We haven’t had a ‘condemnation’ thread since midway through the year! We’d better have one to end it.
What’s worthy of condemnation as we reach the arse-end of 2011? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious, and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You may condemn anything you like except for the stupendously glorious Dame Judi Dench (before she was a Dame) singing Sally Bowles as written i.e definitely NOT a first-rate singer.
Judi Dench as Sally Bowles in the original London production of Cabaret (1968) - click image to see a performance video
I condemn yet another year with a distinct dearth of movies featuring more than one woman in the principal cast (go on Hollywood, have two (a whole two!) and let them be friends and colleagues who have more to discuss than just their romantic lives or shoe shopping – you can do it!).
Frist! I condemn people who say “frist” just because they can.
I also condemn “fun.ly” pop-up spam … Grrr!
Also condemnable:
* The ALP whenever it gives aid and comfort to the ignorant Lindsay-style angst; whever it borrows the language of its enemies without critique {e.g. carbon tax; people smuggler’s business model}
* The LNP — no point making a list — just look in their direction
* Enemies of robust ubiquitous equitable action on climate change
* Friends of/apologists for imperialist war
* tub thumpers/apologist for for gross inequality
I condemn the media portraying the relatives of accident victims as angry, and determined to make the guilty party pay. This isn’t going to bring their relative back to their preaccident condition and I’m not sure it’s good for the angry relatives’ mental health.
I don’t like every one [elses] sense of entitlement especially those asking for help on above average incomes ie $60,000. If you need a hand out on above average salary you are greedy and an incompetent budgeter.
Clearly don’t like listening to angry inarticulate callers to talkback radio or the shock jocks who urge them on. I hate gratuitous references to JuLiar etc repeated by people who refuse to apply the blow torch of analysis to the Liberal Party’s antics
I condemn the hate media who are responsible for encouraging or even creating most of the other things I’d condemn like climate change denialists. I also condemn consumer advertising because it keeps consumerism alive (and the hate media for that matter) and consumerism is what is destroying the planet.
Billie said:
Well I’m going to leave out the “greedy” (much too moralistic) and shrink back a little from incompetent. That said, it is fair to note the difference Possum did a little while back between between cost of living and cost of lifestyle.
At 60k, it would be a challenge to support two children and another adult adequately if that’s your only income. Not very much space for matters to go wrong there. If two income earners in the household are getting 60k, then matters stand a lot better, obviously.
It’s those on gross household incomes the high side of 150k (like our household for example) where the motion of low/negative marginal utility welfare starts to kick in. People in my bracket certainly ought not to be getting the private health insurance rebate, the “baby bonus” etc.
I condemn the use of the word “closure” to refer to the feeling that an unpleasant experience has ended or been settled:
“The investigation should bring some closure to the relatives of those who have died.”
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/closure
I condemn the whole world for buggering up the climate and for doing bugger all to stop it.
The Possum reference to confusing cost of living and lifestyle costs can be found at “http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2011/12/08/australian-exceptionalism/”
yep, Fran I take on board that $60,000 household income is tight but I arbitarily picked the average wage.
It has been estimated that stopping the health insurance rebate would inject much more money into the health system. I am not going to drop my health insurance if the rebate goes, even though I live in Victoria where health insurance costs more. The insurance contribution rates are set on a what’s the maximum the market will tolerate principle
I condemn absurdly onerous identification requirements at motels, especially when you aren’t told about them until you have arrived at the motel after a 29 hour land journey.
Now that we’ve had some closure of a kind to this local scandal, I condemn this family, having tried my darndest to find sympathy and compassion. I realise that kids from the best families can f**k up royally, and that it’s everyone’s first reaction to protect their offspring. But – telling him “don’t tell the police you had a knife”? (Mum); Throwing the murder weapon on the tip (Dad) – that’s just so, so wrong.
They’ve delayed justice and closure, callously, to Nitin Garg’s family.
They’ve provided a disastrous example to their son.
And they’ve trashed our suburb’s reputation, and Australia’s reputation.
News Ltd (can’t find the article now) describes how terribly sorry they are (now that they’ve been caught) and describes them as “religious”. Huh. Let me just add an extra condemn to religious people who pontificate about how us atheists can’t possibly have any proper moral sense. At least my atheist kid hasn’t casually topped a guy for his mobile phone.
I condemn the Gideons for placing fraudulently translated Bibles in motel rooms. I condemn all New South Wales Premiers after Bob Carr for allowing them to resume this flagitious custom.
I condemn the management of the Union Hotel, Tumbarumba.
I condemn the Australian Rail Track Corporation for causing the XPT between Melbourne and Sydney to run more than an hour late several times over the past week. I would condemn them even more vehemently if I had been travelling on one of the trains thus delayed.
But not the management of the Union Hotel, Brunswick, who are awesome.
I condemn the entire (single) male population of Japan aged 20-30. It’s christmas eve in Japan and this means that every single person should have a date. Young women, particularly, hate being single on christmas eve. Two of my young Japanese female friends, who are both lovely in every sense, are dateless on this most important day. The only possible reason they could be dateless against their will is because the entire cohort of their male peers are stupid beyond comprehension. So I condemn the lot of them.
I condemn the lack of affordable, pet-friendly rental accommodation.
