2020 Hindsight
I have long advocated giving young grads a cut in their HEC debt for service in remote Australia. Young Doctors, nurses and teachers would be welcome in a lot of communities and as we can’t seem to get our quota of older professionals then the young ones will do.
This is one idea to come out of the Canberra gathering of the true believers that I haven’t heard before but the rest is mostly old stuff and/or motherhood statements.
I note Mundine advocates that all Aborigine children should learn English but does anyone else feel there is something basically wrong when he has to say it. Of course kids in Australia should learn English and we don’t need a committee to tell us so. We just need the cultural warriors of the Left to lay of and let governments and agencies work on giving Indigenous kids the same chance at education as the rest of us get.
I can’t get it out of my mind that the whole show has been set up to glorify Rudd and confirm his policies and to bring into public debate those policies of the insane Left that he said he wouldn’t implement when he was looking for votes.
Run ’em up the flag pole, so to speak, and see who salutes. Well, we know who will salute and that’s the worry.
The whole process was set up to provide a set-piece result. How many monarchists were invited I wonder. We know Small Business hardly got a look in, the AMA weren’t represented and was there anyone there to caution against committing to a greener world without at least some semblance of considering the economy as well in the mix – I doubt it.
The Courier Mail’s deadwood edition has a huge headline VOICE OF THE PEOPLE but could I be so bold as to say it is not the voice of the people; it is the voice of a small select group of people who subscribe to a certain set of opinions that are welcomed by the ALP.
If some of the Motherhood statements are turned into reality something may come of it but that’s a big ask and when the activists supporting some of the more zany ideas are confronted with the electorate then reality will bite.
I am not enthused and still wait for the Rudd government to actually do something for the benefit of the country as a whole and not just for those who voted for the greener grass on the other side of the ideological divide….that bright and shiny thing over there – let’s try that out.
Surely some must be looking at the shiny thing a bit closer now and noting it is really is a bit dull, not what they thought or were lead to believe, but a poor copy of the real thing.
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I agree with the national service in return for higher education idea.
It’s not new though – I first heard a similar idea in 1978 from my boss, Brigadier Greville, who was an ex POW of the Chinese in Korea.
He mused that citizenship and all of its rights should be conditional of some kind of ‘national service’ from the military through emergency services to visiting the aged at home or assisting battling communities in the bush.
He even considered that gaining a higher degree was in fact a national service in itself.
However the 2020 “Nimbin with suits” made for an amusing weekend really…
Insiders taking the piss out of Ruddfest, Julie Bishop taking Jabba the Hutt to pieces on ‘Sunday’.
She really did nail the repetitive boring questions with intelligent well delivered answers. Poor old Laurie Oakes was stunned into silence after a couple of her riposts.
Julie for PM I say.
Occasionally tuned into Ruddfest to watch self important people make self aggrandising statements about trivial and stale old ideas.
“Gotta hurry, gotta get out ‘big ideas’ ready for Kevin by three o’clock.” Was the mantra for Sunday’s pathetic sessions.
The best and brightest spent more time trying to organise themselves than they did actually coming up with big ideas – BIs to the initiates.
I’ve read the lists of BIs published today and there isn’t a fresh thought amongst them, every point is straight from the scribblings of ‘New Labour’, undergraduate covens of ‘progressives’ or our vomitus ‘public intellectuals’ like the execrable Robert Manne who was heard bleating that his words had been defiled by some common person having the temerity to ‘edit’ him .
Not one BI worth the butchers paper it’s written on.
Some excellent posts on a few blogs kept me smiling for hours and were topped off by Rudd and Gillard’s favourite TV show (Rove) featuring another pisstake about super hero Rudd, his round the world fix everything crusade and his silly love in.
Checked out the Spencer Street Soviet website late Sunday night to see what the luvvies were making of the whole ‘schmozzle” and can report that out of the many pages of ‘have your say’ the majority thought it was trite and trivial too.
This expensive and embarrassing farce will hang around Rudd’s neck like a reeking dead roo for the rest of his truncated period in office – the scales are falling from middle Australia’s eyes and the Australian public is beginning to see the truth – Rudd stands before them naked, pink and shrivelled, a small pathetic little man.
Two and half years more of this shit and the conservatives will fill every seat in the house.
“the scales are falling from middle Australia’s eyes and the Australian public is beginning to see the truth”
Interesting statement – Peter W. What’s your evidence? Obviously not the opinion polls.
