Employment Matters
With reference checks underway, it’s entirely possible that by this time tomorrow I’ll have a job offer. Unfortunately, it’s for a job I don’t think I want.

While my present employer is wonderfully flexible and pays generously, the work, well, there is no work. I’m bored beyond belief here, and there’s little I can do about it. The database can’t be managed by me, only by consultants, so I can’t actively improve its functionality. There simply aren’t enough reporting requirements to give me much joy in running the extracts. The underlying database is technology from the 1980’s, unused in mainstream corporations, and clunky at best. But I’ve been trying for a new job for nearly two years now, getting nowhere. So what’s wrong with this one?

It’s a maternity leave replacement contract, mainly, which means it’s employment for a set period of time. Given my current job-hunt experience, that presents a worrying condition. It’s also located in a relatively remote suburb, accessible by public transport (a bus + a train + a bus or a bus + another bus), but far from most recruiters and most major corporations. This means that interviewing for a new job would be difficult and time-consuming, whereas right now I need only adjust my hours by 30 minutes and I can make any interview anywhere in reasonable time.

Although it affords a marvellous opportunity to work again with mainstream software (SAP – about co-equal with PeopleSoft, and probably well above Oracle – a program I haven’t used before, but by learning would increase my profile in the HRIS marketplace), can I risk short-term employment?

Sure, new mothers don’t always come back, and some extend their leave, which would mean no guarantee of returning to the same job, and some want to come back to a modified role, potentially leaving room for me (and there was some suggestion that the function was perceived as requiring two people, although also that there wasn’t room in the headcount). In the course of the two interviews, I got different impressions of the incumbent: she didn’t care for the job was one, but the other was suggestive of her investiture in it. The company also does consulting work, so there’s a potential to transition to that team, if they’re satisfied with my work, get the impression that I’d make a good consultant, and have enough projects to go around.

What to do, what to do? New jobs come up all the time, although I don’t always get the interview, or the second interview (and, obviously, haven’t been getting the offers). Is this just too vague to take the chance?

’70’s Nostalgia Moments
Remember Phantom of the Paradise? Well, it just kind of jumped out at me when I was looking for a DVD to watch, something trivial to relax with after spending the day doing various chores and a little more packing, so I revisited this rather cheesy Paul Williams vehicle, directed by Brian DePalma, of all people. It’s not nearly as bad as I remembered. I doubt Mr. Williams will perform any of the songs at his Enmore gig, though.

On the other hand, Eastern Promises is one tough film, even if the logic of how Naomi Watts gets involved is more than a little unlikely.

Quiet Sunday Night
Except for all the Irish yowling from the DVD I rented, Once, featuring Glen Hansard, of the Frames. (There will be those reading this – and I’m looking at you, Mom & Dad – who should be warned against the movie purely for its soundtrack, for which the movie is actually more a vehicle than is usually the case; nevertheless, I loved every song and every repetition of the theme.) M. had recommended it to me and supplied me with a copy of the soundtrack, but I never got around to it at the cinema and hadn’t really thought much about renting it. However, faced with either this or 30 Days of Night, and oddly enough I chose the grownup movie. It’s very beautiful. It also addresses relationships unusually. I also enjoyed the bit with the vacuum cleaner.

The rest of the long weekend was largely spent packing.

Gloom
I am going to find every poem I ever wrote that uses “darkness” and submit them to Virginia Quarterly Review right away. And cats. (Thx, Kottke.)

Obligatory
Now that I’m an Australian, it is required that I like Nick Cave. I suppose I ought to go back to the days of The Birthday Party, or even just the start of the Bad Seeds, but really, I’m only coming to this recently. I mean, I love “Into My Arms,” mid-period Bad Seeds Cave, one of the only three purchases I bothered to make on iTunes, but most often I’ve found him too dark and self-indulgent, that kind of moody, emo stuff. I saw the clip for the title track off his new record, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!, and on the strength of the one song took the chance and bought the album. It’s terrific, full of the kind of biblical allusions and religious philosophizing angst he’s best at, and full of groovy beats (man). This is some rock gospel at its best. I especially like “We Call Upon the Author to Explain.”

Next up: AC/DC. (Has any other band in the history of rock employed bagpipes? Okay, better use?)

Weekend Update
I joined the Rabbitohs this year. 13 games at ANZ Stadium, out at the Olympic Park, and the home opener was Friday. (The Charity Shield, which I was unable to attend, doesn't count; it's pre-season.) This is Rugby League's 100-year anniversary, and it was a blast to attend a grudge match between two of Sydney's progenitor teams. It's just a shame that the Roosters trounced the Bunnies. Anyway, I was thrilled, and my seats are terrific, just on the 40-meter line, and only 20 rows back. They put on a fun opening ceremony, with a thousand kids out on the field, essentially doing drill-team stuff, spelling out "1908 - 2008", running around in a synchronized fashion (more or less), etc. Anyway, energizing. I was, however, kind of appalled at the level of booing, but more so at the cheers by Souths' supporters when one of the Roosters had to be taken from the field injured. While some measure of revenge was at work for the season-ending injury inflicted on our Craig Wing by the Roosters employing a tackle that seems deliberately designed to cause harm, that's really no excuse. Bitterness, at childish levels, was on display, so I was in among both the best and worst aspects of the Australian sports-centricity. Tough game, that rugby.

After spending a few hours Saturday packing LP's for my upcoming move, and a late night in among the warehouses of industrial Marrickville looking for the Tactics gig (which I abandoned after the first opening act, a duo calling themselves Real Estate, faced with the prospect of a second act, only just setting up at 10:30, meaning it would likely be midnight before the main act, and the venue was pretty horrible), Sunday was to be a day of pure rest. I had, however, some need to return to the shopping mall, so while I was there I stopped at the movies and saw No Country for Old Men, which I had expected to miss and have to watch on DVD, since I spent so long in not reading the book.

I really like Cormac McCarthy's novels, especially when they're not half in Spanish, and had enjoyed this one. I hadn't thought it terribly cinematic, although Tommy Lee Jones was an obvious casting choice. It's a very controlled, evenly paced movie, a kind of anti-thriller, in that you're never very emotionally involved with the characters, just kind of fascinated, snake-and-bird fashion, particularly in the case of Anton Chigurh. I guess it's prize-worthy, but I also agree with David Denby's assessement.

Moving House
It’s a little counter-intuitive at my age, but I’ve exchanged contracts on a new home of my own. Over the next six weeks I’ll need to pack everything up and hire a mover, but as of April 25, I’ll be in a nice two-bedroom garden flat in Glebe. And there’s a pet door already installed for the cats, conveniently enough. I’ll probably never see them again, outside of dinner time.

It all happened rather quickly. I’d been thinking of Marrickville, where I’d seen a nice flat, and Alexandria, where I’d seen a one-bedroom, loft-style unit, and which was very convenient to transport, if not to anything else, very modern, but when I asked about the Glebe place and found the price was more in my range than I’d expected, I “gazumped” – that is, made an offer above the one that had already been accepted, but where the contracts had not yet been signed. We moved very fast thereafter, with me handing over some tens of thousands of dollars in downpayment yesterday afternoon. Before close-of-business, I was the new home owner, at least contractually.

Properly, I’m in Forest Lodge, but convenient to transport, shopping, and all the best bits of Glebe (like Gleebooks, the best independent bookstore in the city). Anyway, I don’t know how long the real estate webpage will stay up, but if you want a look, there’s photos and a floor plan here. Don’t be put off by the purple feature wall.

Politics and Sex
How is it that sex scandals seem to fall along party lines? Democrats have sex outside of marriage and Republicans impeach them is starting to look like a pattern. Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer . . . and here we’ve got a Labor Councillor in Wollongong sleeping with developers for favors and the whole council sacked. At least it was the ICAC recommending their dismissal, rather than an opposition instituting proceedings, but still. Can the left keep their pants on? Can the right try to keep their outrage muted? Frankly, Spitzer’s actions, unlike Clinton’s, need investigation: US$5,000 hookers probably aren’t being charged on his personal credit card, but it would be good to know if it was his own money he was spending. The Wollongong thing is just mind-boggling. Sleep with me and I’ll approve your development application? Weird.

Christianationalism
It’s beyond silly to still be having these debates. The question, is Australia a Christian nation, comes up at least as often as the query is posed in America, it seems, and just as often engenders furious back-and-forth commentary. Fred Nile’s right in that statements made by federalists at the turn of the century indicate their firm intention to maintain Christian standards of morality in the laws and constitution, but that isn’t any more definitional of Australia as a “Christian nation” than that Elizabeth II was crowned in the context of a “Christian Coronation Service”; the preservation of medieval ritual doesn’t imbue her with any spiritual authority over her subjects, or at least none that any of them would acknowledge or that she herself would attempt to exercise.

