Thursday, February 26, 2009

Would ya like fries with that?

From Swift & Shift


Soft targets drive-thru a new frontier as some desperate dan tries his luck on a sleepy old Tuesday night in a suspect suburb.

Maybe it's the preservatives and addictives additives in take aways, or the selective pricing policy read 'aggressive pricing strategy" of the US chain that has strung-out junk food eaters hopping mad? It seems refined foods and writing posts like this could be detrimental to one's health.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Peter swaps tshirt for green tracksuit

The Greens are objecting to the politics of Federal Environment minister Peter Garrett, who says his views 'are maturing,' as he distances himself from his socialist political beliefs that he made his fortune from as an angry young rock muso.

Since the election lefties have needled Garrett over giving the greenlight to uranium mining, back peddling on Indigenous rights and equality, & standing silent over really rather secret military installations operating in Australia that don't happen to even be Australian, so is GLW correct - has he sold his 'soul' or maybe, depending on what you thought of his music, he didn't have any to begin with? You'd have to wonder after watching this performance...



The grounding for Garrett's political career seems to have been limited to his public profile as front man for Midnight Oil all those years ago, and his rebellious lyrics.

But, unlike former rock drummer Andrew Bartlett, who has done his homework and then some, Garrett's policies seem to be curiously at odds with basic left-wing, or even centrist values, and he sadly appears not to be 'growing' into his role as a key Labor minister - big shoes to fill, even for the most experienced polly.

Does Garrett's failure to perform merely hark back to that age-old bias of instrumentalists vs vapid vocalists?

The 'maturing' statement, along with his recent policy decisions, seem decidedly un-Labor-like, but could potentially be quite Howard-esque.

Policerazzi

A Queensland criminal lawyer has claimed that legislative amendments designed to bring the state's surveillance practices into line with other states' will impinge on privacy more than those before.

He stressed his point by saying that they would now be able to monitor all communications, "be they speech, music or sounds, data, text, images or signals."

Jokes aside about the type of person who'd find those things interesting enough to "eavesdrop" on, what Mr Cockburn fails to mention is that in the USA a group of Attorneys General had to subpoena MySpace to ban 90,000 pedophiles who were utilizing the site for unacceptable and illegal activities, and a similar situation existed with Facebook.

Though some might argue that privacy is well worth protecting, and that there are some officers who aren't anything to write home about, having some checks and balances on public forums isn't necessarily all bad.

The lawyer called the Public Interest Monitor(PIM) a 'toothless tiger,' always a great formula for winning friends and influencing people, and said they would be unable to stem the abuse of the Qld Police's new super powers.

Poor old PIM, incidentally, has lobbied the government for greater funding with which to monitor their potentially wrongful activities - hmmn...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Loopycalia

The day that was to emerge as a pseudo-Christian festival, St Valentine's Day, was originally called Lupercalia by Ancient Romans and heralded the day upon which people would meet in the town centre and, among other activities, select their partner for the coming year, romantic love aside.

It's suggested that notions of romance only crept in to the process when Romans sought to Christianize their predominantly pagan society.

So, did the onset of Chrisitianity spell the demise of free love and ultimately spring forth the inception of very costly love?

This erosion or creep is also visible in Wiccan norms where there seems to have been an attrition of hand-fasting as an annual renewal(or not, as the case might be).

Perhaps this changed over time to bridge the gaps between the current law and mainstream cultural practice that still conforms to secular ideas of monogamy and/or having only one (heterosexual) partner for life, despite contemporary society being decidedly post-Christian and people living a hell of a lot longer these days than they did when the idea originated.

With divorce rates indicating that most marriages fail within the first few years, many would argue that the year and a day loophole should be available for marriage. But, adherence to the widely outdated, but quaint, cultural practice of marriage generates considerable yearly revenue not just for those in the 'bridal industry/ies,' but also for lawyers...et al

However, while divorce rates were still rising in 2007, figures for 2008 indicate an easing of that freefall in domestic bliss, although this may just be a reflection of the drop in the number of people getting married.

Last year's ABS stats(2007)also show marriage seems to be becoming a last minute thing - that not only are people leaving it till later on in life to marry, they are also divorcing later in life as well.

