Chaser Wins War on Terror!

With their transparently fake cavalcade’s easy entry in to the “high security” zone for APEC, aided by the blustering Police Commissions Pythonesque rendition of “That’s not funny! That’s not funny at ALL!”, the Chaser team have definitively won the war on terror. Laughter beats fearmongering, ridicule beats stupidity. Thus was the War OF Terror waged by our brutal militarist governments punctured by a bit of larrikin smartarsery.

This is what democracy looks like.

The Chaser’s irreverent stunts. Bums Not Bombs, the browneye salute to Bush. Ghost Dance, the high camp dance of death for dollars. The winning response to the ridiculous water cannon: the Bubble Cannon, sending streams of bobbing happiness through the rallies and marches. My favourite response to overpolicing and heterosexist morality: The Tranny Cops, tiny girls with huge handlebar moustaches and Cop This Sweet written on their blue overalls.

I think these things helped keep the huge Saturday demo more about our human connection (which is what brings us out to protest the killing of over half a million of our fellow humans in Iraq, amongst other atrocities committed for corporate interests) than expressing anger in ways that may have escalated violence.

Yes, there was one troubled soul who attacked a police officer, but this is inevitable when the police treat so many people badly. One such incident of excessive police violence happened at the rally was caught by the seething ravenous media throng, an unprovoked attack on a respectable bespectacled middle aged accountant, married father of three, and now even the right wing commentators are complaining the police have gone too far!

According to police, there were 3000 demonstrators, 3500 cops, and 1500 army troops.

This is what hypocrisy looks like.

3000 is about the number of Americans killed in 911, which is now exceeded by the number of Americans killed by Bush by sending them to Iraq.

The local newsagency was held up while the armed forces of the state were keeping old people with full bladders blockaded in Hyde Park. A few hundred metres from the Police Station, it took one and half hours for police to respond to this armed robbery. This is what hypocrisy looks like.

But Happiness beats Fear, Campness beats Pomposity, Love beats Terror, Ridicule beats Stupidity. I believe we win the War on Terror, which is mostly caused by the State, when we bring our full humanity, our joy, our bubbles, our bums, our vulnerability, our laughter, and our love, to the fight!

Boo to Bombs, Poo to Police, and Hooray for Humour and Humanity!