"Ipsa scientia potestas est."

Are people really that lonely?

2007-07-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

I've found it funny recently how so many people actually tell me intimate details of their lives. And I wasn't fishing for them, it has gone along the lines of 'So how have you been... Oh, really? Why/How's that?'and then I have received a deluge of information. None of which I will ever publicize, of course, in case anyone actually ever reads this stuff.

But I've been thinking, because some of the people I have been speaking to I'm not the closest with (these people are not strangers, but we arn't the closest of friends either), and by the sheer number of people who have been talking to me about things, I've come to think that most people are rather lonely, and that they really want, perhaps even need, people to share their lives with. People who just show enough interest in their lives to actually ask how things are going, or what's been happening. Because most people are willing to open right up if you just show that you care. And from the fact that so many people seem to be opening up to me (and it seems that I am the first one that they have opened up to), a fair few people don't have that someone about to open up to, so I end up as a surrogate. Not that I'm complaining, but I have been finding it strange due to the sheer quantity of what has come out.

Anyway, the irony of me talking about this on an open forum is not lost to me. So I guess I'll just be quiet now.

A quick question to anyone still out there

2007-07-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking about whether anyone actually reads this blog, and the advantages/disadvantages of having readers or not. So here it is - the first couple of readers to send me an e-mail at lords2001@gmail.com will get a hat or something cool when I next see them. It's valid for a week (or shorter or longer, depending on what I feel like). So shoot me an e-mail if you do read this stuff, and let me know

What dorks

2007-06-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

From The Australian

AUSTRALIA'S Sunni Muslims have pushed aside ideological differences with their Shia counterparts to form a united front against Israel and declare their support for the Iranian-backed terrorist network Hezbollah.
The unity among the two Muslim sects, which have been at war with each other for centuries, comes as the nation's Jewish community accuses top Shia spiritual leader Kamal Mousselmani of creating hatred towards Jews by calling Israel a "terrorist" state and expressing his allegiance to Hezbollah militants.

So lets see. The two sects have been killing each other for centuries, but they are willing to leave their hatred behind. Why?

Because they share a common unity in their heritage? No.

Because their collective religion states that they shouldn't kill each other? No.

Because they think that murdering other people because of their religious affiliation is wrong? No.

To kill the Jews...... I mean, Zionists (which all Jews oh so conveniently happen to be)? Of course!

And the irony of calling Israel a terrorist state while supporting Hezbollah - well, lets not go there. Let alone talk about how the Socialist Alliance/Stop the War Coalition/Greens/Save the Whales Society all talk about Israel being a terrorist state, and how it seems that the left and the Islamic radicals seem to be coming closer and closer together in rhetoric. I'll just let the stupidity of these people talk for themselves.

Argh, mein brain

2007-06-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

Go to the SMH Opinion Page. Read some of the articles. Then watch as your brain starts to desire a terminal illness to stop the pain.

Really, I can not believe what sort of stupid, inane, vapid and useless opinion pieces make that paper. There really isn't one writer whom I have a great deal of respect for. Even their slightly better writers, Miranda Divine and Ross Gittins, have regular brain explosions. Miranda is far too much a fan of the nanny state. Ross just doesn't convey economics in a clear or concise way. And they are by far the best there.

As for the rest - well, I don't have all day. Go and read, and let your eyeballs do the bleeding for me.

I've finally worked out why I haven't been posting

2007-06-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've finally worked it all out. The reason why over the past couple of years, I have felt no real drive to actually write things for publication or for general consumption. I've actually been reading too much.

You see, I actually trawl through a large number of blogs, mostly from the right, Tim Blair,Andrew Bolt, as well as the guys down at Catallaxy, and a lot of international blogs and journalist's websites, such as Mark Steyn, Jules Crittenden, Lee at Right Thinking, John at Right Wing News, Dr Sanity, Ace of Spades and a whole lot of others. I would fill up a damned page of the various stuff I read.

And just in case whomever reads this actually knows the links and thinks that I only read the RWDB point of view, I also read some leftist blogs likeLP and Leftwrites as well as swinging left Clubtroppo (as it is a group blog, it swings from a slightly left of centre to a Labor left depending on the person), and a whole lot more (well, not really that many more, but I often link follow, and then read the sites which they link to).

