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Archive for the ‘history’ Category

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By golly, there’s some crap talked about ANZAC Day

In history, oxygen thieves on April 25, 2013 at 10:22 pm

It has to be said that ANZAC Day is one of my favourite Australian holidays. It used to be one that I hated.

When I was a teenager (read: ignorant and arrogant) I loathed the whole concept, because I thought it was glorifying war. My silly adolescent brain had not yet grasped the concept of being able to respect, honour, admire and thank the servicemen and women without thinking that war was a good idea.

I can’t be sure when that changed for me — when it suddenly occurred that not one person marching or applauding or wearing their grandad’s medals actually thinks war is a good idea.

The only people who think wars are a good idea are the ones making money from it … the arms dealers, and a certain kind of politician who makes money from arms dealing. Dick Cheney, i’m looking at you.

There was a lot of shit talked on Twitter today about ANZAC Day. A lot of shit talked by a few so-called intellectuals, feminists, small-l liberals who think they have a superior take on the concept.

I won’t name them. You’d only have to look through my twitter feed to see who i called an arseclown today. There’ll be a few — there usually are — but you’ll figure it out if you’re that interested.

The point is, these ‘smart’ people seem to have an adolescent-like blockage when it comes to ANZAC Day. Apparently it’s a celebration of killing and rape and the suppression of women.

Arguing with this particular band of ‘intellectuals’ is a pointless waste of time. One or two of them respond very badly to being disagreed with. They usually resort to meanness and belittling, and eventually, personal abuse.

As someone said in response to a particularly offensive piece of ‘intellectual’ anti-ANZAC arseclownery: “My grandfather fought for your right to say whatever bullshit you like, and my right to tell you you’re a fucking moron. Win/win.”

Can’t say it better than that.

I hope your ANZAC Day was the peace-filled, thankful, respectful day you wanted it to be. Mine certainly was.

Thanks for your service, all you past, present and future Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen and women.

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ALP: Not a shadow of the pimple on the arse of its former self

In history, politics, television on April 21, 2013 at 1:29 pm

I bought myself a copy of Labor in Power the other day and started it watching it this week.

For those of you who don’t remember, Labor in Power is a documentary series made about the Hawke/Keating governments. It was first telecast in 1993 so at 20 years old, it’s a remarkable record, not just of those years, but also of the personalities and talents that were around 20, 30, 40 years ago.

Apart from Hawke and Keating — both charismatic, smart, and in many ways, deeply principled politicians — it’s been a revelation to revisit some of the people who were doing the job of government in the Labor world back then.

Lionel Bowen, Susan Ryan, Gareth Evans, John Button, Graham Richardson, Kim Beazley … these people had substance and some intellectual weight. They knew how to campaign, they knew how to follow through on real reform, they knew how to get shit done without relying daily on bullshit focus groups and pollsters.

These people answered questions without finding the first opportunity to go back to the message of the week. They actually answered policy questions.

Imagine that.

When I look at today’s ALP, are there any I would keep in an Allstar ALP government? Yes.

Penny Wong, Julia Gillard, Tanya Plibersek and maybe, just maybe, Stephen Smith. He’s yet to really convince me. And Albo, maybe.

The rest, I’m sorry, but they don’t have the talent God gave a turnip.

Doomed. Utterly doomed.


I wish I was Nate Silver and other post-election reflections

In cartoons, history, media, politics on November 9, 2012 at 1:46 pm

Nate Silver, numbers man extraordinaire, is about to make a motza. If he hasn’t already. Predicting 50 out of 50 states is one better than he did in 2008 and a phenomenal job of accurate mathematics and unbiased fact-seeking.

I think the scariest thing in the lead-up to the US election for me was the incredible closeness the mainstream media kept predicting. I fell for it, I admit it. I let the MSM convince me that there actually were enough stupid, prejudiced, bigoted, outright crazy Americans voting for Mitt Romney to actually make the result doubtful.

I should have listened to Nate.

In the words of Rachel Maddow, Wednesday’s result was an out and out shellacking of Republican interests.

I’ve always said that opposition to President Obama was all about his skin colour. Clearly, the fact that a black man was sitting in the White House drove the far-right edges of American society absolutely bat-shit crazy. But they knew they couldn’t outright say that, so they came up with the Kenyan/Muslim/communist alternatives that they could at least say out loud on the radio.

