All posts for the month January, 2009
Never Gonna Join the Snuggie Cult
Posted by CMStewart on January 31, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/01/31/never-gonna-join-the-snuggie-cult/
Melanie Safka- Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)
Posted by CMStewart on January 30, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/01/30/melanie-safka-lay-down-candles-in-the-rain/
Ukulele Video of the Year 2008
Ukulelehunt, the great and powerful, is running a contest for Ukulele Video of the Year. My vote goes to “It’s a Heartache,” from the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.
Posted by acilius on January 28, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/01/28/ukulele-video-of-the-year-2008/
Funny Times, January and February 2009
The only thing I want to note about either of the first two issues of The Funny Times for 2009 is a cartoon in four panels. It’s not available for embedding, so I have to describe it. Titled “The Stages of Idealism,” panel one shows a man with his head obscured by clouds. Panel two, he’s bending over, his head buried in sand. Panel three, he’s standing, his head up his rear end. Panel four, his head is on a platter.
Posted by acilius on January 28, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/01/28/funny-times-january-and-february-2009/
Harry Nicolaides hopes for royal pardon
Latest newspaper report about Harry Nicolaides:
THE stress can be seen in Harry Nicolaides’ gaunt face as he leans towards the barred prison window and speaks of his hopes and fears.
“I am so jaded, so cynical,” says the Melbourne writer, hunching his shoulders. “I am placing my faith in my family, my girlfriend, the Australian Government and the reputation of the Thai king. The Australian Government is supporting a pardon for me. But I am gun-shy at the moment. It’s all so opaque.”
Sentenced on Monday to three years’ jail for writing three sentences about the Thai royal family in a novel that sold fewer than 10 copies, Nicolaides, 41, can now only hope for a pardon from Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej. There is no guarantee he will get one.
Read the rest in Australia’s The Age.
Posted by acilius on January 26, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/01/26/harry-nicolaides-hopes-for-royal-pardon/
Goat Man Steals Car
Posted by CMStewart on January 24, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/01/24/goat-man-steals-car/
More on the Harry Nicolaides Affair
In the 29 July, 2009 edition of Eureka Street, Australian writer Harry Nicolaides reported on a market at Tachilek in eastern Burma where child pornography is openly sold. The authorities in Burma and Thailand must know about this market; Mr Nicolaides certainly had no difficulty finding it. Yet, Mr Nicolaides writes, “unless you are a saffron-robed monk, you will not be searched on the way back across the border into Thailand.” Nicolaides’ report was reprinted in the December January issue of Chronicles (which I noted here.)
The Thai police have still done nothing about the trafficking of child pornography from Tachilek through their country. But let it not be said that they have simply been idle. No indeed. In August, four weeks after the publication of the report, they arrested the reporter. Monday, he was sentenced to three years in prison. The court did not of course say that Mr Nicolaides was being punished for exposing the Thai government’s complicity in brutal crimes against children the world over. Instead, the authorities cited a brief passage in an extremely obscure (sold only seven copies) novel Nicolaides self-published almost four years ago, claiming that the fictional character of a Crown Prince described there reflected badly on Thailand’s actual Crown Prince and thus violated the country’s strict laws against lese-majeste.
Here is an online petition asking for the release of Harry Nicolaides.
More information about the case, including links to several sites offering downloads of the novel which the Thai authorities cited as the cause of their action against Mr Nicolaides, can be found here.
On 24 September 2008, a friend of Harry Nicolaides posted a piece about Mr Nicolaides’ arrest. On 20 January 2009, the same friend posted about Mr Nicolaides’ plea and sentence; I commented on this latter post, bringing up Mr Nicolaides’ investigation into the child pornography industry and asking his friend whether he thought the prosecution might be the Thai government’s way of hushing that issue up.
Posted by acilius on January 23, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/01/23/more-on-the-the-harry-nicolaides-affair/