Open Forum: April 14, 2012 at Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: April 14, 2012

1,057 comments

Written by Sinclair Davidson

April 14th, 2012 at 12:01 am

Posted in Uncategorized

1,057 Responses to 'Open Forum: April 14, 2012'

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Shout!

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 12:02 am
Yep. Here we are, all sedate and sound.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 12:04 am
Very good (brief) interview…

Harvard law guru Alan Dershowitz: Zimmerman arrest “irresponsible and unethical.” He says there is no possible way Zimmerman can be convicted of any crime based on the prosecution’s affidavit of probable cause.

Video.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:05 am
Track 1

Greatest metal album of all time.

If I ever run for President I’ll use it as my campaign theme song.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:05 am
Yep. Here we are, all sedate and sound.

Knickers back in their proper place, we hope!

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 12:07 am
Bunyip is still not risen from his sick bed. I hope he is OK.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 12:09 am
Good day out. Two new pairs of Church’s, a new straight razor, strop and badger hair brush from Taylor’s, and some new shirts. Hurrah!

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 12:11 am
Hope he’s okay. The man is doing god’s work. I mean, if there was a god.

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 12:12 am
Christine Milne’s brooch (or lapel ornament).

Sarah Palin’s.

(Great interview with the Barracuda too. Looking majorly beautiful).

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:14 am
Bunyip probably heard word of Brown’s demise after the night of the long incense sticks and has been marooned at the 19th hole.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:15 am
Have you always used a cut-throat, Abu?

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:16 am
Knickers back in their proper place, we hope!

But of course – in the washing basket. Changed daily due to possibility of being run over by a bus, as advised by my sainted mother. Am now ready for bed and I will not describe my charming attire as I am turning over a new and sedate leaf and will only discuss Bob Brown.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 12:17 am
I wonder how many comments there are on youtube and if a single one is worth reading?

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:20 am
Harvard law guru Alan Dershowitz: Zimmerman arrest “irresponsible and unethical.” He says there is no possible way Zimmerman can be convicted of any crime based on the prosecution’s affidavit of probable cause.

Meanwhile, Mike Tyson is alleged to have said that it’s a crime Zimmerman hasn’t already been shot.

the night of the long incense sticks

Hahaha!! Brilliant! After a night like that, who needs an excuse to play the first eighteen?

perturbed

14 Apr 12 at 12:20 am
Bunyip is a National Treasure. Badger’s also performing sterling sacrifices, eh Abu?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 12:23 am
Two new pairs of Church’s

Blyecch. Thank goodness I still have five pairs immaculate English made Docs, including two pairs of Chelseas, one pair of Brogues, one pair of Loafers and a mighty pair of Ten Holes.

All of which are well over a decade old.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 12:23 am
Bunyip, Badger and beaver gets the discerning Abu through the day.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:25 am
I am turning over a new and sedate leaf and will only discuss Bob Brown.

Soft ons all round, then…

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 12:25 am
Leak farewells Brown:

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2012/04/13/1226326/132249-120414-bill-leak-story.jpg

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:27 am
Dershowitz doesn’t even support the rule of law.

Samson Agonistes

14 Apr 12 at 12:28 am
I have just chucked out the Hairy Ape’s R.M.Williams cowboy boots. I will not be seen with a nearly six-foot man in heels and elastic sides. It was a great lapse in taste, which he apparently made years ago, and has clung onto for some unknown reason until those boots met their match.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 12:29 am
Like most aliens who visit Earth, Brown was mad for anal probing.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:29 am
He is now listening the the Ballad of Ben Hall in a sort of mournful remembrance of the footwear.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 12:30 am
Who is that psychotropic induced brain damaged potato peeler stinking up the Bunyip’s?

He needs to be retrospectively court martialled, forthwith…

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 12:30 am
US medical superiority over Europe:

Throughout the entire period, U.S. cancer survival gains were larger, reaching 11.1 years over 1995 to 1999 against 9.3 years in the EU. The researchers then compared the U.S. and EU gains using conservative, commonly accepted measures for the value of a statistical life, less the cost of the care. The U.S. comes out ahead by $598 billion. In other words, though the U.S. spends more, patients and society benefit far more.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/140769/

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:30 am
CL, not at home. But some superb shaves by expert coffee colored chaps in souqs across the middle east have convinced me.

Rabz, how can you be such a philistine? A man’s wardrobe is incomplete without a pair of Church’s, John Lobb’s or, if he has been a good chap and deserving, a pair of Edward Greens, the shoe the Lord would wear. If there was a god.

IT and Lizzie – it’s clear you both was brought up good and proper!

I am indeed a fan of beaver.

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 12:33 am
I have just chucked out the Hairy Ape’s R.M.Williams cowboy boots.

WHAT?!

Is he speaking to you?

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:36 am
Good. The faster yerpians are xtincted, the better.

It’s all the softcocked socialist scumbags deserve.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 12:36 am
Lizzie, I just saw a pair of Chelsea boots with elastic sides in John Lobb’s. They were only 900 quid and certainly on the ‘dress’ side.

Don’t knock the Chelseas and the R.M.’s. Bloody handy when a chap has to take off his shoes when dining with the natives or visiting them in their mansions.

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 12:36 am
A tribute to Jimi Hendrix, who died on Bob Brown’s shift.

All Along The Watchtower

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:37 am
I have just chucked out the Hairy Ape’s R.M.Williams cowboy boots.

He’ll never be able to run for politics without a trusty pair on RM’s in his closet.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:39 am
Mind you, the quality with RM’s is really in the toilet these days. They make them offshore I believe.

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 12:40 am
Mind you, the quality with RM’s is really in the toilet these days. They make them offshore I believe.

Might as well buy Blundstones then. One of Tasmania’s last surviving private companies.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:42 am
Scratch that thought. Blundstone appears to have the Tasmanian disease:

Here are a few of the reasons as to why Tasmania is so special.
•Tasmania has the cleanest air recorded in any populated place by WHO monitors
•Tasmania is the second most protected land mass in the world after Antarctica
•Huon pine trees which only grow in Tasmania have been shown to be 38,000 years old
•90% of energy generated in Tasmania is renewable.
•Tasmania has over 8000km of coastline, more than Victoria & NSW combined
•The Tasmanian mountain shrimp has survived unchanged in the highland streams for at least 200 million years
•Tasmania has three unique timbers found nowhere else in the world – Huon Pine, Sassafras and Myrtle

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:45 am
When you say “cowboy boots,” Lizzie, are you saying they were R.M. Cubans?

Because unless stirrups are part of his everyday life, they might be considered OTT. But throwing out a favourite pair of regular RMs? As Fairfax said to Porter after the latter shot up his new suits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKHoMi-U8g4

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:48 am
So you use a cutthroat CL?

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 12:49 am
$1 Shave Club.

Awesome business and ad.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 12:53 am
CL, Abu, he has other, smarter boots.

We did have a little tiff tonight, in which the boots were one small part, but mostly his agro at my (apparently) repetitively unhelpful comments about his directional choices attempting to avoid the traffic jams on the way back from our beach place (we were delivering goods to store because we are moving, hence the chucking out behaviour). It ended with me in sobs of misunderstood femininity and he in a state of bewildered Irish pique, but as we are grown-ups it only took a few hours of our precious time to resolve. We are fine again now.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 12:55 am
A man’s wardrobe is incomplete without a pair of Church’s

Chowds – fair enough – it’s all about opinions.