One of the most irritating thing for me during the campaign was Mitt Romney’s total lack of respect for the President. He might as well have inserted the words ‘uppity nigger’ into every second sentence of his stump speech, because just his tone when talking about the highest office in the land made it clear that’s what he meant.

Everything about the hatred of President Obama on the right is about race. It’s that simple.

If it wasn’t then there’s no way any sane person could see Obamacare, for example, as anything but a compromise position that was biased more to Republican arguments than Democrat.

Socialised medicine, my arse.

I am very thankful that President Obama gets another term. Romney would have been the death of reproductive rights, gay rights, universal healthcare, an equitable taxation system, improved education, banking reform and economic recovery.

Unless, of course, Mr Romney was planning on taking one route to get himself elected and then swinging back to a moderate Republican position once he was President.

Didn’t work Mitt. You’re now a footnote at the bottom of history’s page. A bit like John McCain, only less cranky. And a lot richer.


How good is the X Up series?

In evolution, history, television on October 24, 2012 at 10:34 pm

I have been watching this series of documentaries all my life.

7 Up came out in 1964, the year I was born. 56 Up will show for the first time next Tuesday night on SBS 2.

SBS is showing all the documentaries on consecutive nights leading up to Tuesday and it’s as bloody fascinating as ever.

Neil breaks my heart every time — more so now because we have some inkling of how his life turned out. Watching him at 14 tonight is so poignant. An amazingly sharp mind already showing the beginnings of disarray …

He and the little bloke who wants to be a jockey or a taxi driver – the ultimate East End wide boy — are probably my favourites. But the originators of the series did a fantastic job selecting 14 kids across the spectrum of society.

Brilliant television. Brilliant experiment.


Marilyn

In films, great photos, history on August 3, 2012 at 11:12 am


Kiwis … tch … soft

In great photos, history, weather on July 27, 2012 at 10:18 am

Miss Universe Pageant 1954- Miss New Zealand passed out from the heat

Impeccable Sauce.


Don’t diss dis miss

In funny, history, video on July 12, 2012 at 12:58 am

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Blogging while watching one’s Queen

In about me, great photos, history on May 20, 2012 at 8:12 pm

How bizarre, how bizarre.

Queen’s on the teev. And I’m not.

Here’s a pic of the closest I ever got to royalty:

Now, you may be wondering … where the hell’s the royalty in that picture?? And you’d be quite right in coming to the conclusion that other than Judith Hancock, Queen of Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School — NEVER FORGET THE APOSTROPHE, GIRLS — there is no royalty in this photo.

But!

On the facing page of the 1977 BGGS Yearbook, is this pic:

And that’s it, folks … my only royal connection.

Except for the apocryphal story of how the name Swannell came about. But that’s a whole other blog post.

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Not much has changed really, has it?

In great photos, history on May 17, 2012 at 7:50 pm

A shell-shocked Marine at the Battle of Hue. Hue, South Vietnam – February, 1968. Photo by Don McCullin.

Impeccable Sauce.


9/11

In about me, great photos, history on May 17, 2012 at 1:21 am

Why am I writing about this on May 17? Other than the fact this photo appeared in my Tumblr dashboard, I really have no clue.

It remains a matter of quiet obsession for me. I own a copy of just about every documentary made about 9/11, including the lunatic fringe (“that’s a missile hanging underneath the plane!”).

Part of it, I’m sure, is the sputtering remains of the journalist in me. (You know that tiny, bloody, squalling baby Voldemort in the afterlife scene of Deathly Hallows Part 2? Yeah, that’s my inner journalist.) The longing to be running towards the action, to be part of it, to experience it and turn that into a story to be told.

My own 9/11 experience was a frustrating and vaguely scary feeling. I was on a day off, and had the next day off as well, but like most journalists I put in a call to work to see what was happening and what needed doing. Unfortunately the person who answered the phone told me that I wasn’t needed, so instead I settled in front of the television for the next 48 hours. Literally.

Additionally, my partner at the time was an American, living in the Midwest. In the few hours after the start of the drama there was all sorts of talk of other cities, other tall buildings, other targets and so I was trying fairly frantically to contact her to be sure of her safety.

When I did get hold of her, she wasn’t in a position to be able to talk — long story, don’t ask — so the call was unsatisfactory, at best.

It was a weird, disconnected feeling, adding to my frustration of once again being nowhere near the centre of the action.

I’ve been chasing the heart of that day’s events ever since, apparently.

Yeah, I’m weird.

Impeccable Sauce.

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