Talking with patient, a brilliant OCD eye surgeon who tried to commit Japanese ritual suicide, with a big sword, although he was born in Sydney. He failed. I said 'well, Seppuku, is, like the many severe arts of Shinto Nippon, a true art where the self is forgotten, obliterated by real pain' . 'The driving meaning of seppuku is that the death should be much more thought about and more ritualised, and mistake-proofed, than the whole life. It must be much more painful and much more horrific than anything ever experienced in life, or otherwise, the death serves no purpose in terms of the quite honourable value system. it must be excruciatingly painful, and it must take a fairly long time, to have meaning. 'If you fail at Seppuku, it is probably because you are some Westerner who, by failing Seppuku death, achieves a normal life afterwards. It is a personal trial. 'To fail at Sepukku is quite honourable, in the way we see life. To succeed at Sepukku, well, if we did that, we would all be up there with the True Saints of Shinto. This is why we need to honour them, rather than seek to impersonate them. 'One of the most important things with ritual Sepukku, is to make absolutely sure, that whilst you are disembowelling yourself causing you horrific pain, with one hand guiding the bright sword, the other hand must be useful to you in covering up your body with a blanket or mat so that you do not traumatise the person who must find you. This is simple human respect. We are not here to traumatise those we leave behind. Seppuku is not for everyone. To fail at Seppuku is basically good for us. Imagine just how evil it is for buddhists monks to set fire to themselves in a public spectacle...I mean, just all the poor people who must see it...witness it...traumatised for the rest of their lives...and the poor bastards who have to clean it all up and wash down the street afterwards...paid less than minimal wages to have to do that...where is the human self-respect in that kind of death? Where is the human respect for others in that? I'm not into buddhism at all, you know, but I do respect Seppuku, and I do respect Shinto...it's just not for everyone...but I still know what it is and what it means...and I respect that. I respect our human condition. Of course, it's all too much sometimes to bear. It always has been. Lesson from Old Pain Control Palliation and Mental Health Nurse John Katana Fitz.

Because there are about 8 billion people talking right now, I think it's important to say what you need to say in as few

Happy New Year! Jaiyo! More Fuel!...and Happy New Year to Cardinal James Pell.

Happy New Year to Cardinal James Pell. 

May the Year of the Dog be a Hound to your Fox.

Personally, I do believe in the eternal existence of Jesus Christ on a metaphysical and deeply personal level, I do, but I don't count myself as a Christian. I live by a few Christian values, but certainly not all of them, because a lot of them are pure rubbish. I don't think God is a Christian, or a Buddha, or an Allah, or a Yahweh. I think that by choosing to believe in some deity we do, in some way, approach a greater reality. I do believe in a greater reality, one that is far too magnificent and complex for me to ever understand at all or in any way...but I do approach it all with an open mind and some good qualities, from the stars above, to the taps we make with our shoes dancing homewards on the crooked concrete of the town.

It seems it is ok for large Australian companies not to pay tax. It seems it is ok for Casino owners such as James Packer to give large gifts (with benefits) to the Prime Minister of Israel without it affecting their status as a good enough character to hold a casino licence in Australia. Interesting set of lofty Australian Values we wish to instil in and demand from new citizens.

You can't expect to be in an Israeli fighter jet, flying over Syria, which isn't your own country, and just somehow expect that no one is going to shoot you down. That's just silly. National Borders of Sovereign States are, in fact, Real Borders...and they Mean Something...and for Good Reason. That is not your piece of sky, dickhead. We are not talking the Big Picture here, Buy yourself a fucking atlas.

KOREA KOREA THERE IS ONLY ONE KOREA. It is excellent to see the beginnings of a kind of friendship between the brothers and sisters of North Korea Province and South Korea Province. There is only one Korea. Only Koreans will resolve this issue between kinfolk and they will only resolve it by talking with each other and occasionally scrapping with each other, as is the traditional method of dispute resolution in Korea from time immemorial...and without any interference at all from the usual knuckle-dragging mega-death fuckwits of the USA, or little, very scared, quasimodo-like, Japan. There was only one Korea, there is only one Korea. This is the job of all Koreans. I wish them well. Greater problems on earth have been solved, with a bit of argy-bargy, and they are an industrious and bright bunch of people, and, importantly, kinfolk. Neither are Americans, neither are Chinese or Russians. They are Koreans. There is one Korea. Korea will work this out. Eventually America will go home and do what it does best, in America, their own country. Americans have problems also, and only they can work them out.