Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

See this Guardian article.

I wonder how come no-one in Australia has cottoned onto this tale about Hicks over the past 9 days or so.

Hicks is entitled to release as a pom because our government sure won't support him.

Malcolm, most media consumers would be repeat customers, that go back for the same reason each time. It wouldn't be commercially useful for a journalist to change his/her position ritually. What they tend to do is brand themselves in a particular way, then write the same story, every single day, with the same heroes and villians, regardless of the particular facts or details involved. Whilst I don't think they are above changing their position, part of the pleasure lies in the comfort of routine, so they're shy of doing so.

I think when a journalist does change his/her position, if it is not done gratuitously, it can be quite a powerful thing. It creates a narrative, through character development, which is interesting. The fact that Margo voted for Howard in '96 and now sees him as a threat to Australian democracy, makes her more interesting than if she were an habitual Greens voter. The same goes for her ambivalence towards QLD, with the promise of a home-coming some day. It makes it feel as if we're in Act II of a three Act play.

That is a very different thing to the kind of instant gratification that people seek from a Murdoch rag or from Women's Weekly, where nothing ever changes. I think part of the problem comes from the repetition which creates lethargy and encourages laziness and a need to squeeze out more and more shock-value, just to keep people interested.

I've long argued that webdiary should try and combine the best of both worlds, much to the chagrin of some webdiarists, and combine tabloid methods with substance. I thought it was necessary to minister to the lower instincts as well as the higher ones, to keep people involved. If people wanted a pure intellectualism, they could read the Melbourne University Law Review. We're talking about a woman that once went to a gay bar with Pauline Hanson. A dry paper simply wouldn't do justice to her talents. Looking at it afresh now, I think it's failing on both counts; Not enough gloss and not enough substance. Once that is taken care of it needs an occasional surprise, to keep people awake. Audiences will resist change but it's necessary if we're going to progress anywhere.

Anyway Margo, Webdiary is just a grain of sand in a global movement. I've had this thought for a long time but reading that you got a piece up on Mike Moore's web-page totally confirmed it for me. As I've said elsewhere, studies show that most people are unadventurous in their use of the internet and tend to visit the kinds of sites that are within their comfort zone. The way to make webdiary genuinely powerful is to internationalise it, directing Australian people towards the wider world. Building alliances with other, similar sites, of similar persuasions, all across the world, would be very easy. I say darken the blue in the headline, throw in a southern cross, then go off in to cyber-space as Australia's anti-establishment representative.

Solomon Wakeling, I guess you don't know Kings Cross. I think you'll find Queen Miranda's article is well out of date. She should be challenged to update it and account for her predictions. Today, the Cross is alive and well and thriving, despite the continued presence of the injecting room. New bars, cafes and retail stores continue to open up and for those of us living here a long time (15 years in my case) it's an exciting time as our community lurches on to its next incarnation.

The dereliction she bemoaned was economically driven. In the bad old days decades of illegal drug trade and its nexus with prostitution and the sex businesses in the Cross drove rents on the strip to levels only sustainable by illegal businesses turning huge profits under police protection. It was inevitable, once that started cleaning up, that rents would fall, and they have. It's also inevitable that it takes time for that adjustment to happen as landlords have to re-learn what a property in the Cross is really worth. I guess the subtlety of that escaped her.

The adjustment is well under way, and as a result a whole raft of new businesses have opened up. Of the nine closed shops she mentioned in Roslyn street, five were closed as their owner had been denied permission to join them together to create yet another convenience store by the council. A good move too. Seven of nine are now trading again in a variety of vardifferent guises, the couple remaining are old restaurants well past their use-by dates.

I differ here with my esteemed co-2011 resident Malcolm on the utility of the injecting room, but, there will be a time when it is no-longer relevant to the Cross and must move closer to its market.

So, Miranda Devine, how about it? Let's update that article and see how right you were...

Marilyn, your timing is brilliant. Alexander Downer's just been on the news saying that he knew of the citizenship application at the start of the month.

Downer's US lawyer Major Michael Mori told ABC's AM this morning that the application's acceptance was basically an automatic process. Here's the transcript.

Margaret Morgan, you've been caught out me thinks. Depending on how smart we believe the average plank is, I'd guess about 2% of the population will fit your discription. It ain't 'most' at all. The IQ score is a Normal Distribution, the same one that the height of a human conforms to.

Rupert and plenty of other media pitch to the fears and prejudices of an uninformed (often by their own choice - ie they don't care) majority.

If you want to change how that works, get involved in informing the great unwashed. Drop your polemic platform and get involved in getting the real messages across without spin, and in language humans who don't have time to analyse, and who aren't engaged can soak up and internalise. Be crtical, listen to as many points of view as you can and when you find yourself jumping to conclusions based on broad generalisations, or a set of prejudices, stop and think! We'll all be beter off for it.

"The IQ score is a Normal Distribution."

Exactly, David, a normal bell curve with the majority grouped around the mean and the median. So the majority is 100 points and less.

Stuart: "Your unwarranted elitism regarding that only people with lower than average IQ's reading and believing Murdoch newspapers again shows why so many switch off when listening to 'progressive' viewpoints"

Oh, okay. I should just shut up about the fact that a large proportion of the populace couldn't recognise a logical argument if it bit them? And I ought not complain about those who exploit this broad inability to further their own ends, right?

