Friday, July 31, 2009

Skiing at Falls Creek this weekend Woohoo!!!!

I'm off for the ski trip to Falls Creek with Jack Foo's group!!!!

I can't wait.

The snow conditions are great. Plenty of snow. But its been nearly over a year since my last ski trip. And the ski slopes here are sooo far away.

Back by Sunday.

I'll post photos of the trip when I get back.

Petition for Lecturer whose cruel killers got 2 years in jail

You may have seen in the news, a report about Dr Cao Zhongjun, a 41 year old lecturer in Victoria University who was bashed and killed for fun as he was walking home from work.

The killers, a gang of bored youths, wanted a mobile phone. They didn't even threaten Dr Cao, they just bashed him without any provocation or warning. When he fell down, the ringleader kicked him in the head so hard he injured his own foot.

The killers weren't hungry or trying to get food for their family or even desperate. They brutally murdered an innocent man, who was walking home from work, for the sheer pleasure of it. I can't think of anything more evil than that.

Two of the gang who participated in the attack received light sentences - 2 years. Their jail sentence is also reduced due to the amount of time they spent in remand. They were very happy about it.

Read it here.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24833691-661,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25855192-2862,00.html

Yesterday, the same judge sentenced the ringleader to 10 or 15 years in jail for killing Dr Cao. Frankly, I don't understand why the whole lot of them aren't canned, then hung, or preferably fed live to sharks.

The judge made a lot of noise about the racial motivation behind the act - as if murdering a man for fun was a lesser offense. The judge ought to be beaten too. The light sentencing these murderers got are immoral. I just don't understand why Australians aren't more outraged by this.

Sometime back, when a drug smuggler was hanged overseas, Australian politicians held a minute's silence in Parliament for him, the biggest church in Melbourne held High mass for him (normally reserved for heroes), top lawyers wept for him and held vigils in his honor, and all the Aussie news stations played his story for weeks. They've got pretty bizarre notions of justice.

A petition has been set up to complain about the light sentences received by the murderers. You can sign it here (which is the point of this email)

http://www.caozhongjun.org/en/


The Chinese edition is here
http://www.caozhongjun.org/

Dr Cao's mother, a devout Christian, apparently took her own life after his murder. Dr Cao leaves behind a grieving wife and child. How sad to have survived the China Revolution persecutions only to come to a foreign land to lose your own son and die in despair. Reminds me of Naomi in the Bible...


Feel free to forward this to your friends.

Cheers,

YM

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Flaws in Sun Tze's Art of War? Example The Battle of Midway 1942.

The ancient military historian, Sun Tze, is often quoted and his philosophical maxims used by many military/business leaders. He attempted to boil down military strategy and tactics to philosophical maxims like:

"Know yourself. Know your Enemy. A thousand Battles! A thousand victories!"

Its seems however, that perhaps his quotes are taken too literally and applied without careful and deep thought.

On another level, there's probably a serious problem in trying to boil down something complex like warfare into a few pat maxims. And it becomes silly if you make them absolutes. Like this one:

"All warfare is based on deception"
Sun Tze

I'm currently reading a book about the great Battle of Midway 1942 - SHATTERED SWORD (a beautifully well written and researched history book by the way) where the Japanese Navy suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the American forces. The writer points out that Admiral Yamamoto, the Japanese commander in charge, applied Sun Tze's principles:

18. All warfare is based on deception.
19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

I disagree with that universal maxim. Not all warfare is based upon deception. And what happens if the enemy sees through your crafty plans???

Sometimes war is based upon a simple test of strengths. You find an objective and strive to capture it with all your might. Your enemy fights you for it. Simple Brutal Strength. This is called the direct method - Clausewitz's way - the (old) Western way of war.

It may surprise many people but in May 1942 the Japanese Navy was actually stronger than the US forces. It had more carriers, more battleships, better cruisers/destroyers, superior fighter planes, and better trained sailors and airmen.

Everyone knew this.

However Yamamoto felt he should lure the US Navy into attacking him so that he could destroy them in one big battle.

But to do this - he designed a complicated battle plan with his forces spread widely over the huge Pacific ocean. His main objective was the capture of Midway Island. But there was also an independent separate plan to capture the faraway Aleutian Islands way up off Alaska. It wasn't a feint btw.

After capturing the Midway Islands he assumed the Americans would advance and get caught in a mighty pincer movement before being destroyed by the battleship fleet held in reserve. Wow.

So instead of a war plan - we get the Nutcracker ballet concert. Very pretty but very complicated. And what happens when the diva has a hissing fit?

The ill conceived plan was based on the assumption the enemy would be deceived and follow their part in Yamamoto's script.

He should have been more cautious. In an earlier battle, the Battle of Coral Sea, US carriers appeared out of nowhere and attacked the Japanese fleet as it advanced to capture Port Morseby. They destroyed one small carrier and in effect disabled the two main fleet carriers. USN aviators were also pretty good - shooting down a huge number of Japanese planes+ killing their invaluable veteran aircrew. A bad sign but no one seemed to care.

Now if Yamamoto had sent his entire force of aircraft carriers to capture the objective. He would have succeeded totally. One force (Kaga, Junyo, Ryujo) could have smashed the Island's defences. The other (Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, and the Zuikaku) could be held back in reserve to defend the fleet and attack any lurking enemy ships. He would even have had the luxury of using two small carriers (the Zuiho and Hosho) for purely scouting duties. For good measure he could also have brought his battleships, including the Yamato, placing them at the vanguard to provide AA support and to divert the attention of US bombers away from the vulnerable carriers.

However he wanted to be Sun Tze. Deceive the enemy. Defeat him.

18. All warfare is based on deception.
19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

And he was confident his plan would work - so confident that he left behind one of his key carriers because he felt it needed some rest. The attacking Japanese carriers also carried about 70% of their air crew strength. Four carriers out of 11. Enough to defeat the forces of one small puny enemy island.

Unfortunately for Yamamoto, the USN had broken Japanese navy codes and knew about his plan.

Knowledge however is one thing; action is another.

The Americans had 6 carriers but 3 were too far away to take part in the battle. And one was badly damaged.

The US Navy was in a pretty bad shape. It only had 6 carriers. Three were too far away to help. That left only 3 carriers and one was the Yorktown which had been badly damaged in an earlier battle. However it was repaired almost overnight in time for the battle. The US also packed Midway island with every fighter/bomber plane it could send; so in effect, they had a defacto unsinkable carrier.

