Charlie Sheen and Two And a Half Men

Actor Charlie Sheen reminds me of that old original picture "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. On the outside, the 45 year old's face is still young and unlined while underneath is seething with sin and depravity. He was taken to hospital on Friday night with severe stomach pains and is now in rehab - again. His father, mother and ex wife Denise Richards were all at the hospital with him so it must have been fairly serious.

He is one of the highest paid actors in America, having signed a deal last year for $1 million an episode. But it hasn't made him happy. If rumours are true about his personal life - that he likes spending time with beautiful adult porn stars and taking drugs, he's a pretty sad case.

It's hard to understand why the show is still so popular. The theme - having sex with as many beautiful women as possible and drinking to excess must surely have run it course by now but Two and a Half Men is still the most popular comedy on American tv. I must be missing something.

WikiLeaks Mutiny Within

Daniel Domscheit-Borg was once Julian Assange's right hand man but not anymore. He accused Assange of being a control freak - too autocratic and "some kind of emperor or slave trader" who refused to consult with his team on important decisions. So Domscheit-Borg and a few other defectors started OpenLeaks.


Assange is also on the outer with some important media heavyweights. He threatened to sue Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and New York Times chief editor Bill Keller called him "elusive, manipulative and volatile".

But here's the important bit - Domscheit-Borg resigned from WikiLeaks after it released 400,000 classified US documents relating to the Iraq war. The reason? He felt Assange released them too early without taking the time to edit names of US informants properly.


A transcript of an online chat published by Wired.com reported that Domscheit-Borg said to Assange "You are not anyone's king or god" and Assange shot back that he was suspending him for a month and if he wanted to appeal "You will be heard on Tuesday." That's when he resigned and began work on OpenLeaks. He is also writing a book about his three years with WikiLeaks.


But Australian journalist Andrew Fowler will probably beat him to it. He's writing Assange's biography titled "The Most Dangerous Man in the World" due for release later this year and the movie rights have already been snapped up.

Charlie Teo - Neurosurgeon

Charlie Teo is a famous Australian neurosurgeon. He rides to work on his motor bike every day and has become known as something of a miracle worker. This has angered his peers who say he is too radical and offers false hope to patients who have incurable brain tumours located in dangerous places. He takes the cases his fellow neurosurgeons consider hopeless and this has caused ill feeling. Teo resigned from the Neurological Society of Australasia and said that delaying a patient's death from an incurable brain cancer is definitely worthwhile.





Now he's in trouble again. To raise money for children's cancer research, last October Teo offered as a prize - a whole day to be spent in his company which included watching him perform brain surgery. It raised $1,500 for the charity. But University of Sydney public health professor Simon Chapman has written a scathing critique about it in the British Medical Journal. Now the executive director of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, John Quinn has said that he doesn't like the idea at all, he's worried about the privacy and vulnerability of the patient and says that "surgery is not a spectacle".

Wife and 4 daughters

Doctor Teo said he offers similar auction prizes about 4 times a year. The winner can stand beside the patient during anaesthesia and recovery but observed the procedure itself on a screen in the same room, about three or four metres away from the patient. He said that professor Chapman's views were valid - "I've often thought about it myself" he said. About 10 per cent of his patients refuse permission and there is no coercion. Most people who won the prize gave it to a young person in the family who was thinking of studying medicine - it gave them the opportunity to see surgery first hand.

Dr Teo was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) this week for his services to medicine.

Nadal's Shock Defeat

It was hard to believe what was happening in the quarter final last night - Nadal was losing to his good friend David Ferrer. If it's possible, he endeared himself even more to his Australian fans when he soldiered on for two hours so his Davis Cup team-mate would have the satisfaction of beating him on the court and not because of injury retirement. Ferrer now goes on to play Scot Andy Murray in Friday's semi-finals. Ferrer said "It's not easy because Rafael is a gentleman and he was playing with an injury."

Nadal said after the game he didn't know the exact nature of the problem "I can't tell you exactly because I don't know" he said. "I didn't feel the best, I had a problem at the very beginning and after that, the match was nearly over." He hated last year's memory of withdrawing against Andy Murray at the same stage of the Australian Open 2010. "I hate retirements, I didn't want to repeat that" he said.

