Ignoring the contradictions: Election Journalism 101

From The Australian this morning;

While Labor has attempted to separate the population issue from immigration policy, despite overseas migration accounting for about two-thirds of population growth, the Coalition has not been as shy. It proposes to cap immigration at 170,000 a year as part of its effort to ensure Australia does not reach Treasury's projected population of 36 million by 2050.

Argh!!!! One of the things that has annoyed me most during this federal election is the failure of the media to force Tony Abbott to reconcile his scaremongering on population growth with his open support for increasing the 'Australian' (*insert dogwhistle noise*) birthrate. Honestly, does any media organisation employ any actual journalists these days, or just propagandising stooges? There is a very simple, very obvious question to be asked of Tony Abbott here, and NO-ONE is asking it.

When will Labor learn...

Fancy yourself as the next John Howard, Julia?

That they don't win elections by being racist? Sure, it's probably a strategy to wrap up the votes of latent racists, the ones whose attention can be diverted by real issues such as healthcare or education but would vote for the coalition if the Libs and the media combine to create a sea of xenophobic froth for Tony Abbott to sail to victory on.

Julia Gillard's move shows just how weak Labor perceives itself to be on everything else. They don't think they can win an election on the other issues without attempting to neutralise this one first. Labor's stance on asylum seekers merely serves to highlight just how weak it is on every other issue, and why decent, humanitarian-minded people should vote Green instead.

Tony Abbott moralises over asylum seeker deaths

Tony Abbott, who has never been averse to flavouring his politics with his extreme religious views, has set his dearly-held Christianity aside for a minute or two to score some political mileage from the drowning of twelve or more Sri Lankan asylum seekers when their boat sank near the Cocos Islands. This from a man whose government faced substantial and inadequately investigated allegations that they ignored the plight of a sinking boat full of asylum seekers in waters patrolled by Australian border protection surveillance aircraft just prior to the 2001 federal election. Of those people 353, including 146 children, drowned. That has not prevented Tony Abbott from accusing Kevin Rudd of being responsible for the deaths of the 12 or so people feared drowned in this latest incident, despite there as yet being no evidence that the government did not act to help as soon as it was aware the boat was sinking.

Don’t get me wrong. The display we’ve seen from Kevin ‘hardline’ Rudd of late has ensured his government will never see another preference vote from me until the day he stands up and apologises to the people he has wronged as part of this despicable political stunt. And given the consummate politician and slimebag he has proved to be, I really don’t see that happening. I don’t wish to defend his recent treatment of asylum seekers (of whom around 99% are inevitably found to be genuine refugees) in the slightest. But watching one of the men whose government was likely responsible for the deaths of 353 innocent people in an even more heinous politically-motivated disregard for vulnerable human lives try and score points off the moderately less despicable actions of the Rudd government just makes my blood boil.

Additionally, I'm glad to see the Rudd government has taken its first real hit in the polls since it was elected two years ago. Part of the reason it was elected was because a significant proportion of the community (albeit, sadly, a minority) was not ok with the further abuse of the human rights of vulnerable people who come to Australia seeking help. Hopefully this shows that they're not all willing to put up with the perpetrators of these kind of abuses no matter what the perpetrator's political stripes might be.

Screening kids for terrorist-potential vs Muzzling idiot politician

Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson

Federal Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson's colleagues must want to kick his stupid head in. Thomson yesterday told a foreign affairs forum that immigrants should be screened to weed out terrorists. Now, aside from the political stupidity of spouting the words 'immigrants' and 'terrorists' in the same sentence- a sure-fire way to send swathes of the bigoted voting public back into the arms of the Liberal National coalition- there is the pure unadulterated stupidity of Thomson's underlying assumption that the alleged terrorist-wannabes picked up in the Melbourne raids could somehow have been left on the shores of their native countries if Australia only had a Terror-Detector (TM) scan as part of our immigration screening process.

"Given time, it would be possible to get to the bottom of the background of applicants from Somalia and elsewhere to work out whether they have an association with fundamentalist groups and make a rational assessment of whether they pose a risk."

