Champas Socialist

Reply to Not Guilty in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I don't think any of us have any real idea of whether he is guilty. For me, the Bashir docco convinced me it was fairly likely that he is innocent. Unfortunately though plenty of people think he is weird, and is therefore guilty. We are just as afraid of what is different as we always have been. Just because it is not a social norm to share a bed with a child who is not your own biological child, does not make Jackson a paedophile. Many societ

Reply to Michael Jackson NOT GUILTY in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I don't think any of us have any real idea of whether he is guilty. For me, the Bashir docco convinced me it was fairly likely that he is innocent. Just because it is not a social norm to share a bed with a child who is not your own biological child, does not make Jackson a paedophile. Many societies have believed in much more communal approaches to parenting than Western society's current norm. Why shouldn't Jackson adopt such an approach and give the

Reply to Hyperbole thy name is Rangel in Politics JoeUser Forums

Daiwa, I must agree with you that it is one thing for a JU blogger to exaggerate and another for elected officials to do so. This Rangel guy is a complete disappointment. In response to BakerStreet and my old pal the doc, I had a quick look through the articles that have been featured and found less evidence than I had expected of right wing exaggeration. I think perhaps I was thinking of articles posted by people in the Top Ten who get featu

Reply to Political Games on JoeUser in Politics JoeUser Forums

We had an interesting discussion recently in a linguistics course about whether the convention of using capital letters to mark the start of a sentence will last the rest of this century. The advent of SMS language and the internet is seeing new grammars proliferate. For some time, mass schooling and dictionaries have stunted the natural evolution of the language, but these more populist forums for written language are finding a way to undermine the po

Reply to Hyperbole thy name is Rangel in Politics JoeUser Forums

What a stupid statement to make (Rangel's I mean). However, there are plenty of "liberals" who would never engage in such silly hyperbole as that. Meanwhile there are plenty of conservatives happy to engage in equally ridiculous hyperbole. Rangel is quite clearly an idiot, but why do you always insist on pretending that only 'the other side' (the L*ft) do these sorts of things? One need only look as far as the featured page of JU to find evidence.</fon

Reply to Hyperbole thy name is Rangel in Politics JoeUser Forums

What a stupid statement to make (Rangel's I mean). However, there are plenty of "liberals" who would never engage in such silly hyperbole as that. Meanwhile there are plenty of conservatives happy to engage in equally ridiculous hyperbole. Rangel is quite clearly an idiot, but why do you always insist on pretending that only 'the other side' (the L*ft) do these sorts of things? One need only look as far as the featured page of JU to find evidence.</fon

Reply to I choose not to be who I am not. in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I agree with a fair amount of this article PB. I don't think anyone chooses who they are attracted to and as long as you're not hurting anyone, then you should be free to act as you wish (obviously, if you are hurting someone because you are causing someone else to have unrequited love or you are in a relationship that isn't working, that's a different matter). I don't see how any of this distinguishes us from animals. I celebrate the diversi

Reply to It's a Commie plot, I tells ya! in Politics JoeUser Forums

It's amazing how quick the JU Right is to denounce people for believing Michael Moore outright, but they'll buy into an obvious forgery like this and then defend their own naivety! I started wondering about the legitimacy of the document when I got to the bit about homosexuality: Che Guevara proved that Commies can be homophobes too. And then it just starts getting a little too conveniently like 'leftist' goals rather than anything to do with Communism

Reply to Bush did better than Kerry at Yale in Politics JoeUser Forums

There is a humorous irony in having this article featured alongside an article that attacks the Left for continuing to try to discredit Bush, even though he'll never run for Presidency again. So you think that attacking Kerry will get you somewhere, but attacking Bush is living in the past. Hmmmm...

Classic Classroom Moments in Just Hanging Out JoeUser Forums

You may not know that I do some work teaching in primary schools. Of course, children are blessed with the ability to say the funniest of things without realising they have done so. I would like to share with you some of my favourite recent classroom moments (the names have been changed for the purposes of our anonymity). • I was teaching a Year 6 class when

Reply to Well that's my birthday - I've had it. in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Happy Bday. Wow, to think it's now been 4 years I've known you!

