Wonder why the cops are cracking down so hard on fun and games in Sydney?
It seems that every night people are shot to death by cops because they dare to raise a glass of beer to their lips or drink bottles of vodka in the streets. Sydney has become a hellish warzone populated by the corpses of those who just want to get a bit of a crunk on.
The reason that we've suddenly had such a massive crackdown on drinking, pubs and clubs? Turns out the police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, is teetotal:
Do you enjoy a glass of beer yourself, or are you a teetotaller?
Teetotal. I always have been. My parents were teetotallers; they just never drank, so I’ve never drunk. My children, they drink – that’s OK. My wife will have an occasional glass of wine.
Apart from the fact that the link is from the stomach churningly earnest "Catholic Weekly" the point still remains. This guy does not understand Australian drinking culture because he's never been a part of it, and attacking it from the outside with draconian methods is an assault on freedom that completely undermines both the inherent right of people to do what they want with their bodies, and the freedom of enterprise (and property) of bar owners. The police can, for any reason and without any warning, enter the premises of a place serving alcohol and harass the patrons wantonly. The police can bring in specially trained dogs to sniff for drugs and harass people who are simply trying to have a good evening for no reason other than the government doesn't like this particular sequence of chemicals.
The other night I went with two fellow patriots of this blog to a shitty dance party at Manning Bar called "Snowball". There were, and I am not kidding, about 20 uniformed police officers at the event, along with drug dogs. On a thursday night a good percentage of the Sydney policing force was taken up trying to babysit a bunch of kids who were just going to party around. Oh no a few might have taken Ecstacy oh that's terrible we should send WAVE AFTER WAVE OF MEN AT THEM TO FIX THIS PROBLEM.
95% of sexual assaults in NSW go unsolved/unpunished/unreported. Assaults are not dealt with in Sydney on a thursday, friday and saturday night. The police are nowhere to be seen in George st, and they're less helpful if you've been mugged or robbed or just punched in the face because someone thought you were looking at them funny.
The reasoning? Lack of manpower.
Because EVERY FUCKING COP IS TOO BUSY WATCHING A BUNCH OF KIDS WHO WOULDN'T BE STUPID ENOUGH TO BRING DRUGS TO THE FUCKING PLACE BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE SNIFFER DOGS WILL BE THERE. THEY WILL JUST TAKE THEIR DRUGS OUTSIDE THEN GO IN.
Jesus fucking christ I hate this country.
Popularity: 10% [?]
The sane side of the Abortion debate
I unequivocally support abortion in all circumstances. Human life is anything but sacred.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Bad Science Bingo
Keeping in mind that we are ostensibly logic-following individuals, here's something despicably noisome that had me in tears laughing throughout. This woman is madder than a room full of troofers - spouting nonsense about homeopathy and the dangers of vaccinations, etc. It's great for a laugh at how fucking nuts some of these people are:
http://www.badscience.net/2009/02/bad-science-bingo/
Also, if you're twittering, follow @bengoldacre
It's worth it.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Things we lost in the fire: Naked Short Selling
I was doing some research for a post that I'm in the middle of finishing up and I found this little tidbit from the Sydney Morning Herald, from late October (here):
The operator of the Australian Securities Exchange, ASX Ltd, has called for an indefinite ban on "naked" short selling, as part of a series of recommendations aimed at making the technique more transparent.
ASX says the current temporary ban on naked short selling - as part of overall short selling restrictions imposed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission - should be continued indefinitely.
In a formal response to draft federal legislation on short selling, ASX said a ban on naked short selling - when shares are sold that the vendor does not own or hold - was "consistent with feedback received from a number of stakeholders as part of ASX's earlier consultation process".
This consultation process had "indicated the provisions allowing naked short selling could be removed without adversely affecting the operation of the market," ASX said in its submission on the legislation.
Basically, because they messed with the markets by banning naked shorting (if you naked short something and you can't deliver you would already be dealt with, so I don't know why this makes sense) so that people couldn't 'make money out of the market crashing' and thus continue the normal cycle. Given that individuals acting within the market is in actuallity what makes a damn market, I'd say it was operating fairly wonderfully.
Regardless, watch as the current government and regulators crack down on shorting and put options in order to try and force the keynesjection to work.
Outmoded and outdated methodologies that are seriously untested in this current climate are the last form of recourse we should be looking for. Things are fixing themselves. The way things are now is because we're paying the price for creating money out of thin air for so long.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Stop devaluing my currency you fuck
If Rudd was spending like a drunken sailor before, he's just put his credit card behind the bar. Given that Zimbabwe abandoned their own currency within the last week one would have thought the world had learnt the lesson that prosperity does not derive from a printing press, but nevertheless here's my suggestions on what to do with your Ruddcheque:
- Save it.
- Buy booze with it.
- Buy your aboriginal neighbour booze with it.
- Go on an overseas holiday.
- Buy Japanese cars with it
- Drugs.
- Donate it to the Opposition.
- Guns.
- Invest in creating counterfeit money, just like Rudd.
More suggestions welcome in comments.
Popularity: 3% [?]
It’s like twitter but not as useful!
Not content with having a single desk on the output of utter dross, I've moved our commenting system over to Disqus, which makes it easier to comment, has threaded commenting, and allows people to vote comments up or down. It also has working Facebook Connect (Yeah, the wordpress plugin is a piece of shit) so you can leave comments with your Facebook Credentials.
You don't even need a new account on the site, unless you're posting troll bullshit. Even then, you can leave anonymous comments with Disqus.
So please, tell us more about your opinions on the shit that we post, we're all dying to hear it.
Predicted Categories:
GAME ON.
Popularity: 3% [?]