And basically, at these places and others, everything is picked apart. If not by one blog, than by the next, until every major talking point is covered, sometimes multiple times, from different axis. And so by the time I think of to write something that I find interesting, I realise that I've already read about the same damned thing 10 times or more, and I'm already mostly sick of the subject. So of the big issues of the day, here is what I think, and why I'm sick of hearing about it -

Iraq -I was in favour of the liberation in the early days, and still in favour of up until recently, now I'm adopting a waiting approach to see what happens over the next year or so with the surge and any withdrawal plans. Why am I waiting? Because if the US does withdraw, then the sacrifice in blood and treasure that has been made by the Coalition (mainly the US) and the Iraqi people will have been for far, far less than anybody hoped for. And that would be sad. But if results arn't coming at all, then we need to reconsider our stance (I have no issue with slow but steady progress, but if it is a 'one step forward here, another step back somewhere else while we wern't looking' process, then we need to think what we are doing, and whether we really are willing to pay the price needed to get things right from there).

But I'm sick of hearing about how the surge or a new commander in Iraq or a new war czar automatically means victory (didn't we already win? or at least say we did?) or will end in defeat no matter what we do - if the automatic road to victory crowd annoys, the automatic defeatist crowd really annoys me, because both claim to be able to know the future - but the outcome for Iraqi's in the eventuality of the victory crowd being right is a good one, with peace and prosperity for the Iraqi people, under a stable, democratic system, with long term US presence stabilising the country and the region (like it did/does in Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, etc). The outcome if the defeat crowd is right, is sheer, bloody chaos. One which may well spread outside the country to infect the region, and spread in drips and drabs through the rest of the world. So I know which outcome I prefer to support. I know neither is completely likely to happen (best and worst case scenarios), but even a limited peace and prosperity after the hardship and bloodshed that Iraq has gone through would be better than disintegration and civil war. But either way, I hear about it all too often.

Afghanistan - I'm still definitely in favour of liberating the Afghan people from the Taliban, and making sure that the Taliban and AlQ can't come back into power through force of arms in the country - if they (the Taliban)win in the polls, then the people of Afghanistan can get the government they want (and suffer for their choices), but they should be able to choose it. But I'm sick of those saying that Afghanistan is the front line of the war on terror (it's not, Iraq is) and therefore our resources should be there, or those who say we should leave those ingrate Afghans to suffer on their own, as they won't help themselves, or because some still support Islam, or the Taliban, or AlQ. But whatever, too much info (though not as much these days as there was in 2001-3) and too much crap.

Muslim extremism and terrorism or RWDB persecution of those nice people from the Middle East somewhere, depending on where you stand - I'm more in line with the RWDB viewpoint here, as but I still feel so damned overloaded with MSM and blog info, opinion and filler on the entire bloody subject that if someone said that Britain had been renamed 'Britannistan' tomorrow and the people told to convert or die or something, I would tell them to stop talking, jump off a pier, and let me go back to my mocha. Same deal in reverse, etc, etc. It isn't that I don't care, it is more boredom from talking about the same damned thihng every day.

Australian Election, John Howard, Kevin Rudd - The election hasn't even been called, and I'm sick to death of the whole bloody thing already. Calling the election from six months out is stupid - people change their minds, and a large number don't make up their minds until election day. There are people ou there, like my cousin's boyfriend who, because of their involvement in politics or hard held ideological beliefs (he runs Howard's local campaign) who know who they are going to vote for, and why, but the vast majority I speak to wait until the campaign, or even the day, to choose who to vote for.

And no, John Howard isn't completely over the hill and no, he's not going to retire and go back to working the fires of hell or eating the souls of unborn innocents, or whatever he did before politics.

And no, Kevin Rudd isn't the Messiah sent from the Father (who the father is, depends on where you stand - either Gough, the ACTU, the left faction of the ALP (who he did his deals with to get power) or the Devil (if you are a RWDB)- he's just a naughty boy, who has a long way to go and a campaign to run before he has a chance of winning office.

And I'm sick and tired how the entire thing is like a presidential race these days - those discussing the election talk about votes like they are directly for Howard or Rudd, not for their local representative. That may have something to do with the party system, and the culmination of the executives power in the hands of the unelected cabinet, but that's not the point. The point is that the commentary class talk about it like it is a presidential election, so instead of looking at who their local candidates are, most people look at what the party, and most importantly, the leaders of those parties, have to offer to them, in terms of loot and in terms of personality. And so I'm tired of that as well.

This ongoing argument with another blogger from the other side of the political chasm - I really don't care. Especially for most of the tit for tat baby action that takes place, with sniping and name calling and general wank. It's isn't that I'm offended by the arguing, or I'm calling for civility, it is more that the arguing is so juvenile. Real baby stuff. There is the occasional good argument, and well timed quip, and even, rarely, a well researched, well written rebuttal of an argument. But those are so rare, I'd rather spend time looking for pleasant Star Wars vs Star Trek arguments than looking for decent blogger
(especially political blogger) arguments online.