The Spanish superstar arrived with a virus he picked up in Doha on the way to Australia.

Australia Day should be called Invasion Day

1906

Aboriginal people believe that Australia Day should be called Invasion Day and the facts are hard to ignore. Jay McDonald is an activist with the Tasmania Aboriginal Centre in Launceston, and wrote this article about Australia Day which appeared in greenleft.org.


Australia Day is traditionally the most racist day of the year for Aboriginal people. When people celebrate on 26th January, there is no escaping the fact they are celebrating the day that one race of people invaded another race of people's country and took control of Aboriginal lands and tried to dominate Aboriginal people. Invasion Day, as it should be called, celebrates the dispossession of land, culture and way of life of Aborigines.

Aborigines and members of the wider community should not allow this to continue. Otherwise we are saying that it was okay to try to destroy the Aboriginal way of life, to murder Aborigines and to attempt cultural genocide. True reconciliation cannot be achieved and a just society cannot be built if we continue to celebrate the gains of one race at the expense of another.

Invasion Day is a day to remember the wrongs that were commited against Aborigines, a day to remember the injustices forced upon one race of human being by another. This is no day for celebrating, it's a day for mouring, a time to reflect, and a time to steel ourselves for the ongoing battle for a better society.

http://greenleft.org.au/node/46475

Australia Day 2011

Tan Le is one of Australia's most successful business women and she was also a refugee. She says she hates blond haired, blue eyed yobbos prancing around in the Australian flag intimidating people who don't look like them on Australia Day. She was insulted in Chinatown last week by an Australian bigot and regrets her missed opportunity to give him a piece of her mind before he walked away.


"I wish I'd told this ignorant bastard that he was an arrogant so-and-so and that if the truth were known, we are all migrants to this country. I wish I'd said that he should be grateful that by the grace of God, he was born in this country and not in Iran or Afghanistan or wherever - but I didn't and I will always carry the shame of a lost opportunity."

So are we a racist country? Yes of course we are and I think it could be something to do with jealousy. Thanks to the White Australia Policy, we don't want to share our country with anyone but our own. It's pretty selfish really and it's about time we got over it. But our children are going to save us. Little kids don't understand or care about colour or race, they just hook up with other kids in the playground that they like. And hopefully these friendships will endure over lifetimes and the racist problem will be fixed forever - it will just take a while. By then, the worst bigots, the older folk, will be dead and buried along with their racist beliefs. Too simple? Maybe, but on the eve of Australia Day, I wonder how different ethnic groups feel about this important day - they could be as proud to be Australian as we are.

Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith

The Victoria Cross for Australia is the highest award in the Australian Honours System. It was created in 1991 and has precedence over all orders, decorations and medals. The first medal was awarded on 16th January 2009 to Trooper Mark Donaldson and yesterday 32 year old SAS Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith was the second Australian to receive this honour.


It was awarded for "conspicuous gallantry in action in circumstances of extreme peril" and together with the Medal for Gallantry he won in 2006, the VC makes him the most decorated member of the Australian Defence Force. With his family - his mother and his father who was a former major-general watching, Corporal Roberts-Smith stood proudly before Govenor General Quentin Bryce at SAS Headquarters in Perth yesterday.

He was an impsosing figure, 6ft 6in tall. He sat next to his wife Emma - they have twin 9 months old girls. The VIP crowd which included other surviving VC winners Keith Payne and Corporal Keith Donaldson, applauded Australia's 98th Victoria Cross Holder.

On the 11th June 2010 in the village of Tizak in Kandahar Province, two soldiers were wounded as their unit was pinned down by heavy Taliban machine gun fire. Corporal Roberts-Smith said "I just looked across and saw my mates getting ripped up. I decided to move forward because I wasn't going to sit there and do nothing - I thought I'd have a crack."