When the Japanese Navy attacked the island - it found its defenses were extremely strong. But that should not have surprised them. An earlier attack on the smaller remote island of Wake resulted in tremendous casualties for the Japanese.

Midway Island, however, was much closer to the American main bases and six months into the war, could have been expected to be strongly defended.

Worse, the Japanese didn't bother with a careful search plan. Reconnaissance is boring work not fit for heroic samurai warriors. They relied on a few scout and float planes - one of them even flew over the American ambush forces and missed it.

So the Japanese attacked the island but found it strongly defended. Meanwhile the ambushing US carriers launched their own attack force.

The Japanese foolishly thought the plan would go according to script.
1. Deceive the enemy.
2. Then defeat him.

But what if Point 1 failed? The Japanese had no idea and still stuck with the rigid plan.

I wonder whether Sun Tze ever taught - "Do not expect enemy to follow your plan." ?

In fact, this scenario came out during the Japanese Naval preparatory wargames and half their fleet got sunk. However Yamamoto chose to restart the game like a noob gamer until he got the result he wanted.

Luckily for the Japanese, one of their search planes (on the Tone cruiser) was delayed and by the time it flew off it found the US carriers in its search sector. It dutifully advised of its unpleasant find.

But by now the Japanese attacking fleet was caught in a dilemma - it was trying to destroy the American forces on the Island and wasn't fully prepared to attack an enemy carrier force.

The solution really should have been to break off the attack and retreat west, away from the Americans. This would have made it harder for enemy to catch them, taking into account that US planes had a shorter range. Meanwhile, the Japanese could have launched every available plane to attack the lurking American carrier force.

Instead, the Japanese commander still stuck to the plan and doctrine. Destroy the enemy with all your men!!! So he moved closer towards the direction of the enemy carriers. In doing so he needlessly exposed himself to the twin dangers of being attacked on two sides - from the island and from the enemy ships. Being fearless warriors should not have made them stupid.

The plan of deception had failed 100%. But the Japanese admiral still foolishly stuck rigidly to it.

To make matters worse, he decided to wait until all his planes which had attacked Midway had returned back so that he could launch a full scale attack which had a high chance of sinking the enemy fleet. In an ideal situation, thats well and good. But right now???

Here's an adage Sun Tze might not have taught - Good is the enemy of best.

Sometimes you need to go with what you have. An ideal solution might not be the most appropriate one at the time.

Another lesson Sun Tze probably didn't teach... situational awareness. The authors of Shattered Sword also pointed out the Japanese's were so obsessed about achieving their immediate objectives, ie. (1) eliminating Midway's defenses, (2) sinking the surprise enemy carriers with all their planes, etc.. that they failed to take into account the changing situation.

Its also called Big Picture Thinking. Being aware of the larger issues and not narrowly focused on the short term objectives.

That's the same reason why Asian waters are devoid of fish stocks - they allowed their fishermen to catch all the fish they wanted - and then some more. No concern for the future. Its all about short term profits. What happened? Their seas are totally fished out. Result: no fish=no industry. Stupid conclusion: Blame Global Warming.

Anyways, by the time the Japanese fleet had recovered its Midway attacking planes, and were preparing to attack the enemy carriers - a couple of US divebombers appeared and bombed them.

The Japanese carriers were seriously damaged but it shouldn't have been a fatal blow. However, their hangers were packed full of planes loaded up with bombs and aviation gas. Result - Kaboom!!!!

The Japanese flagship, the Akagi, received just one bomb hit. But that bomb blew up all the armed and fully fuelled bomber squadrons waiting in the hangers. KA-BLAHHH BOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!

In the end, the Japanese lost all its attacking carriers against Midway. The USN lost just one carrier. Most of the Americans, importantly the captain and admiral saved themselves to fight another day. The Japanese captains, on the other hand, chose to go down with their ships - and their navy suffered the twin blow of losing highly trained officers and personnel whose experience had been learnt over decades. Like big warships, you can't produce veteran warriors like that overnight. I suspect Sun Tze didn't teach that either.

To illustrate the futility of oriental thinking, the Japanese chose to save face and hush up the disaster. The survivors were scattered away. Japanese news reported a great victory. Even the Japanese Army did not learn of it until a year later and was actually happy about it as their rival got shamed.

Perhaps that's the another adage Sun Tze didn't teach - "It is a greater shame to not learn from your mistakes than it is to make them."

I'm not saying that Sun Tze's ideas are obsolete. No. But I believe he placed too much emphasis on the need for subtlety. Warfare is not all about deception. Sometimes you can use judo to win. Sometimes you need a Mike Tyson to punch the enemy out.

Adherents to Sun Tze would probably point out that the Americans won because of their adherence to point 4 of Sun Tze's teachings:

4. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.


 

Petition for Lecturer whose cruel killers got 2 years in jail

You may have seen in the news, a report about Dr Cao Zhongjun, a 41 year old lecturer in Victoria University who was bashed and killed for fun as he was walking home from work.

The killers, a gang of bored youths, wanted a mobile phone. They didn't even threaten Dr Cao, they just bashed him without any provocation or warning. When he fell down, the ringleader kicked him in the head so hard he injured his own foot.

The killers weren't hungry or trying to get food for their family or even desperate. They brutally murdered an innocent man, who was walking home from work, for the sheer pleasure of it. I can't think of anything more evil than that.

Two of the gang who participated in the attack received light sentences - 2 years. Their jail sentence is also reduced due to the amount of time they spent in remand. They were very happy about it. I think they didn't even go straight to detention; they got let off and went straight to the pub to celebrate.

Read it here.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24833691-661,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25855192-2862,00.html

Yesterday, the same judge sentenced the ringleader to 10 or 15 years in jail for killing Dr Cao. Frankly, I don't understand why the whole lot of them aren't canned, then hung, or preferably fed live to sharks.

The judge made a lot of noise about the racial motivation behind the act - as if murdering a man for fun was a lesser offense. The judge ought to be beaten too. The light sentencing these murderers got are immoral. I just don't understand why Australians aren't more outraged by this.

Sometime back, when a drug smuggler was hanged overseas, Australian politicians held a minute's silence in Parliament for him, the biggest church in Melbourne held High mass for him (normally reserved for heroes), top lawyers wept for him and held vigils in his honor, and all the Aussie news stations played his story for weeks. They've got pretty bizarre notions of justice.

