(no subject)

These bloody lies drive me crazy. From the Liberal Party of Australia's policy on refugees:

Critics of our tough stance ignore two fundamental facts: We oversee one of the most generous migration programs in the world and, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) figures, Australia is the third largest recipient of refugees for resettlement worldwide.

This is a deliberately misleading pile of old poo. In 2003 the UNHCR directly resettled only 26,000 refugees out of almost ten million refugees worldwide. Australia took just 15% of that small number, coming third after the US and Canada. In total we accepted about 12,000 refugees. Ireland took about the same total number, but they have only about a fifth of our population. The Netherlands have about the same population as Australia but they took 34,000 refugees. France? Three times our population, eight times as many refugees. And so on. In fact, Australia is one of the least generous nations, particularly given our comparative wealth. Basically, every country has to play the same rules: if a refugee reaches that country, they must be allowed to stay. Because of Australia's isolation, it's difficult for asylum seekers to reach us, and most arrive via the UNHCR's resettlement efforts. Other nations don't have this luxury.

At least the govt is honest about one thing now:

A re-elected Coalition Government will: [...] Retain the policies of excision, offshore processing (the "Pacific Solution") and mandatory detention that have acted as a powerful deterrent to illegal migration

It's illegal to do anything to deter refugees from seeking asylum in your country. In the past the government has been careful not to confess that deterrence is the point of their policies, even though that's obvious to everyone. These days I think they know there's zero danger in admitting their real motives. I'm surprised they bother trotting out the same old lies.

(no subject)

I seem to have developed catdar. I'm so used to the noises frankxcat and timbus make about the house that I've got an instinctive understanding of where they are and what they're up to. This morning at around 6 am I heard odd, staccatio thumping in the loungeroom, and I knew at once something unusual was going on. This was confirmed when I staggered into the loo and only Frank came to harass me for his breakfast.

I discovered Tim playing with a mouse under the table. He was picking it up in his mouth, moving it to a new spot, then pawing it a bit before moving it again. Now, I know the whole playing with your food thing is a solo predator's safety procedure: an injury can be fatal if it leaves you unable to feed yourself. Cats will even go through the routine with their toys, pretending to ignore them to see if they're still mobile. But the shifting the prey around from spot to spot was new to me. Maybe Tim was claiming it, shifting it away from my or Franks' attention? (Surprisingly, Frank didn't seem to have noticed the mouse's presence at all.)

I picked Tim up and shoved him into the startled arms of my naked and half-conscious husband, then got a container and caught the mouse. It wasn't hard - the poor thing was torpid with terror. Freezing to become invisible is a bad strategy on carpet or in tupperware. As far as I could see, it was completely uninjured; Tim must have moved it about as gently as a mother cat moving her kittens. I popped it out the front door and when I looked again it had vanished.

This makes up a bit for a poor mouse I once accidentally caught in a sticky cockroach trap and couldn't free.

Licherachur

Now here is an example of where a screen adaptation makes itself useful in understanding the book. In the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice I'm just up to the bit where D'Arcy dances with Elizabeth and they trade barbs. This is Chapter 18 in the book, where we read:

[This is D'Arcy] "Do you talk by rule then, while you are dancing?''

"Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to be entirely silent for half an hour together, and yet for the advantage of some, conversation ought to be so arranged as that they may have the trouble of saying as little as as possible.''

"Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you imagine that you are gratifying mine?''

"Both,'' replied Elizabeth archly; "for I have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds. -- We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb.''

"This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am sure,'' said he. "How near it may be to mine, I cannot pretend to say. -- You think it a faithful portrait undoubtedly.''

"I must not decide on my own performance.''

Now this dialogue has been cut down a bit, naturally, for the small screen, but the words haven't been messed about with. What I had missed, in reading the dialogue for the first time, is that D'Arcy's remark This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am sure can be read both as a compliment and as an arch remark to match any of Elizabeth's. When I first read it I figured D'Arcy meant "No, you're not anti-social at all". In the TV version it comes across much more as "You never hold your tongue." (Another thing I hadn't really grasped from my first attack on the book, but which is clearer on screen, is that D'Arcy keeps trying to be nice to Elizabeth and keeps falling on his face.)

(no subject)

Oh dear gods. In Michigan you can't get an abortion without at least one parents' permission, so a sixteen year old girl had her boyfriend hit her in the stomach with a baseball bat until she miscarried. They face criminal charges, but what they need, what they needed, was counselling and education - enough to show them all their options, enough to help them talk to their families. Better still, they needed the simple right to go to a doctor for advice and help without being dobbed on. I just don't think they knew what the hell to do. Even better still, they needed the education that could have helped them avoid the situation in the first damn place. Poor bloody kids.

Macomb teens end pregnancy with beating

(no subject)

Dear Doctor Who writers,

The Universe does not have a centre or an edge.

Please make a note of this information.

Thank you.