Sick isn't it? Forty minutes ago David Hicks touched down in Adelaide and the event is a great media circus for a no news Sunday.
The man who was persona non grata -- abused both physically in his gulag and with so much spite by the local pollies is now back in his home town . A more cynical exercise in poll manipulation would be hard to imagine.
But there you have it: a naked attempt to massage voting patterns by trying to kill off a festering story.
So what ever happened to habeas corpus, King John, Runnymede and the whole Magna Carta ? It makes me something of a conservative on issues of civil rights doesn't it? Not like these gun tootin' War-on-Terror radicals. Pass that by me again please: what is this 'democracy' being fought for, over the carcase of Iraq and Afghanistan? And how does the incarceration for years of David Hicks and his comrades without trial or charges being laid reflect this democracy which is the excuse for so many war dead?
And while we get to grieve with a mother or father of a lost or kidnapped child as a wonderful gesture to parental bonds, how are we supposed to view the unconditional and resolute dedication of Terry Hicks to his son? So let's be 'conservative' and let's talk about 'fatherhood' and the responsibilities of men to their offspring. Then point to Terry Hicks and say: " You want to talk family. You want to talk about the 'family man'. You want to celebrate Father's Day. Then let's celebrate Terry Hicks."
And next time they want to lecture us on family values -- spit on them.
