Off to New Zealand

Dear readers,

I am Offe to New Zelande this Tuesday, and I will Notte be returning for at least Two Weeks. I will likely then bee Unable to post of my Views, Rantes, or Adventures Extraordinare for a While, and I Hope that you will Understande. I Hope you enjoy yourselves during this Time.

-The lone Amigo

Random Rant: More Unamerican Activities

This is scary.

If Bush wins the election, Kerry should legally challenge the fairness of the election.

Random Rant: America: A Democracy... Right?

Nevada Republicans Shred Democratic Registration Forms

A positively Orwellian plot. This is why America needs that international election monitering team.

How can people who support "freedom" do this?

Random Rant: A Change of Tune

A change of tune

It seems like the Liberals have changed their tune a little. If this is true, they basically won their campaign on a lie: the idea that the Liberals will manage the economy well.

I bet that if the economy goes downhill, Johnnie will be avoiding the blame brilliantly, and saying that governments have relatively little influence on the economy. A total flipflop on the issue.

George Bush: Average American or Rich Kid?

I watched a TV program last night that interviewed a bunch of farmers and industrial workers who supported Bush. One thing they all had in common was a perception that Bush was an average American, while Kerry was a rich kid. Now, Kerry may be a rich guy, but Bush is definitely a rich kid. His father was rich, his grandfather was the Nazis' secret banker, and he himself was definitely a rich kid.

Remember

Now that I'm not quite as depressed as last night, please remember this:

"From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of sucess!"

-Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang

Random Rant: Interest Rates

"If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth." was a phrase coined by the Nazi propaganda machine and taken to a modern level in this year's election campaign by the Coalition.

Interest rates, interest rates, interest rates. Economy, economy, economy. Continual lies pouring out of your TV eventually turns into the truth in the minds of many. They won the election through lies. Don't be suprised if it happens again.

Don't blame me for anything that happens under Little Johnnie's Fourth Reign: I can't even vote.

F

Well, it looks like John Howard may just have lied enough to win the bloody election. Well, good for the bloody lying bastard extrodinare himself. He personifies the worst qualities in politician: dishonesty, pork-barreling, dullness, and attack politics.

I suppose what this campaign shows is how much elections can be affected by distorting the truth. It doesn't bode well for the American election, which has been even more distorted by Fox and the other conservatives. Then again, America doesn't have compulsory voting.

I've noticed that there has been a huge saturation of Coalition ads: the Coalition had many more ads than the ALP. I think election advertising should be banned. The Coalition basically won on a lie: the lie about interest rates rising if the ALP got back in. Utter and total crap.

I've also noticed a decided bias in the media towards the Coalition. Little comments are inserted in the news which are decidely biased. All I can say is thank goodness for the ABC and SBS. But most people watch the commercial networks.

Oh well. It looks like the other lizard got back in. I'd like to commemorate our existence as a First-World nation with this: SOME PEOPLE ARE BLOODY IDIOTS!! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU VOTED LIBERAL!!!!!

Under the Weather Part 1

The rain poured down onto Ankh-Morpork, flowing down the city's gutters into*1 the River Ankh. Blobs and blobs shattered onto the city streets, watched by a figure sheltered by a statue of Lord Salluci the Only Slightly Bonkers.

Theodd "Two Kippers" Lem, a Class III Mumbler, tried to light a smoke with a dampened match.
"Two bloody kippers? Bloody waste of time, I told 'em. Two shillings for an ex-soldier, sir?" he said to a scurrying figure with a broken umbrella.
"Bloody kippers. Who eats kippers for tea anyway? Waste of time, kippers. Now shrimps, there y' got something."
A flash of lightning seemed to shoot upwards from the Alchemist's Guild for the third time today, but Theodd paid little attention, still mumbling short tirades about kippers.

A short figure plunged into the pavement beside Theodd. This turn of events interrupted Theodd's angry rant against today's kippers, and he leant over the unlucky figure. Its eyes sprung open. A shiny pointed helmet seemed to have protected the man from the full impact of the fall. He struggled to his feet, and stared at Theodd for a second, before refocusing.
"Ah! Knew it! Low pressure system, definitely. The slowsilver*2 definitely changed. Coulda tole 'em that. Needs more octamarine, though. 's too weak. And perhap's not quite so much juice." spouted the man.
With that, he stumbled off towards the Alchemist's Guild. Theodd stared blankly for a few seconds, then stuck his cigarette in his mouth. The fact that it was the wrong end probably had something to do with him not noticing the sun coming out from the clouds.

------

Twenty thousand miles away, in the backwoods of Brindisi, an unusual bounty of rain lifted a seven-year drought, allowing the spaghetti to be harvested for the first time in years.

*1-at least, onto it.
*2-Like quicksilver, only slower

Problems With Posting

The reason that I haven't posted or commented much recently is that I've been unable, due to some error with blogger. It seems to be fixed now.

Random Rant: Bribing the Electorate

Mark Latham recently revealed his policy on elderly care, which gave free hospital beds to over-75s and decreased health premiums. The next day, the Coalition unveiled a policy of giving basically $800 million dollar to the elderly. This is a massive bribe designed for one purpose: defeating the Labour policy. I highly doubt the Coalition would have had this policy if Labour had not released this particular policy.

This is why John Howard and his electorate-buying schemes should be removed this election.

