Joga Bonito my ass

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A Shadow

In a region racked by violence and animosity, a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman have dared to fall in love. But their life together has had to wait as Israeli laws keep them apart. Osama Zatar, an Arab, and Jasmin Avissar, a Jew, met and fell in love at the animal shelter near Jerusalem where they both worked. But after the two 25-year-olds married in 2004, they found themselves entangled in a web of laws that prevent them from living together as husband and wife. Israelis are legally forbidden to enter Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank known as "Areas A", for security reasons. Conversely, the Nationality and Entry into Israel law, introduced in 2003, forbids residency or citizenship to any Palestinian from the occupied territories married to an Israeli. So Avissar could not live in her husband's home in Ramallah and he did not have a permit to visit her in Jerusalem...

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What makes South Africa's apartheid era different to segregation and racial hatred that have occurred in other countries is the systematic way in which the National Party, which came into power in 1948, formalised it through the law. The main laws are described below.

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949
Prohibited marriages between white people and people of other races. Between 1946 and the enactment of this law, only 75 mixed marriages had been recorded, compared with some 28,000 white marriages.

I lived in the shadow of that law. I knew people who were forced to leave South Africa for committing the crime of loving each other. It doesn't matter how it comes about, when you legislate to separate it is only because the legislators are afraid that any mixing of people, any exchange that doesn't involve shooting or explosives or beatings and supplication, increases the risk of seeing the enemy as a human being. It's because of things like this, things that I've seen and lived as a child that I will never support or temper my criticism of Israel and any other country that legislates racism. Things like this belong in a dark, forgotten age, not the 21st century.

Jihad of the week

At least Israel didn't make it!

Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed: My talk with you this week is on injustice and opression. That one man, incompetent as he is powerful, can hold the destiny of a nation in his hand. To oppress its spirit and destroy its hope. I am talking of course about Graham Poll.

This infidel Englishman made history yesterday for giving a player 3 yellow cards in the same match, disallowing a goal scored before full time and general incompetence which nearly jeopardised our plan to reduce Australia to football driven anarchy. I myself watched the abomination of a match, careful to screen my eyes from the shorts that these men wear to accentuate their muscular legs, believers, shorts are haram, you must not wear them. There were also many decadent western women with their smooth, tanned skin, abundantly revealed by skimpy clothing, part of a plot to corrupt us, do not be distracted by them my brothers.

Back to the match. Graham Poll, whose legs are unremarkable, displayed such incompetence that we thought Australia were going to lose. It was such a shock when they drew that some of our men started dancing and singing for joy. They have since been shot. Singing, dancing, also haram.

This ended a good night for me, having seen the Yankee infidel pigdogs smote by the fiery sword of a vengeful Allah to crumble to a humiliating loss against Ghana. A defeat no doubt representative of our coming victory, God willing. Graham Poll is haram, do not associate with him, certainly do not look at his legs, even a glance.

The War on Language

AUSTRALIA has been urged to join a global campaign to declare suicide bombings a crime against humanity.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre says only an international treaty to counter suicide terrorism would give Australia the legal mechanism to extradite and prosecute, on home soil, inciters of terrorism such as Abu Bakir Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah.

The centre's director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, met the Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, yesterday to seek support for international sanctions against those who sponsor, direct or inspire terrorists.

Labor's defence spokesman, Robert McClelland, has pledged to draft a parliamentary motion and seek bipartisan support for Australia's signing of such a convention. Australia is already a backer of a draft comprehensive convention against terrorism, which has stalled because of problems of defining terrorism.

SMH

Oh I just bet they had problems.

"Ok ok, we'll say it's using force to achieve political ends?"

"Nup, how many Palestinians can we kick out of greater Israel with handholding and protests?"

"Ok, bombing to frighten or threaten people into giving you what you want."

"Does that include from 30,000 feet? Can we make some sort of exception for laser guided bombs?"

"I don't think that's quite in the spirit of..."

"Well look you don't expect us to outlaw killing people and bombing civilians, accidentally of course, heheh, do you?"

"No, no, it's just that..."

"Well good, we'd never get anywhere then. I propose we define it as what our enemies do to us but not what we do to them."

"Well wouldn't that seem a little hypocritical?"

"Hypocritical? Just wait till we get it declared a crime against humanity..."

"A crime against what!?"

"A crime against humanity, you know, like forcibly deporting entire populations and deliberately targetting civilians in retaliation, you'll have to get it past the UN though, we have a little issue with them about their resolutions. They resolve, we don't follow, yadda yadda, no big deal."

