Archive for category Deep Thoughts
The Haneef Case Heats Up
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Politics on July 20th, 2007
So, not only was the famous SIM card not in the truck that crashed into Glasgow Airport – as had been asserted by the Australian Federal Police – but the person found in possession of it (Sabeel Ahmed) has not been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation. He’s been charged with withholding information, but I sense that might be a tough case to make.
Either way, how can Mohamed Haneef be charged with the support of a terrorist organisation if he plainly did not do that? There’s no linkage here, and this case is getting weaker by the second.
On the one hand you’ve got a seemingly innocent young doctor that just wanted to go and visit his family, and on the other you have a government (and seemingly also a police service) that is absolutely hell-bent on getting someone for something, damnit!
I mean, the man even tried to telephone an investigator in the UK FOUR TIMES. Four times! Does that sound like a guy that wants to run away? Not to me, it doesn’t.
Even if Dr. Haneef’s visa were now reinstated, I doubt he’d want to stay in Australia. But it should be reinstated so he at least can get out on bail while this circus winds itself up. And, further to that, I believe that the Australian Government owes this man an apology. If he’s a terrorist, let’s see the evidence. But I don’t think giving a soon-to-expire SIM card to a family member should be an offence in any legal system.
And don’t even get me started on Ruddock announcing he was going to review the conditions of bail for terrorist suspects. How can you call yourself a free country when you can lock people up – indefinitely – for nothing? (Oh, wait, I guess you could call yourself the USA.)
Set the man free.
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Dr. Haneef’s SIM Card
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Politics, Senseless Rants on July 16th, 2007
So, the Indian-born and trained Muslim Doctor Mohammed Haneef has not only been charged with the offence of supporting terrorism, but he has also been summarily stripped of his Australian Visa and taken into Immigration Detention.
Update: It seems the news reports that Dr. Haneef was in immigration detention were incorrect. He’s still in jail in Queensland because he hasn’t posted bail yet. His lawyer thinks he might avoid detention by not posting bail (to trump the trump, as it were) so we’ll just have to see how this shakes out.
And all this over a SIM card that he left with his cousins in Britain when he came to work in Australia.
Faked in China
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Politics on July 10th, 2007
In the news lately there’s been a lot of coverage of “fake” products coming from China. First it was fake mobile phone batteries that can explode, then melamine (used to make plastics and fertiliser) in the dog food, then it was ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) in toothpaste. Now we hear about Chinese companies even cheating each other by supplying fake coal fly ash for use in concrete.
For those who don’t know, fly ash is produced when you burn coal. There are different parts to the ash and slag produced, and the fly ash is the part of the ash that floats up the flue (chimney) with the exhaust gases. And, apparently, it’s cheaper to make fake fly ash than it is to collect the real stuff. No country in the World uses all the fly ash it produces. The mind boggles.
Shit, it sounds like these guys should be running Pan Pharmaceuticals.
Lebanon Rising
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Politics on July 10th, 2007
It seems that the advertising industry in Lebanon has taken it upon itself to try and make Lebanon, and thus the World, a better place. There are currently campaigns running such as “When Will I Be Lebanese” which takes aim at sectarianism. (Why should you care what religion you are, you’re Lebanese.)
The best example I have seen of this rise in patriotic (jingoistic?) advertising is this one. It was done for free by the Beirut branches of H&C Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi. They donated their time for free. Everyone involved in the project donated their time and equipment for free. And it is being aired right now on Lebanese television for free.
Deep Thought of the Month
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Senseless Rants on June 14th, 2007
Posit: God is omnipotent. All knowing, all seeing. God knows everything about everything, all that has been, all that is and all that will ever be. Christianity teaches this as the very basis of existence itself, and if you believe in God, you must accept this to be the absolute truth.
In the Christian tradition, we are also taught that God has given Mankind free will. The ability to make our own choices and to determine our own destiny. That there is no destiny, other than what we make for ourselves.
As Adam chose to bite the apple in the Garden of Eden, so are we all free to choose what we will do, and if that will be good or evil. But if God knows everything, then he must have known that Adam would bite the apple. Even before the apple that Adam would bite, or the teeth that Adam would bite with, were created.
Here’s a God One…
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Senseless Rants on May 26th, 2007
So a short time ago I had some Jehovah’s Witnesses come to my front gate. What on Earth (or in Heaven, Hell or anywhere else) would drive people to expose their children to such trauma is beyond me. But that’s not what this post is about.
For the sake of my fingers, hereinafter the Jehovah’s Witnesses will be referred to as the JW’s. No offence is intended…it’s like referring to Jemaah Islamiyah as “JI” or L. Ron Hubbard as “Nutjob”.
This post is about a couple of really basic things that the JW’s believe. No, not the transfusion thing, there’s some actual sense to that if you go back 100 years or so. (Or to the AIDS epidemic.)
Phased Withdrawal, or Cut and Run?
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Politics on April 24th, 2007
So, it seems the Mighty United States is getting closer and closer to admitting failure in Iraq. As one of the very many that was duped into believing it was a good war to fight, I suppose there is a part of me that feels like gloating it over Dubya. Not just Dubya, but Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz as well. But I can’t do that.
Tomorrow is ANZAC Day here in Australia, so perhaps it is a time for reflection.
Boris Yeltsin is Dead
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts on April 24th, 2007
Brace yourselves, I think the Vodka market is about to collapse.
Seriously, he surely wasn’t the greatest man to ever lead a nation, but at least he wasn’t Putin.
Is Iran Gagging For It?
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts, Politics, Senseless Rants on April 5th, 2007
I don’t need any more convincing. Iran seems to have decided that it wants a showdown with the West, and it wants it sooner rather than later.
By “showdown”, I don’t mean a war – though that may eventuate – but I believe they really do want to see how far the West can be pushed before we threaten and/or use force.
Gimme Shelter
Posted by Daryl in Deep Thoughts on February 23rd, 2007
No man is an island, goes the saying.
To find your own island is best.
For rejuvenation and rest,
To recover and rejoin the fight.
But islands are not for me.
Not out here on the moonlit sea,
For my eyes are too weak for the light.
