Linky Love - Volume 20

Standard intro - Linky Love is basically a cobbling together of posts I've noticed around the traps that have set off little tiny sparkles inside my head, and which I would possibly write about or comment on if I didn't need to sleep, eat, work, that kind of stuff. I usually put Linky Love volumes up weekly. I hope you like it.

As always if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight, please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Alas, a blog - Helix SF Magazine published all-female authored issue - Mandolin looks at wot it says in the title, and the reactions that resulted.

DagCentral - Healthcare in America, Pt 1. - dc talks about the American system, from the point of view of a patient and a nurse.

Feministe - Monday Afternoon at the Welfare Office - kactus shares what it's like to be an American on welfare.

Feministe - Liberated - Jill has a very interesting graph and post on the US Government's attitude to Iraqis seeking to resettle in the Land of the Free.

Feministing - Bush's EEOC nominee "undermined" employment rights - Ann brings us another I Can't Believe This Is Happening Moment, courtesy of the Bush Administration.

The Legal Soapbox - Feelin' blue about blogging - Legal Eagle is actually writing about housing affordability in Australia, reminding us Kiwis that we aren't the only ones with ridiculous house prices.

Make Tea Not War - Film Festival: Part One - MTNW gives us her short reviews of the four films she has seen so far.

Scratch & Sniff - Whodathunk it? actually, plenty of us - Cheezy points out the fallacy in the recent right-wing argument No One Foresaw Iraq Turning Out Like This.

stanselen - No More Rape - jo writes about the Christchurch protest in support of the case against John Dewar.

Take Back the News - A positive example - Anna deconstructs a news story about crime and shows how it is possible to report on rape (and indeed other crime) without stuffing up your use of allegeds.

Previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 19) can be found over here.

(Pic Via)

Banding together for blogger freedom in Fiji

You may have seen the following release around a few blogs yesterday:*

New Zealand Bloggers Offer Support For Freedom Of Speech In Fiji

New Zealand bloggers from across the political spectrum are offering material support for Fijian blogs in the face of violence and censorship by the country's military regime. They are also calling on the New Zealand government to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the regime's acts of violence and censorship against this nonviolent, grassroots blogging movement.

The Fijian military regime has declared anonymous pro-democracy bloggers to be a "threat to national security", and have attempted to block Fijian access to common hosting sites such as www.blogspot.com. Suspected blogger, Ulaiasi Taoi, was recently subjected to beatings, verbal abuse, and humiliation during a 24-hour questioning, according to The Fiji Times and Fijian news sites. The military regime now claims to have identified 20 more people responsible for pro-democracy blogs who will also be threatened with "questioning".

In support of the right to freedom of expression, a group of New Zealand bloggers are now offering access to their own websites for Fijian residents. The group is composed of prominent New Zealand bloggers from across the political spectrum, including writers of Just Left, Kiwiblog, No Right Turn, NZBC, Public Address, and Spanblather. They have agreed to publish guest articles by Fijian bloggers, and where possible will provide hosting on their servers for Fijian blogs.

The group are also calling upon other members of the New Zealand online
community with an interest of freedom of speech (such as Scoop, nzherald.co.nz,
and Stuff) to make a similar offer of material support for Fijian bloggers.

Blogs are one of the few news sources outside of the control of the military regime in Fiji, representing a vital channel of uncensored information for both Fijians and the international community.

Any Fijian bloggers wishing to make use of this offer should make contact through one of the above-listed websites.

I've put Spanblather up to help, although due to my technical handicaps all I can really do is host guest posts. I expect that most Fijian bloggers looking for somewhere to put up their writings will go to one of the bigger blogs (pretty much all of the others on the list!) and that's ok. Scoop has also stepped up to the plate to publish their writings, so that's another great outlet and hopefully another way around the attempts to shut down dissent within our Pacific neighbour.

I'm hoping to write more on this in the future, but for NZ coverage you really can't go past Idiot/Savant. He has been doing some great work in this area and I take my hat off to him (yet again).


* You can call me many things but you can rarely call me punctual.

Linky Love - Volume 17

Sorry this is so late - I've hardly been at a computer all week.

Standard intro - Linky Love is basically a cobbling together of posts I've noticed around the traps that have set off little tiny sparkles inside my head, and which I would possibly write about or comment on if I didn't need to sleep, eat, work, that kind of stuff. I usually put Linky Love volumes up weekly, on Friday mornings, although sometimes I sneak them in on Thursday for various reasons. I hope you like it.

As always if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Capitalism Bad - Eating disorders are about more than hating your appearance - Maia responds to a post by Hugo Schwyzer comparing eating disorders and veganism, and looks at the role that control and self-denial plays.

Feministe - Teen Girl Sex Scandal!! OhmiGod!! - Flea examines the annoying moral panics that frequently seem to spring up around the possibility of young women having sex.

Feministing - Hero of the Day: Erin Davies and her "fag bug" - Jessica reports on a homophobic vandalism that has had rather the opposite effect from what the tagger would have intended.

Ghetsuhm - Moooooo - Ghet posts about the cow-chicken-grass test, which I didn't just like cos I studied anthro.

LeftAlign - Terrorists I am scared of - LA writes about some scary scary people and the regular folks who support their views.

The Legal Soapbox - All's fair in love and law - Legal Eagle shares why she loves being a lawyer, and why the structure of legal work makes it hard for her to maintain that affection.

The Legal Soapbox - Managing up and down - LE gets a second nod for an insightful piece on managing that she wrote ages ago (before she shifted to wordpress) but I only just got around to finishing it.

Pandagon - Quality of whose life, again? - Chris Clarke has a fantastic post on the "patriarchal blindspot" some seem to have when advocating for change such as the Slow Movement. zuzu, also of Feministe, has written about her family's experiences in response.

