Any real shredder would have been the hogger on the killing floor of a local abbatoir. However, the secret hiding place of the news media’s specially-invented Human Shredding Machine, like its Evil Inventor, is yet to be found. Calling Indiana Jones, calling Indiana Jones!

Everyone:

Maybe I’m missing something …. but exactly where and when and by whom were these expressions of fury against Australian Prime Minister Rudd made by Japanese officials?.

b.t.w. an apology: on post [10] I misspelt Julius “Jack” Kruttschnitt’s name.

A senior diplomatic source indicated that unless Mr Rudd moved quickly to set up bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Australia could “kiss goodbye any hope of getting the Japanese to ease off on whaling”.

“This is a very serious snub,” the diplomatic source said. “And don’t think the Japanese haven’t noticed. They are bloody furious.”

I note that his “senior diplomatic source” is in fact Australian, not Japanese.

I note that this source is not named as a “DFAT officer”, so he or she may not even be an active officer, or indeed may not never have been an officer.

The description “senior diplomatic source” identifies Lord Dolly Downer perfectly.

I’m not suggesting the “source” was His Lordship. But neither can it be ruled out.

There may well be a point to this, but I can’t help thinking the fact that Brendan Nelson repeats it every bloody night on the news is cynical. If Rudd added an extra day or two in Japan, would we get “Oh noes! PM out of Australia for 19 days in lead up to budget!”…

It’s a Kevinist rhetorical question btw.

*Mick Young theory of Politics.

At least Howard knew where Japan is.

Oh how excitement! RWDB repeats opposition talking points. Never would have seen that coming.

At least Howard knew where Japan is.

but does he know where Saddam Hussein’s dreaded human shredding machine is?

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/20/1047749878074.html

Despite the rather pathetic bleatings of the opposition on Kevin Rudd’s reception in Washington, there’s little doubt John Howard would be seething.

Actually, he’s probably laughing if he can recall Rudd saying this…

And our view is that if we have such strong economic relationships with the emerging economies of China and Japan, that frankly we should be in there as well. Remember, our whole future is going to be shaped by this region with the emerging economies of India, China, Japan and others.

- Kevin Rudd, 7 April 2005

Japanese officials are incensed that the Mandarin-speaking Mr Rudd appears to be favouring Beijing, but has virtually ignored Japan since taking office four months ago…

- - 16 March 2008

At least Howard knew where Japan is.

A Queenslander is a late 19th~early 20th Century big weatherboard house with very wide verandahs and set on 6 foot high timber stumps [an influence from Malaysia] which allowed cooling breezes to flow under the house; it’s high-pitched corrugated iron roof and its high ceilings made the inside of the house more comfortable than inside an ordinary house [quite clever, really]. Since only the well-off could afford to have them built, the quality of building was usually better. This - as well as their style - is the reason they are so popular with rich young renovators nowadays.

Anita [7]:

Buchanan’s Hotel [featured on a postage stamp] burnt to the ground …. but if that hadn’t happened, there’s no doubt it would have been bellevued too.

Everyone:

Someone ought to write a history of the Americans who were in North Queensland in the ‘thirties and ‘forties …. not just LBJ but robust characters like old Jack Kruschnitt at Mount Isa. There was a lot more American influence in that part of the world than just from the U.S. military occupation alone.

From what I gather, the word “Queenslander” seems to also refer to a type of small house, is it a kind of small bungalow? Maybe that’s what Rudd had in mind. “Bungalow” would certainly be an in-the-ballpark (if overly generous) description of the scale of Mr. Bush’s mind, or of his political stature at present.

I think in context Rudd wasn’t being particularly honorific to Bush with that, but simply drawing a parallel between the idea of the Queenslander character and the idea of the Texan character, which seems not too far off base. If we divide the Anglosphere into two roughly equal halves, the Commonwealth and the US, it seems to me that in some respects, Australia when taken as a conceptual or spiritual place is sort of the Commonwealth’s correspondency to the place Texas holds in the overall American psyche. Except maybe for the really dirty politics. And Ma Ferguson. Has Australia got a Ma Ferguson?

btw, I couldn’t find online Rudd’s riposte to the Man of Steel thing. What did he say?

But I also recall LBJ visiting Newstead House on the Brisbane River near Breakfast Creek. There’s nothing on the official site but courtesy of the Dunns, Paul and Elisabeth, it is recorded that there is a Lyndon B. Johnson Place in the grounds near the river.

At the bottom of the next page is the monument to the Americans for their help in WW11. I think LBJ was taken to see it, whereupon the place was named after him.

In looking around I came upon this excerpt of an interview with Caro on Johnson. A cynical bastard. See especially the last para.

For Johnson, all men were tools, and to use them he had to know their weaknesses.

I thought there was an interesting power contrast between Rudd and Bush, with the supposedly more powerful one representing failure and the past, somewhat in the shadow of the one representing the future.

Bush recently sang a ditty called the “Brown Brown Grass of Home” - he seems to be counting the days till he can pack it all in. Rudd on the other hand seems quite brimming with confidence and optimism - it’s a good look for our country.