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Serious question,
apart from the stuff we did in R.E. class at school, has anyone ever done Bible study course?  I ask because there's an 8-week course being run by our church in Perth and I'm keen to go along.  I have images of US-style bible-bashing and the hallelujah brigade which will be a major turn-off.

My good mate, a Muslim, has been telling me about the very close links between the Koran and the Old Testament.  There's a prayer to Mary in it.  And, Muslims venerate the name of Mary when they use it as she was the mother of the prophet Jesus.  Not quite the same links to the Talmud though.

[STONEFISH]

Southwest Antrim's Jim, that is.  Go easy up in Coral Bay.  And watch them fcukin Tiger Sharks, Blue-ringed Octopusissiiss, STONEFISH, (real bastards), and hairy German female tourists.

VideoImage

Some New Zealanders ground to their annual halt today as the main street of Auckland was taken over by naked breasts, motorcycles and thousands of men armed with mobile phone cameras.

More than 80,000 people were estimated to have visited Auckland's Queen St on a gray and occasionally showery day to attend the annual Boobs On Bikes parade, organised by Steve Crow in part to promote the Erotica Lifestyle Expo.

Police presence at the parade was high but they had a fairly quiet as the crowd remained orderly, though eager for a view and a photo.

The publicity for the parade has been relatively low-key this year, in part because there have been no attempts by local authorities or moral conservative groups to ban the parade.

However, one observer told NZPA it appeared numbers were similar to 2008, if not higher.

An Auckland City Council attempt to ban the parade last year failed after a judge ruled it was not offensive.

Cameron Brewer, chief executive of the Business Association of rival retail area Newmarket, said the parade was not a good look while the city hosted international visitors for Fashion Week.

Fashion did not appear to play a big part in the parade, however, unless one's definition of fashion extended to quality motorcycles and plastic surgery.

The parade included American Chelsea Charms, who claims to have the largest breasts in the world, who was riding a tank rather than a motorcycle.

Drag queens and a topless male motorcyclist also found their way to the parade.

 
Any legal brains on board here?  I have had reason for looking at this document and have found some parts that might be of interest to some of you here.  Look at Pt.1, Pt.2 section 12, Pt.5 ss40-41, ss59 pt.5, 60 pt.5, 61 pt.5.

Sorry I can't post the link.

UN slams Australia's Aboriginal policiesBy Julian Drape, AAP
August 27, 2009, 8:24 pm
A UN expert on indigenous rights says the ongoing intervention into remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory is overtly discriminatory and Australia must tackle its "entrenched" racism.

The critical comments by the UN's special rapporteur on indigenous rights, James Anaya, came just hours after a proposed new indigenous representative body was unveiled by Australia's Aboriginal social justice commissioner Tom Calma.

Mr Calma told the National Press Club indigenous people had suffered from the absence of a strong national body since the abolition of ATSIC in 2005.

"We have lacked the most fundamental of requirements for a reconciled nation - a robust genuine partnership between government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples," he said.

But Professor Anaya believes that's not all that's been holding back indigenous Australia.

He says NT intervention measures, including compulsory income management and blanket bans on alcohol and pornography, are "overtly discriminatory" and further stigmatise already stigmatised communities.

They're incompatible with various international conventions, covenants, treaties and declarations, he said.

"Some kind of special measures could be justified but they need to be narrowly tailored to the specific circumstances that exist," the rapporteur told reporters in Canberra.

"(But currently) people who have a demonstrated capacity to manage their income are included.

"It's inappropriate to their circumstances but is also, as expressed by them, demeaning."

Prof Anaya was also scathing of Labor's insistence that housing funds would only flow if indigenous communities leased their land to the government for 40 years.

"It's a mistake to assume that indigenous peoples ... aren't capable of taking care of their homes," he said.

Prof Anaya said the Rudd government should "swiftly" reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act, which was suspended by the Howard government so the intervention's more extreme measures could be rolled out.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has promised to introduce legislation to reinstate the act in the spring session of parliament, but wants to continue many of the compulsory measures.

A new national representative body could be up and running by October next year if Mr Calma gets his way.

It won't deliver services or wield real power, but rather provide "credible and robust" advice on policies such as the intervention.

The body will be independent from government and operate as a registered company, comprising an eight-member national executive, a 128 seat national congress and an ethics council to ensure its members are all "fit and proper persons".

There'll be an equal number of men and women members, and two full-time co-chairs, one male and one female.

Mr Calma's model, which draws on 12 months of extensive consultations with indigenous people, would be set up using $5 million of commonwealth funds.

But after 10 years it would be "self sufficient, self determining and truly independent of government".

