Headline Watching

Still Workin'
I've been busy lately so my posts have correspondingly become sporadic, I guess.
I'm quite annoyed with myself that I seem to spend so much time on talking politics, in particular about the anti-terror legislation and 'sedition' laws instead of review movie andd records and natter on about baseball. I guess it is the off-seaon in the top half of the world.

Still, recently I feel as if all I'm ever doing is making a compendium on the stupidity and the misery of mankind on this page. It'ss a right drag. This was not the world I thought I'd grow up into. Really, it's not.
Anyway, here's today's headline notables...

1. Holocaust Was A Myth According to Iranian Politician.

TEHRAN (AFX) - Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a fresh attack against Israel, describing the Holocaust as a 'myth' and saying the Jewish state should be moved to Europe or North America.

'They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets,' the outspoken president said in a speech carried live on state television.

'If somebody in their country questions God, nobody says anything, but if somebody criticises the myth of the massacre of Jew, the Zionist loudspeakers and the governments in the pay of Zionism will start to scream,' he said.

'Our proposal is this: give a piece of your land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska so they (the Jews) can create their own state,' said Ahmadinejad, who was speaking to thousands of people in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

What a classic. And that high point of journalism, Tehran Times actually applauds and agrees with this position. Talk about people wanting to stir a hornet's nest. Aryan Islamists. Oh boy.

2. Australian Police Prepare For more Racial Violence.

Sydney's racial violence erupted at Cronulla last Sunday when some 3,000 people, some yelling racist chants, attacked people of Middle East appearance, saying they were defending their beach from Lebanese youth gangs.

Police said white supremacists incited violence at Cronulla.

Lebanese and Muslim youths retaliated with two nights of violence in several different beachside suburbs.

The burning to the ground of a church hall on Tuesday night, smashing of church windows and shots fired at a Catholic school, prompted authorities on Wednesday to say they would focus on places of worship to ensure they were safe from violence.

"Special attention will be paid to places of worship, our churches and our schools," said Morris Iemma, premier of the state of New South Wales (NSW).

"Obviously we have to be on guard for this, and these hooligans and criminals will not destroy the fabric of our society," Iemma told a news conference.

The NSW state parliament will hold an emergency sitting on Thursday to pass legislation giving police extra powers to allow them to "lockdown" suburbs and areas of unrest in Sydney and impose alcohol prohibition on areas.

Uh-huh. There's an old Robert Menzies observation that Australia would never go revolutionary and take to the streets as long as its people lived in quarter-acre blocks with their own backyards to worry about. I heard it in the faculty of Architecture at the University of Sydney when I was still a Medical student. There's a certain kind of truth in that Menzies notion that actually measures the weakness of people who own stuff, and their inability to fight for causes - look at all those materialistic inward looking people living in their McMansions with Satellite TVs. they've got too much to lose!
It's quite deft politics, but it brought about urban sprawl of McMansions. seemingly it was a kind of self-perpetuating apathy machine, but now we have a higer density of population and increasing inequalities in our society. Who knows where this is going to go? And in case you're wondering, I'm not inciting anything.

What's interesting about this exercise is that if Police can lock down suburbs and barricade people in and out, isn't that a replay of one of the state actions that led to the 1848 French Revolution in Paris? You know, the one portrayed in Les Miserable?
I just thought I'd point that out before bricks came through our windows.

3. 'Hot For Teacher' - Oz Version
There have been a number of these cases being reported lately. Thirty-something school teacher seduces young male student, only to get reported and in court, then prison.
Question... If you were a teenage boy, would you refuse a blowjob from this woman?:

A 36-YEAR-OLD female teacher has been charged with sex offences after she allegedly seduced one of her 15-year-old male pupils.

Natalina D'Addario, a languages teacher at a school in Melbourne's outer north, allegedly started a sexual relationship with the boy, who cannot be named, in May this year.
It is alleged the pair engaged in oral sex on six separate occasions between May and July.

None of the encounters are said to have taken place on the grounds of the school, or during school hours.

Most are alleged to have occurred in parks in the inner-west suburb of Ascot Vale, and Dallas, in the city's northwest.

The affair allegedly ended in September when the boy informed the school's assistant principal of the sexual liaisons.

The school then notified the boy's parents and the police. Ms D'Addario, who was employed at the school in April as a part-time languages teacher, was immediately suspended without pay.

On November 16, she was charged with six sex offences, including sexual penetration with a child aged under 16, wilfully committing an indecent act with a child under 16 and sexual penetration with a 16-year-old child who was in her care, supervision or authority.

Yesterday, she appeared briefly in Melbourne Magistrates Court for a filing hearing.

Would a teenage boy refuse any blowjob? Could a teenage boy refuse a blowjob?
"Blowjob!" Frank Zapa pointed out it was the most profound experience a teenage boy can hope for.
Another teacher-seductress Karen Ellis' case went before Justice Michael Kirby some months ago in an appeals court and Justice Kirby tossed it out on he grounds that there should be gender equality under the law. It may be the case on paper and in theory, but the facts are that if you're a hetero-sexual male high school student and a female teacher who was not unattractive offered sex, you wouldn't hesitate. Girls might hesitate with male teachers, but boys just wouldn't. Seriously. And while girls might claim after such events to have been traumatised, it's hard to imagine too many boys claiming to be traumatised by such an event - heck you'd expect they'd celebrate it. After all, what the hell is this song about?

Spoken:
Oh wow, man ! Wait a second man. whaddaya think the teacher’s gonna look like this year ?
My butt, man!
T-t-teacher stop that screaming, teacher don’t you see ?
Don’t wanna be no uptown fool.
Maybe I should go to hell, but I’m doin’ well,
Teacher needs to see me after school.
Chorus:
I think of all the education that I missed.
But then my homework was never quite like this.
Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad,
I’m hot for teacher.
I got it bad, so bad,
I’m hot for teacher.
Spoken:
Hey, I heard you missed us, we’re back! I brought my pencil Gimme something to write on, man
I heard about your lessons, but lessons are so cold.
I know about this school.
Little girl from cherry lane, how did you get so bold ?
How did you know that golden rule ?
Chorus
(guitar solo)
Oh man, I think the clock is slow
I don’t feel tardy
Class dismissed

You've got to think there' something not quite right with the law if it can't tell the difference between 'Don't Stand So Close To me' and 'Hot For Teacher'.

4. Nomar To Yanks Rumours Fail To Die
Yep MLB stuff again. It takes my mind off the horrible reality that is Sydney 2005. :)
Besides, somebody's got to sign Nomar this off-season.

The New York Post, citing several industry sources, reported the Yankees have made an offer to Garciaparra to play first base.

Garciaparra would join such ex-Boston luminaries as Babe Ruth, Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs who went on to don pinstripes.

But before fans go imagining a shortstop-studded infield of Garciaparra at first, Derek Jeter at shortstop and Alex Rodriguez at third base, Yankees GM Brian Cashman and agent Arn Tellem refused to confirm or deny an offer has been made to Garciaparra.

And FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports the Astros are also on the list of teams interested in Garciaparra. The Astros would play Garciaparra in left field. He also could serve as a backup for shortstop Adam Everett.

The competition for Garciaparra is intense, but two factors could weigh in the Astros' favor: Minute Maid Park would be conducive to Garciaparra's right-handed power. And Garciaparra's wife, Mia Hamm, is from Austin, Tex.

The Braves, Blue Jays, Indians, Dodgers and Orioles are among the other clubs interested in Garciaparra.

The rumour is that there's an offer on the table.