why would anyone have pie in their socks?

Fuck, I can’t believe that loser who got into my blog yesterday. What a fucking prick. I even tried deleting one of his comments, but he just came back and reposted it. Asshole. God, he sounds like exactly the kind of guy I hate. I’ve changed my password, so I don’t think he’ll be bothering us again. I guess that’ll teach me for not paying attention to my blog.

Anyway, I was watching a real treat of a show tonight – A Current Affair on Australia’s Channel Nine. This show cracks me up; they wander the country looking for easy targets to sanctimoniously denounce so that unfulfilled wage slaves can receive momentary emotional respite and reaffirmation of the rightness of the mainstream middle class. Tonight, they had a report on what they call “hoons” here, or young men who drive souped-up cars, often racing them. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m really not into macho car culture at all. There’s nothing like the combination of environmental degradation and testosterone amplification to make me feel like I don’t belong. In fact, I remember my cousin used to be a bit of a “hoon,” and taking a ride with him one night was scary as hell. He and his buddy in the car ahead of us thought it was fun to speed and weave through traffic. At one point, his buddy decided to pass a car at the crest of a hill – a move of such profound stupidity that even my macho (at the time, now he’s all religious) cousin was dumbfounded. That friend eventually died in a car accident, which is just more evidence of the ridiculousness of being a hoon (as if being called something as silly as a “hoon” shouldn’t be enough in itself to dissuade one from the lifestyle).

The thing that burned me about this report, though, was that a Channel Nine reporter was riding along with the cops who were on a mission to bust the hoons. They pulled into what the reporter conspicuously called “Beirut Row” or something like that. See, there’s a lot of bad blood in Australia towards Lebanese people, so it was important to make sure that hoons were identified as something other than “real Australians.” The cops were taking the cars off the road by citing them for illegal modifications, such as some kind of illegal tire (or “tyre” as they say here). I thought the reaction of the hoons was awesome – they started examining the police cars and discovered that they too had illegal tires. Of course, the reporter and the police completely ignored this, and when they cut back to the anchor he smugly commented how the hoons were just upset that the law was being enforced. Well, yes, fine, except who was there to enforce the law against the police?

It reminds me of the huge bullshit which is the U.S. pressuring other countries not to have nuclear weapons. Look, I’m all for keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of North Korea and Iran, but on what basis does the U.S. have the moral authority to enforce this position? Seriously, when the guy with pie all over his face, and down his pants, and in his socks tells you not to eat any pie, you mock him mercilessly (I assume this has happened to lots of people, not just me). But when the U.S. says nobody should have any nuclear weapons, the American media salutes and goose steps their way to the newsroom to dutifully report another example of the advance of democracy and freedom.

See, the police and the Americans want weapons that others can’t have because it’s just easier to assert their will that way. Now, it’s up to you to decide whether you want the police to have that power, and whether you want the Americans to have that power, but can we just be honest about the fact that it IS about power, and not about righteousness?