None of his colleagues seem to be willing to say it. Not a single journalist appears willing to say it, so I'll say it: BULLSHIT.

See, when you actually look at the ages of these alleged terrorists it appears that a good many of them came to Australia as young boys. This one, for example:

Mr Ahmed, who has been in Australia for 15 years, said his son and his family loved their adopted home: "We are very happy here ... we live among friends. How can my children do this? It's nonsense."

He said his son was married, had two children, studied engineering at RMIT and was due to graduate this year. He said the 25-year-old, who prayed at Preston Mosque, was hoping to get a job in the construction industry. The charges against his son had wrecked his life.

"It is very horrible," he said. "It destroys everything, even his choice of staying in Australia."

We all know you don't have to be particularly bright to be a politician- generally a good coating of slime will get a person where they need to be, should they choose that particular career path. So let's help Kelvin with some basic maths:

Problem:

Abdirahman Ahmed is 25 years old.

Abdirahman Ahmed came to Australia with his father 15 years ago.

How old was Abdirahman Ahmed when he came to Australia?


Answer:

25 - 15 = 10

Abdirahman Ahmed was 10 years old when he came to Australia

I'd like to see Kelvin Thomson propose a realistic solution as to how to assign immigrants of any age an individualised 'TerrPotential' score, let alone how to do it for small children. Let some intrepid journalist ask Kelvin just how he plans to delve into the background of every swarthy under-12-year-old entering the country (let's not pretend he's talking about pasty little British kids or even pasty British adults, for that matter). Come on Kelvin, out with it. How are you going to interrogate these potential mini-terrorists to ascertain their intentions a decade or two down the track?

His speech came as the Race Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes, called for calm amid reports of a backlash against the Somali community in the wake of the arrest of the suspected terrorists.

His name is Kelvin, and he's not here to help.

Nation of Ostriches

"No, no it smells fine in here. Why do you ask?"

At what point does the pile of evidence mount so high that Australians can no longer deny that we are a racist country?

Lately the media finally started to focus on the spate of attacks on Indian students, carefully enunciating in each television and radio report that the students were upset about 'perceived racial violence'.

Then the new study that proves that having an 'ethnic' name (even an Italian name, for chrissakes) will dent a person's chances of getting a call-back for a job interview.

Let's face it, we're a nation of "I'm not a racist but...". The sooner Australia, beginning with its pandering, populist leaders, can face up to that, the sooner we can tackle it.

Australia: failing to scrape together a collective ounce of humanity since 2001

From the New York Times:

KAKINADA, India — Fleeing the bitter end of a quarter-century-long war, the refugees turned to a boat. It was first a shelter from artillery shells, then a frail craft to safety. Finally, it became a coffin.

The boat was adrift on the Indian Ocean for nine days. Jaya Niranjana’s 3-year-old daughter died. M. Yesudas lost his father, sister, nephew, brothers, and uncle — six in all. An 8-month-old baby, Kuberan, survived only because his mother somehow managed to breast-feed him until just hours before she died.

By the time these refugees fleeing the war in Sri Lanka reached Indian shores last Wednesday, 10 of the 21 original travelers had died or jumped overboard. They had nothing to eat and only saltwater to drink. The scorching sun beat down on their heads. Diarrhea struck. The first child died on April 24, then the others. S. Indira Meenan, 25, recalled it in halting English: “One by one. Dead babies, children. No food, no drink.”

“Twenty-fourth, dead; 25th; 26th,” he went on. “One by one. Dead.”

Guys, give Kevin Rudd a call! Clearly the solution to the problem is to turn back the boats! Or better still, to ensure people are never able to leave the place in which they are being bombed and brutalised. After all, that's what I've been hearing from both the Rudd government lately, with Kevin Rudd repeatedly boasting of his 'hardline' stance on refugees 'people smugglers', and (of course) the opposition who have a policy along the lines of 'if in doubt, resort to stirring up racial hatred'.

India should take a leaf out of Australia's book: if innocent men, women and children are dying before your very eyes, if you see people in desperate need, in dire circumstances, just look the other way. I mean, if a tree falls in the woods...

Too Close?