Former SAS sniper and author Rob Maylor served with Roberts-Smith for over a decade and said he was always destined for big things. "He's always had it in him, it really didn't come as a surprise. He's one of the best, very professional, down to earth, very good at his job and a good thinker. The further he goes through the ranks, he's going to become a great leader. He's a very humble bloke. Obviously it will change his life but it won't change his personality and character."

Corporal Roberts-Smith said a number of his colleagues would be recognised at a later date for their bravery that day. "It's like being a football team - you go as hard as you can until the game is won."

In this case the score was 60 dead Taliban.

Tony Blair wants war with Iran

It's easy to be clever in hindsight but was the war in Iraq illegal? The answer is yes. Tony Blair admitted he disregarded warnings that invading Iraq would be illegal and made it clear his over-riding priority was to maintain a close relationship with President Bush -he told the President "You can count on us in helping to get rid of Saddam Hussein". At the Chilcot enquiry he said he very much regretted the lives lost in the war and a relative of a dead soldier yelled out "Too late!"

He's now turned his attention to Iran and says they are a real threat to world peace and thinks the West should end its "wretched posture of apology" towards Iran. "They disagree fundamentally with our way of life and they will carry on doing it unless they are met with requisite determination and if necessary, force". He's probably right but does this mean we must enter yet another war? How many Afghans, Iraqis, US and allied soldiers have died already because Bush and Blair refused to wait for the okay from the UN and rushed headldong into the invasion of Iraq?

They are calling Tony Blair a war monger so I'm wondering if maybe he's in the wrong job. His job is an important one - he's the Special Envoy of the international diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East. The four members include the US, UN, European Union and Russia and they are supposed to be mediating a peace process. But with Blair's gung-ho attitude to starting wars, I hope the other countries in the Quartet won't be so eager to agree to inflict more pain and suffering on the innocents of the Arab world.

Global Warming

As a lay person, I find Global Warming and Climate Change difficult to understand as there seems to be good arguments from both sides. When Kevin Rudd and the rest of the world went to Copenhagen to discuss global warming, it soon became clear that the big polluters like India, China and the US weren't really serious about taking drastic action to fix the problem. Then when some scientists were found to be liars, Global Warming seemed to lose credibility.

But the planet IS warming - 2010 was the warmest year ever recorded. Greenland's icesheet is a major driver of rising sea levels and today we learn that it shed a record amount of melted snow and ice last year. The 2010 runoff was more than twice the average annual melt in Greenland over the previous three decades. If their icesheet were to melt entirely, it would raise ocean levels by approximately 7 metres, drowning coastal cities around the world. By century's end, Greenland could contribute as much as 50 cm to average worldwide sea levels.

It makes you think.

Isabelle Caro Dies of Anorexia

French model Isabelle Caro was another tragic victim of Anorexia. She begged her mother not to take her to the hospital but thinking she was doing the right thing, she took her anyway. She died 2 weeks later on 17th November last year. This month her mother took her own life because she felt "enormous guilt" - she blamed herself for her daughter's death.

Isabelle became famous for a 2007 anti-anorexia campaign where she was photographed in the nude. She weighed just 32 kilos. The photographs were banned by Italy's advertising watchdog and the French refused to use them.

Caro had been diagnosed with an eating disorder when she was 13. In 2006 she collapsed and fell into a coma and her weight fell to 25 kilos but she put on 17 kilos last year. She said she wanted to do the photos to show the dangers of being too thin.

"I thought this could be a chance to use my suffering to get the message across and the danger it leads to - which is death" she said. See how gaunt she looks in this video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHlgGftVGY

Federer and Simon at Australian Open

The nasty people are saying that Federer may be losing his grip. The world No 2 almost didn't make it through the second round yesterday with Frenchman Gilles Simon but he's still one of the most entertaining players in the world to watch.

Federer said "I was not playing poorly to lose the third and fourth sets but Gillies really took it to me..... I got lucky today, but I am happy I won and still in the tournament." I bet he was. They had only played together twice before last night and Simon won both games. He's also beaten Nadal.

Federer dominated the first two sets but Simon recovered and really started to worry the defending champion. He broke Federer's first service game and followed it up with two more. The tournament is looking good, as it always does - great holiday entertainment.

