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Live Earth is underway! Lisa Crouch reports:
Oh cool, the Sydney show opens with an Aborigine set that is strangely moving. And moving strangely, as the stream isn’t… streaming… perfectly.
You can’t miss the symbolism though of having a native culture opening up a spectacle designed to remind us of the harm modern society has visited upon the planet.
And you can’t miss the symbolism of using modern technology to remind us of that harm. Although Live Earth’s technology seems a little clunky:
What appears to be Peter Garret from Midnight Oil is on the massive stadium screen… but we can’t hear a thing he is saying as the sound system took a bit to work out.
Open Choke is into it:
I heard that soooo many politician people have been inspired by what one man, Al Gore, has done for peace and humanity and things like that, that Obama is working on an “Eat for those that Can’t” eating contest to raise awareness of, like, hunger and stuff in Africa or wherever. You know, where people are hungry ‘cause they might not have cars and stuff to get to a store or to a Dennys and stuff. Any way, make sure to watch it on TV! I’m watching it on a big screen and be online with all my friends texting about it. And don’t forget to light your lighter in the cool anthem songs to show solidarity with the people who are getting hot!
UPDATE. Nice numbers:
The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists’ and spectators’ travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions ...
Throw in the television audience and it comes to a staggering 74,500 tonnes. In comparison, the average Briton produces ten tonnes in a year.
The concert will also generate some 1,025 tonnes of waste at the concert stadiums - much of which will go directly into landfill sites.
From the same piece, the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Dr John Barrett: “It would be far better for these celebrities to stay at home. Holding large concerts to highlight environmental concerns and cut carbon emissions just seems ridiculous. What planet do these people live on?”
UPDATE II. A spy inside the VIP enclosure at the Sydney show texts:
This concert is carbon neutral my ass!
Plastic cup use is apparently rampant.
UPDATE III. Canada’s Justin Wilson:
i’m all for live earth. it’s a great cause
but i can’t help thinking that maybe musicians aren’t the best medium. there must be some smart ones, but most of them come off as insanely stupid
Yes. Yes, they do.
UPDATE IV. Unhappiness:
The Live Earth concert being held at Sydney’s Aussie Stadium got off to a slow start, with crowds of people leaving the stadium after just a few hours, complaining of long queues and poor acoustics.
Echo Belposos-Ruffo was one of those leaving. The 26-year-old had flown to Sydney from Melbourne to attend the concert with friends.
I’m not sure Echo is fully alert to this whole “carbon footprint” idea.
UPDATE V. Notorious carbon hog Toni Collette addresses her followers:
“Thank you so much, it is heartwarming to see so many people here today in the name of going green, and in the name of very necessary change,’’ Ms Collette said during a break between songs.
“Just by being here today, just by turning up is helping to create awareness of this very life threatening situation.”
Not so, according to Climate Outreach Information Network founder George Marshall:
Live Earth also plays strongly to another powerful denial strategy: the adoption of minimal and tokenistic behaviours as proof of our virtue. One concern is that people will believe that their participation in the concerts is in itself an action against climate change.
And let there be lights.
Book of Genesis
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/4/7/1[Via Small Dead Animals blog.]
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 07 06 at 10:59 PM • permalinkThe ABC site reports “An estimated two billion people around the world are expected to watch the concerts which will be held in Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Hamburg, London, Rio de Janeiro and then finally New York.”
Now the total world population is 6.6 billion.
Given that over 2 billion live on less than $2 per day, it would be reasonable to assume they will not be part of the worldwide audience - but their ‘carbon footprint’ would be negligible anyway.
Get where I’m going?
So if these 2 billion in the audience do what they keep telling the rest of us to do , I reckon this CO2 thingy is just about licked.
They can leave the rest of us in peace to enjoy our cars, tvs, computers, air conditioning, heaters, ‘fridges’, fresh food ...etc….etc…etc…“but we can’t hear a thing he is saying..”
Having your head wedged that far up your own ass tends to do that.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 07 06 at 11:16 PM • permalinkSo half of the 4 billion who live on more than $2 a day are watching huh?
Most of my neighbors our out of town this weekend. Mostly up north partying outdoors.
I couldn’t stand more tha 5 minutes of the feed. Don’t know anyone who would be in watching on a beautiful summer, friday night.
Also given that the target audience is pre-teens, how many people are really watching?
8. andycanuck
So they can claim their lighting setup is “extremely energy efficent” (LED’s are) but forget to mention the literal fleet of trucks to haul it around??
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 07 06 at 11:19 PM • permalinkThe climate is changing !!!! The CLIMATE IS CHANGING aaaaahrrrh! Nooooo! Please stay the same climate ... please, please!
