Masters and Servants

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On April 25, 1915, the Anzacs landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula and carved a special place in our history. We come here and take photos, they came here and lost their lives. They didn't die for nothing if people can come here and appreciate that... Old enemies have buried differences along with the dead

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Gallipoli 90 Years On
The group stands in Ari Burnu Cemetery before the plaque carrying the words of Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears," it reads. "Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are at peace. Having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."There are tears in the eyes of the young people; one of the tour leaders, Rick Landers from Sydney, says he finds it too painful to read.
All the blood in the water, the men coming in on the boats, having to jump out and be brave. "They were so young and full of life. I imagine my brothers here, their camaraderie and mateship. They're typical Australian guys, they would have been saying: 'Come on, we've got to do it.' They would have given their all, regardless."

I can't even comprehend it, I can't even get close to what it must have been like ...
• Gallipoli's power to unite living and the fallen Out of a bloody battlefield [Helen Clark: The Prime Minister, already facing criticism over Australia's role in controversial roadworks at Anzac Cove, has drawn fire from New Zealand over his scheduled absence from a New Zealand commemoration in Gallipoli today Howard in hot water over snub ; When we look back we can see ... our military forebears have set in place a very proud and enviable record of achievement Their legacy to us includes very high benchmarks in idealism ]
• · Even the local priest, Father John, is praying that the perception of the new pope as the Rotweiler may become of the German Shepherd In the beginning: Pope starts his work as a shepherd ; There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst ... there is the desert of God's darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity Meet the pontiff: he who must be loved, but obeyed ; No one does ceremony and pageantry better than the Catholic Church Pageantry to greet new Pope
• · · They were caught red-handed: Keelty Australia to hand over Bali nine evidence ; In the midst of the Bulldogs rugby league club sex scandal at Coffs Harbour last year police had been using telephone taps in an effort to obtain evidence on allegations of a pack rape by some players How Bulldogs dragnet hauled in police chiefs
• · · · A curse is a formula that becomes a doom. Someone with special powers of performative speech—a god, a wizard, or the framers of your nation’s constitution—describes your life in some dark way, and this description gets fixed as indelible fact. The two-party system is the curse of American political life Shh...Swing Voters Are Listening; When the advocates of republican patriotism encourage citizens to consider common liberty the highest good, they are indicating the safest means to protect individual liberty, not a way to enslave the individual to the state A review of Machiavelli, Hobbes, & the Formation of a Liberal Republicanism in England
• · · · · In Iran, as throughout in the Muslim world, the personal is political, and religion is always both. Aunt Kobra's Islamic democracy; This week, a top insurance company charted the world's most dangerous places to do business. Unsurprisingly, regions like Iraq, India and Russia were shaded brown on the "risk map", marking them as at severe risk from terrorism Wish you were here?
• · · · · · an exceptional high-wire performance by Gordon Hawkins, the Australian criminologist, comparing arguments for the existence of God to arguments for the existence of the Mafia Farewell to 'The Public Interest' ; The revival of states' rights may be the most substantial accomplishment of the Rehnquist Court's conservative majority. Salon magazine reports the emergence of why-go-to-Canada-when-you-have-federalism discussions within lefty circles Reclaiming Federalism ; The Powers of Mourning and Violence and Georgio Agamben’s Critique of Power: By Don Moore War on Mourning: Politics of Disaster; David Humphries: of SuperDome and Olympic Par and SMH fame writes: He was a poor farm boy who used every trick in the book to rule Queensland for 19 years Don't you worry about that

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If enjoying 15 minutes of fame is wrong, I don't want to be right ;-:

As at Sunday 24 April 2005 AD at 7:07 AM, there is something for everyone on the Blogstreet . Want a proof? Look no further than all the content they have managed to squeeze into the top 50 (Fifty) political bloggers, the virtual movers and shakers ;-D Media Dragon is on a list (#40 or #430 in the whole wide world context) and who can blame us for making hay while the sunshine is smiling at us. We realise how fleeting the Warhol’s metaphor of15 minutes of fame really is. We also know that Blogger is under ruthless attack from the Microsoft which has created 7 Million blogs (as of Friday) and it is growing by 100,000 every week. The only sad news is that many blogs tend to fade and die within a month or so. Anyway if you decide to take a walk down the Blogstreet Boulevarde (sic) I can assure you that you can find something to suit whatever political mood you are in today. Scared of Dragons? Try Eschaton as Atrios is #1 Like conservative way of betting? Czech out the Soprano, also known as Instapundit, as Glen Reynolds is #2. How about daily political fights or rants on the state of the nation (US bias), as there is only MEdia Dragon and another antipodean Angry Bear on the loathed and loved Blogstreet ranking system. Turn to Daily Kos is at #5 (whole world wide web has him at #7). If you are a riverbend fan of war and peace, czech out Baghdad Burning at #12 (or overall #35) Do not forget that the smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. The Smallest Minority with cold dead heands is #49 (or #575 on www)

The Blog, The Press, The Media: CEOs & Followers - Tail or Heads
The yogurt-maker's CEO Gary Hirshberg and Chief Blogger Christine Halverson on how the Web journals connect them to customers

Stonyfield Farm, 85%-owned by France's Groupe Danone, is the largest organic yogurt company in the world. Based in Londonderry, N.H., Stonyfield took to blogging in a big way last year -- and even hired its own blogger, Christine Halverson. A former journalist and almanac writer, she landed the job a year ago in March and now authors five blogs for Stonyfield, including Strong Women Daily News and The Bovine Bugle

• The Hot Breath of the Web [BusinessWeek Blog: Blogspotting, Where the worlds of business, media and blogs collide ; Adam Groves says he's "sure Bill Hobbs is feeling his age and trying to keep up with all the grassroots political reporting that blogs are accomplishing now statewide for different demographics with different biases." If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was realized, there would be a slew of Tennessee bloggers reporting ]
• · Headlines from Australian political blogs Blogdiggers ; Capture: Tim Dunlop on the way to catch the waves The Surfer is Back
• · · You Know the Internet Has Come of Age... When the two highest paid CEOs in business are Barry Diller (IAC) and Terry Semel (Yahoo) Semel, Diller are top dogs; Vertical Engine Lures IT Marketers
• · · · On a worldwide basis, Google employed 3,482 full time employees as of March 31, 2005 GOOGle Earnings are In: Big. Big. Big. ; This is a purely snobby elitist bad-ass-A-list-bloggers exclusive event BEFORE the dinner which is open to all EXCLUSIVE: Defining the A-List at BloggerCon
• · · · · Our media environment is very noisy, abundant, even polluted. Columbia journalism professor Todd Gitlin calls it “media unlimited,” while writer David Shenk calls it “data smog” Too Much Media ; These folks that, that sat in front of me today are the most remarkable, efficient producers we've ever known on the face of the earth. And they produce and produce, and we need to figure out a way to get their product sold A Bumper Crop of Government-Produced News
• · · · · · The future of journalism Yesterday's papers ; You can't afford to miss this wave -- and even more important, you can't afford to do it wrong Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers ; I've just been reading the drafts of the four interviews that Shel Israel posted in the past few days ... Why Every Company Should Blog

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There are tributes from every corner of NSW for the Mayor of the Greater Hume Shire, Ian Glachan, who died in hospital on Wednesday. I met Ian Glachan and his wife Helen even before he became a Member of Parliament in 1988. Yes, Ian was a much admired Member of Parliament. But oh, there was so much more. Everything he tackled, he gave 300 percent. Ian was one of those special people, who it was a privilege to know and a pleasure to work with. I recall fondly the thousand and one meetings Ian organised around the NSW rural communities during the inquiry into the Rural Assistance Scheme.
NSW Liberal Leader Mr John Brogden led the tributes, noting Mr Glachan had served the people of Albury with distinction for 15 years before retiring in 2003.

