Qana

The latest news from Lebanon is that a terrible tragedy has happened in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, with the Israelis bombing a building sheltering refugees, killing 54 people, including 37 children.

A Red Cross rescuer worker walks past dead bodies after Israeli air strikes on the southern Lebanese village of Qana.

There have now been something like 523 Lebanese killed, and 51 Israelis killed, in the fighting that erupted almost 3 weeks ago when Hezbollah kidnapped 2 Israeli soldiers. All a terrible waste of lives, and ultimately going to mean nothing in the overall context of the Middle East …only constructive negotiations will solve anything there.

This latest tragedy will add fuel to calls for Israel to back off on its strikes against the Lebanese bases of Hezbollah. I’ve thought Israel highly justified in most of its actions. Destroying Hezbollah and similar terrorist organisations is a commendable objective. Unfortunately, given these groups elect to base themselves in civilian areas, often deliberately sheltering in sensitive locations, even precision bombing is going to kill some innocent people. I hope Israel is doing all it can to choose its targets and attack them in ways that minimise civilian deaths and injuries.

There is a key difference between Israel’s strikes on Lebanon and Hezbollah’s on Israel. Hezbollah’s rockets and missile attacks are deliberately targeting Israeli civilians. I don’t believe Israel is deliberately trying to kill Lebanese citizens.

Update (31/7/2006): Having said constructive negotiations are the way to solve the Hezbollah/Israel problems, I mean from the viewpoint of rational people. I suspect Hezbollah will not negotiate away from its position of the destruction of Israel, so what can the Israelis do but pursue the objective of destroying Hezbollah.

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Big Brother – just about done

Can’t say I’ve been too enthusiastic about Big Brother this year. None of the housemates have really struck me as particularly interesting or all that likeable. They’re down to the last 2 now, and I don’t think too much of either of them. However, go Camilla, please win, anybody but that dickhead Jamie. Don’t think much of Camilla, but she’s by far the least worse of the two (sort of like, which would you prefer, syphilis or AIDS?)

David, the gay guy, who I would have liked to win out of the last few, was evicted tonight. He said a couple of things during his interview with Gretel Killeen that I thought amusing.

On whether he wanted to be the father figure in the house (given he was one of the older housemates):

“No, I just wanted to buggerise around” (hmmm?)

On what was the best thing about the experience:

“Coming out”.

And wasn’t his reunion with boyfriend Sharif great? It was about the most real thing there’s been on BB.

I LOVE THESE TWO FELLOWS!

Update (31/07/2006): Fuck, fuck, fuck ….that tool Jamie won.

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Ouch!!!

In all the shock and horror about the news that Tour de France cycling race winner Floyd Landis tested positive to testosterone and faces disqualification and having his win stripped off him, the thing I cringed at was this little gem.

Testosterone doping anecdotes expose the technique of transdermal testosterone patches applied to the testicles for 6 to 8 hours, optimising recovery.

I can tell you that no matter how much I wanted to win something, I couldn’t see myself sticking patches to my nuts. I imagine it would be like putting a bandaid on them …. wouldn’t removing it be a barrel of fun?

Floyd Landis is denying the doping allegations, claiming he has naturally high testosterone levels. Does this mean he has a huge pair of balls? I would have thought that would get in the way of being a good cyclist.

Floyd Landis celebrates his victory in the Tour de France.

Finally, what an amazing surprise that cycling has a drug scandal …. and I always thought it was clean.

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Bananaflation

The latest consumer price index figures show prices up 4 percent over the last year and 1.6 percent in the last quarter. PM, John Howard, acknowledges this is not good:

“I have to acknowledge that the inflation figure a couple of days a go was bad, it was bigger than I expected,”

Fair enough. But then he goes on to blame it on the price of bananas:

“And it was caused by this extra increase in food prices, in turn caused by a 250 per cent increase in the price of bananas, which in turn was caused by Cyclone Larry,” he said.

“Now that’s a one off and it will go through the system.”

