I just heard David Kosh on Sunrise call Tony Abbot an arch conservative, particularly highlighting abortion and womens' rights as issues.

I didn't think I'd even hear anyone in the mainstream media be so explicit about the threat to mainstream secular Australian values posed by The Right Reprehensible Cardinal George Pell's favourite argyle knit political mouthpiece.

This after airing debate about the Commonwealth's renewed funding of school Chaplains (almost all from the Bible Society).

What strange days we live in.

Danny Nalliah loaded a bunch of his foolowers into a bus and headed off on the 8 hour trip to Canberra to drive out the Witches. If anyone else turned up, it was a handful, giving a total turnout for this exercise in spiritual warfare of about 60.

There to oppose them were a motley little knot of Pagans, GLBT activists and The Australian Sex Party. They garnered about 60, many locals.

There was also a crowd of spectators, maybe 60 strong.

For more
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/what-the-hex-is-going-on-in-canberra-20091018-h2i5.html

I'm somewhat is disturbed by the "latest"* moral panic in todays newspapers and TV... Shag Bracelets. People need to read Snopes, especially journalists.

http://www.snopes.com/risque/school/bracelet.asp


* By latest I mean first identified in the wild in 2003 of course.

Here's the deal:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

I've tagged things I know nothing about (???) because this list is American.

Venison
Nettle Tea
Huevos rancheros (???)
Steak tartare
Crocodile
Black pudding (Food of the Gods* (Well English gods))
Cheese fondue
Carp
Borscht
Baba ghanoush (???)
Calamari
Pho (???)
PB&J sandwich (I loath peanut butter)
Aloo gobi (???)
Hot dog from a street cart
Epoisses (???)
Black truffle (Foul stuff, never again.)
Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
Steamed pork buns
Pistachio ice cream (Pistachio tastes like arse to me)
Heirloom tomatoes (Tomato = heartburn!!!!)
Fresh wild berries Thimble berries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries
(None are native in Australia but some are found as weeds)
Foie gras
Rice and beans (???)
Brawn, or head cheese (Especially as English Pork pies)
Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
Dulce de leche (???)
Oysters
Baklava
Bagna cauda (???)
Wasabi peas
Clam chowder (Do *not* like)
Salted lassi (???)
Sauerkraut
Root beer float (I tasted rootbeer once, let's just say I'm glad it isn't common in Australia)
Cognac
Clotted cream
Vodka jelly
Gumbo
Oxtail
Curried goat (Spiced as kebab meat but never curried)
Whole insects
Phaal (???)
Goat’s milk
Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
Fugu
Chicken tikka masala
Eel
Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (KK have just started open in Oz, none near me)
Sea urchin
Prickly pear (Both fruit and leaves)
Umeboshi (???)
Abalone
Paneer (???)
McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
Spaetzle (???)
Dirty gin martini
Beer above 8% ABV
Poutine
Carob chips
S’mores (???)
Sweetbreads
Kaolin (As a medicine)
Currywurst
Durian
Frogs’ legs
Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (???)
Haggis
Fried plantain
Chitterlings, or andouillette (???)
Gazpacho (Tomato gives me heartburn)
Caviar and blini (No idea what blini is/are, but caviar is rancid muck)
Louche absinthe
Gjetost, or brunost (???)
Roadkill (Snake, pub carpark, about 1970)
Baijiu (???)
Hostess Fruit Pie (???)
Snail
Lapsang souchong (No Tea or Coffee for me, BLEAH!)
Bellini (???)
Tom yum (???)
Eggs Benedict
Pocky
Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
Kobe beef
Hare
Goulash
Flowers (various, but love deep fried zuccini flowers)
Horse (Not available in Australia)
Criollo chocolate (???)
Spam
Soft shell crab (???)
Rose harissa (???)
Catfish
Mole poblano (???)
Bagel and lox (???)
Lobster Thermidor
Polenta
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (No Tea or Coffee for me, BLEAH!)
Snake (Fresh roadkill, pub carpark, about 1970)

Churches debut annoying advertisements to "sell" Jesus. (Don't get me started on the theological wrongness of the one I've seen so far.)

Campaign to mass-marketing [sic] Jesus Christ
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26035190-7582,00.html

Churches put faith in advertising
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26036008-2,00.html


Australia experiences Earthquakes, Hail Storms, Bush Fires, Floods, oh, and The Skies of Sydney are Bleeding! Well, a dust storm has turned the morning into murky red twilight.

Wild weather: quakes, hail, fires, dust
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/22/2693608.htm

Monster dust storm blankets Sydney
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/23/2693643.htm


As the Little Church of the Holy Dollar are always claiming the good stuff (like drought breaking rain after prayers) will they now take the blame for this interesting coincidence of advertising campaign launch and the weather nation wide going Old Testament...

I'm trying to keep track of the borders of the new republics hanging from the underside of the US body politic like ticks.

So far I the list is:

Wingnutistan
Trailerparkistan
Redneckistan

I'm sure my USonian friends can point me at others...

http://www.clientcopia.com/quotes.php?id=1337

Words fail me.

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/macbook-cracks-threaten-to-upset-apple-cart-20090805-e9fj.html

My GF and I bought a matched pair of white Macbooks In December 2007, within weeks they both developed cracks around the keyboard decks. Apple refused to fix them. They did replace a mainboard and a HDD or two, but not the bloody cracked cases that keep trying to slit our wrists.

Bastards.

Also her battery compartment catch died, both developed the "insomnia" bug, etc ad nauseam. Hers had the keyboard die, so is now a desktop with an external mouse and keyboard.

