" The purpose of commercial [media] is to induce mass sales. For mass sales there must be a mass norm ... By suppressing the individual, the unique, the industry ... assures itself a standard product for mass consumption.":
John Whiting, writer, commenting on the homogenization of corporate media program content
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"One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a
sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn
you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no
possibility for social change.": David Barsamian, journalist
and publisher
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The foulest damage to our political life comes not from the 'secrets' which they
hide from us, but from the little bits of half-truth and disinformation which
they do tell us. These are already pre-digested, and then are sicked up as
little gobbits of authorised spew. The columns of defence correspondents in the
establishment sheets serve as the spittoons.: E.P. Thompson,
British historian
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The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the
capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all
the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters;
to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their
patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another's throats for the
profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is
war in a nutshell: Eugene Debs 6 June 1918: The speech was
given to about 1,200 people and was later used against Debs to make the case
that he had violated the espionage Act. The judge sentenced Debs to ten years in
prison:
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"[Y]our national greatness, swelling vanity; your denunciation of tyrants,
brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery;
your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious
parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and
hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of
savages." : Frederick Douglass - 1818 - 1895
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" When everyone is thinking the same, no one is thinking.": John Wooden
Finished Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl.
This book is a mix of two of my recent favorite genres--paranormal YA and gothic fiction.
It's set in the south, a town called Gatlin. (There are not corn children and He Who Walks Behind the Rows does not appear.)
Ethan has been having a lot of weird dreams lately--he's trying to save a girl he loves (who he has only seen in these dreams) and failing. When he wakes up, there's generally a ton of dirt in his bed.
A new girl shows up on the first day of his sophomore year and it's the girl from his dreams. And things get weirder from there.
Such a fantastic book.
Up was just named one of AFI's 10 best of the year. (In case you're curious, the others are Coraline, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, Precious, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sugar and Up in the Air.)
I just watched Up a few days ago, so I'm counting it as one seen. :)
It's the latest Pixar offering, so not surprisingly, it's really good.
From the time he was a child, Carl has wanted to be an explorer like his hero, Charles Muntz. That's how he met the girl who would become his wife, Ellie. They never ended up going anywhere, though. After she dies, he decides he's going to go on an adventure, the one he should have taken with her. Except there's a stowaway (Russell, the little boy on the cover) and things continue to not go as planned.
This is a really cute movie, and I liked it. (But why are you so bloodthirsty, Disney/Pixar? Why do you always kill people?)
I was watching a Christmas movie on Hallmark last night. Henry Winkler was the wise fun uncle who comes to stay for Christmas and collects a handsome stranger at the airport, who of course falls in love with the uptight, corporate niece with the oh so cute kid. I had one of those happy inane smiles on my face that you get when you watch a happy inane fluffy romantic comedy Christmas movie.
Mr FD must have been stunned by the sight of a smile upon my face – the first in a few days probably. He must have thought I had some secret supply somewhere and not sharing, so sat down and started to watch the movie with me. In the hope I would share no doubt. It wasn’t long before he was getting annoyed at the “bad guy” fiancé, who was boring and rich and distant and controlling, and cheering for the handsome stranger.
Just after the bad guy manipulates the good guy out of the picture and the wise uncle is telling uptight, list making girl to throw caution aside and run after the good guy, the cable station had some sort of break down. The frame just froze. It was the network’s problem and after a few minutes in which we imagined the lone person at the cable station , drinking coffee in the staff room, realising that the movie had frozen and running down the dark empty corridors to flick a switch, the channel when into an endless string of commercials.
Mr FD became quite distraught – how were we ever going to know what happened next? I said , relax, she will chase after him to the airport, but will not be able to find him and just as she is leaving he will appear from somewhere and all will be well.
No, not good enough for my man. He is obviously not going to sleep until he knows the outcome. I said, look even when it comes on again, they will skip a chunk to make up for lost time. I know the ways of this world, yes I do!
His eyes were like deer in the headlights. I could almost see and hear his mouth forming the word “NNNNOOOOOOOO!”. The man was in serious suffering.
The movie eventually came on, and yes they had leapt a chunk, but we got to see the scene where she is leaving the airport and he sees her retreating and calls out to her. Segway to car returning home and good guy running out of the car to embrace cute kid. Closing scene he and she kiss as the door closes. Sweet.
Mr FD was somewhat mollified, but the missing minutes of the storyline really upset him. I think he went to bed a little empty.
This morning the #$@$#$%#$%@$#$^% parrots woke be at 5am, chirping away in the trees outside our bedroom, so I gave up the thought of sleep and came downstairs for a tea and one of the coffee muffins I made last night. I flipped on the television and LO! the movie was on replay and I was able to catch up on the missing storyline (I won’t tell in case you are yet to watch!). When Mr FD came downstairs I was able to relate the details to him. Oh happy day, he regained his happy glow.
