Bullshit.

Below is an email my mom received from a coworker that is supposedly written by a cop in Oz. I was pissed off enough not only by the inaccuracy of it, but by the suspicion that it was written by some fool in the US trying to make his own personal views appear substantiated by an authority. I also can't figure out what cop in Oz would give a toss and warn the Yanks about anything. Anyhoo...

Here’s the wank:

From: Ed ____, A police officer in Australia
Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent,
Australia-wide, assaults are up 9.6 percent ;
Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. (Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!) While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed. There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly, while the resident is at home. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in "successfully ridding Australian society of guns." You won't see this on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the State Assembly disseminating this information. The Australian experience speaks for itself. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens. Take note Americans, before it's too late!

FORWARD TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST. [I DID ] DON'T BE A MEMBER OF THE SILENT MAJORITY. BE ONE OF THE VOCAL MINORITY WHO WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN IN THE U.S.A.

Here's what I wrote back in rebuttal:

Well, Australia has banned firearms for well over ten years now (not 12 months) as a result of the Port Arthur Massacre, when a nut went on a shooting spree and murdered a dozen people at a national park. Taxpayers were compensated for their firearms as well. IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO OWN A RIFLE OR SHOTGUN. You must take a safety course. You must show a need. There is still hunting and farmers still own them for culling feral pests. There are even shooting clubs. The info in that email is utterly bogus.

The fact is, the reason you never hear about this in the US media is because Australia is small enough to slide under the radar, and is a hell of a lot safer than the US. Walking through the streets at night in the major cities is a given. I think in the US when there were over 10,000 firearm related deaths in 2000, there were something like 8 in Australia. I love how the nut who spread this bullshit says, "Take note Americans, before it's too late!" Too late for what? For not worrying about being shot? For not living with a sense of fear?

Some right-wing gun nut most likely found some information he liked, omitted any context to reality, and then decided to start spreading this as fact. It took me five minutes online to find these facts:

Bullshit: Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent, (Never is it stated through what period of time.)
Fact: See chart below...


Bullshit: Australia-wide, assaults are up 9.6 percent ; Again, Never is it stated through what period of time.
Fact: See chart below...


Bullshit: Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
Fact: In Australia they classify anything used in a harmful manner a weapon. Consequently, if you rob someone with a sharp stick it is classified as armed robbery. They actually use this as an example. "Armed" doesn't mean guns.

Bullshit: In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent.
Fact: In the seven years from when the firearms ban took place, the whopping 300 percent this statistic he cites is wrong. Per 100,000 people there were a whopping 2 homicides annually through this period in Victoria. This includes homicide committed WITH OR WITHOUT a gun. Of course, even is one person is killed with a gun, then the next year three are killed, that's 300 percent. Statistics are used without their context for a reason...to manipulate perceptions.

This info can be found at: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rpp/38/RPP38.pdf

At the end of the day, Australia is a hell of a lot more sensible with firearms and it only took one massacre for the government to determine that people shouldn't own handguns. In the five years I've been here I've never heard a single Aussie complain about there not being more guns.

Not one.

The Great Mad Max Road Trip

If you are in your 30s, and a guy, you will undoubtedly have seen Mad Max a number of times when you were a teenager. I remember seeing the film and not having any idea where it was set, as it not only had landscapes that were foreign, but the accents of all the actors were dubbed into American, as the producers thought the audience wouldn't understand what was being said. Consequently, it just seemed like another world.

As part of my birthday present, Nina took us on a tour of some of the locations from the movie. I took photos and placed them on top of stills from the corresponding scenes from the movie.

This first image is from the police headquarters in the film. The building is a renovated pump house that is now part of the Scienceworks Museum in Melbourne. The scene is when the lawyers are driving up to spring Johnny the Boy from custody.



The second image is from a stip of resort houses built in the 40s in a city called Avalon, an hour west of Melbourne. It is a run-down looking place and is now little more than a shanty town. This is where the Biker gang hung out in the film and where Jesse went to get an ice cream cone, ending the scene with kick to the Toe Cutters clackers.




The last image is from Edgars road, just north of Avalon, and east of the You Yangs mountains. The road was used for all the chase scenes and you can see the mountains throughout. It is farm country and feels very remote, even though it is only an hour west of the city.



Needless to say, this was seriously cool.

It was also a reflective experience walking around these sites, thinking about how they seemed like such an alien world to me when I was sixteen, and how I live near them now.

I guess I've learned to roll with it.

Christmas at the Beach

Nina in Tasmania on our Honeymoon

One thing that most ex-pats that I’ve met here have in common is the occasional nagging of homesickness. What it’s for and when it hits is different for each person, but it is a common experience.

My wife and I just spent five weeks in the US over the Christmas holidays, and the thing that struck me the most, was that I didn’t think about where I was in a novel way. Living in Australia, I am constantly reminded of the differences between here and the US; the trees, seasons, sports, television, etc., whereas when I was back in the States, there was almost no novelty to it at all-I just fit.

Those of us who move to another country, even one as similar and comfortable as Australia, are aware of how much where one is raised becomes a part of his genes. The seasons, the colors, the smells and sights out our windows, become part of our internal calendar. No matter how long I live overseas, there will an untouchable part of me that will be of where I am from. The woods in Michigan, especially during Autumn, will make me feel something I feel nowhere else.

It is, I think, about the time in life that seems the most honest and free, when playing with friends and staring up at the night sky in the summer was all that it took to have a good day.

Of course this is all a bit romanticised.

After about three weeks in Michigan during late December and early January, I was ready to see the sun again and a weekend at the beach seemed damn good.

Regardless, there are times when the homesickness is completely gone and the newness of a different country provides a daily dose of something new to see, other times, the pangs for a walk through downtown Rochester, capped off by a cone at the Dairy Queen seem quite overwhelming, while at other times, there is a low-grade homesickness that usually hangs about undetected, just under the radar.

I think most people long for something just past their reach, whether it be some sort of lifestyle or level of comfort or item able to be purchased. I consider myself pretty damn lucky that the only thing that I occasionally long for is already a part of who I am and not something unknown, beyond my capacity to achieve.