That’s right ladies and gents, the wait is over, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief and mild anticipation as I announce that I now have my very own little corner of cyberspace on and by which I can spout as much drivel as I should care to.

I’ve moved a few posts from this blog over to my new one, but I will not bother moving them all, nor adding a redirect from this site to my new one. This is mainly because I am back in Australia now (i.e. not in Korea any more) and my blogging focus will therefore be changing. People who found this blog interesting (that is a hypothetical assertion I’m making obviously) may not necessarily find my new one so, ergo I won’t make you go there if you don’t want.

But if parchance you do want to see what the bruhaha is all about (assuming there is some kind of bruhaha out there) update links to http://hojuin.net/blog (’/blog’ is optional, you’ll get there in the end either way).

yes all these posts today stem from my reading a particularly interesting post (interesting for its comment thread mainly) over at Tim Blair.net.

This little gem was too good to pass up;

sorry jeffs, u got it wrong im a high school student.. surprised? im actually ten generation aussie. and so its not faked bad english.. its been refined over many generations.

Posted by proud2be@muslimah on 2006 02 07 at 10:58 AM

A bit of grammar and spelling and a demonstration of at least a basic grasp of Australian history (more specifically its chronology) will be necesary to pass this course.

Bloody good laugh though wouldn’t ya say ?

Pretty soon I’ll dedicate a category to posts like this, because I want to be more active in making them… there are just too many piss funy fruit loops on the world wide web that sombody shouldn’t be mocking them at least semi-regularly.

This dude is a prat, but reading his shit makes me laugh a lot, give it a look and see what you think.

On a side note this blog will be closing down in T minus pretty soon, I’ve got my own space all lined up, a brand new wordpress 2.01 install to play with and, with any luck a new place of my own to customise as I like (and mock losers like old mate here to my hearts content). See ya there (I’ll let ya know the URL when it is up and running, still not sure then that’ll be - but I wouldn’t leave the house if I were you, you wouldn’t want to miss it).

A Dutch Blogger has recently started a photoshop ‘parody Mohammed’ competition which, it would seem, is basically trying to see who can make the most offensive pictorial of the Muslim prophet Mohammed … and my god do they go at it.

Do not click if you are easily offended by gratuitous takings of the piss or liberal use of the Dutch language (most pics speak for themselves).

Obviously this is going too far, but then again so is burning down an embassy or murdering a priest, all’s fair in love and war no?

I’m of the mind that I should head down to my local mosque (if there is one around here - there must be I’d rekon) and try and get myself a little bit of exposure to western Muslim culture and thinking, because I’m getting the impression that since all my education on Muslim ideology comes from the right wingers in Syria via the western media maybe I do not have a clear picture of what a ‘real’ Muslim is like.

We’ll see … I doubt they’d let a white boy in anyway.

Michelle Malkin is leading the charge to create a road map to the cartoons which have raised the ire of so many right wing Muslims out there.

All the cartoons can be seen here, or this handy little snippet comes from Michelles own site;

Now for my thoughts:

I am not a fan of religion, I think it does more harm than good as it has nothing to do with spirituality but is rather a vessel by which smart but corrupt men rule dimmer, more suggestable ones, lets have that straight from the start - I am biased in that respect.

Over and above this I think modern day Islam is a particularly potent means by which evil men seek to rule, again, dimmer ones, and manipulate them into doing what they want them to (namely killing and maiming and generally being bastards). Yes Catholicism/Christianity (particularly more modern day evangelical types) are the same, but they are far less violent and thus more readily ignored. The only other marginally similar religion I see today is Judaism, but I think the Jews have a far more rational basis for their violence (if ever there is such a thing) whereas most Islamic fundementalists seem to just be wantonly seeking destruction and it takes nothing more than cartoons to set them off.

Am I taking a stab at Islam here ? … maybe.

I find it interesting that the violence (tactfully called protests by some) is mostly directed at governments, as though they have something to do with it. I think this is a telling factor in the question of why we can’t all just get along, if a newspaper says something offensive it occurs to these types that a government ought to be able to do something about it. In case you’re not picking up my poorly constructed point - a government in the real world should be no more able to control and censor what a newspaper says then I should be able to smack a Liberal in the face for being a twat - but it seems this is not the attitude of some of the Islamic far right.