Now, I’m surprised at the impact of bananas on inflation. I would think it minimal in reality as people would respond to the price rises by substituting other fruits for bananas. At $11.99 a kilo or whatever they are, people just don’t buy bananas in anything like their normal quantities. It is hardly an increase in the cost of living, more a diminution in the normal consumption choices available. I thought to myself yesterday that the impact of bananas on the CPI is more a methodological flaw in measuring price changes rather than a true representation of inflation. The Australian Bureau of Statistics acknowledges the methodology issues in its CPI release, saying they do not make any allowance for short term substitution effects, and the index is calculated from a fixed basket of goods and services.

Funny though, how governments claim all the credit for good economic indicators, but disclaim all responsibility for bad ones, blaming them on international factors, droughts, floods, pestilence, wars and bananas.

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The Three Geniuses (Genii?)

How bright are these guys? Not to mention extremely handsome.

Dane Frederick Simms, William David Feeney and Timothy James Powell

Their names – Dane Frederick Simms, William David Feeney, Timothy James Powell.

Criminal masterminds, all of them.  They escaped from jail in western NSW, only to be caught attempting to hitch a ride in what turned out to be an undercover police car.  The fact that they were still wearing part of their prison uniforms also didn’t help them in their escape attempt.

I reckon they should all get about 2 extra years for the escape attempt, and life for their stupidity.

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Accountants – dangerous people

Don’t dare laugh at the boringness of accountants again.  Certainly not this one!  Mark Edward Norman, a 48 year old Sydney accountant, hired a hitman to kill a solicitor.  He has been charged with being an accessory before and after the fact of the murder of lawyer Tom Williams in 2004.

His motive was that he had ripped off his client for $84,000, and had Williams killed to stop him reporting this.

Never get between an accountant and money.  You have been warned.

(Disclosure – I am an accountant, not of the murdering kind though.)

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Sydney and back in an afternoon

Had to drive up to Sydney yesterday to collect my son who’d been staying with friends visiting from overseas during the holidays.  3 and a bit hours up, a couple there, 3 and a bit hours back … excitement plus.  Actually I was a little surprised how quiet the Hume Highway was on the way home.

You know what sticks in my mind most about the trip.  My first ever experience of having to prepay for petrol.  What a bloody hassle!!!  All because of the thieving swine who drive off without paying.   Admittedly, it was in Campbelltown so probably is a sensible decision by the servo management, given the risks of theft there.

Shouldn’t knock Campbelltown, after all I lived there for several years right through high school.

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Police Academy

The NSW Police Academy at Goulburn has had some problems with staff sexually harassing students. Seven staff have been transferred out of teaching positions for misbehaviour including sexual misconduct. Commissioner Ken Moroney has called this behaviour “totally unacceptable”. He went on to say:

“Let there be no doubt, there are codes of conduct for professional police educators that have been in place now for some deal of time.

“There’s the organisation’s code of conduct and indeed a statement of professional standards.

“I expect absolute adherence to those codes and that statement. Any behaviour less than that is totally unacceptable.”

The disciplined staff members had been relocated throughout the police force, and some had their pay docked, Mr Moroney said.

My question is this. If the misconduct is totally unacceptable, why weren’t the offenders sacked (which is what would happen in most companies) rather than just shuffled around the police force? Why does the NSW Police follow the long standing policies of the Catholic (and other, to be fair) church in its dealings with its pedophile priests?

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McSpagBol

McDonalds is trialling “up market” dinner dishes around Newcastle soon, with a view to rolling them out around Australia next year.  The meals to be available are:

  • lemongrass chicken
  • beef rendang
  • orange, lime and ginger chicken
  • beef bolognese.
McDonald's is testing Thai and pasta dishes alongside its burgers<br />and fries.

All come with penne pasta, which strikes me as an interesting choice – I would have thought rice for all bar the bolognese.  Pasta is obviously easier to heat up and keep warm in bulk than rice, or harder to screw up.  I suspect these things will be like pre-made frozen meals heated up in the microwave.  Can’t see myself rushing out to get one.  Anyway, I don’t go to Maccas to eat healthy … I go for junk.  If I want proper food I’ll cook it at home, or go to a proper restaurant.

How lame are some of those frozen meals?  I see spaghetti bolognese, and think I could make myself a home cooked batch in not much longer than the time it takes to microwave a frozen one.

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