Skittering into the Depths

Skittering into the Depths, voices calling, turbulence, trouble, flashes of anger beneath the opaque surface; we couldn't have asked for more, couldn't have tried harder, couldn't have worked to embrace life with more enthusiasm; the reward a hatfull of arseholes; talentless little worms turning our days to mud, incompentent, abusive and promoted. That's the world I live in.

THE STORY CONTINUES:

"Daddy, I don't believe anybody any more," he said, his two-year-old face serious, upset.
"That's a funny thing to say, Sammy."
"I don't believe anybody any more," he repeated.
"Why do you say that?"
"I just do."

The following day everything happened at once.

Anna left, the plan being that when he and the kids came home she would no longer be there. Discreet, almost accidental, they were trying to make the departure as undramatic as possible. On the same day, Henrietta and Sammy were starting at a new childcare centre, away from the Lebanese woman who had been caring for them while Anna went to university.

On top of everything, it somehow didn't surprise him somehow that this was the day he got a pep talk from the vicious little closet queen who paraded as a news editor, the first pep talk he'd ever had in his life.


THE BIGGER STORY:

No more holidays in Phuket.


http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/explorer-throws-out-abu-dhabi-playboys/2007/06/21/1182019278749.html


Abu Dhabi playboys cut loose
Jamie Freed
June 22, 2007 - 11:32AM

JUPITER Mines has jettisoned its consulting agreements with the so-called "bananas in pyjamas" for the second time since 2005.

The Sydney exploration company yesterday said it would immediately terminate consulting agreements with Jeremy Snaith and David Evans, the company directors who were famously arrested in Abu Dhabi after misbehaving while flying first class on Etihad Airways in April.

Other directors and some shareholders have also requested the company hold a meeting to sack Mr Snaith and Mr Evans from the Jupiter board after they were convicted of sexual harassment and intoxication by an Abu Dhabi court.

Mr Snaith allegedly tested positive for cocaine and hashish and spent a month in a notorious desert prison.

Jupiter said a notice of meeting to reconstitute the board would be sent in "due course".

This isn't the first time Mr Snaith and Mr Evans have been sacked by the company.

Although they were Jupiter's original promoters, they were let go as consultants in March 2005, just three months after the listing.

When their agreements were terminated, they each received 500,000 Jupiter shares instead of a cash payment.

Later in 2005 - upset with Jupiter's languishing share price - the pair took advantage of their large shareholdings to call a meeting which led to the removal of chief executive Warren Staude.

Mr Staude later said the pair had been sacked as consultants because "the company felt they were not making a valuable contribution.''

According to Mr Staude, Mr Evans and Mr Snaith had originally intended to be Jupiter directors, but they stepped down ahead of its listing in December 2004.

"The broking community told us they would not support Jupiter if those people chose to be directors, so they stepped down,'' Mr Staude said.

After removing Mr Staude, Mr Snaith and Mr Evans joined the board as executive directors and signed new consulting agreements.

The pair managed to raise Jupiter's share price to a high of 41c this January by aggressively promoting the company's early-stage, multi-commodity exploration prospects.

In December and January, Macarthur Coal founder Ken Talbot's investment vehicle, the Talbot Group, purchased 11.4 per cent of Jupiter shares and appointed Denis Wood to the board as its representative.

Mr Wood said the Talbot Group saw potential in Jupiter's greenfields iron ore projects.

But Mr Wood, who did not meet Mr Evans and Mr Snaith until his first board meeting, resigned as a director after only four months.

"There were reasons why I resigned," Mr Wood said. "Perhaps those reasons have gone away."

He noted the Talbot Group had retained its investment in Jupiter despite the publicity surrounding the arrest of Mr Snaith and Mr Evans.

"We may buy more [shares], depending on the outcome of the meeting," Mr Wood said.

When asked if he had been notified of Jupiter's decision to terminate his consulting agreement and hold a meeting to oust him from the board, Mr Evans told the Herald he was overseas and it was the middle of the night. "I'll have to check my email," he said.

The news appears to have impressed the market. Jupiter shares were up nearly 20 per cent this morning, trading 4 cents higher at 24.5 cents.

Twisting Renegades

Nothing moves easily; the torrents of days; looking down through the clouds across the rain drenched inland; the lakes, the wetlands, the brolgas in the pastel mornings echoing the dawn of time. Here in the city the insane bustle gets worse. We delegate. We hide. We look on with contempt at the manipulation and dishonesty of others. We call, we can hear them calling, across those primitive lakes and through the channels that criss cross beneath the city; but for us, there is no salvation. The days get dirtier. The city gets dirtier. And our destinies? We can only hope to die in a peaceful manner.

THE STORY CONTINUES:

"She glared at him hatefully. 'Oh god, I just can't wait to go!'

"He roared off without looking back. Things were going bad between them and he felt he was getting the raw end of the deal. He looked after the kids in the morning, put them to bed at night, worked all day. She'd hang around the house, gossping to girlfriends on the phone, ignoring her university work, acting like a member of the oppressed if she had to pick up a broom. With the kids in childcare her load wasn't exactly heavy.

"A semitrailer belched smoke in front of them. The window was broken and there was nothing he could do to avoid the fumes. His eyes watered as he coughed, and behind him in his car seat little Sammy, normally bright and eager and happy, also coughed, his asthma getting worse. Arguments disturbed him. He liked everything to be in place. He loved his DaddyJohn and SuzyMom."

THE BIGGER STORY:

There'll be no more holidays in upmarket hotels in Thailand, by the look of things. I think, what fun, how lucky to escape the consequences.

One of my favourite photos with the kids, Circa 2007.

Earthlings

It's my birthday. I'm 55. I never never expected to live this long. There's a large brightly coloured sign on the loungeroom table from the kids - well they're teenagers now - saying Happy 55th. I can't pretend any longer that I'm not middle aged. In fact I'm now legally old enough to retire, although thanks to government shananagans it's not really worth it till you turn 60. June 21. The shortest day of the year, the longest night. The cusp of cancer and gemini. The twisting fates of multiple personalities. Work has been absolutely monstrous; the boss driving everyone crazy, cyber bullying. I thought it was only me, only to discover that many others feel the same; or worse. I thought he was picking on me because in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king, and he wanted to get rid of anyone who knew what they were doing so he could look impressive to his harem. But he's picking on the young blokes as well. They forget; I've been bullied and harassed by the best; including the ex for the ten years since we separated. Moves have been taken. There are few advantages to growing older, but one of them is learning to stand up yourself.

THE STORY CONTINUES:

"Four months after giving birth to Sammy, Anna was pregnant again. He talked her out of having an abortion.

"Before they knew it, they had two kids and their lives had changed utterly and irrevocably.

"They settled for the full suburban nightmare, the car, the mortgage, the endless bills. He abandoned the past, keeping few friends through the change. He bunged on the normal bloke routine. wore working boots, swaggered when he could have minced, worked hard in his own introverted, torturedly honest way as a reporter on the paper, achieving a certain recognition, readability linked elegantly with the landscape or the nature of the event, the strings of facts. But in the past few months he couldn't face his own life any more. His internal contradictions were reaching some kind of impasse... Couldn't you help me with this fucking seatbelt?' he shouteed accusingly."


THE BIGGER STORY:

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Several dozen pro-Fatah Palestinians with little food and no toilets remained stranded Wednesday inside the Erez Crossing walkway connecting Hamas-led Gaza to Israel.

"The situation is dreadful," Saeb Erakat said. "The situation is very, very dire."