Eye on Politics & Law Lords:
Mr Glachan was a humble man who thrived on hard work.

He was proud of his service as a marine engineer who became a farmer, then a businessman and above all, a great servant of the people of this area. Mr Glachans achievements in his first few years were impressive: a new base hospital, a new police headquarters, a new school for Jindera and the Borella Rd bridge on the Riverina Highway.
Among his important State appointments was acting Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Ian Glachan was a true gentleman, Mr Brogden said.
Member for Albury Mr Greg Aplin said he would miss Mr Glachans voice of reason. “Ian was a great rock, a magnificent community member, a mentor and friend to me,” Mr Aplin said.
The Anglican Bishop of Wangaratta, the Rt Rev David Farrer said Mr Glachan had been a significant figure for St Pauls Church at Jindera, the Northern Albury parish and Trinity Anglican College.
Former trade minister Mr Tim Fischer said Mr Glachan never knew when to stop giving to the community locally, State-wide and nationally.

Mr Glachan is survived by his wife for 47 years, Helen, three daughters, and several grandchildren.
• He will be sadly missed [When I was a child I lived fairly close to the Sydney Cricket Ground, In the summer.. my mother would give us some lunch you know to go to the cricket ground, and if we had no money we would just hang around the gate, and the old fellows on the turn styles would say what are you kids doing and we would say we haven't got any money, and they would say come on sneak in you'll be right. In we would go and we would watch whoever was playing.. "I saw Bradman a number of times and I saw Keith Miller too...Mr Ian Glachan had a vivid memory of Keith Miller on the cricket pitch ; Mr Glachan (courtesy of Google) ]
• · We are who we are because of our stories British Election Update, II: Understanding Ideology ; The magistrate, Paul Falzon, acknowledged Mr Knowles's regret, but noted that he had lost 49 points on his licence and had 14 speeding offences since 1980. "It's not a good driving record, it really isn't Drink-driver Knowles steered straight into a ban
• · · Theologian and minister, physician, musician, philanthropist and humanitarian, Nobel Prize winner, genius and saint; if there ever was a greater man alive in my lifetime, or perhaps any time, I don’t know who it could be Reverence For Life ; "Let's be clear about something -- there is not a single federal judge, there is not a single ACLU lawyer, there is not a single "liberal interest group" that wants to deprive anybody of any heritage or religious freedom. Religious Differences
• · · · Centrists Under Siege ; We had thousands of people from all over America come to Florida to knock on doors. But the Republicans had thousands of people all over Florida knock on their neighbors' doors, and that's more effective. - Howard Dean, on the recipe for the GOP's success. Quote of the Day: Howard Dean
• · · · · That bastion of Liberal values, the Utah Legislature, voted to ignore parts of the Feds "No Child Left Behind" program that conflict with state goals or are unfunded mandates that the state would have to make up. Good for them! Everyone, regardless of race or ability, deserves the best education possible;
• · · · · · Chris Ahmelman, a former member of the Australian Army working as a private security guard in Iraq, was among three foreigners killed in a roadside attack in Baghdad. Australian killed in Baghdad ; The 21-year-old alleged godfather of the Bali heroin syndicate told his Australian smugglers to follow his orders or he would kill their families. ‘If we dob them in, they kill our family, and we're dead anyway’ Godfather threatened us, claim smugglers ; Schapelle Corby waited until she was deep inside the holding cells at the back of the Denpasar District Court before she unleashed the wail that has been building inside her for months. This is the end of my life'

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Compared to the circumstance that mainstream America lavished on an NFL player pointlessly cut down by friendly fire in Iraq, the death of Marla Ruzicka has been largely ignored. Marla gave her life in Iraq fighting peacefully to protect and preserve the lives of average Iraqis--the reason we're supposed to be there in the first place. You can visit the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict to pay tribute to Marla and to the movement she's left as a legacy. Marla Ruzicka, RIP

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Ho Ho Greenfield
ABC discovers what David Neiwert’s been writing about for years:

Once I’ve passed judgment on someone, I often forget the details. I just remember that I don’t trust them. Jeff Greenfield’s one of those people. I don’t remember why I don’t trust him, just that I’d switch channels before I listened to anything he had to say.
Atrios reminds me why I don’t trust Greenfield.
It’s stupid to get your news from someone after you’ve caught them lying. Deliberately manipulatively lying. Not presenting just one side of a story.
I hate major media for making me defend Bill Clinton. But right is right and they haven’t stopped lyin’ yet.

NEWS HOUNDS: If you want to see real investigative reporting you'll need to turn off your TV and click on over to Brad Friedman's in-depth BradBlog.com
• On not trusting Jeff Greenfield [It has become clear to me that we are frogs being slowly boiled to death. Blogger Digby: Flame On High ; University of New Hampshire loses job over blog post via Blog Herald]
• · I'm at the annual convention where TV and radio news directors get together to talk about their craft. My job is to riff on the usual topic, on a panel entitled: Are We Becoming Irrelevant? ; Nabad Al Horriye: A Lebanese Freedom blog ; Ezra Klein is providing a valuable public service by writing up concise summaries of how health policy is done in other countries. Best Practice in Health
• · · What does Google mobile, Yahoo mobile and services like 4Info have that a local newspaper mobile effort wouldn’t have?(besides whopping stock prices or $8 million in recent funding) Hitchhikers guide to anywhere ; Grid computing still has to move from idea to action for most organisations, but such a move is very likely as the momentum behind virtualisation will drive this natural evolution," the report says. Is office politics killing grid computing? ; By word of mouth and guerrilla marketing, it could be an important step toward winning the hearts and minds of the consumers away from the mainstream media? Survey: Bloggers embrace online advertising
• · · · Once again, we read a story of improper activities by people who appear to be journalists. How Companies Pay TV Experts For On-Air Product Mentions ; Jim Hill has been expelled from the Happiest Place on Earth. And that makes him ... well, unhappy Blogger bounced from Disneyland
• · · · · Radio shock jock Alan Jones became very rich today. Welcome to my Family: The $54-million man ; Snobsite: Online home of the Rock Snobs Dictionary
• · · · · · There are about 10 million blogs out there, give or take, including one belonging to Niall Kennedy, an employee at Technorati, a small San Francisco-based company that, yes, tracks blogs. When the Blogger Blogs, Can the Employer Intervene? ; Singapore Librarian Ivan Chew blogs under the handle of Rambling Librarian: The article mentioned Niall Kennedy, who works for Technorati (he still does, as of this post!). Hey, I know Niall. He was the guy who replied to my suggestion to Technorati; When we blog, we are in effect writing for the Whole Wide World

James Hillman said that memory is a form of fiction...so we are very much a creation of the stories we tell ourselves ...

