Adventures in productivity
Apr. 23rd, 2003 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathpixieSo, I have been a useful little member of society today.
Well, as useful as a court clerk can get. I processed around 70 revocation applications today, and still have a pile of things awaiting checks with Vicroads, the licence and registration agency. And I dealt with a couple of snarky phone calls, too, one of them asking for me by name, which always sucks. No hiding from that one. *grins* But yeah, definitely earned my wage today.
Upon getting home I went grocery shopping, first to the el cheapo Not Quite Right place (slightly damaged, out of production, extra produce), and then to the Safeway for the bits NQR didn't have in stock. And then, once everything was lugged home and put away, I busied myself making eggplant lasagne.
Mental note - when making this, remember to grill the eggplant a bit first. Or allow to cook for longer. Still, it was pretty good, and I'm thinking it will improve with a re-heat. Because, as always the case these days, there are leftovers. *grins* Along with the ratatouille I made last night, that was one hell of a big eggplant.
Since I'm going to be away for Yasmin's birthday (which is on Anzac Day, April 25, btw), we went out to see Bowling for Columbine, at long last. It was worth the wait. :) Yes, Mike Moore is not the most academic of documentary makers, and I'm guessing there's a whole bunch of stuff we didn't see, but when you consider that he uses the same techniques used by the media, well, it's good to see a kind of attempt at balancing the scales. Instead of chasing 'dole bludgers' and accusing unmarried mothers of having babies to rort social security, Mike chases Charlton Heston and interviews some seriously scary gun nuts. Yes, it's "foot in the door" journalism, but Mike's using his powers for Good, instead of the Evil we usually get.
And he had a really good point - we are encouraged to live in fear. More so since September 11th. Because people who are afraid are easier to rule - think how many personal freedoms US citizens have happily given up in the wake of terrorist action because they're told it's the only way they can be safe? We've accepted all kinds of things - like the removal of certain human rights for those accused of terrorism, like the right to legal counsel and a public trial - because we're told that if we don't we will be putting ourselves and our loved ones at risk. And if you try and speak out against what you see happening, you become one of the enemy - "If you're not with us, you're against us."
So yeah, Moore has his flaws, but there's a message there, however clumsily and obviously put, that people would do well to listen to.
A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.
Well, as useful as a court clerk can get. I processed around 70 revocation applications today, and still have a pile of things awaiting checks with Vicroads, the licence and registration agency. And I dealt with a couple of snarky phone calls, too, one of them asking for me by name, which always sucks. No hiding from that one. *grins* But yeah, definitely earned my wage today.
Upon getting home I went grocery shopping, first to the el cheapo Not Quite Right place (slightly damaged, out of production, extra produce), and then to the Safeway for the bits NQR didn't have in stock. And then, once everything was lugged home and put away, I busied myself making eggplant lasagne.
Mental note - when making this, remember to grill the eggplant a bit first. Or allow to cook for longer. Still, it was pretty good, and I'm thinking it will improve with a re-heat. Because, as always the case these days, there are leftovers. *grins* Along with the ratatouille I made last night, that was one hell of a big eggplant.
Since I'm going to be away for Yasmin's birthday (which is on Anzac Day, April 25, btw), we went out to see Bowling for Columbine, at long last. It was worth the wait. :) Yes, Mike Moore is not the most academic of documentary makers, and I'm guessing there's a whole bunch of stuff we didn't see, but when you consider that he uses the same techniques used by the media, well, it's good to see a kind of attempt at balancing the scales. Instead of chasing 'dole bludgers' and accusing unmarried mothers of having babies to rort social security, Mike chases Charlton Heston and interviews some seriously scary gun nuts. Yes, it's "foot in the door" journalism, but Mike's using his powers for Good, instead of the Evil we usually get.
And he had a really good point - we are encouraged to live in fear. More so since September 11th. Because people who are afraid are easier to rule - think how many personal freedoms US citizens have happily given up in the wake of terrorist action because they're told it's the only way they can be safe? We've accepted all kinds of things - like the removal of certain human rights for those accused of terrorism, like the right to legal counsel and a public trial - because we're told that if we don't we will be putting ourselves and our loved ones at risk. And if you try and speak out against what you see happening, you become one of the enemy - "If you're not with us, you're against us."
So yeah, Moore has his flaws, but there's a message there, however clumsily and obviously put, that people would do well to listen to.
A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-23 08:19 am (UTC)As for the striping away of civil rights... I fail to see how detaining non-US citizens on immigration violations (amongst other things) is a civil rights violation. *shrug*
Instead of chasing 'dole bludgers' and accusing unmarried mothers of having babies to rort social security, Mike chases Charlton Heston and interviews some seriously scary gun nuts.