Red in Roskill - Lessons for Labour - Michael Wood extrapolates a few things for Helen Clark and friends to take heed of, from the recent UK elections.

Salon - Tinky Winky says bye-bye to Jerry Falwell - The former teletubby breaks his silence on the death of the tele-evangelist who outted him.

WebWeaver's World - Smack no more! - ww shares her thoughts on the successful final vote on s59's repeal, and also has Sue Bradford's full Third Reading speech.

Previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 16) can be found over here.

And finally, this week's Heart Pic is provided by Tze Ming Mok, of Yellow Peril fame, and was snapped at an art gallery in Shanghai recently. Thanks tm :-)

Linky Love - Volume 16

Standard intro - Linky Love is basically a cobbling together of posts I've noticed around the traps that have set off little tiny sparkles inside my head, and which I would possibly write about or comment on if I didn't need to sleep, eat, work, that kind of stuff. I usually put Linky Love volumes up weekly, on Friday mornings, although sometimes I sneak them in on Thursday for various reasons. I hope you like it.

As always if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Alas, a blog - Things You Learn About Race From a 7 Year Old - Rachel S on some revealing conversations with her partner's 7 year old son.

Brainstab - "Mortgage" means "death pledge" - Josh shares his thoughts on the endless treadmill of debt repayment he's now stuck on for all eternity.

Brainstab - STEP AWAY FROM DA LIGHT... - Apathy Jack reflects on Hoodrat High as his time working there comes to an end.

Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty - What I actually think about voting - After ending up in an odd debate about the Democrats with a bunch of American feminist bloggers, Maia explains her views on elections.

DagCentral - The word is "Mexican" - In which the author talks about Mexicans as actual human beings, not the sub-humans the LAPD seemed to decide they were on May Day.

The Ex-Expat - The dark side of Asia - Musings from a Kiwi recently returned from living in Asia, and pointing out a few key points to consider when considering the fate of Cho Seung-Hui, formerly of Virginia Tech.

Feministe - AutoAdmit's Anthony Ciolli Loses Job Offer - Jill reports on what seems to be the final play in the nasty online harassment she faced on a law student bulletin board in the USA.

The Gossip - Measuring sustainability and happiness, not just growth - A guest post from CTU Economist Peter Conway about other ways to measure our success besides the purely economic.

Maramatanga - Draft electorate boundaries - Maramatanga has the best damn run-down of the draft changes that I've seen yet, handily broken down into parts of the country so you can find the area you care most about with ease.

No Right Turn - A victory for freedom to protest - Idiot/Savant reports on the Brooker decision and what it means for activists.

Pandagon - Systematic racism is over - Someone should tell the system - Auguste has a great post, beginning with a great cartoon, that points out the absurdity of the concept that traditional racist power structures have already been turned on their head.

Red Diaper Dharma - My Good Abortion - Parenting writer Ericka Lutz shares her story.

Sir Humphrey's - Das Alles Verdanken Wir Dem Fuehrer - Psycho Milt has a powerful post about the victims of war who aren't shot or injured on the frontlines, but raped in their own homes.

Stanselen - Answering to yourself - jo has a great post about being a woman and being a mother and staunchly not feeling she has to justify either.

Previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 15) can be found over here.

(Pic Via) (And this is my favourite Linky Love pic to date!)

Linky Love - Volume 15

This is early 'cos I'm not sure I'll get a chance to put it up at all tomorrow.

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Alas (a blog) - Sexism Against (and For) Men on TV Sitcoms - Ampersand on why even when men's telly roles seem to put them down, they are still the leading person in the show.

Anonymous Lefty - Excuse me while I twirl my moustache - Jeremy contends leftie peaceniks aren't actually gleeful when bad news comes in from Iraq.

Aucklander at Large - Doomed to Fail - Jeremy G-H shares his predictions for the possible political alliance between Phillip Field and Destiny Church.

Disturbed Beyond Belief - My views on abortion - If you only read one post in this Linky Love, this is the one to click through. It's by a man, if the idea of another woman ranting about abortion puts you off.

Feministe - The terrorism that dare not speak its name - zuzu riffs on the theme of abortion clinic bombings not counting as terrorism these days (if ever).

Jesus' General - My Saviour is a Very Butch Saviour - This one is special delivery for Paul and Apathy Jack, and as Pam from Pandagon warns, be careful not to be sipping coffee whilst reading this one, because spitting it all over the screen may make it hard to read the rest.

Larvatus Prodeo - What's it like to have one leg? - Kim explains beautifully.

LeftAlign - American left-wing blogs are myopic - In which the eponymous author searches for left blogs that aren't all Democrats-this and Republicans-that.

The Legal Soapbox - Conservation = Conservatism? - Legal Eagle ponders the "scientific illiteracy" of some in the Green movement, in a lengthy post well worth a good perusal.

Long Ago And Not True Anyway - ANZAC Day - Terence shares his thoughts and emotions about one of Aotearoa's most meaningful public holidays.

No Right Turn - Ancient History: the Coalition for Open Government - Idiot/Savant enlightens us all about the background of this renewed lobby group.

Pandagon - Your White Guy Passport to Expertland - ilyka writes passionately about the expert stance many seem to take, even when faced with experiences they haven't had, and can never have.

Red in Roskill - Kill the Bills - Michael Wood looks at the two members' bills about lifting trading restrictions at Easter, which are likely to see some voting action in the next week.

And don't forget, previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 14) can be found in their own shiny category.

