Natalia McLennan + Lessons for Workers

Introducing my new hero, Natalia McLennan:


She averaged $US1000 an hour.

Lessons for sex workers:

1) She couldn’t afford $50 000 in bail. Save.
2) Be friends with the management. That’s half the job.
3) Defuse clients’ guilt with playfulness (unless their vibe tells you they don’t want that). Let them pick up on your sense of the normality/naturalness of the situation.
4) Don’t bother intellectualising on technique. Skill comes from other things like innate balance and rhythm. Natalia was the Canadian tap dancing champion.
5) Try to enjoy and let the clients sense your enjoyment, even if you have to use mental stimuli from outside the situation to get you going.
6) Don’t smoke. Those mouth lines aren’t from sucking cock.

Insurance and Free Market Distortions

Insurance constitutes a a distortion of the allocation of resources in society. It stops individuals from investing according to true risk-benefit analysis. More risky behaviour occurs than would occur under a true free market. Society subsidises stupidity and failure.

Second, insurers are nothing more than glorified bookmakers. Like bookmakers, their profit derives from the knowledge gap between themselves and their customers. Where there are knowledge gaps / transparency issues in a market, there are inefficiencies.

Doctors’ Personal Tamiflu and Relenza Stashes

Mukesh Haikerwal has been a disappointment after Kerryn Phelps, and now he’s trying to con Australians into not making personal stockpiles of Tamiflu and Relenza. He and Tony Abbott have offered no reason for not doing so. Reports in the last few days have indicated that doctors are stockpiling for themselves. And Abbott has revealed that 90% of the government’s stockpiles will be used for health workers. Which means there is virtually none for normal people. Go get your anti-virals now.

Biological Constraints on Developing Civilisation through Education

Lefties have to admit that usually our explanation for the majority of the population disagreeing with us is their ignorance. We try not to announce that we think we know what’s best for the people better than they do. It’s true though. That’s the only reasonable conclusion you can draw from people thinking they can bargain on equal terms with employers, sacrificing their own lives by going to war, sacrificing civil liberties, etc.

(Sometimes the explanation is short-sightedness or me-against-the-world greed, but usually it’s ignorance.)

So our fundamental plan to help civilise the human race is sheer education. The rich actively limit people’s education (especially in humanities) so they can manipulate them more easily. But education, while crucial, is not sufficient.

Typical humans are severely limited in their capacity for understanding by their biology. Our brains aren’t about to evolve to a higher level of intelligence. People will always be stupid. The answer, then, must lie outside of education. I don’t know the answer but I do know people have to be emotionally empowered. There needs to be more healthy eating, exercise, mindfulness, yoga, meditation and love.

Civility or Censorship?

There’s a real issue with politicians evading inquiry by trying to evoke guilt in journalists and the public. When asked uncomfortable questions they manipulate people’s humanity by claiming to be offended. Censorship through an appeal to politeness.

Eg FEMA’s Michael Brown claiming to take “great umbrage” at criticisms of him.

Eg Victorian lower house Speaker Judy Maddigan banning members from accusing each other of lying.

Neologism: Demoschism

There needs to be a word for situations in which democratically elected representatives make decisions that the majority of the population disagrees with. “Demoschism” will do. Sometimes this type of fascism gives good results. If you asked the people, we probably wouldn’t have gotten rid of the White Australia Policy. Sometimes both sides of politics collude to keep an issue out of the public debate when they think the right thing to do is contrary to the public’s opinion.

Actor-Politicians and Swing Voters

Except in elections where there’s a single significant issue that sways the vote of a large block of people, the winner is determined by the 20% of the electorate who don’t understand or care about political issues. They base their vote on intuitive factors - the vibe they pick up on from the media, the candidates’ body language, charisma, looks. I read somewhere that 70% of the time the candidate with the more mature face structure wins.

That’s why so many performers are in politics. The people can’t tell the difference. They’re more reassured by Ronald Reagan than a technocrat. So Labor’s plan to push celebrity candidates into the last election actually isn’t as stupid as the voters who would have voted for them. And the plan to parachute Ben Affleck into the race for senator from Virginia isn’t as fucked as it sounds. Plus he has a square jaw, making him look less baby-faced and thus more likely to win over swing voters.

David Hicks the Brit and John Howard the Coward

While John Howard is PM Australians who are eligible for foreign passports should apply. It turns out David Hicks’ mother is still British and he is eligible for dual citizenship. Tony Blair has at least been able to stand up to the Americans and get his citizens out of Guantanamo Bay. Howard cowers before the US like Menzies cowered before the United Kingdom. Howard sacrifices Australians out of fear just like Menzies did. If Hicks secures his freedom by becoming British it will be a massive embarrassment.