First off, let me say that I've never seen the mainstream media chase welfare moms and accuse them of abusing the system. In fact, quite the opposite. The majority of commentators on the subject in the mass media accuse anyone who suggests welfare be reformed of racism, since the media also floats the impression that most people on welfare are black.
Moore, while not a journalist in the strickest sense, is more or less politically aligned with the news media in the US. So-called "gun nuts" are a typical target in the American press.
So much for balancing the scales... If you want scale balancing, watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh. :P (Fox because it reports the news fairly, and Limbaugh because he's a right-wing counter-weight to left-wing news reporting.
--Hex, who's been watching the US press since he was a kid, and can't help but laugh when someone tries to say they're conservative (right-wing).
no subject
Date: 2003-04-23 08:52 am (UTC)For the sake of salvaging ANY self-respect, please tell me you meant that with bitter, dripping sarcasm.
And if you want to get technical - the right to "keep and bear" arms shall not be infringed. Nowhere does it say the right to purchase, sell, use, make, modify, conceal, or display firearms. Besides, guns are for the military, cops, and paranoid losers with small genitals and an overcompensation syndrome. :)
~M.
A myth.
Date: 2003-04-23 03:24 pm (UTC)As for Fox News reporting events fairly... c'mon. They're as much of a crowd pleaser for a certain political strata as LA Times is.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-23 04:55 pm (UTC)b) The civil rights abuses I was referring to include stuff like the right for the government to monitor and read the email of its _citizens_, something that had it been suggested pre September 11 would have raised a howl of outrage, from the ficcers at least. Yet even you guys have rolled over and said "it's for the good of the nation". And the right to arrest without charge and detain without legal representation extends to any individual who is thought to be involved with a "terrorist group or a group believed to have connections with a terrorist group". Including citizens. Believing it's restricted to "illegal immigrants" is just naive.
But I really ought to dig up that particular President's Order again so I can point out all the lovely violations in it for you. ;)
c) Okay, the dole bludgers and unmarried mothers line comes from Australian current affairs programs, not US. My brain melted before I could get much into that stuff. The US, however, _does_ have shows like "Cops" and "Wildest Police Chases", which predominantly show black defendants being arrested aggressively by white police. And your news (which I did watch some of) almost always leads with the "murder of the day". From my watching of Fox and NBC whilst I was over there, a typical news program was as follows: shocking crime; major accident; small, five second bit of national politics; another shocking crime; warning about something like diet pills or killer bees; vague mention of something that happened overseas, especially if it was funny; domestic amusing/heartwarming story; sports and weather.
d) Fox is fair? Ye gods, Hex, are you insane? Then again, you've only gotten the US news media, so you have no idea of what you're missing. I generally watch two news services a night - SBS, which is the foreign language channel's World News service (which gives me exactly that, news from the world, including Asia and Europe and the Middle East), and the ABC, which is the national broadcaster and probably leaning a bit more left than the others. I also get a commercial station's news service in the morning as I'm getting ready for work, although I find myself hooting with laughter or abusing the TV in equal measure. The ABC service does for domestic news what SBS does for world - it gives me a balanced, informative view of what happened in the world and the country that day that was important, including politics and economics and the like, not just the crime news.
I watched the US news whilst I was there - and I spent most of the time either laughing or wincing. When Bali was bombed, all I was able to find out - not having extensive internet access - was that two Americans were killed. Of course, eighty other people of various nationalities, including Australians and Indonesians were also killed, but that didn't matter. And the fact that there are _several_ groups in Bali with a possible reason for bombing a nightclub was also ignored - it was all about A'Quaeda (sp?). The Australian Democrats suffered a major leadership battle, which effectively resulted in the meltdown of our third political option, and the only news I had of that was through the LJs of Aussie ficcers. Had the same thing happened in the States, it would have been reported in full on the Aussie media. In fact, we probably know more about your elections than you do. ;)
The point of all this? Your media is far from fair. It's restricted, biased, and two steps short of propaghanda. Your Iraq coverage especially (and yes, we were getting live feeds almost 24/7), was horrendous. You are told only what the government wants you to be told, and the only way you can find the whole story is to do your own research on the Net. Yes, the Aussie media has its own biases, but compared to your services, I know which one I'd rather believe.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-23 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-23 07:22 pm (UTC)I so need to get out of this job. It's turning me into a mega-bitch.
It's probably safer if I just stay offline altogether.
Re:
Date: 2003-04-23 07:29 pm (UTC)... I've heard.
Doqz,
Date: 2003-04-24 02:59 am (UTC)Seemed like a straight forward response to me. Just put down some facts as she knows them.
Re: Doqz,
Date: 2003-04-24 05:27 am (UTC)In other words, rock on, Rossi, and keep at it.