“Hold all my calls, Bernard.

“Oh, and hand me my apologetics hat — it’s going to be a long day.”

As you no doubt heard on the latest GrodsThink and read at teh hottest formerly anonymous barrister in Australia’s blog, the GrodsTeam and a handful of like-minded Leftists picketed East Melbourne’s Fertility Control Clinic to prevent anti-abortion terrorists from occupying their usual position out the front, where they harass patients of the clinic and passers-by with their passive-aggressive bigotry and propaganda.

Though the police kept the two groups separated for the duration of the protest, our presence in front of the clinic was a complete success: the bigots left, defeated, after about half an hour of non-violent confrontation and fiendishly clever chants. (I particularly enjoyed the subversive “we demand free 24-hour child care” one: take that, whichever side of the child-care debate you stand on … whoever you are!)

Anyway, that’s enough of my blathering. Pictures, after all, speak louder than words. But since no one took any particularly good photos of the event, we’ll have to make do with the next best thing: The Editor’s brilliant documentary.

Anyone not moved by this remarkable film is dead inside. And a git.

PS: Special thanks to GrodsCorp’s own General Bron, who did an outstanding job rallying the troops for this protest. Getting a ragtag bunch of booze-soaked Lefties out of bed and into the bitter Melbourne air before 10am on a Saturday — with nary a latte-stand in sight — is quite an achievement, but doing it all via email from Sydney is another matter. Awesome, awesome work.

So thanks again, Bron! And we’ll all see you down here for the next one.

Seriously, what’s up with this shit?

“The US Defence Department said today it is forbidding Google from filming and depicting in detail its military bases, after officials found precise imagery of a Texas base on the Google Maps website.”

How the hell are our Muslim brothers going to attack US military bases when they aren’t even allowed to have detailed maps of them? How is that fair?

I hate the US so much, I can’t wait for someone to just attack their military bases. It would totally serve them right because of what they did to Russia.

Fight the powah!

Some people will say anything to secure a more lenient sentence.

MEMBERS of a Melbourne-based terrorist group discussed killing John Howard while he was prime minister, the Victorian Supreme Court was told today.

Shame on them.

Dickhead par excellence KG has posted the following comment at A Western Heart in response to the news that woman of Somali descent stabbed two pilots on a New Zealand domestic flight today:

Seems to me that since this woman stabbed the pilots in mid-air, the intention may have been to bring down the aircraft, not hijack it. And I’ve just been talking to someone who met the woman a while ago at Blenheim hospital–apparently she was wearing a hiijab at that time and had a very hostile attitude.

Draw you own conclusions……

Why thank you KG, I might just do that: YOU’RE A FUCKING WANKER.

Here’s an experiment: pop into the AWH comment thread, where resident retard “Crow” has already said:

A Somali? Engaging in violent activity? That’s unheard of!

and suggest that every time an American goes postal and shoots up a school or shopping centre, it’s a clear indication that there’s something culturally wrong in the USA. 

See how long it’ll take for:

a) Your comment to be deleted
b) Your comment to be edited to make it look like you’re gay
c) The AWH nutters to accuse you of being a terrorist supporter/ally.

Honestly, I don’t know why I keep reading that site.

UPDATE: Actually, yes I do: it’s for the same reason I’m compelled to look at my turds before I flush them.

UPDATE 2: Krypto took the challenge and posted this, at 12.26pm:

It took just one hour and 20 minutes for the post to be deleted.

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.

Aussie values are so superior to everyone else’s that we’re soon going to demand people sign up to them in order to get a tourist visa. There are the quintessential Aussie values like mateship, a fair go, low interest rates, relaxedness and comfortableness; but there are some other less obvious Aussie values like a respect for the sanctity of human life and for human rights. Or at least I’d hope that those would make it onto any self-respecting Aussie values checklist.

Some would argue that these represent our Way Of Life™.

You see, here in Australia we don’t sentence criminals to the death penalty no matter how terrible the crime. We don’t believe that the State has the right to take any life in retaliation for any crime. In Australia we don’t believe in torture, no matter how important the information potentially being held. We believe in fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom from State-sanctioned murder and inhuman interrogation.

But our leaders’ resolve crumbles in the face of that faceless threat: terrorism.

Our morally flexible Prime Minister calls for the death of Bali bombers yet appeals for clemency for Australian drug smugglers in Indonesia on the grounds that Australia is opposed to the death penalty.

Our morally flexible Prime Minister calls for the “coercive” use of sleep deprivation as long as it doesn’t cross the invisible and undefinable line into torture. This may or may not be related to the fact that this “coercion” has already been used on Australian citizens in American detention camps with Australia’s knowledge and implied consent.

Our fear of terrorism has created a social environment where our morally flexible Prime Minister (and others) can make statements like these with no discernible public backlash. The arguments of Howard and Amnesty International member Philip Ruddock recently seem to be: torture is okay if it’s used against terrorists, and then it’s “coercion”, not torture.

Oh, and speaking of Amnesty International, Phil:

Is sleep deprivation a form of torture?
Amnesty International calls on the USA and all governments to prohibit the use of sleep deprivation and any other forms of torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as interrogation techniques.

It’s been noted many times before that if we let the terrorists (citizens of Terroristan, population: unknown) affect our Way Of Life™ they’ve won. If, in order to defend ourselves against the terrorists we begin to allow abuses of human rights that we formerly defended, we are fundamentally changing our Way Of Life™. Join the dots.

People like Andrew Bolt, upon reading this argument, would call me an “apologist” for the terrorists. They would say that my weakness in standing up to the forces of evil is what will let the terrorists win. But seriously, if in order to win we lower ourselves to the level of those we oppose, is our victory worth it?

From time-to-time during Howard’s reign there have been periods when my hatred of John Howard dulls. I mean, who can maintain the rage when the most prominent thing he’s said in two months is “I’ll donate $2000 to every motorist who converts to LPG”? But it’s times like these when the old feelings return. I’m ashamed of my country’s leadership.

People like Andrew Bolt, upon reading the above paragraph, would bemoan the “hate-riddled left and its politics of shame”. Andrew Bolt can fuck off.

On September 11 the slippery argument of whether Australia is safer or not after five years of “war on terror” was always going to pop up. John Howard says yes, we are safer and has called on Muslims to learn English, integrate, and denounce terrorism. Kim Beazley says no, we’re not safer and has called for tourists and immigrants to sign up to Australian values (”respect for each other, mateship, fairness, freedom and respect for our laws”), along with the teaching of Australian values to immigrant children in schools.

You see, if only all of them Muslims would become more like Steve Irwin everything would be okay and you could throw your fridge magnet out. Steve Irwin was so Australian he even died like an Australian. Does anybody else find this populist and xenophobic attitude offensive that “if only they were more like us, instead of more like them” our Way Of Life™ wouldn’t be threatened?

And what is this Way Of Life™ anyway?

But back to the point, and the superiority of Australians and Australian values. All Muslims should became Australian (because, you know, Muslim is a nationality, not a religion) because no Australian’s ever done anything contrary to our Way Of Life™ before.