 |
|
|
|
| More!? More!? |
|
 |
| Making it happen | |
Mark (Maddog) Latham's approach to politics is anything but
un-sexy. While somewhat short on policy, the king of motherhood statements,
once dubbed Dr Man Boobs by the Smirking Treasurer, has put together a shadow
cabinet consisting, seemingly, of wall to wall women. But the gaggle of women on the front bench is more than just a Cunning
array of Stunts on the part of the Shining Wits in the ALP. Maddog is a Smart Fella and
says they are, 'talented, young, progressive' women. The young is (at least comparatively) self evident, the
talented is a personal call, but it's hard to know exactly what Maddog
meant by 'progressive', dictionary.com
gives some clues. Removing all the definitions of progressive
which use the term progressive in their definition (how stupid are these
people?) leaves.
- Moving forward; advancing
.. as opposed to the Labour Party, which is slipping backwards.
- Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods: a progressive politician; progressive business leadership
.. so progressive just means better? Right.
- Increasing in rate as the taxable amount increases: a progressive income tax.
.. ahh, these women can sell the fiction that rich people have a higher effective marginal tax rate.
Progressive also suggests a commitment to leftist ideology, like
.. say, affirmative
action for women. A group of women who are firmly in favor of their own
promotions is a good start, but where does it go from there? In the roaring
'80s, and early '90s, affirmative action was fashionable enough to win
popularity. In 2004 through, it's a little bit old. At least it'll be a bit of comic relief. Most of us have to go searching on
the web for Asian lesbians **, but we now have one on
the front bench, and some of us are looking forward to her progressive
contribution to Australian politics. Affirmative action
is a wonderful thing. In fairness to the ALP though, at least it has finally achieved its much
touted Generational Change. In fact Simon Crean will look quite out of place in
this group - slumped in the front bench like a decaying fossil - a relic of
happier (and more unionized) times. A bit like Little Johnny sitting on the opposite side.
** Actually a cursory examination of the URL behind this link suggests that
one doesn't have to actually look very hard.
|
|
 |
| Sink or swim | |
Superstitious sailors will tell you that rats have the ability to tell when
a ship is about to sink, and leave in the last port. So one would have thought
that an election filled with accusations about lying rodents and children
overboard, would have produced the occasional rat slinking quietly off to a
unionized dockside to avoid drowning in the political oblivion of opposition. But after a triumphant fourth victory for John ('I'm very humbled') Howard,
the ALP doesn't understand how
they could have possibly lost to a government which was so 'out of touch'. Such
bad luck - they must have walked under Mark (Maddog) Latham's ever shifting
ladder of opportunity. Seven ALP front-benchers have now chosen to waddle off to the backbenches
instead of suffering the humiliation of facing grinning Johnny, and a
perpetually smirking Peter Costello. They had to find some way to ease the
squeeze. So, after the ship has already sunk, they are leaving Maddog, who looks
like he might be a little lonely up on the front bench. At this rate it might
just be him and Peter (Lapdog) Garrett - who will probably spend most of his
time hugging trees. And didn't the tree hugging help Maddog in the election
campaign! Lapdog Peter is likely to be an embarrassment. It's a little hard to read what is going on behind the scenes, but this
could well be because they can't stomach Mark Latham's new economic
agenda. This is what happens when you elect someone with an economics degree to
the ALP leadership. Unlike most of his leftist brethren, Maddog
understands the concept of effective marginal tax rates,
and the effect they have on incentive. His colleagues can't accept the reality
that incentive is a more effective creator of wealth than 'opportunity' -
especially so called 'equal
opportunity'. Maybe they realize in a new world more focused on creating wealth than of
sharing poverty, they are
liabilities - mere fossils of a time (and a philosophy) gone by. Or maybe the
socialist old guard are plotting a bloody coup from the backbenchers - building
a new ladder of opportunity for themselves .. .. just as soon as they find someone to lead them.
|
|
 |
| Another three years of this? | |
As the ALP licks its collectivist wounds over losing last Saturday's
federal election, leftists have been lamenting 'how could the Australian
public have gotten it so wrong?' Didn't they know Little Johnny
was a lying rodent who threw refugee children to their
deaths off sinking SIEV-X boats before locking them up in Nauru during his retirement?