OK I agree it was all my evil western ways that made the climate change as it had never changed before did it, noo, it was always EXACTLY the same climate before us evil poluters came around. aaah! yes thats better. (Resumes foetal position and thumb sucking)“Eat for those that Can’t” eating contest
This is really very good. Very thoughtful.
It reminds me of that wonderful song “We Are The World” that almost single-handedly wiped out starvation in Ethiopia and Eritrea.I believe an “Eat for those who can’t” global event (along the lines of today’s very important and effective protest against global warming), would do incredible things for the world’s hungry peoples.
Hosted by Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donoghue, this eatathon could show say, swank diners in Paris or London intercut with shots of refugee camps on the Somalian border. This would be so waaaayy cool and important and caring. It would also provide proof to the worlds’s starving that there is indeed another side to life, a more satisfying lifestyle than starvation, something for them to strive for.
I believe I’ll write to Peter Garrett, Phillip Adams, Keith Urban, Jimmy Carter, Cheryl Crow and Al Gore and some of the other most important people on the planet and see if we can get something rolling.
A catchy name is all important. Something like “Eat yourself sick to rid the world of hunger”.
I’ll get back to you.
#14 Especially the bit about offsetting…..noting that fatguts and his mates have apparently cornered the carbon futures market.
Fortunately, unseasonably cold over most of SE Oz. Heat up. feet up, watch the game, continue with the Great GW Swindle DVD at 1/2 time, forget the obscenity being perpetrated on Sydney.
Perfect!!Cheers
RodCHahaha. Just flipped past a channel showing the Great Handwringing Fest, and some relentlessly stupid drummer for some shitty band has a “SAY NO TO NUCLEAR ENERGY” T-shirt on. Well, say no to amplifying your insipid drivel then, fuckknuckle, because you’re not getting copious amounts of energy free of the dread CO2 any other way anytime soon.
Posted by Crispytoast on 2007 07 06 at 11:49 PM • permalinkGarrett has left Midnight Oil to join Snake Oil.The first proposal of the mob organising this roadshow is to sign some kind of treaty (with who ?) to reduce Australia’s emissions by 90% in two years with the developing countries reducing by 50% is pure Garrett garbage.
p.s Not making excuses for them but surely what the Dodgy Brothers,Big Al and Big Dome meant is that Live Earth concerts are available to 2 billion people.
Holy cow! I think I just saw Margo in the audience, giving some guy a lap dance.
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2007 07 07 at 12:49 AM • permalinkAnd look! There’s Kim taking Mr. Lefty to the men’s room for oral sex!
Posted by dean martin on 2007 07 07 at 12:58 AM • permalink#19
Good to see that they are leaving the door open for nuclear weapons.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 07 at 01:00 AM • permalinkToni Collette to the Live Earth audience: “Just by being here today, just by turning up is helping to create awareness of this very life threatening situation”.
I know I’d be far more impressed if ol’ Al joined a tribe of nomadic goat herders and spread the news of global warming and impending disaster through the medium of interpretive dance.
Posted by SwampWoman on 2007 07 07 at 01:52 AM • permalinkAnybody that talks about global warming as “this very life-threatening situation” has never been in one.
Posted by SwampWoman on 2007 07 07 at 01:56 AM • permalinkFrom Tim’s update link:
Each Australian Live Earth ticket comes with a free public transport voucher, while all the bathrooms will be waterless with waste being composted into fertiliser.
Evidently the greenies aren’t unduly concerned about people being able to wash their hands after using the waterless composting toilets (question for the organizers: are you taking Sheryl’s advice and restricting everybody to one sheet of paper?). Then again, the concert attendees are the Enlightened Ones, so their shit doesn’t stink anyhow.
Posted by Blue State Sil on 2007 07 07 at 02:13 AM • permalinkYou can’t miss the symbolism though of having a native culture opening up a spectacle designed to remind us of the harm modern society has visited upon the planet.
As opposed to the harm done on the ecosphere by the indigenous stone-aged cultures they all hold up as examples? At least we farm and grow the stuff we eat and use - they just drove everything to extinction that wasn’t fast or fire-resistant enough to survive their “native caretaker” approaches to envirnmental management! Notice that it’s thanks to Western technology and capitalism that nurseries can now offer Wollemi Pines for sale to everyone who wants one. If the “fire-famers” had had their way, the Wollemi would be nothing but a distant fossilised memory.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 07 07 at 02:42 AM • permalinkThe worshippers of both Als confuse me greatly. Always with the chanting. Always with the rules that don’t make sense. Slight divergence when it comes to music, though.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 07 07 at 02:50 AM • permalinkI think someone at the ninemsn newsroom is having a sly dig at the concerts as well.
