Music to drink tea by
Politics
MJ Hibbett – I’m Saying Yes
0I tend to avoid posting overt political content on this blog at this point. Partly because it seems like the inappropriate place, and partly because Twitter is the infinitely more fun place to do, particularly as we’ve now reached this odd point where being a Lib Dem puts me firmly to the right of pretty much everyone else I follow. But when I stumble across a song singing the praises of the Alternative Vote from an artist I really like, how can I resist posting?
It would appear that Mr. Hibbett, much like myself, is firmly in the Yes to AV camp, and amusingly he seems to sum up his thoughts on it in a way that uncannily match mine. No, it’s not a perfect system by any means, but it’s slightly better than the current one, and the odds of us getting another chance to change it in the near future seem rather small. So I’ll personally be voting “yes” in the referendum as it’s a first step of a far larger reforms that are required.
I’m Saying Yes was recorded as part of February Album Writing Month, a project where artists write and record a whole records worth of songs in the course of 28 days. As such, the recording values aren’t really the strongest, but when you’re getting 14 brand new songs over the course of the month, that seems like the a rather unfair complaint.
Wonderful Wednesday is available to pre-order now, for one week only. It’ll only cost you £5, and you’ll get a free badge chucked in for your efforts, and believe me, Hibbett is a man who produces quality badges. You can order directly from the MJ Hibbett website. You can also preview the whole thing right here.
The Thursday Politics: Like a bit of the old Ultraviolence?
64 years ago
in Politics
Probably best I don’t use an image for this one, or you’d probably go to jail.
A couple of weeks ago the government presented it’s latest Criminal Justice Bill to Parliament. This is a fairly common occurence, and is usually a time when the government gets to sort out little quirks in our criminal justice system in an attempt to make it more efficient. This is usually done by attempting to limit minor things like trial by jury, but that’s neither here nor there.
Most of the bill this year is pretty inoffensive stuff. It allows the use of more offenders to be dealt with in the community rather than prison, an easing on prostitution penalties and a set of small changes designed to simplify the system. However, buried within it is a very worrying piece of legislation outlawing the possession of extreme pornography. While I know many of you will probably switch off at this point by thinking that this is relevant to you, you’d be foolish to do so.
Campaigners against extreme pornography use the same argument that those against violent films or games do; that it influences behaviour and turns those that watch it into psychopaths. Of course, no one has yet to be able to present any evidence that this is the case both here or in the earlier cases, but why let the facts get in the way of a good crusade? Yet while most people will agree that it’s ludricrous that film will have such an impact on someone, most people (groups like Index on Censorship aside) are keeping quiet on this one. Even Liberty, while (rightly) campaigning for the right to protest and other free speech matters don’t seem to want to go near it.
As for the law itself, it’s so badly thought out that surely at least some MPs must have noticed. Granted, this lot aren’t the greatest when it comes to oversight, but you’d think someone would have thought “hey, did you notice this thing doesn’t even define what extreme pornography is?”. That’s right folks: Possession of extreme pornography will be banned by the government, but the government can’t tell you what extreme pornography is. The vague guidelines set out in the legislation make token references about “an act which threatens or appears to threaten a person’s life” and “an act which results in or appears to result (or be likely to result) in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals”. Which may seem simple, but the use of “appears” in there is a very dangerous thing.
This legislation does not stop at pornography that obviously puts someone at risk. If it did, there would be much less wrong with it. Instead, it also goes after pornography that features two consenting adults acting out a violent sexual scenario. Most people will probably find that idea offensive in itself, but exactly who is harmed if a person does choose to watch such a thing acted out between consenting adults? This just creates yet another victimless crime in a system that is already overloaded.
It continues to get worse from this point. A BBFC classification provides no exemption from this law. While something like A Clockwork Orange or even Hostel should be fine as an entire product, keeping screencaps or sections of video from them on your computer would constitute possession. This may sound like I’m yelling about a worst case scenario here, and possibly I am, but all of this is covered under the legislation. Something that is all the more worrying when the penalty if convicted is a prison sentence of up to two years.
This is a law that will threaten thousands of people, from the most obvious cases in the BDSM community right up the guy keeping some clips of Hollywood films because he finds them kind of hot. Action against either group is entirely unacceptable and outside the realm of what a liberal society should represent.
I’ve argued against the smoking ban on a number occasions. It’s with us now, and while I’m still opposed to it, I can at least understand the basic health argument behind it. Lighting up in public against the ban will at worst get you a £50 fine, despite the health risks involved. Watching pornography in your own home will at worst get you two years in prison. Is any part of this system fair?
MP3 Brakes – Hold Me In The River (expired)
I woke up late and found my liberty lost, it had been written down in law as a security cost.
