True Blood June 12, 2009
Posted by frater in All.add a comment
One season in and I’m still not sure how I feel about True Blood. I’m a fan of paranormal romances myself (though more Blake then Stackhouse) and so far the story has been interesting and reasonably compelling. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see if they can keep up the tension and interest levels over the long haul without getting.. well, stupid.
If nothing else, the success of the show and the current explosion in interest in paranormal romance has certainly started to spread now, with Twilight and Beyond Human both making waves and rumours constantly rising and falling of other shows.
This however is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while:
The True Blood MINI Convertible: Exclusively for Vampires | Up to Speed | Los Angeles Times
I also love MINI Cooper’s, so it’s a win:win.
The black and white fallacy June 11, 2009
Posted by frater in All, News, Rants/Opinions.add a comment
Slashdot | Dot-Communism Is Already Here
There is an interesting note (followed by an interesting discussion) on Slashdot about the trends toward communal behaviour on the internet and the way this is putting paid to many 50’s-era “myths” about communism and its evils.
Personally I think the first few responders have got it right. Just as in most cases, the absolutes on either side are as dangerous as the other. Absolute capitalism leads to economic collapse, serious gaps between the mega-rich and the starving-poor and a level of selfish viciousness that is astonishing to behold. Likewise, absolute communism breeds -exactly- the same problems as the system set up to empower the workers is itself perverted to serve the comfortable few.
Luckily, the world has very few absolutes. I have been watching the American media a bit lately and am constantly amazed by some of the things said, particularly on channels such as Fox News. I often am led to wonder whether the presenters on this channel actually believe the things they say, or are cynically manipulating a public more impressed with theatrics and personal attacks then actual reasoned debate and knowledge. To this day I’m unsure which I’d prefer to be the truth.
Watching the constant attacks on president Obama, constantly calling him and his policies and ideas “socialist” has been a complete laugh. There must be a segment of the population who obviously believe America to be a pure capitalist society. Truth me people, it isn’t – and you’ll be thankful for it.
The classic remark was from a Chrysler dealer not long after the company started shutting down franchises and giving them to other people, sticking the owners with stock they couldn’t sell and massive debts they couldn’t support. The story was horrifyingly sad, but it didn’t prevent us noticing the absurdity of what this man said: “How could this happen in America? I thought we were a capitalist society!”
The place where this sort of thing can most easily happens is a more “capitalist” society! In a purely capitalist society the market decides and there’s nothing stopping someone who is paying you from deciding to pay someone else instead to do your job. If they can do it cheaper, better, or hell, if they just like the look of their face more than yours. That’s what capitalism is all about, free market. (Emphasis on free.)
It’s a pretty horrible way to live for 90% of the people, so society decides to restrain the free market in various ways. We put regulation on the way companies dump waste (free market economics demand that companies dump waste as cheaply as possible, which prohibits environmentally safe options), the way they treat labour (minimum wage restrictions, unfair dismissal laws) and how they build their products (national safety standards).
We step further from the free market in our social services too – some countries more than others. Welfare, public school systems, public health-care (Australians, Canadians and plenty of other countries have it) are all “socialist” ideas that mix nicely with a capitalist economic system. Its the citizens paying for services available to everyone.
So every time you hear someone spit out “socialised medicine!” like its some sort of disease, realise that there is no “capitalism vs communism” anymore. Theres just the world, and individual societies who are each determining how much of their money they are willing to give to the government in order that everyone in the country should benefit from new services.
Personally, I find it a constant astonishment that a country who is so willing to spend billions of dollars for no other reason than killing the people of other countries is so allergic to spending some of that money to keep their own people alive. In the end, it’s health-care and education that will keep your country strong far longer than just guns and muscles.
And please don’t forget that communism and totalitarianism are not the same thing. It’s not only the communists who have to worry about governments controlling and oppressing their people. We -all- do.
Chaser’s Censorship (or Much Ado About Nothing) June 10, 2009
Posted by frater in All, General Interest, News, Rants/Opinions.add a comment
Well, I finally got around to watching the second episode of the third season of Chaser’s War On Everything, the current whipping boy of Australia’s Moral Guardians and Supreme Example Of All That Is Wrong With The Media Today.
To recap, Chaser performed a sketch entitled “Make a realistic wish foundation” which involves presenting pencil cases and a stick to children in a parody of the make a wish foundation. It ended with the now infamous line that prompted complaints, a two week ban and the censoring of all future repeats of the episode. “Why spend a lot of money on them, when they’re going to die anyway.”
I feel like a bit of disclosure is due at this point, I myself have spent some time in contact with disabled and dying children and my wife has devoted her career and a large amount of her life to them. Personally I think the make a wish foundation does a wonderful job of providing some small comfort to the children and their parents, who have to face continuing after their death. It is not a fun situation, it is very serious and painful.
I hate censorship and would be here defending them regardless of what they said. With all I said above I sat down with my wife and we watched the show fully prepared to be completely offended.
How surprised was I then that the skit was incredibly short, and made me giggle. It wasn’t roaring funny but neither was it this filthy searing insult to sick children everywhere. It was obviously an irreverent poke at a revered institution. I did wince at the end line, I do think it was in bad taste, but without the controversy I would have forgotten it minutes after it was over.
Sure it was bad taste, but it’s chaser. If you don’t like bad taste humour you’re watching the wrong show, and it’s not like all Australia doesn’t know what they’re like by now.
It’s well overblown, astonishingly so, and it’s disgusting that we have all spent so much time on this issue. It’s also insane how many comments on this issue begin “I haven’t seen the show but…” and then go on to denigrate and abuse them based purely on hearsay, from which you would almost be expecting them to be assaulting sick children in their beds.
To my mind they’ve done far worse in the past and have done nothing but upset the over sensative now. As George Carlin famously said, there is no subject so sacrosanct that you can’t joke about it. He punctuated this with a quite funny routine about rape that elicited much the same response.
That was about thirty years ago. Guess we haven’t come all that far after all have we.
Grow up Australia. If you don’t like it, turn off.
Pirate Party takes seats in the European Parliment June 9, 2009
Posted by frater in All, News.add a comment
Pirate Party wins seat in European Parliament • The Register
Apparently membership and support for the controversial party has spiked recently following the circus that has been the Pirate Bay trial.
In case you’ve missed the coverage, here are the highlights.
1. The judge in the trial found the founders of the Pirate Bay guilty of copyright violations and liable for a four year term of imprisonment.
2. The defence moved for a mistrial following revelations that the judge was actually a member of the same copyright special interest groups as the prosecuting lawyers and their clients.
3. Another judge was assigned to review the case to determine the extent of the bias and whether a mistrial was called for.
4. -This- judge was also then asked to step down, following revelations that they too were a member of the same group.
Personally, I think this series of events defies all belief. It’s a bad conspiracy plot from a hack novelist. Just how many judges do these people have in their pockets anyway?
Welcome to the 21st century.
