An open thread where, at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
29 Responses to “Saturday Salon”
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Io sono la prima resposta da quelle sujetto
(In my best Dinglish
)
Btw, Today is the day when WA Police deal with our own version of Corey
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=inVwhZKWQek
Don’t Ch 7 realise they’ve given free publicty and will result in MORE people attending ?
Io sono la segundo resposta da quelle sujetto
Et je suis aussi la deuxieme poste
Die Coreys sind alle Dumkopfen!
Political Pauline Moment For People-Skilled Misogynist: Crabb-Woman Defrocks Mad Monk
http://www.smh.com.au/news/annabel-crabb/in-the-wilderness-eyeing-off-damascus/2008/02/22/1203467386912.html
EC: That’s an unusually lazy article from the usually sparkling Annabel Crabb. I guess we all have our off days.
Why do you think so much column-ink is still being dispensed writing about members of the former government? They don’t matter, and won’t matter, for the forseeable future.
Are the new government such a boring bunch that columnists can’t find anything to get their teeth into? Do the journos not have enough close contacts in the new Krudd regime? Or could it be that the new government is just talking over the media pack’s heads and getting on with things?
While I agree with those who peg Rudd and as a skilled media operator, I think the most important skill in media is just to *be* news instead of trying to *make* news. Don’t talk to the media pack, just do stuff and let them scurry along behind you trying to figure it out…
Hi Frank,I thought the 6pr radio jocks Beamont and Sattler did a better job, I will admit to not watching Commercial TV but Sattler has been flogging the party to death,with his usual outrage on how dreadful it all is ect ect.
Meanwhile back in the Zoo which passses for the Liberal Party these and Buzzcock 6prs chosen one considering none of them ask him a difficult question,has lost another member,if it keeps up at this rate he will be all on his own.
The Editor of The Worst has been copping a touch up in the Australian,but no a squeak out of our chasers of the truth on PR,funny old place WA in the media
I think I may have made 4 or 5
This morning I’ve been pondering how long it will be before the sense of relief disappears. You know — the sense of relief when the words “Prime Minister–” are followed by “–Kevin Rudd” and I remember we’ve disposed of Voldemort. I can remember how my solidly Labor High School reacted when Hawke won, but have no idea what it was like for leftish adults at the time.
Some fishermen in British coastal waters off Withey have caught a new invasive species that caused British fisheries people to react like Maurice Iemma when he first found out some of his Ministers might be tainted by the sex/property developer scandal in Parramatta. They said, “Sh*t!” The creature is the Lovecraftian Asian Snake Fish. (Thanks to j-p-z on another thread for that inspiration.) This creature is very large, has a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and is a bit like a marine garbage disposal truck. It eats anything, including people.If they breed, the Brits will no longer be able to go swimming for fear of being devoured. The creature is apparently an illegal import, dumped in the ocean. Whats worse, it can stay alive and move on land for four days before dying. And in that time it can still attack people. Just sayin’.
“to react like Maurice Iemma when he first found out some of his Ministers might be tainted by the sex/property developer scandal in Parramatta.”
It’s actually Wollongong, Paul. The scandal in Parramatta is yet to break…….
“Why do you think so much column-ink is still being dispensed writing about members of the former government? They don’t matter, and won’t matter, for the foreseeable future.�
Certainly, Mercurius, the Coalition are irrelevant at the moment, and perhaps in a just and fair Australia they would be denied every zephyr of publicity oxygen, however after good, plain, decent folk have suffered 12 years of malfeasance and bastardry at their behest, surely a soupcon of bovver a la Docteur Cordelier should not be denied safe-injecting political junkies. Just a little taste mind you.
Aaaahh, so schadenfreudistically efficacious. If they weren’t so completely and utterly up themselves it wouldn’t be any fun at all. Be a shame to allow the tories to taxi totally unblipped below the Op-Ed radar, as only the most optimistic of us would consider them airborne at this juncture.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/opinion/cartoons/
Anyway, I had a good laugh at the tone and inventiveness of Annabel Krabb’s article, as I suspect patrons of bruschetteries and barber shops did too on this glorious Saturday morning.
“Just sayin’.”
Yes Paul, but what the hell are you talking about?
FDB, surely it’s not polite to ask commenters what they are talking about?
Better to guess than have some people pushed into the awkward position of not knowing.
Frank, if you go to the party, get a shot for The Worst of Perth please.
