Racism, Nick Flint, Hatefulness, and Christmas Trees

1. Started watching an episode of Review With Miles Barlow.

2. Amused by the first segment. Myles Barlow (Phil Lloyd) is working on rating the act of killing Kyle Sandilands. 

In order to get himself ready for the act, he enlists Anthony Hayes to pretend to be Sandilands, and has Dan Wylie play Jackie. O. 

3. Looked at a photo of Kyle Sandilands.

Myles Barlow said he wanted Hayes for the job, because he looks so much like Sandilands.

 It's true!

4. Looked at Google Images to compare again. Here's Sandilands, and here's Hayes. 

5. Liked John Jarratt's cameo on the episode.  

6. Amused by part of racism segment—the idea that it's socially acceptable to say prejudice things about some groups but not others.

The example on the show is some guys are watching sports and make a disparaging remark about poms. This is seen as okay. Then Myles Barlow uses the term "darkie", and he gets glares. 

7. Figured it's probably more okay to criticize nationality than skin color.

8. Thought that it's also usually more socially okay to criticize groups who've often been the aggressors in history more so than it's okay to criticize groups who've often been the victims.  

9. Learned from the segment that it's hard to be racist in a multicultural town or city. It's hard to get away from all the races you're racist against.

Though that's only the case with extreme racists who have a strong practice of discrimination.

People with more subtle racism can get by. They don't avoid businesses owned by the races they dislike. They get what they want, or need, from the people they hate; then badmouth them later. 

10. Finished the episode.

It's probably one of my favorite episodes, of the show, that I've seen so far.

11. Started to watch another episode.

This one has Americans; though I'm not sure if they're real Americans or Americans played by Australian actors.

12. Looked on IMDb.

One of the actors, John Weigand, is American. I can't tell about the others.They don't have much biography information on IMDb. 

Nick Flint, another actor playing an American has been on All Saints and Home and Away. That leads me to think he's likely Australian. But he could also be an American living in Australia.

OR he could just be one of my Australian actors who  does well at imitating the American accent.

13. Saw that Nick Flint has a showreel on YouTube. He's described as an Australian actor who's relocated to New York.  

14. Started to watch the showreel, and realized that, in a mild way, Flint reminds me of David Tennant.

15. Learned from the showreel that, on Home and Away, Nick Flint's character was engaged to Sally Fletcher (Kate Ritchie).

16. Liked the segment about hatred on the episode of Review with Myles Barlow.

Myles does various things to get people in his community to hate him—admits to being a sex offender, gives people parking tickets, talks loudly on the phone at a movie theater, works as a telemarketer, etc.

The thing that stood out to me is that the people who acted out against Myles were as awful as him. Their reaction to his negative traits and behavior were pretty much equal to Myles' bad behavior.

It reminds me a bit of what I read about Clementine Ford earlier this week.

I think sometimes people respond to villainous (or simply annoying) behavior in a strong and decent way. Then other people use bad (or annoying) behavior as an excuse to act like assholes.

It's like the child whose bullying behavior is captured and uploaded to YouTube. Then he gets hate mail and death threats from a bunch of zealous adults.

Yeah. Sometimes fire needs to be fought with fire. Though it might help to see if simple water might help. Or at least make sure the fire that's fighting the fire isn't bigger than the original fire.

17. Remembered what I read in one of my old posts today. I had overreacted to a tween's rude behavior—scolding him even after he had apologized. I had a lot of regret after the incident. As I should have!

I guess that's the key. React, but don't overreact.  

18. Looked at our lovely Christmas tree.

It's the first I've ever had in my entire life.

I think a Jew having a Christmas tree is kind of like an Australian trick or treating on Halloween.

There are mixed feelings. On one hand, there's that attitude, it's fun and lovely. I love the idea of it. What's the problem with our family participating?  But then there's also some guilt for giving into the dominant culture.  

Yeah. I do think Jews to Christians are like Australians to Americans. The mixed feelings of Australians towards Americans reminds me very much of my feelings of being Jewish in a Christian-dominated culture. 

