Big Brother revealed

So I think I've finally nailed what is behind my uncharacteristic and admittedly perverse enjoyment of the low-brow bile-fest that is Big Brother.


The way people on the show behave when the cracks in their glossy forced relationships begin to show and the whole fabric begins to unravel, when they are at their basest - even accounting for the fact that the tensions are mostly imposed and the rifts mostly constructed - that behaviour validates and confirms my inherent cynicism about the world. Beneath all their gloss and polish, most people are repulsive, albeit entertaining.


Don't get me wrong. I spend most of my time trying to overcome this pessimism and make the most of life. But every now and again the wry and bleak heart of me needs to be indulged. Enter Big Brother. Quiet the soul. Return to making an effort with the world. Simple.

Memo to all office workers enamored of catching public transport in trainers

You look like fucking morons.

I should qualify that I am in no way shape or form against wearing more comfortable shoes for the commute - slip ons or sneakers or flats of some description. I'm sure small mercies are the only thing keeping you from going completely postal as you grind out shitty sameish day after day in recycled office air. You got a few blocks to leg it each day, your footsies get sore in patent leather.

Cool. I get it.

But hi-tech scientifically calibrated cross country running shoes are complete fucking overkill. I have owned running shoes and am firmly of the opinion that they are ridiculously impractical footwear for everything except said sporting activity. Not to mention the fluorescently white plastic/mesh poking out from under a snappy tailored new wool suit looks like dress-yourself day at the special school.

Actually, lets face it. That earlier ramble about trainers being unsuitable footwear was a smokescreen. You could wear concrete heels studded with razorblades for all I care. But for the love of god it is a crime against fashion and general decency to pair weekend activity-wear with button-down week wear. Seriously, it looks nothing short of retarded. I don't like thinking that insurance is brokered and stocks are traded and orders processed and deals made by people who could see themselves in the mirror and find that look acceptable.

So stop it. All of you. There is a whole section of the shoe department dedicated to "casual". Please go and check it out. Or at least start running to work so there is a point to all this shameless eyesore. Honestly, who throws a shoe...

Judges uphold 'right to bear arms'

American mayors and legislators are closely studying a Supreme Court ruling today that clarifies the constitutional right of an individual to have a gun and may make many cities' gun control efforts invalid.
The 5-4 landmark ruling is the first time the Supreme Court has clarified what the second amendment means. The majority concluded that the "right to bear arms" extends to the individual, not just the rights of states to maintain militias, like state guards and police forces.

I don't even know where to start with this one.

The frustrated cynic in me says "Fuck 'em. If their educated leaders are this retarded about it all, let them shoot each other on the streets."

The frustrated optimist in me says "At least they're looking at it - maybe this will make the whole issue clearer and everyone can move forward. Or maybe people really can be trusted to look after themselves and deserve the right to do what they see fit."

Then the frustrated cynic in me punches the frustrated optimist in the throat and screams "Wake up to yourself!"

Yeah, the cynic is right. As usual.

Australia and Zimbabwe Test

Jane McGrath did so much to raise awareness of breast cancer and provide financial and institutional support for the people who work to treat it. She conducted herself with grace and dignity. Her death is sad and newsworthy.
But I am fucking disgusted - no, outraged - that her passing is the front page news item on every major newspaper and news website when an entire country is on the brink of collapse and wholesale genocide. The leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew from the run-off election race because of escalating violence, persecution and blatant corruption by the tyrannical Robert Mugabe's ruling regime. According to Tsvangirai 82 of his party's officials and sympathisers have been murdered and thousands in hiding or displaced since his party legitimately outright won the elections in late March but were robbed and bullied of that victory by vote-rigging by Mugabe who manufactured a result the would require a run-on election, giving him enough time to orchestrate the reign of terror he has exacted on his opposition.

Tsvangirai has lead this party through from one wave of violence to the next hoping that if he got close enough to a win within the national system, the rest of the world would finally pull its complacent thumb out of its ass and back him. He got so close as to have actually won election, but still the international community sits on its big grubby hands. No oil, no gold, no bother. How could a man continue in the face of such abuse of his supporters and brutal global apathy?Tsvangirai is saving the lives of his supporters by backing down because the lives that have been lost in support of him and his party have literally been in vain. Mugabe is the new Hitler, and we are herding people onto the trains.

Today I am disgusted to be a human being. And I'm disgusted to be Australian.