StoneMtn

" I also can't believe you are going to see GWAR!! Friggin hilarious"

YOU can't believe it? To say the least, neither can I. I just hope to get out alive! Wish me luck. (I think I'm getting too old for this...)

WhiteyMuseum: You have always been a reliable source of music-info. I will almost certainly be going, and your recommendation played no small part in that decision. Thanks!

Hmmmm, so the consensus seems to be that these guys are clearly NOT British and NOT punk, but an amazing Canadian garage band with country influences. It also seems that the Skanktuarians have spoken and advise me to attend.

I will almost certainly go, but I would very much appreciate hearing from SolarGarlic this weekend after he catches their show.

Thanks guys!

A friend called me last night and offered me a free ticket to see the Sadies next week in Whistler. I have never heard them, but am under the impression they are British punk. I have heard good things about them for a couple of years, though, and I have always had an interest in punk rock (well, until the early-90s when it became watered down, pop-punk).

The thing is, the show is likely to start after 11pm at the bar, and I have to be back at my desk in my office 8 hours later. Then, I am scheduled to see GWAR that night in Vancouver, and am again back at the office the next day after driving back from Vancouver in the middle of the night. (BTW, an aggro-rock-week filled with the Sadies and GWAR is not typical for me; whereas a run of blues/jambands/folk/reggae would make more sense.)

Anyway, my point is that I am going to be dead tired if I see the Sadies, go to work, drive to Vancouver, see GWAR, drive back, go to work, and then finally crash hard. I am more than prepared to do it, though, if my good friends at the Sanctuary tell me that the Sadies are worth it.

Any comments?

Brad M....did you tape this show?

... and if so, could you PLEASE make it available!

I discovered a really cool ska band recently. I know nothing about them, and I actually think its just one guy named "Juan". The band calls itself "Army of Juan". Awesome.

I know I'll feel guilty whichever way I vote at this juncture, however, I just can't forgive the drunken-mumbling performance I saw in 1989, and Jerry has never really disappointed me soooooo.... SEE YA LATER Bob Dylan

Cool. Thanks Tim. That's good enough for me; and I'm ordering myself a copy for sure. I was probably going to get one regardless, but if part of the proceeds are continuing the Live Aid work, then that decides it.

And, agreed; Bob Geldof is very cool. I was even, at one time, a Boomtown Rats fan to a small degree (or at least a fan of that one song).

Hey Tim:

I just went to the site you posted. I don't see any indication that purchasing this DVD contributes money to anything, as I would have expected. Do you know if any of the proceeds are going to fight famine or anything?

I don't have cable! Is this a current show or else what era is it from? She would be very cool to see. Canadian folk-goddess.

Jimmy Page, mainly for being a bit of a rock-star-idiot; not for lack of being a kickass guitarist.

FUNK! Slow Nerve Action from Whistler. They have a website at www.slownerveaction.com, but I don't know if you can get their discs from the site. The last time I checked it was a lame website, but the band is INCREDIBLE! Some of the best funk I've heard in a long time, and extra-amusing because every song is about kinky sex.

I also reiterate my earlier suggestion of All That / Cronk.

I assume you already are familiar with Garaj Mahal? (Awesome jammy funk.)

Another band that is not really funk, but more crazy world music that everyone should check out is Boozoo Bajou.

His wife died of cancer a couple of years ago. I think there is a song about that, but I don't recall the name right now. It was a very sad situation, and Don shared his feelings with his fans on his listserv, in a surprisingly blunt manner. It really pulled at the heartstrings, especially with all the mention of their two kids (who now often go on tour with him).

One of my favourite bands, that unfortunately has disbanded, is "All That" from New Orleans. Incredible, funky stuff. They are now in a band called "Cronk", who I have never heard.

What do you normally listen to? Are you a jamband fan; reggae; jazz; straight-ahead rock; world music; folk... Given some guidance, I am sure I can name a bunch of musicians you have not likely heard of.

Oh! That's true. In particular his music has been used for various radio and TV spots for aboriginal shows, including on that Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. (Don is half miqmaq / half Scottish; ie "MacMiqMaq" as he puts it.)

Could those be the theme songs you speak of Howler?

The only cover that I can think of that he does is "Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith, but that doesn't sound like it could be the song you are thinking of.