A petition has been set up to complain about the light sentences received by the murderers. You can sign it here (which is the point of this email)

http://www.caozhongjun.org/en/


The Chinese edition is here
http://www.caozhongjun.org/

Dr Cao's mother, a devout Christian, apparently took her own life after his murder. Dr Cao leaves behind a grieving wife and child. How sad to have survived the China Revolution persecutions only to come to a foreign land to lose your own son and die in despair. Reminds me of Naomi in the Bible...


Feel free to forward this to your friends.

Cheers,

YM

Flaws in Sun Tze's thinking? The Battle of Midway 1942.

The ancient military historian, Sun Tze, is often quoted and his philosophical maxims used by many military/business leaders.

Its seems however, that perhaps they take his quotes a little too literally and apply his principles without careful and deep thought.

I'm currently reading a book about the great Battle of Midway 1942 - where the Japanese Navy suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the American forces. The writer points out that
Admiral Yamamoto, the Japanese commander in charge, applied Sun Tze's principles:

18. All warfare is based on deception.
19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

I disagree with that universal maxim. Not all warfare is based upon deception. And what happens if the enemy sees through your deception???

Sometimes war is based upon a simple test of strengths. You find an objective and strike at it with all your might. Your enemy fights you for it. Simple Brutal Strength. This is called the direct method - the old Western way of war.

It may surprise many people but in May 1942 the Japanese Navy was actually stronger than the US forces. It had more carriers, more battleships and better trained sailors and airmen.

Everyone knew this.

However Yamamoto felt he should lure the US Navy into attacking him so that he could destroy them in one big battle.

But to do this - he designed a complicated battle plan with his forces spread widely over the huge Pacific ocean. His main objective was the capture of Midway Island. But there was also a seperate plan to capture the faraway Aleutian Islands way up near the North Pole.

So instead of thinking like a logical soldier he devised a ballet plan. Very pretty but very complicated.

Now if he had sent his entire force of aircraft carriers to capture the objective. He would have succeeded totally. One force could have smashed the Island's defences. The other could be held in reserve to defend the fleet and attack any lurking enemy ships. He may even had the numbers to use one carrier for pure scouting duties.

However he didn't. He wanted to be clever and employed deceptive tactics. He also left behind one of his key ships because he felt it needed some rest. The attacking Japanese carriers also carried about 70% of their air crew strength. Total Four carriers.

Unfortunately for him, the USN had broken Japanese navy codes and knew about his plan.

But Knowledge however is one thing. Action is another.

The US Navy was in a pretty bad shape. One of its carriers had been badly damaged in an earlier battle. However it repaired it almost overnight in time for the battle. The US also packed the small island with every fighter plane it could send.

When the Japanese Navy attacked the island - it found its defenses were extremely strong. But that should not have surprised them. An earlier attack on the small remote island of Wake resulted in tremendous casualties for the Japanese.

Midway Island, however, was closer to the American main bases and by that time, could have been expected to be strongly defended.

Worse, the Japanese didn't bother with a careful search plan. Reconaissance isn't a very heroic job for samurai warriors. They relied on a few scout and float planes - one of them even flew over the American ambush forces and missed it.

So the Japanese attacked the island but found it strongly defended. Meanwhile the ambushing US carriers launched their own attack force.

The Japanese foolishly thought the plan would go according to script.
1. Deceive the enemy.
2. Then defeat him.

But what if Point 1 failed? The Japanese had no idea and still stuck with the rigid plan.

I wonder whether Sun Tze ever taught - "Few Battle Plan usually work or the enemy may not be expected to follow your orders."

In fact this scenario came out during the prepratory wargames. However the Japanese commanders chose to restart the game like noob gamers. I wonder whether Sun Tze encountered this sort of problem? "If the plan doesn't work, you better learn to improvise."

Luckily for the Japanese, one of their search planes (on the Tone cruiser) was delayed and by the time it flew off it found the US carriers in its search sector. It dutifully advised the Japanese fleet of its find.

But by now the Japanese attacking fleet was caught in a dilemma - it was trying to destroy the American forces on the Island and wasn't prepared to fully ready to attack an enemy carrier force.

The solution really should have been to break off the attack and head away from the area - capitalizing on the fact that US planes had a shorter range liability. Meanwhile, the Japanese should have launched every available plane to attack the lurking American carrier force.

Instead, the Japanese commander still stuck to the plan and doctrine. Destroy the enemy - in force!!! So he moved closer to the enemy carriers. In doing so he needlessly exposed himself to the twin dangers of being attacked on two sides - from the Island and from the enemy ships.

To make matters worse, he decided to wait until all his planes which had attacked Midway had returned back before attacking the new threat with a full force.

Here's an adage Sun Tze might not have taught - Good is the enemy of best.

Sometimes you need to go with what you have. An ideal solution might not be the most appropriate one at the time.

Anyways, by the time the Japanese fleet had recovered the 1st group of planes sent to attack Midway, and were preparing to launch the force to attack the enemy carriers - a couple of US divebombers appeared and bombed the Japanese carriers.

It was serious but it shouldn't have been fatal. Unfortunately, the Japanese carriers were full of planes loaded up with bombs, aviation fuel. Result - Kaboom!!!!

The main Japanese carrier, the Akagi, received just one bomb hit. But that bomb blew up all the Japanese bombers waiting in the hangers. Everything went off with a bang.

In the end, the Japanese lost all its attacking carriers against Midway and the Americans lost just one carrier. Most of the Americans, importantly the captain and admiral saved themselves to fight another day. The Japanese on the other hand- chose to go down with their ships - and their navy suffered the twin blow of losing highly trained officers whose experience had been earned over decades. Like big warships, you can't produce warriors like that overnight.

Worse, the Japanese chose to save face and hush up the disaster. The survivors were scattered away. Japanese News reported a great victory. Even the Japanese Army did not learn of it until a year later.

Perhaps that's the another adage Sun Tze didn't teach - "Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it."

or "Good warriors own up to their mistakes."



Petition for Lecturer whose cruel killers got 2 years in jail

You may have seen in the news, a report about Dr Cao Zhongjun, a 41 year old lecturer in Victoria University who was bashed and killed for fun as he was walking home from work.

The killers, a gang of bored youths, wanted a mobile phone. They didn't even threaten Dr Cao, they just bashed him without any provocation or warning. When he fell down, the ringleader kicked him in the head so hard he injured his own foot.

The killers weren't hungry or trying to get food for their family or even desperate. They brutally murdered an innocent man, who was walking home from work, for the sheer pleasure of it. I can't think of anything more evil than that.