“The typical festival crowd of young music lovers in quirky T-shirts was complemented by a sizeable contingent of families who came from across the state.”
and
“A lot of people are bored. There’s too much time between bands playing” festival goer Angela James said.
“People already know the message. We’re here for the music.”Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 07 07 at 03:09 AM • permalinkLive Earth also plays strongly to another powerful denial strategy: the adoption of minimal and tokenistic behaviours as proof of our virtue. One concern is that people will believe that their participation in the concerts is in itself an action against climate change.
Heh. Yes, they certainly will. They always do.
Once again, life imitates South Park. All we need now is Eric Cartman and the “Hippy Digger”.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 07 07 at 03:23 AM • permalinkLive Earth also plays strongly to another powerful denial strategy: the adoption of minimal and tokenistic behaviours as proof of our virtue.
Kinda like saying a Hail Mary and a How’s Ya Father, while stepping over a homeless guy. As Linus said, a word of prayer before an exam should not be mistaken for study…
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 07 07 at 03:27 AM • permalink#38 Ash_
This can’t be right. There’s not a drop of rain in Sydney. Apparently it’s still cold though.Well it is Ash. Freeze your buns off cold. I put it down to climate change. Follow me here.
In December it was, like hot. Real hot.
Then something funny happened.
Climate change kicked in and it started to get cool ever so slightly, then cold.I put it down to global cooling.
I wonder if it will warm up again?
Gee, I could do with some global warming about now. Any suggestions when this might happen?Holy crap - there was this concert on television and someone on stage said that there is this thing called “climate change”!
Thank goodness for these musicians or my awareness might never have been raised.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 07 at 03:40 AM • permalinkAdam Sanderson, 27, arrived at midday from Newcastle but by 3pm - after spending all his time waiting in line to buy beer - was yet to hear any music.
[...]
Peter Carey, 24, was leaving to go to the pub.
“I wanted to buy a beer for $20 and I got rejected. The guy wanted more.’’
Damn capitalists spring up in the most unexpected places, like a queue for beer.
Anyway, good to see they have their priorities right I suppose.
You can’t miss the symbolism though of having a native culture opening up a spectacle designed to remind us of the harm modern society has visited upon the planet.
What utter bullshit. You mean the same ‘carbon neutral’ Aborigines who used to set fire to whole swathes of forest to get a feed.
Cripes, enough of this rubbish.
Did I just hear right? I’m sure Peter Harvey on National Nine News just said that 2 billion people will take part in Live Earth.
Even 2 million I would think to be a bit ambitious given coverage of the stadium in Sydney had rows and rows of empty seats.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 07 07 at 04:14 AM • permalinkI heard some drivel on Triple J about the concert this afternoon. Robbie Buck and some Dildo were trying to sound very intelligent and with it by presenting statistics on carbon emissions for each Australian state.
Here’s a wrapup of what they said.
China produces 2 tonnes per head.
Australia produces 28 tonnes per head.
The global average is 22 or 25 (I forget).
Then they started on a state by state basis. Tasmania came in at 20 tonnes, whilst Queensland came in at 40 tonnes per head.
Robbie and his Dildo then started yelling, “Come on you Queenslanders, you can do better than that”.
They seemed to be of the opinion that the bananabenders produce a lot of CO2 per head because of air conditioning…and other things, which they were unable to put a finger on. I think white, shiny shoes were mentioned.
They had absolutely no clue that Qld tops the list thanks to coal exports and land clearing. Not a lot that your average resident of Toowomba can do about that! They could drop dead and thanks to coal exports, they’d still produce more CO2 on average than a Taswegian.
Robbie and his Dildo might know a bit about music, but they know sweet fuckall about statistics and how the numbers are generated.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 07 07 at 04:29 AM • permalinkSo let me get this right. Musicians write songs, play music, do concerts and make records to earn a living.
During the course of this world wide event they’re working at their usual job, but this time they’re doing it at cost price. Not for themselves, of course, but for an altruistic higher purpose like bringing an end to poverty or saving some half-toasted planet. Shucks, that’s just the kinda folk they are.
Well then, maybe selfish people in other industries might learn by example here and devote some of their own efforts toward the future of mankind. You know, like… maybe gold miners could dig a nugget for men’s health. Fishermen could load the holds of a refrigerated mother ship for bio-diversity, and would it be too much to ask prostitutes to turn just one trick for infant mortality?
Hell, henchmen could hang a dictator for world peace!
Okay, that last one’s not such a bad idea. But the truth is these musicians and celebrities are doing it for the sake of their own fame, fortune and record sales.