My favourite shoes – which I’ll be wearing from 12:30 tomorrow…

Footy season!

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 12:57 am
I own one, Abu (family heirloom of sorts), but haven’t mastered the art.

——————————

Best boots I’ve ever owned are Docs. Had the same pair (work-boots) for 17 years. Same shoelaces as when bought (about to die any day now). These things have been thru hell and back. Still going strong, though my feet grew a smidgen after purchase so they’re a tad small.

I couldn’t throw them out. They’ll retire to an old nail on a post maybe.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:57 am
He is now conducting Beethoven’s 9th, Ode to Joy with his eyes closed.
So it is getting late. Hot milk and bedtime for Lizzie.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 1:00 am
It ended with me in sobs of misunderstood femininity and he in a state of bewildered oirish apeness…

Women.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 1:01 am
Yep, CL. Those are the exact monsters. Glad you understand.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 1:01 am
Glad it’s all sorted, Elizabeth.

I shudder to think what would happen to the man who threw out a pair of our resident shoe fetishist, Gab’s, favourites. It could end in homicide, judging by her devotion to the Imelda arts.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 1:04 am
Doc Martens were the business back in the day. Every different style and lace colour told people where you stood. From memory the lesbian community emraced cherry red docs.

It was a joyous day for my plates of meat when Mater allowed me to bin the Clarks and embrace Docs for school.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 1:06 am
Can I just say………

UP YOUR ARSE COLLINGWOOD! (Sorry Gab)

Go the Blues.

tbh

14 Apr 12 at 1:12 am
Here’s one of my first pair of Docs, bought back in 1983…

P.S. The only pair of Docs I’ve ever owned that didn’t have the Air Wair™ sole.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 1:13 am
Men just don’t understand about women and shoes. HIA would no more throw out a pair of mine than tell me that my hairdresser had failed this time or that yes, my bum did look fat in these jeans (it does not!). He does however make loud and persistent noises about the way I leave my shoes, with, it seems, shamefully blatant insoucience, littered under the bed. His are stored neatly in racks, and he folds his underpants too. And when he goes to the shops he goes directly to what he wants to buy, buys it, and leaves. No idea, you see.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 1:13 am
Here’s one of my first pair of Docs, bought back in 1983…

Sweet kicks.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 1:15 am
Wasn’t here some kind of investigation into Bob Brown re the massive donation the Greens received? Could that be the reason he resigned? He certainly didn’t need to spend more time with his family.

John Comnenus

14 Apr 12 at 1:23 am
And when he goes to the shops he goes directly to what he wants to buy, buys it, and leaves.

What other way is there to buy things??

————————————————–

Toby Harnden has an exceptionally good article on the Hilary Rosen debacle.

The Democrat Party’s lies about where that “war on women” came from are astonishing for their blatancy.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 1:38 am
UP YOUR ARSE COLLINGWOOD! (Sorry Gab)

Go the Blues.

1. Come here and say that, buddy, but let me take my tooth out first.

2. We was robbed

3. We had to let you poor little fellas win one game at least, what with that 5 game losing streak and all.

4. Early days.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 1:44 am
Had the same pair (work-boots) for 17 years. Same shoelaces as when bought

Oh good Lord, put them out of their misery old man. Please.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 1:46 am
NO!

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 1:49 am
Video: just another day at an American “community college.”

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 1:50 am
Carbon Cate has found a tax she opposes:

“It’s interesting what’s happening in London at the moment, with the potential curbing of philanthropic giving. I think it’s really important when it’s increasingly hard to be seen to be justified giving money to the arts that a culture of philanthropy is really encouraged,”

What a hypocritcal nong. Let the poor pay a carbon tax, but please don’t turn my spigot off.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 1:51 am
I’ll take that as a “maybe”.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 1:51 am
CL, mere buying is not ‘shopping’. Shoes are a part of shopping which is a journey not just an end state. Some things are deeply unknowable unless one is, how should I put this in a metaphor familiar to you? I know – unless one is a practicing member of the belief system, which in the case of shoes involves a long and complex initiatory period to learn this most arcane of female arts (The Imeldas, as you call them).

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 1:52 am
Truer words were never spoken, Lizze.

I caress shoes, I don’t just “shop” for them.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 1:54 am
I’m glad girls like shoes. Nothing finer than a woman in a pair of heels. It’s a mood lifter.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 1:57 am
Video: just another day at an American “community college.”

They’d make damn fine ‘Pies supporters.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 1:58 am
Video: just another day at an American “community college.”

If Obama had even more imaginary children (in addition to Trayvon) …

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 2:04 am
Actual SMH headline:

Guy Pearce: ‘I’m a dickhead’.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 2:05 am
Gab, yep very early days. Success hasn’t been frequent against the old enemy in the last couple of years, so I think I could be forgiven for celebrating just this once

tbh

14 Apr 12 at 2:10 am
OMG.

As the Democrats try desperately to move away from their “war on women” disaster…

Come on down, NOW.

Come on down, Joe Biden:

Vice President Joe Biden said tonight that what he called a Republican-led effort to rollback the rights of women is “real” and will “intensify.”

“I think the ‘war on women’ is real,” Biden told MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” deploying the politically-charged phrase for the first time on the national stage.

“And look, I’ll tell you when it’s going to intensify – the next president of the United States is going to get to name one, possibly two or more, members to the Supreme Court,” he added.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 2:10 am
Guy Pearce: ‘I’m a dickhead’.

Yes. For apologising.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 2:11 am
One of my BFF’s is a dyed-in-the-wool Blues fan, tbh, so I’ll cop heaps tomorrow..er today..when we catch up.
I’ll just smile lots and nod because I’m generous like that

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 2:13 am
Dan Quayle mustn’t believe the shit Biden gets away with.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 2:16 am
the next president of the United States is going to get to name one, possibly two or more, members to the Supreme Court,”

Why? Who’s retiring – and more than one? Or does Biden think they’ll increase the Justices?

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 2:19 am
•90% of energy generated in Tasmania is renewable.

Easy to do when the landscape and rivers run to suit (Labrador, somewhere northish of me, is somewhat similar). Likewise for geothermal and the Kiwis. I’m not knocking it where it works, because I figure the less petrochemicals (including coal) you burn solely for electricity generation the better (they’re best reserved for vehicles of all kinds and industrial/plastics applications IMO), but I do wish more people who voted Greens or lined up with them would pull their heads out of their arses (or Bob Brown’s/Christine Milne’s) and realise that petrochemicals ≠ always bad and hydro/solar/wind ≠ universally applicable or desirable.

perturbed

14 Apr 12 at 2:24 am
It was a joyous day for my plates of meat when Mater allowed me to bin the Clarks and embrace Docs for school.

You too huh? Although I never wore Clarks (ugh).

benson

14 Apr 12 at 2:27 am
They should run Palin as VP. Kill that bullshit stone dead.

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 2:27 am
Freedom is a constant. It’s the war on freedom that’s progressive.