I condemn the fact that i have never seen an ” appreciate ” thread.
Where folk can focus on positives.
Maybe in 2012, the “Year or the Farmer”
I also condemn the feral dogs that killed all of the kangaroos that once called my golf course “home”.
More importantly, I condemn the scum that (presumably) dumped them to fend for themselves.
Second thoughts, I un-condenm the dogs, they are only doing what they need to, to survive. So I double-up my condemnation for the dumpers.
I would condemn being in moderation, if I could, but it’s not allowed, so I definitely will not.
Bring on 2012 !!
Speaking as someone very much interested in the welfare of non-human animals I will join you jumpy in condemning those who dump, neglect or otherwise mistreat animals, including of course, dogs.
Amazing Kim condemned the lack of pet-friendly accommodation. I agree, and more, what pet-friendly accommodation is available is not cheap.
We’ve taken a holiday rental up at Hawks Nest this January (hello John Howard) and we were able to take our dogs with us. It’s walking distance to an off-lead beach — but not cheap.
I condemn people with repetitve given and surnames – thus David Davis. That’s just confusing. What’s even worse is when the coupling is not unique. Apparently the former Tory (UK) Home Affairs minister and the current Victorian Health Minister are both David Davis. Just to add to the fun, the UK one is commenting on matters realting to the security of health records.
That’s just wrong.
I condemn the use of the term “Border Protection” when referring to Australia’s coastline (which is not a border).
More seriously, and in keeping with the welfare of animals and Christmas themes, I condemn the fact that dogs and cats can still be sold in petshops. As they say in the classics, there ought to be a law against it. This is an area of law that is in desperate need of reform.
Chances of that happening? Not good.
The fact remains though that many puppies and kittens given at Christmas will be dumped in January. Sometimes, they don’t even last until school goes back as the family holiday intervenes.
Very sad all round. ;-(
I also condemn the term “border protection” — which was used today for example on the ABC news to describe the negotiations between Bowen/Rudd and Morrison/Bishop.
Apart from the clear rightwing dogwhistle, the talks were notionally about how to prevent morbidity associated with irregular maritime arrivals rather than how to closer the coastline to unwanted arrivals. If the talks were merely about “border security” than morbidity near the Indonesian coast is clearly not relevant, since where people die has no bearing on the integrity of the sea border.
So I condemn bait and switch. I think those objecting to “boats” should be forced to pick a claim and stick to it. If they hate asylum seekers, they shouldn’t be allowed to pretend concern about their fate. If they think these “cashed up asylum shoppers” are ill-deserving of a place ahead of “real refugees in camps in Africa”, again they don’t get to complain that these people have been exploited or have put themselves at risk. Bad things happen to bad people right?
If they, like Tony Abbott think “Malaysia is a bad deal” — i.e. we’re taking more refugees than we’re sending off — they should specify the trade in people they think would be a good deal. If they think “Nauru worked because it was not a signatory to the Refugee Convention” they can’t say that it will work now that it is.
I condemn this lack of consistency and dishonesty.
I condemn Japanese new year cards, which you have to send to everyone you know, including people you work with. I just spent the last 2 hours writing the damn things and have to post them by 5pm (40 minutes). They’re worse than christmas cards! Of which I wrote two.
Our living room is currently a bomb zone of scattered papers, stationery and random stamps, all on a dragon theme. What a way to spend christmas eve!
I condemn every idiot calling for “balance” in the asylum-seeker debate who hasn’t bothered to read the bloody refugee convention and understand our obligations under it.
I condemn headwinds.
Cycling or spraying agricultural chemicals, either way they’re bad news.
@6, I could not agree more. Last year there was a coronial enquiry into the utterly tragic deaths of two children and their father who lost his life trying to save the kids. It was an horrific incident that devastated a community. But following on from the inquest the moron from ABC SE was fulsome in his report that”the family finally had closure”.
My revulsion at this has no bounds. This family will live with the tradgedy forever . WTF is closure? A glib marketing term now adopted by the ABC to spin their perspective.I’m so bloody over the bullshit now being paraded as commentary and the lack of empathy for the people who are forever going to deal with this.
I condemn the “small l” liberals for not having the guts to protect their party against the erosion of its core values, caused by the likes of Howard, Abbott, Bernardi and Morrison.
Let me add my condemn to closure, hate it and its glib insensitive phoniness although ll too often its those involved who trot it out, not just idiot journalists.
Also let me add my condemn to pet shop kitten and puppy sales, they should only be rescued from refuges. We end up with one new stray cat a year on average because they appear around this time of year and lurk in our yard for a few months until eventually they get confident enough to talk to us. We were puzzled by this until it was pointed out that people throw them over the fence into the Council depot near us where they are usually rounded up by the rangers. A few escape and go feral but the odd one stays nearby, notices our cat crew, works out how to get in our cat door for a furtive feed and eventually adopts us. Some of them have turned out to be the most delightful cats imaginable and the people who did it to them should be … well words fail me.
I condemn George Pell for giving a nod and a wink to climate change denial in his Christmas message.
