balancing @ 83. Ain’t that the truth? Poor little women wouldn’t know what to be worried about unless there were very smart men to tell us. The whole affair has been enlightening.
And yes FDB – tetanus shot. Get better soon.
FDB,
reiterate what the others have said. Go and have a tetanus shot. Years ago I had to go to hospital in the middle of the night after I was bitten by a mouse I was trying to get out of the empty bath in my old flat. Needless to say the staff in casualty were somewhat incredulous. i suppose I could have drowned it, but all I wanted to do was put it out in the backyard and let it run away.
That sounds grand, FDB – I haven’t had giblet gravy since my grandmother died. (She took her secret method to the grave, I think. Anyway, mum never cooked it.)
@ Katz comment 77 – this is what you said at comment 44
What I took you to mean was that the two accusers are willing participants in carrying out a deliberate miscarriage of justice and therefore were deliberately lying. If I have read too much into your comment I apologise. And I’m going to wish you a Merry Christmas and get off the Assange topic because I’m starting to bore myself.
FDB if you haven’t already had that tetanus shot limp down to the Drs and get it. Trying to get treatment on Xmas Eve, Xmas Day or Boxing Day would suck. Turkey sounds mighty good.
Thanks all for sensible advice. It was after all my blase attitude to illness/injury that got me in this pickle.
Word to the wise – if you find that you’re without a roasting rack due to not having roasted anything big enough to need one since losing one in a divorce (or in my case “divorce”), and you also have a bay laurel in need of a prune, then simply crosshatch the canes from your prunings (sans leaves) in the bottom of your roasting tray. There’s a minor danger of the pan juices being too bay-ey, but otherwise it works a treat.
Oooh! And I just remembered my favourite Boxing Day breakfast indulgence, which I will share. Make french toast using thick slices of pannetone, and serve with a good yolky vanilla ice-cream. And champagne.
FDB, that sounds like an awesome
hangover cureBoxing Day breakfast – the Lady Friend has invested in pannetone this year, we both have serious egg surpluses, and I’ve still got half a case of Greens-labelled fizz from a fundraiser last year. Woohoo!The bay twig roasting rack sounds interesting too.
Sounds like you’re set for a top-notch brekky on the 26th DI(NR). Seriously, do it – it’s almost painfully delicious. You could go US-style and have it with bacon and a poached egg if there’s no icecream handy. Haven’t tried it, but I can’t see how it couldn’t work.
Another tip, just in case anyone’s still reading – don’t use a Keith Floyd approach to drink-cooking when you’re making something that takes all day.
I’m drunk.
More unprecedented stuff:
That seems rather futile. All anybody would have to do is copy any document on Wikileaks that they want to share to another website and then disseminate that link instead.
And, putting the Rudd sacking into perspective.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=21809&Cat=2
Oops, that should have gone on the Australian’s War on Everything thread. Sorry, tigtog.
I am btw three quarters of the way through watching the magnificent BBC production of I Claudius. Instead of doing it in hour episodes the production has been divided into four parts. One for Augustus, one for Tiberius, one for Caligula and one for Claudius. There is also a copy of an unfinished epic movie of I Claudius in b/w (I think – I haven’t watched that disc yet. Anyway, even after all these years its still magnificent. Except for Augustus’s wigs. Well you can’t have everything.
Futility is the child of desperation.
Guy Rundle’s article(SMH, today) makes a good case for not accepting anything against JA on face value.