Excellent comment, IT.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 2:41 am
I’m glad girls like shoes. Nothing finer than a woman in a pair of heels. It’s a mood lifter.

Especially if that’s all she’s wearing.

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 3:43 am
Abu! “That’s not APPROPRIATE.”
- fat little fuglycop

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 4:48 am
For the technically minded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXW0bx_Ooq4&feature=player_embedded

Biota

14 Apr 12 at 7:11 am
Ahhh, all is well in the world, knowing that the “treacherous, gutless old ward-heeler” (thanks, Hunter S.) has been called home by the spacelings and that NATHAN BUCKLEY CAN’T COACH!!! Blues are born to rule, but we’re keeping a lid on it … for a while.
BTW, IT, ‘Watchtower’ as rendered by JH says possibly everything that needs saying about civilisation, in an acidhead sort of way. I think.

Tom

14 Apr 12 at 8:41 am
I dunno. I’d need to add “Castles Made of Sand”, “Bold as Love”, “Angel”, and “Little Wing” to the mix…

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 9:06 am
I got ‘Axis’ and ‘Are You Experienced’ albums for my 17th birthday. Can cite most lyrics from both from memory.

Tom

14 Apr 12 at 9:12 am
Me too. Can also recommend the BBC Radio One cd.

Abu Chowdah

14 Apr 12 at 9:21 am
I just made the mistake of reading PVO’s piece in today’s Australian. At first he calls Abbott wrong for saying how the greens are now in trouble, then spends the rest of the piece explaining why they are: he just can’t get over his man crush on Abbott, and expresses it through dismissal and hate.
Then, from the other end of the football field, you have Abbott hagiography by that DLP luvvin’ Christopher Pearson.

entropy

14 Apr 12 at 9:34 am
On shoes.. I disagree with Lizzie turfing out the RMs, but that’s just me. Shoes are something to tread carefully around, and a person should wear good shoes or none at all.

Flat shoes are an abomination, so I wear workboots, stiletto heels or runners, with some relatively tasteful flat sandally things for in case of emergency. I miss my Docs, but the Redbacks were supplied by work after the Docs wore out & they have steel caps. What’s not to love?

I’d still rather shop at Shoecraft, though.

Nilk

14 Apr 12 at 9:39 am
The Australian Press Council needs an executive director.

Tom

14 Apr 12 at 9:42 am
I find it a bit distasteful that so many women where thongs with their business suit on the way to work. If you want to wear heels at work, but not on the commute, tasteful flats are acceptable. Otherwise you look like try hard trash.
In fact, wearing thongs to town or the shops is just low class. Thongs are for the beach, or mooching around the back yard.

Having just read this proof to posting, i should clarify that thongs = flip flops for the americans in the audience. They are not the kind of bikini/undies that Mrs Entropy no longer seems to wear.

entropy

14 Apr 12 at 10:04 am
sandals are pretty and practical though aren’t they, especially in Qld, i like them pink and strappy with little tiny bits of decoration/glitter on them that they sell now, and open so all the toes can be shown with a nice pretty nail polish.

Of course in Queensland you can wear that sort of thing for a large part of the year, such a variety.

candy

14 Apr 12 at 10:06 am
Is there anything sexier than a gal in steelcaps? I think not.

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 10:06 am
FFS – I’ve just discovered there’s a frigging rat or rodent of some type in my roof cavity.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 10:11 am
Has anything emerged about those 66 asylum seekers who went missing? Were they found or are they now part of the Gillard government’s death toll?

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 10:20 am
Coward Boris Johnson bans free speech in London.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 10:21 am
CL

Been in contact with friends in Canberra.

The TNI just reported in, just found! All safe!

Hope the report is correct as there were TWO boats in trouble in that area, about 20nm apart.

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Apr 12 at 10:27 am
Is Catholicism curable as well?

Samson Agonistes

14 Apr 12 at 10:28 am
Good news.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 10:29 am
@Samson.. why on earth would anyone want to be cured of Catholicism? I lived without it for years and it was horrid.

The more I read about it and learn from it, the more I like it. It’s actually rather rational. You should try it sometime.

nilk

14 Apr 12 at 10:35 am
Is Catholicism curable as well?

No it isn’t.

We can’t be beaten and we always win.

See Pell vs. Dick Dawkins (humiliated leader of the Atheist Taliban).

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 10:35 am
Terry McCrann gives evil extremist lunatic Bob Brown the send-off he deserves.

BOB Brown has been an unremittingly destructive force in the political life of this nation. His career in public policy has left not a single redeeming consequence.

True.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 10:38 am
Here you go, Samson. Entertaining and educational and currently free! The history of the Catholic Church. You don’t have to believe, but for goodness’ sake, learn where your civilisation actually comes from.

/extreme popery off.

nilk

14 Apr 12 at 10:38 am
The sign of a good barber is that they shave the back of your neck with a cut throat. Best way to remove neck fluff.

boy on a bike

14 Apr 12 at 10:50 am
thongs with their business suit on the way to work

never heard (or seen) such a thing! How bizarre.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 10:57 am
It’s pretty tragic, Gab. I’d rather have my feet drop off than be seen like that, but that’s just me.

I can live with sneakers and a suit when heading to or from work (to look at), but what about if a colleague or an associate from another company/client sees you?

Not a good look at all.

nilk

14 Apr 12 at 11:16 am
I have missus shave the back of my neck with the cutthroat, which always does a fine job. Though I consider it prudent to pick your moment for such grooming requests, as it does require some concentration on her part. If her mood is low, blood will flow.

Antipodean

14 Apr 12 at 11:20 am
Hyperbowl….

Ch 9 News

“in a move set to rock the political scene in Australia”*

Bob Brown announced his retirement.

So, nothing else has rocked the political scene?

The defeat and utter demolition of the ALP in Qeensland?
The very concerning charges made against current ALP Federal MPs?

I could go on, but you get the picture.

*slightly paraphrased, I don’t remember the exact words but the gist is there.

kae

14 Apr 12 at 11:23 am
When I worked in Melbourne I used to wear runners and change into heels when I got to work.

It didn’t stop me from falling over in a driveway and rolling around on the ground, noone bothered to ask whether I was OK or not. I wasn’t an old, grey haired woman then, I was in my early 30s.

kae

14 Apr 12 at 11:26 am
I can live with sneakers and a suit when heading to or from work (to look at), but what about if a colleague or an associate from another company/client sees you?

My Mrs wears runners with her suits on the way to and from work – primarily because there’s a section of the trip that’s around 4km that she walks each way.

Judging from the ladies at the train station in the mornings when I drop her off, runners with work clothes now make up the majority.

Craig

14 Apr 12 at 11:41 am
I hate these people.

New Gold Dream

14 Apr 12 at 11:43 am
I can’t stand these people.

New Gold Dream

14 Apr 12 at 11:46 am
Maybe George Soros can be brought out for the official opening of the exhibit:

THE wallets are now empty, the leather faded and stiff, but 70 years after being stripped from prisoners on their way into Nazi concentration camps in Germany they will finally find a new home in Sydney.

Susanne Urban, the head of historical research at the International Tracing Service in Germany, has travelled to Australia to deliver the items to the Sydney Jewish Museum.

