Tag Archives: Politics

Go back where you came from

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Nobody in Australia likes refugees.

Or so it seems. Ask many regular punters and these damn filthy refugees are always in the news floating here in their thousands on their leaky boats in a never ending tsunami, bringing with them their stupid cultures and threatening our way of life. We spend millions of dollars housing them in quality air conditioned centres in relative luxury, and the stupid buggers get mad and usually burn them down. We don’t want ‘em, they should go back where they came from. Fuck off, we’re full.

Fact is our Refugee and Humanitarian intake has been about 13 thousand a year, at least for the last couple years. Compared to Europe which is closer to conflict areas of the Middle East and Africa this is a relatively low number and nowhere near a tsunami.

True, there is a system. And the people on boats are making their way here outside the system. But it’s also true that these people are desperate to get out of the situation they’re in and should be treated with more compassion than the majority of Australians seem willing to give.

SBS had a three part show last week addressing how Australians perceive and react to refugees, and showing the real plight of many refugees. They took 6 Australians on a “reverse” journey a refugee might take. These six had a range of attitudes from one woman who said “When I saw that boat smashing on the rocks at Christmas Island, I thought “Serve you bastards right”" through to another woman with more compassionate stance. One girl wasn’t racist, she just didn’t like black people. They were put on what appeared to be a rickety old boat headed north, which is usually the last leg one might take. They moved in with some Burmese refugees in Malaysia, experiencing how it felt to live as an illegal under threat of arrest. Later the participants participated in a 3am raid with Malaysian authorities, arresting illegal workers. In the last show they split into two groups with one group going to live in a UN refugee camp in Africa, and another in Jordan. The group in Jordan then spent some time in Baghdad, but I felt this was of little value as they didn’t see any people outside the Green Zone.

By the end of the third show, and after seeing the desperation of people wanting to be safe from torture, rape and the threat of death in their homelands and that the camps in between their origin and their goal weren’t exactly safe, the group had mostly formed a more compassionate view of these people.

I’m more familiar with the plight of refugees that most Australians I know, and therefore have more compassion for them than most Australians I know. Mum worked with a refugee organisation for many years, and often had people over to our house for dinner. Some of the stories they’d tell were just horrifying, and something I hope I never have to go through.

The world is a scary, horrible place and if nothing else, watching the show has reinforced to me how lucky I am to live in a free, affluent country like Australia.

Same goes for Australia

Obama birth certificate controversy: I’m still not convinced

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I still need convincing that this is a controversy worth talking about. I mean really, the birthers have been on this psychotic witch hunt for too long now. And Obama himself hasn’t done much to stop this getting out of hand so it must be working for him somehow.

The claims originated from Hillary Clinton supporters during the 2008 primaries. Look, I get it that Americans don’t want anything other than an American leader. But it’s really not that bad. The first handful of your Presidents weren’t American-born if you want to be technical about it, and our own Prime Minister is Welsh.

Actually, forget I said that. Bad example.

Since the Obama birth questions were asked we’ve seen the “short form” certificate, but this has been rejected by conspiracists as a hoax. The “long form” certificate was released a couple days ago but it’s still not good enough for some.

It seems a little more legitimate than this one:

Israel third on the moon

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This article from Forbes says that all going well, by December 2012 a bunch of Israeli scientists will have landed a probe on the Lunar surface thereby making “the Jewish State the third nation (after the U.S. and Russia) to land a probe on the moon.” The story may confuse some people or lead them astray due to some subtle American linguistic imperialism. Israel may in fact be the third, but only after the Soviet Union and the US, not the other way around. The Soviets landed first, with Luna 2 in 1959. It wasn’t until Ranger 4 in April 1962 that the US reached the moon.

Funny thing is that after July of this year, the US will be incapable of launching their own astronauts into orbit. Only Russia’s Soyuz will remain.

Abbott happens

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He's got massive earsBecause of my commute to and from work, I don’t get to watch the TV news very much. I try to keep up at work and late at night, hitting News.com.au, Reuters,  CNN, CBC, BBC and others during downtime in between calls just so I can keep a handle on what is happening in the world. Also of value are the forums at sites like Fark where discussion and debate on current affairs ensue.

I am ashamed to say that the first I heard of Tony Abbott uttering his now infamous “shit happens” was last Monday or Tuesday night on The 7PM Project, an idiotic show trying to find a happy medium between comedy and current affairs, but failing hard in both. To be fair, it wasn’t me who turned it on; I think nobody had bothered to change the channel when the CH10 news finished.