Cats - I don't care about your cat. Or what it looks like. Or what it did on the weekend. Or how pretty it looks in that bloody outfit you made it. And I never, ever want to hear how much it looks like a Hello Kitty or how cute your niece thinks it is. Why? Because people you would talk to in person would find the entire experience extraordinarily boring and tedious. What makes things different if you waffle on about it on the Internet? Because people can't slap you silly like they would in real life? Only until I work out a way to. Summary - don't care, don't want to know, don't post it online, in case human eyes should ever accidently grace your page.

That's at least some of the reasons why I haven't been writing. Though I should find some interest soon. Maybe religion and niche politi-blogging. Maybe a continuation of my (pretty lame) criticism of issues and events. I could even dissect various blogs here. Who knows? All none of you that still read this, I guess :)

Life

2007-04-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

Life is strange. You see, I have never really, properly missed anyone before. Partly due to the fact that I have never really been away from anyone that I would miss for a great length of time, and even if I have been, I have been so busy at the time (mission, camps, etc) that I have had no time to just sit and reflect.

And yet here I find myself with these alien thoughts of missing someone - indeed, someone who I have only known for a reasonably short time. Well, only known well outside of third party enjoinment (in other words, we have only been making plans to see or have eachother at places really genuinely for the past 5 or 6 months or something.)

So what do I do? What can I do? I guess I can always not think. I am a master at doing that about things I don't want to think about. But this isn't something that I want to not think about. (By the by, don't you love the double negatives I use all the time? Wait until my triple and quadruple negatives get going - it will be fantastic.) So I am stuck - missing someone, yet not knowing how to deal. But it will end in a few weeks. So that is something to look forward to. And homecomings are always so fun.

Getting over the madness - getting over the strain

2007-04-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

Ok. Blogging is back - though it will be a combo of lifeblogging and politiblogging, depending on how lame I am feeling. Nobody really will have checked this often, considering how long it has been since I have done anything with it. Which is perfect - it means I can say what I want without fear of anyone actually hearing. It is like when teenagers start swearing into the night - simply because they can, and because nobody can get them in trouble for it. Same deal, with (marginally) less swearing. And less grammar.

The madness, it lifts.

The Christmas/New Year madness

2007-01-18T18:52:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is, but it seems that between the week that ended with Christmas and the second week into the New Year, I did more than when I was working. Indeed, I was out for every night about three weeks running. Family events surrounding having 28 odd family members and 2 others at out place for Christmas Day, catching up with school friends, doing stuff related with my girlfriend, church committments and catching up with friends from there all seemed to roll into this one long event, in which I never really managed to take a day off, so to speak. Not that I am completely annoyed at it - indeed, I enjoyed seeing all the people I wanted to see. Some of whom I saw several times (7 times in 8 days, for my g/f, and one set of friends at least 6 times in about 9 days). But it does leave one feeling exhausted, and lacking in time, which is why my new blog started with a rush, and then died soon after. But I hope to be more constant in my postings now that the work grind is on until uni starts up again in the beginning of March.

So for all my loyal readers, have fun, and enjoy what is to come.

Those damned gullible Belgians

2006-12-14T23:17:00.000-08:00

From News.com.au

BELGIANS reacted with shock and disbelief when a state television channel announced that the Flemish part of the country had declared independence and that Belgium was no more.

Fair enough, I guess... but

In fact, the whole exercise was a spoof, intended only as a thought-provoking introduction to a television debate on the question which has long divided the two halves of Belgium, French-speaking Walloon and Dutch-speaking Flanders.

Oh... but wait, it gets better ...

The channel invited viewers to text message to say whether they had been fooled, and according to early results, 89 per cent said they had believed the programme in the beginning - and six percent continued to believe it even after the message saying it was a hoax.

You would think that those 6% were the biggest idiots, but it gets better still...

Even some ambassadors in Brussels admitted to being taken in and sending back messages to their respective capitals, according to the president of the Belgian Senate.

Crazy! Then again, European intelligence these days is becoming more and more an oxymoron...

Leigh's only hope is despair...

2006-12-14T23:13:00.000-08:00

Leigh from The House of Wheels has finally revealed his master plan for the ladies - wait until they are desperate. From an e-mail discussion :

As far as a love life, it doesn't exist. The girls I am interested in are far too...
sane to go out with someone like me, so I need them to stay single for long enough
until they realise they're running out of options. Then I go in for the kill.