Thanks Ian. The dumping/ill treatment of companion animals is one of the things I find most horrible outside of the major areas of public policy. Certainly, at a personal level, I find it hard to understand and while I’m not as actively involved in rescue/fostering these days as I once was, I know enough about how the system works to say that this time of year is an especial challenge for all those doing what they can to alleviate suffering and re-home discarded pets. In addition to the above, there are some animals that have been discarded after 10 years with a family and perhaps just a handful of years to live. Most of them are the most good-natured and easy care dogs you could ever wish to have, and yet people are running off to pet shops to buy those cute little puppies.
I would strongly encourage anyone considering a pet to consider wisely, and then if you really are sure that you mean to care for one for its likely life, go to a bona fide rescue organisation — like Paws or Pet Rescue or Doggie Rescue, get proper advice and take it from there. But if you’re not quite sure, the best thing is to wait until you are. Dogs and cats are a longterm commitment, and not cheap if you mean to treat them as they deserve.
I condemn the person in my office who labelled the outlets on the new Nespresso machine as ’8 oz’ and ’12 oz’. Before I left on Friday I relabeled it as ’230mL’ and ’350mL’ but for God’s sake, there’s only three people in the building over 40 and none of us did it. What is it with young people these days!? I know I’m not supposed to understand their music, fashion or culture, but this is the God Damn Metric System!!
d
@33 I condemn the US of A or not adopting the metric system.
I condemn those who foisted ‘app’ upon us and cannot be bothered to talk about an application and I condemn those (mainly of an American persuasion) who talk about Kris Kringle at this time of the year. But not to detract from the season, best wishes to all for 2012.
Fran wander up to Winda Woppa for me but don’t take your dogs into the Myall Lakes National Park. The dogs’ scent frightens the small marsupials half to death
I condemn people who didn’t press the mute button for George Pell’s Xmas message.
I condemn myself for enjoying an unsettling proportion of Katy Perry’s ouvre.
I condemn the fact that it’s been so long since Paul Burns has posted. Good to hear from you!
I condemn Christmas Puddings which don’t have old sixpences, shillings, florins, threepennies and the occasional 1966-vintage round 50c piece baked into them.
Ah, a much overdue general condemnation thread. Above all, in a world of damnable and condemnable people and institutions, I condemn the NSW Dept of Family and Community Services, previously DOCS, for perpetuating genocide against Aboriginal people through the unlawful removal of Aboriginal children. I condemn those who will not release regional figures for Aboriginal removals so that regional comparisons can be made of rates of removals; I condemn those managers who hide behind bureaucratic obfuscation and refuse to abide by whole of government commitment to transparency.
In the same spirit I condemn DOCS case workers who have no Aboriginal friends or associates, who are frightened of blackfellas, have little to no understanding of Australian history and are frightened of those who do. I condemn their cowardice, spiritual meanness, willingness to lie under oath and on affidavit, their incomprehensible spelling and their laziness which extends even to a refusal to use spell check before consigning public documents pertaining to life altering decisions for children to the records. I condemn their visible tattoos and their failure to even comprehend what professional standards of dress might be. I condemn their habit of addressing Aboriginal people more than twice their age by their first names without invitation.
But especially I condemn the academics in social welfare and social work at the UNSW and USyd who have managed to only half educate the most ignorant ten year cohort of useless racist bigots I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter in either a professional or personal capacity.
Oh yeah, and I condemn the ex-NSW copper who subjected me to an eight hour investigative ‘interview’ following my active opposition to all of the above. Fuck you pal.
Thanks for the tip Billie. It’s good advice, though AIUI, dogs are barred from National Parks.
did something happen, akn?
Nice one akn. I have no idea what you are talking about but it has a ring of truth.
No, sg, nothing much happened lately. I’ve been saving that rant up for just such an opportunity as a condemnation thread even though it is less general and far more specific than is usual on such threads. It feels better, like finally taking the time to remove the pebble from your shoe. Finally, I’d condemn the PSA which is little more than the provisional wing of HR. I want my dues back.
Billie,
The conservative political elements NEED the media’s boosting … or they’d fade away to irrelevance. Shock jock radio is fundamentally a propaganda / brainwashing apparatus for the agenda of the 1 per cent, who must laugh their shiny arses off at the dopey rednecks of the 99 per cent who unwittingly support The Agenda by listening and calling in. I’m actually with the 1 per cent on that.
I condemn people who, on a daily basis, seem to disregard the following aspects of the LP comments policy:
“Excessively frequent comments, where the effect of such comments is to discourage the participation of others or turn a debate around into one about themselves.
Excessively long comments, which break up the give and take of discourse. Please post such screeds on your own blog and post a summary in comments with a link to your own post. Rule of thumb: think hard before adding a fourth paragraph to your comment – rewrite it for brevity and clarity.”
Today I condemn ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!! including good red wine which just seemed to appear by magic in my glass yesterday and causing me to totally forget what happens the next day after I have drunk red wine and that’s along with the champagne with the entrees , the white wine with lunch, a glass of liquer with the pud, and that bl..dy red with the cheeses and so it went, endlessly enjoyable until today’s thumping head.
I condemn TV stations that ignore their published and even online schedules, allowing programs to start late and/or run late. I’ve lost track of the number of programs I’ve recorded missing the last 8-10 minutes.
I condemn people who refuse to acknowledge that we do not live in a perfect world.
This includes a condemnation of those who stubbornly refuse to adjust the timing of their off-air recordings to take into account the habit of TV stations letting their programs start and end late (a practice that I also condemn, incidentally).
