An open thread where, at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
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I am just so kickass first
I reckon you’ve been doing a spot of time and that’s why you are so frisky
It’s that heady mix of s*x and dinosaurs over at the Creation Museum
You’ve been away, ah, travelling, CK, EC tells me. Have you unpacked?
OMG is it Saturday already? Thought it was still Friday.
Life gets away from you.
What are you talking about? It is still Friday in decent parts of the world.
More Muckracking from Murdoch.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,21836009-5005361,00.html
Frank Calabrese:
How do we go about putting up Dean Mighell for our next Governor General?
Not exactly another Sir Isaac Isaacs or Sir William McKell or Sir William Slim …. but he sounds like the bloke for the job these days.
The “Statehood For North Queensland” push has raised it’s head again. Any comments?
Off to the Writer’s Festival… two great sessions this morning. I’m looking forward to Alexis Wright in conversation with Stephen Muecke, as well as the Black Words panel which includes Tara June Winch. I’ll be back later.
Seems that our Good Economic Managers can’t convince business to back them in the Federal Election, bring out the violins.
Enkew said
Yippee!
Charters Towers for the site of parliament – and for a whopping BIG international aircargo hub with runways that have the curvature of the Earth as one of their construction factors; 5 000-tonne aircraft welcome anytime. Add cutting-edge technology industries and just watch the town known as “The World” spring back to life ….. and with minimal infrastructure costs. Plenty of limestone for cement as well as sand and rock next door too.
But it can’t happen until that resource-gobbling Black Hole of Brisbane and its offshoots are given the flick.
Shane Knuth the Flying Fox King for president! Although, I would have thought Nonda should really be the Capital of our Northern Empire.
Brisbane has always been surplus to Queensland’s requirements.
Without Brisbane holding Queensland back, it will really soar.
Stand by for NSW west of the Castlereagh wanting to escape the parasitic clutches of Sydney & join us!
North Queensland would of course, need to go through the necessary initiation of ‘Territory’ status. They would be behind Northen Territory and ACT, in the line , but that should not concern them.
Any sense of impotence that they experience now, will be compounded under this arrangement. But hell, they will be independent like the rest of us, ‘free rangers’.
Territory status? Hmm, let me see, no local councils, no rates, and the feds foot all the bills.
Yep, works for me!
Is it true that the state animal of Throwbackland would be roadkill?
And if Bjelkeland needs a Governor, it’s possible that the corpse of George Wallace could be had for the price of a motorised wheelchair.
Never mind throwback land or bjelkeland, they are too far south for us to be concerned with.
We are talking of North Queensland! The axle of the universe!
There’s been talk in the States of running the zombified body of Ronald Reagan in the GOP primaries. More convincing as a Reaganite than Thompson and Newt.
Try telling that to residents of urban and near-urban NT – there are ‘proper’ LGAs in operation (Darwin, Palmerston, Litchfield, Katherine, Jabiru, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, in case you’re wondering), and they demand their rates like their counterparts down south. Further to that, the NT will be introducing formal LGAs across the entire territory in 2008, so taking shelter in the ‘unincorporated lands’ will no longer be an option.
As for the ACT, I presume that they pay rates like everyone else – remember, the ACT is just a big municipality with some state-level responsibilities thrown in (think Brisbane City with bigger bollocks) – not to mention the small detail of having to pay for your house all over again after 99 years.
In short, you cop the same trouble, only with less power. (Not to mention that they’ve even done away with the firecrackers as well!)
The Libs are scared of the Ruddster big time.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200706/s1940647.htm
Our ABC has bought an “island” on Second Life.
I don’t get it. In fact, I fear I’m a doggedly first life person.
I heard Hodgy rousing the troops on the radio, Frank.
Bloody inspirational. Like STDs.
“Mr Rudd is more dangerous than former Labor leader Mark Latham”
Yep , Mick, he’s definitely.. “more dangerous”.
As in, he has a far better chance of winning.
Alex, we still have firecrackers in Canberra.
So nerr
“Alex, we still have firecrackers in Canberra.”
And filthy videos, that would make the rest of us blush.
If we were watching them…
…because they are most rude.
The FPĂ– are having a meeting on the next block from where I’m sitting. These guys scare me.
mick , trust me , whatever you do, ‘don’t mention the war’, place two fingers below nostrils or most importantly, attempt any style of silly walk.
