writing about IT, aus politics, music and genre fiction
writing about IT, aus politics, music and genre fiction
About
I'm a cluster systems administrator and live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm interested in writing about IT, aus politics, music and genre fiction.
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Polly (RIP Charlton Hest…): Although I strongly disag… Daniel (RIP Charlton Hest…): I’d rather remember him f… Daniel (Sid Spindler): Sid was fantastic and ins… Melbcity (ALP may lose 2nd …): If you ca I would appreci… Melbcity (ALP may lose 2nd …): Hi Just an update a copy … Alex Makin (Time for a change…): Polly,
Good luck with m… Daniel (Bite My Shiny, Me…): I’m sure it will be good … Conrad Leviston (Election Scorecar…): That’s weird. The Christi… Vivienne (Tarja's My Winter…): I think I might skip foll… Polly Morgan (Tarja's My Winter…): The clip could definitely…
Charlton Heston was died, aged 84. I grew up watching Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and Planet of the Apes. They are all still amongst my favourite movies.
Sid was a great humanitarian. The work he did on campaigning for an end to discrimination against GLBTI people as a senator inspired me to join the Dems (before I became a member my housemate showed me all the things he was doing on this issue in the senate, so I joined the Monash Uni democrats, and the subsequently, the main party).
His work in support of migrants and refugee was outstanding, and he was a powerful human rights advocate who achieved so much throughout his life. The Australian Democrats gained so much through his work in helping found the party, in helping to keep it going, and from his work in the senate. It was privilege to hear him speak on many occasions, and he also had superb political knowledge and campaigning skills.
Sid was one of the most persuasive speakers I have ever heard. My friend Daniel and I joked that he had Jedi Mind powers - he could walk into State Council and sway the room to his point of view in a couple of minutes. It could be very frustrating if you were on the wrong side of the debate. That said, though, 99.5% of the time he was spot on. He continued to work for human rights after he had retired from the senate, and his life is an inspiration for how much a single individual can do to help others.
We've been busy moving house. I've had several people tell me that research has been done showing that moving house is one of the most stressful experiences a person can go through, and is right up there with getting divorced or having your spouse die. Personally, I reckon that's a load of rubbish - I mean, sure moving is stressful, but it's nowhere near that stressful (I had a seriously ill partner a few years ago, and the stress of that situation was orders of magnitude worse than even the most disruptive move of house I have ever experienced).
I have worked out that I have lived in 13 different houses for a significant length of time (3 months or more), and as I'm still not quite 33 years old, this amounts to an average stay of 2 and a half years per dwelling, and I guess that means I have moved a lot in my life. I know several people who have moved more frequently than that, though.
I have managed to catch a virus, though, so I have been catching up on a lot of sleep over the last couple of days. There are still loads of boxes to unpack, but I don't have the energy at the moment. Unfortunately, although we have gotten rid of heaps of things over the last few years, we still have a lot of stuff, and my double-stacked bookshelf (and I have twice the volume of books than I do DVDs) has reminded me very strongly that "affluenza", despite how it is usually portrayed, is far from being confined to people on the urban fringes who own big plasma tvs. Maybe Clive Hamilton should start denouncing the evils of books - unlikely, though, as he is in the business of selling them - although to be fair, I haven't read Affluenza, just many of Dr Hamilton's opinion pieces and media releases over the years, so maybe he does mention it somewhere, but he's far more likely to denounce having a home theatre rather than having a home library. I'm looking forward to do the day when all media has been digitized, so I can carry around my entire book collection on an SD card.
We are now living in Mount Waverley, but it's really just 5 minutes up the road from our old place in East Oakleigh. It's closer to the Nott, and a little further from the Ming Wing, which means that Olav has an extra 5 minutes on his regular bicycle commute to work/study.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated (most likely by fundamentalist extremists) while campaigning for free and democratic elections in Pakistan. Her assassination is an appalling atrocity, and a blow to the hopes of fair and democratic elections in Pakistan in the near future.
Benazir Bhutto had earlier written an article for CNN in response to the first attempt on her life after her return to Pakistan earlier this year.
Well, I managed to get sunburn on my arms where I forgot to put sunblock.
Firstly, thanks to everyone who ran as candidates, worked on the campaign team, worked in Lyn's office, stood on a polling booth, letter boxed, or voted for us. We all really appreciate your support.