Lleyton Hewitt's Lost Dream of the Australian Open

Lleyton Hewitt was gutted after his loss to Argentine David Nalbandian last night. He looked very promising at one point when he took the lead but it ended in tears after an exciting five-set match that lasted four hours and 48 minutes. "I'll sit back and look at it but right at this moment, it's disappointing Hewitt said. "To come so close and fight for so long and not quite get the win is frustrating."

Just once in 15 appearances at Melbourne Park has Hewitt gone beyond the fourth round at his home Grand Slam. As he approaches his 30th birthday, will he ever be able to achieve his dream of winning the Australia Open? He is now ranked outside the world's top 50.

WikiLeaks and the Swiss Banker

There will be some people in high places all over the world very worried at the moment. Rudolf Elmer, a former director of Bank Julius Baer in the Cayman Islands is due in court tomorrow in Zurich to answer charges of bank secrecy regarding information he gave to WikiLeaks in 2007. He said he wanted the world to know the truth about money concealed in offshore accounts to avoid tax.

So why did he blow the whistle? He says it's damaging our society but I suspect there's another reason, one that we will probably never know.

The information includes around 40 politicians, celebrities, multinational companies and banks from the US, Europe and Asia. "The money is hiding in off-shore secret banking jurisdictions". He also said he offered the information to former German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck for free but received no response. Assange said everything on the disks would be verified before publication.

I'm surprised that Mr Assange and Mr Elmer are still breathing.

Brisbane Flood Victims

It's a sad sight, a young mother struggling on her own without a partner to help. Natasha Ireland is a single mother of five children, the youngest just eight days old. She's been living in an indoor sports centre in Ipswich with other people who have lost their homes. She walked out of her North Booval home last Tuesday with only her children and the clothes on their backs.

It's hot in the indoor cricket pitch and the fans hardly stir the air. Natasha 25, is surrounded by donated toys and children's clothing - it's all she has in the world. She hopes to move into her brother's home for a while but it's hard finding a space for a family of six. Her home went completely under, as did most of the houses in David Street and is now abandoned and considered unsalvageable.

It's hard to see Australians so vulnerable like this, it shouldn't be happening in the lucky country, should it?

Queensland Flood Volunteers Clean Up

Volunteers lined up today in their thousands to help clean up after the floods. Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said there were 22,000 people raring to go and get stuck in. They brought their own shovels, buckets, hoses and lots of enthusiasm. At the four Brisbane centres this morning the volunteers had to wait in line to register first before being taken by bus to the worst affected areas.


Meanwhile, the number of people missing has gone down to 28 and the death toll stands at 16. The missing are all from the Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley area. The state coronor has warned that bodies of some victims may never be found.


Authorities are continuing to release around 301,000 mega-litres every day from the swollen Wivenhoe Dam which is at 163 per cent capacity. They need to empty as much as they can before more unstable weather arrives next week.

A Christian pastor has blamed Kevin Rudd for the Queensland floods. Daniel Nalliah from Catch the Fire Ministries says it's all his fault. Why? Because in December Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd visited Israel and asked the Jewish state to allow international inspectors into its nuclear facilities and also asked them to stop construction of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Pastor said that every time America went against Israel, there was "disaster in the land." He added "It's very interesting that Kevin Rudd comes from Queensland. Is God trying to get our attention? I believe so."

Mr Rudd worked tirelessly for days for the people flooded in his electorate of Griffith. Wading through dirty water up to his knees, he and many others were injured by debris washed into the city. A small cut to his foot later became infected and he had to go to Brisbane's Mater Hospital for treatment. He was later discharged.

Toowoomba Floods Heroes

In Toowooma last Monday at 2pm, 13 year old Jordan Rice, his 10 year old brother Blake and his mother were in their car in shallow water when the engine suddenly stopped. Donna rang 000 and was told to stay put but as the water began rising so incredibly fast, they had to climb onto the roof.