Well it looks like 'middle Australia' ( Rowan Callick this isn't America, you little twat) is comfortable enough with Mao's red hand fondling Rupert's wrinkly wallet to keep buying the Australian. It's good to see that the Libs have given up entirely on winning any Chinese Australian votes.

What the Federal Opposition really thinks of Chinese Australians

I've heard an awful lot of xenophobic twaddle and insinuation coming from members of Malcolm Turnbull's federal opposition over the last two days, particularly on ABC Newsradio, who seem to enjoy giving the opposition a daily free-hit on their breakfast programme. It's all over the issue of defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon accepting two free trips to China courtesy of a long-standing family friend, businesswoman Helen Liu. Which, of course, is pretty crook on his part. He would have known the rules, and he violated them. Though I do think this seems likely to be a revenge on the part of certain members of the Defence Forces who Fitzgibbon upset when he revealed that Australian taxpayers were paying for these army fatcats to have butlers and other luxurious accoutrements.

Anyhow, as I said, much of the Xenophobia emanating from the Opposition is in the form of insinuation. Lots of comment on how Kevin Rudd happens to speak Chinese, how the Chinese are trying to 'steal' our national resources (like Australian mining companies don't own overseas interests), etc etc. 'China is scary, and Joel Fitzgibbon's friendship with a 'Chinese businesswoman' means that China is controlling our government' seems to be their message.

Just a few minutes, on ABC Newsradio, the presenter deviated from the free-hit format and stuck opposition defence spokesman David Johnston with the following:

ABC: The businesswoman, Helen Liu, is actually an Australian citizen...

Johnston: [Scornfully] Yeah. Look, the fact is she's a Chinese person...

Bjelke-Petersen expelled Fred Hollows from Queensland

'Sir' Joh Bjelke-Petersen. The man for whom our former Premier, Peter Beattie, thought it was a good idea to give a taxpayer-funded state funeral and build a memorial statue as an homage. From the Brisbane Times:

The book, Beyond Sandy Blight, launched in Canberra last week, gives an inside account of how, in the 1970s, the then-Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen had Professor Hollows and his team expelled from the state.


Their crime? They were helping Aborigines and Torres Strait islanders get on the electoral roll so they could vote.

Another reason why the Gold Coast sucks

I don't get it- do these idiots really believe that because I'm white and Australian that I'm one of them?

The Gold Coast: It's full of bogans, we all know that. It should therefore be no surprise that it's full of bigots, too.

PROTESTERS have swarmed the Gold Coast City Council headquarters, and with blaring rock anthems vented anger over a planned Muslim school.
Almost 200 residents turned out for the demonstration, draped in Australian flags and shouting pro-Aussie slogans while Australian rock classics such as Down Under and Great Southern Land boomed across the parkland.

The Australian International Islamic College, planned for Carrara, has raised the ire of residents who fear it will lead to the local Muslim population withdrawing from the rest of the community.

Uh, yeah, they're worried about losing their muslim friends...

Resident's spokesman Tony Doherty said Muslim schools did not encourage multiculturalism.

"It's segregation, not integration," he said.

"They're not trying to integrate into the rest of society.

"Since we have started protesting against this our churches have been covered in hate-filled graffiti."

He denied it was hypocritical to oppose Muslim and not Christian schools.

"Catholics aren't a different culture," he said. "They are the same as us."

What Dickhead doesn't realise is that, early in Australia's history, Catholics were discriminated against too. What's more is that the 'culture' in Catholic schools is somewhat different to that of Australian public schools- public school students aren't forced to attend mass, for one (once a term, or once a year, I can't remember- not that it matters). There are a few Jewish schools in Australia too- I imagine their 'culture' is also rather different, however I can't imagine a plan for a Jewish school raising this much of an outcry among Gold Coast bogans.

When we stayed at Coolangatta I perused a promotional book of the Gold Coast that was in our hotel room. It spoke of the local aboriginal people being 'eased from their land'. Cultural sensitivity and acceptance has never been a strong point of the Gold Coast. I feel sorry for any non-bogan who has to live there.

But I want to be a secret racist!!!

