A few days ago a young girl was taken from her family home and killed.
It is terrible for the girl and family, but I call for restraint from other parents.

I saw an article where a mother who lives near by is making one of her teenage sons sleep next to his young sister to protect her.
The person who has been arrested for the murder is known to the family. It once again shows that the people that usually commit these sorts of crimes are known to the victims.

Also this sort of thing does not happen all the time. They are thankfully fairly rare events.

Is it worth traumatizing your child, making them think that someone is out there to get them by having an older person sleep in the same bed with them?

Society already has enough fear in it, we don’t need to go around making kids scared especially in their own house.

I am not trying to brush this off as a non event. What happened is absolutely terrible, wrong and none should have to go through this. This person who has been arrested, if found guilty, should never be allowed back into society. I am just trying to say don’t over react with your own kids.
We already live in a bubble wrap society.

Sarah Palin is in the news again after attacking Family Guy for putting a character in the show with Downs Syndrome. 
She said on her Facebook post that it felt like another kick in the guts.

People are now wondering if she actually knew that the person doing the voice was the actor Andrea Friedman who suffers from Downs Syndrome and if she will retract her statement.

Andrea has appeared in shows including Saving Grace, Law & Order and ER.
If it is ok for her to play characters in these other shows then isn’t it ok for her to have some fun doing the voice of a cartoon character.

It seems like yet again Palin is trying to grab attention of the media through the suffering of her son that appears seems to come out at public appearances.

Andrea sent this letter to the New York Times in response to Palin’s attack at the Family Guy writers.

My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the “Extra Large Medium” episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine’s day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in ” Smudge” but I was a blonde in “Life Goes On”. I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm”.

In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.

I have seen a few comments around saying that she has Downs Syndrome, she doesn’t know what she is doing, she is being exploited etc.
This person is nearly 40 years old, when she is not acting she works at a law firm. She knows exactly what she is doing and she seems to have a lot of fun doing it.
She has a physical problem that she has managed to overcome and appears to be having a normal life.

I commend her for standing up and showing that she has more sense than the woman who was once running to become vice president of the United States of America.

Read more at New York Times

So in South Australia we have been hearing a lot about this Michelle Chantelois person. Now what I want to know is why?
Why does the media keep reporting on this nobody who may or may not have had an affair with Mike Rann.
What does his personal life have to do with what he does for the state. Pretty much nothing.

People are saying oh but it may have affected his perfomance. Do we have any evidence of this? At this stage I have not seen any.
The only thing I can see affecting his performance is a constant media beat up of a persons personal life, and a person who seems to just hang around for who knows what reason.

Constant trying to prove you did have an affair with someone doesn’t make you look good or help your cause. How about moving on, build a bridge and get on with your life with your family.

If it did happen then it takes two to tango. But then I say again, who cares. I am sure a lot of people judging the two have done a lot worse in their own lives. Its just lucky for these people thats its not plastered over the news.

Now can we get back to some real news about the state and the up coming election.

Attorney General Michael Atkinson has again showed another example of why he is no longer suitable to be holding a seat in parliament. He has stated on ABC’s Good Game that his family is at greater risk from Gamers than from Bikies. Suddenly everyone that plays games is a criminal bent on terrorising Atkinson at home.
Clearly he will not change his position so targeting Atkinson at home is not a good thing to do. Its not good for the cause, its not legal and its morally wrong. But a bunch of emails from angry people and maybe a note under the door doesn’t pose a threat to his family like he is portraying. I could see why he is angry. But the Australian population is angry also. Michael Atkinson seems to just ignore everything people say and the wishes of the Australian population just to hold onto his personal beliefs. A look at any poll shows how many people WANT an R rating.

The only way we can win our rights is to vote him out or show the Labor party how many votes they will lose from the younger population while they continue to keep Michael Atkinson in as Attorney General. By continuing to keep Michael Atkinson in, it shows that the Labor party agrees with his stance on R rating. They agree that its fine to deny adults their rights. They agree that its ok to keep Australia as one of the only countries in the world without a R rating. If other party members did not agree then wouldn’t they do something to push him out?

Michael Atkinson’s stance on game ratings has no logical reasoning behind it. He says he is trying to protect children and yet the current rating system is exposing children to content that should be rated R. Parents can’t judge the content of games properly when its different from every other rating system in the country.

There is also the statistic that the average age of gamers in Australia is 29. Adults in Australia are being held hostage to one person who is clearly feeling the pressure.

This is the same person who wanted everyone to provide their name and address on all Internet posts. Admittedly after public extreme pressure he did back-flip on this and the law has now been removed. I do commend you Michael Atkinson for stepping up to the plate and removing a clearly unpopular and unworkable law.

However, while Michael Atkinson is still in his position pushing his addenda onto all Australians I am not able to vote for any Labor person in the up coming state election.

Mike Rann and everyone else in the South Australian Labor Party, you are on the verge of losing many votes from the younger population. This is going to be a tough election as it is. Are you willing to risk this election by continuing to deny adults, the people who voted for you, a reasonable game rating system?

I urge all people in Croydon to vote for Gamers4Croydon http://www.gamers4croydon.org

Also since we have a preferential voting system, make sure Atkinson ( Labor ) is not your 2nd choice.

I am not in Croydon, so I will be contacting some of my local representatives to ask them for their stance on a few topics including gaming, I will post them to the site if I get permission in the coming days.