Petrol Price Whingers

Fuck everyone who complains about petrol prices. Most people in the world can’t afford a car but we all have to pay for the shit motorists are putting in the atmosphere. Pay for your own externalities. Plus when it runs out, we’ll still need the oil for plastics, medicines, fertilisers, etc.

Hip-hop and Gay Jail Sex

It didn’t occur to me before that another aspect of hip-hop culture that is very gay (in addition to linguistic talent, homophobia and misogyny) is the fact that so many American men and especially black men spend time in jail. As Lil’ Kim said, “Once they get to jail they get fucked in the ass”. At any given time 1% of American men are in jail and 5% of black American men. And there would be a turnover meaning that a larger percentage has actually spent some time incarcerated.

With such high incarceration rates America in general must be having an epidemic amongst men whereby they develop their gay side in a hostile, degraded space and then return to their hetero lives with that shameful, secret area of their lives squashed back into a box. This would increase levels of sexism and violence against women amongst other issues.

Mark Latham Book Shortage

There is a clear case of market failure if someone who lives in the heart of Sydney is unable to get their hands on a copy of Mark Latham’s diaries. On Tuesday I got to Dymocks ten minutes after they sold out, Abbey’s wasn’t selling it, and by Friday the publisher had told book stores they wouldn’t be able to ship out a new run till mid-October. I am a consumer with an urgent demand the market is unable to supply, damn it. Market failure wrought by the farce of intellectual property. The only thing stopping me from getting it off the net is I hate reading computer screens and don’t want to waste printer paper.

Anyway Mark Latham is the best thing to happen to progressive politics in Australia in years. We need to purge the Labor party, especially of careerists. His motives are irrelevant. And the sooner the people irrevocably tainted by his revelations get the fuck out of leadership positions the better. Get the pain over and done with now.

Catholic Sexuality Theory and Banned Priests

The Catholic Church’s position on homosexuality is either:

1) God made some people innately homosexual as a spiritual test to resist those desires, or

2) There is no such thing as innate homosexuality and people who fuck people from their own gender sin through confusion.

It is not clear whether the Catholic Church believes a homosexual thought not put into action constitutes a sin.

They are going to ban gay men from becoming priests, including the celibate. If their position is that homosexuality is real then in banning celibate gays they are excluding people who have had a moral triumph over an obstacle God created for them.

If they believe homosexuality is illusory (ie there is no such thing as innate homosexuality) then in banning celibate gays they are merely banning heterosexual men who have false beliefs about their own desires and/or social identity but who don’t act on them anyway.

Maybe they should ban people who cover up child sexual abuse. And refrain from this (doomed) attempt to deflect blame about paedophilia onto the gay community. Catholic priests may have sex with children but gay men have sex with other consenting gay men.

Canberra Scares Barnaby

Barnaby Joyce’s response to his own inability to vote in accordance with his own morals and his constituents’ opinions is to stay away from Canberra. Joyce thinks senators will then be able to find the courage to cross the floor. It’s crucial to Australian democracy that parliamentarians be able to vote against their own party like in America but Barnaby Joyce is a coward and a joke.

Overheard Conversation at Job Network Provider

Here’s a conversation I overheard between a man with an obvious intellectual disability with possible mental illness and a caseworker at Xcelerate (a job network provider).

Man: I have no skills! I don’t have mathematical skills, I don’t have English skills, I’m not good at physical labour.

Caseworker: (pause) So how long do you plan to continue to have no skills?

Man: You can’t control whether you’re born good at something or not.

Caseworker: Do you think Ian Thorpe was born good at swimming?

Man: No but he was born with genes that gave him an advantage.

Caseworker: And whose responsibility is it for making sure that you learn new skills?

Pseudo-Democracy and Civilian Responsibility

Why do people who believe themselves to be living in democracies seek to evade responsibility for decisions that are made in their name? If it’s a democracy, you are the author of the decision, whether you voted for the representative who took the decision or not. The only way you can avoid responsibility is to admit that you do not live in a democracy.

This is one of the arguments of terrorists who attack civilians in Western countries. But the reason they’re wrong is that no political system in human history has developed past the point of mere pseudo-democracy.

Power Abuse and Cultural Relativism

Here’s the reason the cultural relativism argument against Westerners forcing other societies to stop oppressing women fails. Oppression of women is not a stand-alone phenomenon. It is one facet of a more profound and eternal problem: humans having power over other humans and using that power destructively.

Regardless of culture there is always that 5% of the population who formulate, and think and act in accordance with, their own belief systems. But regardless of the issue - be it exterminating Jews, abusing children, oppressing women or slavery - power abuse is something all humans intuitively recognise. Being an illiterate Afghani does not make you less sensitive to this.

