I was going to blog about how much of a dick Steve Fielding is

...but this blog says it all really.

Seriously...

I refer to my post from Saturday.
This is also not news.

So...

I wanted to have a little rant about all the fuss in WA over assaulting police officers.
Firstly, for those of you not in the know, three men were acquitted last week of various charges stemming from a pub brawl in Joondalup (I think I mentioned something about not going to northern suburbs pubs in an earlier post - case in point).
The brawl left a police officer paralysed down one side of his body.

Without going into the specifics of the case - which I don't know anyway - the men were all acquitted. This led to a massive public outcry, including a rally on the steps of Parliament.

The problem I have with this is that the mob mentality seems to be "if they're charged, throw them in jail." We need to respect the justice system and let it do its job. There wouldn't have been many people at that rally who sat in on the entire court case, heard all the ins and outs and understood why the jurors decided to acquit the men. That's the beauty of the system. We're meant to be innocent until proven guilty. Not the other way round.

This rally was quickly followed by WA politicians passing mandatory sentencing for those convicted of assaulting police officers, paramdeics and public transport security officers.
Which is great. I don't think it's such a bad thing really. But "the mob" were instantly appeased, going by the calls made to talkback radio this morning.

And this leads me to my final point. Even if those laws had been in place before this trial they wouldn't have made the slightest difference. Because the three men were acquitted and the legislation covers people who are convicted.
The mob mentality really frustrates me sometimes.

Just a thought

I was a little disheartened to see that changes to the Facebook home and profile pages were deemed to be one of the most important news items on news.com.au today. I mean, seriously.
The article was pretty long too, and included a list of the exact changes to the site. Was it that slow a news day??

Just your light-hearted Friday rant

I was about to blog the other day on how much I love the job Barack Obama is doing at the moment.
I mean, sure we all expected him to try and fix some of George Bush's wrongs, but I for one didn't expect him to cut a swathe through some of them so soon.
One that caught my eye in particular was, in essence, a lifting of a ban Bush imposed on foreign aid going to clinics that perform abortions.
Kevin Rudd, to his credit, seems to be swiftly following suit.

And so it is with a slight sense of satisfaction that I open my work email the other day to find a press release from the Catholic Church crying foul.
Now, I've said this on here before, but I'm catholic. I was baptised, went to catholic schools my whole life and therefore identify as catholic. However that's pretty much where it ends for me. I disagree with many of the tenets of the catholic religion regarding birth control, sex before marriage, homosexuality and - you guessed it - abortion.

Now, people have very strong ideas as to whether abortion is right or wrong. I'm not really going to go into discussing the specifics, other than to say I have been through the process myself with a girlfriend at the time who fell pregnant.
To this day it was one of the most trying three hours of my life.
Since the experience I have not wavered in my stance that it is a woman's right to choose what she does with her body. But let me just say to the knobheads that put out this press release from the catholic church that there was not one person in that waiting room - mother, daughter, boyfriend, girlfriend - who did not completely understand the severity of the situation.

I have never been in a room filled with so much pain and angst. Boyfriends chain smoking outside (I was one of them), mothers crying and consoling their tearful daughters. It was horrible. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But at the same time I don't regret making the decision that was made. I would be a very different person today if I had not been allowed to make that decision. I might not be in the job I'm in right now, I certainly wouldn't have the freedom I do right now and financial security would be a very vague term I'm sure.

I'm not trying to tell you guys what's right and wrong. You can make your own decision up on that, and because it's your opinion it will be neither right nor wrong. But I won't sit here and let the catholic church tell me my opinion is wrong. Ever.

Just so you know

I am having an extremely hard time motivating myself to do anything today.
And it's one of the busiest days of the week.
Entertain me with comments.

Overheard at a northern suburbs pub

Random bogan: "Just because I don't like gay guys doesn't mean I'm homophobic..."


I know, I know. Serves me right for going to a northern suburbs pub.

More stuff

Personal behaviour during a relationship and personal behaviour during a break up are two very different things. A large part of a relationship is about being selfless, but when it comes to the break-up you have to be selfish. It kinda sucks. Why can't it be the other way around?

There's no such thing as an easy break-up. There's certainly no such thing as a fun break-up. Think about it. For however many months or years you spend with the person, you are getting to know them intimately. You know how they feel about certain people, places and objects and they become your best friend.
All of a sudden you split and you've lost your best friend. Gone. The person you spent the past however long with talking about your day and how it went and who you like and who you hate at work is gone.
Sometimes your head tries to tell you that it's for the best. That a fresh start is a positive thing. And it is. But the heart doesn't always want to listen. And that's what sucks.