Another bit of Ruidd Bashing from Glenn “I’m a DRunkard” Milne. Note the selective leaking of ABCC footage/Audio – I wondrr if this is under orders from Smokin’ Joe to Discredit Rudd ??
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,21837729-2761,00.html
Anyone see Newshour on SBS today?…an enlightening look at the percentage of food imports & the lack of food safety procedures involved in America. I wonder if our food safety procedures in Australia have also gone backwards as we’ve increased our imports. Imports that tend to drive down inflation.
Some pretty alarming stuff.
Podcast available at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html
under ‘Food Safety’
Yes.You can see the workings of the Murdoch Press at Frank Calabrese.Swap Rudd fpr MacDonald and this would make the country more productive,because of the obvious muscle of Rudd.And no doubt Milne is a genius in the representation of other people s intelligence,so a person like Howard would be faced with a Mac. And we will all get good deals from the buildings businesses as occupiers!? Lords prayer now children,it is the opening of Parliament!?
Mark on 2 June 2007 at 9:33 pm
I cant let that mischievous misrepresentation pass without refutation, even if it means abusing thread closure rules.
My “show them the door” comment was clearly directed at the perpetrators, not victims, of “diversity barbarities” such as FGM. Here is the full unexpurgated text:
And if they persist: show them the door.
Call me old-fashioned but I think that concern for the victims of crime, whether legally protected or not, “has much to do with the actual welfare of the people concerned”.
Or does mark think that “humanitarian concern” for the sensitivities of ethnic Alpha-males means we should be giving a free pass to cultures that endorse hacking the genitals off young girls?
No, I don’t, Jack, not at all, as I said on that thread. Very far from it.
As I said it’s a thoroughly evil and repulsive practice.
But I don’t want to have that thread spill over onto this one, as I think it was getting far too heated. I’m happy for your comment to stand as you feel that you’ve been misrepresented and I apologise if I read your comment in haste – I was skimming a lot of comments really quickly – I was out from 3.30pm til about 9pm.
But let’s leave it lie, please.
That ball was half a metre over the line.
Those of you who watched Sydney vs. Essendon tonight know exactly what I’m talking about.
Watched the weird boxed world…w/ eyes wide…the wow and the wobble…w/ volume way down…to the soundz of:
CocoRosie: The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn
&
The National: Boxer
Gute nacht
shlaft gute
Nasking, you mentioned
Why the hell do you think I went ballistic the other day on the Defence White Paper topic, here on Larvatus Prodeo, over that shipment of contaminated toothpaste to Australia? That toothpaste was contaminated with criminal intent; it could just as easily have been contaminated by terrorists with political intent.
The horrifying thing is that it was detected by a shopheeper and NOT by our lazy, horribly expensive show-ponies in Australia’s pretend defence set-up; they were too busy playing with their shiny war-toys to be interested in such mundane trivia as protecting hundreds of their fellow citizens from a hideous death.
Open every shipping container? Why not? There’s more than enough spare money around to do just that ….for a start.
Um, because it’d be a ludicrous constraint of trade?
This is a special report of 600 words in length, simply titled “My definition of Public Relations” by Justin Christie:
Jason Koutsoukis recently wrote in The Sunday Age:
“It doesn’t matter what (John) Howard says or does, the public isn’t listening anymore.�
Consider the assumption that PR is simply about “spinâ€? – imparting favourable bias about an organisation to a public. Then consider the idiom that “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drinkâ€?.
PR isn’t just about imparting a message from sender to receiver about decisions already made by an organisation. Yet it’s traditionally the federal government’s objective to communicate its economic credentials to the public as its main strength. Consequently, it has largely “already decided� to defend its recent decision-making based on these credentials.
Recently, writer Christian Kerr spoke to broadcaster Philip Adams about why this largely one-way communications approach may be not working:
“Jackie Kelly made an interesting comment that the Prime Minister really had to focus locally if he was to win this election. She was talking about him spouting macro figures all the time……â€? which provoked Philip Adams to add:
“Not the price of milk and a loaf of bread.�
In Mr. Howard’s case, he may have a definition of PR that’s narrowed only to creating and directing a message (relating “good news� about economics) and judging by the long-term ineffectiveness of an estimated $2.5 billion spent in government advertising over 11 years, it’s only now Mr. Howard is accepting “you cannot force the horse to drink�.
He’s switching PR sub-discipline emphasis from “promotion of issues� to “issues management� – responding to public concerns over industrial relations and climate change.
