I had another crack at the Political Compass today. I hadn’t taken the test in quite some time, so I was curious to see exactly where I fell within their 2D spectrum and if there was any change.

Here’s my result: Libertarian Left. No real change there.

But let’s be a bit more nuanced: in regards to social policy, I’m squarely in the libertarian camp (-5.23), but economically-speaking, I’m only marginally left-of-centre (-1.50). This fits my own intuition: I’m too centrist to be obviously left- or right-wing, but still clearly politically-defined in other ways.

Now, here’s the real shocker: according to their assessment of the 2007 Australian general election, I’m closest to the Greens, who were the only party in the same quadrant. The Greens are just a bit further left and much more moderately libertarian, but… Oh dear. I’ve always seen them as left-wing radicals using environmentalism to push an economic agenda and, well, maybe I should rethink things.

Anyway, take a look at Kevin Rudd’s ALP versus John Howard’s Liberals in the same graph. Truly, Rudd is Howard Lite—not that I dislike Rudd, but all those lefty uni students whose political memories reach back to 2003 (if you’re lucky) will surely be feeling like they won the consolation prize in the next year or so.

I personally realise that politics is the art of compromise and so appreciate Rudd’s efforts to bring things back more towards the centre after Howard’s rightward drift. In the current political climate, anything too far towards social liberalism is just a no-go, so people like Rudd and Barack Obama seem refreshingly moderate and sensible when contrasted with radicals like George W. Bush and, in his later years, Howard.

Take a look at the graph for the U.S. primaries, then examine the world’s current political landscape. Really, anything other than the authoritarian right is very, very unusual.

So that’s where we’re at: if you want to survive, politically, you need to simultaneously court (or at least not alienate) the authoritarian right (represented by the Christian right more often than not), then differentiate yourself by the degrees to which you’re authoritarian and right-wing. So, if by February next year we have a Rudd leadership in Australia and an Obama administration in the U.S., I’ll be very happy indeed. It’s the best we can do at this point.

Edit: I just want to add that, on the social axis, I’m closest to the Dalai Lama, and on the economic axis I’m closest to Pope Benedict XVI. I find that strangely appropriate, given my previous post…

That’s the topic for debate tonight.

I’m going to give a clear, resounding “No”… with plenty of qualifications.

Religion, as a series of unquestioned, unchanging beliefs, has consistently been used to justify and perpetuate evil throughout history. As an institution, it has often reflected the uglier side of the human race.

But when used not as a tool of oppression but rather as a vehicle for exploring the mysteries of life, religion has great value. The problem is when literal-mindedness comes into play.

The “truth” of so many of the world’s religions lies not in how factual they may be, but rather in their statements on the experience of living life itself, as expressed through metaphorical language. This is what makes these stories resonate in the soul—that’s where their truth resides.

Think of it this way: each religion is like a different lens with which to view the transcendent (i.e. what some of us call “God”). We’re all blind men grasping parts of the same elephant, in other words. So what ends up happening? The blind men begin arguing over exactly what it was they were all holding onto. Wars occur over this sort of nonsense, and real people end up dying over dogmatic minutiae.

Does any of that invalidate the reality of the elephant? Religion is the expression of the human psyche at its most profound, which necessarily means both the sublime and the corruptible. Would the world be better of without religion? Only if it would also be better off without humanity as a whole.

I’m going to try and catch the Eels game tonight, particularly because it’s make-or-break time for them for this season.

I lost interest in all this stuff for two reasons:

1. the Eels’ overall performance has been abysmal (and the Bulldogs’ even worse), and
2. study and other  annoyingly practical concerns have dominated my attention.

But now that things are marginally exciting again, I may re-cultivate an interest…

UPDATE! The Eels won 40-12. It was a great game with a bit of biffo and an attempted decapitation. Unfortunately, Mateo buggered his knee in the final minutes; still, all hope isn’t lost for the season at least.