When Does Work Become Play? Dr Russell Cope is part of that special hard working yet playful Australian story. I cannot imagine Australia or Sydney without him. Many other people were on the same river and rowing that special legislative boat during the 1980s. My daughters love to hear stories told by Dr Cope and I gather that daughters in the Vella and Papadatos families are also partial to having a morning tea with the special man in their mothers lives. The drawings Amy, Christie and Ruby created were for many reasons, not just because they were drawn at the East Gardens, more colourful than usual ;-D Creativity allows us the chance to connect with our inner child and the inner child of others... I can live two months on one good compliment, observed humorist Mark Twain. Rowers like Pauline and Carmenn agree, Dr Cope has a knack for prolonging our lives ...

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Tips For Personal Brainstorming
I know, I know, Mark Swinson dislikes the word brainstorming, however, it is not a crime yet if you decide to use it ;-P

Everyone has problems and challenges that need solving; they're an inevitable part of living. What many people don't realize, however, is that most of them can be overcome using a simple, focused program of personal brainstorming. Here are some practical tips to help you increase the effectiveness of your personal problem-solving skills

Criticism and putdowns are easy. As Dale Carnegie once said, Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do.
• The fun in the fun-damentals of storming [Film: 2005 German Film Festival and Downfall ; Note to Minna Finnish Gene ]
• · David Horowitz Prof sails against liberal tide; David Horowitz Hit by Pie at Butler Lecture ; Corporate College
• · · Ricky Gervais could not have made it up. Indeed, antics at the BBC make The Office look remarkably mundane. We were comparing Mark Thompson’s rottweiler tendencies on Wednesday to David Brent’s management style. Yesterday, it was revealed that the director general had bitten a colleague Beeb boss's bite worse than his bark ; Michelle Grajkowski is a Madison Literary agent who has sold 145 titles working out of her East Side home: Everybody wants vampires and media dragons right now Literary agent is a success story
• · · · After wading through a myriad of books on journaling, I have found that the overwhelming focus has been on "Self." ... What good does it do for any of us to journal our way into self-realization if we then fail to take it to the world around us? Journaling as a Tool to Redemptive Living ; I’ve been looking for it everywhere: writer’s retreats, a bedroom converted into a chic writing studio, the refrigerator, which is filled with brainpower snacks, specifically chocolate-mocha Haagen-Dazs Have you seen my voice?
• · · · · What happens when bloggers of a literary bent get together to promote reading A BOOK? We’ll find out May 15 ; LitBlog Co-op in the Digital Waters Temporary Litblog Co-op - Google News April 2005 ; Robert Orben: A compliment is verbal sunshine.Google: Cached Litblog Co-op (or Coop)
• · · · · · R.R. Bowker and All Media Guide Join Forces: Bowker has formed a "strategic alliance" with the All-Music Guide to develop a web database for license that contains information about books, music, movies and games. Bowker evp Gary Aiello says: The major consumer Web sites and entertainment companies want to be able to have information about books, music, movies and games all packaged and linked together in a way that is easy for their visitors to navigate. Books and Music In One Database ; Random House issued the following brief statement yesterday: "Random House, Inc. has entered into a short-term pilot agreement with Google authorizing them to scan and store a limited number of books of our selection as a test to determine whether or not we will become an ongoing participant in their Google Print program." Random Googling

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Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.
-Proverb

Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.
- Benjamin Franklin

The Premier, Bob Carr, said the collapse of HIH had cost the Government $600 million and Williams's sentence had given him Great satisfaction in jail term

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Taxpayers to Profit from Legal Purge: Charles O. Rossotti Lives to Tell the American Tale

The IRS is like a police department that was giving out lots of parking tickets while organized crime was running rampant
-Charles Rossotti, Former Internal Revenue Service commissioner, the bearer of sunlight
When I stepped into the job as IRS commissioner in 1997, taxpayers were mad at the Internal Revenue Service. Really mad. People testified for days at televised congressional hearings on how the agency was ruining their lives by trapping them in Kafkaesque procedures. Complaints poured into Congress. A study commission recommended a complete overhaul of the IRS. Even President Clinton weighed in, using an entire Saturday radio speech to say that he was outraged at how the IRS was harassing citizens. The public uproar did create positive change... Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest to Turn Around the Most Unpopular Organization in America
The 10,000-page Income Tax Act is set to be slashed by a third in a plan to reduce taxpayers' reliance on agents, accountants and lawyers to do their returns.

The legislation has tripled in size since the Howard Government was elected, while tax rulings, determinations, guidelines and court interpretations have multiplied. Three in every four taxpayers are now forced to rely on agents to complete their tax returns, and many consider Australia's tax system to the most complicated in the world.
Ultimately, the plan by the Taxation Board, the body which advises the Treasurer, Peter Costello, on tax matters, should result in faster processing of returns by the Tax Office, reduced reliance on tax professionals and lower fees for their advice. The board's chairman, Dick Warburton, said he would be pleased if half of the country's tax lawyers were rendered redundant as a result of his measures. "I'd like to believe that," he said.