On the off chance, does that happen to be it?

If not, I can email Don Ross and find out which TV theme song he plays. He is pretty good about replying to emails.

Also, my usual disclaimer, to cover my behind:

Spoken like a true lawyer! ::

J-Roc has been vindicated. He was right all along.

Well, I was kidding when I made my last post, and I don't want to hijack Esau's thread, but, since you asked, if I were commencing that action (although traditionally I'd be more likely to be defending) I would name the band as well as the venue as well as the maintenance company that looks after the structure that fell down (if an outside contractor) as well as the manufacturer of the structure that fell down...

The point is you name everyone who may have been liable for erecting the structure, maintaining it, inspecting it, warning the crowd of the potential for injury, and anything else relevant you can find. You narrow down who the proper defendant is later. Ideally, from the Plaintiff's perspective, you generally hope that all or most of the defendants get together and decide among themselves who is the likely culprit, or decide who bears which percentages of liability, and each throw some money into a pot to buy off your clients. Otherwise, they start pointing fingers at each other and do most of the work for the plaintiffs by investigating each other; whether it makes it all the way to trial or settles before.

Also, yes, Floyd might have an action against everyone else I named. The venue might have an action against everyone else (although probably not the band, as they probably didn't do anything apart from failing to warn the crowd). On top of all that, each defendant can name others that it thinks is responsible as "Third Parties", if the plaintiffs forget to name someone. For instance the welders who built the structure, or the manufacturer of the bolts in it, etc., depending on what may have caused the collapse. (Of course, practically speaking it would actually be the insurance companies for all the defendants and third parties dealing with it, but the defendants and third parties would be named personally to "trigger" that insurance.)

Anyway, this is probably a boring topic to most people out there, so I think I'll stop rambling now...

Also, my usual disclaimer, to cover my behind: The above is not legal advice. It is not intended to provide legal advice on any specific set of facts or at all. In the event you require legal advice on any particular set of facts you should consult a licensed lawyer in your own provincial or territorial jurisdiction.

[color:"red"]I don't know why, but this song always gives me chills and brings a tear to my eye. It even happened while I was writing the lyrics below...

The Longest Road

-Stephen Fearing

I'm standing at a window.

I'm pressed against the past.

I'm looking on in black and white

through the eyes of photographs

and I'm falling into faces,

cultivated smiles

two dimensional

Je me souviens Canada.

Out of Gastown in the morning

in a train in '69

into the arc weld of the rising sun

we left the coast behind

and the wheels rolling a rhythm

I heard in them for the first time

the endless song of travelling out of Canada.

Oh Canada;

the longest road I've known,

paved with the kind of broken hearts

that lead to broken homes

looking backwards, I remember

the cracks in all the paving stones

the distances I've travelled out of Canada.

Through the dog days of the prairies

the boundless sky above our heads

my stepfather looked for mounties

in the streets of Winnipeg

and he told them that my mother's love

had stole his heart away...

We all stood there posed for polaroids

of Canada.

Oh Canada;

the longest road I've known,

paved with the kind of broken hearts

that lead to broken homes

looking backwards, I remember

the cracks in all the paving stones

the distances I've travelled out of Canada.

I awoke wrapped in my mother's arms

on the docks of Montreal.

The ships lit like Christmas

and the moon a swollen ball

when a sailor spoke of England

I'd never felt so small.

I waited till the ocean deepened

emerald to grey

the wind threshed the water

washed our wake away

and the seagulls blew like words

back to the mouth of the St. Lawrence

as we sailed out on the Emperess of Canada.

Oh Canada;

the longest road I've known,

paved with the kind of broken hearts

that lead to broken homes

looking backwards, I remember

the cracks in all the paving stones

the distances I've travelled out of Canada.

The first country of my youth,

my heart was ever drawn to you,

like a tongue to a broken tooth

in a world where everyone was

always leaving

I was trying to keep my fingertips

on Canada.

Personally, I would like to commend Pink Floyd's lawyers for managing to avoid countless personal injury claims for the price of some t-shirts! (As an evil lawyer myself, I am duly impressed. )

Paan: I think you have to fill out the Entry Form. I don't think you are counted "in" until you do so.