FDB,
The Asian snakefish, a peculiar and dangerous human-biting marine species that had invaded British waters. A fish horror story. Thought it was pretty clear. Frivolity, y’know. And, yeah,everyone, I did mean Wollongong.
Damn! I was hoping for some scandalous sex nearer home…
Everyone – i buon giorno, Frank;
Just watching the Turkish news on dumbed-down ad-filled SBS-TV. The big news, of course, is of all the brave Turkish soldiers on operations inside the Iraqi border.
The bigger news – to smug Western miltary wallahs at least – is that it is entirely possible to fight a war at the end of winter and during the mud-&-flood of the spring thaw; no need to wait until late April after all. Kosovo, anyone?
Graham,
I’ve been contemplating this Kosovo thing a bit too, but haven’t wanted to comment because I’ve been waiting to see how things turn out. Nevertheless, here goes – time to plunge in. First, the geography. I’ve4 never been OS, but wouldn’t condition in Iraq/Turkey be more favourable than slightly further north where the Serbs would be launching their invasion?
2. The Serbian President has said Kosovo belongs to Serbia and always will, and I’ve no doubt its what he believes, but what else could he say, anyway, if he wanted to stay President?
3. The big question is, not what Serbvia will deo, but what Russia will do. For all Putin’s recent hardline stands against the West and NATO I don’t think he’d be prepared to go to war over Kosovo on Serbia’s behalf. And if he’s not prepared to do that, the only response the Serbs would have to an invasion of Kosovo would be to have the sh*t bombed out of them by NATO or by an alliance of European powers which might even include us. This doesn’t mean I don’t think the Serbs won’t invade. I think they will but I suspect they’ll only end up being put back in the box. The only question is how long it will take. The West might even be quite spineless for a while.
Wiser heads in Serbia are more likely to take the road of economic blockade. When and if that would be a casus belli, which it might, is hard to say at this point.
Hard Choices for Labor – social justice and inflation…
Dear friends,
I am a writing in regard to an article which has been published in On Line Opinion.
The paper is a call to drop plans to cut taxes – and instead to promote a bi-partisan consensus on this issue for the ‘national good’.
Instead, I argue to raise taxes for the wealthy – to rein in conspicuous consumption – countering inflation without hurting the poor and vulnerable.
This is one of the most critical issues facing the new government, and a real test for Labor.
I’m hoping that participants on this blog might be interested in reading the paper – and, is possible – adding comments and contributing to debate on the On Line Opinion website.
The article can be found at this URL:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7026
Further debate can be had at the ‘Leftwrites’ Blog – a forum for the Australian Left:
http://www.leftwrites.net/
Hope to hear from you soon – contributing to the debate…
sincerely,
Tristan Ewins
“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism… That you push yourselves… Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual…”
– Michelle Obama, speech at UCLA (apparently she really, um, said this.)
SCENE: ENGLAND, 832 A.D.
Through a dense English fog, we hear the sound of two coconuts banging together. Soon, the Democratic Knights appear, galloping in the mist: Sir Edwards the Shiny, Sir Hillary the Spiteful, and others — all led by Barack, King of the Smittens.
King Barack poses dramatically on the hilltop, bathed in light as usual, gazing upwards across a plain, where a shining Utopian city glitters in the distance: the magical realm of Obamalot.
SIR EDWARDS: Obamalot!
SIR SHARPTON: Obamalot!
SIR KENNEDY: Obamalot!
SIR HILLARY: It’s only a model.
KING BARACK: Knights, I bid you welcome to your new home. Let us ride to… Obamalot!
[cue SILLY MUSIC.]
DEMOCRATS (sing):
We’re Dems of the new persuasion,
A charm offense we’re wagin’.
We fling buzz-words
Like they’re seed to birds,
Part cult, and part contagion!
We’re slogan-drunk in Obamalot,
We say “Iraq is Viet Nam” a lot!
[silly dance]
We’re Dems of the new persuasion,
We love
Migrant
Invasion.
But that’s not so strange,
Since when we say “Change,”
We just mean “non-Caucasian”!
There’s race-cards in Obamalot
But we smother them with glam a lot!
[silly dance continues]
Health care uni-versal,
Is just a dress re-hearsal!
We won’t let you bolt
From the Multi Cult
‘Til we have full wealth-dispersal!
It’s a dodgy plan in Obamalot…
A CERTAIN CHICAGO PASTOR (bass):
I’m down with Far-ra-khan a lotttt.