17etc. The weekend effort was comforting for the true believers only. The rest, a majority, have to be thinking. The polls are still recording the Coalition in shock and while they are in a reorg phase will give Rudd a healthy lead. Once they are back on track they have plenty to attack with – watch the polls then.
Well 17 whatever, still stuck on the polls?
So Bwendan is doing poorly – he’s like Crean or Beastie after Howard’s election wins – just a stop gap until someone comes along to grasp the nettle.
I remember political pundits claiming that the ALP might not govern again for 20 years after the 2004 election loss and then along came Tin Tin and look what happened in 2007.
Why do I feel the ‘scales are falling’?
Well this Monday morning’s mocking staffroom laughter at the 2020 and its BIs from soft lefty HACS’ teachers who last November had proudly proclaimed the college a ‘work choices free zone’ whilst wearing their pathetic Kevin07 T shirts around the campus.
The luvvies were openly contemptuous of Kewen on Monday and several wondered out loud “what could have possibly gone wrong so quickly” – the fixation on starlets like our Kate, his torturous language and his fawning lickspittle troop around the world.
Now I figure that if Kewen has lost the respect of his most loyal disciples he’s f*cked.
I might add the only ones not laughing were the two staunch ALP activist union reps who gritted their teeth and were obviously embarrassed the ‘man’ they had championed with such zeal was being openly mocked by their fellow travelers.
Eventually they threw down their grated carrot and avocado wholemeal buns and hurried into white-board land well before the next session was due to start without saying a word.
Now I said little, I’m usually out numbered 25 to one in this staffroom – the luvvies know I’m from ‘another planet’ and this was the first time they’d slagged off Labor in my presence – usually it’s “oh how inclusive we all are now” or “I’m so proud of Kewen for saying sorry” aren’t you Peter – snigger snigger?
The gloss has gone…
I’m sure you’ve seen these before but I thought I’d link to them because they were playing on nearly every computer on campus all day.
Too close for comfort…
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DepK3evOfNU&feature=related
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PChAkerBLJ4
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etMDSWZ5PgA
I think it’s satire…
Peter whatever
What you apparently observed may be a reflection of the fact that the “luvvies”* as you call them are capable of taking the piss. Not everybody takes their politics as seriously as you obviously do. That’s OK – just don’t get so worked up. It’s bad for the digestion.
“Let 100 flowers bloom – a hundred schools of thought contend”.
*always better than “haties”.
“Not everybody takes their politics as seriously as you obviously do…”
Read the post again – “…from soft lefty HACS’ teachers who last November had proudly proclaimed the college a ‘work choices free zone’ whilst wearing their pathetic Kevin07 T shirts around the campus.
They take their ideology VERY seriously, from the ludicrous ‘welcome to country’ posters in EVERY room, to their twice weekly union meetings where Howard bashing was accompanied with promises to “leave these shores and to never return if the ‘little fascist’ was re-elected”.
They were not taking the piss – they were stunned at the appalling ‘happy clappy’ event and how incompetently the ‘best and brightest’ they had swooned over had performed.
No – their derisive laughter was an expression of anger and disappointment that their ‘wunderkind’ was merely another show pony with his eyes wide in worship of ‘our Kate’ and sundry other ‘stars’ and that the ‘summit’ had delivered so little.
Now tell me again how a member of the Liberal Party allegedly slagged off your service and scarred you for life – you haven’t used that one for a while.
Peter W
Go easy on the adjectives – “soft lefty”, “pathetic”, “ludicrous”???. They tend to make your message (whatever it is) a little muddy. Must be an interesting institution where you work – in any school that I worked at we didn’t have the time for political discussion. We were too busy with learning and teaching. Maybe you should sort them out.
BTW, I’m not scarred – I simply remember, but I’ll admit to being a little sensitive about rank hypocrisy.
17 whatever – “a little muddy.” ?????
Pathetic – “having a capacity to move one to contemptuous pity”
Ludicrous – “1 : amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration, or eccentricity 2 : meriting derisive laughter or scorn as absurdly inept, false, or foolish.”
You spend a lot of time on many ‘right wing’ blogs promoting typical ‘soft lefty’ points of view – a list of your causes reveals a talking point index for the David Marrs of this world or the members of Larvatus Prodeo which proudly proclaims its group discussion is “from a left of centre perspective”.
Its a view I abhor “: to regard with extreme repugnance: loathe”.
I work at a tertiary institution – learning or teaching is not a priority for many members of staff.
