Thousands in Norway Sing Peace Song Children Of The Rainbow Against Right-Wing Terrorism Edited – YouTube.

Such an awful reason to be singing. So sad watching, you can feel the grief of the crowd.

77 people killed because a guy had very bad ideas in his head.

And it’s interesting listening to the people in the news story speak Norwegian. You have no idea what they’re actually saying, but at the same time, it’s really clear what they would be saying.

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Jon Stewart Derides Bush Administration For Taking Credit For Killing Osama Bin Laden VIDEO.

Look i know a lot of left-wing folk really don’t like Obama because he’s so right-wing. Whatever. And this is classic US-style hegemony heroics all over. But if you want to kill someone, isn’t it better to just go in and kill them? Rather than killing 100,000 other people in an unrelated country instead. [See: HWBush/Iraq war]

Ooh cynical. Well if you want cynical plus laughter, watch this next video.

Team America, world police in Paris:

Plus: Noam Chomsky has been stirring the pot with this suggestion that Dubya was a much bigger terrorist than Osama. Go Noam: say it how you feel it.

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photo credit: freestylee

What about the nerve of Donald Rumsbum, trying to take credit for the Egyptian revolution!! Let me see, how is this similar to the kind of “pro democracy” outings of Donald and Dubya?

Did a hundred thousand people get killed?

Did countless precious ancient artefacts get destroyed?

Did the west start a civil war and then 5 years later work out how to manage the situation?

did Western govts lie to their citizens in order to invvde a sovereign nation, almost bankrupting the world in the process?

This article from the Guardian strongly makes the case that Rumsfold is delusional. Which we knew, but it’s nice to read a well-worded case innit!

A better way to push democracy, but the west’s love-bombing has risks too | Jonathan Freedland

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Apparently the book has been translated into many languages. It was originally written for the people of Burma, and explores the full range of weapons that people have at their disposal (apart from weapons of violence). Yes, colour and flags can be weapons, because they aim at the heart of the tyrannical regime. The basic idea is that if the population refuse to be drawn into violence or fear, then they must win

Who knows more about the book? Can you give me more details?

More links over there:
Tales from the Lou gives a good write-up and background.
Gene Sharp on the wikipedia.
Some of his books you can download over at online books, Uni Pennsylvania.

Some key steps, quoted from the book:

Develop a strategy for winning freedom and a vision of the society you want,
Overcome fear by small acts of resistance,
Use colours and symbols to demonstrate unity of resistance,
Learn from historical examples of the successes of non-violent movements,
Use non-violent “weapons”,
Identify the dictatorship’s pillars of support and develop a strategy for undermining each,
Use oppressive or brutal acts by the regime as a recruiting tool for your movement,
Isolate or remove from the movement people who use or advocate violence.

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via YouTube – Robert F. Kennedy speech ~ Mindless Menace of Violence.

i liked what the sheriff said after the shooting: all this violent, hateful and abusive rhetoric that fills the tv and radio channels of the US mass media may well be free speech, but it can have consequences.

(Found the Kennedy speech via ‘The only adult in the room‘ – an unabashed fan site for the current president of the US (POTUS) – one of the commenters posted it.)

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The Tea Party have been seriously dissing their president. If they were left-wing or non-white, the media would interpret their messages as seditious, treacherous and Anti-American. They would be vilified in the most ugly ways imaginable. But no, the Tea Party is the darling of the media with their horribly misguided and intellectually-damaged thought missiles. Reprehensible rubbish.

Thanks for this video!!

via YouTube – What if the Tea Party was Black?.

Ok, irony alert. i got the video from “Stuff White people do”, chapter entitled: listen to anti-racist music. Yes i’m trying to salve my bruised conscience. Whatever.

While i’m talking of anti-racist music, one of my all-time favourites is “George Bush don’t like black people” by the Legendary KO. Impressed to see this song has its own wikipedia page.

..and here’s the original quote from Kanye West that led to the remix:

..and another video mix

This originally came out back in ’05. Xeni at BoingBoing pointed everyone toward it. You can still get the mp3 file too: “George Bush Don’t Like Black People” MP3 (8.7MB). [Lyrics here.]

On the other side of The Pond, a 15 year old gains notoriety with this stirring speech during the recent demonstrations around education fees. Good to see the next generation coming up and with such strength and passion. Really like the way he weaves narrative into the invective. No music, but a really good talk eh.

via YouTube – 15 year old Tells Establishment to Stick-it..

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“i do know what it’s like to grow up feeling like you don’t belong.”

okay, Barack’s popularity might be rapidly declining with people living in the USA (due to the heinous media campaign against him), but i’ve got to say he is becoming one of my all time heroes. Who gets hold of the US presidency and makes a video like this, for gay and lesbian kids still at school?

