Don't bother me with the facts

The Easter long weekend is a time for reflecting on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, spending time with family and friends, or heading out of the city for a short break. 

If none of those things tickle your fancy, and you live in Melbourne, or have the means to get there, you might care to attend the Marxism 18 conference. 

I glanced over the conference program, and was surprised to see that some of the speakers are smiling in their photographs. Maybe I should go, just for the rare opportunity to meet an actual happy Marxist. I didn't know they existed. 

Presumably this conference is not just theoretical, and attendees (or comrades) will come away with renewed zeal to implement Marxism in Australia, but which version of it? Is it Lenin's? Trotsky's? Stalin's? Mao's? Ceaucescu's? The Kim dynasty's? Pol Pot's? 

My brow furrows as I write this. History clearly and consistently shows that their ideology has failed, so they choose to ignore it. Presumably, the deaths of as many as 100 million people at the hands of communist regimes is not important to them. That old saying, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results," applies to them. 

Act your age, not your shoe size

Triple J is moving its Hottest 100 countdown from Australia Day to January 27. The radio station said it moved the countdown in recognition of “increasing debate” surrounding and the day’s meaning for indigenous people. In response, Senator Cory Bernardi, leader of the Australian Conservatives Party, decided to compile his own alternative list of 100 Australian songs on Spotify. The created controversy, when many of the artists on the list demanded they be removed from it.

To paraphrase, "You and your party are against everything I stand for. I refuse to let you use my music for your political purposes," they said.

Bernardi also invited suggestions from Twitter users. Leftist keyboard warriors couldn't resist the opportunity to smear and mock him by suggesting songs like Mummy Doesn't Know You're a Nazi, by Frenzal Rhomb, and Christian songs with titles such as Jesus Use Me, He Touched Me, and Hallelujah, The Lord's Coming Again. Well, tee hee, and chortle. What shining wits these people are. 

Two can play at that game. Here's some of my song suggestions for the other side, some of whom stubbornly cling to socialist ideology, despite ample historical evidence that it doesn't work. 

Dahp Prampi Mesa Moha Chokchey (National anthem of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge)

The East is Red by Li Youyan

The Internationale (Traditional)

Haste Siempre, Comandante by Carlos Puebla

Onwards Toward the Final Victory by Kim Moon Hyuk and Yoon De Geun

Solidarity Forever (Traditional)
The Stalin Album by the Red Army Choir

State Anthem of the Soviet Union (1944 version) by Alexander Alexandrov 

Here ends today's history lesson.