Didn't we tell them often enough? We may seem economically irresponsible, but
don't they understand that we do these things for their own good
because we love them? Apparently not. But some in the ALP have realized that just blaming Little
Johnny for their devastating loss won't win them the next election. Education and health
are great things for the ALP to promote themselves on. Telling everyone that
they will spend more, that they will spend bigger, that they will create the
nanny state which won't make you personally accountable for anything, but will
take responsibility
(and control) of the most important aspects of your life is an easy
move. People will believe that from a leftist party. But the ALP have realized that this is not enough. People understand that
public education and public health are paid for through taxes, and they are only possible
for a healthy economy. Yep, it's the economy stupid. Mark (Maddog) Latham has acknowledged that he has to improve his party's
economic credentials to win the next election. Unfortunately proving you are
better than the opposition at running an economy is a hard call for a leftist
party. Even the most stupid voter knows what happened to the leftist economies last
century. Of course removing the former union thug from the position of
Shadow Treasurer is a good start. At least it proves that Maddog is trying
hard. But it's the little things that make election campaigns interesting - like
the things that it didn't have. How many times were Wimmin!'s rights, Aboriginal reconciliation
or multiculturalism
mentioned by the mainstream parties? Anyone? Silence has been described by some composers as the thirteenth tone. And
while the shrill screaming of the auctioneers got a bit much toward the end of
the campaign, the silence on ratbag minority issues was
music to the ears of some of us. At least feminism is dead. Long live greed.
|
|
 |
| Police suspects | |
Some pervert jerking off to downloaded kiddie porn on his 21 inch LCD
computer screen is a thought that sickens every decent person. It also makes
lefties green with envy - they can't afford 21 inch LCD screens. But should we
actually do anything to stop it? ** Clearly actually perpetrating the acts portrayed is a crime - they are an initiation
of violence against a non-consensual party, but there are many gray areas. What
if the pictures are drawn, or computer generated? Who is the victim? Does there have to be
a victim for there to be a crime? Does something have to be a crime for governments to regulate
against it? Wimmin's groups in the
1980s insisted that all women were victims of (adult consensual) porn because it degraded
them in the eyes of the entire population. These days people are more in tune
with the fact that it just reduced the value of the product in their undies,
and most people are pretty relaxed about adults looking at pictures of adults
engaged in NVE (Non Violent Erotica). After all, the economies of scale
resulting from the masses of porn on the Internet have helped drive down the
cost of bandwidth for us intellectual elites who use the Internet for other
things (like blogging). Logic may suggest that drawn or computer generated images are victimless,
and therefore do not involve a crime, but the recent spate of 200-odd arrests
of Australians on Internet kiddie porn charges, and six suicides is a good test
of one's core beliefs. Especially since the accused include teachers,
child-care operators and police officers. No magistrates
this time, but magistrates are probably smart enough to realize that the
Internet ceases to remain anonymous when you use your credit card. Anyway, it is one thing to talk about personal freedom and victimless
crimes. It is quite another to stand by while a school teacher, or an owner of
a child minding center is accused of downloading kiddie porn. Especially for
those of us who are parents. Especially when the government forces parents to
send their children to school. Blogger Bunyip insists that
having a child is the beginning of twenty years of hypocrisy ('I never did
that in my time'). It is also a time when one's real values come to the
surface and very quickly override any ephemeral fashionable beliefs. The libertarians among us might insist that a genuinely free market would
find a solution to pedophiles who aspire to
become school teachers, doctors or police officers. But that remains a future
hypothetical. In the meantime the rest of us will settle for locking up those
sick bastards with the General Population in the local prison and letting nature take
its course. Being in close proximity with powerful, nasty people who have 'unusual'
relationships with society creates interesting dynamics. It would be an
excellent opportunity for these pedophiles to explore the subtle nuances of
.. consensuality. ------- The kiddie porn, that is - the lefties can go and get a job
and save up like the rest of us.
