buggery.org

I loved this campaign, from the French NGO AIDES, so much I put this image on page 3 of next week’s Positive Living:

The posters show three of the candidates for the French Presidential election (left to right [politically as well as graphically] Ségolène Royal, François Bayrou and Nicolas Sarkozy) with the caption

Would you vote for me if I was HIV-positive?
It’s AIDS that needs to be excluded [from France], not people with AIDS.

Stirring stuff. AIDS and politics still intersect in France, and not only through the juvenile antics of ACT-UP Paris.

Did I mention that Positive Living is out next week? That would explain why I haven’t posted anything recently. Sorry about that.

• Israel recalls ‘naked ambassador’
  Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.
  (tags: israel bdsm funny embarrassment naked)

Paul Keating was in classic form on ABC Radio’s The World Today yesterday:

PAUL KEATING: Well, the thing about poor old Costello, he’s all tip and no iceberg, you know. He (laughs), you know, he can throw a punch across the parliament, but the bloke he should be throwing the punch to his Howard. Of course, he doesn’t have the ticker for it.

Now, he’s now been treasurer for 11 years, the old coconut’s still sitting there, araldited to the seat, and, you know, the Treasurer works on the smart quips, but when it comes to staring down the Prime Minister in his office, he always leaves disappointed, you know, he never gets the sword out. You know, you know the thing ‘I’ll huff and puff and blow your house in’, that’s Costello (laughs).

ELEANOR HALL: Has the Government, though, now taken the high moral ground with this by removing Minister Campbell?

PAUL KEATING: Look, for John Howard to get to any high moral ground he would have to first climb out of the volcanic hole he’s dug for himself over the last decade. You know, it’s like one of those deep diamond mined holes in South Africa, you know, they’re about a mile underground. He’d have to come a mile up to get to even equilibrium, let alone have any contest in morality with Kevin Rudd.

ELEANOR HALL: You’d have to admit, though, that this has done some damage to Kevin Rudd. I mean, the attack looks like it’s going to continue. Is it likely to permanently damage him?

PAUL KEATING: Look, you know, the old thing, it’s a great saying in politics and law, ‘the dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on’.

Now, my advice to Kevin is to move on, let Mr Howard, you know, he’d be … at the moment, you can always tell when he’s twitchy, the old shoulder starts going, and I notice on the TV lately the shoulder’s going. He’s in trouble. He could’ve given the job to Costello and got out at the right moment, but he’s hanging on, you know, like grim death to the job, and now all of a sudden he’s up against it.

Didn’t hear this live on the wireless because I was booking tickets for Keating! at the Comedy Theatre at the time. Spooky.