Christmas Vortex

So I'm running a bath, yes right now. On 27 December 2010 I am running a hot bubble bath. What is with this weather?

It's been a really strange few days. I got sucked into the St Kilda Scandal vortex that is the internet forums and facebook sites. I've been doing my best to try and bring education to the masses about the age of consent and other 'topical' issues, as well as trying to encourage people to be less trollish and more compassionate.

Last night I watched Gangs of New York with Princess. It did not improve on second viewing.

And Christmas Day sucked balls. It was the least festive Christmas evah and by the time I went to sleep I wasn't talking to Clokes and he was starting to realise that maybe me complaining about it to him and then him NOT SAYING ANYTHING LIKE You know babe, sorry I know how you're feeling, the food was great was not the right way for him to play it.

That's all it would take. A little rub on the arm and a sorry, the food was delicious, thank you. Which he did the next morning after he noticed I still wasn't talking to him. But me spelling it out and then not getting any support? Hmmm.

Christmas has been complicated for me since the age of 14. It's the bane of many a child of divorce. But try adding a blended family into the mix and it becomes hell. Diarama when I can be bothered.
Hope all your Christmas Days were better than mine.

PS And I haven't even mentioned my father and the pathetic phone call Christmas afternoon, that I had to make after lack of contact for two weeks, and weak way he goes AWOL at Christmas most years.
See? The fourteen-year-old sad and disappointed little girl is still inside of me. BATH TIME!

Nude saints scandale

I'm all over it. It's an interesting case of sexual politics, media feeding, scorned woman, stupid doofus men.

But what's really shocking (though not surprising) is the speedy willingness of people in forums and commenters on news articles who want to call her skank, ho, slut.

And woman are their own worst enemies.

Why is a man called a 'legend' if he is sexually successful?

Why is a woman called a 'slut' if she acts the same way?

I have to say I admire her for standing up to what would be an intimidating and powerful behemoth (AFL, a bunch of grown men with money and power, Demetriou etc.) The vitriol and support she has on the Internet seems almost balanced so far; depends on the forum. Her formspring is loaded with supportive comments, her facebook everyone is mostly slagging her off. I've read her twitter as well, and seen the photos and her video responses to what's been going on.

I hope she comes through it ok. I'm embarrassed for Riewoldt, that people like me have seen his junk. He looks furious in the still photos, and he would be. No matter how she got the pictures, what on earth was he thinking? It's a posed photo but he's fully nude standing there next to another guy (wearing jeans and no shirt, holding out a wrapped condom) and in front of someone with a camera.

What was he thinking?

What's the definition of "spy"?

My Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Edn says:

1. one who keeps secret watch on the action of others

2. one employed by a government to obtain secret or intelligence, especially with reference to military or naval affairs of other governments


So the reason Mark Arbib is not being described as a spy by The Age is because:

1. we don't know whether he was in the employ of the US Government

2. we don't know how secret his observations were

3. he wasn't obtaining and passing on military or naval information; simply the internal workings of Labor party politics

4. he would sue The Age for defamation.

And is a spy someone who works for an enemy or opposite entity? That could also be a reason he can't be called a spy.

So informant then?

My Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus defines informant as:

See informer.

1. a person who informs against another
2. a person who informs or advises

1. informant, tell-tale, taleteller, stool-pigeon, US tattle-tale, colloq. supergrass, weasel, hist. beagle, sl. snitch, finger, squealer, nose, shopper, Austral. sl. fizgig, shelf, Brit. sl. grass, nark, Brit. school sl. sneak, esp. US sl. ratfink, US sl, fink, stoolie, US & Austral. sl. dog; traitor, betrayer, fifth-columnist, spy, rat, colloq. mole.
2. informant, source, reporter, correspondent, communicator, consultant, adviser, counsel, counsellor, guide, mentor.

Under the entry for "inform" -
2. turn informer, name names, colloq. scream, sl. sing, squeak, squeal, Brit. school sl. sneak (inform against or on), accuse, incriminate, inculpate, implicate, identify, betray, denounce, colloq. tell on, rat on, blow the whistle on, split on.

I'd settle for rat. It's pretty low and seems different to a sharing of resources which one might expect allied governments to engage in. I reckon it stinks and it stinks even more that he was one of the people who 'handled' the Rudd toppling.

How do we feel, knowing that one of our senators is in such close contact (for want of a better expression) with the US Embassy, and who might be influence by them and therefore influence our government?

I think it stinks.

Obligatory Julian Assange post

I'm not a little disturbed by the fact that there has been American communication (seedy? manipulative? undercover? pushy? instrumental? meddlesome?) with Mark Arbib who was instrumental in bringing down Rudd.

I'm also quite disturbed by Julia Gillard making the statement she did about Assange; using words like illegal in one breath while in another saying it wasn't clear whether it was illegal. Shades of David Hicks in a way; our country deciding a person is a Bad Guy without trial and leaving them to the mighty forces overseas.

What are we? A fucking back-water? New Zealand has bigger balls than we do.

I think I've voted for the ALP for the last time. I cannot respect a government who doesn't do the right thing and say the rights things in these circumstances. That's the only thread that kept me in ALP's camp, and while I swung out occasionally to vote Greens, last election I voted Labor.

Gillard's no better than Howard or any other of the tools that preceded her. Where's her integrity, strength, ability to drive us properly? The car is careening all over the road and it is so disappointing. I'm let down, disappointed but somehow, unsurprised.

I'm not someone who thinks Assange OR HICKS are heroes. But they were both hung out to dry and we didn't do anything about it. Sure, we give them access to consular support like with any other citizen arrested overseas. Like we would have with Chambers and Barlow (Hawke also made a plea for compassion that they not be executed), and Corby and the Stupido Nines or whatever they're called. (no one bothered pleading for them that I know of.) I know Australia cannot interfere with foreign law but we can still make strong statements that show us as evolved and intelligent. No wonder people think we are idiots, stupid, dumbos, soft.

We have to get over our post-colonial shakes and realise that we can keep close ties with the countries that matter while also retaining our independence of thought and speech. And respect.
If not, ie if America is strong-arming us, well that just supports the rhetoric that they are the bully boys of the world. Maybe we can't have it both ways. Maybe we can't stand up for what's right without bending over and taking it up the arse.

But really, do we have to be an accessory to America's world domination? Do we want to be friend with them? Do we need to? Can't we pull away a bit more and be more like Switzerland? (Or New Zealand.)

Lorem ipsum, ipsum dorum, dolores sorum, factotum necessitatum.