Additionally, the latest social trends stats released, 2008, show women in that age range are having babies almost 20% less often than a decade ago. This appears a bit at odds with the improvements in health care and government spin about former federal treasurer Peter Costello's Baby bonus generation, prompted by his financial incentives to mass produce children to counter the Baby Boomers-attributed ageing population.

While the ABS research cautions that vigilance is required by government to ensure their policies improve the earnings of women because they've remained largely unchanged and inequitable, over the last 25 years women have generally been free to become more financially independent than they were, through accessible education and training.

In Christian marriage ceremonies vows of obedience(groan) have thankfully pretty much become a thing of the past, with more equality possible for women via society progressing culturally - maybe multiculturally, beyond the mind-set of woman's worth being on par with the village mule or ox, although the practice of 'giving the bride away,' is somewhat more insidious.

Even in less patriarchal belief systems the theme of a binding, or bond(age), seems to be fairly consistent along with an(reckless)abandonment of a single lifestyle and whatever that might embody.

So readers, whether consuming or undertaking other activities mindlessly, today -
when you mark your moniker on that dotted line -
as you're handing your hard-earned moola over the counter,
delivering the goods, bringing home the bacon,
or simply saying the words your loved one/s have long-hoped to hear, hostage to consumerism,
take a breath & pause for a moment to consider those who have gone before you,
and just how much you might be signing up for, what, and for how long.

Forgive the devil's advocate, this tune is very snaky...

Monday, February 09, 2009

Where to now?

All the justice degenerates who used to hang out at the Gotcha blog on The Australian website will know well, the all-eyes and ears, pseudo-omnipotent commentary of old school crime hack, Gary Hughes.

The blog went on an extended holiday, and it was whispered among it's loyal and recalcitrant commenters, that it may have been requiring too many leisure hours spent on moderation... no further said...

Browsing the covers in the newsagent this morning for a deserving read, the shrill screams of tabloids struggled to find enough adjectives to out-do each other and, sensibilities offended, the Magnet settled for the only paper not impinging on the senses or demanding an obligatory outpouring of tears, the ever-dignified Australian Financial Review.

Whilst queueing for lunch, one small title on the stand next to the till reached out for my attention - A plastic keyring saved all our lives - The Australian's Gary Hughes tells of his family's miracle survival.

Unpolished and unspun, GH, recounted a minute-by-minute experience of living through the worst bushfire in the country's history.

His description of the experience of watching the fire-front gradually burn through his house and drive its occupants to their last chance to survive, in the car parked outside, was chilling - more so knowing the many that the same last-hope tactic tragically failed to save - this evening the count of those who lost the battle is 200, and rising.

The darkness that accompanies a fire, is one threat that not many people would immediately consider - perhaps the heat, or the chance of smoke inhalation, but the disorientation from panic and lack of visibility significantly reduces the likelihood of survival.

Hughes' last minute scramble for the keys that he just could not find, amid that panic and billowing black smoke, silently brought home the heart-stopping reality that the screaming headlines failed to convey.

The large plastic spider keyring (given to his wife by his daughter)finally helped him to find the keys in the dark, and it seems like a strange, coincidental piece of trivia that the spider is traditionally the totem of writers.

For so many years, Gary Hughes has illuminated readers of life and death struggles, and battles that no one can win without fortuitous and, sometimes, unexplained twists of fate.

Today GH had to tell his own story of survival and it didn't have the slick treatment he delivers to his sources. It was not pretty, nor was it polished, but a raw, disjointed, guttural cry from within, of courage, loss, fate, terror, and the inner-calm that kicks in when the survival instinct is triggered.

He questioned at the end of the story, where one starts after losing everything. The precious little things we accumulate & lose, or have to leave behind, define one's personal history and origins. But, it's our actions that define who we are, & actions such as Hughes' undoubtedly redefine a person and getting re-acquainted can take time.


Friday, February 06, 2009

Finders, brothers, keepers

So the You Tube site mentioned in the previous post has been closed. No explanations as to why and if there is anyone out there who would like to enlighten Magnet readers please feel free to email me. Unfortunately, it is only one of several, albeit that most of the others are far more balanced.