My condemnation of Pollyannas who insist that the world changes to suit their inability to account for and adjust to reality extends to the Greens’ for their refusal to admit that their open-door asylum seekers policy is killing poor dupes who believe that a “leaky boat” is a benign, almost harmless “fun” thing that cannot capsize and drown them and their families.
I condemn those who lazily and dishonestly regard every tragedy as an occasion to bore us by exercising their usual hatreds. I also condemn governments and their acomplices who have made so many places in the world so unbearable that any citizens with initiative will risk everything to get away from them no matter how many obstacles are put in their way (usually by those who helped cause the problem in the first place).
And I also incidentally condemn those who talk about the Greens as if they were in Government. Last time I looked they did not hold a single ministerial post. Nor did any independents.
I condemn those who use the “But we’re not in government” line.
They say that “The Government should just govern” or “The Government should make a decision”, but do everything in their power to frustrate and thwart the decisions that are made.
I condemn those who claim not to be in government without acknowledging that the capacity to block government decisions is just as potent as the capacity to make them.
In particular I condemn Tony Abbott for claiming to be willing to facilitate government and governance while doing everything in his power to frustrate it.
I condemn the media which lets him get away with it without the slightest questioning.
I further condemn the Greens for claiming to have a “solution” to the unauthorized entry conundrum which involves forcing poorly informed and exploited people to continue to come here on boats.
It would be harder to condemn the Greens if they proposed the only possible alternative to using boats: air transport, with a concurrent unrestricted issuing of visas to anyone who just presented themselves to a Customs desk at any Australian airport. At least they would be proposing something, which could then be critiqued as opening the flood gates to not thousands but hundreds of thousands of people.
But they realise they can’t advocate undocumented, visa-free, open slather-entry to anyone who wants to come here, so all the Greens do is resort to type and whinge instead that “We’re not the government”.
I condemn those LP commenters who can’t choose to stoush on topics I am interested in, but instead go off on some tangential stoush on some completely condemnable topic. I comments on the chinese communist party, and the Fukushima reactor, on teh Saturday Yuletide open thread, fully expecting a stoush (I even had my special stoushin’ pants on) and instead various of the regulars are over there stoushing about the correct term for a bats-whatever in cricket. I loudly and vociferously condemn this in the most un-PC terms I can.
I also condemn cricket.
I further condemn myself for not understanding cricket, and for only caring about it sufficiently to cheer on whoever is playing England.
I condemn people who characterise any calls to humanise our policy regarding unauthorised arrivals as pushing for an open door, open slather policy.
I concur with Fran and concurrently condemn Gary Gray and Donald McDonald.
I condemn the segregation in sport based on gender.
Every sport should be all inclusive and devoid of discrimination that would be an offence under the act . Whereby, in any given sport, people are treated equally.
I condemn equal rights groups for NOT pursuing this matter.
I condemn those foam cup-holders which have “Shooters and Fishers Party” printed on one side and “No Greens” printed on the other. I also condemn my sister-in-law for her increasingly hate-filled anti-Green comments on her Facebook page.
I condemn people who say things like “humanise our policy” without offering any clue as to what that phrase actually means and to whom it applies.
(Saying “We’re not the government, youse work it out” does not qualify as a definition)
Bushfire Bill condemned:
So do I. After a suitable time to reflect those who are not in government should outline how government can operate differently and better. If they have not had suitable time to reflect in their opinion, they should be modest in their critique.
Whereas I condemn those who persist in uttering this vacuous trope — or is it tripe? Nobody from The Greens is forcing poorly informed or exploited people to do anything. The people using the irregular maritime option are not, as far as I can tell, poorly informed about the risks they are taking. As to whether they are exploited, the term is too imprecise to say, but if they are bing exploited, it is being done so in part as a consequence of the bipartisan attempt to deny them their right to claim their right to asylum. I condemn those who have little real concern about the fate of these people lecturing those of us who actually care and who propose viable alternative options, albeit that the regime has painted itself into a position where it feels it must reject them.
I also condemn attempts to conjure strawmen and false dilemmas to cover the above apologia for xenophobia.
I condemn menopause.
General moderator note: please keep the lengths of comments within the three-paragraph guidelines as best you can. The occasional slip to 4 or even maybe 5 just gets past one at times, I know – but more than that is just unacceptably long.
Also, there’s an active thread on asylum seekers from only a week or so ago – do a keyword search. Stoushes on refugees belong there. This thread is about simple condemnation, not getting bogged down in debates.
Sorry TT … just saw your remark … will keep that in mind …
Moderator Note: A reply to a recently un-approved comment has been also un-approved, since the original comment no longer stands.
No worries, Fran.
I condemn the psychic abilities of Tigtog, it’s a little scary.
I condemn the lack of a dinner cooking fairy in my house. I condemn my inability to eat any more ham or trifle for dinner.
Boo!
@jumpy, you should be feeling reassured now that Mindy’s interceding comment has proven that my purported psychic abilities seem to have been merely a coincidence.
For which I condemn Mindy vituperatively – I was looking forward to having a scary reputation.
But your reputation is scary, Tigtog. I’m told your reputation causes small children to lose entire fortnights’ worth of sleep and makes large dogs whimper in terror behind the potted aspidistra.