Religion is personal. It may be that if enough people take up a particular set of practices and beliefs they can form a subset of society and extract some spiritual benefit (and from my viewpoint that’s an emotional, psychological benefit, really, howsoever difficult it may be to define; so’s art), but that doesn’t translate into an entire national identity.

Admittedly, Australia is about the most Christian-looking country I’ve spent much time in, what with public holidays including Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Some states also do Easter Tuesday (Tasmania) and “The Day After Good Friday” (South Australia [psst, that’s “Easter Saturday” for those of us who know the days of the week, everywhere but Tasmania and West Australia]), but most of the public holidays are secular: New Year’s Day, Australia Day, ANZAC Day, the Queen’s Birthday, and various Labour Days and days devoted to county fair-type events or horse races.

Insofar as other nations may be designated “Muslim” or “Hindu,” we, like most of Europe and the Americas are, technically, Christian, but in many respects no more so than you’d call some Asian nations “Buddhist.” (I wonder if any African nations have these debates? How do they categorize themselves?) Yes, Parliament, weirdly, opens daily with the Lord’s Prayer, a practice I believe should cease, but we haven’t enshrined the separation of church and state as thoroughly as was managed in the U.S. Constitution, something that could perhaps be rectified at such time as we become a republic. Our principles of governance, the laws we have enshrined and value, may come from a centuries-old tradition that grew, in no small part, from the ancient embrace of Christianity throughout Europe, but that tradition has evolved, even as Christianity has, itself breaking into a variety of sects, and the principle of secular government has a firm hold on how we perceive our civic lives. This does not devalue religion, if that’s your flavor. Remember, Jesus told us not to do as the hypocrites do, making a show of our adherence to religious rules, and to keep what our right hand does hidden from our left hand.

Gigs
Saturday night, alerted by M., I headed out to the Hopetoun, in Surry Hills, to see the reunited Tactics. Described as Sydney’s answer to the Talking Heads, a designation rejected by the band themselves (in the liner notes to the CD I bought), I’d compare them more to Pere Ubu, an avant-New Wave band I came to rather late in their career, although not so late as I have to this one. Now, I admit, I mainly went to this show because a mutual friend is a member, and I like to think I’m one of those people who support their friends, especially in their artistic endeavors, but now I’m a fan. The show was hopeless, mainly because the acoustics were hideously bad, maybe because the band members hadn’t been rehearsing long, probably because they’ve got to be the loosest band to ever have a recording contract (except the drummer, who was tight – and how does that work, that only one band member can be described that way; never mind, it’s the only way to describe it). The CD is a reissue of both the first two albums the Tactics put out, “My Houdini” and “Glebe,” and it rocks. I fully intend to turn up at one of their next sets, maybe the Annadale, which is close to home, but I’m interested in the CAD Factory itself.

Life, Meet Art
Finding Nemo: it’s all true.

I Blame Myself
First-home buyers are causing their own pain from interest rate increases and rising home purchase prices. It’s true, somewhat. But I blame the willingness of home buyers to accept auctions as the default sales mechanism, rather than whopping great home loans. Mortgage repayments are normally viewed as a percentage of income, rather than whether or not your carrying $300-500,000 in principal, although that, too, can indeed be a problem, mainly, again however, because a rate rise could put the monthly repayment percentage over what you’re reasonably capable of managing, cutting into your food budget, for example.

I also blame the State and local governments, which tax so heavily that, if you buy an apartment, you’re also stuck paying building levies that have no return value. Our apartment in Surry Hills cost us significant money on a quarterly basis, in addition to our own council and water rates, essentially meaning we were paying twice for those services. The rest of the building’s budget was mainly hallway lighting and elevator maintenance. Heat and hot water were our own cost. This makes city living a pretty expensive proposition.

Now add on to that sitting in a room with a dozen other people who want to buy the property, often just as an investment, because they accrue tax advantages, whereas residential home owners do not, and everybody’s adding a thousand, five thousand dollars every 10-30 seconds until they’ve blown out whatever budget they came in with and yours, too. Suddenly, a property worth $400,000 is now $500,000. If private treaty were the norm, one offer over your own, and you’d go looking for the next place, you’d stick to your budget more easily. I’m a bit of a cheapskate, so it was easy for me to hit my limit at auction and stay there, when I could have kept on, offered a thousand more than the winning bid, and maybe taken the place. But I’d have to live with seeing my savings entirely wiped out, with little chance of rebuilding enough for emergencies, let alone another, soonish, trip back to the US. And these are relatively minor concerns.

So blame my mortgage, if you want, but own up: State and local taxes are sources of financial stress in home ownership, and auctions are a blight.

And There Was
I hadn’t actually planned it, but finding myself by the Dendy in Newtown at the right time, I stopped in to watch There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis is beyond terrific. Barely holding on to a civilized façade, he goes so entirely bat-shit crazy over the course of this movie, it leaves your own mind reeling. I was also quite taken with the music, which I recall the New Yorker pointing out as a highlight of the production. It’s very spare, but highly effective. Paul Thomas Anderson was certainly a viable contender for that Directing Oscar. I’ll have to go see No Country for Old Men (I’d been waiting until I’d read the book) to see how the Coen brothers beat him.

Low Bid
I am not a new homeowner. And I despise auctions.

It was interesting to see and a little unnerving to participate. The auction was held off-site, and multiple properties went under the hammer on the day. I’d inspected the first property for sale, so I was surprised when it went for $561,000. It didn’t have the rising damp problem of the house I was going for, but it was still a total renovation job, with electrical work and plumbing required, years of wallpapering, damaged plasterwork, and a roof that was going to come off in the next strong wind. Bidding was fierce for a while, then fell off into a price war between just two contenders, each offering another $500 on top of the last, until finally one jumped five grand and finished off the other.

The next house was to be mine, and I opened the bidding. It seemed more dispirited than the other property, which was, admittedly, in a better location overall, and I thought for a little while that it might come off. We were at the point of going to the “third and final call” on my bid when somebody new jumped in, and the bidding took off again, well beyond anything I thought was reasonable. In the end, it went for about 20 grand more than I was willing to spend in purchasing it and about 5 more than my bank’s valuation had it.

I’ll have to find a new place in the next sixty days, or I’ll be into the bank for $600 in fees. No more auctions.

Progress Report
The Rudd government’s 100-day report card is a good idea, something similar to what Mayor Bloomberg does in New York (publicly, but for his own benefit, as well, since he’s then able to keep track of what still needs doing, as I understand it), but why isn’t it online? A booklet’s nice, but will I get one in the mail? Will further progress reports be issued? Maybe I should join the 2020 conference so I can suggest more effective use of HTML. (And I could meet Cate Blanchett.)

Questioning Question Time
Question Time is a venerable tradition in Parliament, carried down from the British House of Commons, in which members may query responsible ministers about matters pertaining to their portfolios, all the way up to the Prime Minister. The new Labor government decided that Parliament would sit on Fridays, but that there would not be Question Time, although they have not abolished it the rest of the week. This has not gone down well with the newly opposition LNP. First, under the previous government, Friday was not a sitting day. But it should be noted that it’s only a half-session, so offering an hour to QT just cuts into the regular business of governance. Today, the first Friday since Parliament was convened under the new rules, the opposition pushed the House into chaos, even temporarily routing the Speaker. It was a dummy-spit.

What I’ve seen of Question Time suggests what should be a worthy practice of ensuring government transparency and ministerial accountability is really nothing more than childish taunting, teasing, baiting, and point-scoring stunts. Members on either side hoot and holler like a pack of monkeys at every smirk and jibe. It is useless for anything more than letting off steam and seems at best merely to degrade the parliamentary system. I much prefer the system employed in the U.S. Nevertheless, this has been truly shameless behaviour, and represents – along with the various other showboating by former front-benchers like Peter Costello and Alexander Downer – an utter lack of leadership by Brendan Nelson. Is this how they intend to conduct themselves for the next three years? They’ll stay in opposition a long time, that way.

Update: It just gets worse. The opposition are clowns. No wonder they lost.