Fair enough, Leigh, fair enough. At least you are honest :p

By the by, I don't mean to embarrass you too much, Leigh, it is simply in response to the friendly slurs on my family, and the status of my colon :p

Music Review - Paradise Lost - Symbol of Life (2003)

2006-12-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

I actually picked up these guys albums kinda by accident on eBay. However, it was a reasonably pleasant surprise, because this album is particually good, especially if you are into darker rock/metal, though not quite at the doom metal label that they attracted due to their 90's work.

Symbol of Life as an album isn't truly metal, not being hard enough, but their metal roots do come through with fast moving drum beats and rapid rythem guitar. The songs vary, from the hard rock 'Channel for the Pain' to the almost synth/rock combo song 'Symbol of Life'. Funnily enough, these two songs I like best, though it seems that I like artists the most when they go to the edge of their limit in one direction or another, or just past it - 'Do the Evolution' by Pearl Jam for example, or 'Fuel' by Metallica (yeah, I know, but I don't care what you think of me).

All in all, a good listen, as is their latest album Paradise Lost (2005), and Believe in Nothing (2003). Go and listen to it online somewhere, or buy the album if you like your rock dark, and somewhat edgy, but not weepy.

Rating
8/10

This could make things interesting...

2006-12-13T22:50:00.000-08:00

From News.com.au

THE Democrats' razor-thin control of the next US Senate has been cast into doubt, with a senator undergoing emergency surgery after he developed stroke-like symptoms.

...

If he had to be replaced, South Dakota law says Republican Governor Michael Rounds would name someone to finish the final two years of his six-year term. An election for a successor would be held in November 2008.

Interesting. This could either benefit or hurt the Republicans and the Bush administration. Either it could benefit them by enabling confirmation hearings to be held properly and legislation modified or toned down from the House, or it could hurt them by not enabling them to put up their hands and blame the Democrats for any hardships or woes over the next two years, as it seemed some commentators from the right were looking to do.

Then again, the Senator may well just get better, and this whole thing could add to nothing. But it will be interesting to see.

Religious Villification case in Vic gets reopened

2006-12-13T21:09:00.000-08:00

Those stupid religious vilification laws down in Victoria put two pastors down there in some trouble for trying to inform a Christian meeting about Islam. However, the Supreme court of Victoria has ordered a rehearing of the case.

Quite frankly, Bracks can go shove the laws down his pie hole, and God probably wants him to do it too. And since idiocy isn't a religion (even though in the Victorian government it has many fanatical adherents) the religious villification laws don't even apply to me saying that.

(Hat tip to Andrew Bolt and The Currency Lad

The Rapture game? Idiots...

2006-12-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

From News.com.au

Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is a teen-rated PC strategy game based on the wildly popular Left Behind Christian book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

The game is set in New York City after millions of Christians have been transported to heaven.

Players are charged with recruiting, and converting, an army that will engage in physical and spiritual warfare with the antichrist and his evil followers.

Whatever. The people who believe in the rapture in the first place - where Christians are called up to heaven, leaving the earth as the AntiChrist comes to power, etc, and leaving the new converts to fight it out with the dark one - have obviously never really read 1 Corinthians 15:50-52

50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

In a flash. Doesn't leave much time in there for the rapture, especially as there is no mention of either people going up early (The Rapture) or of those new Christian converts left behind afterwards. In other words, there is no time delay between the transformation of the body and the day of judgement - it all happens at once. So the entire premise for the books, movie and game are off. So I don't really care about the game, apart from the impact it has on the truth. But at least the idiots, if they were going to make a game that would see Christians going around slaughtering pawns of the AntiChrist and the false Prophet, would get the theology right? Too much to hope for, I guess.

Just when you thought times were changing...

2006-12-13T16:17:00.000-08:00

From The Australian -

ETHIOPIA'S brutal Marxist dictator, known as the African Pol Pot, became the first fallen leader to be found guilty yesterday of genocide in his own country after a 12-year trial.

No way! A brutal Ethiopian Marxist dictator is going to get the chop, right? I mean, things must be really improving in Africa if they are holding their own to account for their crimes, huh.

But then ...

Former president Mengistu Haile Mariam, who fled to Zimbabwe in 1991, was accused along with top members of his military government of killing thousands during his 17-year rule.

