Saturday, November 29, 2008

Punned it

I wonder if my love of punning has led to punishment has brought me banishment is this the way you treat my verse taking turns at staying terse just because I'm always rhyming and loathe to once destroy the timing will you deny me fleeting rhythms to punctuate my every ism it's in the way the tale gets told the toast gets cold and the subject gets old and we'll only bless the boasting once we'll drop the subject on a punt

It's all conjecture now of course after shouting the bar shout yourself hoarse more dissing with each discourse

Wiser when wizened smarter then smuttier shirtier and flirtier in turn

Groping for a greeting card platitude a smart dressed casual attitude compressing expressing gratitude

Sure of yourself at keeping invaders at bay conflict on the horizon of this o cay

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

It's a pity Prop.8 (can't propitiate)

What would you do if, because of the way you were born, you were told you couldn't partner with the person of your choice?
How would you feel if people were able to vote down your ability to marry others like you? Would it make you angry or vindicative?

yeah, me too. Smarter and possessed of more integrity than the US Right - you betcha.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Righting wrongs or wronging the Right?

For some reason I've been more fascinated with Right wing blogs leading up to the last US election than with the panorama of left-leaning goodness that flits across cyberspace. I guess I just want to understand what, to me, seems completely wrong-headed.

I've come to the conclusion that much of the thinking is fueled by a combination of fear and anger, rather than abject ignorance and stupidity. Psychologically, once you hold a grudge against something or someone, it's very hard to accept that there can be a basis of truth in their position.

Still, it takes a truckload of rhetorical blindness to see Obama-voters as cultists buoyed on by empty catchphrases of 'hope' and 'change' rather than seeing the real basis for their use. Already Obama has vowed to end the Iraq War, close Guantanamo Bay, reform the system where there was appointment of lobbyists to positions that represent a conflict of interest. These are all good positive concrete changes that provide hope for a better, more robust and accountable democratic structure. Let the wretched Right take their turn at crying into their beer, if they must.

I'm also bemused at the attempt to label his supporters as stupid, based on their level of knowledge and understanding of such questions as 'who controls Congress'. Is is stupid to want a reversal of a state in which the US is the bullying pariah and hypocrite?

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Thankyou for letting me be: MySpace again

[with apologies to Sly]

My upper story colleague at work was telling me that she bought a textbook on WEB 2.0 and, as usual, I've spent more time on the front end of the technology exploring the social networking sites. This has meant everything from posting my own work to catching up on a range in time and space of music acts. This is the thing that I gain most from MySpace - the samples of the most popular Andrews, the snatches of genre, the fossils scraped clean.

Facebook is good for quizzes and for finding people you haven't seen in person for thirty years. I found some Immigration colleagues (early nineties) and hometown neighbours (1962-1991 but not really as '91 was the last time I was on the farm with the family after travelling up from Perth and having lived in Sydney and Brisbane; I had two infants by that stage so it was a decade on, I suppose 1982)
and the network spreads as your first girlfriend tells you she is good friends with one of the kids you went to school with. What are the odds?

I stopped short of Bebo as I thought I had sufficient email accounts, blogs, and social networking noms de guerre to keep me going for some time.

My website hosting and URL both come up for renewal so I find myself veering that way more and more. Especially as I think I'll soon be ready to complete Drink It Black.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Misplaced sentiment (and religion I'd be happy to lose)

Let's reject the bullshit that equates ethnicity with religious preference and decries any attempt at critique as being 'racist' or 'prejudiced'. Religion, whether its enculturated or inherited, is a choice. As such it is capable of being judged good or bad.

My criteria for a religion that deserves no respect:

1. Any religion that demands you sacrifice yourself or the lives of others.
2. Any faith that believes the indiscriminate damage of lives or properties is sanctified.
3. Any tract or publication that asks you to suspend your own judgement and power of rational thought for some pre-ordained decree.
4. Any belief system that enforces repressive moral strictures.
5. Any ideology that commands the subjugation of women.

And that doesn't leave very many at all does it.

(If you think the execution of the Bali bombers makes them martyrs, then congratulations for taking bloodthirsty delusion to new levels. And for being insufferably stupid.)

Saturday, November 08, 2008

The Next Big O and the Not So Big Mac

I can no longer claim impartiality as I watched Obama's acceptance speech. Here is one of those old style speeches that has everything in it, that is perfectly poised and perfectly pitched.

It made me cry in places as I watched someone delivering an inclusive and stirring speech and promise much more.

I know the right have doubted him from well before he came to the final round, but their criticism often came out sounding like they were finding a way to fault his strengths. They needed to spend more time on highlighting all the ways in which John McCain was the president America needs. And you don't do that by chasing the dirt on your opponent. If it's all about perception, that still points to Barack Obama having mounted a better campaign.

What do you do when things are grim? You promise change. You emotionally connect with people and emphasise that you are working for them, that this is their victory. You pay respect to your opponent and express a willingness to work with them. You are gracious while being firm in your resolve.

Whatever his actual presidency is like, President-elect Obama got off to a sterling start.