(Pic Via)

Linky Love - Volume 14

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

a bird and a bottle - On the Feminization of Poverty - Bean unpacks an Alternet article which states that 70% of those living in poverty, worldwide, are female.

the blonde canadian - Pure intentions? - -k turns her insightful mind to one of my latest obsessions, Purity Balls.

Born on State Highway One -Quid Auclandium faciam? - Tama Boyle bids a fond farewell to Herald columnist Garth George.

Feministe - We're getting tired of prying your guns for your cold, dead hands - Jill debunks the line that enabling "vulnerable" women to have guns for self-defense is a feminist stance.

Feministe - "Pro-Life" Mississippi has highest of infant mortality rate in the nation - Jill reports on the US state which is allegedly "safest for the unborn child" yet has appalling statistics for chidren, and argues that this appears to be a wider trend amongst "pro-life" states.

Ilyka Damen - Some Thoughts on What Beauty is Mything - gennimcmahon examines her own internal contradictions and reasons that they come from her "deep connection to a culture that says that a good woman doesn’t believe herself to be attractive, no matter what." Let's just say, she's not alone.

The Legal Soapbox - Potter Schmotter - Legal Eagle explains why she finds the Harry Potter books so insufficient that she hasn't even read Book 6. (This one's for you, Apathy Jack.)
Me - My Opinions! Noisy! - disturbed kiwi disagrees with the recent BRT column in the Herald claiming that Working For Families and similar schemes discourage people from earning more.

Pandagon - President-for-Life Sheelzebub institutes her new Stumbling Block Prevention Program - Sheelzebub comes up with some novel ideas to resolve the problem women's bodies seem to pose for some men.

Parrot on Policy - Civic Virtue - Policy Parrot looks at why our political cynicism has increased and some ways we could fight it.

soapbox spinsters - updates and reflections from town hall - movingtargets covers the recent controversy in Western Ontario (and through-out many of the US and Canadian feminist blog) over a Not Funny "satire" piece in her University's student newspaper.

The Techsploder - Fisk on Wikipedia and Web hate campaigns - Juha highlights and discusses an article by Robert Fisk about the impact of internet hate-mongering and the difficulty of finding the truth online.

What We Said - French election update - mandarine explains why he's voting for a woman.

And don't forget, previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 13) can be found in their own shiny category.

(Pic Via)

Not Forgetting - Anzac Blogging Roundup

Herein lie all the blog posts I've found so far for this Anzac Day, 25th April 2007. All NZ unless otherwise noted.

Reports on various events:
ANZAC Day in Devonport - Juha was there
Anti war protest in Auckland - John has pictures from the Dawn Ceremony at the Auckland War Memorial
ANZAC Day - welly_girl was watching the telly coverage of various dawn services.
ANZAC Dawn Service - Chris was in London
Wellington Anzac Day Protest - anarchafairy
Opposition to War on ANZAC Day - John has reports and photos from around NZ and also Australia.
Early morning for Otautahi Cats! - jo has a pic from the Christchurch vigil.


Reflections & opinion:
ANZAC Day must be opposed - anarchafairy
The Anzac Spirit - me (Span) responding to anarchafairy
I really want to know - Maia continues the conversation of the previous two posts, and has cross-posted this at Alas.
Anzac Day 2007 - Jordan Carter
Thanks Old People - Apathy Jack posted something Eric Olthwaite wrote at some point in the past
Lest We Forget - the blonde canadian (Canadian)
Anzac Day: Dawn Parade - The Strategist
Wally of the Week - Judith Collins - Chris awards this for Anzac Day-related reasons.
Dawn Service - DPF
More on ANZAC Day - DPF again
Shameful Disrespect - Adolf Fiinkensein
Lest we forget - Zen Tiger
ANZAC Day - morgue
A Simple Test - more from anarchafairy
ANZAC Day - trs
Honour the Dead., No More Wars - There Is A Time And Place For Everything!! - James Sleep
Damage of war makes Clark "sick" - James Sleep
Top Ten Reasons Helen skipped the Dawn Service - Cactus Kate
has this place become permanently infested with socialist apologists and historical revisionists? - Pyscho Milt
In 'lest we forget' we forget too many - Joe Hendren
Po Whakamutunga - dagcentral (USA)
One sleep to go - David Slack
ANZAC Dawn Service, Wellington 2007 - Phil
ANZAC Anarchists; short-sighted, ignorant - Phil
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Make Tea Not War
what the? - Che Tibby
Lynch and Tillman and ANZAC protest - morgue
Already forgotten - Maia
Anzac Day - Eric Othlwaite
The car is broken and we're all well spoken - amarynth
(no title) - buzzandhum

Poetry & similar:
Anzac Day, Devonport - a contribution from Kevin Ireland posted by Craig Ranapia
Anzac Day - doddery old fart has the words of Ataturk which are carved in stone above Anzac Cove.
Anzac Day - The Strategist has 'For the Fallen'
Lest We Forget - tigtog has 'For the Fallen' and an open discussion thread about the day (Australian)
On Anzac Day - we will remember them - Webweaver has rather a range of related poems.


If your post is missing please feel free to add it in comments, and if I get a chance I'll add it in.

Updated, 5.54pm 25th April - added second post from DPF, posts by AF, w_g, ZT, morgue. Updated, 1.13pm 26th April - added two more posts from anarchafairy, posts by Chris, trs, JS (x2), Cactus Kate, PM, JH, dagcentral
Updated, 6.19pm 26th April - added posts by DS, Phil (x2), MTNW, CT, EO, jo, second posts from morgue, John and Maia.
Updated, 9.50am 27th April - added posts by amarynth, b&h and O-B.
Updated, 10.29am 29th April - added post by Webweaver

Thanks to morgue for hunting posts down too!


