I just came across the below article which someone emailed to me, which I thought was brilliant. If only UK politicians would stand up and find some backbone instead of being scared by every idiot that falsely accuses people of being "RACIST" or "PREJUDICE" to get their own way, then perhaps we might stop being second class citizens with no rights in our own country.

For example, at the Nursery where we take our son, you must ring a buzzer and then push the door when it is unlocked to get inside.

There is a man who drops his son off who blatantly refuses to open the door himself when buzzed in, he will stand and wait until someone opens it for him, something to do with his religious beliefs that women should do everything for a man or something I am told, and he wife is not much nicer.

They refuse to speak English, and their children are forbidden from speaking English or playing with any white children, so they just sit in the corner and play with each other and ignore everyone else.

The poor staff in the nursery have to put up with this man being rude, obnoxious, arrogant, and treating the women like dirt, because if they don't put up with it they will be accused of being racist or prejudice even though it is quite clear that it is this couple who are in fact the racist bigots. Do you imagine for a minute that we would get away with such behaviour in their country?

Like the writer of the article I have no issues with immigration per se, and I would happily welcome anyone to this country as long as they behave appropriately, as the PM said which sums it up quite nice.

"We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us."

Anyway here is the article. How you take it is up to you, if you have any issues with it, direct them at the Austrialian government.

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Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on
Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you", he said on National Television.

"I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia : one the Australian law and another Islamic law that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country, which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option", Costello said.

Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the other country. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off.

Basically people who don't want to be Australians, and who don't want, to live by Australian values and understand them, well then, they can basically clear off", he said.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques.

Quote: "IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians."

"However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the 'politically correct' crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia ." "However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand." "This idea of Australia being a multi-cultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. And as Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle."

"This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom"

"We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society .. Learn the language!"

"Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture."

"We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us."

"If the Southern Cross offends you, or you don't like "A Fair Go", then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. By all means, keep your culture, but do not force it on others.

"This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom,

'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'."

"If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here . You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted."

Today at 9:24AM I again became a proud father when my second son "Bret Maverick" was born. He weighed 7Llb 12oz.

Mother and baby are doing fine. Thankfully no violence was involved during the birth and my testicles are still intact :-)

www.flickr.com

More of Brets' photos

Yes it has finally happened, I shaved off my mohawk.

Those of you that know me well will know I have had a mohawk for many years in varying colours, in fact it is sort of my trademark as that is how people tend to remember me.

But last night on a whim I decided to shave it off and go "Stone Cold Steve Austin" style. It certainly looks odd now when I look in the mirror, and I haven't yet decided whether i'm going to keep it this way or grow it out and have a normal haircut. The great thing with my mohawk was that it hid my receeding hairline and made me look a little younger.

According to my wife I now look like Grant Mitchel from Eastenders LOL.

Updated: 21st November

As per Nicks comment, here is a before and after photos. Sorry they are crappy photos taken taken with my phone. At least Charlie Arehart can't use that "despite the way he looks" comment now seeing as we are now both baldies :-)

BEFORE	AFTER

"You may possibly have seen an article recently written by Guy Kewney, did I say all those things, of course not. so lets lets try the authors same techniques here."

It seems journalist Guy J Kewney doesn't like ColdFusion developers very much, especially ones who are not heterosexual. Here is what he had to say in a recent article.

Guy says:-
"The next Cold Fusion developer conf in Croydon, just South of London, will be attended by 99.9% heterosexual males, that's official"

Quite a bold statement, or is that just wishful thinking from someone that doesn't like queer folk, he then goes on to say.

"One developer (married, straight) wrote to suggest that some people (grownups?) might find the evening entertainment not entirely to their taste."

Is that because .1% of the attendees are queer according to you Guy, surely your not that shallow minded?. Guy also thinks that all us developers are a bunch of sleazy perverts judging by this statement. Oh Guy, you really shouldn't judge others by your own standards.

"all Cold Fusion developers would find an opportunity to "chat up tequila girls"

As if that wasn't bad enough, he then goes on to imply that we are all impotent.

"male programmers might not necessarily be "licensed to shag"

Not content with this Guy then moves on to a bit more queer bashing, this chap really doesn't like homosexuals does he.

"if you don't want to grope a Tequila Slammer Girl, there's a simple and unavoidable explanation: you're queer:"

And he is sexist as well as a queer basher it seems.

" if you don't want to get pissed and make a Pratt of yourself leering at the chest of a rent-a-boobs gurly, there's only one explanation: you're a horrid poof."

Lets not leave it there says guy as he continues with a bit more developer bashing, supposedly we all wish we were teenagers. Sorry guy been there, done that, and he also throws in a bit of racial discrimination for good measure.

"Adult males are all sexually rampant and alcohol-fuelled. Muslims only pretend to be uninterested in getting drunk, and Real Programmers are either adolescent, or wish they were."

I am starting to wonder if Guy is actually a closet homosexual that hasn't yet had the courage to come out and uses queer bashing as a way to hide his sexuality. Come on Guy own up, homosexuals are people too.

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If you have read Guys original article, you will know this is in fact not what it says at all. But this is an example how easy it is to twist words and take things out of context to make someone look bad, something journalists do all the time. This is of course what has been done to the original article about me.

I was recently publically attacked and smeared for the fact that I had tequila girls serving drinks at CFDevCon (such a crime eh). As the 3 main principles responsible (Mac Jordan, Pete Jordan and Piers Cawley) have now removed the offensive material from their web blogs and have also had their mates do the same (except Guy Kewney), so I have also amended my blog accordingly.

I would like to appolgise to anyone else who was offended by or dragged into this attack, and it certainly was not my intention to offend anyone. I cannot speak for Mac, Pete or Piers as I have received no apology from them, but I would hope they do feel some remorse for what they have done.

I believe that spreading derogatory comments about someone over the net or any other media is just plain wrong. I would ask anybody to think about the consequences of this, now that we have online blogs and are publishing our comments for the world to see, the tactics used in old style flame wars are dangerous.
Consider what has happened already as a result of this. Both myself and my wife (8 months pregnant) have had to endure abusive emails, abusive posts on my web sites, being signed up for porn and spam. and having our hosts web server DOS attacked. Had this been allowed to continue we could have probably started to receive hate mail, crank calls and dangerous items shoved through our letterbox..
In case you think this extreme, it is not, it HAS happened before to people (me included) and can easily happen again.

There are a lot of angry people out there, and some of them just need an excuse, so don't give them one. Nobodies opinion is gospel and debate is good, but it is now VERY public. Risking a hate/smear campaign against anyone that doesn't agree with your views is not the way to do things, and you will end up being responsible for the actions of other people.

Thankfully I can say that while this was obviously bad for me, it was not bad for CFDevCon, in fact it had the opposite effect and the site got lots more traffic and and a whole bunch more registrations, and most of the feedback I have received from the ColdFusion community was on my side, so thankfully we can all be safe in the knowldge that most ColdFusion developers and professionals are in fact normal men and women who believe in freedom of choice and not shoving their opionions down others throats and attacking those that do not share their point of view.