Go Obama.

Watch and enjoy.

via YouTube – President Obama: It Gets Better.

Boxing Day (PS): i’ve just found one of the sequels, where White House staff add to this message with their own stories. It’s so good to see this kind of message coming out of the US government. They have a whole part of the wh.gov website geared toward the campaign. wh.gov/itgetsbetter Which is part of the larger campaign at itgetsbetter.org

PS: i know many people are probably angry with Obama’s administration for fighting to prevent a Judge making the decision to get rid of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military position.. even though they’ve said they want to get rid of it.

Sigh. Seems bizarre. They say they want the change, but when a judge gives it to them, they go, “ah no wait til we’re ready”.

Postscript, December’10: well Obama was good for it. The military, congress and the senate all worked together to repeal the DADT regime. Good news.

i wonder if this Bill Hicks video is offensive. Probably i shouldn’t post it without listening first, but my speakers aren’t working, so here goes.

Oh yeah, there’s a severe language warning on this one. NSFW!! And it’s likely to offend supporters of military personnel. Thank you Bill.

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You’ve got to love the Autotune remixes.

i don’t know what’s going on in the USA at the moment. They’ve got a brilliant leader, and a whole bunch of intelligent creative compassionate people working for social change, but somehow there’s still idiots who want to burn Holy Books during a really ugly world war.

And then there’s the cool people who just run up and spoil the media event.
On top of that, someone is going to make an autotune remix out of anything these days.

—————————————-
Thinking:

One of the comments on the youtube video page was this:
‘so, let me get this straight: hippies love to burn flags but can’t stand to see the Koran get burnt?’

Interesting point.

i think it’s a bit like Jewish jokes.
You can make all the anti-Jewish jokes you like, if you are in fact a Jewish person.

You can burn the US flag if you’re a US citizen.
(okay, it’s not legal, i mean under my rules which i’m making up right now)

You can criticise the heck out of your own relationship, tear yourself to shreds, burn the Bible if you’re raised a Christian, find the weak spots in your cooking strategies, etc.

But lay off other people’s business.

.
.
.
.
.

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And a very good turn from Paul Keating on Radio national breakfast, before the election (while Rudd was still at the helm).
“Goodness of heart is a requirement for a good country”.

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Why am i so fascinated by the Australian election, in a year when the rest of the country is busy yawning?

i saw Alex Bhathal speak at the Greens campaign launch for Batman last night, at the Downunder Curry Cafe in Northcote. Very impressed with her dedication, passion and compassion. First and only thing that’s touched me this whole election. Alex spoke from the heart, which is such a rarity in politics.

(more after the break)

Alex reckons that if 3,500 more local voters put Greens #1 than last election, Batman will be transformed from the safest Labor seat in the country into a Greens/Labor marginal. Could make a big difference. There are some great statistical maps at the Greens Darebin site, if you like that kind of thing. No wait i’m wrong.. the stats maps are at the Tally Room site, where you can see that the southern end of Batman was bringing around 30% primary vote to Green in the last election.

i like the Greens because they’re not running away from their convictions, chasing the polls, second-guessing what people might want, whistling to any dogs in the audience, or drawing out the worst in the electorate. They stand up for what they believe in, and i like their four core principles,
= social justice,
= peace and non-violence,
= democracy and
= sustainability.

Mythbusting Refugees

This is a good video from GetUp on the issue of Boat People, who represent less than 1% of population growth, but are being demonised by both major parties.

And an interesting segment from the Today Show, where both leaders were confronted by an ad from the GetUp campaign featuring – gasp – a real live refugee person, who won an hour surfing with Mr Rabbit. i wonder how that hour will go?

Plus, an interview with a Weather Vane

.. and finally, a media treat. Last week, several bloggers listed the transcript of an interview between Laurie Oakes and Tony Rabbit, where Laurie repeatedly accuses Tony of being a “Weather Vane”. Good reading, at
= Lavartus Prodeo
= Hoyden about Town

including classic quotes like:

LO: They say people change their minds, but you change yours a lot for someone who wants to be Prime Minister.

…
TA: The point is that I have been absolutely crystal clear…

LO: About changing your mind?

———————

Postscript: Alex Bhathal achieved her goal and pipped the Liberals in Batman, which is now a Labor / Greens electorate. Yes Martin Ferguson still won (Labor), but his margin went down by around 17%.

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Some say Julia should have waited longer before calling the election, to give herself time to sort things out with Kevin. Oh well. Too late now. Kevin’s much chirpier since he had his gall bladder removed anyway.

