The Virtuous Authoritarians

This was first published at LinkedIn on 2nd July 2016. It's a long read, but I think it's worth the effort.

The left/right, progressive/conservative dichotomy is dead. The new political dichotomy is between authoritarians and libertarians and it’s the authoritarians that have the upper hand.

The authoritarians have established their position beginning at universities and spreading throughout much of the media by use of virtue signalling, conspicuous moralism and selective outrage. They believe themselves to be better equipped intellectually and morally to grapple with the issues of the day and by virtue of their intellectual and moral superiority, they have no compunction in forcing their decisions on lesser folk when those lesser folk won’t take them voluntarily.

Global Terrorism Index Report for 2016

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) Report for 2016 has been released. It shows that 74% of all terror related deaths are attributable to Boko Haram, ISIL, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

All of the top ten worst attacks were committed by these groups along with Al-shabaab, Sinai Province of the Islamic State and the Ansar Al-din Front.

It got me wondering whether there is a common thread that links all of these groups? Some common belief or understanding. Couldn't find anything though. Anyone able to help?

http://economicsandpeace.org/…/Global-Terrorism-Index-2016.…

(Note: the word "Islam" appears only 6 times in the 100 page report, so it can't be that.)

This was originally published on my facebook timeline on 17 November 2016 so if you think you've seen it before, maybe you're right!

Hitchens, US Elections and Word Play

Christopher Hitchens in 2008 looking pensive and slightly aggressive at the same time.

Christopher Hitchens died in 2011 which annoyed me terribly although it probably annoyed him more. One of the annoying things for me was that I enjoyed his opinion on the various goings on in the world; even when I disagreed with him, he expressed his thoughts so clearly and with such humour that I couldn’t help but enjoy reading them. He was also my go-to source for commentary on US politics and middle east tensions; on both of these subjects the depth of his knowledge was formidable, giving him an understanding that was available to few others.

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians live, on average, between 10 and 20 year shorter lives than non-indigenous Australians. Part of the problem with estimating the difference in life expectancy is that nobody’s too sure exactly what it is, but it’s around 10-20 years difference.

Sarkozy on Climate Change and Manufactured Controversy

A little while back, I wrote about what I called the virtuous authoritarians and their tendency to shut down debate by adopting a moralistic approach and thereby labelling anyone that disagrees with them as immoral and unworthy of being heard. I gave various examples of this approach ranging from the then recent Brexit campaign to bicycle helmet laws, gun laws and holocaust denial. One topic I did not touch on was climate change and global warming.

The Case of the Naughty Lawyers

One of my hobbies, albeit a hobby reserved for those times when I am of a particularly low mood and badly need cheering up, is to read decisions of various courts. Of particular interest is High Court decisions, but I am catholic in my tastes and have been known to read decisions of all sorts of courts and tribunals, both from Australia and overseas.

Five things I suffered through the 1970s

As a child growing up in the 1970s, I suffered a level of abuse that is difficult to conceive of in the modern age. I wonder sometimes how my parents avoided jail time for some of these heinous and wicked crimes. Listed below are five of the most evil things that they subjected me to.

Navel Gazing

Later today, my second book, Spider Dunstan’s Teeth will be released for sale, so in honour of its release, a little omphaloskepsis is in order. Specifically with regard to the blog. The blog’s been running for about seven years and although for much of that time it was inactive, some observations can be made.

I want to go to the toilet: Euphemisms and the euphemism treadmill

One of the wonderful things about language is the vast array of choices you are presented with to convey your message, all of them effectively meaning the same thing, but presenting that meaning in different ways. Even leaving aside intonation (try saying the phrase ‘I did not say he beat his wife’ and emphasising one word in the phrase, you can convey seven different messages with little effort) there are so many ways to convey subtly different messages just in your selection of words.

Wasting Time

One of the lovely things about the interwebs is stumbling across a website that is informative or interesting, but inherently useless. One of my favourites among these fascinating but pointless sites is listverse, a website that specialises in providing “Top Ten” lists of the most gruesome murders, hidden secrets of Egyptian Pharaohs, things you didn’t know about the fast food industry and so on.

