My imaginary friend- a short short story

A 30 month old girl goes and hides behind a sheet under her bed and takes her teddy bear. She talks softly to her imaginary friend with the bear as their witness.
"So, why are we hiding under the bed again?"
"Well, I did poo-poo in my pants. I didn't want to disturb mummy, and I can't work these silly pants by myself"
"But isn't she going to hit you when she finds out?"
"Yep - But we've got a little while before she finds us"
"That's not fair - she was asleep, and before that she was doing the washing, and before that, she was playing with your sister. She knows you need help!"
"Maybe we could trick her - You go out for me and get beaten, then come back under the bed, then we'll swap back. She'll never know the difference!"
"What's the point, I'll get back but you'll still be hurting when we change back!"
"Yeah, but it might not hurt as much, and I'll pretend it was just me falling off the bed like she tells daddy and grandma"
"Sounds like a good trick, lets do it all the time"
"Yeah, lets; but wait - what about when we don't need to do it anymore?"
"What do you mean? She hits you every single time you do poo-poo, sometimes she hits you for some other thing or another."
"Yeah, but maybe I'll learn what I have to do not to get hit so hard all the time"
"Well, if you do, I can just keep hiding under here somewhere"
"What if I don't need you anymore at all?"
"Well I can keep hiding as long as you want"
"Don't go away forever - that's dying you know"
"No I won't, I can come back whenever you're just about to get hit if you like"
"Ok, that should be easy, I can almost always tell when that's going to happen."

The Policy that dare not speak its name? Mark 2


Even though I accept that abortion is killing, and it is a moral imperative not to kill, this is not the same as believing that it should be country's law. God will punish or forgive sins done against god as is just - but that should not automatically extend to common law. This is where the separation of church and state is the most imperative. A country's citizens need laws which on balance are better for the country, not for an absolute moral imperative. The absolute moral imperative can only be "enforced" through the power of prayer & conversion to a faith, and other ways that do not break gods or the churches laws. If the costs of banning abortions includes indirect deaths by murder, suicide, euthanasia, more meat products consumed or a general decay in societies morals in general, we may be only generating (very indirectly, of course) more inconvenient deaths down the track. If you think that these indirect effects are infact avoidable at a cost of money rather than victims, this would go against what I believe is the essence of human nature. We need to reduce the number of abortions by means other than prohibition. If there is indeed a trend for men to store up some sperm, then get a vasectomy as soon as they reach adolescence, and plan their families to the exact number and time in their life that they desire, this might obviate the need for political lawmaking.

The Policy that dare not speak its name?

I kind of read about a real "wild card" to do with abortion, on "The Economist". It talked about a study which confirmed the hypothesis essentially that abortions prevent future criminals. Essentially, it analysed detailed statistics in states of the USA which prohibited abortion over a certain period, and the crime rate of the corresponding states a generation later. The conclusion was (for me) startling : - The states which prohibited abortions had higher and increasing crime rates a generation later: Those with more liberal abortion laws had reduced crime rates (both relatively and in absolute terms). For a non-commital person like me on this issue, this would definitely be an issue where I would conclude that effective prohibition is not the answer. Certainly, education on family planning and effective alternatives for "unplanned" children is something we could all push in the same direction for - also late terminations should also be viewed the same as infanticide; but we can't ignore the unintended future consequences either. I am not convinced that human nature has changed, and the resort to abortion is always taken with a heavy heart, with a personal calculation of the likely future misery either way. Sure - its killing, pure and simple, but so is euthanasia, fighting a war - just or otherwise, meat industry etc. etc. Like the other forms of killing, I can only bring myself to think about the big picture. I can't mourn for every miscarriage, war death, or terminal patient dying suspiciously. I will almost always mourn for someone cut down in the prime of their life.

Stranger than fiction

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Having had this experience leads me to really believe what is happening to Andrew and his mysterious brain powers. The brain and conscious thought is an amazing thing - some skeptics in the world believe that hypnosis doesn't exist, in the sense that it is just acting. Obviously they haven't experienced it for real like me.

