It's not an 'invasion' when you're just trying to stop a crazy man who might bomb your country. That's just 'securing the peace' and whatnot. Why, invasion is when you attack them AND go in and take over the country instead of liberating the people and to their leaders of choice.

Welcome to the new America/Rome. This is wrong. Completely and utterly wrong. And it shows that Saddam is not the ultimate 'target'. If that were true, they'd help Iraq stabilise while they [Iraqis] build a government and then get the hell out like they said they would months ago (when you deny something in politics and then turn around later and do that thing, it's called 'changing your mind', not lying. although for this to work we must assume that all political decisions are made on the spur of the moment. right...). But, no, we're going to occupy Iraq. Plain and simple. We're going to invade and take control of the whole country. Oh, it's easy enough to say it in other ways that 'seem' harmless enough when glossed over, but in the end it's a manufactured government and they will certainly control the oil 'more to our liking'. Hell, they spell it out, "...General Tommy Franks, the head of the US Central Command, is to establish military control until a US administrator is appointed..." It will be a military state controlled by the US until such time as the US decides to install an Iraqi or Iraqi-appearing leader in office.

It's wrong and it cheapens what America stands for. God help us all. All Bush needs is that little "Nero" haircut... And Australia sure is paying for it politically. The only representative for Australia on the security council went as far as to say that Iraq has never been a threat to Australia (as was put forth by Howard and company) and that that the troop deployments 'are' a committment to war and that this deception by the government was "more serious than that of the 'children-overboard' affair".

And where the fuck is all this proof we were promised? Those blurry pics and docs cut and pasted from ther net were crap. Where's all this proof? The US keeps saying they have it and, ergo, know that Iraq hasn't dis-armed... yet they keep producing specious and/or circumstantial evidence. Or as one yokel was over-heard to say "they got satellites that can read a newspaper from space and these blurry photos of buildings are the best they can do?" I scoffed at him at first... now I'm starting to see his point. Those who expect, when the US forces 'liberate' Baghdad, to see some James Bond villain-like hi-tech lair of weaponry are going to be very fucking disappointed. Half the stuff they have is barely useable and Iran is way ahead of them as far as tech goes.

Saddam Hussein is a very fucking bad man. He is certainly evil. But for the 'world's remaining superpower' [Howard] to have to stoop to this to oust him? Right. Tell me another one. Merely 'ousting' Hussein does not give the US [read: Bush administration] all it wants. It merely removes the evil (which IS what the people want) and leaves the spoils of war behind. The Iraqi people don't want this war any more than thes rest of us 'peace-loving hippies' do. Logic dictates there has to be a better way.

Now... about getting these fuckwits out of office...

Monkey Plus Root

What a joke Pauline is...

I mean, the whole person. She's a living joke.
The sad thing is that she lives down the road from us now and the seat in question is for Miranda, our town.
She had moved on to managing country music acts last we heard. Then she denied she had any intention of entering the race. Said she needed to clear her name. Then she entered the race and said she had no need to clear her name. What part of this shit is not a lie? Why do we accept that these people will lie to us and not question it? They're supposed to be above that, not expected to do it. With all that's going on I'm really fucking tired of being lied to on a daily basis and as a matter of course...

OK, in her case she's just a stupid racist redneck. But nonetheless... I hope I see her at the mall. I won't be one of these people she claims comes up and asks vapidly when she will re-enter politics. I'd rather ask her why she lies in public and where she'd prefer to go to prison if/when she's convicted of fraud in May.

UPDATES: The moron parade continues.
Judge wonders what Pauline does

Since she can't bother to come to court

In Australia, 150,000 people demonstrated in Melbourne on Friday, and 16,000 activists marched in Canberra, 10,000 in Perth, and 15,000 in Newcastle, north of Sydney, at the weekend. But by far Sydney's turnout of protesters was the largest in Australia's history.

Bush lies. Powell lies (it breaks my heart to say that...). Howard and Blair lie. And, yes, Hussein lies. Bin Laden lies. But the people tell the truth. And the truth, I believe, is that they don't support this war. And they know there's more to it than 'moral obligation' on the part of a cadre of politicians whose morals are unknown to them. When Tony Blair, while explaining his ignoring of the protests, said that there would be no marches for the children who would die or the people who would suffer, that said it all for me; Yes, there have been Tony. And apparently you ignored them as well... They happened before you became suddenly righteous and indignant about Iraq and called for unleashing America's weapons of mass destruction upon it.