The Thursday Politics
4It was only yesterday that I was wondering why we don’t have any angry political music in the UK. It’s certainly not that everything is perfect, because honestly, if you aren’t pissed off at the state of things, you can’t be paying attention. Sure, a few bands are making their statements, like Bloc Party (Hunting for Witches) and Brakes (Hold Me in the River), but it’s all pretty sedate compared to the anger a certain President on the other side of the Atlantic seems to attract. So when a promo email started talking about Tony Blair stepping down and celebrating “the fact we might see a little less of his grinning, murderous face”, it had my attention.
All of this is thanks to Derby seven piece Plans & Apologies, who have already put together a song “mainly because none of us can stand the thought of Tony Blair being remembered as anything but a war criminal and this week’s fawning tributes have made our bamboo taste funny.” Which I can’t really argue with at all. Seeing the bastard given a round of applause at Prime Minister’s Questions last week was one of the most disheartening things I have seen politically in a long while. Anyways, the song itself cleverly plays around with the idea that war is sold as entertainment to the masses.
MP3 Plans and Apologies – Mel Gibson’s… Iraq! (expired)
MP3 Plans and Apologies – Attenzione Caldo (expired)
MP3 Plans and Apologies – Tony Blair: Fucknut (expired)
At least now we know why things aren’t going too well in Afghanistan. Joel Schumacher is directing.
Plans & Apologies: Website || Myspace
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Tory Yay: Boris has to be made Mayor of London. Granted, it’s not Prime Minister (we’re still working on that one), but it’s a start. Can’t be worse than what’s there already anyway.
Tory Boo: VIOLENT MUZIKS MUST BE STOPPED!!!!!1111111. Won’t somebody please think of the children? Spare me.
Idea of mixing politics with music in a weekly post shamelessly stolen from Charles at Heartache with Hard Work, who does this sort of thing far better than me.
On liberty.. again.
6
The usual disclaimer: This is a political post, not a musical one. Politically apathetic people (aka the ignorant) need read no further.
Tony Blair in yesterday’s Telegraph:
The case for ID cards is a case not about liberty but about the modern world. .. I know this will outrage some people but, in a world in which we daily provide information to a whole host of companies and organisations and willingly carry a variety of cards to identify us, I don’t think the civil liberties argument carries much weight.
I’ve written about the threat the UK faces from ID cards in the past, but Blair’s commentary in yesterday’s Telegraph has made me far more afraid than I was previously. For Blair to argue that civil liberties are essentially a thing of the past that have no importance in the modern world just demonstrates how far removed from reality this man has become. There are a hundred other reasons why ID cards are a bad idea, but civil liberties are the most pressing. For a political leader to simply dismiss the concerns of anyone who believes they are a threat is at the very least patronising and at worst downright offensive.
“We” may also provide daily information to companies, but all of that is voluntary. I have never held a store loyalty card in my life, nor would I, because I’m concerned about the amount of data that can be collected on them. I’m not bothered about them though because of the key word: voluntary. I’m not forced to have a Tesco card to shop at Tesco. My wallet consists of two bank cards, a driving licence, a cinema pass and a card with my signature that allows me to access my postbox. None of these cards contain a fingerprint or iris scan. None of these cards are linked to giant cross-departmental databases where hundreds of different groups can access my information. The line of thinking that because someone gives their details to Tesco that the National Identity Register must be okay is almost too ridiculous for words.
Still, what more should we expect from this government?
This is the government that has outlawed protest anywhere within half a mile of Parliament.
This is the government that has banned protests anywhere near it’s party conference.
This is the government that will ban smoking in all public places from next year, including bus stops and railway station platforms.
This is the government that wants to ban “violent internet pornography” (for which it offers no definition), even though there is no logical case for it.
This is the government that has banned fox hunting, even though it had to use a loophole in Parliamentary law to do so.
This is the government that attempted to outlaw the “inciting of religious hatred”, again with offer any definition of what this would entail.
This is the government that has abolished free speech by introducing law that prohibits the “glorification” of terrorism, while once again offering no definition of what this means.
This is the government that wanted to detain people for up to 90 days without charge, and then accepted 28 days as a “comprimise” when it was rejected in Parliament.
This is the government that has introduced “control orders”, a way of sidestepping human rights legislation to allow the restrictions of people who have been charged with no crime.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. – Benjamin Franklin
It’s a pretty pathetic situation when I have to look to the Conservatives to defend my civil liberties.
Yes, I’ll climb down off of my high horse for now. I’m going to keep coming back to this for as long as the threat of this ID cards legislation hangs over our heads though. It’s too important not to. But I’ll get to the music for a while again now. Here’s an (apt) mp3:
So.. what was all the fuss?
