Sikamikanico Blogs

As made headlines around the world, Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy, died this week at the age of 91. Remembered for his publishing empire, some are also remembering the dude for empowering women and being a feminist - even one of the first feminists, a pioneer of the women's movement. Gag me. Hefner was a pioneer, all right. He pioneered Playboy Empowerment, supposedly the concept that a woman could do whatever she wants - which funnily enough, involved convincing her that what she wanted to do was exactly what men wanted her to do. From Feminist Current : He was a crusader. A rebel. Just a humble man who wanted to fight the good fight against sexual repression, and liberate the American population from moral crusaders who said sex was a bad thing. Hefner insisted over and over that his goal, with Playboy magazine, was to convince America that sex was “normal” and to “bring sex to the mainstream.” But not only did he fail to do that, he never even tried.  Watching American Playboy

I've seen each episode of Friends a minimum of 53 times. But it's been ruined for me. Someone posted on Twitter that Ross, Ross Geller, is the worst person in the world. Ever since, whenever I watch Friends , I notice that Ross is the worst person in the world. He is though. Yeah, the sexual politics of Friends are, inevitably, dated, but Ross is a turd in any era. He's a terrible, terrible boyfriend. He's jealous, possessive, entitled, thinks he has a right to Rachel*, whilst also being stalky and awful to every other woman he dates (and what he did to Emily was unforgivable). He's a marginally involved father barely bothered about his kids. And yet he's portrayed as a hopeless, daffy romantic. He is every guy on the internet who thinks he's a Nice Guy. Let's compare Ross with Joey. Joey seems like a dick at first glance, and is by no means perfect. but he's willing, over and over, to sacrifice his own happiness for others. When committed vegetar

The campaign for marriage equality took things up a notch by sending hundreds of thousands of text messages encouraging people to vote Yes: It was a moment's irritation and possibly not the best use of resources, but not really more of a big deal than that. At least it shouldn't have been a bigger deal. A bunch of people were outraged over the supposed breach of privacy: [N]ot everyone – regardless of their view on same-sex marriage – was happy to receive an SMS, with some expressing concern about how their phone numbers were obtained. I have never contacted, donated or been involved with either side of this campaign," Michael, who asked that his surname not be used, told Fairfax Media on Saturday.  "How did they get my unlisted mobile number? Why is my privacy being breached in the hope that I'll respond to a survey in a particular way ... What's the point of lobbying for extending some rights by ignoring others that are already legislated?"  The Yes c

John Howard ruined my wedding. Well, no, he didn't actually ruin it. But the former Prime Minister of Australia, three years after he was ousted from office, made a spiteful little interjection at my wedding, and the weddings of hundreds of thousands of other couples, just to rub it in that he's really, really into the traditional marriage of a man and a woman.  Allow me to explain. In 2004, when the first governments around the world were beginning to allow for same sex couples to marry, John Howard, then Prime Minister of Australia and the moral custodian of all that's conservative and true, wanted to make damn sure that couldn't happen here. So he changed our marriage laws, which had previously relied on the English common law definition of marriage, and expressly spelled it out: marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life. Same sex marriages performed overseas were meanwhile expressly forbidden f

Tony Abbott, former Prime Minister, noted conservative thinker, and scion of the Northern Beaches ventured into Newtown last night: Invigorating Q&A session with the Newtown Young Liberals on the merits of Western Civilisation last night. pic.twitter.com/f5WlRun6Rp — Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) September 19, 2017 I mean sure, Newtown is the kind of place where a middle aged man with spiked yellow hair, wearing a three piece pink tartan suit and knee high buckled boots can ride down the street on a scooter pulled by his terrier at 11am and not raise any eyebrows, but the place is becoming rapidly gentrified. There must be some conservatives there, and they band together. That's fine. It's a diverse world. Wait a minute. Let's take a look at that gathering again: That's not a political party, that's a cult up to stage four of the indoctrination process (I bet the guy who dared take off his jacket was taken outside and beaten later on). Nowhere else in Australia l

The no campaign have employed skywriters over Sydney today. I think this guy is better worth attention.