Mark me down for Robert Plant, please. (His ability to scream has simply not lasted the decades.)

News: Coalition War Crimes in Iraq – Australian Scientist Moves Int. Criminal Court

Dr. Gideon Polya, renowned Australian scientist, has lodged a formal complaint against Australian government and Coalition Allies for their war crimes in Iraq. Here is the complete text of his complaint:-

Formal complaint to the International Criminal Court over Australian & Coalition war crimes in Iraq

14 October 2004

The Chief Prosecutor

Office of the Prosecutor

International Criminal Court

Dear Sir,

I wish to lay a formal complaint against the Australian Federal Government and its allies for their complicity in war crimes in Iraq, specifically:

1. complicity in illegal invasion of a remote, non-threatening country which posed absolutely no threat (and indeed was a major trading partner);

2. complicity in excessive (indeed horrendous) and continuing mass mortality (particularly of children) in the continued forcible occupation of Iraq - the annual under-5 infant mortality in Iraq (population 24 million) can be estimated from the most recent UNICEF data to be of the order of 100,000 as compared to only 1000 in the occupying country Australia (population 20 million) and the per capita medical expenditure in Occupied Iraq is estimated to be only US$40 in Occupied Iraq as compared to about US$1000 in the occupying country Australia;

3. the above complaints variously also apply to and are hereby made against all of Australia’s allies in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, most notably the governments of the USA and the UK (noting, however, that the USA rejects the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over its citizens)

On 17 August 2004 I made a detailed formal complaint over Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes in Iraq to the 24 most important law officers of Australia, namely the State and Federal Attorneys General, Solicitors General and Police Commissioners (copy enclosed). Only half responded and of those the responses variously included simple “noting” or assertion of “no jurisdiction”. However several law officers referred me to the International Criminal Court, to which jurisdiction Australia (although not the USA) has made itself subject.

A senior biological scientist, I have been calculating “excess mortality” for all countries in the world for the period since 1950. “Excess mortality” (essentially “avoidable mortality”) is the difference between the ACTUAL mortality in a country in a given period (as reported by the UN Population Division) and the mortality EXPECTED for a decently-run, peaceful country with the same demographics.

In short, the results are horrendous - noting that if an Iraqi child is killed by a Coalition bomb or dies from avoidable disease (through Coalition-imposed destruction of sanitation and other civil infrastructure and lack of clean water, medicine, nutrition and appropriate medical care), then the end result is the same and accordingly the culpability is the same.

The “excess mortality” for Iraq has been 5.2 million (since 1950) and 1.5 million (since 1991). These estimates, based on UN data, are consonant with United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF)-based estimates of under-5 infant mortality in Iraq, namely 3.3 million (since 1950) and 1.2 million (since 1991). Notably, “excess mortality” in Iraq was at a MINIMUM in the 1980s under Saddam Hussein (about 50,000 per year), sandwiched between periods of pro-Western, post-colonial regimes and the return of Western armies in 1991 (after which it climbed to and remained at about 120,000 per year) with sanctions, war and eventual occupation.

In Afghanistan the “excess mortality” has totalled 16.2 million since 1950 and 1.2 million since the 2001 invasion (in which Australia participated). Annual “excess mortality” in Afghanistan was about 0.3 million under Soviet occupation but has been about 0.4 million since the victory of US-backed forces over the Russians.

UNICEF has estimated that in 2001 the under-5 infant mortality was 109,000 in Iraq (population 24 million) and 277,000 in Afghanistan (population 22 million) - as compared to 1000 in Australia (population about 20 million). With Coalition destruction of water supplies, sanitation, other key infrastructure and the legitimate economies of Iraq and Afghanistan, it can be realistically estimated that the under-5 infant mortalities in these “occupied” countries currently remain at about 0.1 and 0.3 million, respectively.

For 2004 the medical expenditure allocation in war-ravaged Iraq has been about US$40 per head as compared to about US$1,000 per head in prosperous Australia, a Coalition member and an “occupier” country. The ruler is responsible for the ruled - the medical parsimony of the occupying Coalition is associated with an estimated under-5 infant mortality of the order of 100,000 per year. This grossly violates international consensus on the humane treatment of a conquered people and constitutes a massive and continuing war crime - in addition to the war crime of illegal invasion of a remote country that posed absolutely no threat to the invaders.

