The Silence is killing me.

[Pa Marmo]

It still seems like a long bow to draw Sheriffe. Israel has state of the art desalination plants. All I am doing is judging this particular event on its merits. Im sorry if I offended you as it was not intended.

[David]

[sherrife]

No offence taken, I wasn't upset nor did I think you were so good to clarify that

RE Iran, i think it might be possible for Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in the name of retaliation against Hezballah somewhere down the track, and that the US might actually actively encourage them (in private) to do so.

Not sure though, the whole situation could go so many ways at the moment, especially with Israel gearing up for an invasion and Lebanese minister for defence saying Lebanese troops would fight against Israel were they to invade.

Genuinely a country to be pitied.

[Pa Marmo]

You have to feel for the Lebonese people after all the rebuilding and growth to have half of it in ruins.

I was disgusted to see last night on Ch.7 a story about Central Altona Fottball Club and how none of the other clubs in the league will play them as they are predominately Lebonese. This is a terrible case of misrepresenting the facts for the sake of cashing in on a moment.

The story was told that it was all racially motivated and told nothing of the fact that this club is a pack of thugs and hoodlums. Forget where they come from they are just more interested in hurting people than playing football.

They never mentioned in the story that it is also the umpires that have refused to take part when they play due to all the violence and fear of being hurt themselves.

Just another case of Today Tonight getting it wrong again(deliberately)

[sherrife]

I definitely see your point regarding false news reporting, but it's hard to be angry about that sort of positive bias when for so long "youths of middle eastern appearance" dominate news broadcasts, and arab muslims in general get the rough edge of the stick.

Do you remember a while ago when a leader of the Muslim community was asked on today/tonight about Muslims integrating into Australia? His response was a carefully thought out (roughly) "In the sense that integration means being happy and contributing members of the Australian society, we have already accomplished this in many cases, however in terms of some of our religious and family values, we don't think we will ever lose these parts of our identity and so we will never integrate fully. This was edited down to something like "Due to our values we will never integrate fully". Completely disgusting.

Anyway I should probably say somewhere that I'm a Lebanese-Australian, born here and lived all my life here and thus consider myself more Australian than not. I have never really had a race problem with anyone, but Melbourne is much better than Sydney in that respect, due to better city planning and no real 'ghetto' suburbs like Bankstown (Lebanese) and Cabramatta ('Asian').

So anyway, I guess it's wrong for current affairs to twist stories regardless, but it's hard to be upset over an anti-racist news report even if the specific example is completely fabricated. This is true especially in light of the prevalent stereotypes of both Muslims and Lebanese people.

[Pa Marmo]

I understand the angle you are coming from but, this report will in fact have the potential to inflame passions in and around Altona/Newport. The club mentioned in the story is my old club and to see what it has become is trully sad. The majority of the guys are Lebonese from the Newport area and on the whole it is a fair bunch of blokes. There seems to be about 6 to 10 guys who are hell bent on causing trouble and the specators are rabid in their hatred toward others.

It has become so bad that all the old guys like myself wont go back to watch anymore as there has been several occassions where fights have started just because we are seen as not being Lebonese and therefore the enemy.

[David]

let's face it, Today Tonight is a disease show anyway. Wouldn't be sorry to see it axed, along with A Current Affair.

[sherrife]

They bombed two of lebanon's biggest TV stations, LBC and Future. Both these stations are owned by Christians and are quite critical of Hezballah.

Does ANYONE believe that this is still self-defence? Or are they just paving the way for a ground invasion by preventing anyone present from reporting on the damage and destruction? Can they really be that cynical? Bloody hell...

[pace]

[HAL]

It depends who "they" are. I believe in the Sixth commandment. Oh that is a shame.

[pace]

[pace]

[skaman]

You're arguing with a bot pace!

[pace]

Yeh, i know skaman. Sometimes i understand him more than some of the other people posting here. Im losing my mind, i know.