Two of the gang who participated in the attack received light sentences - 2 years. Their jail sentence is also reduced due to the amount of time they spent in remand. They were very happy about it.

Read it here.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24833691-661,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25855192-2862,00.html

Yesterday, the same judge sentenced the ringleader to 10 or 15 years in jail for killing Dr Cao. Frankly, I don't understand why the whole lot of them aren't canned, then hung, or preferably fed live to sharks.

The judge made a lot of noise about the racial motivation behind the act - as if murdering a man for fun was a lesser offense. The judge ought to be beaten too. The light sentencing these murderers got are immoral. I just don't understand why Australians aren't more outraged by this.

Sometime back, when a drug smuggler was hanged overseas, Australian politicians held a minute's silence in Parliament for him, the biggest church in Melbourne held High mass for him (normally reserved for heroes), top lawyers wept for him and held vigils in his honor, and all the Aussie news stations played his story for weeks. They've got pretty bizarre notions of justice.

A petition has been set up to complain about the light sentences received by the murderers. You can sign it here (which is the point of this email)

http://www.caozhongjun.org/en/


The Chinese edition is here
http://www.caozhongjun.org/

Dr Cao's mother, a devout Christian, apparently took her own life after his murder. Dr Cao leaves behind a grieving wife and child. How sad to have survived the China Revolution persecutions only to come to a foreign land to lose your own son and die in despair. Reminds me of Naomi in the Bible...


Feel free to forward this to your friends.

Cheers,

YM

Robber who murders victim - jailed for only 10 years

AustThis is Dr. Cao's photo - he was murdered on his way to work by a couple of bored young men who wanted a mobile phone. One of them was sentenced today for the robbery and murder for 15 years.

***********
15 years for wantonly killing an innocent man. Somehow it doesn't strike me as justice. But it seems the court is more worried about the attack being racist.
Fubar!!! Murder is Murder. The color of the skin should not be the issue. The fact remains that an innocent man walking home from work was attacked, beaten, and killed by a couple of thugs. And all this murderer got was 15 years and he may be out on parole in 10. The murderer took away a life of promise and hope, a skilled worker who had decades of fulfilling work ahead of him.The price for his life is 15 or 10 years in jail.
There will be no rallies for Dr. Cao. There will be no charities set up to remember his name. There will be no one minute silence in Australia's Parliaments. No public figure will shed a tear for him. The Australian politicians/judges/lawyers will look you in the eye and say, "Tragedy... blah blah blah... condolences to... blah... But well hey its just a statistic, an aberration. Melbourne is really a very safe place."
Easy for them to say. But they have a responsibility to process laws which are just. Otherwise its not a justice system is it?

*************

A Melbourne man who killed a university researcher in a racially motivated gang assault last year has been jailed for 15 years.
John Caratozzolo, 21, of Melton South told his group of friends he wanted to get a mobile phone from an Indian student, because they had better phones.
They then attacked 41-year-old Dr Zhongjun Cao, who they took to be of Indian descent, although he was actually Chinese.
The court heard Caratozzolo and a group of six others set upon Dr Cao as he walked home from his work at Victoria University, Footscray, last January. Dr Cao fell to the ground before a laughing Caratozzolo kicked him in the head with enough force to damage his own foot.
Sentencing Caratozzolo in the Supreme Court this morning, Justice David Harper said racially motivated attacks had no place in a multicultural society like Australia, which celebrated its diversity.
Justice Harper said Caratozzolo’s attack was ‘‘intended to inflict as much gratuitous pain to increase pleasure’’ and his actions had increased everyone’s fear.
‘‘Everyone in this city, state and this country — visitors, students, residents, everyone — whatever race or gender or beliefs, has the right to walk its streets without fear,’’ he said.
‘‘This is a fundamental right that all of us are entitled to take for granted.’’
Justice Harper said a second assault by Caratozzolo on another victim that night was also racist; saying Caratozzolo had learnt to swear at Indians in Hindi and learnt words and phrases ‘‘designed to cause maximum offence’’.
Caratozzolo will be eligible for parole in 10 years and has already served 549 days in custody.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Computer update Vista Installation restored - All is well!!

Alright!!!!

OK some good news. I called the Asus call centre and they informed me that the Recovery disc would be able to reinstall Vista and get the computer back to factory standard.

Huh? Wow! I thought deleting the hidden partition containing the backup data would render the Recovery Disc useless. Apparently not.

So I guess I wasted the last 24 hours crying like a little schoolgirl over nothing.

Well, that's a relief.

It seems Asus (as well as other notebook makers) builds their machines are special way - so the normal Vista software doesn't install properly- as I discovered.

I inserted the disk and he told him to go for option 3. Partition both drives. Thankfully, I at least had the brains to recall my Data was still stuck on "D" drive so I installed Vista on the 1st partition.

Now, in the past, Microsoft OS had a disgruntled gangster bikie librarian attitude and could be to expected shove its data and kill everything else on the hard drive, including your precious collection of photos and videos.

It will do this even though you had the data stored onto a separate hard drive.

Be very careful about this. One small push of the button and you just deleted forever your PhD thesis on how to bake the perfect scone.

To cut a long story short - I installed Vista on the 1st partition and it didn't fubar on me.

Then I realized I didn't turn the HD to enhanced mode. I turned it on and it didn't seem to cause a problem. But I couldn't get the ethernet driver to work - meaning no internet connection. A couple of driver installations later and no magic. I also installed some of the drivers in the wrong sequence.

Paraonia set in. Its a bit like baking a cake and then wondering where your pet hamster disappeared to.

So I put in the recovery disc and redid it again. This time round I got a few more options. I installed the drivers in the right sequence, starting with the Intel inf.

And I got internet!!! Hooray

Deleting the hidden partition turns out to be a blessing in disguise cos otherwise Asus would have preloaded all its bloatware onto the system and screwed it up again.

I wish I could design a "Gauntlet of Pain" and get MS staff and the various computer manufacturers to do various tasks whilst being shot at by paintball guns.

Losers also get canned by Chinese language school teachers if their computers are inexplicably slow, their software fails etc..

You can sue doctors if they are negligant in their work. But for some reason you can't seem to do a damn thing to the computer programmers.

Anyways, I spend the last 12 hours reinstalling the software and updating Vista.

At least I didn't have to courier the machine to the computer repair shop.




Monday, July 27, 2009

ARGGGHHH!!!!! VISTA ate my computer

You would have thought that a company worth billions of dollars and having the means to employ the best and brightest programmers/testers/computers the world has ever seen could have designed a system which would work properly.

