Comments on: Comments, corrections, clarifications, and c*ckups

By: Maree Whitton

Maree Whitton — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

To Bill Henson and his supporters, I say, Congratulations. Bill Henson you are the only person in Australia who is allowed to not only view naked children but you are allowed to photograph them and then you are allowed to show your photographs at "art" shows. You and your representatives are allowed to show naked photographs of children on the Internet and in advertising material.
I would suggest the ninety or so people who this week were arrested for having child pornography on their computers go and book into art school and also use art as their defence.

Maree Whitton

By: James Forbes

James Forbes — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I contributed to a forum on a major commercial news website on the subject of Fuel Watch. The contribution was not selected by the moderator. In the contribution I implored the reading public to conduct their own internet research into the question of “peak oil”. The central point i was trying to make is that no government can ultimately do anything significant about fuel prices and I see fuel watch as a vast waste of energy. Its like watching two crew on the Titanic arguing about saving a precious vase.
The trickle effect of rising oil prices will soon turn into a deafening roar of economic downturn as all segments of our oil based economy struggle to survive in an environment where the fundmental energy source that enables the economy to perform effectively prices itself out of the market. What astounds me from politicians and the media is just how silent they are on this question.
Does no one make the link between oil and how it inputs into every section of our lives? A friend of mine on the land has seen his fertiliser bill go from $200K per annum to nearly $900K per annum in the last year. Oil enables us to broad scale farm like we do and produce large amounts of food cheaply.
The issue is not that we are running out of oil it is that we have used the cheap, easy to reach oil. Now it just gets harder and more expensive to get out of the ground.
The challenge then is to get the real issue into the public domain. The only way we can prevent an economic tsunami from sweeping away our financial security is to take deliberate, affirmative action now. We have to retool our economy. We have to think differently about energy.
Let’s stop arguing about the cost of a litre of petrol, beacuse nothing will stop it rising. Nothing, not Rudd, nor Nelson, nor any scheme designed to keep an eye on prices. A shift to a new energy environment is the only answer to this problem. Solving it will take investment, ingenuity and courage.

By: Dave Liberts

Dave Liberts — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Daniel Saks claim that “Depiction of nakedness is about s-x and s-xuality — without question” is truly questionable, despite his assurances to the contrary. So, Daniel, National Geographic is a porn mag is it? And Michaelangelo’s David is pornographic? And why, Daniel, do so many porn mags feature people in sexy underwear stripping and posing so as to highlight their genitals rather than just naked people standing around, if you think they’re the same? Sex and sexuality, Daniel, is about sex and sexuality - this can be naked, clothed, visual, non-visual, whatever gets you off. Yes, many people engage in sex in a naked state, and some unfortunates only ever reveal their bodies around other people if sex is on the agenda, but nakedness does not have to be about sex at all. Nakedness implies confidence in the face of vulnerability, or perhaps it can be about a sense of feeling at one with one’s environment, and in my case I enjoy attending a nude beach so as to enjoy paddling in the sea without having sand stick in my bathers. Nudity and sex might equate to you, but that’s about you and not everyone else.