The Big Bad Banksia Men are as nothing compared to Tigtog’s reputation
Oh noes, oh woes, I have been condemned by the might, scary tigtog. Oh waily waily me.
Can I be allowed to condemn the Greens, the DSE, Parks, councils, state and federal legislation for their native vegetation policy? Can I say that I condemn deadly, unnatural, unregulated, never maintained bush?
Can I tell people that dying in the most apalling manner imaginable will be a direct consequence of these absurdly outdated policies?
….or would that be too negative a vibe?
I condemn twerps who seem to think we might somehow *save* money by avoiding action on climate change. Can I get a price check on increasing numbers extreme weather events?
Surely no one capable of typing a blog comment can genuinely be that economically arsewitted… but there you have it.
I condemn the terrifying Tigtog for scaring Mandy and leading me to wonder whatever happened to Pam Dawber’s acting career.
I further condemn the sudden disappearence of the “preview” box.
PA, so long as you keep your condemnations short and sweet you may condemn whatever you like. Just don’t get pulled into a stoush about it that breaks the rhythm of random condemnations from others as they feel the urge.
I condemn Terangeree for misspelling Mindy’s name!
(The preview box seems to have been a casualty of the ozblogistan upgrade to the latest version of WordPress – I’m slowly going through and seeing what’s changed and what I can do about it.)
ETA: (although, Terangeree – the preview box is still working for me?)
That’s because the preview box is too scared to not work for you, Tigtog.
I condemn anyone that drags a joke out for more than 12 hours.
I condemn people who condemn other people.
Hah! This condemns itself: people who watch Fox News are less well-informed than those watching no news at all.
http://gawker.com/5861733/poll-fox-news-viewers-less-informed-than-those-who-read-no-news
I condemn the Boxing Day endured by each of my parents.
Mum was stuck at San Francisco airport while fog (who knew?) delayed flight after flight, until she ran out of chances to make the connections to her long-anticipated antarctic cruise. Now she must settle for a rowdy road trip to Disneyland with her kids and grand-ones. Could be worse I guess.
Like this, for example…
Dad was en route to the beach in Perth with his wife and my little brother, when a young woman jumped off a freeway overpass just ahead. He resuscitated her (repeatedly) while my stepmother held her convulsing lower body still, till the cops and paramedics arrived. It’s hard to see how her unhappy life will be improved by surviving with probable brain trauma and paralysis, but what else can a doctor do?
Anyway, screw you Boxing Day 2011.
I condemn News Ltd. newspapers for their “Scandal-a-Day” coverage of politics even in the silly season.
In the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday it was pork-barrelling the Independents’ electorates and Greens fantasy projects. A closer look showed most of the projects in the “$15 billion Gillard pork barrel” were not electorate specific at all, and those that were – hospital upgrades to Tamworth and Port MacQuarie, plus Pacific Highway upgrades – were sorely needed and of common benefit. A weak attempt at bootstrapping via the News web site failed, and not even the ABC was prepared to take up this errant rubbish. All it inspired was a collection of the usual “take the bitch out and shoot her” comments at the bottom of the on line article.
Today’s “scandals” are: the DT back on “travel rorts”, building on the earlier “scandal” of Rudd – as Foreign Minister – travelling to foreign countries. Buried in the middle of the piece was the startling news that Opposition MPs were in this “rort” (if it is indeed a rort) as solidly as government MPs.
The Australian is running a classic bootstrap attempt saying the teenager dental health check scheme is “embattled” and “faltering”. They don’t seem to know which way to run this one as the less-than-expected takeup has saved hundreds of millions of dollars in projected expenditure. The Oz does manage to get a “University of Sydney dental expert” (whatever that is) to comment that the scheme was bound to fail. They have the Greens “slamming” the program for being “fragmented”, while at the same time citing the Greens as the cause of all this mess (youse work it out). There are also a couple of conjectured reasons given – without the slightest hint of evidence – as to why it is under-performing, including poor parents, who are too ashamed to tell their kids that when the dentist finds they have a mouth full of rotten teeth that they can’t afford to get them fixed, and parents who would prefer to use private medical cover (hint, hint). As I said… no evidence given for either of these.
What I mostly condemn is the relentless, joyless, seriousness of all this during what’s supposed to be a time for reflection and relaxation, a period where we can unwind for a week or so and put our feet up (if our newly distended bellies allow us to see our feet). I guess the government’s slight improvement in the polls (dismissed, of course by Dennis Shanahan in the same Oz edition) has the Murdoch minions a little frightened that the modest improvement might continue, but seriously…. can’t they take a break too? For a week? We’ve got cyclones and floods and fires aplenty coming up in the next month that they can use to condemn Gillard, Brown and the Independents for (also McClellend, new “Disasters” supremo if he delivers his usual somnolent performance). Why waste time with the trivia right now?
I condemn the organ-enlargement spam which has filled my inbox in the few days I have been away. I further condemn my spam filter which has let it through.
And following Bushfire Bill, I condemn the DT for running the headline: Gillard’s $15bn Party Favours. In urban sland, a party favour is a women brought to a party specifically to offer sexual service to men (although they can also be illicit drugs)
oops … slang
I condemn the DT for misusing the metaphor “party favours”, for their story was about Julia Gillard paying the Greens for services rendered, while the metaphor refers to a woman receiving money for services that she renders.