A semi-trailer driver quickly tied some rope around himself and jumped in. Although Jordan couldn't swim, he insisted that the good Samaritan take his younger brother first. As the truckie was on the way back to get Jordan and his mother, who were now clinging desperately to a tree, the rope broke. At that moment, Jordan was swept off and Donna let go to make a grab for him. They were both washed away.

The truck driver, who was described as "scrawny" disappeared and no one knows who he is. Which reminds me of what Mark Twain said "It's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog."

Queensland Floods Aftermath

It didn't take long for the vultures to gather over the heads of the people who have lost everything and don't have flood insurance. "If people do not purchase flood insurance, they will not be covered" said an Australian Insurance Council (IAC) spokesman yesterday. It is estimated that half of all insured Queensland homes are not covered for flood damage. Why? Because it's too expensive. Only 50 per cent of insurance policies in Queensland provided flood cover.





An ICA spokesman said "People should asses their needs and get proper insurance coverage for their homes and not be guided by price." All very well for him to say, but the extra amount involved for flood insurance is more than some people can afford, or are prepared to pay. Now they are regretting that decision.


There are three types of flood insurance coverage: flash flooding, storm damage and river flooding. RACQ provides flood and river flooding as an optional extra and some companies were not prepared to offer flood protection in areas that have been flooded before. But there is one company who does - Suncorp - the biggest insurer in Queensland and the only one to automatically protect against flooding for home and contents insurance. They have received 5,000 claims so far and are expecting thousands more.


For those who don't have any insurance, Premier Anna Bligh's flood relief appeal which raised $35.8 million is there to help those most in need. And with half of all insured homes in Queensland not covered for flood damage, I believe the need will be great.

This is the second time Queensland has been devastated by floods so why hasn't the government done something about it? It all comes back to money - they don't like spending it on such a big project like putting more dams in, not only to conserve water in the drought but to stop flooding like this in the future. It's a crying shame to see all this water wasted and running out to sea. The lack of vision from both federal and state governments about what to do with our water is a national disgrace.

Child Soldiers Running Australia

Bronwyn Bishop said the mass exodus from the Labor Party since Kevin Rudd's demise means that "child soldiers" were running critical positions in Julia Gillard's government. And the gossip around Parliament House is that she is going to be rolled. We have paid out $7 million in termination payouts for 146 government staff who have resigned or terminated since June 2010. So why is it so? Disillusionment with the government and burnout have been cited as the reasons but of course we have no idea what's going on. And let's face it, there have been numerous times over the past few months when Julia Gillard has been seen to compromise with the Independents in order to hang on to power by her fingernails, and it's not a good look - utter humiliation.

Liberal MP Jamie Briggs said "It explains why the government has handled so many issues in such an incompetent fashion and raises questions over its stability". But where is Tony Abbott? Surely Julia Gillard's performance has been so incredibly bad that Tony could have gone for the jugular on several occasions. Just take the issue of asylum seekers, with more boats arriving every day, the situation is dire to say the least with no solution in sight. He had the reputation of being a 'hatchet man', so what happened? I hope he's out of the country because if he's been here all the time and played dumb, the country needs a new Opposition leader.

Canberra is a fabulous city, a bit cold in winter, but it has the best of everything - schools, hospitals, the arts, and only a couple of hours from Sydney. If you are looking for a job, as at 1st October 2010, there were still 136 staffing positions available.

Architect Frank Gehry's New Sydney Building

We are getting a controversial new building in Sydney. Famous architect Frank Gehry has designed the strangest building I have ever seen for the University of Technology (UTS). Aussie ex pat Germaine Greer said in the Guardian today that "The Sydney Opera house may be one of the best known structures in the world, but it is also a worse building than anything Gehry would want to put his name to." Gee thanks for your patriotic support Germaine. She then goes on to denigrate Utzon and his famous design.

She points out that Utzon had the magnificent Bennelong Point as his site whereas Gehry will have to make do with a car park on the corner of Ultimo Road and Omnibus Lane - not exactly the nicest location in the city, but Gehry says "I like the problem." The Sydney press have already dubbed it the "brown bag" because that's exactly what it looks like - five brown paper bags with 15 windows, scrunched up, then unscrunched and stacked together. He calls his design "The Tree House" - why I have no idea.