(Pic taken walking on Anzac Cove, April 2006)

The Anzac Spirit

anarchafairy has an interesting post up entitled ANZAC Day must be opposed. He is of the opinion that Anzac* Day is a celebration of the NZ military and a source of growing nationalism in our country. I can understand his points, but I guess it's just not what I see in Anzac Day.

When I hear the words "lest we forget" I do think of the violence and destruction that characterises war. I can't help but visualise the young men suffering in the trenches of WWI and the many women who are inevitably victims in times of conflict. Maybe it's just me, but I'd actually formed the impression that one of the reasons turnouts were swelling was a view in Aotearoa, held by many, that the price of war is too high, and it must be avoided. That we gather on Anzac Day to acknowledge past sacrifices made, but also to remind ourselves that we do not want to go there again.

As for the growing nationalism, to be honest I feel as if New Zealand has become less nationalistic in the last decade, not more. Perhaps that's reflected more by the people I hang out with now, and my own change away from being mindlessly proud of our little slice of the landmass? My perception is that as we become more multicultural, both in terms of our population and our surrounds, we are slowly breaking away from thinking something is always better for being Kiwi. I think we have more to fear, in terms of growing nationalism, from the All Blacks winning the World Cup, than we do from Anzac Day.

anarchafairy writes:

It is a bizarre situation, then, that those on the left, even those claiming its
radical margins, are unwilling to oppose in any meaningful way the ceremonies of
ANZAC day. They fear offending those mercenaries of the State in attendance.
They fear disrupting what is in fact a near-sacred national ritual. They,
apparently, lack an ability to compare an act that merely offends with
systematic and legitimised murder, armed patrols, nightly curfews, military
checkpoints and all the other associated tactics of the New Zealand military.

I won't oppose Anzac Day ceremonies because for me they aren't about glorifying war, they are about facing the grim reality of it and not sweeping that under the carpet because it is so gruesome and seems so far away. I feel that this is a motivator for many who attend, and particularly those who take their children along.

I don't fear the mercenaries of the State (although perhaps that's because I'm not sure who they are) but I do agree that April 25th ceremonies are becoming near-sacred. They are a time when we respect those who have fought, but don't necessarily agree with the reasons for the conflicts. For me at least, it is a time of remembering that in at least some of the wars NZ has taken part in the politicians have not always been honest about the reasons for engagement, and have often followed immoral strategies to encourage the country to sign up to war. On many occasions (if not all) those who have enlisted, and those who have supported the wars at home, were victims too.

On the issue anarchafairy raises about recognising the "enemy", I agree, we do ignore them. We also ignore the war had within NZ too. I would like to see that change. When I visited Gallipoli last year I had the embarassing realisation that I hadn't really thought before about who we were fighting, or the horror they had faced too. This was reinforced at St Martins in York. The church was almost completely destroyed in a bombing raid during WWII and yet it had been rebuilt as a chapel centred on forgiveness - primarily of those who bombed it. I am not a religious person, not at all, but in that church I could almost say I felt the presence of something god-like. To me it was a radical notion, this forgiveness of the invisible, dehumanised enemy**, and one I hope I can make a part of me, to replace that blind Kiwi pride I used to hold so dear.

This Anzac Day I may not make it to a ceremony - I haven't since before I got sick. But I will reflect on war, and the tragedy that it is. I won't glorify it, and I won't support it, and I won't forget.

Taken by the author at one of the Turkish memorials, Gallipoli.

* I know it's an acronym but I always feel like it shouldn't be.
** Something we pol bloggers could all learn from I feel.

Linky Love - Volume 11

Tomorrow's Good Friday, so again Linky Love is early this week.

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Caraka - Strike at the root, not the branches - caraka highlights an article on the Saudi involvement in terrorism and asks a few searching questions too.

Feministe - Abstinence-only craziness - Jill has a great post highlighting a range of abstinence programmes, all of which are united by the common theme of characterising women who have pre-marital sex as used up. So good to know that an intact hymen is the most important thing about a woman.

Feministing - WaPo: Wage gap is "A bargain at 77 cents to a dollar" - Jessica reports on the drivel in the Washington Post that women should be happy to be paid less then men.

from the morgue - On Purity - morgue writes about the hard-core Christian "purity" drives and how they may be coming to New Zealand.

Hard News - The Solipsistic Left - Russell Brown covers and critiques the claims by Nick Cohen that we lefties are all dirty misogynistic, anti-Semitic, homophobic supporters of radical Islam. What, even the feminist Jewish lesbians?

Joe Hendren - Don't let climate change quibbles weaken movement - Joe Hendren responds to the frequent (and really rather dull) attacks on those campaigning to stop climate changing behaviours because they use air travel, and cars, and other wacky modern inventions that our society relies on and which sadly contribute to warming the planet. I'm sure Al Gore would have got his message out far wider if he had relied on bicycle power as some would prefer.

Larvatus Prodeo - Work/Death Balance - Kim argues that the Australian Government is promoting work more and more as a duty which must be done for longer and longer, and that this creates an environment with unconscionable levels of work-related stress.

No Right Turn - A closer look: election funding - Idiot/Savant turns his attention to the Campaign for Open Government's proposals to review the funding of electioneering.

What We Said - A Very Rough Guide to Feminism - Make Tea Not War gives us her take on feminism - a good read for those who reckon they hate feminists!

Women's Space/The Margins - Republican Bill Would Have Jailed Women For Not Reporting Miscarriages to the Police - Heart reports on a US bill, luckily withdrawn, which sounds like all kinds of crazy.

And don't forget, previous volumes of Linky Love can be found in their own shiny category.

