We’re back, Ladies & Gents. I’ve just emailed Tim Dunlop of ‘The Road to Surfdom’ to let him know that the previous blog is now a dead duck, but that this one is up & running. I expect we’ll see the usual initial flood of lame-brained name-callers from the Tim Blair’s sycophant stable dropping by shortly to crap on anything and everything within their fecal range. Fear not though, dear reader. This blog is deliberately intended to be different to its previous incarnation in that it will NOT be quoting or promoting any other Oz blog in this tome. You see, I’ve come to the belief that this is how the Oz ‘Sphere survives. It literally feeds off itself. The Australian clique is so small and sharply defined that no-one from without the Oceania region of the ‘net is likely to be interested in what goes on downunda, so there’s a constant brawl going on for premiership. I’m not in the least interested in such carry-on.

Here’s the rules of this author’s game:

• I write for me;
• If you read it, lector caveo;
• If you comment, on your head be it;
• I retain all rights and privileges to what appears in this domain, just as Andrea Harris does on hers.
• all opinions expressed here are those of the author and are copyright. I am not a member of any political party, nor desire to be.

Don’t forget…..if you have an opinion to express and want somewhere to do it, where it won’t be censored, banned or otherwise smothered no matter what it might be, there’s always the ThinkTank.

Ignore this post, reader. It's simply a spider-gatherer for my Technorati Profile.

Here's a little narcissicism.

Your Bannerman has been carousing the OzBlogosphere after a long absence, even to the extent of venturing into the Dark Side.

It’s been a disjointed day for your Bannerman. Firstly a network failure at the coal face followed by a very late start to the working day, which thanks to a faster than November broadband plan passed…..well, faster than expected.

Bannerman reads a few blogs, but only a few. In fact…..very few. History has not been kind to the Oz ‘sphere and neither has time. The same authors persist, some with different faces, but most with the same tired approach to representation of what passes for political analysis of the domestic and international scene. From the little of what Bannerman has decided to partake, blogging in Australia is still as non-objective and cynical as it ever was.

Bannerman uses SharpReader for all of his RSS needs. It’s a sweet little program and it’s free. Certainly a major selling point. On the subject of selling, this brief but pointed post takes aim at something which has come to the B-man’s attention, courtesy of SharpReader. Several posts in one or two blogs promoting what a small sector of the OzBlogosphere thinks it’s doing for said ‘sphere.

Many things to many people. That’s Christmas. To the Bannerman, it’s nothing more than a whole lot of the post title. Humbug! Capitalistic, commodity-driven, materialism excited by wave after wave of pumped up media-promoted schmooze. Bannerman abhors carols, unless they’re female, 35 years of age with an hour-glass figure sporting bubble-butt hips & massive mammaries. The repetition as well! Silent night indeed……..if only it were. Then there are the trees, the decorations, the endless streams of tiny, flashing lights, wrapping paper which costs and is never given a thought to as it’s shredded uncaringly. Huge sessions of over-eating over-rich foods which cost much, much more than at any other time of year. Add in the screaming children who have been let out of school for six weeks and the picture is complete.

Wiki says Humbug is an archaic term meaning "hoax", or "jest". It also says that in indigenous patois it means “to pester or annoy”. Bannerman reckons Wiki is precisely on target. There is no more annoyingly false faux ceremonial than Christmas. Humbug! and a very merry Bah! to you all, from the Bannerman.

Bannerman is heading bush for the next fourteen days to get as far from the Xmas stupidity as possible. Take good care of yourselves. As the B-man so often says, no-one can or will look after you like you will. If you survive Christmas and make the sensible decision to go to bed at a reasonable hour December 31st without over-indulging in alcohol, loud music or attempting to fuck someone who is uglier than your usual low standards, Bannerman will be here to further educate you in 2007. Until 4th January 2007……….HUMBUG!