After Sarah's post on the head scumbag of the BNP it turns out that some enterprising person (possibly within the BNP) has leaked the membership list of the 'party'. Unsurprisingly there are a few Australian members of the BNP and a journalist at the SMH, after rubbing the bruise caused by an actual story hitting them in the face, went and did some journalism. Or at least tried to. It's by Asher Moses who usually does the internet stories so it's buried in technology. The other journalists were too busy writing hard hitting stories about the 'next Kate Moss'.

The party, which is shunned by many of those outside Britain's ultra-conservative sphere due to its hardline, racist views - including that foreigners should be sent home - has been thrown into chaos after miscreants leaked its membership list on to the internet.

It includes the name, address, age, phone numbers, occupation and hobbies of 10,000 BNP members, including children, school teachers, police, clergymen and goverment employees. Several names were marked "discretion requested" because many do not want to publicise their support for BNP policies.

Of the 10,000 members listed, 15 were based in Australia. '

Bravo Asher, but it's actually 19. 18 if you don't count the guy who isn't for renewal because he's emigrating to Australia. It seems we'll let just about anyone with a pommy accent in.

Arthur Grice, a 51-year-old British expat living in Brisbane, said he was "proud" of his five-year association with BNP and was not deterred by reports of death threats and abuse hurled at British members.

"I've got my [membership] card in my pocket now and I'm prepared to show it to anyone that wants to see," he said.

Grice said he was not racist and did not believe whites were inherently superior but he was opposed to migration because Britain was buckling under the strain of too many people.

"We see every year 10,000 or so acres of crown land chopped down to make way for houses that a country the size of the United Kingdom shouldn't really need," he said.

"You don't put 100 people in a boat built for 20 ... this isn't a question about race, it's a question about culture."

Quoth the immigrant. England's full, says a man who's emigrated to a drought stricken country and lives in a city, which still has water restrictions. If he saw me walking down the street this bastard would probably give me a look and wish I'd go back where I came from, despite the fact that I was born here and he hopped on a flight to live better here than he could in the rain sodden, classist hell of the UK. Nice one. Tool.

Hugh, a 24-year-old swim coach from Engadine on Sydney's southern fringe, has been a BNP member for two years but has never lived in Britain.

"I just feel a connection - like most white Australians - with Britain and my ancestry and I care deeply about the survival of the British people," he said.

I'm so connected to to Britain that I won't go live there. Instead I live in a country built on the genocide of its ancestral inhabitants and pontificate about some foreign land being 'swamped' by foreigners. That's who's getting to teach your kids to swim.

Many of the members outed on the leaked list have turned to ultra-nationalist online forums such as stormfront.org to vent their anger and fears of repercussions.

One wrote: "I don't want to lose my job over this. Just now my mate Chris rang me, he works in the public domain, and all he could do was scream: 'Unbelievable Jeff!' Down the phone at me. I could not calm him down at all."

Another said: "No company will ever want to employ anyone on the list ever. Class action?"

SMH

The Australian has also reported on more of the Australian members.

Oh yeah, it's ok for you bastards to hide under a rock and make my life difficult, deny people like me jobs and opportunities because we can't hide behind secret lists. It's alright for you to never have to worry about the way you look affecting your job prospects or your life while you do god knows what to people whose lives you might influence. You think it's ok to arrest, harass, persecute and impoverish people who read the wrong books, worship the wrong god or look the wrong way but god forbid that there should be any negative ramifications for your deliberate choice to join a foreign hate organisation. Well fuck you. The list is now publically available in several locations and is freely available to anyone who wants to look at it. I've found the Australian members, you'll probably be unsurprised to see there are a lot of Queenslanders, in fact more than any other state, even WA which I always thought was Yorkshire in the desert. Just go to any of the links provided, hit control-f and type in a state and you can find all the scumbags on the list who live in your state.

British fascist attempting to visit Australia

From the Brisbane Times:

Fascist backers fear racial riots

Connie Levett | November 15, 2008

DENYING a visa to British fascist leader Nick Griffin, who has a conviction for inciting racial hatred, would only increase the likelihood of Cronulla-style racial conflict, his supporters say.