0
I got around to watching Gabriel Range’s drama ‘Death of a President‘ last night and my only real reaction to it is ‘this is what’s causing a controversy’?
Have those making a fuss actually seen it? Because honestly, all of this is probably helping it, particularly given the small caveat that it isn’t very good. I love a good fake documentary as much as the next person, but this is just rather dull. There’s nothing actually wrong with it, but it never really managed to grab me at any point. From the bait-and-switch opening of who actually carried out the crime to the oh so intellectual agruments about the event (“Bush was bad, it was inevitable” etc). Sure, the events leading up to the ‘assassination’ are handled well enough, as is the scene itself, but the rest is just a tired mystery that cuts away every now and then to a fake newsroom that looks like it’s straight out of an episode of Babylon 5. Boy did they love their fake newsrooms.
MP3 Okkervil River – The President’s Dead
You may be able to tell from the half assed nature of this post that this wasn’t something I intended to write about today, but I’m somewhat limited in what I can do given my mp3 hosting thing has been an absolute shit for the past few days. I really need to get some proper hosting sorted out, particularly given I’ve got a whole backlog of posts sitting here waiting to go up now. All packed full of awesome music goodness. Stupid ezarchive.
Ted Stevens explains the internets
0
I’m glad that after all of these years of using the internet, someone has finally had the guts to describe exactly what the internet is and how it works. And apparently it’s a series of tubes! Who would have thought? This pearl of wisdom comes from internet expert Ted Stevens, an 82 year old Senator (and third in the line of succession for the US Presidency) from Alaska. Don’t think he sounds qualified? Well he’s chairman of the Senate commerce committee, which means he’s in control of regulating the internet. So he must know what he’s talking about. Right?
This helpful tidbit came from a debate on the issue of net neutrality. I’ll be perfectly honest and admit that this is an issue that I have really kept up with, largely because I think it’s being made out to be a bigger deal than it really is. Apparently there is a campaign to Save The Internet though, so if you’re in the US and like the internet the way it is, you might want to investigate that a little.
Anyway, Stevens is against this neutrality thing, and put across a brilliant case describing exactly where he stands, while still explaining how the internet works to those that may not understand. Best of all, to put his message across to the kids, Paul Holcomb from The Bold Headed Broadcast has combined his message with techno music. Because we all know that’s what the kids are listening to.
MP3 Paul Holcomb – A Series Of Tubes (DJ Ted Stevens Techno Remix) (expired)
For more information about net neutrality from Senator Stevens, be sure to check out his new “blogger” where he will “type websites to explain why Network Neutrality is a bad thing for our already clogged internet pipes”. Fantastic.
1984.. We’re running a little late
25 years ago
in Politics
Warning: This post contains content of a political variety. Granted it’s the kind of important politics that will infringe on the way of life of every British citizen, but if you’re one of the apathetic millions who doesn’t give a shit about anything important, feel free to skip this post. Music based posts will resume shortly.
So it looks like plans for ID cards and the National Identity Register are falling apart completely. This is just about the best news I’ve had in a long time, and something that makes me feel a tad safer about this country. The only sad part is that it’s falling apart based on the technology to implement it not being available rather than some sudden discovery of morals by the government, but I’ll take what I can get on an issue this big.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the risk of ID cards will go away entirely. This government has staked far too much on their success to ever let the scheme completely disappear. Some kind of face saving exercise will have to be implemented, which means there is still a risk of the most dangerous parts of the database remaining. I’ve maintained for some time now that the biggest threat facing this country isn’t terrorism, illegal immigration or even that fun scapegoat: anti-social behaviour. No, the biggest threat to our very way of life came from our own government as part of the National Identity register.
If you’re unaware of exactly what the ID card scheme, and by extension the database entails, there is an absolutely stunning piece in yesterday’s Guardian by Henry Porter, who describes the danger far more eloquently and concise than I could ever achieve.
If after reading that, you have even a single positive use for ID cards or the database, I’d love to hear it. Seriously, this isn’t a sarcastic comment or anything. I just genuinely can’t think of argument that could possibly be used in their favour. I know a lot of people “support” ID cards as it stands. This is largely because they don’t understand the system that will come with them. Explain to people the full details and motives behind such a system and they suddenly find themselves opposing it. If there’s one thing this government is good at, it’s feeding misinformation to the public.
Which means there’s a two year window to make as many people as possible aware of exactly what this government is trying to do. Once this database is in place, it’ll be near impossible to dismantle again, so it’s absolutely vital that it never sees the light of day. I’m one of over 11,000 who last year pledged to not register for an ID card, so on a personal level, this draconian legislation must be stopped. I can’t afford to keep paying a £2,500 fine.
