Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

I've never seen so much media at a protest, I guess the media and the cops were waiting for us to cause trouble. They were mostly disappointed. This protest was generally peaceful (except for those idiot gate breakers). There were almost as many police as protesters and a kind of PA informing us as we entered the protest zone that we were entering a 'protected area' and would have to follow police directive, this was neither here nor there for me until I wanted to leave.

" The land the lizard and the creatures of this earth are summoning everybody who gives a shit to the gates of Roxby Downs on the 14th of july 2012 for The Lizards Revenge - This is an open invitation to all people and a special call out to artists, musicians and activist community groups and media to get involved in the creation of this autonomous zone for the peace and healing of this land."

The state can't employ police to play games with their own lives.  If a policeman is confronted by a man armed with a knife and within lunging distance we have the only situation in which new disabling technology such as Tasers or capsicum spray might have a place. Without them the policeman must fire his pistol and shoot to kill.  If he has a Taser or capsicum spray perhaps there is an alternative, We now have an ambiguous situation. 

This appendix is provoked by the first skirmish in this year's Culture Wars, relating to Morals campaigner (and bully?) Meryl Tankard Reist's legal attempt to stifle the small, eclectic and amiable blogsite, No Place For Sheep,a newish site operated by psychologist Dr Jennifer Wilson.

You begin to suspect that governments here will be thinking more carefully about where shrinking revenues might be used and the question that comes to mind is, who/what will be preserved and who/what what may be jeopardised or jettisoned.

So the real question is: are gay marriages (and Big Love) harmful to the individuals or their children? The little research I've found is neutral.

The passing of the carbon tax bill today is a victory for future generations and for the planet. The money raised will be used to fund alternative energy and new industries for Australia. We can all stand proud today.

With challenges like these confronting mankind, can we continue with a business as usual approach? Are the current institutions capable of addressing these challenges? I think not. To fix these problems governments will need to raise a lot more revenue.

I believe it is greed that is a root cause of climate change denial. The people who deny the threat of global warming are the same people who are unwilling to change their way of life so that others in the village can survive. People who want it all now and are unwilling to leave anything for generations to come.

The rest is silence.

The reason I ask is because I would prefer it if people stopped asking me. I have no idea. Just as well. That would require an exploration of the darker inner reaches of your mind and that thankfully is not my line. Ultimately it's a question for you really. Just as ultimately it's up to you to do something about it.

This is what Chris Bowen said in 2006. What a contrast to the ALP Government's current behaviour.

In the Tweed and Byron Shires there are a lot of Greens. They are everywhere. They are like blowflies at a Barcaldine barbeque. They even have their own newspaper, the Echo. It is the only openly politically aligned newspaper around. While one can respect their industry they show all the hallmarks of their party, including a marked intellectual cowardice.

History should be at the core of all education. Without an understanding of our incredible history - the story of life - life itself can become meaningless. We must realise that we are a tiny part of a very big picture. Our future is unlimited. Our ancestors understood the need for stories of origin. Now more than ever we need to pass on to the coming generations an incredible story based on truth.

We are really struggling for good leaders when we end up with the likes of Abbott and Gillard as our only choice of Prime Minister, too much bullshit from these two. As many of us do not attend church regularly where are we getting our leadership? We certainly do need a bullshit detector!

"Your conduct is a most fundamental breach of trust and it is an attack on the institution of the family which is so dear to the community." - His Honour Justice Coghlan on sentencing Arthur Freeman to life in prison for the murder of his daughter Darcey.

"So what the committee is recommending to Australia is not only we completely remove the suspension - which we haven't yet done - but we entrench in the constitution a provision so that never again can race discrimination law be suspended in Australia." (Graeme Innes)

Paul Keating: I take issue with and repudiate those who assert that privacy in modern times is dead and, that we should get over it. And with those who claim the current framework within which the media deals with privacy issues and concerns is effective and works well. It is of course, ineffective and works, in the main, to the benefit of media organisations.

Is it possible to have prosperity that isn’t about rising income? A prosperity that would give us health and security, at the same time allowing us to participate socially with hope for the future – a life that gives us the ability to flourish as human beings on a finite planet?... We are social beings, not isolates. To be complete we need to free our imagination: our prosperity should be about caring for others – a prosperity of hope.

Now that we have audiovisually interactive mobile phones and permanently net-connected portable computers I wonder how far away a human-implantable Facebook Chip could be. Our heads already have cameras and microphones installed, so you'd only need a thought-to-font translator, video and audio uploading equipment and a Wi-Fi transceiver. With the flip of a mental (or physical) switch, any human could interact with the social network carried in their mind.

My first blog ever was a damp squib; deservedly so given the amount of effort I put into it. I've decided to give it another go for the reasons that there's a growing awareness of the subject and that next to climate change and sustainable population this is the most important issue facing us.

Gandhi used non-violent actions to bring freedom to India. Maybe if we want to fight for a future for our grandchildren or bring equity to the children unfortunate enough to have been born in the third world we too will have to resort to non-violent action.

If you're younger you may not get the significance of this. This was world Internet and media history and Margo was making  it. In 2000 there were no comparable models. Not in the New York Times, not in the Washington Post and not even in that stupid bloody British rag that you wretched lefties love so much, the Guardian".- Harry Heidelberg

"Really, though, I'd lost the taste the day I was rooting around the glovebox of a car in the wreckers' yard to find out who'd had the prang.  Looking up from my endeavours I noticed one of the driver's teeth embedded in the steering wheel.  I thought to myself "so, this is journalism?" - Richard Tonkin

Similarly, where it used to be thrilling to continue, in non-internet reality, conversations that were initiated on the internet, now a few kids are beginning to get the heebie-jeebies about how much personal information others know about them.

How can we claim that human beings have a fundamental right to life, without an equally fundamental right to death? If one is forced to do something, then it cannot be a right. 

The act of saying sorry actually is an admission you'll stop doing the things that are causing offense, so for the government to say sorry and not retract the intervention is breathtakingly hypocritical in the extreme.

The media Silly Season strikes. Wondering if anyone's gpt anythingthey'd like to discuss?   Maybe it's the right time to scribblesomething?  Or perhaps we should open up a random rambling thread towhile away January? All ideas welcome.

Australians is a grand and absorbing feast of a book. There were many sections that I lingered over slowly, savouring Keneally’s gift for bringing such a wide cast of characters to life, making the book a real experience. Keneally also writes in a witty, almost lapidary prose that is most appealing.

"There are tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of thesestories, each as important as the other, each with its own hurts, itsown humiliations its own traumas - and each united by the experience ofa childhood without love, of childhood alone."- Prime Minister Kevin Rudd