Categories: The Immense Gothic Cathedral of WTF

14 Feb 2010, Comments (12)

How do you Sleep while your Butts are Burning?

Author: Helen

Yes, I’m looking at the Australian Liberal party, who have gleefully piled onto Peter Garrett and called for his resignation over the Insulation scheme debacle (which is predictably being called Insulationgate), but don’t seem to know that their arses are on fire.

Now, sure, I’m predisposed to like the guy. But let it be known I’m not particularly keen to fight Garrett’s corner as a minister in the Labor government. I’m the Voter who Cannot Love*, after all. He, like Julia, has broken my heart over environmental and Arts policies. No, I don’t think parachute-in celebrity politicians are necessarily a good thing, and I also think he’s overfaced. He was given too much responsibility, too quickly. The fact that every right wing hack was automatically programmed to hate him was just icing on the cake.

Should he move aside into a less demanding portfolio to gain more experience? Should he sit down and have a big think about whether the realpolitik of the Labor tent has negated his entire life’s work on environmental issues? Yes and yes. Should he stand aside because his position has become completely untenable and he’s electoral poison? Or because, in some quaint and symbolic way, in the Westminster system a Minister is required to fall on his or her sword for the actions of other people? Probably. But should he stand aside, or be sacked, because he bears some kind of moral responsibility for the four workplace deaths that have happened since the inception of the insulation scheme? That is such a pack of horse hockey I’m unable to contain my rage.

Gosh, it’s touching that the Liberal party has suddenly discovered workplace deaths in the building industry. When they were in power, those despised Unions were constantly trying to tell them. About forty people a year, more or less, die in Australia every year. Are the other thirty-six people who died in Australia in the last year chopped liver, just because they don’t come with a Ministerial scalp? I don’t hear any outrage in doorstop interviews about them.

The four people (some of them boys) died for the usual reason: because their employers ignored occupational health and safety practice (as well as ordinary common sense). The employer of the worker who died in October could possibly claim ignorance about the metal fasteners used with metal foil insulation close to wiring. The others couldn’t, because Garrett didn’t do nothing: he moved to ban the fasteners in November. Two more workers died as a direct result of the employer ignoring a new regulation which Garrett himself had put in place, as well as one from heat stroke, again the employer’s responsibility. To quote one commenter, the responsibility to run a safe workplace lies with the employers.

Now we have the Liberals shouting that Peter Garrett should have micromanaged the scheme to the point of overseeing every employer, perhaps, I don’t know, climbing into every roof space himself. This is the same Liberal party mainly composed of people who see every government regulation as a slippery slope to socialism. This is the Liberal party whose constituency is business groups which oppose industry regulation as “anti-business”.

These are the people who claim to espouse a doctrine of individual responsibility, but because it suits them at the moment, they’re willing to abandon that. “If you don’t like my principles, I have others”, I guess? See Also, the invisible hand of the Market sorting things out? When push comes to shove, this incident has shown that they really know it’s a crock.

So, Libs, if you want to claim your prize Ministerial Scalp at the prize desk, I think you should have to fess up that the despised unions were right all along and that government oversight of private industry is totes necessary (and that at the moment you’re calling for government micromanagement on a scale hardly known except in command economies). Also, that conservatives are for Individual Responsibility, except where you can blame something on someone you don’t like.

Also, that your arses are on fire.
 
 
 
 
*Just like Chilly, the Elf who Cannot Love.

31 Jul 2009, Comments (11)

Ad Nauseum: No. No. No. No. Just: No.

Author: Helen

You probably thought this post was going to be about this, but it’s another instance of “what were they thinking?”

I accidentally clicked on this while I was reading something on a site with ads. Do you ever do that? and then bitterly regret it?

Can you imagine walking into your study, or living room, or whatever and being confronted with.. Aaiiieeeee! Yikes!
 
It\'s personalised Ernie!

Yes, you are correct, that’s an … urn. For the Disembodied Head’s ashes.