They have drifted from their own undergraduate years to settle like a layer of pink irrelevance over the student body, most have never worked a day in their lives outside the self congratulatory world of academia.
No point attempting to submit a paper expressing views at variance with their world view – it won’t even be read.
I feel sorry for the kids who try to express a conservative point of view, no matter how hard they try or how well they research and write, their efforts are greeted with scorn.
It’s just the way the left works; they believe they are superior to all the rest of the great unwashed; they claim a monopoly over sensitivity and compassion yet show none towards their fellows unless they conform.
Not muddy at all, just soiled.
Peter Whatever
“That’s the way the left works”…this assumes that “the left” actually exists. The term is used so loosely that it no longer has any meaning.
The discourse of right and left has been overwhelmed by consumerism. We are more significantly consumers than voters, and raw power resides with the corporation, not the government.
Lifestyle takes precedence over passion – aspiring politicians first seek a profile, then a cause. The discourse of marketing has superseded the appeal to ideology.
“You spend a lot of time on many ‘right wing’ blogs promoting typical ’soft lefty’ points of view”
I post on these blogs because I’m fascinated by the rigidity of the views I see expressed and the inability of their authors to grasp the idea that anyone has a right to disagree with them. Ironically, most of those controlling these sites refuse to countenance any dissent – perhaps that’s what “hard” (as you use it) means.
If so, I don’t mind being labeled “soft” – in fact I’d be proud of it – if it means giving everyone a fair go.
17 wheelbarrow
“I’m fascinated by the rigidity of the views I see expressed…”
Ha ha ha – wipes tears from eyes – oops nearly forgot the ‘welcome to country’ so beloved of the left.
Here goes…
“I would like to acknowledge the members of ‘Australopithecus afarensis’ and ‘Homo erectus’ who were first custodians of this land and those ‘Homo sapiens’ both ‘Robust’ and ‘Gracile’ who followed. I further acknowledge and say ‘sorry’ for the sad extinction of ‘Mungo man’ and forgive the ‘Indian’ ancestors of the people now known as ‘Australian Aborigines’ who brought about their extinction. I would also like to pay respect to the Elders, both past and present, of the Family ‘Hominidae’ and extend that respect to all the representatives of the Genus ‘Homo’ present.”
Some definitions:
“soft”:
1) Yielding easily to pressure or weight; not firm: mushy, pappy, pulpous, pulpy, quaggy, spongy, squashy, squishy, yielding.
2) Affectedly or extravagantly emotional: bathetic, gushy, maudlin, mawkish, romantic, sentimental, slushy, sobby, soppy, gooey, mushy, schmaltzy, sloppy, soupy.
3) Drippy, sappy, tear-jerking.
4) Having only a limited ability to learn and understand: backward, dull, simple, simple-minded, slow, slow-witted, feeble-minded, half-witted, retarded, weak-minded.
5) Characterized by reduced economic activity: down, dull, off, slack, slow, sluggish.
“Left”
1) Those associated with any of the several strains of socialism, green politics, anarchism, communism, collectivism and state rights over individual rights.
2) Self described elites who wish to impose muddle headed ideological theory such as meaningless apologies to ‘first nations’, anthropogenic global warming, unfettered government intervention and an unsupportable welfare state as a remedy for perceived failures.
3) Reward or excuse mediocrity, fear competition, cannot tolerate dissent.
4) Promote expansion of the role of the state in supporting the arts regardless of the quality or general appeal of the work.
5) etc
“So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.”
George Orwell
“We are more significantly consumers than voters, and raw power resides with the corporation, not the government. Lifestyle takes precedence over passion – aspiring politicians first seek a profile, then a cause. The discourse of marketing has superseded the appeal to ideology.”
Sounds like an expression of your deeply held ideology to me…
Ideology:
1: visionary theorizing
2 a: a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture b: a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture c: the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a socio-political program.
But it’s drivel – see Lu Kewen’s interventionist nanny state announcements of the past few weeks including the ridiculous claim that taxing one particular range of alcoholic drinks will prevent ‘binge drinking’.
Preposterous…
Peter Whatever
“Sounds like an expression of your deeply held ideology to me”- then you can’t discriminate between a description and a belief. I call it as I see it.
I’ve also lived the endgame of opposing ideology which is why I won’t have a bar of anything that can have an “-ism” appended.
“maudlin, mawkish, romantic, sentimental,” – must be my Celtic ancestry.