To any government who has contemplated asking newspapers to censor these cartoons because some right wing dicks got their panties in a bunch - fuck you, grow a spine - to any that actually did ask - a pox upon your house.

To any newspapers who apologised for or withdrew the cartoons: see message to censory conteplative government. To those that ran them (in particular to the french fellows who ran the story basically entitled fuck you I can say whatever I want) well done, good show, keep up the good work.

To anyone offended by my thoughts on the issue - if you want to dialogue about it feel free I have not been in contact with any of the middle-ground/left wing Islamic folk … if you’re out there I’m keen to be enlightened, if you’d rather burn me at the stake and kill my family - you’re not worth my time to even ridicule … except to call you a monstrous wanker maybe.

Oh for fucks sake !!

It would seem our fundemental (emphasis on ‘mental’ as opposed to ‘fun’) friends in the Middle East have no sense of humour and could use a geopolitical lesson.

Honestly if you take anything (especially something as fucking pointless as a religion) that seriously you need a hobby, might I suggest truck dodging ?

It’s high time the religious fanatics of the world took a long hard look at themselves and their religions so they can realise it’s all a crock of shit and give up fighting about it.

But I don’t suppose anybody will listen to me on this one either - oh well.

hat tip to The Marmot (can he still be called that ?)

It would seem not much happened in Norway today

En velvoksen elg brukte et isflak som surfebrett i Namsen.

A fully grown elk used an [isflak - what do you call a piece of ice that has broken away from a main sheet and is floating around on its own ?] as a surfboard in Namsen.

…

Isdemningen i Namsen løsnet ved Overhalla mandag. Kjell Grannes så på isen fra kjøkkenvinduet.

The ice [not sure what ‘Isdemning’ is, but the context would suggest this is pretty close … maybe -ed] in Namsen broke loose in the vicinity of Overhalla on Monday. From the kitchen window Kjell Grannes looked at the ice.

Svømte
Swamped … Swam … not sure exactly what they are getting at here -ed

Med ett kom en elg surfende nedover elva på et isflak, melder Adressa.no.

All of a sudden an elk came surfing across the river on an isflak [there it is again, still not sure that you’d call it in english … an ice flake ? -ed] Adressa.no tells us [apparently the newspaper that broke this front-pager -ed].

- Den kom farende nedover på et gjennomsiktig isflak. Det så nesten ut som om den gikk på vannet, sier Grannes til avisen.

It came a long way across on a piece of cross-flowing ice. ‘It almost looked as if he were walking on water’ Grannes told the newspaper.

Han kjørte ned til en bro like ved Overhalla sentrum. Der så han skogens konge komme surfende nedover elva. Like under broen falt elgen i vannet.

He drove down to a bridge close to the centre of Overhalla. There he saw the King of the Forest come surfing across the river. Just under the bridge the elk fell into the water. [Not sure what’s funnier, an elk falling off a piece of ice into a river or an old man driving into the city centre to watch -ed]

- Den kom seg heldigvis opp på land etter noen svømmetak, og så ut til å være i god form da den løp opp mot et byggefelt, sier Grannes.

Luckily it drew itself onto the land after a few swim strokes and looked to be fighting fit as it ran off toward the town said Grannes. [yes it would appear that the king of the forest prefers built up areas bygge=to build/built, felt=area/vicinity -ed]

from Aftenposten 31-01-06

As much as I originally thought to mock Mr Grannes for his enthusiasm, I can’t say I wouldn’t drive downtown to see an elk riding a piece of ice across a river - though obviously if this were happening in my local area I’d be more concerned about the 4 horsemen and keeping out the road of their hellacious steeds.

EDIT 01-02-06: I was kinda close, here is the official english version of that story. I’m happy enough with my effort.

hahaha is this Karmic or what ?

Bull fighting is an abomination of a passtime (this post is categorised ’sport’ very loosely) and I’m glad these spectators got some of what’s owed them.

Just a bit of slightly irreverent humour for a monday afternoon.

hat tip to mum

Cruising around the blogosphere this morning I came across Joel’s take on this recent piece from Simon World - I hadn’t read it before now and now that I have, I’ve got some thoughts.