The refugees are inside the 300-yard long covered walkway bordered by two 10-yard high concrete walls, which is now filled with waste and feces. They are mostly young men, but a few women are also there with several children. They represent what is left of several hundred people who rushed to the border crossing last week when fighting between Hamas and Fatah militants raged for control of Gaza. (Watch Palestinians stranded in border crossing)

Some of them tell stories of narrow escapes from Hamas militants and many say they fear for their lives if forced return to Gaza.

The Israeli government allowed several dozen senior Fatah leaders and their families to pass through on their way to the Fatah-controlled West Bank. People with foreign citizenship were also allowed to pass, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.

On Monday, grenade attacks inside the tunnel wounded at least 17 people. Israel has already allowed wounded Five of the critically wounded were rushed to Israeli hospitals, but the others remained in Gaza, Erakat said.

Erakat said the Palestinian Authority was "looking at various options" for resolving the Erez Crossing crisis.

Erakat urged all other Palestinians in Gaza to "please stay home."

It is estimated there are 4.3 million Palestinians who are considered refugees in several countries, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

Elsewhere Wednesday, Israeli aircraft pounded two rocket launchers in northern Gaza after two Qassam rockets were fired toward southern Israel, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said.

It is the first Israeli airstrike since Hamas took control of Gaza last week.

There were no reported casualties from either strike.

Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinian gunmen during firefights in Gaza and the West Bank early Wednesday, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

In the Kingdom of the Blind

In the Kingdom of the Blind the one-eyed man is king; which is why so many organisations are now run by fools. The managerial cults of the 1980s reverberate down the years; the ever-new, the ever-new, and with each new wave comes an ever younger monster pretending they know what they are doing; presiding over their little harems of the even younger, so that many organisations are now staffed by people in their early 20s and run by people not much older. They know nothing and they make mistakes. If they can't get rid of them they treat the old blokes like dirt; forcing them to retire early. And thus it was, the fools took over the Earth.

THE STORY CONTINUES:

"It was around then that he truly began to love her, caught in some sort of destiny bigger than them both. He did not feel in control. He tried to downplay what was happening. After the disaster of Martin, he didn't want to get hurt.

"He was still getting used to the idea of a heterosexual relationship. He enjoyed the sex as much as or more than he had had with anyone in his life. It was so nice, felt so gratifyingly normal, to have a straightforward fuck. His sexuality had frozen on a few old images, and now it was moving again.

"The only thing he missed was the excitement of intimacy with strangers and the tumult of the bars. Tough sexual partners weren't exactly plentiful, and picking people up for a bit of abandoned, casual sex hadn't been his forte, he had assumed he would miss sex with men. He didn't."

THE BIGGER STORY:

ABC:

Gale force winds lash southern NSW coast

Gale force winds travelling at 102 kilometres an hour have hit the town of Moruya, south of Bateman's Bay overnight.

The weather bureau says the storm should reach Sydney in the early hours of this morning and move up to the Hunter region.

Residents in Wollongong, Sydney and the Hunter region have been warned to stay inside their homes and keep away from windows.

Chris Webb, from the Bureau of Meteorology, says the wind has started to pick up.

"We're still expecting wind speeds, wind gusts in the 90 to 100 kilometre per hour range and we think that they'll be some particularly stronger winds offshore," he said.

"If they happen to just glance at some of the exposed coastal locations then the winds may be in excess of that."

David Webber, from the State Emergency Services (SES), says emergency crews are on stand-by.

"We've had just over 2,500 volunteers across New South Wales but also from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT come and assist, as well as RFS (Rural Fire Service) and a lot of other volunteer agencies as well," he said.

Meanwhile, the Great Western Highway in NSW has been closed between Wentworth Falls and Mount Victoria due to icy conditions.

Ancient Forces Cyber Bullying

Extreme harrassmnet, constant text messages, constant phone calls, ceaseless unreasonable demands. They got thier positions not because they were talneted journalists but because they were talented wheezlers, and as a sober threat with vast experience the deep voices that hid beneath, the underground streams that rueld our lives, these things that were pursued, which dominated behaviour in the modern office, was not open to rational explanation. We're not that far from the trees; and after being bashed and bullied throughout my childhood I'm not about to be bullied now.

THE STORY CONTINUES:

"She'd already had one miscarriage, falling pregnant within week of his first declaration that children were an option.

"Within days of telling him she miscarried, which solved the dilemma of trying to work out what to do. In any normal sense they simply hadn't known each other long enough. He got very pissed and cried in the pub. He had wanted the baby, no matter what. She sat up in bed with tears in her eyes. Someone was missing, someone had gone.

"There was a strangely intense passion in their lovemaking in the days after she recovered, as if she was deliberately trying to get pregnant again. There was nothing rational about it. They had barely known each other three months. Later, they were always puzzled how it had come about, how they had landed so solidly together, in such a way they couldn't imagine life without the other. They would never advise anyone to do what they had done. It was only luck that things had owrked out as well as they had. He had never even met her family before she fell pregnant with Sammy."

THE BIGGER STORY:


Can't believe Sydney isn't in there. It's hard to make ends meet in this town.

World's most expensive cities
Moscow wins again, with London as runner up. New York drops five places to No. 15, while San Francisco plunges 20 places to No. 54, according to Mercer's 2007 survey.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
June 18 2007: 9:56 AM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If your boss wants to transfer you to Moscow this year, he'd better offer you a fair sum to do so - or even a downright handsome one depending on where you live now. That's because Moscow has just been designated the world's most expensive city for the second year in a row by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Using the cost of living in New York as a base, Mercer determined Moscow is 34.4 percent more expensive after taking into account the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.


Moscow tops the list as the most expensive city for the second year in a row.

World's most expensive cities 2007
1. Moscow
2. London
3. Seoul
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Copenhagen
7. Geneva
8. Osaka
9. Zurich
10. Oslo
11. Milan
12. St. Petersburg
13. Paris
14. Singapore
15. New York City
16. Dublin
17. Tel Aviv
18. Rome
19. Vienna
20. Beijing


"The appreciation of the ruble against the U.S. dollar, combined with ever-increasing accommodation charges, has driven up costs for expatriates in Moscow," Mercer research manager Nathalie Constantin-Metral said in a statement.

A luxury two-bedroom in Moscow now rents for $4,000 a month; a CD costs $24.83, and an international newspaper, $6.30, according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a burger is a steal at $4.80.

London takes the No. 2 spot, up from No. 5 a year ago, thanks to higher rents and a stronger British pound relative to the dollar. Mercer estimates London is 26 percent more expensive than Gotham these days.

Following closely on London's heels are Seoul and Tokyo -- Nos. 3 and 4, respectively -- both of which are 22 percent more expensive than New York, while No. 5 Hong Kong is 19 percent more costly.

Time Dissolves Us All

Sleazy and amoral, with a ruthlessness fine tuned by decades of managerial bastardry, overlayed by wheezles who've maneouvred their way into positions of power not because they're talented at the job, but because they're talented at wheezling. They do not care a twaddle about the core drivers; the things that led us into creative professions in the first place, they care not about the diseased end product of what was once a great and noble calling. Have to do the funeral of five who died in the Hunter when the road collapsed during the storm, including three kids. Not looking forward to it one little bit.

THE STORY CONTINUES:

"In the future there would be gnawing jealousies and uncertainties, but at the time she was a model of how someone should behave in such a situation. I just want you to know that who you're with at the moment is who you're with, and the rest doesn't matter, she said. With someone else the revelation could have destroyed the relationship. With her it didn't.

"They moved in together.

"Within hours of moving in she told him: I'm pregnant, again."



