Okay, but seriously, the Government's fucked.

I apologise for the coarse language. I try not to use the word 'government' too often on this blog, especially in the title of a post. Another thing I aspire to do is to try and be a little more objective in my analysis of Australian politics - a little less biased. Failing this, I'd at least endeavour to make a reasoned, well thought out argument before dispensing any snap conclusions.

But really, though. This time they've lost the plot, taken the cake, and... and... performed various other actions which, taken together, point to a serious mental illness.

Behold, courtesy of Margaret Simons at Crikey:

"The Government plans to pass legislation in the autumn session aimed at regulating all content – including text and still images – using the film classification system as the standard.

Crikey understands that publishers would have to submit for classification all material to be delivered electronically – including book and magazine content. Any content that gained an MA or R classification would have be subject to an approved age restricted access system. [emphases added]"

I mean... wow. They've been trying to drag us back to the 1950's for years, but this bill is in a league of its own. It has a huge potential to impact bloggers - along with basically everyone else who publishes anything online. The next time George goes on a rant about female genitalia, will we have to shut the blog down until the OFLC can review it? Will we be forced to implement an age verification system to stop children reading about Kate's trip to Port Vincent? It's unfeasible, unenforceable, and a stupid idea to boot. Aw, what the hell, let's use some conservative terminology. It's un-Australian!


On a very distantly related note...
So last night I rediscovered the joy of a computer game called Bookworm Adventures. I've enthused about it to some of you before - it's a delicious synthesis of unadulterated nerdiness, combining the nerdiness of computer roleplaying games with the nerdiness of spelling things correctly. Verily, it is a computer roleplaying game wherein enemies are dispatched by spelling words correctly.




Anyway, I was reflecting that the game represented admirably the noble concept of edutainment - that learning and having fun are not mutually exclusive. Don't make me draw you a Venn diagram, muthafuckas.

I reflected on the warm feeling I get inside when I look at my in-game stats:




I thought that I should try and spread the Good News. I pondered on who could most use an expansion of their vocabulary, and the answer was obvious. Perhaps if George knew more words, he wouldn't feel compelled to write posts with a profanity content hovering around 70%.

This would be a good thing.

But then I thought about it a bit more. I tried to envisage George actually playing the game. Now, I don't think I'll show it to him.