State Treasurer Andrew Refshauge yesterday produced documents showing his federal counterpart Peter Costello had encouraged the NSW Government a year ago to increase land tax, stamp duty and payroll tax.
• The Third Opinion: Time to Show Tax as it is [In the war of words between federal and state politicians over taxation, there is much heat but very little light. Political dummy spits drown out the taxpayers' cries ; Big money and bigger principles are at stake in the tax battle between the states and the Federal Government A fair cut of the cake ; Where the GST goes ; Tax breaks from negative gearing have almost doubled in just four years, wiping almost $2 billion off tax revenues in 2002-03 as a shrinking number of taxpayers paid a record level of tax Taxation bites as fewer paying more ]
• · Corporate criminals Rodney Adler and Ray Williams are likely to spend their jail terms in one of the state's four remote prison camps Farm life looms for silvertails from Silverwater ; Mike Gallacher MP, the Liberal politician who wants to be the next NSW police minister, once worked in Kings Cross as an undercover cop staking out crooked detectives involved in the drugs trade. Mr Gallacher, 43, is an unlikely Liberal politician. His great uncle was the legendary Willie Gallacher, leader of a revolt by Scottish shipyard workers during World War I who met Russian leader Lenin in 1920 and became a Communist MP in the House of Commons in the 1930s. My life as a 'dog': MP recalls his Serpico role
• · · The State is the coldest of all cold monsters. - Frederich Nietzche; Shot in cold blood - Strike Force Lauma: the task ahead. Often royal commissions are cheaper in a long run then task forces, but there must be a political will to call one ... Residents too scared to leave $2m homes at night ; After Melbourne Sydney starts the underworld battle of the nightclubs Fighting talk has a hollow ring: Sydney braces for gangs who rule ; Ghost of Gary Lee-Rogers The usual suspects: The secret note that could save Schapelle
• · · · Put yourself in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too. A tale of customer service, justice and currency as funny as a $2 bill ; Ben Hills reports on an article by Paul Sheehan: Unique water seemed too good to be true to begin with - and the story just keeps getting stranger. Mystery of the magic water
• · · · · For a defendant in a criminal trial, Ray Williams made some good moves. But one of the most senior judges in the Supreme Court was in no mood for leniency Court was in no mood for philanthropy ; Ever so politely, Williams follows Adler down ; Mad, bad and running the company
• · · · · · Michael Gordon meets the last 54 asylum seekers held in Nauru and finds despair, depression and a sense of injustice ... and the triumph of the human spirit 'This is not detention, this is hell' ; Wealthy Poles are invading the border regions of Germany and snapping up properties at rock bottom prices in what estate agents call a dramatic reversal of historical roles Poland invades Germany: cheap homes the lure in game of catch-up ; Fred Nile’s Portrait entered in Archibald Prize

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Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
-Margaret Mead

In the interest of objectivity, since I complained about the horrible April weather in Sydney when I first invaded Cronulla a year or so ago, I think I ought to admit that this weekend is just sensational ...
To boot, the People of Cronulla have embraced the warm and comfortable Grind as well as its Barista Richard with full arms. Nobody makes an expresso for your blood stream as good as Richard brews. Nobody understands better the desperate need amongst the locals to belong, that strange bohemian hunger, which can only be sated by cool and perceptive publicans and baristas ;-D While Richard has a knack for enriching the lives of everyone who enters the kofi shrine there is one gal who not only likes his manners or his passion for expresso, but who loves the creator so much she is willing to risk it all and say ‘till death do us part.’ I understand the wedding is in June and the honeymoon destination is London and beyond. I remember well our honeymoon in London back in June 1984 it was great to explore the Great Britain ans especially to meet all those Rossiters and Reids. The smallest hole in the wall espresso bar with the biggest following

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Tossing a Pebble
I love reading that untamed writer Emily Maquire who from time to time spills her soul inside the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald. Like this weekend she asks Me - a middle-class writer and teacher - a hippie? I could not find a link, but go to page 12 of the Spectrum and digest the entire story entitled Hippie hippie shakedown: The ideas that ordinary people ... can and do make a difference ... The challenge is the same one that Walt Whitman issued 150 years ago: ... hate tyrants ... re-examine all you have been told at school and church or in any book, dismiss whatever isults your soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.
Another freelance writer I enjoy reading is Alison Cameron and on page 14 of the Spectrum she negotiates the steely factions of the schoolyards in Sydney. Ach and how much truth is poured in the jest ;-D. As digital immigrants who have lived uprooted and undomesticated lives with our two bambinos in East Sydney, inner Prague, inner Adelaide, Brissie’s Wilson Hills and Scarborough and now the SHIRE we identify with the deep sense of humour of the coffee mums of the gated communities ;-)

My Grand Obsession with the Mad Master: Most of the people who are willing to be interviewed are not worth interviewing. The uninterviewed are the ones you really want - the recluses, the crackpots who disappeared from public view decades ago and retain an aura of inaccessibility, perverseness, danger even. Forget Hello! Think Goodbye.

When I become self-critical I always ask myself, Who are you to be perfect? Too much of our time is spent worrying about what others are thinking when most people are not thinking about us at all.
• Creative streaks [ I believe in a world that does not exist but by believing it, I create it. - Nikos Kazantzaka Ah, You're Such A Romantic (Just Don't Admit It) ; Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -Leo Tolstoy Miracles materialise when mateship really matters ]
• · There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. - Henry David Thore : The word root of the European race and the word ‘ slav ’ stands for a stranger or a barbarian - in most dictionaries the root usually ends with an E Get more profit out of the third world: Got Slaves? ; Dan Hart of Brisbane has self-published the story of his life culled from over 70 years of diary entries. If nothing else it shows a degree of dedication most of us would envy Mountain of memories makes for the story of a lifetime
• · · As Paul Moravec explained in an interview earlier this year with the San Francisco Chronicle, he has been suicidal, hospitalized twice for clinical depression and, 10 years ago, was treated with electroshock therapy. Fortunately, Paul not only survived but prevailed, and even managed to compose a remarkable piece of music, Mood Swings, that was directly inspired by his illness. “What we need,” he added, “is a different word for clinical depression—a new word. One that has the same emotional impact as, say, leukemia.” Like melancholy prince of his musical 'Fantasy,' Moravec used imagination to overcome despair ; Exclusive for under 40 and people who have a life Thorpe defects to Foxtel
• · · · Another best-selling book relating a victim's story from the Arab world has been questioned, with an Australian academic challenging the Palestinian memoir Burned Alive by Souad. Historian challenges Palestinian bestseller ; Robert Adamson was a hopeless thief. He never expected to get caught and he was always caught. He stole odd things: a bird from a zoo, a Gestetner copier from his school, farmed trout, milk money, petrol and Customline cars. Inside Out: An autobiography; Rise and Rise of Area - Zone 51: Terence West: Best Selling book by Double Dragon Fallen Angels ; Surreal Vienna
• · · · · Ever since the Belle de Jour blog won the best written category in the Guardian Unlimited weblog awards back in 2003, media speculation over the identity of its author has been rife. Will the real Belle de Jour please stand up? ; Belle de Jour ; Having a few problems with the translation? You know, rosebuds? As in flowers
• · · · · · Some are single through choice; others have it thrust upon them Back to square one ; #1 Most viewed articles this weekend! Revenge of the Nature: Some want physical closeness but not intercourse, and they may not be the rarity the rest of the community thinks. For those who identify themselves as asexual, there's nothing quite as dull as the pleasures of the flesh. Some people are outing themselves as asexual, preferring to go to bed with a good book, like Freezing River, than someone else When sex isn't on the menu: No sex please, I'm not into it

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We are faced with defining ourselves neither by distancing others as counterpoles nor by drawing them close as facsimiles, but by locating ourselves among them."
- Clifford Geertz in Local Knowledge (1983)

Are You Ready for a Brand New Beat? The Blogger as Citizen Journalist

The Blog, The Press, The Media: What You Missed: Throw Another Blog On the Fire
Rich people can be bloggers, too.

