Well that was a longer than expected absence from the internet. In short, I have moved into smaller, cheaper, and arguably nicer accommodation just a couple of kilometres south-west of the carpeted, central heated, just a tad pretentious Chocolate Factory.

An easy move? Far, far, far from it. So let's change topic.

I'm on a dialup connection at the moment with a mouse that has turned conservative on me (ie, it won't go left), so little if any site maintenance from me just yet. Hopefully I'll be back on broadband in a day or two.

As the coconut dessicates, possibly terminally, John Winston Howard has uttered the D-word for, as far as I can tell, only the second time. (Here's my report of the first.)

It came in his virulent response to criticism of Australia's human rights record contained in the latest Amnesty International Annual Report (as I noted last week), where his use of fear for political purposes was compared to, among others, that of Omar al-Bashir.