There is a curse: May you live in interesting times. These times are a little too interesting for me, September 11, Iraq and now this.

For anyone who hasn’t already donated money for disaster relief, you bloody well should. I sound like an old man.

As usual the blogosphere is buzzing with seemingly irrelevant spin off topics to world events. Some economist has said that the tsunamis will be good for the economy and everyone seems to have something to say on this topic. I found an article that tackles this thorny issue on an economics blog. The article “Are Tsunamis Good for the Economy?” can be read here. (Warning: RWDB’s might crack the shits if they read this. This article was written before the death toll was revised to 125,000, consequently it mentions Iraq being worse than the tsunamis, which is clearly untrue.)

Anyway I hope everyone has a Merry New Years, we can celebrate for all the people who can?t.

This is not the Christmas present the blogosphere was waiting for. Melbourne Lefty is the first blog I can remember visiting. It was one of the reasons why I got into blogging. Someone my own age who lives just down the road from me has a website and it is called a blog. Sadly, Jeremy, otherwise known as Melbourne Lefty has been forced to give up his blog.

I would do a eulogy but I believe Mike Jericho said it best.*

Great. A shitty night gets worse.

Jeremy, I won’t say that it has been an honour to duel with you, because that is too much like a teary goodbye, and because I sincerely hope that you will stick around the ‘sphere to keep us on our toes.

Oh, and if you find out who it was that squealed on you to your boss, let me know.

I’ll step on his fucking neck.

The messages of support and farewell from both right and left can be read on what remains of Melbourne Lefty.

*Sourced from Melbourne Lefty’s comments. I know Mike won’t mind.

This morning I saw an ad for Cancer charity Camp Quality. Camp Quality provides the chance for young cancer suffers to get away from hospital and have a great time. This camp also gives families a needed break from the ordeals of looking after a family member with this terrible disease.

This sounds great I wish I could go. Wait a minute I did go! I have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), which isn?t cancer, but I was able to go to the first ever Camp Quality. You see, Camp Quality used to be for any child with a life threatening illness. I was one of 50 kids lucky enough to go on this first camp. It was fantastic; I had the best time of my life. I even got to meet Marty Monster and Daryl Cotton.

Soon after this camp I was told that I could never go to Camp Quality again (unless I got cancer real quick). This is quite a blow for a kid who has just been forced into an electric wheelchair. So next time you?re thinking about donating money to Camp Quality think about poor people like me, sob!!

(This is a good chance to plug the Australian Muscular Dystrophy Association.)

This might sound quite harsh but just look at some of the statistics (PDF). For males with cancer in my age group the survival rate in Australia is 82.9%. That?s pretty damn good.* The survival rate for people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is much lower. There are no statistics available, but from my personal experience only about 10% of my fellow DMD sufferers reach their 25th birthday.

With modern technology allowing the survival of more and more people with genetic conditions, more money needs to be spent to find a cure for these genetic killers.

*It is important to remember these are survival statistics. Cancer is still one of the biggest killers in Australia with 33,966 deaths in 1997.

Looks like all the politicians are upset about the disappearance of the parliamentary Christmas tree. Here’s what Bronwyn Bishop had to say in today?s Australian.

“This was an iconic symbol and I am outraged it has been taken away,” Mrs Bishop said.

“We the parliamentarians should fight to have it restored. I think the Christmas tree and that tradition should remain.”

Mrs Bishop has lodged a request with the new Speaker, David Hawker, to consider setting up a tree outside parliament but under the control of the Speaker and the President of the Senate.

Last night, Mr Hawker said he would consider Mrs Bishop’s request.

No, I’m not talking about starving children in Africa, I’m talking about poor, deprived Australian federal politicians. John Howard, otherwise known as scrooge, has allowed the cancellation of the parliamentary Christmas tree. This means there will be no decent Christmas celebrations at parliament house. (What is a Christmas celebration with no tree?)

Government cost cutting has been blamed, but I think this is the easy way out. Cancelling Christmas in this manner is simply un-Australian. (Don’t worry I will wash my mouth out after saying this and I will never use this term again.)

Over the past few weeks the right side of the blogosphere has been blaming lefties for Christmas cancellations. I have been fighting the good fight and telling them that it is not the left who is behind the cancellation of Christmas. I believe Christmas cancellations actually undermine multiculturalism.

This one event, there being no Christmas tree at parliament house, proves anti Christmas sentiment is not the stronghold of the left.

My brother had this lovely video sent to him via email, it features a not to bright “animal handler” and a pissed off crocodile, it’s wonderful have a look.

If you are running IE it will probably open up in a tiny window on the left, you can either expand this window or right click and download the video instead.

I was lucky to find a place where this file is already hosted, its probably a bit dishonest of my (<--- Ha Ha what a mistake its so Kath and Kim) to deep link to it but oh well! Thanks Jesse’s hunting & outdoors.

Last week my brother discovered an article in Herald Sun (the Hun) that had him swearing for about half an hour. My brother made the unfortunate mistake of reading a column by the infamous Andrew Bolt (fondly known as Bolty). The article that had my brother so incensed was this one titiled “Aiding the Enemy”. In this article Bolty savagely attacks multiple aid organisations. I don?t know what Bolty has against people who try to do good, a Looney lefty might blame his childhood, but I just like to think he?s a plain old ordinary, run of the mill, asshole.

Anyway, my brother decided to write a letter to the editor, here it is for your reading pleasure.