And if you're Mark Cuban, high-tech entrepreneur and basketball team owner, blogging enables you to communicate directly with the fans -- and slap some sportswriters with such labels as "the new moron in town."
In the coverage of him and the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban says, "there was not a whole lot of fact-checking done, not a whole lot of accountability," and blogging "was my chance to correct what needed to be corrected. Too many times I read what I was doing from people I'd never talked to -- 'rumor had it,' 'sources say.' " He says blogmaverick.com "has changed how the media deal with me" because if reporters are sloppy, "they know I'll call them on it."

• Rich fingers can blog too [A Slap in the Face: Judges don't exactly decide cases based on public sentiment, but their decisions do reflect the values of their society. And in our society, public support for the news media has all but evaporated Climate for freedom of the press is bad -- and here's why ; Eye-goggling pursuit of scoops: the driving philosophy of much of the blogging world. It’s the search for the “gotcha” moment The Silence of the Blogs ; Rwdb's Are Coming To Grogblogging! RSL 565 George St Red faces In RSL ; Old Date with the Bloggers ]
• · Blogspotting: Wouldn't it be great if there was a quick portal where many of the respected bloggers, massive blog engines, and just plain good & well maintained blogs were easily found and accessed ... info@deepblog.com Do you blog a beat? Let us know: info at deepblog.com ; Bog, Honor, Ojczyzna Your Actions Matter - and You Are NEVER Powerless
• · · Digging past the abundance of hype and spin, you have probably already discerned the news kernel: Gawker Media has gone Central European. Today bloggers praise new Gawker Media subsidiary Sploid taking over the entertainment news in the heart of Europe ;-D In Praise of Sploid; via Douglas Arellanes who posts breathtakingly unflattering portraits of Iveta Is this the worldliest blogger in Prague? ; Search-engine savvy librarian shares some of her expertise In Praise of Mary Ellen Bates
• · · · The obsession with being first leads to a buffet line of bad journalistic behavior New Values for a New Age of Journalism ; In the satirical newspaper the Onion, the only sacrilege is to not be funny. We still are people who get drunk or stoned and lie on the couch all day and play video games Peeling the Onion
• · · · · Gone for Good? I hope not ... Scribbler: the blog of John Boase Adieu, adieu, adieu ; Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group has secured a 15-year deal to provide broadcaster SBS with digital television transmission services MCG wins SBS digital TV deal
• · · · · · One of the fathers of the internet has warned that a surge in demand for new online addresses from devices such as mobile phones could stress the capacity of the world's computer communications system Vint Cerf: Users put squeeze on internet address space; Internet advertising grew four times faster than other advertising across the main media last year Internet advertising: the way to go ; Learn the secrets for dramtically improving Google Adsense revenues by using the blog and ping method developed by Rick Butts and the creation of thousands of keyword relevant pages using Traffic Equalizer Blog and Ping Plus Traffic Equalizer

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Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
- The Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 18)

State Opposition Leader John Brogden is staking his claim for a Coalition victory at the next election with a multibillion-dollar plan on infrastructure projects Brogden battle plan to raise billions for major projects

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Sink or Swim:
The stream of political corruption runs deeper than we think

Here in Prague, it is an uneasy spring. Traditionally, spring is a time of hope. Yet as of this writing the country is going through yet another government crisis. The division between Mala Strana, the so-called "smaller town" where Parliament, the Senate, and the Cabinet all have their seats of power, and the rest of the country continues to grow, as does the associated cynicism and detachment on the part of the public. Fewer than 20 percent of Czechs approve of, or even believe in, their government.
Four weeks ago, a lone middle-class Prague businessman by the name of Erik Matous organized a weekly demonstration in front of the Cabinet offices denouncing the criminal activities of the prime minister. Others, including myself, joined him... The billboards continue to grow in number. But whether the Cabinet falls or not, Czechs know that very little will change, for the cesspool that is Czech political culture runs very deep indeed.

• The cottage lawn [Politicians are being accused of double standards by lawyers. The NSW Law Society has complained that the State Government has made stricter laws for the conduct of lawyers than they have for themselves. You're hypocrites, lawyers tell MPs ; Pumping distant Saharan water costs almost as much as using bottles of Perrier for irrigation Gaddafi & The Vast Bulgarian Conspiracy ; UK Spy Bosses Admit Wmd Claim Wrong ]
• · George Orwell would have been shocked. John Henry Newman would have purred with delight. And John Milton would have wondered why he bothered. Some 450 years after the Reformation, the Church of Rome and the authority of its pontiff have re-asserted an almost medieval grip on mainstream British opinion. Virtual congregations ; In the past five years, what most of us only recently thought of as "nobody's business" has become the big business of everybody's business. Goodbye to Privacy ; The latest issue of the Sunday Life, a hard copy magazine, features a variety of offices. Justice Michael Kirby has a bunch of flowers on his desk because European judges always have flowers. They remind you of the beauty outside the law! Entering the Era of Deep Politics
• · · A Labor Party post-mortem of last year's City of Sydney election debacle has blamed the anti-democratic practices of the party's head office and the Carr Government's heavy-handed style ALP head office to blame for Labor loss ; Front-line police are again on the verge of industrial unrest - but this time they are angry with their union Sergeants slam union over wages and safety
• · · · State Government figures show there are 41 drivers on the payroll, each receiving a $73,345 salary. Official drivers cost us millions ; Naked Eye of Sun Herald is the Minima Maxima Sunt of the weekend news as the smallest things (news) are the most important. The investigative duo, Alex Mitchell and Kerry-Anne Walsh, tackle many subjects (only available in hard copy) on p 22: Under Doctored Honorific they point out to the low level of corporate memory as Peta Seaton was last week given by a mistake the academic appelation of “Dr”. Seaton is still a bachelor of arts (BA) majoring in archaelogy. Peta was a dilligent digger back in late 80s and early 90s when she worked as a researcher for a number of Ministers during Greiner’s reign and before she became MP her dregree served her well in her role as an envoronmental consultant One of the few must reads of the Sun Herald is the Naked City column
• · · · · As New Yorkers learned in January, when a fire in a signal-relay room knocked out service for the half-million people who ride the A and C trains daily, Gotham’s subways are in deep trouble How to Save the Subways—Before It’s Too Late ; The transformation of literacy from an educational concern to a national political issue has been swift and significant The Politics of Literacy ; Over forty years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, America once again finds itself in the crosshairs of a determined China's Foray Into Latin America
• · · · · · "Today is the second anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Here are pictures of the tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets, demanding the U.S. leave the country: "Chanting "No! No to terrorism!" and "No! No to America," Mass Protests in Iraq ; Google on Demonstration in Iraq