Symbols of lives stripped bare and ruined by evil.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 11:58 am
I’m delerious with fever this morning. Am I right in thinking the Productivity Commission has gone commie here?

The net economic cost of the NDIS is not the budgetary cost of around $6.5 billion (which is a transfer of resources from one group to another). Rather, the economic costs reflect the distortionary impacts of raising the revenue, which can arise as people work less or through reduced investment. That represents a cost of around $1.6 billion. Given this, the NDIS would only have to produce an annual gain of $3,800 per participant to meet a cost-benefit test. Given the scope of the benefits, that test would be passed easily.

The most important of the economic benefits are the welfare impacts for people with a disability and their carers. While not counted in official statistics about the performance of the economy, these are genuine and large economic gains. One, partial way of assessing these gains is the value of the implicit income transferred by the NDIS to people with disabilities. Commission estimates suggest benefits of around $7.8 billion annually (and this already takes account of the lost consumption for those people funding the scheme). This is likely to significantly understate the benefits.

New Gold Dream

14 Apr 12 at 12:11 pm
Is Catholicism curable as well?

No. So you better stay away to avoid being infected with the disease.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 12:15 pm
This was from the executive summary of the NDIS report.

Are they saying income redistribution increases social welfare?

New Gold Dream

14 Apr 12 at 12:15 pm
Maybe CL should stop being a total c***.

[Slight edit. Sinc]

...ccc

14 Apr 12 at 12:34 pm
Atheist Taliban

Beautiful descriptor!

I thought you might like this homage to the greatest protest song of the 70s.

I wouldn’t poor old Mick Jagger and his lads could inspire such an event

Rococo Liberal

14 Apr 12 at 12:47 pm
believe should have come between ‘wouldn’t’ and ‘poor’

Rococo Liberal

14 Apr 12 at 12:47 pm
“I don’t know what I want but I know how to get it”

That’s deep, man.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 12:49 pm
Anarchy is a good track, RL.

Derivative but good.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 12:59 pm
BOB Brown has been an unremittingly destructive force in the political life of this nation. His career in public policy has left not a single redeeming consequence.

The meme du jour for the moaning lefties appears to be that he did everything with conviction, and so therefore should be applauded. He did everything wrong, but he really believed in it.

This is what passes for rational though nowadays, apparently.

I have no idea why anyone vaguely centre-left would support such an interfering, idiotic slightly mental hard-left guy like Brown. He’s done the left side of politics much damage, and yet they still line up like puppies in a petstore hoping to get a pat from him with gushing eulogies.

FFS he didn’t die, he just quit politics.

brc

14 Apr 12 at 1:30 pm
They don’t seem to respect their boss:

A DOZEN US Secret Service agents sent to Colombia to provide security for President Barack Obama at an international summit have been relieved of their duties after allegations of personal misconduct.

The Associated Press received an anonymous tip that the misconduct involved prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, the site of the Summit of the Americas.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 1:33 pm
thongs with their business suit on the way to work

never heard (or seen) such a thing! How bizarre.

Quite common in Brisbane in the warmer months. Doesn’t have to be bizarre at all. We’re not talking black/white double-pluggers here.

brc

14 Apr 12 at 1:33 pm
Via InstaPundit:

It’s Raining Beta Men Why Emasculation is a Curse, Not a Blessing.

Beta males greatly contrast manly men. They are weak, defenseless, and overtly emotional. They are uninspiring and deprived. And more importantly, they are subservient to women.

Unfortunately, these emasculated males have pervaded society. Turn on the T.V., and you see a guy crying on his wife’s shoulder or hiding behind her skirt. Listen to men talk about the so-called contraception shortage. They’re feckless and equally duped by feminist talking points. Watch beta males be berated by their feminist girlfriends and wives in public. It is humiliating and outrageous to watch.

When will the madness stop? When will real men stand up to emasculation and demand its end?

Good question.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 1:48 pm
When will real men stand up to emasculation and demand its end?

When we tell them they can

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 1:53 pm
FFS he didn’t die, he just quit politics.

No, he quite Parliament. Not the same thing.

As for the real men? A lot of them are looking at ghosting, expatting and going their own way. They are finding other outlets and there are a lot of very angry Men out there who don’t much care about modern society.

Spend some time at The Spearhead reading the comments.

nilk

14 Apr 12 at 1:59 pm
Watch beta males be berated by their feminist girlfriends and wives in public. It is humiliating and outrageous to watch.

+100

I know so many p-whipped men it makes my heart sad. And the girlfriends aren’t even what you would describe as feminist. Mostly it seems to come from a lack of respect, rather than a fight over who wears the trousers.

You don’t have to be a knuckle dragging slob. Just a person with integrity, backbone and a purpose in life.

You can see how much of an issue it is by all the dumb bloke stereotyping that goes on in advertising.

brc

14 Apr 12 at 2:00 pm
When we tell them they can.

Telling women to fuck off is a very important life skill.

New Gold Dream

14 Apr 12 at 2:15 pm
•90% of energy generated in Tasmania is renewable

Probably explains why they import energy from Victoria.

Frank

14 Apr 12 at 2:16 pm
Blunnies leave R.M’s for dead.

Splatacrobat

14 Apr 12 at 2:16 pm
NGD, lighten up. It was said in jest.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 2:16 pm
[Splatacrobat was trying to post this clip without actually saying anything. doesn't work like that. Sinc]

Splatacrobat

14 Apr 12 at 2:17 pm
No doubt, but I’m deadly serious.

New Gold Dream

14 Apr 12 at 2:20 pm
Don’t miss Terry McCrann’s comments on Bob Brown in the Weekend Australian today. Extract in Andrew Bolt.

The battle between the taxpayers and the public sector unions in Wisconsin continues. The unions have embarked on a recall referendum on the Governor.

Rafe

14 Apr 12 at 2:30 pm
Gab the problem is that once upon a time it was amusing, but these days it’s more of a statement of fact.

Watch the tv ads and sitcoms. Look at the portrayals of men. They are offensive and all-pervasive after 20 + years.

It’s so common that most people don’t even see it, and we’re now surrounded by men who don’t know how to be men, since manly pursuits are ridiculed. Boys are not allowed to be boys because they are physical, noisy and challenging in an increasingly ordered world.

Men are casually vilified in so many ways that it’s beyond a joke to a lot of them.

nilk

14 Apr 12 at 2:32 pm
Agree with what you said, Nilk. I don’t watch much TV at all, but the few ads I see are irritating in the portrayal of mousey-boymen allowing themselves to be brow beaten by the female. Whatever happened to respect for your partner? Whatever happened to respect for yourself? I guess that’s soooo last year.

I’ll try to be a little more tender here though, I didn’t realise we had sensitive new age guys on this forum. Mea culpa.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 2:48 pm
I’ll try to be a little more tender here though, I didn’t realise we had sensitive new age guys on this forum. Mea culpa.

Gab what are you talking about? There are plenty of them here. I have seen conversations about mens perfumes and the right type of deoderant etc. This blog is full of them.

kelly liddle

14 Apr 12 at 2:53 pm
Not SNAGs, Gab. Just pissed off blokes, I suspect. If I get pissed with it all, they must get moreso.

nilk

14 Apr 12 at 2:55 pm
I have seen conversations about mens perfumes and the right type of deoderant etc. This blog is full of them.

