Skeletor's Game Budget takes a Hit!

Aussies now fined for swearing! Skeletor will be in dire straights!

Read more here:

www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.7da...1.831&show_article=1

how the fuck does that make any sense? Especially in a country like Australia? This is something I'd expect out of China or North Korea but a Commonwealth country? The hell?!

Between this and them banning the encyclopedia dramatica article on aboriginies (sp??) they're quickly becoming a very bizzare country.

Who decided which words are offensive? I hate "boy band", "reality T.V.", and "Diva" for example. Think they'll be on the list?

I've always loved Australia. I think I prefer it to Canada even though I've never been there. It's the country I most want to visit but I always end up going to Europe anytime I feel like travelling (or to the States of course).

I ran into two Aussies in the last year or two that made me start to change my mind (and no, one of them isn't Skelly).

1) gay guy at the local Tim Horton's (Canadian pronounciation for Dunkin Donuts) is Aussie and I tell him how bad I would want to go and he looks shocked and says, "why? why would you ever want to go there?" which then opens the doors for him to tell me how unaccepted he was there. But i took it with a grain of salt cuz non-urban areas over here are surely like that too.

2) Really cool Aussie old guy I run into on Ireland/Scotland trip on my honeymoon. We start talking and the aborgine(sp?) subject comes up. I tell him how surprised I am that it was up until the 70's that the State was removing "half-castes" from their families to "save" the white part. He then gets into cuz turns out he was one of the guys who was stationned on reserves and says it was for the own good cuz those peopel couldn't care for themselves and alcohol was a big problem, etc. Anyway, not a pretty subject to bring up.


Anyway, it sounds like Australia is going the way of the States a bit (like that Tennessee legislation going through on how you can't say "gay" anymore, or how Huck Finn is getting rewritten in Texas/Arizona or how history books are being rewritten in that same area (much like what Aussies are doing)).

big time move to the right and I don't likes it

I'd support it if the punishment was public knock down by Mr. Loter.

Wait...didn't Australia invent swearing?

Thank God America invented Tanktops

Steve"God Bless America"Avery

Tanktops older than America

Surprisingly I understand this, and it comes from a policing point of view, mainly because I saw the old regime in action.

This is not there to target the one off person who hits there thumb with a hammer, or exclaims loudly when there team misses a goal. Trust me, Australians are amongst the most casual swearers, and I have many Americans interviewed on TV by Australians taken aback by the language the interviewer users.

Swearing has always been illegal in Australia (and England, where we got most of our laws from, and probably America too if you look into it). They are now changing how easy it is to enforce the legislation. As I have stated here a while ago, I used to live next to a foul mouthed junkie prostitute who made everyone's life in the street hell. One of the main problems with her was that the only threatening thing she did to her neighbours was swear at them (and she reserved the physical violence for her acquaintences who never pressed charges). It was really hard for the police to do anything to her, as they couldn't get her on anything heavier than threatening language and everyone was reluctant to go through the courts on such a minor charge. If they had been able to issue multiple fines earlier and easier, things would not have escalated to the state they did.

(EDIT: This is the law. I looked it up after this junkie was charged with swearing at my daughter and I was curious as to what that really meant:
It will be this one in the summary offences act that they get her on:

17 Obscene, indecent, threatening language and behaviour etc. in public
(1) Any person who in or near a public place or within the view or hearing of any person being or
passing therein or thereon—
( a ) sings an obscene song or ballad;
( b ) writes or draws exhibits or displays an indecent or obscene word figure or representation;
( c ) uses profane indecent or obscene language or threatening abusive or insulting words; or
( d ) behaves in a riotous indecent offensive orinsulting manner—
shall be guilty of an offence.
Penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for two months;
For a second offence—15 penalty units or imprisonment for three months;
For a third or subsequent offence— 25 penalty units or imprisonment for six months. )

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: 17 Obscene, indecent, threatening language and behaviour etc. in public
(1) Any person who in or near a public place or within the view or hearing of any person being or
passing therein or thereon—
( a ) sings an obscene song or ballad;
( b ) writes or draws exhibits or displays an indecent or obscene word figure or representation;
( c ) uses profane indecent or obscene language or threatening abusive or insulting words; or
( d ) behaves in a riotous indecent offensive orinsulting manner—
shall be guilty of an offence.
Penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for two months;
For a second offence—15 penalty units or imprisonment for three months;
For a third or subsequent offence— 25 penalty units or imprisonment for six months. )

(a) : This is the worst one. I would purposely sing those songs just to get the fine if I lived there (and wasn't married, my wife would kill me for behaving like that... I guess I live in my own personal little matriarchy)., they shouldn't fuck with the arts like that.