Film Foren (sic) s

Lion King 1

Although I view this movie to be a typical Disney kids animated movie, and not really a "serious" movie, its sheer general popularity make it a movie that people house-sitting for you would want to watch it, if you only hadn't taken it in the car with you for the kids. Of course the completely unbelievable combination of a warthog and a meerkat, make for the humerous, relaxed interlude of "no worries" which the kids tend to gloss over as boring - in between the Violent plot to take over a throne, and the just as violent return of the rightful king to reclaim it and save the kingdom. Of course this wouldn't be a kids movie if the hero's father didn't have an agonising death sequence early on in the movie. Felicia (5) would certainly pick "the one where Mufasa dies" as her favourite of the three Lion King Movies. The obvious educational aspect would be of the circle of life, and that good leadership counts for a lot both in a family and for a country. I kind of think that the "good vs evil" is a bit over done in films, and I would have loved to see the hint of Scar having a good side to him. Not only does he disregard life in his plans for power. He extends to not having a single good intention shown in the whole movie. Even for the Hyena's. All in all, its got some nice violent bits for the kids, and some great comedy for the adults - therefore making it one of the only DVD's we have which visitors lust for. Memorable line:
Timon - "Hakuna Matata" - "Its our Motto"
Young Simba - "What's 'a motto?"
Timon - "Why nothing, what's 'a matto with you??"

Reading

One of the few things I have been able to self motivate lately is reading. Bard Wars is a very enjoyable read at the moment, and forgetting the fact that it is technically science fiction (actually fantasy to be even more technical - see comments), I am enjoying the gratuitous violent humour which I liked in various play by mail games of many years ago.

I've read this absolutely brilliant free science fiction novel "Ghost Years". I challenge anyone to read the first three chapters then put it down. Set on the enigmatic planet of Tsai. It follows the story of a priest after a dark chapter in their life, dedicated to one of the very strange gods "Ashgarashgaran". Next I am reading "Bard Wars", then I will move on to "Fork". This is on a frenzied lead up to NaNoReadMo, where I read great novels, at a fraction of bookstore prices!

Felicia - 5 

Belinda 11 

Nikolas - 8 

Zachary - 2 

Me 

Film Forensics

I was thinking of doing reviews of DVD's I've watched recently. I don't know which one out of : "Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper", "Rugrats go Wild", One of the "Great Valley" series of ten videos of dinosaur adventures, "Justice league" animated series, "Lion King" I, II, and III, "Buzz Lightyear", "Rugrats in Paris". I'm thinking the Barbie one, it is a great musical, and have changed the original fairytale enough and not make it too soppy - It also has an excellent Karaoke feature with all the songs (a great "Villain's song" included). One can also watch it dubbed in German or Dutch (the kids actually watched the whole movie like that!)

any takers??

Australia's "celebrations"

It would always amaze my father, who having come from Europe, where holidays would almost exclusively be of battles won by the country celebrating (I can't actually think of any examples - Dr. Clam could elaborate on specific countries). ANZAC day, in particular to start with - celebrating the start of a hopeless battle that we ended up losing. On top of that, it wasn't even our war. In some respects it wasn't even the mother country's war. "Lions led by Donkeys" would be an apt description, where the soldiers were skilled and well armed, but the leadership was absolutely woeful. I find it ironic that in a sense, Turkey celebrates the same battle, and it has ended up being a point of cohesion between Aus and Turkey every Anzac day, rather than a source of bitterness or enmity. Contrast this to St. Patricks day or myriad other days of celebration in Europe. It is always where one's country kicked the butt of another. It follows that we also remember the fall of Singapore, the Burma railway. Even the Kokoda trail is described as a "fighting retreat" so we are quite clear that it isn't a victory. Not to mention Vietnam - Australia also remembers that for its losses.
This, I believe, is one of Australia's great strengths. How demoralising is it for potentially enemy countries or groups, that we gain strength from battles which we have lost. After over 100 years in which Australians tried to forget our convict heritage - we have been gaining cohesion from being involved in other people's wars, at times fighting heroically losing battles.

