"So pervasively has PC penetrated the establishment that there is almost nobody prepared to gainsay it; most people see PC as just a problem of the political classes and the 'metropolitan elite' being completely out of touch through their own self-interest. Not understanding the origins of PC - in despising the masses for their apostasy - the complaint is that if only those who 'rule' us could get closer to the people, then all would be well."
Steve Moxon.
When all is lost, when a frail speck is caught on the frothing tide, when he grasped his own minuteness in the grand scheme of things, these moments, brutal, cruel, the squashing of insects, was what he felt now as he faced the biggest challenge of his life. He was surrounded by the opaque grey that had been trying to envelop him for days, but now he was inside the vast chamber of the core. Even though part of him knew it was only a visual representation of something else, it was still an awe inspiring sight. Time had slowed down. It felt like the eye of a cyclone. He couldn't understand how he got here.
There was only one possibility. During his last wipe he had been redesigned as a living virus and then shot back out into the real world. It was uncanny how little attention they had paid to him in recent weeks; after all those years of being so closely monitored. He had slipped in and out of things seemingly without effect. He had stormed the citadel and been fond wanting; how was it possible that he could have got this far? There were crimes against humanity. There was a vast storehouse of information, records, daily lives, rack after rack after rack of data; an updated version of the old fashioned libraries, but more so.
He couldn't see a single controlling intelligence. There didn't seem to be one. He was baffled, hanging quietly, as he watched the city-like edifice before him. Cruelty was all very well; but this had more of a calm of the inevitable. He remembered, the images flittering ever so briefly across his mind, the burning building, the collapsed Social Police Centre sign. He had so desperately wanted things to be different. He had tried so hard in what seemed now like a very long life. Corny phrases ripped through him, goodbye cruel world. If he really had been redesigned as a virus; and there didn't seem to be any other explanation as to how he could have got this far without being detected, then he had been designed for a purpose, with a mission. He had to attach himself to the walls, in order to transmit whatever it was that he carried, the germ of free thought, an agent of change, something that would either kill all these cyber intelligences, or rewrite their code into something more benign. He had no idea what it was he carried.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rescuers-find-survivors-as-quake-toll-hits-32500/2008/05/18/1211049068553.html
THE initial adrenaline rush to find survivors in Beichuan is being replaced by bone-weariness as the likelihood of even identifying all the dead becomes more and more daunting.
As two United States military planes carrying aid tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals arrived in south-western China - the first time Beijing has accepted help from foreign troops since the earthquake struck - the official death toll was yesterday revised to 32,500. More than 220,000 are injured.
Almost 4.8 million people have lost their homes, and there are believed to be villages high in the mountains yet to be reached.
The towering mountains that caved in on Beichuan last week remain unstable. Look closely at the rubble and one is likely to see trapped bodies. The top of a motorcyclist, his or her hands still gripping the handle bars, pokes out from the debris.
At a square in front of a demolished tea factory, dozens of bodies wrapped in black and brown plastic await transport to a mass grave on the other side of town.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23720171-5014046,00.html
A SPLIT has erupted in the Liberal leadership over Brendan Nelson's promise to cut petrol excise by 5c a litre, with Malcolm Turnbull telling the Opposition Leader it is bad policy.
Just as the Rudd Government was accusing Dr Nelson and the Coalition's Treasury spokesman of cheap populism and irresponsible economics, an email from Mr Turnbull to Dr Nelson's office was disclosed.
It shows deep policy divisions between the two.
Mr Turnbull is now known to be at odds not only with his leader but also with the "collective" view of the Liberal leadership group and the front bench.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-curry0518.artmay18,0,2674639.column
Bill Curry
May 18, 2008
Television talking heads say Hillary Clinton's as dead as a Friday afternoon at Bear Sterns. If so, it's an exception to the well-established rule that everything they say is wrong.
Even when they're right, it's never for the reason they give. They say it's mathematically impossible for Clinton to win. Clinton's problem is not that she trails in elected delegates; it's that she can't produce hard evidence to support her main claim: that she and not Barack Obama can take McCain out in November.
Neither she nor Obama can be nominated without backing from uncommitted superdelegates. For a month they've moved slowly, steadily into his column, in part due to the aura of inevitability given off by his slim lead and all that press swooning.
What if polls showed Clinton leading McCain by 10 points and Obama slightly trailing him? The superdelegates emerging from their burrows to endorse him would be for her. But in general election polls she does no better against McCain. And she now trails Obama among Democrats nationwide.
All of which leaves her to argue hoarsely that she's stronger in battleground states. It's true but a thin reed on which to hang hopes of toppling an opponent who has more delegates than you do.
The process has not favored Clinton. In New Hampshire, Nevada and Texas she got more votes but fewer delegates. Except for the rules fiasco, she'd have chalked up big wins in Michigan and Florida. The insane front-loading of the primary calendar backfired on her; Obama racked up most of his big wins in January and February. Since March 1, Clinton has outpolled Obama by almost 400,000 votes.
Garnering the most votes in the past three months of the race is impressive. Moreover, she did it in the teeth of a hostile press despite being written off and outspent 3-1. I know how hard that is. Her enemies assail her for fighting on. I've nothing but respect.
She amazes me for her resilience but also for the number of second chances she has blown. Three times she was the comeback kid; after New Hampshire, again after Ohio and Texas and again, maybe for the last time, after Pennsylvania.
She came back each time by exhibiting courage, empathy and authenticity. But each time, her new persona was soon swallowed up by old tactics — mainly transparent pandering and unseemly attacks. On Jan. 8, she thanked New Hampshire for "helping me find my voice"; by the 19th of that month she'd lost it again squabbling in Nevada.
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