Not sure who to condemn on this one.
My obnoxious “Immovable Object” neighbour has finally met his equally obnoxious “Irresistable Force” nemesis.
My neighbour hates everyone. But he knows his rights. He parks various cars, boats and trailers in various states of disrepair and dilapidation in our very small street, which has only 6 houses in it and is a dead end. He has 5 other vehicles parked in another neighbour’s driveway, running down the side of my house. Recently when I had extensive renovations done to my house he refused to move the bombs and boats parked in the driveway, forcing me to spend an extra $5,000 on labour to manually mix four yards of concrete in our back yard plus cartage fees for wood and a scaffolding for a new deck.
A new house is being built at the end of our street. The new neighbour asked Immovable Object to shift the boats so the wood chipper could get his truck in. “No”. Don’t know how much it cost the new neighbour, but 6 Pacific Islanders working three days carting logs weighing a couple of hundred kilos each up a hill to the chipper truck can’t be cheap. Asked by his estranged wife whether he could sell their house (where he lives with the girlfriend) so that his estranged wife could finally stop making mortgage payments for a house she wasn’t allowed to live in, he just replied “No”. This man seriously knows his rights, which is probably why no-one in the street ever talks to him. It’s a waste of time.
Enter “Irresistable Force”…. this guy: http://www.smh.com.au/national/cancer-sparks-legal-action-over-smoking-fumes-20111228-1pcyp.html.
My Immovable Object neighbour spends time in a beach side pad (apart from the house next to mine, in a different suburb of Sydney) actually owned by the girlfriend which happens to be located underneath Irresistable Force’s own flat. The Immovable Object couple don’t chain smoke, as the article alleges, but they DO smoke. The Irresistable Force is obsessive about smoke. He’s tried legal action before against the Immovable Object couple, and failed each time. They are perfectly within their rights to smoke in their own flat, have taken genuine steps to placate him by blocking the air vents to the flat above, the girlfriend had prior occupancy to Irresistable Force by 10 years in the block of flats, they have 80% of the Body Corporate on their side every time a vote is taken, and there is no law that makes it illegal to cause lung cancer in others, even if it could be proved, which it can’t. One could condemn Irresistable Force here and now for being a nutcase and a pest. He doesn’t have a leg to stand on, and as a lawyer should be aware of that.
But I am reluctant to condemn Irresistable Force’s lawyerly bullying because the hideousness of my Immovable Object neighbour’s sheer and truculent un-neighbourliness seems to have met its match.
Or should it be ME who is condemned for taking delight in seeing two categorically bad neighbours go at each other, with mutual destruction almost certainly assured?
I condemn Michael Clarke for
a) batting Haddin at 7 when recent performance suggests he should bat at 9 and Pattinson is listed at 9 (and Siddle at
but both are batting more like No7s
b) sending in Lyon at 9 (thus pushing Pattinson to 10) thus aggravating the above error. Using a nightwatcher* for a number 9 is [redacted] with knobs on.
c) the use of nightwatchers* in the post-light-meter and international umpires era and where perfectly normal light conditions obtained. It was doubtful before this time but is now wrong, wrong wrongity-wrong
* still determined to name positions by function
PS I self-condemn for using “dumb” when I should have said “foolish”. I reject ableist language.
Bushfire Bill @ 88 – I don’t have a problem with what Irresistable Force is doing – people should have a right to a smoke free environment in their own home. If his neighbours want to smoke they need to find a way to do without their waste product ending up in his house.
She should stop paying the mortgage. The bank will sort it out for her
I condemn Fran for not seeing that nightwatchman et aliae/alia *is* purely a function, not a position
I condemn everyone else for not showing any interest whatsoever in the Caldecourt Catapulta!
I condemn the first cricket scribe who writes: “Aussies give Indians some curry”.
I condemn koalas for the horrendous noises they make when mating. I condemn koalas for their shenanigans on my work site this morning. Koalas have not been seen on the site before so ‘mating koalas’ was my third guess to explain the gruesome noises emmanating from just south of where I was working. I found them later snoozing on the same branch, all cute and fuzzy and content, you’d never think they could be responsible for the earlier murderous sounds.
I condemn furious balancing for condemning koalas who got lucky. (I agree about the noise they make, though.)
Hey. In my defense, I did wait ’til the god-awful grunting and groaning was over before I went near that area., so as not to disturb them. In fact, on another site, I once finished work early because two koalas were glaring at me in such a way that I knew my being there was spoiling their fun. No, never let it be said that I’m insensitive to a marsupials need to get it on. Some kangaroos from last year can vouch for that when they chose a spot about 5 metres from my lunch spot for a very laconic, definitely not in a hurry to finish, mating session.
OK. Condemn withdrawn.
I condemn Gerry Harvey for being one of the greatest nongs in the country, for talking not only his and other companies’ share prices into financial quicksand, but also arguably the entire nation’s economy.
Honourable mentions go to the nong from David Jones who blamed the Carbon Tax (which didn’t exist at the time) and “rising interest rates” (when they were in fact falling) for his own company’s dive of stock market death, all the shock jocks and their callers who have done nothing but moan and whinge about how hard things are, and Nongs In Chief Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey for slagging-off everything the government has done to try to combat the GFC (Revisions I and II) as an exercise in ruinous Labor over-spending.