The International Federation of Journalists has released the mortality rates of journos for the year just passed, and they say that there has been a significant decrease in the media workers that have died in the course of their work.

109 deaths were recorded down from 2007’s all-time high of 175 deaths, however, they warn that 'the relief was short lived.'

"Ten colleagues died in January alone..either in targeted killing or as a direct result of their work."

So whether you're reading your morning newspaper, or catching Dateline, spare a thought for the journalists who strive to bring you news that will not only allow you to make truly informed decisions about the world you live in, but who in turn also affect social change via that shared knowledge.

Currently in Somalia, Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian freelance flasher, Nigel Brennan, are still held captive by their abductors who worryingly are dropping their ransome from $2.5 million to $100k.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Get a hobby

LANGUAGE WARNING:The following track uses the N word, and furthermore, the F word, so if you think they're very naughty - don't play this track, listen to the squeaky clean one at the end of the post :}}




In December, a person unknown, made some big claims on a curiously over-the-top website emblazoned with artwork belonging to a well-known Australian book, and thus exacerbated an already legendary Australian media bricking, which sent the recipient's life into a spiralling descent.

One could hardly suggest the falsehood behind the name isn't widely known.

Similarly, it is also hardly unusual for people with criminal fixations to publicly and misguidedly obsess over the subject's historic misdeeds, and his larger than life undoing.

Remorse has been conveyed previously for any negative influence that those crimes and the subsequent media coverage may have had, particularly on younger generations, and for the most part those sentiments have been observed and respected on both sides of the fence.

So, who would use another's artwork, and another's name, to further impact not only on vulnerable minds, but also on an ageing criminal who won't ever be able to obtain parole for as long as the crimes of his youth are perpetuated and re-played over and over again, infinitum?

The site's portrayal of him as a 'political prisoner' is an affront to the likes of selfless political prisoners, who put their lives on the line to improve the lives of others and the site's namesake doesn't claim to be any hero. Quite the opposite is true, and politics certainly are no focus of his - so a political prisoner, he aint!

The subject of the site is no different to any other Aussie crook.
Sadly, his criminal mastery was borne out of necessity, as a result of an absence of opportunity and a stark lack of options.

Such constant images of decades-old misdeeds continually skew public awareness of rehabilitation, and will inevitably circumvent future opportunity for reform and parole.

Maybe the author of this You Tube site, should front up for their actions, in the same way they unrelentingly call their namesake to task for his, though his date back 2 decades - not 2 months.

Additionally, last year the same inmate was also psychoanalyzed in his absence, based largely on the content of another book & that analysis was then used by a tabloid tv journo who is also a former NSW police officer.

Despite her mark courteously declining to be involved, and much pontification in her novel about ethics and the lack of it on the part of her 'notorious' criminal marks, the author proceeded to make the absent crook a feature of her novel seemingly as a hook for the true-crime market, without him actually even being analysed.

Media coverage of the crook occurred once again, against his wishes, in December & though it is in everyone's best interests for the man in question to be able to do his time in peace and privacy, the disempowerment of incarceration also prevents any opposition to such sites and such stories from being aired.

When inmates are so spectacularly drawn into the public eye, to society's detriment and their own, repeatedly, year-in year-out for a lifetime, perhaps they should have an opportunity to set the record straight?

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Progress

A newly released Productivity Commission report on government services has the national recidivism rate at 40% You can check out the report for yourselves here.

What the news brief doesn't say is that the figures that make up a large part of that national average are from Indigenous people gaoled for petty and minor offences - mostly traffic and disorderly conduct - continually arrested by a disproportional NT police representation.

It goes on to point out that the only two states to make any significant improvement are Victoria and Tasmania, & Queensland didn't rate a mention for maintaining a low average at 33.6% (judging on a 2 year period after parole), despite Friday's release.

Insiders suggest, however, that the federal figures the states use to play off against each other do not conform to European standards or the UN equivalent and that any scramble to show a marked improvement on such a scale, is indicative only of shortcuts on essential areas.

Nowhere is this more readily visible than in the repeat performance of the rooftop protest(video link) by prisoners - this time in Canberra, which highlights the ongoing plight of prisoners & detainees in Australia, since the country's colonization by the British as one giant gaol, almost 240 years ago.