This Doesn’t Help
The house I intend bidding on in less than two weeks is going to cost me plenty, especially since I’ll “have to” renovate the kitchen and bathroom (it’s all in working order, just in need of a substantial upgrade), so reading about someone else’s trepidations, even, or especially, from the perspective of what it means as an investment, only heightens my nervousness over the financial predicament I’ll be in for the next fifteen to twenty years. (I’d go the full thirty of the mortgage, but I do hope to retire before I’m eighty. Even seventy.) At least I can borrow against the projected cost of minimal renovations and still afford the repayments, barring coming out of the three-year fixed rate period only to find whopping great interest rates. At the pace taken by the Reserve Bank, even the five quarter-percent increases (as they’ve been applying pretty much every month) that I’ve budgeted for will be quickly eaten up, leaving me with having to contemplate new sources of income or substantial cuts along the way in various lifestyle areas. Like lunch. Savings could be a problem, too, which would infringe on my ability to travel for leisure. But I want this settled, and I don’t believe renting is viable, given that rents are going up nearly as fast as interest rates and in substantially greater dollar amounts per annum and a notable dearth of alternative accommodations. The reno should also provide, at resale, for a bit of a profit, even if I only stay in the joint for ten years.

Off On Again
Last year’s inaugural Earth Hour in Sydney has expanded, now, to 28 cities, worldwide, set to switch off their lights on 29 March at 8 p.m. Out in Camperdown last year, the effect wasn’t particularly notable, because it’s already pretty quiet out there, once you get off the main drag. Still, the expansion would seem to indicate the event’s success, even if only 39,000 individuals and about 2,000 businesses have registered their support, so far.

The Future of Death Valley
I don’t usually buy into the standard time estimates for the development of some technology or whatever that will change the future. You know, “in 5 years,” “10 years,” etc., we’ll be doing this, having that, live like this. So when somebody tells me we could have 69% of America’s energy supplied by solar power by 2050, I’m sceptical. Not because I don’t believe the technology is possible, but because the implementation is projected as taking place in less than 50 years. I’m sure it’s possible, just not probable, and certainly doesn’t factor in the opposition it would face. Vast swathes of southwestern desert don’t get converted into solar farms that easily. The studies that would have to be done are as immense as the areas of land to be converted. Should we care about all the gila monsters and cactus species to be dispossessed? What would the effect be on the weather? Global warming? It’s hard enough to work out what’s going on as things stand, but such a massive implementation would have to be transformative in many ways, and not just on reducing fossil fuel dependence and carbon emissions. On the other hand, I know a country with an even bigger area of desert where such a project could be accomplished, although the subsidies projected in this study may be out of reach.

Airpain
An argument against the house in my present suburb. Not that it'd necessarily be much better in some of the other locations. Pretty much the entire inner west is under the flight path, especially now that Sydney airport are undertaking renovations to the east-west runways for the next two years.

Bush Wins Forever
Every time the House or Senate rolls over for Bush on one of his expansions of executive power, I lose more faith in the idea that a Democratic President will accomplish any meaningful change from what the present administration has done to damage civil liberties and the Constitution itself. Hillary, locked in an increasingly tight run against Obama, didn’t even turn up for the vote, but it’s Harry Reid I blame for this, and I’m sure Pelosi will roll, too, in the end. With the Supreme Court packed for the foreseeable future, the more-co-equal-than-others executive will surely prove just as susceptible to abuses under Clinton/Obama/McCain as it has now under Bush. The U.S. is screwed.

Update: See what I mean? (Maybe I should add a new tag: "Scalia sucks.")

Remakes
In a conversation with S., one of M.’s oldest friends, we somehow got on the subject of movies, specifically Hollywood’s apparent present tendency towards remakes and sequels. As a result, I rented Infernal Affairs, which is the movie Martin Scorsese finally got his Oscar for, by remaking it as The Departed. S. said something to the effect that this was the one time he’d watched a subtitled movie and wasn’t distracted reading the dialogue, and I can echo that sentiment, and his recommendation. It is at least as good a movie as Scorsese’s, or, rather, Scorsese’s is as good as it is, failing, in the end, perhaps because the American version gives the audience a moral resolution, as Hollywood is wont to do, whereas the Hong Kong original retains the ambiguities from start to finish.

Still, whereas I won’t be bothered over the next umpteenth remaking of King Kong, and know that the 3rd in a sequel series will inevitably be a disappointment at best (but still go see it), I’ve heard good things about 3:10 to Yuma, but may not bother over the Glenn Ford original.

Housing Crisis
I guess it’s official enough: I’m looking for my next home ownership experience. I spent a significant part of Saturday running around the inner west, checking out houses for sale. Last weekend, I’d see a place at the far end of Petersham – really only another five or ten minutes by public transit from where I am now, at least in non-peak hours – with a terrific garden, gas cooking, one bedroom. It’d work, but the renovations were incomplete, requiring probably a few grand to finish, and the bathroom is outside, which would mean going out in the weather (whenever there is weather, like most of last week) at all hours. Still, it would be quiet, close to transport, and not far to shopping. Most importantly, I could afford it, so long as the price doesn’t get jacked up insanely during the auction.

Auctions, now that’s a problem. There’s a lot of competition out there, too. I saw three properties on Saturday: a very small one-bedroom in Newtown (with a non-existent garden; I’m not even sure my furniture would fit), a complete renovation job in Macdonaldtown (apparently a deceased estate, but how anyone lived there in their declining years seems hard to imagine), and a weirdly panelled (walls and ceiling) house in Camperdown, my present suburb. There is a place in Newtown that isn’t open yet (appointment only) and that is being sold directly, but I’m thinking I might go for the auction in Camperdown. It will probably go low 400K’s, so it’s not only affordable, but I could even manage a little extra on the loan to pay for the minor renovations it would require, mainly painting and pulling down and replacing the built-in wardrobe in the bedroom. Well, and also tearing out the second toilet, a cubicle in the back garden (yeah, weird, I know). The garden’s no great shakes, but there’s plenty of room for the potted plants already in my possession. Still, there were a lot of people through, mostly couples, probably with two incomes, so there’ll be competition. It would be nice to stop renting, though.

Reprise
I hadn’t previously heard of the Don’t Look Back Concert series, but when I saw the Died Pretty were slated to play the Enmore as part of the Australian sets, running through what’s considered one of their best albums, “Doughboy Hollow,” I knew M. (who’d been on the scene with these guys and even has a co-writing credit on one of their songs) and I had to attend. The series has had some real classics, and this was no exception. Ed Kuepper, originally from the Saints, later the Laughing Clowns, opened with his album, “Honey Steel’s Gold,” putting on a terrific show in his own right, but it was the Died Pretty’s night, and I’ll never understand why these guys didn’t make it in the States, let alone much bigger globally. Ron Peno’s vocals are terrific, and he’s got real stage presence. When he cuts loose, Brett Myers plays a mean guitar, and has lost none of his chops. They hit the stage at about 9:30, and for the next two hours the audience was enthralled. A couple of encores allowed them to run through a near “best of” (including M.’s number) and kept the place rocking right along.

Whose Law?
One of the difficulties of multiculturalism in respect to Islam is that the Koran is the codification of all aspects of society, not just a set of religious precepts. So while the Archbishop of Canterbury may say some integration of Sharia with English law is “unavoidable”, it isn’t that hard to see what he’s getting at, although it has nothing to do with, as opposition leader Brendan Nelson puts it, ”chang[ing] your basic values, culture and law” to suit some malcontents unwilling to integrate with society, British or Australian. In fact, we already make accommodations, recognizing the authority of tribal law among the Aborigines, for example, but also in granting priests and rabbis and imams etc. the authority to conduct marriages then recognized under civil law. Granting some limited jurisdiction over financial disputes, divorce, and so forth, doesn’t seem much of stretch, when you think about it, although there would have to be some standard of equal protection applied.

Nevertheless, I oppose such accommodations, at every level. Government should remain resolutely secular, and social transactions should be conducted within that framework. Church, or mosque, weddings should be a separate process, as should divorce. You want religious or tribal recognition in addition, fine, go for it, but it’s extra.

(It's interesting to me that Nelson's the one to come out in the news with this. I assume the Rudd government saw Rowan Williams' remarks and didn't think it worth bothering about. Nelson's probably just trying to stay visible, wedge Labor if he can, and perpetuate the LNP's politics of xenophobia.)

Sorry
One of Kevin Rudd’s promises during the election campaign was to say “sorry” to the Stolen Generation. He’s going to do it next Wednesday, when the new government sits for the first time. This is an historic moment that is sure to help bridge the modern, multi-generational rift between whites and the aboriginal peoples of Australia. I say “modern” because it is only after we have moved beyond the colonial mindset that we have even been able to perceive the problem as a problem. But multi-generational shouldn’t be conceived of as ignoring the pre-Federation centuries, and modern shouldn’t be thought to have coincided only with the post-Federation decades up through the nineteen-forties. In fact, the policies that led to the Stolen Generation persisted well into the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.

