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This is a great photo blog showing different aspects of Sydney and surrounding areas

Finally, someone is protesting the world’s most odious protester. The Million Fag March is set for Sunday morning, March 30 in Topeka, Kan., home of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church. Fred and his family (13 children and 54 grandchildren) show up at military funerals with signs reading, “God Hates Fags,” “God Hates America,” “Fags Die, God Laughs,” etc. Fred apparently arrives at these insights after personal discussions with The Creator wherein He tells Fred that everything bad that happens in the world is His revenge for America “tolerating” gays. Organizers say it’s time to “show Phelps and his church that freedom of speech works both ways. There are two big challenges with the march. First is the laws passed in Topeka to protect other churches from Phelps. They prohibit the Freds of the world (of which, mercifully, there are few) from getting within 50 feet of a house of worship for a half-hour before or after services are planned. So the march might have to take place in Topeka but not too close to Westboro Baptist. The second challenge could be even harder. Organizers are determined to keep the protest peaceful, but since Fred’s whole goal is to whip up feelings of intolerance and hate, not responding in kind will be a toughie. Still, the expectation is clear. Absolutely. No. Violence. It doesn’t matter if Fred Phelps comes to the March himself and starts throwing punches. The police will handle it. If you feel that you could in any way be provoked, do not plan on attending. …The Phelps family uses hate speech to draw attention to themselves. To do that during the March would only be bringing ourselves down to their level. So, please, no hate speech on your signs, clothes, and mouths. Besides, “God Hates Fred” signs are lame and obvious. You can do better. Sending the message you want to send without being blatantly hateful shouldn’t be all that hard for you. If you’re anywhere near Topeka, please plan to attend the march. You can sign up here. If you’re not, organizers need donations for costs associated with permitting, security, etc. so your donations are welcome.

The Federal Government has promised practical measures will follow the symbolism of today's apology to the Stolen Generations. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd this morning delivered an emotional address to Australia's Stolen Generations in federal Parliament, in which he spoke of the "profound grief, suffering and loss" experienced by Australia's Indigenous people. Mr Rudd used the word "sorry" on three separate occasions in his formal apology and Opposition leader Brendan Nelson echoed his sentiments. The Prime Minister also called on the Opposition to join in a "war cabinet" to deal with Aboriginal housing issues and matters of constitutional change and spoke of moving into the future with "arms extended" rather than with "fists still clenched". Improving Indigenous housing will be the first priority of a new bipartisan commission to be chaired by Mr Rudd and Mr Nelson. "The object here is actually to take this one area of the public policy debate of Australia and just see what we can do to transcend the partisan divide," Mr Rudd said. "What I'd like to do before the end of this week is to sit down with the leader of the Opposition to work out how such a commission might work involving himself and myself as its joint chairs. "The nation is calling on us the politicians, to move beyond our infantile bickering, our point scoring and mindlessly partisan politics, and elevate this one, at least this one core area of national responsibility to a rare position beyond the partisan divide," he said. The founding chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Pat Dodson says the apology will allow Australia to re-commit to improving the lives of Indigenous people. Mr Dodson thanked those who genuinely tried to help the Indigenous people during the removal process and says today's apology will help Australians understand a complex issue. "To those who participated in the removal process and who have looked into their own hearts and found that their intentions were good, I thank you for the care and the love that you showed to those in need." "But to those whose intent was malign and motivations racist, your actions have now been exposed an repudiated."

Australia's government on Thursday released graphic pictures of Japanese hunters harpooning whales and dragging their bleeding carcasses onto a ship near Antarctica, calling it evidence of the "indiscriminate" slaughter of the animals. Japan denied one of the photographs showed a mother and its calf being killed, and accused Australian officials and media of spreading propaganda that could damage ties between the two nations. The images were the latest salvo in the new Australian government's stepped-up campaign against Japan's annual whale hunt, which resumed recently after being interrupted by environmental activists who chased the fleet through icy waters at the far south of the world. The pictures were taken from the Oceanic Viking, an Australian customs service ship sent to monitor the hunt and collect evidence for a legal challenge the government wants to bring against Japan's claim that it kills whales only for scientific purposes. "It is explicitly clear from these images that this is the indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way," Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told reporters. "To claim that this is in any way scientific is to continue the charade that has surrounded this issue from day one," he said. The images include video footage of a harpoon being fired into a swimming whale, which writhes as it is hauled toward the ship. The whale eventually stops moving and lies still in bloodstained waters, the harpoon clearly visible piercing its body. One picture shows two whales - one far smaller than the other - being dragged by ropes or cables up a ramp in the stern of a ship as blood dribbles down. Hideki Moronuki, chief of the Japanese Fishing Agency's whaling section, denied the photograph depicted a baby whale. "The fleet is engaged in random sampling, which means they are taking both large and small whales. This is not a parent and calf," Moronuki said in Tokyo. He also accused Australian officials of getting dangerously close to Japan's whaling ships to take the pictures. The Institute of Cetacean Research, the Japanese government-affiliated organization that oversees the hunt, posted a statement on its Web site headlined: "Australian Customs Photos Mislead the Public." "The Government of Australia photographs and the media reports have created a dangerous emotional propaganda that could cause serious damage to the relationship between our two countries," institute director Minoru Morimoto said in the statement. Japan has staunchly defended its annual killing of more than 1,000 whales, conducted under a clause in International Whaling Commission rules that allows whales to be hunted for scientific purposes. Critics call the Japanese program a disguise for commercial whaling, which has been banned by the commission since 1986. Japan had planned to kill up to 50 endangered humpback whales this season, but backed away after strong international condemnation. It has a quota to kill 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales. The whalers resumed their hunt in recent days after earlier being interrupted by ships sent by the Greenpeace environmentalist group and the militant activist group Sea Shepherd. Two Sea Shepherd activists using a small boat got on board one of the harpoon ships in January and spent several days in detention before they were picked up by Australian customs officers. Greenpeace says it chased the fleet's whale processing ship out of the hunting grounds. Both the Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace vessels later left Antarctic waters after running low on fuel and supplies. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's left-of-center Labor Party government replaced a conservative administration in November elections and has sought to burnish its environmental credentials on a number of fronts, such as quickly signing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. In late December, the government announced it was sending a ship and plane to collect evidence for a case against Japan's whaling program before the International Court of Justice, the International Whaling Commission or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus said the images released Thursday could be proof the Japanese program is a sham. "We have got evidence of whaling being carried out in circumstances that we believe it should not be done," he told reporters. Animal welfare groups expressed horror at the images. "Japan's whaling is not just cruel, it's criminal," said Darren Kindleysides of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "The evidence is clear. It is time for Australia to take legal action to end this illegal, unnecessary and inhumane activity once and for all."

