Bhutto

Bhutto

It wasn’t such a surprise, we suppose, but Benazir Bhutto’s reported assassination, while it saddens us as another display of humanity’s inability to grow up, confirms our contempt for religion in general and that one in particular.

Let those who constantly proselytise for their imaginary friends in the sky now loudly proclaim again how religion is the only source of morality and ethical living and how preferable it is to the evil godlessness of thoughtful, rational choices made on the basis of the verifiably real world, human needs and human relationships.

We haven’t had any particular opinion about Bhutto. We have read and heard both that she was charismatic and Pakistan’s only hope and that she was completely corrupt and as Prime Minister would be the worst possible thing to happen to Pakistan.

We simply don’t know.

We don’t think it matters.

Pakistan is a toilet, a disaster. It always has been. It is not just corrupt. It is, irretrievably, Corruption itself. And yes, we’ve been there.

It has no foreseeable hope of redemption and advancement until it gets rid of its religious madmen and its military loonies.

And that’s not going to happen.

No half-rational, half-intelligent politician, let alone an honest one, is now going to take the country on.

Sane people prefer to live.

Happy Saturnalia

Happy Saturnalia

 

Absolute relaxation and unrestrained merriment 

 

 This time of year is a traditional celebration of the birth of an extraordinary man – a long-haired mystic who revealed the secrets of the universe and forever changed the way we see the world. He is one of the most universally revered historical figures of all time.

Yes, 25 December (in the “Old Style“) is the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton.

His birthday was retrospectively celebrated in antiquity by the Romans in the festival of Saturnus, or the Saturnalia

Or perhaps the birthday of Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun. Other cultures also celebrated the winter solstice as Yule, or the birthdays of various gods.

The Romans attributed to the god Saturnus the introduction of agriculture and the arts of civilized life. Falling towards the end of December, at the season when the agricultural labours of the year were fully completed, it was celebrated in ancient times by the rustic population as a sort of joyous harvest-home, and in every age was viewed by all classes of the community as a period of absolute relaxation and unrestrained merriment.

 

During its continuance no public business could be transacted, the law courts were closed, the schools kept holiday, to commence a war was impious, to punish a malefactor involved pollution. Special indulgences were granted to the slaves of each domestic establishment; they were relieved from all ordinary toils, were permitted to wear the pileus, the badge of freedom, were granted full freedom of speech, partook of a banquet attired in the clothes of their masters, and were waited upon by them at table.

 

All ranks devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were exchanged among friends, cerei or wax tapers being the common offering of the more humble to their superiors, and crowds thronged the streets.

Seems oddly familiar…

It was Newton who formalised the importance of gravity in the motion of the planets and his laws remain largely the basis on which today we are able to compute the trajectories and forces to send spacecraft to explore our solar system. (with a little help from Einstein)

One of these craft, Cassini, has been exploring Saturn and its moons and sending back amazing images. Last year it sent back this extraordinary [mosaic] image:

You will be able to notice this:

Interior to the G ring and above the brighter main rings is the pale dot of Earth. Cassini views its point of origin from over a billion kilometers (and close to a billion miles) away in the icy depths of the outer solar system.

 

This image of Saturn is eerily reminiscent of a monument to Newton that was never built.

 

Étienne-Louis Boullée was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects and is still influential today… His style was most notably exemplified in his proposal for a cenotaph for the English scientist Isaac Newton, which would have taken the form of a sphere 150 m (500 ft) high embedded in a circular base topped with cypress trees. Though the structure was never built, its design was engraved and circulated widely in professional circles.

So Happy Saturnalia to one and all!

And as our special seasonal gift to you, here are two videos to put a smile on the face of you, your friends and family:

 

Germany vs Greece: The Millennial Match

 

 

Women: Know Your Limits

  

 

Lex Australia

Lex Australia

 

Came across an old post at Gavin Putland’s Leges Dubiae blog which coincides with what we tried to say way back when Haneef was the name on everyone’s lips.

Given the change of government and all, it seems timely to question this preposterous example of the legislative legacy of the Howard years.

It wasn’t so much about the guilt or innocence of Haneef, or the appalling mismanagement of the case by the Federal Police under the even more appallingly incompetent and bloody Mick Keelty. It was that the law under which Haneef was arrested and charged was stupid, or, as Putland puts it, “dubious”. Haneef is not a citizen of Australia and the act for which he was charged (giving his Sim Card to someone “with reckless disregard” for whether that person was a terrorist) was carried out in another country.

The whole idea is ludicrous. Putland says:

” Although the Statute of Westminster gave the Australian Parliament the power to make laws with “extra-territorial operation”, it has always been understood that such operation would affect only Australian citizens. By charging Haneef, Australia is now asserting the power to make laws binding on non-Australians outside Australia.”

As Alex Downer would have said, “That’s pwepostewous!” (God, don’t we miss him already?)

The problem even goes further.

This is what Haneef was charged with:

” intentionally providing resources to a terrorist organisation consisting of persons including Sabeel Ahmed and Kafeel Ahmed, his cousins, being reckless as to whether the organisation was a terrorist organisation”

This pre-empts British law, since the British have never charged either Ahmed brother with being a member of a “terrorist organisation”, and such an assertion, had it even been made, has never been tested in a court whether British or Australian. (Indeed, it was not even legally established or legally asserted at the time that the incident was a “terrorist act”.) Nevertheless, the Australian Federal Police, by making the charge under the extra-territorial powers of the you beaut Ruddock/Keelty legislation, arrogated the pre-eminence of Australian law over British law. That is just plain dumb.

The Lex Romana was intended (we appear to recall from long ago) to simplify and organise all the laws for all people under Rome’s sway. It is said to be Rome’s most important, lasting and unique gift to the world.

