Wow!
Have a read of this VERY interesting article about ITIslam - Islam for the 21st Century...?

I dont necessarily agree that Christianity has come all the way out of the dark ages, but Islam *certainly* hasn't - women's rights roll on!

Worth a read.

Oh, I think all organised religions are a disgrace btw. But that's just me. I am all for spiritualism, but don't deal in organised religion.

What GWB should have said?
Read this on the internet today. Was interesting. If only politicians cared more about their country and people than themselves...

Not sure about the god bless america bit though!

"The President needed to be candid with the American people about Iraq. He wasn't, writes Tom Teepen.

President Bush delivered an important speech on Monday night. Here's another speech he could have given, but didn't:

My fellow Americans, I want to talk with you tonight about the situation in Iraq.

I ordered our American troops into Iraq with the best of intentions and for three reasons that I thought important.

1, I felt intervention was necessary to make sure Saddam Hussein would not use the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that every Western intelligence agency, and the past three American presidents, felt certain he either possessed or was developing.

2, I believed as well that the Iraqi people and the Middle East deserved relief from a dictatorship that was sadistic towards its own people and dangerous to its neighbours.

And 3, I felt strongly, in concert with my advisers, that a liberated Iraq, with a freely chosen government accountable to its own citizens, would be an inspiration to the peoples of the region to strive for progressive and peaceable change.

I must tell you in all candour tonight that in most of these matters, I was wrong.

We know now that the international economic boycott, the United Nations weapons inspections and the military containment policy of the previous US administration had effectively removed the threat of weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. And rather than being inspired by our actions, the region's population have largely turned against the United States and the model we offered them.

Our troops performed skilfully and bravely and we can all take pride in having ended a dictatorship of historic villainy. By far the larger number of Iraqis are themselves pleased to have been freed from the menace that Saddam Hussein was to their very lives every day.

But the consequences of my strategic miscalculations in this matter have been compounded by additional tactical miscalculations, and the sound work of our troops and the good that I hoped would come of Saddam Hussein's removal have, in the main, gone unfulfilled.

I believed it was unnecessary to secure United Nations sanction for our invasion. That failure has undermined our ability to enlist broad or substantial support from most other nations.

I had expected that the invasion would be greeted with nearly universal enthusiasm among Iraqis, but what we Americans have seen as liberation is widely mistrusted there as an occupation.

As a result of that misunderstanding, we put far too few troops into Iraq to seal its borders and to prevent the emergence of armed factionalism and chaos.

I had believed that the revived and expanded sale of Iraqi oil would largely pay for the transition, but it has proved necessary for you, the taxpayers of America, to pay the costs, now well more than $US100 billion.

Iraqi expatriates, who we believed would form the core of a new democratic government, have misled, disappointed and perhaps betrayed us.

Therefore, I have several announcements tonight.

I have today asked for and received the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defence. His successor will be chosen in consultation with the leadership of both parties in Congress, in the interests of establishing consensus for our remaining tasks in Iraq.

I will tomorrow ask the United Nations to establish a transitional trusteeship for Iraq, so that wide international commitment can be enlisted in bringing a new Iraq into being.

And I am announcing now that I will neither seek nor accept my party's nomination for a second term as your president.

I want to apologise to you tonight for the miscalculations that led to my decision to intervene in Iraq and for mishandling the military and administrative challenges of the operation. I nonetheless remain committed to making every effort, including continued American military responsibility under United Nations auspices, to provide Iraq's citizens with an opportunity to develop a government that reflects their considered judgement of their best national interests and the mutual interests of their nation's component populations.

Free from the need to campaign for re-election, and with this matter removed from partisan contention, I will devote the remaining months of my presidency to creating conditions, as best as I am able, that will permit the next president of the United States to conclude our experience in Iraq in a way that reflects honourably upon our country and that redeems for the Iraqi people the high promise of their liberation.

Thank you. Good night. And God bless America.

Tom Teepen is a syndicated American columnist.

A good read
Just finished reading a great book which I thought I would recommend. It is called the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and it was a great read. Click here for an interesting article about it.

No social commentary from me today. Am stinging to see Farenheit 9/11 though! Bet you it is gonna be a cack.

Democracy for none?
Allowing well informed young people the right to vote? You've got to be kidding! Check out:

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/nationalaffairs/featuregen.asp?pid=2916

It would be funny if it wasn't so scary.

Speaking of scary, GWB Junior and his born again religious ideas are starting to seriously scare the shite outa me. Just what the world needs - another extremest religous leader.

Organised religions are a serious worry I reckon. Yep, having a bad day with the world again today. Bastards!

Think globally, act locally?
Has been a while since I have been here, that's for sure.

I often find myself frustrated when thinking about all the f*cked up things that are happening in the US at the moment, and how helpless I feel in contributing to any change in that country. There are fab wesites like moveon.org and truemajority that are working hard to make a difference, but me as a non-US citizen, can't sign any of their petitions or add my voice to the outrage that "seems" to be happening over there. It frustrates me so much!

