... to vote for the Liberal Party at the next election.
Why would I, as someone who aspires to be socially progressive, who has little time for the radical conservatism of neoliberals and who sees well-funded public education as ideal, be starting to consider the Liberal Party?
Well, simply put, incompetence.
So there was the Education Revolution that isn't. Laptops in schools are a waste of money, especially if the schools don't even have the infrastructure to maintain and use them (mostly for the very productive purpose of watching videos and otherwise wasting time).
Not to mention the whole abolition of Domestic Undergraduate Full Fees which has taken $27 million straight out of the University of Melbourne.
And at a State level, we have a transport minister who isn't interested in transport. As someone who nearly got doored while riding my bike today I say, "Thanks for nothing Labor."
There was Rudd's rather silly response to the whole Henson affair.
And now there is this (via Hoyden About Town) rather sorry affair on how same-sex couples will get short-changed by Labor's attempts to end discrimination against them.
So, I'd rather have a competent government that I can occasionally win concessions from rather than an incompetent government that undermines progressive social causes through clumsiness.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Please Stop Enouraging Me...
Friday, August 1, 2008
Yale Defamation Case
Yale Daily News reports:
"With the help of a subpoena issued six months ago, attorneys for two Yale Law School students have succeeded in unmasking several anonymous users of the Web forum AutoAdmit whom the women are suing for defamation."For some background on the AutoAdmit case see Feministe. The gist of it is that a bunch of law students decided to post pictures of and make degrading comments about female students. They got sued. From YDN:
"One of those authors was “AK-47,” who, in 2007, posted that women with one of the Yale Law students’ names “should be raped” and said they were “gay lovers.”"I think that if someone were publishing comments like that about me I'd be pretty displeased to say the least. It's a good thing for their student paper to be covering this story.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Word-Switching
John Paul II used the umbrella-term 'culture of life' to describe his anti-abortion, anti-stem cell research, homophobic theology. Ratzinger looks set to be using 'non-violence' to try and make these religious doctrines even more insidious. The embryonic stem cell? Does it, him or her, warrant concerned discussion? Some say it, he/she has a place in the world not "per se" but depending on what use it, he/she can be put to - scientific or medical research, for example, to build a better world for some of us." Apparently it isn't just the embryo that counts, but all of its stem cells too and this is in the same class as executing heads of state and murdered women.
Larvatus Prodeo provides links to what the Pope actually said at World Youth Day. From the Catholic Herald: "But what of our social environment? Are we equally alert to the signs of turning our back on the moral structure with which God has endowed humanity (cf. 2007 World Day of Peace Message, 8)? Do we recognize that the innate dignity of every individual rests on his or her deepest identity - as image of the Creator - and therefore that human rights are universal, based on the natural law, and not something dependent upon negotiation or patronage, let alone compromise? And so we are led to reflect on what place the poor and the elderly, immigrants and the voiceless, have in our societies. How can it be that domestic violence torments so many mothers and children? How can it be that the most wondrous and sacred human space - the womb - has become a place of unutterable violence?
So when he talks about violence in the social environment, he is really talking about enforcing pregnancy and restricting anything that involves the manipulation of embryos. To be fair, he mentioned domestic violence in that paragraph, but that was just a buildup to what really mattered - the sanctity of "the most wondrous and sacred human space" which requires the clerical policing and enforcement of its sanctity.
...
The concerns for non-violence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity. "
[Emphasis mine]
This looks like part of the strategy. Instead of separating these issues out into 'life issues', the church succeeds in confounding the ordinary person and cloaking the theological basis of these positions. For example, Father Bob Maguire who is so often revered as a nice, accessible cleric does this very well. He says, "And they [church bosses] must alert the general membership to the clear and present public danger generated by the moral viruses of affluence, abortion, lousy prison and illegal migrant detention systems, just to name a few." Abortion is neatly juxtaposed against affluence, tapping into the anti-corporate or anti-capitalist sentiments of many left-leaning or otherwise not-rich people. Prison and detention are also within the general domain of leftiness - after all it is 'the hippies' and 'bleeding hearts' who care about the mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
Another example of how Fr. Bob does this is in his post 'Things that never change" where he begins by discussing the execution of Saddam Hussein and then: "The body of a woman believed to be in her 80's has been found, as we go to press, inside a wheelie bin. Her neighbours were shocked to find her outside a Sydney apartment.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Condensing Catholicism
Over at Hoyden About Town:
"Shorter Cardinal Pell: If you agree to a candlelight dinner then you’re just asking for it, aren’t you? How could sex later be rape?"
And in today's 'Age', the usually pro-religious Barney Zwartz has reported,
"THE Pope's expected apology to victims of sexual abuse by priests has been sabotaged by a senior Australian bishop, who criticised people for "dwelling crankily on old wounds"."
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Women in Science
Yale Daily News has an UpClose on Women in the Sciences. They include comments from several different sources, including Hannah Brueckner, director of undergraduate studies in sociology professor and women’s faculty forum steering committee co-chair. “If you’re in the minority, like women are in the sciences, you get talked about like a woman,” she said. “Your successes or slight mistakes are identified with your gender rather than with you as an individual.”
Sexism means that competent female scientists drop out before they can fulfill their potential, which is a great loss to the sciences.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
As in Sydney...
I've been looking through different student publications online. I came across 'Honi Soit' and found some all-too-familiar content in the President's report of their 16/4/08 edition.
University of Sydney SRC President Kate Laing:I personally believe that censorship should not be conducted when it comes to student newspapers, because free speech and diverse debate and opinions should be embraced. Similarly if students can’t be controversial with their ideas in a campus publication written by and for students then where can they be?
But, under the heading sexism, she writes:Within the constitution of the SRC there are guidelines that restrict what can be censored, and that is anything criminal or discriminatory.
She continues:What I am disappointed by is how disconnected the editors have made themselves from the organisation that funds their publication, and will publish sexist remarks that openly undermine the good work of collectives and passionate fellow students.
What a coincidence that at the same time, both UMSU and the University of Sydney SRC are having the same problems with their respective newspapers.