Fathers at war see children 'grow up in pictures'
POSTED: 9:37 a.m. EDT, June 17, 2007
Story Highlights• Staff Sgt. Dustin Williams based in Baquba, an al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold
• Williams told 6- and 8-year-old sons he was fighting bad guy, helping Iraqi kids
• Spc. Chris Dech's sons send him drawings, notes about school and lives
• Soldiers to families: "Tell them I love them, and I'll be back real soon"
By Karl Penhaul
CNN
Adjust font size:
SAMARRA, Iraq (CNN) -- Home has been reduced to a handful of photos, e-mails with the children, a homemade silver dog tag. When they can, the dads swap memories when no one is trying to kill them.

Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Williams was supposed to be home on this day -- Father's Day -- to feel the embrace of his four young children, but he couldn't. Like so many fathers fighting in Iraq, the essence of home has been boiled down to the basics.

"I get photos and videos in boxes and trinkets in boxes," says Williams. "That lets me know they're there and they care. That's something I can hold on to." (Watch how dads in Iraq enjoy first teeth, steps through photos )

It's a piece of life from the other side of the world, about 8,000 miles (12,900 kilometers) away from Fort Lewis, Washington. Williams relaxes for a few moments between missions to talk about his children. He's based on the outskirts of the city of Baquba, some 40 miles north of Baghdad -- a new stronghold for al Qaeda in Iraq.

"You watch your children grow up in pictures. That's pretty much what I'm doing," he says.

He flips through a small album of photos, showing off his children. Austin, 8, is in school, and his second son, Hayden, 6, is starting kindergarten soon. Williams' first daughter, Liberty, was born during his first tour in Iraq, in 2004. His second daughter, Morgan, was born in 2006, two months into his second tour.

One of his most cherished items is a silver dog-tag that his wife, Lena, had made. It's engraved with a photo of her and Morgan. He's told that his little girl's most treasured toy is a teddy bear from her dad -- a cuddly stuffed animal that belts out a recorded message from her father, saying "how much I love her."

"Morgan's already crawling, getting her first teeth and saying her first words. I'm missing all that," he says.

At 11 months old, Morgan is too young to comprehend where daddy is and for how long he will be gone. Not so for Austin and Hayden. The day he knew he was going to be deployed for a second time, Williams took each one out individually to eat ice cream and have a man-to-man talk.

He missed being home this Father's Day after his tour was extended because of deteriorating conditions in Iraq. He now hopes to keep his promise -- to be home for his boys' next birthdays.

"They don't know exactly what I'm doing. But they understand I'm off fighting the bad guys and helping the little kids of Iraq," he says.

But still, he wonders about his own kids. "When we're outside the wire [of the base], our minds are on one thing and that's the mission. When we're back here [on base], our minds are playing and we have time to think about the families," Williams says.

Family emergency far away from home
Army Spc. Chris Dech, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, understands. Deploying to Iraq while his wife was pregnant was tough enough. No sooner had he arrived in Iraq when Dech got word from home -- his unborn son might have a fatal deformity.

"We prayed about it and looked at it like whatever happens we have to deal with it," he says.

That was more than eight months ago. Baby Nathan is now doing fine. He has no fatal deformity, and doctors have carried out multiple surgeries to correct a cleft lip and cleft palate.

Dech was even there for the birth, but he's missed the corrective surgeries and many precious moments, like seeing him crawl or roll over for the first time. "It's the little things," Dech says.

Dech has two other sons, Peter, 7, and Samuel, 5. They keep in touch via letters -- most times they include a drawing of Spider-Man and a small note.

"Hi, Dad, how you doing?" Peter wrote in a recent message. "The whole class went to the gym. We had free play. My favorite thing was to climb the ropes. Bye, I love you."

While Dech misses his family terribly, he says he'll make up for it by cherishing every moment with his loved ones when he finally gets back.

"You learn not to take things for granted. When you go home and you're with them, you spend some quality time. That's how I plan to make up for it," he says.

What's their message on this Father's Day?

It was the same from both: "Tell them I love them, and I'll be back real soon."

Fathers at war see children 'grow up in pictures'
POSTED: 9:37 a.m. EDT, June 17, 2007
Story Highlights• Staff Sgt. Dustin Williams based in Baquba, an al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold
• Williams told 6- and 8-year-old sons he was fighting bad guy, helping Iraqi kids
• Spc. Chris Dech's sons send him drawings, notes about school and lives
• Soldiers to families: "Tell them I love them, and I'll be back real soon"
By Karl Penhaul
CNN
Adjust font size:
SAMARRA, Iraq (CNN) -- Home has been reduced to a handful of photos, e-mails with the children, a homemade silver dog tag. When they can, the dads swap memories when no one is trying to kill them.

Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Williams was supposed to be home on this day -- Father's Day -- to feel the embrace of his four young children, but he couldn't. Like so many fathers fighting in Iraq, the essence of home has been boiled down to the basics.

"I get photos and videos in boxes and trinkets in boxes," says Williams. "That lets me know they're there and they care. That's something I can hold on to." (Watch how dads in Iraq enjoy first teeth, steps through photos )

It's a piece of life from the other side of the world, about 8,000 miles (12,900 kilometers) away from Fort Lewis, Washington. Williams relaxes for a few moments between missions to talk about his children. He's based on the outskirts of the city of Baquba, some 40 miles north of Baghdad -- a new stronghold for al Qaeda in Iraq.

"You watch your children grow up in pictures. That's pretty much what I'm doing," he says.

He flips through a small album of photos, showing off his children. Austin, 8, is in school, and his second son, Hayden, 6, is starting kindergarten soon. Williams' first daughter, Liberty, was born during his first tour in Iraq, in 2004. His second daughter, Morgan, was born in 2006, two months into his second tour.

One of his most cherished items is a silver dog-tag that his wife, Lena, had made. It's engraved with a photo of her and Morgan. He's told that his little girl's most treasured toy is a teddy bear from her dad -- a cuddly stuffed animal that belts out a recorded message from her father, saying "how much I love her."

"Morgan's already crawling, getting her first teeth and saying her first words. I'm missing all that," he says.

At 11 months old, Morgan is too young to comprehend where daddy is and for how long he will be gone. Not so for Austin and Hayden. The day he knew he was going to be deployed for a second time, Williams took each one out individually to eat ice cream and have a man-to-man talk.

He missed being home this Father's Day after his tour was extended because of deteriorating conditions in Iraq. He now hopes to keep his promise -- to be home for his boys' next birthdays.

"They don't know exactly what I'm doing. But they understand I'm off fighting the bad guys and helping the little kids of Iraq," he says.

But still, he wonders about his own kids. "When we're outside the wire [of the base], our minds are on one thing and that's the mission. When we're back here [on base], our minds are playing and we have time to think about the families," Williams says.

Family emergency far away from home
Army Spc. Chris Dech, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, understands. Deploying to Iraq while his wife was pregnant was tough enough. No sooner had he arrived in Iraq when Dech got word from home -- his unborn son might have a fatal deformity.

"We prayed about it and looked at it like whatever happens we have to deal with it," he says.

That was more than eight months ago. Baby Nathan is now doing fine. He has no fatal deformity, and doctors have carried out multiple surgeries to correct a cleft lip and cleft palate.

Dech was even there for the birth, but he's missed the corrective surgeries and many precious moments, like seeing him crawl or roll over for the first time. "It's the little things," Dech says.

Dech has two other sons, Peter, 7, and Samuel, 5. They keep in touch via letters -- most times they include a drawing of Spider-Man and a small note.

"Hi, Dad, how you doing?" Peter wrote in a recent message. "The whole class went to the gym. We had free play. My favorite thing was to climb the ropes. Bye, I love you."