But the now-opposition LNP persist in failing to understand the need for us to say and for aborigines to hear “sorry”. They insist on knowing the precise wording for the apology before committing to standing with Labor in offering it. Well, the option exists for Labor to apologize on behalf of the government, rather than the Parliament, which would be, perhaps, sufficient, but still a shame. We could have a national healing moment and a national commitment to improving the lives of the most damaged, most vulnerable, most disadvantaged among us, or we could have the commitment of the sitting government, for its term of office, to address the problems of the aboriginal communities. This is Howard’s final legacy to the party he led. This is Howard’s shame, and now Brendan Nelson perpetuates it. By doing so, should the Coalition fail to join in, the LNP condemns its present members along with the Howard government, and along with all its constituents, to the ash heap of history.

Force Majeure
Is it significant that four of the states hit by tornadoes on the same day voted for Huckabee?

Sweetness
I’ve met sixteen-year-olds I’d trust at exercising a right to vote, but very few, and mostly relatives. There have been recent studies regarding maturation, and it’s accepted fact at this point that girls mature, physically and mentally, well before boys, but that the brain is still developing well into the twenties for both. So enfranchisement of youth, while an admirable ideal, has less of an argument than does extending the age of consent. We already don’t allow young people to purchase alcohol until age 21. Perhaps we should be doing the same with voting, military service, criminal justice, etc.

Yesterday's Voting
Still underway, back in the podes (and pending here in the antipodes), and I don't know much about delegate allocations, within or between the states, but here's a prediction anyway: even pending California, the Obama/Clinton match-up will continue all the way to the national convention, but McCain will lock up the Repugs. What I'm really interested in now is, who are the possible VP's? You wouldn't think it's a job that has much push, but when it comes to the general election, it seems to count for a lot.

Super Wednesday
Tomorrow, Democrats Abroad Australia will host an election watch at the Agincourt Hotel, in Sydney, and the Queensberry Hotel, in Melbourne, both starting at 11 a.m. Over the next few days, we'll also be running on-line primary voting for U.S. citizens who haven't already voted in a primary by absentee ballot. Democrats Abroad, the parent organization, sends delegates to the national convention, so this is our shot at being heard as a bloc of our own. Sydney ballotting will take place, again at the Agincourt, on Saturday, 9 February, from 10:30 'til 1:00, and on Tuesday, 12 February, between 7:00 and 8:30 p.m. Melbourne will go to the polls on Thursday, 7 February, at the Queensberry, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Summer?
Rain all weekend. Rain today. Rain all week. Sure, it’s good for what’s left of the drought, but I’ve only been to the beach once so far this year. And the cats are not terribly happy, either.

Advancing
The Australia Day long weekend is over, notable for some fine hot weather, if not for India wiping us out in cricket, a tennis grand slam with neither of the Williams sisters nor Roger Federer, and some Country-Western singer being named "Australian of the year". Nothing like a three-day weekend, with nothing to look forward to for the rest of the summer, and I never even made it to the beach or a movie. I confess to having some lamb, though.

Competitive Edge
Pollution’s going to be a problem at the summer Olympics this year, and if I was going, I’d want to wear the mask, even during competition. I think we all know by now that Beijing’s air quality is terrible, and who trusts the Chinese government’s assertions about cleaning it up in seven months? Sure, limit traffic, shut down factories . . . whatever. Hell, I’d wear the mask just to watch, and indoors, too. Maybe China will do something positive about the environment instead of just getting all huffy.

Parlous Publishing
It’s a news magazine, essentially, a Newsweek -type publication, but there are few enough Australian periodicals that the end of The Bulletin after 150 years is a shame. The internet isn’t nearly as much to blame, I wouldn’t think, than the content; otherwise, television would have killed it long ago (not to mention radio), traditionally blamed for loss of audience by the print media. To me, there seems to be room enough in the world, or even just Australia, for the continued viability, so perhaps subscriptions lagged because there wasn’t enough unique about what they offered, although it should be noted that the population here is small compared to a lot of other places, and the market is sustained on a very narrow basis.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
One of the categorical assertions you’ll inevitably encounter when objecting to the Iraq war is that “Bush never lied. You can’t prove it, so stop saying it.” While most of the candidates for President in opposition (now or then) to the war will avoid making the bald assertion that they were lied to, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and members of the administration did, in fact, lie, repeatedly, before and after the war, and now you can prove it. There’s even a search page. (Thanks, Metafilter.)

Island of Lost Souls
Human-Animal embryos? That’s just wrong. England, a pioneering country against animal cruelty and vivisection, is going down a seriously dangerous path here. What would H.G. Wells say?

What?
Laurie Anderson has a piece where she tells an anecdote about an elderly couple, driving across the country, whose car horn gets stuck somehow along the way. After some miles, the wife says, “It’s like the sound of far-away bees on a summer day.” To which her husband replies, “What?”

We’ll leave the story there, I think, despite 5 days in the company of my parents, and go on to mention the new hearing test service being offered in Australia, Telscreen, which allows anyone to ring in on a toll-free number to get a diagnosis. Given the Walkman revolution and prevalence of iPods (and, judging from the way people speak into their mobile phones, I’d put that technology on the list, too), I expect this isn’t a service for the elderly alone. I know I’ve got trouble in loud environments, but then I had an eardrum burst when I was young, and spent a lot of time at rock concerts (but have since bought a pair of Hearos for the upcoming Died Pretty concert), so I may wait to try it out for a little while yet. Nice idea, but.

Out for a Drive

For the Rupert fans. Can't say I've ever noticed an Annual at the newsagent's, or the cartoon on t.v., but somebody's a fan, I guess, although this ride is situated in the bleakest (and soon to shut) outlet shopping center in Sydney. Since some of the paint is worn away, I'd say it's more a case of purchasing steeply discounted merchandise.

Ballot Initiative
My primary ballot has gone out and should arrive in time to be counted for “Super Tuesday.” I was intrigued to see that not all the candidates were present, and that the convention delegates were “committed” to either Clinton or Obama, with none listed for Edwards, Richardson, Kucinich, or Biden. Not that I think any of the latter three have a chance, and it’s looking a lot like Edwards will soon be done, too. My guess is that the Republicans will come down to Romney and Huckabee, maybe Giuliani, but McCain, for all his popular appeal, might just as well head off with Thompson and Paul now. What happens at the conventions thereafter is still hard to prognosticate, although I’ll happily vote for either the first female President or the first African-American against whatever GOP candidate ends up taking the nomination. If I have to guess, I’ll say it’ll be Romney. Huckabee may not be a Mormon, but he’s still a nut, with a bad Presidential name (too much like a bad movie, too), and Giuliani, in addition to being a bully with nothing to say that isn’t belligerent, is far too bald (although thank God he’s stopped with the comb-over).

Plenty for Everybody
The Japanese “research” whaling program is a farce: it’s all about food, and probably a substantial amount of it is pet food. Well, pet’s have to eat, too, I suppose. Still, the arguments put forward by Minoru Morimoto, Japan’s commissioner to the IWC, are largely just an attempt to recast the argument, making out Australia as irrational and out-of-step with a substantial international community, who all, quite reasonably, kill and eat marine mammals, including whales. Do Australians eat much dolphin? No more than Canadians are stuffing themselves silly with seal burgers. But what’s really getting up Morimoto’s nose is Australia’s insistence on claiming a 200-mile area of prime whale breeding grounds off Antarctica, and the High Court’s decision that any whaling by Japan in that zone would be a crime, albeit a crime without any recourse to justice, as well as the successful chase by Greenpeace of the Japanese fleet (and now the outcry over the hostages).

If Japan was honest about their intentions, then we might really be able to make progress towards an end to commercial whaling. Instead, they play Simpsons-esque tobacco giant games to ensure a steady demand and to drum up support for their fleet and activities, while claiming it’s all about the science. “We now know more about . . . whale biology than at any time in history”, Morimoto says, and I’m sure that’s true, as far as it goes, but what did we learn this year different from last year or in the last ten years that’s actually helpful to anyone, let alone helpful to whales themselves? That they’re delicious deep-fried? I think someone already worked that out, besides which, there are many other things also delicious prepared that way.

We’ve got a positive result in the High Court, and maybe we can translate that into something bigger. Meanwhile, Japan’s behavior gets more intransigent.

5 Years
Rounding out the ex-pat experience, I made the trip back to the States, making sure to experience the full range of U.S. culture, including domestic air travel, as noted earlier (although that was only the half of it). Christmas in Buffalo with the Counsellor, who’s the one with the kids, which makes all the difference, included snow on the ground, until global warming caught up and melted it all the next day.

