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Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
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Honestly ,look at this brainless crap from Gillard: http://www.theage.com.au/national/alp-senator-laments-gillards-palestine-stand-20111104-1n0dj.html
The diplomatic costs of abstainiing on this vote would lterially be zero. Zilch.
But she’s overruled Rudd, and is voting for the crassest expression of Huntington-style war of civilisation nonsense from the US & Israel.
This can only mean one of two things:
1. There is empty, hollow, ringing space in her head where all other left of centre persons place “knowledge about the world”, or
2. She is the most craven PM we’ve ever had, who has reduced us – needlessly – to the the sort of vassal state level previously occupied only by *actual* US -client island states like Palau.
I call on any remaining “Gillard PM”supporters to reconsider their position. I also apologise on behalf of all Australians to the Palestinian people for this shocking piece of grovelling stupidity.
When did we give you the right to do anything at all on behalf of any of us, let alone all of us?
I think your apologies should be to the Australian people for your arrogance.
There will be a range of views in this country on Palestine’s admission into UNESCO, even with only observer status, but though I support that move, I think it is the height of intolerance, and racist, to condemn in, the terms you do, anyone who does not share your opinion.
My thoughts too on Palestine LeftyE … if the ALP couldn’t bring itself to actually recognise Palestinian statehood, for fear of offending the US, then they might at least have gone mealy-mouthed …
On a separate matter, it seems that the vacuous and eccentric populist maundering of ABC morning announcer Deborah Cameron are to be brought to a close, at least for the moment, by the decision of ABC management not to renew her contract. I don’t generally get to hear much of her drivel, as most of her content is delivered after I’m at work, and I’m thus largely reliant on others for dispatches. Suffice it to say though that I won’t be mourning her loss.
That said, the rationale — her ratings have plateaud — underlines why some of us on the left have started using the term their ABC. It seems to me that if there is a reason for publkic funding of a broadcast network then it surely lies in the delivery of services that would not be delivered if reliance on commercial ratings was an important measure of their quality. We have seen where that goes — and it goes nowhere near quality journalism, diversity or useful contributions to public insight into topography of public culture. Instead, we get content that is almost entirely derivative of commercial interest and its political wing. #TheirABC in its futile chase for ratings, has become for the most part, an off-key echo of the very same thing, a lesser yappy puppy of the much broader Murdocratic landscape.
I have no confidence at all that the Mark Scott led band of Murdocratic yesmen (or should that be yespeople?) are going to replace Ms Cameron with anyone committed to and capable of delivering quality journalism, diversity or useful contributions to public insight into topography of public culture. Every indication is that the editorial policy of #theirABC will continue to be a stale redux of Chris Mitchell’s latest exercises in special pleading for Big Dirt, Big Filth, Big Money and Big Angst in general.
As I said of QANTAS here the other day, the time has come to have the state step in and ensure that public goods are delivered at a quality of which people can be proud.
G’day Fran, I’ll agree with the dumbing down of ‘theirABC’ (seen 7.30 lately?) broadly, but as a mostly Radio National listener, it’s not quite so noticeable.
A couple of days a week I get to hear 702 for a short while after 9am for the Canberra update (Sydney traffic!) and a guest or two who do topical chats and if occassionaly anodyne, they are never totally reactionary. Sometimes they are of good quality, and Cameron holds it together well in a professional manner, to my ear at least. What she does for the rest of time I cannot say, but I think you are being a tad harsh on her, based on my few slots per week.
ChrispyDog said:
She’s no ‘shock jock’ certainly, but on the occasions I have heard her interview guests, her questions are vacuous, often seek information that has already been given and repeat widely circulated rightwing tropes. She’s no better than Adam Spencer in these respects.
It’s 9:45 EST, a very pleasant morning in Melbourne, about 20C. Outside we are greeted by the dull roar of two air conditioners, both the size of small jet engines; the house two doors down and the house behind that.
