I haven’t been able to blog for the past week because I’ve been busy setting up my new computer. The excitement of getting a beast of a computer is sort of ruined by the pain of installing all the software, getting all the drivers working and setting the preferences so the computer is just right.

Here is my new computer:

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Intel Core i7-870 CPU
Antec 900 Advanced Gaming Case
4 GB of RAM (needs more, 16 GB maybe)
NVIDIA GTX 295 graphics card
Seagate 1.3 terabyte HDD

A very nice machine.

One good thing about setting up my new computer is it forced me to go through the my documents folder to find what I wanted to keep and wanted to throw away. I have got into the habit of writing comments I leave on other blogs in Word before I submit them. In this way I don’t lose the comment when I accidentally hold down backspace or the cat decides to jump onto the keyboard, but it also allows me to keep a record of comments. Look at these few gems I dug up. I don’t know the blogs I left them on and I don’t know when I left them.

In this one I was obviously having a discussion about the health system with a bunch of libertarians. They believe in a user pays system and that the government should but out on any kind of regulation at all.

Ra, SB, Yobbo,

I have spoken to many people who have lived in the US. Their number-one complaint is the nonexistent public health system. You really want to live in a country where you have a car accident then have many operations to get put back together then receive a $50,000 bill?

You’re a moronic, uncaring fool if you want the same for us.

Yeah I know you’d rather the money spent on public health care went back into your pocket. I don’t know how greedy people like you sleep at night.

I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for our public health system. If you don’t like the way things work in Australia go live somewhere else. We happen to be a caring nation. Deal with it.

Can we still be considered caring with Kevin Rudd’s refugee policy?

This next one is from when I made the mistake of leaving a comment on an ultra-right-wing site. As I found out they don’t like having their views challenged.

“…site for leftoid scumbags or pretentious wannabe intellectuals to strut their pathetic wares.”

The problem for someone like me who visits a site like this is that none of you want to engage in a legitimate discussion. What happens to so many people who have firm views is they engage in personal attacks, instead of defending their views using reason. How can you hope to convince anybody of your beliefs if you are unable to defend them without verbal violence.

Of course all of you are entitled to your opinions and I would fight for your right to have them even though I disagree with them. I believe that opinions should have a firm foundation if they are to mean anything. This means a lot of discussion a lot of thought and argument.

I would really love you guys to make me think. Tell me what is actually wrong with what I have said and why.

See you, I probably won’t be back.

I seem to be really good at getting into fights on my blog. I dared to write a post about the protests in Tibet just before the Chinese Olympics in 2008 and a Chinese person by the name of Yun really didn’t like what I had to say. This started a very heated discussion in this post that just degenerated into pointless insults. I agreed to disagree, but this wasn’t enough for Yun and he started to spam my site with copyrighted material supporting his views. I was forced to ban him.

Yun, you are setting a marvelous example to the rest of the world of the quality of people in China. In case you can’t realize, I’m being sarcastic.

This is my favourite quote of yours, I feel it demonstrates your true character: “I will lay back and enjoy more of the terrorists masterpieces in the years to come. And I will have no sympathy for you westerners at all. YOU GUYS WELL DESERVE IT!” In Mao’s day, they would line someone like you (a nationalist) up next to a mass grave and stick a bullet in the back of your head (see, I can be nasty too).

I hope to hear more from you in the future.

I am a bit ashamed about my reaction. Suggesting that someone deserves a bullet in the back of the head is not a worthy thing for anyone to say. I find it very scary that there are people around with views such as his.

I got an interesting reply from an anonymous person to my post: Will the Olympic Games Be China’s Worst Nightmare?

There are two views of China’s current Olympic crisis and I thought it would only be fair to let the pro-China lobby have their say.

Here is their comment:

“The Chinese government is not the idiotic liar in all of this; its opposition is. The news has shown Tibetans being violent, going against what they’re supposed to believe in, which is peace.

Why protest against China making Tibet more developed? China has helped increase the numbers of tourists going to Tibet, and therefore, the economy has improved. If the Tibetans had to protest, they could just sit down and have a civilized talk. Tibetans had reporters removed from the scenes of violence so that the truth would not get out.

Even in ‘developed countries’, people are also killed during protests. Don’t even try to say you haven’t seen such examples about France, the US..and lots of others on TV. Would you call them accidents? Or are you saying that the governments of these countries are also as ignorant as you’re calling the Chinese? The police would be killed if they did not try to stop the activists. It’s not as if the Chinese are killing on purpose. The Tibetans are burning down shops and vehicles, for goodness’ sake!

China has spent a long time preparing for the Olympics. Why are the Tibetans only acting now if they’re so mad? Why do they need to bring politics into the Olympic Games?