It really doesn’t take much to keep a Mr FD happy. Perhaps you should buy one sometime. I got the family size.
Our sixteenth century ancestors used the shortened term ring to describe a ring-necked pheasant as well as jewellery for their fingers. Let us hope that your true love realises that you have enough feathered gifts to stuff a doona and opts for the finger bling!
Pheasants are native of Asia, but were introduced to Europe, and later America, where they were released into the wild and thrived in the new habitat. According to many accounts Alexander the Great brought pheasant to Greece following his conquests in Asia. Later, the Romans, having conquered Greece and the surrounding areas, introduced the birds to Western Europe. Old legends, popular in the middle ages, tell of Jason and the Argonauts bringing back golden birds. It didn't take long for people to conclude that the ring-necked pheasants were a sub-species of these golden birds and from Roman times onward the eating of pheasants was reserved for royalty.
For those following it more religiously then the five golden rings represent The first Five Books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah, or the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The fifth day of Christmas, December 29th is also the feast of St. Thomas Becket.
So the tally for the fifth day of Christmas:
Five golden rings,
Four collie birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
That is a lot of bird action - hope you are not allergic!
Tim Minchin's Christmas song, White Wine In The Sun, is now available for single purchase on iTunes!
Give this a watch/listen, and then go buy it! The iTunes version has some very beautiful string accompaniment too.
Mondays really suck, even when you don't have a job. I think I am going to option up to the double Sunday model.
Clean coal plan gets fast track
- From: The Australian
- December 14, 2009
A MAJOR clean coal power plant and
carbon storage project is being considered for planning approval in
Queensland, even though a feasibility assessment has not been completed
and a site is yet to be found, along with the necessary $4.2 billion in
funding.
The Bligh government confirmed on Friday that Co-ordinator-General Colin Jensen had given significant project status to ZeroGen, which is wholly owned by the state with initial backing from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Shell and the coal industry.
The declaration signals the start of comprehensive environmental assessments, even though the project is still at the pre-feasibility stage.
Most stakeholders are awaiting carbon policies to determine the way forward.
A feasibility study, if warranted, would not be completed for almost two years.
But ZeroGen has considerable political support.
The Bligh government declared ZeroGen capable of being one of the first companies in the world to build a commercial-scale power plant -- generating the equivalent of 400 megawatts -- combined with geosequestration technology.
Queensland Mines and Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said the Bligh government was showing its commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
"Integrating a coal gasification power plant with the capture and storage of (carbon dioxide) emissions to generate low-emission electricity for the national electricity market will put Queensland in the driver's seat when it comes to clean coal technology," Mr Robertson said.
The Rudd government last week announced ZeroGen was one of four projects for its $2bn carbon capture and storage flagships program.
But even if successful, ZeroGen would only share in $120 million in commonwealth funding for pre-feasibility work, and the proponents are operating on tight timeframes in their bid to have the power plant running by late 2015.
ZeroGen chief executive Tony Tarr said last week the project would help to safeguard Queensland's coal industry while putting the state at the forefront of technological development.
"It is widely understood that if several large-scale integrated CCS (carbon capture and storage) projects are not developed within the next decade, there is a real possibility we won't be able to deploy the technology in time to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from exceeding reasonable limits," Dr Tarr said.
Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the commonwealth government was, through its CCS flagships program, contributing to the G8 goal of at least 20 large-scale integrated CCS projects globally by 2020.
Drilling tests have continued in central Queensland's Northern Denison Trough in an effort to find a location for about 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to be stored over the life of the project.
The project was greatly revamped early last year, when its proponents succumbed to pressure to double ZeroGen's planned electricity output and fast-track development of a commercially viable plant.
Four Calling Birds ? The original form of twitter?
The fourth day of Christmas, according to the song, has your true love sending a gift of four calling birds. The verse, four calling birds, is actually a corruption of the English word colly or collie. So your true love is presenting "four colly birds" or four collie birds Scholars generally agree that colly or calling birds were actually blackbirds. In England a coal mine is called a colliery and colly or collie is a derivation of this and means black like coal. Blackbirds were plentiful and were a common food., so your true love is feeding you well, if without imagination. And yes, Blackbirds taste like chicken too!
Some people consider the Twelve Days of Christmas a catechism song and so the four colly/calling birds represent The Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The song of the blackbird apparently made it a symbol of temptations, especially sexual ones. The devil is said to have once taken on the shape of a blackbird and flew into St. Benedict's face, thereby causing the saint to be troubled by an intense desire for a beautiful girl he had once seen. In order to save himself, St. Benedict tore off his clothes and jumped into a thorn bush. This painful act is said to have freed him from sexual temptations for the rest of his life. Obviously, before the invention of the cold shower!