Neither has ever successfully recorded a DVD, also apparently not a fault or at least not covered by warrantee.

Lovely OS nice machines apart from that.

The design philosophy seems to be "It doesn't matter, they new colours come out for Spring, they'll buy the next model before most develop the fault."

Marriages should be in the hands of cultists.

Everybody should get civil unions from the State and, if they wish, "Married" according to the rites of their religion. However, it should be illegal for a Priest to "say words over" a couple who don't qualify to have a civil union by reason of age, mental competence, duress or incest (which needs a national definition). Oh, and the waving of dismembered chicken parts should not be legally binding in any way.

Lots of countries do it that way, Priests are not able to legally "marry" people, that happens in an office somewhere official (courthouse, town hall, records office). Priests slaughter an animal and burn the best bits for their gods, or whatever.

Oh, and a civil union form should have more than 2 name blanks.

There are all sorts of junk e-mails floating around the Internet, but perhaps the most offensive is the junk we send each other: bogus virus warnings, urban legends, offers of easy cash, letters that promise to help sick kids... the list goes on.

BreakTheChain.org tries to educate the world that e-mail is an unreliable medium for sharing information and that the first step to reducing the amount of junk out there is to stop sending it yourself. The more junk you send, the more you will get. Don't want the junk:

http://www.breakthechain.org/

*****************************************

Hoax-Slayer is dedicated to debunking email hoaxes, thwarting Internet scammers, combating spam, and educating web users about email and Internet security issues. Hoax-Slayer allows Internet users to check the veracity of common email hoaxes and aims to counteract criminal activity by publishing information about common types of Internet scams. Hoax-Slayer also includes anti-spam tips, computer and email security information, articles about true email forwards, and much more. New articles are added to the Hoax-Slayer website every week:

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/

Today is hammer shelves and benches together day.

Yesterday we got my GF's enrollment at USQ sorted. She (we) did exactly as we were told, and still nearly missed the cut-off date. The usually admin staff idiocy, like the only person on the help desk not speaking even adequate english.

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/barmat-mum-barred-from-us-20090612-c562.html

"A Melbourne woman convicted of stealing a bar mat in Thailand says she cannot take her children on a dream holiday to Disneyland because the US government has refused her visa application."

Bloody typical, screwed up corruopt regime convicts someone of a trumped up charge and the US supports them by barring an ordinary Aussie tourist and her kids.

Please, USonians, poke your representative about this stupidity. Columbian Drug Lords and Sicilian Legitimate Businessmen travel freely to the US, but someone who runs afoul of banana republic courts or has a computer issued Australian traffic fine can't enter the US.

I wouldn't mind if I'd done a single "billable' productive part-time jobby kind of minute, but I'm just setting up, and sorting my last two or three moves of stuff. I have a factory space, currently full of furniture and clothes and books and appliances.

Next week, I hope, there will be a few hours of commercial activity. In addition to many hours of sorting and cleaning and categorizing "stuff". Today the last of the pre-everything jobs was done, an electrician providing 3 more breakers and a dozen or so new double outlets. Rich luxurious 240V sweetly 50Hz.

Next week I order equipment and materials, with a view to beginning some kind of part time making money exercise from the beginning of the financial year (July 1 here in Oz).


Here's me at the shed looking scragged at 10:20


... and... here's me at the caravan about an hour later.

Just go see it.

It rocks.

Ebonee and I went to the 11:15 session.

We were spellbound.

I bought some books.

Craft books to brush up on sewing and enameling.

Somehow it will all come together.

Most of you know I'm pagan, but being technopagan, I go right back to the beginning for calendars. I count the days between equinox and solstice and divide by two to find the other festivals of the wheel of the year. OK, I count the minutes, because I have a computer and can. So for me, Samhain is the 6th of May this year.

None of this Roman calendar month stuff for me, I care not for the Calends nor the Ides.

But for those who do, and others, may your Samhain/Beltain/Wulpgis/Unbirthday/Birthday be blessed.

Rereading Myth Adventures lead to The Winslow via wikipedia (Phil Foglio's odd addition to the mythos) now on Rockwiz they ask a question about Winslow, Arizona.

Easy to see how loonies get the feeling the universe is sending them messages.

Me, I just assume the message is for someone else.

;-)

A day of packing, removalists come tomorrow. Mate of a mate deal (Thanks Pam).

24 hours to get everything packed.

Three days to the start of the next phase of my life, when the money from selling my parents estate lands in my hands.

Back to Toowoomba, renting a house, starting a business, re-establishing relationships.

I'm 43 but I feel too old sometimes, other times like a teenager.

Wandering numbness. Lips and mouth, arms.

I've had it off and on since I was a teenager.

But I'm feeling very woozy and run down.

I have much to do after I catnap a few hours. I have a week or so to get myself packed and ready to move.




Thank you all for being my friends and random net.people.

I am further amused by trendy young rebel Catholic priest Father Peter Kennedy (age 71) until recently of St Marys South Brisbane. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/qld-news/rebel-priest-forms-church-in-exile-20090329-9fdu.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/lifematters/girls-abandon-hope-in-early-teens/2009/03/29/1238261444923.html

Fits with what I remember watching (often obsessively closely) female classmates when I was but a lad.

Rather close to home for me, my Beloved Daughter is almost 12, in grade 7, facing highschool next year.

The study was done in a different state, where highschool starts with the 7th grade rather than 8th as here in Queensland.