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April 30, 2006
The Weekly Gee (16)
Copyright © 2006, Maurie Gee
Posted by Chet LaMerde at 1:32 PM | Comments (1)
April 29, 2006
Do not adjust your puter
Bilegrip's ISP, SmartyHost, has been having server problems of late, making it somewhere between agonisingly slow and impossible to make any postings. Answering my recent email of outrage and despair, they say the problem should now be fixed. But they've said that before. Googling "SmartyHost problems" presented other sites 'n' blogs having problems.
As well, Melbourne's number one IT blog, Bleeding Edge is pulling up SmartyHost stakes and moving to a new host. As I followed Charles Wright to SmartyHost, so shall I follow him to the new service. Except that I just signed up last month for another year, at a price, I now see, that is significantly dearer than just about every other web host in the world. What a silly bunt. Not only that, Smarty took over as domain registrar from another company, with the proviso that those who signup (me) cannot change ISP's for 60 days.
Apparently Smarty has switched from Primus to Optus hosting services. This move could be the cause, i.e., teething problems. Who knows, I'm a ranter not a techie.
Hopefully the problems will be ironed out in the second of these two months. Of course, I could always rename Bilegrip to Bilegripe and start all over again with another host day after tomorrow. I hear transferring thousands of files from one server to another via FTP is loads of fun.
Maybe we'll be back to normal Monday. Whether that's this Monday, next Monday or a Monday in June is not certain.
--Chet LaMerde
Posted by Chet LaMerde at 4:01 PM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2006
Pasolini's Salò, or the moral dissociation and cruelty of the Right
It's no wonder that after right wing governments attain office one of their first acts is to ban Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Protecting "family values" is trumpeted as the reason, but the real reason -- conscious or unconscious -- is that they see themselves in the four powerful heads of state, represented in the film as the Duke, the Bishop, the Magistrate and the President. Through this jaded quaternion and the atrocities they conduct, such governments glimpse the horrifying logical extension of their misanthropic policies. And they don't want you looking in.
The film is a pared down Nazi/Fascist transposition of the Marquis de Sade's book (The One Hundred & Twenty Days of Sodom), using Dante's Inferno as the synthesis for its structure. It portrays in gruelling detail a mindset whose total power and subsequent contempt for humanity has exhausted its repertoire of curtailment and subjection. All that is left to invigorate and excite the omnipotent despots is the humiliation, torture and execution of the most vulnerable. The first part, AntiInferno, sets up the degradations that follow. Eighteen boys and girls are stalked, captured and inspected for beauty and purity by the Masters. Those with physical defects are not tolerated: an otherwise pretty girl is vehemently rejected because of a missing tooth; non-Aryans are made servants. A poem is recited by one of the Masters. It underlines the tacit collaboration between rulers and a self-serving bourgeoisie that allows totalitarian governments to flourish: In puberty's ambush, maiden's bloom, The Circle of Manias introduces Four Women Storytellers who take turns enthusiastically describing their sexual abasements as little girls in order to eroticise the Masters. This part has a dreamlike quality; the camera moves from enraptured Despots to laughing guards to frightened victims. One of the victims attempts to flee; she is rewarded by having her throat slit as guards and collaborators sing the Fascist anthem, Faccetta Nera. The Circle of Shit highlights the right wing's legacy to the world: the worship of death and excrement. Here a beautiful blonde girl, the Aryan ideal, is forced to eat the fresh, steaming turds of the Duke, just as entire populations are forced to swallow the lifeless, regressive policies of deranged Prime Ministers and Presidents. Just as confronting is the story of the girl's capture. As if she were telling a joke, a storyteller relates that the girl's mother was thrown into the river where she drowned in full view of her daughter. The President becomes so aroused by this heartless tale that he runs to another room to masturbate in isolation before a mirror. His dissociation from any possibility of human relationship is so great that After a gala dinner in which the only course is a massive mound of turds excreted by the male and female victims, a contest is held to see who has the most attractive arse. Unsurprisingly, the reward for the winner is execution. In the mind of the Right, Beauty is both desirable and an affront; it must be destroyed. The Circle of Blood concludes the film. The drone of Allied bombers is heard overhead as the young people are taken to a courtyard and tortured in the most gruesome ways -- scalping, eye stabbing, branding -- before being put to death as slowly as possible. The Masters take turns inflicting pain and retiring to a room to watch through binoculars. The film ends with two young guards listening to Ennio Morricone's lilting salon music, heard throughout the film, as the executions continue. One of them casually asks the other about his girlfriend, as if nothing unusual were happening. Few films have been as controversial as Salò. Most reviewers are unable to get past the gruesome scenes of torture to contemplate Pasolini's intention: the portrayal of fascist/totalitarian regimes for what they are. It is banned in Australia and other countries and the DVD is almost impossible to find. Criterion Collection DVDs were withdrawn from the market in 2000. A mint copy can reportedly fetch as much as $1000 US. As of this writing, there is a "like new" 112 minute version selling for $95 from Amazon Canada. I understand the film screens occasionally in theatres in France and Holland. We are seeing a new and welcome trend in political films of late; perhaps the best of these is Syriana. But none of them can match Pasolini's brutal depiction of the ubiquitous backdrop to all calamitous political events: the ascent to power of right wing misanthropy. And that includes the so-called leftist monsters Stalin and Mao. Their original inspiration may have been the socialist ideal but they turned right and kept on going. -- Benoît Balz Links: |
Posted by Benoît Balz at 10:33 AM
April 24, 2006
Identity cards: Puny Nephew to trump Big Brother? Tony Blair already has
The big news may be the birth and name of Tom Cruise and Katie Holden's baby daughter, Suri, and tomorrow's Anzac Day (once a tribute to the nation's fallen in war, now a militaristic celebration of nationalism), but there in the background, and of no concern to Mr and Mrs Australian Silent Majority, is a battle within Federal Cabinet over John "Puny Nephew" Howard's slavering desire for a compulsory Identity Card . Some are fer it, some are agin' it, but it's all but certain that our homuncular leader -- the role model for all Australians -- will have his way.
