Idea Fix - The Blog

A lot of shit is written about Star Wars. So, I thought I’d write about who ‘is’ The Shit in Star Wars. Yes, none other than your friendly neighborhood Ruler of the Universe Emperor Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious. I mean, what a legend!

He got rid of those pesky religious nut jobs and terrorists, the Jedi. He brought much needed order to chaos in the Republican shit pile of discord. Some of Palpatine’s innovations include separating Church and State, getting rid of the ineffectual Senate, founding the mighty Galactic Empire and being an excellent multi tasker on many political fronts like domestic security, industrial relations, military strategy and foreign policy. Add to this being the boss of unruly minister without portfolio, Darth Vader, and you have a mighty accomplished political animal.

Played with aplomb, in Lucas’s at times unflattering portrait of the Galactic Empire, by Ian McDiarmid, I think Palpatine is being given a raw deal! By none other than that channel for all things Star Wars, Mr. George Lucas himself. Palpatine is constantly portrayed as Evil, when he clearly is a more balanced figure working towards Galactic unity, strength and wholeness. Palpatine digs both sides of the Force, so is much more balanced than that Galactic dwarf and Buddhist rip off artist, Yoda. He appreciates art, politics, women, sex, intrigue and power like any normal, healthy person. He also manages to keep his thoughts hid from annoying mind reading Jedi pests, that hijacked the Republic, while he goes about saving it and creating something new and better in the Empire.

Here at Idea Fix, we’d like to open the Emperor Palpatine Fan Club, the only one on the net. Probably not, but let me know others? A place to share and care about that misunderstood, humble Galactic ruler with da cool cloaks and da even cooler rhetoric.

Add your comments and send me Palpatine poop to post here on Idea Fix.

What up with this new animated Star Wars movie? It looks shite. Lucas, stop playing with Jar Jar Binks genitals and let new blood who appreciate the Dark Side as well as Light, direct a new episode each of the famed 7, 8 and 9 in the Star Wars saga. And bring the damn Emperor back, as a ghost if necessary, to train new Sith. That sounds sexy.

If you want a drink after 2am in Melbourne, its going to be a dry argument.

In an retrograde decision all Melbourne clubs now have curfews because John Brumby can’t control law and order in his own State. The clear way to deal with additional violence on city streets is more and better paid Police patrolling the CBD on weekends and maybe even implementing a people’s militia to keep control. The redirection at train stations of large gangs (mostly of Ethnic origins) from the CBD, would be a good idea too.

Not some absurd return to 1920’s prohibition. This decision will ruin Melbourne’s cosmoploitan bar and club reputation that is world famous, all becuase the Premiere can’t control the citzens in his own state.

Mr Brumby if you can’t control your Sovereign territory, maybe a people’s militia’s needs to step into the breech, under a Transcendental Fascist structure, that could easily and peacefully keep law and order in the streets, with a little help and backing from comrades in the Police. Mr Brumby, do not deprive Victorians of their freedoms and liberties, all because you can’t keep a handle on youth Violence!

And what of the underlying issues behind youth Aggression? The youth of today are so Violent for simple reasons, i.e. they have nothing to live for. No ideals, no existential spiritual path, no leaders, no hero’s (except empty headed sport stars and moronic celebrities), basically, no future. Working with no discernible goal, empty shopping at Malls and getting drunk from depression on weekends, is the spiritual vista open to todays youth. Tiny cogs in the giant Capitalist machine, the endless “Hell with air conditioning” is their present reality

Another future is possible!

And it does not begin by restricting the freedoms of all noble citizens of Victoria.

I was interviewed a few months back by journalist Rebecca Harkins Cross. Her article is featured in the current issue of Filmink magazine (out now). Its all about the state of play in the Australian Censorship debates and related Freedom of Speech issues.

Since last year’s banning of seven films by the OFLC, I have been formulating and researching a paper on the issue of Australian Censorship. It is to be delivered at MUFF 9’s Academy, with our own debate to follow after it’s delivery. Hopefully, we can record this debate on video.

Harkins Cross’ article in Filmink starts with an interesting layman’s introduction to censorship in Australia with interviews with the likes of David Haines famous porn producer (of “Buffy Down Under”) and ex-censor. The absurdity of different government bodies at State and Federal levels creating excess bureaucracy is covered, all eventually falling under the aegis of The OFLC.

