Today was comprised of sitting in front of a computer and trying to figure out how to make picture thumbnails and going to the Chinese Visa Service Centre. Apparently there are too many people applying for Chinese visas that a separate office had to be created just to deal with visa applications, what a surprise! As I hypothesised, one receives better customer service if you speak English, oh Chinese bureaucracy how fair you are.
Before I discuss political faux pas I must say why are visa applications so expensive? $130 for an application is ridiculous, keeping in mind that my visit to China means that I will be spending money on tourism and accommodation. There really is no need to butcher us again by making it so expensive. On another note I feel that I require some Chelle or Bo light-heartedness, help?
On to the more serious section (you must be wondering how it can get more serious after that, well wonder no more). As I frequented the Sydney Morning Herald an article entitled "Go @%! yourself: O'Farrell's whip lashes out on Twitter"caught me and undoubtedly every intelligentsia's attention. Politics being buffeted by the winds of comedy, a rare occurrence. The Liberal Senator Peter Phelps twitted during the coal seam gas inquiry that
‘‘Rhonda V at committee ...complaining we were ‘‘too tough’’ on female witnesses. HTFU [harden the fuck up]".
This caused Twitter user @Nyx2701 supposedly a lawyer passionate in human rights to tweet that
"Dr Phelps "needs a good punch in the head".And what did this LC member with a PhD from the University of Sydney do? Did he do the sensible thing of talking and discussing with @Nyx2701 in a calm and sensible manner and ignoring her violent remarks? Of course not, or else I would not be discussing it here. Instead Dr Phelps LMC told the user to
"go fuck yourself, commie! And you can't complain because I put in smiley ;-)"As far as the Twitter community and I am concerned, the smiley does not rectify the possibly defamatory nature of the statement. If I were to post libellous comments it would mean that I will be held accountable for my actions, resulting in a civil law suit and there are no laws in any jurisdiction which states that a smiley face negates defamation claims. Whilst I know Dr Phelps did not put in as much thought when posting that comment as I have here, I cannot fathom how that tweet came across to a LCM as witty and rational. For now I shall (reluctantly) have some journalistic integrity by giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was aggravated and it was written in the spur of the moment.
Nevertheless it is an alarm, causing us to question our representative despite the relatively trivial nature of this incident. More importantly it highlights how the employment and integration of technology into politics has influenced its ability to result in some entertainment (about time). I truly wonder how he can explain this when asked by the media, I can imagine the "um"s and the stuttering now. I'm glad that I am not in his situation.
Lastly on to a disproportionate mention. Rick Perry's ( for those who do not know is a US presidential candidate) ad 'Strong' is just in my opinion disgusting and in a way funny. Disgusting because it addresses a very sensitive issue in a discriminatory manner. Funny seeing how he continues to try after garnering 400 000 dislikes on a single video with 2.2 million views and only 9 000 likes. Whilst that is still a long way to go from Justin Bieber's Baby having 2 million dislikes, but that insignificant considering it has 672 million views.
Hopefully the next post will include more ARGHHHHHs and NOOOOOs and other words with repeated letters for emphasis to make this impulsive blog a tad a lot less formal. Or I might need to separate rants aiding my release of anger from news critique .
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