Bannerman and his squeeze have returned! The wilds of Queensland’s Granite Belt were delightful…..for the first five days. Then came Boxing Day and the clammering hordes from coastal and interstate suburbia.

Next week marks the fifth anniversary of David Hicks's imprisonment without trial in the notorious detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. He got there after being sold for $1000 to American special forces in Afghanistan by a Northern Alliance warlord.

The federal government is becoming increasingly out of touch when it comes to the child care needs of working families, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says.

Yahoo!7 News.

It may be too late, it may be too little, but Bush has given US strategy at least a fighting chance of success.

That’s a big improvement on the situation even two months ago.

Greg Sheridan.

Bannerman is extremely reticent to link to other bloggers, primarily due to the less than desirable quality of polemic which ‘partisan hacks’ tend to offer. However, some cases require highlighting, and so, Bannerman says, Thank you, Antony Loewenstein.

There’s yet another “Find Your Political Bent” quiz alive and thriving within the OzBlogosphere. It’s living here.

The Bannerman scans a few blog sites……very few, reader……by RSS reader. One of those few being Clubtroppo. Both in this incarnation and in a previous one, the troppodillian attraction for the B-man has been a tad stronger than some other Aussie blogs.

Bannerman is a sucker for a quiz, meme, inquiry or other brand of comparo advertised on the ‘net meant to define the contestant as being one or the other type of bigot. This one, promoted by Antony Loewenstein, makes especially amusing participation. More so, if you’re a non-American.

"Come on sports bloggers. When the going gets tough the tough get going. Surely someone can crank out a few well chosen cliches and some penetrating analysis, even from the depths of mortification."

LP comments policy at Larvatus Prodeo

Bannerman chuckled, chortled and guffawed his way through the entirety of this Labia Prodders post. Clearly one or more of the rabid end in the blog spectrum - notice, ideology is not a factor in this post - has imitated the neighbourhood tomcat and sprayed up the walls at LP.

Bannerman briefly flirted with the idea of maybe, perhaps, outlaying the necessaries for a Crikey_dot_com subscription. He is ever so glad he didn’t waste the exorbitant sum of $115.00 per annum for this sort of trash which rolls up daily in his email box by way of tasty snifters, encouraging subscription.

Bannerman would like to invite all and sundry to yet another playground for the inanely stupid, in terms of internet forums.

Debate and Relate, it calls itself. Never was a name more poorly chosen. This forum is one in format only because it uses PHP2 BBS software and templates. It’s moderated, apparently, but you’ll never see any moderation performed. The various sub-forums all deal with the subject of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, and if you’re really lucky, you’ll get the occasional thread dealing with domestic politics. Mind you....this board is Australian in creation and presentation. The underlying theme of the forum, you ask? Well there’s one self-declared white supremacist, several lesser radical, but openly bigoted anti-non-white Caucasian ’enthusiasts’, half of which are - surprisingly - female. No thread escapes the influence of the anti-muslim influence of the overall board’s ethos. The moderators are American and Australian. Male and female respectively, apparently. It’s difficult to tell on the ’net, as the reader will surely appreciate. Bannerman suspects one has the hots for the other but how that is determined remains a mystery. Perhaps they have the hots for themselves?

You know, reader, Bannerman thought PA was a crook show. He was sorely mistaken.

Further to the last post, which apparently excited the owners of the ineptly named ’Debate and Relate’ forum something chronic, I thought I’d treat readers to a slice of what passes for rationality among some of the inmates.

Well, reader, Bannerman has been a tad busy of late, what with switching jobs, buying cars and teaching right-wing rabble how to conduct themselves in public. It’s been an amusing experience, but sadly, one which said RWR just couldn’t hack any more of. A brief word of advisory to those of you looking for a place to exchange opinions and discuss issues of import in a rational environment. Don’t bother with Debate & Relate. There’s none of either going there. There is, however, a whole lot of bigoted racial intolerance and cultural vilification, especially against Muslims, and general white supremacy ranting and raving from various of the so-called members. Almost all of whom are RWR, completely dismissive of any opinion but their collective own.