This piece has a very poorly chosen headline. Hard-core racists don't 'fear' a racist riot like Cronulla at all- they view Cronulla as a high point and incidents like it as prime recruiting opportunities. What's more, I reckon that sounds like a threat and they should be arrested on terrorism charges.

I'd also like to know why Holocaust denial seems to be viewed as the best reason to deny people like this Griffin sicko a visa when their other views on race and immigration (of non-white people, of course) are equally abhorrent. Who else with views like his are we letting in just because they haven't been busted publicly denying the Holocaust?

God I hope they deny that visa.

Sad

(click for larger image)

Sarah told me the other day that she's aware of the occasional nasty looks we get, particularly from older people, because we're a mixed 'race' couple. I'd always sort of hoped that she didn't notice this ugly phenomenon, so I'd never asked her. It's a bit depressing that the person you love is exposed to hostility from people who don't know either of us because I was born looking different from them. Well I suppose it's depressing and infuriating because I can't do anything about it and it's my fault just for being with her. I can deal with it when it happens to me, because I'm used to it. I've dealt with it my whole life. You would be surprised at the number of people who think it's ok to stare at you or who recoil in fear at the sight of you just because you are a different colour to them. You would be further surprised at the number of people who think nothing of yelling things at you for the same reason. There are even people who've commented here to leave racist slurs, they don't know me, I don't know them, but somehow being black exudes a magical field that tells people 'hey, you can say whatever you like to me.' It's as if they feel I'm getting some devastating news. 'Ha! you are black!' Yes, I've noticed. Statistics show 9 out of 10 black people already know or suspect that they are in fact black. I'm not sure what exactly they think I should with this news, perhaps notify my insurance company or something.

The idea that well padded mortgage belters and retirees would look at the woman I'm married to and see a race-traitor would be hilariously absurd if it weren't so terrifyingly real. Though we like to think that racism is a problem of the dark past, it lives right here in St Lucia and Toowong too. I'd always hoped that in my lifetime we would reach a point where I'd never have to explain to my kids what the various racist insults they'd heard were or why someone treated them a certain way for reasons that aren't obvious to them. It's rather apparent that this will never happen. They'll have to be warned and get the same explanations I got about why certain friends wouldn't visit our house or hang out with me once they'd reached a certain age, despite visiting almost every day. Like my parent's told me, I'll have to tell them not to hate in their turn, that the behaviour of others to you isn't an excuse or a legitimate reason to emulate that behaviour towards others. That even though other people think you are all the same it's not ok for you to think that back to them, despite what 'evidence' you think you have seen. That part is pretty important. Hate can corrupt its targets as much as it corrupts the emanator.

I, like most people, don't like talking about stuff like this because of the ever present, 'you didn't actually experience what you thought you experienced' or 'maybe you're just too sensitive' feedback you get from some people. Surely it must have been something else, and besides, everyone's prejudiced. Yes, everyone is prejudiced but I've never been cruel to someone because of what they looked like. I don't stare at people in public shopping centres like I want security to drag them away so I can continue to shop in racial purity. I react to people by their behaviour towards me, not because of how they look. And yes, there are lots of old people who see us and smile and yet more people who just mind their own fucking business and get on with their lives. I'm not talking about them. To the rest, I don't know you, I don't take a deep and abiding interest in you, who your partner is or anything else about you. Why don't you return the sentiment?

Things to look forward to in an Obama presidency

I hear Greg Sheridan's wife has booked a flight to DC for the 'inauguration'

1) Never having to hear Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin's voice ever again.

2) An end to the idiotic, constantly wrong and eternally clueless coverage of the race by the Australian media. They. Have. Not. Got. A. Clue. In their defence, the story doesn't involve trawling Facebook for peoples' pictures so we should try and understand how hard things are. Most of them don't seem to have a clue that early voting has been going on for about a week already, a significant proportion of eligible voters (compared to last election) have already voted, and that the early voters are trending towards Obama. This is important because early votes have typically trended Republican.

