another one bites the dust

in fantabulous news for the wrongly accused, the nsw gov has decided to allow 11:1 jury majority decisions in courts. yippee.
there are obviously a lot of conflicting views about the whole matter, but 'beyond reasonable doubt', to me, sounds like every single person's view must absolutely and totally agree. hung juries happen, but they usually have a reason. im no lawyer but isnt it better to spend money and time to ensure the right person is put away, rather than putting them away first then thinking about it later? but since we're making our merry way through everything civil libertarians have accomplished in the last 100 years, why not?

speaking of which, the raids last night in revesby have been the source of much amusement, as has the media reporting of the event. first, we hear that terrorists are being rounded up before they can explode the fertiliser they have in their backyards, then that women and children have been taken, then this evening i hear that the police only raided the house to collect evidence. i always thought you did that before storming a place, but hey, what do i know?
no matter what kinds of clucking noises my mum makes, im inclined to agree with those guys who bashed the awaiting media in melbourne the other day. sheesh.
besides which, the guys who have been captured have been charged with being alleged members of a 'prescribed group'. soon i wont be able to have dinner at malaysia hall cos it obviously is the breeding ground of such 'groups'. next thing you know, mr howard will be arresting the members of 'the herd', or the living end.

and it is depressing to me to see the lawyers for the imprisoned men saying that they cant do anything but present their truth and leave it in the hands of the australian justice system. gods, they might as well lay down and expose their necks instead.

anyways. to the abc, and this morning i caught a very bearded, and very young scott major exposing the horrible truth and construction behind the media in what was basically the entire 'telling the truth' hsc syllabus in 30 minutes, in the language of 9-yr olds. now im still unsure as to whether this scott major was the same one as of the 'always greener' fame (loved that show. and as always, this is a sign that it was in the process of being indiscriminately canned), but i have a feeling it was. he looked a lot different, but then again it was years ago. fun stuff.

oh - and i finally caught 'serenity'. yeah its quite good. and if i had been a firefly fan, im sure i woulda loved it to bits. as it stands tho, im just wondering what mr henson and the folks at sci-fi are thinking in regards to ... yes you guessed it, farscape. i read somewhere that the success ( or lack of one) of serenity would directly influence any future plans for farscape. and i cant help but think that its reaching the international box-office will have brought all of the old scapers back out of the woodwork. all fingers crossed that we can get something to happen.

and other non-vicarious news:
i finally got my formal dress (its purple), im continually asking the question: where the hell is the exact location of the formal place, my sister is going to the tech formal (proud, innit, jess?), and the hsc is ending tomorrow. for everyone i think. good luck ppl. and remember to have fun.

mels