Life, according to College

[highlyeccentric]

Person One: it's that old conflict between head and heart... where your head is telling you "don't go there" and your heart is saying "shut up!"
Person Two, in a musing tone: with me it's usually head and stomach. You know: your head's saying "don't eat that!" and yet...

~

and meanwhile, apparently I have special rights to certain kinds of pronouncements.
Says I, of Beowulf: it has neither saints nor sex. Why would I enjoy it?
Says Tockie, of me: Only you could say that!
Apparently she loves me for it, though :)

~

Speaking of APEC, observe:
John Howard, on road closures etc:
"Could I say to the people of Sydney, I'm sorry that you've been inconvenienced. It's not the fault of our visitors, it's not the fault of either the NSW government or the federal government, it's the fault of those people who resort to violence in order disrupt gatherings of this kind,'' Quoted in SMH tonight, in an article which also notes the Liberal ranking in two-party preffered has dropped again.

Yet lookie here- same paper, yesterday:

Seventeen people were arrested and two police officers injured in a mostly peaceful anti-APEC protest in Sydney overshadowed by an unprecedented security operation.

Up to 5,000 protesters turned out for the demonstration organised by the Stop Bush Coalition, far fewer than the number forecast by police, who had also warned there could be full-scale violence.

Hundreds of police, many in riot gear and backed by police dogs, riot vehicles and a new water cannon, kept a close rein on the protest march. Police helicopters hovered overhead and officers were stationed on rooftops.

As part of a show of force rarely seen in Australia, authorities used buses to barricade streets leading to APEC venues and closely-ranked police funnelled demonstrators along a set route.

There were violent scuffles, some reportedly involving black-clad neo-Nazi demonstrators, but the APEC week's biggest protest was mostly peaceful and at times had a carnival atmosphere.

Same article informs us that
Meanwhile about 10 people dressed in business suits, calling themselves the "Billionaires for Bush", stood and heckled the marchers with chants such as "corporate might, not human rights".

CNN, on the other hand, recognise satire when they hear about it from the other side of the globe. They can't tell the difference between 10 and 20, nor the difference between "Phil T Rich" (which iremos, herself a new Billionaire for Bush, assures me was the correct pseudonym) and "Phil T Church". But hey, they're Americans, their Presidential staff can't spell "Sydney"- A White House press briefing last Thursday about US President George Bush's visit to Australia said he would arrive in "Sidney" on Tuesday evening. Mr Bush was looking forward to "the hospitality of Sidneysiders", the statement said. So what do we expect?

Amusingly, Lis tells me the Billionaires had their signs taken away by police "for their saftey", lest all the nasty anti-bush protesters hurt them. Something tells me most protesters have a better sense of humour than that, but hey. You never know.

Also, check out the cool photos on the UK's Indymedia site, including

Comments

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

It's been a bemusing week, watching all this play out. Very interesting to see the rather cynical and sometimes tongue-in-cheek stance taken by the media, with the focus on weirdness and contradictions in comparison to actual news reporting.

Also rather eye-rollingly interesting to see the gymnastic lengths gone to in the name of security, only for nothing really to happen :P