Dali Lama? More like? Lie Lama

I don’t believe I’m wrong in saying you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. How much do you really know about China and Tibet? I’m quoting a previous comment I found on your profile kman Says:
‘August 2nd, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I don’t know why I am wasting my time writing this,but what gets me is your know all attitude to things you have absolutely no clue about.’”

And here is my reply:

“Thanks for your comment. It’s good to hear from people of differing opinions and I hope you leave many more comments in the future.

I am sure there are idiotic liars on all sides Chinese, Tibetan and Westerners. When I wrote this piece I was very careful not to express support for violent protest. The fact is China is in charge of Tibet and it is their responsibility to keep law and order. And you are right some people do die it in protests.

My main issue was with the Chinese government telling us that the Dali Lama was behind the violent protests. It was just so convenient and the Chinese government have a long track record of dishonesty (think of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Chinese government refusal to recognize it as such). It was just so obviously a lie.

There are several other reasons why I believe that Dali Lama wasn’t behind it. The Dali Lama is a champion of non-violent protest. He knows that non-violent protests work and that any form of violent protest is a complete waste of time and counter-productive.

Non-violent protest has been used many times to defeat totalitarian regimes. Think South Africa, India, Serbia, Russia and Poland. The violent protests in Tibet have most likely set the free Tibet movement back years.

Why protest against China making Tibet more developed?
I would assume that no one would protest about China helping Tibet. What people do protest against is the fact that China invaded Tibet. China continues to import vast numbers of ethnically Chinese people making Tibetans a minority in their own country.

Before I continue, I will tell you a bit about how we do things in the ‘developed world.’ Unfortunately, sometimes in this world violence is necessary. If a country is invading their neighbours or killing vast numbers of its own people an invasion might be necessary. Think about Germany after World War II. Germany was occupied, the Allies rebuilt the country, instituted a functioning government and economy. Then over a period of many years they left.

According to the Chinese government Tibet was ruled by a theocracy basically a Buddhist Iran. The Chinese have had years to rebuild the country create a functioning government and economy. Why are they still there?

In the developed world we have a little thing called the right of self-determination. All peoples have the right to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. It was this principle that allowed for the decolonisation of the developing world. After World War I this principle was used to split Europe into distinct cultural and language groups the way the people wished. This did more than anything to stop the near constant state of war that tore Europe apart in previous centuries. The Tibetan people want China to respect their rights.

It is not all bad news in China. China has the capacity to be one of the greatest nations on earth. They just need to respect the principles that help make the world a better place. The Chinese government needs to learn that not everyone will agree with them. Instead of attacking dissenting voices, trying to discredit them or going on the defensive they need to say: ‘You have the right to your opinion, but we respectfully disagree.’ Instead, we hear the Chinese government attacking one of the most respected leaders in the world – the Dali Lama. How do you feel when somebody verbally attacks someone you respect – you fight back.”

There is consternation in the feminist movement – women just don’t seem to have caught up to men yet. This shows up most in the field of sports and mostly in the Olympics. I’m talking about things like – men play baseball and girls play softball. In swimming women do 800 m men do 1500 m. The women’s race walk is only 20 km compared to separate 20 km and 50 km events for men. In the tennis finals only the men play to five sets. Only men do ski jump.

All this sort of crap is so early last century. It is 2008, I honestly thought all this sort of stuff would be fixed up in the future – now it is the future and what are they going to do about it? Oh, women don’t have the stamina – what do you call having a baby dickhhead? Oh, but women don’t look pretty when they’re sweaty – you don’t call a fit shiny women hot?

It is time for male and female sportspeople to put a stop to this sexism. The signal it sends to young women is that they are the lesser sex. Many prepubescent girls cannot throw a ball as far as boys the same age even though there is no physical or anatomical difference. In our society women equals weak. Don’t deny you know it’s true – even I call my brother a girl when he is being a whingeing little prick. Girls are given the impression that they are physically weak, emotionally weak, lack stamina and are in need of protection by a man. If a women even has a hint that any of these things are true it may negatively affect them all the way through their life. They are going to get bullied by the boss that doesn’t want to give them a pay rise. They will not complain when someone is rude or abusive. They will be unable to defend themselves when set upon by a male assailant.

In this world it doesn’t really matter how big you are or how strong you are, it’s what you do with what you are given. I know what it’s like to be physically weak in a harsh world I’ve always been much weaker* than all of my friends. Once when I was about seven an idiot who was much stronger, bigger and older than me picked a fight – so I bit him and he ran off crying.

Women are slightly smaller and maybe just a little bit weaker than men, but there is no conceivable reason for the sexist way women are treated by the International Olympic Committee and many other sporting bodies.

It is after the year 2000 I wish the world would feel like really is a new millennium.

* If you are new to my site: I have muscular dystrophy and went into an electric wheelchair only a few years after this incident. I could barely walk let alone fight.