That’d be your boyfriend, newlywed (ex)husband, nephew or grandkid depending on your age group, and still with the deer-in-headlights expression from the moment he turned around and saw the truck, the handbrake of which he’d neglected to secure, rolling toward him. W. T. F. If you’re an introvert and want to send any potential visitor screaming into the night, this product is highly recommended. Still, if I owned one of them, I’d be running screaming into the night myself.

2 Jul 2009, Comments (9)

We’ve been here before

Author: Helen

A couple are living in the same house. A child dies of catastrophic neglect. The mother is a prescription drug abuser and unable to cope with a (special needs) child, with heaven knows what other things going on, but clearly quite mentally incompetent.

The mother is charged with murder, but the father is charged only with manslaughter.

Where is this feeling of deja vu coming from?

Oh yes, this.

One year later:

The father’s defence was that his wife was the only person who could feed and care for their daughter because of her autism, and the mother had never indicated there was a problem with the girl.

What. a. crock.

The father is completely invisible in this account, except as “and her husband” at the beginning of the article. I did see a brief glimpse of him on the news, face pixillated, blaming the Department of Community Services. There’s a certain type of person that will find someone else to blame, no matter how damning the evidence.

So, let me get this straight: you’re an adult living in the same house with your married or de-facto long term partner, and your partner is not coping to the extent where she allows one child to die slowly over a period of weeks or months (with comcomitant disappearance of child, urine stench, etc); you demonstrate a shocking and callous lack of care towards both your daughter and her obviously unwell mother. And you’re considered less culpable.

I’d say he failed both of them. But it seems the Law here in Australia is still blindly essentialist. Or an Ass. Or both.

19 May 2009, Comments (10)

B-I-N-G-O

Author: Helen

For those of you who don’t live in Australia, this is about the Australian rugby team who “sexually assaulted” / “had group sex with” a nineteen year old girl in New Zealand a few years ago (according to our very coy media terminology.) The only player identified so far is Matthew Johns. The incident was reported in an ABC documentary program, Four Corners (Transcript here, and some followup information here.) For further reading, I’d recommend these posts at Radical Rayedish and Hoyden.

For once, the response to the news about the “group sex”, (as they call it), garnered a stronger response than the usual limp slap on the wrist. Matthew Johns was stood down from playing and coaching. He has been made to apologise, twice, on television for hurting his family (although not the victim of the group attack) and was sacked from a lucrative talking heads gig. And all hell has broken loose.

Over the last week or two we’ve all had more than enough in both the internet and mainstream press to fill up our bingo cards several times over. What were you doing out dressed like that?…Hearing this must be so hard for his family! …He’s rich. I think we all know what she’s after, hmmm?… What did she expect, going off with the two guys?…

Where Johns is not being portrayed as a victimised hero (Dear god, he’s only human! How many of us haven’t … Um, well, YMMV), the commentary on what he and the rest of the NRL fraternity get up to is infused with strangely essentialist arguments. One can’t help that suspect that the Evpsych rubbish that filters into the mainstream media is picked up and distorted by people who simply want to justify their behaviour. Radical Rayedish picked up on this astoundingly self-serving and stupid comment by a senior NRL official, who, with a million motivational courses and a dash of pseudoscience under the belt, tries to get all psychological on us:

STEVE BURRASTON, CEO NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS: These guys are pumped up, they are playing a very aggressive game and they are putting their bodies on the line, it’s fearless. …When we want them on the field we want them to be aggressive. They’ve got to make tackles, they’ve got to be fearless, then we want them to do things that other people don’t do. So we attract an aggressive, young, risk taking male. We give him a shower, put a suit on him and then say now we want you to be, you know, a submissive male. We want you to go out there and not have any problems, it’s very difficult to do that.

EXCUSE ME.
Burraston throws up his hands (What can you do?) because apparently, we must allow top sportsmen to use young girls as their personal meatsock, otherwise we have no choice but to make them into submissive males, which you just know he would have described as f**king p**fters except that he knew he was being interviewed by the ABC. What a steaming pile of crap that is.