It’s a Big Fat Marketing Ploy to generate turnover that will ring-ding-ka-ching all the way down through the capitalist system, starting way back with primary industries like mining for metal and plastics that go into the manufacture of electronic goods such as loudspeakers, power amplifiers, iPods and music players. Then of course there are the product design teams, the trucking companies, the warehousing workers and the food clothing and shelter for all those involved, right on through to over-the-counter sales of promotional merchandise and compact discs.
Why, all in all, it’s an effort on the sort of scale that would make the CEO of Paco Global Industries blush!
Long but interesting paper on how our climate is about to get substantial cooler.
http://www.nzclimatescience.org/images/PDFs/archibald2007.pdf
What these dimwits don’t get is the important climate risks are all on the cooling side.
In the future we will be fending of boatloads of Canucks and Russians, and Tasmanians. We need to especially vigilant about the Tasmanians with their marriage practices.
“Holding large concerts to highlight environmental concerns and cut carbon emissions just seems ridiculous. What planet do these people live on?”
Ours, which is a damned inconvenience for the rest of us.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 07 07 at 05:37 AM • permalink#59 More than 20% of Queensland’s electricity is also used producing aluminium. Every one of those plants is like Al Gore’s house, ‘cept they produce something useful.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 07 at 05:42 AM • permalink“Life threatening situation” my arse.
And these people want to run the country?
I would have thought that being engaged in a war was enough, but some people need boogey men that are exotic, as opposed to the real world types.
The price we pay for keeping these people safe from real threats is that they have to create false threats for themselves to give their lives meaning. Sad as f*ck.Off-topic, but certainly worth your attention:
Johm Armstrong’s article from the Australian, 6/07.
If you’ve ever wondered how the likes of Jules Serrano and Tracey Ermin came to be described as ‘artists’, this article explains all.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 07 07 at 05:46 AM • permalink#66 It’s really a stupid situation, 185600.
I could be wrong on the following, but:
With the Islamic splodeydickheads, they can use Islam to show that Western culture somehow causes suffering in other countries.
And with this Green bullshit, they can then try to oppress Western culture so that it’s equal to Islamic culture, which will somehow end terrorism.
Ash - just to update you, the Swinish Effect produced unforeseen results yesterday when I quit my job.
I hope you’ll take the news more calmly than my mother.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 07 07 at 06:12 AM • permalinkWhat are the odds that any journalist anywhere will question the contention that 2 billion people will watch Live Earth?
Here is an article that researches the actual number of people who watch big TV sporting events.
About one third of the way down under the heading “How actual audience sizes differ from claimed viewing figures” you will find a graph that illustrates the following sentence:
For some of these events, the actual audience is so many times smaller than the claimed audience that the actual audience cannot even be seen on a chart that has the same scale for both actual and claimed data!
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 07 at 06:13 AM • permalink#73 You did what? Are you crazy? Don’t you come round here with news like that ever again. You hear me? You get a job - I mean if you ever get another job - you keep it for life. Okay?
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 07 at 06:16 AM • permalinkI would say that awareness of all this nonsense is already at a peak; whether one agrees or disagrees, there is an inordinate amount of time
wastedspent discussing the subject.People now talk about carbon “pollution” as though it were something real, which, if true, would mean that every living thing is a pollutant. There are those who now make a living calculating how much carbon “pollution” such and such leaves in their “carbon foot-print”—as though it were something real. Whole industries have sprung up to deal with it, companies advertise around the concept, our politicians spend their time and our money discussing it, and we are all asked to sacrifice in its name. All of this for something that not only occurs naturally, but is necessary for the survival of the planet.
Grab your wallet, because all that money is what is being sacrificed—first. Ask yourself who the beneficiaries of all this sacrifice are.
In years to come, if we survive the stupidity without plunging the world into a global dark age, this episode in human history will be studied as the greatest example of mass hysteria ever.
A little OT…
If anyone is interested in a climate friendly transport, don’t forget the Tour de France kicks off in a couple of hours. Half a dozen Aussies are there this year and I dare say the newspapers here in France will have more column inches about Michael Rogers, Cadel Evens and Robbie McEwan in the coming weeks than Big Al’s Big Day Out.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 07 07 at 06:23 AM • permalinkNo Ash, what they offered me was more bs than I was prepared to shovel.
I don’t know what happens next. Anyone know of a rich nubile young girl who needs an older man in her life?Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 07 07 at 06:39 AM • permalink#61
What makes you think the CEO of PACO Corp. isn’t, at this very moment doing a half-gainer into a pool of money, Scrooge McDuck style?
Lotocoti, ol’ buddy, what makes you think that I don’t think that he is? Golly, I’m holding out hope that every minion whomsoever, great or small, is doing his or her bit for the VRWC.
