Politics & Prostitution

So, this was something of a topic amongst my little circle this week. In case you didn't know, on the back of his surprisingly* decisive win, David Cameron wants new powers for government that will allow them to suppress speech that isn't technically "illegal".

There's an article about it from The Guardian here and an analysis from Glenn Greenwald here.

Every article I've seen on this has stated authoritatively that David Cameron will say this and David Cameron will say that, even going so far as to give direct quotes from some speech he presumably hasn't actually made yet. How everyone could possibly know this, I don't know. Did his speech leak? Has it been released for public scrutiny beforehand? Were select pieces fed to select journos? Why aren't any of these publications saying? Why isn't anyone linking to any fucking source material? This is one of the big things that aggravates me about the news media right now. Anyway, there obviously must be some truth to it, since Theresa May's been out giving interviews on the topic.

I feel like I've heard a lot of this shit here in AUS too. Definitely from Abbott, buy my gut tells me it started with Gillard.

*

One theory I've heard is that every election you see reported from now on will be "too close to call". Why? Because close elections get people's attention; and that means more ad sales. Cynical, I know, but part of me is inclined to believe it's probably true.

Also, I heard this yarn about the Canuck govt planning to use hate-speech laws to crack down on people advocating boycotts of Israel.

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Now, stop me if you've heard this one before …

I feel like there was a time when all the techno-utopian wankers were talking about how wonderful the internet was going to make the world by giving everyone a voice. I guess they were looking around at their little circle of techno-utopian wanker mates and thinking "How bad could it be?" I guess, not realising that giving a voice to humanity meant giving a voice to the bigotry and sleaze and cruelty and ignorance and stupidity that — like it or not — is part and parcel of it.

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It bothers me that when a supposedly "robust" society looks in the mirror, it needs a law that blacks out part of its own reflection in order to feel safe.

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Oh, and I went into Brisbane the other day. They've pulled all the rubbish bins out of the train station because they're worried someone might put a bomb in one.

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It just feels … so … so …

… piss-weak.

Am I wrong?

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Tangentially related; apparently it's not just fringe-dwelling kooks who now think the official "Death of Bin Laden" story was a load of bollocks.

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And if you don't give a shit about any of this, here's a video pitch for one of the greatest super-hero comics ever written.

Sadly, the movie was never made.

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Also, more metal from Norway.

With female vocals from … Spain? By the sounds of things. Oh, and video transitions from hell.