Okay, it wasn’t me, but I secretly wish it were:

A MARAUDING gang of teenage gatecrashers got more than they bargained for when an angry householder used a whip to eject them from his 16-year-old son’s party.

Dion Driman pulled out a South African sjambok when more than 30 youths attempted to storm into the party at the rear of his home at Wahroonga in Sydney’s north.

I think his name makes him even cooler…

One of the down-sides of being known as a pretty serious Star Wars fan is how everyone expects you to be dying to see everything with the brand name on it. Even at age six I had zero interest in Caravan of Courage, and now, 23 years later, history seems to be repeating itself with Clone Wars, another made-for-TV theatrical feature released in the wake of a Star Wars trilogy. It almost makes me nostalgic. Almost.

People are acting like this new movie’s badness as a Star Wars spinoff is unexpected and, indeed, unprecedented. Anyone thinking that needs to look into the aforementioned Ewok movie or, if they’re really brave, read Shadows of the Empire.

By all accounts, Clone Wars is terrible—it certainly looks it. Still, it can’t be worse than the Star Wars Holiday Special… can it?

I finally managed to see The Dark Knight yesterday. I’ll admit that I was pretty tired and didn’t quite catch how everything fit together, so I’ll wait for the DVD in order to fairly assess the film. My present opinion, however, is that, while I personally loved Batman Begins, The Dark Knight is superior in almost every way. Seeing Eric Roberts in it was just icing on the cake!

Aaron Eckhart isn’t getting enough praise as Harvey Dent, in my opinion, but that’s due mostly to Heath Ledger’s fantastic portrayal of the Joker overshadowing everything else in the film. The Joker has always been a great Trickster figure, but here he really is the perfect embodiment of the archetype, with all its confusing contradictions. The goal here is to blur the distinctions between “good” and “evil” by introducing sheer chaos—brilliant stuff.

The highlight, however, was when a woman brought a full shopping trolley into the cinema about 20 minutes into the film. What kind of socially-retarded misfit even considers doing that???

The next film I want to see: Tropic Thunder.

Tonight I was giving a techie walkthrough for a friend via MSN (a.k.a. “Windows Live Messeger”) when I had the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

Man, was I pissed off. So it was that much sweeter when I read that the BSOD itself had a cameo during the Olympic Opening Ceremony. How cool is that?

At the exact moment Li Ning was rounding the lip of the Bird’s Nest during the amazing torch-lighting climax, someone snapped this photo of our good friend the BSOD nestled amongst the Nest’s steel twigs. Perhaps an Opening Cermonies IT dude spit out his coffee on the machines in the server room when Li took to the sky?

Resolved: This is more embarrassing for China than their smog and human rights record combined!

I don’t watch much commercial, free-to-air TV these days—it just really doesn’t interest me anymore—so I’m slightly out of the loop on some matters.

Imagine my surprise, then, when last night I witnessed an ad for Red Rooster fish and chips.

What the hell?

Firstly, isn’t the whole point of the fish-and-chip experience the unique blend of standardised menu items and Russian Roulette-style quality, depending on the particular shop?

But beyond that, if you’re really dying for a bit of greasy, cheap cullinary action, why support a Westpac-owned chain over a local, family-owned shop?

You want fish and chips? Support your local wogs, damnit!

Well, folks, that’s it. The Police just played their final gig—now it’s all over. It was a good 30 years while it lasted, even if 20 of them were spent on hiatus.

A live double DVD/double CD set (The Police: Certifiable) will be released in November, so that’s something to look forward to, but otherwise, forget it. I suppose it’s better than a new mediocre Police album with Sting-penned ditties about Jesus, but out of DEVO, Roxy Music and Genesis, someone better put out a new album pronto, or I swear, I’ll turn into a Pussycat Dolls fan. I’m serious.

Here’s the trailer for the new Steven Wilson solo album:

I’ve cooled-off Wilson/Porcupine Tree a bit—I go through phases, and my current phase is DEVO—but I’ll still pick this up when it’s released.