I just decided to reformat my Lamborghini VX2S notebook and re-install Vista onto the machine.

Actually it was working ok - but not great for a $4k computer. I thot a clean format and reinstallation would sweep off all the bugs and get the machine tip top.

Unfortunately Vista hangs during the installation process.

Surprisingly XP Pro can be successfully installed in the machine.

God smite Bill Gates and Microsoft!!!!!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

8 year old rape victim disowned by African parents

This is really messed up. An 8 year old girl was raped by 4 boys - all from Africa. Police caught them in the act of rape. Her parents, instead of comforting their daughter - has disowned her.

No wonder Liberia is so screwed up - its not the fault of anyone else except their own fubar culture.

I'm all for respecting other people's cultures and all- but this is really indicative of its systemic failure.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/24/national/main5185433.shtml

Officers responding to a report of hysterical screams found an 8-year-old girl partially clothed and four boys, barely in their teens, running from an empty shed.

The boys, ages 9 to 14, face charges ranging from sexual assault to kidnapping, police said Thursday. Authorities in Phoenix say it's one of the most horrific cases they've ever seen.

Investigators said the boys lured the girl to an empty shed on July 16 under the pretense of offering her gum. The boys then held the girl down while they took turns raping her, police said.

"She was brutally sexually assaulted for a period of about 10 to 15 minutes," police Sgt. Andy Hill said.

The 14-year-old boy was charged Wednesday as an adult with two counts of sexual assault and kidnapping, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said. He appeared in court Thursday and was being held without bond. He does not yet have a defense lawyer.

The other boys - ages 9, 10, and 13 - were charged as juveniles with sexual assault. The 10- and 13-year-old boys also were charged with kidnapping, the office said Thursday.

"This is a deeply disturbing case that has gripped our community," Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said. "Our office will seek justice for the young victim in this heartrending situation."

The outrage over the allegations has intensified when police said the girl's parents criticized her after the attack and blamed her for bringing shame on the family.

"The father told the case worker and an officer in her presence that he didn't want her back. He said 'Take her, I don't want her,"' Hill said.

Hill cited the family's background as the reason the family shunned the girl. All five children are refugees from the West African nation of Liberia.

In some parts of Africa, women often are blamed for being raped for enticing men or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Girls who are raped often are shunned by their families.

"It's a shame-based culture, so the crime is not as important as protecting the family name and the name of the community," said Tony Weedor, a Liberian refugee in Littleton, Colo., and co-founder of the CenterPoint International Foundation, which helps Liberians resettle in the United States.

"I just feel so sorry for this little girl," he said. "Some of these people will not care about the trauma she's going through - they're more concerned about the shame she brought on the family."

In recent years, Liberia has made efforts to combat rape under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has sought to dispel the stigma associated with sexual assault by publicly acknowledging that she was herself the victim of attempted rape during the country's civil war.

The girl's healing process will be particularly difficult, said Paul Penzone of Childhelp, which aids young victims of crime. Authorities said the victim was in the care of Child Protective Services.

"These four boys used what was a ploy to entice her to a place where they could take advantage of her almost like a pack of wolves," he said.

"And what's so disturbing beyond the initial crime is the fact that a child needs to have somewhere to feel safe, and you would think that would be in a home with her own family," not in state custody, Penzone said.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

8 year old rape victim disowned by African parents

This is really messed up. An 8 year old girl was raped by 4 boys - all from Africa. Police caught them in the act of rape. Her parents, instead of comforting their daughter - has disowned her.

No wonder Liberia is so screwed up - its not the fault of anyone else except their own fubar culture.

I'm all for respecting other people's cultures and all- but this is really indicative of its systemic failure.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/24/national/main5185433.shtml

Officers responding to a report of hysterical screams found an 8-year-old girl partially clothed and four boys, barely in their teens, running from an empty shed.

The boys, ages 9 to 14, face charges ranging from sexual assault to kidnapping, police said Thursday. Authorities in Phoenix say it's one of the most horrific cases they've ever seen.

Investigators said the boys lured the girl to an empty shed on July 16 under the pretense of offering her gum. The boys then held the girl down while they took turns raping her, police said.

"She was brutally sexually assaulted for a period of about 10 to 15 minutes," police Sgt. Andy Hill said.

The 14-year-old boy was charged Wednesday as an adult with two counts of sexual assault and kidnapping, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said. He appeared in court Thursday and was being held without bond. He does not yet have a defense lawyer.

The other boys - ages 9, 10, and 13 - were charged as juveniles with sexual assault. The 10- and 13-year-old boys also were charged with kidnapping, the office said Thursday.

"This is a deeply disturbing case that has gripped our community," Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said. "Our office will seek justice for the young victim in this heartrending situation."

The outrage over the allegations has intensified when police said the girl's parents criticized her after the attack and blamed her for bringing shame on the family.

"The father told the case worker and an officer in her presence that he didn't want her back. He said 'Take her, I don't want her,"' Hill said.

Hill cited the family's background as the reason the family shunned the girl. All five children are refugees from the West African nation of Liberia.

In some parts of Africa, women often are blamed for being raped for enticing men or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Girls who are raped often are shunned by their families.

"It's a shame-based culture, so the crime is not as important as protecting the family name and the name of the community," said Tony Weedor, a Liberian refugee in Littleton, Colo., and co-founder of the CenterPoint International Foundation, which helps Liberians resettle in the United States.

"I just feel so sorry for this little girl," he said. "Some of these people will not care about the trauma she's going through - they're more concerned about the shame she brought on the family."

In recent years, Liberia has made efforts to combat rape under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has sought to dispel the stigma associated with sexual assault by publicly acknowledging that she was herself the victim of attempted rape during the country's civil war.

The girl's healing process will be particularly difficult, said Paul Penzone of Childhelp, which aids young victims of crime. Authorities said the victim was in the care of Child Protective Services.

"These four boys used what was a ploy to entice her to a place where they could take advantage of her almost like a pack of wolves," he said.

"And what's so disturbing beyond the initial crime is the fact that a child needs to have somewhere to feel safe, and you would think that would be in a home with her own family," not in state custody, Penzone said.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Regret, Forgiveness and letting go of past hurts

I read this at Bobby Connor's Christian website.

…but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."—Philippians 3:13-14

Have you ever entertained any of these thoughts: "Why didn't I….? I never should have…! If only he had… I'll never be able to forgive…"

These thoughts are thoughts of regret, shame and guilt, resulting from past disappointments which most of us have experienced.