Ok. He fled to Zimbabwe, but surely the local authorities will turn him over, right? Especially with Mugabe being a favorite down at the UN and all, and the UN being so big on cracking down on genocide and bringing brutal dictators to justice. So he will be sent back to where he came from, I'm sure. Especially with these fanatical internationalists on the case.

Human rights groups welcomed the verdict, although President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has made it clear that he is not prepared to entertain any extradition requests.

Oh. So the trial was pretty pointless, eh? But wait, internationalist group Human Rights Watch has something important to say.

"Verdicts such as this build up pressure and send the message that leaders who are bloodstained must not be allowed to retire in comfort," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa head of Human Rights Watch.

Huh? So Mengistu isn't allowed to retire in comfort, yet he walks free in Zimbabwe, ruled another bloody-handed dictator, Mugabe. So the entire thing was a waste of time, as far as actual justice goes.

But wait! The article goes on ...

Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, was in exile for many years in Nigeria, but was arrested this year and will go on trial next year in The Hague.

Oh, so they include another dictator that they actually managed to find. But he is going to The Hague. How did that Milosevic trial go again? He died of old age before the trial was even half over. Go figue.

So on one side we have a dictator in Mengistu who has been found guilty of genocide, in his own country no less, yet he is free to hang out with his other dictator friend Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and so therefore the verdict from the trial of Mengistu is meaningless, and no action can be taken against him, and probably none ever will.

Then on the other side, we have Charles Taylor's future trial occuring in The Hague, which will take years if not decades, assuming that everyone involved in the process doesn't die of old age first.

And then we have the mass murdering former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who is actually in the country he is being tried in, and has recieved a sentence ensuring he will not retire in comfort - it involves rope and a crossbeam. But it seems that Human Rights Watch likes to talk about justice, but doesn't like it actually happening

The HRW report (into Saddam's trial) says: "The significance of the trials is difficult to overstate.

"For the first time since the post-Second World War Nuremberg trials, almost the entire senior leadership cadre of a long-lived repressive government faces trial for gross human rights violations committed during their tenure."

But the report concludes that the court did not take account of this international significance, and seemed unaware of international practice.

Oh no! Not international practice, which seems to be trumpeting convictions that will never be carried out, or having trials which never even get to the judgement phase, for some of the most ruthless bastards of the 20th and 21st centuries.

And that is assuming that instead of eliminating these bastards, the internationalists don't applaud them, like when Mugabe got up in front of the UN and likened Bush and Blair to Hitler and Mussolini.

So it seems that we have four current and ex dictators here, and all are to be treated differently -

1) Mengistu : Convicted in absentia, however extremely unlikely to ever actually be arrested or for the sentence to be carried out due to his hanging out with dictator # 3

2) Taylor : Arrested and to be tried under international process, and likely to die under it (from old age).

3) Mugabe : Still in power, still starving his people and destroying his political and tribal opponents.

4) Saddam : Will most likely hang for his crimes at the hands of his own people, in his own country, reasonably soon.

Only one didn't rely on international processes during the proceedings, or lack thereof (in Mengistu's and Mugabe's case). Guess which one?

First post, and first thoughts.

2006-12-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

After months of agonising, I've finally decided to actually make my own blog, and this time, actually keep it going. I'll comment (hopefully) on news, current affairs, philosophy, history, politics, economics, religion and anything else that I can dredge up that takes my interest. Apologies in advance for the potentially bad spelling and grammar, let alone the multitude of inanity that I will probably put out for everyone to see.

The first thought is a philosophical one - that the mind thinks, the heart feels, but the soul moves. And when we believe the truth, our soul is moved, and everything changes - our perception of reality, our place in the world, our purpose, our future, everything. The total amount of movement depends on the overarching nature of the truth - so if we believe the truth that the sky is blue, it is a small movement. If we believe that Christ was the son of God, then that is an enormous movement.

But when one believes a lie, then everything else is moved - our perception of reality, our place in the world, our purpose, our future, is falsified - we only seem to be moved. This is why two people who believe in mutually exclusive ideas, one correct and one false, can be equally feverent in their belief that they are correct - for both have felt that they know the truth, and the truth has moved their souls, and therefore everything else. That is why there are so many misguided fanatics around in the world - for the greater the lie, the greater the perception of movement if it is believed by the individuals, and therefore the greater truth they believe is involved, and the more radical shift in thinking, in outlook, etc that they have.

Anyway, it is a work in progress, so let me know if/when the flaws kick into the argument.

More blogging tonight, so that when I get people to blogroll me, there will be something for people to see.