Monday, October 21, 2013

Bushfires in NSW - appeal for Kessing

Hi - just a quick note...
There's probably very few of you who do not know about the NSW bushfires - the media cover is pretty pervasive/invasive. My thoughts are with those who are on standby for evacuation - like blogger, Weezil. Thoughts are also with Customs whistleblower, Alan Kessing. Not only has Mr Kessing been cleaned out defending himself from government reprisals, but now, he has had his newly-built, uninsured home burnt to the ground :{
He very bravely and selflessly mused that there were victims of the bush fires far worse off than him. Blogger - freedom of information lawyer Peter Timmins is taking the hat around for Mr Kessing, who is living in his shed, which, ironically was left standing & untouched by the fire front. If you'd like to donate something that this poor bloke might be needing - perhaps food, clothes, dollars or anything else that you think could be helpful, you can find the details on Open & Shut.
Please keep the firees & the community in your thoughts/prayers.
Respect, Mags.



Sorry, I hope I didn't leave you guys in the dark. I probably should have just left last week's updates here so that anyone reading at a later date would know how things worked out - so, on the Tuesday night after I posted this, a big storm came along - some areas in the Blue Mountains got only a little rain while others, got a lot. It was hot & windy the next day - just as if the storm hadn't arrived and the bushfires kept burning, but they were not as catastrophic as estimated. I have got this link, which has a bit of a summary of the situation as it stands. And, I want to say a big thanks for the prayers/thoughts/wishes and support from my readers for those suffering as a result of these fires. Bush fires are a part of Australian existence and every year they cause a lot of grief and loss. The firees did a great job.

What post?

So this is another filling-in-type, makeshift post. Ben Hur (aka, the giant, significant post that hasn't yet arrived) has not trimmed himself down yet and it would seem it is up to me. Nonetheless, there's a need to post, and I am a bit over fb-ing & tweeting. It's so anecdotal. When you're busy it's helpful but those mediums have their limitations. Do people you mean to read those fb posts read them, or just the people no one wants? How can you ever tell? - no traffic widget.  Things have been heavy in the news lately - big issues to talk about (such as, the erosion of the separation of powers [a basic democratic legal tenet] in social control order laws [pre-emptive rather than by trial] passed in Qld last week) but, just for a moment, please excuse some fleeting levity.

They say that the truth is stranger than fiction. Crypto-history (oft misunderstood and maligned), or 'pseudohistory', just kills me - slays me in the aisle. Funny, weird and occasionally, challenging. One of my favourites - one of the funniest crypto-history inspired vlog series that I have seen, is The Stuff They Don't Want You To Know. Hell-arious!!!! I often watch their podcasts when I am working out & my riotous giggling does attract some unusual visual evaluations from those nearby.

I especially love the part where the guy with the funny voice (Ben) says..."and here's where it gets ker-razee..." It's almost snort-worthy, because in reality a lot of the stuff they cover is pretty crazy from the outset. Even covering it in the first place is pretty "ker-razee" but it sure beats censorship, it's funny (as previously stated) AND, just every now and then, they raise something that is really quite substantial, but not in the best interests of the general pop-media or mainstream media to examine. For example, the segment about banning lobbying (only quite recently outlawed in little sleepy-old backwoods Queensland - one house of parliament - need I say more), and those about dodgy old PR-the hand is faster than the ball-trickster, Bernays, were so excellently researched.

I was watching this podcast on General Smedley Butler yesterday (below) and I thought for crypto-history it was pretty well argued - not particularly hilarious and on the Guffaw Suggestibility Scale I might give it, say, only a one. This one about the remote viewing program that inspired the movie Men Who Stare At Goats, should have been a 3, but fell a bit short on ludicrousness; and, more generally, the ones about aliens, illuminati, sasquatches  and time travel usually rate fairly highly with me, and, if the writers can combine all of those into one program (e.g.-a segment on aliens infiltrating the illuminati who have time travelled with a sasquatch and got voted in as PM) all the better - almost Dr Who-like - the key is definitely in the delivery of the spooky voice.

This clip's pretty self-explanatory, but basically it equates to a 1930s plot by a group of servicemen to overthrow Roosevelt, one of those implicated was the grandfather of George Bush (senior). Turn back n-o-w...



Sunday, October 13, 2013

Pace-setters or compliants - will that be a seat in the thinking or non-thinking section?

So, I am busy with uni again - (d'oh, sorry!) and I have a blog post I have been working on that is rapidly becoming bigger than Ben Hur & as such, it will require a little tweaking. So, I thought in the meantime I'd post this little post/analysis that was published elsewhere by my fabulously clever friend, Lila*. (L - I don't want you getting blog stalked so I am not giving you full attribution - tell me off when you see me :}}) whose birthday it is today...
Happy birthday!
 
This is a sad topic, but I think *Lila makes a very good point that is important to remember here, in Australia, where so many of us live in comfort, while others are suffering in our society because of past bigoted assimilation government policies that have been acknowledged through the national apology - but can never be redressed. The government propaganda that accompanied that assimilation era, set up a pattern of racial bias in our news media that still perpetuates unfair treatment for Indigenous and CALD sources and circumvents adequate political pressure for appropriate and equitable social reform. Because of a pre-conditioned and existing culture of tolerance for racist drivel, this negative approach to news reporting also spreads to affect any minority and also to class-based bigotry, as well. So, I think the message below to me, anyway, says to resist unpalatable racist conditioning that occurs in repetitive negative representations of certain ethnicities in the mainstream media and news, and to consume your media consciously - don't just tune in and absorb unhealthy nonsense. And, also, to encourage others to question the Australian news and other pop media material that you consume and that the kids watch. (turn it off & read a book!)
 
From Lila -
*not her real name...
 
 
"In a detailed and comprehensive study titled The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe, sociologists Samuel and Perl Oliner interviewed over 400 individuals who had placed their own and their family's live at risk in order to hide and rescue Jews. These rescuers were compared to a group of non-rescuers, who disagreed with the persecution of Jews but took no action to protect th...em. Both groups were asked an exhaustive battery of questions about a wide range of personal attributes, their personal and family backgrounds. ...

[T]he Oliners found that there were no significant differences between rescuers and non-rescuers in almost any of the categories of attributes. The two groups were not dissimilar in economic status, in exposure to opportunities for rescuing, in religious faith, or in risks involved. Rescuers and non-rescuers were equally likely to live among Jews and know them as friends or acquaintances. Members of both groups were asked for help by Jews with the same frequency. So why if both groups were equal in their circumstances, was one group's care and conviction strong enough to motivate life-risking action? The only distinguishing feature that set apart the rescuers from the non-rescuers, was the way they were reared as children. ...

Rescuers reported that their parents had placed much less emphasis on 'obedience'. They tended to describe their relationship with their parents as closer and warmer. Both groups reported being 'disciplined' by their parents with equal frequency, but the parents of rescuers had used non-violent methods of 'discipline'. Rescuers reported having been beaten a lot less as children, and certainly not with objects such as rods, wooden spoons or birches.

There is probably no clearer evidence that childhood shapes society. There is no more compelling and convincing imperative to abandon violent and punitive child-rearing methods. The willingness to take altruistic action, even when this poses a risk, and the willingness to defy dishonourable authority, these are signs of emotional maturity - the product of non-violent and respectful child rearing. If more Europeans had been raised in this way around the turn of the 20th century, there would not have been a Holocaust."