The damn thing is a time sink, I just went over there to check some examples of lists and spent 20 minutes looking through “10 Mind-Blowing Things That Happened Last Month”. Number one on that list is that the town of Tisdale in Canada had to drop the town slogan that it had been using since 1958. The slogan, “Tisdale: the land of rape and honey” referred to the main products of the region, rapeseed being an older name for canola.

Spider Dunstan's Teeth - How to Order

Spider Dunstan’s Teeth, the new novella by Shane C Curran, is now available for preorder through Amazon, iBooks, Kobo and Nook. Get in now and order early before they are sold out!

And now also available through Smashwords in just about any format you could want!

Set for Release 9 September!

Due to popular demand, my newest creation, Spider Dunstan's Teeth is available for prepurchase at you favourite ebook retailer. Order early and order often is my advice.

Check out these links;

Amazon
iBooks
Kobo

And of course visit my author page at Smashwords or Goodreads!

And to tantalise you, here is an extract;

Spider Dunstan’s Song Lyrics

After just a weeny amount of encouragement, I’ve finally decided that I will publish my novella “Spider Dunstan’s Teeth” after all. It’s a fairly simple little story about a couple of guys in Melbourne’s western suburbs in the early 1980s. Yes, there is an autobiographical element to it, but I hold the view that all writing is at least partly autobiographical, so there.

The heroes of the story - Micky and Leroy - find themselves in all manner of strife as they steal cars, go partying, do drugs and generally have a good time. The setting is an important element of the story, that period in the early 1980s holds fond memories for me and I’ve tried to convey some of those memories in the story. It seems to me now that life was somehow freer back then. That might be just the passing of time casting a sympathetic glow, but I know for certain that there was less political correctness for example. It was easier to say what’s on your mind without fear of being trampled by social justice warriors.

God III, The Fisking

Faithful Reader, for the last few days I have had quite some feedback on my post God and Spider Dunstan, a whimsical musing on the subject of God resulting from my interaction with believers over the last few weeks.

One among your number even saw fit to pen me a riposte detailing my errors and general waywardness in the form of a fisking. Said correspondent being a little reclusive, I have agreed to allow them to retain their anonymity and shall refer to them only as ‘Withburga’. As I am sure you all know, St Withburga was a virgin Benedictine nun who established a nunnery after her father died in battle. She is not the patron saint of fast food, although she ought to be.

God II - The Sequel

There was much comment on my last post, both on facebook and by email, on the topic of devout atheism and whether or not it might be an oxymoron. Sadly, nobody commented on the blog itself. Yes, that is a hint.

Definitions being important and on the off chance that Boxsell is reading this, I’ll start by explaining that an oxymoron is not a stupid person hyperventilating, but is in fact an apparently self-contradictory statement. It’s often used as a sort of literary device - “cruel to be kind” is a well known example - and the oxymoron is often used for humorous effect - Oscar Wilde’s “I can resist anything except temptation” leaps to mind - but the word oxymoron has, in recent times, come to be more often associated with accidental incongruity. The old standby being “Military Intelligence”, but Donald Trump noting that “although the budget was unlimited I exceeded it” also seems to work.

God and Spider Dunstan.

For the last several weeks I have been accommodated at the expense of the Australian government in a setting that has allowed me to have regular conversations with persons of a religious bent. Actual priests, ministers and reverends as well as some well-meaning if somewhat pious chaps who choose to adopt the appellation “lay” as they are without official registration in their respective churches.

I am always fond of chatting with someone that disagrees with me on a topic that interests me. It's always possible that I might be wrong and it's usually the case that even if I am not corrected, I am given something to think about. As a devout atheist, I find religion endlessly fascinating and these conversations, while they have not for some time provided me with any additional existential enlightenment, do often cast additional light on the nature of religions, religiosity and its devotees.

