What exactly is Israel supposed to do?

After Lebanese based Hezbollah militants attacked an Israeli outpost, kidnapping 2 soldiers and killing 8, just what exactly is Israel’s response supposed to be? Many have called the Israeli response, in the form of air and artillery attacks on Lebanon, “disproportionate”. I don’t agree, and I think John Howard has put it well:

“Much as I deplore the violence … one has to understand Israel’s position, Israel has the right of self-defence,” he said.

“This country has been under constant attack for almost 50 years, since it was founded, and there is still an unwillingness on the part of many in the region to accept Israel’s right to exist.

“Until there is unconditional acceptance, and also an unconditional
acceptance by others of the need for a Palestinian state, separate to
Israel of course, we’re never going to have any lasting settlement.”

I think its pretty hard to not expect the Israelis to try to put Hezbollah out of action, preferably obliterate the organisation permanently. Yes, its unfortunate, and I’m sure in many instances, tragic, that Lebanese civilians are getting killed in the violence of the last few days, and yes, the destruction in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon is a big setback to the country’s progress towards modern democracy. However, their government are the ones harbouring Hezbollah and allowing them to function pretty much unfettered. The fact that Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, gets cheers and celebratory gunfire in Beirut upon declaring open war on Israel, and that Hezbollah is significantly represented in the Lebanese parliament says it enjoys much support among the Lebanese. The Lebanese do have capacity to stop the escalation in violence. According to the Israelis:

“We are going to continue until one or two things happen,” he said.

“We’re trying to put Hezbollah out of business and for good.

“The other thing that could happen is that the Lebanese Government
start taking responsibility and that they start bring troops to the
south of their country and demilitarise the Hezbollah.

“So at any point the Lebanese Government can intervene and bring an end to this crisis.

“But if they don’t we intend to deal with Hezbollah on our own.”

In the latest escalation, Hezbollah rockets have killed 9 Israelis in the northern city of Haifa. So stand by for some significant retaliation by the Israelis.

Where will this current battle end up? Hard to say … neither side looks like blinking at present and backing off. I wonder what Hezbollah wanted to achieve when it started this week’s attacks. They can hardly have any realistic expectation that Israel is just going to pack up and go somewhere else one day, so why don’t they try to co-exist as peacefully as they can?

Technorati Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Beirut, Hezbollah, war

Comedy police

Chas Licciardello of “The Chaser” team got into trouble last night at the Bulldogs vs St George NRL game.

He was dressed in Bulldogs gear taking the piss out of the Bulldogs’ fans tendency towards crowd violence - armed with a Bulldogs supporters kit featuring balaclava, knuckleduster, flares, imitation knife etc. Some Bulldogs’ fans didn’t see the humour … spoilsports, and complained to police about him. He was arrested and charged with offensive conduct.

The police seem to have failed to appreciate Chas’ humour. According to their spokesman:

“This was clearly an act of mindless stupidity that had the potential to stir up the large crowd and cause serious problems,” Mr Clifford said in a statement.

Mr Clifford told ABC radio: “This fellow will be appearing inSutherland Court at a later date charged with offensive conduct.”

“We’ll see how funny he thinks all this is then.

“This sort of stuff does nothing but undermine the good work that police, the fans, club officials and the NRL have been doing in the past months and years to try to and provide a safe environment for people to go along and watch rugby league.”

Even Premier Morris Iemma got in on the act, echoing pretty much what the police had said.

Good to see NSW Police and politicians tackling the serious problem of bad taste jokes rather than things like actual crime.

Update (16/07/2006): Lots of people pointing the finger at Licciardello and “The Chaser” guys. Maybe they should be asking the Bulldogs fans why they are so easily angered and why so many of them lack the self control to handle a bit of teasing?

Update (22/07/2006): Saw the offending scenes on TV last night. Very funny. As was the Chaser team taking the piss out of it.

Technorati Tags: Chas Licciardello, The Chaser, Bulldogs, Police, offensive humour, bad taste jokes, comedy

What about personal responsibility?

I thought Frank Sartor, acting NSW Police Minister, was being pretty stupid when he called on the Federal Government to establish an inquiry into petrol prices, saying high costs are driving motorists to steal from service stations. Errr, Frank, what about an inquiry in NSW to discover why there are so many thieving bastards who think its alright to steal petrol (and I don’t mean the petrol companies, we know they are thieving, colluding, price fixing bastards). Sartor tried to put the blame squarely on the Federal government - high petrol prices, leads to theft, so do something to fix the petrol prices.

