A History of Dishonesty

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Well I find it repulsive
What you're doing to yourself
You're treating your body
Like it was someone else
Like it was someone else

You're starring in a movie
And the cameras start to roll
The lights reveal the burnt and gaping
Caverns and the holes

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish
I could be like you
Could be like you

You're lying in my parlour
Like a ship that's been wrecked
The strangers shuffle in the room
To pay their last respects
To pay their last respects

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish
I could be like you
Could be like you

It's a matter of opinion
It's a question of degree
If I had been nicer
Would you still be here with me?
Would you still be here with me?

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish
I could be with you
Could be with you

The Triffids, Bad Timing.




They are so smug, the middle class left, pontificating on about the evils of carbon dioxide and capitalism on the ABC, shadowed by darker forces of which they were completely oblivious. There has been a great deal of injustice in your life, the psychiatrist said, and the latest, the gifting of money to everybody else but him, made worse by relatives giving his junky ex $10,000 to pay her bills and briefly restore order to her chaotic lifestyle, made him even more furious. He couldn't stop smoking. He could find hell in his own quarter, he could match his discontent with the broader universe, light bulb moments, he wasn't really a crippled dwarf in a desperate landscape, was all the more peculiar because there was nothing ostensibly wrong. At least on the surface.

On the surface he was another reporter in the pack, sitting at the media table at the side of the court, watching the endless succession of addicts and alcoholics in trouble with the law, waiting for the particular gangster that was of interest to the media on that day. The magistrate, a puffy short little man with greying hair, had been merciless all morning. Six months, twelve months, bail refused. He showed absolutely no mercy, no understanding, no sympathy for the hopes of rehabilitation. On parole, picked up for stealing, that was it. Gone for all money, six months, twelve months, two years, more. She has been attending AA meetings in prison and I would suggest to your honour that the pre-sentencing report shows that their are signs of hope, the legal aid lawyer said. She has two children she wants to be able to look after. She has family on the outside.

Your Honour will accept that most of the crimes for which my client has been caught are minor affairs, mostly shop lifting, mostly under $100, do doubt related to her drug use. The magistrate looked down without sympathy. I would suggest the sentencing report shows no signs of hope at all, he said, it shows a long history of dishonesty and bad behaviour. Six months, 12 months, two years or more. While there was no gavel, he could hear it in his head, the stamping of the documents. Bail refused. Not to be released. The magistrate gave the aboriginal woman, aged 23, six months. There was no argument. There was no barrister eloquently arguing her case, as happened for the rich. Even the legal aid lawyers barely seemed to be trying, in this sausage factory of justice, or injustice as the case may be.

Another man, 56, although he looked older, appeared via video link, dressed in his prison greens, hair white, face seedy and old. He ... You had barely been out of jail for more than three days when you committed another offence, the magistrate said, disgust, perhaps despair, filling his voice. You have broken parole. My client is from Western Australia and would like to return there, the legal aid lawyer argued. He has family and property there. I'm sure the authorities here would be glad to get rid of him, the magistrate noted. Once again the legal aid lawyer argued, the crimes are minor, they are drug related, my client has made attempts at rehabilitation. A history of dishonesty, the magistrate intoned yet again. Two and a half years, he said said, stamping away at various documents. My client has asked, the legal aid lawyer faltered on, yet another earnest young woman who had no doubt entered the law for social justice reasons, if the sentence is over two years could he be entered into the PET program for drug rehabilitation.

The magistrate looked annoyed. He looked at the grey headed man on the video link, clearly a scumbag. He agreed in a short burst of ill humour that clearly indicated he had nothing but contempt for the client and held zero hope for his rehabilitation. He had seen too many of them, too often, the alcoholics and the addicts who cluttered his court, one after the other after the other. They all had their excuses. It was the drugs that made me do it. As if that argument was going to persuade him of anything, using one illegal behaviour to justify another. He could see in a flash the old junky, the clearly depressed man up on the screen, holding court in the prison's AA and NA meetings. He would become a reformed character, briefly, again, and he would build his little coterie of followers in jail just as he had done on the outside.

