There’s an old slogan in Sydney: “Is that true or did you read it in the Tele?”. Now they’ve upped the ante to declare war on truth. The Herald published a funny piece taking aims at the “bogan” mentality, and the lazy consumerist mentality that follows the decrees of both populism and celebrity in the context of the latest climate… Read more →
Seriously! Bad words never hurt anyone, and you don’t make reality go away by closing your eyes and ears (and other people’s mouths). Everybody fucks and shits and women have cunts. Interestingly, on The Daily Show last night, they replayed part of C-SPAN coverage from the Goldman Sachs interrogatories. “shitty” was bleeped out, but “crappy” and “crap” wasn’t. Oddly inconsistent,… Read more →
I’ve been catching up on old C&L links to Jon Stewart, and came across one that makes me really upset at the abuse of trust practised by some in the media (and thankfully Stewart is one of those to expose them). Glenn Beck is a paid spokesman for an internet gold site, and also talks up gold on his program… Read more →
The Conroy Rule is a fast-spreading internet meme, similar to Godwin’s Law (well at least similar to the bastardised form of it that I have seen called Reductio ad Hitlerium, and which is also known as Dodd’s Corollary). It basically says that any argument from a politician discussing the internet devolves into simplistic references to child pornography, which in-effect makes… Read more →
We all know media and politics engender mass hypocrisy. We probably expect it and therefore put up with more than we should. Once again, it’s the razor sharp mind of humorists that are good for exposing this. John Stewart is one of the best in this area, and he’s come up with a piece of reporting that needs to be… Read more →
Here is a interesting and saddish story about gun culture in the US. An avid gun-totin’ Texan grandfather bought his two-week old grandson a gun, and the father decided to see if the state would issue a gun license. No guesses as to the outcome.
Robert Frisk has a piece published in The Independent entitled “The true story of Free Speech in America”. It’s a sad and excoriating read about the way that the US and Britain treats people who question the official line, who try and raise issues that the authorities want to be buried; the way that the voices of those not in… Read more →
It’s probably been asked before, but would someone bring a charge against Bush and Cheney for “providing material support”? Their actions were much more useful in supporting Al Qaida than Hicks’ were. Anyone who read/listened to the transcript of the AFP interview with Hicks in 2001, as shown of 4 Corners last night, and thought that he was a terrorist… Read more →
CNN is reporting that a functionary in the Dept. of Defence has called for a boycott of law firms which provide representation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay etc. He was asked about the sources of the money for the defence of these suspects, and hinted in reply that they might be receiving money from suspect sources. Apparently he was “shocked”… Read more →
On the 7:30 Report, last night, Kerry O’Brien interviewed John Howard. He asked if Howard has re-evaluated his poisition on Iraq, given the large part that played in the overthrow of the Republican control of the House and Senate. Part of his reasoning for not pulling out was that it would make the US look bad, and said that I… Read more →
Bruce Schneier urges us to have a reality check. This is a very nice precis of the situation. Unfortunately the broadsheets make money from fear. They don’t want to dampen the panic as that will hit their profits. There are interesting signs of a change in the climate, though. Max Moore-Wilton (head of Sydney Airport) has called for frequent flyers… Read more →
Here’s the sort of comment that Antony Loewenstein, might want to see more of, I think. At the least it’s openly critical of the current Israeli leadership, to the point where the leader of Hezbollah is suggested as a better example of success in power than the Israeli PM. It’s highly likely that this sort of comment would be widely… Read more →
The Australian and US governments are doing a Vicky Pollard in relation to the guilt of Jack Thomas and David Hicks. Yeah, we can’t prove their guilt but no, we aren’t at fault for failing to act responsibly in court. The misadventures in the cases where the government actions have been ruled illegal, or inadmissable would be comical bumblings if… Read more →
According to the British Home secretary: we may have to modify some of our freedoms in the short-term in order to prevent their misuse and abuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy our freedoms and values in the long-term Damn those terrorists and their freedom jujitsu. It makes last night’s Absolute Power so much more piquant…. Read more →
A television debate between a secular psychologist and an imam on Al Jezeera Television ends along the lines that muslims are the people who blow up churches and statues of the Buddha, but you don’t see Buddhists or others blow up mosques. It’s an interesting harangue, which very baldly points the finger at islamic religious propaganda as the cause for… Read more →
Gerard Henderson takes up arms against the defense of habeus corpus and the right of innocence before proof of guilt, in the Sydney Morning Herald, again. Apparently, the people asking for a fair trial are now those responsible for his continuing incarceration, and Henderson is surprised that people care for his rights. Gerard – if you can’t prove a case… Read more →
Apart from being the name of the dungeons in The Princess Bride, this is the name of the laboratory equipment used by Harry Harlow in his ground-breaking research on rhesus monkeys in the ’70s (which is, I expect, where the movie got the name from). I just finished watching an interesting special on Harry Harlow on 4 Corners, which informed… Read more →
The ABC news tonight had more on the deaths at Guantanamo. The piece talked about an investigation into the “apparent suicides”. Let’s be blunt. 3 prisoners are dead. Either they killed themselves – suicide – or else someone killed them – murder. If the investigation is looking at confusion on the cause of death, and the possibility that the status… Read more →
Compass (on our ABC) showed a programme on Sunday evening about the changes in society around the new Workplace legislation and the idea of a 24×7 economy and what that means for workers. It was an interesting discussion, focussed (naturally) on the church-based viewpoint that we need some sort of balance where people have time to go to church; play… Read more →
I haven’t listened to the interview yet, as I’m still at work, but I saw this on my news feed from Boing Boing – a reference to a radio show about habeas corpus and Guantanamo Bay detainees. The blurb makes me very interested. Boing Boing: Guantanamo detainees interviewed on This American Life
