(no subject)

In comments, I compared BSG's Number Six to Al from Quantum Leap. ianmcin responded:

"Hey, Sam. Ziggy's been running the numbers on this one, and she says that there's an 85% probability that you're here to wipe out humanity."

No Spending Week, Day 3

Didn't spend a cent yesterday - took lunch and a thermos of coffee to work and used my prepaid bus ticket. Today I spent another $48 on physiotherapy (1/2 back from insurance), $2.20 on groceries, and $1.60 on bus fare. I took a No Doz instead of buying a coffee, which sounds awful, but I suspect may actually be less dodgy for one's health. (My antidepressant is working wonders, but can make me very drowsy.) I also avoided stocking up on Asian groceries or random, interesting vegetables. Just because something is on special doesn't mean you need to buy it. Satori!

Using up lots of stuff from the fridge which might otherwise have been forgotten and eventually chucked out (frequently those random, interesting vegetables). Substituting jam roll-ups for bikkies and low-fat sugar-free cocoa for chox. My main problem seems to be carrying enough snax to avoid the minor but unpleasant hypos caused by my diabetes. (Obviously if I have a choice between buying something and getting the wobbly sweaty weirds I'll chose the former.)

Flying fruitloops

Madness from public figures. Firstly, Maryland Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, who has defended his repeated calls for a public registry of HIV positive people. He refuses to accept the findings of studies which show this would stop people at high risk seeking testing - in other words, it would mean more cases of AIDS (cf abstinence-only sex education, which increases pregnancies and abortions) - let alone the fear and hate it would unleash. Here's Equality Maryland's statement, endorsed by health agencies and ACLU amongst others. One legislative leader, John Adams Hurson, is calling for Schaefer's resignation.

You can drop the Comptroller a line at wdschaefer@comp.state.md.us or at Comptroller of Maryland, 80 Calvert Street, Annapolis, MD 21401 . You can email John Adams Hurson at john_hurson@house.state.md.us, or write to Lowe House Office Building, Room 161, 84 College Ave, Annapolis, MD 21401 - 1991. (You could write to Hudson supporting his call for Schaefer's resignation, and cc your message to the Comptroller. You only need to write a few sentences. Whatever you write, keep it polite.)

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More from the Anglican Dean of Sydney, the Rev Phillip Jensen. He denies saying all that exciting stuff about the "temple to paganism" etc, but reckons he's engaged in "spiritual warfare" with "the father of lies" (ie the Devil). Jensen has nothing on Greek religious leaders who want potential priests to be tested for homosexuality, and who lament a ban on premarital sex which results in their taking wives "only fit for the circus". You could not make this stuff up. Pass the popcorn!

Disclaimer: my own religion is often beyond parody.

Pollie Ticks etc

From the SMH, an overview of Howard's likely moves now he has "the keys to the kingdom". I'd like to know where Family First are getting all that money from.

Coming up: Reclaim the Night on Friday 29 October. There'll be women-only* events all over Australia protesting men's sexual violence*. In Sydney, gather at Town Hall at 6.30pm for a March to Hyde Park at 7pm.

Also coming up: the SIEV X memorial art exhibition, remembering the death of 353 asylum seekers (mostly women and children) in an attempt to reach Australia by boat in 2001. It'll be on display in Sydney from 26 - 30 October from 10am to 4pm daily at Pitt St Uniting Church. Lots more info about the memorial project at the Web site.

In other news, Nigeria has sentenced two more women to stoning for having sex out of wedlock. I'll keep an eye out for action to take on this.


* If this offends you, I understand, but you may be putting your energy into worrying about the wrong thing.