And then he drove me mad

There is no excuse for domestic violence and even though we all know this such violence often goes unaddressed by families and communities alike.

So it was interesting to come across the website He Drove Me Mad: our traumatic experiences shared.

This is a safe place that we hope will make you feel that you are not alone, where we can share our experience of "madness" in the aftermath of domestic violence and can heal from our experiences. A portal through which we can support one other as we navigate through the effects of trauma with shared stories, personal experience and information.

This site offers you a way to

• affirm your experiences
• involve you in conversation with people who have similar experiences
• provide a forum where you can feel listened to
• enable you to share your experience in order to help and support others
• get information and have your questions answered
• help you find support, encouragement and ideas to help you heal

The sites contains a number of forum and information sharing pages for people who have experienced domestic violence and, although a New Zealand-based site is available to Australian women.

If it's July it must be time to mention Monsanto again....

Another month has passed and the big biotech companies continue their push to dominate the basic mechanism of food production - seeds, fertiliser and chemical weed eradication/suppression.

Each month that passes highlights Monsanto & Co's abysmal safety record.

From the Idaho Business Review, June 29 2009:

Federal regulators say an Idaho mine that Monsanto uses to make Roundup weed killer has violated federal and state water quality laws almost since it opened, sending selenium and other heavy metals into the region's streams. The Environmental Protection Agency says problems at the St. Louis-based company's mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border were documented starting in April 2002, 15 months after it won Bureau of Land Management approval.
The mine recently has failed to halt metals-laden water seeping from a waste dump.
Eva DeMaria, an EPA enforcement official in Seattle, says, "The measures they have implemented aren't working.''
The disclosure comes as Monsanto Co. wants federal officials to approve a new mine in the region.
Monsanto lobbyist Trent Clark says his company has remedied some EPA concerns and continues to work to fix violations at the waste dump.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Celebrating NAIDOC Week in the Clarence Valley

Images from naidoc.org.au and The Daily Examiner

Just how much do presidential words of wisdom cost?

This week the U.S. Executive Office of the President has released a list of White House office staff and the annual remumeration received.

President Obama's speech writers collectively cost taxpayers US $276,000 annually as of 1 July 2009:

Hurwitz, Sarah K. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF SPEECHWRITING AND SENIOR PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER $85,000.00 per annum

Frankel, Adam P. SENIOR PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER $65,000.00 per annum

Keenan, Cody S. PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER $45,000.00 per annum

Lovett, Jonathan I. PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHWRITER $45,000.00 per annum

O'Connor, Kyle P. ASSISTANT SPEECHWRITER $36,000.00 per annum

Which probably works out at somewhere between $1,000 to 2,000 for each major speech made in his first 100 days.

Leading one to wonder: Just how much do Kevin Rudd's pearls of wisdom cost the Australian taxpayer?

Northern Rivers Art: from the hills to the sea

Mann River 11
Graham Mackie

Old Holden
Joanna Burglers

Endangered Species 2004
Robyn Sweaney

Pippis 2006
Albert (Digby) Moran

List of Australian journalists on Twitter courtesy of The Earley Edition

As this is a long list, it is better to just link.

Australia's top 100 Journalists and news media people on Twitter

A blogger's character assessment of Malcolm Bligh Turnbull

From The Orstrahyun on Monday 29 June 2009 in a post titled See That Shark? Watch Me Jump It:

Turnbull thinks he is a rare brandy, but he is a harsh house spirit scotch when it comes to effectively bullshitting the Australian public.