He got some backlash today (rightly so). Service Station Association president Richard Halstead said disinterested police unwilling to investigate petrol theft were to blame for the problems. He also went on to say (I’m only quoting this because I like his straight shooting comments):

“That is excusing people’s bad behaviour. That’s excusing crime. He’s living in la la land and I’m a Labor supporter.

“‘The bloke (Mr Sartor) is a nincompoop. And you can quote me on that.”

Of course, what this increase in petrol theft might lead to is widespread introduction of having to prepay for fuel. What a fucking hassle that would be! All because there are a small minority of dickheads who seem to think stealing is an acceptable way of getting things they are having trouble affording - maybe cut out the cigarettes and beer, they might find their budget stretches to cover the essentials like food, housing and transport.

Technorati Tags: petrol prices, fuel theft, prepayment

Techo-geekery

I’ve spent tonight being a desktop support person for my family. Got a new PC delivered today, so when I got home from work, had to set it up, instal a wireless card, load a bunch of software, get it printing across our wireless network, etc. All pretty straightforward except for figuring out how to instal an old piece of software that used a floppy disk with a security key as part of its instal program - found a workaround on a forum on the manufacturer’s site. Also bought a new toy for myself, a switch to allow me to switch my 19″ monitor between my desktop and my work laptop without having to unplug the monitor cable from the back of the desktop and plug it into the laptop when I wanted to use that … but had less sucess getting that going, so I’ll be ringing the supplier in the morning to figure out what I’m missing.

So now, for a household of 4 people, we have 4 desktops and 2 laptops. A bit excessive, and still doesn’t always avoid arguments … because some competition remains for using the computer in the family room vs the ones in other rooms.

In other news, I’ve been working from home much of the time in my new job … its great. Only need to go into the office once in a while to do stuff like expenses, and like today, get my new laptop. Have to go in tomorrow to get it set up by the onsite support guys, get all my files copied over from the old one etc. That 15 minute drive to the office is a real killer in Canberra, so I like working from home. Also means I can get around in t-shirt and tracky dacks most of the time - beats wearing a suit. I’m working on a team where I’m the only one based here - the others are based in Sydney, the UK and USA, so there’s no real point in working at the office except very occasionally. One of the downsides to all the flexibility I have is having to do teleconferences with the USA at 10-11 at night … oh well, sacrifices sometimes have to be made.

Update (13/7/2006): Got my new laptop all set up nicely now and my KVM switch working.

Technorati Tags: computer, desktop, laptop, wireless network, working from home

Astonishing revelation

According to Kim Beazley:

“The problem with Howard and Costello is that you can’t trust either of them,”

Tell us something earth-shattering and new, why don’t you Kim. Who didn’t already know this? In fact, I would think most people take it as given for any politician.

As for the note that Ian McLachlan produced as a record of the Howard/Costello discussion back in 1994, what I thought was how pristine it is. After 12 weeks, let alone years, in my wallet, it would be been crinkled, dog-eared, shredded and basically unreadable, nothing like what McLachlan dragged out of his wallet.

Technorati Tags: Kim Beazley, John Howard, Peter Costello, politicians, trust, lies

Italia, Italia, Italia

Congratulations to Italy for their win in the World Cup final.  They beat France 5-3 on penalties after the game was drawn 1-1 after regular and extra time.

Italy have gone on to bigger and better things certainly since they dived their way to victory over Australia in the round of 16.  How would Australia have gone if that result had gone their way?  Don’t know … my guess is that we would have been a decent chance against Ukraine but I think Germany would have had our measure.

The most notable thing to come out of the match (I didn’t watch it …didn’t get into this World Cup as much as the last one once Australia was out - time differences, lack of minnows going through to the last stages, etc) was the send off of the superb French player Zinedine Zidane for head butting.  This was Zidane’s last game for France, and it was an inglorious way for him to end his career.  Nevertheless he won the FIFA Golden Ball Award for best player at the World Cup (obviously voted for before his red card in extra time in the final).

Zidane despite his send off in today’s game, will stick in my memory as the fantastic player who won France the 1998 World Cup.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, Italy, France, football, soccer, Zinedine Zidane, red card, head butting

Gloves off

Treasurer Peter Costello has really taken off the gloves over his leadership ambitions in succeeding John Howard as Prime Minister.  This is as close to an open declaration of war as he’s made:

“He told me that he intended to do 1½ terms as prime minister and then would hand over,” he said.

“I did not seek that undertaking, he volunteered and I took him at his word.

“Obviously that did not happen.”

This comes after reports over the weekend of former minister Ian McLachlan who said he had witnessed a conversation between Howard and Costello in 1994 to the effect that Howard would stand down as PM after 2 terms.

John Howard has denied any deal was ever made.  He said:

“There were lots of discussions at that time including one at which Mr McLachlan was present,” Mr Howard said.

