I came across an interesting article today which talked about McCain and his charming tendency to describe every international situation as Armageddon cometh. I had never really put it all together in my head previously, but news.com.au blogger Tim Dunlop (blogs.news.com.au/news/blogocracy/index.php/news/comments/foreign_policy_hyperbole_ah_mccain) has brought up an interesting point about America's favourite former POW/senator. As president, his authority and international capacity for actio...
We're all familiar with the argument that police forces and the like profile because it's effective. People of a kind tend to commit more crimes than others, so they get focused on. This could be based on anything a 'lifetime of experience' has suggested - profiling black people for theft, gays for child molestation or women for shoplifting, middle-aged white men for fraud and corporate crimes. The results of a study by the British intelligence service (MI5) suggest this cannot be applied to ...
Political nicknames are a popular pastime. Australians all know who Little Johnny, Mad Mark or Saint Kevin are. Americans are familiar with Clint-in and probably others I don't know straight away. But what's behind these names? I've recently noticed there seems to be a bit of a movement for opponents to refer to US presidential candidate Barack Obama as Hussein. In some ways it makes sense, as it is his middle name and lots of people are referred to by their middle name. I guess what bu...
The recent visit of the President of Iran brought all the rightwingers out of the woodwork. From between the rocks, from behind fetid toadstools, from the nightmare corners of the suburban landscapes, they came. And they came with one simple message "We come, and we want your babies." It's hard to know whether they're following the example of Mr Swift, or simply enjoy sauteed infant with their dollar bill milkshakes. More salubrious sources suggest people who traditionally lean towards...
Today I went and saw an advance screening for Michael Moore's latest vehicle, Sicko. As far as Moore movies go it wasn't a bad example of the genre - some melodrama, some sticking it to man yee-hah moments, a little additional pathos and some laughs. NOTE: For the hard of thinking I of course add on the obvious rider that he, like most people, believes in truth management. Far be it from me to fail in pointing out the flaws of everyone who considers themselves a mouthpiece. Now that th...
If recent reports are to be believed (and considering the source it would be remiss to engage in even a moment's doubt) I am anti-American. It's an interesting idea. I'm certainly anti- a lot of things. It's plausible that I would be against Americans. After all, I'm critical of their foreign policy, their domestic policy - damn near everything about their political system bugs me in some way, whether for incompetence, insanity, bloodymindedness or that oh-so-American obsession with myth...
I don't know if you've noticed but there's been an odd increase in the level of bizarre political spam recently. Most of it could be filed in the staring-mad video-clip posting conspiracy left wing cabinet. There are a few things that puzzle me. Firstly, what's the go? Is there some secret office somewhere directing hordes of zealots to go forth and post? Or has some nutcase figured out how to program? If that's the case then god save us all, for the technical professions, or so I've ...
I've noticed an increasing tendency in JU circles to have rather strange beliefs about what, exactly, a WMD is. Some even appear to believe that any non-conventional weapon wielded against 'us' is a WMD. As you can probably tell I disagree. I do not consider a pistol to be a WMD. I do not consider a tank round with depleted uranium to be a WMD. I do not consider an artillery shell capable of firing small NBCs to be a WMD. To my mind a WMD must fulfill two main requirements. 1. I...
A recent discussion on Bakerstreet's blog made me think about what exactly I think a democracy is. His opinion seemed fairly clear - that which claims to be a democracy is a democracy so long as it has elected representatives. I may be oversimplifying his belief, but that's the impression I got. If I got it wrong, I'll change what I've put above. Read what he has to say here: Link I don't agree though. The last century has shown that some of the least democratic governments the wo...
One of the hardest things to deal with as someone coming to terms with the political world is rejecting the global conspiracy. It makes life so much easier. Global warming? Corporations/government laughing their way to the bank as they burn trees and have protestors disappeared. Government repression? Corporations/government again, whistling as they crush opposition and ensure the eternal survival of the sacred fifth reich. All the ills of the world, handily attributable to a single f...
Like a number of others on this board I've followed developments on those Danish cartoons with some interest. The latest move comes from the Iranian majors, one of whom has decided to launch a competition about 'the best holocaust cartoon' Link . The concept behind this one is rather simple. If the Danish cartoons were indeed commissioned in order to prove that newspapers have the right to lambast sacred cows regardless of their origin, then naturally the Danish newspaper at the start ...
There seems to be a disconcertingly common tendency amongst certain commentators to blame the media for the products it produces. Not only is this extremely socialist, one might say communist, but it shows a worrying faith in tradition that, were the education system properly functioning, would not happen. To analyse the position of the media as a business in the 21st century we must consider the changes it underwent in the 20th. At the dawn of the 20th century there was a perception and...
First of all for all the readers out there who somehow haven't chanced upon this fact, I'm not an American. I'm not even a Texan. I'm not going to be so condescending as to say that I'm from the proud country of Not America (anyone who doesn't understand what that means should stop reading here; I will continue to use words of three syllables or more, and frankly I doubt you should contribute even if you agree with me). I'm an Australian, and therefore in my country we don't speak in terms...
It's a common thing these days to hear various places thrown around as the first democracies. Greece, Rome, certain islander tribes, France, the US, they're all there. But really, can we consider any of them real democracies as we know them? Greece restricted voting rights to native males with property whose age lay within a set scale. Rome lumped the majority of its citizens into just four houses, leaving only the Tribunes as a source of vague democratic power. The islander tribes are...
Last week there was a terrorist event 15km from my home. I say event, because while apparently somewhere between 2 and 11 bombs exploded, it happened in the process of catching a terrorist, so realistically it doesn't count as an attack . The bomber and a handful of his servants, friends family and assorted other hangers-on were killed in the blasts. No one is entirely sure (at least no one I've spoken to) whether these blasts were accidents or deliberate attempts to destroy evidence a...