Big Green Ogres

From ABC online: Turkish may drop adultery plans.

Not a plan to commit adultery, but a plan to outlaw it.

The plans have outraged Turkish liberals and women's groups and have also upset the European Union, which Ankara hopes to join.

The EU opposing legislation that has superficial merit but is a waste of time and makes government excessively intrusive? I thought I'd never see the day.

Update: As seen in Google News:

Teen faces dressing down after groping supermodel

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Isn't it interesting that few if any of the bloggers, politicians, commentators, etc. who complained bitterly about the USA "interfering" with Australia's "domestic politics" have a problem with Sharia supporters doing so, with the only complaints being the methods used?

On the subject of bloggers who complained about the USA "interfering", if Tim Dunlop wants me to come back, it could help if he renounce denounce claims that [insert code-word for Jews] control America / Australia / the media / your fridge.

Just saying.

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My sympathies to the victims killed or injured in this latest terrorist attack.

After anger at the attack, my main reaction has been that the terrorists have stuffed up. All they have achieved is the death of several of their compatriots and the wounding of a 5 year old Australian girl. The former will make Indonesia loathe the terrorists even more, and the lack (I hope) of Australian deaths suggests that JI is getting weaker and that terrorism can be defeated without appeasement.

So much has happened since September 11 2001 - Bali, the Moscow Theatre hostage crisis, Madrid, Marriott hotel, and regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq. While the attacks by the terrorists are continuing, they are growing more impotent and obtaining less respect. I only hope Australia and our allies have not lost too much will to fight in the process.

Was Australia targetted in this attack? The obvious answer would be "yes", but we may read too much into what the terrorists do. Sidney Jones writes in response to the assumption "The bomb was related to Australia's upcoming elections.":

Until the perpetrators are arrested, we won't know their motives. But, if this bombing fits the pattern of earlier ones, the embassy would have been one of several targets considered - a final selection would have been made on the basis of both symbolic value and logistic feasibility.

The Marriott bombers looked at another hotel, the Jakarta International school and the Australian school, and chose the Marriott because it was a US chain, and it was easy to drive up to the entrance. In Makassar in 2002, the bombers also considered other targets.

First decide to launch a terrorist attack, then find a target, then write about your "root causes".

And if you're going to talk root causes, try something better than this:

We decided to settle accounts with Australia, one of the worst enemies of God and Islam. A mujahideen brother succeeded in carrying out a martyr operation with a car bomb against the Australian embassy.

Um ... if you're after "enemies of God", the embassy of North Korea is just down the road.

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"Iraqi" "resistance" kidnap French. Possible conclusions:
1) Islamists terrorists do not just want to change our foreign policy. After that has been achieved, they'll try to change our domestic policies.
2) Terrorists kidnap/murder first, think of a "reason" later.

"Chechen" "rebels" hold schoolchildren hostage. Conclusions:
1) There's no action too heartless and gutless for you to be called a "rebel", or "militant" or "activist" by the media.
2) Islamists don't just dislike America and its close allies. They dislike pretty much everybody.

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Compared to what the media are attributing to Cheney, this is an accurate quote of John Edwards.

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Wrong, wrong, wrong. Brimming over with wrongosity.

CATHERINE MCGRATH: No, but their incomes are going to be reduced under a Labor Government, particularly for those earning under about $35,000 a year?

BOB MCMULLAN: Don't just be trite. These people don't live in segments to say, this is me in the tax package, and this is me, a different person in public housing. And this is me, a different person trying to go the doctor, and this is me, a different person worried about my kids going to school.

They're the same people, and I'm saying they will be the significant beneficiaries of what we're going to do in the tax package about finding them jobs, about public housing, about public schools, about Medicare, about all the other programs that we've got still to announce.

...

BOB MCMULLAN: I have not found the low income people in my constituency as unable to understand the range of benefits from government they benefit from as people who try to live their life in segments and say, but there was a decision you made over here that might affect these people adversely, which we don't accept.

But even if it were true, it is more than compensated by substantial improvements in public health, in Medicare, in public schools, in public hospitals, in the availability of dental care - the people on low incomes are the beneficiaries of all the major programs we've announced and they will continue to be. And fortunately for us, they know it.

Silence, plebs. The money is going to be used for the common good. It's not like the money belongs to you.

Bob's attitude to the media is equally charming:

The people on low incomes are the target of the public housing policy we've already announced, that the critics seem to have forgotten.

...

Don't just be trite

...

BOB MCMULLAN: Look, I have to say, they are smarter than the Press Gallery.

BOB MCMULLAN: It means they understand even if you don't.

BOB MCMULLAN: I have not found the low income people in my constituency as unable to understand the range of benefits from government they benefit from as people who try to live their life in segments and say, but there was a decision you made over here that might affect these people adversely, which we don't accept.

But even if it were true, it is more than compensated by substantial improvements in public health, in Medicare, in public schools, in public hospitals, in the availability of dental care - the people on low incomes are the beneficiaries of all the major programs we've announced and they will continue to be. And fortunately for us, they know it.

I don't have a high view of the media, but this criticism lacked style.

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While looking up google news for John Kerry's view of Australia I came across a ZNet article called Republicans Among Us:

The march's banner, "The World Says No to the Bush Agenda," was broad enough to unite a wide array of anti-Bush voters and activists opposing the continued occupation of Iraq. ... One man carried an "Electoral Map of the World" with a few places like Texas, Saudi Arabia, and Australia marked as red states; the remaining globe was covered in a sea of blue.

What do Texas, Saudi Arabia and Australia share in common?

Oil exporters? No, Australia is a net importer.
Supporters of war in Iraq? No, Saudi Arabia's contribution to the war has been on the other side.
Supporters of Israel? Another no for the Wahhabiist entity.
Countries not submerged after sea levels rise? Australia is one of the flattest continents in the world.

The only thing I can think of that is shared by the three is that they each have a lot of desert. Does anyone else have any theories?

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Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the class:

And this bit about Austria was also great:

When I was a boy, the Soviets occupied part of Austria. I saw their tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes. I remember the fear we had when we had to cross into the Soviet sector. Growing up, we were told, "Don't look the soldiers in the eye. Look straight ahead."

Um, actually, Arnold. They were there as part of the liberation force. The tanks were there to get rid of the Nazis. And yet still you were scared and concerned? Now you know how the Iraqis are feeling.

Um, Tim? Schwarzenegger was born after Germany surrendered, by a couple of years.

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