THIS month Australia will remember terrible events long ago for which no adequate apology has ever been made. They will recall territorial aggression, racial intolerance, brutal murder, enslavement, starvation, degradation and the forcible removal of women and children. After all these years, an unambiguous apology would make no practical difference to the lives of the survivors of those bitter times or to their families, but would restore their faith in justice and enrich their self-esteem. And those Australians whose lives were shattered by these events would be deeply hurt by claims that an apology was meaningless. The apology would have to come from a government elected by generations that had no involvement in those terrible events but it would be an act of national cleansing that would enhance their reputation in the eyes of the world. I refer, of course, to the suffering of Australian service personnel and civilian detainees after Singapore fell to the Japanese 66 years ago this month. Though a process of osmosis, the victims of Japan's wartime savagery have received slippery words of regret over generalities and some monetary compensation from their own government, but have never heard the simple word "sorry" uttered directly to them. But in the weeks leading up to that sad anniversary, most Australians will be more occupied with a government apology to our own Stolen Generation. And, just as Japan's occasional foray down the road to apology has been demeaned by national denial, wounded pride, legalistic quibbling and tawdry domestic politics, so too is this simple act of decency in Australia. However, of all the reasons I have heard for not offering an apology to the Stolen Generation, the feeblest must have been that from Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson. The Government, he said, should focus on the "real issues" facing indigenous people, such as low life expectancy and unacceptable levels of sexual abuse. He was perplexed that the apology seemed to be the Government's top priority, even though many people were struggling with the rising price of petrol and groceries, and interest-rate pressures. "You really have got to ask yourself: is this the highest priority for the Australian Parliament?" What you really do have to ask yourself is whether 150 members of Parliament, 76 senators, more than 500 government staffers, an incalculable number of public servants and all the party apparatchiki are truly incapable of formulating and making a simple symbolic apology to indigenous Australians without the core business of government grinding to a halt. If the answer is "yes", we must conclude that this giant publicly funded pit of politicians, public servants, minders, advisers and backslappers is collectively incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. And, if the answer is "yes", we are entitled to ask just when would be an appropriate time to apologise to Aboriginal people. Would Nelson like to nominate a more propitious time? If his answer were to be "never", it would be rather more honest than questioning the timing rather than the political difficulty of taking a simple moral stance. In truth, the highest priority for Nelson is ducking an issue that has divided the Liberal Party morally and politically. Such declarations of priorities and the drawing of lines between "real issues" and presumably spurious issues are standard cop-outs for politicians who haven't the moral courage to make a stand, the strength to formulate a binding party policy or the will to gamble on the fundamental decency of the electorate. Priorities were cited in former prime minister Bob Hawke's initial refusal to entertain Aboriginal land rights and in stifling the movement towards establishing a republic. Priorities were again smelly red herrings during John Howard's cynical referendum on the republic. In the Queensland Parliament, the National Party cited misplaced priorities when it opposed property rights for homosexual couples. In all three cases, it was nothing more than raw politics and regressive social views wrapped in a threadbare cloak of practicality. It is nothing short of amazing how politicians manage their time. Wave a pay rise under their noses and they'll rake up a quorum at a minute to midnight; give them a decade or so to think about an apology and they still need more time. They display a selective sense of urgency and purpose that even I couldn't have matched when confronted with a Sunday afternoon lawnmowing task. The simple fact is that, despite claims to the contrary, an apology was part of the Labor Party's election platform. Is there any greater priority than delivering on a promise to the people? Let's get on with it and let's put it behind us. If we don't, 66 years from now we still be wrestling with semantics and bogged down in pointless argument.