The social justice commissioner envisages government, corporate and charity dollars would contribute to a $200 million investment fund "to ensure a sufficient recurrent expenditure base for the organisation".

But that vision's already somewhat cloudy.

"The government has no plans to contribute to such a fund at this time," Ms Macklin said in a statement after Mr Calma released his model.

"The government is prepared to provide modest and appropriate recurrent funding for the national representative body once it is established, as well as providing support in its critical establishment phase."

Mr Calma believes the new representative body will help Australia own its history - both good and bad - within 20 years.

Prof Anaya also sees reasons for hope.

"I have been impressed by the strength, resilience and vision of indigenous communities determined to move towards a better future despite having endured tremendous suffering at the hands of historical forces and entrenched racism," he said at the end of his 11-day visit."

Whilst there are several Gov. agencies in place to oversee the rights of the indigenous people, it is my belief based on the experience of living in the north of Western Australia, the Northern territory and in Central Queensland that racism is a very real fact of Australian society.  There is an assumption among Caucasian Australians in particular that just because I, too, am Caucasian, I will find jokes about Indigenous people funny, and am expected to slander them along with the fools that I have to work with.  Can't wait for the fall-out from this little gem.  I can hear the gnashing and grinding of teeth and see the hand-wringing already.

Has anyone got a link to a publication about this event?  In particular I'm looking for actual pages available on line to plagerise view.  Oops.

Thanks

I've recently joined the lofty ranks of CLG officialdom by becoming a football referee.  Are there others on the board who have done likewise?

Hot off the press in the west of this big land is the news that the one and only Hitzelsperger is apparently being eyed up for next November's draft following his bonza performances for an as yet unindentified Sydney junior AFL team.  I hope he keeps the fact that he played for a shitehawk Antrim Div.1 team also unidentified.  Reports in the Sydney Morning Herald is that gun utility man has been training the house down with sterling performances in the centre-half forward position.

Well folks, tis time to start the 2009 AFL thread, and note how it is kept away from the gurus on the GAA section.  Anyways, some things have already gone true to form; Freo lost their pre-season comp game v. Richmond in the last minute...now where have I read/written that before ( ); The Eagles got thumped big time by Collingwood ; and Collingwood managed to create history today by overturning the tribunal for the first time in history.  That club is the effing pits.  Shite supporters, shite bullyboy board members, thugs all over the pitch and still the most hated club in the land.

The Eagles are now know as the Agls, as Ben has taken all the "E's"
WCE, Whizz Coke Ecstacy...

Yes the snobbish criminals have a long season ahead.

This has to be one of the most awful things I have ever heard of.  A father threw his 4 yo daughter off a bridge in Melbourne yesterday morning.  The poor wee thing fell nearly 60 metres into a river.  She died four hours later.  I cannot post a link to the story here but The Australian (Friday) has a sensitive report on it.  Check it online, or perhaps Stephenite might be able to put it up here.

It really is a terrible, terrible thing to happen.

I have just completed my first stint of nightshift in over 20 years, and jeepers it's killing me to stay awake.  I suppose the nature of my job means the adrenalin is pumping for the time I'm in the cockpit, but damnit I'm ready for my bed.  Anyone else here work nightshift  and if so what strategies for preparation and more importantly recovery do you have?  Luckily I now have three days off and then back on days for a while.

The plus side...the plane is state of the art and basically flies itself down to the last 500ft when company policy deems we take the autopilot off....hmmm I wonder if it has autoland?

Korean adultery actress sentenced 

Ms Ok apologised for stirring up a controversy
One of South Korea's best-known actresses, Ok So-ri, has been given a suspended prison sentence of eight months for adultery.

She admitted the offence and the court suspended the sentence for two years.

The trial took place after Ms Ok failed to get the constitutional court to overturn the strict law that makes adultery a criminal offence.

In her petition she said the law was an infringement of human rights and amounted to revenge.

According to the BBC correspondent in Seoul, John Sudworth, the scandal has kept South Korea's tabloid newspapers and internet chatrooms buzzing for months.

'Damaging to social order'

South Korea is one of the few remaining non-Muslim countries where adultery remains a criminal offence.

A person found guilty of adultery can be jailed for up to two years.


Ms Ok failed to get the Constitutional Court to overturn the law
More than 1,000 people are charged each year, although, as in this case, very few are actually sent to jail.

The law has been challenged four times, but the country's top judges have always ruled that adultery is damaging to social order, and the offence should therefore remain a crime.

In this case, Ms Ok was sued by her former husband, Park Chul.

She admitted having an affair with a well-known pop singer, and blamed it on a loveless marriage to Mr Park.