While Dech misses his family terribly, he says he'll make up for it by cherishing every moment with his loved ones when he finally gets back.

"You learn not to take things for granted. When you go home and you're with them, you spend some quality time. That's how I plan to make up for it," he says.

What's their message on this Father's Day?

It was the same from both: "Tell them I love them, and I'll be back real soon."

Fathers at war see children 'grow up in pictures'
POSTED: 9:37 a.m. EDT, June 17, 2007
Story Highlights• Staff Sgt. Dustin Williams based in Baquba, an al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold
• Williams told 6- and 8-year-old sons he was fighting bad guy, helping Iraqi kids
• Spc. Chris Dech's sons send him drawings, notes about school and lives
• Soldiers to families: "Tell them I love them, and I'll be back real soon"
By Karl Penhaul
CNN
Adjust font size:
SAMARRA, Iraq (CNN) -- Home has been reduced to a handful of photos, e-mails with the children, a homemade silver dog tag. When they can, the dads swap memories when no one is trying to kill them.

Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Williams was supposed to be home on this day -- Father's Day -- to feel the embrace of his four young children, but he couldn't. Like so many fathers fighting in Iraq, the essence of home has been boiled down to the basics.

"I get photos and videos in boxes and trinkets in boxes," says Williams. "That lets me know they're there and they care. That's something I can hold on to." (Watch how dads in Iraq enjoy first teeth, steps through photos )

It's a piece of life from the other side of the world, about 8,000 miles (12,900 kilometers) away from Fort Lewis, Washington. Williams relaxes for a few moments between missions to talk about his children. He's based on the outskirts of the city of Baquba, some 40 miles north of Baghdad -- a new stronghold for al Qaeda in Iraq.

"You watch your children grow up in pictures. That's pretty much what I'm doing," he says.

He flips through a small album of photos, showing off his children. Austin, 8, is in school, and his second son, Hayden, 6, is starting kindergarten soon. Williams' first daughter, Liberty, was born during his first tour in Iraq, in 2004. His second daughter, Morgan, was born in 2006, two months into his second tour.

One of his most cherished items is a silver dog-tag that his wife, Lena, had made. It's engraved with a photo of her and Morgan. He's told that his little girl's most treasured toy is a teddy bear from her dad -- a cuddly stuffed animal that belts out a recorded message from her father, saying "how much I love her."

"Morgan's already crawling, getting her first teeth and saying her first words. I'm missing all that," he says.

At 11 months old, Morgan is too young to comprehend where daddy is and for how long he will be gone. Not so for Austin and Hayden. The day he knew he was going to be deployed for a second time, Williams took each one out individually to eat ice cream and have a man-to-man talk.

He missed being home this Father's Day after his tour was extended because of deteriorating conditions in Iraq. He now hopes to keep his promise -- to be home for his boys' next birthdays.

"They don't know exactly what I'm doing. But they understand I'm off fighting the bad guys and helping the little kids of Iraq," he says.

But still, he wonders about his own kids. "When we're outside the wire [of the base], our minds are on one thing and that's the mission. When we're back here [on base], our minds are playing and we have time to think about the families," Williams says.

Family emergency far away from home
Army Spc. Chris Dech, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, understands. Deploying to Iraq while his wife was pregnant was tough enough. No sooner had he arrived in Iraq when Dech got word from home -- his unborn son might have a fatal deformity.

"We prayed about it and looked at it like whatever happens we have to deal with it," he says.

That was more than eight months ago. Baby Nathan is now doing fine. He has no fatal deformity, and doctors have carried out multiple surgeries to correct a cleft lip and cleft palate.

Dech was even there for the birth, but he's missed the corrective surgeries and many precious moments, like seeing him crawl or roll over for the first time. "It's the little things," Dech says.

Dech has two other sons, Peter, 7, and Samuel, 5. They keep in touch via letters -- most times they include a drawing of Spider-Man and a small note.

"Hi, Dad, how you doing?" Peter wrote in a recent message. "The whole class went to the gym. We had free play. My favorite thing was to climb the ropes. Bye, I love you."

While Dech misses his family terribly, he says he'll make up for it by cherishing every moment with his loved ones when he finally gets back.

"You learn not to take things for granted. When you go home and you're with them, you spend some quality time. That's how I plan to make up for it," he says.

What's their message on this Father's Day?

It was the same from both: "Tell them I love them, and I'll be back real soon."


THE BIGGER STORY:

SMH:

'Out of ideas' - PM fails to catch Labor
Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent
June 18, 2007

Poll shows Howard's number not up yet
Fight to the finish despite our love affair with Rudd
Nats on the knocker in Bennelong
Age does not worry him, says Lib hopeful

THE Coalition has barely dented Labor's crushing election-winning lead over the past month, despite new figures showing the economy is booming, concerted attacks on the ALP's union ties, and the Coalition's effort to neutralise the climate change debate.

The latest Herald/ACNielsen poll also shows only 41 per cent of voters believe John Howard is "open to ideas". Almost twice as many consider the Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, is open-minded.

But Mr Howard maintains a strong lead on the economy, the issue both parties regard as pivotal come the election.

The poll of 1403 voters, taken from Thursday to Saturday, shows the primary vote for both parties has not shifted since last month, with Labor still leading by 48 per cent to the Coalition's 39 per cent.

On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor's lead is 57 to 43 per cent - compared with 58-42 last month, still enough to annihilate the Coalition if an election were held now.

While 78 per cent believed that Mr Howard "has a firm grasp on economic policy" against 52 per cent for Mr Rudd, only 37 per cent believed Mr Howard understood the climate change challenge, compared with 71 per cent for Mr Rudd.

In June 1995, in the dying months of the Labor government and when Mr Howard was Opposition leader, 72 per cent believed he was open to ideas. Only 30 per cent thought Paul Keating was.

A Newspoll out today shows similar two-party preferred support, with Labor still in a position to beat the Coalition at the next election, at 56 to 44 per cent. But it says Labor's primary vote slumped six percentage points to 46 per cent and the Coalition's rose from 35 to 39 per cent.

Monstrous Indignities

Sitting amongst those ghastly suits at 26,000 feet, not even able to see the clouds through the narrow window, not a ruffle of humour, nothing. Silence, as they sit, trapped animals, their eyes, while not dowe like unlit by any kind of passion or hysteria, much less compassion; and the wakes, the course of our lives unfold down channels we could never have imagined. The juvenile bullying and the monstrous mauling, these snivelling inheritors of the 1980s managerial cults, lifeless, gutless pygmies who can all fuck off and die as far as I'm concerned. I'm just going to get on with it; keep my side of the street clean; do what I'm good out; poorly paid, poorly resourced and poorly treated; dignity lies only within the self.

Howard has finally met with the Dalai Lama. How outrageous he should have ever thought otherwise.


The story continues:

"Then some kind soul, one of his flatmates in fact, blurted it out to her. But I thought he was gay!

"Anna had gone white with shock. She had no idea. It wasn't the era to be sleeping with bisexuals, certainly not without a condom. His HIV had been negative and he had assumed he had been safe because he didn't like being fucked and had a steady boyfriend through the periods of high transmission. But she wasn't to know that.

"We've got to talk, she said, in one of those tones which have driven fear into men's hearts since time immemorial, there's something about your past that I know and you don't think I know."

