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In the past several days I've had the opportunity to attend a few political events. The first was a rock-standard ALP branch meeting in Albert Park where there was a quality and respectful debate over advance medical directives for voluntary euthanasia. With some direct experience of this catch-22 loophole in existing legislation, it was good to see the motion passed with overwhelming support. The second event was hosted by The Australia Institute was Tasmanian Liberal MHR Bridget Archer speaking on integrity in politics; Archer is a leader of the handful of small-l liberals in that party and has crossed the floor for a national anti-corruption commission, for protecting transgender students, to support carbon emissions reduction legislation, and even and to censure former prime minister Scott Morrison over his secret appointment to other ministries. With several hundred people attending, I was satisfied with her qualified answer ("Yes, in principle, but the details are important") to my question on whether she would support "truth in political advertising" legislation, a matter that I have written about in the past.

The third event was an absolutely woeful presentation by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles with Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry, defending the AUKUS agreement and the expenditure of an eye-watering $368bn, another matter that I have written about in the past. Unlike the Archer meeting where comments and questions were visible, these were prevented in the Marles-Conroy show, an old trick that allows one to be selective in their choices and prevent audience recognition of the depth of opposition. Marles' attempt to defend the expenditure as being "only" 0.7% of GDP per annum was deeply unconvincing as any analysis of opportunity costs would show, and Conroy's suggestion that these attack-class and fleet-support submarines are a deterrent in a global arms race was horrifical comical. If you want a deterrent you choose defensive weapons, not offensive weapons. These assault submarines are actually a major contribution to the arms race. Both offered the ludicrous bait that the project will provide 20,000 jobs - I'll leave it to others to calculate what good value for money 20,000 jobs are for a $368bn expenditure and perhaps to suggest alternatives.

The issue will, of course, be subject to some debate at the upcoming ALP National Conference in Brisbance this week, which I am attending as an observer, and thankfully there are those within the Party who recognise that this is a "mad, bad, and dangerous". At this stage, I suspect the "war faction" will get what they want for the time being, but this is far from over. In any case, I am looking forward to a few days in BrisVegas, as I haven't been for around a decade or so, and I have arranged a catch-up linner picnic with a few friends next Sunday after the conference in Roma Park.
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For a pantheist such as myself, every moment of every day is a divine experience; good or bad or sheer magic of existence itself is never prosaic. In the past few days, however, I have had at least two gatherings that could more readily be defined as "religious", and others in which cultural and subcultural diversity seemed particularly striking to me. Starting on Wednesday, I practiced one day (no, not a month) of Ramadan and joined Wajeeha K at a local Pakistani restaurant for Iftar, although as a pair of heretics we stood out somewhat. This morning I attended a local meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers) who, rather charmingly, operate out of the building that I used to work in over twenty years ago for the State Member for Melbourne. Rather charmingly my old office is now the Quaker library, which is a pleasing evolution. The night previous I attended a charming gathering of the subcultural (you know, the goth and metal kids) variety hosted by Jon M., and Tabitha B., in Richmond and met two new friends, Rachel and Rafe, who happen to live in the same building as my apartment. The night before that I was with Brendan E., to watch the two-part epic Chinese war film Red Cliff, and the evening before that Erica H, and I took up a place at a Docklands restaurant to go rakali spotting because we love the Australian water rat. We spotted two, and maybe a third.

But being the miserable person that I am, I cannot help but be struck by how fragile all this pleasing diversity is. It is certain that with the combination of communication tools and technologies that aid the movement of people that the world has become a smaller place; and a better place too, I will argue. Often grudgingly different people have learned that people all have the same basic needs, that our environment is a shared responsibility (and a shared source of commonweal), and whatever differences we have are less than what we have in common. Alas, where such a "unity through diversity" message is not accepted and reinforced within one's self, the destructive flames of difference and division are fanned by powerful propagandists, eventually reaching the capacity of literal conflagration on the battlefield, such as we are witnessing every day in Ukraine. It is all too easy to imagine how safe and happy lives can suddenly become subject to the sort of violence enacted by terrorists, whether State-sponsored or otherwise, and whatever fanatical ideology of hatred is preached, so often there is the lure of wealth through power behind the scenes. A genuine peace, that is peace with justice, will only be enacted through fairness and the removal of such enticements. Happy May Day; wars will end when classes and the State are abolished and not a moment beforehand.
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Utter smashed by a migraine for much of Sunday which turned out to be a cold, I spent fair portion of the last week in varying states of illness. Took Monday off and will be working from home today (well enough to work, sick enough to be a vector). Despite the illness gave my address the Unitarians on Sunday on The Abolition of Crime, which had a fair turnout (especially given the season) and good discussion, and apparently is getting a bit of circulation.

At the end of the presentation I turned to the matters of the Chilcot Inquiry into Britain's decision to invade Iraq, which unsurprising to some, makes it very clear that the invasion was illegal, and therefore a crime against peace (not a "war crime" per se). I have taken the opportunity to raise a few comments on that matter as well, suggesting that Australia needs it own equivalent of the Chilcot Inquiry.

This evening, assuming I am up for it, I'll be attending a meeting and sharing a post-presentation panel with James Hughes, transhumanist sociologist. Tomorrow, will be presenting at Linux Users of Victoria on GnuCOBOL. Over the next six weeks I have weekly day-classes to run at the University of Melbourne on Introduction to High Performance Computing, Edward to Spartan Transition, and Shell Scripting for High Performance Computing. There is also an impending review of 65daysofstatic's latest album being composed courtesy of [personal profile] reddragdiva.
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Yesterday attended the memorial service for Frans Timmerman, whom I've previously written about. It was a superb gathering, with some 250 or so people packed into the Trades Hall New Council Chambers (particularly apt, given how many political battles he fought there), and afterwards at the Trades Hall Bar. The event was MC-ed by Ros Eason, and speakers included one of Frans' brothers, Julius Timmerman, former deputy leader of the Victorian Legislative Council, Glenyys Romanes, radical publisher, David Spratt, former PLO representative Ali Kazak (who provided some noteworthy poetry), radical collaborator Lesley Podesta, conservative Labor MHR John Murphy, and partner and collabotor Associate Professor Anitra Nelson. Much was spoken of a man who touched many lives with his principled radicalism and I'm sure most learned something new about Frans (despite years of association, I had no idea about his athleticism as a youth).

This event was, of course, held during the ANZAC day long-weekend, which to me represents the day when Australia, under the flag of the British Empire, invaded Turkey - just as Australia Day represents the British invasion of indigenous Australia. I feel no pride in either day. Rather I feel distaste towards those politicians and their advocates that we should invade others at the behest of the British Empire and the British race and anger at the terrible waste of human life that occurred as a result of both events. But the politicians continue that agenda, as the Australian government confirms the purchase of 58 new Joint Strike Fighters, also welcomed by the lovers of war in the Labor Party. There are some rebels to this desire for the blood of others, Dr. Jensen in the Liberal Party, Kelvin Thompson in the Labor Party. For their own part, The Age newspaper receives accolades for producing one of the best front-covers ever - it should be taught in first year media studies courses as an example of juxtaposition, and in first year economics as an example of opportunity costs.

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