(b) : that one sucks as much as (a), I guess this includes t-shirts and the like, not to mention signs, graffiti, etc... but it's probably a law here as well (Canada)... and displays where? In a public place, like, say, an art gallery... fuck that. Aren't forums "public places" too? How far can they take this... not how far will they take this because you don't know the answer to that today. All that matters is how far they can take it.

(c) "threatening", "abusive" and to a lesser degree "insulting" I can kind of get behind. Although I think insulting is very arbitrary. I've been insulted by people who thought I was a hippie more then anyone calling me an asshole. So I guess the state decides what I find insulting? Bullshit. But the first three words "profane", "Indecnet" and "obscene" I defintely don't agree with and I highly doubt that my concept of those words is anything close to what the average person would put into that category.

(d) : Another one that is highly subjective. That's the problem with all of these in some ways. I wonder how far it can be taken. I have similar problems with laws we have here in Canada as well so I don't think it's just Austraila but that's what we're discussing right now and those laws suck balls.

Final note: I don't talk to anyone in public in a generally seen as offensive manner. Ever. I am always very polite but I don't think I should have to be.

I would be extremely skeptical of anything from Breitbart's website. He's the guy behind the heavily edited "stings" of ACORN and Shirely Sherrod, both of which turned out to be bogus. His credibility is basically nonexistant at this point.

dysjunct wrote: I would be extremely skeptical of anything from Breitbart's website. He's the guy behind the heavily edited "stings" of ACORN and Shirely Sherrod, both of which turned out to be bogus. His credibility is basically nonexistant at this point.

It's mostly true. As I said, it was always illegal to swear in public in Australia, they have just changed the process when someone commits the crime (from a court case to a fine).

Every country will almost certainly have laws like that (as you can see ours has been there for a very long time, due to its reference to offensive ballads) and it will be phrased with vague language, because there are always people who manage to threaten and menace without physical violence and without direct verbal threats, and you need something to charge them with.

Out of curiosity, what is a "penalty unit"?

Dogmatix wrote: Out of curiosity, what is a "penalty unit"?

It is an amount of money indexed to the CPI so that they don't have to keep changing the laws to update all fines.

According to the government website:
One penalty unit is $119.45 in the 2010–11 financial year (1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011).

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: as you can see ours has been there for a very long time, due to its reference to offensive ballads

Couldn't this be a reference to early 90s Bryan Adams?

Black Barney wrote:

1) gay guy at the local Tim Horton's (Canadian pronounciation for Dunkin Donuts) is Aussie and I tell him how bad I would want to go and he looks shocked and says, "why? why would you ever want to go there?" which then opens the doors for him to tell me how unaccepted he was there. But i took it with a grain of salt cuz non-urban areas over here are surely like that too.

This guy sounds like a drama queen. Sydney supposedly has the highest gay population outside of San Fran and we don't have much of a religious right here, so if he wasn't accepted it's probably more to do with him being a knob.

2) Really cool Aussie old guy I run into on Ireland/Scotland trip on my honeymoon. We start talking and the aborgine(sp?) subject comes up. I tell him how surprised I am that it was up until the 70's that the State was removing "half-castes" from their families to "save" the white part. He then gets into cuz turns out he was one of the guys who was stationned on reserves and says it was for the own good cuz those peopel couldn't care for themselves and alcohol was a big problem, etc. Anyway, not a pretty subject to bring up.

The guy is spot on, Abouriginals have gone backwards in this country over the last 30 years thanks to the promotion of victimhood mentality and retarded governments.

Anyway, it sounds like Australia is going the way of the States a bit (like that Tennessee legislation going through on how you can't say "gay" anymore, or how Huck Finn is getting rewritten in Texas/Arizona or how history books are being rewritten in that same area (much like what Aussies are doing)).

big time move to the right and I don't likes it

Wait, so swearing isn't illegal in your country?
So If I'm in court I can tell the judge/police officer/victim to go fuck themselves and I can't be charged?
A jackass can stand infront of a school with a megaphone and start singing "The fucking cat's back" and no one could do anything to stop him?
How can you take your kids to see a sports game if the people around you are allowed to act like ferals?

I have no problem with this law, nor the change to make it an on the spot fine (better than clogging the courts.)