You are referred to more detailed accounts of this horrendous, ongoing mass mortality published in Australasian Science, News Central Asia, Media Monitors (USA) and elsewhere in Australia and abroad (and readily accessed on the Web by an advanced Google search for the phrase Gideon Polya).

I reiterate that non-UN-sanctioned, illegal invasion of a country is a war crime. Mass mortality in an occupied country in considerable proportional excess of that in the occupier countries is also a war crime.

Milosevic was delivered up by Serbia and is on trial in The Hague for his complicity in the deaths of 0.25 million in the Balkans War. The total avoidable mortality in Iraq and Afghanistan subsequent to military action by the USA and its allies in 1991 and 2001, respectively, is ten times greater.

I am in a unique position to contribute to a prosecution of those complicit in the Iraqi Holocaust having spent a year carefully researching and calculating “excess mortality” for every country in the world since 1950. I am very willing to assist the International Criminal Court in action taken against the Australian Federal Government and those of its allies in Iraq who are subject to this jurisdiction.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Gideon Polya

29 Dwyer Street, Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria 3085, Australia

Tel: +61 3 9459 3649; e-mail: gpolya@optusnet.com.au & gmpolya@yahoo.com

Cc: relevant NGOs, community leaders & media

Enclosure: formal prior complaint to top Australian Federal & State law officers -

Date: 17 August 2004

To: Federal & State Commissioners of Police, Solicitors General & Attorneys General

From: Dr Gideon Polya

Re: Complaint to Australian law officers about Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes involving mass mortality, principally of children and in Iraq

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to lay a formal complaint about the complicity of the Australian Federal Government in war crimes involving mass mortality (principally of children and in Iraq) that should be addressed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and which may also be within the ambit of Australian jurisdictions.

I am a senior biological scientist and in my 4-decade scientific career I published over 130 works, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press, London & New York, 2003).

In the last year in particular I have been researching and writing on global human mortality throughout history.

Of pertinence to this complaint, I have estimated “excess mortality” (avoidable mortality) for all countries since 1950 using United Nations (UN) Populations Division demographic data. “Excess mortality” is the difference between ACTUAL deaths in a given period for a country and the deaths EXPECTED over the same period for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics.

1950 is a highly significant date: detailed UN demographic data go back to 1950 and since about that time all the world POTENTIALLY had access to antibiotics, antimalarials, chemical and physical preventatives for insect disease vectors, particular vaccines, universal literacy, minimal food and shelter, public health education, sanitation, clean drinking water and primary health care.

My results are startling and horrifying. The total estimated post-1950 “excess mortality” (i.e. avoidable mortality) has been 1,284 million for the whole world, 1,230 million for the non-European world and 54 million for the European world (Australasia, Israel, North America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, including Russia and its former subject Christian nations).

Analysis of post-1950 “excess mortality” by country and by region reveals a comprehensive causal association between “excess mortality” and foreign “occupation” by First World countries, noting that “occupation” covers not only explicit military occupation (as in Iraq) but also malignant foreign interference involving impositions such as militarization, debt, corrupt surrogate and client governments, intra- and inter-national wars, economic sanctions and economic exclusions (as variously experienced by most of the Third World).

The relatively low “excess mortality” associated with a short list of several dozen developing countries that have had relatively peaceful existences over the last half century (e.g. Fiji, Thailand, Malaysia and the Gulf States) is in agreement with this conclusion - as is a pattern of increasing “excess mortality” with increasing degree of severity of First World impositions.

Thus occupation and war in Indochina (with which Australia was intimately associated) has been associated with an appalling post-1950 “excess mortality” in Laos (2.6 million), Cambodia (5.8 million) and Vietnam (23.8 million). The total post-1950 “excess mortality” for Indochina has been 32 million - a figure commensurate with the total losses in Japanese-occupied Asia in World War 2 (about 37 million) and European losses in World War 2 (about 38 million). Of course some of those responsible for the mass mortality of World War 2 have been tried and punished. According to the conservative writer Christopher Hitchens in “The Trial of Henry Kissinger”, Kissinger (a free man) had substantial complicity in the violent deaths of 8 million people, principally in Indochina and Bangladesh.