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without courage, there cannot be truth,
and without truth there can be no other virtue
-Sir Walter Scott

Michael Walzer: The experts have apparently agreed that it wasn't values that lost us the last election. It was passion, and above all, it was the passion of fear. But maybe frightened people look for strong leaders, whose strength is revealed in their firm commitment to a set of values. Fear politics and value politics may turn out to be closely related. So what is wrong with the liberal-left? Do we really look weak, uncommitted, value-free-tacking to the wind, whichever way it blows? And is this just a matter of appearance, a failure of public relations; so that what we need is a little rhetorical uplift, cosmetic surgery, some improvement in our posture? Stand straighter! Talk tough! All God's Children Got Values

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Papal Legacy: The strategy of faking civil activity
As a young boy in the 1930s, my father attended public school in Snina, a town in eastern Czechoslovakia. Twice a week, a Catholic priest would come in to teach the catechism, during which the few children who were Jewish would wait outside. As they left the classroom, my father recalls, the priest invariably made some insulting remark about the Jewish people.

For Jews in the Europe of my father's youth, such Christian contempt was a fact of life. Its origins lay in the church's ancient claim that God had rejected the Jews when they rejected Jesus and that his covenant with Israel had been superseded by a new covenant with the Christian church. This ''teaching of contempt" fed an often virulent anti-Semitism, which created the climate for Europe's long history of persecuting Jews. Sixty-five years ago that history culminated in the Holocaust.

Perhaps the most beautiful achievement of political life in the late twentieth century was the international movement for democracy that brought down several dozen dictatorships of every possible description - authoritarian, communist, fascist, military. It happened on all continents, and it happened peacefully.
• The pope who turned anti-Semitism aside ; When Facts Collide With Beliefs . . . Papal Legacy: Questioning Capitalism [via Memeorandum The Pope and the Jews ; Labor's stacking crisis worsens ; Like the Mafia code of Omerta the 'made-men' who control the upper echelons of the Victorian ALP, who manipulate the membership base and who look after their cronies, are very careful to keep up appearances Corruption City ; Peter Brown, Orlando: Some issues, especially those that even tangentially involve race, become so one-sided there is no respectable opposition. But sometimes shifting political sands make it acceptable in polite company to oppose what was once a motherhood cause Is the Tide Turning on Dealing With Vote Fraud? ]
• · via Paula Rizzuto blog Enough: A Plan for Radical Reform of the ALP ; The careers of two state ministers are on the line after a damning submission to the corruption watchdog on their behaviour in the Orange Grove affair Carr's ministers savaged over Orange Grove affair ; The myths and truths World War II. By Adam Krzeminski - Europeans will go on living with competing memories and competing myths for a long time to come How there can be no single version of World War II
• · · An average of one passenger a day complains to Qantas about baggage interference but it took an outrageous mishandling stunt caught on film at Sydney Airport for the airline to concede it had any security problem at all The camel, croc and flying kangaroo: costume drama ends with sacking ; Security of luggage at airports Message from a pantomime camel ; Some people won't let a bad conspiracy theory go The Berger File
• · · · More than 100 patients released from mental units in NSW had committed suicide within 28 days of discharge and 36 were involved in murders over a five-year period Suicide rate high after mental unit discharge ; More drivers than ever before will lose their licences this year as a result of higher demerit points penalties introduced this week for low-level speeding offences Gone in a flash: your licence
• · · · · Hospital infection a $150m trauma case ; A story of hope Country health care a poor cousin; Trial by jury: recent developments
• · · · · · Timothy Garton Ash writes on The Orange Revolution ;William Galston on how liberals ignore and conservatives misunderstand America's guiding value: freedom; and on liberal pluralism and constitutional democracy. Taking Liberty ;
Introduction to the Special Issue: Confronting Memories: European "Bitter Experiences" and the Constitutionalization Process

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What could be the world's biggest-ever funeral was held in St Peter's Square today as millions crammed the streets around the Vatican and an unprecedented number of monarchs and leaders prayed for the soul of Pope John Paul II. Cypress, zinc and walnut

Lolek - John Paul the Great: Unprecedented Funeral
Pope John Paul II is said to be the most recognized person in the world and the images coming from Sky News and Channel 9 confirmed the observation. Believer and non-believer, rich and poor, world leaders and pilgrims alike come together in the Basilica of St Peter in Rome this morning for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. He stands as one of the greatest popes of all time and to boot he was a Slav. Slavs are good at suffering and they are good at giving the other cheek as we gave the word slave the very meaning ...

`I do not know whether I can express myself in your - in our - Italian language,'' he said. The skeptical crowd began to warm to him. ``If I make mistakes,'' he added, bursting into a smile that was his trademark until his last agony, ``you will correct me.'' The applause turned into a tumult.
This ability to reach out was only just beginning. He traveled tirelessly, to 129 countries on every continent, though China and Russia were the two outstanding places he longed to go but failed because their governments forbade it - which says something of the fearfulness of leaders of both places in their confrontation with an undoubted man of peace. He refused to be confined by protocol or by security minders. Typically, the first thing he did when visiting a country was to kneel and kiss the ground as his mark of respect. Then he would be off reaching out into the crowd anxious to meet and greet and touch and share and sing with them if possible.

Politically, the pope stood for freedom that neither communist societies nor full-blooded capitalism could offer. His encyclical letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (On social concerns) written in 1988 lamented over the ills both of ``liberal capitalism'' and ``Marxist collectivism'' and painted the horrors of a lopsided global world in which intense poverty persisted in poor countries and in pockets of rich nations. Later encyclicals also condemned the ``idolatry of the market'' and the ``quasi-servitude'' of poor nations to rich ones.
• Cypress, zinc and walnut - Text of the homily at pope's funeral Karol Jozef (Lolek) WOJTYLA hanging out in Heaven with God [Google: World mourns for Pope at funeral; Poland Mourns Loss of Pope John Paul II Google: Poles bid Pope emotional farewell - Celebrating 'unbridled love'; Pope dubbed 'priest to last' - Funeral homily celebrates Pope's earlier life
Google: Ratzinger leads world's tribute to Pope John Paul II]
• · The passing of a giant ; They're silent on names, but cardinals have given hints about the pope they want Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
• · · Standing by his convictions ; Pilgrims Flock To Mourn Pope Stared down communism
• · · · Pope John Paul's decision to mention a Jew in his will was a sign to his successor to continue and improve his record of opening to Judaism Pope's Will Points to Future Ties with Jews-Rabbi; Ron Lichtman is a conservative Jew and a worshiper at Temple Beth El in West Palm Beach. Whatever your faith, you could learn from John Paul II's bravery
• · · · · As The Third Millennium Draws Near John Paul Ii: Prophet Of Freedom ; Click here to reflect on Pope John Paul II's life in pictures
• · · · · · Pope John Paul II commemorative set ; Life Changing Site

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The criminal justice system is overburdened not by the demands of actual trials but by the enormous preparation required for phantom trials, that is, those that get to the starting gates but not out of them Dealing the hard reality of justice
But sometimes the road to justice is a long one. Korematsu's case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which sided with the government in a 6-3 decision. Ordinary man, extraordinary courage


Eye on Politics & Law Lords: John Paul’s Duality: Neither Left nor Right
John Paul II, born Karol Joseph Wojtyla, was an authentic, formidable, brilliant man who lived in direct and energetic engagement with the world’s people.