Don’t mean to butt in in kae, but Ash, have they got PSYCHO at the local video shop? Just wait for the moment when they discover Mrs Bates in the basement, then turn to Mum and say, “That could be you…”
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 07 07 at 06:47 AM • permalinkAccording to Nation Master there are 1.7 billion TVs in the world so to achieve a viewing audience of 2 billion nearly every single one of the carbon emitting, planet destroying, eye squaring, couch potatoing, evil TV sets will need to be not only turned on but tuned in to a pack of hypocritical ninnies banging on (literally) about the weather.
Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 07 07 at 07:04 AM • permalinkLive Earth also plays strongly to another powerful denial strategy: the adoption of minimal and tokenistic behaviours as proof of our virtue.
Ah yes, just like those indulgences people used to buy for their sins against another religion back in the Middle Ages.
Posted by Jim Geones on 2007 07 07 at 07:32 AM • permalink#56 chrisgo -
It all fits neatly with Nick Cohen’s thesis that being ‘left’ these days is merely a fashion statement.
I agree with that. It’s not about actually making a difference, only appearing that we are making a difference. In turn, that makes the average lefty feel good about him-, her-, or itself.
Posted by wronwright on 2007 07 07 at 07:38 AM • permalink#112 - Why not? I understand that the view from the stage is great.
Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 07 07 at 07:55 AM • permalinkLive earth - humbug, piffle - I’ve saved myself the trouble. The tv has remained off. I’ll just enjoy the commentary here.
And oh yes, here’s the link to the story in today’s Australian about the Great Global Warming Swindle to be shown on the ABC next Thursday evening followed by Durkin being interviewed on Lateline. It should be fun.
Unfortunately the two graphs that appear in the print edition and referenced in the story don’t appear in the on-line edition.
The Live Earth concert promoter quoted here (second item from the bottom) is quoted saying this:
“A few million people saw An Inconvenient Truth,” says Kevin Wall. “I plan to deliver 2 billion eyeballs.”
...to which the only appropriate rejoinder is, of course, WTF.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 07 at 08:20 AM • permalink#113: You certainly drive the nail home with the “feel good” analysis, dubbya dubbya.
Which in turn, if I may elaborate, is something that stems from the arrested emotional development of your typical, pathologically disturbed lefty. There is an alienation of the self, manifestly concurrent with a clinical disconnection of sensual reality as perceived in the pre-frontal cortex.
NB: If any female readers need some therapy, I charge $195.00 for 15 minutes or $999.00 for two sessions of all-inclusive, full
castinganalysis couch therapy. Not fully qualified yet, but I’ve been thinking of popping over to Bangalore to try out for my Psychiatry doctorate.Looking at how this show has been playing out reminds me of another manufactured concert that went so well.
#119 - I used to feel the same way. Now… not so much. *blush*
Intellectually, I know it’s just a normal female brain no longer drenched in cross-gendered hormones.
Psychologically, it’s mighty disorientating, something as essential to your personality as sexual orientation changing. Even when you know that it’s just the neurotransmitter vassopressin no longer blocking the neural receptors. Knowing that for the first time in your life, things are happening normally, the way they do for all but a handful of other women.
What concerns me is that it’s kinda fun. I’m still dealing with that.
Well we need her in law,(well, I do)
Hey, one arseh*le doesn’t make up the entire population, otherwise I would never have let Dirty Harriet have her way with me..!
After two engagements to girls who can’t change a lightbulb, I get engaged to a girl who can kick my arse from here to Alice without flinching.
You never know, mate, you never know. :)#141
Have you figured it all out yet? Have things settled down enough yet for you to sort out what your feelings are as far as who you are attracted to? It must be very difficult, or is it easy? I did read you said at one stage that you have never been attracted to men. (I’ve never been attracted to women, so it makes perfect sense to me.) But with the upheaval in your life, of your medical condition and everything that’s gone with that, have you sorted it out, or is it something that will sort itself out later?
I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but I can’t comprehend what you have gone through.Oh Ash, and Kae too… just remember that there are lots of women who would give their all to be capable of being mothers. Of course, they’ve never had the pleasure of morning sickness, or they might reconsider.
Thanks to medical science, I managed to have a child, and without the 9 months of eating for two as well. Yet I’d swap in a heartbeat.
And Ash, don’t worry, as Kae says, you’ll lose the weight pretty quickly. You look far bigger to yourself than anyone else, anyway. More beautiful too, this is one of the genuine cases where size really doesn’t matter.
Please consider yourself hugged, anyway.
Arrgh! It’s started here on the East Coast of the US, on the Bravo channel; 17.5 hours of preaching the new religion, interrupted by music I’m mostly too old to care about.
Just now they’ve got some left-over hippie on stumbling through save-the-earth statistics, winding up telling us to share a shower. When did that move from the foreplay category to the earnest enviro-weenie category?