The thing is, Kelly, I don’t consider men using moisturiser or ironing their jeans as being unmanly. IT and JC case in point. Nor do I think it manly to sulk or be passive-aggressive, nor act like Neanderthals. To me it’s more about attitude, confidence and self-respect.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 3:03 pm
Just pissed off blokes,

And I can’t blame them really. But a making a comment in jest was an attempt to lighten things up. It was not meant to offend anyone. As I said, my bad.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 3:05 pm
Maybe I don’t really know what sensitive new age guy means as I thought personal care would be a strong indicator. Gab so does that mean you can be very basic on the personal grooming bit and be a sensitive new age guy?

kelly liddle

14 Apr 12 at 3:12 pm
Heh. Sensitive New Age Guys grew up to be total manginas.

Nothing wrong with a nice smell. As Gab said, it’s attitude.

nilk

14 Apr 12 at 3:18 pm
Like most aliens who visit Earth, Brown was mad for anal probing.

That’s a disgusting homophobic sneer. You should be totally ashamed of yourself.

hammygar

14 Apr 12 at 3:30 pm
Nothing more squalid than Catholic homophobia.

Samson Agonistes

14 Apr 12 at 3:33 pm
That’s a disgusting homophobic sneer. You should be totally ashamed of yourself.

Come off it bud. It was joke referencing both Brown’s love of men and belief that he is an Alien life form.

Infidel Tiger

14 Apr 12 at 3:34 pm
Christianity and money politics in the UK:

A Christian charity which sponsored a conference promoting the idea that gay people can be converted to heterosexuality has funded interns for an estimated 20 MPs, including some who are now ministers in the coalition government.

The Christian Action Research and Education charity (Care) has provided staff to the parliamentary offices of Caroline Spelman, Alistair Burt and Steve Webb. In 2009 it sponsored a London conference about homosexuality and Christianity which included sessions on “mentoring the sexually broken”. The event in London was also organised by Anglican Mainstream, one of the conservative Christian charities that was blocked this week from showing adverts on London buses that supported the idea that with therapy, homosexual people can become “ex-gay”.

Samson Agonistes

14 Apr 12 at 3:35 pm
Nothing more squalid than Catholic homophobia.

You can tell it’s Catholic??? I thought all homophobia looked alike?

Wait…. IT is Catholic? I thought he was a footsoldier of Satan Himself!

wreckage

14 Apr 12 at 3:37 pm
Wait…. IT is Catholic? I thought he was a footsoldier of Satan Himself!

You are thinking of JC

kelly liddle

14 Apr 12 at 3:39 pm
was blocked this week from showing adverts on London buses that supported the idea that with therapy, homosexual people can become “ex-gay”.

Ah, a hatefact. The percentages are low, but it happens. Presumably people with a malleable or changeable orientation, and bisexuals, should be made illegal, since they make the PC crowd so uncomfortable.

wreckage

14 Apr 12 at 3:45 pm
No, JC is Satan.

wreckage

14 Apr 12 at 3:46 pm
Kelly Liddle,

Snags were 1990s, think George Negus and other blokes that can vadge with the women on the oestrogen channels. You’re thinking of metros which came about in the 2000s. Hair gel is the giveaway trait there. Some snags may have morphed into greens at some point resulting in metro/snag amalgams like Adam Bandt.

Blame rests with the rise of bottled water and the female hormones that leach out from the plastic. Although that is a snaggy/green sort of explanation.

Frank

14 Apr 12 at 3:51 pm
Blame rests with the rise of bottled water and the female hormones that leach out from the plastic.

Real men drink straight out of the tap.

H B Bear

14 Apr 12 at 4:19 pm
I don’t consider men using moisturiser or ironing their jeans as being unmanly.

nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

HGD – lighten up.

Sinclair Davidson

14 Apr 12 at 4:22 pm
from CL’s Instapundit link:

Manly men — past and present — have captivated the world with their talents, leadership, oratory skills, and virility. They are strong, protective, and brave.

See, strong, protective, brave. Doesn’t matter if they do or don’t wear after-shave or do or don’t fold their underdaks.

They are stong, protective and brave in their hearts and in their very being. They fold you in their arms which is a natural fit for you. They have bodies that feel like a man and they react like a man with respect for others and gentleness when needed. They will always be stronger and braver than me because my body is softer, my arms don’t throw overarm, and my brain is different, as is every cell in my body.

So I have different sorts of strength and bravery and want my man to complement these, not compete with them. Same for him with me.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 4:23 pm
Tom Scocca: Death to Microsoft Word.

So true. RTWT.

Snippet:

I came of age with Word. It’s the program I used to write my college papers, overcoming old-fashioned page counts with its magical font-switching technology: Times, tightly justified, if the writing was running too long; airily monospaced Courier if things were too short. In those days, Word was an obedient and resourceful servant.

Today, it’s become an overbearing boss, one who specialises in make-work. Part of this is Microsoft’s more-is-more approach to adding capabilities, and leaving all of them in the “on” position. Around the first time Clippy, the animated office assistant, launched himself, uninvited, between me and something I was trying to write, I found myself wishing Word had a simple, built-in button for “cut it out and never again do that thing you just did.” It’s possible that the current version of Word does have one; I have no idea where among the layers of menus and toolbars it might be. All I really know how to do up there anymore is to go in and disable AutoCorrect, so that the program will type what I’ve typed, rather than what some software engineer thinks it should think I’m trying to type.

God, this is so true. I HATE the new Word. Interesting piece.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 4:29 pm
They fold you in their arms which is a natural fit for you.

There’s nothing quite like that feeling is there, Lizzie?

I like the way you have described your man – I’d like to find one like that, too.

kae

14 Apr 12 at 4:33 pm
CL

RE: Word.

I’m with you. I wish MS would stop trying to make things better because when they do they don’t make it easier.

Mailmerge used to be easy, but MS decided to make it better.

Fortunately I’ve not had to use it since they made it better, I know it’s more difficult now.

kae

14 Apr 12 at 4:36 pm
Hey Kae, I described the upside. The downside is the rest of the stuff that manly men do, from the risky to the merely bothersome or plainly stupid.

We should not allow them to get big-headed about their wonderfulness, even if we admire it.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 4:40 pm
If I get pissed with it all, they must get moreso.

You have no idea…

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 5:01 pm
Another fabulous Swannies victory, this time over the hapless port axeville.

Great stuff.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 5:02 pm
Lizzie, I’d just like to find a suitable one. We can work on the rest of it.

Sometimes they need a woman to say “no”. Just so they don’t kill themselves or destroy their pride and joy*.

*be that vehicle, power tool, or other expensive toy.

Downside would be the upseat.

kae

14 Apr 12 at 5:02 pm
Just back from Bunnings. 3 light globes – $27.30 and one of them doesn’t fit the light fitting. All made in China of course.

Thanks for nothing Malcolm Turnbull – more compulsory, expensive, soft-left Green tokenism. Back in the car to return it too!

H B Bear

14 Apr 12 at 5:06 pm
Kae, any man would be mad not to go out of his way to win you. I hope you find Mr Right.

——————————————–

Just back from Bunnings. 3 light globes – $27.30 and one of them doesn’t fit the light fitting. All made in China of course.