To him, this seems to have been the essence of his calling as leader of the "universal church." The Holy Father of the Catholics was not embarrassed to present himself as the brother of every human being, without regard to religious persuasion or ethnic origin. So as he is laid to rest, many outside the church feel impelled to try to assess him with the rigor, candor and compassion that shaped his charismatic persona.

But it is wiser not to pretend to comprehend him too quickly. Although deeply involved in the political struggles of his time, he wasn’t a politician who could be easily categorized in simple monochromatic terms. Behind the images of the warm pastor and the global celebrity were the intellectual and the mystic. In struggling to both adapt and defend an ancient faith, he was complicated and sometimes contradictory.
• Joe Conason, New York Observer [Big Elections in Britain and France - Cragg Hines, Houston Chronicle Over there: head-banging treats for electorally needy ; Public transport pulled over to the slow lane ]
• · Poker machine king Len Ainsworth believes the NSW police licensing unit waged a "vendetta" against him for decades, including writing a letter from a retired policeman which implied that he was not fit to hold a gaming licence. Police out to get me, says pokie king ; Councillor tried to persuade accused to change his tune Andrew Smyrnis tried to convince fellow councillor Adam McCormick to roll over to ICAC
• · · Air quality is under threat because the NSW Government is failing to shift people out of their cars and onto public transport, the Auditor-General has warned. Auditor-general pulls veil on Sydney's dirty air ; The federal and state governments are headed for a fight over the Howard Government's plans to change the way the nation's health system operates. Carr and Abbott trade blows over health
• · · · The Federal Government was so sure Zaky Mallah planned a suicide attack on its offices in Sydney he was the first man in NSW charged under new counter-terrorism laws. Yesterday, he was the first acquitted. Not a terrorist, just an angry loner starved of attention ; A major security scare at Parliament House: Plot to execute Premier uncovered - A former staffer of the Opposition Leader charged with making death threats against the Premier was previously suspected by police of making phone threats to his former Liberal Party boss and a NSW Democrats official. These suspicions were contained in an intelligence report compiled by Special Crime Unit detectives on Julian Evans, 21, who worked for nine months first as a volunteer and then as a paid researcher for the Liberal leader, John Brogden, between 2003 and early last year. Man threatened to slash Carr with dagger, court told ; Google: Threat to slash Carr at 3.06pm
• · · · · Arshad and Samina Ladha have spent six years working seven days a week. What has driven them to work so hard was the dream of owning two investment properties in Sydney. Sell, sell, sell: why one family is getting out of property ; Their biggest fans may only be toddlers, but The Wiggles are proof the children's entertainment business is a lucrative one Wiggles outgun Kidman
• · · · · · There's a certain ambivalence about the Czech Republic's plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II - Germans not invited, Red Army honored and state goes low-key Uneasy politics surround WWII anniversary ; Joe Stiglitz questions whether Bush can spread democracy abroad when he undermines it at home. When all is said and done, George Kennan was right: America’s most powerful tool in international affairs is our example Democracy Starts At Home

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Workplaces are so riddled with gossip that employees believe they are more likely to hear important workplace announcements through the office rumour-mill than direct from their managers. Psst, most workers get news through gossip first

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Do-it-Yourself Digital Revolution
Jonathan Caouette was a 28-year-old computer illiterate living a Bohemian lifestyle in New York City until a friend gave him an Apple iMac computer, writes Robert Hanashiro for USA Today.

“Caouette quickly mastered iMovie, the consumer-level video editing software that comes free with Apple computers...He next used iMovie’s editing and special effects tools to transform two decades of mementos into a bio-documentary, Tarnation, revolving around his troubled mother. The movie got rave reviews at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, then played in art house theaters across the country.”

Tech turns average Joes into mini-Spielbergs
• Powerful art on the cheap [Roger Fischer, KAYWA You can now directly videoblog from your your mobile phone to your KAYWA weblog ; Issue two has arrived in US bookstores, especially Barnes and Nobles, nationwide Literary Theory: Death is Not the End ; We can see that there is rather more to medieval philosophy than a set of long involved debates about squeezing angels onto pinheads! Eras of Medieval Christian Thought: Mark Daniels ]
• · Years spent as a self-publisher and apart from any literary establishment have left an evident self-confidence. He ran off 50,000 copies of one book and sold them all himself, sometimes quite literally. "I made a sandwich poster (board) saying 'I am the author,'" he says, recalling his pitch on a street in Kiev in the early 1990s The new penguin classics ; The flopping of another Australian movie at the box office is no surprise The Tribal Mind
• · · Classic Shauny Meeting People at Woolworth :-D ; Classic Gianna Putting Her Foot In
• · · · Amazon has apparently bought European-based Mobipocket, a PDA e-publishing competitor to Motricity (which owns what began as Palm-based ereading software and inventory) Amazon.com Acquires BookSurge LLC; BookSurge provides services to both publishers and about 4,000 individual authors. Amazon vp of media products Greg Greeley says in a statement Charleston report
• · · · · Following the Trail of the Disappearing Data
• · · · · · Authors Guild Foundation benefit dinner justly honored the extraordinary efforts of First Book, run by Kyle Zimmer, to provide children from low-income families with their first brand-new book, to own, read, and keep at home. Along the way, they are giving "ownership" of the gateway to life that reading provides to literally millions of children who might not otherwise be provided that opportunity. The organization recently gave away its 30 millionth book. But their goals and ambitions remain high, as do their needs. See their web site for ways to get involved. First Things First

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For a rundown on his remarkable life, take a look at the official Vatican site. Suddenly, we had a pope from the High Tatra Mountains who swam in a pool and went to the mountains to ski; a pope who talked to reporters on his plane, kissed children on the forehead and patted visitors on the arm A papal audience: Crossing The Threshold Of Hope

Art of Living & Morality Across Frontiers: A World in Mourning: Pope John Paul II: The Great
Pope John Paul II, who headed the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years, has died. THE passing of a Pope is always a dramatic moment. The great bell at the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris tolled 84 times today to mark the passing of 84-year-old Pope John Paul II.