Megan Spencer is quoted as an anti censorship campaigner, though her actual credentials in this area go little beyond the spoken or written word. Margaret Pomeranz, who staged the cool (though, unsuccessful) civil disobedience screening of Larry Clark’s masterpiece Ken Park is also quoted well, condemning censorship. David Stratton is also revealed as an anti censorship campaigner from his days at the SFF, also covered in his new ‘golden showers’ titled book “I Peed on Fellini”

In the article, I talk about the attempted David Irving MUFF screening separating the true anti-censorship campaigners - from those who just want to un-censor the work of those they admire - which raises the important (and divisive) issue of unpopular speech. Harkins Cross also reports on MUFF’s civil disobedience success with a Tony Comstock illegal screening a few years back and our history in this area. She forgets to mention MUFF has had films banned almost ever single year by the fucking wowsers at the OFLC and we even had censorship/banned films as our theme at MUFF 2. Most stuff we want to play at MUFF, of a sexual nature, is classic 70’s porn. Most of it is tame, has artistic merit and funny classic kitsch value. All the while, X rated films (supposedly illegal) are for sale everywhere at all sex shops in Melbourne and Sydney. Why is the law enforced at MUFF and not in sex shops Australia wide, we asked at MUFF 8? To no answer, by the way…

Not covered in the article either is details of the banning of 70K, a documentary by and about Melbourne Graffiti artists from MUFF 8. This is the height of the Nanny State in my eyes!

Also, Harkins Cross doesn’t fully explore the internet making mute the issue of censorship debates. From any internet terminal you can download images and movies from hard core and S&M porn and just about anything else from the weird world of sexuality. The pornucopia and freedom of the internet makes the idea of censorship void and just like the sage words of former censor, turned porn producer David Haines, “… like putting a finger in the dam”.

The usual idiots at Family Associations are quoted and they can take their Christian ethics and move back to the Middle ages with the Muslims, if they like. They are all sheep fast asleep, reproducing the prole’s and world polluters of tomorrow. But some of us are awake, in the ‘now’ and seek libertine freedoms beyond mere Christian ethics. And since what one does in one’s own home or in one’s own time is one’s own business, Family Groups should stick, like Jesus said, to “going forth and multiplying”, while others face the exciting realities of the modern world, uncensored.

In some good news, the OFLC has recently been disbanded and made into a classification body, as suggested 3 years ago in the MUFF manifesto see article 31 here.

What the new bodies will mean all depends on the enforcement issue. In this supposed enlightened Rudd State surely a bit of Blair style leniency and promiscuity should be encouraged?

Do you know we can’t make porn films legally here in this country?

Tom McEvoy and Anna Brownfield should also have been interviewed about their ground breaking cinematic work for the censorship article.

All round though, Harkins Cross’ article is good, informative and timely, fore running a much needed public debate at, say, one of the larger film festivals, to bring this issue into the foreground of the film community, where it needs to be.

In an interesting development covered in the Filmink article, the Sydney Film Festival has been granted an exemption to play refused classification works from the Attorney General. That is great news. Does that apply to MIFF and MUFF in Victoria, as well, we wonder? I intend to program some appropriately interesting films at MUFF 9 to find out. Along, with what I hope will be my magisterial anti censorship document and forum. This should all go towards furthering and expanding the censorship debate in Oz, don’t you think?

If anyone knows how to attach a pdf her at WordPress, post a comment and let me know.

Just to be naughty, here are three images - that took me five minutes to download from the net - that all break the stupid censorship laws in this country. The images are of penetrative sex, spanking and bondage. If these images are not to your taste or not what you’d like to defend - maybe stay out of the censorship debate. And, keep in mind, porn is only one avenue of the complex censorship issue.

What a mockery this recent inquest in to the Death of Lady Di was.

I mean who is going to believe that a British court is going to be unbiased while looking at evidence that could implicate the Royal Family in a murder plot? The court would be guilty of a crime itself, like Lese Majeste. I mean if Prince Phillip was found Gun in hand after shooting Di in the head, he would still be declared innocent. The British courts on certain issues are simply corrupted by the powers that be.