What a night! I was at the Dems party in Southbank, and then went onto Crown with a few people. It was a comprehensive ALP victory, and the loss of the current Dems seats in the senate. It would have been great if we'd polled a bit better, especially in Victoria and Queensland, but the outcome wasn't unexpected. It was an absolute privilege to support Senator Lyn Allison - she's a great person, and she has handled the media with grace and dignity today (she had radio interviews this morning, and a press conference in Port Melbourne today at midday). I think we have been very lucky to have her leadership over the last few years - the whole campaign could have been a hell of a lot more unpleasant to be involved with, and she has held the party together well. In the end it was just an impossible ask.
The total minor party vote was quite low, and in a Government-changing election, we couldn't find a voting niche to appeal to. Despite how much we tried, we couldn't get much media on the importance of the contest in the senate. The moderate ALP and Liberal voters who used to support us in the senate went with the ALP in this campaign.
It will be interesting to see how the ALP handles government - and what happens with the senate. At the moment,it looks like the balance of power will be held between the Greens, Nick Xenophon and Family First. I have no idea how this will work out - it could be disasterous - it's hard to see how common ground can be found between the new balance of power parties on many contentious issues. A lot of it will depend on the attitude of the Liberal/National coalition in opposition. Will they work with the ALP on issues they have in common, or will they oppose most of the ALP's platform, which will bring this shared balance of power situation regularly into play?
Is it over for the Democrats after 30 years? Well, it really depends. The party needs to have a good look at what campaigns we can and want to run, and where we can have electoral success between now and the next federal election. There is room for a genuine socially liberal, economically centrist party with a constructive approach to legislation in Australian politics, and such parties have had success in the UK (the Liberal Democrats ) and Canada (New Democratic Party), but we will need to change our approach and focus. Whether there is the will and the drive within the party to do this remains to be seen.
23 November 07 - 14:59Buffer zones outside fertility clinics
Lyn Allison has made a video submission to Victorian Law Reform Commission regarding abortion laws, and she has highlighted the need for buffer zones to be put in place around fertility clinics.
Senator Allison's office is down the road from the fertility clinic where security guard, Steven Rogers was murdered by an anti-choice fanatic. Years later, the protesters are still there every morning, yelling abuse at people entering the clinic, and on occasion at people passing by just to go to a nearby cafe for a coffee or sandwich. The white line you can see in the video that the protesters must stand behind has been recently placed there, and only after extensive lobbying.
There are many things that governments can do to lower the number of terminations, namely:
> Government funded paid maternity leave;
> More affordable and accessible childcare;
> The right to part-time work and to flexible hours;
> Better financial, social and maternal and child health support for pregnant women, new mothers and their partners;
> Better support for children with disabilities and their families;
> Better support for adoption. Just a personal note on this: my Mum was adopted, and although she would have loved to have contact with her biological family, she had a good childhood being brought up my Nanna (who was a single,working woman, and would have been considered unsuitable to bring up a child by today's set of religious fundamentalists, who believe that a family is a heterosexual, married couple with kids).
Governments can also reduce the need for abortion by reducing the rate of unplanned pregnancy through:
> comprehensive, school based sexual health and relationships education programs for young people before they become sexually active;
> improved men’s and women’s access to sexual and reproductive health information;
> access to a full range of safe, affordable contraception on demand, including over the counter access to the oral contraceptive pill, placement of all forms of contraception on the PBS, and ready access to low cost condoms and emergency contraception in schools;
> adequate provision of affordable, impartial, sexual health, family planning and pregnancy advice and counselling by properly trained health workers and counsellors.
There is a good article about Dr Peter Gibilsco, the number 2 for the Carers Alliance senate group in Victoria in The Age. The Democrats are very supportive of a better deal for carers, and we gave the Carers Alliance our second preferences on our senate group voting ticket in Victoria.
Krispy Kreme are running a competition where you can vote for doughnuts representing political parties. Checkout the Democrats' equivalent, The Lemoncrats. LOL
Sun is acquiring Cluster File Systems Inc, the company who owns Lustre, the parallel filesystem. It should be interesting to see how they integrate this into their product offerings (vendor support for a parallel file system is A Good Thing).
via Slashdot.
17 05 07 00:00Latest youtube vids from Lyn Allison and Andrew Bartlett
It's in an election year, and I'll be regularly linking to Australian Democrats material on the internet. So here are another couple of YouTube videos:
Lyn Allison on The Right to Peace, and Andrew Bartlett's take on the Budget.
- although to be fair, I haven't read Affluenza, just many of Dr Hamilton's opinion pieces and media releases over the years, so maybe he does mention it somewhere, but he's far more likely to denounce having a home theatre rather than having a home library. I'm looking forward to do the day when all media has been digitized, so I can carry around my entire book collection on an SD card.