But then I think "Hold on a minute... What about Australia or the UK?" We both have governments that seem to be doing similar f*cked up things to the US. Sending more troops to Iraq, making new laws to outlaw same sex marriages, introducing fricken compulsory id cards and being basically generally bloody too conservative! What to do about them? There aren't any cool website that I can become a part of (or are there?) There doesn't seem to be a "anyone but Howard or anyone but Blair" movement (so disappointed in a the labour gov in this country btw. About time Blair removed his mouth from Bush's d1ck in my opinion - I expect it from little Johnny though - pr1ck), so whos bandwagon can I jump on??? Anyone got any ideas? (anyone even reading, more to the point!!)

Where are all the women Presidents or Prime Ministers I ask you? Do you think we would have so many wars with women in charge? Well, only once a month anyway... (sorry, can't be too feminist here)

"E" xcellent!
Well it has been a while since my last entry. Lots of excuses: was in a drug haze for about 3 days, the boiler blew up at work and I had most of last week at home and I pretty much had nothing to say!

But am back now. Saw Groove Armada with Sam Soloman two weekends ago, and it was the best night out I think I have ever had. If you get a chance to see Groove Armada live, grab hold with both hands and dont let go. Maybe it was the 2 pills that made it great, but I dont care. It was super.

And how crazy is the world at the moment! What the...?
Think it is time for me to check out, fake my death and go and live in the middle of Australia somewhere. I am certainly weird enough to do that I reckon...

Roller boogie
OK sports fans. I am going to a roller disco tonight, so stay tuned for some very VERY bad pictures soon. Should be a blast though.

Check out this list of weird true facts: http://www.theage.com.au/oddspot/index.html

Maybe the world is not so crazy after all? ;)
I cant decide which one is my favourite though. They are ALL funny. Any one named Cheese or Onion out there?

Quarter life crisis anyone?
Just a short one today.

I wonder if I am going through this myself. See this article in the SMH. Maybe there is some hope for all of us!

Who is coming to London this weekend then????

I hate bigots!

Monday morning...tired...want to curl up under my desk and sleep. Just another Monday morning really!

Enjoyed a fantastic weekend in the city of juxtapositions! Amsterdam. It amazes me everytime I go there. So trendy and fun, yet so historical and cultural. I thought it funny on the way home in the plane that my weekend consisted of drinking FAR too much, dancing like a crazy fool, and yet still finding time to visit Anne Frank House and other cultural "things". Even just walking around that city is amazing. So yeah, great weekend and my love affair with Amsterdam continues... No photos though Beth. Sorry - didn't buy a camera in the end. Next time for sure though!

But enough of me, over to you... So, what do you think about me? ;)

Now to my first serious entry on this here blog. Was reading the Sydney Morning Herald while eating lunch just now, and two articles jumped out at me straight away. One was the Australian Prime Minister John Howard (what a wanker he is!) saying he was against gay adoptions and the other was reporting on a demonstration in Florida where women were protesting against the arrest of women who bare their breasts during spring break events. The first article made me angry, and the second one I thought "What the...." But in thinking about them both, they both relate to the dogmatic (sounds like Obelix's dog in Asterix comics hey! Woof...), bigoted attitudes that a lot of the world's politicians and law makers still seem to have even in this new millennium. Here are my comments:

Gay adoption (and gay marriage for that matter!)
What is the line these bigots usually sprout? The most ideal way of bringing up children is by having married parents of both sexes? Children need role models blah blah blah. What a load of bullshit. What if your parents are married and they are deadbeats? Are you gonna grow up more well adjusted just cause they are married? What about kids that only have one parent? What about kids who's parents aren't married? Should we not allow these types of parents to have/adopt kids as well? But no, this reasoning doesn't apply to gay couples who may or may not be married. And yet, politicians (and a hell of a lot of people too) still rely on this logic to make their argument. Why cant they just be honest and admit they are bigoted? Would save EVERYONE a whole lot of time. I was a bit confused about the word "gay" as well. I wonder if he was just against 2 men adopting children, or whether it was homosexuals in general?

Getting your gams out in public.

In my view, there should be more of it! Slightly tongue in cheek here, but really, how stupid is this. If you are offended by bare breasts during spring break activities in areas that college students congregate, then don't bloody go there! Get a life. If you are offended by breasts in general, go see a psychiatrist. Or your priest and give him a slap for warping your mind with his disgusting beliefs. It's about time some people grew up and stopped thinking about sex and ooooooo nudity as something dirty and shocking. Jesus, get a life man!

Ok, enough from me today. Back to sleep for me.

Mary Jane
I'm a joiner, I'm a joiner, I'm a joiner.

Day 2 of this blog "thing" and I already have nothing to say! Maybe it's cause I was up till 3am smoking jays with my flatmates?!?!?! What's THAT all about? And I'll tell ya, you know you are a mutant in the morning when you find a £1 coin stuck to your leg when you are walking to the shower! Still, I can think of more controversial things to have stuck to your leg in the morning... So yeah, bad morning today.

Perhaps I will leave you dear blog with these final thoughts:

1. My thoughts on my blog efforts so far:

Please, keep talking. I always yawn when I am interested...

2. A very appropriate reply to a pick-up line I have probably used in the past:

Where have you been all my life?
What do you mean - I wasn't even born for the first half of it.