And then he saw the next one, brought up from the cells beneath Central Local. He was a strapping, rather handsome, fit, Germanic looking man. Charges of affray. Long history of violence the magistrate muttered, long history of dishonesty. The legal aid lawyer did her best, the brawl was out of character, he admits he was drunk at the time, he doesn't actually remember the incident, he thinks he was defending the honour of a friend. Once again, he was 23. The arguments were brief. Nine months he said. The young man looked in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe he had gone to the pub one minute and ended up in jail the next. There was virtually no family for any of them, as they were sent away with the shabbiest of representation and the briefest of judgements. The boy reminded him of a friend in London, Kristoff, a big German boy who had also liked his drugs, a talented painter, an intense genius escaping from the conformity of Germany.

You can see the trouble ahead, the reporter sitting next to him whispered. This is just one stone in a very troubled path. He looked again, surprised by the analysis. And nodded. Yes, you can. This is just one bad day in a future of bad days. They looked again at the young man in the dock. You could see he wanted to say something, to shout at the injustice. Instead Corrective Services, sensing they had trouble on their hands, ushered him quickly downstairs. Already the magistrate was mumbling over his next case. "A history of dishonesty," he was saying. "A long history..." Already the modern Kristoff had disappeared from view; and he wondered if his old friend had met a similar fate, there on the other side of the world.



THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/25/2525281.htm?section=world

US President Barack Obama says he and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had a meeting of minds this morning on the question of the global response to the economic crisis.

Mr Rudd and Mr Obama held their first face-to-face meeting, spending a little over an hour in discussions at the White House.

President Obama says he greatly admires the Rudd Government's vision on the domestic and international stage and the two agree on the importance of a coordinated response to the global financial crisis to be agreed at next week's G20 summit.

They also discussed the war in Afghanistan and the current US review of its operations.

President Obama spoke strongly about the need to stay fighting, saying the threat from Al Qaeda has not gone away and it is important to stay on the offensive.

He says he expects troops to be there for some time, but did not say whether he has requested an increase in the Australian contribution.
http://townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2009/03/24/global_warming_is_running_out_of_hot_air?page=2

Global Warming Is Running Out of Hot Air
Written by Phyllis Schlafly, TownHall
Tuesday, 24 March 2009

The coldest winter in a decade in many places, with snow in unlikely cities such as New Orleans, has deflated some of the hot air in global warming. And a heavy snowfall that paralyzed Washington, D.C., upstaged a mass demonstration scheduled to promote global warming.

Nevertheless, according to Al Gore and the mainstream media, "the debate is over" proving that global warming exists, that humans are causing it and that "science is settled."

But 680 of the world's leading scientists, economists and policy analysts, who met March 8-10 in New York City for the second Heartland International Conference, beg to differ. The title of the conference expressed their doubts: "Global Warming: Was It Ever Really a Crisis?"

These authorities assert that scientists worldwide do not agree that global warming is human induced (in scientific lingo, anthropogenic). They do not even agree that the Earth is still warming.

Many scientists and other observers have come to realize that global warming is no longer a question of science but is all about politics and money. Their slogan, cap-and-trade, was best explained by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, as "a carbon tax that will increase taxes on all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a light switch."

President Obama is being pressured by James McCarthy, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to rush his carbon tax through Congress before the American people discover the lie in Obama's promise that "95 percent of working families" will not see their taxes rise by "a single dime." In fact, his own budget shows that taxes will rise for 100 percent of Americans for the sake of global warming.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change plans to use a treaty to reduce America's use of energy and therefore our standard of living, while forcing us to subsidize energy production in other countries and close our eyes to the omission of China and India from any obligation.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25239267-29277,00.html

THE man killed at Sydney Airport in Sunday's violent bikie gang brawl was wanted over the stabbing of an off-duty police officer, police said.

Anthony Zervas, 29, the brother of a senior Hells Angel member was bludgeoned to death during the brawl allegedly involving members of the Hells Angels and the Comancheros.

Police revealed today that Mr Zervas was being sought for questioning over the stabbing of an off-duty police officer at Brighton-Le-Sands on Friday.

The officer had approached two men, one of whom was allegedly Mr Zervas, who had been trying to enter the front door of an apartment block on The Grande Parade.

"An argument ensued and one of the males produced a knife, stabbing the officer twice in his left arm," police said.

"The officer managed to shut the glass door before the male with the knife kicked the door, causing the glass to smash."

The two men fled, while the officer sought medical attention and was taken to St George Hospital for treatment.