And there we have it. The obverse of the misogynist distortions of the notion of consent where the woman falls on the wrong side of the madonna/whore complex (she was up for sex with Johns and one other, therefore, she shouldn’t have complained when the rest of the team jumped in, is pretty much the default position.) This is the idea of the manly man as a force that cannot control itself, and requires constant input from women on the right side of the madonna-whore complex to keep him in line. The fact that this is hardly complimentary to the men themselves escapes many commenters, as does the fact that this makes them close ideological kin to the wahabist nutters to whom they claim to be so superior (uncovered meat, anyone?)

But I notice these arguments aren’t used so much for men in other settings. We don’t, for instance, see high-risk-taking rock climbers, parachutists, ocean yachtsmen and sea kayakers regularly fronting up to the cameras pretending to apologise for their latest “gang bang” or euphemism du jour. I’m not sure how Mr Burraston would explain this one. Going around in a pack, poor socialisation, and being paid far too much money and being fawned upon constantly would probably explain more than any faux-psychological excuse based on the need for extra aggression to run around after a leather bladder.

9 Apr 2009, Comments (11)

Pratt, you’re a prat.

Author: Helen

Me (Watching football) Oh, he’s a nice looking guy. But unfortunately wearing the North Melbourne jumper. Thugs!*
SO: No, it’s not true any more. They’ve changed!

Ah mmm, no.

And don’t tell me their oh-so-sincere apology had nothing to do with keeping their major sponsor.

26 Dec 2008, Comments (22)

‘Tis the season to be gritting our teeth and smiling gamely and maybe reconsidering the Vodka supply to the younger ones

Author: Helen

I don’t believe in interbreeding, myself. We need to preserve the Aryan race. That’s what I think.

…Actual conversation at the annual Christmas party of the Eartha Kitt Memorial Dog’s home and Cattery. She’s a relatively recent starter, has been there about a year. Has young children but looks all of twenty-one, bubbly, pretty, enthusiastic like a golden retriever. She’s already done and said one or two things that make me go “hmmm”.

Yeah, I know some people think it’s a bit shocking. Hitler. You know Hitler? Well, basically his philosophy. (Deprecating laugh). Well, I didn’t agree with the things he did, of course, but yeah, his philosophy pretty much. The Aryan race has to reproduce itself and not be bred out.

Of course, I can’t talk. I’m a bit of a fuckup myself, my husband’s a Kiwi, my kids are mixed race, so I’ve fucked up there.

I sit, clutching my glass of champagne, staring out over the city and wondering what her beautiful kids would think about being a fuckup. Next to me is R, second-generation Indian Australian. His profile gives nothing away. I’d say he’s been here before.

“So, A. Do you know what Aryan means?” he asks.

“Yeah! It means blonde hair and blue eyes.”

R. turns to me. “Do you know what Aryan means, Helen?”

“Um, well, as far as I know “Aryan” refers to people originally from the subcontinent.”

“That’s right. A: Aryans were asian.” A. looks doubtful, but defers to R, who’s a manager.

This woman doesn’t just work where I work. She lives in my suburb and we bump into each other regularly on the train. Her boys play sport with Exploding Boy.

We change the subject.

I watch the evening sun creeping over the steeple of St Patrick’s. I knock my champagne back and make my excuses.

13 Dec 2008, Comments (12)

So many different things to mourn

Author: Helen

So a fifteen year old boy has been killed, and we find he’s been hanging out with a violent neo-nazi group and making Bundy-and-coke his totem. See also.

Besides the fact that someone’s child is dead, there is so much to mourn in this story.

That an organisation like Southern Cross Soldiers can exist in my city.

That this happened in a suburb I love, where my daughter spent her toddlerhood. And no doubt in my suburb too, I just don’t know who.

That the kid’s friends and associates spew hatred and intolerance (H/T FDB), on his MySpace page, seemingly in inverse relation to their command of the english language, while one of the more literate ones complains about “hearing more foreign languages than we do english“. As the kids’d say, ironic much?)

That this is where the kids who aren’t doing so well with the reading and thinking go to get their ideas.