Congratulations guys, you got your result, but have put the bullets in your own brains, and ours.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/innovation-not-excuses-will-help-retailers-survive-20111229-1pe6a.html
Nah, the demise of Harvey Norman, Myer, David Jones etc is their problem only, not the nation’s. Consumers are happy to buy on-line and while traditional retailing jobs will be lost, others will be created elsewhere.
As a bonus, the demise of traditional retailing will bring with it the demise of that most reactionary institution, the shop assistants’ union. It can’t happen too soon.
I condemn myself for turning up late on comment threads and finding that everyone’s moved onto the next one.
Yeah! I scored the ton!
On Wed. PMGillard was in Adelaide, and specifically the Adelaide Oval, to announce a $30mill. cash injection to provide car-parking for the extra crowd capacity. That night on the ABC 7pm news the presenter began the related piece thus….
“The State Opposition says the Federal Government’s cash injection into the Adelaide Oval redevelopment is a bailout. The money will go towards car-parking but there is no guarantee the spots will be available to the public on game day.”
I condemn.
I further condemn Dennis Shanahan for writing a 999 word article in The Australian today telling us Labor didn’t do well in the polls this year.
Shanahan gets the “Well, d’oh!” prize (with attractive framed commemorative certificate) for Outstanding Combined Pettiness, Petulance and Irrelevance. Well done, Dennis:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/labors-longest-deepest-polling-slump/story-fn59niix-1226232954467
Truer words have rarely been spoken, but since Shanahan has written basically the same article at least 52 times – once a week for the past year – why bother regurgitating it for a 53rd time? Does he believe his readers are slow thinkers?
Next, the Palme D’Or for Random Non-Contextual Shittiness goes to Paul Sheehan in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald for this passage:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/iron-lady-undone-by-colleagues-so-familiar-20111228-1pcvk.html#ixzz1hy8Nhj8m
Paul really does wear his heart on his sleeve, doesn’t he? Nice one, Paul, we always wanted to know what you REALLY think.
Indeed BB. Real wisdom occurs when pre-pubescents regurgitate the political analysis offered by the Murdochracy at several removes.
What ‘strikes’ Paul Sheehan is that he can’t improve on the derivative commentary of seven- and eleven-year-olds.
Thanks for the Sheehan link BB. Nasty, simplistic drivel IMO. Sheehan gloatingly(?) tells us that Thatcher won the ’79, ’83 and ’87 elections and never lost a general election. What he fails to inform his readers of is that but for the Falklands War she would have more than likely faced a heavy defeat in ’83. I remember seeing a documentary on the Falklands war and part of it was an interview with Jim Callaghan, MT’s Labour predecessor. JC said that the ‘argies’ sniffing around was not an unusual occurrence during his time as pm as well as during the previous Wilson administrations. Usual practice was to send a few warships to float around in the southern Atlantic which had the effect of diffusing any dramas. JC wondered why ‘Mad Maggie’ hadn’t done the same thing and stopped the situation deteriorating into a full scale war. Pure incompetence or warmongering for political gain? Perhaps one day we will find out.
As for Margaret Thatcher’s place in history and the success of her policies for mine (for what it’s worth!) the GFC was the endpoint of thirty years of thatcherism, reaganism and murdochism and its been nothing but a mess.
As to the rest of Sheehan’s article and the smears against Julia Gillard’s voice is this the sort of garbage that Greg Hywood expects to rescue the flagging Fairfax flagship. Good luck to all those shareholders. Oh I almost forgot…I condemn.
I condemn BB for reading a Dennis Shanahan article.
Tim’s Condemn should go to the video ref in my opinion.
The VR will be taking into account the following:
1. I only read half the article, so should the Condemn be reduced to a mere Severe Reprimand?
2. The article was “free” (not behind the laughingly-called “paywall”) Only reading free The Oz articles is about as close as it gets to politically acceptable, if not Lefty Hero status nowadays.
3. On the minus side, the fact that I even know Shanahan has written at least one article per week saying Labor isn’t doing well in the polls (his “facts” derived from porings-over of arcane statistics that he keeps on little pink index cards for easy reference, designed to prove that old poll results can really, truly foretell the future two years out from the actual election) should be sufficient to bump a Severe Reprimand up to a full Condemn, EXCEPT that I now humbly play the “Christmas Card”, throwing myself on the mercy of those who have some Yuletide good will still in reserve, thus permitting me to bat on.
I’m no Ricky Ponting, but think in this case I should be given the benefit of the doubt. I leave the decision to youse.
If we’re going to condemn Thatcherism, I condemn the 1978-79 British trade unions for the Winter of Discontent that helped bring about Thatcher’s victory.
Bushfire Bill should NOT be condemned for ” taking the blinkers off “, ” taking it one article at a time” or ” rolling with the punches”.
But i condemn his use of sporting analogies.
@103Bushfire Bill – If Paul Sheehan is slagging off the P.M. and insinuating support for those who mock her red hair, he must have missed Tony Abbott and his wife shown on camera a day or so before Christmas Day. Mrs. Abbott has had a remake and now sports short red hair. Therefore I condemn all those who do not realise the important psychological import of this. (Who does T.A. imagine he is living with?)