I was only half listening to it, focusing  more of my attention into some mindless Facebook game to wind down for the day when I heard the hosts prattle on about a politician saying a swear word. “Great”, I thought. “Nothing better to report on, so how about a hatchet job on a pollie who said a bad word”.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t condone swearing or cursing, and I have been known to use a few from time to time.  But the thing is, you’ve got to use them in the right place and at the right time. Repeating a swear word over and over again when you cut yourself with a knife or hit your thumb with a hammer soothes better than any balm an the market.

So with my attention divided, I wasn’t exactly sure that I heard the story right. “Really? Did Abbott actually just say “Shit happens” when referring to soldiers killed in action?” I thought.

Shit's going to happen later, for sure.

The next part of the “report”, and I use that term advisedly, showed Abbott being confronted about it. “It was taken out of context”, he cries. “Well, can you explain the context?”, asks the reporter.

What followed next was an excruciatingly long, awkward silence shared between the reporter, Abbott and the rest of Australia accompanied by a nervous tick in Abbotts eye. “Say something, you idiot! Anything!” This had to be one of the rare times that a politician was unwilling to open his mouth. After what seems an eternity, Abbott  finally utters “Um, I’ve given you the response you deserve”.

Here’s a Channel 9 story which probably ran a half hour before what I saw on The 7PM Project:

Firstly, I’m not accusing Abbott of deliberately making light of a trooper’s death. I’m going to stop a few millimeters short of it and give him the benefit of the doubt. But, like the slain soldier’s father, I was pretty shocked and offended at his dismissal of of this man’s life under the circumstances. “Shit happens” is a phrase that acknowledges that bad things happen to people for no particular reason. I’d like to think that Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney died for something, no matter how righteous or unjust the reason.

Secondly, I can only guess at what Abbott was thinking during this ambush. “How can I spin this? How can I make myself look less like a bad guy?” It must have taken a while for him to realise that this task was impossible, so he tried for some ineffective menacing stare-down and trite avoidance of the question.

What concerns me is that this guy may be Prime Minister one day. If he were to send my kids into war on his behalf and dismiss my loss when they were killed in action as “shit happens” then I’d pretty much give up on this country and live elsewhere. I’d have to turn my back on a man and the country he represents if he didn’t value my child’s service and sacrifice.

You know how those who practice the fine art of pugilism will come in with an unseen or disguised haymaker to knock their opponent out after a few rounds? It’s the knockout punch that sends the other fighter to the canvas, so powerful and unexpected and perfectly timed that there’s no defense? How about this, for a knockout: say, plainly, that you made a regrettable mistake and you’re sorry!

How could anyone with even the slightest political competence not be able to come out and spin that comment into, “Yes, that’s exactly what I said. No matter what we do to try and keep our brave men and women on the front lines safe, sometimes situations turn bad and there’s nothing you can do. It’s a tragedy that a young life ended so needlessly and, after the fact, all we can say is that sometimes these things just happen. Now, if you’re trying to say that I dismissed that young Digger’s ultimate sacrifice? Never. You know as well as I do that was never my intent and I’m offended that you are trying to insinuate as such through this pathetic attempt at gotcha journalism. My apologies to the family and people of Australia if I caused any offence.”

Seriously, that line took me a minute to think up and I don’t have decades of being a professional asshole under my wings. How’s he going to perform under more stressful or important circumstances if he can’t even handle this?

Yet, with a month to prepare, he came off looking like a severely autistic child when the music stops.

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Flood tax? Why can’t the government pay for it instead of me?

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The news that there’s backlash against a proposed “Flood Tax” saddens and disappoints me. Here’s the deal: Julia Gillard, our illustrious Prime Minister, yesterday announced a $5.6 billion flood recovery package, made up of a one-off $1.8 billion levy and $3.8 billion worth of funding cuts and deferrals.

It exempts anyone earning less than $50 grand

It is calculated at half a percent for anything you earn over $50 grand, and one percent of anything you earn over $100 grand.

And obviously it exempts flood victims.

In real terms this means that those getting by on a $150K wage will pay up about $750 over the year but on average wage earners are going to pay around $80 next financial year to help get the state of Queensland back on its feet. This is the cost of a couple cartons of beer or a night out at the movies for the family.

Me, I’m willing to pay this levy and I can understand there might be some opposition from those who’ve already willingly donated  money to the cause, but it’s not like it’s going to break anyone’s bank. I’m not exactly living large on six figures but I don’t think I’ll miss that money.

