The Age of Censorship

The other day we were watching "Oblivion," which is a decent SF flick with only a few glaring plot holes (mostly related to the passage of time), even if we did spend the entire film shouting out what other movie any given scene was stolen from. When it got to the part where Tom Cruise beats up Tom Cruise (how could you not like such a scene? Either way, Tom Cruise takes a beating!), which was a pretty clean and well-scripted fight scene, Sophie leapt up, tears streaming down her face, and shouted,

"I DON'T LIKE THAT! TURN IT OFF! FIND ANOTHER SHOW WE CAN WATCH TOGETHER!"

Well, fair enough. She doesn't like violence; that's a good trait in a 3-year old.

But the next day we tried to watch Dr. Who - nope, the killer Santa robots were a bit too much. OK, then.

Last night we were watching "Ruby Sparks," a completely innocuous (and calorie-free) rom-com about a spoiled rich talented writer and his spoiled rich talented problems, and at one point a woman throws a glass of water in a man's face.

Cue the Sophie Alarm.

I have no idea how we're going to finish watching "The Walking Dead..."

The Australian Tea Party

The 27-year-old ''poster child'' of the One Nation movement did her campaign no favours in an interview with Channel Seven on Wednesday night, mistaking Islam for a country, confusing haram with Koran and drawing a blank on the nationwide disability scheme.
(Sydney Morning Herald)

The difference here is that in a parlimentary system you can have many parties (instead of just two), so our Tea Party types form their own parties (almost all of which have the word Nation in them). The Coalition (as the conservative political branch is called here) gets to separate itself from the nuttier wackos, who run under their own party banner; but they can still count on them for votes when it comes time to govern.

Of course, the problem in America is not that the Tea Party can't have a distinct identity from the Republicans; it's that the conservatives can't count on the whack jobs for votes anymore.

Politicians here and there

One of the differences between here and there is that there, Anthony Wiener sends pictures of his wiener in shorts to his girlfriends; here, Peter Dowling sends pictures of his wiener in a glass of red wine:

The letter, tabled in parliament yesterday, follows the revelation Mr Dowling had sent text messages to the woman of pornographic images of himself, including one in which his penis is in a glass of red wine.

So I guess our politicians are just that much classier than yours! Suck on that, America! Er, metaphorically, of course.