This News is No News...

While this is no surprise, it will hopefully make it harder for the US to continue its illegal activities in Guantanamo Bay.

That the US State Department continues to deny repeated allegations is infuriating and immoral. It is widely accepted that torture and beatings are SOP in dealing with terrorism suspects and captured insurgents, and that this behaviour violates numerous international treaties and conventions.

I suspect that the neo-cons are fully aware that the means do NOT justify the ends, but that such cruel and inhumane behaviour will ensure they have an enemy to fight for many financial years to come.

Send them all hunting with Cheney I say...

Once were Wahine...

Poor old Lee Tamahori. Busted doing what he loves, and getting caned in the press for it.

This is a wake-up for us all to remember that sex is a drug (or at least, an act that releases drugs in our brain which we enjoy and can become addicted to) and that once you resort to street crack, things are likely to end in tears.

For those who find Tamahori's fashion sense deplorable, AB suggests this.

A timely reminder to keep our freak flags furled in public.

Cough up, you bastards!

There will be those who have no sympathy for Janice Pou, in her posthumous case against the tobacco industry. Her children, as executors of her estate, are continuing the civil suit begun by Mrs Pou in 2002 with the case finally coming to trial this week.

Insurance agencies and non-smokers in particular will no doubt decry the Pou's attempt to claim over $300,000 in damages for what is essentially a self-inflicted death. But this seems to be a shaping as an interesting case, with addiction specialists and social historians set to argue on Mrs Pou's behalf.

And while there are few smokers left alive out there who can claim initial ignorance to the dangers of their habit, who isn't utterly sick of the tobacco industry attempting to brush off accusations of their very well documented culpability?

Here's hoping justice is not blinded by corporate tobacco obfuscation (leaving us in a daze in a haze) but stands up for the prey in this one.

Infidels, liars and reaping what we sow....

The free speech vs religious profanity fracas has all sides waving their banners about....it's a dilemma for the West and it'll be interesting to see how far it goes. Will the NY Times or Washington Post join the 'coalition of the willing to print?' What about the Guardian or the Sydney Morning Herald? Is the clash of civilisations about to hit the mainstream?

There was a hint of optimism from some after Bush's speechifying about oil addiction. Finally, they whispered, he has turned the corner. They should consider this.

Obviously, all this evil in the world is not without it's ramifications. It's no surprise that the newest generation is getting feisty, they breathe the ideas and priorties we exhale.

Shame on us all. Now let's do the right thing and stop having kids.

Old Farts and Hot Air

So it unfolds.....the terminally bland Dr Brash has once again been to see the lucky people of Orewa. And again he has lamented the shameful incompetence of Clark, Cullen and co..... According to Don's speech, the PM is not only behaving like an "opossum in the headlights", but simultaneously heads a government that is "asleep behind the wheel". Clearly the PM still has plenty of unresolved car karma.

The good Dr was predictably lacking leadership panache and must be sharply attuned to the rattle of a Key in his back door.

In more political "news", George Dubya has revealed that the State of his Union is not good. The state is, in fact, a junkie.....And the state can no longer trust it's dealers. George has just one option. He has asked the country's brains-trust for a new drug they can grow at home. He's pinning his hopes on those good ol' boys at Technology Inc to get him out of this mess. Tragically it could be too little, too late.

Meanwhile here's an alternative George giving a State of the Union address that's not too different from the real thing, just funnier. Like if he had written it. And here's the Whitehouse's official version just to be fair.