Of course, Rupert does target some of his media outfits to the 'pointy heads', to quote a Lathasm, but the vast preponderance of his outlets are of the Fox News ilk: dumbed down. Horribly dumbed down. That's why the more Fox News that Americans watch, the more likely they are to believe that weapons inspectors found weapons of mass distruction in Iraq, that Saddam had links to al Qaeda and September 11, and that world opinion was in favor of the war.

Sorry I'm not being sufficiently PC for you, Stuart, but I find ignoring the bleeding obvious unpalatable.

G'day. A transcript of my talk in Melbourne on July 29 is here.

Article of note: Rachel Gibson from the ACSPRI Centre for Social Research and Ian McAllister from the Political Science Program shows that web campaigning is associated primarily with the political attitudes and outlook of candidates (being left-wing and young) rather than the amount of campaign resources available ... Does cyber campaigning win votes? Online communication in the 2004 Australian election ;

I'm with you Margaret Morgan, although I'd modify your statement a little to read that most people are uninformed, rather than dumb. On the other hand, I would have to say that those that are happy to stay uninformed by restricting their source of news information to Fox ARE dumb.

In a rush, so sorry for the brevity.

Is there an honest, young journalist who could provide regular updates on what the New Media are up to?

Off top of head, three things that need wider airing.

1. What's Al Gore doing?

2. Why did Warren Buffet et al make that anti-nuke DVD? (Last Best Chance.)

3. An opinion on Juan Cole's venture into video clips of himself being interviewed by another blogger? (Here.)

4. Any NM happening in Oz.

David, all I know about the Cross are ghost stories about prostitution/junkies. I also knew vaguely that it was a bit of an alternative cultural centre, which had sort of been spoilt by an influx of junkies. I'm a Westie know-nothing so Sydney politics is as fascinating to me as a foreign culture. I appreciate your comments. I've been meaning to make a trip up there and get to know the place. I've been a nihilist about cafe/night-life, finding it to be more often than not a farce, but my curiosity has started to pique thanks to characters like Malcolm and Miranda.

C Parsons, touche.

Jenny Stirling, not sure how an article on the media turned into a discussion on existentialism, but why not.

Not really sure about the happiness thing. I mean what is it, really? Death is our ultimate earthly reality - does anybody feel happy on their death bed? So why this pursuit of happiness?

Is happiness a perception of beauty? An appreciation of physical pleasure? A fleeting sense of achievement? An acknowledgement of love?

Or is it just a feeling of comfortableness?

When everything is stripped from life, as it was when I was training as a legionnaire in my young silly days, there are three things that your mind and body crave. They are warmth, food and rest. I didn't care about happiness - I didn't even care about my health - I just craved constantly for those three things.

I think what we really want for our lives is security, and security means knowing that we can wake up each day with sufficient warmth, food and rest. Give us this day our daily bread.

Wealth is the most obvious way of providing this security, as well as allowing greater choice as to how to tailor it to our personal tastes. Organised society is the other means, which is why our democracy, and in effect our media, are so important to us.

But in the end nations fall, lives are disrupted, things change, we die. As for myself I am unable to separate a sense of meaning and honest contentment from my faith in the Word.

Sid Walker: "How ironic it would be if Hicks is in fact released from Guantanamo to 'return' to Britain."

Maybe they could extradite him to Afghanistan?

I mean, he has his old job still there waiting for him.

"China is imposing new regulations to control content on its news websites", the Government said today, another step in efforts to police a rapidly expanding internet population."

"The rules were issued by the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council, China's cabinet, to "standardise the management of news and information" in the country, the official Xinhua News Agency said. They take effect immediately, it said."

Margaret Morgan, I would not start jumping to conclusions that so called 'progressive' viewpoints" are only held by the ultra intelligent.

To be honest I don't know if wanting to turn the clock back to a time that never existed is even slightly intelligent. I guess it is each to his or her own.

One good thing about the Murdoch papers is that they have a good sport section. Must be a conspiracy to keep those "progressive viewpoints" at bay?

SMH puts video clips in its RSS feed - Video. Is this new?

Margo: Hi Trevor. I don't know. Can anyone help?

Good morning. Here's a summary of yesterday's David Hicks media.

HICKS SEEKS UK CITIZENSHIP FOR FREEDOM

An Adelaide man is seeking to change his nationality in a bid for release from US imprisonment.

David Hicks was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, and has since been imprisoned at the US's Halliburton - constructed Guantanemo Bay installation.

Hicks is one of only five Guantanemo prisoners to be charged of the 500 currently incarcerated there.

Hick's US lawyer Major Michael Mori says that Hick's application would be granted automatically because he has an English mother. This information only came to light when Hicks was discussing the recent Australia-England cricket matches. David's father, Adelaide resident Terry Hicks said that on being asked how he felt about Australia's recent match loss "David's answer was that he didn't feel that patriotic as far as the Australians and the English go because his mother was still a British national and still carried a UK passport. It threw Major Mori."

While Prime Minister John Howard has refused to comment on the matter, Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer said that "If Mr Hicks and his lawyers want to try to circumvent justice by going to some other country and they think that will help them, that's a matter between him and that country."