19. Figured my own personal feelings have matched the feelings of Australia, as a whole, towards the United States.

I've seen Australians who want to move to America, love American culture, and want to embrace all things USA. That's been me at times in terms of Christmas. I wanted to be a part of it.

I've seen Australians who are very antagonistic towards American cultural imperialism.They work hard to keep Americanisms out of their lives and out of their children's lives. They correct their children if they say pharmacy instead of chemist. It's fairy floss NOT cotton candy. They go to the theatre not the theater. 

There have been times that I've been that way about Christmas—wanting to throw daggers at those ignorant fools who wished me a Merry Christmas.

I remember my annoyance with my high school chorus teacher because Chanukah songs were underrepresented in the holiday program.

20. Decided now my feelings about it have been pretty much reduced to aesthetics, cost, and workload
.

I love how the Christmas tree looks, but I don't love the price tag (insert Jewish joke here), and....

Well, the work wasn't so bad. Jack and I put the tree together while listening to music. He did most of the work, which was nice. And it took only about an hour.  I'm a bit stressed, though, about taking it apart. And where do we store it?  We have various rodents visiting our attic, so I don't want it there.

I guess we could put it back in the garage?

Anyway.....

One thing I thought of was that since we're not official members of the Christmas-Club, we don't have to follow the tradition rules. I was thinking it could be more of a winter tree than Christmas tree; and maybe we'll keep it up until March. We'll take some of the lights and ornaments off. 

Maybe we can decorate the tree for Valentine's Day. Although that would probably result in more money being spent.

21. Wanted to mention that we put our little koala pinchers on the tree. That's what we have for ornaments for now—that and our Disney World MagicBands.  Well, and there are a few other things we found around the house.

22. Thought about how we live in a multicultural world; and people should celebrate what they want to celebrate; eat what they want to eat; watch what they want to watch, etc.

There are so many wonderful things out there. We shouldn't feel confined to our own culture.  

23. Hoped that, on balance, there are some Christians out there spinning a dreidel. 

And for every Australian who chooses to trick or treat, hopefully there's an American eating Tim Tams, listening to Jimmy Barnes, or addictively watching Home and Away.

24. Learned about the Bill Leak controversy on Twitter.

Apparently he's a cartoonist, and he made a racist comic about Indians.

I don't get the cartoon.  

I can see why it might be offensive; though I don't understand what the joke is about.

25. Learned from Lord Wiki that Bill Leak is a portrait painter along with being a cartoonist. 

He's tried to win the Archibald Prize, but that hasn't happened to him yet.

26. Learned that this isn't the first time Leak has attracted controversy.

He got in trouble for equating Kevin Rudd to TinTin.

Why is that offensive?

I don't get it.

27. Learned that Bill Leak had a serious head injury in 2008...from a fall.

28. Offended by Bill Leak.

I went to his Twitter page; and saw his Tweet that goes along with the cartoon. He says, 

India and other developing nations are too stupid to handle renewable energy and should stick to coal.

WTF????

It's so racist that a part of me is thinking (hoping?) that he was being sarcastic...or ironic. Like that guy who suggested Irish people should eat their children. Or when Dame Edna dissed the idea of learning Spanish.

29. Doubted he was being ironic when I saw the next Tweet.

Again, I don't really fully understand the joke, but it's anti-Muslim, and anti-people who aren't mean to Muslims.

30. Thought about how we're all a little racist.

Then some people are a lot racist.

I think Bill Leak is probably in the latter group.

31. Started to watch another 2007 Tropfest film.

This one is called "A-Z".

32. Saw that the movie is animated.

It's maybe a South Park type animation?  I think instead of drawings, though, it uses cut out pieces of photographs.

33. Googled, and learned from Lord Wiki that South Park uses a style of animation called cutout.

34. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Charlie and Lola uses cutout animation.

35. Learned from Lord Wiki that South Park actually uses computers to achieve the look, but the first episode was the real deal.

36. Finished watching the movie.

I thought it was very bizarre.

It's like a dark-adult version of a short they'd play on Nick J. or the Disney Channel.

No! I know. It's like a Sesame Street segment—a dark version that involves koalas killed in a smoothie machine.