Just in case you thought an all-in-one ID card was a sensible idea, here is what John Pilger has to say about Britain's version:
The dying of freedom in Britain is not news. The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill has already passed its second parliamentary reading without interest to most Labour MPs and court journalists; yet it is utterly totalitarian in scope.
It will mean that the government can secretly change the Parliament Act, and the constitution and laws can be struck down by decree from Downing Street. Blair has demonstrated his taste for absolute power with his abuse of the royal prerogative, which he has used to bypass parliament in going to war and in dismissing landmark high court judgments, such as that which declared illegal the expulsion of the entire population of the Chagos Islands, now the site of an American military base. The new bill marks the end of true parliamentary democracy; in its effect, it is as significant as the US Congress last year abandoning the Bill of Rights.
Those who fail to hear these steps on the road to dictatorship should look at the government's plans for ID cards, described in its manifesto as "voluntary". They will be compulsory and worse. An ID card will be different from a driving licence or passport. It will be connected to a database called the NIR (National Identity Register), where your personal details will be stored. These will include your fingerprints, a scan of your iris, your residence status and unlimited other details about your life. If you fail to keep an appointment to be photographed and fingerprinted, you can be fined up to £2,500.
Every place that sells alcohol or cigarettes, every post office, every pharmacy and every bank will have an NIR terminal where you can be asked to "prove who you are". Each time you swipe the card, a record will be made at the NIR - so, for instance, the government will know every time you withdraw more than £99 from your bank account. Restaurants and off-licences will demand that the card be swiped so that they are indemnified from prosecution. Private business will have full access to the NIR. If you apply for a job, your card will have to be swiped. If you want a London Underground Oyster card, or a supermarket loyalty card, or a telephone line or a mobile phone or an internet account, your ID card will have to be swiped.
In other words, there will be a record of your movements, your phone calls and shopping habits, even the kind of medication you take. These databases, which can be stored in a device the size of a hand, will be sold to third parties without you knowing. The ID card will not be your property and the Home Secretary will have the right to revoke or suspend it at any time without explanation. This would prevent you drawing money from a bank. ID cards will not stop terrorists, as the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, has now admitted; the Madrid bombers all carried ID.
Published in The Age 22 April. Read the full article here.
What are we to do? Acquiesce? Do we have a choice? As long as we keep consuming and don't talk back, there should be no problem. Or … we could start to prepare for the next leap in human evolution, the discontinuance of support for regressive government. Gort Slypesunder will be looking into such ideas shortly.
Chet LaMerde
Posted by Chet LaMerde at 10:59 AM | Comments (1)
April 21, 2006
Scum at the Top archives move to Bilegrip
Not exactly the news item of the century to you, maybe, but to us here at Bilegrip, the new headquarters of the Political Prisoner's of the Future, SCATT's acquisition was cause enough to crack the flagons and casks for a hearty night of guffawing, stumbling, falling about, spewing raucously in the manner of Guest House Paradiso and, finally, howling at the moon … an example of autochthonous tribal unity which presented enormous creative difficulties as the troublesome disk was nowhere to be seen owing to its being in the phase authorities call New.
And rest.
Alors, Harold Hark's Scum at the Top may now be found here, whereas, after 10 May, it will no longer be found there.