O/T but who cares?
Did anyone else read Louis Nowra’s piece in The Australian “Culture of Denial”?I feel as big as a house Kae!
Hmm. Yes. How long have you been having zeez delusions?
Just lie back. Relax.
Now, are you lonely? Do you feel needy? Did you live in a house as a child?
Answer the question!
Aha! That’s it! You have an acute dwelling fetish with an unresolved domestic cleanliness fixation. You must stop housework immediately. There is no doubt, you need some professional help.
Here is your prescription.
The ad for the great global warming swindle is lining it up for a heritic hunt straight after.
I only caught part of the ad for it but the “panel discussion” included Robyn “100m sea level rise” Williams and about 7 others. The ABC website doesnt seem to like my comp at the moment so I cant check the details.Also on pay TV they are showing live AIDs on 2 of the channels and had the manbearpig on VH1 music channel as well doing his impression of the goodyear blimp.
Its quite scary to see how quick he pulls out the different facial changes depending on what is said. Looks like an animatronic puppet (PACO??).Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 07 07 at 09:30 AM • permalink#78, I feel exactly the same, salty. This global warming hysteria is just millenialism that is destined to fade away the farther we get into the century.
These stupid Live Aid concerts are just like holding an old-fashioned tent revival in the middle of Las Vegas. Great entertainment for the participants, but when it’s over, it’s off to the Strip, baby!
#118 - 2 billion eyeballs does not equal 2 billion viewers.
Unless they’ve distributed 2 billion eye patches.
Can you imagine it? 1 billion people sitting around for 24 hours with parrots on their shoulders going, “Aaarrrgh me hearties, get ye to the fridge and fetch me another beer. Aaarrgh!”
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 07 07 at 09:36 AM • permalinkmr creosote
I had a vivid image of this chap, played by Al Gore
“Blackadder: Perhaps for the money in my purse [holding it up]
Rum: Ha. -Aah! You have a woman’s purse! [takes it from him and examines it daintily] I’ll wager that purse has never been used as a rowing-boat. I’ll wager it’s never had sixteen shipwrecked mariners tossing in it.”Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 07 07 at 09:44 AM • permalinkkae - re #144
Things are still sorting themselves out. After the major metabolic upheaval 2 years ago, things have continued at the normal pubescent rate.
How long did it take you to go from the “boys are icky” to the “boys are ...interesting” stage? I’m just going through the same thing. Just delayed a bit - I’m 49 going on 16, that’s all.
Puberty at age 31 (in hexadecimal, I prefer that) is really odd, hilarious too, and a little tragic as well. I’m married to the mother of my child you see. Still in love with her, despite not being Lez. Wish I was, but it seems not, I have to accept that. She’s not attracted to women either, so the point is moot anyway. We love each other, our son likes 3-way cuddles, and that suffices.
And no I’m not upset or anything that you ask. It’s natural curiousity, and I’m just as curious as anyone else. I certainly don’t mind answering questions, I figure the more people know about this kind of situation, the less persecution women like me will face.
I’m still denied an Australian passport, for example. Due to a loophole in the English law, my Birth Certificate will always say “boy”, so I can never satisfy the Australian Passport Office’s documentation requirements. I’ve also been told via telephone by no less a person than the head of the APO that I’d have to divorce before he could consider granting me a passport anyway, a condition I find Barbaric, as well as having no legal justification.
Pychologically, I’m a standard case of Harry Benjamin’s Syndrome, aka Transsexuality.
Physically, changing apparent sex naturally, without treatment is really rare, and usually the other way, apparently female to apparently male (5 alpha reductase deficiency syndrome - 5ARD). I’ve found less than a dozen others on the net who are like me.
Alas, the change is not complete. If I ever had any female reproductive organs - that’s doubtful but not impossible - they were vestigial at best. Motherhood was impossible for me from the beginning of my second trimester in the womb, no matter how my brain was set up. I was lucky the male development , although partial, was enough so I wasn’t completely sterile.
I’ve required hormonal treatment to keep my system stable - or stable-ish as I’m not the normal Transsexual - and some surgery to both give me functionality and remove a definite cancer risk. My condition had sterilised me before we even knew what was happening, and the dysfunctional male stuff had to go anyway. It feels terribly un-natural to have it, by the way, really uncomfy. Be glad you didn’t have it.
The change will be complete in another 3-5 years, at least, somatically. The psychological scars of having to pretend to be a guy because I looked like one (except to close medical examination) for 40 years will last longer, I think. I missed out on so much of normal life, but I have to remember, I went places few other women have gone before. I was also incredibly lucky to be merely infertile, not sterile, so got the second prize to motherhood.
