The recent terror attacks in Mumbai had me reaching for my Indian photo album, which I hadn’t opened up for some time. See, I was sure I’d taken a picture similar to that chilling photo of the deserted, bloodstained floor inside Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, which flashed around the world early on in the siege. Turns out I had, kind of — albeit a particularly shit one.

But that’s not really the point of this post. While flicking through the pictures, I was reminded all over again what a weird and wonderful country India is — which was a welcome distraction amid the tales and images of carnage, and the fucking idiots who wasted no time in exploiting the tragedy to score cheap political points.

Anyway, this photo in particular made me laugh. It’s taken not far from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and shows a young E Rogenous posing for a portrait while enduring the kind of hilariously shameless curiosity visitors to India attract at every turn:

I imagine a few conversations in offices around Mumbai’s financial district later that afternoon sounded something like this:

PRABHU:  What’d you get up to on your lunch break, Sanjay?

SANJAY:  Watched some white chick having her portrait drawn.

PRABHU:  …

SANJAY:  …

PRABHU:  … sweet.

Embarrassment aside, though, the portrait itself was worth every rupee.

Many of you may remember when David Hicks plead guilty in order to be freed from prison early. Keyboard heroes were aghast that anyone would admit to something they weren’t guilty of, in order to get a lighter sentence. MightyMatt on AnonymousLefty said that if he was innocent they could torture him indefinitely, and he would never confess, because he is in the right.

John McCain did:

If only life was as simple as black and white, right versus wrong.

The Editor, John Surname, Ant Rogenous, Jeremy Sear, Wah and Craig discuss the following:

* Blogging
* Kevin Rudd’s first 100 days
* The Liberal Party
* Brendan Nelson
* Interest rates
* Cricket
* The Herald Sun
* David Hicks
* Dick Smith
* Osama Bin Laden
* Prince Harry
* Connex
* Lynne Kosky
* Public transport
* Victorian Labor Party
* Fleshlight
* What is the plural of “penis”?
* Liberal leadership future

** I don’t know why but that bloody “Play now” link is still serving up episode four. I have no solution yet. Something to do with the intertubes broken or something. Just to be safe, use the “Play in popup” link or the “Download” link. **

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In this episode The Editor, John Surname, Prophet, Ant Rogenous and Craig discuss the following:

* “Sorry”
* Kevin Rudd
* Brendan Nelson
* Tony Abbott
* F1 Grand Prix
* Alexander Downer
* Calamari
* USA primaries
* John Roskam
* Celebrity trash
* Tim Blair
* Andrew Bolt
* Dick Smith
* David Hicks

 GrodsCast RSS feed ** Please note that this feed has changed since the last episode. Apologies for inconvenience — I promise it won’t happen again. **

Shirts for members of my David Hicks Fan Club are finally available.

Also available – this classy underwear:

I suppose today signaled the start of the election year race, what with Parliament sitting for the first time in ‘07. And as usual things got off to a roaring start. Wasn’t it beautiful to see The Man Of Steel groveling in a last-minute correction to Hansard, claiming that he never meant to deny a link between emissions and climate change. “Your Honour, my government is the best friend that the climate has (as long as Australian industry doesn’t need to give up a single dollar of profit.)”

And come on, just admit that watching the David Hicks issue slowly explode in John Howard’s face like a box of illegal Fyshwick firecrackers brings joy to your soul.

The Ghoul was on the 7:30 Report tonight getting slaughtered by Kerry O’Brien while wearing his bloody Amnesty International badge again. I’ve written about this grotesque hypocrisy before. And Phil said something curious when Kerry asked him about evidence gained under coercion: “coercion — whatever that is…”

It’s torture, Philip. Your lapel sponsor Amnesty International says so.

So on the day when polls suggest that Labor has an actual advantage coming into the election year, as opposed to an imagined advantage (refer to Latham, M), it’s time for GrodsReaders to lay their cards on the table. Leave a comment predicting the election result by party and margin. Come November(ish) the winner will receive a custom-made jpeg image declaring them the GrodsElectionPredictionChampion to delete from their inbox display proudly on their blog sidebar.

The Editor tips Labor by three seats.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that when it comes to terrorism, weasel language is the way of the future. Last week The Man Of Steel and The Ghoul (ie. Philip Ruddock — thanks to joe2 in comments for the cool name) proved that torture is okay when you’re torturing potential terrorists because then it’s only “coercion”. Now it seems that being locked alone in a small concrete cell for 23 hours per day is not solitary confinement, but simply being blessed with a “single-occupancy cell”.

The campaign to paint Guantanamo Bay as a holiday resort is intensifying with right-wing commentators such as Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt so awestruck by inmates’ calorie intake and medical care I reckon they should check themselves in for an extended stay.