By Graham Macafee
Canberra, Australia
21 March 2004

Thank God it's not all gloom, doom and Mel Gibson movies out there. There
are also some good things happening. But the main problem in trying to
distinguish good from bad and bad from worse is the English language.

Words can mean different things to different people and (even more
confusing) the same word can mean one thing in one sentence or era and the
complete reverse in the next sentence or era!

Some examples:

Fast (as in 'fast' woman) can mean a series of transient relationships, OR
Fast (as in 'fast' friends) can mean long-lasting or enduring.

The word 'gay' used to mean light-hearted and carefree. Now 'gay' can also
mean a dreary addiction to serial anonymous bath-house buggery!

The word 'conservative' also has two meanings.  The word originally meant
what it said - a 'conservative' was somebody dedicated to conserving human
life and values (many doctors are 'conservatives') but it can now also mean
the exact opposite - addicted to conflict, death and war.

In the hands of bomb-happy anti-terrorists (such as George Bush, Tony Blair
and John Howard) 'conservative' means to conserve THEIR power, policies,
privileges and way of life - even it means killing thousands of innocent
civilians to achieve that goal - plus troops on both sides.

Unlike old-style conservatives (who want to protect and conserve)
bomb-happy new conservatives want to pillage and destroy. In that context,
George Bush and Ghengis Khan are both 'conservatives'.

Bomb-happy new conservatives believe (with religious fervour) that 'the
end' (of protecting THEIR power, privileges and pecuniary interests) always
justifies 'the means' - up to and including carpet-bombing and torture.

George W. Bush and Prime Minister Howard are both 'conservatives' -
but only in its most pathologically selfish, death-dealing meaning -
NOT in its sane and sensible original meaning.

Our family doctor, Dr Sue Wareham (for instance) is a 'conservative' in the
older, saner meaning of the word. She believes in conserving life at the
individual, national and international levels.

As well as being a medical practitioner, Dr Wareham is President of the
Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) Australia. MAPW is the
Australian affiliate of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear
War - the Nobel Peace Prize recipient for 1985.

The Medical Association for Prevention of War is at:

http://www.mapw.org.au

The branch President of a conservative (in the original meaning of the
word) professional body that I belong to (the Australian Institute of
Agricultural Science and Technology) is John Kerin. In his private life
John is also a Branch President of 'Racial Respect'.

Racial Respect is a national organisation formed to encourage the
development of Australia as a nation where racial diversity is recognised
and respected.

In other words, Racial Respect was founded in response to the rise of
neo-Nazism and racism among wannabe and existing 'conservative' politicians
(such as Australia's anti-liberal Liberal Prime Minister) who lust
after red-neck votes while trying to hold on to more moderate voters.

Racial Respect is at: http://www.racialrespect.org.au

In a religious and political context, 'minister' used to mean what it said -
somebody who 'ministers' to the needs of others - especially children -
not somebody who MONSTERS kids in a gulag of concentration camps -
like Prime Minister John Howard does, to Australia's international shame!

Sadly, the Prime Minister of Australia is now the Prime MONSTER of Australia!

Also thanks to John Howard, as well as 'minister', there is another word
('liberal') that now means the complete reverse of what it originally meant.

In an Australian context, 'liberal' (as in the Australian Liberal Party) now
means child-abusing, white-supremacist, monocultural, neo-Nazi,
totalitarian - anything BUT liberal!

As an antidote to the obscenity of kids in cages organised by the Australian
Government, and the obscenity of carpet-bombing organised by the US
Government, there are hundreds of GENUINE conservative and
GENUINE liberal groups (many of which have Web Sites) working
to bring the world closer together in peace and harmony.

They ain't fooled for one little minute by an Australian child-abuser and an
American carpet-bomber who hide behind polished speeches and polished desks.

Which only goes to prove an old dictum often ascribed to Abe Lincoln:

"You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of
the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time."