MP3 Of Montreal – Forecast Fascist Future (expired)
Reactionary Watch
05 years ago
in Politics
So The Sun and ignorant people everywhere are “up in arms” about Alton Towers having a ‘Muslim-only’ day.
BRITAIN’S biggest fun park has sparked a race row — with a MUSLIMS-ONLY day.
Non-Muslims phoning the Staffordshire park have been refused tickets.
Except wait, it isn’t a Muslim-only day at all. This is just reactionary journalism at it’s very worst. We’ve got two statements there, one is a lie, and one is deceptive. First of all, anyone is welcome to the park on the day, assuming they buy their tickets from Islamic Leisure. They are working very hard to point out that anyone is welcome to the park, as long as Muslim customs are respected. Secondly, while it is technically true that people phoning the park will be refused tickets, this is because the park doesn’t sell tickets when any private group rents it for the day.
Naturists get an entire weekend.
Oh look, even Christians do it.
Anyone want to start complaining about these days too? No? I’m shocked.
Pride in my country? No thanks
7
I’ve made no secret of my disliking of the World Cup and the hysteria that surrounds it. I don’t get any of it if I’m honest. I’ve mentioned my issue with the stupid flags that people have on their cars previously, as well as hundreds of other dumb things you see during tournaments like this. I’ve tried ignoring it, which doesn’t work too well. I’ve even tried to understand it, but no matter how much I try, it’s still 23 men chasing a ball around some grass for a couple of hours. It does absolutely nothing to me, and I fail to see why I should care.
I don’t have anything against football in itself. I find it pretty pointless, but I feel that about all sport. I guess my point is that I’m not singling out football because of the game itself. I don’t understand, but I’m okay with that. People want to play, that’s fine. People want to watch, that’s also fine. I do however take issue with how intellectually bankrupt a large portion of the fans are.
I could very easily sit here and rant about the rioters in Germany, but that’s just far too easy. I haven’t paid all that much attention, but I haven’t seen news reports about any other groups of fans rioting in the streets. It seems to be a wholly English thing to take football far too seriously. I quickly discovered this first hand when I found myself in a pub at the start of the England match against Ecudor yesterday afternoon.
Now I have a “problem” where I feel intellectually superior to nearly everyone around me. I use problem in that context because apparently it is one, even if I don’t see it as such. It’s not a particularly arrogant attitude, I just look at most people around me and know that I’m smarter. I also realise that somewhat contradicts the arrogance part. I can’t help it though. People are largely dumb. You can’t have an intelligent conversation with most people because they either don’t understand or don’t care. Try talking politics, culture or literature to people and they will stare at you blankly. Bring up the World Cup or Big Brother and they can engage with you for hours. Assuming you don’t mind turning your brain off of course.
Anyway, back to the pub, and the mentality of the people there actually scared me. Some people were bellowing “Come on England” at the television, as if magically these words would be transported to Germany and would help the team. Others seemed to bury their head in their hands at something even close to a goal, which I thought was the point, but they seemingly couldn’t bear to watch. Worse still were those trying to start chants in a pub. I mean, seriously, what is the reasoning there? Oh, and let’s not forget the way any objectivity goes flying straight out of the window. If an Ecudorian player committed a foul, outrage ensues, but if an England player does the same thing and gets caught, the referee is “having a fuckin’ laugh”. The whole exercise was so wilfully ignorant that I didn’t know whether I should be terrified or laughing.
I only made it until half time when I had to flee the place in search of some kind of intellectual stimulation as I could feel my brain cells wasting away while sitting in there. During the conversations I’ve had with people, I shouldn’t feel this way largely because I should “take pride in my country”. If this is what pride in my country represents, I’d rather not. Unless of course my country wants to return the favour by taking pride in something important. I think I might be waiting a long time for that one though.
MP3 Arctic Monkeys – Riot Van (expired)
I don’t want to watch football
0Well today is the start of the World Cup, which means we now have an ‘exciting’ month of footballing action to look forward to. That is of course if you care for such things. Personally, it doesn’t mean a thing. It’s a few guys kicking a ball around a field for a couple of hours. I’m supposed to get excited about that? Of course if anyone enjoys that, more power to them, but it means for the next month I get to deal with even more flag waving retards, “news” that is dominated by this drivel and my own pub showing every game meaning it’s going to be populated with people who make the special class seem like intellectuals.
MP3 Belle & Sebastian – I Don’t Want To Play Football (expired)
Apparently it isn’t really feasible to stay indoors for a month either, which is something of a pity.