You don't speak for me, George Bush. You don't speak for me, John Howard. You speak for only for your agenda. And this time you haven't conned anough people into believing that your agenda is also their agenda. I hope you live out your old age in regret and contrition for what you're trying to do and will do. You won't be on Rushmore with Lincoln, George, you'll be a sad page in history like Nixon.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0212-07.htm
(thanks, Gina)

Want proof that Blair and Howard are puppets?
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/13/1044927741537.html
(see pic)

I've become hooked on the Hornblower TV series and I feel compelled to tell the world how brilliant a series it is and how amazing the lead, Ioan Gruffudd, is. David Warner is in the bit I'm watching now (the "Mutiny" series). He's his usual awesome self. :) I imagine this is what Gene Roddenberry had in his mind's eye when he created Star Trek (Kirk was based on Hornblower and Roddenberry was a serious fan of C.S. Forester). It's so true to the books and the general feel. I recommend it to anyone who likes drama and extremely fine acting. I believe it plays on A&E in the states.

UPDATE: Woohoo!!!
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/17/1045330538140.html

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/delldude1.html

What you didn't see in Nemesis:
(WARNING: Spoilers! Sort of...)

Alternate take of the emergency transporter scene:
Data: "Oh! Look captain! How convenient. A little tiny 'emergency transporter' button that will fit inside my arm!"
Picard: "Why, Mr. Data, doesn't a transporter require lots of computer power and energy to do the transfer? Doesn't one usually require a large room full of kit or at least a small ship like the runabouts???"
Data: "Well, yes, Captain. In every other Star Trek movie but this one that is true. However, Rick Berman is a tool and couldn't plot his way out of his own house. So we have this. Oh, and I got a writing credit..."
Picard: "Oh. Very good. Transport away, then."

Deleted scene after disabling Scimitar:
Picard: "Number One? Did I order the saucer section evacuated before I rammed it into that ship potentially killing everyone in the forward compartments?"
Riker: "I don't recall, sir. I was ogling my wife. Does this tunic make me look fat?"
Picard: "Good enough. Deanna is $0 HAWT. And I 4m $0 l337. I need something else to h4x0r. Did you see me send an IM from my chair? I am so l337!"
Riker: "Sir? The tunic? Does it make me look fat? Sir?..."

Deleted scene as Remans board ship:
Geordie: "Sir? If we have intruders on board shouldn't we send in all those security people we just passed out rifles to? We only sent like... 6 or 7people."
Picard: "Hmmm. Not a bad idea. Oh well. I'm sure the 6 or 7 people we just sent will handle it. Good thing the command staff is safe."
Geordie: "Ummm... Riker and Worf were the first ones out the door, sir...."
Picard: "Oh? Oh my. Well, no time to worry about that now. Now... before I ram this ship... wasn't there something I should do? Oh well. More h4x0r1n6."
[on command screen]
TheReal#1: HI. IM THE CAPTIAN. ASL?

Deleted scene on planet where B4 is found:
Picard: "Mr. Worf. Break out the SUV. This looks like a fun ecology to fuck up."
Worf: "Yes, Captain. Perhaps we can also try some burnouts and wheelies?"
Picard: "Sounds good! Hope there's nothing alive out there, cuz we's about to get busy!"
Data: "Shotgun!"

Lines cut from scene in Romulan Senate
Shinzon: "I want to free my people. I want peace."
Picard: "Umm... didn't you just take over the Reman AND Romulan government? Aren't you like in charge of everything?"
Shinzon: "Errrrr... you know I hadn't looked at it that way... Well, nice meeting you. Bye."
[roll credits]

For true scathing sarcasm, see Roger Ebert's review.

And finally, some real insight from Unca Willy:
"The script that I read for Nemesis was about people. John Logan is a HUGE fan, who knows every detail about TNG. He infused the characters and plot with detalis that would make a Trekkie drool. He understood why people cared about these characters, and told an incredible story. I still haven't seen the final cut, but everything I've read indicates that they got away from that. I have heard that on more than one occasion the director proclaimed that he didn't care about Star Trek history and continuity. It seemed like he really didn't respect the fans or the franchise, so they ended up with yet another action movie with robots and laser guns."