Emotionally Labile

In these wild, cluttered days, working, it sometimes seems, without respect, money or resources, hounding the days and dodging the bullets of immature little bullies promoted beyond their competence, of working, as the Savage Gods have decreed, through long days and even longer nights, for the modern organ called a newspaper, with almost no news pages and no news journalists, magazines with a stenographic, regurgitated front, an accepted view of the world. I sat, yesterday, amongst the business suits on the flight to Melbourne, not a friendly murmur amongst them, blokes caged in suits and lack of personality; sat next to some business man who couldn't even be bothered to say hello. And wondered, not for the first time, what the fuck am I doing?

The story continues:

"In the end monogamy was a deep belief. He didn't have to pout up with the humiliation of living with someone with a constantly wandering eye, the insecuirty of endless triangular relationships. His ability to love her without worrying about who was round the corner was part of his growing confidence.

"He no longer had to go to parties with his partner, and wonder if they would be leaving together, publicly shamed once more. The introductions. This is my boyfriend, though whether he desires me as much as you, whether he will be sleeping with me tonight, is a moot point. He had had a gutful of so-called open relationships.

"Days rolled into months. He didn't want to be trapped by the past, chained by definition. He didn't see any reason to mention another life. Whenever he and Anna talked of the past he was very vague. Ommission didn't seem dishonest."

THE BIGGER STORY:

The Australian election, due in November, approaches, colouring all our politics:


The Age Did John Howard break the law?
Brisbane Times, Australia - 13 hours ago
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is investigating whether Prime Minister John Howard has broken the law by not charging venue hire for a Liberal ...
Howard cleared over Kirribilli use Daily Telegraph
John's bash 'not a fundraiser' The Australian
Howard cleared over Kirribilli use Daily Telegraph
Melbourne Herald Sun - The Age
all 170 news articles »
Howard, Iemma announce additional flood assistance
IBN News, Australia - 8 hours ago
In a joint announcement this afternoon, prime minister John Howard and premier Morris Iemma said the two Community Recovery Funds, worth $500000 each, ...
More funding offered to flood victims Aratat Advertiser
all 8 news articles »

Sydney Morning Herald Readers' Comments Poll makes John Howard's day
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 12 Jun 2007
JOHN Howard is suddenly more upbeat about the Coalition's prospects at the coming election, suggesting that winning 17 seats will be a "formidable task" for ...
Rudd fails to understand basic economic concepts: Howard ABC Online
Rudd to Keating: Move on The Age
Rudd hits back at Keating 2GB News
all 107 news articles »
Uranium plant proposed
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 4 hours ago
The Prime Minister, John Howard, favours establishing nuclear power as an energy source as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. ...


Eureka Street Federal Election: John Howard, Kevin Rudd…Who Cares?
Daily Reckoning, Australia - 12 Jun 2007
As a foreigner observing our first Federal election we can’t help but wonder if John Howard and his merry band of liberals and nationalists are going to ...
Muddy ovals under threat from climate change Eureka Street
all 2 news articles »
AWB scandal strained coalition: Howard
The West Australian, Australia - 13 Jun 2007
Prime Minister John Howard said the AWB scandal had tested the coalition government in a way few other issues had. The now disgraced wheat exporter was ...


Sydney Morning Herald Unions' plan to BBQ Howard
NEWS.com.au, Australia - 12 Jun 2007
UNIONS are targeting churches and sporting clubs in a campaign to defeat John Howard and tear up his government's workplace reforms. ...
Home loan tycoon's company behind campaign The Australian
ACTU targets marginal seats SBS - World News Australia
all 104 news articles »
AWB scandal strained Coalition: Howard

Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 13 Jun 2007
PRIME Minister John Howard said tonight the AWB scandal had tested the Coalition Government in a way few other issues had. The now disgraced wheat exporter ...

Unions are Labor's top finishing school

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 4 hours ago
JOHN HOWARD told Coalition MPs this week that the modern Labor Party was more dominated by trade unions than at any time since he entered Parliament back in ...
Keating urges ALP to privatise The Australian

Howard believes Labor will struggle Brisbane Times
Howard believes Labor will struggle Bay Post/Moruya Examiner

Backlash on moderate senator a Payne for Howard
The Age, Australia - 13 Jun 2007
PRIME Minister John Howard faces a sharp backlash from the Liberals' right-wing in his home state over the vigorous effort made on his behalf to protect key ...

Something Different

Been absolutely flat out, not just in the drowned world after the worst storms in 30 years, but in an astonishing string of events, an astonishing life, where I become nothing but a cipher through which other stories pass. Busy busy.

The story continues:

"It was true, in an abstract sense. It had been rue for years. Something missing. A fundamental instinct. He wasn't brave enough to say, I would like to have children with you.

"She believed in monogamy, or at least that was the tale she was spinning him. He had grown up in the seventies, when envy and ownership were the greatest sins, but there had always been a part of him that was instinctively monogamous. He felt far more comfortable going to bed with someone he was relaxed and familiar with, the exact opposite to the prevailing ethos. The thought of abandoning what he regarded as his fundamental right to sleep with whomever hel liked whenever he liked, to deny himself the need, even the requirement, of his chosen art to experience all, especially the intimacy of others, struck him at first as profoundly odd.

"Martin had certainly been no believer in monogamy. He had always argued for an open relationship, sexual friendships. In their travels together Martin had always regarded sex with the locals as an esential part of their experience of foreign places. What did it matter, as long as the core was secure. The trouble was, the core was never secure. Although it sometimes worked well, all too often he felt like the long-suffering, deeply humiliated, homely wife, turning her head way, ignoring the affairs of her husband. Putting up with it because the other option was to be entirely alone."


THE BIGGER STORY:

ABC:

Govt, Opposition dismiss China's criticism
Politicians on both sides have dismissed China's condemnation of the Australian Government for allowing the Dalai Lama to visit the country.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says the Prime Minister must be able to decide whom he sees in his own country.

John Howard will meet the Tibetan spiritual leader on Friday, while the Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd held talks with him last night.

Minutes after Mr Rudd met the Dalai Lama last night, China expressed its strongest dissatisfaction that the Australian Government had allowed the spiritual leader's visit to go ahead.

Mr Rudd says he is not surprised.

"There are always bumps in the road in the relationship you have with China, and I think the important thing is to just to maintain a level course," he said.

The Chinese Government says its relationship with Australia is being harmed by the Dalai Lama's visit.

But Mr Rudd says he hopes his meeting with the Dalai Lama will not affect Australia's relationship with its largest trading partner.

"All diplomatic relationships go through ups and downs," he said.

Despite China's opposition, Liberal backbencher Peter Slipper is pleased that Mr Howard is going ahead with his Friday meeting with the Dalai Lama.

"I think it's appropriate that the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader should meet the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism," he said.

Another Liberal backbencher, Bruce Baird, says the holy leader has every right to be in Australia.

"China is important to us, it's important as a trading partner," he said.

"But Australia is its own country; we will meet with whoever we wish to meet with.

"I come from a strong Christian background myself but he's certainly welcome in this country to talk to us about the particular needs of Tibet."

Meanwhile, Mr Rudd's trip to Beijing planned for this month is now on hold.

He maintains it is just a scheduling problem, while his office tries to find a mutually convenient time.

Possible Links

It's still pouring down; 200,000 houses without electricity. Death toll reports vary wildly, but probably around the ten mark. The Great Deluge. Fording creeks; interviewing the relatives of the dead; their ghostly drowned fraces at the bottom of a creek, the malevolent spirit grazing him softly as he wakes up startled, Protect Me, Protect Me. Saw Romulus My Father yesterday with Joyce at the Newtown Dendy. Cried though half of it, beautifully done; incredibly evocative of a life everyone my generation new. The boys were on the front of the Weekend edition of the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, the bible of the chattering classes. Just the mob they need to impress to keep the share price up.