Why is it that those of a right-wing ideology always wind up exhibiting the most hypocritical of on-line personas?

Bannerman has decided, probably against his better judgement, to resurrect the ThinkTank Forum which he initially created in December 2006, but locked off due to time constraints. ThinkTank is intended to be a discussion forum for mature adults who look for online interaction with like minds in the analysis of important issues which impact everyone daily. If you’re of a mind, and can’t find a suitable place to express your opinions and discuss issues of import without the almost inevitable personal abuse, innuendo and logical fallacy which seems to pervade almost every online forum, then Bannerman extends an invitation to you to sample ThinkTank.

Get in on the ground floor and help to create a place where freedom of expression in a proper, mature environment is the norm.

"It’s Good"

Well, no, it’s not good. In fact it’s downright disgraceful and disgusting. Not especially surprising in any particular aspect, but extremely distasteful none the less.

One of these men is a “terrorist”.

Spot the Terrorist » The Road to Surfdom

Bannerman doesn’t often do this, but does believe in credit where it’s due. The above linked post is an absolute cracker-jack. Now get over there and pay homage.

"We're not about winning elections in a year, we're about winning debates over a decade. The conservative ideas experiment has been tried and it's failed. They've left Australia with fragile prosperity based on a boom, far too many kids left behind, a changing climate, a divided culture and knee-jerk responses to real security threats." - Michael Cooney, Policy Director, Per Capita Thinktank

And now Bannerman is wondering just what he's done. And why?

Blog bullies propel state of the internet into the spotlight - The Independent

Yes, Virginia, cyber-bullies are real. At the end of the day, they'll always be there and not just in the ether either, now get back to that keyboard and let 'em have it!

Just when Bannerman thought it was safe to open the comments door - after it was mended - it seems this blog has been attacked by a swarm of spambots. The host has aborted any connection to Moveable Type comment scripts, but has offered some salient advice on how to fix the problem. To those of you who so badly want to click that comment button, (yes, there are one or two) fear not! A remedy will be in place tout de suite.

Hicks father may defy gag order

Well, excuse the exclamation, reader, but WHAT FUCKING GAG ORDER!??

To the best of Bannerman’s knowledge, it was David Hicks, not Terry Hicks who wound up being shang-hai’d into holding up his hand when the Yanks asked who wanted to go home in exchange for calling ’terrorist’. Gag order, indeed! Any hold the Yanks think they might have over David Hicks is nothing more than a smoke-shrouded mirror anyway. Phillip ’I-may-look-dead-but-I-don’t-smell-that-way’ Ruddock even confirmed it for us earlier this month.

Apparently, this lecture thingo at University of Melbourne’s Law School tomorrow is being streamed. Bannerman has contacted the convenor with a view to obtaining the relevant URL. If he get’s a reply in time, it’ll be advised here.

"My name’s Kevin, I’m from Queensland, I’m here to help,"

Seriously, if I’ve^* heard that opening line from Kevin Rudd once today, I must have heard it twenty times.

I'm launching today something I've been wanting to do for a long time now. A combination wine review site and personal tasting diary. Yes, I'm a wine buff, but only insofar as I know what I like and what I don't. I'm no Len Evans, that much is certain.

At last!! My very own piece of virtuality.

F3 5F 8E 45 F8 E1 F8 45 D1 A6 A1 3F CE 75 4C 31

Yes indeedy, a pseudorandom 128 bit integer expressed as a hexadecimal and it’s MINE, ALL MINE!!! No matter how many times you try, you’ll never duplicate my piece of nothing.

I’m never surprised at the stupidity of the so-called elite classes.

Here’s a quick one aimed at a particular member of the audience, and you’ll know who you are.

It seems that of all the bastards incorporated, the chief can’t handle being chatted by those he chats. Registration required indeed! Yesterday was so different, then the Banner-bogey-man dropped by.

