Thinking about the think tank

Religious language and religious groups cause no end of angst to many folk, and the further they are from our own experience and immediate circle the more angst we are likely to suffer. For example, a nice man named Ben has just left a comment on the Big Archive at the entry Looking for the “gay lobby”, the point of the entry being that the “gay lobby” is essentially a paranoid construct in the minds of people who don’t like gays and lesbians, or suspect them of enormous power and credit them with a unity of purpose they sadly lack. Ben begins and concludes his message thus; I’ll leave you to check, or just guess, the middle:

History of Immigration to Australia

About last week’s discussion here and on Jim Belshaw’s blog —

Sirdan in The Shakespeare, Dr Haneef on the box, Andrews and Howard up the creek…

Perhaps inappropriately, Sirdan and I were tucking into an excellent $10 roast pork lunch at The Shakespeare Hotel as we discussed the matter of Dr Haneef yesterday. Apparently The Empress and Kiwi Nick had almost come to blows on the subject at The Shift during the week, The Empress complaining about government incompetence while Nick tended to think Haneef was indeed a “person of interest”, as they say nowadays instead of “guilty party”. Come the weekend and Kiwi Nick was apologising; the government has not followed suit.

When Sirdan told me Dr Haneef was giving a paid interview on TV I tended to doubt him. You see, I have been without TV ever since the communal antenna and booster was knocked out of action some time Friday night. All I can watch is DVDs (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon last night) so I missed Sixty Minutes.

He was evil — a dangerous man. If he wasn’t a terrorist, his mates were. And he was helping them. Or so we were told.

For more than three weeks, the Haneef affair dragged on. And let’s face it, on the strength of the so-called evidence, the Gold Coast doctor certainly looked suspicious.

Environment and more…

Recently — I forget how — I stumbled into Sprol: Worst Places in the World. Using Google Earth images, it explores the effects of all manner of impacts of mining, deforestation, water use, and more — it extends to such matters as prisons and migration. Explore it, and you may never be the same.

There are a number of items with resonance for us here in Australia:

About the Haneef case

I was just looking at the Big Archive and found There will be injustices (Sep 28th, 2005).

Ministers accused of ‘driving’ Haneef case

SOURCE: ABC News

Civil libertarians say any inquiry into the bungled prosecution of Dr Mohamed Haneef should focus squarely on the actions of Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock and Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.

The terrorism-related charge against Dr Haneef was dropped yesterday after prosecutors abandoned their case amid revelations of mistakes in the case against him. In announcing the decision, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Damien Bugg QC admitted his agency had made two key errors as it built its case against Dr Haneef.

But Australian Council for Civil Liberties national secretary Cameron Murphy has told AM it is clear there was political interference in the case.