Travelling down to North Carolina included a stop-over in D.C. for some federal entertainment: training drug-sniffing dogs. Well, why not? My flight was already delayed, so another fifteen minutes to watch the enthusiastic puppies sniff the agents planted around the terminal and jetway couldn’t hurt. Not that they asked anyone if we’d mind.

NC itself was sere. They’re having a bit of a drought there right now, so added to winter, pretty much only the golf courses show much green. The weather was disappointing only insofar as I had hoped for cold throughout my visit, so as to store it up against my return to high summer. (The humidity here even in the air conditioned airport was like a smack in the face.) Mom & Dad didn’t make a scene of my prodigal return, but their friends did. A little. We also made the traditional visit to a cinema for New Year’s Eve, and I can recommend Enchanted. It was very entertaining. I don’t know much about Amy Adams, but she was very good.

From a number of perspectives, the highlight of the trip was California, visiting my brother the chef and his wife the jazz musician, very notably the culinary experience. T.’s career has been varied, and I’d heard he was doing take-out lunches as “some sushi bar,” but that’s such an inaccurate gloss.

Oco Time, in Ukiah, deserves to be central to anyone’s experience of Nor Cal. It’s hella good, as the expression goes. This isn’t just sushi, this is Japanese dining at it’s very best. While Australians visiting the West Coast are likely to stick to Los Angeles and San Francisco, Ukiah is redwood country, only three hours north of SF, and worth a trip just for dinner.

While I didn’t think it would be possible to exceed the Oco Time experience, we made the trip down to SF and hit The Slanted Door for Vietnamese food. That’s an inaccurate description, too. Calling this food simply “Vietnamese” pigeonholes it. It’s far more. While I’m sure SF is full of many wonderful restaurants, this one made me think I’ve either got to either move back to the States or import my brother to start something like it (or Oco Time) here. There must be restaurants like this in Sydney, and I’ve been to some that are close, but, well, wow.

As much fun as I had, and as pleasant as it is to travel on two passports (like Jason Bourne), the flights were gritty. I’ll do it all differently next time, probably in three years, when the Counsellor’s two youngest have their respective university and high school graduations, approximately, and with less hopping around, although the flight delays coming in helped me adjust from jet lag and leaving from California provided a relatively minimal return folded into coach. For now, if the weather clears, it’s time to get back some of the vitamin D I left in the northern hemisphere’s winter.

Blues Bros. Blues
Stuck in Chicago. United Airlines' incompetence leaving Sydney got me into SFO forty minutes late, which meant my luggage couldn't be rechecked. Which meant I couldn't board the plane either. So they put me up in the cheapest dive hotel as far from anything they could find, which I left at 5 a.m. for the connection, originally to D.C., but rebooked to Chicago. Which meant getting caught in the bad weather here. Now, if they'd just said at 7 that there wasn't going to be a shot, I'd have tried for Amtrak, but the just kept leading me on and on, until here I am in another hotel, but this time, mostly at my own expense. Never United again. Never Christmas, either, at least not if it means connecting through Chicago.

Security Jet Lag
As anyone who spends any time on the internet can tell you, airport security is a joke. X-raying carry-on luggage doesn’t help. Taking off our shoes doesn’t help. Confiscating 13 million disposable lighters doesn’t help. So why are we doing it? I’m about to board an international flight for the first time in five years. Most of the security restrictions we hear about have been implemented in that time. In addition to the twenty hours I’ll spend in the air just getting to my destination, add hours at the airport just for the initial boarding, and hours for the layovers. I still arrive the same day I leave, which is a nice bit of Einsteinian physics, but I used to be able to arrive before I left, whereas now it’ll take an extra eight hours. And I forgot to get those dried cherries.

There’s a Movie About This
Make that a lot of movies: Japanese government believes in UFO’s. No reports on Mechagodzilla, though.

Validation
Guinness really is good for you.

Apologies, but no Excuses
CNN and others can’t excuse Osama/Obama errors. They are inexcusable among people who claim to be professionals. Wolf Blitzer and every other idiot who makes this on-air error, as well as every technician in charge of composing the on-screen banners and tags and hearing-impaired transcriptions similarly serially screwing up, ought to be fired. They are incompetent and dangerously insulting.

Warming Up
Over in Bali, the latest round of climate-change talks have been getting essentially nowhere. It’s nice we’ve got an agreement to have more talks, in 2009, but really it’s no more than agreements-in-principle. Still, I’m happy enough that Australia has pulled its head out and signed on to reduce its emissions. But the best moment has to have been when the U.S. delegation got called on its continued intransigence: “Lead or get out of the way!” Maybe an email campaign directly to Bush on this and other issues?

Look for Me at the Duty Free
The problem I have with the various no-carry-on rules is that the airlines can now steal from their passengers. Swiss Army knife? Now it’s theirs. Litre of vodka? Well, there’s a way around that, if you don’t mind a little alcohol poisoning.

Yes, he had the liquor with him prior to the security screening, so he was, essentially, forewarned that liquids in excess of a set quantity were prohibited. Still, if they’re not going to make provision to return your personal items to you either at the other end of your flight or when you get back, how is it not stealing to confiscate whatever material they happen to find objectionable? I actually am a little concerned about this, since I fully expect to make use of my duty free allowance to bring in some nice whiskey on my trip to the States, but don’t know if (a) purchases made post-security can be carried on during the second, State-side leg of my trip, or if (b) the duty-free shop will be open at my terminus terminal. If (a) isn’t going to be allowed, how can legally purchased material be confiscated?

R.U.R. Update
There’s my robot. My God, it even pours for you. Reminds me of someone (and not the obvious someone, either).

Advances Australia
There are a panoply of Australian inventions that we can point to with great pride, chief among them the cochlear implant, Australian Rules Football, and Tim Tams. And now, a wash-and-wear wool suit.

The Eye of the Beholder
If a bad self-image is a brain glitch, what about when someone really is ugly?

Fantasy and Reality
I heard a lot about the Philip Pullman trilogy, mainly via the internet-as-word-of-mouth, and at the height of the Harry Potter phenomena. They were often touted as a kind of next-Narnia, both for their controversial theological content and for their alternative universe settings. My sister, something of a connoisseur of the fantasy genre, didn’t seem overly impressed with them, and I had no particular interest myself, although, eventually, I did get around to reading them. Well, the first one, anyway. It wasn’t until the middle of this year that I finally read the other two volumes. The first, which is soon to be released in the cinemas, The Golden Compass, put me off with its “daemons” and “steampunk” technology and mannered dialog. But I’m something of a completist, and couldn’t leave it alone. The second volume, The Subtle Knife was better, but not by much, but it’s the third, climactic book, The Amber Spyglass, where all the present controversy should really be focussed. All the hoopla is really pretty much just anticipatory. Pullman is stabbing viciously at the heart of organized religion, European, Christian religion, and how it’s poisoned our lives, particularly as children and how children are raised, and he’s got a point. The concept of “original sin” is pretty pernicious, and I can’t say that child baptism strikes me as anything more than a medieval hold-over from the days of much higher infant mortality and an organisational, cultic perspective on building up the believer base. The books, and, I’m sure, the movies – and it seems pretty certain the other two will have their time and ticket sales – will mute some of this, focussing instead, as much as possible, on the fantasy and adventure elements. I expect the armored polar bear fights to be pretty cool, and the flights of witches, etc., etc., but the books, the movies, are no Last Temptation or Passion, let alone “Piss Christ” or any of the other usual pop culture stuff that gets up the noses of believers. At least no one will go to jail or be beaten or threatened with death, no matter how ugly the rhetoric gets.

Moving
Don’t you love (un)natural phenomena? The sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa (via Kottke.org) are explained as the result of strong winds, maybe, but I think I saw something about this on ”The Outer Limits”, when I was a kid: they’re alive, and if they ever get out of the desert, they’ll take over the world. Where’s a scientist with a steel plate in his head when you need one? Or one with a video camera and some weather station equipment.

No Pets
For those without, cybercat. Not quite the same, is it?

(via Metafilter, of course.)

R.U.R
Across from the office, the ASIMO show is being set up. For the last three days, workers have been slowly assembling the tent where Honda’s robot will dance around for the delight of school children impressed by such things. I’m more impressed by the vacuum cleaner robot, but I don’t know a lot about what ASIMO does these days. Runs, I hear. Bet he can’t build a car. Well, it’s bad enough robots are taking over factory jobs, but they’re infiltrating aged care, too. Actually, that’s pretty impressive. I mean, tomato sauce and toast, not so much, but maybe he’d bring me a beer.

