Sheer bloody-mindedness

Minister rebuked by child case judge

"The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, has been forced to apologise to the Federal Court after returning five children to custody - by declaring that the suburban house they live in is a detention centre.

Senator Vanstone was rebuked yesterday by Justice Bruce Lander, who said it was extraordinary the minister had frustrated an application by lawyers for the children while it was still before his court."

Gotta keep Australia safe from those six year old kids!

More: High Court rules not to protect children from Immigration Dept (Australian Democrats media release)

Spam in the place where you live

Australian firm faces US wrath for spam flood

Buried Alive

Draft Two (with Jon's always excellent help) this morning, and sent it off.

VIRGINIA IS FOR...

... LOVERS

The US state of Virginia has just ripped away the existing rights of gay and lesbian couples. This will have the most profound, frightening, cruel effect on peoples' lives: gay Virginians will be stripped of rights regarding their kids, their health, and their wills. I take this personally: if Jon and I couldn't have married, we couldn't have lived on the same continent.

The fight is on. Folks outside Virginia - keep an eye out for news items in your country or city's press. Write to the legislators mentioned at Equality Virginia's site mentioning the news item you saw, including a clipping if possible. Keep it polite, but make your feelings clear, and let 'em know the world is watching.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Mr Howard wants to ban gay marriage.

Eu and nuclear power

Nuclear disarray as EU pushes east

A 50-year-old treaty forces EU countries to develop nuclear power, while crappy old reactors risk a Chernobyl repeat.

(no subject)

more girth=happy women uncouth replica elves

Genesis 10

Here's the reading for today :-) Notes to self:

- I'm home! :-) Here are Babylon, Uruk, and Akkad, cities in the land of Shinar, aka Sumer. The deity Asshur, patron of the Assyrians, gets a cameo as the founder of Nineveh. Those are just the ones I recognise - must find out where the other places are thought to be.

- The Tower of Babel doesn't arrive until the next chapter, but there's already a mention of separate languages. Genesis is pretty clearly the reconciliation of a number of different stories to form a coherent history of the world, but the editors needed to do a little more work.

Genesis 11

What the heck, let's have another chapter, it's either that or mop the floor. :-)

- God's being plural again (verse 7).

- There's a pun or something in the name "Babel". The city's name was Babi-ilu, "gate of the god", but verse 9 says it was given its name because of the mess with the Tower - there's a Hebrew pun or some folk etymology at work.

Fun fact! The Tower of Babel is thought to be the ziggurat of Marduk.