At least

It seems to me, as a NZ leftie, that really there aren't a lot of choices for me at the moment. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there aren't a lot of options I like, politically.

On the right hand I have National, Act, and the general Forces of Darkness who throng around concepts I find anathema. Ideas like low (or no) taxation, privatising state services, selling assets, cutting benefits, and generally advantaging the rich (and priviledged) over all others.

The left palm displays the Labour-led Government, which doesn't exactly set my leftie heart aflame with passion for their policies, or even their principles, but is better than National.

And that seems to be all there is. As far as Government leadership goes there's only National or Marginally Better Than National.

On international relations, I can wicker all I want about Helen Clark's senseless lunch attempt to get a free trade deal with George W* whilst delicately not mentioning the USA's human rights abuses. But I know that John Key and his ilk would probably lick the POTUSA's boots clean after the soup and enthusiastically ask him where he got all those fab ideas for dealing with prisoners by the time the entree was on the table. At least Clark didn't commit us to a stupid war in Iraq.**

On education, I can express my extreme frustration with Labour's approaches to tertiary, secondary, primary and early childhood, but at least I know they are not going to set up direct competition between state schools and encourage the profit motive ahead of all else. There is still a pretence (and possibly in some of the Labour caucus a genuine belief) that education shouldn't be about making money. Unlike another party I could name. At least Labour has significantly increased funding in this Vote and brought special education and kindergarten back into the state sector.

On health, I could vent my spleen about the way Labour-led administrations rely heavily on
the goodwill of those working in the system, but I know they won't gut the public provision of healthcare like National would. And they have given the nurses pay parity, which is A Good Thing, and one that National would certainly not have done.


On the parlous state of our police force, in particular it's attitude to women, the Labour-led government certainly hasn't been as fulsome in its condemnation as I would like, but at least Clark has actually said some critical things. What's the National view on the police? Judging by their membership in the blogosphere the general view in that party might be that this was all about a few rotten eggs and not systematic at all, no siree.

I could go on and on with examples, but you get the drift.***

What this situation means is that Clark and co can rest on their laurels to a certain extent. They know that whatever they do it is unlikely to be as bad as what National would do in the same situation, from the point of view of their supporters and those further to the left. Why bother trying when you've already got a substantial number of votes sewn up, purely because the other option is worse?

(I did warn you I was a bit grumpy and bitter at the moment.)

So what's a leftie to do?



* If Sheriff Howard got a bum deal then what chance have we got? Less chance than a koala in a forest fire methinks.
** Maybe our troops in Afghanistan, that forgotten war, put her off?
***Besides, it's quite hard to pin National down on their exact intentions in government because they so rarely communicate any actual policy. I can only judge them on past performance and general principles, neither of which are in their favour from my point of view.

Linky Love - Volume 9

It's Friday morning (already!), so it must be time for the next volume of Linky Love.

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Celsias - Supermarket Secrets - Craig Mackintosh has the BBC documentaries which cover the supermarket supply chain practices that are questionable for not only the environment but also human health.

Columbia Journalism Review - The Opt-Out Myth - EJ Graff writes powerfully dis-proving the idea that smart, educated women are choosing not to pursue corporate careers. And here's further comment on this article, and the opt-out myth, from Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon. Plus, Make Tea Not War posts briefly on this article at What We Said, and gets some interesting comments out of the bargain.

DagCentral - John Howard: Patriot. Statesman. Dumbass - dagcentral takes on John Howard's ridiculousness about Obama, Al Qaeda and the 2008 US presidential race.

Feministe - Legal Abortion = Lives Saved - Jill (I so heart Jill!) looks at the drop in deaths from illegal abortions, and the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.

Frogblog - Welfare for Australian Banks - Russel Norman looks critically at the Government proposal to cut company tax, through the example of what could happen for Australian banks operating in NZ.

Joe Hendren - Iraq can be a St Paddy's Day issue - Joe examines the parallels between English imperialism in Ireland and US imperialism in Iraq.

Just Left - Four years of blood on their hands - Jordan Carter gives his thoughts about the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War.

The Legal Soapbox - Follow the leader - Legal Eagle examines our lack of tolerance for dissent, and what we will do to avoid being in the ostracised minority.

Mainly Politics - Measuring public sector performance - Chris Hipkins writes about Phil "ex-National staffer" Rennie's "independent" report on where all the money has gone under recent Labour-led Governments.

No Right Turn - Misplaced priorities - Idiot/Savant has the skinny on where our research funds have been directed in regards to energy. And it's not where Al Gore would like.

Pandagon - The cost of the system - Sheelzebub eloquently expands on the theme that sweating (as happens in sweatshops) is an intrinsic part of our economic system.

And don't forget, previous volumes of Linky Love can be found in their own shiny category.

Linky Love - Volume 7

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.


Alas (a blog) - Workplace deaths are overwhelmingly male - Ampersand looks at the reasons why US workplace deaths are mainly amongst men, in particular occupational segregation. My perception is that NZ stats would be similar.

Auckland's Burning - Workers fired because of union membership - John has text and pics about a group of Unite members who had jobs at the Ascott Metropolis in Auckland, until they were fired for having the gall to be union members.

Contradiction - Recanting - George Darroch changes his mind about the post featured in an earlier Linky Love about banning gang patches. Good on him for doing so publicly.

Feministe - File Under: Get pregnant, lose your civil liberties - Jill shines a much needed light on yet another example of discrimination against pregnant women.

Feministe - The New Feminism - Another great post from Jill, this time about how a new reality TV show based on the Pussycat Dolls is apparently empowering to women. That would be why high heels are so uncomfortable to wear then - the pain is empowering me!

Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty - Expecting More - Maia rips apart the post by Russel Norman, Greens co-leader, about the trials of Rickards, Shipton and Schollum. She has written some amazing stuff on the trial and its outcome, including this, this, and this.

The Fundy Post - Listener now to be available as soothing Gel - Paul Litterick flexs his satire muscles in response to news of a declining Listener readership.

Hard News - Bad men - Russell Brown on the police rape trials, resulting in a multi-faceted comment thread which dips into trollville before being redeemed by D&D veterans. A thread to make you cry a lot, and, eventually, laugh a little.

The Legal Soapbox - The Old School Tie - Legal Eagle explores the issues lefties face when choosing between public and private schooling for their progeny.

The Legal Soapbox - Barefoot and pregnant with a gavel - Legal Eagle gets a second nod for a post on some really quite ludicrous reasons why women shouldn't be judges according to Shariah law.

A Long Time Ago and Not True Anyway - With these bombs democracy - Terence expands on a debate on Public Address System about imposing democracy, comparing Germany and Japan with Iraq.

Make Tea Not War - Know Your Rights - MTNW has a handy explanation of a basic consumer right; being able to return things wot don't work good. Includes a dandy letter you can use for your own broken stuff crisis.

Pandagon - Marriage's downward spiral - gay folks didn't do it - Pam Spaulding writes about the socioeconomic reasons why less Americans are marrying and concludes that it has little to do with homosexual marriage.

Single Malt Social Democrat - Charity begins in Parnell - Carl points out that it doesn't have to be private charity or government funding, and argues that the idea of citizens being totally reliant on charity is abhorrent.

stanselen - Ageism and Sexism - jo writes about her experiences within activist groups as an "older" (32!) radical feminist.

Tales from the Reading Room - Fantasy Podcasts - litlove muses on which great dead literary types she would love to interview, and what she would ask if only she could.

Previous volumes of Linky Love can be found in their own shiny category.

Freedom and Democracy and all that Good Stuff

So I'm now about a quarter of the way through series 2 of Battlestar Galactica and I can't stop thinking about Iraq when I watch it.
Possibly I'm reading too much into all this, and no doubt someone has written about this long before I*, but it seems that the BSG writers aren't that keen on Iraq and they are getting some subtle digs in.

There was the Gideon incident, where a group of troops opened fire on civillians, killing several. It put me in mind of situations early in the Iraq War (Take 2) when young soldiers, in their first combat situation, were surrounded by locals who were just as frightened as they were. Stones would be thrown by confused Iraqis and eventually one or more soldiers would feel threatened and take refuge in the gun in their hands. Death and injury was the inevitable result. In a later episode of series 2 one of these shooters decides his commanding officer must pay for the bad call he made by sending the troops to Gideon. I wonder if that has happened at all in real life?

Then there was the embedding of Deena, the journalist played by Lucy Lawless. An anti-authority sceptic produced a doco sympathetic to the Galactica's crew. We kind of wanted her to, as the viewers, because we like them ourselves, and the fact that she's actually a cylon throws a spanner in the analysis of her motivation, but on the face of it, it's an example of those watching (for us all) being captured by those they watch. That criticism could certainly be levelled at many of the journalists close to the action in Iraq.

The way that the fleet begins to breakdown when the two central power figures (President Roslyn and Commander Adama) are taken out of play could be interpreted as a criticism of the way the American Government has worked until recently - George W Bush has been effectively all powerful with a friendly Senate and Congress (no longer thankfully) and when the leader makes bad decisions there are few checks and balances to even things out. A military command structure does not seem to allow the level of "full and frank" advice (i.e. criticism in a safe environment) that civillian does, and it shows when Tigh declares martial law.

When Crashdown is shot in the back, on Kobol, Baltar explains it by saying "he gave his life in the finest tradition of the service." Perhaps the BSG writers are sneakily saying that US soldiers in Iraq are effectively being taken down from behind by their own leadership?

Or maybe I'm just not getting enough sleep?



* I'm not going to go out there looking for BSG info again after I accidentally found out some stuff I didn't want to know last time. Or at least not until I've caught up with the rest of the world.

Linky Love - Volume 5

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

As always, if you want to suggest some new blogs to widen my reading please leave a comment.

Alas (a blog) - Court Issues Unbelievable Stupid Sex Crime Ruling - Ampersand reports on a bizarre legal case (in the USA, whereelse) where a young woman's conviction for child pornography, based on sending intimate photos of herself and her boyfriend from her computer to his personal email, was upheld to protect her reputation. Yes you read that right.

Aucklander at Large - Section 59 Citizens Initiated Referendum - Jeremy gives his thoughts on the Family First views on s59 and the CIRs that are now on the go, but the main reason I linky loved this post is because of the fab cartoon at the end of it, all about the Right Wing Noise Machine in the USA.

Auckland's Burning - My street - John writes about a recent brush with violence in his street. A sad story.

Feministe - Disorder - piny supports Pigeon's theory that eating disorders operate in the same way as addicition, in a compelling post about power and anorexia.

Feministe - If motherhood is so great why don't you do it? - Jill has produced a post responding to the frequent calls for women to fulfill their "natural" roles as mothers to the exclusion of all else in their lives. She makes an excellent point - if motherhood is genuinely the most valued work then how come more men don't do it?

from the morgue - [mediawatch]The Listener Gets It Right - morgue highlights and comments on a recent Listener article about paroled murderers who haven't reoffended.

The Fundy Post - Dispatches from the frontline in the diversity war - Paul writes about what the Exclusive Brethren are up to these days, and the Human Rights Commission's recent conference on a possible religious diversity statement.

Instaputz - Rocky Mountain News: Putz is the right's Ward Churchill - Brilliant reporting by The Blue Texan on MSM criticism of Glen Reynolds of Instapundit advocating the assasination of Iranian scientists and leaders.