"So... you wanna kiss? See what that's like?"

Really Long post about Lunch, Sex, Mr. Hanky, Star Trek and an explanation of the above quote. Click below if you dare.

And for you Aussies wondering about all that 'damning evidence' that was plastered all over the papers yesterday, check this story at SMH.

(Written last night on the train home)
Met up with the IMPs today for lunch in the 'Gong. Had mexican at Amigos. It was good. Lots of fun talk and silliness. Went back to uni with my sweety and hung out til 4:00 when Hef was to come pick us up. Rob dressed up as Mr. Hanky at the uni. That was disturbing. heh

Adam said the funniest thing at lunch. OK, you have to know Adam to know he didn't mean this. He said it purely for the joke/shock value. They were talking about men and sex and such and Adam said he doesn't get any cuz his wife is always asleep now that she's pregnant. And then he says "And now I can't just roll her over. She won't roll!"
hehehe All kidding aside, he's going to be a good daddy. :)

Hef... So we went to see 'Star Trek: Nemesis' with Hef down in Warrawong ($10 movie. Not bad. Plus the added ambience of the steel works' stink. I give Warrawong a 4 -- 1 point for trying, 3 points for having a cinema). It may be the last time we see him til he gets a break from school. He leaves for Bathurst on Wed. (but he said he may wait til Sat.). We're gonna miss him... :/

Nemesis was better than all the geeks on Slashdot had led me to believe. Sure, I only got 5 or 6 seconds of Wil Wheaton, but overall it wasn't crap. Hef and I both gave it a 5 out of 10. 10 being 'Wrath of Khan', 1 being 'FInal Frontier'. I was incredulous to learn that Sarah hasn't seen ANY Star Trek up til now. They were telling me how it wasn't nearly as mainstream popular here. But, I did note that she's a geek and that's partly why I was so shocked. heh
I'll post my 'what you didn't see in Nemesis' excerpts in another post (it just came out here, don't wanna ruin it for those who haven't gone yet).

We're on the train home now (10:53pm). My sweety is sleepy. Poor thing. We should be home in about 40 - 45 minutes I think.

RE: The subject
"You want me to hack the planet? I'll need Star Trek tapes and hot pockets." - A quote that could very well turn out to be the best part of 'The Core' as it looks to be the most preposterous movie idea ever.

Before Dubya starts naming his war days, don't forget St. Valentine's Day!

Arrh! Buy a Buccaneer Bear!

Buy your sweety a Buccaneer Bear. =D
No? How about a Monkey Pirate Bear?

I've been a slacker about updating lately. So here's a brief run-dwon of my life:

Last night I noticed the stars for the first time since I moved here. It's so weird. Things are so out of place to me. I grew up with the stars always within a certain field of view and now it's very odd to see them skewed. It was quite a moment for me. heh

I got finger-printed yesterday so that the Aussie government can make sure I'm not a criminal. It was an interesting experience. The cop said "so, done this before?" and I'm like "NO!!! God no!". hehe He then proceeded to ask about my husband. ;) I sort of deflected it and moved on. LOL I didn't want to be bothered with it. Monday I get my chest x-rayed and have a physical. Fun fun.

I'm auctioning (here in Aus.) some extraneous crap I have (PC cards, wireless card, junk, gadgets, etc.) to pull in some extra money. If anyone wants to pay me (or refer me to someone who's bugging you) to write any web CGI or perl stuff, gimme a holler. heh I'm trying to bid on some US contract work but it's kinda slow going so far (most of them have been for little or no money or too many demands

Since we have a low cap on our adsl to keep the price reasonable (look... we're geeks... we'd rather not eat than not have broadband so don't go there hehehe) and I'm serving up the wireless connection from my powerbook, I compiled and installed a cacheing web proxy (Squid) to cut down on our use. We both visit a lot of the same places so no reason to hit em twice. I feel so l337. ;)

I'm working on The Greedlist again. I may have a decent version up before long. It will be way better than the one I'm using now (which is very basic and somewhat... ummm... lame).

A friend just wrote me to say she has her new PowerMac up and running. hehe Add another to the list. She'll be hooked soon. ;) After all, if Dave can buy an iPod, anyone can switch. hehe

PS - Moveable Type bloggers - Kung Log rules!