That drinking Bundy and Coke is celebrated on their MySpace sites like it’s their only identity and their only recreation, besides moaning about ethnicity.

That organisations like Southern Cross Soldiers feed on these poor kids.

That if you think this kind of hatred is confined to the underclass, yer dreamin’.

That Tyler’s parents don’t seem to be at all concerned about the violent neo-nazi milieu their son got into, and his habitual drinking at 15, instead focusing on making him an anti-police Cause Celebre. (There may be circumstances I’m not aware of, but they come across as enablers in the news reports.)

That he was once their baby, a bundle of potential.

Just the waste of it all.

Here’s a comment from his MySpace page: a lonely kid, who doesn’t fit the Bundy-and-Coke party-hearty image of the other avatar pics. She sits with her arms around her knees. Her pretty bespectacled eyes look up into the camera. She projects the sweetness of a kid anxious to fit in. Evidently she’s a bit on the outer but she sees Tyler as someone to look up to. FSM help us.

Special K. ♫
12 Dec 2008 01:22 AM
this is the dew saying her goodbyes.
wow, i’ve just figured out know that it was you.
im sorry mate, i just don’t know what to say.
would have been nice to get to know you more.
rest in peace lil buddy.
stupid lil island.

Give her ten years and she won’t be sweet any more.

9 Nov 2008, Comments (25)

Atlas Sulked

Author: Helen

I blame Belle.

Belle of John and Belle have a Blog trawls the streets of Wingnuttia bringing back choice bits of weirdness, like those eighteenth-century scientists who sailed to foreign parts and brought back strange things in formaldehyde, for our amazement. After snerking at Belle’s offerings I couldn’t resist the urge to don my protective gear and go dumpster diving in Wingnuttia for myself. Last week it was the Randroids: people who follow the “philosophy” of the rightwing novelist Ayn Rand, especially Atlas Shrugged, her hymn to the ubermensch.

Do you know what the Randroids plan to do now that Obama has been elected? They’re going to chuck the biggest hissy fit of all time, spit the dummy and throw all their toys out of the cot.

It’s called Going John Galt. And while, of course, Wingnuttia has plenty of scary people who are talking about assault weapons, most of these rebellious John Galts are going to fight back with…Vegetable gardening! ….Downshifting! …Canning! … Keeping goats! Oooh!

It’s almost as if they were going to turn into dirty hippies like us lefties in the 1970s, only a perverted and twisted version. Downsizing, treechanging, getting off the fossil fuel grid, but with intent to sabotage rather than make the world a better place. Taking wealth out of the system, sacking all your employees, deliberately becoming an underachiever because, of course, the Democrats plan to steal it all your money from you. Hiding your wealth offshore, finding every tax evasion scheme they can. (Yes, they plan to carry out fraud on a large scale.)
“Pete”:

I sold my business.
I sold several properties, two of them to my children at a significant “loss.” (Ka-Ching!)

(How does this make sense? He’s allowing his children to continue feeding the Beast!)

I’m raising a great deal of my own food and have taken to raising sheep and poultry. All for personal consumption, not sale.
I live in a rural area, so while Andy and Bob and Charlie might buy some sheep to be raised by me, Andy is buying swine, Bob is buying beef, etc.
Canning. Freezing.
Buying bulk.

“Heatherfeather”:

Definitely withdraw all talents from society. Doing this will increase the tax burden on the blind supporters of the exploitative government until they will be unable to bear the burden and the government will collapse under it’s own inefficiency.
When that happens, don’t be living anywhere close to a big city. My husband and I left LA three years ago, live in the country (near a small town) and try to be as self-sufficient as possible (live within our means). I know when the s#%^ goes down, nobody up here will starve.