The story continues:

"One Sunday afternoon, luxuriating in a well-earned day off - he normally worked Sundays - they sat drinking lemon sqash on his balcony, high in his eyrie above the view he loved so much: the huddle of Woolloomooloo terraces below leading out to the peeling Finger Wharf, the ferries picking their way through the while sails of the yachts, the distant thunder of the trains as they crossed the famous coat hanger of the Bridge, Kirribilli and the northern suburbs behind.

"I'd like to have children some day, he said, making it casual.

"She looked surprised, said nothing."

THE BIGGER STORY:

FROM THE SMH:

Caroline Marcus, Daniel Dasey and Heath Gilmore
June 10, 2007

CLAD in black, they waded into a raging tide to retrieve the bodies of the little victims of the state's killer storms.

As police divers, it was their grim duty to search for a family lost, knowing there was little chance a young couple, their two tiny daughters and nephew could have survived a night in the freezing, filthy torrent.

Upstream, a child's booster seat lay beside the crumpled wreckage of the car in which the family had been lost when a giant fissure opened up in a busy Central Coast road during Friday's furious storm.

Throughout yesterday, the divers - guided by a Polair helicopter and working in a team of more than 40 rescuers - laboured in treacherous conditions at Piles Creek, Somersby, to recover the body of Adam Holt, 30, his long-term partner Roslyn Bragg, 29, their daughters Madison and Jasmine, aged two and three, and a nephew, Travis Bragg, 9.

Their bodies were found in a four-kilometre radius from the crash site.

Late yesterday, the three young victims were taken to Newcastle Morgue.

Deluged

There have been amazing storms across the state, the coast "lashed" with high winds, 11 people missing feared dead, a tanker washed aground on the main beach of Newcastle, absolutely unbelievable. Had to go to a place called Wallaroo Creek where an elderly couple in a marone Land Cruiser ignored advice not to try it and crossed over the creek in the middle of a flash flood. Turned over and washed away like a piece of paper, one local who witnessed it said. The rain was so heavy at some points on the freeway we had to either slow down or pull over to the side. I, personally, too have been deluged, without time to scratch, busy and productive and just flat out. Hard to believe some people can't think of anything to keep themselves occupied.

The story continues:

"He'd been so nervous.
The greatest surprise was that it had been so enjoyable. Much to his relief, things worked in bed the way they were meant to. He found her sexy. He wanted to fuck her.
"It was news to him that he could conduct a successful relationship with a woman, but the romance had blossomed. It wasn't love like the first love, but he was happy in a way he hadn't been for a long time. She was good fun. He was proud to be going out with her, enjoyed being with her."

THE BIGGER STORY:

cut and paste not working...pictures not working...
contankerous bloody thing....
only thing i can think of is it flashed cache full recently and maybe it's overloaded but i don't know how to fix it...

Quickly Settled

The boys are back in Bangkok and we can only speculate what they're up to; their own private harems, cocaine at $70 a gram, imperial outrage as the Thais scuttle to serve, prepared to do anything and put up with anything for the massive tips they spray around. A thousand dollar tip over there excuses almost any behaviour. What a story, the only strange thing being that this one is true. I remember David so well, when he came to live with us at Tempe. The kids were only tiny then, only one and two, maybe two and three. He had a girlfriend called Venus, who herself had hippy parents hence the name, and he used to screw her endlessly in that wooden house. Venus got pregnant and the "adults" on both sides of her family swung immediately into action, forcing her to have a termination. Venus has two kids now and is living in New Zealand with some reportedly nice bloke. David has grown enormously in weight and volume, and is now making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. He's just unloaded 1.5 million shares in Jupiter mines. I think he gave the kids about 20,000 shares each but I haven't a clue where they are.

The story continues:

"And just as he did Anna showed up.
"They'd been sitting in a coffee shop with a group of people; someone had been going on and on about twelve-step programs, born again. The wonders of self-improvement, taking control of your own life. They exchanged glances. And the thought occurred to him immediately. I could sleep with her.

"She was pretty and had a nice smile and they slept together on their first date. They had sat on the balcony of his apartmente at three a.m., one of the best views of Sydney laid out beneath them. It had been time to go home or to go to bed. And she had shown no inclination to leave."

THE BIGGER STORY:


FROM THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Are you drinking what I'm drinking, B1?
Mark Hawthorne
June 5, 2007

THE forecast dust storm didn't arrive in Abu Dhabi, but Jupiter Mines directors Jeremy Snaith and David Evans were given a timely reminder of what life in an Emirates prison would be like.

Temperatures soared above 40 degrees as the pair, along with another Australian traveller, William Sargent, arrived to hear evidence about their drunken antics aboard an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi in April.

The three of them were questioned in Arabic by three judges. Their Australian lawyer, Ross Hill, who led Michelle Leslie's defence against drug possession charges in Bali, was unable to cross-examine witnesses, and affidavits about the condition of the Etihad plane were not allowed as evidence.

After several hours of deliberation, Snaith was found guilty and given a three-month jail sentence, suspended for three years.

Evans was found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail, suspended for three years. Sargent, who had taken prescribed medication and had no alcohol in his system, was acquitted of all charges.

So what started the "bananas in pyjamas" incident aboard Etihad flight 451?

A spokesman for the Jupiter Mines men, Sean Mulcahy — who also did the media work for Leslie in Bali — is adamant that the row started over the "poor condition of the plane".

"Seats didn't recline, TV screens didn't work and the air-conditioning wasn't functioning," he said.

"Not what you'd expect after paying $10,000 for a ticket. There were plenty of complaints from other passengers, and not just from the Jupiter Mines men. We have signed affidavits about this, but they weren't admissible in court."

But Etihad tells a much different story. It says that the men, after being refused alcohol, "tucked into their duty free".

"It doesn't matter which airline you fly, if you do that, you're going to get in trouble," said the Etihad spokesman. "They were warned about it, and they basically told staff to get stuffed."

What started the incident remains the subject of debate, but it's the alleged antics of the men during the flight that has excited intrigue.

Airline staff say the two Jupiter Mines men ran around the plane in their first-class pyjamas. A Melbourne Mining Club member has since joked that Snaith and Evans will forever be remembered as "B1 and B2".

One of the trio allegedly stripped and lay naked on a first-class reclining seat, refusing attempts to cover him.

Mr Mulcahy has admitted the behaviour of his clients might have been misinterpreted as "insensitive" to Arab custom, but says many of the allegations have been exaggerated. He said that Snaith was ultimately convicted of "being rude" to a flight attendant while Evans was found to have "touched an attendant on the arm".

There was no suggestion, in court, of sexual harassment or impropriety from any of the men. The flight attendant who made the most serious allegations did not appear to give evidence.

The three men were arrested on arrival in Abu Dhabi, but released on bail. Snaith and Sargent were later arrested again and sent to al-Wathba prison near Abu Dhabi. Mr Mulcahy told reporters that the men were living on "fermented camel meat", and were the only Westerners among 140 prisoners in a cell "the size of a tennis court".

After the sentences were handed down yesterday, confusion reigned.

Snaith and Evans, and their legal team, were not certain if they had been found guilty under Emirates law or sharia law.

Local papers reported that the men were being deported. Mr Mulcahy retorted that they "couldn't get out of Abu Dhabi fast enough".

"They will be taken back to prison to collect their things, taken to a police station to be released, and then we'll have them on the first plane back to Australia so they can get back to what they do best, make money."

Unfortunately, the only direct flight to Sydney was with Etihad.

"We'll be happy to fly them home if they have valid tickets," said Etihad spokesman Andrew Kirk, "we just won't let them near the bar."