Thanks for nothing Malcolm Turnbull …

I know. It’s just incredible, isn’t it? You could have got those bulbs for $3 a few years ago. I viscerally loathe Malcolm Turnbull’s insufferably sanctimonious en~~viro~~RINOmentalism.

He even soft-pedalled on Finkelstein’s proposal to ban free speech.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 5:24 pm
Downside would be the upseat.

Problem solved.

Although not sure if that’s the only music to play during the operation.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 5:26 pm
Labor – responsible for 1000 deaths at sea – blames Abbott for that near-fatal addition to their death toll:

Mr Bowen blamed the opposition for what could have been a tragedy when an asylum seeker boat went missing, as well as for the arrival of the latest vessel off Christmas Island.

Jason Clare renews attack on Coalition asylum policy as new boats arrive.

C.L.

14 Apr 12 at 5:32 pm
Thanks for nothing Malcolm Turnbull

Ooooh don’t get me started! I loathe Lefty Malcolm for his idiotic lightglobe ban.

I’d love to see the comparisons in terms of harm to the environment between the the new globes and the type we’ve been using for 100 hundred years. I bet more CO2 and more chemicals are used in the manufacture and usage of those stupid harmful new globes than the incandescents. Bloody waste of perfectly good resources.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 5:32 pm
Lizzie, I’d just like to find a suitable one. We can work on the rest of it.

Yes, sometimes the raw material can be a bit overwhelming, but women are nothing if not persevering and it is amazing what can be done.

Rabz, I hope we are not making your eyes narrow with all this secret women’s talk. I think The Sisterhood have made life difficult for you somewhere and I agree the put-downs are culturally pervasive.

The Ape comes home from work with some terrible tales at times, needing three Guiness and a soothing woman’s touch in order to feel like a man again.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Apr 12 at 5:33 pm
If I could find the old incandescents and import them I’d sell them on a black market basis. I’d make a fortune.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 5:34 pm
I think The Sisterhood have made life difficult for you somewhere and I agree the put-downs are culturally pervasive.

Thanks Lizzie, it’s a source of great sadness for me, but hey, things could be a hell of a lot worse.

Every morning I awake I count the blessings. There are many.

Life is good.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 5:38 pm
Fuck I hate stock markets at times. They really are freaking irrational.

I bought some JP Morgan stock amongst other US banks. They beat freaking earnings chatter, they have beaten consensus for something like 16 quarters according to this weekend’s Barrons and the morons sell the stock down almost 4% on the day.

That stock is going into the long term hold account and nothing is going to force me to let it go and that goes for the other large US banks I own.

JC

14 Apr 12 at 5:43 pm
SA:

homosexual people can become “ex-gay”

They can, but I suspect it’s a complex phenomena. Wife of a mate of mine never felt the slightest attraction to a male until she met him. Been happily married 13 years now. She’s still good social friends with a bunch of her ex-girlfriends.

I had a few extremely interesting discussions with John Heard (practising homosexual and a devout practising Catholic – and an admirable man) on this issue years ago.

As always, the Church has it right – hate the sin, never the sinner.

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Apr 12 at 6:05 pm
Problem solved.

Hey Gab i think this solves the problem more in the man’s favour. The seat can be left up for women to experience the joy of being a man!!!

another problem solved

splatacrobat

14 Apr 12 at 6:17 pm
Your comment does not compute, sorry Splat.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 6:19 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfL8-AgWBf0

Sorry i’m still learning how to post links

splatacrobat

14 Apr 12 at 6:21 pm
I can’t stand these people.

frickin tell me about it. Had a Labor/Greens voting mate who said very pompously thet he was a libertarian. 15 minutes later the discussion turned to religion and he said it should be banned.

…he got rather pissed of when I suggested that tolalitarian instead of libertarian would be a better descriptor.

papachango

14 Apr 12 at 6:24 pm
lol hilarious, Splat. But I just don’t want to pee like a man.

Gab

14 Apr 12 at 6:25 pm
About bloody time they got back to a sensible naming policy!

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced today the next five Virginia-class attack submarines will be named the USS Illinois, the USS Washington, the USS Colorado, the USS Indiana, and the USS South Dakota.

The Seawolf class shows what a dog’s breakfast their naming convention had become:
Seawolf (famous WWII submarine and traditional fish name)
Connecticut (former battleship name)
Jimmy Carter (the one boat no-one wants to get posted to from sheer embarrassment)

Hope they stick to State names for SSN now.

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Apr 12 at 6:27 pm
Well, it just had to be done – about to crack a bottle of this.

Wonder what it will taste like?

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 6:32 pm
Thanks, CL, for your kind words.

Lizzie, you just described a woman’s man so well.

kae

14 Apr 12 at 6:41 pm
I never ponder counterfactuals.

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 6:47 pm
Most of the US Navy will desert if they have to man a ship called USS Obama.

Pedro the Ignorant

14 Apr 12 at 6:48 pm
God, this is so true. I HATE the new Word. Interesting piece.

‘I don’t know if I’ve told you….’

Anyone who works with me knows the end to this sentence,

‘… but I really hate word’.

Something my work mates must hear me utter a dozen times a day, working in a professional environment with 30 plus staff the need for uniformity forces me to continue to use it.

A frustration that is surely shortening my life.

CraigS

14 Apr 12 at 7:50 pm
That’s a disgusting homophobic sneer

Someone needs to look homophobic up in the dictionary.

CraigS

14 Apr 12 at 7:58 pm
yes, the ribbon is an unnecessary complexity. MS should stick with copying Apple’s style.

entropy

14 Apr 12 at 7:58 pm
Mariners lose in a penalty shoot out.

Arnie not happy…

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 8:09 pm
Massive FA Cup Semi Final this evening.

A Merseyside Derby no less.

Go those Mighty Reds!

Rabz

14 Apr 12 at 8:18 pm
Anyone know the what % of total QLDs debt is local council debt?
Or Fed debt?
Or doesn’t it work that way?

Jumpnmcar

14 Apr 12 at 8:28 pm
Or, I mean to ask, Is local council debt part of the total state debt, and therefore calculated into Comm debt?

Jumpnmcar

14 Apr 12 at 8:33 pm
JC
JPM: nice chart

Not irrational just a bunch of soft cocks.
After a 5 day decline the pain was all too much and many were always going to take their chance to get out if the price popped up. Hence the flood of selling coming over. Now that the weak holders have been shaken out it should go straight back up to 45. If it clears 45 it will surge because then yesterdays sellers and those of three days before will be caught short.
DYOR

Le Chiffre

14 Apr 12 at 8:38 pm
Illegal maritime immigration is now running at nearly 100 boat people interceptions a day … and it’s all the Abbott government’s fault. Sheesh!!!

Tom

14 Apr 12 at 9:34 pm
http://www.gq.com.au/men+of+the+year/2011+winners/adam+bandt,15505

GQ politician of the year was…..?

selen234

14 Apr 12 at 9:39 pm
I know. It’s just incredible, isn’t it? You could have got those bulbs for $3 a few years ago. I viscerally loathe Malcolm Turnbull’s insufferably sanctimonious enviroRINOmentalism.

He even soft-pedalled on Finkelstein’s proposal to ban free speech.