The whole thing is about a guy who's instructed to eat all his favorite animals (from A-Z) in the hopes that he'll turn vegetarian.

It's like vegetarian propaganda in the form of a demented alphabet book.

37. Couldn't find "A-Z" listed on IMDb. Nor can I find anything about the creator, Zenon Zohler.

38. Did find something about the narrator of the film. His name is Murray Hartin, and he has a website.

39. Learned that "A-Z" is a story written by Hartin.

40. Looked up the person who did the music for the film. It's a guy named Pat Drummond.

41. Learned from Lord Wiki that Drummond and Hartin were both part of something called "Naked Poets".

So "A-Z" wasn't their first adventure together.

42. Saw that there's a Naked Poets website.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online

For Jamie

One of my favorite American friends (Jamie) kindly asked if I'd do research on Australian Christmas and Chanukah traditions. Jamie is very interested in religious and holiday customs.

I wanted to please my friend....well, because I love her. But I felt a bit lazy about doing research on the subject. Plus, I think I've looked before, and I don't remember finding all that much. Or maybe that was wedding customs I looked at. I forget.

Anyway, I came up with a BETTER idea. I figured maybe people who read this blog could share their traditions. I know some of you are Australian, some are American, and some of you are neither. We can talk about our traditions. We can share and compare. If you don't want to share, that's okay. I shall still love you. But if you do share, I might love you a tiny bit more. Is that being too manipulative? Probably.

First, I'll share what I already know (or think I know) about the Australian December. First of all, it's summer at that time. There's no snow. We were in Port Stephens for Christmas 2007. I don't remember much. We ate a Christmas food that I picked up at the grocery store. Now I've forgotten exactly what it is. It was some type of cream. I thought you were supposed to eat it plain, but some kind Aussie tourist explained that you put it on cake/pudding.

I know in Australia, they do Christmas, and then Boxing Day on the 26th. In Sydney, there is the big Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. It's now sponsored by Rolex. Has it always been?

I think maybe Australians say Father Christmas instead of Santa Claus. I could be wrong about this.

I've heard that Australians go the seafood route, and often spend Christmas on the beach.

There are special Aussie Christmas songs. I've heard of The Three Drovers and Six White Booomers.

That's about all I know.

I'm going to share MY holiday traditions....because I'm so vain. Heaven forbid I do a post without talking about myself. Then I'm going to ask some questions that I hope you guys will answer.

When I was a child, we did the eight nights of Chanukah thing. Every night, my dad would light the Menorah and we'd sing the prayers. Then we'd sing the Dreidel song, and a really beautiful song called Maoz Tzur. I love that song. Wow. And I love the video that I just linked to. It features children from a variety of ethnic groups singing it. They sing so beautifully. I'm about to get goosebumps. I love the solo part.

After we did the candles and sang, we opened one gift each. Now a lot of Christian folks say Jews are lucky because we get eight nights instead of their one night. I kind of suspect you goyim are just trying to make us feel better because we don't get Santa Claus, a tree, candy canes, mistletoe....and Jesus is probably pissed at us as well. I see those looks of pity you guys give us. Oh, but how lucky you are. You get EIGHT nights.

Well, eight nights doesn't necessarily mean more gifts. I personally don't like it. The thing is we'd open all the fun stuff during the first few nights. Then during the last nights, we'd get the boring stuff....clothes and all that. Note: I was always the type of child to prefer toys and books to clothes.

These days, we do Chanukah all in one day. Now my older sister's family is much more religious than us. I think they probably do Chanukah every night. For the last few years, Tim, Jack, and I have completely bypassed the whole thing. We pretty much pretend it's not happening. There's no candles. There's no evening unwrapping of gifts. But one day a year, we get together with the grandparents, the aunts, uncles, and cousins. We do the Menorah together, and then we open gifts. During the past few years, we did Secret Santa. This year, we all agreed it would be best if we skip the adult gift exchange, and just buy gifts for the four children. In lue of the adult gifts.....Before our Chanukah party, we all drove to a place where we could donate gifts to a women's shelter. That was awesome. It felt SO good to give to people who needed it more than us. And I also have to admit it had been extremely fun for me to shop for the stuff.