As Professor Greer points out Gehry is building in Sydney because Australia is one of the few countries in the world not going through a recession. The estimated cost of the new building is $150 million but we all know that the end price of the build is always way over budget. But hey, we'll have another tourist attraction in Sydney.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/09/germaine-greer-frank-gehry-uts

Toowoomba Floods January 2011

Toowoomba's floods have been described as a tsunami - a wall of water out of nowhere and no one saw it coming. Eight people are confirmed dead and there are at least 70 still missing. There are so many people waiting on rooftops to be rescued, there are not enough helicopters to fill the need and the Army are now involved.


The video shows the terror of being taken by surprise and how brave souls risk their lives to help. And it's still raining and there's more to come.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/10/3109884.htm

Gabrielle Giffords Shot

Sarah Palin and right wing inflammatory rhetoric are being blamed for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords which left 6 dead, including a federal judge and a nine year old child. And the hatred runs deep.


Giffords criticised Palin last year for putting herself and 19 other Democrats on a hit list, each person shown in crosshairs. Palin has distanced herself from the shooting and so have other members of the Tea Party movement.

Giffords is the first Jewish woman elected to congress from Arizona. The National Jewish Democratic Council said "It is fair to say in today's political climate - and given today's political rhetoric - that many have contributed to the building levels of vitriol in our political discourse that has surely contribued to the atmosphere in which this event transpired." Giffords's father was more direct. When asked if his daughter had any enemies, he said "Yeah, the whole Tea Party."


Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government - the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country, is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think, has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."


The new speaker of the house confirmed that controversial legislation scheduled for this week is to be postponed. It included the proposal to repeal Barack Obama's healthcare reform, the single issue that Gabrielle Giffords was most passionately associated with.

Bill Zeller - Victim of Sexual Abuse

Bill Zeller was a talented programmer and a victim of sexual abuse as a child. He recently took his own life and left an explanation as to why he did it. It's a long read but worthwhile. Paedophilia is such a cruel crime but for some reason, it doesn't seem to warrant a long jail sentence. When they are caught, they serve minimum time and are quickly released back into the community. Australian detectives recently uncovered a paedophile ring of married couples who were abusing their own children and sharing videos and pictures of the abuse on the internet. Parents in the UK, Europe and the US were arrested.

Here is a brief glimpse at Zeller's story.

My first memories as a child are of being raped, repeatedly. This has affected every aspect of my life. This darkness, which is the only way I can describe it, has followed me like a fog but at times intensified and overwhelmed me, usually triggered by a distant situation. In kindergarten I couldn't go to the bathroom and would stand petrified whenever I needed to, which started a trend of awkward and unexplained social behaviour. The damage that was done to my body still prevents me from using the bathroom normally but now it's less of a physical impediment than a daily reminder of what was done to me.

Alcohol and other drugs provided a way to ignore the realities of my situation. It was easy to spend the night drinking and forget that I had no future to look forward to. I never liked what alcohol did to me but it was better than facing my existence honestly. I haven't touched alcohol or any other drug in over seven months (and no drugs or alcohol will be involved when I do this) and this has forced me to evaluate my life in an honest and clear way. There's no future here. The darkness will always be with me.

I'm just a broken, miserable shell of a human being. Being molested has defined me as a person and shaped me as a human being and it has made me the monster I am and there's nothing I can do to escape it. I shall never go to sleep with someone in my arms, feeling the comfort of their hands around me. I will never know what uncontaminated intimacy is like. I will never have an exclusive bond with someone, someone who can be the recipient of all the love I have to give. I will never have children and I wanted to be a father so badly. I think I would have made a good dad. There's no point in identifying who molested me. I doubt the word of a dead guy with no evidence about something that happened over twenty years ago would have much sway.

