Oh noes! The evul guv’mint lead by evul Ju-LIAR is trying to take away the sanctity of our precious bodily fluids by renaming Australia Day to “Citizenship Day”.
It’s all over Facebook, so it must be true!!
(Pro-tip: It’s not)
Category: Law and Politics
This Land is Mine
In light of the latest news out of Israel, I thought it appropriate to direct readers to Nina Paley’s video This Land is Mine, which has been sitting around in my “stuff to blog about” pile for a few months.
I gave up on trying to figure out rights and wrongs in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a long time ago. So much wrongdoing and so many atrocities have been carried out by both sides that as far as I’m concerned they’re both equally bloodied. The State of Israel has a right to exist in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians, and neither are going to get them until the fundamentalists on both sides (religious and otherwise) put aside their ideologies, pasts, hatreds and need for revenge and start over from scratch.
This, of course, is never going to happen. They’ll keep on fighting forever, or until one side is wiped out entirely. One is almost tempted to build a big wall around the Levant and let them get on with it.
Tom Waits seems to agree.
Oh America!
Apparently there’s some American woman who wants to move to Australia because…
“…their president is a Christian and actually supports what he says…”
Hmmm, let’s do a comparison…
| Julia Gillard Prime Minister of Australia |
Barack Obama President of the United States of America |
|
|---|---|---|
| President? | No | Yes |
| Christian? | No – A stated Atheist | Yes – Despite right wingers’ repeated claims that he’s a filthy, evil, communist, socialist, terrorist, Kenyan “Muslin” |
| He? | No | Yes |
| Actually supports what he says? | No* | No* |
| Score | 0/4 | 3/4 |
When it’s put like that, I rather think she’d be happier staying where she is.
(* Find me a politician who does and I’ll give you a shiny new donkey – or if you prefer, elephant)
Four More Years
…and the world breaths a sigh of relief.
So long Mittens. You won’t be missed.
Meanwhile in America…
Buzzfeed – 37 People Who Say They’re Moving To Australia If Obama Wins
For the first time in my life I’m tempted to purchase a FOWF sticker…
Election Day, Say Hooray
Do all your shopping at Walmart!
Well, today’s the US Election, when we’ll see if the leadership of the free world (TM) is seized by the evil usurper Romney, or retained by the evil incumbent Obama.
(Personally I’m hoping for the evil incumbent)
For those needing a refresher on their Presidents, here’s Jonathon Coulton’s wonderful song on the matter…
(Note that this is the original 2005 version that doesn’t include Obama or the correct year of Garfield’s assassination)
Let freedom ring people!
10 Years On
Well, it’s ten years on from the Bali bombings.
I didn’t really feel much when the bombings happened. No anger, no terror, just a sense of dull numbness and weary resignation. I think I was still – even over a year later – in a state of shock from the September 11 attacks. I’d kind of readjusted my mind into a state of acceptance that terrorism was the new reality and that a bunch of innocent people getting horribly murdered was the kind of thing that was going to happen from now on – where and when being mere, irrelevant details.
I didn’t really snap out of it until the 7/7 attacks in London. I guess enough time had passed for the shock to wear off – the fact that I have a disproportionate love of that city no doubt helped.
Now, on the tenth anniversary, I still don’t feel much. I’m just glad that there haven’t been any more attacks on Australians as bad as Bali.
16 Quotes From Tony Abbott to Remind You Why He Shouldn’t Be Prime Minister
Via Nikki J’s Scrapheap…
On immigration:
1. ‘Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.’
2. ‘These people aren’t so much seeking asylum, they’re seeking permanent residency. If they were happy with temporary protection visas, then they might be able to argue better that they were asylum seekers’
On rights at work:
3. ‘Bad bosses, like bad fathers and husbands, should be tolerated because they do more good than harm’
On women:
4. ‘The problem with the Australian practice of abortion is that an objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother’s convenience.’
5. ‘I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons’
6. ‘I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think they are both they both need to be moderated, so to speak’
7. ‘What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it’s going to go up in price and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up, every year…’
On Julia Gillard:
8. ‘Gillard won’t lie down and die’
On climate change:
9. ‘Climate change is absolute crap’
10. ‘If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax.’
On homosexuality:
11. ‘I’d probably … I feel a bit threatened’
12. ‘If you’d asked me for advice I would have said to have – adopt a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about all of these things…’
On Indigenous Australia:
13. ‘Now, I know that there are some Aboriginal people who aren’t happy with Australia Day. For them it remains Invasion Day. I think a better view is the view of Noel Pearson, who has said that Aboriginal people have much to celebrate in this country’s British Heritage’
14. ‘Western civilisation came to this country in 1788 and I’m proud of that…’
15. ‘There may not be a great job for them but whatever there is, they just have to do it, and if it’s picking up rubbish around the community, it just has to be done’
On Nicola Roxon:
16: ‘That’s bullshit. You’re being deliberately unpleasant. I suppose you can’t help yourself, can you?’
A Turning Point
Fantasic news, but I can’t help feeling that he just screwed himself out of a second term.
It’s Budget, It’s Budget Time!
It’s budget day! The one day of the year when being a single, childless, mid-thirties, fully employed, tax-paying, caucasian male doesn’t actually pay off.
You don’t think that maybe next year you could include some kind of stimulus payment for people who quietly contribute to the economy without demanding child-care, educational support, unemployment benefits or family payments? Just a few dollars? Please? ;D