Gah, the SSM plebiscite - or more specifically the debate over the plebiscite - is depressing and exhausting. It can be hard, when you look at the relentless string of comments on an article on say a major media outlet's Facebook page, saying that the whole Yes campaign on same sex marriage is a Marxist plot to brainwash children; that children brought up by same sex parents grow up depressed, obese and plagued by intractable ring around the collar; free speech is at risk; and, before the moderators can step in, if they do, vile slurs about same sex attracted people themselves. And it can be tempting to see this as how people are thinking; to wander through the shops or catch a bus and wonder if your fellow citizens are harbouring such thoughts. But they don't. Comments on Facebook do not represent the real world. In fact, the represent the loudest, angriest sliver of the people disconnected from the real world. In my totally unscientific research on this, there were local gov

So the expensive, unnecessary, non binding national plebiscite on marriage equality is underway. Other nations just legalise marriage equality, but not us; we have to have a national postal vote, with the accompanying noisy and worrying campaign, and for what? Politicians are still going to have a vote on it in Parliament once the ballots are in - the same vote they could be having right now. Instead, the nation "get to have their say", except after a bitter and hurtful campaign the votes will just get put in a drawer or something, and politicians can still ignore the will of their electorate and vote however they like . Talk to opponents of marriage equality though, and want you to know they're in no way bigoted or homophobic. They like gay people! They're just really worried about the kids. (Apart from that being able to marry won't affect the ability of gay couples to have children, and they're not depriving children of a mum and dad, unless they go around

I told you how the National party at their national conference on the weekend were determined that no one should think them in favour of renewable energy , with all the fear and suspicion of Lyle Shelton worrying people will think he's gay . Not to be outdone, their Coalition government partners are working to show the universe what a great future there is in coal by trying to extend the working life of the ageing and increasingly obsolete coal fired Liddell power station in the upper Hunter Valley, long after its owner, AGL, was set to close the thing.  Liddell has been working well below capacity for many years as it reaches the end of its working life and coal becomes an increasingly expensive and outmoded form of power generation.  It's also permanently killed Lake Liddell , in a major blow for local tourism. Coal, so good for humanity. Any forward thinking government would be looking at cheaper, more efficient forms of energy generation, but the Libs are determined that AG

Over the weekend, we had local government elections here in NSW, confusingly in some councils but not in others. I didn't get to vote - I was on the Central Coast when the City of Sydney had their poll and now I'm in Sydney, there was a Central Coast election I didn't get to have a go in (upgrade the ruddy roads up there, whoever you are that wins!).  And it was bad news for the Liberal party : As expected, the Liberal party suffered big swings to Labor and to an extent, the Greens.  As counting continued on Sunday across 46 council districts, including 22 Sydney councils, early results showed voters had punished the Liberal party across the board, but surprisingly including deep into its Sydney heartland.  "In the councils between Newcastle and Shellharbour the average swing to Labor currently stands at about 5.5 per cent," said psephologist Ben Raue. And speaking of Newcastle, not a single Liberal was elected to the city council (although there is quite a tradit

Rupert Murdoch must be in one hell of a mood lately. Word has come down to News Ltd tabloid columnists that they are to unflinchingly tow the line on the marriage equality plebiscite: that the yes campaign are wrong! Evil! The real fascists! The Right have almost abandoned their love of whataboutism in their post-Charlottesville rush to declare Antifa, Socialists, and the Left generally the real fascists. Those fighting fascism, they're the real fascists! Yep, and maybe those chomping into massive steaks are the real vegetarians. But this is ridiculous. When the far right declare anti-bigots The Real Fascists, they sound like OJ vowing to find The Real Killer. And I would include said News Ltd columnists as the far right. Non-Australians may be astonished that opinions that would make a Brietbart editor flinch and refuse to publish, regularly making into our most consumed newspapers and radio shows. Although News Ltd is committed to a diversity of opinion. They bring you the view

I should be beyond surprise by now, but apparently not. With "once in 500 years" hurricanes sprouting every few days in the Atlantic with climate change a likely factor, and Australia faces upcoming power shortages due to our failure to invest in modern power generation, at the National Party conference today, they wanted to make sure everybody knows they're all about coal. From ABC News : The National Party has used its federal conference in Canberra to call on the Federal Government to eliminate subsidies for renewable energy.   The plan involves freezing subsidies at their current levels for 12 months, then phasing them out entirely over five years.   Former Nationals senator Ron Boswell spoke passionately in favour of the motion before it passed. "Please don't reject this, because the message that it sends out is the National Party is pro-renewable energy, and it isn't," he told members. Cheers of "hear, hear!" for coal itself were also gi