Unlike nearly every other woman incapable of bearing children, I have a son. That is what is most important, my child, and the exact circumstances of his birth don’t signify in comparison.
I’m in Thailand at the moment, for some reconstructive work. The surgeon I chose is probably the best in the world, but the op really works best starting with a normal male anatomy. There have been some problems which I hope will get fixed. Sometimes being metabolically odd is a huge advantage in transitioning, but sometimes not. In any case, my Ob/Gyn advised that no-one in Australia could deal with my case half as well as this guy can. Again, I lucked out: the Department of Immigration issued me an emergency administrative document allowing me to re-enter Australia on a British passport, something Australian citizens can’t generally do.
Between parenting a rambuctious 5 year old boy, completing a PhD, travelling overseas to do work for the Israeli Defence Force, and my medical problems, my social life has had to take a distant last place. So it’s all just theoretical anyway, and likely to remain so for the rest of my life.
Sorry if I’m repeating anything here:
The Great Global Warming Swindle is on the telly here at 8.30pm Thursday, July 12th on ABC TV and ABC2.
You just wait for the Captain Planet movie to come out. I believe Captain Planet himself will be voiced by Al Gore, his first lines being, “Hi I’m Captain Planet, the former next president of the United States.”
I watched it as a kid, and now, I see the “environment” as how us humans provide quality of life. But expect Al Gore to provide another way to scare children.
Posted by satisfiedmind16 on 2007 07 07 at 10:11 AM • permalinkkae - re #151 - hopefully your biological clock ‘s alarm hasn’t gone off yet.
In any case, please accept a hug too. I know just how lucky I’ve been.
Now would be a good time to nominate my partner as a candidate for Sainthood. No matter how distressing things have been for me, imagine how awful it would be to find the “man” you married was actually a woman with a masculinised body. Even had male chromosomes, well, my blood does anyway, the rest is uncertain.
She needs a man in her life, and part of me hopes she will find one, someone worthy of being a Father to my son. I don’t know though, my son seems happy enough to have “Mummy” and “Zeddie”. He needs a male role model though, so it’s all a bit of a pickle. Fortunately his Grandpa lives next door, and no finer man ever drew breath. He’ll do - for now. He’s in his eighties.
One thing’s for sure. No matter what the personal inconvenience, no bureaucrat is going to stop this “odd couple” from raising their child as best they can, as a couple. If we split, it will be because that is what will be best for my son, not to suit some peculiar view of morality. We’ve had medical and professional advice that two parents are better than one, but the exact nature of the two doesn’t matter, according to the evidence. One parent can be as good, but requires heroic efforts.
Ash, I hope you find someone worthy of you too. But if not, although single parenthood is far harder than a double, with you as your child’s Mum, they will turn out alright. I just hope you find someone for your sake and sanity, not your child’s welfare. That is in the very best of hands already.
Zoe
Perhaps you can say you are a late bloomer?
I think I got interested in boys when I was um, er, hmmmmm. Well I think I always quite liked them. I don’t think there was ever a time when I thought they were icky. Except for my bother, er, brother. He was always pretty icky, but now we’re in our 40s it’s not so bad. He doesn’t torment me nearly as much (I am the elder of the two of us).
Boys became REALLY interesting when I was about 13 or 14.
I still find them rather interesting. However I have a few issues with the ones that find me interesting.
So really, it’s all a bit of an adventure for you, reaching puberty atyour ageour age. It’s scary enough as a teenager! And awkward.
Then there’s all the social aspect of things. It’s bad enough being married and off the ‘meat market’ for well over a decade*, but to have that and puberty - I don’t envy you!
Was it a sudden thing or did you always feel that you were not quite right? Most stuff I have read about transexuals is to do with the ones who, although externally physically one sex, are really wired as the opposite sex, and they have known all their lives that they are not what they appear to be.
*As I have been. Too much trouble to go looking for relationships in the very small town in which I live.
I can only use my experience to understand what someone else is/has to go through, and we are all different.Luckily, in order to have the even in the peak of summer, he lost access to most of his target market. Just think if every one wasn’t on vacation (where I work the office was practically empty this week). Or kids were still in school. How many teachers would have been pressuring their fellow adolescents to watch.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
As I posted, I realized that it was the female and not the transsexual parent who was pregnant, though the proposition was discussed.
kae, ash - thanks for the advice re boys, attraction thereto. I need all the help I can get!
As regards how I felt as a
boygirlchild, I chose the name “Zoe” at age 10. It comes from the Dr Who companion, and the season ran in 1968, which pins it precisely. Here’s something that I wrote elsewhere on the subject:At age 4, I was a Child, and saw no difference between boys and girls.