News

More bombs in Baghdad - boring...
John Howard wins election - who cares....

EU sugar export subsidies deemed illegal... YESSSS... This is much more crucial for Australia (and Brasil, Thailand etc.) than a CLAYTON's "free" trade deal with the US. Finally the WTO has come to this obvious conclusion, and the EU will probably comply with the ruling since it got one going its way against the USA earlier. Ironically, Australia's trade deal with the US should be deemed prejudicial (and therefore, if Aus pressed its case with the WTO would be deemed illegal) in terms of the sugar etc. exemptions heaped upon us (importantly, they discriminate against us in this respect) and I just see it as a cynical ploy to get around the rules of the WTO - in effect to discourage, rather than encourage free trade. I actually feel it would be in the best interests of the EU if all their agricultural subsidies were found illegal. Then they could dismantle some of them without being voted out of office:- they would just blame the WTO.

Gadget review

Having raved about my phone and mower in the past, I would like to rave about the GPS I had the pleasure to use while travelling through the big cities. It was basically a palm pilot with a GPS, Que mapping and routing software. I must say that getting anywhere in the big cities would have been an absolute waste of time without it - considering 4 kids eats up most spare time anyway on holidays. Basically you search for an address or the name of where you are going, or the closest intersection or whatever, touch "route to" button and it does the rest mapping where you are giving you audio and visual cues for every turn - and most importantly, automatically getting you back on track when you do make a wrong turn. Highly recommended

I just want to put in here that I will be in Brisbane from the 20th of September to the 24th, in Sydney from the 24th to the 1st of October, and back in Brisbane o the 2nd and 3rd of October. We will probably drive through Armidale between Brisbane and Sydney, though we aren't planning to stop there at the moment.

Hello again, I have just one thing more to say about politics. I think this Australia-US trade deal is absolutely the definition to me of a Clayton's free trade deal being a trade deal when there isn't actually any trade deal. This may sound abtuse but this is my reasoning. Both the US and Australia are firmly committed to the WTO and their multilateral rules. The WTO rule that has been the most basic principle and the one of total consensus between members as they join is this:- Tariffs must not discriminate between other member countries for instance if Australia has a 20% tariff on textiles coming from the United states, it cannot impose a higher (or lower for that matter) tariff on textiles from Japan. Although these rules are "tested" ie. broken with an attached excuse often, Australia and US especially have followed the WTO rulings when they are made even against their supposed interest. Therefore, since any reduction in two way tariffs between the two countries have to be made with all WTO members (and probably all countries) - there really is no real two way negotiation, it is all invented as if the WTO and their rules didn't exist and that it amounts to a deal for the whole world. Unfortunately, most spectators of the spectacle of these "negotiations" don't realise their being hoodwinked into paying attention to something which is an irrelevant side issue to the WTO trade talks which can actually improve our lot as well as the lot of many poor countries with the only losers those that opt out (that could be a very many countries however). Please comment as this issue is close to my heart.

It has been a long long time since my last entry, so I'm doing this one in a hurry. I've got Broadband here at work and a Linux mail server - and it has made network administration so much easier, I've decided to connect our network with our neighbour's network and solve their problems as well, just to give me something to do with my spare time. I'm heading down to Brisbane and Sydney during the September school holidays with the whole family - only 4 and a half weeks away now - wow. I have got a luggage pod set up on the Kia Carnival, and three gameboys for the kids to have something for entertainment in the back. I am trying to organise an in car dvd player as well as remote central locking. I have tried to get 'Apple Sauce' played on the air on 4TO FM by getting Felicia (5) to phone Pricey up and requesting it - to no avail so far but I am still hopeful of a result (he's a sucker for little girls voices). On the Iraq front with all the bad publicity I have noted from the Economist that foreign investment in Iraq and surrounding countries has surged dramatically as the general security situation and confidence improves. It is higher than even before the Iran Iraq war and is mainly from Arab interests and ex-pats.

I'm still here!

Volleyball