3) An end to the constant racist reporting on black people. Here's a hint, if you do stories on black voters that always involve a hip talking black person on the street and black people singing soul songs, you are a racist motherfucker. No, black people won't vote for someone because they are black, no it doesn't matter. These are the same people who voted for Bill fucking Clinton and every single other white Democrat president since they were allowed to vote. Obama didn't even have a particularly high level of support among African Americans when he started his run. Why? Because he's half African and half American and some African Americans had (and some idiotically still do) a problem with that. He had to fight for their votes too and the media would know that if they weren't blinded by racism and incompetence.

4) Australian wingnuts having to eat shit everytime president Obama is mentioned.

5) The tantalising possibility of the Murdoch sleaze empire fading into irrelvance everywhere except the UK.

6) The inevitable contradictory reactions of the cruise missile left when Bush's wars become Obama's wars.

NSW most racist

According to a new report, NSW (not Queensland!) is the most racist state in Australia.

It scored highest when people were asked if Australia was weakened by ethnic groups sticking to their old ways and if there were any cultural or ethnic groups that did not fit into Australian society.

Yeah, instead of sticking to their old ways, migrants and 'efnics' should adopt our cultcha and do things the 'Strayan way.

Queensland can always console itself- we still hold the proud position of being the most homophobic state in Australia.

UPDATE: More from today's SMH:

FORTY per cent of Australians believe some ethnic groups do not belong in the country, with one in 10 having outwardly racist views, a study shows.

[...]

People were asked which cultural or ethnic groups did not fit into Australian society. NSW respondents provided the highest result, with 46 per cent saying some ethnic groups should not be in the country. The ACT had the lowest response with 28 per cent.

Professor Dunn said people revealed who they singled out the most. "The most often-mentioned groups were Muslims or people from the Middle East."

The overall figures surge to 65 per cent for people over 65 but drop to 31 per cent for those aged 18 to 34. "It's too high," Professor Dunn said. "We've got to bring that down."

On average, about one in 10 people said it was not good for people of different cultures to marry and about the same number said not all races were equal.

One in every ten Australians is a hard-core racist. Up to 65% of older Australians are racist. No shit that's high. That's even higher than I would have guessed.

Toowoomba racists' last stand

About time.

Indigenous activist Stephen Hagan has been fighting for several years to have the word "Nigger" removed from the ES "Nigger" Brown pavilion at Toowoomba Sports Ground.

Edward Stanley Brown, nicknamed "Nigger" because of his fair complexion, played rugby league for Australia while still living on the Downs, and later became a local councillor in Toowoomba.

Mr Hagan went as far as the UN in his quest to change the name, and it seemed as though a compromise had been reached when the Queensland Government undertook to demolish the pavilion as part of the ground's re-development.

But it was always intended that a memorial to Brown remain at the ground, and Toowoomba Sports Ground Trust chairman John McDonald - who is also chairman of the Australian Rugby League - was adamant even yesterday that the memorial would give Brown's nickname.

But Queensland's Sports Minister Judy Spence released a statement last night in which she said "it is not appropriate that the racist term 'nigger' be used in any way at the sports grounds, stadium, venue or stand".

I bet if Brown's nickname had been 'cunt' (for whatever very good reason I'm sure people in Toowoomba would have been able to dredge up) it never would have made it onto a sign in the first place. As it was, it supposedly only offended black people and no-one really cared to do anything about it for that reason. The Howard government even stepped in at the UN in favour of the sign, probably because they thought it would score them points in the post-Hanson 2001 election, when the Australian electorate was still fairly awash with racist fervour. Toowoomba was just perpetuating its reputation as a horrid racist backwater that I'd never want to visit. Frankly, from what I've heard, it still is. But the action to remove the offensive word from the stadium is a step forward, even if it took Queensland's police minister to finally step in and resolve the matter.

"I hate black people... er, I mean abortion! Yeah, abortion!"

The New York Times has a piece on how the Catholic vote is split between McCain and Obama. The people who prioritise legislating forced-pregnancy (aka 'pro life') above the wellbeing of the country are obviously going to vote for John McCain. Catholics who realise that just because they follow a particular religion doesn't mean they have to force everyone else to as well, and that things like health, education and not killing millions of people by starting wars on false pretexts are quite a lot more important than stopping someone whose sexual and reproductive life is none of their business from obtaining a legal abortion, are going to vote for Obama.