In his 3rd December 2004 article titled “Aiding the Enemy” Andrew Bolt attacked Amnesty International. He said that Amnesty International is on an “ideological crusade” directed against the west. I was very angry when I read this article, as I am a member of Amnesty International. Andrew Bolt makes the allegation that Amnesty only cares about atrocities committed by Western nations. This is simply not true. Amnesty has been actively fighting for the release of all prisoners of conscience, all around the world, for more than 40 years. (A prisoner of conscience is someone who is imprisoned solely because of their race, gender, political or religious beliefs, and who has never used violence.) Amnesty?s only reason for existence is to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Much of the work that Amnesty does goes unnoticed. The group that I belong to focus on a prisoner many have never heard of, Myo Min Zaw, a resident of Burma (also known as Myanmar). Myo Min Zaw has been sentenced to 52 years jail for protesting against the poor quality of the Education system and Burma?s Human Rights record. As a member of Amnesty, I am hardly on a crusade against the west. Andrew Bolt is lucky that he doesn?t live in Burma, if he did, he?d be restricted to Human-interest stories only.

An organization like Amnesty that does so much good work, do not deserve to have their good name slandered by anyone. Andrew Bolt is entitled to his opinion, but some people don?t have this freedom and are thrown in Prison for the better part of half a century for simply stating their beliefs. If Andrew Bolt had his way, Amnesty wouldn?t exist and people like Myo Min Zaw, would be left to rot in prison and no one would know.

Amnesty International Defend Everything that is moral and good in the world, it doesn?t matter who you are, race, religion, colour or creed is not an issue for them. If someone has been wrongfully imprisoned, tortured, maimed or murdered they will have something to say about it. They believe justice should be universal.

-Nick Fryer

I clicked to check out ToeCutter’s blog today and it’s gone! I can’t help thinking it’s a terrible tragedy when a blog is put to sleep. It is difficult to feed a blog every day and it is difficult to look at a blog that is dying of starvation. In this case ToeCutter has put his blog out its misery. A blog simply doesn’t survivce if fed less than once a week comments can keep it alive for awhile but eventually it needs to be put down.

Umbrageous Manifesto

Ukraine’s opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has apparently been poisoned. Failed assassinations seem like a feature of this part of the world. Just think Rasputin and Anastasia.

Yushchenko is known for his movie star looks, but just see what he looks like now. Poor bastard.

Ukraine’s most recent election was rigged according to election observers. Looks like the people who rigged the election took out some insurance…

Thanks to Sherry at AWH for this one.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately on right wing and left wing blogs. It seems my fellow lefties have been accused of being in bed with Islamists, of being communists, anarchists, and pacifists.

Have a look at anti-war protests. Pacifists are there because they oppose all forms of war. Many members of the mainstream left are there because they oppose this war. They oppose going to war for a lie: that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They think Saddam is an evil son of a bitch, they think he should have been finished off in the first gulf war.

Most of the lefties I know supported the war in Afghanistan and most of those who didn’t were ignorant of the atrocities of the Taliban. A message to the right, leftism does not equal pacifism.

Neo-cons might ask, how else would you have gotten rid of Saddam? Easy: peaceful conflict. This alternative form of conflict was used to oust Slobodan Milosevic. Massive amounts of mainly US money was funnelled in into Serbia to support the opposition to Milosevic. Organisations such as Freedom House and National Endowment for Democracy are behind this funding. Some people have been critical of the actions of these organisations but at least they bring down evil dictators without killing people.

This may seem like a rant against the right but I’m afraid it is the turn for the left to cop some. Most people on the left including me are against America’s policy of pre-emption. They are concerned that after Iraq the US will jump into another conflict that they are not ready for. Radical Islamic terrorists are concerned about the same things.

I’ve heard it said that if the Americans are forced to stay in Iraq by a continuing insurgency they will not turn their weapons against Iran or some other country. Just think about who would suffer if the insurgency continued: the people of Iraq. And if the insurgency was victorious, whom do you think would step in then? We would end up with another Taliban or Iran. Do we want this for the future of Iraq?

Unfortunately in Iraq, we are in for the long haul. This conflict has increased tensions between Islamic nations and the west, it has inflamed terrorism and it has given young Muslims a reason to sign up. Just how can the people of Iraq be convinced that democracy is the right way since the word is now synonymous with death and destruction? This is exactly what the left was concerned about. But now that America is in Iraq we need to support measures that will enable them to get back out. At the same time we need the people of Iraq to feel safe and free.

The right needs to stop picking on organisations and people who are trying to help. An example of this is Andrew Bolt?s column, picking on the Red Cross and Amnesty International. Andrew Bolt obviously knows fuck all about Amnesty. They are about stopping the unfair treatment of ALL people.

Another person responsible for the demonising of the left is Mike Jericho. His favourite thing is to equate leftists with radical Islamists.

“This is just another example of your side of politics displaying open solidarity with Islamists – Mike Jericho”

What a ridiculous thing to say. I think that terrorists are the worst scum on earth. I just think it should be proven that they are in fact terrorists before they are put in front of the firing squad. But Mike, you agree.

“… By all means they should have a fair trial. Then, if found guilty, they should be executed. – Mike Jericho”

Most of the mainstream right and left share the same ideals. The difference is what method (and methods of punishment) is best to attain those ideals. The left is not about giving comfort to terrorists so fucking lay off!