And he supports government-owned newspapers. He’s just a disgusting person, is Turnbull.

Fisky

14 Apr 12 at 10:05 pm
Fisky:

Where has he ever said he supports government owned newspapers?

JC

14 Apr 12 at 10:08 pm
See the Bombers fly up.

Sinclair Davidson

14 Apr 12 at 10:16 pm
A MODEST PROPOSAL: Sheila Bair: Fix Income Inequality With $10 Million Loans For Everyone! “Under my plan, each American household could borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero interest. The more conservative among us can take that money and buy 10-year Treasury bonds. At the current 2 percent annual interest rate, we can pocket a nice $200,000 a year to live on. The more adventuresome can buy 10-year Greek debt at 21 percent, for an annual income of $2.1 million.”

It makes as much sense as what we’re doing now, which is the point.

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 10:51 pm
Turnbull loves government broadcasters, and government journalists. He can’t get enough of them.

Fisky

14 Apr 12 at 10:51 pm
Sorry – LINK

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 10:51 pm
Sorry – LINK: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/140826/

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 10:52 pm
Dog

Bair is talking crap as she doesn’t understand. Low interest rates are a sign of deflationary tendencies in the economy. If the Feds policies were badly out of kilter the yield curve would be extremely steep, but of course it isn’t.

JC

14 Apr 12 at 10:56 pm
Turnbull loves government broadcasters, and government journalists.

Turnbull loves #TheirABC, and #TheirABC loves Turnbull.

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 10:56 pm
JC: You don’t think her calling it “a modest proposal” might have hinted that she was less than serious?

sdog

14 Apr 12 at 10:58 pm
Here’s Turnbull citing the ABC as the model for newspapers:

I don’t think there would be any enthusiasm either in newsrooms or in Canberra for government subsidies to go to newspapers.

There is however the precedent of the ABC, but its funding is entirely from Government, locked in over a long term and buttressed by a strong culture of independence.

However there would be some merit in considering whether some level of support could be given, in terms of deductible gift recipient status, for not for profit newspapers, online or hard copy or both, which committed to a code of conduct analogous perhaps to that subscribed to by the ABC.

Fisky

14 Apr 12 at 11:04 pm
I know the proposal wasn’t serious, Dog.

My comment was in reference to equating it to what the Fed is doing, which is simply silly.

For a start the Fed is not “lending” banks money at zero interest. It does guide interest rates down through open market operations, but it is not lending money to the banks at zero interest. That’s just a false claim and leads her to faulty reasoning.

JC

14 Apr 12 at 11:05 pm
Fisky

I don’t read that as suggesting direct government ownership of newspapers.

I think he was trying to figure ways of keeping newspapers alive seeing the rivers of gold have dried up.

JC

14 Apr 12 at 11:09 pm
Fisk

There does seem to be a problem with a the newspaper model.. a serious one, as the rivers of gold have dried up. I think he was just trying to figure ways of keeping these things alive in some format.

In the old days, as you likely know, lots of newspapers were play things of the very rich.

I’d much rather a model of deductible charitable giving than having the ABC fully funded by all taxpayers.

JC

14 Apr 12 at 11:15 pm
Fuuuuuck

MADRID (AP) — Spanish stocks sank and its borrowing costs rose Friday after the government released data showing the country’s banks borrowed a record €316.3 billion ($415.9 billion) from the European Central Bank in March.

Bank of Spain data showed that ECB lending to the country’s financial institutions almost doubled since February when their reliance was €169.8 billion ($223.3 billion).

Concern is mounting over Spain’s ability to cut its national debt and lift its struggling economy out of recession when unemployment is nearing 23 percent.

The ECB made some €1 trillion in emergency three-year loans to banks in two batches in Dec. and Feb., lifelines to Spain’s troubled banks that find it hard to secure short-term financing elsewhere.

This is starting to be real money.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/spains-banks-borrow-record-amount-172125441.html

JC

14 Apr 12 at 11:24 pm
Hey Rabz,

How about some tasting notes on the Hell’s Bells?

John Comnenus

14 Apr 12 at 11:27 pm
I’d much rather a model of deductible charitable giving than having the ABC fully funded by all taxpayers.

As Greenpeace and Getup! enjoy? All taxpayers end up up ‘funding’ the tax deductions arising.

Steve of Ferny Hills

14 Apr 12 at 11:35 pm
Greenpeace and Getitup aren’t newspapers, Steve.

But as I said, I think he was discussing future models. The US equivalent of the ABC in the US is the PBS and the government matches the donation pool for the year. That’s certainly a better model than we have, although I think the ABC should be totally scrapped as a object lesson to the Australian left.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:24 am
Rassy has Romney at 48 Odumbo 43.

You know, this race may not even be close.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:25 am
A lot of swing voters were waiting for a credible candidate while hedging their bets. Now they have a credible candidate, and Obama is doing his best, picking fights with Catholics, Jews, and stay-at-home mums, to hand Romney the election.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 12:27 am
That’s not analysis Fisky.

It’s garbage.

Pretty much ur usual then.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 12:30 am
Thank God that Santorum got out of the way early. We haven’t heard from JamesK for a while, have we? James, it’s ok to support Romney now. He’s not a bad candidate.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 12:31 am
And add in the group… private sector workers

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:31 am
JamesK, you need to stop letting HATE drive you. It’s poisonous and you might harm one of your patients if you don’t deal with it. Romney isn’t that bad, alright? He has a very strong chance and might even trounce Obama by 7-8%.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 12:34 am
An election strategy certainty fro Odumbo. Lol

Democrats are attempting to portray presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as a throwback to the 1950s, as the general election phase of the presidential race begins to heat up. But the move could backfire, Politico reports.

President Barack Obama himself is trying to present Romney as a man of the past, opining in an email to donors Thursday that the former Massachusetts governor would return to “a social agenda from the 1950s” if he’s elected.

Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod even has said Romney “must watch ‘Mad Men’ and think it’s the evening news,” referring to the TV show set in the early 1960s.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:37 am
1944 ~ 2012 Michael “Flathead” Blanchard’s obituary in the Denver Post

A classic.

You’d never read it in Melbourne’s stalinist arsewipe rag.

So many of his childhood friends that weren’t killed in Vietnam went on to become criminals, prostitutes and/or Democrats. He asks that you stop by and re-tell the stories he can no longer tell. As the Celebration will contain Adult material we respectfully ask that no children under 18 attend.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 12:42 am
Ralph Reed, Wa-Po OpEd: To beat Obama, Mitt Romney must channel Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum’s exit from the Republican presidential contest this past week cleared the way for Mitt Romney to win the party’s nomination. But over the course of a low-budget campaign that relied almost entirely on volunteers and was met with disdain by the GOP establishment, Santorum won more than 3 million votes and 11 state primaries — the most by a conservative insurgent candidate since Ronald Reagan challenged President Gerald Ford in 1976.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 12:45 am
The US equivalent of the ABC in the US is the PBS and the government matches the donation pool for the year.

That may be same system that is used in the UK for all charities. The govt there doesn’t grant tax deductions, instead it matches donations $ for $.

I agree that that would be a much better way of funding the ABC short of gifting the business to ABC staff (but not including the infrastructure which they should rent at market rates) and expecting the buggers to run it at a profit.

