The People's Guide to the "Anti-War" Protesters

This is great! One of my favorite bloggers has come up with a brilliant guide to anti-war protesters.

You don't have to go home. But you can't stay here

One the popular things to do in Perth is to attend the Sunday Sessions in Cottesloe. There are two pubs facing the ocean in Cottesloe. They are The Cottesloe Hotel, better known as "The Cott". And there is the Ocean Beach Hotel, better known as "The OBH", or "The Oh-bee". The Cott is more famous, especially amoung backpackers.

Starting around 3pm on Sunday, everyone seems to work their way down to one of these two hotels for some serious beer drinking. They get absolutely jammed packed by sundown, with a long line of people waiting to get in. Inside is it hot and noisy, and there is no room to move. It is almost impossible to get near a bar to order a drink. And if you do get to the bar, it is impossible to get a bartender to pay attention to you. The crowds consist of mostly young drinkers under 30. The Cott gets the real young crowd, what we would consider a college crowd in the US. The OBH gets an older crowd, but sometimes more wild.

Both pubs close at 10pm on Sunday. Suddenly at 10pm on Sunday nights there are 2000 very drunk people pushed out into the street as the bars close their doors for the night.

My new home is one block from the OBH. It is very quiet. But I have noticed that between 10pm and midnight on Sundays it gets very noisy. All these drunk kids scatter all over the neighborhood looking for rides, their cars, taxis, or God knows what. So I've taken to sitting out on my upstairs patio with a cold beer and watch the drunk loonies go by. It is very entertaining, sort of like a mini Mardi Gras every week for two hours. Guys (and girls), get into very loud discussions or arguments as they stumble down the street. The drunk girls come by and flash anyone who asks, then fall over laughing so hard. I've lost count of how many had forgotten they don't have panties on (or they lost them sometime during the evening).

Who needs TV?

Bali Bombing - why?

In response to the suicide bombings in Bali this weekend, I read and heard the usual knee-jerk reactions of blaming it on Australia backing of the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. However, I read an excellent letter to the editor in today's "The Australian" newspaper which offers an alternate reason to consider. The writer brought up, what I think is, an interesting point about the motives behind this violence, which makes a lot of sense.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Islamic nation. But unlike other Islamic nations in the Middle East, Indonesia (and Malaysia too), has a history and tradition of tolerance for other faiths. Within South East Asia, there are millions of Buddhist, Hindus, Christians, and other faiths. Parts of Indonesia are very strictly Islamic, particulars the largest and most populated islands of Sumatra and Java. The island of Bali is different. The Balinese are Hindu. That is one of the reasons why Bali is so different the rest of Indonesia.

But Indonesia has been afflicted with the same problem as The Balkins. Religious and ethnic fault lines are tearing apart the country. The eastern islands of Indonesia are taking the brunt of this conflict. For years there have been an escalating massacres between Muslim and Christian villages, where the people of one village attack and kill everyone in another village simply because of their faith.

What has happened over the last 10 years is that more and more Muslim Indonesians from the western and overpopulated part of the country, such as Java, have been relocated, into the eastern provinces where Islam is not the majority. They feel out of the element. They are then exploited by extremists trained in the Middle East to convert their frustration into a hatred of all who are not of their faith.

Indonesia has always had a hard-core Islamic faction that wants to impose a pan-Islamic rule over all of South East Asia. These people view the Hindu Balinies not as fellow citizens of Indonesia, but as infidels who are standing in the way of the Asian Islamic state.

These bombings are not a war on "the west". They are a war on Bali by fellow Indonesians who want Bali to become another Islamic island. The bombings are part of a camaign to destroy the economy of Bali by driving off the tourist. They want to force Bali to convert, and using terror and violence is an acceptable method to covert people to Islam, according to the new generation of militants being led by nuts from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Oprah claims Philly kids can't afford to go to school

Oprah Winfrey

Jon Bon Jovi

Man! I can't believe what I saw on TV this weekend. Here in Australia, Friday night I think it was, they broadcast an Oprah special that featured the lame ass rock musician Jon Bon Jovi who was shilling his new album.

Bon Jovi is from New Jersey, near Philadelphia, and takes great pride in emphasizing his working class roots. Since he wanted to show his connections to his town, the special was shot in Philadelphia.

On the show, a large group of school-age children were brought in. Bon Jovi then presented each kid with a set of new school clothes from The Gap, a backpack full of school supplies from Staples, and a laptop computer from someone, I forgot who. The kids were thrilled to death.

Now here is what killed me. Oprah stood up in front of the camera and explained to the viewing audience (Australia, in this case) that these kids came from families that were too poor to buy their kids the clothes they needed to go to school. She said, or at least I got the impression she said, that these kids could now attend school, thanks to the generosity of Jon Bon Jovi and his sponsors. She was acting like Mother Teresa in Calcultta.

My jaw hit the floor. I know that Philadelphia has a reputation as a rough-n-tumble city. But when did it fall into the third-world situation when children were not given free schooling? When did having money to buy uniforms become a pre-requisite for attending school in there? If the school requires uniforms, why do parents have to buy them from The Gap? Doesn't the school offer cheaper, subsidized, or even free uniforms for those who can afford the expensive option?

This program makes us in the US look no better than third world hell holes like Pakistan where school is considered a luxury for the children of the rich. What happened to the No Child Left Behind Act that was passed in 2001? Did it say it was OK for parents in Philidephia to not send their kids to school because they couldn't afford to get some Gap Khakis?

Thanks Oprah for broadcasting a blatent lie to the world.

He puts the "Fun" in Disfunctional!

Remember Rodney King? He was the the guy that was beaten by the LAPD officers which eventually led to the 1991 Los Angeles riots. He must have had some brain cells knocked out of him. On Thursday he was arrested for making domestic death threats. His 23 year old daugher, his live-in girlfriend, 29, and his former girlfriend and mother of his daughter, were involved in a fight.

OK... what I can't figure out. Why on earth would be allow his ex-girlfriend to live with him when he has a new girlfriend who lives with him? And to make matters worse, he has a 23 year old daughter still living at home. The whole thing sounds really messed up to me. Why would his new GF put up with such a living situation? Why would his ex-wife put up with it?

Perhaps between the 4 of them there might be enough brain cells to figure out how to get out the door. Man. What a poster child for the disfunctional family of the year.

September 30, 2005

Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police led to the deadly Los Angeles riots in 1992, has been arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats following a fight involving his daughter, his girlfriend and a former girlfriend, Rialto police said Thursday.

King, 40, was arrested Wednesday. He is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Police were called to King's home shortly after 4:15 p.m. Authorities said King's live-in girlfriend, Dawn Jean, 29, got into a fight with daughter Candace King, 23, who also lives in the home.

The daughter allegedly assaulted Jean, and Carmen Simpson, Candace King's mother, who also lives at the home, got involved in the fight, police said.

King allegedly threatened to kill his daughter and Simpson. Authorities said the daughter, who called police, said King was armed with a handgun, but it turned out to be a toy.

King's videotaped beating after he was stopped for speeding shocked the nation when it was shown repeatedly on television newscasts.

After the four white Los Angeles Police Department officers charged in the beating were acquitted of most charges, Los Angeles erupted in riots that left 55 people dead and caused $1 billion in property damage.

He uttered his now famous heartfelt plea, "Can we all get along?," during the height of the riots.

King sued the city over the beating, settling for $3.8 million.

Since the beating, he has had a string of run-ins with the law.

He walks with a limp since a 2003 accident in which he lost control of his car, crashed into a house at 100 mph and shattered his pelvis.