"Crikey . . . now that's an exemption!"

It's always helpful, I think, to do periodic perspective checks on how and why we do the things we do. Apparently, the rest of the civilized world doesn't spend quite as much time wringing its hands over which government records should be exempt from public disclosure, or how best to accomplish that goal.

As reported by the St. Petersburg Times here, government officials in Queensland Australia have returned the original video of Steve Irwin's fatal stingray encounter to his widow and have destroyed all other copies.

There you go. Records exempt. Permanently.