CIVITATENSIS

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A recent poll carried out in Australia revealed that a majority of its population is in favour of gay marriage. However, so far, it’s been a slow march down the aisle for gay equality. Two successive Prime Ministers have strongly opposed reforming Australian marriage laws to allow gay and lesbians to wed. The current leader Kevin Rudd intervened earlier this year in his party’s internal push to modify policy on gay unions and gay marriage instructing there to be no change. However, it seems a ground swell of support is pushing the country towards allowing gays and lesbians the right to tie the knot. A survey carried out by Australian Marriage Equality found that 60% of Australians would support same-sex marriage, with 36% opposed and 4% undecided. It also found that 58% would support the recognition of same-sex marriages formed in other countries within Australian law. Earlier this week the country’s first legally recognized gay civil ceremony took place in Canberra after a bill sponsored by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Greens Party was approved. Many expected the federal government to overturn the new legislation as it has done similarly on three previous occasions, but so far the new law remains in place. Leading Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald also earlier this week ran an editorial headlined “Whatever the Gender, All Marriages Should Be Equal” in full support of lesbian and gay unions. “It is time to end legal discrimination against gays and lesbians” the paper said “Spain has done it. So have Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and South Africa. All these nations have legalised same-sex marriage, without evident undermining of heterosexual marriage and the family relationships based upon it. And in Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany and New Zealand, where the law allows same-sex civil unions or registered partnerships, there hasn’t been any shredding of the social fabric, either. Yet Australia, which likes to see itself as a tolerant, pluralist society, has not been able to go as far as deeply Catholic Spain in removing remaining forms of institutionalised discrimination against gay and lesbian people.” For weekly gay news, chat and soundbites visit www.maleforce.com

To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils: indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war. Michael Ignatieff (New York Times Magazine, May 2004.) According to the US Army manuals, terrorism is the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature..through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear Michael Ignateiff distinguishes three types of terrorism, loner terrorism, self determination terrorism and the terrorism of the global spectacular. He gave examples of terrorists, such as Palestinian suicide bombers, Timothy McVeigh, the dude that killed Kennedy, The Columbine murderers, Washington sniper, and of course Al Qadeda. He did not mention the concept of state sponsored terrorism. Noam Chomsky would consider the car bombing in Beirut in 1985 , organized by the CIA and its Saudi clients , with the assistance of British Intelligence as an example of state sponsored terrorism, or Israels invasion of Lebanon which left 18000 dead, and The U.Ss attack on Nicaragua in 1986, condemned by the International Court of Justice and the UN security Council as an act of terrorist against Nicaragua. Michale Ignateiff considered preventive or investigative detention, targeted killing, intensive interrogation as a necessary part of the war on terror , fought on behalf of free people living in western democracies against failed states. Noam Chomsky would …

Video sampled from “One Got Fat” (1963) bicycle safety movie www.archive.org