An open thread where you can, at your weekend leisure, discuss whatever you like.
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
» SUBSCRIBE to LP updates.
Frist
Frist.
Fcuk
I win!
yessir
Sorry Laura.
Next Friday hordes of commenters will be awaiting to be frist. Kim, maybe should you inaugurate a prize then for being frist?
Holy sweet transvestite!
Well, it’s full moon. So I guess this top of thread behaviour is excusable
I’d say the moon can’t hold it’s liquor.
Frrritstmmm[pyuyfhklpmmmppphh!
Oh, bugger.
I’m gonna kick all of your asses next Friday. That is if I don’t knock off early to go to the pub.
And I must say, Laura, that you have summed up our foreign policy stance most concisely.
That is about being first to post that is.
Has anyone been following the Austrian elections? The FPÖ scare the living crap out of me. I think even most of the righties around here might be a little freaked out by how far to the right these guys are. The fact that these guys poll at over 10% is enough to make many “auslanders”, like me, feel very uncomfortable. I pretty much live with the feeling that at any minute my visa will be pulled and they will demand that I get on the next plane out of here.
We’ll let you back in here, Mick, as long as you apologise for past wrongs.
Anna, which wrongs are those? I have a pretty long list…
I can’t think of any specifics, but we’ve been getting into values and shit here since you left so you may have to renounce some stuff…
All the historical crimes for which the Left should bear full responsibility, mick, such as the millions of murdered dead slaughtered by Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot… sorry, just pre-empting Rob!
Nineteenth!!!
Christine Keeler:
L-O-L]
Yea verily! Amen! Thanks Laura [is that really you?
Mick:
You might be safer with FPOe.
Ever since the hysterical wrecking of One Nation – which was only ever going to be a relatively harmless minority nationalist party anyway – there is a head of steam building up among alienated Australians, whether native-born (of all colours) or long-time migrants. I’m glad I live out in the bush where the chances of riots and civil disturbances are somewaht less than in the cities.
Bring on the Austrians, Mick!
These homegrown RWDBs I have to deal with are absolute pussies. What, are they watching west wing on “how to be a RWDB”?
I want action!
Cripes, if I hear one more mealy-mouthed, surrender monkey RWDB say “you’re right again , Lefty E – you’ve completely convinced me and everyone else what a deadset loser I am”, I’ll absolutely puke! Maybe Ill puke “irregardless” [sic].
Anyhoo – thats 2 days through my 3-day stint of single parenting while Ms Lefty E is is away on conference duties.
Will aim to drink less tommorrow night; see how that compares.
The Path to 9/11 is to be screened on australian television tomorrow night and nobody here seems to have noticed that the american blogoshere is alive with major denunciations and protests of republican bias in the making of this travesty (which blames clinton for 9/11). Does anybody care? Where are the petitions, the boycotts, and the letters to the editor? Start with crooksandliars if you are interested.
When I saw the video “September 11 Revisited” early this year I immediately saw the implications, albeit imperfectly, and my response was that it was a hoax. That led me to trawl through a lot of sites about the WTC. I think this is important, and to anyone who wants to scream “conspiracy theorist”, I reply with the immortal words of W.S. Burroughs “Well I don’t give a s_ about the newspapers.”
9-11 comes around again, and it strikes me that Australians have swallowed the official story whole; any story that saves them the trouble of evaluating any evidence. Americans are becoming more sceptical, (apparently 36% of them don’t believe the official story). So if you want to get up to speed on 9-11 quickly I would suggest this portal:
http://www.911review.com/
which is mutually linked to:
http://911research.wtc7.net/
_
For links to the detailed scientific evidence:
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/
which contains many graphs etc. that tend to be badly rendered in the browser. And even if you can read them, one is left with a sense that the author has the inside running by virtue of their specialist knowledge.
But if you want to read real scientists really going hammers on real (mostly) plausible alternative theories:
http://www.physics911.net/
Unfortunately many people have taken these as gospel. It’s a pity that the Bush administration was so quick to get rid of the evidence of the catastrophe before a proper investigation on the debris could be done; not to mention putting a security clamp over everything.
_
While there is mostly a blanket acceptance of the official story in Australia, I think that since the events of 9-11 are the basis of the whole War on Terror, we should be well informed on what happened, especially if the enterprise starts going belly-up.
The elephant in the room with respect to 9-11 is that the WTC buildings did not fall in a way consistent with a collision with airliners, therefore there must have been some additional causal input; and the damage the Pentagon suffered was not convincingly the result of an airliner crash. Closer examination of the evidence that is available reveals other anomalies.
Things move on. Perhaps 9-11 is history. Even if it was the start of a descent into evil, there is nothing that can be done about it now; and it is best forgotten aside from its propaganda value. Right now the tension seems to be between the American Administration’s march towards an expanded Middle East War, and an American Media taking fright and ditching the rhetoric it has championed for the last three years. Follow your favourite news digest source for further developments, e.g. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
I know Information Clearing House caters to the hoi-polloi, but I find the Australian blogosphere a little bit precious. (OK, a gross generalisation. OK, Club Troppo’s OK.) I’m posting this for information’s sake, rather than heated debate. (For all I know, the debate may already have been had.)
footnote:
The problem is illustrated by this article by Robert Parry http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14886.htm
It would not be possible to insert a cigarette paper between Bush’s attitude to the Middle East and the attitudes of most outspoken commentators in Australia. I personally am convinced that there is very little unvarnished truth to be found, and some of us are in for a rough time in the near future.
No Graham, of course that isn’t me. Pffft!
Oh. My. Noodle.
Where did you find that pic, Laura? Is there some peoplewhoshouldnotwearlycra.com site out there?