Getting SCATT in order was not the only reason Bilegrip has gone missing of late. Like the two-bob bloke who finishes mowing his lawn and figures, "what the heck, I'll mow the neighbour's lawn too" and just keeps going, Willikers spent all the time we were slaving over the Harkian Transfer upgrading and tweaking stuff on his computer, my computer, your computer and the Queen's computer before finally coming to a constipated halt on Good Thursday. But then the endless Easter break began which knocked hell out of everyone's barely regained continuity of thought. Following that, problems with the new server hair-tore our barely regained grip on sanity: namely, it kept on and keeps on dropping out. Finally, the last twenty-four hours have been lost to cleaning up the Bilegrip computer from a viral attack no doubt caused by Willikers's insane upgrading and tweaking and, well, it's only now we can draw a breath.
But lo and behold, yet another holiday looms: Anzac Day™ (An event wholly owned and operated by John Howard's Australia, Pty. Ltd.)
So, what the hell. We'll be back next Wednesday, the 26th. In the meantime, a few words about the new Bilegrip mob can be found on our About page.
Chet LaMerde
Posted by Chet LaMerde at 2:39 PM
April 15, 2006
Fueled up and furious
I think this is the best description of the current petrol pricing system I have read. If you are not happy paying $1.20+ for petrol please have a read and pass it on to those who are also upset by the current price structure.
If you attempted to drive anywhere on our clogged roads this weekend and saw the number of cars burning fuel while going nowhere, you would have to think that someone is having a happy Easter. --Doug Steley Silver Image Photographics
This week leading up to Easter, Australians have had every right to wonder why they are being crucified at the petrol pump. Fuel prices have climbed to $1.34 a litre for regular fuel, perhaps more in some locations.
The detailed explanation for the current exorbitant fuel pricing lies partly in Federal Government taxation policy, but more significantly with global fuel companies and supermarket cartels, profiteering in a deregulated market.
The Australian Government abolished controls regulating the capping of wholesale fuel prices in 1998, opting for "import price parity", which, at the time, provided low fuel costs as the then market price was around $US20-30 a barrel. However, today, with the price of foreign oil reaching $US65 a barrel and home-produced Australian crude available for less than $US20 a barrel (Australia is 75 per cent self-sufficient in crude oil production), an obvious inequity in fuel pricing parity occurs.
Combine this with the systematic buy-out and elimination of smaller private petrol stations in the past two years, enabling the global fuel companies and supermarket cartels to gain a near monopoly of the market share, and the result is unrestricted profiteering, delivering billion-dollar profits at the expense of Australian motorists. So if you're paying $1.34 a litre this week for fuel, at least 51 cents is tax. The remaining 83 cents goes to the fuel company cartels. Fuel companies will argue that the market price of crude is high, but in reality this is a stock exchange price based on the Singapore market and New York Stock Exchange futures; it does not reflect the true cost of crude oil supply.
The price of crude oil from Bass Strait is a good example: in 2002 a barrel of crude retailed for $US20; its supply cost would have been significantly less. In 2006 that same oilfield retails crude oil for $US63 a barrel, even though its supply cost is less than $US20 a barrel. Exxon (Esso) owns 50 per cent of Bass Strait Oil. It also owns Mobil, which owns the Altona Refinery sourced by the Bass Strait pipeline. How much cheaper must it be to pump your own crude, from your own oil rigs, to your own refineries, for your own service stations, than having to ship it from overseas at foreign-market prices? It's an established fact that 50 per cent of Australian petrol is produced from Australian crude oil, at much reduced supply and production costs — yet these cost savings are never reflected in pump prices or passed on to consumers.
This unacceptable circumstance is best remedied by a change of government policy — or, alternatively, by a change of government.
Posted by Willikers at 1:31 PM | Comments (1)
April 13, 2006
Australia is a joke
Oy Vey. Like a toddler who thinks no one has seen him steal from the cookie jar, John "of course I'm corrupt, isn't everyone?" Howard scampered away from the Cole Commission today. And since most Australians haven't even reached the age of toddlerhood, he may be justified in sniggering to himself. Because, let's face it, they don't care and the rest of us don't count.
Paving the way for the little twat's ignoble escape were Alexander "Little Lord" Downer and Mark "Stumblebum" Vaile. Like Bart Simpson, I'm sticking my finger down my throat for relief.
This country is a joke.
Fcuk it. After almost three weeks away from the inane insane world of unformed old men grasping at- or slobbering with- power, I have to tell you (as Jeff "let 'em eat cake" Kennett used to say) that I enjoyed every minute of it. So much so that I'm going to take a further, thoroughly undeserved, sabbatical.
As Umeruhca's Village Idiot and Iran's Ahmadasahatter prepare to greet Armageddon in the name of their patsy deities, and Gollum Jr continues to make Australia the laughing stock of the world, I'm off to contemplate the cowpats of the field.
Stay tuned for Bilegrip's new editor.
Posted by Willikers at 4:02 PM | Comments (1)
April 2, 2006
The Weekly Gee (15)
Copyright © 2006, Maurie Gee
Posted by Willikers at 1:39 PM