At age 7, when I had actually been around other children, it was obvious I wasn’t a boy, no matter what clothes I wore. They were different. A few other girls let me play hopscotch with them, but I didn’t know I was a girl at the time. I thought I might be, but didn’t understand how the process of becoming a man or a woman worked.
By age 10, it was obvious I was going to grow up to be a woman, and I chose my name then. I figured it would all become clear in time. I worried about how ugly I’d look though.
By age 12, I was wondering when to tell, who to tell, to try and get the problem of having been put in the wrong group fixed. And crying myself to sleep because of my appearance. But times were tough then, I had a lot to worry about, keeping the family together, being “number one son”. I was too busy to worry about things too much.
At age 13, when I found out that boys and girls were born different, it was something of a relief. Far better to look like an average boy, than the ugliest girl in town. There wasn’t much difference anyway, was there? Couldn’t be, I was a girl with a boy body.
By age 15, I tried to be the best Man any Gal could be. If only because I desperately wanted Children, that meant more to me than Femininity and still does. I was born without the ability to become a Mother, that was my fate. But I cheated, and found an alternate route to parenthood. It was worth it.
As for the social life, I’ve been too busy, with so many other things. More importantly, I’ve never had a makeover, nor a manicure, nor even had a hairdo. My transition has been so fast, and life so hectic, there never seems time. Also, I’m a Geek Girl, happiest in the company of other female Engineers, and none of us are much into the Feminine Mystique.
I also have some unique problems. To my astonishment, the guys I was working with in Israel had no idea of my interesting medical history, and seeing code I’d written in a previous incarnation - with my name in the comments - took a bit of explaining.
Not much though. Something inside of me made me put in “A.E.Brain” rather than “Alan E Brain”. That was 15 years ago, so even when I had half-convinced myself I had to be a Boy, it was never more than half. “A.E” as opposed to “Z.E” I could handle. “Alan” would have been more tricky :lol:
It was nice to have doors opened for me. Chivalry is not dead, at least in Israel.
That is what is called “going Stealth”, and though I make no secret of my situation, I don’t call attention to it un-necessarily. Many TS women, and maybe as many TS men, are “Deep Stealth”, hiding their past from everyone except their Gynaecologists and their partners. They live normal lives (unlike me), but always in fear that they will be “outed”, and their lives destroyed.
I think my way is easier - even if I have fewer doors opened for me.
And if you don’t understand, join the club. I didn’t volunteer for this “woman trapped in a male body” bit. It’s as confusing and sometimes horrifying for me as it is for any woman looking at the situation. But what is, is, no matter how we might wish it different.
But some have abusive partners, or are victims of rape, or FGM, or are widowed with young children. They survive, some thrive, and I will too.
kae, I’m so sorry, and I hope my gasbagging on about the wonders of parenthood hasn’t hurt you too much. Again, a hug. And of either you or Ash are ever in Canberra, please let me know, Ok?
Zoe
kae, I’m so sorry, and I hope my gasbagging on about the wonders of parenthood hasn’t hurt you too much
No, not at all. Though I have met some people who shouldn’t have kids and who have obnoxious kids.
Not having kids some people seem to think that I have no idea about kid stuff. I think I have a pretty fair idea.
Anyway, as a childless person I never have to be an example to a kid, so I don’t necessarily have to be a grown up!
YAY
Sorry Zoe, love to chat more, but I have to go to bed or I’ll sleep away all tomorrow morning!We need to especially vigilant about the Tasmanians with their marriage practices.
Practice marriages? That could catch on.
185600—Dangly? Speak fo’ yourself. You think that’s a flagpole I carry at those counterprotests?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 07 07 at 11:57 AM • permalinkWell as for the three girls, the centre one wears a shirt proving dumb blonde jokes and I bet the one on the left would answer me NO in the quest for love.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 07 07 at 12:41 PM • permalinkI work to fight poverty.
I eat to fight hunger
I pay the mortgage to fight homelessness
Good grief ... I even feed the children!!
Bloody hell, I sound like some moonbat!
My familly like it though.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 07 07 at 12:57 PM • permalink191
Hopefully Ego will eat them
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_the_Living_Planet
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2007 07 07 at 03:24 PM • permalinkMs Price said she was conscious of the global warming issue but was not planning to make any changes to her lifestyle as a result of attending the concert.
“It is more about raising awareness,’’ she said.
There you have it, folks, the Gorebot gestalt in a capsule. We have nothing to fear from this nonsense. This, on the other hand, is more worrisome. (via Lucianne)
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 07 07 at 03:30 PM • permalink
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What appears to be Peter Garret from Midnight Oil is on the massive stadium screen… but we can’t hear a thing he is saying . . .
So, thus far everything’s turning out pretty well?