During our party, we ate Chanukah Latkes (potato pancakes), and brisket. Well, the omnivores ate the brisket. My mom was incredibly sweet and also made a spinach lasagna. I had that for my meal, and the others ate it as one of their side dishes. For dessert, we had this ice-cream my dad had received as a gift.

All right. Now you're turn. Here are my nosy questions. Answer any that you want to, and ignore the ones you don't.

1. First of all, are you an Australian? American? Both? Neither? (you can skip that question if I know who you are).

2. Which holidays (if any) do you celebrate in December?

3. If you're in Australia now, but weren't there before....do you have difficulty adjusting to Christmas being in the summer? Or if you're an Australian now in the Northern Hemisphere, do you have trouble adjusting to Christmas being in the winter?

4. What are your favorite holiday songs?

5. If you celebrate any holidays, is there religious significance for you. Or is it more about culture/tradition?

6. What foods do you associate with the holidays?

7. What do you do about gift exchanges? Do you do anything like Secret Santa or White Elephant? Do you exchange gifts with friends? Coworkers? Do you do special charity stuff?

8. Do you have favorite Christmas TV specials and/or movies?

9. Do you use any decorations? Tree? Lights? Gingerbread houses? If you have a tree, what do you decorate it with? I'm always curious about that subject.

10. Who do you usually spend the holidays with?

11. Is there anything about the holidays that make you sad or stressed out? (I know that's a very personal question. No obligation to answer. But if you feel like sharing....go ahead)



P.S-while searching for Chanukah song videos, I found this South Park classic. Oh and this song is VERY meaningful and important.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online  a novel by Dina Roberts 

Tom Cruise, Please Don't Harrass Me

I've decided to look at Scientology in Australia.

The reason is, I'm having one of my Scientology obsession days. Every several months or so, I become really obsessed with Scientology and go googling on the Internet.

As most people know, Scientology is incredibly controversial. Some call it a cult. Some call it a religion.

I really don't know if I'd call it a cult or not. I guess it would depend on your definition of cult.
Dictionary.com gives multiple definitions.

One is a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc. Most religions fit this.

Another is a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

I think the latter is the definition most of us go by.

I think the "false" part is where things get confusing. Who gets to decide which religion is false and which is true?  Well..... unorthodox too. Who  gets to define that?

Who gets the role of pointing out people in the crowd? Your religion is cool and acceptable. Yours is too weird.

In MY eyes, a cult (in the negative connotation of the word) is a religious group that:
A) uses dishonest methods to attract members
B) feeds on people who are lonely and desperate
C) causes financial strain to its congregants
D) works to turn it's members against family and friends who are not of the religion
E) uses various types of intimidation (ie. psychological and legal) to make it difficult for the individual to leave the religion.

I think all religions have some of these aspects in small doses. I think Scientology has them in much larger doses. That's what I don't like about the religion.

I have nothing really against most of their actual belief system. Some of it seems pretty cool and interesting to me. I think their alien Xenu story is a bit bizarre but no more bizarre than the tales behind Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Aboriginal religions, etc.

I think it's immature and suspicious that Scientology tries to keep this Xenu thing a secret. But I also don't think this should be the basis of criticism of their religion. It reminds me of when someone is in a political debate online, and instead of arguing against the essence of what the other person said, their opponent attacks them on their spelling and grammar mistakes.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a show like South Park poking fun at Xenu. To me, jokes are fine. Humor is good. And a show like South Park makes fun of EVERY religion.  Anyone who tries to censor a show like that because it offends them...well, I think they need to take the stick out of their ass.  Or just don't watch the show. There's no need to get everyone else to not watch the show. Well, unless you have something to hide.....

There's a lot of controversy regarding Scientology, because they're anti-psychiatry. I'm not a big fan of psychiatry myself, so I actually somewhat like this part of them. I'm not against all psychiatric drug treatment. I think sometimes it can be helpful. But I do agree with Scientology in that there is too much diagnosis going on and too many prescriptions being handed out. I think psychiatric drugs should be used as a last resort.

I believe if Scientology wasn't so secretive, and didn't use such bully tactics, it would be a worthy antidote to our overdependence on psychiatry.