Perhaps conceding Mr. Howard placed too much trust on the more technical sub-discipline roles of PR than those that play a role in problem-solving at a management level.
Perhaps he’s starting to understand the strategic, not just the tactical roles PR plays, provoking the editor of The Age to ask after the Prime Minister’s warning to his party room that the Coalition faces “annihilation� at the next election:
“What’s in a word? Clever tactics by John Howard or a worrying reality for the Coalition?�
Whatever the answer, John Howard’s understanding of PR seems to be in transition.
A more strategic conception of PR as “relationship building� than the traditional misconception of PR as merely playing a tactical role of “spin� is needed to understand that communication must be two-way (between initial sender and receiver), therefore feedback sought from the public isn’t merely the type which helps determine what techniques make the transmission of information from sender to receiver more effective.
Consider the recent “financial relations� failure of Qantas, as reported by the editor of The Australian:
“(Chairwoman Margaret Jackson’s) crime was to misread the mood of Qantas shareholders with a triumphant public acceptance takeover offer which did not enjoy the same level of support from the owners of the company.�
Failure to be informed by public feedback is perhaps remedied by a one-word definition of PR – “credibility� – a word Marketing writer Al Ries uses to sharpen PR’s distinction from Advertising – “Advertising is Incredible. PR is Credible�.
“Credibility� encompasses not only PR’s strategic planning role, but also the importance of an ethical framework – to achieve sound communication outcomes within a “socially responsible� framework: Recognising an organisation is linked to a community and an environment, not just a marketplace and its own workplace, as highlighted last month in The Age Corporate Responsibility Index report.
…From Justin
Congrats to Arnie’s boys and the ‘B’ Team, it was a good match regardless of the scoreline. Brad Jones = Kalac mk II.
Arnie: drop the lone striker thing, it only works with ‘Dukes, and it was Farina’s idea to begin with FFS. Also a hearty ‘wake the [The Hon. Alexander Downer] up!’ to the GG Army and the ‘Home End’. The ‘guayan fans were 1/20th your numbers and then put you to shame viz. volume, stamina, passion.
Dismal, fellas, really dismal.
Can you provide a link Graham? I haven’t visited here for awhile. I’m interested in reading that thread.
Tho i’m more concerned about food safety as in dangerous chemicals & preservatives used overseas in order to make a quick buck etc. Case in point wheat flour & gluten coming out of China. But I can see your point.
so the health & welfare of the public is trumped by the needs of ‘free marketeers’ once again. sigh.
Looks like the PM has adopted the motto of laziness on the issue of climate change.
Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
Wot a silly old man.
Fiasco da Gama [at 11:58am]
Well …. out in the harsh cruel world, you won’t be doing an awful lot of trade if a sizable chunk of your population has karked it or is otherwise out of the market because some smarty-pants has worked out a cheap-and-nasty way for a lot of us to self-deliver our own destruction.
The young fogeys in Canberra had better realize that the world has changed since the Collapse of Communism and since Nine-Eleven. I can just see them at Bolimov in January 1915 …. “Look, Vladimir Nikolaevich, don’t take any notice of those German troops you saw dragging metal cylinders around; they’re only hygiene dutymen …. don’t bother reporting anything unless it is significant, like a troop of enemy uhlans on the move or something like that”……….
Nasking:
Fine. http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/05/28/time-for-a-new-defence-white-paper/#comment
nasking , A link to Graham and the toothpast test comments here..
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/05/28/time-for-a-new-defence-white-paper/#comments
I tried to track down this “possible” toxic chinese toothpaste scare, but have so far failed to find anything locally except this..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200705/1938745.htm?northcoast
Looks like a premptive strike against China by USA, in a gathering trade war.
Mind you, i will not be buying my toothpaste from a 2 dollar shop, given concerns in Canada and elswhere about some horrible stuff in the tube.
And, as Graham says, less money on bulldust, hugely expensive, high tech defense and more money on the ground in MHO.
Steve [11:52am Saturday]:
Sorry about my delay in responding,
Yes, Nonda certainly has got a lot going for it when it comes to starting with a clean slate for infractrucure development …. but so too have Nelia, Maxwelton, Quarrels and Oorindi …. so let’s set up a Capital Selection Commission which can then call tenders for developing a scheme for planning an inquiry into how a selection process can be initiated …..
And let’s hope and pray that the first Act passed by the parliament of the new state is to make the setting up of dodgy inquries a felony.
