Party Animal
15/06/2013 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie was out partying last night. Not the usual piss up in a booze bin but a more sedated sort of event - an auditorium in the State Library to be precise
The previous week the very same venue was host to a forensic pathologist turned anthropologist regaling the audience with appalling stories of death, decay and dissection in Ancient Egypt. A day in the life of an embalmer in a tent without air conditioning must have been rather nasty indeed. Guessing most of them did not live to a ripe old age. Next week will be a feast of Mummies in movies
But last night was dedicated to the upcoming federal election. It was a chance for the folks who are disenchanted with the Coke and Pepsi parties. That was a rather accurate description of the two main contenders.
The alternative drinks included rum provided by the Pirate Party. There was also the Wikileaks party which had an almost identical platform, the Australian Sex Party. Not sure what their drink of choice would be. The old vodka gobbling diehards of the Socialist Alliance were there and the last on the list was the good old fashioned Greens.
It was a very politically correct event so no fun stuff such as One Nation or Palmer’s United Party. There was certainly no Christian Lobbies or Family First would be senators invited to this event
The event was organized by the online activist group Get-up and they had a presenter who looked scarily like John Howard. Guessing that Howard Sattler declined this most desirable of duties due to having a hot date with his hairdresser
Every party speaker got a five minute speech to start followed by a Question and Answers session with replies limited to 30 seconds which turns out to be a lot longer than you would think
What was so fascinating was how events on the other side of the world so influenced the evening. No need to wear tin foil hats anymore. Government surveillance, internet security and privacy pretty much dominating the proceedings. All but one of the parties would make this their first priority if elected. In fact more than two thirds of the debate was devoted to this and related issues
Even the Australian Sex Party was not big on keeping sordid steamy secrets. They had pretty much the same platform as the Wikileaks and Pirates but also wanted no tax exemption status for religions. (especially the Catholic church)
What was really surprising was that a lawyer and former member of the Liberal party (Greg Barnes) had jumped ship and started his own party. Who would ever imagine that a card carrying member of John Howard’s mob would not only join but run for office as a member of the Wikileaks Party?
But then again one of the Tasmanian MPs Andrew Wilkie had been a spook. He blew the whistle when he got pissed off with the Lying Rodent’s endless porkies about the Iraq war and those weapons of mass distraction.
It seems that Edward Snowden is cut from the same kind of cloth. When the story broke got to thinking that this guy was leaving the dream. A fascinating job on a huge $200,000 salary and he gave it all up to spill the beans. Here’s hoping that Hong Kong doesn’t sell him out. Maybe he will end up in a bunk bed in the London Ecuadorean Embassy or on the wrong end of a US drone. That way Obama can get two troublemakers for the price of one
It is amusing watching the debates raging on assorted websites. And it is amazing how civil libertarians and so called constitutional lawyers change their minds about the evils of government surveillance once they become the snoopers instead of the snoopees. And the Bush mob who started it all are learning what it is like to get a taste of their own medicine
It is astonishing the sorts of justifications people are giving for such powers as if being legal makes it automatically acceptable. Then of course the age old “If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to be afraid of”. Whatever happened to advocating government based on ‘organized distrust’?
And whatever happened to Echelon? Surely this vacuum cleaner spook stuff is nothing new only that it's now much easier to snatch and store all that data. Doing useful stuff with it might be another matter entirely
But it’s an ill wind that blows no good. Apparently George Orwell’s estate is doing very nicely out of this Big Brother drama.
From Moses and Jesus of Nazareth to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Daniel Ellsberg, Andrew Wilkie, Julian Assange and now Edward Snowden, got to thinking that this serpent has a soft spot for trouble makers, prophets, whistle blowers and rebels with a cause in general
Some of these folks drew the short end of the straw in life’s lottery and had nothing to lose but it is the ones who give up comfort and security to take on the Monster thus facing a life of ridicule, harassment and outright persecution that are the most fascinating of all.
Last December was reading a fascinating book called “This Machine Kills Secrets” by Andy Greenberg. It was all about spooks, spammers, the history of Wikileaks, cryptography and the eternal battle between the leakers and the secret keepers.
Especially fascinating was the enormous amount of time and effort required by Daniel Ellsberg to get his ‘samizdat’ copies of the Pentagon Papers when Bradley Manning could get thousand times as much information in a few minutes with much less chance of getting caught. It was only his carelessness on certain online forums that led to his downfall.
Will be looking forward to the latest updated version. Maybe the State Library will stock it in their e-books collection
The previous week the very same venue was host to a forensic pathologist turned anthropologist regaling the audience with appalling stories of death, decay and dissection in Ancient Egypt. A day in the life of an embalmer in a tent without air conditioning must have been rather nasty indeed. Guessing most of them did not live to a ripe old age. Next week will be a feast of Mummies in movies
But last night was dedicated to the upcoming federal election. It was a chance for the folks who are disenchanted with the Coke and Pepsi parties. That was a rather accurate description of the two main contenders.
The alternative drinks included rum provided by the Pirate Party. There was also the Wikileaks party which had an almost identical platform, the Australian Sex Party. Not sure what their drink of choice would be. The old vodka gobbling diehards of the Socialist Alliance were there and the last on the list was the good old fashioned Greens.