Three Things

Hello Faithful Blog Readers

There are three big news items today. The least important is the shenanigans going on in Europe. The most honest analysis of Brexit that I have seen is James Altucher's article on Linkedin that you can find here. As usual, James is pretty much spot-on in his whimsical, off-hand assessment.

The second piece of news is that Double Time has finally been published on Amazon. This gives everyone a chance to go and buy another copy. Buy early and buy often is my advice. Don't forget to rate it and leave a review.

The third piece of news is that my second book, a novella of about 20,000 words called Spider Dunstan's Teeth, is complete and now with the editorial team at 138 Israeli Chikenz Inc. I expect it will be ready for publication in a few weeks. Stay tuned, I may post a preview next week!

Listed in the Premium Catalog

The big news for today is that my little foray into writerdom has been accepted into the smashwords "Premium Catalog".

Sadly, this is more a reflection of the fact that it is correctly formatted than a commentary on the content of the story, still it is a nice step forward.

And don't forget to get your order in at kobo-rakuten

Or ibooks

Or Barnes and Noble

Or at Smashwords itself

Birthdays

When you have only ever had two birthdays - and you don't really remember either of them - the impending arrival of a third birthday is a matter of some moment. For at least a month now, the Bullfrog has been eagerly anticipating her third birthday.

Belgium and Belgians

Since the resurrection of the blog, I have been getting a disproportionate number of hits from Belgium. I assumed that this is due to the many Belgians that now find their life oddly empty and shallow without my wit and bonhomie to enliven it.

The chikenz on the other hand observed that my erstwhile employer most probably has a small team of crack agents monitoring my every move to ensure that I do not do anything that would harm their endeavours.

I was amused to hear this and it did wonders for my self esteem, but I explained to the chikenz that my former employer is not sufficiently organised to undertake such an task and that, even if they were, the likelihood of them finding anything interesting on my blog is remote.

"Ah yes," says the chikenz with a tone of finality that brooks no argument, "but some other people find your blog interesting..."

The ellipsis hangs in the air ominously and I decide that this is the sort of logic against which I am completely helpless. I agree that a small coterie of senior personnel at my erstwhile employer are, at this very moment, secretly studying my blog (Hello Jos, Paul, Piet, Pete and Wim).

Oh Dear

I have just been told that the link to the bullfrog's karaoke version of Oni no Pantsu (The Demon's Underpants) in this post was not working.

I have fixed it in the post and here it is again just in case.

Updating the Scorecard

I mentioned earlier that I was undertaking a number of tasks during my extended vacation. In summary and in no special order, those tasks are;

• Improve my Japanese
• Spend more time with the bullfrog
• Improve my guitar
• Grow a beard
• Write more

So, I think it might be worthwhile to quickly recap my progress on these matters.

Regarding Satan’s Underpants

I recall, I would have been about 18 or 19, driving my brother to some place or another, being stopped at a traffic light and having my brother announce apropos of nothing much at all, that he knows a poem. My brother is 12 years younger than me, so he would have been only 6 or 7. At that age, I remember him as an intensely serious child, so when he said to me “I know a poem” I braced myself for all six stanza’s of John Donne’s A Nocturnal Upon S. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day.

The Most Popular Car Park in Japan

Give me a minute to get to the point.

A few days ago, while researching limb ratio of gibbons, I came across an interesting website.

As I’m sure you all know, the maps of the world that we are used to seeing are created using the Mercator Projection. This gives us nice, rectangular maps that can be folded neatly and used for origami in our spare time. Unfortunately it also gives a distorted view of the relative size of various places.

What Happened Next

The last four months have been entertaining and instructive. The Bullfrog has been entertaining and The Chikenz has been instructive.

When my erstwhile employer took it upon themselves to advise me that my services were no longer economic, The Chikenz first reaction was “Thank God for that.”

Her second reaction was “Now you have to do some housework.”

What Happened

It’s been nearly 3 years since my last blog post and about 5 years since I posted regularly. In that time there have been thousands of emails, letters and packages all on the same theme. What happened to the blog?