A broader analysis of “excess mortality” indicates a horrifying, post-1950 1 billion Third World Holocaust and a half-billion Muslim Holocaust. The post-1950, 550 million “excess mortality” Muslim Holocaust is about 100 times greater in magnitude than the man-made famine in British-ruled Bengal during World War 2 (4 million Muslim and Hindu victims) and the contemporaneous Jewish Holocaust (6 million victims). The Bengal Famine has been effectively rubbed out of history, a matter condemned by Colin Mason in his “Short History of Asia” (Macmillan, 2000) as an indictment of all subsequent British governments and of numerous historians. In contrast, we are all properly aware of the Jewish Holocaust and some of those responsible have been tried and punished for their appalling crimes.

Australia has been variously associated with British military involvements in Iraq that date back to 1914. The “excess mortality” for Iraq has been 5.2 million (since 1950) and 1.5 million (since 1991). These estimates, based on UN data, are consonant with United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF)-based estimates of under-5 infant mortality in Iraq, namely 3.3 million (since 1950) and 1.2 million (since 1991). Notably, “excess mortality” in Iraq was at a MINIMUM in the 1980s under Saddam Hussein (about 50,000 per year), sandwiched between periods of pro-Western, post-colonial regimes and the return of Western armies in 1991 (after which it climbed to and remained at about 120,000 per year) with sanctions, war and eventual occupation.

In Afghanistan the “excess mortality” has totalled 16.2 million since 1950 and 1.2 million since the 2001 invasion (in which Australia participated). Annual “excess mortality” in Afghanistan was about 0.3 million under Soviet occupation but has been about 0.4 million since the victory of US-backed forces over the Russians.

UNICEF has estimated that in 2001 the under-5 infant mortality was 109,000 in Iraq (population 24 million) and 277,000 in Afghanistan (population 22 million) - as compared to 1000 in Australia (population about 20 million). With Coalition destruction of water supplies, sanitation, other key infrastructure and the legitimate economies of Iraq and Afghanistan, it can be realistically estimated that the under-5 infant mortalities in these “occupied” countries currently remain at about 0.1 and 0.3 million, respectively.

Non-UN-sanctioned, illegal invasion of a country is a war crime. Mass mortality in an occupied country in considerable proportional excess of that in the occupier countries is also a war crime.

Milosevic was delivered up by Serbia and is on trial in The Hague for his complicity in the deaths of 0.25 million in the Balkans War. There is one precedent in British history for a war crimes trial of a major political figure, namely the trial of Warren Hastings, first governor-general of India, for his “excesses” in India after the man-made famine in Bengal that killed 10 million in 1769-1770. After a prolonged and expensive trial (noted for the superb oratory of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Edmund Burke on behalf of the down-trodden Indians), Hastings (out of wedlock father of Jane Austen’s cousin Eliza and evident inspiration for Colonel Brandon in “Sense and Sensibility”) was, of course, acquitted. However such trials are much more than mere prosecution, defence and punishment - they also explore humanitarian standards.

There are clearly people in Australia associated with the current Federal Government with clear and CONTINUING complicity in the massive “excess mortality” in Iraq since 1991 and in Afghanistan since 2001. Their complicity should be explored through appropriate prosecutions in all relevant jurisdictions. Indeed, John Valder, a former president of the Australian Liberal Party (equivalent to the US Republicans and the UK Conservatives) has repeatedly called for prosecution of Coalition leaders for war crimes over Iraq. The ICC is empowered to deal with such crimes committed after 1 July 2002. Australian jurisdictions may also be relevant.

I consider myself to be a responsible citizen. Over the years I have resolutely informed governments, government inquiries and Senate Committee inquiries (most recently in August 2003) about extremely serious matters (including extremely serious health and safety matters) in the public interest. My representations were comprehensively ignored. I respect the law as a good citizen. Further, scientists are intrinsically optimistic in their unending quests for solutions. Accordingly, I feel compelled to make this further carefully researched submission in the public interest.