Frankenfood Lurches Closer
NSW will allow farmers to grow genetically modified canola crops, a decision that’s sure to stir up controversy, even if mainly from other states not yet on the GM bandwagon. Segregation of GM and non-GM crops sounds good, but is unlikely to achieve anything. Cross-pollination is a near certainty, which I’m sure will help Monsanto out no end. While I’m sure there’s nothing in the plants that would be harmful to humans, and genetic modification is only a high-tech method of selective breeding, I still have questions and don’t trust politicians to ask the right ones themselves. Using the genetic material of a disease-resistant soy bean to produce a likewise resistant corn makes me wonder what other, unidentified characteristics might be transmitted at the same time? Soy bean to soy bean breeding programs differ in that they’re not transgenic. So what’s being done with the canola? How many generations of regrowth have been studied? What nutritional implications are there?

I’m still waiting for my heirloom tomatoes to start producing, but it’s starting to look like I need a bigger garden.

We’ll All Be Rooned!
Well, interest rates haven’t gone up yet, so I guess we’re still waiting for the new world order to kick in, with labour union thugs fronting up at the local fish ‘n’ chips shop or dry cleaner’s to demand small business owners hire drug addicts and dole bludgers. . . .

Yea! Kevin Rudd is the new PM, and not only did Saturday night see the first Labor government in 11 years, but it saw the sitting PM lose his own seat, the first time since 1929. And Sunday saw Howard’s heir apparent, Peter Costello, resign his portfolio, consigning himself to the back bench and political obscurity for the remainder of his career. (I always thought he was a chicken – no bottle to mount a challenge, and now he can’t even take up leadership for three years in opposition; I guess it’s one thing to respond in question time with jeers, sneers, and smears and another thing to have to come up with the questions.) This puts Malcolm Turnbull in an excellent position to position himself to lead the Liberals back into government in three (or six, or more?) years, although he hasn’t had the party support previously. Downer and Abbott, the other potential contenders, seem too demoralized at the moment, and probably aren’t viable, anyway. Downer’s a pathetic joke of a fop, and Abbott’s role as attack dog just makes his viciousness obvious to everyone.

Labor has given us Australia’s first female deputy PM, Julia Gillard, and promises to tackle all the things Howard ignored throughout his reign. Climate change is on the agenda, for one, and we can expect to see an honest effort at reconciliation, too. Will Rudd say “sorry” right away? Probably not, but it’d be pretty cool if he did.

The Terrorist Tattoo
The gym I go to is out in the western suburbs, in Parramatta, and it’s attended largely by men of Middle Eastern heritage. Like most men in gyms, they’re there to work with the weights. Body-building as body beautiful. There’s one guy, big, muscled, sculpted, who weaves through the place exuding threat, a tough guy. Body-building as weapons deployment. I was, however, taken aback one day to notice he had “al qaeda” tattooed down one arm, in English, no less, using gothic script, even. Obviously, he is not displaying affiliation, membership, just sending a message, a message of intimidation, anger, hate. Arabic characters would say one thing about him, Roman lettering says another.

He’s a serious creep, and an idiot.

So what’s with Martin Amis? Christopher Hitchens splits hairs and counts angels to form a defense, and generally practices the typical denial tactics of the committedly anti-Muslim. (“In which known world” do antiwar protesters become al Qaeda sympathizers? I hear about it quite regularly. Perhaps Mr. Hitchens needs to read more broadly or get out more often.)

We need to be able to talk about and to each other. To take Hitchens’ point about discrimination, we need to be able to distinguish between the good and the bad without being misunderstood. This is where Amis’ remarks and subsequent clarifications have failed and where the defense from Ian McEwan and Hitchens also fails. They attempt the fine distinctions but disingenuously, obscuring Amis’ failure to discriminate and communicate in a manner that progresses the debate instead of allowing it to continue to degenerate into polarization and police-state bedwetting.

I’m not about to ask “al qaeda” boy at the gym out for a coffee to discuss the matter. He’s too clearly on the muscle; I’m too much a soft old fat white man to get away with it, and I’d likely end up with a broken nose for my effort. But in the public debate, I have to be able to say Muslims are killing others in terrorist actions and it has to stop. It’s not every Muslim, and stopping every person of “Middle Eastern appearance” or disallowing women to go veiled isn’t going to help anything. I’m not intimidated by the burqa or hijab any more than I am by sidecurls and yarmulkes or little gold crosses on a necklace. I also don’t want to have to be on the lookout for unattended baggage or to be forced to take my shoes off at the airport or disallowed from carrying toothpaste in my carry-on luggage. I do blame Muslims for this – the ones who want to blow me up, anyway, equally with the hysterical politicians whose do-nothing approach these last six years have left us all so vulnerable and debased the conversation we have to have.

“al Qaeda.” What a moron.

King for a Day
One more day, anyway.

John Howard tries on new glasses.
(Image lifted from ABC News, AAP Paul Miller)

”Alla Akba”
Not only is retiring Liberal Senator Jackie Kelly’s husband a creep, a bigot, and a plain idiot, so is she. "Pretty much everyone who's read [the fake flyer] chuckles." Sorry, you fool, but we’re laughing at you, not with you.

The handbill, purporting to be from a (non-existent) Islamic radical group supporting Labor for the federal election, is full of the kind of divisive, rate-hate inciting rhetoric typical of the most egregiously red-necked Liberal supporters. Calling it a drunken prank isn’t going to excuse it for any but the most recalictrantly stupid of the same group, ignoring as it does the effort required to compose, print and distribute it, let alone the sheer hatefulness of it conception.

Are senior Liberal Party members truly involved? I sincerely hope not, but this kind of political dirty trick should not be excused by anyone, including Jackie Kelly, and has no place in a supposedly modern country.

Interest
I understand that all party advertising is to have stopped by midnight yesterday, although I don’t know if that includes, for example, union ads advocating ALP positions, but I’m looking forward to never having to hear the awful, negative, vitriolic ads – generated from either side – that have been bombarding me with increasing force and frequency, but particularly the Liberal ads, which, when they focus on the Labor leadership, pretty much just recycle the campaign attacks from 2004 – interest rates and “learner” leaders.

Interest rates have increased six times since the last election, when the Coalition ran on the promise that rates would “always be lower than under a Labor government,” a meaningless promise, if only because the independent Federal Reserve sets the rates, let alone that the Labor government was purely hypothetical.

And while all governments can be – and have been, including Howard himself – tarred with the “learner” brush, that doesn’t mean there’s any substance to the accusation. In fact, under the parliamentary system, the opposition establishes a “shadow” government, developing alternative policies, as necessary, albeit without the full public service resources of the government proper, and debating policy and proposing legislation (insofar as it’s possible – Howard’s double majority, in the House and Senate, has precluded the possibility of any but Coalition-initiated acts moving through).

So while the remaining Liberal ads have been about union “thugs” taking over every small business in the country by force (entertaining little fictions) and the Labor ads have focussed on the lack of future-minded policies from the Liberals (other than the [potentially “non-core”] promise that Howard will retire and crown his successor, voters with serious intentions will already have been focussed on whatever substantive material has been available. Most of that has come from the ALP.

The Liberals have relied on the message, “hey, it’s us; we’re just going to go on like this forever.” This ignores so many important longer-term areas of concern, not least among them climate change, which the Coalition has ignored for the last 11 years, and the eventual need for the economy to end its reliance on the resources boom. Making industrial relations unfair to workers doesn’t position the economy into flexibility, but entrenches businesses while allowing employee exploitation. Labor has offered more in both areas and with an awareness that these are not matters for merely the next three years, but the next thirty.

Howard’s reign has been all about power, a lesson he learned from childhood: the top is only the top if you can keep everyone else beneath you. This is what he has done with his colleagues, first among them his perpetual heir-in-waiting, Peter Costello, and with the Australian public, who have allowed their own interests to dominate their lives and re-elected him to see to the preservation of a increasingly tenuous status quo. I think enough of us have finally seen through that self-interested veil to Howard’s real motivations and will, like me, vote Labor on Saturday.

Surge Protection
So it seems the troop escalation is starting to have an effect, in Baghdad, at least, although many questions remain, and will do so, for some time to come. What is the true source of the reduction in violence? Is this because the number of troops increased, or is it the result of Iran backing off, perhaps hoping to take some of the international heat off so they can keep working on their uranium enrichment program (which seems to be headed in a new direction as well, with Iran potentially outsourcing the process)? Are the Iraqi troops managing a front line role more now? What about the rest of the country? When the British pulled out of Basra, didn’t the violence there go down, too, in which case, how can troop increases have the same result as decreases? And to say that the number of bombings or the number of other attacks or the number of persons killed is at the lowest level since 2005, 2006, etc., doesn’t itself seem to mean very much if the attacks, bombs, murders continue, does it? I want to believe progress is being made, but it’s hard to know for sure what’s happening, or how long it will last.