Apart from the ones who are such dyed-in-the-wool racists that they are putting their usual principles aside to vote for McCain because OBAMA IS BLACK! OMG!

What cracked me up, though, is that only one of them was prepared to say it out loud:

Paul MacDonald, a retired social worker mingling over coffee after Mass at Holy Rosary, said he had voted for Mr. Kerry four years ago and Mrs. Clinton in the primary but now planned to vote for Mr. McCain because of “the life issue.”

Let's see, is this a genuine (albeit nutty) belief in the absolute sanctity of the human foetus, or a transparent attempt to veil the fact that he's not voting for Obama because Obama is black?

Hmmm.

John Kerry- pro choice

Hillary Clinton- pro choice

Barack Obama- pro choice

And we are to believe that Paul MacDonald chooses now, just a couple of months after voting for Hillary Clinton in the primaries, to start pretending to care about preventing women from having access to safe, legal abortions?

While you're at it, I have these magic beans for sale...

One parishioner ruled out voting for Mr. Obama explicitly because he is black. “Are they going to make it the Black House?” Ray McCormick asked, to embarrassed hushing from a half dozen others gathered around the rectory kitchen. (Five of the six, all lifelong Democrats who supported Mrs. Clinton in the primary, said they now lean toward Mr. McCain.)

Yeah. It's ok to think it. It's ok to allude to it in conversation with potentially like-minded peers, until it becomes evident that those peers are just as racist, upon which time it becomes acceptable dinner-party conversation. But you would never say it out loud to just anyone, let alone to the New York Times! Your pathetic bigotry will be on display to the entire country, if not the world! Shhhhh!

Taken: The Story of an American Hymen

'Where the white women at!?'

Yesterday Sarah and I went to see Taken. We'd seen the preview when we saw The Dark Knight (more on that later) and thought it might be worth seeing. Overall the movie was a decent action movie, the really interesting part were the underlying themes.

Liam Neeson is a good old American guy, a guy who has served his country and spends his time trying to rebuild his relationship with his daughter. Neeson's daughter, America's hymen, wants to go overseas. Neeson objects because he's a Republican and he knows that everywhere outside of 'Murka is filled with danger and terror. Neeson's ex-wife disagrees, because she is an effete liberal who doesn't understand the world. Eventually Republican dad agrees and America's hymen and her friend go to France.

In France she is promptly kidnapped by Albanian sex-traffickers after saying hello to the first Frenchman they meet outside the airport. Immediately prior to the kidnapping her friend espouses a liberal attitude towards sex. She later dies of a drug overdose in the Albanian brothel/prison, a crust of vomit around her mouth. America's hymen is still intact however so instead of being deflowered she's to be sold to the highest bidder. Meanwhile Republican dad, after an I-told-you-so that would only be matched by George Bush and Andrew Bolt after a successful mission to Damascus to find Saddam's WMD (in matching flight suits) rampages through Paris torturing and killing swarthy ethnic stereotypes. Albanians are dumb gangsters and Frenchmen are greasy, cunning slimeballs. This is nothing compared to the final, monumental stereotype.

America's hymen gets bought by Ayrabs, because she is a virgin and some fat, old Ayrab wants to have her way with her. The final third of the movie degenerates into a race against time, Republican dad must get to America's hymen before it is pierced by an Arab falafel. At this point Sarah and I are trying not to laugh. In the movie's climactic scene, there is a confrontation where an obese, lecherous Arab holds America's hymen hostage (at knife point of course).

At the end of it a few people applauded, justifying my loathing of humanity. If you look at the IMDB listing for Taken, there are commenters who think it's actually a kind of documentary on international sexual slavery. I would recommend that no Arabs, Persians or other people of middle-eastern descent watch this movie, you might not make it out of the theatre alive. This movie is a live action Warner Bros. propaganda cartoon, designed to confirm the deep suspicions of every gun toting, swamp dwelling, sister fucking redneck (yes, I am aware of the irony, no, I don't care). Never, ever leave 'Murka, because the rest of the world is a fever swamp of evil. Only Republicans can save America's womanhood from being deflowered by evil furriners. Liberals are always wrong. And, finally the French are bad but they're just scummy, Ayrabs are the really evil ones.