Like the crow and the raven, the blackbird is considered a bad omen. However, the sight of two blackbirds sitting together is a symbol of peace and a good omen
Are you at all worried about the cost of all these gifts that your true love is giving to you? Well, to check out the Christmas Price Index, and the cost of the 364 gifts that your true love is presenting to you check out :
The Christmas Price Index: http://www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com/CPI/historyFAQ.html
For those of you with an actual life to live and wanting instant gratification - the 2009 cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas is $21465.56. So when your true love complains about the credit card balance in February remember the 364 gifts – one for each day until next Christmas- and be good enough not to complain about eating blackbird baked in a pie for dinner again!
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/libs-fear-joyce-will-overpower-hockey-20091213-kqdc.html
Libs fear Joyce will overpower Hockey
December 14, 2009
Alan Moir Cartoon Of The Day, The Sydney Morning Herald
Nick Minchin was the first Liberal to try to rein in Barnaby Joyce. It was April 2005 and Joyce's reputation preceded him.
Elected six months earlier, Joyce was still two months away from taking his place in the Senate. He was already on the record opposing various Howard government policies ranging from the sale of the remainder of Telstra to the abolition of compulsory student unionism and the scrapping of state awards for a single federal award system.
Minchin, the Liberal Senate leader, left Adelaide's eastern suburbs for Joyce's home in St George, Queensland, to make his acquaintance, meet the family, chew the fat and spell out the rules. At the time, the strategy concerning Joyce was ''to kill him with love'' and it was believed Joyce would calm down once he entered Parliament. ''It's a long walk to go and sit with the other side with your mates watching you,'' one of Joyce's colleagues said at the time.
Three years later, Peter Costello, in his memoirs, summed up the failure of the Liberals to contain Joyce and the bad taste it left in the Liberal establishment. Joyce, he said, was ''a populist'' who ''believed that the hope of the National Party lay in distinguishing itself from the Liberal Party''.
''Since the Government had a majority of one in the Senate, Joyce was able to grandstand on practically every issue. He felt no loyalty to the Coalition. He wanted to share the Coalition's record of achievement in economic management but he also wanted to oppose the measures necessary to deliver those results. The more he demanded, the higher his profile became.''
Costello noted that Joyce was supported by the same people who were behind the disastrously parochial Joh-for-PM campaign that wrecked John Howard's 1987 election campaign.
Joyce, once more, is topic du jour thanks to his elevation last week as the Opposition spokesman for finance and debt reduction. It was part of Tony Abbott's bare-knuckle approach. Joyce, the so-called ''retail politician'', would use the same populist style that helped swing sentiment against the emissions trading scheme, to range across a swag of issues while banging on about Labor's debt.
Joyce rose with the full imprimatur of Minchin and Abbott but he drove a hard bargain. He wanted the key portfolio and demanded the shadow ministry be expanded by one so his entry did not result in a fellow National being punted. There are 14 Nationals in Parliament - nine MPs and five senators. Nationals make up 15 per cent of the Coalition caucus and 20 per cent of its shadow cabinet.
If the idea of promoting Joyce was to get him into the tent to curb his excesses, it failed miserably in week one. Joyce aired the gamut of his policy beliefs including his trenchant opposition to Chinese sovereign investment, his support for greater bank regulation, his support for unconstitutional zonal tax treatment, and his alarmist statement that the United States and Queensland could default on their debts.
There will be no reining in of Joyce. As he told the Herald on Tuesday: ''It's not as though you have a personality transplant when you go into cabinet.''
The less apparent danger for Abbott is the internal damage and ongoing unrest Joyce will cause. While the weekend papers were full of warnings of what Joyce could do to the Coalition's economic reputation, the internal ill-feeling that Costello articulated began to well up by the end of last week.
Since the election two years ago, Joyce has led a ramped-up push to differentiate the Nationals from the Liberals. This has caused him to be frequently disloyal to the Coalition and contemptuous of the Liberals, so much so that Malcolm Turnbull, before he fell, was under real pressure to split from the Nationals for good. Then, in one fell swoop, the leadership changed and Joyce became a lead figure in the Coalition.
Not only do the aggrieved Liberals feel the Nationals are overly represented in shadow cabinet, Joyce is now espousing views that are anathema to Liberal philosophy of the free market, foreign investment and less government regulation.
Mainstream Liberals feel as though they are having their noses rubbed in it. They fear Joyce will overpower and dominate the senior finance spokesman Joe Hockey - just as he rendered irrelevant the Nationals leaders Mark Vaile and Warren Truss - and become the economic voice of the Coalition. What may go down well in the front bar of the pub in St George is unlikely to resonate in Collins or Pitt Street.
''This is going to be a disaster,'' said one MP. ''Great retail politician? Sure, but so was Pauline Hanson''.
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