|
|
 |
| Ballot box - making your vote count | |
Whether taxes are theft is something that civilized statists and libertarians will
debate over beers long after the effects of the amber fluid have removed all
semblance of analytical rationality. But it seems
that the federal election campaign is having the same effect on an electorate
numbed by political rhetoric and half truths from both sides of the spectrum. First we had Mark (Maddog) Latham insist that people were better off with
less money. Because people did their budgeting on a weekly basis, giving them
an extra $2 a week, but taking $600 away at the end of the year made them
better off. Doubtless there were some financially bewildered True Believers who
swallowed this, but surely the intellectual elites
(ie anyone who can use a calculator) must have seen through it. But elections in a social democracy are
auctions, and John (taxes-ain't-taxes) Howard was not to be outdone by Maddog's
prattle. Your ABC reports that
Little Johnny denies claims that he has broken a previous election promise
that he would not increase taxes. and
Mr Howard says the Ansett levy, and the sugar and milk levies, that he has
introduced were different.
"You do have to see a difference between things like that and straight tax
increases, the like of which I've described, ... between his promise in July of
no new tax increases and the election day," he said.
This is a little bit like celebrity dictator Kim Jong Il's insistence that
all public works in his People's Paradise are built with 'voluntary
labor'. Apparently little Kim has created true communism - a zero tax state. Little Johnny, it
seems, is only slightly behind by creating 'levies' instead of taxes. Go
Johnny! With the highest taxing government in Australian
history still insisting they believe in 'small government', it's no wonder that
Australians are so politically jaded. This could explain why so many
Australians still haven't made a voting decision just five days out from the
election - they feel done over by both parties. It's a bit like bad sex. Sometimes you just close your
eyes and wait for it to be over.
|
|
 |
| Indonesian diplomacy on short fuse | |
In the bad old days, Indonesian police used to accompany protesters from
government sponsored 'youth groups' to the Australian embassy where the
protesters would scale the fence and vandalize everything in sight, while the
police looked on. It was the Indonesian way of fostering hatred of
Australians, and letting Australians know it. Police no longer look on as Indonesian thugs attack the Australian embassy,
but one could be forgiven for thinking they are looking the other way, as a car
bomb killed 10 people outside the gates of the Australian embassy this
afternoon. They didn't actually manage to kill any Australians, but in an orgy
of bloodshed, who's looking at faces? The bombers who killed over seventy drunken Australians may walk on
Indonesian legal technicalities, while democratically elected government
officials insist they are doing everything they can to curb
terrorism. President Megawatti, who wouldn't even speak to Little Johnny after
the de-annexation of East Timor, has suddenly found her sensitive side and cut
short other activities to wring her hands over the blast scene. Thanks Meg! Old habits die hard, and decades of fostering hatred of Australians in some
of the most ignorant and corrupt people in the world pays dividends. And it's
been a busy week for the Muslim Terrorists. Murdering 400 people in Russia in
an atrocity worthy of Nazi Germany was a hard act to follow. Topping 10 people
in Jakarta who were not even Australian seems pretty lame in comparison, but it
keeps the psychopaths in the headlines. And what a good time to do so. Little Johnny must be rubbing his hands with
glee. True Believers will, of course, insist that Little Johnny's Iraq War
stance has brought all this on. Of course. Sharks will stop attacking humans if
we regularly feed sharks on our beaches. It's not quite the MV Tampa or the SIEV-4 that Johnny was hoping for, but
Muslim atrocities are always a good way to to focus wishy-washy minds on the
value of a strong border protection policy for swinging voters. And Mark (Maddog) Latham's instant coming to heel doesn't help his attempts
to product differentiate for the coming election.
