the eroding of freedom (or the slow road to ruin) pt 3

when the state government brought in legislation enabling it to seize private property that had been acquired using funds raised through the commission of crimes such as selling drugs i thought it was a good idea... and still do. but the latest proposal of the government to move from seizing property obtained using the proceeds of crime to simply seizing the property of people convicted of committing a crime is simply obscene. the courts are in place to impose a sentence and/or fine and that is where the penalty should end.

of particular concern to me is the insidious way in which the government is trying to sneak the laws in. it started as a law targetting bikies and drug dealers and, of course, no one was concerned. now it's trying to extend the scope of the laws and has chosen to apply them initially to sex offenders as, again, they don't believe people are likely to object to the targetting of a group almost universally despised. one has to question who will be targetted next. already the government is trying to seize the property of a man who was accused, but never convicted, of sex offenses. the man is now dead and the property has been passed to his brother. to take a property worth over $1 million from a man who has not been convicted of a crime simply because there were unproved allegations made against his deceased brother is immoral, unethical and wrong.

those of us who work for our possessions should have the security of knowing the law backs our ownership of them.

the eroding of freedom (or the slow road to ruin) pt 2

the term 'big brother' gets bandied around a lot these days and has unfortunately lost a lot of the menace it used to have when it was seen purely in the context of orwell's masterpiece, 1984. still, there are times when it really encapsulates the concept of a government's monitoring of its citizens that's gone beyond what is reasonable and become a serious breach of their right to privacy. the proposal of the UK government's home office to develop a database containing details of every phone call made, every text message sent, every email sent and all time spent on the internet by every individual in the UK clearly falls into the traditional 'big brother' realm. it is an ominous and frightening prospect.

we're all aware of the threat of terrorism but i personally believe that the biggest threat terrorism poses to our way of life and the values we hold dear is the way our governments are using it as an excuse to strip away our freedoms. unless we fight to preserve our rights, things like this will be just the tip of the iceberg.

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я говорю немного по-русски

geez it's hard learning a new language. i've started taking russian lessons and am finding that i'm struggling a bit with it. the first few weeks were ok but the vocabulary lists get longer and the grammar gets more difficult by the week. i'm determined to learn it though so will keep battling through. once i'm a bit more financial i want to go back to eastern europe and spend some time there and i reckon knowing russian will be of use.. especially in the ukraine. i'd also like to learn polish and perhaps romanian and german. i've been told that once you learn a foreign language, it's easier to learn more and i really hope that's the case.

catherine tate: i can do that... translator

pure comic gold!! the catherine tate show is very very funny indeed.

the melbourne debacle (nearly) a week on

i've held off commenting on the game for nearly a week but it's time. i've been a freo member since the inception of the club (i'm member # 2060) and have been through some pretty dark days without my support ever wavering. i've seen some pretty bad performances and have been disappointed, embarrassed and saddened but the game last sunday left me more upset than any other. i'd been worried about the game during the week and had thought it may be a danger game but by half time i was wondering how i could have even considered us losing to melbourne. for us to lose from that position was beyond comprehension but somehow we managed it and i was left feeling quite distraught.

well, there's something about this game that feels to me like no other loss i've seen. it feels like a line's been drawn in the sand and the future direction of the club will be decided now. i really feel that the club needs to decide if we're going to be similar to clubs like footscray, st kilda and richmond that have a stench of failure about them or if we're going to develop the winning culture that clubs like essendon and carlton (before the afl's sanctions hobbled them) have. i'm encouraged that harvs has committed the club to using all our draft picks this year to secure good young players rather than picking up recycled players. for too long the passion and loyalty of freo members has made us accept underperformance that the slime supporters up the road would tear up their membership cards over. well, it stops here!! it's time for this club to cull the players that don't have the heart, hunger or drive that's needed to lead to sustained success. it's time to develop a game plan that cuts out the rubbish and promotes a winning style.

in short, it's time that freo became the club that's always been promised but has never been delivered. i'll remain a member regardless of what happens but i'd rather not spend the next 50 odd years of my life watching a club that never quite gets there.