My opinion of the whole conspiracy theory is… it probably was an MI5 job, with Prince Phillip giving the green light. There was that ex English Spy Richard Tomlinson, who spoke of a plan using flashing blinding light to kill naughty Mr. Molosovic and that he suggests the plan was transferred to Di and dead as a Dodi.

Not only that… I’ll go further. I think Prince Phillip and MI5 were right in organising the hit on Lady Di. This stupid women was about the pollute the English Royal blood line with Arab blood (there were rumours of her pregnancy?) from that playboy Dodi Al Fayed. The future king of England having a half Arab brother?!…With what is about to play out in this century? Are you fucking kidding, m’Lord?

They had to bump her off. In the good old days they would have just cut off your head. Now they arrange an ‘accident’. Di was a fool to mess with such forces. Hadn’t she ever read an English history book? She should have remained single or got the blessing of the House of Windsor on a new beau and had no kids no matter what. Silly bitch invited disaster…

London may be turning into Londonistan in the lower classes, but the Royal bloodline must be kept pure at any cost. Lady Di found that out the hard way.

See here for interesting wiki on the conspiracy issue.

Trouble on the roof of World. We have seen riots in Tibet, crack downs by the Chinese authorities, media outrage, censorship from China plus the Chinese Government’s own position on the struggle. This all comes conveniently during China’s Olympic Year. Designed, I imagine to make Western democracies Olympic teams reconsider their travel plans this August.

So what are we dealing with?

First you have China. A Communist country slowly going Capitalist with a vast swarming population and a human rights record that would make Genghis Khan blush. China makes claims on Tibet that go back to the Ming dynasty and beyond.

Then you have the idea of a free Tibet ruled spiritually by non violence recommending religious leader, the Dalai Lama in exile. Many Tibetans claim China is an invading brutal Colonial force and want a Free Tibet under the Lama’s rule. China claims the Lama is backed by the CIA and MI5 to put a wedge in the Western part of China’s land.

What is needed here, as I have said what is needed in the Middle East, is a real U.N… with Teeth. An International peace keeping force that wields real power and will chill out both sides and bring a level of Western decency and civilisation back into this ugly situation.

I consider Tibet a Western asset, so I back the Dalai Lama. The Indo European’s from which most Europeans are descended are supposed to have appeared in this region of the world thousands of years ago. The writings of George Dumezil, Mircea Eliade and many others document this immigration of the Ancient tribes. Moving through India, the Middle East and then into Europa and Scandanavia. The Indo-European’s are the true owners of Tibet. The rule of the Dalai Lama will not be perfect, but as the West backs him, he will be our puppet in the region and his rule is vastly preferable to Chinese barbarism.

I support the Boycott of the Olympics and applaud all who have tried to dim the flame from these Eastern fools. The flame parade is now in doubt in many countries, it looks like, including Oz. China should not be welcome as hosts of the Olympics with their retrogarde antics, death penalty frenzy and the brutal oppression in Tibet and of Falun Gong. The rumblings about Taiwan are also disturbing. Move the Olympics to another civilised venue, like the last venue Greece or even Sydney, again?!

Fuck China. Fuck the Chinese people, too! Simply, for allowing their Government to behave in such a brutish way. After over 60 years of Communist crimes and atrocities, we must blame the Chinese people for their Government. The Germans copped enough shit for their 12 year Nazi regime. But no one points out the slavish, peasant minded Chinese people and their slobbering and groveling to this suckling pig of an abusive Government. I love China and its customs but it is about time the Government of China and its people woke up and see what century they are living in.

Tibet is ours.

Following the advice of the astute Wilhelm Reich, I highly recommend getting regurlar massages to all. Reich, amongst other things, recommended limited Reichian psychotherapy but also regurly massages as a replacement to release the bodies emotional ‘armor’ and free up Orgone energy.

Orgone energy is very much like the Chinese concept of Chi. That’s why I hunt out the wonderful hands of our Oriental friends at most malls or at special city boutiques when I can, to get a thorough release of Orgone/Chi energy.

You will find these massage artists at most Melbourne malls. Most can’t speak English, so don’t expect to discuss Reich with them, but they give excellent long remedial therapy to those in need.