The 40-year-old actress sought to have the adultery ban ruled an inconstitutional invasion of privacy, and in a petition to the Constitutional Court, her lawyers claimed the law had "degenerated into a means of revenge by the spouse, rather than a means of saving a marriage".

But the adultery ban was upheld, and judges in Seoul have now given her an eight-month suspended sentence, and her lover a six-month suspended term.

"I would like to say I'm sorry for stirring up such a controversy," Ms Ok said after the court judgement.

According to a survey carried out last year, nearly 68% of South Korean men and 12% of women confess to having sex outside marriage.

All the very best to our other international team playing Down Under when Ireland begins its 2008 Rugby League World Cup on Monday v. Tonga.  If I was in or near Sydney then I'd have been going to watch having played the game for four years.

Eire Abu

Folks there's a new movie due out in the near future entitled "Australia" starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.  It is filmed in the Kimberley region where I have been living and working for a few years.  Enjoy.

Tyrone are the World Champions.  (gulp)  Frightening thought.

I was at a concert the other night up in Broome and got speaking to Steven Pigram, the main man of the Pigram Brothers, probably the biggest Indigenous band in the land.  We got onto things Irish and he told me that there is a instrument in Irish music which is played the same as the didgeridoo.  I have never heard of this but he told me that Finbar Furey and him discussed it.  Does anyone know of this?

We also discussed the Australian version.  On the night there was an indigenous group from Arnhem Land and they used the didge but they don't call it that.  So, I asked them if any of the languages had the word didgeridoo to which the man said no, that it is a recent "description".  This reminded me of an article I  read a few years ago which suggests that the word didgeridoo is of Irish origin; forgive my spelling but is the verb to blow in Irish dudaire?  Any suggestions, peoples

Congratulations to Tadhg on 150 AFL games today v. Carlton.  And the Swans won, too, in a very entertaining and exciting game.  (And Freo won too  )

Coup plotter's Bloody Sunday role
Simon Mann, the former British soldier sentenced to 34 years in jail for his role in an African coup plot, made his sole foray into the acting world in 2002 in a drama about Bloody Sunday.

Mann played the role of Colonel Derek Wilford, commander of the paratroopers who fired on marchers in Londonderry in 1972.

The 2002 production Bloody Sunday starred James Nesbitt as civil rights campaigner Ivan Cooper.


Mann told the Guardian newspaper he took the part to "defend the Army".

However, he described the events of Bloody Sunday as a "c**k-up".

Paul Greengrass, the director and writer of Bloody Sunday, said Mann was a "humane man, but an adventurer... very English, a romantic, tremendously good company".

On Monday, Mann was jailed for 34 years and four months by a court in Equatorial Guinea for his role in a 2004 coup plot.

The verdict followed Mann's trial in the capital Malabo last month in which he admitted conspiring to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.


The former special forces officer, 56, had expressed remorse, saying he was not the most senior coup plotter.

Mann was held in 2004 with 64 others in Zimbabwe before being extradited.

He served four years in a prison in the country for trying to purchase weapons without a licence.

Mann is also believed to have served in Northern Ireland during his Army career.



...what's the chances he spills the beans on Thatcher?

Best farmer footballers
03 July 2008


The Irish Farmers Journal is currently running a competition to find the best farmer footballers of the last 60 years. We need your help to pick the best farmer footballers in your county and are looking for nominations from GAA fans in all 32 counties.



Among those already on the shortlist are Tim Kennelly Kerry, Liam Harnan Meath, Barry Coffey Cork, Tomas Mannion Galway, Gerry Connellan Roscommon, John Quane Limerick, Pat and Paddy Reynolds Meath, Seán Grennan and Vinny Claffey Offaly, John Dillion Galway, Michael Ennis Westmeath and Michael Duignan Leitrim.

The judging panel consists of Farmers Journal sports writer Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, former Director General of the GAA Liam Mulvihill, former Meath Manager and current International Rules Manager Seán Boylan and Pat Smith IFA Telecom Director of Organisation. Launching the IFA Telecom Farmers 15: Football competition, Micheál Ó Muicheartaigh said "the selection of the team over the coming weeks will highlight the tremendous depth of talent and commitment shown by farm families to the GAA over the decades." 

To nominate simply text football followed by the player's name, his county and the position he played to 51444 (86122 in Northern Ireland) or email football@farmersjournal.ie or post to Irish Farmers Journal, IFA Telecom Farmers 15, Irish Farm Centre, Bluebell, Dublin 12 .


The heart and soul of the nation...

The bane of every White pointer the world over, keeled over today.