I can't believe that this movie was written by the guys who did The Transporter. Who knew that they were itching to do an 80's style propaganda action flick. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's an inside joke on their part...

Today's anti-miscegenationists

Mildred and Richard Loving, of Loving vs. Virginia

Quite often, the bigots who oppose same-sex marriage will dispute any comparison between their own stance on the issue and the equally bigoted and stupid bans on interracial marriage that existed as recently as 1967.

It's very telling, then, that the very same law designed to stop interracial couples who were residents of other states from marrying in the US state of Massachusetts was up until now kept in place to prevent gay couples who weren't residents of the state from being legally married there. It looks like that law is about to be overturned. Not before time.

Here's an interesting section of a relevant article on a talk by Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui, taken from the Virginia Law website:

In response to a question about African-American clergy’s opposition to equating civil rights with gay rights, Forde-Mazrui noted the Bible includes many stories that approve of certain things we don’t approve of today, such as enslaving people from other nations. “Often religious beliefs support something that we emotionally already believe in, and when it doesn’t we tend to not be so literalist.”

Forde-Mazrui noted that believing homosexuality is wrong is increasingly being viewed as bigoted. The idea that marriage should be preserved for having children is incorrect since “we don’t make having children a condition of marriage.”

Not to mention the fact that the people who seek to ban same-sex marriage on the basis that it can't be used for procreation are the very same ones who lobby for and enact laws preventing same-sex couples from having children, either naturally through assisted conception or through adoption. It's like telling someone they need to walk a mere hundred metres to obtain a particular right, then using a chainsaw to cut off their legs before telling them that because they can't walk the hundred metres they're not entitled to that right. Sick and twisted, bordering on sadistic. I wonder why same sex marriage is portrayed by our media and politicians as being legitimately any business of the bigots in the first place?

If Gam and I had lived and married 50 years ago we would have heard the same arguments that gay couples hear today. That their union is a violation of the natural order, that it's against god, that there will be something wrong with their children. We would have heard it all. Today, they hear it all. Even if majority opinion at the time had been against us, majority opinion would have been wrong. Our society acknowledges that fact today, but continues to perpetrate the same abuses on same-sex couples that it once visited on couples who happened to be of different skin colours. The hypocrisy is plain, but still it goes unacknowledged.

Israel, a racist state

Headline in the SMH: 'Anti-racism summit poses conundrum for Rudd'.

How could Kevin Rudd possibly be in two minds about attending an anti-racism summit? I clicked the link to the story to discover why.

Ahh: Israel.

Canada has already pulled out, as a result of the outcry after the previous conference, in 2001 in Durban, South Africa. That gathering turned into a fracas over anti-Semitismas some Arab and Islamic countries urged delegates to condemn Israel as a racist state and denounce Zionism, its founding ideology, as a racist doctrine.

See, the thing is, Israel is a racist state. It is an apartheid state. Stating that fact is no more anti-semitism than condemning the white apartheid government in South Africa was anti-caucasian.

In fact, the very same day the SMH published this story, news.com.au sites were running a story titled 'Israel to build new Arab city'. Kind of like a Bantustan for Arabs, I suppose.

Really, this new 'Arab city' is a bandaid for Israel's abuse of the rights of its Arab citizens that has led to an absolutely untenable situation with regard to their (lack of) rights to obtain housing:

Why do Arab Israelis build homes without permits? Because for a group with a 3.9 percent birthrate, keeping a growing family under one original roof eventually becomes impossible. Applications by Arab Israelis for permits to build or expand are almost always denied – and moving to a Jewish neighborhood is usually impossible, either because of legal restrictions or outright discrimination against the minority.

Why does Kevin Rudd, or any Australian for that matter, need to kowtow to this wholly invented accusation of racism against anyone who criticises Israel's own racist policies? Why?