Review: "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is one of (in my opinion) the world's greatest authors. His books present a hilarious look at the serious issues confronting our world, and the fears, quirks, and drives that make humanity human. He combines fantasy and satire brilliantly in the Discworld series, and always keeps his writing original and fresh.

Looking at his latest book, "Going Postal", I was afraid that Pratchett might have lost some of his originality and style: the plot outline sounded vaguely similar to that of other Discworld books in which an old institution is resurrected. Reading the book, I am glad to say that this is utterly untrue. The book, a standalone member of the Discworld series, introduces Moist von Lipwig, a skilled conman and trickster who finds himself responsible for putting the decrepit Post Office of Ankh-Morpork back together.

Moist von Lipwig, while sharing some traits in similarity with other Discworld characters, has a new view of the world and a new style that's unlike the older characters of Discworld. He's a proffesional bullshit artist who knows it, and marvels at the gullibility of ordinary people. Reading along, you really understand his mentality and know why he starts walking the straight and narrow... or at least the straight-enough.

The writing is excellent, as it always is, and Terry Pratchett starts in his adult books what he has been doing in his childrens' books: dividing it up into chapters. This works well, making the book easier to divide. Pratchett's writing really shines in showing the inner workings of his characters minds, and shines everywhere else as well. Read it and see. The only problem I can see is he seems to have reduced the number of humorous footnotes, which is a recent problem that has started to show in recent books. I hope he turns around the trend: the footnotes are one of the things that make his writing uniquely funny.

One thing the book really shows is the difference between government service and private enterprise. Private enterprise is engineered for profit, while government service, even if self-supporting, is aim at delivering a service. This has recently become apparent in Queensland, where a private power companies have admitted to cutting up to $1billion of maintenance and other costs, purely in the pursuit of profit, causing blackouts and brownouts throughout Queensland. I don't believe this would have happened had the government been running the power system.

People claim that a government-run organization costs more for the customer, but I have a hard time believing that. A government, non-profit organization charges for the services, while a private organization charges for services plus a profit margin. They say it's higher because governments are more inefficient, but why do managers suddenly become more efficient when employed by the private sector. People say competition drives prices down, so let private enterprise compete with the government.

The book seems underscored with anger at private enterprise in general and venture capitalists in particular. In the book, a bunch of bankers and moneymen take over the clacks from the engineers who built it. They don't understand how the clacks works, and they don't understand engineers, so they start driving the enterprise into the ground. This book is a lot more angry than most others by Pratchett, and I can see why.

Cthulhu Tract

Jack Chick Does Cthulhu

Jack Chick is the extremely intolerant Religous Right figure who created Tracts.

Among his ideas:
-Catholicism is not a Christian Church.
-Islam was created by the Catholic Church.
-D&D teaches you how to cast magic spells.... Really? Why can't I cast Everado's Everlasting Embers? It's not fair!
-Fantasy and Science Fiction are evil.

Well, I'll be gosh-darned! He's also a pocket CTHULHUIST!!!!!

Wizards.COMmunity Boards - Azaquaxl: Feudal Mesoamerica

Wizards.COMmunity Boards - Azaquaxl: Feudal Mesoamerica

A D&D setting I worked on that has a lot of potential, but not any hard work yet.

Random Rant: Buying the Election

If John Howard wins this election, it will be proof that the Australian elections can be bought. He has plunged billions of dollars into attracting the swing voters and pork barrelling. Baby bonuses, childcare payouts, all are aimed at attracting the swing voters, who can generally be divided into two groups: the apathetic(who cares, they all suck) and the selfish(what's in this policy for me?). Either group is vulnerable to bribes and scare tactics. The apathetic especially are those who we don't want deciding our election. But the other option is the American system: one in which small groups can wield huge amounts of power.

It seems that politicians have no long-term view. They look only to the next election. It seems to be more evident in this Australian election than any other. Neither major party has announced any policies that will enhance Australia's future in the long-term, because that kind of policy doesn't attract the apathetic or selfish voters. Just look at the Coalition's Medicare policies. It is this problem which permeates representative democracy, and I haven't the faintest idea how to fix it. I want a say in my government, but I don't want politicking and pork barreling.

If Howard wins the election, he will set a standard for all further elections. Will Australian democracy be able to survive such a standard? I don't know, but it doesn't bode well.

Random Rant: Destroying Medicare

John Howard and the Coalition seem to be determined to destroy Medicare, the system which prevents Australia from having a health system like the US, in which orthodontics or other simple procedures can cost in excess of $US10,000. They've plunged billions of dollars into the hopelessly inefficient private health sector, which has done little but increase the salary of doctors and managers working with private health organizations.

I don't want an American health system. Even American conservatives admit it's screwed up. I want orthodontics to cost lest than $10,000. I want a better future, not a worse one.

Random Rant: Terrorist Watch

Recently, there has been a lot of ads on Australian TV urging us to send in any information we have about terrorists. It claims that we're "Keeping Australia Safe From Terrorism". Maybe, but are we keeping Australia safe from itself.

This campaign sounds a lot like the Red Scare, or the way people in Nazi Germany would dob in their neighbours for being Jews. The entire idea is open to manipulation by those who distrust their neighbours. I can imagine getting reported as a teenager out of school looking suspicious. Spreading fear and distrust is not the way to fight terrorism.