Reich is a most interesting character, a true Renaissance man, mad scientist and true libertarian. I highly recommend his books, especially those on Sexuality. I don’t fully agree with his critique of Fascism. But some of his criticisms of old school Fascism in the 20’s and 30’s are indeed true and on the money and have to be overcome in any future regeneration of these political ideas. I’ve always wanted to get an Orgone Energy accumulator in my House (or basement) . Any one know where you can get them in Australia?

I think I owe Idea Fix another post on the 911 conspiracy but let’s ignore the window dressing for a moment and get to the heart of the matter. The War on Terror is fake. It is orchestrated by the US and her (select) allies as a ‘Strategy of Tension’.

The notion of a Strategy of Tension is a post ww2 Italian fascist concept of such groups as the Ordine Nouovo (New Order) and Avanguardia Nazionale (National Vanguard) who had links with the CIA and other anti-communist groups. The basic thesis is: to set off bombs or commit terrorist acts and blame others for your actions in an attempt to bring legitimacy and a sense of being under attack to your cause. A series of bombings and assassinations occurred in Italy in the 70’s and 80’s (known as the ‘years of lead’) followed by sensational trials. The purpose of the bombings in Italy then and worldwide now… is to bring in a more authoritarian right-wing government or institute a situation for a fascist revolutionary ‘moment’.

This also feeds into ideas of the State Of Emergency developed by Schmitt best represented in our age by the colour coded warning system in the US.

It seems fairly obvious that something like a Strategy of Tension has been adopted by major covert groups in the West to bring about its own Neo-conservative fascist agenda. This can take many forms, from deliberate covert organisation of your own terrorist attacks against yourself to allowing already motivated Arab or Muslim groups to succeed in their aims, rather than foil them.

It’s clear that a major terrorist attack in the States before the US election would change the political land scape in favor of McCain. Whether this card is played remains to be seen. Maybe, Hillary will still get up. Or maybe true democracy might interfere with Obama? Who knows…? Does it even matter? If Obama was against the agenda and tried to reveal anything like this, he wouldn’t last to the end of the week. Bang, bang.

Regardless, to me it is clear that the war on terror is a fake. Most Muslim and Arab citizens of the West are peace loving God fearing do goody peasants. I can wager that given just a small group of three or four people you could pull off major attacks in any Capital city world wide… and no one need kill themselves in the attack either. Give any motivated intelligent person a week or two’s planning and trains and trams are easy targets for Strategy of Tension actions. You can even get idiots of your choice to do it for you and don’t even tell them what they are really doing…like the conspiracy theory behind the London Bombings (more on that in another post).

Just because Palestinians are so frustrated by their Israeli masters that they choose to blow themselves up, this does not mean suicide bombing is as popular in the Arab world as the West makes out…

Have you heard the rumours or read the online stories of taxi drivers and general motorists in Iraq being pulled over by US military groups and held for twenty minutes away from their vehicles. Then apologised to and set free. One suspicious Iraqi looked in his car boot and found a bomb! Placed there he presumed by the US. Most probably drive on and boom. How many suicide bombers have been involuntary stooges of the US’s Strategy of Tension in Iraq? Who knows? See here and here and here for reports.

Why would the US do this? As explained above, Strategy of Tension. A quagmire, nightmare and dystopia in Iraq is what the US wants at least temporarily. Endless military spending and endless need for vigilance, tension and emergency.

They say there is a coming US financial crash. maybe, but not a real one. If China and Saudi Arabia dared to really withdraw their money from America. America could just renege on its debts? Who the hell is going to make the US pay up? Really, they are the Bank, people… like in a game of poker at a casino. The House never loses.

The tensions rise, fear, emergency, crisis, spectacle, disinformation, lies, truth…they all combine in a political and violence symphony of the highest order. They are bringing about the ‘moment’, mentioned above… some in high places have been waiting for this ‘moment’ for some time.

This moment is coming. Our question at Idea Fix, why fight the indubitability of the ‘moment’? But lets think and act on how can we make any new historically disclosed ‘moment’ as Transcendental, Authentic and Ontological as possible? For we are tense with fear at the moment, that this ‘moment’ will be no solution at all.

