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Sea Shepherd Fibs Again?

February 8, 2010 — 2 Comments

Wikipedia:

“In warfare, ramming is a technique that was used in air, sea and land combat. The term originated from battering ram, a siege weapon used to bring down fortifications by hitting it with the force of the ram’s momentum….”

No matter how many times I watch this video, I get the same result. The front of the Sea Shepherd boat hits the SIDE of the Japanese boat. If the Sea Shepherd was rammed, wouldn’t it have been the other way around?

Of note as well, it would appear that the Japanese vessels attempts to avoid collision at the last moment, trying to turn away. At all times though the key is: the Japanese vessel is IN FRONT of the Sea Shepherd. If the Japanese were trying to ram the Sea Shepherd vessel, wouldn’t they have been behind, and not side on?

The Age: Burned Indian faked attack to claim car insurance: police

And this follows the recent murder of an Indian man by other Indians. Both cases were cited in the Indian media as examples of Australian racism.

So is an insurance scam racist?

Side note: the funniest thing this morning was listening to the head of the Indian Students Association on ABC Melbourne. The same guy who appears in the media at the drop of a hat crying racism as loudly has he can, told Comrade Jon Faine that these cases should be left to the courts to decide and not the media. LOL.

I’m the first to admit that I shook my head when news of Tony Abbott’s alleged claim about virginity surfaced during the week.

It was claimed that Abbott said that women should remain virgins until marriage; if he believes that, fine (I don’t agree but he can believe what he wants,) but saying it out loud is political stupidity.

But here’s the catch: no matter how much anger, general coverage and editorial space was handed over on the alleged quote, turns out it wasn’t true.

via Andrew Bolt:

Check for yourself. Here is every last word that Abbott, himself the father of three girls, said: “It (sex before marriage) happens … I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question … it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving, and don’t give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say.”

Now I don’t have a daughter, but if I did I might well give the same advice, and millions of other Australian’s with daughters either have or would as well.

There’s a mile of difference between a fathers wish that his daughters wait for someone special to sleep with (and note, there’s ZERO mention of marriage there) to the media reports suggesting that Abbott was claiming women should wait until marriage to lose their virginity.

Disgraceful from media who pride themselves on reporting the truth, and the politicians who feed of their lies.

I wonder if Julia Gillard, Gabriella Coslovich, Fiona Scott-Norman, Jon Faine, Catharine Lumby, Eva Cox and the others will apologize?

Nah, just joking there, of course they won’t. Why let the facts get in the way of a good ol’ fashioned crucifixion.

I use to like Troy Buswell, but it was when I realised that he cared only about himself that I lost faith. Not saying I’m exactly skinny myself (but I’m only 10kg off my ideal weight now.) That said, the issue was with the ex: maybe I should forgive now, and accept he had good judgment.

Still: maybe chairs are bad for your weight 🙂

via Yahoo News/ The West. If you don’t get the reference, you either don’t live in WA, or you don’t follow WA news. Nothing wrong with that, but this is one of those posts.

troy buswell fat

I may not agree with every conclusion, but some decent balance and some reasonably fair perspective. Warranted in the broader picture of the debate.

It’s simple: India doesn’t want to see its citizens harmed

In a few elegant words, Tharoor cut to the heart of the issue and it is worth quoting him in full: ”For an Indian mother to hear that her son has been assaulted in Australia, it little matters to her whether he was assaulted because of his race, or because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or because he was the wrong colour or the wrong height, or was carrying an iPod. She doesn’t want her son to be assaulted.

And here I was thinking that it was just us dumb Australians…. 🙂

Daily Camera:

Denver schools’ menu for Martin Luther King birthday hard for some to digest

Denver Public Schools apologized Tuesday for what it called a “well-intentioned but highly insensitive” attempt to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday’s DPS lunch menu, headlined “In Honor Of M.L. King,” offered students “Southern Style” chicken and collard greens — a meal that some say is an offensive caricature of black culture.

In a statement issued Tuesday night and posted on the school district’s website, DPS spokesman Michael Vaughn said the meal was “highly insensitive in light of certain hurtful cultural stereotypes still harbored in parts of our society.”

Emphasis is mine, but it’s key.

Follow up to the last post, I made this little video:

Want to see real racism?

January 11, 2010 — 19 Comments

This is from a show in the United States called “The Young Turks” on the so called “racist” KFC ad.

According to the guy in the show, the ad is “stereotypical…pushing a stereotype. When I’m thinking race or something…they’re trying to make the target look bad or worse than they actually are…which it does. With a superior race over it….here this drum beat and dance to it, you give them chicken and they become all civilised. This white guy is so civilised, sitting in his own seat…these black folks, a woman putting her but in her face.”

The girl chimes in: “they’re so unruly, uncivilised, so rowdy, jumping up and don, and they can’t sit down unless you give then fried chicken.”

The one problem: both are being racist themselves in presuming that their culture is superior to those from the West Indies. There’s nothing stereotypical in the ad: having both been to Australian vs West Indies games before, and even working many years ago for the WACA, I’ve seen exactly first hand how West Indies fans behave.

So are they saying the way the fans from the West Indies behave is wrong? Because Australians don’t see it as being wrong; quite the opposite, in the cricketing world the West Indies fans are well loved and appreciated because they are so passionate and good fun.

You see, when you criticise other cultures, calling other people “uncivilised,” (like the girl did in the video), you’re the one being racist. I wonder how the Windies fans feel about being called uncivilsed by Americans, and at least one white one at that?

For the record, some archival footage of real West Indies fans in action.

No, that’s the caste system isn’t it?

Still, given what happened in Australia during the Schapelle Corby arrest and trial, we’re not exactly innocent when it comes to xenophobia.

The Advertiser: Two detained at airport over Singh murder

POLICE are refusing to reveal the identities of a man and a woman intercepted at Sydney Airport last week and questioned over the murder of Indian-born fruit picker Ranjodh Singh.
The Indian-born pair, believed to be seasonal workers from Griffith, was stopped at the airport’s departure lounge on Monday as they were about to board a flight to Nepal.

Then of course there’s fire guy

News.com.au: “It is understood police are investigating all possible causes of the fire, including that Mr Singh lit the fire himself.”

Is it racist to set yourself on fire?

Stilgherrian Is Right

January 8, 2010 — 1 Comment

Sea Shepherd? Gave my opinion 2 years ago

Sea Shepherd of course claim it was a deliberate attack. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. Thing is though, guys, if you don’t want to be involved in a collision at sea, don’t fucking well deliberately put your boat so close to another.