I can’t seem to get my act together enough to write anything substantive but, luckily, others are not having that problem! So, to dip my toes back into the blogging water, I’ll just point out a few things that have caught my eye over the past few days. Besides the great things my co-bloggers have been writing, of course!

So, in no particular order and not really all there yet, I’ll keep updating as I find interesting things, (cuz if I wait til the post is "finished" it’ll be next week before it’s posted… yes, my unblogginess is that bad), here’s some stuff:

painting by Tim Leura Japaljarri via

I was shocked when I found out that Aborigines were officially considered part of the "flora and fauna" in Australia until the late 60s… 1960s -

MARK COLVIN: If you weren’t around for the 1967 referendum on Aborigines, or you can’t remember why it mattered, think about this. 
Before that vote, Aboriginal people weren’t counted as people, they came under the Flora and Fauna Act.

- but after learning about that, I don’t find this at all surprising, considering:

Recently, the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology to the Aboriginal Australians for the Stolen Generations, which puts Australia ahead of America for sure, but many people thought, "That’s nice but what will be done on a concrete level to fix the disaster caused by this?"
The answer seems to be, not much really:

Meanwhile, a retired federal court judge said the legislation [The Northern Territory Aboriginal Intervention] was constitutionally valid but "extremely discriminatory". 
"Well I think it’s constitutionally valid but it’s extremely discriminatory legislation," Murray Wilcox said on radio today. "That is actually acknowledged by the legislation because it specifically excludes the operation of the Racial Discrimination Act and the Anti-discrimination Act in the NT. "In other words the Government is saying this is racially discriminatory legislation but nonetheless it is to be regarded as valid."

Part of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Intervention is to quarantine 50% of the income of Aboriginal Australians to "ensure that it is being properly spent" regardless of whether or not it is actually being spent appropriately. This does not apply to white Australians in any way. There is some talk of rolling out that policy on a national basis despite it being an unqualified disaster in terms of health and delivery of appropriate services as well as on human rights.

The latest in this utterly mind-bogglingly racist legislation is to determine the "viability" of various Aboriginal communities and, for those who do not meet this vague viability, to deny them services. That isn’t referring to services like parks. It is referring to basic human rights like health clinics, schools, adequate housing, stores and a police station.

[....]

You get a choice: either send your child away to a school that may be hundreds of miles from your home voluntarily or have your income reduced by half, therefore making it impossible to feed said child and the government takes your child and sends him/her to a school hundreds of miles from your home.

Shaker Christina and Shaker Trinity at Shakesville

Lots more there, on this and other issues facing Aborigines in Australia in 2008.

Joan Kelly is troubled by Tim Wise’s recent article and asks a few questions: (via ilyka)

But - this much-linked-to article by Tim Wise left me uncomfortable.  First, because I don’t agree that not-voting for Obama is the same as voting for McCain (I have heard actually several people talk about discomfort with Obama for reasons that have nothing to do with Clinton or spite - and, as several of them are radical men and women of color, not exactly in line with racist white feminists - and everything to do with discomfort with Obama.)  (I personally am rather excited about voting for him, and about him winning.)

Second, because at one point he writes “Sister please,” which left me feeling like he was assuming what he thought was a “black woman’s” voice scolding white women, which felt stereotyping to me and rather inexplicably out of place in an article that so vociferously claims to confront racism.

And thirdly, because I am trying to find instances where Clinton supporters - feminist, women, white, or all or none of the above - threatened to vote for McCain if Clinton did not get the nomination.  And so far I have found one article, that quoted two people - one man, one woman - and this article claimed they were speaking for “many” Clinton supporters, but having my own experience with journalists, I have to say I am always suspicious of how they phrase things.

I was offline for most of the primary season and so missed much of the madness (thank the goddes), but even surfing around since I’ve been back, I keep getting the feeling that we (many of us, no doubt not all) are asking the wrong questions and not quite having the conversations we should be. Mostly I find it all pretty depressing. Oh, and I like the idea of Tim Wise, but the few times I’ve heard him speak (maybe twice), it seemed to me that he was affecting a "Black" accent and that made me uncomfortable. Then again, maybe that’s just how he talks.

Still, though, I’ve come across more than a few former Clinton supporters (online) who either say that they are going to vote for McCain or that they at least think that 4 years of McCain won’t be so bad. And then Hillary can come riding in to the rescue in 2012 and so on. Which in itself is silly - if the Dems lose the White House this year, with all the increased enthusiasm and interest in the election, I’m pretty sure it’s lost for at least the next 12 years, if not beyond.

A note: when I got back online I was dreading having to go through the hundreds of emails that were no doubt awaiting me only… when I signed on to get them, I had not a one. Zero. Zippo. Nada. Apparently when I tried to switch the to go to gmail so that I could maybe access them somewhere on a borrowed computer I messed up something. Nothing in gmail, nothing on the server, nothing anywhere. All this to say… if you emailed me over the past month or so… :(