Reaming Rene

Here’s Crikey’s take on the Rivkin case, which sums it up pretty well:

Rehabilitation is none existent in prisons. It does not work. Rehabilitation programs outside of prison at least have a half a chance. We ought to be serious about rehab or not at all.

Rene Rivkin in the clink does nobody any good. He would be better off working his penalty out by, say, trading on behalf of the community 2 days a week for the next year. He takes the losses, the community takes the profit.

As it is his incarceration will just cost us.

Rene Rivkin never hurt anybody. He stole $400 and nobody really knows who from. Certainly he didn’t do it violently.

A first offender, no history of violence. No threat to the community. Chances of rehabilitation: good. If he wasn’t a celebrity, he’d be on a good behaviour bond and nobody would blink.

Unfortunately for Rene Rivkin, he’s a rich, fat, arrogant prick. That’s hardly deserving of jail though, is it?

Backpacking Culture

“And to you, Barrington Bradman Bing McKenzie, “I bequeath the sum of $2,000 “on condition that you leave for the United Kingdom immediately “to further the cultural and intellectual traditions “of the McKenzie dynasty.”

Michael Jennings reports a mildly disturbing – to him, at least – encounter on a recent visit to Europe:

I yesterday checked in to a hostel here in San Sebastian. I was mildly annoyed to see a “No war for oil” sign on the wall. Now, it is theoretically IYHF policy that hostels are open to all regardless of race, religion, political beliefs, blah blah blah, and this seemed mildly contrary to this policy.

Largely, I just wanted somewhere to lie down, but emboldened by what I had read earlier, I decided to make some sort of statement. I signed the credit card slip “Donald Rumsfeld”. Nobody noticed, or paid the slightest attention to what I had signed.

There are two kinds of Hostels. IYHF (HI) hostels and “other”.

Breaking News

The Eagles can’t even beat the wooden spooners, and Warren Tredrea runs like a girl.

Inevitable

Rob Corr has finally lost the plot:

I’ve just finished a paper on the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, in which I claim the Black Panthers were an inevitable, necessary and desirable extension of the non-violent civil rights movement.

I’m assuming “Self-Defense” is a class he’s taking, and not some anarcho-left version of “Soldier of Fortune”…This is Rob Corr we are talking about here though, so assumptions are probably unwise.

Thought Crimes

Australia is baying for the blood of a “Big Brother” housemate after program editors failed to edit out a racist joke she told to other housemates.

A BIG Brother contestant has landed the reality show in hot water after making a racist joke that was broadcast live on Friday night.

Newcomer Kim was chatting to house mates in the cramped bedroom when she made the off-colour joke about Aboriginal abortion.

Censors missed the crack before it went to air, and only cut to another scene when she was about to continue on the same subject, according to the Melbourne viewer who alerted the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

Luckily though, the moral voice of Australia is all over this one already…

ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark urged Big Brother to counsel the 21-year-old hairdresser, saying the “crimestoppers” punch line was hurtful. But Channel 10 said the producers did not believe Kim’s joke warranted any slap on the wrist, and blamed human error for the joke going to air.

Mr Clark said he was disappointed by Kim’s remarks, “which reinforced negative racial stereotypes”.

Mr Clark was later overheard racially vilifying a kettle.

Comments Poll: Who needs counselling most?

A:) Kim the hairdresser or
B:) Geoff Clark?

Update: Channel 9 is also doing some reinforcing of stereotypes.

Update: Just for all you google searches, I have actually found out what the joke is. Click below to read it…

Ridiculous

The farce that is the prison sentence handed down to the utterly harmless Rene Rivkin grows more ridiculous by the day:

Jailed stockbroker Rene Rivkin was rushed to hospital yesterday after collapsing as he was about to be strip-searched. Jail officials were searching for a mobile phone camera after pictures of him in prison appeared in a Sydney newspaper.

NSW Corrective Services Department officials woke yesterday to find photographs which had been illegally taken on a mobile phone camera inside Silverwater Correctional Centre published on the front page of Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph. The story said the pictures were taken by a man known as “Sam”.

No mobile phone was found in his cell.

Of course, the smart money would be on a prison guard taking the photos. Did they strip-search any of the guards?

I find this whole situation unbelievably cruel and demonstrating a complete lack of common sense on behalf of the justice system that imprisoned Rivkin.

What purpose is being served by the imprisonment of a man who poses no threat to anyone, of documented psychological frailty and possessed of great talent that could be put to good use in community service? Lesser sentences are frequently handed out to perpetrators of violent crimes.

Rivkin reportedly benefitted in the order of $400 from his insider trading.

Campaign Gathering Momentum

Steve Waugh today came one step closer to attaining his rightful position as the Governor General of Australia:

Steve Waugh calls himself a normal bloke. It’s his biggest understatement of all.

The 38-year-old Australian Test cricket captain was recognised for his services to the game – and his charity work for the Udayan orphanage in Calcutta – when he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.