@54SG – I also now condemn cricket purely because of sour grapes on my part as I support India. By the way thanks for your run down on Sake on your site. I use it in cooking and find it hard to sort out the various qualities of the sake.
I conned ‘em.
BTW, is ‘one one one’ similar to ‘frist frist frist’?
Just asking.
I condemn the national holiday road toll, now standing at 35 and counting.
W.T.F.?!
Maybe it’s just ‘cos I spent the last month in a country where you can get anywhere quickly, cheaply and reliably by public transport, or maybe it’s because I lost a colleague this year to random head-on collision with an incapacitated driver, but there’s something seriously amiss when we can be remain so sanguine about the daily devastation on the roads.
A few people died installing pink-batts a few years back and we never hear the fucking end of it from Alan Jones and his mouth-breathing fans, but where are the howls of outrage for the daily trauma and hundreds of families shattered each year by road deaths, the maiming and the permanent disabilities?
I condemn Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor Australian for his article ‘Opposition has key to stopping boat arrivals’ on 24th December and in particular for his throw away statement ‘Sri Lankan Tamils who don’t want to join the tens of millions of Tamils in India’..
He argues in his article that he has 100 per cent changed his view because he now believes that overwhelmingly we are dealing today with determined illegal immigration, not refugees. Also the bureaucratic process to decide who is really a refugee is completely unreliable, especially when people throw away their documents before landing on Australian soil so their stories cannot be verified.
Sheridan then makes a throw away statement ‘Sri Lankan Tamils who don’t want to join the tens of millions of Tamils in India’. I make two comments on that statement.
The fact that there are no Sinhalese on any boats and that Sri Lankan economy is growing at thrice that of Australia (currently 9% in real terms) suggests that there are other reasons than economic for refugees. Undoubtedly till the war ended in 2009 the civil conflict was the major driver not economy. Since the war has ended and things return to normal the refugees from Sri Lanka will dwindle to zero.
He also does not realise that the Tamils in Sri Lanka have their own identity going back to over 1000 years in that Island. Their cultural identity and the spoken language are quite distinct from that of the Tamils in India. I would consider such statement very offensive.
I also have to say that both India and Australia has given thousands of Sri Lankans Tamils refuge which is very much appreciated.
I condemn the organisers of the Woodford Folk Festival for including a talk by Meryl Dorey of the Anti Vaccination Network (I think it’s actually the Australian Vaccination network but that’s what it is). I’ll encourage Mr Bucket never to sell his stuff there.
@114, I second your condemnation of Sheridan’s appalling remark. One must ask how sheridan would like to be described as an “Australian Irishman who doesn’t want to join the millions of Irish in Ireland”, or what he would say about a comment about “Australian Greeks who don’t want to join the millions of Greeks in Greece”.
Mediatracker@110
Mind blowing..
I condemn the annual ritual of climbing onto the roof to put shade cloth over half my solar hot water system’s panel to prevent it from spitting out its contents so that it doesnt overheat on hot summer days. I condemn that there isn’t some retrofit available to make use of this wasted energy. I condemn the regulations that makes it illegal (or so he said) for the plumber to redirect the wasted water back to my rainwater tank. Wtf?
@118 You’d be surprised at how simple amateur plumbing is. And probably safer than clambering around on your roof with shade cloth.
I condemn the young fool who interrupted a standard chemistry lecture [no gentleman he] by exclaiming that the term titration implied an oppressive curtailment of his sexual liberty; and was not mollified when the lecturer [no gentleman he] mildly suggested that the term titrate implied enormous freedom of expression.
Or so my informant tells me.
Yeah Ian, but I reckon I’d need a thing-umy-whatsit to do that. I think I may know someone who knows someone with one of those, so hopefully this is the last year of doing the shade cloth thing. I still condemn the wasted sun energy though.
angrily balancing on the roof with shade cloth – that explains your nym, fb.
I strongly condemn the fatuous who fling “Happy New Year!” at me, scarcely displaying any realisation that they make an heroic assumption that I wish to have a happy year in 2012, which I most certainly may not.
WE will decide whether to have an enjoyable new year, and the manner in which such enjoyment (if applicable) shall occur.
The fatuous flingers are closely allied with the ubiquitous Have a Nice Day crowd, the witless Now They Can Move On diagnosticians, and deserve to have at least one of their garden gnomes tarnished regularly by avian faecal outpourings, from a great height.
I applaud our avian friends for their opportune and sporting hits and misses. Given sufficient well-directed hits, they may possibly incline my 2012 to be moderately pleasant.
C. Mudgeon, Esq.
fb @ 118 – redirect surplus water to the garden instead?
I condemn the use of familiar first names by newspapers when some poor female is sexually assaulted by her step father, beaten by her celebrity boyfriend, set upon in an Argentinian jungle or is otherwise outraged, as in…
The journalist 999 times out of 1,000 doesn’t know the victim, and won’t ever meet her (probably couldn’t care less about her fate, either).
The easy familiarity is the newspaper’s way of trying to make out that it’s part of a community, in touch with the inner concerns and feelings of its readers, who all feel the victim’s pain as if she was their collective sister.
It’s cynical, lazy and shallow, and it should stop.