More Like a Rodeo Clown
So-called “maverick” Senator, Barnaby Joyce, says he won’t try to stop a Rudd government from ending WorkChoices. But Joyce says a lot of stuff and is rarely to be counted on for follow-through. His maverick status comes only at the price of having a big mouth, so there’s no reason to trust him on this one.

This Is Why I’m Voting Labor
Howard’s just locked in my vote for the opposition, with his assertion that a Coalition win would ensure WorkChoices would be enshrined forever in Australian law, which I knew already, of course. This retrograde law, designed mainly with the intention of destroying unions and all other forms of collective relief, as well as to reduce protections from unfair dismissal, has already damaged employer-employee relations, and must be rescinded as soon as possible. This can only happen with a Labor win. Go Rudd!

Call It “The Clinton Factor”
After Bill played sax on MTV, the need for [leadership] candidates to appear on pop talk shows was established, and this requirement has spread to Australia, where opposition leader and current Prime Ministerial favorite, Kevin Rudd did his duty on Rove Live last night. Now, Rove is entertaining, more or less, but his show’s interviews are often the weakest part, consisting largely of product-placement, a difficult trick for someone not having a CD or concert tour to promote. Rudd came off o.k., a bit stiff, and there was a moment of hysterical panic over the ear wax incident (you don’t want to know). He managed a couple of fair one-liners, didn’t get out anything substantive, and basically weathered the experience. The biggest selling point the segment accomplished was that John Howard declined to accept Rove’s invitation (fair enough, he’s a sitting PM, and Rove mocks him mercilessly). And so we go into the final week, with Labor polling to take 2 more seats than the 16 they need to swing to form a government, including the PM’s and that of potential Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull. For all the lack of storm or substance in this campaign, it’s turning out to be nearly interesting.

Dead Pool: Literary Edition
1. Norman Mailer
2. Ira Levin
3. ? (Maybe Philip Roth should be careful crossing the street? Or Judith Krantz?

Visionary
Similar services are available in the States, but after my last pair of glasses cost something like AU$400, with very little rebate from my private cover, when I heard about Glasses Online, I had to try it out. Admittedly, picking a frame style isn't quite the same as trying on frame after frame in a shop, and, upon arrival, I was surprised at the narrow depth, but the prescription's right, the look's good (enough; it's not like I'm particularly vain), and the price was easily half what I'd pay in an optometrist. I'll submit the invoice to my private cover provider and see what comes back (because I also bought - in a shop - some new sunnies, I don't expect anything, or much, anyway). Overall, this is a highly satisfactory consumer experience.

Crimeyness
According to the latest information from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, I’m living in one of the most across-the-board safe neighborhoods in the city. It’s a little peculiar, however, that the local government area in the study ends at the western border of my suburb, when Camperdown is not part of the same council district as most of the rest of those in the study, but instead in Marrickville Council. So I’m left to wonder what the rest of my true LGA would look like, and therefore what suburbs are worth considering for a home purchase (not that that’s the only consideration, or even the primary, given the recent spate of interest rate rises and those likely to come over the next few months, particularly once – if – Labor takes the federal election). It should be noted that many of the southern suburbs are less than felicitous, because that’s where the airport is. I already feel like I’m back in Queens, living in the LaGuardia flight path.

Advances in Science
Via Arts & Letters Daily, an analysis of paranormal phenomena that disproves the existence of ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Except that the two physicists have failed to do so, due to having incompletely understood the governing “rules.” Ghosts, for example, can walk up stairs because they’re not walking. They’re floating. They appear to walk because the ghost, as a being trapped in the physical plane by their inability to accept their transition to the spiritual realm, emulate their own past behaviors. Vampires would not overrun the earth, or haven’t already, because the assumption here, that being bitten by a vampire creates a vampire, subtracting a human, is incorrect. Vampires are created when humans consume the blood of a vampire and then die, whether from being “drained” by the vampire or otherwise. Not all victims so partake, so the vampire population is not exponentially increased, neither is the human population exponentially decreased. Zombies of the “28 Days Later” or “Night/Dawn/Day of the [Living] Dead” variety are not the same as traditional zombies, per the discussion of the case in Haiti. Modern movie zombies are more akin to vampires, and, as per that discussion, don’t exist, because their bite, or body fluid transmission, invariably infects the victim, and would therefore cause an exponential population dominance transfer, as depicted in the example movies. However, traditional zombies may yet be considered as possible, since these are brain-damaged persons, whether by the malicious infliction of drugs or by disease, who fall into the control of unscrupulous persons, who treat them as slaves or as agents of terror.

I mean, really, if you watch the movies, the rules aren’t that hard to figure out, and the traditional explanations are pretty clear after all this time. Scientists, go figure.

Viral
Yeah, I set up a Facebook page, and had a bit of fun with it, but it’s pretty boring, now, so I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on it, building “networks” – i.e., joining groups – or adding applications – i.e., on-line toys and games.

It was probably in the cards before Microsoft’s buy-in, but Facebook is expanding its advertising capabilities. You’ve heard of “viral” marketing, the kind of advertising that spreads by word of mouth without necessarily acknowledging that an ad. The Carlton beer “big” ad was one, and even that Rube Goldberg car ad, which I think was Honda’s. More applicable to Facebook’s move, however, is the still largely underground practice of having people attend trendy nightspots and events who then take every opportunity to chat up strangers with how much they like product x. Facebook, similarly, will “allow” users to identify as fans of a product. Advertisers will pay to create groups, and users will join them. Advertisers can pay more and have actual advertising content appear on users’ pages.

This is all very good for Facebook, whose revenues – and profits – are sure to increase, perhaps even dramatically. There are plenty of people out there who really are fans of particular products, and they’re pretty certain to sign on to display their preferences on Facebook. It increases their own profile, after all, and these social networking sites are all about the friends list. But users won’t benefit, as the program’s structured presently, in any monetary sense, that is, they won’t get paid for advertising products on “their” pages. Fair enough, I suppose. The pages really belong to Facebook, not the users. But Google’s Adsense program, where Google puts ads on your blog or website, regardless of whether you’re paying for the site or not, pays for “hits” and pays more if those hits translate into sales. This seems a bit more fair to me, but then I’m not likely to sign up as a fan (or tool) or anyone’s anytime soon.

Are the Favorites Sneezy & Wheezy?
Poor critters, hardly time enough to recover from the flu, and it's The Race that Stops a Nation, this year "marred" by scratches among the top contenders.

Cinema
Well, movies, anyway. . . . M. and I went to Death at a Funeral on Saturday. It’s a pretty typical British farce, with a simple, limited set of jokes stretched nearly to their limit, a few big but obvious gags, all performed by a serviceable cast, some of whom are vaguely familiar, but probably only better known to a U.K. audience (which is not a criticism, since it helps, as far as I’m concerned, when movies are not overly beset by Stars). Fun, but, really, we should have gone to see Ratatouille. (Or Day Watch, but I haven’t seen Night Watch yet.)

Changes
The election campaign is going strong, with announcements seemingly every day from every side. The Liberals promise one thing, Labor promises the same thing, the Democrats or Greens promise something else. Labor promises something, the Liberals promise the same thing, and the Democrats or Greens promise something entirely different. Mostly what it amounts to is promises of billions and billions of dollars spent on things that the present government, over the last 11 years, hadn’t been spending on, but with the Reserve Bank tipped to raise interest rates yet again tomorrow, you’ve got to wonder about the economic credentials of any of these people. The Liberals have managed the government mainly by not spending up big, except at elections or on advertising for policies the public generally despise, so hearing that Labor is going to spend similarly would seem to be one of the big influencers in the Reserve Bank’s decision-making process.

Meanwhile, at least there’s some entertainment to be had. Over the weekend, we had Peter Garrett making an ill-advised joke to one reporter in front of another, the latter of whom, a notorious shock-jock (whose wife is a Liberal Party staffer), duly reported the remark as a serious statement regarding all Labor’s policy announcements. Way to shoot your boss in the foot, Pete.

Previously, however, we had the always entertaining Tony Abbott turning up late for his own debate, by half an hour, without so much as a phone call to warn the National Press Club, let alone his Labor opponent. When called on his bad behavior, Tone had the class to swear at his interlocutor. Lovely guy. And all this on the heals of questioning the motivations of an asbestiosis sufferer regarding his campaign to get necessary drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Classy.