I ask: WTF??!!?
Fran, You are right to be concerned. Deb’s use of the word matey and hooroo drove me to distraction so I rarely listened. But of more concern is the departure of one of the ABC’s true intellectuals Ramona Koval. This woman is respected around the world as one of the best literary interviewers going and yet the ABC seems to have engineered her departure. It is straight out of the Mark Scottt playbook. At Fairfax that man had no idea of quality journalism and pushed a right agenda. The ABC news is appalling, leading stories with the opposition talking about things only just announced by the Government but not covered by the ABC. It sounds like it just rips and reads news ltd papers., On Cameron although she was annoying I wonder if the combined efforts of Gerard Henderson and that person who puts together cut and past in the Oz had some influence on matters. If Mark Scott is involved I wouldn’t be surprised. He has an avuncular air but he is poison behind the scenes
During the run up to the election in 2007 I found the blatherings of almost everyone announcing on the radio an insult to the listener.
What to do ?
Well relief was found on Classic FM – sure run by the ABC but with only 5 minutes on news delivered sometimes at the hour the gentle waves of music soothed away the irritation.
They even have jazz every evening at 5pm and evenings are an allsorts collection of modern music.
Constant listening for the past 4 years has been a balm for the mind and the soul. I recommend it to all of you.
Oh and if you want a bit of controversy Margaret Throsby in the mid morning slot conducts interviews at a relaxed and dignified pace which allows guest to actually explain things to the listeners. Amazing!
Classic FM is heaven on a stick. Emma and Julie Howard excellent bookends. Just hope Scott never discovers it and tries to lift its ratings.
I was going to mention Koval, a mind I will certainly miss.
As for Classic FM, I’ll second that, and Throsby is from another (and gentler) age of interviewer, with outstanding guests who get relaxed enough to reveal more than is possible in any other medium.
On the odd occassion I’ve heard 702 afternoon, and if you want really vacuous claptrap, there’s your spot.
Murph, I caught Schubert’s 2nd Piano Trio yesterday, with Casals on cello no less, on a drive from Sydney to Newcastle. It sure made the tradies ute and Hilux rally to the Central Coast a manageable experience!
Agree 100% on the ABC in general Fran, but I too think you’re being a bit harsh on Cameron. She at least consistently criticised Abbott, ran strongly on climate change, and treated Gillard with more respect than most of her colleagues.
No wonder she got the chop.
“I think it is the height of intolerance, and racist, to condemn in, the terms you do, anyone who does not share your opinion.”
Thanks for that pointless relativist guff. Which was also quite silly (at the ‘racist’ bit).
Since we’re talking about the most basic human rightss of a people, Im hardly concerned about any ill informed banjo pluckers who might disagree.
Notably, neither is the world community. Just the US., Israel, and some vassal state in Micronesia wh simply does as told. Why join up?
Once again, I apologise – this time on behalf of all sensible humanity.
With you on that Lefty, it was a bloody craven disgrace, unneccessary and witless pandering to the AIPAC controlled US government. OK, the US outsources its foreign policy to an unelected rightwing Zionist bunch of loony tune neocons, but for Australia to play ‘me too’ with this lot is utterly disgraceful.
Rant over.
(And anyone who thinks AIPAC represents the majority of American Jewry, then think again and look up the facts…they most certainly do not.)
It’s 9.50 AM AEST, a very pleasant morning in Townsville, about 29C. A gentle and cooling breeze is blowing. Not the sound of an air conditioner to be heard. I join you in asking of those down in Melbourne: WTF??!!?
You don’t represent, definitionally, us either, so there is no point in you apologising on our behalf.
The joke being, who’s Gillard trying to impress? Republicans who are unaware that China has nuclear weapons? Or Obama, who almost certainly hates Netanyahu but has no desire to start another front on the culture war?
Maybe she’s not being sycophantic, which is even worse.
Classsic FM and Margret Throsby remind us of why we used to value “civilized.”