"Yeah, what Little Johnny said".
Doesn't make a good election slogan does it? The other little tid-bit is that the Indonesian stock exchange dropped by 4
percent at the news of the bombing. The best thing about fanatical, corrupt
religious countries - they stay poor, weak and impotent.
|
|
 |
| Veil of confusion | |
There are some aspects of human nature which one cannot condone, but nor
can one easily condemn. The criminal, for instance who, when
cornered by police, chooses to try to shoot his way out instead of facing certain
execution, is actually exercising self defense. The events which led to his
situation may be totally his fault, but his behavior when cornered is simply a
normal human reaction. All animals will defend themselves when faced with
death. Likewise Iraqis who want
the Americans out of their
country at all costs are behaving in a pretty understandable way. Ask the
average American redneck what they would do if Iraq decided to liberate the US
from an abusive and corrupt government, and their reactions would be little
different. Even the democrats who holler that democracy was stolen from
them in the Florida ballot fiasco would suddenly find themselves in bed with
the rednecks. And how would the average Australian True Believer react to
the Indonesians liberating them from a Prime Minister who lies about everything
from Children overboard to new taxes? The Iraqi Internet executions are a little hard to stomach, but they serve
to blur (or perhaps sharpen?) the boundaries between good and evil - justified defense, natural
behavior, and outright atrocity. But the situation gets downright confusing when the French are thrown in the
mix. The French - Saddam's best mates, and shameless capitalizers of Iraqi dictatorship, and
would-be capitalizers of a liberated Iraq, are now being targeted too. Two French hostages seem to be about to be beheaded - unless the French government rescinds its
decision to ban Arab headscarves in public schools. How quickly the goal has moved from keeping control of their own country,
to gaining control of another. It is no longer enough to repel the infidel from
their holy land - they have to protect Islamic culture in countries their
Islamic brethren have migrated to. Allah's will, it seems, is truly universal. Maybe the French are learning of the folly of trying to appease radical
Islam. And maybe with an 5% Muslim population, it is already too late. And maybe the Religion of
Peace could adopt a new mantra:
Our land is our land. By the way, so is yours.
|
|
 |
| Running around like a chicken-less Head | |
The thought of Geoff (The Bruiser) Clark naked is not a pleasant one, but
it was an difficult image to dispell when a leftie magistrate reappointed
him as head of ATSIC - ruling
that the government of
the day had no right to suspend him from the position of ATSIC chairman, since
the action was discriminatory. Geoff
displayed even more sneer than usual when he proclaimed
I'm the chairman of ATSIC. You better believe it.
No problem there - except that ATSIC effectively no longer exists. He may
have donned his old clothes, but the Emperor is butt naked. The Bruiser further
insisted that he was going to 'revive ATSIC'. Huh? With whose money? Both
sides of politics have said that they will disband the organization, so not
even an electoral victory of the True Believers will save
him. The days of squandering nearly a billion dollars a year are over. This kind of denial is, of course, not unknown in the grubby and frequently
farcical world of politics. Joh Bjelke Peterson
refused to resign his position as Queensland Premier, and had to proclaim that
'the National Party is no longer the party that I led in parliament', to save
face [ie - he was still the leader, but everyone was in a different party]. Mikhail Gorbachev went the same way - insisting that he was the leader of
the Union of Soviet Socialist People's Paradise Republics long after the USSR no longer existed. And all over the world, crackpots claim to be the rightful heirs to
monarchies that no longer exist, as those around them giggle silently into
their drinks. It's not just Geoff's organization that has ceased to exist - the entire
ATSIC culture is on the
verge of extinction. The world has simply moved on, and no-one cares. In that
sense he does truly represent the Aboriginal protest
movement.