In rare criticism, the People’s Liberation Army Daily has criticised the armed forces taking part in a major live-fire exercise for their lack of efficiency and failure to master the skills needed to wage information warfare. The criticism followed poor results from the recent Hanhai Storm exercises on the Kerqin grassland in Tongliao city , Inner Mongolia , according to the paper.

Three divisions, comprising about 50,000 troops, from the Shenyang military region took part in the four-stage exercises, in which the troops representing the PLA were defeated by the enemy Blue Army - believed to have simulated US battle techniques.

In the first stage, the Red Army was ordered to repel the attacking Blue Army. Despite its firepower being strengthened by the availability of six hi-tech aircraft, the Red Army troops were defeated because the army commander forgot to call in air support. The other three stages revealed the PLA officers were slow to respond and did not have a firm grasp of the advanced technologies needed to stage information warfare.

Antony Wong, president of the International Military Association in Macau, thought the exercises simulated a “ground battle” on the Korean Peninsula, with the Blue Army representing the US.

Simon World

I do hope somebody in the Washington/Seoul heirarchy is paying attention to this, not that a country conducting exercises to keep its soldiers in the practice of warfighting is necessarily worrying, but consider the location and capabilities of the groups concerned and this becomes something to keep an eye on.

Given that the Shenyang Military Region has a field strength of 250,000 it becomes fairly clear (well to me anyway) that this was an exercise of the command structure (look at the number of troops utilised) and it would appear they did not do so well. With any luck this means the command and logistical infrastructure does not yet exist to such a degree as to be able to effectively weild a quarter of a million soldiers in a field environment (no mean feat for certain) - chances are it doesn’t though, more likely is one or two of the commanders are just good old fashioned clusterf#c#s.

As yet there is nothing, as far as I am concerned, to be troubled by, however the recent tensions on and around the peninsula (NB: final emphasised paragraph) make it fairly clear to me that now is the time for diplomacy, not posturing (from both sides - don’t hear me wrong there). It’s time for the generally useless politicians of the world to step up and begin a dialogue of interaction and peace, start early before any (ok - too much more) bad blood starts running - please don’t fuck this up as well, it’s not in anyone’s best interests.

Hat Tip to Joel and Simon - linkage/emphasis inside article mine.

Driving home this evening I was listening to the radio, as is my wont on long (or for that matter short) car journeys when along came an advertisement for the Royal Military College Duntroon. Being a current (albeit part-time) student of this great establishment I was naturally interested and, it would not be unfair to say, more than a little disturbed by what I heard.

When (or I suppose if) you hear the advertisement you’ll know straight away which one I mean but the basic gist is that if a 4 or 5 year degree sounds like too much work come to RMC and get a job in 2. I believe the wording goes something along the lines of;

‘Haven’t got 4 years to wait around ? becoming an army officer takes just 18 months’

Is this really the type of advertising we want luring future professional officers of the Australian Army ? I bloody hope not.

‘So can’t be arsed putting in the effort to get a bachelors ? don’t have the stamina for an apprenticeship ? come join the army you’re our type of guy’

I am saddened to think that anyone would be allowed to lead Australian soldiers (arguably some of the finest in the world) with an attitude like that, though there is little cause for alarm, anyone joining under such a premise has little to no chance of making it through the RMC coursework IMO.

I was reminded of an article called Khaki ambassadors I read in the Herald Sun which sums up the crisis in military recruiting in this country quite well, give it a read because Mr. Bolt puts it far better than I could.

In case you’re wondering what kind of people the army is looking for in their officer ranks - here’s a thought;

…the 27-year-old lieutenant in Baghdad found the army didn’t issue the right equipment for platoons like his to break into houses during operations to clear urban areas. So he ordered two sets of door-breaking tools over the internet, using money scrounged from his regiment.

Khaki ambassadors Herald Sun 30 dec ‘05

It’s not every day you open the paper and a mate’s on the front page.

Mark is a lot stronger and more experienced a climber than I so it just goes to show nothing’s ever a sure thing in the mountains.

Moral of the story - stay switched on out there because you’re never better than the mountain.

Heal quick mate.