what do you get if ...

... you cross a dyslexic insomniac with an agnostic philosopher?

Answer: Someone who will stay up all night wondering whether or not there is a dog...

So you think you're an atheist, do you? Ok, do this simple little process:

[1] No god? If you agree, goto [2]. (If you don't agree, you're not an atheist.)

[2] Define god, then goto [3]

[3] Why did you limit your definition of god thus? If you wish to redefine god, goto [2], otherwise, goto [4]

[4] Post your responses to [2] and [3] in the comments below.

Good luck... :-)

running on empty...

Time for an urgent reminder and an update:

The economic crash (read "the mother of all depressions") which will be caused by the oil supply/demand crisis will be upon us in three to five years.
I'll say it again: in three to five years! Time for procrastination has expired. In fact it expired several years ago.

Here are some more information resources to help galvanise you into creating a drastic survival-oriented action plan for you and your loved ones immediately. I predict that those who wait another year will be locked-in to whatever fate awaits those who did not act in time. This is about the last warning there's time for.

Earlier warnings on this blog were posted here and here.

With the exception of an upcoming suggested survival action plan, any subsequent posts on this topic will be in the nature of "I told you so, you stupid over-optimistic bunch of losers!"

Or perhaps you'd rather go and stick your head firmly back in the sand...
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go girl !!!

On November 17th, at the Front Gate of Fort Benning, Georgia, Army National Guard Specialist Katherine Jashinski announced her opposition to war and refused deployment to Iraq. She became the first woman conscientious objector of the Iraq war to make a public statement against militarism. By Paul Rockwell, Common Dreams

Read more >>>

Image courtesy of Stan Goff

pssst... wanna buy a war?

James Bamford, who blew the whistle on the NSA and GCHQ in his brilliant book Body Of Secrets*, has done a nice illuminating article for Rolling Stone magazine on the propaganda machine behind the Iraq War.

(A hat-tip to Wombat's Waffles and Guambat Stew)

* Read a review of Body Of Secrets

whether or not there is a dog...

Ok, so I'm a bit dyslexic tonight... Blame the cheap Cab Sav... I'm having a problem with god lately. Or to be more exact, with atheists. I don't know why but I just kneejerk every time they start attacking people who want to be more tolerant towards Godbotherers. A very intolerant lot these atheists... But it's the way they do it... That stance of intellectual superiority they adopt... The dismissive way they deal with Godbotherers... The pseudo scientific innuendo they dress their atheism in... It irks me, I tell you... It irks me...

Mind you I don't really know why... I really can't cop the Judeo/Christian/Muslim godthing either...

I think it's the thought-control tactics of some atheists trying to deny talk of god in political debate. Why? It's just debate. Why not let someone bring up god/religion in whatever way they want. Why should there be taboos in political debate? Why try to control what can and can't be mentioned in political debate? Why can't debate be completely open? What are these atheists so afraid of? Would the sky fall? I think those kinds of atheists give more tolerant atheists a bad name...

And if you say there's no god, what do you mean by god anyway? Define your terms! Exactly what is it that you say does not exist? And how do you know that it doesn't exist?
Come on!!! Come on!!!
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consume, be silent, die...

It all started with the editorial in Wednesday Nov 16th Sydney Morning Herald. Blame them. In a blurt about Telstra, they used the phrase "...a magical new world of digital connectedness for consumers..." And that's where I lost it...

Consumers? Consumers? CONSUMERS?

We're not people anymore, we're consumers. We are to consume. Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to consume or die!

And I was ranting to my poor, much-pitied, much-suffering partner, who mentioned the phrase "consume, be silent, die" and duely sent me off to Google to find the author.

Well, I failed.

But I did find the following:



A photo of Benny Zable, Australian environment and peace activist. The first word which is partly obscured is "GreeDozer" (as in GreeDozer The Company).

And then there's the punk band "Man Will Destroy Himself". They have an album out titled "Consume...Be Silent...Die..."

And there's a neat and apropos poem by Bruce Dawe in some notes which dissect it for HSC students. The poem doesn't mention "consume, be silent, die" as such but the dissecter uses it in a fashion which seems to be saying "everyone knows this phrase so I won't display my anality by actually mentioning who its author is."

And there were lots of other references to "consume, be silent, die" but none which gave me a clue to the phrase's author.

So, me little lovlies, who is the author?
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this is where I stand...

In the last few weeks I've been grappling with where exactly I stand with regard to pacifism, war, terrorism, violent protest, peaceful protest, dissent, etc.

I think I've sorted it out a bit more.

I do not condone war or terrorism (indiscriminant killings).

I will condone (but never participate in) political violence (armed resistance), but only in situations where there is a clearly evident and violent oppressor/occupier, and even then only if peaceful protest/dissent is being disallowed or crushed. Even then I would advocate for non-violent alternatives to be implemented wherever possible.

So there you go, I'm a conditional pacifist. That is to say I'll opt for pacifist solutions, but I also believe that the oppressed or occupied people have the right to the use of political violence as a last resort in defending themselves in situations where peaceful protest/dissent/resistance is being met with violence or being quashed.

Where political violence is used, it must only be directed at the oppressor's/occupier's instruments of oppression/occupation, and then absolutely subject to the conditionality I have outlined above.

I hope this satisfies the Gestapo ASIO. If it doesn't, I'll be happy to do time for my beliefs - and then I'll sue the bastards to kingdom come...

Another letter to Mr Ruddock...

The Attorney-General
The Hon Philip Ruddock MP
House of Representatives
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

14 November, 2005

Mr Ruddock,

Re: Your proposed sedition laws:

I seek clarification on the following items:

[1] Would I be in contravention of the law if I were to appeal to the public to join in Peaceful People Power to topple the regime with which you have aligned yourself; a regime I consider to be the most corrupt I have had the misfortune to exprerience since I was old enough to be asked to bleed and/or die for this country?

