Something tells me that beach combing is going to become really popular in Cornwall very soon…

Bruce Schneier has written a lot of interesting things on this topic and a recent article is really worth a read.

As usual The Onion has a funny take on the politics of fear that usually accompany the rhetoric.

Nelson’s reply speech to the apology that PM Kevin Rudd gave was pathetic. He seemed to be trying to have a bet each way. On the one hand he said some nice things and acknowledged some of the wrongs committed to the stolen generations and their families. On the other hand he tried to appease the right-wing nut jobs in his own party by qualifying his statements by effectively saying that it was justified in some circumstances for kids to have been stolen and that people were just acting with the best of intentions.

The ‘best of intentions’ argument is a terrible justification because it seems to be suggesting that one’s motivations completely justify an action, even if the action turns out to have terrible consequences. It also seems to suggest that somehow the people making decisions to steel the children were incapable of seeing just how wrong it was, and how f*&%ing patronising it was to think that non-Indigenous people could raise indigenous kids better than their real parents and extended families.

Now obviously there could be some examples raised of neglect and abuse of children in indigenous families just as there are in non-indigenous families. But this was not the time and the place to make such a case. By bringing it up he was cheapening his earlier good words and bringing down the tone of the day, which was about looking forward by acknowledging and apologising for past wrongs.

And now it turns out Nelson selectively quoted a stolen woman’s words without asking her permission and in the process managed to hurt more people. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.

So I was very pleasantly surprised at Kevin Rudd’s performance and really happy with the uplifting effect that the apology has had on many indigenous Australians.

Its nice to have some hope in the Australian public too, after many years of widespread negativity and myopia under the previous federal government. That’s not to say that Australian has suddenly become a socialist utopia but this appears to be a point where much of the Australian public moved towards reconciliation with our past, rather than pretending it didn’t happen.

But we just seem to accept that this is just the way it is. Just like most people would tell you that most politicians are at least morally corrupt, habitable liars…and yet keep voting for the major parties that perpetuate that stereotype.

There is a very informative, two-part article entitled Creative Destruction – The Madness of the Global Economy that takes a closer look at the glossing over of the recent ‘economic financial crisis’. It requires some concentration but is well worth reading.

The article comes from the very informative MediaLens Web site, which often has very insightful commentary on the poor state of mainstream journalism and its role in maintaining the status quo.

There is a campaign underway for ordinary people to sign the declaration to show the support for such an important document still exists.

This is particularly important given recent attempts by countries lead by the United States to attempt to downgrade human rights by using terrorism as a justification for cruel, inhuman and degrading conduct.

One example of this is the attempts by the current US administration to attempt to change the definition of torture to justify their terrible treatment of prisoners in their ‘care’. Many of these prisoners have been held illegally and without charge for many years.

As an adult I can easily justify satisfying my sweet tooth with ice cream because it doesn’t really effect me much in the short term. If I ate it all the time it would obviously effect me, but I feel pretty good about eating it occasionally.

Some (most?) kids on the other hand, are effected by junk food in terms of their behaviour. The sugar and the artificial ingredients that go into junk food seem to make many kids more hyperactive and some times aggressive.

Lately I’ve been to lots of kids’ parties, birthday parties and end-of-year break-up type parties. The common denominator has been the junk food. Does it really matter that they are eating this stuff? If it effects their behaviour then yes it does.

Would the kids have a worse time if they didn’t have junk food? I believe it wouldn’t make any difference to them as long as there was food they liked, like good fruit, things to do and other kids around to play with. I think we assume there needs to be ‘treats’ because that’s what we expect of celebrations.