Auspol: Not with a bang but with a whisper

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Auspol: Not with a bang but with a whisper

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

quote:

In his very fine speech this morning, full of sorrow and frustration, President Obama made a mistake: Australia is not like the United States. We decided not to be.

We decided to grow up instead and become a more reasonable, rational society that explicitly values human life and prefers to think the best of people, rather than the worst.

The US is too immature a society to be allowed to play with guns. It has never shed its Wild West mythology. Americans still use their courts to kill people, which sends a message in its own way. Read The New Yorker's account of the Rodricus Crawford case and see a state that thinks taking a life is a no big deal. It's a country that values property more than life.

Unlike the US, we collectively decided to have a decent social safety net, the concept of a living wage and make good education freely available. Most of us are wary of those with extreme views of any kind. Inherent scepticism about church and state turns out to be not such a bad thing.

Unlike Australia, the US is at war with itself, strongly divided on racial, religious, political and social lines. We have our problems, significantly worse in some places than others, but overall our gaps are bridgeable. The US seems to prefer to use its societal chasms as moats and defend their borders.

The dystopian viewpoint is a significant theme in American literature, the assumption that the country is a disaster away from rape and pillage, from turning into plundering carnivores. Having never made peace with its past, which pretty much was one of rape and pillage, it hasn't escaped it.

From The Road to Hunger Games, the effect is numbing. The National Geographic Channel features a show called Doomsday Preppers, a how-to guide for armed and dangerous "survivalists" building redoubts on the assumption that everyone else is armed and dangerous and out to get them. It is a nation that is collectively paranoid.

It doesn't seem to help to have a large body of religious fanaticism � it doesn't help anywhere, whatever the particular brand of religion. There's little difference between the violently fundamentalist Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Jew.

There's an American brand that hasn't evolved far from justifying slavery. It carries a fundamentalist certainty that is in equal parts both ignorant and frightening. The concept of American exceptionalism � that God has a chosen mission for the USA � is a dangerous adjunct.

It's all fodder for the deranged fanatics of the American gun lobby, with a bible in one hand and an assault rifle in the other. It's fuel for the paranoid interpretation of a line in the constitution that is a blatant anachronism.

We have our share of deranged individuals, but we try not to empower them. We don't promote violence for good or bad and increasingly decry the bad.

That was another mistake Obama made: talking of responsible gun owners having firearms to "protect their families". The statistics have long been in � having firearms is more likely to endanger families than to protect them. Obama is not immune to the paranoia.

And so, when domestic terror struck at Port Arthur and John Howard showed political leadership, we overcame our ratbags, our Leyonhjelms, and agreed to reasonable controls on firearms. They're not particularly tough, except in restricting access to weapons specifically designed for killing human beings. Only an NRA member could think that unreasonable.

The restrictions demonstrably work.

The immediate American-like response at the crazier end of the National Party has abated. It's safe to say we're now rather proud as a nation of our gun laws. We haven't suffered another mass shooting. In National Party heartland, there are men alive who would not be if guns had remained so freely available when they were troubled youths.

And I write as a person who grew up with a knowledge and enjoyment of and respect for firearms. My father was a policeman. We had firearms in the house. I have a gun licence. It's been a little while now, but I enjoy shooting clays when I have the chance. And I think only a madman would want to water down our gun laws or, in America's case, not adopt them.

But, no, we are not like America. We're a society the USA should aspire to be.

lmao what a piece of trash article, could have Bolded the whole loving thing

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 05:53

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 22:00

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

I'm sure all the kids in immigration detention will be relieved to hear that we value human life and choose to think the best of people rather than treating them with undue suspicion.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 06:15

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

oh gently caress off i loving quit

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 06:45

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Even David Cameron agrees the only good pig is a dead pig.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 10:37

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Cartoon posted:

Back off the language and as far as I know there were no police shot so...way to make poo poo up too.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-02/parramatta-police-headquarters-site-of-shooting-two-dead/6824320

I've seen reports that one person shot was a non-officer police employee.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 10:46

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Birb Katter posted:

Gunman shot and an IT worker from the building.