Mr Downer has revealed that he has been aware of Hick's intention since the start of the month, and told ABC Radio that the issue was raised in his meeting with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Shadow Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has accused the Government of trying to pre-empt Mr Hicks's application, asking "Have they actually been making comments in the last month urging the US to speed up Mr Hicks' trial, all along thinking that they had to get this going before some embarrassing story like today's revelations came out?"

"Our Government has abandoned him," Democrats Attorney-Generals Spokesperson Senator Natasha Stott Despoja said. "Unlike other countries such as Spain, France and the United Kingdom, Australia has left its citizen to rot in Guantanomo Bay without adequate support or rights. It is a tragedy that the Government has allowed the situation to come to this - an Australian realising the only chance he has of obtaining a fair hearing is to change citizenship."

Federal Oppoition Leader Kim Beazley said that Hicks' trial should occur in the US, but not by the military. He said that "In the case of the United States that's a civil jurisdiction, they've got very good courts, and that is where David Hicks should be tried."

Margo... just read your talk - and, PLEASE, post it as a separate column... 'cause it's exactly the kinda call to arms that Webdiarists (of all stripes) could well do with - and, I'd have to say that I'm with you all the way...

Last year - when I attempted to (seriously) debate the meaning of 'conservatism' with one of your columnists - he deliberately avoided (to my mind) exactly one of the points that you insist upon here. And as someone who has learnt plenty from traditional conservatives - not to mention neo-liberals (in their non-ideological guise) - I'm damn-well sick of the stupid name-calling/deliberate misinterpretation that so frequently passes for 'real' debate on Webdiary.

But - on the other hand - there are the majority who actually want to learn (in which I include myself), and Webdiary is THE local political forum for that particular activity, irrespective of the partisanship so prominently displayed.

So, keep on keeping on, and - remember - the majority of us here are NOT ideological purists, but (merely) pragmatic democrats... who happily join you in the task of renovating Australian democracy.

All the best.

Hi C Parsons, I was wondering when I would bear the brunt of your subtle analysis, powerful invective and razor sharp wit. :-)

Incidentally, C, are you related to 'M', of James Bond fame? I just had to ask. You seem so well-informed about old MI6 assets such as Osama Bin Laden and what they are up to. I wonder if you ever worked in their script-writing department?

You suggest sending Hicks back to Afghanistan, C, jesting at the misfortune of your fellow citizen by proposing he’s returned to the place he was originally kidnapped by our ‘allies’ at the start of the Fake Terror Wars, four years ago? Sure. Why not may light of the illegal, Kafkaesque incarceration in a foreign hellhole of a fellow Australian? Nothing like kicking a man when he’s down, is there C?

In my earlier post, I suggested jurisdictions where someone like Mr Hicks may yet live as a free man, even if he doesn’t share your odious views on civil liberties, censorship, war and the Middle East. Somewhere the SAS, CIA, Mossad and other chums do not currently exercise unrestrained, arbitrary powers to kill, maim, censor and kidnap as they choose.

That’s why Cuba sprang to my mind – with the added bonus that should a hurricane strike the Island, Hicks has a good chance of surviving. Unlike its brutish and parasitized northern neighbour, Cuba organizes an effective response to natural disaster.
_______________

On a more serious note, I was alarmed to read the transcript of Margo's speech in Melbourne:

...our job is to do what the Americans did after S11, set up MoveOn, get the Deaneaks running around Australia - I don’t know what we’d call them cause we haven’t got a Howard Dean here.

Margo, an Australian MoveOn is exactly what we DON'T need, in my opinion.

We don’t need a Soros-funded, carefully controlled, fake 'opposition' in Australia, thank you. We the people don’t need it, that is. Some elements in the elite might be comfortable with another billionaire with slightly more leftist inclinations making a new play within the Australian media.

I believe we deserve - and must create - rather greater diversity.

No moveon.org.au, thankyou. No more fake doors leading to 'mass mobilisation' scams which absorb popular energy and channel it into 'safe' and ineffective directions, all the while maintaining a tight grip on the boundaries of the debate.

I'm also very uneasy about your unqualified enthusiasm for Howard Dean, Margo, but I’ll hold fire on that for now. Is your entusiasm for his supporters, or for Dean? Why Dean, for heaven’s sake? If you are to single out one of the USA's 2004 also-rans, why not Kucinich?

Perhaps, in a later presentation, you could explain whether you believe Australia needs “a Howard Dean here” – and if so, why?

Solomon Wakeling: "David, all I know about the Cross are ghost stories about prostitution/junkies."

A few years ago, I was briefly involved in designing brochures and other health promotion resources for NSW Health.

At the time, a study called the "inner-City violence project" or something was being finalised.

It showed a massive incidence of male-on-male violence in Kings Cross, typically alcohol related.

I forget the precise details, but about 1 in every 17 males (or something like that) living in Kings Cross could expect to be assaulted violently in a typical year.

Weirdly, the women's health unit at NSW Health was active in supressing the author's attempts at more widely publicising the study because its data on women being assaulted was "inconsistent with (their) understanding of violence against women" or some such.

This, despite it drawing attention to serious levels of assaults against Lesbians.