|
|
 |
| Cruising downtown Jakarta | |
With Australia's
F-111s looking more and more like a relic from the last century, Australia's
air-force faces a gap in its defenses after their scheduled retirement around
2010. The gap now seems to destined to be filled by some air-launched cruise
missiles. Missiles which can be launched safely from International airspace and
take out pinpoint targets in downtown Jakarta. Always quick to scream victim, the Indonesian government has
hit back. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalagawa is quoted on
the ABC as
We may legitimately ask against whom would such a weapons system be targeted.It's a legitimate question from our part and therefore we have some question
mark about the wisdom of this latest decision.
and he has accused Australia of a 'lack of consultation'. It would seem that our Muslim neighbors are appalled at
the prospect of a regional arms race. Or maybe not that appalled on closer
inspection. The Indonesian air-force recently took delivery of two soviet Su-27s, which
can out-maneuver, out-distance, and outfight Australia's FA-18s. And did our
northern friends 'consult' with Australia about this purchase? Apparently sovereign nations only
have a duty to consult with their neighbors about weapons purchases if they are predominantly
white. Australia faces the prospect of being bombed without being able to bomb
back, and our northern members of the Religion of Peace are horrified
that Australia might take action to prevent that situation. Indonesian officials were similarly horrified recently that some
one third of Australians believed that Indonesia posed a risk to Australia,
and were concerned about the prospect of invasion. Presumably it never occurred
to them that thirty years of persistently cultivating public hatred of
Australia might also have an effect on the psyche of Australians. Just one of
the many disadvantages in not being able to control the Australian media. But
there's a simple fix to that .. Indonesia of course has given a clear indication of how seriously they take
the killing of Australians with the acquittal of one of the Bali bombers.
Balanced and sane people generally prefer to subscribe to explanations
involving ignorance over conspiracy, but sometimes
that's a hard thing to do. Charging bombers with sexy new untested,
retrospective terrorism
laws without throwing in mundane changes like murder, reckless endangerment
and illegal parking is pretty suspicious. The bombers look like being acquitted
on the sexy new charges, and double jeopardy rules may prevent them being
retried for the same crime. But the Indonesians are not without sympathizers in Australia. The ALP have always been desperate to
please the Indonesians - Paul (foul-mouth) Keating seemed to take orders
directly from his business partners in Jakarta, and the tradition continues to
the current day. Kim (Fatboy) Beasley has been wheezing that Little Johnny
hasn't been 'explaining our position' to the Indonesians to their satisfaction. But Little Johnny's one-liner said it all on this occasion:
Our neighbors understand our position perfectly well.
Absolutely. It's enough to make the ASIO's pro-Jakarta lobby stir from their
tea-breaks.
|
|
 |
| Sick as a Maddog | |
The good thing about generational change is that it allows evolution. Humans
strive for improvement, every generation thinks they can do better than the
previous one and often they are right. And so it is with governments. Old Prime
Ministers eventually die (or become Asylum Seeker advocates)
and a new younger, invigorated and fitter generation replaces them. Well
.. sometimes. Desperate True Believers hailed Simon Crean's leadership appointment as
generational change, which was a bit of a joke - he is only 10 years younger
than Little Johnny. But with Mark (Maddog) Latham they actually got
it. Unfortunately for The
Left, they may have embarking up the wrong tree if Maddog is too sick to do
the job. Maddog is in hospital with pancreatitis, from which it is 'highly likely' that
he will make a 'complete recovery'. At 43, Maddog is already showing signs of
being worn out. And at retirement age, Incumbent Johnny is still going on his
daily power walks at a pace which must make Labor heavyweights Maddog and Kim
(Fatboy) Beasley break into a collective cold sweat. The dog-eat-dog world of politics is nasty, unforgiving and stressful. Maddog
is wearing a hospital gown, and Little Johnny is still wearing his fixed
election campaign smile. He suddenly has more to smile about.
|
|
|
>> Please Sir, I want some more
|
|
| Feedback/Forum |
|
- ANON -- Anonymous Coward 2011-12-02
|
|