BTW, Grace Pettigrew and tk.noonan, Phil started a thread about The Path to 9/11 only two posts down from this one, so perhaps Grace you could have looked a bit more carefully before bitching that we weren’t talking about it?
That’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever heard anybody say. Don’t say it even in jest, Lefty E; the gods might hear you.
Tigtog, I don’t remember at all where I found it, sorry. It was a funny little home page called simply ‘Fashion’, I know that much.
I’ve no quarrel at all with tk.noonan’s and Grace P.’s general arguments about the 9/11 show, though I think they’re both preaching to the choir in urging critical stances, but as the minorest of minor quibbles, it always amuses me to read this or that sweeping characterisation of the opinions held by the Australian Blogosphere — that’s how many blogs again? five to ten thousand? Often when you get to the bottom of what people mean when they say THE Oz blogosphere they are thinking of a handful of politically inclined blogs mostly begun in c.2004. You know the ones.
Likewise, telling people they ought to read some American blogs is kind of redundant. Most people read American blogs. It’s kind of hard not to.
tkn says:
“The elephant in the room with respect to 9-11 is that the WTC buildings did not fall in a way consistent with a collision with airliners, therefore there must have been some additional causal input; and the damage the Pentagon suffered was not convincingly the result of an airliner crash.”
It has come to this, as it had to. The lunatics really have taken over the asylum.
Well it is bollocks Rob but I think all that TKN’s “taken over” is a vacant space at the internet cafe.
Hollandaise sauce – piece of cake for breakfast. All you need are some egg yolks and some butter. Add a tiny dash of water and whisk the egg yolks in a bowl over heat (like the water you’re boiling for the poached eggs) until they thicken to a cream – wona’t take long, you don’t want them to turn to scrambled eggss. Whisk off the heat to stop the cooking process and then gradually whisk in about the same volume of melted butter. Season with salt and pepper and then add some lemon juice. This morning I used lime juice, which would also be nice on fish. Serve with poached eggs and toast and ham for benedict and spinach for florentine.
Robert Manne gives the Bolta a well-earned serve on his stolen generations denialism in today’s Age. He’s also put a collection of stolen generation documents on the web at http://www.themonthly.com.au/Documents/stolen.pdf (pdf). Worth knowing about. A valuable web resource on this touchy topic – if they stay there. Otherwise, grab ‘em now before they disappear.
Anthony, at first I thought you were advocating the consumption of hollandaise sauce over a piece of cake. For breakfast.
A nice artery-friendly hollandaise substitute is tahini, whisked with water, then whisked with lemon juice, then whisked with natural yoghurt, then seasoned with cumin and pepper.
Laura’s option also very nice with some umeboshi vinegar in it. People reading about anthony’s option should know that he runs marathons.
Also, my blog host is having a lie down today. *sniff*
The damage was as expected when a flimsy jetplane hits a massively over-engineered concrete and steel bunker.
Yes, its a great piece Gummo. Really tears Bolt a fresh one on his stolen generations denialist rubbish.
I can’t see Bolter coming back from that one, on this issue. Really worth reading if you havent:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/robert-manne/the-cruelty-of-denial/2006/09/08/1157222325367.html
One that that does amuse me about the 911 skeptics is the assumption that prior to 911 there was an abundance of forensics regarding the deliberate flying of jet aircraft into buildings.
Laura… stop scaring the general populace (or, y’know, even just me) with those photos… that second one is *extraordinarily* scary!
Fortieth! Ahem, sorry.
Everything is so serious that I hesitate to go frivolous, but does anyone remember a series shown in the small hours on the nine network called “Witchblade” and starred Yancy Butler.
Is it out on DVD or can I download it?
Laura and Tigtog:
Quite stylish really but the tangerine/vermillion colour does clash with the socks. Notice the gentleman is wearing genuine gym boots and not joggers, sneakers, wellies, thongs or jungleboots.
Laura
Part of the joy of the adulthood is that you can have cake for breakfast but not in this instance but you’ve got me thinking.
Yeah cholesterol central but I’m thinking it was only two eggs, there was the nutrutional benefit of spinach, didn’t have bacon, and the bread was rye so a bit of fibre would help transport the fat away.
Love the tahini.
Ah Zoe you’ve got me all embarrased, past tense marathon, now I just cycle down t’ pub.
Two good things
-raw blue french sheep cheese
- that guitar thingy for PS2
Jahteh, google is your friend. 2nd link if you google “witchblade torrent” not that I have done so.
If anyone wants to see what actually happens to an aircraft when it hits an immovable object, watch this:
I think the passenger jet did pretty well to make a 16 foot hole under the circumstances.
Thank you Shaun, I certainly won’t do that link either
No idea where to post this but does anyone else think that the Oz’s columnists might be a little pissed that they have been downgraded to the status of “bloggers”?
I was saying that just tonight, mick. I bet Paul Kelly in particular is furious. But I believe the orders come from Rupert himself.
Yea, it fits with his view of modernizing his print empire. Funny isn’t it? Is it a tacit admission that they don’t do much more to research a topic than to google it?
Seriously though, they have actually changed their column formats. It seems that they are all producing more columns that are substantially shorter. I’m not sure this is a great idea for them. The only reason that I read The Oz is because the columns are longer and you can sometimes get a little bit more depth. Then again, often this is just padding.
They also need to work harder on hyperlinking and the amount of interaction that the “blog” authors have with the commentors. Full credit to Bolt for actually interacting with the loons that visit his site!
Yep, Bolty does it better! Seriously!
Anyway, thanks, mick, I was having a convo about this very issue over dinner with some friends tonight – and now I’ve been inspired by your mention of it to write a quick Crikey piece on it. So watch this space… (or Rupert’s myspace if you’d rather…)