Reply to Crushed in Misc JoeUser Forums

You have some good turns of phrase Maso. You write descriptively and poetically. I liked that in many instances, although I don't like reading descriptions of places very much, but others do and it was well-written. I loved it when you applied it to the guy's emotions and thoughts though. I was quite confused at the start. I couldn't work out what all this dragon stuff was. I thought, am I reading some Lord of the Rings thing set in Melbourne?

Reply to The Right got it Right: THRICE in a fortnight!!! in Politics JoeUser Forums

FishHead, thanks for putting me onto the Bolt article in the first place and for your comment. Furry, an intelligent response. Toblerone, if you follow the link you will have your answer. But yes that was what I thought when the name popped up in my inbox. Maso, although it seems weird after so long, never forget that Downer's dad was responsible for abolishing the White Australia Policy. Bolt has always impressed me with his intellect, but he ignores

Reply to Where is the Justice??? in Blogging JoeUser Forums

PB, the justice is in the fact that 3 of the people who did the Bali bombing are about to be killed. Yes receive the death penalty. If you go to Indonesia and you smuggle drugs, you deserve to be removed from the gene pool for your utter stupidity. Because everyone knows they have the death penalty for drugs. If she has been wrongly convicted, and I can't say whether she has or not (but some inside sources I have in the Australian Police suggest to me

Reply to USA debates Shapelle Corby case on TV in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I disagree with their opinions, but at least they actually backed up their opinions of why the Indonesian system did not give a fair trial. Most Australians' opinions seem to be based on "she looks innocent when she cries". None of us have heard the evidence against her or seen how Balinese trials work. But they work well enough to put 3 Bali bombers on death row. (Incideentally a friend of mine who works for the cops told me she knows some inside stuf

The Right got it Right: THRICE in a fortnight!!! in Politics JoeUser Forums

I don't really have time for a full article at the moment, but something astonishing has happened that I have to comment on: In the past 2 weeks I have agreed with 3 of the most Right wing people in the country on politics. Yes this includes my sworn enemies, John Howard, Andrew Bolt (columnist) and Channel Nine's Sunday programme. So inspired was I by their comments

Reply to US Govt. listens to Phoenixboi in Blogging JoeUser Forums

What a pity, personally I'm all for the Buy Foreign campaign. Support poor people, we're fine.

Reply to For all you Democrats! in Blogging JoeUser Forums

The picture won't download, but I'd be very interested to see what Lynn Alison looks like ;>

Reply to Come Again... in Humor JoeUser Forums

hee hee funny. Very open of you maso. I actually can't remember my first wank.

Reply to Gone To The Dogs in Humor JoeUser Forums

Brilliant. We never see how stupid we are compared to animals.

Reply to Sydney's Working Class Riots: The Solution? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Thanks zergimmi and mano. Disappointed PB hasn't commented though given his interest in the last article on this. Maso, yes I think that is a fair point about the way much of the mainstream media constructs the image of these people (Btw, you might get into a bit of that if you do some Communication and Cultural Studies, which has some Foucault influence. CCST gets you analysing rhetorical techniques and the effects words have on peo

Reply to Why I Empathize With Illegal Aliens in Politics JoeUser Forums

An excellent article, Gid. Thasickness and stute, by all means, these people have to face consequences for breaking rules if we're going to have rules. And I am not an open borders advocate either (anymore, partly because of JU). But how about you go and meet some of these people and hear their stories and I think you'll see it's not as cut and dried as you make out. Do you think that people oppressed by the Taliban received a brochure in the mail adv

Reply to My Friend the Illegal Immigrant in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Sorry guys I'm on prac so not getting much net access. I met these guys at an evening that was organised by a Catholic church a friend of mine goes to. And for those who have come late to this series, this was Part 3. The previous articles in the series (which were the better ones) were posted about a page ago.

Sydney's Working Class Riots: The Solution? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

A couple of weeks ago, 60 Minutes ran a story about the riots in Sydney’s working class western suburbs. They interviewed some of the teenagers and young adults who had been involved in taking revenge on the police. One week after the story aired, 60 Minutes aired several letters from their viewers, all along the same line: “These kids have no respect for the good and

Reply to loverboy in Art JoeUser Forums

Cool writing mig