buggery.org

(Clockwise from back left) My dad, my brothers Peter, Bill, John and David, and me. Sometime in the 1960s, some beach (Tathra?).

Postsecret is a collection of people’s anonymous secrets, recorded on postcards.

New Zealand’s Civil Unions Bill came into effect this week. By all accounts the sky is still up.

eBay item number 5575416763: 21-year-old kid from Kentucky. Yours for USD 55K (Buy It Now price). “It” comes with your choice of two different motor vehicles.

You are bidding on ME Kory. I am 21 yrs old, from Morehead KY. I have decided that I am sick of where I am so I am trying to find a new home. I come with Big Screen TV, laptop, PC, Cell Phone, suv, truck, and much more. Parents dont need me anymore. I have many skills, including computers, all types of construction, and much more. Many years experience in a lot of things. Currently looking for job, family, place to stay far away from here. Bored with life.

I am a hard worker. I will need half of the ending bid up front to pay my bank what I owe them before I move. I will work for anyone doing anything. Just get me out of this place. I am very talented. I have lots of debt that needs paid off, and staying here isnt gonna pay it.

I have a 2000 Explorer and a 1997 F-350. Tell me what you want me to bring and the other one i will leave. I can bring both but will cost $500 extra for car hauler.

Yay capitalism.

[Via Towleroad]

With all the deaths lately I could be accused of excessive gloating, however not all are good news.

Al Grassby died yesterday, aged 78.

A former immigration minister in the Whitlam years, the father of multiculturalism, and a snappy dresser, Grassby was instrumental in changing Australia from an insular backwater to the inclusive and tolerant society it still, despite the efforts of Howard and his lot.

Grassby was a “colourful character” in more ways than one, and not squeaky clean by any means, but without his influence Australia would be a lesser place. He will be missed.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say something nice about Joh Bjelke-Petersen: he stopped Howard becoming PM in 1987, so it’s not all bad.

LEFT: The Vatican City synchronised ice-skating team, the “Popettes”, rehearse a manoeuvre called the “Ratzinger Salute” ahead of today’s Papal coronation in St Peter’s Basilica. As well as massed performances, the age-old ritual will include fireworks, a public witch-burning, a communion wine sculling competition and bingo. Spectators will receive a souvenir T-Shirt, communion and a papal indulgence good for any sins, venial or mortal, and valid for life. (Ladies: please bring a plate).

[Photo: REUTERS/Roger Lundsten/Scanpix]

Joh Bjelke-Petersen is dead. After a long illness (not as long, nor as painful, as his 19-year tenure as Führer of Queensland) the old bastard finally did the decent thing a few minutes ago.

Bjelke-Petersen, a former New Zealander who became Premier of Queensland following the ALP/DLP split, will be remembered for a politics which were crass, extreme and utterly cynical. Joh turned the sunshine state into a corrupt cesspool, encouraged or at least allowed the police force to become utterly debased and corrupt even beyond Australian standards, he spied on his enemies, trampled on civil rights and, not surprisingly, spewed venom and hatred towards gay men and lesbians. “Insulting, evil animals,” he called us.

He will not be missed.

• Wikipedia has an extensive, if uncritical, entry for Joh, for those not familiar with this archetype of ye olde politicks, Australian style.
• Fancy marking Joh’s passing? A nice batch of pumpkin scones would do the trick.

A report released today found that Australians use more ecstasy than anyone else in the world (”Australia leads world in ecstasy use”, ABC). This is despite the finding that seizures of illegal drugs have gone up significantly in recent years – the recent seizure of more than a tonne of ecstasy tabs in Melbourne will ensure that this year is an even bigger bumper year for the drug cops.

Hardly a day goes by in this country without the TV news featuring images of the latest bust of some scarily large quantity of illicit drugs, and of course the recent trial of Schapelle Corby and arrest of nine other Australians in Indonesia have had blanket coverage.

What is clear is that, no matter how successful the authorities are in stopping drug shipments and arresting the perpetrators, the simple fact of supply and demand means there’ll always be someone else who’ll try to beat the system, quite likely on the very next plane or boat. The demand for drugs is strong enough in Australia and in most countries that the potential profits will always outweigh the costs.

And, of course, the people arrested are almost never the Mr Bigs of the drug underworld, but foolish, desperate and – in the eyes of their masters – expendable – couriers. The stories that are trickling out from the nine Australians arrested in Bali this week show just how callous and predatory this business is.

Whether Corby or the other Australians are guilty of the crimes they are accused of, they are the unfortunate victims of becoming caught up in a enormous, powerful and sophisticated business which is driven by huge demand for products which are obscenely profitable. Prices and profits are driven up by the regime of prohibition and, for the people at the top of the food chain, the risk of conviction is virtually zero.

The last thing the drug barons want is decriminalisation: it would bugger their business model.

A day will come when Australia and other countries finally face the reality that they are fighting a losing battle, and perhaps then we’ll see some enlightened policy in this area. In the meantime, the Schapelle Corbys of this world will continue to suffer.

Yet another reason to be happy for the persistence (just) of socialism:

Spain’s Parliament has given initial approval to a law allowing marriage and adoption rights for homosexuals.

A packed public gallery erupted in cheers and applause as the speaker announced approval of the Socialist Government’s proposal.

“It’s unfair to be a second-class citizen because of love,” Socialist legislator Carmen Monton said.

“Spain joins the vanguard of those defending full equality for gays and lesbians.”

(”Spanish MPs approve gay marriage law“, ABC News 2005-04-22)

‘God’s Rottweiller’, Joseph Ratzinger, is the new Catholic Pope. A natural and logical successor to John Paul II, Benedict XVI will be bad news for queers, bad news for women, bad news for people with AIDS, bad news all round.

The speed with which that puff of white smoke came — just four rounds of voting were completed — is a sign of the iron grip that the ultra-conservative wing now holds on the church of Rome. As a committed rationalist and humanist I’d like to say that the farcical and bizarre motions of the Vatican have no bearing on me, but of course the church holds considerable power, both here and abroad, and is not shy about exercising it to its own perverted ends.

James reproduces a chilling comment from St Peter Tatchell on a 1992 proclamation authored by Joe the Rat which essentially argues that if queers seek civil rights, they encourage acts of violence and hatred towards themselves, and “neither the Church nor society should be surprised” when this occurs.

Today is a black day; whether it proves to be blacker than the last 27 years or just more of the same from a firm which trades in misery and hatred remains to be seen.

The official fiction is that the Holy Spirit, not political expediency and ambition, guides the election of the Pope, but if there is a Holy Spirit, I imagine he wept at the new Pope’s first words:

[T]he cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard.

Bullshit. Ratzinger is a calculating, ambitious, venemous man who has always coveted the papacy for himself. He is a revisionist who has conveniently papered over his own history (membership of the Hitler Youth League, membership of the German armed forces during the war: “my gun was never loaded and I couldn’t have pulled the trigger because my finger was sore”). Please.

An appalling decision by an appalling organisation. Not a surprise but a disappointment.