It is useful to consider the current situation in Fiji to see how a British-based legal system deals with serious offences committed by members of Parliament. Many members of Parliament in Fiji were seriously compromised during the last coup. Investigations by due authority are continuing. Recently a Fiji judge Justice Nazhat Shameen sentenced the former Vice President of Fiji and some of his associates to gaol over complicity in the latest coup. The upholding of the primacy of the law in very difficult circumstances by an overwhelmingly high proportion of its officers and practitioners in Fiji is a salutary lesson for other countries - including Australia in particular.

Unfortunately the world still accepts the media and PR “line” that the Fiji coups have essentially been “bloodless”. However my “excess mortality” analysis reveals that the “excess mortality” since the 1987 coup has actually been about 4,500 (an outcome not surprising to those aware of the departure of doctors, lawyers, teachers, business people and other professionals from Fiji since 1987). Because the world prefers “spin” to reality, justice has not been done to some; the progenitor of this disgraceful pattern of violent usurpation of elected governments, Sitiveni Rabuka, has not been punished and indeed has apparently been recently nominated as the next Fiji ambassador to Washington.

The war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot be dismissed as merely “political or “ideological” - there has been an enormous personal and commercial benefit both here and in the US. Thus there has been an INCREASE in US military expenditure since 9/11 of about US$250 billion (noting that the record current US military expenditure of US$400 billion per year is half of the First World-supplied global total of about US$800 billion per year).

Of course the murder of innocent civilians by jihadists are vile crimes - they have murdered about 5000 utterly innocent European civilians throughout the world in the last 20 years. In comparison, total US military deaths since 1980 have been about 15,000 of whom only about 1300 have been “hostile deaths” incurred in combat. However the “war on terror” is being hysterically and dishonestly promoted by those with a major responsibility for “excess mortality” totalling 1.5 million since 1991 in Iraq and 1.2 million since 2001 in Afghanistan. The excesses of the Coalition are perceived (e.g. recently by the 43 distinguished Australian service heads and public servants) to be the source of increased threat to Australia.

Some further statistics underscore the gap between politician and media “spin” and hard reality: some 20 million people die ANNUALLY from deprivation and malnourishment-exacerbated disease in a world dominated economically and militarily by the First World; the ANNUAL US death toll from car accidents is about 40,000 and from cigarette smoking is about 400,000; the ANNUAL world death toll from car accidents is about 1 million and from cigarette smoking about 5 million.

These statistics make a compelling case for a “war against poverty” (e.g. involving Third World debt relief, economic fair play and constraints on First World-supplied arms, global militarization and war); a “war against mass murder of civilians” with the US, the UK and their allies such as Australia being overwhelmingly the major perpetrators (e.g. international exposure, war crimes trials and economic boycott of countries involved in mass murder); for a “war against cars” (e.g. free public transport and the phasing out of urban private cars); and for a war against cigarette smoking (e.g. prohibition, compensation of victims and prosecution of those responsible).

Instead of the peaceful, rational solutions to major sources of mortality suggested above, we have an extremely violent, horrendously murderous and transparently dishonest US- and UK-driven agenda (supported by a dishonest and sycophantic Australia) of an astonishingly mis-named and mis-directed “war on terror” conducted by countries with an overwhelmingly major responsibility for massive global mortality, US$800 billion per year global militarization, Third World debt, intra-and inter-national war and economic exclusion throughout the world.

Of course the jihadist extremists should be constrained, investigated and hunted down so that they will not murder a further 5000 European civilians (or worse) over the next 20 years. However killing 100,000 children a year in Iraq alone by the Coalition is COUNTERPRODUCTIVE as well as cowardly, criminal and barbaric - it will surely only inflame jihadist extremists. First World involvement in continuing mass mortality throughout the world must be exposed and those individuals with clearly demonstrable complicity (notably the leaders of the Coalition) held to account via the ICC.

For 2004 the medical expenditure allocation in war-ravaged Iraq has been about US$40 per head as compared to about US$1,000 per head in prosperous Australia, a Coalition member and an “occupier” country. The ruler is responsible for the ruled - the medical parsimony of the occupying Coalition is associated with an estimated under-5 infant mortality of the order of 100,000 per year. This grossly violates international consensus on the humane treatment of a conquered people and constitutes a massive and continuing war crime - in addition to the war crime of illegal invasion of a remote country that posed absolutely no threat to the invaders. You are referred to more detailed accounts of this horrendous, ongoing mass mortality published in Australasian Science, News Central Asia, Media Monitors (USA) and elsewhere in Australia and abroad (and readily accessed on the Web by an advanced Google search for the phrase Gideon Polya).