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National Broadband Network myths

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I was working on an article much the same as this for the last week or two, but what the hell. This one is much better. It exposes the myths associated with the National Broadband Network. Read it at http://nbnmyths.wordpress.com/

TL;DR version:

The NBN costs too much, private sector will build it, we don’t need anything this fast, nobody else in the world is doing this, our network is already good enough, wireless is better, people don’t even want fixed internet, it will end up costing the consumer too much, it will cost thousands to install, FTTP only has a 15 year lifetime.

Palpatine: a guide on turning a republic into a dictatorship

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I’ve been watching the Star Wars saga with the kids over the last couple weeks, starting with A New Hope through to Return of the Jedi, and starting again with The Phantom Menace through to Revenge of the Sith. You know, the way the maker intended.

Seeing them all one after the other has been very entertaining and refreshing, and has reinforced the reasons I love Star Wars.

Let’s get this straight: Star Wars is the story of Anakin Skywalker. Sure, there’s lots of other characters including heroes and villains. Even the most obscure characters have their own legion of fans, for instance Bespin’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-him “Ice Cream Maker Guy”. But take away Anakin Skywalker (and therefore Darth Vader) and you have nothing. Star Wars would be a mere shell of a story with no real beginning, no middle and certainly no ending.

But, worthy of mention and indeed of study is the story of the rise of Emperor Palpatine, including the downfall of the Republic and the inception of the First Galactic Empire. As we shall see, Palpatine applied some very simple rules in order not just take power, but to have the power given to him.

Two books I read a while ago and still own are “None Dare Call It Conspiracy”  by Gary Allen, and “The Unseen Hand” by Ralph Epperson. Both fascinating reads. Allen’s book is a basic introductory guide to conspiracy theory but in the 21st century now seems outdated and simplistic. Epperson’s book is more detailed and broad. Both books should still be taken with a grain of salt, but they’re still worth a read. Epperson’s premise is that given all the awful historical events (wars, governmental policies etc) that happen despite governments being expected to prevent them, there are two explanations that these events still happened:

1) The events overwhelmed them, and could not have been prevented; or

2) The events were allowed to occur because the officials wanted them to occur.

Granted, Palpatine and the Galactic Empire are fictitious but the methods he used in his rise to power aren’t completely unbelievable. Epperson quotes a 1951 book by Jan Kozak, who details a five part program to seize control of a government, and illustrates how a slight variation of this program was used by Adolf Hitler. Yes, I Godwinned my own article.

The program goes like this:

1) The first step consisted of having the conspiracy’s own people infiltrate the government (the “pressure from above”)

2) The second step was to create a real or alleged grievance, usually through either an action of government of through some situation where the government should have acted but didn’t

3) The third step consisted in having a mob created by the real or alleged grievance that the government or the conspiracy caused demand that the problem be solved by a governmental action (the “pressure from below”)

4) The fourth step consisted in having the conspirators in the government remedy the real or alleged situation with some oppressive legislation.

5) the fifth step is a repeat of the last three.

Examining the first three movies of the Star Wars Saga, we know that Palpatine started off as a Senator in the Galactic Republic, representing Naboo. He was careful not to advance his career too quickly, content to be seen as a petty and small provincial and mostly flying under the radar. The first step of infiltrating the existing government had been achieved.

Palpatine used his Sith Lord alter ego, Darth Sidious, to create a crisis between the Trade Federation and his home planet of Naboo. Revealing himself as a Sith Lord to the Nemoidians, and making it quite clear that he held some power over the Senate, he orchestrated a blockade and invasion of Naboo requiring intervention. Step two, the real or alleged grievance, was in play.

This is where Palpatine’s path from the described method varies a little. As we see in The Phantom Menace, Sidious was surprised and disappointed that the Jedi were involved so quickly by Chancellor Valorum in this struggle and it upset his plans. Knowing how the Senate operated and that they would be bogged down in negotiations, innuendo and bickering about the allegations against the Trade Federation, he manipulated the young Queen Amidala into moving for a Vote of No Confidence in Chancellor Valorum. Unfortunately for Palpatine, Amidala ultimately succeeded in taking back control of Naboo, and he’d lost his apprentice, Darth Maul, to the Jedi but by the end of The Phantom Menace, Palpatine had succeeded in replacing Valorum as Chancellor.