Suppose a ‘reply’ button is out of the question?
LP do you think it would be possible to make a quiet enquiry about the wellbeing of our friend in Armidale?
(delete this message if you think appropriate, but please make the enquiry)
I seem to keep on ringing at the wrong time to talk to him, but I can confirm that he appears to be getting plenty of rest and food and spongebaths, GregM.
The thing about defending a universal human right is that you do get to speak for all, GregM.
Get with the program.
Thanks tigtog. Much appreciated.
For my sins, I tuned into a Senate debate on Thursday around 5pm, to hear Senator Barnaby Joyce repeatedly asking the same question to Penny Wong, who repeatedly answered it, all the while Joyce got himself further and further worked up…
Senator Joyce was in ‘gotcha’ mode, just more or less picking bits of the Carbon Tax legislation at random and asking Senator Wong what the bits meant, out of context — and then rejecting any explanation provided, including when the explanation were informed by Senator Wong taking advice from senior Department officials who were across that level of detail.
It all culminated in this tantrum from Joyce. The Hansard record below doesn’t do justice to the snarling, whinging, sardonic, bitter, hot-tempered and petulant tone with which Joyce delivered this stream-of-consciousness tirade, he was in a full-throated yell by the end of it:…
From the Hansard 17:18, Thurs 3 November:
And it led me to realise…this is more or less all we have heard from the Coalition since Abbott emerged as LOTO. Just a two-year long, implacable tantrum. A great big tantrum that they’re not in office. And like a toddler at the supermarket, they’re going to keep screaming until they get their rattle back.
Shirley we can do better than this? I mean, can anyone nominate a country that is in better economic shape at the moment — on employment, on debt, on rates? Where else would you move to, right now?
Informed policy critique is what I expect from a loyal opposition. Tantrums and wilful ignorance are a waste of the people’s time.
…just to drive home the point…Senator Joyce, by the end of the tirade, seriously sounded like a bloke who needed to be talked down off the ledge. He sounded like those desperate guys you hear about attempting suicide-by-cop by waving a knife at officers. He sounded like he was about to hop into a warm bath with a glass of wine and a razor blade.
Fair dinkum, he need someone to snap him out of it!!
i read somewhere that TEPCO is being re-nationalised, albeit briefly. i’m assuming once it’s profitable again, the 1% will take it back.
hrmm, the japanese government is bailing tepco out to the tune of trillions to finance compensation. i suppose if the government ‘owns’ the company while this loan goes through, then when it reverts to private ownership, the new owners won’t owe a cent. how cleverly capitalistic. (just a suspicion)
and leftyE speaks for me too in denouncing gillards decision on palestine, but i can understand gregm’s consternation. the p.m is speaking for all of us when she virtually says that the usa runs australia.
I call on any remaining “Gillard PM”supporters to reconsider their position.
I can see it’s going to be bread knives to the throats and “give us Rudd or we’ll vote for Abbott” all over again. That article seems to be saying that the abstention of Britain and France just means that the vote probably won’t proceed to the point where the US will inevitably exercise its veto. Rudd voted with the US to defeat resolutions on Palestine when he was in power, did that mean he was unfit to be PM? I’m so sick of this shit.
Thanks for the reminder GregM.
Thanks for the update, TT.
I paid a visit to PB in Armidale last week, with a card signed on behalf of LP. He brightened up considerably!
He is surrounded by his history books in the ward, and writing on note cards, which he will take home to complete his book on the computer. We agreed that the gods and goddesses must want to read it and are allowing him the chance to finish it.
I won’t say any more in deference to privacy, but he did say I could relay such as the above to interested netizens.
Thanks Merc – we all wish him the best
Roger Jones # 6 asks It’s 9:45 EST, a very pleasant morning in Melbourne, about 20C. Outside we are greeted by the dull roar of two air conditioners, both the size of small jet engines; the house two doors down and the house behind that.