The objection was that the report found that levels of domestic violence against women was not as high as the then "one in three" conventional wisdom.

Never let data get in the way of a good slogan.

While personal anecdotal evidence is not much value as research, I should relate that recently on Darlinghurst Road a nutter took the trouble to ride his bicycle across the street, mount the footpath, and run into me deliberately.

After a few harsh words were exchanged, he then suddenly announced it had been "nothing personal", and he proceeded to relate his whole life story as I picked up spilled groceries and retrieved scattered small change that had fallen from my shopping bag.

By the time I was walking away, he was more or less pledging his life-long friendship to me.

No thanks. Give me a gun.

The worst bashing I ever got was on the corner of Crown Street and Oxford Street where I was king hit in plain view of dozens of people, beaten, had teeth smashed, a broken rib - and left unconscious on the pavement until a Clone (remember them?) took the time to pick me up off the footpath and call an ambulance.

The assailants were all male - and one wore an Eeels fotball club jacket.

It took months of medical and dental treatment to recover.

In Clapton Place in Kings Cross I was bashed for attempting to intervene on behalf of an elderly neighbour who was being shaken down for his pension money.

Never make that mistake.

Also in Clapton Place, I was threatened with a bashing by some freak for carrying a camera. Literally just carrying it, in its case on my shoulder - even after showing the paranoid loser threatening me that it had no film in it.

In Clapton Place that same year a woman was bashed by a raving drunk with an iron bar.

Lovely.

Later, he used the bar to smash out the windshields of parked cars.

Outside a Victoria Street cafe I saw a fight which left one participant permanently disabled from a massive haemotoma.

Which didn't trouble me too much, because that same fellow once threatened to "kill", actually "kill" he said, a darling girl - a jewellry design student - because she parked her bicycle on the footpath "too near" to his car.

You never know when you have to retaliate with deadly force against a twenty-something art student for potentially increasing the risk of scuffing your duco, hey?

In Stanley Street I was approached by a conservatively dressed, middle aged fellow who asked me something, which i didn't quite hear.

"Pardon?" I said, getting out of my car.

He then spat in my face, pushed the car door on me crushing me against the doorframe - and then fled.

Recovering myself, I chased him on foot, eventually catching him in the grounds of Caritas Psychiatric Hospital where the importuning of a nurse stopped me from clocking him.

He was a patient there.

Solomon, stay demure, and keep demurring - but avoid demurrage at all costs.

C Parsons, not necessarily. I have a very nice data set in front of me at the moment where the mode is the lowest, followed by the mean, and then the median (3rd year essay marks). And I have another set where the median is the lowest, followed by the mode, and then the mean. Incomes in Australia, perchance. It all depends on the shape of the distribution.

Malcolm, I promise I will pursue renorming as soon as I have escaped the labyrinth.
Brimstone libations, anyone?

Given that there have been a few comments about David Hicks in this thread, I'll drop in my own contribution.

I recently had a letter published in the local rag in which, in part, I said:

"Now, David Hicks may well be a complete dill, and probably deserves condemnation for his actions, if not his stupidity, but do you not think he should at least be given a free and fair trial, instead of a military kangaroo court?"

Now, given the fact that it appears to have taken him two or three years to work out he could get out of Gitmo by claiming British citizenship through his mother, I think I should have removed the qualifier 'may well be' before the word 'dill'.

Why did he, or even Mori, or anyone, not think of this possibility when the others Brits were released? Surely his details, including parentage, would be in his file?

No C Parsons, no. The theoretical bell curve is normally distributed, that is, it is symmetrical about the mean, half the population above, half below, that is, the area under the curve to the left of the mean is equal to the area to the right of the mean. Both ends of the curve are absyssal, that is, they never meet the axis. That is, they are not finite. That is the statistical model. Like all statistics, it does nothing but 'model' reality. Human beings are not infinite in size and number - it's a little like a legal fiction.

The reality may be that in any particular sample, the bell curve is skewed. That is there is a bulge in the bell which shifts either below or above the mean.

The mode is the grteatest number of people who attain the same score. Thus, if one has a theoretically normally distributed population but the mode is significantly different to the mean (such as the difference between "average" intelligence and "average university" intelligence) there will be a bulge in the curve towards the higher end of the scale and your curve will not have a bell shape.

Any elementary text should be able to explain it for you. Unfortunately I can't give you a reference to the best one because I lent it to some bastard who hasn't given it back and I haven't been able to find another copy.

Oh for heavens sake! This really is it for today!

You're the limit, C Parsons. Challenged to find a reference supporting your earlier preposterous statement that "fewer of the USA's much greater population died in Hurricane Rita than on any typical day Fidel's thugs might feel the need to machine gun a boat-load of refugees on the high seas", you link to an incident concerning the execution of three hijackers on one occasion.

I don't believe in killing at all, for the record, C, so I'm not justifying that.

However, given more than 35 people died as a result of Hurricane Rita, your claim that 'more' than that number were killed 'on any typical day' (by machine-gunning on the high seas) has not been supported... I can only conclude you can't make your case.

So shall anyone else who follows up your link. You are wrong, C: you made a grossly misleading statement. You might admit that and apologise.

