I saw a man who looked *exactly* like Vincent Van Gogh’s self-portraits on the 38 bus this morning. He was carrying a bicycle wheel.
Monthly Archives: April 2004
“Laws v Jones” could get interesting.
“I can assure you,” Laws told his listeners, “before this is over, it’s going to be more than truth that’s going to be outed.” (Age)
Nice photo of the temperature screen like the ones I encountered so many times in SARS-paranoid Hong Kong and China.
I spent far too long at the Bethnal Green sorting office this morning, standing in a queue that extended outside the building into the drizzle.
Stuff Wimbledon or Lords, standing in a not-moving queue in the drizzle while waiting for some over-worked and/or incompetent office worker to finish their tea break and begin to process the grey hordes is the quintessential English experience.
Another thing I meant to post a while ago:
1957: BBC fools the nation
“The BBC has received a mixed reaction to a spoof documentary broadcast this evening about spaghetti crops in Switzerland.”
…
“Mr Dimbleby explained how each year the end of March is a very anxious time for Spaghetti harvesters all over Europe as severe frost can impair the flavour of the spaghetti.” (BBC)
Something I meant to blog while I was away:
“”While other attitudes began to evolve elsewhere we held to many of them
very carefully. There is this paradoxical part of the American character
where we are simultaneously arguably the most obsessed about sex of
anybody else in the entire planet and at the same time the most uptight
about it.” (BBC)
I might be evil but I stop singing the words to ‘Come on Eileen’ to the tune of ‘Oh come all ye faithful’.
And I’ve been listening to snippets of Morrissey’s new album. Yum.
I just sent this to the Liberal Party via the contact address on their website.
“Dear Prime Minister,
according to the Australian Liberal Party’s website, you believe in “the
inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples” and in “a just and humane
society in which the importance of the family and the role of law and
justice is maintained”.
Could you please explain to me how these statements are compatible with
your reported proposal to prevent Australian courts recognising foreign
same-sex marriages, or with your reported proposal to re-define marriage
as between a man and woman?
I used to believe that Australia was the best country in the world, but
increasingly I find that the values of tolerance and a fair go for all are
being eroded by proposals such as this.
Yours sincerely”
PM to block gay unions: report
“Prime Minister John Howard will overhaul the marriage act to stop Australian courts recognising foreign gay unions.”
…
“Proposed amendments to the act could result in marriage being defined in legislation as between a man and a woman.
The move follows US President George W Bush’s move to ban same-sex marriages” (Age)
And the next day:
“Prime Minister John Howard denied he was targeting gay people when he signalled a ban on same sex marriages”
…
“Mr Howard says he wants to overhaul the Marriage Act to say that marriage could only be between a man and woman, and to stop courts recognising foreign gay unions, to defend traditional families.”
(Age)
How is that not targeting gay people?
And what is with the ‘defending traditional families’? I’ve never been able to work out how having more people in legally recognised relationships would harm traditional familes. Perhaps I should write to John Howard and ask him to ‘please explain’.
And, infuriatingly, “Labor is not likely to oppose Mr Howard’s amendments.
Opposition attorney-general spokeswoman Nicola Roxon has said Labor would consider closing off Australian recognition over overseas gay marriages.”
I’ve been drafting my letter to Opposition Leader Mark Latham. This is what I’m thinking of writing:
Dear Mr Latham,
According to The Age newspaper
(http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/27/1082831561732.html), Labor
is “not likely to oppose” the Prime Minister John Howard’s proposed
amendments to the marriage act to prevent courts recognising same-sex
marriages.
Can you explain to me how this fits with your supposed belief in
“opportunity for all”?
As Democrat Senator Greig said, “Denying same-sex couples the right to any formal legal legal recognition of their unions just imposes social, legal and financial discrimination on them”.
I’ve voted Labor all my life, but if your party does not take this
opportunity to support the possibility of gay marriage in Australia and
make a stand against Howard’s determination to treat gay Australians as
second-class citizens, I will never vote Labor again.
Yours sincerely”
I’m sick of feeling like my own country doesn’t want me, and that the values of tolerance and that cliched ‘fair go’ I grew up with and took overseas with me don’t exist in Australia anymore.
ALP’s feedback form, if you want to write to them too.