Your use of “nanny state” is ironic. It would be difficult to find any policy more attuned to the idea that the state knows best than Howard & Brough’s intervention in Aboriginal communities, yet I’ve never seen any criticism of it from this standpoint. Whether it is good policy or not remains to be seen, but it looks like “unfettered government intervention” to me. Your definition of “left” is out of date – which is precisely my point. Thanks for providing such a clear example.
“I post on these blogs because I’m fascinated by the rigidity of the views I see expressed and the inability of their authors to grasp the idea that anyone has a right to disagree with them. Ironically, most of those controlling these sites refuse to countenance any dissent.“-1735099
Please link to the ones that you’ve been band from?
Or is it your opinion was challenged that you don’t like?
Gary
Try – http://awesternheart.blogspot.com/index.html
or – http://fortressaustralia.blogspot.com/
I enjoy having my opinion challenged – nothing like a good argument to exercise the grey matter. Trouble with these sites is that they take themselves and their opinions very very seriously.
“… then you can’t discriminate between a description and a belief. I call it as I see it.
I’ve also lived the endgame of opposing ideology which is why I won’t have a bar of anything that can have an “-ism” appended.”
Still sounds like an expression of your flawed ideology.
It’s not my definition of the ‘left’ that’s out of date but the left it self.
Your ‘trolling’ of conservative blogs is a case in point. Like most lefties you crave recognition and admiration for your superior intellect and education and when those you seek to impress reject your ideas for the tosh they are and present a factual argument in reply you resort to evasion and ad hominem arguments.
For example “…those who post on this site wouldn’t have a clue about the true meaning and significance of personal sacrifice through military service…”
Obviously it is only you who has the capacity to understand “the true meaning and significance of personal sacrifice…”
There are approximately 65 million active blogs with around 2,000,000 new posts a day and you have been banned from two. One of which appears to be a teenager’s Marvel Comic fan site designed with the strange insight that informs the author blue links work well on a blue background. You need to try harder.
By the way if you’ve got a lazy 7 hours here is an excellent documentary which demonstrates the amazing capacity of thousands of 18 year old baggy jean wearing American youths to sail and fight an aircraft carrier http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm
“maudlin, mawkish, romantic, sentimental,” – must be my Celtic ancestry.”
Nothing mawkish about the Celts in my family history, perhaps your branch lost the plot when the potato blight hit – drink addled Irish poets are Celtic in name only.
Their ancestors humiliated Rome and were described contemporaneously by the Roman historian Diodorus:
“Their aspect is terrifying…They are very tall in stature, with rippling muscles under clear white skin. Their hair is blond, but not naturally so: they bleach it, to this day, artificially, washing it in lime and combing it back from their foreheads. They look like wood-demons, their hair thick and shaggy like a horse’s mane… The way they dress is astonishing: they wear brightly coloured and embroidered shirts, with trousers called bracae and cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, heavy in winter, light in summer.
[They] wear bronze helmets with figures picked out on them, even horns, which made them look even taller than they already are…while others cover themselves with breast-armour made out of chains. But most content themselves with the weapons nature gave them: they go naked into battle…Weird, discordant horns were sounded, [they shouted in chorus with their] deep and harsh voices, they beat their swords rythmically against their shields.
In exactly the same way as hunters do with their skulls of the animals they have slain…they preserved the heads of their most high-ranking victims in cedar oil, keeping them carefully in wooden boxes.
They don’t sound too mawkish to me.
“Your use of “nanny state” is ironic. It would be difficult to find any policy more attuned to the idea that the state knows best than Howard & Brough’s intervention in Aboriginal communities…”
The ‘intervention’ was a reaction to decades of neglect by successive governments – if you think the status quo was acceptable then more shame you.
United States Patent 1735099 – Device for extinguishing the flame of blasting charges.
At last the meaning is clear – a dampener.
:-)
“United States Patent 1735099 – Device for extinguishing the flame of blasting charges.” – no – it’s about targeting intellectual flatulence – as just demonstrated.
“…no – it’s about targeting intellectual flatulence – as just demonstrated”
Yawn…
pit·i·ful (pt-fl)
adj.
1. Inspiring or deserving pity.
2. Arousing contemptuous pity, as through ineptitude or inadequacy. See Synonyms at pathetic.
irrelevant (comparative more irrelevant, superlative most irrelevant)
Positive
irrelevant
Comparative
more irrelevant
Superlative
most irrelevant
1. not related, not applicable, unimportant, not connected
Flanks down, 2IC to me…