Some say it’s just a circus, and if you live in a safe seat, you have no power at the ballot box anyway. You always have some power. There’s only 100,000 people in any given seat. That means you have at least 0.001% of the overall say. Yeah. And anyway, your senate vote is crucial – whether your in a safe or marginal seat. Here’s a great site showing what happens when you let the party decide your preferences. http://belowtheline.org.au/

There are some good videos doing the rounds too.

EG Tony’s views on women from GetUp

Some say there’s no difference between the Labor and the Liberal parties. i totally disagree. Maybe the Australian Labor Party does look like a centre-right populist party full of power-crazed hacks, playing it safe and following the polls. But i’d still rather have them in government than the Liberals who are determined to make an art-form out of deliberate ignorance and mean-spirited prejudice. And i’ll be voting for the Greens – the party of dreamers, who genuinely think we can make this place sustainable.

Oh one video i left out was the foul thing made by a bunch of Christians who say don’t vote for Julia because she’s an atheist.

Foul, ignorant and wrong.

Being an atheist does not mean you are out of touch with Christian values.

To me, “Christian values” is usually understood as being kind, considerate, caring and compassionate, open to forgiving people who treat you wrongly.
Any human person is capable of that, regardless of which organised religion they join or reject.

More videos

Have a cup of tea with Julia (also GetUp)

..a classic from Gruen Nation – this hilarious 1930′s ad where the pollie introduces his family.

“Come to the big scary man” – the Pitch from Gruen Nation focusses on Tony Rabbit

Oh and the Chaser on Mental Health – funny !

Perhaps the best of all was the GetUp / AEC urge to enrol (too late now if you didn’t) – way more action-packed than what’s been happening though.

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So i guess you’ve noticed that Elton has done a John Lennon and made a comment about how Jesus is just like himself.  One of the celebrity bloggers added to the outrage by saying that Jesus was a fictional character anyway, so why wouldn’t he be gay like Batman.

Of course the minute you mention Jesus, you’ll get fifteen thousand comments flaming each other with the torches of internet comment hell. Well no i won’t, but mr superficial got many, mostly because he dared use the F word: fictional!

Anyway i left my own comment there, and this is it:

There’s a great book called “The Pagan Christ” by Tom Harpur, a Canadian Anglican minister. He explores the Christ stories back to 5000BC.

..and similarly to the  Zeitgeist movie, Harpur concludes that the original “Yasu Christos” stories contained a series of metaphors for the human soul’s journey through this life..

.. but the early Christians decided it would help their church if the guy had really lived.

The stories make more sense to me if it’s about the human soul, actually: if you stay connected with your soul during this life, you can walk across the waters of your troubled emotions, always find plenty of food to feed your family and friends, heal the sicknesses that devastate us.

i guess Christians prefer to project that power onto an external spiritual being. And why not, if being powerful upsets you.

Yes i’m certainly in the tiny minority for entertaining these thoughts. Even non-Christians usually believe that this actual person walked the earth at some stage. Not me. The stories are bigger and stronger than that.

Peace be with you all, despite your different beliefs.
michael

Links:

• photo credit: looking4poetry
• Mr Superficial’s incendiary response to Elton’s outrageous comment.
• A long article explores the idea that the historical Jesus is fictional over there: nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
• Tom Harpur’s “Pagan Christ“
• Zeitgeist the movie (Yes i know, it’s a terrible mish-mash of conspiracy junk, but we love that stuff!)

Some great photos from flickr.com

photo credit: danny.hammontree

photo credit: The Searcher

photo credit: Beerbauf

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• the time they appeared on the BBC as Dow, announcing that Union Carbide would be liquidated to compensate the people of Bhopal,
• the Halliburton “survival ball” for withstanding the extremes of climate change – “demonstrate the turtle positition please”,
• one time they announced that HUD would re-open all public housing in New Orleans (watch for the local resident who assures the media that she’s happy to be hoaxed.. she’ll invite the guy to her bbq).

CLASSIC !!

What do you mean, video not available?
Try the Pop Talks site. i think this is the direct link to the video m4v file.

Disclaimer: Someone i know very closely was once hoaxed by the Yes Men.
“We need a speaker from the GATT for our conference.”
“Sure, we’ll do it!”
No i won’t say his or her name here on the 5×5.blog, but i will say that this person was mildly embarrassed. But hey it could have happened to anyone. And that the mistake was discovered before the conference. Phew.

Respect to the hoaxee !!

Linkies:

• yes men on pixieweedia, i mean wikiwikifeedya.
• the hoax GATT / WTO site.
• Similar video talk sites: Australian speakers at slowtv.com.au.
• TED talks has bundles of good speakers from their conferences.
• Yes Men site.
• Pop Tech Talks.

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