Although we all have been disappointed, we're not meant to carry these disappointments into the future. Hanging onto the past is a major obstacle for many Believers. Dwelling on past mistakes, failures, losses or betrayals year after year brings an increasing weight of sin, shame and guilt—which will inevitably lead to bitterness, weariness, self-pity, accusation, doubt, unbelief and the fear that the future will just be a repeat of the past. Once disappointed, always disappointed, you reason. If they disappointed me once, they will disappoint me again.

By dwelling on past disappointments, you lose confidence in relationships with others, with God and with yourself. One of the main keys to overcoming disappointments in life is learning to let go of the past. This letting go is difficult for many because we're required not only to let go, but, in its place, to take hold of something new: we must learn to love again and to trust again—and sometimes the heart is still too wounded and hardened to open to love.

So what can we do? First, we must recognize and admit to ourselves and to the Lord that we are disappointed and that our heart has hardened to love. This may be difficult to confess, as part of the pain of disappointment is fearing that disappointment will happen again and again. We fear being disappointed if we dare to trust again and maybe even fearing to trust God again.

But we can take courage by understanding that the Lord's very purpose in coming, as He Himself declared early on, was to "bind up the brokenhearted" (Isaiah 61:1), to heal our disappointed hearts and restore hope to our innermost being. He understands deeply that we are brokenhearted by sin and failures and He has compassion for our souls.

This Hebrew word translated brokenhearted is shabar, an extremely vivid and powerful adjective that means maimed, crippled, wrecked, crushed, quenched, violently ruptured. Is this the condition of your disappointed heart?

    *

      Do you feel like you've been crushed because of betrayal?
    *

      Do you feel ruptured beyond repair because of lost dreams or lost loves?
    *

      Do you feel your hopes and prayers have been wrecked?
    *

      Do you feel crippled from an impossibly difficult journey?
    *

      Do you feel the Lord Himself has disappointed you by prayers that have gone unanswered or dreams that are still painfully unfulfilled?
    *

      Have you disappointed yourself by some egregious sin of the past?

You have no options but this: you must let go of the past. How, you ask? By choosing to forgive those who have hurt you, betrayed you, left you or wronged you. And choose to forgive yourself for your reactions to these injustices or for your own betrayals. You let go of the past by believing that God will restore to you anything and everything that was taken, including love, relationships, time, money, dreams, hopes, talents.

This truth, for many, is difficult to grasp: can the Lord truly restore lost time? Lost opportunities? Lost love? Yes He can and not only can He, but He greatly desires to restore to you everything you have lost—redeeming, restoring and multiplying it back to you.

Meditate on this marvelous promise from our Lord: "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you" (Joel 2:25).

At the very moment you gave your heart to Jesus Christ, you became a new creation: "...old things passed away and everything became new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). When you receive Christ's forgiveness in your own life, you are released from the pressure to make up for past mistakes or failures. Christ has put your sins as far from you as the east is from the west, never to remember them again. Guilt and shame are gone and you can live in freedom. How is this possible?

Consider the Cross! He bore your sins as the Passover Lamb. Do not take His death in vain by attempting to remedy your own sins and failures by holding on to them in remorse—or holding others' sins and failures against them in accusation. None of us are righteous: the Blood of the Lamb is the only remedy for sin. The only remedy for past disappointments is to repent and turn to Christ, thanking Him for making all things new.

"Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful.'" Revelation 21:5

Christ is the same "yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). That means He made all things new yesterday, He makes all things new today, and He will make all things new tomorrow. There is nothing at any time in your life which He cannot make new! Cast all your cares upon Him, receive His yoke, and you will find rest for your life.

Begin to experience the bright future God has in store for you. Don't let the regrets of yesterday destroy your hopes for tomorrow. Many Believers lead lives of "quiet desperation" as Thoreau described, hardly aware that they have ceased to dream big dreams and pray big prayers, believing God for the impossible.

Be vigilant to cast off any trace of the fear of future disappointments and trust the Lord's kindness toward you, receiving His grace to forget the past. He is an extraordinarily generous, caring and tender Father who knows what is best for His children. Abandon yourself to His care, for His name is "Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:11).

"And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You." Psalm 9:10

No matter what has happened in the past, know that our God is a God of restoration—and He will restore what the enemy has stolen from you as He promises in the Book of Joel. Accept God's mercy and forgiveness today, as His mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is not just adequate—it is great (Lamentations 3:23)! Great is His faithfulness! Look forward to the exceedingly wonderful plan He has for your future.

"Now glory be to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope." Ephesians 3:20

Pray this with me: Precious Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of forgiveness, the gift that releases me from the pains of the past and enables me to run towards You and the bright future You have in store for me! Please show me if there are any areas of unforgiveness or hardness in my heart, so that I may forgive, receive Your infinite love and walk in victory. I ask You to impart to me the dreams and vision You have for my life, restoring all the enemy has stolen. I ask for the grace to forget past disappointments. I believe You are granting this to me now even as I pray! Amen!

Bobby Conner
Eagles View Ministries

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Total Solar Eclipse in China 2009

Total solar eclipse in China 2009

It will be the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century.

Nobody alive today will ever see such an event again. Most people have never even observed a total eclipse of the Sun.
Total eclipses of the Sun produce one of nature's most awe-inspiring spectacles. The sight and feelings of such an eclipse cannot be adequately described in words, pictures or video, an event that often brings chills and tears once seen and felt.
The total solar eclipse of 22 July 2009 will be visible across south-east Asia and the western Pacific. This will be a spectacular total eclipse, lasting over a stunning6� minutes at maximum and visible to millions of people over a path up to 258 km wide.

This will be the longest of the 21st century. The next eclipse to exceed this duration will not be until 2132.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Best way to make French Toast!!!

From Chubby Hubby

http://chubbyhubby.net/blog/?p=578#more-578
French Toast
Serves 2
4 thick slices of bread
2 eggs
300ml cream
70g sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fleur du sel (vanilla if you can find it)
10ml single malt Scotch
1 tablespoon butter
Cut off bread crusts if they offend you. Cut bread into 2 or 4 pieces depending on preferences.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, sugar, fleur du sel, vanilla, and Scotch. Taste and add more sugar, salt or whiskey to taste.
Take half of the butter and melt over a medium-high heat in a nonstick pan.
While the butter is melting, soak half of the bread in the batter. Turn so that all sides of the bread get covered. Soak for a minute or so or until bread is soaked through but not mushy.
Gently place the soaked bread onto the pan, frying it until golden on one side, then flipping to fry the other side, also until golden.
Repeat with the rest of the butter and bread. Plate and then sprinkle some powdered sugar over the toast, or sauce with maple syrup or salted caramel. You can also garnish with fresh fruit.

