An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
Uno
Today is the National Day of Action for Same-Sex Marriage.
Rallies will be held in every state – check out local queer networks for more information. In Adelaide there will be a march from Parliament House to Adelaide Uni, starting at 11.00am, followed by a picnic.
It is well and truly time that this country moved out of the dark ages. Wherever you are, do what you can to ensure the voice of progress is heard loud and clear.
Shock threat to shut Skype down.
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/shock-threat-to-shut-skype-20090731-e3qe.html
Having paid about a billion more than what it was worth it’s difficult to understand why they did such a lousy deal on the software. (Is this a cunning plan for Zennstrom and Friis to do a Packer/Bond and buy Skype back for a song?)
Will be a pity if it’s shut down, and how then will Messrs Z and F make money without the licencing, assuming that software is not used in non Skype VOIP?
I’ll second Lynda’s call. It’s the first ALP National Conference since polling revealed that a majority of Australians support full marriage equality.
The ALP is still listening to liars like Jim Wallace of the fundamentalist lobby who pretend that THEY represent a “vast majority of Australians”. They do not. A clear majority of Australians agree that the discrimination should end, and that gay and lesbian Australians should have the same rights the rest of us enjoy.
But the only way to prove that to the ALP is to stand up and be counted.
Please (a) be there today; and (b) make sure you let other fair-minded Australians know.
The politicians – particularly Kevin Rudd – desperately want you to stay home so they can ignore the issue. Please disappoint them.
PS Hopefully LP will do a post on the subject this morning.
It is quite possible to go to Wales by accident. I managed it yesterday.
Sunny weather in London, spent the night watching Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida at The Globe.
From this distance, the stuff and nonsense of home seems like so much stuff and nonsense.
I applaud the Australian Taxation Office for its speed and efficiency in processing my tax return and paying my refund in only eight working days. Fantastic job, people!
I agree with Strauss: The Australian team has no aura about it.
In fact, they’re ordinary – probably the inferior team in an objective sense, led by a deeply ordinary captain with no flair whatsoever for the role (who was made look good by McGrath and Warne, and is now being found out), with weak-minded selectors (where’s Stuart Clark?), and will very likely lose the Ashes.
And I’m pretty sure I actually happy about that – for the first time in this cricketing life; sole bastion of my remaining nationalism.
The only thing that gives me pause is this: Strauss is as unsporting a leader as any Australian captain or “Senior sledger” of recent years. Which is a shame, for the game.
I wonder what people here think about the connection between the state and elite sport.
This is an issue that has troubled me for quite some time. Try as I might, I can think of no good reason for public funds to be given (directly or otherwise in the form of tax deductions, allowances for sponsorship in company tax returns etc) to elite sport.
Now let me say I fall far short of being a sports fan. I will put my hand up to an enduring interest in cricket as narrative, but that’s it. I don’t believe my personal interest ought to attract public funds either.
The issue comes up pretty much every time there’s some controversy surrounding elite sport — drug taking, Beijing Olympics and human rights, and the latest — the World Swimsuit Competition in Italy. Apparently the best male swimmer in the world, one Michael Phelps, was bound by a sponsorship arrangement to work with inferior equipment and therefore get beaten by some chap nobody but the connoisseurs had ever heard of.
Now frankly, I don’t much care. At best, elite sport is entertainment, in just the way the latest Harry Potter is entertainment. ‘Is it worth watching?’ is the beginning and the end of its justification for me. I couldn’t care how they get there. They could swim in outfits that made them look like mer people and be bloated to the gills with steroids for all I cared. But why is the state involved?
We’ve separated church and state — why not elite sport and state
I believe we need to say first up that since Cardiff, England have
looked more dangerous with the ball in hand than Australia. Yes they
have had the rub of the green both with the umpiring, the toss,
Australian team fitness and even the weather, but Australia haven’t
really looked like a side that would have been in front but for the
umpiring. As has been noted often enough, if you look like you’re in
front, especially in home series, the decisions tend to go your way.
That’s not how it should be, but it’s how it is.
Australia has managed some spectacular own goals too. They’ve
persisted with the out of form Hussey. They left out Clark for the
more pedestrian Siddle and Hilfenhaus and persisted even when it was clear
Johnson was seriously out of form. It’s also clear that with Ponting’s
reflexes declining as he approaches the end of his career, that he
should bat lower — maybe 5 or even 6. And what must players like
Ferguson and Hodge be thinking?
On the umpiring, I remain convinced it is time to use the technology
we have to get decisions right, not because England are getting the
lion’s share of the poor decisions but because these are ruining the
contest and thus the series. We will never know if Australia could
have fought back at Lords or here at Edgbaston, and such a fight back
if it had occurred would have made the match and the series more
entertaining, regardless of the result.
Had Australia managed to square up at Lords and still been well in
this contest now, the chance of dead rubbers would have been lower. It
is disappointing if one can conclude that dead rubbers have been
brought nearer through umpiring errors that could have been avoided.
While England have been the better side since Cardiff, and should
certainly now go on to win the series, it will be a shame if the
series ends up being tainted by significant numbers of avoidable and
apparently decisive umpiring errors in each of England’s wins.
There is a very interesting economic stimulus related post at Thoughts on Freedom – Stimulus Economics Data Says No. I hope to see some economists responses to it.
I find the post quite convincing and I am not a big fan of the site’s underlying philosophy in general.
I want to second Fran Barlow’s remarks about governments getting into bed with elite sports. I’m currently reading ‘Foul’ by Andrew Jennings, which talks about corruption in soccer, and it is very concerning that a lot of government money is going to be spent on bribes to bring the FIFA World Cup to Australia.
It is all very well for FIFA to run its affairs as it likes, but Australian governments should have nothing to do with them.
As for Andrew Strauss, he did let Australia substitute Manou for Haddin after the toss, a very sporting act.
Labor don’t look like they’re going to budge from their stance on marriage [in]equality, all the more reason to vote Green, I reckon.
Also, for those who may not know about it August 28th is the closing date for submissions to the Senate Inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009.
http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/senatesubmission.htm
I spent the day in the garden, was hoping to have a quiet evening watching the cricket. bloody birmingham! Lefty E, I agree with your summation of Ponting, and I’m also completely stunned that Clark missed out again.
Why isn’t Australia having one of these?
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In this, The Australian, is seen to answer its own unconscious question as to why Kevin Rudd has a jaundiced view of the Australian media. No one should be asked to clean up after a journalist because they throw stuff and never do the correct thing afterwards.
In other leftist news, Grods Corp is no more.