[2] If Gandhi were around today and he were to try to mount a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience, under your proposed laws, would he be liable to imprisonment?

[3] With regard to [1], would your proposed laws be applied retrospectively?

Yours sincerely,

(my name)
Fighter for Freedom
Fighter for Democracy
Vietnam Veteran Disgusted With This Current Regime Of Liars, Thieves, and War Criminals.
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the take...

Globalisation.

IR "reforms".

Can what happened in Argentina happen in Australia?

Who knows... We're less likely to rise up against our oppressors. For one thing, we haven't had enough "disappeared" here yet to wake the people up... Nothing wakes people up faster than a few thousand "disappeared"...

I'll be seeing this film soon. I'll let you know what I think of it.

In the meantime, why not try to see this film yourself?

How hard can it be?
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Freedom and democracy come to Siberia...

AN APPEAL FROM SIBERIA (YES, SIBERIA)

I didn't think we'd ever run a headline like that -- something which would have been perfectly ordinary during Tsarist or Stalinist times, but now? Just to make things clear -- we're not referring to labour camps, but to oil workers in the Khanty-Mansy autonomous region.

Imagine yourself working for a pittance in Siberia, your real income stuck at 1995 levels, while oil production shoots up, the price of oil goes through the roof, and your company pays out a billion US dollars in dividends. Of course you'd organize a union, which is perfectly alright now in Russia, and you'd approach the company to negotiate terms and conditions of employment. But what happens when your company refuses to let the workers meet, refuses to negotiate, sacks union activists, and even expels the local union leader and his family from their apartment? What do you do?

The workers at Slavneft managed to get their appeal out to the world through the trade union newspaper "Solidarnost" and the trud.org website -- and through them, to LabourStart. In what is being described as the first major global solidarity campaign initiated by Russian workers, these oil workers in Siberia are appealing for your help. Please send off your message to the company today:

Source: http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=62

short break...

Rather than post even bigger rubbish than usual, I'll take a few days off from this hell hole and see if I can get my brain around this planet a bit better...

Don't expect me back before Sunday at the earliest.

Take care, dudes and dudettes...
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Oh yes! Oh yesss!! OH YESSSS !!!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

(For non-Australian readers, this man is the Leader of the Opposition. He also likes having his picture taken sitting in tank turrets and jet fighter cockpits, and he just positively LOVES America...)

Image source: http://www.theswanker.com/the_swanker/images/kim_beazley.jpg

Heads-up via Barista.
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Mike Rann said...

Mike Rann, Premier of South Australia, leader of the South Australian Labor Party, said this the other day:

"As far as I'm concerned, terrorism is just another word for mass murder, and we have to deal with terrorists as mass murderers. You can't pussyfoot around."

I agree, Mr Rann.

But we're by far the biggest mass murderers (ergo, the biggest terrorists) on the planet right now.

So people shouldn't pussyfoot around with us, eh?

They should take us out, eh?

But you're passing laws which seek to stop them doing that...

I'm sorry, Mr Rann, but this circular logic is making me dizzy...
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why is this happening?

Why are they trying to bring in such draconian "anti-terror" laws?

Why are they re-engineering our industrial relations laws?

Why are we in Iraq, Afghanistan?

Is there a grand unifying theory which explains all of this? Yes.

Globalisation. GlobalCorp. A monster that will eat its young before it finally eats itself.

There is a way out of all of this but we don't have the balls to go there. In the next five to ten years the global economy will implode resulting in a massive and long term depression from which we will emerge into a global master/slave capitalist totalitarian system which will make Stalin and Hitler look like rank amateurs.

What can be done now?

Australia should recognise that in a globalised world it will be exploited, sucked dry, and spat out when it's of no further use to the global robber barrons. It should totally extricate itself from the ever-tightening web of GlobalCorp. It should do this right now. It should seek to become economically independent - as much as possible. This is the only way we will retain our sovereignty and self-determination.

Yes, a change from economic dependence to economic independence would bring with it hardships, scarcity and sacrifice. Pain. Like a junkie coming off heroin. But it would be better than what will befall us - within the lifetime of our children - if we don't shock-proof ourselves against what's coming.

Cuba has done it. Venezuela is doing it. Quite a few courageous countries are doing it. Moving from consumerism to subsistence will create a huge cultural upheaval, but it is a life-affirming move. Globalised consumerism is the road to slavery and wholesale death and destruction.

I know you arseholes will not believe me or do anything other than get chummier and chummier with GlobalCorp. I just needed to say this so you can have some words to haunt you when, one day in the not too distant future, you look around you and you see what sort of a hell you find yourself in. And remembering these words, you will know that it was your own addiction to consumerism and your own greed which turned you into a happy little roadworker toiling happily away on the highway to hell...

Ancient Chinese proverb: If you don't change direction, you'll end up where you're headed...

Open your eyes, you arseholes! We're headed into hell, and Bush, Blair, Howard, etc., are the pied pipers leading us there...
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I hate blog snobs...

I've just spat the dummy (what's new?) in the comments section of another blog. Why? Well, it's about a matter of blogging etiquette...

Call me simple-minded, naïve, whatever, but the way I read it, if someone leaves a comment on your blog which is clearly replyable-to, then according to the general rules governing discourse between people, to give such a comment the silent treatment is tantamount to a blatant snub.

This happens to me a lot. And I've had enough!!!

So, in future, if I leave a comment on your blog and you decide to think your "supercool" readers might ostracise you if you actually reply to my comment, or if you think it's beneath your dignity to do so, I'll tell you what I think of such (in)action and totally diss you from that time onwards.

I knew you'd be excited by this...
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