Thank you, you’ve been a wonderful audience. It’s just a shame we can’t debate and relate, but I’d hate to feel responsible for your sleepless nights. 2375506 - I won’t hold my breath waiting.

Do you know where your towel is? Better get it together in time for next Friday. Celebrate the life and wit of Douglas Adams by ensuring you take your towel with you, Friday 25th May, 2007.

SCORP10N BOWL: George Lucas, American Orwell

Happiness is paradoxical. What we think will give it to us - invariably doesn’t. When we think we’ve got it - we invariably haven’t. We’re not even good at predicting what will make us happy people. From languishing to flourishing - can even the most troubled mind be primed for happiness? A panel of international trailblazers in the study of emotion, positive psychology and Buddhism get earnest about pleasure.

All In The Mind

The text from Radio National’s ’All in the Mind’ program which aired this afternoon. I happened to catch most of it while we were on out way to the cinema. I thought it quite pertinent and some of what the speakers had to say relevant to the ethereal nature of what we call happiness. Essentially, my own belief that happiness cannot be measured, quantified in any specific manner or nailed down to a certain thing or set of circumstances appeared to be borne out in this program. As Buddah tells us, learn to deal with what you have, not what you desire.

So, if you’re a John Quiggan or James Farrell type, do have a listen or download the podcast.

Couple married after meeting on Flickr
The power of the internet rests not just in delivery of information, but mainly in the ability for human interaction.

Tim Blair features large in Ken Parish’s latest poke at the blogospheric corpse. I make it a rule to not soil my blogging sensibilities by frequenting Blairville, but having seen the Media Watch spray at Blair last Monday, I felt almost compelled to follow the links.

Ever wondered, dear reader, whether the solo blogger is a dying breed?

Sorry, but your comment has been flagged by the spam filter running on this blog: this might be an error, in which case all apologies. Your comment will be presented to the blog admin who will be able to restore it immediately. You may want to contact the blog admin via e-mail to notify him.

It’s curious that we might get a referendum on this, but people don’t get a say on whether or not they want their local government authority amalgamated with other ones.

Daylight Saving debate won’t go away » The Bartlett Diaries

Andrew Bartlett draws attention to the re-born Daylight Saving issue in Queensland.

Tim Dunlop recommends better disclosure under Freedom of Information legislation, and less of the 'national interest' folderoll.

"We can expect that part of the debate to get rather heated over the rest of the day, and well into the weekend and this will inevitably distract a lot of people from the poll results themselves..." Gummo Trotsky

It’s a silly name, but some might say the same about ’Bannerman’. To each their own. What is truly silly, and gives an appearance of getting sillier because it makes good blog-fodder, is some supposed ’stoush’ between a mainstream media conglomerate with a decidedly conservative and pro-government bent, and some bloggers in the Ozsphere intent on calling out said conservative conglomerate because said conglomerate dared call a non-conservative(?), non-government leaning(?) blogger names.

Seriously folks.... bloggers, non-blogging readers and just general internet high-tide mark surfers....who gives a shit what Dennis Shanahan or whatsisface Sheridan think about any particular issue. If you think they’re wrong, then say so, but don’t go getting all antsy when they use the power of the media, which they have instant access to, for their own benefit simply because you don’t think that’s fair play. Wake up, Ozsphere! Blogging, much like MSM, means you’re exposed in the desert of apathy to the elements of discontent. Free expression and any sense of fair play you perceive are simply mirages on the horizon of your expectations.

Now hear this! I'm getting folks telling me their comments are vanishing into the ether. Some first time, others long after the fact. I've experienced some weirdness myself so have decided to - as I stated on a comment thread - apply the mirror theory and look into it.

Bear with the Bannerman, you all. He's not all that clever when it comes to MoveableType, but he does have some excellent backup.

The political report card for politicians looking to appear as if they're a part of the 'now' generation, by putting a picture & a few bland words on MySpace, can only read 'Could Do Better'.