Castro's agents do not machine gun scores of people most days on the high seas. That's why we didn't read the story first in the Murdoch press – or hear about it direct from the White House. It's didn't happen. It's a lie so absurd, even that lot don’t try it out on the punters!

Malcolm , never fear, all the talk of means and medians has already frightened this poor beggar off. Keep it up and I'll happily demure from any further solicitations.

Fiona Reynolds: "David Eastwood, you are confusing the median with the mean. They occasionally co-occur, but not always."

As I understand it, if either the trailing or leading edge of the 'bell' is longer than the other, say a long trailing edge, that shifts the mean. Right?

So, logically, the median then must fall between the mean (the average) and the mode (the high point on the bell curve).

Is that right?

Sid Walker: "If, however, you'd like anyone to actually believe what you 'point out', I'd encourage you to provide references and links to accompany your assertions."

Oh, sorry? Did I forget that?

Here you go...

"Two passenger planes made it to Key West, but a Havana Harbor ferry hijacked by three men was stopped 30 miles north of Cuba by the Cuban border patrol.

The ferry was escorted back to Cuba, where the three men were arrested. They were killed by a firing squad a few days later."

David Eastwood, you are confusing the median with the mean. They occasionally co-occur, but not always.

C Parsons...

You write "might I point out fewer of the USA's much greater population died in Hurricane Rita than on any typical day Fidel's thugs might feel the need to machine gun a boat-load of refugees on the high seas".

By all means point our whatever you wish, C Parsons. Fine by me.

If, however, you'd like anyone to actually believe what you 'point out', I'd encourage you to provide references and links to accompany your assertions.

By September 26th, the official Rita death toll stood at 37, according to this link - there, it's not that hard to give a link, is it? I imagine the death toll may somewhat. It certainly won’t decline

Please provide a reference to make your 'point' that "on any typical day" Castro's thugs are machine-gunning more than 35 people on the high seas.

The reference you provide will, I suspect, constitute a valuable international scoop. CNN, Fox, BBC - they'll all be vying for that story, C!

Surprising really that no US President, to date, has 'pointed out' the same 'fact'. Maybe they need you in Washington? Have you thought of a career in the White House doing Ari Fleischer's old job?

Now over to you for a free kick, C. I'm not going to reply to you again today. Like playing a computer game one has already mastered, rebutting your piffle is too easy to be really satisfying. Besides, I try to stick to the 5 posts a day limit, partly because that's in WebDiary's guidelines - and partly because do have a life beyond WebDiary.

Sorry, David Eastwood - you're wrong. You are talking about a mathematical construct. When we actually test for IQ we find a certain number of people actually test at 100. They are people not a theoretical point on a line. Margaret is correct, I am afraid.

G'day. See Reporter jailed for bin Laden story.

Margaret Sorry but you're wrong. In a Normal Distribution exactly 50% of the population concerned lies above the mean, and exactly 50% below. The mean of the human IQ distribution is 100, so half of us are above that and the other half are below.

Sid Walker: "That’s why Cuba sprang to my mind – with the added bonus that should a hurricane strike the Island, Hicks has a good chance of surviving."

What, by moving to Miami and Fort Lauderdale with the rest of Cuba's population?

As for Cuba organizing "an effective response to natural disaster", might I point out fewer of the USA's much greater population died in Hurricane Rita than on any typical day Fidel's thugs might feel the need to machine gun a boat-load of refugees on the high seas.

(It's going to be funny when Fidel dies and the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party or whatever discovers the need to renounce his long list of crimes, isn't it? Over 50 years of implaccable butt-licking will come back to haunt pinkos all across this great land. I was reminded of this recently re-reading Ann Wroe's astonishing book 'Pilate', which is a stunning cultural analysis of the many ways in which Pontius Pilate has been portrayed in history and literature. Seeking a contemporary metaphor for Judas Iscariot, the author draws upon her experiences living in Cuba, where lubricious little Judas Iscariots in the pay of the regime constantly plagued the lives of her fellow academics, infiltrating philosophy and literature studies groups, dobbing on professors and students for thought crime or lacking sufficient revolutionary rigour. They preferred always to take their 30 pieces of silver in US currency, though, rather than the worthless local denari.)

Malcolm B Duncan: "Perhaps you could adopt my solution to combating violence around the place - look like an 18 Stone Detective Sergeant - works a treat."

Well, obviously my looking like an 8 stone rent boy hasn't helped any.

Another piece of Cross-bashing C Parsons? Just what we need at the moment. I gather you still live here though. Perhaps you could adopt my solution to combating violence around the place - look like an 18 Stone Detective Sergeant - works a treat.

The closest I have come is being headbutted by the pimp of a prostitute I had taken home for dinner to do some research on the drug scene. I had to bend down to pick up my glasses and he took off. I chased him and the pair haven't been seen since.

Interesting experience though. She Who Must Be Obeyed didn't believe me when I rang and said I was bringing a prostitute home for dinner - She of little faith. By golly druggies like lamb and red wine. Turned out this, otherwise quite pleasant girl, was so enamoured of heroin that she had given up her daughter so she could concentrate on the most important thing in her life - the next hit. Legalise the stuff I say (and ran on that policy in the last State election.) Reporters don't like being fair dinkum about that when they report that I only got 272 primary votes. At least I know I get the thinking punter.