If there's one thing auspol hates more than police, it's IT workers

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 10:48

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Watching an Attenborough documentary on channel 9 and an ad just came on for a new show promising "six of Australia's most informed minds" and the clips were of mark Latham and Amanda vanstone, and Campbell brown :laffo:

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 11:11

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

The Narrator posted:

Yo those ants killing off the queens until only one remained was some cold poo poo

You come at the queen you best not miss

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 11:30

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Ahahahahahhahaha

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 13:03

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Birb Katter posted:

https://twitter.com/nazeem_hussain/status/649951871495307264

https://twitter.com/MariamVeiszadeh/status/650046821482434560

Turns out all you need to do is be Muslim with a little bit of a profile, no matter what you do, and the media will ask you if you knew the gunman. They've called a comedian and a lawyer for fucks sake. Burn this country to the ground.

gently caress australia

# ¿ Oct 3, 2015 02:56

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Hobo Erotica posted:

This is from the end of the last thread, but it's calling it a 'medical procedure' which illustrates the lack of understanding of the issue. It's like calling offshore detention an 'immigration procedure'. That doesn't mean that what it actually entails isn't potentially objectionable. In this case, they're talking about the termination of human foetuses. In their view, life begins at conception. While admittedly debatable, it's not arbitrary or indefensible. Where do you think it begins? At what point would you stop allowing abortions? 14 weeks? 22 weeks? 28 weeks? Full term? Unless it's full term there's a line there somewhere, so what consequences should there be for the parties involved if they cross the line?
In the mind of these people the line is at conception, and crossing it is the most serious crime, the literal murder of society's most pure and defenceless beings, so calling for the most serious punishment is not logically inconsistent, or even surprising.

I guess what I'm saying is you'd do well to try a bit harder to understand where people are coming from.

They come from a garbage town deep in an uninhabitable wasteland.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2015 07:15

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Sure we can respect a woman's agency over her own body for now, but it should only be a stop gap solution

# ¿ Oct 3, 2015 20:56

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

starkebn posted:

Guys, the bombing is working

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/unspeakable-msf-nurse-recounts-attack-msfs-kunduz-hospital

Deradicalisation at it's finest.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2015 23:23

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Jumpingmanjim posted:

If Tone was still prime minister we would be bombing paramatta by now.

Voting tone now

# ¿ Oct 4, 2015 08:44

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

QUACKTASTIC posted:

I hope we aren't so distracted by this thing to be too distracted by that last thing that we were distracted by; the thing that was distracting so we won't remember to not be distracted by the original thing that reminded us to not be distracted by the thing that we were meant to be distracted by because that would distract us from the lovely thing that they were about to use as a distraction from their original purpose.

don't worry, we still remember dcfadp

# ¿ Oct 4, 2015 15:55

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

@ABCNews24: Shorten: For people on $40-$60,000, #penaltyrates are the difference whether they can afford to send their kids to a private school. #auspol

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 03:02

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

The shovel should just employ bill shorten to write for them directly, far more efficient

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 03:05

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Looking forward to the ALP introducing a national school vouchers program

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 03:49

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

sidviscous posted:

According to today's Crikey, this change has been conveniently made two days before the High Court is due to hear a case on whether it is constitutional for the Australian Government to detain asylum seekers offshore indefinitely.

Ha - sif they'd do something without an ulterior motive.

This won't affect that given a)they're still in detention, and b)it means nothing for other places like Manus

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 04:56

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

The Peccadillo posted:

You don't pay the rapists salaries and pay to hide them from justice any more

So you're more worried about your personal sense of guilt than the actual material differences this will make to the lives of refugees.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 06:30

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Negligent posted:

The point I was making is that the camp isn't closing, merely allowing people to come and go as they please, so the whole hand wringing post about Australia and/or Nauru not having any continuing obligations to provide for the refugees was in error. People are still being housed and fed in the same manner, the door is just left open. It's not naive to think that a logical development is more appropriate accommodation for this new living arrangement.

Australian immigration policy having a long standing tradition of being based in logic.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 07:46

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Could you breed a species of giant moles and tunnel to Darwin? Does birder force have subterranean detection systems?

