An Australian airport executive says its time to "be realistic" about racial profiling to combat terrorism. In the wake of the deadly Mumbai attacks, Koen Rooijmans says airports need to begin doing tougher screenings on people whose race warrants it.

"We don't like to discriminate but we know where the problem is coming from. Profiling (racial profiling) is a dirty word here in Australia, but I would do it," says the CEO of Brisbane Airport Corporation.

"There's always ways to plan a terror attack. The only way to avoid it is if you have intelligence. People have guns and they can come to our car parks if they want or go to hotels or stations. You can't prevent that.

"You say: 'Let's be realistic. Where are these guys coming from? What is their background?'"

Interesting—in Australia "background" means "skin color." What a crazy world.

• Michelle Obama doesn't know what she's wearing tonight. National emergency! [People]

• The Australians have decided to lighten up and let Snoop into their country. I mean, if they allowed K-Ci and Jo Jo past customs, then it's only fair. [EUR]

• Scary Spice is getting a $400,000 payment from OK! magazine to renew her vows with her duck-killing husband. It ain't Vivienne and Knox money, but it pays the bills. [SP]

• Remind me to never get on Faith Evans' bad side. [NYP]

• US Boxing is not exactly a force to be reckoned with. [BV]

• Since we all live in a country where there have only been three black senators since Reconstruction and just two black elected governors, many of us know that Ferraro's affirmative-action-in-politics rhetoric is idiotic. But some people are more pissed than others. In other news, she has resigned and Clinton rejects (no denunciation, yet) her comments. [WP, Politico]

• Where not to stay if you're doing the hostel thing in Australia. [TA]

• Meet Jackie Ormes, the first black female cartoonist. She was pretty. That's obviously beside the point. [AH]

• Bow Wow is 21, and I am very old. [BS]

• South Carolina needs to get it together. [TS]

AN AUSSIE APOLOGY It's hard to imagine that there has never been one, but Australia is about to make its first formal apology to the "stolen generation" of Aborigines next month.

From 1910 until the 1970s, around 100,000 mostly mixed-blood Aboriginal children were taken from their parents under state and federal laws based on a premise that Aborigines were a doomed race and saving the children was a humane alternative.

According to CNN, Aborigines in Australia are the most likely to be jailed, unemployed, and illiterate. Members of Parliament think that this will help ease relations. It's gonna take a lot more than a proclamation to make up for what happened and is still happening, mates.

• Ne-Yo, who is currently suing R. Kelly over their tour-gone-wrong, is now rumored to be suing Beyonce over royalties for her song "Irreplaceable," which he wrote. [SOHH]

• South Carolina and its much-talked about statehouse grounds… All you can do is shake your head. [CT]

• Australia starts 'em young. [MHS]

• An annual African American art exhibit in Louisville shows shifting perceptions of black art and artists. [LCJ]

As the Williams sisters are moving through the ranks of the Australian Open, at least one Aussie is having a problem focusing on Venus Williams' tennis game. Sports commentator Robert Rasheed made some on-air comments about Venus Williams' ass that were both complimentary and creepy. Controversy ensued! Serena, the sister with what is inarguably the more formidable/famous body, is probably feeling like she's in an alternate universe. Maybe that's why she's already gotten a code violation for swearing. [EUR]

• Gabrielle Union wants movies with black casts to stop being categorized across the board as "urban." I concur. [CM]

• New Jersey cops? They don't shoot much at white people. [NJ]

• Civil rights activists descended on Wall Street yesterday to raise awareness for the "economic tsunami" that is the home-loan foreclosure crisis. [Reuters]

• The U.S. has been cheating on it's racism test, says the ACLU. [DNT]

• A group of nine juvenile and adult Australian males who raped a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl were given no jail time because, according to the female judge, the child probably wanted to have sex with them in the first place. [AP]

• Australia's not a racist country. The government would just prefer that Africans not live there. [Reuters]

• When bored, reporters at the New York Times might fabricate a rap beef. [Idolator]

• More black male teachers are needed in South Carolina and, well, everywhere else in the country, I would bet. [WLTX]

• A task force is meeting in Atlanta today to discuss a proposed law banning sagging pants. Good luck making this one stick, guys. [AJC]

• Grambling State University Administrators are forcing the student paper to remove images of an elementary schooler with a noose around her neck as part of a really poorly planned racism lesson. [SPLC]

On his inexplicable "Greatest Hits" tour in Australia, Bobby Brown is still harping on the surely fictional death threat he received from Osama Bin Laden. Former flame Karrine Steffans has also said that he was afraid President Bush also wants him dead. As a result, Brown beefed up his security.

Brown said in Melbourne: "I figure if Bin Laden wants me, and everybody is looking for him, it probably won't happen. But if he wants to try and find me for something so stupid, he can do what he wants. I have to leave it in the hands of my higher power.

"Come on, if anybody [else was] threatened by Al Qaeda, they'd take it seriously."

But the Bobby Brown Australia saga gets better — concert goers in Melbourne laughed in his face when he pulled off his shirt and tried to get some audience interaction.

The singer took off his shirt at one point "unveiling his sweaty, abdominally challenged torso [and mysteriously wet crotch]" and the audience screamed with laughter, but were dead silent when he tried to get them to do a "call and response," wrote one reviewer in the Herald Sun.

Why did they buy tickets anyway? I can imagine BB being more popular in the caves of Afghanistan than in Australia.

[NYDN, WI]

Unbeknownst to Xzibit, calling Australian talk show host Rove McManus a racist on his Myspace blog is the equivalent of some marginally famous Australian musician publicly calling into question the character of Jay Leno or David Letterman. In other words, it didn't go over well.

Titled "ROVE THE RACIST!", the blog entry detailed the rapper's displeasure in what can only be described as colourful language.

"Tonight the sh-t was wack," Xzibit wrote. "The gopher of the show came to me with some idea of a 'rap off ' with a lounge singer named micheal booblay (sic)

"BULLS–T from the jump!"

…I tried to meet them halfway by letting them know my songs are not to be butchered . . . long story short, we get it all worked out and then the gopher comes back and says 'we only have 42 seconds for the entire thing, our demographics on our show won't allow one minute of rapping'.

"I got up and thanked her for the time and wonderful hospitality and went out the front door hopped in my sh*t and rolled out."

Due to the overwhelming number of hateful responses from Rove-crazy Australians, Xzibit has since erased the blog, which blamed the talk show host for his treatment. I don't know if this Rove person is racist or not, but, in X's defense, is it such a stretch?

[HS]

In a study that tells every person in America who has health care (or is struggling to get it) something they've been knowing, researchers found that we have the poorest and priciest health care compared to five other rich countries. Surprisingly, Canada, a country that everyone holds on a health care pedestal, was the second worst. When we are up against five countries — Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Britain — that offer universal health care, there's no way we could even come close to having the best system.

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