Mohamed al Fayed – a real reason for complaint?

You really have to ask yourself if there is something to the continuing complaints of Mohamed al Fayed (the owner of Harrod’s) that the ‘powers-that-be’ (including Secret Service, the Royal Family, and the police) in the UK are conducting a conspiracy intended to ruin him… in other words… people are out to get him… and have [...]

Political Correctness gone mad.

Over here in Australia the law has decided that the characters drawn in the Simpsons cartoons are the equivalent of real people. Someone who was found to have accessed and downloaded drawing showing the chacters engaged in various sexual acts was fined $3000. He appealed and the appeal was denied.
I’ll accept quite happily that *some* [...]

For United Kingdom read ‘Police State’.

Hot on the heels of the unprecedented arrest of a Damian Green, a Member of Parliament, and the police raid on his Parliamentary office comes news of the imminent arrival of ID’s for every person on UK soil and a threat of *arrest* if ID is *not* presented on demand by the police!!
This move not seen [...]

On a theme…

This little offering is entitled “Burying the Truth” and, again, is a YouTube ’short’ about Schapelle Corby and the way the media have portrayed her. Her major problem was the prima facie case that she was in possession of the drugs therefore the onus was upon her to prove she had nothing to do with [...]

David Hicks – the saga continues

The majority of people around the world have probably never heard of David Hicks or if they ever knew the name have all bar forgotten who he was, the troubles he got himself into… and the abandonment of this Australian citizen by the politicians who were sworn to protect his rights.
I’m not one to claim [...]

Australian Child Protection Laws – new guidelines.

New draft guidelines related to Child Protection Laws have been released by the Australia Council in the aftermath of the Bill Henson controversies. and require that anyone taking photographs of children needs to obtain parental permission first. Ok we’ve been pressing for changes to the law but some of the recommendations offered constitute *far* too [...]

A whale of a time.

The baby humpback whale found stranded and motherless in Sydney Harbour, and named Colin… later Colette, was finally ‘euthanased’ in Sydney Harbour yesterday.
There’ve been all sorts of stories about her and the way she was/wasn’t aided by government agencies etc and there is now talk of a *summit* of experts to try to establish guidelines [...]

Insane in America

The USA is determined to address what it sees as possible criminal or terrorist potential by temporary workers. It’s doing this by deporting people, who have committed an offence, back to their country of origin. This seems quite reasonable, except that they are doing this regardless of the time they’ve spent in the US, or [...]

Smiley Miley

It’s possible some of you might never have heard of singer Billy Ray Cyrus, but I’ll bet there are a lot fewer of you who’ve never heard of his daughter Miley who has been making a name of her own with her alter ego as “Hannah Montana” especially if you have kids around you!
Over the [...]

Guilty even if proved otherwise?

There have been some interesting and subtle changes to the way the law works in the UK. For example a recent decision has established that someone is ‘guilty by accusation’ even if it’s been proved those accusations are in fact false!!
The case of John Pinnington who was falsely accused of sexually assaulting three of his [...]

Schapelle Corby – not forgotten!

Schapelle Corby (aged 30) is an Australian woman currently serving a 20 year prison sentence after being convicted for smuggling drugs into Bali. She has protested her innocence from day one and continues to do so despite the possibility that an admission of guilt coupled with an appeal for clemency to the President might result [...]

Faces of Australia: The quality of mercy.

In 2003 Graeme Wylie was diagnosed Alzheimer’s’ disease and he finally died at his home in Cammeray in March 2006 aged 71
Shortly afterwards Shirley Justins (below right), his partner of 18 years was arrested and charged with manslaughter. His long time friend 75 year old Caren Jenning (below left) was arrested and charged with being [...]

Suburban Starvation

Somehow over the past few months, two eighteen month old twins were allowed to starve to death by their parents in Sunnybank Hills, a Queensland suburb. Their bodies were discovered by an eleven year old sibling who went into their room to try to locate the source of a foul smell in the house and [...]

Racist Australia?

Over the time we’ve been here we’ve got almost used to the incipient racism underlying a lot of Australian society. The one thing in it’s favour is that it isn’t hidden away and that people are quite open about it which at least means it is able to be discussed freely.
However occasionally underlying racial tensions [...]

Waltzing Matilda – historical archive?

An interesting slant on Australia’s favourite folk song, and ‘almost national anthem’ has emerged thanks to the work of Dennis O’Keefe who spent 15 years researching the story.
The fundamentals seem to be that Banjo Patterson, who wrote the song, was ‘courting’ the daughter of the squatter who owned the land where the events took place [...]

Remembering Rahma el-Dennaoui

After several years no word has been heard about the fate of little Rahma el-Dennaoui missing now since November 2005 with no clue about her whereabouts.
We ran a short story on her disappearance in 2007 (Spare a thought… ) but nothing has yet been heard.
One of the problems hampering the police search was the limited [...]

Victory!! One in the eye for Jodie Powers!!

Some of you may remember that this blog has always been a constant supporter of Schapelle Corby. However Jodie Powers (below right), a ‘friend’ of Schapelle’s sister Mercedes, went on air in a TV program (Today Tonight) run by the Seven Network and said some pretty nasty things about the entire family.
Understandably, with her sister [...]

On the road again.

Seven years after being impounded by police, the orange and white Volkswagen Kombi driven by Peter Falconio when he was killed and his girlfriend abducted has been ‘released’. As crucial evidence, it’s been kept under cover all this time but is now out on the compound with crashed and stolen vehicles waiting a decision by [...]

Drip, drip, drip, drip…

That ‘dripping’ is the sound of the steady erosion of privacy and individual freedom as the UK descends still further into the realms of Big Brother and the advent of the Police State.
Bizarrely, to me at least, it’s a Labour government that is currently creating a Data Communications Bill to be presented as part of [...]

It’s a bit alarming.

Was talking to a guy on Friday who had been burgled recently. He was telling us how he, his wife and daughters had been in the house at the time and how the thievess
s had bashed their dog to keep it quiet, taken the keys to his and his wife’s cars, loaded them with their [...]

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