Ashley Alexendra Dupre is a bit of a hottie. She screwed NY Governor Eliot Spitzer and the poor schmuck had to resign over it. I love sex scandals and politicians… it proves their human. I always think they shouldn’t resign, they should say “Mea culpa… fuck it, I was horny, lonely and I have lots of cash. Geez, I gave into temptation…”

I mean Bill Clinton went up in my accounting books for getting blow jobs from Monika Lewinsky. I remember thinking at the time, I’m getting better pussy than the President. Lewinsky was a bit of a scrubber.

Dupre is better looking though. Through her charming Jewish pimp Jason Itzler she has been linked to other celebs like (of course) Charlie Sheen and she even has her own song out What We Want and a myspace page.

Here is a story on Dupre.

Her pimp Itzler also has his own myspace too that’s worth a look.

I’m sure Spitzer enjoyed his few hot minute with her. What a shame sexual honesty and politics don’t mix. Who gives a fuck who a politician fucks in private, it’s who they fuck in their political life that matters, huh?

Come on, he’s surely the coolest Dictator this Feb? Castro doesn’t die, he retires and lets his brother take over. I’m sure that’s not how the CIA imagined him going out from the sixties onwards, they apparently tried to kill 638 times. Thats got to be a record, Guinness? Retired and beloved in his eighties, Castro is Cuba. They say Emperor’s don’t die in their sleep, but Castro just might.

Castro is a great revolutionary leader, with some slight reservations. i.e. his misguided abuses of homosexuals and his ill treatment of some anti communists and dissidents. That aside he is a true classic Political figure to be openly admired. He stood up to the US for 50 years and still lives to write his autobiography and smoke his famous Cubans in his 80’s. While an avowed socialist, then Marxist/Leninist communist, some have noted a certain Fascist ’spirit de corp’ to his dictatorship of over 50 years not that dissimilar to Mussolinian notions of corporatism, national syndicalism, charismatic leadership and myth, land reform and many other issues of comparison. Indeed, Castro has mixed ideas from both the Left and Right in his own mix tape of a decade’s long reign at Cuba’s DJ decks, lately embracing even some aspects of Capitalism and the free market.

Friend of the poor People of Cuba and Che Guevra, victorious over thrower of the corrupt regime of Batista, Castro strikes a distinct pose in late 20th century politics and casts a guiding shadow into our own century. The Bay Of Pigs, The Cuban Missle Crisis, the opening of Cuban prisons and expelling of their contents on the USA. Great (and dangerous) historical moments all.

He has the air of a true revolutionary, too. When Forbes magazine put him amongst the Wealthiest people on Earth list claiming he owned Cuba’s businesses, Castro got pissed off and considered suing, “If they can prove that I have a bank account abroad, with $900m, with $1m, $500,000, $100,000 or $1 in it, I will resign.”. Some revolutionaries are exactly that. They don’t want money, they don’t want swiss bank accounts with gold, they want justice, they want freedom for a Volk. Sometimes, they get a little carried away in their zeal for their specific political project, we admit… but their true calling as revolutionaries cannot be doubted.

Here is his abstract from wikipedia (with my own tiny edits):

Castro first attracted attention in Cuban political life through nationalist critiques of Batista and the United States political and corporate influence in Cuba (Good on him). He gained an ardent, but limited, following and also drew the attention of the authorities.(Yikes)^[6] He eventually led the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was captured, tried, incarcerated and later released. (Boo hoo) He then travelled to Mexico^[7][8] to organize and train for the guerrilla invasion of Cuba that took place in December 1956 (Yea!).

Since his assumption of power in 1959 Castro has evoked both praise and condemnation (hooray, hooray, whinge, whinge). Opponents characterize Castro as a dictator, (Dictator… or Philosopher King?) claiming that he has not risen to power through open, public elections, and some contend that his rule is illegitimate because the socialist system itself was not established through what they considered to be legal means. (Crap, Power is self legitimising or at least can be made easily so, see Schmitt) ^[9] Supporters, on the other hand, see Castro as a charismatic leader^[10] whose presidential authority has been acquired through legitimate elections. (Yes, Like us here at Idea Fix, Go Fidel baby!)^[11]

Outside of Cuba, Castro has been defined by his relationship with the United States and the former Soviet Union, both of whom courted Cuban attentions as part of their own global political agenda. (Double Dating?) While Cuba’s relations with countries of the Soviet bloc were generally cordial during the Cold War, the Castro-led government has had an antagonistic relationship with the United States since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 by U.S.-backed forces (bye, bye JFK).

