I haven't had time to write on the weekend, but hearty congratulations to Port Adelaide on their first AFL premiership.

It was good to see an all-non-Victorian grand final for the first time, but even better to see Brisbane, who have prospered under preferential treatment in the salary cap rules, having their colours lowered before winning four in a row.

Oops! Bot that I was installing for the Jabber -> WordPress gateway made a break for it like the proverbial runaway horse.

Something like 52 articles posted as the result of a bit of sloppiness on my part. Any bit of garbage hitting one of my jabber addresses was put straight to print.

The message posted at 4.26pm is a classic (which I have now deleted). That is a posting of the updates to the RSS feed of this website after the garbage started coming :-)

KERRY O'BRIEN: ...your reference to Tony Abbott and the Queen in June last year where you described Tony Abbott as, quote, "Basically hanging out of the backside of the British monarch whenever he can."

What is this obsession you have with bottoms?

MARK LATHAM: I've no particular obsession with bottoms, it's a figure of speech --

KERRY O'BRIEN: Howard the arse-licker and the brown nose kissing bums, as you put it, Abbott hanging out of the Queen's backside, the conga line of suckholes.

A remarkable project by Matt Rubinstein which began on the day of the equinox, September 22. Rubinstein is writing a sonnet about Sydney for each day of the next twelve months, which will be published on the Sydney Morning Herald website.

This looks like a great concept. A number of Australian film-makers have made a series of short films about John Howard's record as Prime Minister to be screened as a feature film which will be premiering next Wednesday September 29. It's very much a low-budget, almost underground, project that looks a bit like 11'9''01 meets Fahrenheit 9/11. I just received a copy of the press release by email and I reproduce it in full:

The Cubs drew level with the Giants in the NL wildcard race on Tuesday night. However, as I am writing this, the Giants are about to nudge in front again.

The Cubs have been whizzing around the place this week. Milwaukee on Sunday, Miami Monday, Pittsburgh Tuesday and Wednesday. They split Monday's double-header against the Marlins, made up of games postponed because of the plethora of hurricanes in the past few weeks.

USATODAY.com - Flight canceled after passenger discovers Arabic-style handwriting in magazine

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Midwest Airlines canceled a flight ready to take off for San Francisco after a passenger found Arabic-style handwriting in the company's in-flight magazine and alerted the crew. (Read more)

September 21 is the International Day of Peace.

Further information:
United Nations
Internationaldayofpeace.org
OvercomingViolence.org - World Council of Churches

When I read yesterday that Mark Latham was promising to raise Townsville's profile as a defence base, I thought he was planning a special assignment for the North Queensland Cowboys. As it happens, it's a promise to establish an infantry battalion and a parachute battalion in the city, which is situated - fancy - in the marginal Liberal seat of Herbert.

JFK was on Letterman Monday night. According to Associated Press, he read the Top Ten George W Bush Tax Proposals, which are: