Hot
Up to 42 degrees today (that's 107 for you podeans). Just thinking breaks a sweat. Where's a southerly when you need it?
Oh, and because metropolitan Sydney doesn't experience freezes, older buildings often have a substantial amount of their infrastucure on the outside, e.g., water pipes, which means that on days like today, a hot shower doesn't much require a water heater.
30 January 2011
Academia
The Social Network seems bound to do well at the Oscars. Even now it's still in cinemas, if just one show per day. But even more, it's just one remarkable movie. It's arc, which the construction plays with constantly, is remarkable, if because it so well encapsulates the nature of the central character's personality, even while it also provides a framework for understanding the "internet 2.0" and just what this thing, that nobody even knows what it is yet, as is so often said in the course of the film, is. Facebook, God help us all, is the internet now, and The Social Network really is the best movie of 2010, that I've seen, anyway. I think when I get to the early 2011 crop I can expect some remarkable cinema, but still within the conventional boundaries. I'm looking forward to Black Swan and True Grit particularly, but they'll just be movies. The Social Network is an anatomy course.
The Social Network seems bound to do well at the Oscars. Even now it's still in cinemas, if just one show per day. But even more, it's just one remarkable movie. It's arc, which the construction plays with constantly, is remarkable, if because it so well encapsulates the nature of the central character's personality, even while it also provides a framework for understanding the "internet 2.0" and just what this thing, that nobody even knows what it is yet, as is so often said in the course of the film, is. Facebook, God help us all, is the internet now, and The Social Network really is the best movie of 2010, that I've seen, anyway. I think when I get to the early 2011 crop I can expect some remarkable cinema, but still within the conventional boundaries. I'm looking forward to Black Swan and True Grit particularly, but they'll just be movies. The Social Network is an anatomy course.
27 January 2011
Unhelpful
The rhetoric, if you can call it that, employed by Shadow Finance Minister and Liberal blowhard Joe Hockey is unhelpful to the debate, even though it’s already over. We’re going to have a temporary increase in the Medicare levy to pay for the reconstruction of Queensland, “dumb”, “stupid”, or not. I take the point of Warwick McKibben that a tax increase puts pressure on the public just when we’ve been holding off an economic crisis, but notice that the good professor’s reasoning points to the idea that deficits are not in themselves bad, but that sticking to artificial deadlines and targets may be. Where the Liberal Party line is that Labor is fiscally irresponsible for its deficit spending, economic reasoning tells us quite plainly otherwise.
I will not object to the levy. Insurance won’t and can’t pay for everything. I expect the government to make cuts where it can and should already, but I’m happy to pick up a fair share. I may reduce my charitable giving, however, since the government’s going to pick up the slack for me.
The rhetoric, if you can call it that, employed by Shadow Finance Minister and Liberal blowhard Joe Hockey is unhelpful to the debate, even though it’s already over. We’re going to have a temporary increase in the Medicare levy to pay for the reconstruction of Queensland, “dumb”, “stupid”, or not. I take the point of Warwick McKibben that a tax increase puts pressure on the public just when we’ve been holding off an economic crisis, but notice that the good professor’s reasoning points to the idea that deficits are not in themselves bad, but that sticking to artificial deadlines and targets may be. Where the Liberal Party line is that Labor is fiscally irresponsible for its deficit spending, economic reasoning tells us quite plainly otherwise.
I will not object to the levy. Insurance won’t and can’t pay for everything. I expect the government to make cuts where it can and should already, but I’m happy to pick up a fair share. I may reduce my charitable giving, however, since the government’s going to pick up the slack for me.
26 January 2011
Festival!
I haven't done much of the Sydney Festival this year, my overseas trip having cut into much of the time it runs, particularly for any of the events that seemed of interest, but I headed down to the Opera House for Australia Day, and it was a madhouse, even out on the water, with more boats than you'd think could navigate through even Sydney Harbour's great expanse.
The Opera House itself is, as always, a draw, too.
But I was there for the Architects of Air show, Mirazozo. This is a kind of jumping castle for adults, would be one way to describe it. A variably-shaped inflatable set of domes and pathways, with patterned opaque and translucent panels, creating a lightscape environment experience. New-agey music piped in, but not too intrusive, and not too many people at a time wandering through. I'm really enjoying these new light-art installations.
The outside gives little sense of what the inside will be, although you may get a sense of the crowds down at Circular Quay for the holiday.
The interior was psychedelic, man.
I haven't done much of the Sydney Festival this year, my overseas trip having cut into much of the time it runs, particularly for any of the events that seemed of interest, but I headed down to the Opera House for Australia Day, and it was a madhouse, even out on the water, with more boats than you'd think could navigate through even Sydney Harbour's great expanse.
The Opera House itself is, as always, a draw, too.
But I was there for the Architects of Air show, Mirazozo. This is a kind of jumping castle for adults, would be one way to describe it. A variably-shaped inflatable set of domes and pathways, with patterned opaque and translucent panels, creating a lightscape environment experience. New-agey music piped in, but not too intrusive, and not too many people at a time wandering through. I'm really enjoying these new light-art installations.
The outside gives little sense of what the inside will be, although you may get a sense of the crowds down at Circular Quay for the holiday.
The interior was psychedelic, man.
25 January 2011
Payment Summary
The Queensland floods are a big disaster, and paying to put things right is going to cost a bundle, and it's going to cost each of us individually, most likely. So when Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey says he objects to a special levy, I wonder: would he still object if the state was held by a Liberal government? Anna Bligh, Labor Premier of Queensland, is enjoying increased popularity and approval as a result of how she's handled the situation. The Liberals aren't likely to see themselves in government there any time soon, not like in New South Wales, where a decade or more of near-as corruption and outright ineptitude have Labor on the nose quite distinctly, imperilling their prospects to the point that no one expects them back at the next election (coming soon to a polling place near you).
Although Hockey's alternative proposal, cutting spending, has the support of financial analysts, his motivation I think stinks. This is about killing the National Broadband Network program at the behest of Tony Abbott and trying to smear Labor as fiscally irresponsible.
The problem is that the NBN is good for Australia. In the short term there are jobs and in the long term there's modern high-speed internet, now an essential element of doing business, and something that the old copper wires just don't handle particularly well, especially in more remote communities where such infrastructure can be light. And for Queensland, the reconstruction effort provides a golden opportunity to start laying in the fibre optics. We need to fix those lines anyway, let's use the good stuff.
Spending cuts can be made elsewhere. There is sure to be some fat in Defense, for example. Some delays on the JSF program, a dog to begin with, wouldn't hurt.
And if I pay another .5 percent for this year, I don't mind. Just be careful with the bookkeeping, please.
The Queensland floods are a big disaster, and paying to put things right is going to cost a bundle, and it's going to cost each of us individually, most likely. So when Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey says he objects to a special levy, I wonder: would he still object if the state was held by a Liberal government? Anna Bligh, Labor Premier of Queensland, is enjoying increased popularity and approval as a result of how she's handled the situation. The Liberals aren't likely to see themselves in government there any time soon, not like in New South Wales, where a decade or more of near-as corruption and outright ineptitude have Labor on the nose quite distinctly, imperilling their prospects to the point that no one expects them back at the next election (coming soon to a polling place near you).
Although Hockey's alternative proposal, cutting spending, has the support of financial analysts, his motivation I think stinks. This is about killing the National Broadband Network program at the behest of Tony Abbott and trying to smear Labor as fiscally irresponsible.
The problem is that the NBN is good for Australia. In the short term there are jobs and in the long term there's modern high-speed internet, now an essential element of doing business, and something that the old copper wires just don't handle particularly well, especially in more remote communities where such infrastructure can be light. And for Queensland, the reconstruction effort provides a golden opportunity to start laying in the fibre optics. We need to fix those lines anyway, let's use the good stuff.
Spending cuts can be made elsewhere. There is sure to be some fat in Defense, for example. Some delays on the JSF program, a dog to begin with, wouldn't hurt.
And if I pay another .5 percent for this year, I don't mind. Just be careful with the bookkeeping, please.
24 January 2011
Binational
It's tough being a citizen of two countries sometimes. This year's US State of the Union address is scheduled for 25 January at 9 p.m., which turns out to be 26 January at 1 p.m., just when I'm scheduled to be participating in some Australia Day events. Given that my main interest in the SOTU is to see whether the new Republican House majority will engage in heckling, perhaps I'm better off catching up on YouTube or some such afterwards.
It's tough being a citizen of two countries sometimes. This year's US State of the Union address is scheduled for 25 January at 9 p.m., which turns out to be 26 January at 1 p.m., just when I'm scheduled to be participating in some Australia Day events. Given that my main interest in the SOTU is to see whether the new Republican House majority will engage in heckling, perhaps I'm better off catching up on YouTube or some such afterwards.
19 January 2011
Political Speech: Meaning & Intent
It’s been long known that when politicians speak, they use what are essentially coded phrases to convey meaning to their target audience. “States Rights”, for example, from the mouths of Republicans and their right-wing brethren is well known for being a code phrase to connote opposition to civil rights, especially for minorities, or even anti-abortion, depending on the context. It rarely refers to educational curricula, but busing instead. So when a avowedly conservative politician uses the phrase “blood libel” the first thing that comes to my mind is that she thinks all Democrats, and even most or all liberals, are Jews, and therefore not real Americans, who are, of course, Christian, and that by using this phrase she will accomplish two things: the jingoistic and racist elements of the so-called Tea Partiers will see all opposition to her and by extension themselves as alien and “anti-American”, and no one will be able to decry her usage as anything other than a smear against her without generating something like a feedback loop to increase that perception of alienation.
She doesn’t write this stuff herself. She’s got people to do that for her, and they’re not as stupid as we wish we could believe she is. Did she really mean her critics are falsely claiming she has “blood on her hands” or did she mean that her critics are blood-drinking, “protocols of the elders of Zion” Jewish liberals bent on destroying America? This is a hate-filled, angry woman, a failure as a working politician, now enjoying a means of spreading her hate without any effective opposition or recrimination. We must not let her get away with this poisoning of the discourse.
It’s been long known that when politicians speak, they use what are essentially coded phrases to convey meaning to their target audience. “States Rights”, for example, from the mouths of Republicans and their right-wing brethren is well known for being a code phrase to connote opposition to civil rights, especially for minorities, or even anti-abortion, depending on the context. It rarely refers to educational curricula, but busing instead. So when a avowedly conservative politician uses the phrase “blood libel” the first thing that comes to my mind is that she thinks all Democrats, and even most or all liberals, are Jews, and therefore not real Americans, who are, of course, Christian, and that by using this phrase she will accomplish two things: the jingoistic and racist elements of the so-called Tea Partiers will see all opposition to her and by extension themselves as alien and “anti-American”, and no one will be able to decry her usage as anything other than a smear against her without generating something like a feedback loop to increase that perception of alienation.
She doesn’t write this stuff herself. She’s got people to do that for her, and they’re not as stupid as we wish we could believe she is. Did she really mean her critics are falsely claiming she has “blood on her hands” or did she mean that her critics are blood-drinking, “protocols of the elders of Zion” Jewish liberals bent on destroying America? This is a hate-filled, angry woman, a failure as a working politician, now enjoying a means of spreading her hate without any effective opposition or recrimination. We must not let her get away with this poisoning of the discourse.
17 January 2011
Itinerary
If there's one thing I've now learned, it's that even after a major storm, there's enough snow and ice left over in the U.S. to create enough of a blizzard to shut down airports. US Airways, who have a major hub in Charlotte, NC, started cancelling flights and rebooking passengers early on Monday, facing down a big storm that had already put the lights out at Atlanta. Unfortunately, that's all they did. They ran out of de-icing solution early, so were left handing out cots and foam pallets - in the international terminal only. Even though we were scheduled to fly out from that terminal, there were no announcements at our end, so by the time we knew we were staying over, we were staying on the floor.
This is forgivable, of course, but not day two. They knew there was still ice and freezing rain, but still ran out of de-icer, even while every other airline operating out of Charlotte continued to de-ice and send planes out. US Airways couldn't even be bothered to cancel their flights until the very last minute. So that was another night learning the comfortable end of being homeless. By this time, after so much terminal food, I'd have killed for some fresh vegetables or fruit.
Well, we got on an early flight to Myrtle Beach on day three, so that was o.k., except US Airways then lost our checked luggage. Clearly, this was an operational failure. Passengers checking in that day got their luggage without any trouble. The rest of us were catch-as-catch-can, that is, US Airways didn't prioritise luggage according to re-bookings, just loaded up whatever came to hand.
Our bags did eventually show, but I lost two days of holiday as a result, not to mention the US$25 for my lost checked bag. What's the money for? I don't know.
So there I am at the end of it all, booked on a flight from Myrtle Beach to Sydney via Atlanta and Los Angeles and Guangzhao. My 11:37 flight is delayed due to "mechanical problems", and is now scheduled for 14:30. Except that flight doesn't arrive, another one, the next one, does instead. There's a seat available, so I actually make my connection at Atlanta for the flight to L.A. Based on what happens 26 hours later in Sydney, I'm guessing my checked bag didn't make the flight or the connection or the China Southern flight, even though that one is delayed by 12 hours, due to "weather in Russia". This is a lie, of course, because China Southern puts up all 500 or so of us in a hotel. Nobody puts anybody into a hotel for weather. A business class traveller I meet makes some calls and confirms the "weather" is fine, but not China Southern.
And guess where my bags are? I don't know either.
What a trip. One of the cats is missing, too. I'm still hopeful he'll turn up, but I guess I'll be calling the shelters and vets before long and wandering the neighborhood all night trying to find him.
Update: Cat's back. Something wrong with his eye, but he turned up after an hour or so of calling him and just in time for dinner. Unnecessary negativity.
Update 2: Cat's eye looks o.k. today, so no vet trip. And my luggage turned up. It seems that instead of handing it off to China Southern, Delta elected to carry my bag to Sydney themselves. It probably got here before I did, given the cancelled flight to China, but two different outfits handle baggage for Delta and China Southern, requiring someone (me) to get them talking to one another before either could work out what to do. As Casey Stengel put it: Can't anyone here play this game?
If there's one thing I've now learned, it's that even after a major storm, there's enough snow and ice left over in the U.S. to create enough of a blizzard to shut down airports. US Airways, who have a major hub in Charlotte, NC, started cancelling flights and rebooking passengers early on Monday, facing down a big storm that had already put the lights out at Atlanta. Unfortunately, that's all they did. They ran out of de-icing solution early, so were left handing out cots and foam pallets - in the international terminal only. Even though we were scheduled to fly out from that terminal, there were no announcements at our end, so by the time we knew we were staying over, we were staying on the floor.
This is forgivable, of course, but not day two. They knew there was still ice and freezing rain, but still ran out of de-icer, even while every other airline operating out of Charlotte continued to de-ice and send planes out. US Airways couldn't even be bothered to cancel their flights until the very last minute. So that was another night learning the comfortable end of being homeless. By this time, after so much terminal food, I'd have killed for some fresh vegetables or fruit.
Well, we got on an early flight to Myrtle Beach on day three, so that was o.k., except US Airways then lost our checked luggage. Clearly, this was an operational failure. Passengers checking in that day got their luggage without any trouble. The rest of us were catch-as-catch-can, that is, US Airways didn't prioritise luggage according to re-bookings, just loaded up whatever came to hand.
Our bags did eventually show, but I lost two days of holiday as a result, not to mention the US$25 for my lost checked bag. What's the money for? I don't know.
So there I am at the end of it all, booked on a flight from Myrtle Beach to Sydney via Atlanta and Los Angeles and Guangzhao. My 11:37 flight is delayed due to "mechanical problems", and is now scheduled for 14:30. Except that flight doesn't arrive, another one, the next one, does instead. There's a seat available, so I actually make my connection at Atlanta for the flight to L.A. Based on what happens 26 hours later in Sydney, I'm guessing my checked bag didn't make the flight or the connection or the China Southern flight, even though that one is delayed by 12 hours, due to "weather in Russia". This is a lie, of course, because China Southern puts up all 500 or so of us in a hotel. Nobody puts anybody into a hotel for weather. A business class traveller I meet makes some calls and confirms the "weather" is fine, but not China Southern.
And guess where my bags are? I don't know either.
What a trip. One of the cats is missing, too. I'm still hopeful he'll turn up, but I guess I'll be calling the shelters and vets before long and wandering the neighborhood all night trying to find him.
Update: Cat's back. Something wrong with his eye, but he turned up after an hour or so of calling him and just in time for dinner. Unnecessary negativity.
Update 2: Cat's eye looks o.k. today, so no vet trip. And my luggage turned up. It seems that instead of handing it off to China Southern, Delta elected to carry my bag to Sydney themselves. It probably got here before I did, given the cancelled flight to China, but two different outfits handle baggage for Delta and China Southern, requiring someone (me) to get them talking to one another before either could work out what to do. As Casey Stengel put it: Can't anyone here play this game?
31 December 2010
Robot Attack
I could have waited for an iPhone. Luckily, I don't much care about the apps, especially games. Although I do like the tricorder.
I could have waited for an iPhone. Luckily, I don't much care about the apps, especially games. Although I do like the tricorder.
29 December 2010
Snow Day
If I remember, This is what cost Mayor Lindsay his job. I’ve seen enough on Facebook and elsewhere to know this was a truly epic storm, so I’d cut the guy some slack, but this isn’t going to help.
If I remember, This is what cost Mayor Lindsay his job. I’ve seen enough on Facebook and elsewhere to know this was a truly epic storm, so I’d cut the guy some slack, but this isn’t going to help.
SCG Blues
This being summer in the antipodes, cricket is the game to watch, so I’ve put some time in this year to learn a bit about it, the Ashes being an especially iconic test match. That England gets to keep for the first time in 14 years. They deserve it. They outplayed the Australian eleven pretty much throughout, on offense and defence. God knows it’s got to be pretty nearly impossible to make a comeback from a first innings score under 100, or even 200, especially when your opponent seems capable of doubling that rate or better, and we managed to be caught out pretty easily for just such results more than once.
It’s not like we weren’t trying, of course. The Ashes is a big deal here. But in Melbourne, for the Boxing Day test, whereas England bowled 42 overs in the first innings, Australia expended 159. This meant we spent a lot of time chasing balls before managing to take a wicket, whether caught out, leg-by-wicket, or bowled out, whereas we hit quite regularly to just where the English thought we would, our batsmen caught out.
And I’d rather not mention the second innings performance.
There’s some suggestion that this was inevitable, given the recent spate of retirements of such as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, leaving Australian cricket bereft of talent, and it’s interesting to note that whereas two on the English side are more regularly 20/20 players than in test cricket, all but two of the Aussie eleven are 20/20 stalwarts. Strategy and skill-sets would be quite different, I’d think, but I guess either the selectors didn’t think so or their available pool is indeed diminished. So I blame Rupert Murdoch and television. And no wonder. Games that take four days to play are pretty hard on the attention-span, especially when they start at 10 a.m. and run past 6 p.m. (Who invented such a thing? Or did cricket evolve to this? Must read more CLR James.)
This being summer in the antipodes, cricket is the game to watch, so I’ve put some time in this year to learn a bit about it, the Ashes being an especially iconic test match. That England gets to keep for the first time in 14 years. They deserve it. They outplayed the Australian eleven pretty much throughout, on offense and defence. God knows it’s got to be pretty nearly impossible to make a comeback from a first innings score under 100, or even 200, especially when your opponent seems capable of doubling that rate or better, and we managed to be caught out pretty easily for just such results more than once.
It’s not like we weren’t trying, of course. The Ashes is a big deal here. But in Melbourne, for the Boxing Day test, whereas England bowled 42 overs in the first innings, Australia expended 159. This meant we spent a lot of time chasing balls before managing to take a wicket, whether caught out, leg-by-wicket, or bowled out, whereas we hit quite regularly to just where the English thought we would, our batsmen caught out.
And I’d rather not mention the second innings performance.
There’s some suggestion that this was inevitable, given the recent spate of retirements of such as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, leaving Australian cricket bereft of talent, and it’s interesting to note that whereas two on the English side are more regularly 20/20 players than in test cricket, all but two of the Aussie eleven are 20/20 stalwarts. Strategy and skill-sets would be quite different, I’d think, but I guess either the selectors didn’t think so or their available pool is indeed diminished. So I blame Rupert Murdoch and television. And no wonder. Games that take four days to play are pretty hard on the attention-span, especially when they start at 10 a.m. and run past 6 p.m. (Who invented such a thing? Or did cricket evolve to this? Must read more CLR James.)
16 December 2010
10 December 2010
O, My
I don’t have anything against Oprah. I think her book club probably did a lot of good, for example. Her show, last I saw of it, and which wasn’t very often anyway, did seem to have devolved from the kind of tabloid-ish self-help and “awareness” topics she became famous for into celebrity-sharing and scream-fest giveaways, but if that’s what she wants and what keeps her brand going, that’s up to her. Her trip to Australia, is just perplexing, and not just the reaction to it.
Tourism’s a great thing and a big part of the economy here, and we spent millions of dollars to bring her down. I don’t imagine recouping that very soon as an immediate consequence of Oprah’s visit. The 8,000 people in Melbourne’s Federation Square today, for example, are likely for the most part locals and unlikely in consequence to spend any money, whether for public transport or lunch, than they would have already, but the disruption they’ll have caused to traffic will surely have a flow-on effect to productivity and revenue elsewhere. Maybe not much, but just wait until the big O gets to Sydney and the rebranded Oprah House. At least there’ll be an offset in parking fees and fines and ticket sales. But her 300 imported audience members aren’t likely to bring about much of a difference. Even after they get home and tell everyone how wonderful Australia is, with the U.S. economy in the tank, how many Qantas flights will that translate to?
Good luck to her and the various Federal and State Tourism Ministers, hotel associations, etc. But 8,000 people standing around for a fifteen minute look at Oprah waving to them? Weird.
I don’t have anything against Oprah. I think her book club probably did a lot of good, for example. Her show, last I saw of it, and which wasn’t very often anyway, did seem to have devolved from the kind of tabloid-ish self-help and “awareness” topics she became famous for into celebrity-sharing and scream-fest giveaways, but if that’s what she wants and what keeps her brand going, that’s up to her. Her trip to Australia, is just perplexing, and not just the reaction to it.
Tourism’s a great thing and a big part of the economy here, and we spent millions of dollars to bring her down. I don’t imagine recouping that very soon as an immediate consequence of Oprah’s visit. The 8,000 people in Melbourne’s Federation Square today, for example, are likely for the most part locals and unlikely in consequence to spend any money, whether for public transport or lunch, than they would have already, but the disruption they’ll have caused to traffic will surely have a flow-on effect to productivity and revenue elsewhere. Maybe not much, but just wait until the big O gets to Sydney and the rebranded Oprah House. At least there’ll be an offset in parking fees and fines and ticket sales. But her 300 imported audience members aren’t likely to bring about much of a difference. Even after they get home and tell everyone how wonderful Australia is, with the U.S. economy in the tank, how many Qantas flights will that translate to?
Good luck to her and the various Federal and State Tourism Ministers, hotel associations, etc. But 8,000 people standing around for a fifteen minute look at Oprah waving to them? Weird.
08 December 2010
Drips & Drabs
It's hard to believe that I'd agree with even half of anything John Howard has to say, even over "Wikileaks", but I do. Half, anyway. Frankly, I don't regard the leaks as any more of an offense than I do Julian Assange's action in publishing them. What I do see is the media ganging up on someone stepping on the turf they'd been gaming for decades and politicians crying foul over being caught out in lies and obfuscation. In both cases I think we all know we knew it all along. No surprises here, except insofar as we now see how far even ostensibly liberal governments will go along with the kinds of prosecutorial abuses we thought were only a Bush II purview. Whether or not the Swedish courts have a case against Assange, the fact that the U.S. is already in discussions with them over extradition show how valuable Guantanamo is to Obama, and Australia's Julia Gillard's self-serving assessments of Assange's "irresponsibility", insofar as it allows her to declare illegality without coming straight out with it, give us Labor as Howard-lite, even while Howard distances himself from such an assessment.
I welcome Wikileaks. Post that crap. But let's see what else we can get: from Britain, France, Germany, China . . . . it shows up every creep in the public service, free society or not, for exactly what we know them to be: self-serving, greedy, rapacious bastards causing more trouble than they're worth.
Funny I should post such an assessment after bagging the Tea-Baggers, I suppose, but I'm no less put out by Obama caving at every turn than I am by Palin mischaracterising all of U.S. history than I am by Labor's failures here or the Liberal's fight against the working class than I am by . . . . we need something better than democracies that have abandoned democracy. Transparency and a strong, fearless, but righteous media are valuable, even in the form of socio-inadroit (or even sociopathological) individuals like Julian Assange.
Publish and be damned, but publish. We need to know for sure what's all too easily hidden or told as lies.
It's hard to believe that I'd agree with even half of anything John Howard has to say, even over "Wikileaks", but I do. Half, anyway. Frankly, I don't regard the leaks as any more of an offense than I do Julian Assange's action in publishing them. What I do see is the media ganging up on someone stepping on the turf they'd been gaming for decades and politicians crying foul over being caught out in lies and obfuscation. In both cases I think we all know we knew it all along. No surprises here, except insofar as we now see how far even ostensibly liberal governments will go along with the kinds of prosecutorial abuses we thought were only a Bush II purview. Whether or not the Swedish courts have a case against Assange, the fact that the U.S. is already in discussions with them over extradition show how valuable Guantanamo is to Obama, and Australia's Julia Gillard's self-serving assessments of Assange's "irresponsibility", insofar as it allows her to declare illegality without coming straight out with it, give us Labor as Howard-lite, even while Howard distances himself from such an assessment.
I welcome Wikileaks. Post that crap. But let's see what else we can get: from Britain, France, Germany, China . . . . it shows up every creep in the public service, free society or not, for exactly what we know them to be: self-serving, greedy, rapacious bastards causing more trouble than they're worth.
Funny I should post such an assessment after bagging the Tea-Baggers, I suppose, but I'm no less put out by Obama caving at every turn than I am by Palin mischaracterising all of U.S. history than I am by Labor's failures here or the Liberal's fight against the working class than I am by . . . . we need something better than democracies that have abandoned democracy. Transparency and a strong, fearless, but righteous media are valuable, even in the form of socio-inadroit (or even sociopathological) individuals like Julian Assange.
Publish and be damned, but publish. We need to know for sure what's all too easily hidden or told as lies.
06 December 2010
The Rich You Will Have with You Always
And always complaining about their taxes, too, or at least their Republican lackeys will whinge.
Meanwhile, Warren Buffett, who has probably done more in his life to make other people rich in addition to his own accumulation of wealth, speaks honestly and directly, saying he’s willing to pay more and we shouldn’t listen to anyone like him who says otherwise. And with the national deficit out of control as a result of the Bush tax cuts and two quagmire wars, we get Mitch McConnell telling us the “argument is over” on the tax cuts, but continuing on unemployment extension.
The whole country went completely nuts when Obama got elected. Eight years of Bush, with the Republicans pushing through every mad scheme when we all knew it was madness, repudiated in 2008 with the inevitable Democratic election, and they can only think selfishly of insisting on the legitimacy of their legacy of debt and destruction.
Conservatism used to refer to the principles of slowing change, not reversing it, let alone the kinds of changes that were enacted: the nearly untrammelled power of the executive branch, the gap between rich and everyone else growing nearly exponentially, unwinnable wars, a national debt that staggers the imagination . . . where’s the conservation in any of that? But not only are these things to be conserved, they should be at the expense of Federal power.
The rhetoric of Bush legacy partisans in government, the media and our neighborhoods is talk of “States rights” and includes an increase in commemorations of secession and the Confederacy? Any connection to health care reform? Bailouts? Maybe federation has passed it’s use-by date.
And always complaining about their taxes, too, or at least their Republican lackeys will whinge.
Meanwhile, Warren Buffett, who has probably done more in his life to make other people rich in addition to his own accumulation of wealth, speaks honestly and directly, saying he’s willing to pay more and we shouldn’t listen to anyone like him who says otherwise. And with the national deficit out of control as a result of the Bush tax cuts and two quagmire wars, we get Mitch McConnell telling us the “argument is over” on the tax cuts, but continuing on unemployment extension.
The whole country went completely nuts when Obama got elected. Eight years of Bush, with the Republicans pushing through every mad scheme when we all knew it was madness, repudiated in 2008 with the inevitable Democratic election, and they can only think selfishly of insisting on the legitimacy of their legacy of debt and destruction.
Conservatism used to refer to the principles of slowing change, not reversing it, let alone the kinds of changes that were enacted: the nearly untrammelled power of the executive branch, the gap between rich and everyone else growing nearly exponentially, unwinnable wars, a national debt that staggers the imagination . . . where’s the conservation in any of that? But not only are these things to be conserved, they should be at the expense of Federal power.
The rhetoric of Bush legacy partisans in government, the media and our neighborhoods is talk of “States rights” and includes an increase in commemorations of secession and the Confederacy? Any connection to health care reform? Bailouts? Maybe federation has passed it’s use-by date.
03 December 2010
The Outer Space Years
Oh, yeah, I remember the Outer Space Men, I think we had all of them, maybe except the squid guy, but I had no inkling that their genesis had anything to do with Major Matt Mason, although we pretty much had all of that stuff, at one point or another, too. There were some excellent toys in those days, probably made from highly toxic substances.
Oh, yeah, I remember the Outer Space Men, I think we had all of them, maybe except the squid guy, but I had no inkling that their genesis had anything to do with Major Matt Mason, although we pretty much had all of that stuff, at one point or another, too. There were some excellent toys in those days, probably made from highly toxic substances.
11 November 2010
Gig Guide
To The New Pornographers last night, at Manning Bar, on the Sydney University campus. A small group of us saw them last year at the Annadale, a tradition music venue in what once was the pub-rock circuit, a tradition decimated by the introduction of pokies, and they were terrific. They were no less excellent this time around. A little more stage banter, amongst themselves and with the crowd, perhaps due to the presence of Neko Case, who was too busy with her last record to tour with the band. It was a lively show, with a substantial and appreciative crowd, at a venue I'd go to again, if another band of interest ever turns up. It would likely be a good introduction to local bands of note, as with the support act, Little Scout, from Brisbane, a solid act that I'd guess will do well in the next few years; quirky, but solid, they held the stage well.
A late night, all up, and a school night, too, but as tired as I was this morning, it was worth it.
To The New Pornographers last night, at Manning Bar, on the Sydney University campus. A small group of us saw them last year at the Annadale, a tradition music venue in what once was the pub-rock circuit, a tradition decimated by the introduction of pokies, and they were terrific. They were no less excellent this time around. A little more stage banter, amongst themselves and with the crowd, perhaps due to the presence of Neko Case, who was too busy with her last record to tour with the band. It was a lively show, with a substantial and appreciative crowd, at a venue I'd go to again, if another band of interest ever turns up. It would likely be a good introduction to local bands of note, as with the support act, Little Scout, from Brisbane, a solid act that I'd guess will do well in the next few years; quirky, but solid, they held the stage well.
A late night, all up, and a school night, too, but as tired as I was this morning, it was worth it.
07 November 2010
State Transit Owes Me $50
The 2nd annual Run4Fun (which needs a less silly name) went off at 8:30 this morning at the Olympic Park, and I barely made the start, so there was a substantial pack ahead of me when the gun went off. 55:27 at the finish, by my watch, and I reckon that ought to be the chip time, more or less. It was much more crowded than last year, so a lot of charity money would have been raised, but that section down by the Hockey stadium gets very crowded. It opens up again after that, but you're never not in traffic, much like every other large road race in town. It was good fun and an easy, quick ride back to Central on the train, but getting out there was logistically more difficult than it should have been.
I was at the bus stop in plenty of time for as many as four buses that could have gotten me to the train and a ride to Homebush, but nothing, no bus. From my stop, you can see over a kilometre down Parramatta Road, so with all that nothing coming down the street, I walked down to the Broadway shops, where I could hope for the Lilyfield line, the Glebe Point buses, or service out of Newtown. What turned up? The bus I should have caught to begin with, half an hour late. Half an hour? Sure, it's Sunday, but if you're running a bus service, how do you account for those 30 minutes? Traffic? C'mon. I sat next to a young woman, also going to the race, and we got to the train platform with about 45 minutes to get to the venue and no train for another 10. It'd take all the remaining time to get to Lidcombe, let alone to the start, so we opted to split a cab. Hence the $50. But it was a cheerful enough ride, if not offering much of a chance to get a little extra sleep, and in the end a good run. And a free newspaper, too, although why, when they give you a subscription, is perplexing.
Update: It's a cheap watch, but it's pretty accurate.
The 2nd annual Run4Fun (which needs a less silly name) went off at 8:30 this morning at the Olympic Park, and I barely made the start, so there was a substantial pack ahead of me when the gun went off. 55:27 at the finish, by my watch, and I reckon that ought to be the chip time, more or less. It was much more crowded than last year, so a lot of charity money would have been raised, but that section down by the Hockey stadium gets very crowded. It opens up again after that, but you're never not in traffic, much like every other large road race in town. It was good fun and an easy, quick ride back to Central on the train, but getting out there was logistically more difficult than it should have been.
I was at the bus stop in plenty of time for as many as four buses that could have gotten me to the train and a ride to Homebush, but nothing, no bus. From my stop, you can see over a kilometre down Parramatta Road, so with all that nothing coming down the street, I walked down to the Broadway shops, where I could hope for the Lilyfield line, the Glebe Point buses, or service out of Newtown. What turned up? The bus I should have caught to begin with, half an hour late. Half an hour? Sure, it's Sunday, but if you're running a bus service, how do you account for those 30 minutes? Traffic? C'mon. I sat next to a young woman, also going to the race, and we got to the train platform with about 45 minutes to get to the venue and no train for another 10. It'd take all the remaining time to get to Lidcombe, let alone to the start, so we opted to split a cab. Hence the $50. But it was a cheerful enough ride, if not offering much of a chance to get a little extra sleep, and in the end a good run. And a free newspaper, too, although why, when they give you a subscription, is perplexing.
Update: It's a cheap watch, but it's pretty accurate.
Milestones
Sparky Anderson, 76, led the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series in 1984, the year I left Michigan, where they'd been my adopted team. To be honest, I thought he was 76 then.
That Tigers' line-up was terrific, and they had a great year, one that looked, for over a month, like they couldn't lose. Anderson was, that October, the first manager to have led teams to win the Series across the American/National Leagues divide, and he practically invented the modern managing style of pulling pitchers off the mound and using relief as a key defensive strategy. He was also the only manager who honored the players' strike of 1995, taking unpaid leave rather than take on any replacement players, quite an admirable stance. A grand old man of baseball.
Sparky Anderson, 76, led the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series in 1984, the year I left Michigan, where they'd been my adopted team. To be honest, I thought he was 76 then.
That Tigers' line-up was terrific, and they had a great year, one that looked, for over a month, like they couldn't lose. Anderson was, that October, the first manager to have led teams to win the Series across the American/National Leagues divide, and he practically invented the modern managing style of pulling pitchers off the mound and using relief as a key defensive strategy. He was also the only manager who honored the players' strike of 1995, taking unpaid leave rather than take on any replacement players, quite an admirable stance. A grand old man of baseball.
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