Archive for January 2nd, 2009

Chic Henry caught speeding

I see that Summernats head honcho Chic Henry is setting a good example:

Police catch Summernats founder speeding
January 2, 2009 – 1:05PM

The public face of the Summernats car festival – organiser Chic Henry – has been chastised by police for speeding through a Canberra street on day one of the event.

Police issued Mr Henry with a formal warning after he was clocked doing 77km/h in a 40km/h zone outside the Summernats venue, AAP has learned.

Police let Mr Henry off with a warning because the street – Flemington Road in Mitchell – is usually an 80km/h zone.

It has been temporarily reduced to 40km/h for the annual event, which kicked off on Thursday.

Mr Henry was not fined and will have no points deducted from his licence.

It could just be me, but isn’t being aware of your surroundings and changes to road conditions part of driving? And wouldn’t the Summernats organiser be aware that the road just outside the event is having its speed limit reduced for Summernats?

It’s unfortunate that Mr. Henry was speeding as he does generally try to set a good example for the attendees of the event…unfortunately the Police, despite their public bleating to the contrary, have just set an example of “ignorance is an acceptable excuse for bad behaviour”.

I can’t wait to see the number of people who see Chic Henry getting away with speeding and decide that they can get away with it as well.

Samuel

3 comments January 2nd, 2009 at 02:24pm

Guantanamo Bay Detainees

There’s an interesting story in the news this morning.

According to the Australian Newspaper, Australia is planning to rehouse Guantanamo Bay detainees in Australian prison facilities when US President Elect Barack Obama shuts down Guantanamo Bay at some stage in the next two years.

To quote from livenews.com.au’s take on the story:

US authorities have approached Australia and Britain about resettling detainees of the notorious prison.

The Times of London reported on Thursday that Britain was preparing to take Guantanamo Bay detainees to allow the Obama administration to shut down the prison.

The Rudd government is now considering quietly accepting detainees, the Australian newspaper reported on Friday.

A spokesman for Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard told The Australian that detainees could be accepted in Australia under strict conditions, but that there would be no wholesale intake of former detainees.”

Well, let’s face it, we can’t just let them go. The people who are being detained at Guantanamo are suspected of being the worst of the worst of the worst. If they weren’t, then they wouldn’t be being held there.

The issue that I see here is that there have been a lot of complaints about the conditions at Guantanamo Bay…rehousing them is fine and would probably improve conditions, but can it really be done secretly in the way that seems to be planned?

Government’s may be concerned about the security implcations of publicising the location of the detainees if they were take them…but we all know where Guantanamo Bay is.

That said, you would think that, if we’re going to avoid the alleged human rights violations which occurred at Guantanamo Bay, then perhaps we can’t have large central camps for these people, perhaps we would have to put them in our maximum security prisons…so who pays for them? They’re United States prisoners, surely the United States would have to pay for them, but undoubtedly we’ll end up footing part of the bill.

Federal Opposition Leader malcolm Turnbull raised yet another concern…acording to him, “There does not appear to be any legal basis under which Australia could hold the Guantanamo Bay detainees in custody,”

To me, this looks like an impossible logistical and legislative nightmare. Guantanamo Bay might not be perfect, but at least it’s a known quantity. We know what we’re dealing with, and in my opinion, rather than closing the place down, President-Elect Obama should take a personal interest in ensuring that the prison meets human rights guidelines. Surely that would be a better and easier solution all round.

Samuel

3 comments January 2nd, 2009 at 10:17am


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