slow news day snippets

Event organisers or busy-bodies or some other mob don't want patrons to take the Australian flag to the Big Day Out concert in Sydney. Because of the potential for nationalistic(?) misuse of said item. No Aussie flags wanted at a concert. In Sydney. The day before the 'Australia Day' public holiday. That was top new story this morning. Replaced by a slight variation in which Johnnie Howard, PM down here, said it ws a bloody daft decision to ban the waving of the Australian flag in Australia. He does have a point.

The organisers say

They today denied reports they had banned the use of flags at the event, saying they were "simply discouraging its use for anti-social purposes''.

I hope they discourage the anti-social use use of anything. Such as plastic drink bottles. Typically filled with piss by mid-afternoon and hurtling through the air shortly afterwards, I can think of little less social at festival-style concerts.

Next news story; bloke considers sueing Qantas who nearly banned him from a flight because his t-shirt was deemed to be a security risk. And no, it did not have wires and foil-covered-sarnie-lookalike bulges. It had the words "World's number 1 terrorist" under an image of George Dubya. I read on I discover the Aussie guy was on his way back to the UK, jeporisng his chances of getting on a plane, and

Mr Jasson said he risked missing his chance of permanent residency if he spent more than two months out of Britain.

I realise the story is not about Qantas being PC and over-the-top but rather about this bloke being a fucking moron. Defending freedom of speech my arse. Grow up dickhead.

So a slow start to Monday, until bushfires started cutting road and rail links north of the City and a man got bitten by a snake.