Quick Quips: Out of Line

28/03/2019

David Draiman’s song Out of Line, featuring Serj Tankian, is easily my favourite song on his album Device. It doesn’t hold back on its criticism of abusive power, which remains undefined but can be applied to any autocratic or plutocratic institution. From the chorus:

“You try to justify the pain that you’ve wrought,

But you’re out of line, you’re out of line.”

It is safe to say in recent months, many have stepped out of line.

• Will write more about the whole One Nation-Al Jazeera-NRA situation at a later date, but suffice to say, if ‘being on the sauce’ is the best excuse Ashby can come up with, then I’d hate to see what he’s like on the sauce with a gun.
• Hanson has hit Alex Jones levels of absurd, having been caught out claiming to believe the Port Arthur massacre (that took place in 1996) had “many questions” surrounding it. What could be taken as an even more absurd claim is Hanson saying she read a book about the event – I’d like to see the bookshelf at her old fish and chip shop.
• The ABC’s Four Corners Facebook page posted this quote earlier today – someone’s having fun in the office. “”We don’t cheat, we don’t lie, we are upfront with the people. That’s what One Nation stands for: representing the people with truth, honesty and integrity.” Pauline Hanson, 2017, in the Four Corners investigation ‘Please Explain’.”
• People who I have spoken to – and know my views on a number of topics – have been surprised when I tell them I believe controversial figures like Milo Yiannopoulos should be allowed to speak in Australia. Even others who think he should have been surprised that I agree with them, albeit for different reasons. Let him come and let him talk; the events of Christchurch don’t sway me on that. Put him up against someone intelligent and experienced, refuse him the glory of provoking reactions. The smug bastard deserves to be stripped to pieces – verbally, of course – very, very slowly for what he has said. I’d pay to watch him be dismantled in front of a live audience.
• Scott Morrison and his band of white men have decided, only after the ON-NRA revelations, that maybe putting a party of fringe nutcases below Labor on preferences in the Federal election is a good idea. Still, so far, ahead of the Greens however, because accountability of power and a decent standard of living is more dangerous than drunkards with guns backed by foreign donations that strip votes from them. Something about ‘communism’, according to Christensen. Maybe his opinion might be worth a bored glance if he was actually in the country to present it.
• If Daley’s downfall in the NSW election was really about his single ill-conceived comment about Asians, then how the fuck did Mark Latham win a seat? How did a passing line about immigrants with PhDs receive such media condemnation while One Nation made headway in the State? Answer is simple – the media couldn’t care less about racism, that was merely a cheap shot by what is essentially an advertising company for the Coalition. The real racism, I think, is using faux outrage against minor, probably unintended racism while ignoring a man calling for Indigenous peoples to prove their own identity with DNA tests.
• A dear friend of mine was called an ‘uneducated idiot’ by relatives simply because she voted different to them. Ironic, given they voted for the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party, and probably the Nationals before that. But this is something people need to understand – an individual is allowed to vote however they damn well please, and no one should feel pressured by family, friends, or the political parties themselves to vote a certain way. That’s not exercising your democratic right, that’s control.
• This morning a busker in Melbourne was mistaken for a potential gunman, causing a flood of people to be evacuated from the train station. Kudos to the police who kept the situation relatively calm, despite some very panicked people, but that someone was so fearful and uncertain about someone’s behaviour (not blaming them at all, sympathising) is a sad indictment of the atmosphere we seem to have created here.
• Israel again takes centre stage (with US support) in the realm of historical amnesia and violations of international law. Gaza, West Bank, Golan Heights – take your pick!
• It is an inexcusable disservice to history when Netanyahu and his government say that their actions are in response to “Hamas terror” in the past week. It is almost like the world forgot about the last 71 years… what were we talking about? Oh yeah, rockets and tunnels, right? My mistake, I won’t mention fossil fuels.
• Speaking of fossil fuels, the Golan Heights was illegally annexed by Israel in 1981, and now Trump has announced the US will recognise this. Seems no one asked the over 90% of self-identifying Syrians whether they wanted to be a part of Syria again, but since when did the opinions of the Arabs matter to colonial masters?
• I think the term ‘international community’ is a failed concept these days. Not just because in Western media it usually only refers to the US and their allies, but because the international community doesn’t really do much. You have token tut tutting in response to blatant violations of human rights and international law, but no one really seems to do much after that.
• Joe Biden apologised for his actions (or lack of) in the 90’s. Are people allowed to grow and learn from mistakes? Absolutely. Do I think Biden will make a good candidate if he runs in 2020 like the media wants him to? Hell no; only old white guy I’ll accept is Sanders.
• I expect that a fair portion of Trump’s “wall” (or whatever passes for it) will be finished by November 2020 – it’s the one promise I’m sure he will keep.
• Theresa May was never going to make it through the Brexit negotiations, so it makes sense for her to quit before she’s fired. Maybe the UK could ask to remain, so long as Article 13 is rejected?

Those in power who step out of line and abuse their positions will answer for the injustice our world carries. The only concern is that our world may not inhabitable by that stage, so we must act quickly.

Liked this? Read Should Yiannopoulos Be Allowed to Speak Here?

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