Yes of course I should be working. Paperwork piled beside me like a poorly executed Andy Goldsworthy piece, a floor that could do with a vacuum, sink full of dishes, presents to wrap. Thankfully there’s always tomorrow. Such ill-discipline.
So I shall instead indulge myself with a waspish look at a piece printed in the MSM today. Back page of the front section of the SMH - SiT as it’s wittingly known - Stay in Touch. Quite what it is staying in touch with is unclear, though a peevish middle class whine springs to mind. I gather it is meant to be lightly informing & mildly distracting. And in keeping with its usual tone of annoying self satisfaction, it has today a piece by Paul Sheehan.
Entitled In roles not always best suited or served, it serves up another example of Sheehan’s ability to cherry pick the irrelevant from a moment of popular culture & draw conclusions baffling in their less than paper thin connection with the original incident. While at the same time, lecturing us as to the appropriate conclusion & therefore the moral we should have drawn ourselves. Continue reading ‘Restless natives & all that’
I caught part of Brian Loughnane’s address to the National Press Club on ABC wee-small-hours last night because I was having one of those can’t sleep a bloody wink nights again. In fact, I caught the whole of Loughnane’s speech then piked out on watching the question and answer session after the third or fourth questioner.
In his introduction to Loughnane’s speech, NPC President Ken Randall said Loughnane would give an insider’s view of how the Liberal Party campaign had failed, based on recent Liberal Party post-election polling. What Loughnane delivered was roughly 50% spun analysis - that is, something that purported to be analysis but sounded more like the Liberal Party’s continuing attempts to push their “the voters were just bored with us” line, this time dressed up with a few cherry-picked figures about key demographics. The other 50% was just a re-affirmation of Liberal ideology mixed in with some pretty egregious claims about promises Labor had made to win the election, and the coalition’s obligation to hold Labor to those promises.
Continue reading ‘Determined Not to Get It’
It’s been a bumper year for Queenslanders with a brand shiny new Premier as well as a PM. So what’s the report card on Anna Bligh’s time in office? So far, so good, I’d say - though the big problem with the Beattie administration was brand shiny new announcements without the necessary follow up in all cases.
Weird Queensland stuff
Well, we get fluoride in the water, but we don’t get daylight saving. I imagine the Premier is banking on the fact that people in SEQ don’t care enough about it, whereas the bush has to be politically pacified after the Council amalgamations stoush. It’s up to us to let her know she’s wrong (with our brand new shiny teeth smiles)… “It’s time to end the state of decay”, says Anna.
Continue reading ‘Anna Bligh: the first hundred days’
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It’s a long time since we had a silly poetry thread, so in verse, please.
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