It was a very politically correct event so no fun stuff such as One Nation or Palmer’s United Party. There was certainly no Christian Lobbies or Family First would be senators invited to this event
The event was organized by the online activist group Get-up and they had a presenter who looked scarily like John Howard. Guessing that Howard Sattler declined this most desirable of duties due to having a hot date with his hairdresser
Every party speaker got a five minute speech to start followed by a Question and Answers session with replies limited to 30 seconds which turns out to be a lot longer than you would think
What was so fascinating was how events on the other side of the world so influenced the evening. No need to wear tin foil hats anymore. Government surveillance, internet security and privacy pretty much dominating the proceedings. All but one of the parties would make this their first priority if elected. In fact more than two thirds of the debate was devoted to this and related issues
Even the Australian Sex Party was not big on keeping sordid steamy secrets. They had pretty much the same platform as the Wikileaks and Pirates but also wanted no tax exemption status for religions. (especially the Catholic church)
What was really surprising was that a lawyer and former member of the Liberal party (Greg Barnes) had jumped ship and started his own party. Who would ever imagine that a card carrying member of John Howard’s mob would not only join but run for office as a member of the Wikileaks Party?
But then again one of the Tasmanian MPs Andrew Wilkie had been a spook. He blew the whistle when he got pissed off with the Lying Rodent’s endless porkies about the Iraq war and those weapons of mass distraction.
It seems that Edward Snowden is cut from the same kind of cloth. When the story broke got to thinking that this guy was leaving the dream. A fascinating job on a huge $200,000 salary and he gave it all up to spill the beans. Here’s hoping that Hong Kong doesn’t sell him out. Maybe he will end up in a bunk bed in the London Ecuadorean Embassy or on the wrong end of a US drone. That way Obama can get two troublemakers for the price of one
It is amusing watching the debates raging on assorted websites. And it is amazing how civil libertarians and so called constitutional lawyers change their minds about the evils of government surveillance once they become the snoopers instead of the snoopees. And the Bush mob who started it all are learning what it is like to get a taste of their own medicine
It is astonishing the sorts of justifications people are giving for such powers as if being legal makes it automatically acceptable. Then of course the age old “If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to be afraid of”. Whatever happened to advocating government based on ‘organized distrust’?
And whatever happened to Echelon? Surely this vacuum cleaner spook stuff is nothing new only that it's now much easier to snatch and store all that data. Doing useful stuff with it might be another matter entirely
But it’s an ill wind that blows no good. Apparently George Orwell’s estate is doing very nicely out of this Big Brother drama.
From Moses and Jesus of Nazareth to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Daniel Ellsberg, Andrew Wilkie, Julian Assange and now Edward Snowden, got to thinking that this serpent has a soft spot for trouble makers, prophets, whistle blowers and rebels with a cause in general
Some of these folks drew the short end of the straw in life’s lottery and had nothing to lose but it is the ones who give up comfort and security to take on the Monster thus facing a life of ridicule, harassment and outright persecution that are the most fascinating of all.
Last December was reading a fascinating book called “This Machine Kills Secrets” by Andy Greenberg. It was all about spooks, spammers, the history of Wikileaks, cryptography and the eternal battle between the leakers and the secret keepers.
Especially fascinating was the enormous amount of time and effort required by Daniel Ellsberg to get his ‘samizdat’ copies of the Pentagon Papers when Bradley Manning could get thousand times as much information in a few minutes with much less chance of getting caught. It was only his carelessness on certain online forums that led to his downfall.
Will be looking forward to the latest updated version. Maybe the State Library will stock it in their e-books collection
no subject
Date: 2013-06-16 06:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-18 01:18 pm (UTC)Sattler, Shane Warne, Alan Jones and that Sandilands scumbag should go start their own party for psycho egomaniacs with relevance deprivation syndrome. Maybe they could invite John Howard and Kevin007 to join them
Apart from the rude nosiness of it all, it was the hiding behind 'people are saying it' excuse that was particularly pathetic. Julia Gillard sounded like a rabbit caught in the headlights. If she had stormed out and refused to tolerate such questions then they would have found a way to attack her for that too.
It's hard to tell how much of this abuse is because she is a woman and how much is because she hasn't officially tied the knot with Tim and has no children. Most women with kids would never have been able to find the time to move up the political ladder unless they could afford nannies. And that of course would bring all sorts of condemnation.
I think it was Gloria Steinem who observed "I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career."
Frankly it is amazing that she has managed not just to keep her minority government going for the full three year term but to get a whole pile of big picture stuff done during that time. Mad Abbot could have got that job if the independents hadn't sniffed out his desperation to do anything or say anything to get into the Lodge.
Julia Gillard is destined to be one of those Prime Ministers who will only be appreciated and recognized long after she has left office. Being soft on mining companies and hard on asylum seekers and Julian Assange are the main big black marks against her as far as Izzie is concerned.
Six months of the mad monk at the helm should be more than enough for folks to realize and regret the disgraceful way they treated a basically decent leader
He still seems to be a policy free zone.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-19 06:01 am (UTC)