Body Snatcher 44

I voted HEMP...http://australianhempparty.com/ don't think they made it in though Also this is quite a list here...although I think most still have many good years left in them, remembering what could have been.

Actually you might not be far from the truth , with rising opposition to this war america might look to end it quick by targeting assad and the other top brass and those attacks may start this weekend.

That number is actually 16 people, who are verified.

If the right people want him dead he´ll die. When enough people with enough determination want him dead, they´ll find the right people. I think his release has reduced his chance of survival to 2014. regards, Hein A kind of fend for yourself policy, right?

As mentioned in another thread, for which I was politely reminded that I was "off-topic", territorial disputes are beginning to flare up again in the various parts of the world. Here is a potential hot-spot that might interest the UK members... http://www.theaustra...o-1226696188149 ...of course they probably already know about this.

I agree, but it is the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea - a separate dispute with the Japanese. http://www.tokyotimes.com/2013/u-s-senate-adopts-resolution-against-chinas-use-of-force-in-the-senkaku-islands-dispute/ Personally I think the Japanese should relinquish the islands to the Chinese, The Japanese don't really have any rightful claim to them anyway. I tend to agree with a mate of mine who said "Australia is like the bloke in the tough guy's (U.S.) gang who does business with the rich kid (China) as well."

maybe but whether she has a specific illness or is just old and frail she's bound to die in the next 2 or 3 years Or the next 100.

Been attending them have you? Also I have to question why you put "...great klan rally in the sky." as the motto for this thread??? I would assume that heaven, should such a thing exist, would not admit people consumed by hate and vitriol their whole lives and then allow them to exercise some bizarre notion of freedom of speech by hosting a great Klan rally. I think a more appropriate motto would be something like "the great klan rally in hell."

Same here. The nasty extra is that we pay for US protection against unknown enemies. That's protection as in protection racket, mind. regards, Hein It is getting worse here: http://www.abc.net.a...-report/4856112 This is all part of the American Empire's strategy to "contain" China. We are suddenly of strategic importance as a giant air base for the Yanks. Nevermind that China is one of our biggest trading partners and this will just antagonise them or that, in the unthinkable event of an actual conflict between the USA and China, we would become part of the warzone. Could it be the USA, in its current state, remembering with nostalgia the good ol' days of being a political, military and economic powerhouse, is looking to recapture those days with another potential cold war scenario - this time against China...maybe Australia can lease the land next door to the base out to the Chinese so they build one as well, for the sake of fairness of course.

She might still meet with some sort of accident ..... She could always get shot or taken by a shark.

Here's one that almost slipped us by. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/17938862/tributes-for-hutt-river-matriarch/ Prince Leonard might not be too far off now either.

Mandela - but ready for the Fats Domino hit to come out of no-where.

I can't speak for all the English (as apparently you can), and even if they do admire these "robbers", as you call them, I'm sure they don't admire primitive, outdated forms of medieval capital punishment, as apparently you do...

Kalashnikov - 2 hours before Mandela.

You got me on a sober day.

Ultimately the distractions fooled no-one. I would just like to clarify, I'm not really a monarchist - although I do have a healthy appreciation for the history behind centuries old institutions and I would like to be knighted someday I don't have an opinion on them either way (unless of course one of them dies). I consider myself to be more of a constitutionalist when it comes to this matter anyway. I too fear an Americanisation of Australian political system; although I do enjoy the company of Americans and consider the ones I know to be good friends and people of substance. In political terms I believe the US is starting to wane - partially due to the fact that Obama, who won two landslides, has had an uphill battle with every single thing he tries to do. Ultimately we can discuss this until the cows come home (as dear old dad used to say) and as Davey rightly says it seems more useful as a political trump card to distract rather than enact upon. Personally I don't trust them enough to allow them to change the rules so significantly when they can't even produce a cohesive budget surplus or are too afraid to legalise same-sex marriage.

is this enough of a UK obit for Hazel Hawke? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/25/hazel-hawkes-memorial-video