As to Margaret Morgan, I couldn't agree more. Have you ever met anyone with an IQ of 100? In my Army days, because I was one of the psychological testers, I frequently did and had to talk to them - scary stuff. Even "average" university intelligence at 115 is scraping the barrel in my book. Not that you want Army Officers who are too intelligent - they get bored and cause trouble. Far better to let the NCOs run the thing.

Fiona Reynolds is checking for me to see whether there has been a recent re-norm of the standard ACER IQ tests. I suspect it should be time to do it because so many kids are being forced to stay on at school that the skew on the old curve must be shifting back towards the mean.

Also, we have decided to create a small club in a quiet corner of Club Chaos for Sterne fans. We thought it might be called the Hellfire Club. Membership will only be open to those who know what it means - at last a chance to escape the attentions of Solomon Wakeling.

Solomon, do any of the following appeal? Abstain from, avoid, desist from, eschew, forbear, refrain from...

And thank you, what a charming compliment! Of course, it is most appropriately directed to my parents, whom I consider had remarkably good taste.

Fiona, unfortunately the word I was looking for doesn't exist, so I was stuck with using a grammatically dubious substitute. I justified it to myself by arguing that language is fluid and that I was being innovative. You have a very pretty name.

C Parsons, whatever were you thinking to believe a natural disaster is not so much worse than a little bit of commie thuggery?

They can't just have people up and leaving this paradise whenever they wish now can they? I mean who would look after the growing industries, such as being slaved out to multinationals? Or the ever growing prostitution one?

I must be a days and nights filled with fun and laughter in this joint?

I am flattered that one of my more innocuous posts has elicited such an outpouring of vitriol from Noelene Konstandinitis. In all seriousness, Noelene, mi cara, acushla, mignonne (no, no, stop that, Fiona! do NOT condescend or patronise), the primary aim of my post was to suggest politely that if you insist on accuracy from others, you should maintain accuracy yourself. Like Hamish, however, I am more than prepared to accept that you - like all of us - are subject to momentary lapses.

However, your response raises two more important concerns. First, if you criticise, which I am sure you will admit is one of your fortes, you must be prepared to accept justified criticism. Second, your assumption that I am an undergraduate (not) prat (possibly), made on the scanty evidence of a few unashamedly frivolous posts, makes me question the basis of your assertions on several issues of substance. Believe me, were I marking your assignments (and I have marked many - and at REAL universities - over the past 20 odd years), the small matters of authority, evidence, and reference would be raised.

Hamish Alcorn: I'd really like it if we all got back to the content now. You're all beautiful.

C Parsons, I'm glad we agree on Hicks being a 'dill', and, as you say, it may well be a 'mitigating circumstance' to bring up at his trial, wherever that may be.

Just finished watching a US PBS documentary on SBS, called Private Warriors, about contractors in Iraq, and am wondering if you caught it?

After all, you have admitted an addiction to daft 'conspiracy theory' programmes on SBS... (Apologies, couldn't resist that dig.)

As they say, very thought provoking programme on the use and role, and accountability, of these contractors in Iraq.

Some interesting footage, and commentary. Wonder what everyone makes of these edited pieces of the transcript? Apologies to one and all, but am several wines into the evening, and possibly not editing as much as I should, it all seems relevant.

Ed Hamish Alcorn: Please don't be flippant about editing, especially of long posts. There IS a point where we will say 'sleep more important than the trouble', with people who clearly aren't making an effort. With Webdiary getting busier and busier, we'll find that place correspondingly easier to get to.

Discussion with - I think - head of UK firm Erynis.

MARTIN SMITH: [on camera] Do those incidents result in the deaths of Iraqis?

ANDY MELVILLE: Unfortunately, we have had to kill anti-Iraqi forces in the pursuance of our duties, which is to protect the lives of our client.

Regarding the murders of the four contractors in Fallujah in March 2004. Please C Parsons, note I say murder.

"MARTIN SMITH: Contractually, Blackwater was to supply two SUVs with three guards per vehicle. Instead, the men set out at 8:30 in the morning with just two men per car, each short a rear gunner."

The commander responsible for Fallujah was Marine Colonel John Toolan.

Col. JOHN A. TOOLAN, U.S. Marines: Contractors were easily identified on the roads because they were all in brand-new SUVs— 2004 SUV, tinted windows. So they were easy to pick out. And the insurgents knew that it was a fairly easy mark.

MARTIN SMITH: Around 9:30 AM, they approached the centre of town. Insurgents would ambush them from behind. All four guards were shot and killed. The insurgents made their own video of the aftermath.

MARTIN SMITH: Four days later, Colonel Toolan was ordered to invade the city and find the killers. This was not his original plan for quelling hostility in Fallujah.

Col. JOHN A. TOOLAN: We had developed a pretty detailed plan on how we were going to address the problem, to the point where they understand the importance of rebuilding, reconstruction, working with the people, earning trust. And by those contractors being killed, it really forced us to put that aside and to opt for the more direct approach.

Does anyone think the actions of contracting companies, which result in the death of their personnel, should affect US Army policy?

More on our old favourite 'outsourcing'.

MARTIN SMITH: Professor Steven Schooner is an expert on military contracting.