Slavenka Drakulic’s book “They Would Never Hurt a Fly” is an analysis of war criminals of the Balkans War. She states: “Only now can I understand how easy it is to start a war in the absence of facts…A thin layer of rationality easily falls away under the pressure of emotions…More than a decade after the beginning of the war in the Balkans, it is essential that we understand that it is we ordinary people and not some madmen who made it possible…If it is true that there is no collective guilt, can there be collective innocence?...The trials of war criminals are important not only for those killed. They are important also because of the living”.

I reiterate that Australian Federal Government complicity in horrendous mass mortality in Iraq and Afghanistan demands international judicial examination through war crimes trials. I have made this extremely serious complaint in the public interest.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Gideon Polya

29 Dwyer Street, Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria 3085, Australia

Tel: +61 3 9459 3649; e-mail: gpolya@optusnet.com.au & gmpolya@yahoo.com

cc State Premiers & PM, State & Federal Leaders of the Opposition; key MPs, NGOs, media [/htm]

Reminder today from Don Ross:

Hello fellow travelers,

Just a last minute reminder that today is the last day to sign up for the 10% off Early Bird special for next September's Guitar Weekend.

The weekend of September 16-18, 2005 will feature a concert and workshops by yours truly and special guest Tony McManus, my cohort in the guitar quartet Men of Steel.

Tony's website:

http://www.TonyMcManus.com

Hailed by guitar legend John Renbourn as "The best Celtic guitarist in the world," Scottish musician Tony McManus specializes in bringing the authenticity of musics from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Galicia and Brittany to life on the steel string guitar. An expert in both fingerpick and flatpick guitar styles, Tony is in high demand as both a performer and instructor, traveling across North America, Europe and Australia almost constantly. Despite the fact that Tony has recently married a Canadian and moved to within a three-hour drive of Cannington, I had to book him almost a full year in advance if I wanted him at all!!

In order to afford you the chance of giving the Guitar Weekend to a loved one (or to yourself!) as a Christmas present, I'm letting you know now about the event. If you register now you can save 10% on the regular registration fee of $500.00 Canadian (approximately $410.00 US or 320 Euro or 225 British Pounds) by booking by November 15, 2004.

You can book your space (and there are only 15 of them!) by calling my personal voicemail at (+1) 416.520.0092 and leaving your Visa or MasterCard information (16-digit number, expiry date and name on the card). Make sure to leave your phone number and email address as well so that you can be notified of your registration and all the details about the Weekend.

You can also register via email by writing to me at

donrossguitarweekend@sympatico.ca

and leaving the pertinent information. I suggest you split the information over at least two emails for added security.

You can also register by mail using a certified cheque or money order by writing to:

Don Ross

Goby Fish Music

253 College St #322

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M5T 1R5

The Guitar Weekend takes place in the beautiful Victorian village of Cannington, Ontario, Canada, which is situated 90 minutes northeast of Toronto. Toronto's airport is a major international hub and is easily accessible. Many people carpool from the airport and other locations to save money. People traveling from points in the USA may prefer to fly into Buffalo, NY, as it is sometimes significantly less expensive than flying into Toronto. Buffalo is about 3 hours by car from Cannington.

Registrants stay either at my own century home in Cannington or at a neighbour's house in the village. This will be the seventh year for the Don Ross Cannington Guitar Weekend, and all six previous editions have been great successes, with many people attending multiple times.

The Weekend consists of a Friday night song circle, a Saturday night double-bill concert by Tony and Don, and daytime workshops by Tony and Don during the day on each of Saturday and Sunday. The whole event is amazingly well-catered by Peho Marshak, whose gourmet creations have been known to necessitate the purchase of new belts after each Weekend!

So, be the first on your block to register for the September 2005 edition of the Don Ross Cannington Guitar Weekend. This past September's Weekend sold out in five days, so act fast, and at 10% off, it's that much more fun!

Peace,

Don Ross

http://www.DonRossOnline.com

http://www.gobyfish.com

this guy is ridiculous!!!

... in the GOOD sense of "ridiculous", right?