You've seen them. Those bumper stickers saying "If you don't love it, leave". I recently heard another: "We grew here, you flew here". The expressions of Australian xenophobia. The true harvest of the Howard-Hanson years.

I have always thought the "If you don't love it, leave" one is particularly moronic. Presumably those voicing such ideas have no idea what life in a democracy is about - namely that if you don't like something about the democracy, you change it. Yet another example of how democratic ideas are only skin-deep?
Maybe it's coincidence Tony Abbott revived Howard's "We'll decide who comes here and the circumstances in which they come" on the eve of Australia Day? Or maybe not.
In the leadup to Australia Day, I've had discussions with a number of my friends about this distasteful side of Australian-ism - I don't like to call it patriotism, because it isn't. Such conversations have made me wonder:
Are there any aspects of Australian culture that are more than a small step removed from redneck boganism?
Footy, barbecues, beaches, pub rock, utes, car-races, beer. They're all damn close. What else do we have though? Anything?

The detective delivered his brief of evidence last week.
I honestly expected he would have an ace up his sleeve - some twist that I knew nothing about - which would justify his persistence. I was surprised he didn't. Instead, what the brief of evidence revealed was a home goal of incredible magnitude.

The detective included an email between himself and Google, indicating he has Google's access logs for my gmail account. He didn't include those access logs, and the letter he has from our ISP that includes information about our IP address.
Including it would have been fatal for his case because the IP addresses between Google's access logs and our ISP account do not match. Leaving it out though is worse.
Omitting evidence that shows my innocence demonstrates the detective is pursuing the case for reasons other than a genuine belief of my guilt.
Proving malicious prosecution requires five criteria.
Proving "no reasonable cause for the prosecution" requires showing the police had insufficient evidence to prosecute - and this brief of evidence proves that.
Proving "evidence of malice on the part of the prosecutor" is provided by the detective omitting evidence favourable to the defence.
Now, the only criteria I need in order to sue him for malicious prosecution is the second: "termination of the prosecution proceedings in the plaintiff's favour". This could be either being found non-guilty in court, or the police dropping the charges.

Now the police are in the enviable position where the only way to avoid a malicious prosecution suit is to win the case. And their evidence wont allow them to do that. If they lose, they are sunk. If they drop the case, they're equally sunk.

Being me, I am torn between trying to make a peace deal with them instead of going for total victory. I want to go to one of the reasonable police I know and say "Save your department from a law suit, by helping negotiate a peace deal between the detective and me?" After all, this is me condemning myself to a drawn-out legal battle against my father's employer.
But I spoke to mum the other night, and she said Dad would want incompetence driven out. And haven't I given them enough chances? Several offers to the detective to give him what he wanted if he left me alone; a police complaint that was treated with contempt? Surely I've done enough against someone who's been relentlessly pursuing me without just cause? Maybe the time has come I should let the bloodthirsty side of my personality out for a while?

She's giving a talk at a conference in New Zealand next week.
So Wednesday, she flew to Brisbane for some time at her office. Then last night flew from Brisbane to Wellington.
As a result, it's been very quiet here, being the only one in the house.
I expected I'd be a lot more bored, have a lot more time on my hands. But instead, I've been busy with looking after Lucius a few times at his place, working late a bit, and going to a shindig down in Sutherland Friday night.
I also haven't even logged into EvE, simply due to lack of time.
I have been doing a fair amount of legal research as well. More about that later on.

Advantages to Bachelor Life for a week or two?
Noone complains that the dishes haven't been done
Can play my own music all day long
Don't have to shave

Disadvantages?
She's not here
Email, SMS and phone calls just don't substitute

My excuse for not posting an entry today is that it's too hot. Too hot to sit at my computer and think.
Hence, I'm sitting at my computer playing games instead. At least they don't involve mental exertion.

I don't know about anyone else, but The Big Lebowski was one of my favourite films when I first saw it. It made bowling a cult thing amongst my circle of friends, and it's always had that ring of cool associated with it.
Furthering the coolness, someone's re-written the movie as a Shakespearean play. Have a read - it looks pretty cool.

I just realised the comments aren't working. Someone told me before New Year, but I haven't logged back in since then. I think I know why they're not working, so I'll have a look in the next few days.


Edit: I think it's working now. If anyone's reading, give it a test.

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