Barnaby Joyce Headaches

What happened on a personal level for Barnaby Joyce was that he let himself be badgered into doubting himself. He’s had Howard’s attack dogs sicked on him (Bill Heffernan etc), been getting the cold shoulder in the halls of parliament for the past few months. He would have had senior players hammering him over the fact that he doesn’t yet understand how parliament works, he doesn’t understand the gravity of crossing the floor, etc. Then the clincher would have been a bluff at blackmail: the Liberals would have threatened to negotiate with another senator (an empty threat - who else would negotiate?) and remove Joyce’s ability to influence where Telstra sale funds will be directed. This threat lets him exonerate himself of responsibility for the cave-in: “it was the best deal I could get for the people of Queensland”.

The physical evidence of the pressure that Howard has brought to bear on Joyce was his being admitted to hospital for headaches.

Howard has tricked another group into political suicide. First the Democrats with the GST and now the Nationals with Telstra. Barnaby Joyce won’t be re-elected in 6 years’ time. He would have stood more chance of re-election standing as a disendorsed independent than as a toe-the-line National. One Nat had the guts and political savvy to cross the floor: Kay Hull of Riverina.

Statistics for the People

It’s boring having to listen to the morons talking about “the government” like it’s some entity they aren’t a part of. The real complaint for people that believe in democracy is that governments get hijacked by groups who don’t represent the people.

One thing we can do to counter this misunderstanding is term all government expenditures + revenues in dollars per person. This will help people realise they are the government. It will give them a feeling of ownership, power, and responsibility. The figures involved will be comprehensible to the average person. Average people can’t conceptually grasp the magnitude of figures in the billions of dollars. If the figures are in the hundreds or thousands of dollars they will be able to assess for themselves whether something is worth its expenditure. Eg in the ‘80s when people used to say that the ABC cost every man, woman and child in Australia 3 cents per day or whatever. No one could argue that that was too expensive.

Heath Ledger: Hot

Found a nude pic of Heath Ledger so I thought I’d make up something to say about him as an excuse to post it.

He’s a legend because he’s anti-war and refuses to sell consumption to the masses. Quote: “I'm certainly not someone who wants to go out and sell fucking Tag Heuer watches and L'Oreal and all that whole stupid fashion that has come in right now. It is whoring ourselves for millions of dollars.”

Russell Crowe is a fuck but has rightly slammed George Clooney, Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford (cigarettes in Japan) for it. Full-Tilt Boogie (the documentary about the making of From Dusk to Dawn) already showed what a anti-union fascist George Clooney is.


Plus Ledger is a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.

Gratuitous Political Lyrics: Chemical Brothers + Anwar Superstar

I can’t stand the Chemical Brothers song “Left Right”. It sounds like a shitty imitation of Eminem’s “Mosh” but the rap is vomit-worthy.

What’s the difference between Bush and Saddam?
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Osama Bin Laden?
Fidel Castro
It seems to me they on the same team
They hate only lead to innocent blood streams
If it’s so important
To fight for mankind
Well I don’t see none of they kinfolk
Out there on the front line

Let me clue him in: the odd one out is Fidel Castro. Cuba isn’t at war, and when they fought the revolution he was involved in the fighting himself. And Cuba’s children are more educated and healthier than America’s.

The Chemical Brothers letting this talentless dick (Anwar Superstar - never heard of him) use them as a soapbox is irresponsible. There is a need for us to get anti-war messages across but they need to be coherent or we undermine ourselves. If you put on an anti-war pose to get credibility you’re a leech. Gratuitous political lyrics don’t disguise a shitty flow. And it’s especially annoying because it wrecks the mood after the best track on “Push the Button” (“The Big Jump”).

Mania, Fundamentalism and Reaction

There is a connection between fundamentalism and mania. I stopped being atheist when I had my first manic episode. The two people I’ve known who are evangelicals, I now realise, were in a state of constant hypomania. One explanation is that the left-brain does religious experience but, just as fundamentalism is a hard reaction to the threat of disbelief that science has created, mania is a hard reaction to the threat of depression and dysphoria.

Fake Cheerfulness Anxiety

I register the emotional tone in people’s voices before their words and I just realised theat when I hear fake cheerfulness an anxious jolt goes through my guts. I perk my ears up coz I know I’m not going to like the words. And the reason is Dad’s thing where he’d force us to endure things that normal people are meant to like eg museums. If only he could have let go of the self-loathing that babyboomers give themselves when they fail to control their feelings like self-help says they should. At least I don’t irrationally revere the canon and hate myself when I don’t like it. But whenever I hear someone trying to generate false cheerfulness I freeze up.

Howardian Distraction

In the absence of a boatload of refugees he can flagellate for the public’s enjoyment, Howard tries to distract everyone from the Telstragate coverup by rolling out extreme anti-terrorism proposals.