But now if Australia can make laws for the whole of the rest of the world – not just , Australians, Australia and its territories – and if every other nation, therefore, can also, with equal justification, make laws for everyone in the world, then we have a little more confusion than was intended by the codification of Roman law.

Saudi Arabia, for example, could take Australia’s example and under its extraterritorial powers impose Sharia law on non-Saudis living in Australia (i.e. most of us). It could then apply for extradition to Saudi Arabia of anyone it had reason to believe had committed adultery, say, so that they could be stoned to death – or perhaps just the women, in Sharia’s very civilised and enlightened way.

Yes, it sounds like a joke but it’s not. The law is a joke. But this joke of a law was seriously applied to Mohamed Haneef and threatened to send him to prison in Australia for fifteen very serious years.

And you know, the terrible irony is that the law was written (so hastily and so abominably poorly) with only one purpose in mind – the re-election of the Howard government…….

Oops!

The law is even worse and more stupid than this and you can read more of what we said in July. And here is a distillation of the relevant sections of the law under which Haneef was charged.

In a nutshell, the law means that:

if anyone, whether Australian or not, anywhere in the world, sells, shares, or gives any thing or any service, to anyone anywhere in the world, and they do not take reasonable and verifiable steps to assure themselves that the person to whom they provide the thing or service is not [or could not at some indeterminate time in the future be deemed to be] a terrorist or part of a terrorist organisation and they do not take reasonable steps to assure themselves that the person (or organisation) could not use it or plan to use it in any way as part of a terrorist act then they may be found guilty of the same crime that Haneef was charged with and spend fifteen years in prison.

So of course it’s ridiculous. But it’s no joke.

And it is still Australian law.

Mouldy Media Pop-Tart

Mouldy Media Pop-Tart

 

 

Just a question:

Why do we have to keep putting up with fatuous, mouldy, media pop-tart, Gerard Henderson, spouting all over the place?

This pompous irrelevance who ludicrously has laid claim to being in the political centre, whose prognostications and insights have proved so utterly wrong for so long – why do they keep trundling him out? Is it just because his is the number they have on speed-dial? There he was again tonight on Lateline.

Why?

If the ABC wants really accurate, insightful, expert commentary why don’t they talk to Possum, Mumble, the Pollbludger, Simon Jackman and Bryan at OzPolitics?

These guys along with the ABC’s own Antony Green were the most interesting, most expert and most accurate commentators on the campaign and the polling.

So when can we hope to see the end of the influence of the appalling Albrechtsen and the other Howard political appointees on the ABC Board? When will they put Henderson out to the right-wing pasture where he belongs?

Just asking…

Hi …

Hi …

Hi!

 

 

Hi Hi!

 

 (gulp)

Hi hi ho!

(gulp)

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

The national result, the result in Bennelong and the role the Greens played in getting Labor over the line are a clear enough repudiation of Howard’s political ideology.

Thanks to Possum, to the Pollbludger, to Ozpolitics, to Mumble and to Simon Jackman.

But especially thanks to Possum (whose site now sports the baseball bat) for helping to keep us sane through the scary last days.

So we’d just like to say to our old mate and penpal, Bob Correll:

We’re sorry, Bob that you’ll have to deal with the fact that it was largely your own hard work, in DEWR and as Deputy Secretary in DIC, that was responsible for so much of the swing against the government.

I’m sure you’ll be more than aware of just what effective and efficient services are provided to people in search of employment – as we expect you shortly to be – by CentreLink and the Job Network Members you helped to set up. (Perhaps you could show your mate Mick Keelty how to get there.)

So vale, Bob, old mate.

Such Is Life

Such Is Life

“Unemployed at last!”

 

 We think this is the best Australian novel ever written. Yes, we know there are many contenders and perhaps The Tree of Man comes a close second.

But to us, at least, Such Is Life by “Tom Collins” (Joseph Furphy), published in 1903, is the best literary expression of enduring Australian values and character.

The colour and variety of the characters; Furphy’s obvious affection for the people who sparsely, but so vibrantly, populate the bush; the good-humoured, fatalistic, attitude to the daily struggle; the disrespect for authority (now on the brink of extinction); the sense of the Australian bush which is not so much read as absorbed from the pages; the hilariously laconic humour; and the story-telling genius of the author; all of this would be enough.

But most of all we like Furphy’s own description of the book:

‘temper, democratic;
bias, offensively Australian’.

In fact this is so perfect that we want it for our own motto. Indeed, why not for Australia’s motto?

 

 

The 1956 dustjacket says:

” Such Is Life cannot be described: it has to be read. And when it has been read it will be read again for the pleasure that its human greatness and its subtle craftsmanship give.

 

“First published in 1903, this book is an Australian classic whose stature has grown with the years, whose intricacies and strength have been the subject of endless discussions and literary essays. ‘Tom Collins’ (who was Joseph Furphy) is widely held to be the greatest and most individual of Australian writers – partly, perhaps, because his ideals are those which all true democrats most resolutely cherish.

 

… in stressing its Australian core we must not forget that it is also unique in English literature. The author’s genius soars above accepted rules and forms, creating in rare and beautiful language a work that is all of life as he knew it.

 

“No less great as a man than as a writer, Tom Collins wrote with the complete sincerity of one whose independence of mind and essential honesty made him discard all forms of sham. Wit, shrewd observation and delicious humour are blended in this richly entertaining book to give an illuminating picture of humanity and of Australia.”

What makes this novel so relevant today? In the light of Tony Abbott’s “excellent” advice about WorkChoices’ protections, it’s the first line of Such Is Life:

Unemployed at last!