February 2012
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So this is the news story of the year: “Las Vegas Grindcore Band Interrupts Newt Gingrich”.
A rally for Republican Party nominee Newt Gingrich in Las Vegas on Thursday morning was interrupted by local Nevada grindcore band Traumatic Anal Devastation. Apparently the band members showed up outside the rally, plugged their instruments in, and generated what Gingrich staffer Terry ‘The...
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15 Love Songs You Probably Shouldn't Play On...
Seems we’re approaching that time of year again. Valentines Day. The day where young teenaged couples pledge their undying love for one another only three weeks before breaking up and never speaking again. The day where florists and Hallmark card writers can finally take their families out for a night of expensive Chinese food. The day where professional misanthropes clog up social media...
January 2012
7 posts
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The Tent Embassy Protest - A Lesson in... →
The kind people over at The Overland Literary Journal have cross-posted my piece about the Tent Embassy protest. Click the title to read it if you haven’t already, or if you just want to read it again. I won’t judge.
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The Tent Embassy Protest - A Lesson in Over...
The Australia Day Tent Embassy Protest - was it one of the Nation’s gravest political security threats? A bit of an over reaction? A media beat up perhaps? Or was there something deeper going on….
The protests were sparked by comments made by the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that those at the Tent Embassy “move on” after celebrating its 40th anniversary. Some 200...
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“Pseudo-populism and antielitism function as fake consensus-builders. For-profit...”
– Catherine Liu in Antielitism Left and Right
Internet Hugbox: The costs of a law and order... →
phetdreams:
If you’ve lived in NSW at an election, you’re probably used to the consistent scaremongering of both parties participating in a law and order auction. One will promise legislation that will ‘better tackle yobs’ the other will say they’ve budgeted an increase of hundreds of officers to enforce the…
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“Rightwing populism is not merely transparently “representative”:...”
– Richard Seymour in ‘Authoritarianism and free market orthodoxy in Liam Byrne’s welfare ideas’
December 2011
9 posts
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30 Albums for 2011
Y’know what, 2011 was a pretty good year in music. There was definitely some unadultered shit released this year - the fact that Katy Perry had another 3 massive hits, anything and everything done by Lana Del Rey, the stateless standing army that are the Beliebers, the faux-outrage and pseudo-cyber bullying that followed ‘Friday’, the ironic fame and fortune that followed...
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And My Album of the Year Is.....
Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
The third album from the Toronto punk band was, actually by far and away, my favourite album of 2011. The nearly 80 minute rock opera is as bold as it is brilliant. Fucked Up have been able to channel their classic early hardcore sounds into an expansive masterpiece without losing the genre’s characteristic raw energy or sense of purpose.
Beginning with...
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Comments
When I read comments on Drum articles, I usually take the edge of afterwards by head butting a wall for 17 straight minutes. Take for example today’s article by Michael Brull on the NT Intervention and the racist and paternalist policies around income management and school attendance. This is a comment by ‘Lorraine’:
If you were a mother and your spouse drank, smoked and or...
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25 Songs for 2011
Time to get in on this list thing. Here’s the 25 songs that made 2011 for me. Enjoy, y’all.
25. The Horrible Crowes - ‘Sugar’
Oh Brian Fallon, I’d love you.
24. Iceage - ‘You’re Blessed’
They’re only 17, does that make you feel insignificant?
23. Veronica Falls - ‘Come On Over’
This is just a sweet song. Nothing smart to...
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With Our Brothers and Our Sisters - Labour...
So first there was the lock out of unionised workers by Qantas, followed by the undercutting of strike action by Fair Work Australia. Then Baiada used Police and private security thugs in an attempt to break the workers picket line, but ultimately failed, with workers winning better pay and conditions. Not to forget that the Victorian Government were secretly planning to lock out Nurses in...
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“Those hailing Hitchens’ greatness are engaged in a very public, affirmative,...”
– Glenn Greenwald in ‘Christopher Hitchens and the protocol for public figures’.
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Jeff Sparrow has a great piece on The Drum today (that everyone should read) discussing right wing commentary and its ties to extreme right terror attacks.
One of the most interesting aspects to the piece was a series of comparisons between Islamicphobic commentary and the old anti-Semitic writings found in the Nazi journal, Der Stuermer. The list was compiled by journalist Colm O Broin over at...
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November 2011
9 posts
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“Looking back at the last-minute maneuvers, it seems pretty clear that...”
– Mark Ames: Austerity & Fascism in Greece - The Real 1% Doctrine
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From Bad to Worse: Climate Change and Greenhouse...
In the debate around climate change, the future effects of man made carbon emissions are all too often over looked. The recent publication by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) presents a concise summary of what we face, and it doesn’t look good.
...
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Climate Change: Calm Down on the Celebrations,...
The release of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook report proves much of what the climate movement has been saying for sometime - emissions are rising, we have little time left to prevent catastrophic climate change, and the World’s leaders seem content to let it happen.
The report predicts that unless international action is taken soon, the world...
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October 2011
15 posts
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Ted Baillieu after Police smashed Occupy Melbourne:
They should have moved along, they said they would and they didn’t, and I think Victoria Police handled the situation well…… I would simply urge anybody who wants to protest at any time to do it lawfully and do it with respect for others.
Robert Doyle after Police smashed Occupy Melbourne:
THE Occupy Melbourne protest was...
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When they kick in your front door - Police and the...
The recent actions of Police at both the Occupy Melbourne and Sydney protests are as distressing as they are illuminating. The extraordinary and brutal lengths that the police have gone to in order to break the protests is bound to spread disillusionment and anger amongst many people. However, these actions also raise important lessons around the role of the Police and their relationship to...
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Those criticising the Occupy Sydney (and the rest of the Australian Occupy events for that matter) on the basis that the Australian economy isn’t as fucked bad as the American economy ought to look at the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data for Wealth Distribution:
The richest 20% now own 62% of household wealth.
The bottom 60% of people own a whopping 18% of household wealth.
...
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24 hour Solar Power in Spain y'all →
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“What’s most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and...”
– Glenn Greenwald on the assassination of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki
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September 2011
21 posts
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THIS IS MY 100TH POST AND THIS IS HOW I WANT TO... →
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Deez Nuts
Necro
Brokencyde
Die Antwoord
Asher Roth
Bubba Sparxxx
The Insane Clown Posse
and now Kreayshawn
WHAT ARE WHITE PEOPLE DOING WITH HIP-HOP?!
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NEIL JUST BLOGGED ABOUT THE SAME THING I DID AT... →
IT’S FUCKING TRUE
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What I have to put up with on Facebook
A teenage girl about 17 had gone to visit some friends one evening and time passed quickly as each shared their various experiences of the past year. She ended up staying longer than planned, and had to walk home alone. She wasn’t afraid because it was a small town and she lived only a few blocks away. As she walked along under the tall elm trees, Diane asked God to keep her safe from harm...
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