I ask: WTF??!!?”
I am on the Gold Coast at a pleasant 25 C. I walked around wondering, if it is 20C in Melbourne, are they using the airconditioning to heat or to cool?
Thank you both Mercurius and TT, good to know PB is on the mend.
I hope Paul’s okay.
Due to an open inspection spent a bit of the day at IKEA, my first ever trip. The swedish meatballs were overpriced rubbish and you practically have to walk through the entire complex just to get out of there obviously in the hope you end up with a trolley of stuff by the time you get to the exit.
Fuck it’s hot. I’m already over summer and it hasn’t even started yet.
I condemn IKEA, summer and open inspections.
I finally got to speak to PB, and he bent my ear until the battery ran out on the ward’s portable phone, so he’s obviously on the mend
The current plan is for him to be discharged next week to a new flat closer to the centre of town, which should be a vast improvement. He’s planning to write several long blog posts and link to them in comments here when he gets his computer and internet all set up again.
seconding su, have we ever had a leadership that voted against the US on Palestine?
Mercurius@29. Thank you. It is good of you to do that.
An in similar vein, Merc, I heard some of Matthias Cormann in committee on the carbon legislation. It was an utter embarrassment, even for those of us unsympathetic to the LNP cause.
There was a long rant along what would happen when “opposition leader Shorten cut the green tail from the red Labor dog …” at which point Christine Milne tried to bring Cormann back to discussing the actual provision, inviting him to specify which parts of the bill the discussion about fleas and dogs related to. Cormann simply continued in the same vein, even complaining in the middle of this hectoring filibuster about the ALP/Green ‘dog’ “using the guillotine to prevent scrutiny”.
This on a day after Senator McDonald had called Get Up! “the H|tler Youth of the Greens”.
What can one do but shake one’s head in incredulity and disgust at such nonsense?
And yes, the news on PB is promising. Thanks Merc & TT. May he recover soon …
@ 37:
I’m wondering, would an association of young milliners be known as the “Hatler Youth”?
Really glad to hear about Paul, thanks for the updates, all.
far right organizations are often quite millenarian, patrickg
Our leadership has previously abstained on such votes, SG. Like Britian and France and many other nations. There are zero diplomatic consequences for doing so. We’ve done it for years.
Voting against Palestine’s admittance to the UNESCO is a whole new kettle of fish. A genuine lowpoint.
Until such time as the govt revokes the Australian state’s 1948 clear committment in the UDHR to the universal principle of national self-determination, any such act can and should be disavowed by any Australian citizen. Its not in my name, thanks, and in fact the Australian state agrees with me – regardless of what the current Australian exec govt says.
And you’d be entirely wrong Su, if you imagined I saw this issue at the same low level of relevance as Gillard v Rudd.
It does, however, reflect very poorly on Gillard herself. its suggest strongly she is clueless on foreign affairs, and really ought to keep her nose out of it. This, a year after Mossad committed extra-judicial murders using forged AU passports.
And yes, FM Rudd urged the routine abstain, which no doubt addresses Su’s assertion, and SGs question adequately.
Catholic Church profits from pR0n, satanism
Finally, the church starts giving the public something more uplifting than their usual cant … and making a few bucks out of it as well.
I’m reluctant to link to a News Ltd paper, but has anyone heard anything about this?
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/favouritism-probe-at-uq/story-e6freoof-1226186284276
Both the Vice-Chancellor and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor forced to resign at once? Must have cost the uni a lot, or they were doing favours pretty flagrantly.
Lefty E, under Rudd’s leadership we voted down resolutions on Palestine, two abstains, two nays at the same session. By what metric does this equate to a “routine abstain”? Only a yes vote will help the Palestinians and take it to a final vote (where it will just be vetoed by the US, abstentions don’t do anything except shield the arses of countries too craven to oppose the US. I agree we are one.
Why the so obvious troll for Gillard supporters to reconsider their position? That is low enough.