“That did not involve the condition of a deal.

“I think everybody should take a bit of a reality check.”

So who’s telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?  My suspicion is neither, they are both choosing to interpret things to suit themselves.  Looking at Ian McLachlan’s recollection of the conversation back in 1994, he says Howard said something like:

“I can’t guarantee this to you Peter, but my intention is not to hang around forever… if I win I’ll serve two terms and hand over to you.”

Plenty of weasel room there, right?

In related news, Alexander Downer was “not aware” of any such deal.  Hardly surprising given his complete lack of awareness of anything his department was doing over the AWB Iraq bribes scandal.

Technorati Tags: John Howard, Peter Costello, Prime Minister, leadership, Alexander Downer, Ian McLachlan

…and the point of this is …????

Germany beat Portugal 3-1 in the World Cup third place playoff.   Yawn!  Why do they bother having such games?  Does anyone really care if their team came third or fourth?  Do the fans?  Players?  They came to the World Cup to win, once they are knocked out, whats the point of playing another game?

More often than not these pointless games are lopsided, as one team shows it really couldn’t give a rats arse.  Or else, they are still on a big letdown after missing out on the main prize.  We’ve seen this at World Cups, Rugby World Cups, and I’m sure in other events.  So why do they bother?  Oh, yes, FIFA makes money out of it.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, football, soccer

Obsessed with technology

Are you obsessed with technology and gadgets? Do they rule your life?

Have you ever had this problem?

“If you’re finding yourself escaping to check your email when you’re having sex or in a moment that should be very relaxed, very tender, very intimate; when you should be giving 100 per cent to another person and you’re still yearning [for] the ‘get mail’ button, I think it’s a sign you’ve gone too far.”

Supposedly there was a divorce case in America triggered by the wife checking her Blackberry during sex.

How many of these things apply to you?

1. You forgot basic bodily functions - like eating, drinking, sleeping, going to the toilet. I think I’m OK here, apart from the occasional staying up to some ungodly hour when I’ve been obsessed with getting to the bottom of something.
2. You collect ridiculous accessories - nope, not me.
3. You check your email on Sunday … at 3 am - maybe a couple of times when I’ve done an allnighter on a work project
4. You know your mates by their online ‘handles’ rather than their real names - nah, nowhere near that geeky myself
5. Your favorite song goes “beep” - I download favourite songs to my phone and use them as ringtones … ringtones do not become my favourite songs.
6. Instead of laughing you say “LOL” - never.
7. You answer your mobile phone when you’re on a date - why not? But I haven’t gone so far as answering it while having sex, like Paris Hilton did in her film debut, “One Night in Paris” (which by the way I haven’t seen, so I’m only going by whats reported on this). We have managed to ignore the phone ringing at home while on the job, thats easy, even if its the cordless phone and its sitting on top of the bedside drawers. Ignoring the doorbell is more of a challenge, especially when the front porch runs right outside our bedroom window - “stop ringing, piss off, how long do they take to get the idea no-one’s home” are some of the thoughts that run through one’s mind, along with trying not to laugh, or make other noises.
8. You change their ‘outfits’ depending on their ‘mood’ - no, very plain vanilla here.
9. You own a Blackberry - never, ever, ever. I’m not that desperate to be contactable that I want email everywhere I go. Similarly, I don’t look forward to the day we’ll be able to use mobiles and email on airplanes … can’t imagine much worse than sitting in a plane with a bunch of loudmouths yapping away on their phones.
10. You speak in a secret language - Your favourite come-on line is “boot me up”. You finish directions to your house with the joke “Easy as an html”. You like to say about your age “I still have a lot of RAM in the old hard drive yet”. You like to say about your health “Better call in IT”. If I ever do any of these things, someone kill me, please.

Technorati Tags: technology, obession, Blackberry, mobile phone, sex, Paris Hilton, geeks

Starting young

We sometimes joke at work when people bring their kids into the office about starting ‘em young, but this really takes things to extremes.

A nine (9) year old girl in Brazil has given birth to a healthy baby after a full term pregnancy. According to one of the doctors at the hospital where this happened:

“The girl is only starting to feel that she’s a mother, with the help of our psychologist. She’s still playing with her dolls and watching cartoons in her room, like a child would,”

That’s really sad ….just a child.

At the other end of the scale, in England, a 62 year old woman has had a baby. Why the hell she’d want to completely escapes me. By the time I’m that old I intend to be off travelling, having fun and spending my childrens’ inheritance … certainly not looking after babies. Been there, done that, don’t want to ever again.

Technorati Tags: young girl birth, old woman birth