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Cuba’s one major Latin American ally, Sandinista Nicaragua, in the early 1990s, the Cuban government found itself in a precarious spot. However, in recent years, Castro has found new regional allies in Latin America. Regional socialist and nationalist figures such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia have been ready allies (That’s right boys, just March Northward into North America and we’ll have something). Castro also holds currently the title of Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement  (and why not too!).

At home, Fidel Castro has overseen the implementation of various economic policies, leading to the rapid centralization of Cuba’s economy, land reform, collectivization and mechanization of agriculture, and the expropriation of leading Cuban industries. Opponents claim that these changes have at best maintained Cuba’s pre-1959 level of development, but at an “extraordinary” cost to the overall welfare of Cubans. (sound like pretty good ideas to us)^[12] Conversely, supporters attribute the U.S. embargo for some or all of Cuba’s shortcomings, but maintain that Cuba’s economy has expanded and grown at a more than acceptable rate since the revolution (Fuck the US and its sham democracy).

The expansion of publicly funded health care and education has been a cornerstone of Castro’s domestic political program (Better than the US’s). Cuba ranks better than many countries on the United Nations’ list of countries by infant mortality rate, which is claimed by Castro’s supporters as a success of his government. (More babies live under Castro, cool)

So Castro Enjoy being Idea Fix’s Feb centrefold Dictator of the Month.

You deserve it!

He’s Even trying out now for American Idol. See below…

I followed a controversy late last year regarding Morrissey’s views on immigration in Britain and Identity politics. It stemmed from an interview he did with the NME, where he complained that Britain had lost its cultural identity due to its excessive multicultural policies and open immigration.

Here are some of his quotes on the issue:

“Also with the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous.

“If you travel to Germany, it’s still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity. But travel to England and you have no idea where you are.”

“You have to be sensible about everything in life. You can’t say ‘Everybody come into my house, sit on the bed, have what you like, do what you like’. It wouldn’t work.”

He also stressed his anti racist position, claiming there is a difference between the loss of National cultural identity through over immigration and that of racist beliefs, which Morrissey claims he finds absurd and untenable.

Having been to London four times over the past 20 years …the last in 2004. It is hard to disagree that the England of Empire and political standing the world, of its National cultural, artistic and even pop culture significance … is now dead or dying. As a colony or outpost of this former Empire, where do we in Australia stand in this quagmire?

Here are two articles on the Morrissey controversy.

Article 1

Article 2

Morrissey songs in the past had hinted at his interest in right wing ideas with tracks like Bengali in Platforms about an immigrant who doesn’t “belong here” and National Front Disco with its catch cry of “England, for the English”. All these issues now seem to have embroiled him in the UK immigration debate.

It raises interesting issues…

Where do you draw the line with immigration? A limited multiculturism like in Australia is acceptable, but how long should it be allowed to continue unchecked? Until a nation’s whole identity is altered?. Should a country to loose its cultural identity with excessive influxes of refugees from any culture, any where in the world? Isn’t Japan great because its full of Japanese people in touch with their own culture? There is also the issue of originary population’s general acceptance of multiculturism? And the issue of cultural hegemonic integrity raised by new immigrants sticking exclusively to their foreign national, cultural and ethnic values and not even adopting, say, the National language? Or the issue of harboring religious ideas at odds with the Wests current campaign against extreme Islam?

The influx of refugees from future resource wars, third world misery and poverty and the potential of global warming displacement is clearly a sign of the times.Above all this an ominous Malthusian concern for general human overpopulation and its sustainability on our Gaia. All these issues need to be explored beyond the blinkered impulses of talk back radio shows and other forms of reactionary media, they need to be raised in youthful, new, vital and invigorating political paths, realities and discourses.

I hope to explore some of these issues here on Idea Fix in the future.

In the meantime enjoy Morrissey’s new Greatest Hits, out now and featuring a cool new song “That’s How People Grow up”. Indeed!