The latest destablization of Gillard comes straight out of Sussex Street with a side of SDA slime and why? Because the NSW right got rolled over onshore processing.
Like I said Su it’s a lowpoint and a very critical issue – and Gillard obviously rolled Rudd on it. Shoes, fit, etc. Why the distraction trolling? Her position is indefensible.
Under Rudd, Australia always supported big ticket resolutions such as cessation of illegal settlements, and application of Genrva conventions. The only no was in relation to UN office of human rights reports on occupied territories.
Bad, sure, i comdemn it, but hardly the main game, and certainly not in the same league as international recognition in the UN.
I’m loath to argue with you, because I believe we are members of the same party and because I agree with you on Palestine, but really, the influence of Sussex street is now a “distraction”? Well fuck it, in 2010 it was the main game and their support for Gillard stamped 666 on her forehead and made her eponymous with all that ails the Labor party. Never mind that they were and are the queenmakers and nobody but nobody is leader without their say so, loathe it or loathe it. If Gillard, PM, as you put it, is rolled, it won’t be for progressive reasons.
And by the by (having taken a second opinion on my willingness to argue) we having been angling for a position on the Security Council for some time, and I do not believe that Rudd would do anything to the detriment of that ambition. I will spare you my opinion on whether he would give advice he knows it is impossible to take because you will already have made the necessay connection.
On this basis it’s hardly unique for either Labor or an Aussie political party, is it? I’m thinking here of that small unpleasantness in Vietnam, that couple of years in Malaysia, recognition of Suharto’s Indonesia and Whitlam’s famous acceptance of the annexation of East Timor (oh Gareth Evans, won’t you come to this thread and talk to LeftyE about “low points”?)
Yes, the UNESCO move is shit. Yes, that damned Gillard, etc. No, it’s not unique. This is why lots of people have a problem with the ALP. But it’s not exactly unique to Gillard. Didn’t Crean support the invasion of Iraq? Take it up with the party.
Sure, though I’m suggesting it’s even worse than ‘business as usual’, SG. I’ve provided some evidence to that effect.
It’s just dismal.
It’s worse than the Iraq war?
sg at 49: I suggest you read the following speech of Simon Crean to Parliament: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/04/1044318605090.html
far right organizations are often quite millenarian, patrickg
What? I think maybe you meant to respond to someone else?
Ah, the Joycean rant. I’m sorry I missed that one as it sounds like a classic of the genre. I do enjoy his televised performances even better – the spittle collecting at the corners of his mouth, the astonishing chameleon like colour changes in his face which starts out as a bright red and passes through an interesting spectrum to end a deep plum colour, the thyroid eyes. Best of all, though, is the total shattering of the English language. Words are inserted heedlessly out of context or mispronounced; the mispronunciation appears to be somehow linked to his blood pressurised face. The man is quite literally, in the proper sense, thought disordered. Not since Jo sent Pat Shields to the Senate have we seen such an examplary sample of what Marx called ‘rural idiocy’.
@54 – do you support the TWU in their racist statements against the Asianisation of QANTAS?
OBR asked:
I cringed when I heard this term used, and had I been anywhere near the TWU I’d have urged them to find another term. The context inevitably trades on “outpost of Britain challenged by the yellow peril” existential angst. It recalls The Bulletin and “white Australia”.
So yes, I’d condemn the statement as r@cist, whatever was in the minds of those uttering it.
Just had an email from USGS saying that there’s been a M5.2 quake at 5km depth in the middle of Oklahoma. Strange place for it – must be an intraplate quake like the ones in Tennant Creek or Newcastle.
Or maybe it’s just the start of WWIII and that’s the first nuke going off…
Considering there’s been over 2000 nuclear explosions since 1945 one could wonder when WWIII will end, or why we have so few earthquakes, or why nuclear arms scientists can’t get it right with only a few detonations, especially US scientists who have required over 1000.
http://pinktentacle.com/2010/08/animated-map-of-nuclear-explosions-1945-1998/
Vale Sarah Watt.