People say suicide is selfish. I think it's selfish to ask people to continue living painful and miserable lives just so you possibly won't feel sad for a week or two. Suicide may be a permanent solution to a temporary problem but it's also a permanent solution to a 23 year old problem that grows more intense and overwhelming every day.

http://gizmodo.com/5726667/the-agonizing-last-words-of-bill-zeller?skyline=true&s=i

Footnote: A memorial service will be held for Princeton graduate William "Bill" Zeller who died on the 5th January 2011 at a local hospital as a result of injuries sustained in a suicide attempt at his home near campus. He was 27.

IVF couple abort twin boys so they can have a girl

An Australian couple who successfully conceived twin boys on the IVF program, had them aborted because they wanted a girl. They already have three sons and now want a girl after their baby daughter died. This is the kind of case that give pro-life crusaders real ammunition against abortion because it's so morally and ethically wrong.

An independent panel rejected the couple's bid to choose the gender of their child using IVF and they now want that decision overturned. A tribunal will review the case in March and if their request is denied, they will go to America . The woman in her thirties said she loved her sons but would do anything to have a daughter. "After what we have been through, we think we are due for a bit of luck" the man said.

Australian IVF pioneer Professor Gab Kovacs said he could not understand why the couple should be banned from having a girl. "I can't understand how it could possibly hurt anyone" he said. "Why should we make this illegal - who is this going to harm if this couple have their desire fulfilled?"

To the hundreds of desperate women on the IVF program longing for the conception of a child, no matter what sex, this story must turn their stomach. To think that a couple, who have already experienced the death of a baby, could so callously end the life of their two healthy unborn boys is an absolute disgrace.

Facebook Friends

What does having friends on Facebook really mean? Apparently not a whole lot. Depressed charity worker Simone Back 42, said goodbye to her friends on line and told them she was going to kill herself and not one of her 1,082 friends cared enough to stop her. On Christmas Day she wrote "I took all my pills, will be dead soon, so bye bye everyone". One user said she was a liar who "overdoses all the time" and another said "It's her choice". Not much compassion there.

Miss Back's friend Samantha Owen said "Everyone just carried on arguing with eachother like it wasn't happening - some of those people lived within walking distance of Simone - if just one person had left their computer and went to her house, her life could have been saved."

Her distraught mother had no idea what had happened and received a text message which said "Get help, I am disabled and can't get up the stairs to Simone's flat so I called the police straight away."

A statement from Facebook said they were "deeply saddened" to hear of her death. Simone's mother posted one last message on her daughter's Facebook page "My daughter Simone passed away today so please leave her alone now".

Halal-Friendly KFC Does Not Sell Bacon

A Muslim employee at a halal-friendly KFC in the Sydney suburb of Punchbowl lost his temper when a customer asked for bacon on his burger. The restaurant is in a suburb with a high Muslim population and no bacon or pork are sold in accordance with Islamic laws. The customer was upset when his request for bacon was denied and one of the employees started shouting "We dont sell f**ing bacon" and "Don't you f**king record me bitch" as he was led away by other employees. The incident happened just before Christmas and he has since been suspended.
Watch the video here:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/ill_just_have_the_extra_crispy_then/

Speed Cameras

A driver in the UK has been convicted of a criminal offence because he flashed his headlights at oncoming cars to warn them of a police trap up ahead. How pathetic, I do it all the time and I'm sure you do too. But the police officer wasn't having it, he said he had 'perverted to course of justice' and he had to go to court. He ended up paying a 175 pound fine, 25 pound costs, plus 15 pound victims surcharge (whatever that is).

Michael Thompson 64, admitted challenging the police officer who would have probably let him off with a warning. The offence of obstructing a police officer carries a maximum sentense of 1,000 pounds and/or 1 month imprisonment. The bottom line here I think is don't be cheeky and keep your mouth shut.

Muslim Teenager Caught Between Two Cultures

A fourteen year old Muslim girl is stuck between two cultures - she longs to be a typical Aussie teenager but it looks unlikely she will ever become one. When her father discovered her boyfriend in their house in the early hours of New Year's Day, all hell broke loose. Police were called when a man threatened to kill himself and his daughter. When police arrived they refused to arrest the boy because he had been invited into the home by his daughter and that's when the father became enraged. He said if it had happened in Afghanistan, the boy would be automatically killed and if police wouldn't arrest the boy, his only option was to kill his daughter and himself. The family emigrated in 1998.