Three weeks to go.

Weather Wars
John Howard is a known climate change sceptic, but is promising AU$75 million for the development of renewable energy technology. Meanwhile, Kevin Rudd, who says he’ll sign on to Kyoto if Labor takes government in November, is promising AU$489 million for solar panels in schools, at AU$20,000 per school. I’d kind of like to see the numbers switched. Even if we take the number of schools as 24,450 (489 million divided by 20,000), AU$75 million would provide just over AU$3,000 per school. If this was added to the existing rebate scheme, it would make up about half the cost of a fairly large installation. O.k., not really enough, but I’ll bet selling a few candy bars would make up the rest. Around where I work, it seems like they’re always on sale.

How’d I Miss This?
Wait, she’s Judy Giuliani? It’s Rudy-and-Judy? And he’s still the GOP front-runner? That won’t last.

You Throw Like a Girl
And now, for just $25, you can prove it. (Via Josh Rubin’s Cool Hunting.) But do not whack it with your personalized Louisville Slugger.

Spending Money
Child care is a contentious issue here. It’s expensive and there aren’t many providers or places. Labor is offering to increase the child care tax rebate from 30% to 50% and to pay it quarterly instead of annually. The fear, naturally enough, is that this will only increase the cost. It might, too. But it might also mean that there’s more money to be made by opening more child care centers, increasing staff. Most businesses will expand to meet demand, so long as it’s reasonable to expect the increased revenue to also increase profit. If Labor gets in and enacts this change, and I was running a chain of child care centers, I’d already be looking at where else I could open. In fact, if I was a private education provider, I'd think about expanding my client base.

From the Homeland
The Opera House was full up for Laurie Anderson last night, and she put on a good show. The material was often political, but with her characteristic wry humor. The verse about Al Gore, pretty clearly expanded to take recent events into consideration, got a good laugh, but I got the distinct impression that the song about snow wasn’t a grabber for most of the audience (perhaps because it’s already so hot here). Anyway, unlike the last few of her performances I’ve seen, she had additional musicians on stage – keyboards, viola, bass guitar – and focussed more on songs than stories, and only using “the voice” once. Definitely a lot of fun, but all the better because, for an encore, and in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of her debut album, Big Science, she did “Let x = x” (which happens to be my favorite from the record).

Tax Reform
On the face of it, with just an outline in the news, Labor’s tax plan doesn’t sound bad at all. One particular element of the announcement stood out to me, the idea that we need to build national prosperity beyond the resources boom presently carrying the economy. This is something I haven’t heard from John Howard, although I’ve been able to glibly argue it as his intention in the WorkChoices legislation. I’d like to know what the thresholds are for the three rates proposed, and I’d also like to know what Mr. Rudd’s got planned if “national and international economic circumstances” change. It has to go through the PM to the treasury for costing – although I’d expect Labor to have done that themselves already – but it’s a start, and might allow Labor to regain some of the momentum they appear to have lost (in just the first 5 days of the campaign).

No Room at the Inn
World Youth Day, the Roman Catholic jamboree, is in danger of not finding a home in Sydney. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Randwick Racecourse was deemed the appropriate venue for the event. They’re expecting hundreds of thousands of teenagers from around the world, which would exceed even the capacity of Telstra Stadium, out at the Olympic Park. I’ve seen the racecourse, and no way is it going to outdo the stadium. (Of course, with the Rugby and AFL matches there, it might just be a matter of conflicting dates, but maybe the Pope’s a fan?) Is the Darling Harbour Convention Centre booked out? It would be just as convenient as Randwick, and there are plenty of backpacker dorms in the area. “Don’t scare the horses” seems a pretty lame excuse, and so’s the problem with the trainers. What, they sleep in the stable, too? It’s about money, who wants it, who’s going to spend it. The NSW government wants all those RC tourists spending it, to offset it’s own AU$20 million outlay, but no way can Randwick charge admission, and I guess the Cardinal figures he’s laying out enough already.

(Meanwhile, fun reading out of Hansard, especially toward the end, from about when the WYD logo is discussed.)

Cane Toad Redux
Imported species of plants and animals have a habit of getting out of control. So when you’ve got lantana spreading like kudzu, what do you do? Issue a 457 visa for a South American fly? (As if there weren’t enough flies in Australia.) How does that song go?

More with Less
Mario Batali says more pasta, less sauce; and Mark Bittman, of the NY Times, says more sauce, less pasta. I says it’s really only going to work Batali’s way if you’re using fresh pasta. The dry stuff’s never going to hold up without plenty of sauce, so most of us should follow Bittman’s advice.

November 24
It’s on, and if you’re not enrolled yet, you’ve only got until Wednesday, due to the rules changes recently passed.

I kind of thought Howard might have pushed for a later date, but 24/11 has been tipped for a while now, and it was only the Man of Steal (oops, “Steel”) playing games that left it so uncertain so long. Picking up the Sunday paper to see he’d flown down to Canberra might only have meant he was going early for the recall of Parliament, instead of meeting with the Governor General for its dissolution, although the headlines made it quite clear what to expect by lunchtime.

Since the campaign’s been underway for some weeks already, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next. How negative will it be? The Liberal party brochure is surprisingly full of stabs at Labor, rather than focussing on the accomplishments of the Coalition and outlining policy for a return to government. But the technical issues are just as interesting to me, as a new(ish) voter. After all, despite the polling on “preferred Prime Minister,” when we vote, we mark the ballot for the preferred party.

I reckon Howard’s in real trouble. The Coalition may retain government, but Howard’s own seat is imperilled. And the polling is substantially in favor of Labor overall.

Making Nice
But still not saying “sorry.” That’s our PM. On the plus side, a referendum on reconciliation is a good thing, although long past due, but why now? Of course it’s the election. Howard’s been in power 11 years, and could have done this at any time. Although he’s continuing to stonewall on calling the election, claiming that the Liberals are busy governing, this is only something he’ll do if he’s re-elected. He could put it to a vote next week, when (if) Parliament is recalled. There’s plenty of time before he has to name a date for the referendum to be drafted and voted on, so this is a stunt, meant to deflect attention from the failures of the Northern Territory intervention and the fact that the government really doesn’t have anything to run on worth voting them back in.

Mind Games
Weird. Initially, the dancer spun counter-clockwise, but, as the article points out, you can switch it with a little concentration, so I got my right hemisphere engaged - somehow. Oddly, when I began the keystrokes to copy the URL for this post, the spin reversed, presumably because my right-brain kicked back in to accomplish this task. Don't you love science?

Caught on Camera
There’s a fair bit of whinging in the popular (read: Murdoch) press about speed cameras in NSW, the latest of which is about how the government’s “robbing” tollway motorists to the tune of $10 million, over and above the $41 million for other speed traps and $200 million in tolls. It’s fairly hilarious to hear the complaining, regardless of whether the money is earmarked for road safety programs or just going into the general budget. “Blatant revenue-raising” is the charge made by the Opposition leader. The focus of this particular article on the revenue from toll roads implies that paying a toll entitles drivers to violate speed limits, but when 15,000 fines are issued in a six-month period for a single stretch of tunnel, you can see there’s a problem. Sydney drivers are very aggressive, but beyond what’s already being done, there’s little the government can do to alleviate the problem. Drivers garner demerits and have their licenses suspended eventually, even revoked, and still they speed, run lights, tear through pedestrian crossings. I’m very happy with the cameras. I’d like more. If you don’t, well, don’t speed.

Structural Investigations
What fun pets are. Over the weekend I ended up with Police Rescue attending my home, extracting Felix from the crawlspace under the house. In the end, I suppose I could have managed it myself, but it would have had to wait for me to buy a couple of new tools at the hardware store, leaving poor pussy down the well overnight. As it was, his plaintive, but-I'm-hungry meowing was more than I could stand. I'll get the tools anyway, because I have no idea where he gained access, so he's pretty sure to get stuck down there again.

I did get a fairly good look at the underlying structure of the row of terrace houses; there's a lot more room under there than I would have thought. Basically, it seems that if you can get in under one, you can get in under the whole row. Nice, if you want to attempt underground burglery, although ultimately access would depend on the renovations to the interior that may have been conducted and whether there's any furniture in the way. I've got a thousand-pound t.v. in front of the access panel under the stairs (or that's what it felt like moving it around), so I feel pretty safe.

The cops were very nice about it, probably because it was an operation that didn't involve blood or trauma, and, after all, he's a very handsome cat.