Archives, eh
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# For Zeus's sake, don't show me on national television
Dear D1,
I write you this letter but post it to a public forum – well, technically public even if negative two readers doesn’t amount to much of a forum – so that there can be no question of my wishes should something happen and I am either in a persistent vegetative state or otherwise incapable of communicating because of stroke, dementia or an ill-fated chainsaw adventure that resulted in me losing my hands, eyes, tongue and hoof-tapping capabilities. Painful and terminal illness… well, let’s leave that one, we can decide it on a case by case basis.
So. I’m fucked. Just lying around like some dirty hippy. Insensate or at least incapable of enjoying any sensations I can pick up. Unresponsive. Possibly wearing an adult diaper. In fact, especially if I’m wearing an adult diaper. Sounds like life basically sucks, so in light of that I would like to die, please.
Now, there are a lot of intrusive pricks who think they know better than I (henceforth referred to as “Dickheads”) and would like nothing better than to make me hang around waiting on their invisible pink unicorn to adjudicate. I’m supposed to hang around for some beardo to make up his mind if I should stay or if I should go. All very well and good, but their particular beardo isn’t the beardo whose opinion actually matters, the beardo who is getting my soul after I finish the dregs and spit out the grinds2. But because the dickheads apparently have not yet had their throats stepped on and told they are naughty, we’re going to have to be creative.
They say it’s up to “God” when I die? Okay dokie. I can go with this. Only, I don’t believe this “God” fellow is paying sufficient attention to all that goes in this world. Even if he is paying attention, he must be a lazy bastard, so we’re going to have to force his hand. Here’s the plan. First we get a tinnie and take it up to the top of, say, Mt Erebus. Put me in it along with, oh, a kilo of C4 rigged up with a mercury switch; a five litre glass bottle of sulfuric acid in my lap; a vial of polonium; and one irate tiger. If an irate tiger can’t be found, just an ordinary tiger will do and I’ll try my best to sing off-key to it. Oh, and a banana; I might get hungry. Set the boat on fire and then push me down the slope until gravity takes effect.
By now we should be in full compliance with the wishes of the Dickheads. It’s all up to their “God”. If he wants me to die, well, here’s a perfect opportunity to do bugger all. Hell, if he doesn’t care he can leave well enough alone. However, if he genuinely wants me to live then he can bloody well get off his arse and stop being so damn passive. God, “God”, carpe diem, mate. Life is passing you by and it’s going to keep doing so unless you get off your arse and make something of yourself. Yeah, so if he does care, if he wants me to hang about in crippling agony – if we make the death decision – or whatever, then so be it. All he has to do is make sure I survive the trip down and the, you know, Antarctic climate. Should be a cinch, I reckon.
Yours, gilmae.
1 Or if D should be unavailable due to a) coming to her senses, or b) selfishly leaving me all alone in this cold world, whomever has been silly enough to be my BFF.
2 Although I really hope Cino decides to argue the point and Zeus is forced to fight her for me. Of course, he’d send in a proxy to do the actual fighting since Cino is a girl. I’m thinking mud wrestling with Athena. Particularly if Athena looks like Grace Park.
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# Prove it
Reasonably sure my remarks about David Hicks are enough to inform the non-casual reader as to what I might think about the move by Kevin Andres to revoke a visa for the sake of locking up a terror suspect who had made bail.
In case it isn’t, it basically goes like this. The letter of the law may very well give the Minister the power to revoke a visa based on character issues, but without some standard of proof being applied what the Minister has done – in this case and potentially in the future – smells suspiciously like executive rule.
Not tyranny or totalitarianism as suggested by some of the more excitable blogs I read i, just a member of the Executive deciding – based on advise from the Federal Police and the civil service – using a power for which there is no functional oversight – I suppose the PM could overrule him – and for which he can provide no proof to back his usage.
Is it too much to ask that that the Minister be able to respond coherently when asked to “prove it”?
Recklessly provided material assistance to terrorists? Prove it.
Associated in some meaningful manner with terrorists? Prove it.
Not of good character? Prove it.
A flight risk? Prove it.
Actually, that last one is a trick – the Federal Police already failed to prove that one.
i I think it is fair to say that if Kevin Andrews is the face of totalitarianism then it will be a lot blander than we all expected. And am I the only one to be unsure whether or not he is a Muppet?
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# Links for 2007-07-11
- SSRN-”I’ve Got Nothing to Hide” and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy by Daniel Solove ✴
- Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Ruby ✴
- GSoC: Apotomo – a Widget library for Rails? – O’Reilly Ruby ✴
- ITworld.com – The future of the Web as seen by its creator ✴
- Anti-Grain Geometry – Texts Rasterization Exposures ✴
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# Links for 2007-06-17
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# Links for 2007-02-04
- Bill Totten’s Weblog: Loaded ✴
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# Links for 2006-10-27
- Free Speech and the Constitution ✴
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# Links for 2006-07-17
- John Stuart Mill and the “Books of Hate” | Austrolabe ✴
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# Links for 2005-02-11
- Lords could sink ID bill, admits Clarke
“outdated”? What, like bell bottoms, hypercolour, and Britney Spears? ✴
- Lords could sink ID bill, admits Clarke
