Category: Law and Politics

Thatcher – Can You Catch Her?

Well, Baroness Thatcher has shuffled off the mortal coil. Can’t say I was a fan of her or her policies, but one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead (they have strange powers!).

I am however reminded of the postcard produced by comedian/activist/provocateur Mark Thomas a few years back when the idea of offering Thatcher a state funeral was mooted (apparently state funerals are seriously a big deal in the UK).

I think that probably says it all.

Oh, and there’s a hastag #nowthatchersdead, which is confusing a lot of people (mostly Americans I expect) who are parsing it wrong and are suddenly very concerned about Cher.

Why I Don’t Support Gay Marriage

“What!?” you say. “Bleeding-heart left-winger Purple Wyrm doesn’t support gay marriage!? Has the world gone mad!?” well, read on and I’ll explain.

I don’t support gay marriage, because I don’t support straight marriage.

Let me clarify.

What is marriage? Fundamentally marriage is a religious or cultural institution. It has acquired a legal status because, historically, governments haven’t been able to  keep their hands out of religious issues. Nowdays, in an increasingly secular and multicultural/multi-religious society, governments are moving to shed themselves of religious trappings so as to accurately represent all of their constituents. And in my view governmentally sanctioned marriage is one of those trappings and should be done away with post haste.

I don’t mean that people won’t be able to get married. I’m not advocating some kind of storm troopers breaking up weddings and hauling priests and celebrants off to re-education camps. What I’m talking about is divorcing (haha! see what I did there?) the cultural and religious ceremony and sacrament of marriage from the legal definition of two people pooling their resources and assets. A legal contract that binds two people together and gives them certain governmentally recognised rights should have nothing to do with a guy (or gal) saying words in a church, any more than you need a Shinto Priest to authorise the taking of your passport photos.

If you want to get married in a ceremony and have a religious official presiding – fantastic! Do it! Have a fantastic day and be happy in the knowledge that you’re legitimately joined in the eyes of your deity and culture. But you should get no rights or privileges from the government until you fill out the appropriate paperwork – the same paperwork as everyone else. And if you don’t want a big ceremony (or you can’t get it because the religion or culture in question won’t recognise your union as a valid one) then just fill out the paperwork and get exactly the same rights and recognition as every other civilly united couple.

Religions can continue to offer the ceremony and social/theological concept of ‘marriage’ to whoever they want – subject to the wishes of their congregants. Government won’t deal with ‘marriage’ at all, just civil unions. The ‘sanctity of marriage’ will no longer be threatened by ‘teh geyz’ because it will have been handed back to the religions to look after for themselves, and everyone gets the same rights

That’s the way I reckon it should be. Civil unions for everyone who wants them, and miniature national flags for everyone else! 🙂

This Land is Mine

In light of the latest news out of Israel, I thought it appropriate to direct readers to Nina Paley’s video This Land is Mine, which has been sitting around in my “stuff to blog about” pile for a few months.

I gave up on trying to figure out rights and wrongs in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a long time ago. So much wrongdoing and so many atrocities have been carried out by both sides that as far as I’m concerned they’re both equally bloodied. The State of Israel has a right to exist in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians, and neither are going to get them until the fundamentalists on both sides (religious and otherwise) put aside their ideologies, pasts, hatreds and need for revenge and start over from scratch.

This, of course, is never going to happen. They’ll keep on fighting forever, or until one side is wiped out entirely. One is almost tempted to build a big wall around the Levant and let them get on with it.

Tom Waits seems to agree.

Oh America!

Apparently there’s some American woman who wants to move to Australia because…

“…their president is a Christian and actually supports what he says…”

Hmmm, let’s do a comparison…

Julia Gillard
Prime Minister of Australia		 Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
President? No Yes
Christian? No – A stated Atheist Yes – Despite right wingers’ repeated claims that he’s a filthy, evil, communist, socialist, terrorist, Kenyan “Muslin”
He? No Yes
Actually supports what he says? No* No*
Score 0/4 3/4

When it’s put like that, I rather think she’d be happier staying where she is.

(* Find me a politician who does and I’ll give you a shiny new donkey – or if you prefer, elephant)

Election Day, Say Hooray

Do all your shopping at Walmart!

Well, today’s the US Election, when we’ll see if the leadership of the free world (TM) is seized by the evil usurper Romney, or retained by the evil incumbent Obama.

(Personally I’m hoping for the evil incumbent)

For those needing a refresher on their Presidents, here’s Jonathon Coulton’s wonderful song on the matter…

(Note that this is the original 2005 version that doesn’t include Obama or the correct year of Garfield’s assassination)

Let freedom ring people!

10 Years On

Well, it’s ten years on from the Bali bombings.

I didn’t really feel much when the bombings happened. No anger, no terror, just a sense of dull numbness and weary resignation. I think I was still – even over a year later – in a state of shock from the September 11 attacks. I’d kind of readjusted my mind into a state of acceptance that terrorism was the new reality and that a bunch of innocent people getting horribly murdered was the kind of thing that was going to happen from now on – where and when being mere, irrelevant details.

I didn’t really snap out of it until the 7/7 attacks in London. I guess enough time had passed for the shock to wear off – the fact that I have a disproportionate love of that city no doubt helped.

Now, on the tenth anniversary, I still don’t feel much. I’m just glad that there haven’t been any more attacks on Australians as bad as Bali.

16 Quotes From Tony Abbott to Remind You Why He Shouldn’t Be Prime Minister

Via Nikki J’s Scrapheap…

On immigration:

1. ‘Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.’

2. ‘These people aren’t so much seeking asylum, they’re seeking permanent residency. If they were happy with temporary protection visas, then they might be able to argue better that they were asylum seekers’

On rights at work:

3. ‘Bad bosses, like bad fathers and husbands, should be tolerated because they do more good than harm’

On women:

4. ‘The problem with the Australian practice of abortion is that an objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother’s convenience.’

5. ‘I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons’

6. ‘I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think they are both they both need to be moderated, so to speak’

7. ‘What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it’s going to go up in price and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up, every year…’

On Julia Gillard:

8. ‘Gillard won’t lie down and die’

On climate change:

9. ‘Climate change is absolute crap’

10. ‘If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax.’

On homosexuality:

11. ‘I’d probably … I feel a bit threatened’

12. ‘If you’d asked me for advice I would have said to have – adopt a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about all of these things…’

On Indigenous Australia:

13. ‘Now, I know that there are some Aboriginal people who aren’t happy with Australia Day. For them it remains Invasion Day. I think a better view is the view of Noel Pearson, who has said that Aboriginal people have much to celebrate in this country’s British Heritage’

14. ‘Western civilisation came to this country in 1788 and I’m proud of that…’

15. ‘There may not be a great job for them but whatever there is, they just have to do it, and if it’s picking up rubbish around the community, it just has to be done’

On Nicola Roxon:

16: ‘That’s bullshit. You’re being deliberately unpleasant. I suppose you can’t help yourself, can you?’

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