ICEBERGS
Icebergs separating
From the primeval glacier mouth
Lonely, cold, trapped
By currents moving south.
Lifelessly, thoughtlessly, drifting.
We are bodily torn
Screaming into the pitiless silence
forever alone now.
Beginning a fruitless dance
To death from our mother’s womb.
Icebergs melting down
Releasing moisture to the world
Raining, slaking, mingling.
No current has us enfurled.
How and when will we melt?
J.E.McL jun1977
Posted in poetry
Sometimes it takes me a while to see what I have in the images I take.
Image from 2011, Words from just now.
Posted in photography, poetry
ISIS is winning.
Just as they are losing the battles on the ground they are about to win the battles of the minds.
We pesky Westerners have been free-thinking, free-speaking and free-voting people for two or three centuries. ISIS represents a re-evolved world-view where religious correctness supersedes political freedom eerily reminiscent of the Catholic Inquisition of the Middle Ages.
By playing on our supposed fears, by using random terror attacks, they have given our political leaders the freedom to curtail all our freedoms and impose a political and security regime which matches the wishes of those leading ISIS. Hate speech is also to be banned.
Therese May, Donald Trump and now Malcolm Turnbull are all promoting a scheme which will see Social Media, in all its forms, responsible for removing any content which relates to terrorists and their actions. Good! I hear you say. Terrorists should not be able to plan their attacks on the internet. Maybe not, but we should be aware of the unintended consequences.
Our leaders are calling for greater regulation and transparency on the internet. This is code for opening sites like Tor to Government inspection. Algorithms will be developed and the privacy of terrorists will be compromised. To find those terrorists, ALL the internet will need to be open to inspection. That includes all our internet dealings. Those passwords we use to do our banking, Our private dealings on the internet. All our opinions as expressed on the internet. And while we may not plan a terrorist attack, how long will it be before hate speech is re-defined to suit those in power?
That may all be good because we will eventually overcome the terror threat. Yet what is the definition of a terror threat? What is the definition of hate speech? That can be widened at some time in the future, possibly the near future, to include overthrowing an unpopular Government. Campaigning against a sitting Government. Legally overthrowing a Government. At the ballot box. Anyone campaigning against their previously elected Government could be accused of a form of terrorism or of hate speech. Leaders of Nations do not like losing their power.
That is where this move to regulate the internet and open it to Government inspection will inevitably lead. The algorithm will be tweaked to include this movement and then that movement and then the other movement. It is the creation of the algorithm in the first place which will set all this in motion.
Satirists, commentators, meme-makers, cartoonists will all be in the firing line, regardless of their political affiliations. Freedom will be lost. And those in charge of ISIS will cheer because they will have won.
Even then there is yet another inevitable danger. Every Government collection of the data of our lives has been hacked by criminals. Normally after they have gained access to secret Governmental data-mining programs. How much of the data collected from the soon to be ‘transparent’ internet will remain in Government hands?
How soon will that transparency be in the hands of those who wish us ill?
Scene 1; The Liberal Childcare Centre P/L trading as the IPA
Phone rings;
‘Good morning, Chief Child Wrangler speaking. Oh, it is you, Malcolm. Back from meeting that orange shitgibbon already?
……..Yes I have seen the Essential Poll this morning. You’re worried? What about, losing the next election?
……..Oh, about your own position. We shall have to do something about that. Look, we’ll throw it around in the sand pit at lunchtime and see what we can come up with.
………Yes, you too Malcolm. Bye.
Scene 2; same Child Care Centre, later that same day.
The Chief Child Wrangler is waiting on the phone.
Oh God, the things we have to do for this self-centr – – – Oh Good afternoon Malcolm. How are things at your end?
……. Oh! Dutton hasn’t returned a phone call. And Tony has made one? This does sound desperate,
……. Well, we have developed a plan and, if I may say so, it is a beauty.
……. It is similar to the way we removed both Rudd and Gillard.
…… Well yes, and the same as we used to remove Tony.
……..We will start that replace Shorten with Albo rumour again
……. Nonono, I know that it can’t happen until after the next election but the marks don’t remember that.
…….. Nothing like a little leadership destabilisation to swing the electorate
…….. The Murdoch Press and Leigh Sales have been alerted. They will be interviewing Richo and Latham tonight. Always good to have one of them spouting the rumours.
…….. Oh no. They will be very believable. And tomorrow we can add Marn Ferguson into the mix.
…….. That should swing around 3.5% of the electorate your way.
…….. Yes, I’m so pleased you like that plan. OK, Talk with you aging soon. Bye.
Scene 3; Same Child Care Centre even later in the day.
Phone rings;
Good afternoon, Chief Child Wrangler speaking. Oh, hello Mr Dutton.
……………………………………………………… Ahh yes, I hear what you are saying.
No, I agree with you. Malcolm has won the only election he can win and if we are to stay in Government we need to change leaders.
……… You would be an excellent choice, Peter. And I have just the plan, already organised. We played it out in the sandpit at lunchtime. We were just waiting for your call.
……… Chris Uhlmann is the man for this. He has Tony, Senator George and Cory ready to endorse you and they will swing at least 3.5% of the electorate behind the Party.
……… Yes, yes, we were just waiting for your call. The plan can start immediately. Bye.
When a aircraft flies above a certain altitude, the toilet holding tank fluid freezes onto the empennage, the tail surfaces, in large chunks of blue ice.
The stuff cakes up and eventually falls off and heads down. Landing on any poor sod on the ground who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time..
Goes to show you.
You don’t need to be in a military target to be attacked by an icy BM.
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