Okay I've rambled on and on and haven't even talked about Australia yet.

The official Scientology Site of Australia provides a fair amount of information, but it seems fairly vague to me. It also fails to address the issue of Xenu; whether or not it's a cult; and all of its controversy in the news.

Instead what they do is not just avoid talking about this issue themselves but use legal and other pressures to try to shut down other media that mention these things.

Because of the Internet, there really is no way to withhold information from the public anymore. If Scientology had the brains, they'd realize this and just be open and honest about everything.

Just come out and say. Yes, we believe in Xenu. Is that any more weird than believing a piece of bread can become the body of a man who died over two thousand years ago?

According to Lord Wiki, there's a huge discrepancy regarding how many Scientology followers there are in Australia. The census put the number at 2500 while the Church itself claims there are 150,000 members. I know a census is not always completely accurate but that seems like quite a difference in numbers. I am  guessing the Church is overestimating but I also can imagine that some people might not have admitted, to the Census people, that they were Scientologists.

There's one Scientology school in Australia; The Athena School. It's located in Newtown in Sydney. It looks okay to me.

At Chemsfield Private Hospital in Sydney a medical treatment called Deep Sleep Therapy was used from 1962-1979.  This involved putting psychiatric patients into a deep coma. Twenty-six people died and various celebrities and others (including Scientology) fought against it.

This is the aspect of Scientology that I DO like.

In 1965, in Victoria, Scientology was banned from using their psychological/counseling techniques on people for a fee. A new law was formed that said anyone providing psychological treatment must register with the Victorian Psychological Counsel.  HOWEVER, religions recognized by the government were exempt from this law. For example, a Catholic church could provide Catholic marriage counseling without registering.

Eight years later, the government recognized Scientology as a religion and they became exempt too.  Although according to Lord Wiki, it went back and forth via appeals court and all that. It gets a bit too confusing for me to try and figure out.

I don't know.

Personally, I think there are changes that need to be made on both sides.

First, Scientology needs to be more open and stop trying to suppress information. They need to act less defensive. It's only making them look bad.

Second, (if the above is done by Scientology) than I think us outsiders need to give the religion more respect. I think if we're going to attack it, we need to do so only on valid grounds (such as the above if it is not changed by Scientology) and not their beliefs, lifestyle, Tom Cruise jumping on a couch, or isolated incidences of members dying from medical neglect.

Third, Scientology should get a sense of humor because a few jokes about Xenu are not going to hurt anyone.

You know what would impress me?  If Scientologists all had a day where they wore t-shirts that said We Love Xenu. This would prove that they have a sense of humor about it all and are not a bunch of uptight bullies who shut down websites they disagree with.


Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

A Third Quote From One of My Favorite Australians

Peter Singer says:

Intensive animal production is a heavy use of fossil fuels and a major source of pollution of both air and water. it release large quantities of methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We are risking unpredictable changes to the climate of our planet--which means ultimately the lives of billions of people, not to mention the extinction of untold thousands of species of plants and animals unable to cope with changing conditions--for the sake of more hamburgers. A diet heavy in animal products, catered to by intensive animal production is a disaster for animals, the environment, and the health of those who eat it.

I already knew all this, but I think Singer summarizes it pretty well.

The Sydney Morning Herald had a fun article about it a few weeks ago. It shows each type of diet and how many kilometers of car driving it would equal....well, in terms of the effect on the environment. If the amount of kilometers would actually GET me somewhere, I'd TOTALLY eat meat. Screw the animals.

No, I'm joking.

Have I mentioned enough about how much I love Peter Singer?  I'm ready to rename this blog The Girl Who Totally Loved Peter Singer.

Although I am kind of waiting for the ball to drop—for him to say something that I totally disagree with and find completely offensive. You know something like he thinks breast milk is bad for babies, or he's totally against homeschooling.

Will I still be able to love Singer if he says something I strongly disagree with? I don't know. Maybe? Maybe not.

Well, I still love South Park, and they had a very anti-homeschooling episode once. So there!
I'm tolerant of people who believe differently than me...well, at least about 75% of the time.