Busy Busy Busy

The days have been frantically, insanely busy, starting early and covering enormous distance. Insane. The boys are back in Bangkok. Insane.

The story continues:

"Bewildered, drunk, taking too many drugs and swilling too much bourbon through the small hours, he started to fall apart. Twice.

"When he got out the world was a different place. For the first time in his life he was lonely. He was older. No longer could he just sit on a bar stool and wait for someone to buy him a drink. His idea of picking someone up, getting completely wasted and seeing whom he woke up with in the morning, didn't work any more. He didn't have to barely look sideways to pick someone up. He hung around with recovering alcoholics and addicts in coffee shops, briefly intrigued by the new scene. Most of the men were younger than him, boasting energetically of their adventures with women.

"He started looking at them too."

THE BIGGER STORY:

The Dalai Lama is in Australia. It is still up in the air whether Howard will meet with him or not. Wouldn't be kow towing to the Chinese would we? Amazing how billions of dollars in trade can buy silence, while we continue to create and perpetuate havoc in Iraq.

From The Age:

Claims of the Dalai Lama's nepotistic behaviour wrong
June 7, 2007
COMMENT

Advertisement
AdvertisementIn his recent column ("Behind Dalai Lama's holy cloak", 23/5), Michael Backman chastised journalists for not challenging the Dalai Lama. In doing so, he resorted to questionable journalistic standards by accusing the Dalai Lama of nepotistic and non-democratic behaviour based on "hard facts" that are either manipulated to sensationalise his case or are downright wrong.

Backman alleges that the Dalai Lama advocates greater autonomy for millions of people who are now "Chinese citizens, presumably with him as head of their government". The fact is just the opposite.

In July 1981, then Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang announced "China's Five-point Policy towards the Dalai Lama", urging the Dalai Lama to return so he "will enjoy the same political status and living conditions as he had before 1959". The Dalai Lama rejected the offer and stated that the issue was not his own position in Tibet, but the welfare of 6 million Tibetans.

In 1992, the Dalai Lama categorically declared that he would not hold any official position in the government of future Tibet. Rather, he would hand over his traditional authority to an elected leader of Tibet and "serve the people as an individual outside the government".

It is a fact that the traditional government of Tibet was unegalitarian and inefficient. However, when the Dalai Lama was enthroned to be the leader in 1950, he was merely 15 years old, and faced the daunting task of handling the invasion and occupation of Tibet by Communist China. In exile, as part of an anti-Communist campaign, it is true that the American Government supported the Khampa guerilla resistance force till early 1970s.

However, it is not true that the Dalai Lama was "personally" paid $US15,000 a month by the CIA. As it is the case today, he was kindly hosted by the Indian Government as an "honoured guest". The fund was not even part of the budget of the Tibetan government in exile. In actuality, the main source was not the CIA, but fulfilment of a pledge made by US ambassador to India Loy Henderson in 1951.

Flights of Amazement

David and Jeremy are due back in Sydney this morning as I understand it. They've just made themselves famous, or more appropriately notorious, for getting themselves arrested in the UAE for drunk and disorderly conduct on board a flight, including sexually harassing hostees in first class. Not a good idea anywhere, certainly not a good idea in a Muslim country. They were found guilty and deported. They were both lucky they weren't found guilty, given 50 lashes and jailed for 15 years.

I've known them both since they were in university studying geology together. They've done everything together ever since, graduating, establishing companies, getting drunk, "screwing birds", going bust, making millions. Reality has apparently finally gripped the market and the shareprice is starting to wobble. They've been out of control for awhile. But in Asia, where they spend a lot of time, you can get away with a lot more than in the Middle East. Tip a girl a thousand dollars in Bangkok and they will tolerate almost anything.

Do the same thing in the Middle East and no amount of tipping will protect you from their contempt for the infidel. The story's been everywhere, on the news, in the papers, pictures, stations sent reporters, the works. The idea of the public flogging of two Australians was getting everyone going.

While we never married, David is my ex's brother, basically my brother-in-law. I've never met anyone as randy as David; and I remember them staying with us when the kids were tiny and he was a broke university student. He's always proppping up Suzy with money, even though he knows its immediately wasted. What a family!! And now that it's all over the news, everyone knows. There has been much melodrama and desperate and sad and worried phone calls, as that old biblical phrase recurs, "shame on the family". It's all an unmitigated mess.

The story continues:

"It was the days of the Mardi Gras now, when gay pride was everywhere. At the same time his peers started to die of AIDS. He felt trapped by the new definitions. He was from a different time zone. The new politics only reached so far in the confused babble. Somewhere, during his long bouts of heavy drinking, he had adopted the earlier beliefs of his old drinking buddies, to be gay was somehow to be corrupt, his sex a sickness. Crowds of old friends were dying, and the darkness of those days, with so many talented people ending in the most miserable of ways, echoed with his own irredeemable past.

"There was someone evil, vicious and camp inside. He found himself, deeply drunk on black bourbon and coke, laughing inside a fat, corrupt body, lisping inappropriately. His mannerisms went limp-wristed, his eyes took on an understanding, worldly-wise look.
"And then a very funny thing happened."


THE BIGGER STORY.

Deported Aussies being flown home
By Paul Carter

June 05, 2007 09:16pm
Article from: AAP

TWO Australian businessmen accused of drunkenly stripping half naked and offering airline hostesses money for sex will be deported from the United Arab Emirates tonight.

Mining executives Jeremy Snaith and David Evans are booked on an Etihad Airlines flight to Bangkok, leaving Abu Dhabi at 21.55 local time (3.55am AEST, June 6), sources said.

The pair, and a third Australian businessman, William Sargent, who was acquitted of charges yesterday, have been in custody in UAE since being arrested on arrival in Abu Dhabi from Sydney on April 27.

Mr Sargent, also a mining executive, is expected to leave Abu Dhabi for London tonight.

The trio have been detained for six weeks in UAE since their alleged mid-air antics in first-class.

The men's lawyer Ross Hill said today problems with seats, airconditioning and refrigeration were "a recipe for disaster".

"It was inevitable that people were going to be angry when they paid more than $10,000," he said to the Nine Network.

But Etihad Airways spokesperson Iain Burns said there was no excuse for the boorish behaviour.

"Anyone who goes to a restaurant and complains about the food or doesn't like the chair they've got doesn't allow them to behave in such an intolerable manner that they strip half naked and offer money for sex.

"The two just don't equate," he said.

Mr Burns said three hostesses, all aged about 24, were harassed by the men but two had decided against giving evidence in court.

They have all now returned to work after being counselled and given two weeks off work to recover from their ordeal, he said.

Snaith and Evans were convicted yesterday of the sexual harassment and assault of one airline hostess onboard the flight to Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi's Criminal Court found Evans guilty of sexual assault and he was sentenced to a twelve-month custodial sentence, suspended for three years, according to UAE news agency WAM.

He had also been charged with public exposure and indecency after allegedly removing his clothing and repeatedly exposing himself during the flight.

Snaith was convicted of sexual harassment and given a three-month custodial sentence, suspended for three years.

He had also been charged with unlawful consumption of cocaine and hashish after traces of both were returned in a positive drugs test.

However, it was deemed by the court that Snaith's positive drug test was the result of consumption prior to his departure for the United Arab Emirates.

He was also charged with the use of offensive language in a public place.

The court heard testimony from one of the female cabin crew who had been a victim of the mid-air ordeal.

Evidence was provided of a catalogue of offensive, sexually-orientated acts and offers committed under the influence of alcohol.

Mr Sargent was acquitted on two charges – the unlawful consumption of Temazepam and the use of offensive language in a public place.

