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The Cooperative, Religious Liberals, Same-Sex Relationships, Ronald Ray-Gun....
All my major tasks at Borderlands and Student Partnerships Worldwide are now more or less complete, so now I can dedicate myself to publishing and writing again. Which means (drum roll).. the formal foundation of the Mimesis Publishing Cooperative. It is proposed that this is a non-trading cooperative with shares, mainly because that (the government guarenteed rules) the best way to avoid the various hefty fees. We have already had interest from Akademos (delightful name) for cooperative ventures.
Anyway, the Formation Meeting is noon, Saturday July 3 at the Borderlands Cooperative, Augustine Centre, 2 Minona Street Hawthorn.
Had dinner with Jenne and Katie last night, two fellow political and para-religious activists. Jenne (a reform Jew) took over from me as president of the Aboriginal Affairs Policy Committee when I went to East Timor and has been active on indigenous issues for years. Katie (a liberal Quaker), who has recently become a mother, spent her political energies on refugee support, and founded the low-key "Liberals for Refugees" about two or so years ago. It was like the beginning of a joke: "So, this Jew, a Quaker and a Unitarian are having dinner....". All jokes aside however, it was great to see them. We haven't moved in similar circles since my return to Australia and I used to see both of them almost every week.
Speaking of such matters, the Melbourne Unitarian Church held a peace concert last weekend. On my request, the collection of a few hundred dollars was directed to the Tabessi War Widows and Veterans Association in East Timor. It will make quite some difference there. Following the concert, caseopaya and I wandered in and joined the World Environment Day Tasmanian Forests' rally. Whilst the turnout was impressive, I felt that the "carnivale" atmosphere typically present at such gatherings was absent.
The campaign for legal equality for same-sex relationships is bound to get nasty. Catbiscuit has alerted me that the Federal Minister believes that keeping it in the closet is the best option. Meanwhile the Onion (courtesy of Darkstar) is full of its standard goodness: Gay Couple Feel Pressured to Marry.
Meanwhile, back on a serious note: A petition calling Mark Latham to support same-sex relationships. Sign it, cut and paste it. Email it far and wide. Stick it in your journal. http://www.gopetition.com/online/4457.html
The attempt rewrite the history of Ronald Reagan is fairly typical. After all, it is in the vested interests of mass media editors to do so; he was their man. So let us not forget that he converted the United States from the world's biggest creditor nation to the world's biggest debtor nation, that he was a war monger who had a complete and utter disregard for international law, and pathologically sick sense of humour which included "jokes" about the nuclear annihilation of an entire nation.
All that said, it must also be mentioned that Reagan was actually a left-winger until "converted" by some thuggish behaviour towards him by members of the American Communist Party in the 1940s. I am reminded of Peguy's statement: "the social revolution will be moral or it will not be". On that note, Hamish McDonald (who, I must confess I have had the opportunity to meet in East Timor), provides the right reports on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square:
Blood on the Tanks and "We will never fire on the people"
Anyway, the Formation Meeting is noon, Saturday July 3 at the Borderlands Cooperative, Augustine Centre, 2 Minona Street Hawthorn.
Had dinner with Jenne and Katie last night, two fellow political and para-religious activists. Jenne (a reform Jew) took over from me as president of the Aboriginal Affairs Policy Committee when I went to East Timor and has been active on indigenous issues for years. Katie (a liberal Quaker), who has recently become a mother, spent her political energies on refugee support, and founded the low-key "Liberals for Refugees" about two or so years ago. It was like the beginning of a joke: "So, this Jew, a Quaker and a Unitarian are having dinner....". All jokes aside however, it was great to see them. We haven't moved in similar circles since my return to Australia and I used to see both of them almost every week.
Speaking of such matters, the Melbourne Unitarian Church held a peace concert last weekend. On my request, the collection of a few hundred dollars was directed to the Tabessi War Widows and Veterans Association in East Timor. It will make quite some difference there. Following the concert, caseopaya and I wandered in and joined the World Environment Day Tasmanian Forests' rally. Whilst the turnout was impressive, I felt that the "carnivale" atmosphere typically present at such gatherings was absent.
The campaign for legal equality for same-sex relationships is bound to get nasty. Catbiscuit has alerted me that the Federal Minister believes that keeping it in the closet is the best option. Meanwhile the Onion (courtesy of Darkstar) is full of its standard goodness: Gay Couple Feel Pressured to Marry.
Meanwhile, back on a serious note: A petition calling Mark Latham to support same-sex relationships. Sign it, cut and paste it. Email it far and wide. Stick it in your journal. http://www.gopetition.com/online/4457.html
The attempt rewrite the history of Ronald Reagan is fairly typical. After all, it is in the vested interests of mass media editors to do so; he was their man. So let us not forget that he converted the United States from the world's biggest creditor nation to the world's biggest debtor nation, that he was a war monger who had a complete and utter disregard for international law, and pathologically sick sense of humour which included "jokes" about the nuclear annihilation of an entire nation.
All that said, it must also be mentioned that Reagan was actually a left-winger until "converted" by some thuggish behaviour towards him by members of the American Communist Party in the 1940s. I am reminded of Peguy's statement: "the social revolution will be moral or it will not be". On that note, Hamish McDonald (who, I must confess I have had the opportunity to meet in East Timor), provides the right reports on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square:
Blood on the Tanks and "We will never fire on the people"
no subject
Have you had any Canadian political news trickle your way? The freakin' conservatives are scaring the crap out of me. If they get in, oh boy, I'll be one pissed off little chicken if they start undoing social rights.
The really ailing liberal party is doing a smackdown on the conservative leader because of abortion rights.
One of the conservative members likened abortion to the beheading in iraq. That's right, my friend who had one because of health issues is no better than a terrorist who tortures and beheads someone. That issue never hit close to home until recently.
They're also dodging around the issue of gay rights, gay marriage. Recently, hate-speech against homosexuals was deemed to be a hate crime. It's a law. The right rigth wingers are super upset. One COnservative member said if they get in they'd try to get that out. The conervative leader did some fancy backpedalling saying the views of that party member don't reflect the views of he party, btu he won't give a definitive answer on any of the social hot button issues.
I'm voting based on social policy, rather than financial policy. People forget how badly the conservatives screwed things up in the 80s. The liberal scandals, while inexcusable and scathing, don't feel quite as bad to me. And I'm not naive enough to think that any one party will not break election promises. They all do.
I used to be centrist, with some very slight right leaniings. I got firmly kicked to the left about 6 or 7 years ago. According to the political compass, I'm a social anarchist. Go me. XD
no subject
I don't get much Canadian news - apart from a surprisingly large number of Canadian friends I have on livejournal (including several former Australians), and news from someone whose name you may be familiar with: Professor Peter Boyce (that's Emiritus Professor now).
Whilst someone who also firmly falls on the left-libertarian/social anarchist view of the world (well, duh), I must also confess that I am not belligerent towards right-wingers. I understand conservatism as both a political strategy and as a personal disposition. However, the views that some of the people in that article are espousing are not conservative - they are reactionary and use pre-modern justifications as a basis for legal norms (e.g., Biblical opposition to abortion or same-sex marriages).
What I don't understand is how they justify that a sectional viewpoint should become a universal legal norm. But therein lies one of the main problems with democracy - that it is the rule of the majority, and not the rule of equals.