Yes, they blew that out of proportion. I hadn't come across that shock jock before but he was trying too hard to be funny and it fell flat. His biggest problem was that he then kept on going with it but the whole thing was coming after Gillard's "misogyny" speech and the restaurant menu that conveniently surfaced the following day. Good on you! Yes, I think Australian society has changed a lot in the last few decades. At the risk of sounding like an old man, Generation Y represents this over-privileged culture. I know of similar examples but I won't cite them now. Interesting. I didn't know you were a teacher. When I was talking about one party's ideology dominating the curriculum in Canberra was in control of all schooling, I was thinking about a few specific cases besides the black armband debates: one was when Julie Bishop was education minister and she wanted everyone to follow Harold Bloom's theories. Another is the bloody frightening, nationalistic emphasis that has been placed on Anzac Day since Howard first came to power. Some people feel that the Libs use Anzac Day as a kind of Australian nationalistic origins myth in the same way that the ALP use Eureka and the Shearers' Strikes. On a more personal note, I really enjoyed history at school but I find it disgusts me now to learn about the constant cycle of wars. We should be progressing as a society but we aren't. I am more sceptical about moral relativism. My views on the subject are still evolving and maturing though. Yes Fox News is poison. Thank goodness we still have cross-media ownership laws here which is probably the one good thing about the media landscape in this country. Having said that about the populist media, Universities are just as bad. Commerce/business departments are awash with Harvard-trained hardcore capitalists and the Humanities world at certain unis still have a lot of old Marxist cultural theorists. I think as life progresses, most of us grow to discern the bullshit from the things of value though. I'd very much like to see a few changes to our universities: one thing would be a lot more accountability to give students more rights via an independent body that can handle complaints. (At the moment, the only options are to complain to the head of school and they will almost always side with their lecturer or to the student union, which is useless.) Julia was actually flagging an independent body like this three or four years ago but I haven't heard anything more of it. Secondly, I would like to see uni positions be for fixed terms only, after which a lecturer must leave the job and return to work in the real world for a while. That would stop them becoming so bloody insular and means they would have to check their pet theories against what is happening out there in the actual workforce. Yes, it would mean they would have to leave research projects half way through if they weren't finished and another team would have to take over but it would be worth it to overcome a lot of the problems and politics and corruption I have seen in Australian tertiary education. /end rant 2. This is very interesting. Particularly the focus on the USA as the biggest influence. Where does this leave the Republican tendancy in Australia after the whole referendum is being part of the commonwealth now staus quo. Would the introduction of a presidential figure make things better or worse for the electorate? I'm against the republican idea, Its one of the few things I'm actually I'm actually conservative about - I simply don't trust the pollies enough to change anything, I'd image it would be like letting prisoners change the legal system. P.S. Jeffrey Smart has died..any chance of a uk obit?

Davey you have outdone yourself with the social commentary, explained it well - I would like to echo your points and I have the odd one of my own. I view part of my job is to remain politically neutral. I strive to look at things more in societal terms than in political ones. Australia is a very indecisive place; a lot of the time not knowing what decision to make (which is why we probably won't become a republic or legalize same sex marriage), before packing the whole thing in and heading down the pub for the afternoon. As I'm sure most of our international mates on this site can relate to this in some way. Every little thing is made into a big deal..,case and point; recently our PM appeared on a Perth radio show, hosted by a KNOWN shock jock. He asked an inappropriate question (big surprise there) and boom; instant soundbites and a victimized PM can garner some sympathy. This is a dangerous path to go down for two reasons 1, it takes attention away from the REAL issues that need addressing and 2, it impacts heavily upon the attitudes of children, Last week whilst on yard duty a group of year 8 girls came over to me and complained that the boys on the oval and kicked a ball into them, hitting one on the elbow, there wasn't even a scratch. I asked them what they were doing over there and they replied they were just sitting and talking. When I suggested that it was probably a bad idea to sit so near, that the boys were completely within their rights to play their game on the oval and that they have an entire yard with infinity other places to sit. The attitude of the girls changed from playing victim to being aggressor as it wasn't the response they were looking for. They stormed off in a huff. i thought WOW, if that isn't a reflection of modern Australian society; where everyone wants to be precious and demand justice for the most trivial thing at the expense of common sense. This is by no-means the only example of this kind of thing happening - and I do appreciate the karma of the bully getting bullied and then crying foul because of it (a la Alan Jones). As far as notions of "black and white armbands of history" is concerned I encourage students to observe and consider every aspect of an issue in order to reach an informed and rational conclusion about it. To accept other peoples ideas (no matter how stupid) in a calm, respectful and civilized manner and debate the issue based upon firm evidence, not ideology. For the most part this takes a while to instill this in their thought processes. I usually confuse each class with the question "If all your friends jumped off a bridge at the same time, would you?" answer "Yes" "Why is the answer Yes?" I give them a few moments to think about it - they rarely come up with the answer. "Because my friends are mostly rational people, so there must be a valid reason to jump off the bridge - I don't want to hang around on the bridge to see whats going to happen." or something similar. I have found that when you study and/or teach history certain truths come to the fore; wars and atrocities are inevitable, evil exists and hugs the limelight, good exists but is usually dormant until something drastic happens, often these two entities are blurred and nobody has an idea of whats good and whats evil anyway, as a society becomes more sophisticated people become less self-sufficient and more co-dependent, Ideas and innovations are usually poo-pooed unless money can be made, even the village idiot can be right sometimes, ideology often masks itself as rationality (FOX NEWS) and that people need to harden the F**k up. One final point in relation to this, I was at a personal development meeting of school teachers and a union rep was telling stories about when the union had to get involved with "incidents" that have happened on school campuses over the years. - one story was when an English teacher filled in for a PE class and didn't know what to do, after learning that the class were learning javelin, he took the class onto the oval and divided it into two teams, placing a team at each end of the oval they began throwing javelins at the opposition, this was in full view of parents who had arrived early to pick up their children. everyone in the lecture theater gasped in horror - I burst out laughing, the looks i received from my colleagues were as if I'd been the one to do that...lighten up people nobody died...

Maybe if you posted something of substance there would be no need to take it down...

Mate...a word of advice, guests on this forum are generally viewed with contempt...mostly they bring it upon themselves through trolling etc. If you want some cred - you should register and not post as a guest. P.S. teaching is alright, but there are times when you wish the Hunger Games were real.

Not many people voted for Mandela I did though

Wow...and I thought teaching was a racket.

I think you mean ​stall-gates.

Too much to hope that he's wading tinto a giant vat of cyanide I suppose... anyway,those reports that his kidneys and liver are failing is grim news for him. I think we are beyond the point of no return for someone his age... I'd opt for an active volcano...