It's believed he will leave Abu Dhabi within hours, and continue his journey to London.

Mr Sargent told the Nine Network that his jailers "went out of their way to be extremely kind and receptive to my needs and wishes".

And Then A Funny Thing Happened

A newspaper must cope with real systems characterised by "sheer size, intricate connectivity, sensitive dependencies, self-referential tangles, random juxtapositions, and meaningless coincidences...uncharted and nonlinear interactions".
A Mathematician Reads The Newspaper
Professor Paulos


Still struggling with the pictures, don't know what to do about it at this stage.
I wish someone from Blogger would read this and tell me what to do.

The story And Then A Funny Thing Happened, continues:

"At first everything was gripped with meaning, the world and his place in it, as a rush of new love tingled through him and they seemed forever to be running towards each other. They went for long walks through his favourite place in the Adelaide Hills, a huge old ruined nursery where fields of jonquils and daffodils had gone wild. There followed years of living together. Travelling in a great arc across the world, when they couldn't have been closer. Living in London. Becoming as one. To the final chaotic days when Martin always had an interest that wasn't him, some bit of fluff on Saturday night, a blond hairdresser to while away the afternoons, constant, ghastly triangles.

"When he slammed doors and broke furniture and threw books out windows. Smashed Martin's windscreen and tried to run him over. When he could finally take it no longer, in a staggering series of months where he left for India without telling him beforehand and came back - little more than a living skeleton - because he missed him. Finally they broke up for the last tiem. He felt utterly destroyed, truly believed it was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.

"And then he had been alone."

THE BIGGER STORY:

Keep your curtains closed - or Google can peek



Two students are sunbathing in bikinis. A man picks his nose in San Francisco. In Miami, a group of protesters carry signs outside an abortion clinic. Men slip into pornographic bookshops or shuffle out of strip clubs. There is even a burglar apparently caught in the act.

Has Google gone too far? That was the fear being expressed online over the weekend after the Internet giant launched Street View, which can zoom in so closely that individual lives are captured and offered up to a global audience.

Street View was introduced on Google maps for San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami last week, and there are plans to expand the service to other US cities and other countries.

The high-resolution images were taken from vans driving along public streets during the past year and will be periodically updated, but the company has not specified a timetable.

The backlash against Street View began after Mary Kalin-Casey, from Oakland, California, looked up her own street and saw her pet cat, Monty, sitting on a perch in the window of her second-floor flat.

She complained on the blog website boingboing: "I'm all for mapping, but this feature literally gives me the shakes. I feel like I need to close all my curtains now. Dang, it's so detailed, I can even see he's a tabby!"

Technology bible Wired magazine's website was quick to invite users to vote on the best images. Captions included: "Girl bends over... guys check her out", "Guy taking a leak into bushes?", "Naked woman?" and "Break-in in progress".

A Google spokesman said: "We're focused on providing high-quality Street View imagery for regions throughout the world. This feature may vary by country in response to local laws and norms."

Everyone expects a certain level of anonymity as they move about their daily lives," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group devoted to protecting people's rights on the Internet.

Privacy experts believe these kinds of issues are bound to arise as technology makes it increasingly easy to share pictures and video on the Internet, pitting the rights of free expression against the rights to personal privacy.

"What you have to do is balance out the perception against the reality and I think in this case, the perception is much scarier than the reality," said Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People For Internet Responsibility, a policy group.

To guard against privacy intrusions, Google said all the photos were taken from vehicles driving along public streets.

"This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street," Google spokeswoman Megan Quinn said in a statement. "Imagery of this kind is available in a wide variety of formats for cities all around the world."

Google also provides a "help" button on all the street-level photos to provide a link for users to request the removal of an image that is objectionable or clearly identifies a person who does not want to be included. Company spokeswoman Victoria Grand said Google has fielded "very few" removal requests so far.

But Eileen Diamond is hoping she can persuade Google to replace its current picture of a Miami street corner where protesters gather once a week to protest the abortions performed at A Choice For Women. The picture - available on Google's maps on Friday afternoon - includes a cluster of protesters standing outside the clinic, an image that clinic administrator Diamond worries will scare away potential patients or perhaps attract troublemakers.

"It's sort of disturbing because it's certainly not the kind of message we want to be sending out," said Diamond. "It's already very painful for our patients to come in. We want them to feel safe and protected."

Source: China Daily

Estie Failed Experiment

 

Pictures still creating chaos on this blog. All I can see when I pull it up to edit is a string of gibberish. I just don't get it. The only thing I can think of is that the computer said the other day that the cache was full, whatever that is; I have no idea how to fix it.

The story continues, the deep, winding, almost primordial dark of that road that snaked around the side of that remote hill, the houses, the people, so far away in time and space, and yet these powerful visual images linger on; those budgerigar feathers, floating down from the giant gums after one of our favourite birds had escaped, it's excited moment of liberty lasting bare minutes as a kookaburra swooped; leaving nothing but those feathers drifting down on the cool forest air, the sunlight catching them as we, just kids, cried at the loss of one of our much loved budgies.

The story:

"Then, one of his regular sweeps through Adelaide, where he went, probably twice a year to hang around with old friends and where, to his great amusement, he accessed a different class of art queens, it finally happened. He met someone fresh, new to the scene, ripe for love. They lasted together nine years. Other people always remembered them arguing. But there were good times as well, sticky intimacy, fun, exploration. With his continuing lack of professional success, he thought of the relationship with Martin, his love, their togetherness, their coupledom, as one of his greatest achievements.

"He wanted it to be ideal, to go on forever, to rise above the physical, the material. With a certain megalomania, for these were still very much unchartered waters, there being no rules for gay relationships at a time when everything was up for discussion, theirs was to be one of the great, historic loves. Though what he went through seemed utterly singular, it followed a pattern, the seven stages of gay relationships: attraction, sexual fascination, intimacy, familiarity, habituation, disillusionment, break-up."

Pictures Still Not Working

The Pictures are still not working. I don't know why I can't upload photographs anymore. It looks perfect but then after I click Done it just turns into gibberish, not a picture. It's a pity because I love putting pictures up here from my camera phone; I'm a frustrated photographer or a frustrated painter at heart. Oh well.

Had a madly hectic week; one of those been everywhere, done everything, the fingers lying across the keyboards, dealing with crap. Nothing is straightforward, but problems were invented to be solved.

Typing up this story of myself when I was 16, called And Then A Funny Thing Happened, published in an anthology more than a decade ago now, I just can't imagine how my parents did what they did. I have a 16-year-old son and I would do anything to protect him. I just got thrased and thrashed and thrashed, and when I wouldn't sit still for it, they would both chase me around the house with the belts snaking out towards me, hitting and hitting and hitting. It would be regarded as child abuse these days; then I suppose it was called discipline. It was just abuse. No wonder I walked off down that road, never to return.

"As he grew older things changed. Once the serial subject of unrequited love, now it was his turn to experience the agony of wanting someone who didn't want him. Desperately in love with a painter who didn't want to know about him, he made a complete, esperate fool of himself. Shattered self-esteem led him to weepy, melancholic dawns across the white terraced houses and the flowering frangipani of Paddington.

At the same time the experience of being gay in Sydney was changing, becoming less singular as a gay culture and identity developed. No longere unique but communal, he longed for love, a relationship, a type of marriage. He wanted desperately to have a boyfriend, to be part of a couple. He didn't want to be single any more. He mooned through a succession of bumbled affairs, young men standing awkwardly in the back yard, waiting for him to make the move.... I was thinking of making a pass at you... Were you now?