[silly dance concludes]
VOTERS: On second thought, let’s not go to Obamalot. It is a silly place.
SIR HILLARY: Too late, suckers. Bunch of ingrates.
Paul Burns [16]:
Are some nations looking for a convenient cause for engaging in conflict so as to take advantage of what appears to an enfeebled United States? If so then the Kosovo issue could be very convenient indeed.
I don’t think the Serbian Army would initiate an invasion – but they might be forced to go into Kosovo to make sure several hundred, or even thousands of disorganized hotheads don’t get themselves slaughtered after going deep into Kosovo. If that happens, the whole situation could escalate with lightning speed and completely out of the control of any politicians, negotiators or generals on either side – and away from the direct gaze of the international news media.
My post [15] above was a dig at military complacency that feels a war could not break out at a time when when melting snow impeded vehicular and armoured mobility.
j-p-z [18]:
You’re hired!! Thank you everyone for coming and showing such outstanding talent but Mr J.P.Z. has the job.
Anyone seen this?
http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?revision=_latest&fs=true&docID=ddv7hj34_03774hsc7&skipauth=true
Memories of Brisvegas Top 40 Radio in 1983 – and Boy George.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsi-OCOPZRk
Radio 10 is now 4TAB – broadcasting Racing.
Graham Bell,(19)
I’d be surprised if the military brass were that silly. There are numerous examples from history – the most immediate example coming to mind in my current area of study being the victorious attack in snow and ice on the Hessians at Trenton by George Washington on 25/26 December, 1776.(One of his few actual victories.) I know that was winter, but surely the point is the same. I was under the impression the military learnt from history. I know the ADF does and I would expect NATO forces to be the same.
Your scenario for Kosovo makes me shudder,if only for the frightening possibility it might come to pass.
Graham,
Further to my comment at 22. Surely NATO or the UN Forces would have had the nous to have had some military exercise or battle plan on paper at least to counter an early spring attack by x forces in Kosovo? From my study of the OZ Army in WW2 which has been quite extensive (6 years intensive study and a book) that’s the way armies work.
This one really cracked me up. Even for a politician, there comes a point where the “zero credibility option” is the only safe bet.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/24/2170922.htm
It strikes me that JWH’s concept that withdrawing, scaling down troops in Iraq giving comfort to terrorist is a bit of a long bow. I suspect they wouldn’t have given a rat’s arse. Obviously Robb went on Insiders to cover for the Libs recent disgraceful behaviour and policy flip/flop/flap/fuddles. Strange that the only way they can cover themselves in glory is by adopting ALP policy, ain’t it? Next thing you know they’ll be telling us they are really socialists at heart.Though whether they’ve really learnt that being mean-minded, unfeeling haeartless right wing ultra-capitalist ideologues is not what the electorate wants remains to be seen. I still live by my old father’s dictum, drummed into me when I was knee-high to a grasshopper: “Naver trust a Liberal.” Life experience has proven that to be more than true.
Paul leopards don’t change their spots they hide them in spotty bushes until they are in control enough to charge. That frightens the shit out of everything within cooee and normalcy returns only when they retreat to their spotty bush again.
Paul Burns [22,23]:
I don’t doubt for a minute the existence of excellent plans for operations during the thaw. Comforting plans. That’s planning – I was talking about complacency …. “They wouldn’t be so stupid as to do anything now; the conditions are still bloody awful; they would have to wait, wouldn’t they?”.
The example that leaps to mind is of the Japanese Imperial Navy steaming through the appalling early winter conditions in the high northern latitudes of the Pacific to attack capital ships and major naval facilities on a Sunday. Impossible! Nobody in their right mind would do that!
b.t.w. A more recent example of fighting on ice was over Lake Ladoga during the Siege of Leningrad – though once the thaw had started, all bets were off. And don’t forget what Aleksandr Nevsky did to the Teutonic knights on frozen Lake Peipus in 1242.
My point is – the spring thaw itself is no guarantee whatsoever of peace for a few more weeks. Instead, an astute political or military leader might see it as a golden opportunity rather than as a hindrance.
Graham,
Totally agree. Lets just hope rabid nationalism doesn’t supplant common sense. Though I don’t think there’s much hope of that re Kosovo. Emotions are running far too hot. Sometimes I despair of the world on so many fronts.
Right now there’s a live webcast of the New York Philharmonic performing live in North Korea. They’re in the middle of Dvorak’s magnificent “New World Symphony.” Run, don’t walk!
http://www.allclassical.org