STEVEN SCHOONER: They don't communicate in the same networks. They don't get the same intelligence information. And so when things begin to develop quickly, there's an awful lot of people around with weapons who have important tactical responsibilities, who don't have the same information and aren't getting the same messages from the tactical leadership.

MARTIN SMITH: Reform has been put on hold. Private security guards are a fact of life here. Coalition authorities have tried to improve coordination between security contractors and the military, but ironically, they turned to the private sector for help.

PETER SINGER: We developed the classic Kafkaesque solution, which is we have a problem of outsourcing and coordinating outsourcing, and that we've done too much outsourcing and we don't have a control over it. So what would be the solution to it? Let's outsource the solution.

And again:

MARTIN SMITH: Several military officers we spoke to complained that there are contractors that simply shouldn't be here. Marine Colonel Thomas X. Hammes was a base commander in Iraq in early 2004.

Col. THOMAS X. HAMMES, U.S. Marines (Ret.): There were security contractors over there that were just cowboys. They clearly had neither the training nor the experience. Could I identify them? No. They wore a mixed bag of uniforms. Nobody wore nametags. They didn't have unit logos.

You'd run into these people in town with really kind of a bad attitude, and there was nothing you could do about it. How do you identify them? Well, there's no licenses plates on their car. They're driving an SUV. These people were simply unsafe.

Whether you like it or not, they represent you. To the local population, they're your hired guns. The Iraqis resent it very much and knew quite clearly that if one of these people shot an Iraqi, they were not subject to any law. They could simply be extracted from the country.

PETER SINGER: There were reports of, literally, companies hiring bouncers to do security detail duties in Iraq. That's a training issue. You also have a question of their—

MARTIN SMITH: [on camera] You got something against bouncers?

PETER SINGER: In terms of having them on the ground, carrying submachine guns that they've never learned how to use, out there getting into fire fights that not only impinge upon that company but, by the way, impinge upon the entire U.S. military operation?

MARTIN SMITH: These companies have training. They have training by former you know, special forces.

PETER SINGER: Sometimes companies have let in people who have backgrounds that we would not want to be there.

Then on accountability.

MARTIN SMITH: Was there ever a time when a private security contractor was reprimanded?

LAWRENCE PETER: Well, there may have been. But that typically would be between the contracts officer who hired that private security company and the private security company.

Further on accountability and the chain of command.

PETER SINGER: The contractor is not part of the chain of command, and they can decide to leave when and where they want. They can decide to leave if they get a better job offer by another private military company or by some other company back home. They can decide to leave because they're just tired of this. These are all decisions that a contractor has the discretion to make that someone within the military does not. And so what you've done is put a level of uncertainty into your military operation, and military operations are not a place that you want uncertainty.

Then there's a large section on one of our main favourite targets, and one of my former employers, Halliburton and KBR.

So, my final points are, how do others think the 'average Iraqi' makes of all these armed people in SUV's making their own road rules? Could this also not add to a general resentment about the COTW forces still being there?

Also what do all other contributors think about the use of contractors, who are seemingly unaccountable for their actions, considering the current volatile situation in Iraq?

No David Eastwood, for this reason: the area under the curve at the mean point is zero because it is a straight line from the apex to the axis. It is a single point with no other dimension. The area between 99.5 (rounding up) and 100.4 (rounding down) is a measurable quantity having both height and width.

The number of people testing at 100 (whether you use rounding or not, and IQ tests don't necessarily have to) is a quantifiable, finite number on any test.

QED

There's no "Get Noelene" campaign? Why ever not?

Malcolm - at the risk of sounding a pedant I insist I'm not ill informed or poorly advised. Of course a number of people test at 100, any one who tests between 99.50000000000...1 and 100.499999... will be rounded off to 100 when the scores are measured to no decimal places. The number people who test at IQ 100 should be the greatest single numebr of people who return any particular score (the mode as I recall) as the Normal distribution is highest at the mean. The Normal Distribution is continuous, not discrete, so an IQ index measured in whole numbers is a discrete approximation of a Normal curve. For a symmetrical distribution like this one the Median and Mean are one and the same.

Noelene, I thought Hamish's interjection on the Gillard thread was unecessary and I think Craig's responses to you have been tiresome and petulant. I've missed you a lot, this place isn't the same without you. If Webdiary ran on a buddy system, I'd pick you.

Hamish, aw shucks. Now you've made me sound like a right B****! OK, I accept your apology. If you say there is no co-ordinated "Get Noelene" campaign, I believe you. And so I apologise for "chucking a spaz attack" as my son would say.

Hand shake? :)

Hamish: big hug Noelene.

Adam Rope: "Now, given the fact that it appears to have taken him two or three years to work out he could get out of Gitmo by claiming British citizenship through his mother, I think I should have removed the qualifier 'may well be' before the word 'dill'."

This indeed may be evidence of a mitigating circumstance that could work to his advantage.

I say extradite him to Afghanistan for trial and submit it during the sentencing phase.

It might get him twenty years off his sentence, or even more.

I think we should send Mumdouh back to Egypt to confirm the whereabouts of Mohamed Abbass, too.

It's a vital matter for justice - and Mumdouh knows the lingo.

