Quote of the day

Further to Hypocrisy (revised) yesterday:

Only a very very peculiar mind could interpret McClelland’s remarks as showing sympathy for the Bali bombers, let alone ’supporting’ them.

That is from the entry I mentioned yesterday — The next prime minister on The Road to Surfdom. Ken also says:

Well done Kevin, you’ve managed to turn a minor incident into a major story while simultaneously demonstrating yet again that in the shiny new ALP, expediency trumps principle every time.

I am afraid that is the impression you have been wedged into exhibiting, Kevin. And today, showing her “very very peculiar mind”, The Blessed Miranda fulminates, froths, gloats, and ejaculates as follows:

Climate change sinks embattled troglodytes

Poor Tim Blair. Poor Miranda. Increasingly they look like flat earthists geocentrists* in a post-Galileo world.

See the report Hot, parched and sinking – apocalypse Sydney in today’s Herald, but even more importantly go to Climate change in Australia: “Climate Change in Australia was developed by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology in partnership with the Australian Greenhouse Office through the Australian Climate Change Science Program.”

Now I will confess…

I am a closet listener to country and western music. Mind you, not all country and western music. But there’s some that is just good honest stuff, so why pretend to look down on it? And this one contains images close to home.

The march of folly and the guns of war

Yes, I have appropriated and adapted two of Barbara Tuchman’s famous 20th century histories to create that title, because they are so sadly apt in the current world climate. First, let me get a disclaimer (or several) out of the way: I am opposed to suicide bombing especially when it targets innocent people going about their everyday lives — I call that murder, and a particularly vile kind of murder at that. Second, I do not for one moment believe that there is a war against Islam. That is a paranoid religious interpretation put with often unhelpful consequences on conflicts and tensions that arise for much more mundane reasons. Angry Muslims should have a bit more faith in God’s ability to look after himself. No-one is in the slightest bit interested in Muslim countries or Muslim minorities in other countries unless they happen to be sitting on or near a very large oil reserve. I will come back to that in a moment. Third, the state of Israel is the most destabilising factor in the Middle East, and I say that as, in general, a supporter of Israel. But it should never have been allowed to settle Gaza and the West Bank. Fourth, much of the talk of democracy in the Middle East is open to criticism on the grounds of hypocrisy, as democratic choices that go the “wrong” way are vigorously rejected: Gaza (in vile dehumanising Newspeak — resist this worst abuse of human language with every fibre of your being — now an “enemy entity” like a microbe or a cancer cell or It Came From Outer Space) and Iran are two cases in point. Finally, I am not a great admirer of the current Iranian regime.

Sad descent of Gnome into black comedy

See also Liberal Party’s search for a scapegoat finds its mark… on Journalspace. Howard’s mask fell off last week in that press conference as he uttered the words And I hope people understand from observing me in 30-odd years of public life, that I have never run from a fight before, and I don’t intend to do so now. His tone and body language told the truth. The “battle of the pronouns” since — I —> we and Howard government —> The Team is a pathetic and I hope failing — because it deserves to fail — attempt to spin their way out. I have rarely seen such a bald-faced confection.

But you have to love The Australian’s Matt Price, and I mean that sincerely.

Not the best of all possible worlds

Well, that’s a given of course. But there were some good examples of sleaze of one kind or another on ABC here in Sydney last night.

That is well worth your following up. The banner will take you there. You don’t have to be a wowser to smell CORRUPTION coming from the gaming and hotels industries, even if whatever they are doing is “legal”. That government is in hock to them because of the revenue streams they create, that their lobbyists are so powerful, that the destruction they cause is only too obvious, that pubs are superficially better at a possibly terrible cost… All that has to give pause for thought. Four Corners should be congratulated for raising these issues.

Then came Media Watch: Good Morning Iraq on General Petraeus, Iraq, Dennis Shanahan, Miranda Devine and Brendan Nelson. Never have so few spun so furiously with so many conflicting statistics to pull the wool over the eyes of so many.

Miranda’s friend arrested during APEC clampdown!

Odd things have happened during our few days of living under a police state — what else can you call it? — here in Sydney, and while I managed to emerge unscathed from Chinatown yesterday it seems that the day before one of Miranda Devine’s best mates was swept up there by over-zealous boys and girls in blue. And what was the worst thing about it? Why, he isn’t even a Leb! The NSW Police are incapable of stopping the real criminals – the thugs who launched the 2005 revenge attacks on Cronulla, for instance. Furthermore, despite the fact the gigantic overkill was the result of Federal, State and City authorities working together, Miranda opines This is what happens when you appoint underwhelming neophytes, David Campbell as Police Minister and Andrew Scipione as Commissioner. It’s a sign of an emasculated, rudderless police force, with systemic small-man syndrome, acting like bullies in an attempt to cover up weakness, and chronic dysfunction.

I fully understand Miranda’s anger, of course, and think the whole episode was gross. As the news report said: Jailed for jaywalking. It is disgraceful that a man simply going to Yum Cha with his eleven-years-old son would be treated so brutally and have to spend close on 24 hours locked up. I trust he is talking to his lawyers.**

However, if he had been from Macquarie Fields, or was a testosterone-addled Lebanese, I don’t think Miranda would have been complaining…