“Militant Infidel”:

I will soon be leaving a full time job (~60 hours per week) for a part-time job (~30 hours per week). My Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) will likely fall about 25% (yes, it pays significantly better). Surprisingly though, my after tax income will only fall about 10%. How could this be? It is simple, really. My biggest expense after income taxes is my mortgage (with deductable interest) and property taxes (income tax deductable). With the deductions and 25% reduction in AGI, my income tax bill will fall by 40%!!! Not a bad start at “starving the beast”.
This does not include the opportunity that the extra hours at home would provide in regard to untaxed wealth in improving productivity of our goat herd, poultry flock and vegetable garden. The grocery savings alone would make up a significant percentage of the AGI reduction.

On a brighter note, one commenter points out that the Randroids and the MRAs, as you’d expect, overlap – and some MRA Randroids are expressing their protest by refusing to make themselves available for marriage. Where can we send donations to support this excellent protest?

Funny, isn’t it, that so many of these things are quite dear to the hearts of us Dirty Fucking Hippies lefty Greenies? Solar electricity, growing one’s own food, not working excessive hours. Working to live, not living to work, all that. And they come to that excellent conclusion for such a perverse reason.

25 Oct 2008, Comments (8)

Killing off the grass roots

Author: Helen

Many people who begin a career in local politics start by being passionate about an issue. They stand for Council to try to make a difference. Others are political timeservers and seat warmers who are using the place as a stepping stone to bigger things. Many in my state, Victoria, never met a developer they didn’t like.

If you’re thinking of becoming one of the passionate issue-driven ones, now you can forget about it. Under a proposed amendment to the Local Government act, making a submission on any topic in, it seems, any forum, disqualifies a councillor from voting on measures related to that topic. Greens MLC Greg Barber:

Councillors can be banned from voting on any Council matter if they have previously chosen to:

(ii) make an objection or submission in relation to the matter.
* It doesn’t have to be a submission you made to the Council you are running for. If you made a submission to a state government review, your Council forming its position on the same review could be seen to be the same ‘matter’.
* It’s irrelevant what you said in your submission, whether for, against or neutral on a proposal. Writing the submission automatically gives you a conflict of interest.
* It doesn’t have to be a personal submission. You could be an office bearer of a group or other entity and be held responsible for the submission your group made.

Example: Katherine is a local councillor and also the Treasurer of the local Landcare group, who wrote a submission to the Minister for Water on a proposal to declare certain wetlands as protected. Later, the Minister writes to Katherine’s council asking them for their position on the matter. Katherine can’t vote.

* It could be a verbal submission you made by speaking at a council meeting. It doesn’t matter what you said, because the only necessary action is that you made a submission.
* It’s retrospective. Any submission you made in the past could knock you out of voting at any time on the future.

Example: Ian made a submission to his council’s proposed by-law on footpath trading rules. Some time later he is elected to council. Five years after the law was first created, Council considers running a review of the law. Councillor Ian can’t even vote on whether or not to review the law because he made a submission on the original version.

(H/T to Kieran Bennett).

This means that everyone who’s ever spoken out on forests, water policy, Alpine grazing, toxic waste dumps next to housing developments or any other debatable topic is muzzled from here on in, and everyone who hasn’t is prevented from making submissions or otherwise speaking out in the future.

It occurs to me that every time Councils vote, someone has to find out exactly who has ever made a submission on each motion, and as shown above, there’s a multiplicity of fora that have to be searched. For each Council member. Who’s going to do this work? Who pays for this?

Welcome to Victoria: government by time servers, seat warmers and people who endorse big projects and inappropriate development – but have been careful not to make any noise about it.
 
 
 
Crossposted at Road to Surfdom

13 Oct 2008, Comments (3)

How amusing.

Author: Helen

A story from Yahoo News, via Shakesville:

In an upstate New York county, hundreds of voters have been sent absentee ballots in which they could vote for “Barack Osama.”

This was reported in the AGE.

Where? On the front page.

Good. Because we need to report that kind of stuff so the whole world knows about how Obama is being dog-whistled by some people. (That post was Shakesville’s Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch part 92.)

Where on the front page?

The Odd Spot.

The ODD SPOT? (that tiny section for little info-bites on cute, weird, pratfalls and two-headed chickens?)

Oh.

Good one, Fairfax.

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