Falls Creek Alphenhorn ski trip!!!

Start:     Jul 31, '09 6:00p
End:     Aug 2, '09 9:00p
Location:     Falls Creek
I got a place with JackFoo's group whose heading up to Falls weekend Fri 31/07-Sun 02/08. We will be leaving friday early evening around 6 pm and heading back to melbourne straight after the lifts close sunday, around 5 pm.

We are staying at Alphenhorn. Each unit is the same and they are next to eah other which is very convenient for us. The units are double story, downstairs has 2 bedrooms, one w dbl bed and the other w dbl bed and 2 bunks. Bathroom/toilet and a drying room is also downstairs. Upstairs is kitchen and living room.

Cost of accommodation for the two nights is $90 p.p.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Euen




My nephew Euen.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Scuba Diving in Sipadan, Manado, Dayang, Maldives




I've been very fortunate to dive in some of the best diving spots in the world. God's own Aquarium. And its beautiful. Beautiful blue warm ocean waters. Luxurious Resorts. Not only that- I've got to see turtles, sharks, manta rays, and even a whale shark.

But what makes it really special are the new friends I meet on my trips. They are some of the nicest people in the world. I miss them. I dedicate this video to my diving buddies. Thanks for the magic.

Life. Its an adventure.

(I reedited the video, streamlining some of the sequences and trying to incorporate most of the spectacular diving moments. I couldn't use more modern music due to copyright problems I encountered in the past)

If you have problems watching this here, you can watch it on Youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEave5UYm6U

Thursday, July 09, 2009

How to bake date scones in Winter time

One of the great pleasures in life is to wakeup to the fragrance of freshly baked scones. And then to eat them with raspberry or strawberry jam off my vintage Noritake tea set!!! Yeah!!!! I love my antique Noritake porcelain!

My sister taught me this cool and easy way to bakes scones which doesn't use butter.

You need
Self-raising flour
Thicken Cream
Clear bottled Lemonade
Fresh Dates preferred/ or dried packet ones
Flour
and
1 big bowl
1 big sieve
1 measuring cup
2 trays wrapped in aluminum foil
1 cookie cutter

First: Measure and sieve 3 cups of self raising flour into the bowl. Remember Self raising flour! You can't use ordinary flour alone because they'll end up hard as rocks.

Variation: If you want - you can do 2.5 cups of self-raising flour and add half a cup of ordinary flour. I find that using 100% self-raising flour gives the scones a bitty bicarb taste.

2 : Measure and pour 1 cup of Lemonade

3. Measure and pour 1 cup of thickened cream (if you swap 2 and 3 around it doesn't matter)

4. You can also add in a pinch of salt. Stir until the contents turns into dough like blu-tac. Don't handle the dough for too long unnecessarily otherwise you'll make it too hard.

5. Remove the seeds and chop up the dates. Mix them into the dough. I prefer fresh dates. They taste much creamier than the packet ones. The packet ones I find are too dry and the baking process makes them even more harder. Use fresh moist dates!!!

6. Make sure your bench-top table is cleaned and cleared. Rub the table and your hands with a handful of ordinary flour (not self-raising flour) to prevent the dough from sticking. Rubbing the flour onto the cutter helps too. I use ordinary flour here to reduce the baking soda aftertaste.

Now dump the dough onto the table and flatten it with your hand quickly. Flatten it to about an inch high and start cutting the scones out with the cutter and placing them into the baking tray. Make the scones the same nice shapes so they don't turn out weird and don't bake evenly.

7. Pre-heat the oven to 200C before putting the scones in.

8. Once the tray is filled you place it into the Oven. Make sure to leave ample spacing for the scones to expand on the tray otherwise they'll end up growing into each other. If they do, don't worry about it. Its just that their sides will be a little undercooked which can be easily fixed by pulling them apart and re-baking them for a minute.

9. Count 15 minutes. Take the interval to wash up and clean the kitchen. All done? Maybe another 5 more minutes? This is a bit fickle. Some ovens bake faster than others.

Now pull the scone/tray out of the oven. If you like them browner and less moist, you can leave them in the oven for a few more minutes. Always check to prevent them from burning.

10. Serve with hot tea and coffee. And eat with plenty of butter and strawberry jam!!!


Update:

sprinkle the baking trays, your HANDS, and the cookie cutter with Flour

adding the cream first before the self-raising flour seems to help

do not add the dates with the flour - add the dates in after the dough has been made



I also like to add in orange peel skin. Take a very citric orange skin - nothing to bland -  slice off the white interior layer - then finely chop up the skin - and as you roll the dough - add it in.

Monday, July 06, 2009

I dream of the Deep Blue

One of my diving friends took this amazingly awesome photo.

Its a school of Jackfish in Barracuda Point, Sipadan.

I just love the light and sun beams streaming down.

What a photo!!!

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Praise and worship at Rowville and some other thoughts on the Christian divide

One of the main things that draws me to Rowville church is the praise and worship during the service. It is heartfelt, meaningful, exuberant, joyful, and holy. Most importantly, I personally feel that I am transported into the presence of God or that God makes his presence manifest in the worship.

My soul is uplifted and the Holy Spirit within me rejoices.

In these moments - I feel like I am in Heaven - worshiping with the multitude of believers - countless like the sands of the sea. And it is beautiful.

Christianity - faith - encompasses both mind and spirit. Intellect and Emotion. God wants us to give our all to Him. And that's one reason why He loved King David so much. David loved God passionately with all his heart and soul - he was fearless in his devotion as exhibited in his fight with Goliath. Was not God amazed by David's audaciousness?

Of course, this does not mean that we abandon biblical standards or theological principles. I would depart from a church if the leadership was fatally flawed in their theological beliefs and their teaching was doctrinally unsound. I'd have pretty good reasons mind you.

On a funnier side, I personally won't be comfortable worshiping in a church with someone dancing enthusiastically like King David. But neither will I condemn it. I'll probably try very hard to avert my eyes if I saw such an exhibition and say a silent prayer for myself. :)

I think Christian churches should be balanced in both theological teaching and worship. Its seems many churches are very Janus-faced about it. Its like the right sided minded Christians go to one church - and the left-side minded Christians attend another. I guess its easier that way. But that doesn't make it correct.

