Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"We seem to be putting the act of sex (not the explicit concept, but simply the viewing of sex), on a much higher pedestal than violence and death. The irony is that there is no ban for killing police officers or other innocent people, no ban for robbing and/or killing any random person on the street, and yet the second you beat and rob a prostitute, the game is banned. Does anyone else see the flaws? It shows something wrong within our morality, that we can choose to tolerate so many things, and yet ban others that seem much more trivial in nature and effect. That we tolerate violence in games and we don't mind sex, we only mind most forms and representations of sex. We only get indignant about sex that is visual." Stuart Lord

"Let’s look at our community for a moment. Let's observe what goes on. On the street we might come to the same intersection. To connect we must first acknowledge each other’s presence. A glance, a relaxed and open stance, a smile. Then we can communicate with positive body language at a level deeper than we generally understand. We begin to comprehend what could unfold if we create the opportunity. We find confidence, and trust. We start connecting, we start to communicate." Craig Rowley.

I asked Jennifer Zeng what she thought Mr Chen Yonglin’s claim of a thousand spies working in Australia. "I was not surprised at all by Mr Chen’s claims," she said. "My family back in China warned me more than a dozen times that they were not only warned, but also convinced by Chinese authorities that everything I am doing and saying here is monitored." Chris Saliba

"Finally, I will have the last swipe. It will be a swipe at my government. Up it comes: date of birth, mother's maiden name, nationality, last date of entry into Australia, flight number, colour of my eyes, known medical condition, started smoking when I was fifteen, was blacklisted and arrested pending self-removal from the USA in 1997 for overstaying my visa for 48 hours. And on it goes. I expect a big amount of crunching to go on inside my old computer. Never mind, I'll boil the kettle for another coffee, dream of an Australian Bill of Rights and wait. Then, Mr Howard, Mr Ruddock, Mrs Vanstone, I'll Select All, and I'll press delete. Because all the information, Prime Minister, all of it, is mine. It always was mine - and it certainly is not yours to hold or behold." Jack H Smit

"In the final days of the old Senate, an inquiry was established to investigate the abuses of the Immigration Department. This provides an excellent opportunity for the community to raise objections to current immigration policies and instances of mistreatment and abuses of power by the Immigration Department, and put them on the public record under parliamentary privilege. There is a slight danger that the Government will use its numbers in the Senate to shut the Inquiry down, when it sits in early August, but public pressure and interest will make it difficult to shut it down. Therefore, The Greens are encouraging public involvement in this Senate Inquiry." Senator Kerry Nettle, inquiry member

"The invasion and continued occupation of Iraq, the continued presence of US military bases in Muslim countries, coupled with continued western support for authoritarian regimes and continuing support of Israel at the expense of justice for the Palestinian people, guarantees that terrorism will not go away." John Richardson.

"You see we do not freely examine the texts that Ayman Zawahiri and his student Osama bin Laden would have themselves read closely, because such an exercise is deemed to be dangerous. And in many ways it is very dangerous, especially in the hands of naïve and easily manipulated people. On the other hand, if intelligent people in the community did freely access such material - in the same way as we could freely access the Al Qur'ān Al Karīm, the Biblical Canon or the Hebrew Bible and all the related literature - we might together come to a better understanding of what makes a suicide bomber tick. We might even begin to see what they think they see and 'Bingo!' we might find a way to defuse the ideas that form in their minds." Craig Rowley

"With Live 8, as with Live Aid before it, Geldof follows his perpetual star. His dream is an electronic world of solidarity. But is this a false salvation? One notable absence from Live 8 was Dylan. Instead he was busy issuing a CD of a long lost gig at the Gaslight Café in Greenwich Village from 1962. In a typical Dylanesque twist, its release is exclusive to the Starbucks coffee chain." Stephen Smith

"Have you noticed that although politicians, parents, teachers, businesses, organisations and the media promote the goal of happiness, no one seems to achieve real enduring happiness?" Martin Gifford

"The Sydney Morning Herald's Gerard Ryle and Lisa Pryor have provided a series of reports in recent weeks detailing the Howard Government's deafening silence to calls from anyone outside the Party Room to do anything about many things that matter to many ordinary Australians. Ryle and Pryor's investigation into democracy denied was published just prior to the end of the old balance of power. They found that the Federal Government had not replied on time to a single public inquiry out of the 62 it has ordered in the House of Representatives since December 1998. It has given no reply at all to almost half of them." Craig Rowley

G'day. We turned 5 today, the 4th of July, 2005. Cheers to Club Chaos patrons who've come and gone, popped in occasionally, and left forever but returned anyway. Cheers to new patrons, especially those who joined us since October 10, 2004 after dropping in to commiserate, gloat or chew the fat on what the result might mean for all of us. And Cheers to the stayers. You know who you are. It's wild when readers hands join mine on the steering wheel. I won't say I've always enjoyed the experience, but it has held my focus, not least because of the sheer unpredictability of the journey.

"When you amend the Constitution you amend it permanently. What one Parliament can do under the power another Parliament can undo. Just as the conservatives of 1946 saw a Communist plot behind the proposal, so the ALP sees a conservative government wishing to smash trade unions and workers’ conditions and rights. And they are both right." John Miner on how Australians have always said no to demands by Labor and non-Labor federal governments to seize control of industrial relations law from the States

"What if there was military action taken in Zimbabwe for the specific purpose to remove Mugabe and Zanu-PF, holding true and free elections and using the planned aid money to rebuild the economy shattered by years of mismanagement and deliberate destruction? On human rights grounds alone the removal of Mugabe and Zanu-PF would be justified." Stuart Lord

"We should be alarmed, not merely alert, about Australia's terror laws. They abrogate civil rights, which are our bulwark against tyranny. We are already seeing them used in what appears to be a McCarthyist witch hunt against vulnerable members of the community. We have spawned a monster, and it is only now beginning to show its menace. These laws are due to expire in July next year, but the Federal Attorney-General has called for their retention beyond that period. They should be repealed immediately." Melbourne silk Brian Walters SC