In October the teenager ran away from home and her father threatened to kill himself if she did not return by sundown. When she did not return, he tried to hang himself but was stopped by his wife and son. Police said "The daughter says she fears her father will kill her and if he doesn't, she will be locked in the house unable to leave, unless he kills himself."


Police took out an AVO against the father on behalf of the girl. He was charged with stalking, intimidation with intent to cause fear or physical or mental harm. The father, who is obviously stressed and distraught, was a qualified surgeon in Afghanistan and is now employed as a taxi driver in Sydney. He was refused bail and will appear in Blacktown court on January 12.

Backpakers Invade Sydney Beaches

Backpackers are upsetting the locals at Sydney beaches again. Campervans and carloads of young people from around the world are setting up camp in their streets and carparks, having barbecues on the footpath and leaving toilet paper and garbage lying around. Clovelly is the latest suburb to be invaded and the locals and spitting chips.

One local said "I accept in peak times it takes a while to find a park but the backpackers are taking up spots for months on end and our carpark is not a camp site" he said. "A few days ago, two live chickens jumped out of a van".

Another local said "There's faeces at the front of the toilets and people defecate on the cliffs, it makes me sick. The toilets are closed at night so don't tell me they hold it in all night, especially if they are drinking - the snorkeling is amazing and we have blue gropers down here".

They also use the surf club to recharge their phones and laptops, have late night parties and leave lots of garbage strewn across the carpark. It's an offence to camp on council property without prior consent from the council but no one is taking any notice of the warning signs.

German backpackers Julian Bippus 19, Dominic Schaefer 20 and Simon Reich 19 have been squatting in Clovelly since last Thursday after hearing about the free parking and toilet faciliies through other backpackers. "We came here before New Year's Eve because hostels were too expensive, $80 for a bed. We've gone to Brisbane, through the outback, Byron Bay and Hervey Bay. In Byron we just parked on a street that wasn't near the beach. We asked the police if it was okay and they said it was, then the rangers told us to leave".

Randwick City Council declined to comment last night.

Rockhampton Floods 2011

New Year's Eve at the Fitzroy Hotel, Rockhampton

Mark Ford ferries his wife home

The fickle finger of fate is a strange thing. While some people's homes are under water, a ferry company lands on its feet. Rocky is now isolated. People headed out by plane in droves yesterday and the airport is now closed and the roads are cut. But a new route to Gladstone will be opened this morning.

Freedom Fast Cats, the Rosslyn Bay company which runs ferries to Great Keppel Island will operate a daily service to Gladstone for those who desperately need to get out. Owner Max Allen said he needs 20 paying passengers in each direction to make the service viable but if it becomes popular, he could transport up to 300 people from Rosslyn Bay Harbour to Gladstone each morning. I'm sure he could. The fare is $110 per adult each way and $66 per child.

There was once a time, many moons ago, when people would help each other out and it wouldn't cost you a cent. I guess those days are well and truly gone forever. Shame.

Usman Khawaja Gets His Chance

Usman Khawaja is Australia's first Muslim Test cricketer and will take the place of Ricky Ponting tomorrow who is out injured. Randwick/Petersham team manager Bill Anderson has seen him develop from a talented 15 year old into the country's brightest batting prospect. The 24 year old will make his Test debut this week against England in front of a big crowd in Sydney and everyone is hoping he will perform a miracle to help Australia save face for our dismal performance against the Poms.

Khawaja's coach at NSW Matthew Mott said "We've thought for a couple of years that Ussie was going to play for Australia - it wasn't a matter of if but when. He's in great form and although it comes through injury, he thoroughly deserves his spot".

NSW team-mate and Australian wicket-keeper Brad Haddin is also excited to see the Pakistan-born left hander in the Test dressing rooms, he's very popular with the players. His manager said "He's just a likable bloke to have around and he's always got a smile on his face - he'll fit in beautifully in that side". Please don't let him be out for a duck.