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 09:37

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Yes Stephen Koukoulas is still writing.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 13:04

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

The federal government called in the Australian Federal Police to investigate information leaks from the Nauru detention camp six times in as many months

tfw pete dutton keep callin u when you say no

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 13:06

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

admitting to assault on a public forum doesn't seem particularly smart.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 23:47

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

BBJoey posted:

The cyberpunk dystopia is now.and we don't even get any cool cybergear.

Maybe you should have backed Oculus Rift on kickstarter then

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 23:59

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Ahh Yes posted:

Does the TPP have to go through parliament?
Labor will let it through anyway I guess.

Yes it does and yes they will

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 00:36

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

hooman posted:

Bill Shorten is a counter to Tony Abbott in the same way a grapefruit is a counter to Tony Abbot. It just has to sit there and do literally nothing while ole Tones shits in his own mouth. Shorten is worthless and I really hope he doesn't get elected but I'd still prefer him over Turnbull.

My preference for the leader of this country at the moment is actually "Someone else".

I'm someone else.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 06:03

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

DancingShade posted:

Politicians should be in Canberra sittings 7 days a week.

Is Canberra sitting a colloquialism for prison?

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 09:07

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

SynthOrange posted:

'My legacy will be valued in time: Abbott'

My valuation in time: somewhere between the time I broke a rib coughing and the time I didn't sleep for two days because I was constantly dry vomiting.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 01:43

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Anidav posted:

gently caress you Malcolm Turnbull. I hope the maggots eating away on the middle class run out of food and turn on your kind.

Do not try and save the middle class. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no middle class.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 04:47

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Nibbles! posted:

I wonder if there's a staffer right now hitting ctrl+f on decades old speeches and replacing 'Asians' with 'Muslims'.

I don't think Hanson can afford staff yet

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 21:23

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Mr Chips posted:

The brouhahah over the home insulation scheme showed that if you pay for someone to do something and they kill someone doing it, it's your fault.

only if it was a labor government doing it, be reasonable mate

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 07:35

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

75% seems low given other processing results, probably closer to 90 with a thorough appeals process

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 12:55

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

SeekOtherCandidate posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNwgjVzkT-I

Most of your forefathers voted Liberal until WWI & WWII came along, and then they suddenly decided they didn't want Zionist NWO governments that have killed over 100,000 Aussie soldiers fighting European civil wars running the country. The only war Labor has ever gotten us into was Bob Hawke and the first Gulf War, and that's because he is an unabashed Zionist who did exactly what the Zionist/American clique told him to do.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 15:17

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Shunkymonky posted:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-prepare-for-demonstrations-outside-parramatta-mosque-20151009-gk5j8q.html#ixzz3o3QjClwn

Inspiring poo poo

I've heard of dog whist :suicide:

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 10:19

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

hooman posted:

Anidav Posts are like fallout games, better when not made by the owner of the IP.

In serious need of third party improvements.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 15:21

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Cartoon posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/oct/09/v8-driver-david-reynolds-apologises-for-offensive-comment-about-female-team
Sport culture is in no way toxic. Nah uh.

motorsport isn't sport bucko

# ¿ Oct 10, 2015 01:32

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

Cartoon posted:

Didn't say it was. I blamed sport culture. A thing that is adopted by a bunch of people who have never participated in anything like sport and go to things like sport bars. You know a sport bar is a little like a pussy wagon.

Non-sports bars being renowned as havens of progressive thought.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2015 02:29

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 22:00

Solemn Sloth: Jul 11, 2015; Baby you can shout at me,
But you can't need my eyes.

dr_rat posted:

Well public school are basically just state run communism training camps, so of course you're going to get violent extremists out of it.

The Irony being Australia has only not become communism already because they are run so inefficiently due to being public run. If we had sold them all off and it was private enterprise running them all, Australia would of gone full communist years ago.

The question being how low can he go before labor finally decided it has no choice other then to replace him. Unfortunately the answer is probably pretty loving low.

drat and here I was thinking it was the 'mortgagers aren't maoists' strategy of the post-war period

# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 11:37

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