0		More, than, petrol, pumped

Rather than conduct their love making in privacy a Darwin man and his partner were overcome by passion on a petrol station's forecourt:

The Darwin Magistrates Court has heard that 29-year-old Lionel Mark William Spratt was seen sitting with a woman in a ute parked at a bowser, near the front door of an Adelaide River petrol station last September.

The court heard the woman got out of the driver's seat and sat on his lap and he started to "passionately kiss her".

The court heard the woman was making "loud moaning noises" and moving her body in a way that indicated the pair were having sex.

Jeez, since when is it illegal for a woman to check out a man's dipstick?

	0		Young, woman, bullied, death

Brodie Panlock, 19, was relentlessly bullied by co-workers, eventually committing suicide by jumping to her death. Her tormentors, with obvious vulnerabilities of their own, targeted the young woman because she lacked self-confidence:

Prosecutor Gary Livermore told a pre-sentence hearing that witnesses had seen several of the accused pour fish oil into Ms Panlock's kitbag and then pour it over her, reducing her to tears.

They had also called her fat and ugly and spat on her.

Magistrate Peter Lauritsen was told that Ms Panlock had tried to commit suicide in May 2006 by taking rat poison after being rejected by Smallwood, with whom she'd had an intimate relationship.

Mr Livermore said that after that incident rat poison was put in her bag, and MacAlpine had told her to go and take it.

At a coroner's hearing in 2008, Meghan Chester, a former barista at Cafe Vamp, said Ms Panlock had no confidence in her beauty or worth.

"I have worked in the hospitality industry for 10 years, but I have never seen anything like what those ... males did to Brodie," Ms Chester said.

In the statement read to the court, Ms Chester said that the accused had taken bullying "to another level".

Now it would be easy to suggest that Ms Panlock should have simply thrown in the job and moved on but this ignores that people can easily become trapped by circumstances. This unfortunate woman obviously came to believe that there was something seriously wrong with her when, in fact, it was her tormentors who have serious psychological problems.

Work is a an important means of evaluating self-worth. It is all too easy for anyone bullied in the workplace to assume that that they are in some way deficient rather than evaluate the deficiencies of the thugs doing the bullying. It is indeed unfortunate that the thugs who pushed Ms Panlock to the edge and then took delight in pushing her beyond her breaking point will serve no jail time. Then again, these sadistic ass-holes will hopefully be tormented by their bullying for as long as they live.

	0		Female, mutilation, common, Australia

With Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital yearly treating between 600 – 700 females with mutilated genitalia, so called female circumcision is a problem even in Australia. Experts suggest that rather than jail those responsible, a more measured approach is required:

If we try and dictate and pontificate about this and not provide culturally appropriate care, we'll further disenfranchise those women.

Any progress will be incremental. I don't think that it's something that will stop overnight.

But I think all we can do is advocate against it, speak out, try to educate women, try to empower women, certainly in this country, and we should do our best for international organisations that are also espousing the same message.

It is unclear exactly why those of any particular group, religious or otherwise, should be exempt from prosecution for a sadistic crime. So go ahead, slice away; we disapprove but aren't going to to say anything out of fear of offending you.

By the way, the article mentions neither Islam nor Muslims yet the story's tags are "religion-and-beliefs, islam, women, australia".

 

 

 

	0		Europeans, accuse, Australians, kangaroo, cruelty

European do-gooders, concerned at the "cruelty" of kangaroo culling, are creating a ruckus in hope that the importation of all kangaroo products will be banned. Of particular concern is kangaroo shooters' favourite amusement, joey stomping:

When adult animals are killed, leaving defenceless young to fend for themselves, they are brutally killed with a boot to the head or a lead pipe brought down on them; how can this be humane?

Surely a quickly flattened skull in the wild would be a better death than being herded into a factory where the throat is slit as is halal and kosher practice. On the other hand, perhaps it's assumed that Australians are inherently cruel and actually relish head-stomping defenseless baby animals.

Regardless, kangaroo shooting (the sole means of harvest) is tightly regulated and has been closely scrutinised by the RSPCA, with the vast majority of the animals found to have been dispatched with a single shot to the head. Some have their doubts, however:

Every kill must be a head shot and when animals are skinned in the bush, no one checks. Killed animals are delivered to processing plants headless, so how can these kills be confirmed as correct?

Well you see, if the roo wasn't shot in the head, it was shot in the body, with entry and exit wounds clearly visible. Duh.

Celebrities are, of course, jumping on the do-gooder bandwagon:

Dame Judi Dench said: ''As a lover of animals and their welfare I am pleased to add my name to the many others across the world who are supporting this very worthwhile campaign. Cruelty to any animal is barbarism and killing a joey after killing the mother is totally unacceptable.''

It is widely accepted that there is no shortage of kangaroos in Australia, modern farming providing both food and water that would otherwise be unavailable, thus contributing to the growth of kangroo populations. Harvesting is conducted only on marginally productive land, however, the aim being to keep numbers down so that the land is not overgrazed, which would lead to large numbers of roos dying of starvation. Even if not perfectly humane in every case, roo shooting is still more humane than nature's population control measures, which more often than not result in a slow and painful death.

Europeans would do well to shift their attention to Norwegian whaling which involves super-intelligent animals being shot in the head with exploding harpoons; not all of these animals die quickly and painlessly, of course. Hypocrites.

	0		Pirates, thwarted

A merchant vessel in the process of being seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden has been liberated in a joint operation involving Indian, Danish, French and Russian naval forces. The merchant crew was unharmed, the pirates apparently scampering when confronted with military force.

	0		Shortcut, paradise

A 13 year-old Pakistani girl recounts horrific tales of psychological abuse and beatings inflicted by those seeking to pressure her into strapping on a bomb to indiscriminately kill in the name of Allah:

My brother used to prepare bombs and my sister-in-law did too. He told me that he would teach me this. I told him no. I would not even look at what they were doing.

My father and brother told me to carry out a suicide attack. They were pressuring me to do this.

They told me: "If you do it you will go to paradise long before us." I replied: "Why don't you tell me I will go to hell long before you?"

Every day they used to tell me this. Every day. I was very young when they started telling me this. I said to them: "What about all the people I will kill? They are all Muslims."

They started beating me when I refused. They beat me non-stop. They made my life hell. I never had a single moment of happiness. They did everything other than kill me.

This young girl was fortunate to escape with her life and amazingly remains hopeful for the future:

The Taliban slaughter other people's children. They turn women into widows. They should be made to suffer too.

I want these Taliban to be burned alive.

If there is justice in this world young Meena's wish will be realised. Allah willing.