I See Red - Selection of media comments on Key - Tony Milne has put together what the post title says, creating an interesting review of media views of the new National Leader.

Pandagon - How to explain things to Libertarians - Chris Clarke starts with a great cartoon and just gets better.

staneslen - It's not OK to smack - jo writes about her views on smacking and why she hopes the Greens' bill passes.

Past Linky Loves are now in their own shiny category.

National's "new" policy agenda

A funny thing happened on the way to being in Government (or not). It seems that National have forgotten that their party has internal policy processes.

Since John Key's elevation to the leadership he's made a number of announcements and references indicating a significant policy shift. This creates some confusion for back-room boffins like myself, when Key makes speeches indicating a move away from Don Brash-era policies like a timeframe for immediately abolishing the Maori seats*, focusing on the issue of climate change (which Key and other leading figures considered questionable not that long ago), not to mention endorsing a nuclear-free New Zealand. Did National squeeze in some remit voting between Brash stepping down and Key opening his mouth?

Most recently, in his Jan. 30th "State of the Nation" speech, Key announced school breakfasts (yep, that's right, really BIG policy stuff) and this month there has been a policy announcement about putting Corrections back into Justice. Those with longer memories may recall that a) many low decile schools started breakfast programmes years ago, and b) National took Corrections out of Justice in the first place when it was last in power.

Now please don't think I don't want National to talk policy. I definitely do - not only so that voters can see what National would do in power, but also because I think it's an important part of democracy that the Opposition not only criticise but also put forward alternatives.

But in the wake of The Hollow Men and the insight that gave into National's policy processes prior to the 2005 election, you'd think Key would be trying to distance himself from the perception that National are more Decepticonz than neocons. By changing policy himself, by media statement and speech-making, he is signalling that National is still a party which will change policy not via it's own, long-standing democratic processes, but to suit political whims.

I'm also a little perturbed by National's approach to industrial relations, which Jordan has already blogged about. Key has said that they wouldn't shift away from the ERA as the key piece of legislation, however continuing to endorse Wayne Mapp's 90 day probation law suggests that National would still want to make some radical changes to employment law.

So perhaps a reader who is in National would care to comment - do Key's announcements reflect recent internal policy debates (and of course their outcomes)? Please note, anonymous comments have never been banned on this blog.


* I first started writing this post in early Dec 2006. Now Key has actually gone back to almost Brash's policy, but he has still delayed the possible implementation of the abolition by three to six years on what Brash promised, to 2014. I smell the whiff of a bargaining chip for negotiations with the Maori Party myself, but Sharples and Turia don't appear to appreciate the game playing.

They Look Like Us Now

I seem to be perenially behind the pack on new sci-fi series, but I'm catching up. Big ups to the friends who provide DVDs to educate me.

My latest new venture is the modern Battlestar Galactica, and my dealer is Mr the Red (who doesn't get a link until he blogs again!).

I have vague memories of the first time around, although mostly they are consumed by my anger when the childhood friend I asked to tape a crucial episode when I was away did so, but clearly stopped the video about ten minutes before the end. Needless to say, that's not a friendship that is still extant.

Anyway, I remember enough to recognise Richard Hatch when he pops up in the series (as a terrorist, hah hah!), and to know that when the female Starbuck lights up one of those fat cigar things she is channelling her predecessor.

I'm hopeful I'll be writing more about BSG as I motor through the rest of the first series* and then the second, but for now I wanted to write about a few of the aspects of the show that have really struck me:

1. Gina (No. 6) - The beautiful woman no one can see - I'm not sure how I feel about this beyond thinking it's a damn clever device. The fact that she's also a cylon means that there are levels of deception even when she does appear to the crew of the Big G as Shelley Godfrey (and prompts the line that makes me chuckle every time I think of it, "No more Mr Nice Gaius!")

And now that I'm typing "Godfrey", I'm wondering about the symbolism of that moniker, given her intense religion and the way she pushes it on Baltar...

2. The entwining of contemporary political phrases in episodes - early on there's "we do not negotiate with terrorists", and I noticed quite a few other references to the War on Terror. The first series (which is what I'm gleaning this from) was shown in 2004 I think? And so far the references to George W Bush's politics have been rather negatively portrayed, imho.


3. The effort made to represent women in leadership roles, and include non-white actors - but I'm yet to see anything other than heterosexuality on the screen.


4. The running of the space-based military seems to have evolved from airforce, not navy - certainly in sci-fi writing it hasn't been uncommon for spaceships to run on naval lines, and I'm sure I can remember at least one TV series (readers help me out here!) where it was explicitly explained how they got from the sea to space. After all, we'd call them spaceplanes otherwise wouldn't we?


5. The humanoid cylons appear to be in charge of the machinery ones - which says interesting things about how humanoids really feel about their creators. The way that three of them (at least) are playing with Helo on Caprica reminds me of a science experiment, and is not that different from how we might treat a new species we discovered if we were able to manipulate it covertly. Contrast this with Starbuck carving up the cylon raider she finds when she crashes - she's all about the surviving, which I'm sure I will be too when I'm crash-landed on a strange moon without a breathable atmosphere.


Here's a very tempting link I found - Wikipedia's comparison of the modern and original BSGs. Beware though, lots of spoilers therein, which had me yelling "No!" at the puter screen until I could bring myself to click the little red box with the X in.

What I'm looking forward to watching unfold:

• Boomer Galactica realising she's a cylon and coping with that
• Starbuck fending off the attentions of Baltar
• Boomer Caprica and her fellow cylons revealing their motivations for whatever it is they are doing with Helo
• No. 6 revealing more of this weird cylon religion
• Finding out how they are dealing with the food crisis that they mentioned in the second episode of the first series. Hasn't come up again yet. Not so big on the annoying plot holes here in Spanland.

