Greg's View of Todays News - 01/26/2009

This is an automated post featuring local news, press releases and syndicated news stories that I felt compelled to comment upon

• 'Alienating Indigenous': call for Australia Day date change - ABC News

  An emeritus professor from Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory says the nation needs to consider changing Australia Day.

  • He says that alienates many Indigenous Australians who feel it was the start of an invasion.
    • Australia day is a day of coming together - I doubt if any 'white' Australian has ever considered it a day of invasion. For the indiginous to consider it as such is provocative when, as a nation, we have symbolically apologised for the actions of our forebears and we are moving forward with the aborigines by our side. - post by gnaylor
  • "We're thinking that most people in Australia Day [think of it] as a way of saying that they celebrate the coming of the white people and the taking over of land, and the stealing of our culture and language,"
    • That is a complete nonsense. Hasn't this lady seen the Telstra Ad where the guy has taught his kid that Australia day is a holiday to watch the cricket ;) - post by gnaylor

• U.S. Forces Kill Couple, Wound Daughter in Raid on Iraqi House - washingtonpost.com

  BAGHDAD, Jan. 24 -- U.S. troops stormed the house of a former army officer Saturday in northern Iraq, killing the man and his wife, wounding their 8-year-old daughter and unleashing anger among residents at tactics they deemed excessive, police said.
  
  COMMENT: Where is the democracy that the US has imposed on Iraq when incidents like this are reported almost daily. The U.S. military described Hussein as the suspected leader of an assassination cell belonging to the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, which U.S. officials say is led by foreigners.
  Democracy says that a man is innocent until he is proven guilty. It does not allow law enforcement to kill people this way.

• NZ surrogate mum ordered to help pay for child&squo;s upkeep | The Courier-Mail

  THE Federal Government is demanding a surrogate mother from New Zealand pay child support for the baby she had for two gay Queensland men.
  The woman gave birth to the baby girl a year ago and is refusing to pay for the child's upkeep, New Zealand's Sunday Star Times reported.

  • The baby is being raised by her biological father and his male partner, who have gained child support benefits for the father to stay home and care for her. The couple are the child's legal guardians.
    • It seems the problem has arisen because the father has applied for child support benefits whilst still living with his partner. Under these circumstances, Centrelink should never have accepted the application..
      
      Where I come from, a father has an obligation to provide for the family and he should not be entitled to taxpayer support if the family unit is still intact
      
      In a heterosexual marriage, you have never heard of a mother claiming benefits whilst she is still living with the father of the child. What makes this case different? - post by gnaylor

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