Women on Female Beauty

It’s interesting how women convince themselves that they find something attractive if they have an ulterior imperative for finding that thing attractive. A new study shows that women (except women under 25) claim that they find women in their 30s the most beautiful. They don’t. They are using “beauty” to denote something other than physical attractiveness and are motivated by their own age and political correctness. If the study were done on men, they’d agree with the women under 25 that women in their 20s are the most attractive.

The fashion industry is run by people who aren’t sexually attracted to women. Propagated images of what constitutes beauty aren’t hinged to sexual attraction, so women come away believing something to be attractive that is not. Eg heroin chic anorexic models, no eyebrows, bleached hair, makeup. If the audience does a standing ovation after your makeover on Oprah, you probably look like shit.

Criminals Behind the Corporate Veil

We should prepare indictment lists for the people profiteering from the detainment of refugees. In the future these people will be considered the equivalent of IBM, Mercedes-Benz, etc supporting the Nazis. The latest allegations are that the private contractors are paying refugees $1/hour to clean and maintain Villawood Detention Centre.

The people behind the atrocities:

Global Solutions Limited.
Chief Executive: Stephen Brown
Australian Managing Director: Peter Olszak
Owned by: Englefield Capital and Electra Partners Europe
More

Delaware North Companies Australia.
CEO: Jeremy M Jacobs
International Managing Director: Jonathan Tribe
Australian Managing Director: Dana Nelson
If sheer disinterest doesn’t make you boycott the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 anyway, be aware that DNC is doing the catering for the athletes.
They own Bakehouse at Central Station in Sydney.

Kate Ritchie Sex Tape Review

(Sally from “Home and Away"). The acting isn’t an improvement on that in Home + Away but thankfully there’s no dialogue. Lots of hair-flicking. She sucks her friend, rides him, does missionary and doggy. The end. Looks boring. Unable to wring any character insights about Ritchie herself out of it.
Celebrity Sex Tapes

Nola Fraser, Macquarie Fields

The Liberal Party candidate for the byelection in Macquarie Fields is the supposed health scandal whistleblower Nola Fraser. Just like her “whistleblowing”, her tilt at the seat is nothing more than shameless self-promotion. She wins even if she loses: she gets her head on TV. Publicity-hungry ho. And it’s even more despicable given that her grabs for celebrity are on the backs of others’ misery: patients dying in hospitals and now riots. She also has the persona of an obnoxious teenage girl-bully.

She was on the Critical Care Committee of Camden Hospital but didn’t turn up to the meetings, let alone raise any issues about patient care. Other staff complained about her bullying. When she was disciplined, she filed two workers’ compensation claims (unsuccessful) while being healthy enough to work full-time at her beauty salon.

Reminds me of another particularly objectionable candidate the Libs tried to foist on the people of Western Sydney a few years ago. They preselected Lorna Dooner for the federal seat of Fowler despite the fact that she was widely reviled by tenants she was responsible for in the area as a caseworker with the Department of Housing. The people didn’t forget. She suffered a 9% swing against her with only 17% of the vote.

Howard’s Succession Stock Answer

Why is our press so retarded? To Howard’s stock answer about the leadership succession (“I’ll stay as long as my party wants me”) they can point out that this implies he’ll never leave of his own volition. You do get the impression he wants to overtake Menzies so maybe he’s being honest. So skewer him on it. Democracy demands that our journalists are smart enough to probe politicians’ logic.

Gulf of Mexico, Persian Gulf, Synchronicity

It’s a weird synchronicity that the US and Iraq both suffer massive disasters on the same day. And the striking incongruity of seeing third-world-type images in America.

Hurricane Katrina is their first big incident since 9/11 and will bring an era of different perspective on 9/11. It won’t supersede it because the psychological impact of natural disasters is less than that of man-made ones. And because of the symbolism of having two giant phalluses castrated.

Anti-histamines vs SSRIs

I bet one day a study finds that anti-histamines are more effective at alleviating depression than SSRIs.

Boy George Stuff

Boy George’s gaydar profile. Looks fake but isn’t. His blog (surprisingly well-written).

Ignorance, Shakespeare, Democracy

Apparently, among Americans:

- 90 % don’t know what radiation is
- 70% don’t know that DNA is involved in heredity
- 20% think the Sun revolves around the Earth

So what the fuck is going through their heads when they’re watching all those forensic and medical shows? I have a theory that most people in most situations don’t know what the fuck is going on but don’t admit to it. I also think that hardly anyone can understand a Shakespeare play without studying it intensively but no-one admits it.

There can be no democracy if people don’t understand the issues. When they vote, they might as well flip a coin.