"Um, well.. I er... how about Nazis, shouldn't we outlaw being a Nazi?"

"What? Why? What for?"

"I just thought it was more important than..."

"Than terrorism!? Are you insane?"

Don't be absurd

AN animated President George Bush has termed "absurd" the feeling among some Europeans that the US is more of a threat to stability than North Korea and Iran, the two countries he once described as part of an "axis of evil"

SMH

Really? Let's see what the facts say:

USA in the past 50 years has invaded or attacked: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Grenada, Libya, Panama, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia. None of these nations attacked the US first.

Iran has attacked Iraq, after the US gave Saddam chemical weapons and intelligence to attack Iran. They also had a stoush with the Taliban, when they were our allies. In fact in the last 100 years Iran hasn't attacked anyone, driven up world oil prices, started a global scramble for nuclear weapons or threatened to nuke countries without nuclear weapons.

Draw your own conclusions.

Crime and Punishment

The military has charged seven Marines and a Navy corpsman with premeditated murder and other crimes in the April 26 killing of an Iraqi civilian in a village west of Baghdad, the US Marine Corps says.

All eight men face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted. They were charged with premeditated murder, larceny, conspiracy, housebreaking, making false official statements, assault, kidnapping and obstruction of justice.

Housebreaking? Larceny? So Iraqis have the right to feel secure in their homes, unless the US military decides it has reason to kick down their doors without warrants or oversight. I wonder what they stole, besides Mr Awad's life, dignity and a little piece of our humanity.

Military criminal investigators examined whether the servicemen fatally shot a 52-year-old disabled Iraqi man, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, in the face, then planted an AK-47 assault rifle and a shovel next to his body to make it appear he was an insurgent placing a roadside bomb.

This is different to blowing up an entire house, or bombing a wedding party and then claiming all the victims were insurgents about to plant a roadside bomb, somehow. I guess they must bring stuff with them to plant on anyone they happen to murder.

Joseph Casas, a defence lawyer representing Jodka, said his client was innocent and that military investigators used inappropriate methods to obtain statements from the troops in the case.

Casas said the statements were not "confessions" and that he would seek to have the statements suppressed at the trial.

"I can tell you with regard to my client, he was subjected to at least three interrogations, one of which lasted about eight hours without any food, water, restroom breaks, you name it," Casas said.

"The way that they obtained these statements is something that's going to be under our magnifying glass throughout this trial," he said.

The military held the eight suspects in "maximum" custody for three weeks, officials at the base said.

They were restrained with handcuffs attached to a leather belt and leg cuffs any time they left their mobiles.

Authorities slightly loosened the conditions last week to enable them to have no such restraints while inside jail, the base said.

Jane Siegel, another lawyer representing Jodka, said interrogators used "strong-arm" tactics and threats of life imprisonment to elicit statements from the eight men.

"The techniques that they used to acquire these statements are as close to old-fashioned psychological rubber hoses as you can get," Siegel said.

SMH

This is ironic, given that the US does in fact use actual real old fashioned rubber hoses, waterboarding and "pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death" to extract information from its other "guests" not charged with any crimes.

Glass half full, other half Aboriginal

The latest report on the nation's health shows that, with the exception of the dramatically poor health of indigenous people, Australians' life expectancy is near the top of the world.

SMH

except for the 400,000 people no one cares about anyway, things are great! See, this is that unity and inclusion thing in action! Aboriginal people have a place in our society, just not where they can mess up our health statistics.

Whoops!

Iraq's trade minister lashed out at Australia today after escorts guarding an embassy delegation that visited him at his Baghdad office shot dead one of his own guards and wounded several others.

"They are trampling on the dignity and sovereignty of Iraqis," Abdel Falah al-Sudani, a member of parliament's dominant Shi'ite bloc, said on state television.

"We demand an explanation from the Australian government for this intentional and unwarranted criminal aggression against members of our protection force. It should also compensate the family of the martyr and the wounded," Sudani said.

Heh heh, um it was an accident, let's not do anything hasty... surely a tragic accident like this won't jeopardise the relationship between our two great nations right? Right?

"Immediately, the minister called on the Iraqi government to suspend all kinds of trade relations with the Australian government until it gives an explanation and pays compensations for the families of the killed and wounded people," Mohamed Hannon said.

It is not known why the delegation was in Baghdad, but Australia has been working hard to win back one of its most important wheat markets after the AWB kickback scandal saw Iraq suspend dealings with monopoly exporter AWB Ltd in February.

SMH

Ah, crap.