Nasking:
That link has disappeared; trying again ….
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/05/28/time-for-a-new-defence-white-paper/#comments
Rumble in Rostock before the G8.
The Chinese dealt severely with the guy who took bribes leading to contaminated toothpaste and much else besides.
A more robust left-wing criminal justice system would work wonder here too.
Would certainly remove the ability of conmen to reoffend!
Thnx for the links Graham & Joe 2…the toothpaste episode if disturbing. I always thought Australia pretty on top of it when it came to protecting the borders, using Customs & other departments to ensure a reasonable level of public safety…& to prevent the spread of blight, diseases & such. Not so sure anymore. Seems that the kowtowing to Multi-National Corporations, attempts to keep down inflation by allowing China to flood our markets/stores w/ cheap goods…combined w/ these free (lol) trade agreements & general tight wad/cost cutting/out-sourcing budgeting when it comes to Federal Public Service, has led to an extremely porous border & real slipups. For all the rhetoric it seems the Federal Govt. is not pulling their weight. Conned by ‘fairweather friends’ into buying an unsafe car & asleep at the wheel so to speak. The wall heading our way real soon. sigh.
Graham, i agree that far too much money is being spent on ‘big shiny war toys’…to appease the friends of Bush & Co i imagine…wider thinking required on this issue.
For Leniad, killer drones. Functionally cool, and retro styled as well.
Brian and Steve At The Pub:
Aaah. So that’s what a proactive Security and Quality Assurance looks like.
Nasking:
Isn’t that also called wisdom, prudence, thoroughness, competence and doing your job?
If we ordinary citizens noticed, you can bet terrrorists have noticed too.
That’s right Graham…the characteristics of a good Leader & their team…sorely lacking these days. Howard is a politician full stop. Anything else comes second to his ambition. Tho keeping his ‘free marketeer’, ‘privatization’ mates gets close. As does his interest in American political economics. And using the Nation to overcome his own fears.
Interesting Article on the preferred Talkback show of choice where our two leaders prefer to appear on.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/media-matters/2007/06/01/1180205508059.html?page=2
And the Govt Gazette Chior is in unison over the Galaxy Poll.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21849004-7583,00.html
Disability issues at QUT update
Nowhere yet topicwise, to celebrate the resuscitation of Jeffersonian Democracy, which has been on Life Support since Gitmo and dozens of Top Secret off-shore Rendition Ranches became operational.
Jerkshot Cheney is not having a good week:
“Senator Leahy and Republican Senator Arlen Specter have introduced legislation that would restore the writ of habeas corpus to terror suspects, allowing them the right to go to court and challenge their detention. ” (HuffPo)
Elsewhere two putative “enemy combatants”, including a Canadian youth who was 15 y.o. when rendidtioned to Gitmo 5 years ago, have just had their “cases”, prosecuted by BushCo, tossed out of court.
Also, Jerkshot’s former right arm(Chief of Staff), Irvre Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was just handed two and a half years porridge by Judge Reggie Walton. The sentence cannot be suspended when Scooter’s lawyers appeal. Libby has been accurately dubbed, “Cheney’s Cheney” and was one of the pre-emptive boosters (as a PNAC* and WHIG** pointman) for the dirty little war in Mesopotamia.
* Project for a New American Century (A Neoconservative Valhalla)
** White House Iraq Group (warmongering and Fed Treasury plundering via Halliburton, KBR, Carlisle Group, the Blackwater mercs etc.)
One can smell a Cecil B. De Mille-style, Mother of all Fear Campaigns coming on. This will be be achieved by BushCo & Allied tightening their full-Neson on the MSM. It’s the only shot Jerkshot’s people (in league with Team Imbecile) have got left.
In The Land of Oz, today’s events in The Land of The Brave draw focus back to the saga of David Hicks and the ease with which El Rodente surrendered the Human Rights of all Australians, once inviolate under the Geneva Convention of War.
Enemy Combatant, does your last paragraph mean that Australians have got trouble on their hands if they go overseas to join up with a militis which is fighting against us? Gosh, how terrible.
I love you too, Steve. You’re so big and strong.
“Would certainly remove the ability of conmen to reoffend!”
We had one here around Anzac Day but we unmasked him. He had a thing about military rifles, vigilante violence and traitors overseas. All delivered in a sanctimonious tone. I suspect he’s a wanker, pretending to be someone he is not.