If Palpatine was going to take control of the entire galaxy, he needed a way to enforce the control. But the Republic had never possessed or needed an army. He needed a way to get this army, so as Darth Sidious and with the aid of his new apprentice Count Dooku he created a Separatist Movement. Dooku united several commercial organizations and star systems to revolt and form a Confederacy. These pledged their armies to Dooku, and made the Confederacy a threat able to overthrow the Republic which would never allow the creation of their own army. Simple-minded Jar Jar Binks was manipulated into moving for a vote to give emergency powers to Palpatine, which Palpatine “reluctantly” agreed to. His first act with this new authority was to “create a Grand Army of the Republic to counter the increasing threats of the Separatists”. This army had already conveniently been created on Kamino. The third step in subverting the government was complete: the senate begged Palpatine to solve the Separatist threat (the real or alleged grievance) by governmental action.

The fourth step was to conduct the Clone Wars, playing both sides. Eventually the army was told to execute “Order 66″, a secret command to exterminate the Jedi. Remember, the Clones were loyal to Palpatine, not the Republic. He rinsed and repeated the steps to create the First Galactic Empire to the thunderous applause of the Senate after demonstrating that the Jedi were the enemy. He used a variation on these steps to seduce Anakin to the Dark side, offering his knowledge to allow Anakin to save Amidala’s life. He used his new apprentice Darth Vader to assassinate the Separatist leadership to bring peace to the galaxy. Of course Palpatine could bring peace to the galaxy, since he was the one who created the strife! In A New Hope, the Emperor dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic had been swept away. The Galaxy was under control of the Sith with Darth Vader and the Imperial Navy/Army as enforcer and Palpatine alone on the Emperor’s throne.

Could this happen in our own country? In our own workplace? Perhaps in our own families? Has it already happened? Keep your eyes open and see who has the most to gain from strife and why people ally themselves the way they do. Why do these events continually happen? Cue Mr X from the Oliver Stone movie, “JFK”:

That’s the real question, isn’t it – “Why?” – the “how” is just “scenery” for the suckers … Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, Mafia, it keeps people guessing like a parlor game, but it prevents them from asking the most important question – Why?  Why was Kennedy killed?  Who benefitted? Who has the power to cover it up? …

10 Geeky laws that should exist, but don’t

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Geeks are for lifeThere are many, many laws having nothing to do with government that are useful to know because they tell you something about how the universe works. There are Newton’s laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, Boyle’s Law, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, among many. Most of these laws have been known for a long time, but it wasn’t until a mere 19 years ago that Godwin’s Law was written.
If you’ve ever been involved in a discussion on Usenet, or have been following politics in the past decade or so, you’ve probably encountered Godwin’s Law. While Godwin’s Law is, alas, as true today as it was then, it seems unfortunate that there aren’t more widely accepted axioms to help us geeks define the characteristics of our world.
To that end, then, here are 10 geeky laws (axioms) that should exist, but don’t … at least, they didn’t until now:
  1. Munroe’s Law: A person in a geeky argument who can quote xkcd to support his position automatically wins the argument. This law supersedes Godwin, so that even if the quote is about Hitler, the quoter still wins.
  2. Lucas’s Law: There is no movie so beloved that a “special edition,” prequel or sequel cannot trample and forever stain its memory.
  3. Tolkien and Rowling’s Law: No reasonably faithful movie adaptation of a book will ever be quite as good as the book it adapts. Thus great movie adaptations can only be made out of truly amazing books.
  4. Somers and McCarthy’s Law: There is no dangerous unscientific theory so preposterous that no celebrity will espouse and advocate it.
  5. Jobs’s Law: No matter how well last year’s cool tech gadget still works, it will seem utterly inadequate the moment the new version comes out.
  6. Savage and Hyneman’s Law: Blowing stuff up is fun. Blowing stuff up in the name of science is AWESOME.
  7. Starbucks’ and Peet’s Law: C8H10N4O2, better known as caffeine, is the most wonderful chemical compound known to humankind. If the field of chemistry had never identified or produced a single other useful compound, caffeine alone would be justification enough for its existence.
  8. Wilbur’s Law: Bacon makes everything better.
  9. Comic Book Guy’s Law: There is no detail of a movie too brief or inconsequential to become the subject of an hours-long diatribe.
  10. The Unified Geek Theory: At present, the President of the United States, the wealthiest person in the United States, and the most trusted newscaster in the United States are all geeks. At the same time, movies based on comic book characters are routinely taking in hundreds of millions of dollars. The only reasonable conclusion is: We’ve won!

Via Geek Dad