Thanks Merc & TT for updates on PB. I’m also delighted to hear things are looking better.
Check out this creepiness from the (truly abysmal) VIC state govt: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/revealed-secret-plan-to-cut-nurse-numbers-20111105-1n1f9.html
If I had money on any Australian state govt to be a one-termer, Id pick Ballieu’s.
So sad to hear Sarah Watt died. A lovely person and a wonderful, inspirational filmmaker with a wicked sense of fun.
Sorry to see PB’s been in the rough, but glad to read he’s on the mend.
dear anyone
they’ve done it again! Happens every year, but this is a first (for me) in print:-
http://www.smh.com.au/world/metro-line-keeps-haj-ritual-on-smooth-track-20111106-1n1xe.html
Why don’t they just re-name the damn mountain and be done with it? No one researches anymore. No one proof reads. Does anyone notice? Do even religious people notice or know the difference? Is anyone even embarrassed? Does anyone give a sh!t?
yours sincerely
alfred venison
Dear Alfred,
I suppose they could rename the mountain Mount Arafah. It’s a variation on how it is spelt.
We can be thankful for small mercies though, as at least they’re not getting its name totally wrong by calling it Mount Ararat, for that would place it in northern Turkey and make the hajj considerably more arduous than it already is. (Although I suppose a few of them will make that error).
To answer your four other questions: No, no, no and no.
Yours sincerely
GregM
Shorter Christopher Hitchens: Because the Left don’t have a mouthpiece in the mainstream media like I do, they are “silent” on Bad Things, and are therefore bad, unlike my modest self.
dear Greg M
thanks for the reply. of course i shot my mouth off before cooling down & reflecting calmly, contrary to my usual modus operandi. the whole thing’s a salient reminder of why i developed the modus operandi in the first place. you are more kind in your response than i deserved. ta.
yours sincerely
alfred venison
Two things: (1) Flooding is forecast for much of Victoria, including flash floods in Melbourne, and (2) it’s http://www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/news/local/news/general/an-orange-a-day-for-the-ses/2351755.aspxSES day. Rather ironic. Take care everyone. Big props to any of you who are in the SES. I’m dreading the train home with Metro trains likely to chuck a huge wobbly as they always do in bad weather.
Apparently, Kennards Hire, a privately owned equipment hire business, has had a pretty good year and has decided to give a bonus to .., all of its staff of the same amount (with pro-rata for part time or part year) regardless of income. The sum involved is reprtedly about $4500 each for a full year employee. The comany says it has the view that it wants to do right by its employees so they will do right by the customers and ultimately the business. It sounds vaguely subversive, but I guess that’s their call.
Well done them. One heard a lot of talk of excessively rewarded executives so it’s nice when one hears a good news story.
FTR, I have in the past year gone to Kennards Hire for various bits and pieces of equipment, so this makes me feel better about not bothering to shop around for the best deal.
Fran – those sort of schemes are a lot more common in family owned businesses where the owners actually work alongside the workers. Its definitely good to see and I think breeds a lot of goodwill from the workers.
There was one family owned company I worked for where the staff worked for several months on partial or no pay when times were really tough because of the loyalty they felt to the company. They eventually got their money but without their short term sacrifice the company would have closed down.
It must be surreal being leaders of the free world at times: Obama was caught out again by an open mic. While telling off Sarkozy for voting for Palestine’s election to UNESCO, the conversation turned to the unreliability of Netanyahu. Sarkozy: I cannot bear Netanyahu. He’s a liar. Obama:You’re fed up with him, what about me? I have to deal with him every day!
From the horses’ mouths.
Every day?
Anyone interested in participating in Malcolm Turnbull’s survey on how to respond to problem gambling visit this link:
http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/uncategorized/survey-on-problem-gambling/