Ok readers, what are your observations of BSG? Don't worry too much about giving away spoilers (unless they directly relate to the bullet points I've listed above).



* So far I've watched the mini-series and about half of the first series.

An Nouncements

Well it's been a few days since I last posted, but I just don't feel like there's much political to write about, and I can only go so far with memes and self-indulgent photo posts.

Jordan's indicated that he too feels there is Not Much going on*, but that "there'll be an announcement, soon."

So I've decided to make up some political news upon which to blog. Some announcements I'd like to hear, no less:

A Veritable Tsunami of Funding For Public Services - Clark and Cullen announce (in dubious taste) the Labour-led Government's grand plans to pump meaningful injections into the budgets of schools, universities, polytechnics, hospitals, and other public institutions.

Bush: "We Will Fight Them On The Beaches" - George W finally admits that climate change is a) real and b) not so good, and decides to launch a comprehensive War on Carbon Emissions, starting with fuel efficiency standards in line with China.

Real Issues About National's Conduct - The Herald's editorial reversing their naive dismissal of the concerns raised in The Hollow Men, and signalling the beginning of their own media campaign to root out and expose corrupt behaviour in all political parties.

International Year of Being Nice To Each Other Begins Well - Headline of article covering the launch of 2007 as International YoBNtEO, for politicians, bloggers, and all the people of the world. Blogs across the nation suddenly seem bereft of trollish comments and senseless barbs, while politicians agree that actually there's quite a bit they can develop across party lines without compromising their principles, so let's stop slagging each other in public.

Ok, that's enough to be going on with then.

* Although I'd note that Jordan has managed to write several posts since his Not Much, which suggests that there is more going on than perhaps he initially thought! I however am not motivated enough to write about climate change or Fiji (especially when No Right Turn has been doing such a sterling job).**
**Can I still call it a digression when it's at the end of the post?

Going blind

Saddam Hussein's death penalty was carried out earlier today, as Idiot/Savant has already reported.

In Ancient History one of my lecturers used to repeatedly say to us, encouraging our healthy academic scepticism about ancient sources, "remember, winners write history."

It worries me that not only do the winners write the authorised version of the past, they also use those edited truths to justify their own barbaric actions.

And then at some later point a new set of victors will do the exact same thing, to make acceptable further injustices.

Where do we stop? When does it end? Why can't we find solutions that don't involve killing?

And how many more will die because of the death of a former dictator today?

What might have been...

Will Gore run again? The below suggests not. However it does also tend to suggest that two of the barriers he faced last time (being wooden and humourless) are now things of the past...

If Al Gore was president - SNL
Uploaded by Uberlinkert

Hat tip: Sethop's Interesting Times

Selfish reasons to be left

Maia's got a post up about our generation and activism. One of the things that struck me about her post was something I'd never really thought all that much about before, not consciously anyway:

I think individual action is a useless form of protest, because it's only through collectivity that we have any power. But that's not the only problem - not buying clothes made in China, or buying fair trade whatever isn't just uselss - it also frames political action as something you do for other people. I actually ended up agreeing with one of the apathetic people they interviewed when he said - I might get involved if I thought there was something in it for me. If people believe that the only reason you paticipate in poltical protests is personal goodness then we're all screwed.

I'd often thought, in my secret socialist heart, that I was somehow a Bad Leftie for being able to find the selfish angle in most political causes I've ever felt inclined to support. Now I know that I'm not the only one, and that in fact it's probably a necessary part of my motivation.

Here's a few of my more self-serving reasons for supporting various things:

• Free education* - I hope it'll mean less crime (less likelihood that my stuff will get nicked) more educated professionals for me to access (particularly in the health and education sectors), more skilled tradespeople (so I can finally find a plumber), and a more democratic society (so all my blog whinges aren't totally in vain).
• Free healthcare - I'll get sick less often with Other People's Germs, because other people will be sick less as they'll actually go to the doctor, or fill their prescription, or whatever. Also if, Deity Of Your Choice Forbid, I need medical care I'll be able to get it even if I'm down to my last shiny new 5c piece.
• A comprehensive and fair social welfare system - Because one day I could be the person who gets made redundant in a shrinking industry, or finds herself with children and no means to support them, or needs to get away from the bullying boss who makes my life a total misery, or has an illness that just won't go away (oh wait, that last one already happened, nevermind). And because if other people can access this same system then they might be less likely to nick my stuff to get by. (Always this obsession with possessions, my precioussssss, ahem)
• Justice (and thus peace) in the Middle East - Well if nothing else it'll bring the price of the petrol I need down, plus it'll mean that the media can't get away with filling up all their papers and bulletins with foreign footage and actually focus on some local news, and hopefully even some actual political analysis, which I'd really quite like to watch.
• Fair trade - The economy's global and I'd like it immensely if the promotion of fair trade helps to maintain and protect my own wages and conditions. Pretty please.

Ok that's enough selfishness for one post. Must be my purple robot genes in control again.**


* Regarding the "free" part of free education. For future reference, whenever I write the words "free education" you can pretty much guarantee that it's shorthand for the following:
"A fully publically controlled, publically funded and publically owned education system, from early childhood to tertiary and everything in between. Oh and tertiary doesn't just mean university or polytech either."

** Is anybody out there getting my robot gene jokes? Anyone? Where's Xavier when you need him. (Mind you he'd probably tell me they're just not funny). Can you tell I'm on a low sugar diet and starting to go a bit manic. Bah, nevermind.