As its written, Iron sharpens Iron so one man sharpens another. There's a lot of compromise that can be reached between the Evangelical conservative churches and the charismatic ones. Yes, on some issues, like the speaking of tongues - thats cause for disagreement. But I don't regard that as a major stumbling block. Surely, there is a way to work around it.

Unity has its benefits. On both sides, clutching to the extremes causes serious problems. A bit like people rushing to one side of the boat. Some evangalical churches are too dry, hate singing or any exhibit of emotions in service and don't believe that in the power of prayer to heal which to my mind detracts from the Word of God. Some charismatic churches - being a bit too left-brained - condemn rational thought and mistake human emotion for the the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They forget that God is a God of order. The study of the Bible is best done in deep thought and not in a superficial manner. God gave us a brain - like he gave us legs. Surely we have to use our brain to think through the scriptures clearly like we use our legs to get to Church safely.

Compromise, and especially real dialogue, healthy debate and rational argument not to mention a lot of grace and prayer and consideration for the other side's point of view - would help bring both sides of the Christian spectrum together. Afterall, we are brothers and sisters in Christ cleansed by the same blood of the Lamb.

But too often we are too preoccuiped with our own personal point of view and end up waiting for our turn to talk rather than listening and considering the other side's point of view.


Thursday, July 02, 2009

Hypocrisy in the West : the Iran Elections

Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor | July 02, 2009

THE missing actor in the tragic and gruesome story of Iran since the stolen election of June 12 has been the Western human rights lobby. Where is it?

What has happened in Iran is one of the pivotal events of our time. Tens of millions of Iranians voted against their demented President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the corrupt, clerical misrule he represents. No one seriously doubts the electoral fraud.
With 40 million paper ballots to count, the Iranian authorities announced the result of the election two hours after polls closed.
Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi and the other opposition candidates were not allowed to scrutinise the counting. The margin of Ahmadinejad's alleged victory - 11 million votes - was patently absurd. The final touch: the alleged margin was almost identical across most parts of the country, despite huge regional and ethnic differences.
The point is this was not meant to be a convincing fraud. It was a brazen, supremely arrogant exercise in brute power. The votes, in effect, were not counted at all. The process showed the absolute contempt in which the regime holds elections. It demonstrated the dictator's most important asset: the will to power.
Since then the Iranian dictatorship has behaved with remarkable savagery. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the stolen election and to vent their frustration at the medieval dictatorship they are forced to endure.
For the first few days the regime let them protest.
Then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned them to get off the streets. What has followed has been one of the most brutal crackdowns on democratic sentiment in recent years.
The regime acknowledges the deaths of 17 protesters. At least 40 Iranian journalists have been imprisoned. CNN, early in the business, reported 150 protesters had died in a single day.
The hated Basij militia, a unit of the Revolutionary Guard, has savagely beaten hundreds of demonstrators. It has also stabbed, shot and clubbed to death many people.
The image of the beautiful young Neda Agha Soltan as she lay dying after being shot at a demonstration, almost certainly by Basij militiamen, for a moment transfixed the world. Mousavi has described the rulers of Iran as "proponents of a petrified, Taliban-style Islam".
Despite the regime's successful if crude reassertion of basic power, this is a vulnerable time for Ahmadinejad and his cohorts. It is not only that there is popular revolt and division within the clerics. There is also now a flowering international Shia debate about whether clerics should play a direct role in politics. Inside Iran, power has flowed away from Khamenei and the other clerics and towards Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guard.
But an ideologically based dictatorship is often at its weakest when it has to resort to crude military rule.
This was the case when Poland declared martial law in 1981. It was then in plain sight for the world to behold: a military dictatorship, pure and simple. The flimsy rags of ideological purpose that global communism had conferred on the Polish government were stripped away. The Polish regime then, like the Iranian regime today, was to be seen in George Orwell's terms as simply a boot treading on a human face, over and over again.
This is the undeniable story of Iran. So where are the Western demonstrators?
Apart from ethnic Iranians, there has hardly been a single demonstration in any Western capital in support of the Iranian democrats.
Yet isn't there a class, in Australia and in the rest of the West, of people deeply concerned about human rights? The class that Robert Manne and Judith Brett call the moral middle class? Weren't there thousands of demonstrators against the World Trade Organisation and G20 meetings in Australia because the global economy allegedly repressed the rights of poor people?
What about the groups explicitly dedicated to human rights? In the twilight struggle against the communist empire, human rights groups played an honourable and at times indispensable role in gaining freedom for the likes of Soviet dissidents Andrei Sakharov, Natan Sharansky and countless others.
It was a tremendous consolation to these dissidents when a US president, or indeed a humble human rights group, campaigned on their behalf.
Recently I interviewed David Menashri, one of the great authorities in the world on Iran. He was born in Iran and studied for his PhD there. Now he is a professor at Tel Aviv University. He is in no sense a military hawk on Iran. He asked this simple question: "Can't the West exercise its moral muscles? What a gesture it would be if all the European nations, and Australia, temporarily withdrew their ambassadors from Iran in protest at what is happening there."
The truth is the language and practice of human rights advocacy in the West has become completely corrupted by the postmodern ideologies of the contemporary Left. In this parallel universe all crimes are a subset of imperialism and the only true villains are the US, Israel and, for us, Australia.
When Frank Brennan commented that the Victorian human rights charter had been ineffective in its own terms and had little to do with human rights, but had become "a device for the delivery of a soft Left sectarian agenda", he was, perhaps somewhat unconsciously, making a broader point about the debasement and collapse of authentic human rights advocacy in the West.
Where are you on Iran, Louise Adler, happy to accuse Israel of war crimes without the slightest evidence, but apparently unstirred by the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians in Iran?
What have you got to say, Antony Loewenstein, stupidly and inaccurately labeling Israel an apartheid state and approvingly quoted in the Iranian official media, but listless on your blog in the face of the Iranian repression?
What about The Age's cartoonist Michael Leunig, who once drew a cartoon so morally obtuse, stupid and offensive that it was happily accepted by an Iranian newspaper in a competition for cartoons that would offend Jews (the cartoon was submitted without Leunig's knowledge), but who is apparently unmoved to draw an image in sympathy with young Iranian democrats?
The conclusion must be that many Western human rights organisations, and many of the most self-congratulatory and morally vain posturers, are not interested in human rights at all. They are interested in advancing a soft Left sectarian agenda.