However you gauge it, the reign of John Paul II has been a pontificate on the grand scale. Inaugurated in 1978, it is the third-longest in the 2000-year history of the papacy. Karol Wojtyla became the first non-Italian to take up the crook of St Peter in more than 450 years and his nationality proved crucially important in the years following his election.
The fact that he is a Polish pope helped to destabilise communism in his native country and the rest of central and eastern Europe. As official documents for the period become available, his role in ending the divisions of the Cold War may be shown to have been more than just inspirational. Claims have been made, though never proved, that he facilitated the channelling of funds to the Polish Solidarity organisation, and that this explains at least some of the murky dealings in which the Vatican bank was found to be immersed soon afterwards.

• Death of Pope John Paul II [Pontiff's final words are to world's youth: Thank you ; Man of the people who led without fear ]
• · 1920 - May 18: Karol Jozef Wojtyla born in Wadowice, Poland; 1942 - Autumn: Accepted by the Archdiocese of Krakow as a clandestine seminarian 1958 - July: Made auxiliary bishop of Krakow. 1979 - June: First visit to Poland as Pope: Don’t Be Afraid Life of a pontiff ; The Pope's death brings to an end a long ministry fighting for human rights and his uncompromising but compassionate beliefs He was simply the world's most charismatic Christian
• · · Google: Pope death received with tearful applauds ; The life of Pope John Paul II was extraordinary, from his boyhood in Poland, to his rise through the church hierarchy and his 26-year papacy. He resisted communist rule in his homeland, reached out to other faiths, and traveled widely across the world. But his conservative theology did not win over all Catholics Remembrances: The Life of Pope John Paul II
• · · · Pope John Paul spent the final hours of his life on Saturday surrounded by the only family he had -- his closest Polish aides Vatican's Apostolic Palace ; Bush hails a champion of freedom ; Poland in the late 1970s was a grim and isolated place. The economy was a shambles. The shelves of shops were empty, and consumers waited in long lines. The Communist regime went almost unchallenged. There can be no just Europe without the independence of Poland marked on its map. His theme, repeated over and over at every stop, was solidarnosz—the solidarity of the Polish people The pope altered the psychological landscape of his homeland, instilling a sense of dignity and courage
• · · · · He appointed more than 100 of the 115 cardinals who will decide his successor, he was nominally responsible for the appointment of over 4000 bishops, including my cousin Andrej Imrich, and his doctrine, especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church of 1992, presented his teaching in the language of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s His death diminishes us all ; The cardinal of Krakow was also the first Slavic pontiff and, at the age of 58, the youngest pope in 132 years Less than eight months after becoming pope, Wojtyla returned to Poland: with a message - Don’t Be Afraid
• · · · · · The Paradoxical Pope ; A "giant among the giants" ; Who will now lead one billion souls?

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The army taught me some great lessons—to be prepared for catastrophe—to endure being bored—and to know that however fine [a] fellow I thought myself in my usual routine there were other situations alongside and many more in which I was inferior to men that I might have looked down upon had not experience taught me to look up.
-Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., letter to Harold Laski (1926)

Easter delivered a shock in my life when I was 15 years old. Jozef Galovic passed away a boy I knew since I was 2 years old. From kindy to high school we were in the same class, we played soccer and hockey under the shadows of the High Tatra Mountains. There was a shocked community last weekend when the popular year 10 student Lindsay Sutton (age 15) died in a fire on Good/Bad Friday. Although my daughter did not know him, she knew friends who knew him well - some were skateboarding addicts - others just friends who grew up in the Shire. Last night many teenagers gathered at the Engadine Community Hall to pay final respect to the boy who loved life.
My dad and I saw him in Krakow in 1979 when he said Do Not Be Afraid, Lauren and I saw him at St Peter’s Square in 1984 when his sermon was in Polish - a sermon about relationships and marriage. Then we all, the four of us, saw him when he came to Sydney in 1995. He will be remembered as the unconditional global pope and my cousin Ondrej and my sister Gitka who suffered more than most under communism know why ... From his sickbed, the Pope is delivering an age-old message POPE JOHN Paul II received the blessing for the dying after his health suddenly worsened Church prepares faithful for Pope John Paul II's passing

Eye on Pope & Political Hills: END OF AN ERA?
Pope John Paul II is the spiritual leader of 1.1 billion Catholics around the world, but his 26- year papacy has also touched people of other faiths and Christian persuasions.

Thousands of pilgrims have been drawn to the piazza and stand facing the papal apartments where Pope John Paul II drifts in and out of consciousness.
Some look up towards the windows, whose shutters are open, and blink back tears behind their dark glasses.
Others look at the ground, reciting prayers under their breath. Their murmurs are barely audible as they whisper the words.
As they wait, motionless, they are watched by the stone saints who stand on the arc of columns.

• Pope has touched people of other faiths [Tradition, secrecy mark process following pope's death ; Google on Pope ]
• · Pope was a man of love, cared about the poor ; Who will be the next Pope?
• · · Despite government crises and corruption problems, the economy solidifies Scandal-proof ; But if the Public Education Council's grim prognosis is correct - and all the signs suggest it is - will the Education Premier, a proud product of the government system, be prepared to let history say the public system was run into the ground on his watch? There's no doubt it is a political conundrum. Carr knows that simply spending more money may not be the fix. If the drift away from public schools quickens, it will be untenable to be spending more on a service fewer are prepared to use. Uneducated Sons ; Public education is in crisis Schools scandal: no cash, no hope ; The Public Education Council wants cuts to private school building subsidies New principle found for private school cuts
• · · · Who stashed the drugs into Schapelle Corby's bag? That's about the only question John Ford isn't answering Last line of defence ; Why did [Melbourne philanthropist] Dr Orde Poynton [who died in 2001] leave some $13 million to the gallery to buy international prints? The answer is because we asked them and they wanted to do it. Money follows a good idea. You have got to have ideas." This is not a story about evicting Kennedy. It is about money following a good idea. Businessmen understand this, even if only from self-interest. Politicians often don't. Politicians treat ideas like they treat voters: with caution at best, with contempt at worst. The idea that "you have got to have ideas" Another Parliament on another hill
• · · · · It is almost 60 years since the Rockefeller family donated a prime piece of real estate on the East River in New York for the construction of the headquarters of the United Nations, formed one year earlier. How unlikely such a gift would be today. People of the world ought to be able to see inside UN headquarters ; Kofi Annan has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and it isn't getting any lighter Mark Coultan: War of the world ; Food-for-oil claims another UN scalp
• · · · · · The inevitable is not wicked. If you can improve on it all right, but it is not necessary to damn the stem because you are the flower. - Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., letter to Harold Laski (1921) Carr backs Costa as MPs fume ; I remember this photo - I was one of the slaves at the public relations Summit. Mr Craig Knowles will appear in Sutherland Local Court on April 21. Carr backs drink-drive Minister ; Google on aspirations of the future premier of New South Wales ; Only one in every 100 warrants for phone taps sought by agencies investigating crimes is refused by Australian judges Judges all ears when it comes to hearing requests for phone taps