Sid Walker: "However, given more than 35 people died as a result of Hurricane Rita, your claim that 'more' than that number were killed 'on any typical day' (by machine-gunning on the high seas) has not been supported... I can only conclude you can't make your case."

You've got me there, Sid.

We can only conclude, then, that on a typical day, Fidel Castro is only murdering refugees at a rate less than one twelfth that of a force four hurricane slamming into a major city.

Another fine achievement by the regime.

Now, if Fidel can only convince that bar tender in Varadero to fish the dead cockroach out of my Marguerita I'll also overlook the hotel emergency generators constantly running out of fuel.

Eds: Unless Hamish can explain and apologise for yet ANOTHER example of the ethically disgraceful editorial policy at Webdiary, particularly towards me, I shall just have to face the fact that Webdiary is little more than a manipulative tabloid of the far Left. Please explain how this from the "fair dinkum" thread gets through without a peep.

Simon Ellis (26/09/2005 5:51:59 PM): "I'm with you Margaret Moran, although I'd modify your statement a little to read that most people are uninformed, rather than dumb. On the other hand, I would have to say that those that are happy to stay uninformed by restricting their source of news information to Fox ARE dumb."

Hamish: error corrected, and my apologies as the editor in question for not picking it up. Since there's only one occurrence, of simply leaving out the letter 'g', I'm assuming it was a genuine mistake on Simon's part.

Meanwhile I am subjected to this humiliating and presumptuous interjection by some undergraduate prat on the Julia Gillard thread!

Fiona Reynolds (22/09/2005 11:11:07 PM): "While on the subject of minor corrections, Noelene Konstandinitis, why the sudden problems with surnames - Kendall as KENDAHL, Morgan as MORAN? And I've only had time to catch up with two threads this evening."

"What is your subtext telling us?"

"Ed Hamish: It's unacceptable and I have corrected a few of these, as I will now go back and attempt to find more to correct. Please Noelene, spell names correctly. If it is intentional I consider the above to be personal abuse in direct contravention of Webdiary Ethics. My personal apologies, as Comments Manager, to F Kendall and Margaret Morgan for any name-misspellings that have gotten through."

Hamish, Now that you have decided to join Craig Rowley in an appalling unethical and sneaky assault on me, what is YOUR 'sub-text?'

None Noelene. You had made the error several times, with two names, and it was another Webdiarist who made a complaint. But I still did not assume it was intentional. I do like to make sure names are right and once again I encourage everyone to help by getting it right, and letting us know when we miss the errors. Thankyou for picking up this one for me.

I have no idea what this has to do with Craig. And I'm also not certain for what I am to apologise. If you say your mistakes were genuine, then I apologise for daring to suggest they may not have been. You are known (and loved) for your venom on occasion Noelene, as this very post attests, so I'm not feeling very untoward on that front.

If satisfactory reasons and appropriate apologies are not forthcoming, how on earth can you ever use the word "ethical" again? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry! The Orwellian nightmare of a group of people establishing a website to attack the alleged Orwellian assault on civil rights by the Howard government, when you people are even lower! At least Howard's machinations are on the public record, while your own behaviour happens behind cyber closed-doors.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

I'm ashamed Noelene of many things I have done in this life. This ain't one. I do hope you stick around though. I've missed you.

Adam Rope: "Just finished watching a US PBS documentary on SBS, called Private Warriors, about contractors in Iraq, and am wondering if you caught it?"

No, missed it.

Had any of them taken up arms against their fellow countrymen? Or plotted the murder of people on racial grounds?

Talking about the various injustices surrounding David Hicks, this morning's Nine Network News reported that US troops bribed Northern Alliance soldiers $15,000 to get a hold of the little Taliban contractor.

That's outrageous and unjust.

The money should be handed back and Hicks returned to the Northern Alliance immediately.

Justice demands nothing less.

I wonder what the Northern Alliance would do with him? Maybe his mother's mother is Afghani or something?

No problems, Hamish. Actually, I did have a point that was relevant to the thread. Unfortunately, I made it in my draft but not my final (or was it a deliberate mistake to show that Juno, too, nods?). In any event, the point was that questioning and criticism of a constructive nature are part of the whole contest of ideas. Ever since finding Webdiary some years ago, I have been encouraged in an ever darkening world by the contribution that WD makes to this essential element of democracy. As so many have said before me, now more than ever, especially after the State premiers' shameful and shameless capitulation yesterday, do we need vigorous debate on everything concerning the polity. And as contributors, it behoves us to listen to all points of view and reflect upon them.

Marilyn Shepherd, hello.

Just as a matter of interest, what has happened to the Bakhtiyari family since reaching Pakistan?

Also, does it strike everyone else as very likley that the Bakhtiyari family, like so many other people in that part of the world, probably just moved back and forth across the borders of both Afghanistan and Pakistan?

For example....

"But when the Herald visited the village of Balaw Daoud in Jaghuri district, one of the village signatories who swore by Mr Bakhtiari's wife, Roqia, said Mr Bakhtiari was a plumber from Afghanistan."

"He's an Afghan, but maybe he came here from Pakistan - there's a big Hazara community in Quetta. In those days our girls were like slingshots - we slung them to anyone wanting an Afghan wife."

"But that poor family were Afghans. The Australian Government had no reason to send them to Pakistan."