Steve of Ferny Hills

15 Apr 12 at 12:49 am
Romney must win by channeling the candidate he thumped?? What nutty advice!

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 12:50 am
Here’s Dick Morris’ call on Rick Santorum, James. It’s pretty fair from what I’m reading.

http://www.dickmorris.com/what-santorum-did-wrong-and-right/

I also don’t think Romney is an idiot and understands well that he needs to pick up those other GOP’ers that weren’t sympathetic to him.

Santorum ran a pretty courageous campaign, but I think he lost it when he got himself caught in social issues. Sure the media was totally unfair on him, but he didn’t avoid those issues when he should have and talked about “it’s the economy stupid”.

That’s the stuff you talk about towards the end of a campaign especially when the nation is feeling economically uncertain.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:51 am
Romney must win by channeling the candidate he thumped?? What nutty advice!

No. Romney needs to coax those primary voters that went for the other candidates.

My bet is that will begin to happen towards the middle or the end of the campaign. All people want to hear about now is about the economy.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:54 am
He was also very unlucky JC.

When you have no money you need momemntum.

He was robbed of the ‘victory’ in Iowa for 2 weeks and and Gingrich’s attack on the debate moderator did him out of doing well in South Carolina South Carolina.

What he did was stupendous.

He also spoke inspirationally and off the cuff.

The “social issue’ nonsense was 90% media beat-up.

It was a small percentage of his stump speech and it revoled around it as a a core cause for the economic mess.

As many children born in da USA are to single women as to couples.

Talking economic insanity divorced from that is supidity defined.

Unfortunately pretty much except for Santorum it’s the norm.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 1:02 am
I suspect a deal has been done.

VP or Sec State

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 1:03 am
As many children born in da USA are to single women as to couples.

Talking economic insanity divorced from that is stupidity defined.

Unfortunately pretty much except for Santorum it’s the norm.

Of course it’s a huge problem. However you tackle that sort of stuff once in power. He should have taken a leaf out of the left’s playbook and dealt with it after he gained power and not raised it as an issue during the campaign.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:05 am
Oh God no. Romney would be mad to offer him either of those positions.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 1:08 am
At this stage of the game, it’s not exactly productive for non-Roms to be trash-talking Roms, or for Roms to be trash-talking non-Roms.

Do we want to throw Obama out of the White House or not? If so, how best do we each do our part to effect that?

That’s what all conservatives & republicans need to be concentrating on now. Time for internecine warfare is over.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 1:18 am
Hey, you don’t need to convince me, sdog. Tell JamesK the deranged hater. We were celebrating Romney’s excellent poll and automatically he said I was talking “garbage”. It’s almost as if he would prefer Obama were leading.

You just never win with haters. Nothing ever makes them happy save for running down other people. JamesK has unlimited access to free medicine and is advised to take advantage of it.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 1:23 am
Jim Hoft just visited the Occupy Madison camp and photographed the tent rules for their meeting place:

“No crapping, puking or pissing in the tent”

Obama certainly has lifted the hopes and dreams of the American left.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 1:26 am
I think The CAT’s influence on the US election would be about zero, so we can free flow as it doesn’t matter one iota.

It doesn’t matter what we say about any of the candidates.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:27 am
All the same, it isn’t productive for non-Leftists to be running each other down in any context. It really isn’t constructive behaviour. We need to focus not on running each other down, but making life as miserable and inhospitable for Leftists as possible. You’ll notice m0nty hasn’t been back since the brutal pile-on he copped the other day.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 1:38 am
What a cry baby he is. A total cry baby. He did come back the next day and did the same thing on another thread, which was to derail it and continue the bawling.

There aren’t many lefties that leave here of sound mind Fisk. They always seem to leave in some sort of mental breakdown.

So yea we should be focusing more on giving them absolute hell.

James, you’re pretty good at that.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:43 am
Monster

If you’re reading this, don’t think of it as a incentive to return here, derail threads and be a general dick like you have been in the past.

This is no let bygones be bygones come back and all is rosy. You’re free to come back as I have no rights to the blog as you know of course. However don’t even think of treating it as an invitation.

Next time I won’t be as nice.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:50 am
Yep .

Perhaps the best CEO type in a long while is right.

Clearly the man knows a thing or two about leadership – and it is that knowledge that apparently has Jack Welch fuming over the near-complete lack of leadership being put on display by President Barack Obama.

In an interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, Welch said the following:

It was the insurance executives in health care. It was the bankers in the collapse. It was the oil companies as oil prices go up. It was Congress if things didn’t go the way he wanted. And recently it’s been the Supreme Court.

He’s got an enemies list that would make Richard Nixon proud.

When asked if Mitt Romney would be an improvement
Absolutely.

It’d be great for the country. We’d be a stronger country. We’d have more jobs. We’d have more people getting a piece of the pie. And we wouldn’t have this divisive nature that we have with this president, screaming at one group and then screaming at the next group in a high-pitched voice.

He (Barack Obama) was in Florida this week screaming and yelling about rich people. He went after the Supreme Court. We’ve got to stop this…

JC

15 Apr 12 at 2:02 am
Romney now 5 over Obama in the Rassie poll.

Alex Pundit

15 Apr 12 at 2:14 am
I can’t think of a single Leftist at the CAT who hasn’t suffered a serious mental breakdown. They always crack after a few months tops. It could almost be considered an initiation ritual that they must pass to join the club.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 2:15 am
Alex.

Romney will win this and it won’t be a small win either.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 2:21 am
He was also very unlucky JC.

Funny. I’d say he was very lucky; in most part, a beneficiary of the misfortune of others.

The “social issue’ nonsense was 90% media beat-up.

Eh? Bollocks. Santorum, on several occasions and long before he stopped being a fringe candidate, prided himself as the only GOP candidate who would champion social issues.

I think he lost it when he got himself caught in social issues.

I don’t think this is correct. He used his conservative stance on social issues to differentiate himself from other candidates very early on in the race – long before his campaign caught fire.

Oh come on

15 Apr 12 at 2:46 am
I can’t think of a single Leftist at the CAT who hasn’t suffered a serious mental breakdown. They always crack after a few months tops.

Hahaha. Just a few minutes ago Wm Jacobson put up a post at Legal Insurrection basically pointing out the same phenomenon on his blog:

It Still Always Ends Badly

Unlike some blogs, we don’t screen people out — much less go back and delete their comment histories — just because we disagree. If all you do is name calling, you will not be put through, but dissent is patriotic here.

But these sort of commenters always seem to end badly, in a flurry of name-calling and self-righteous indignation.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 2:52 am
There aren’t many lefties that leave here of sound mind Fisk. They always seem to leave in some sort of mental breakdown.

It’s a beautiful thing. They almost always get got, one way or the other. They hang around for a while, spewing their bile. But sooner or later someone discovers a chink in their armour and they are forced into full retreat – humiliated or in a brilliant rage or both.

It’s a glorious old blog is the Cat.

Oh come on

15 Apr 12 at 2:52 am
Well, it just had to be done – about to crack a bottle of this.

Wonder what it will taste like?

Ask Peter of Paddo. If anyone he can give tasting notes for “gay” it would be him.

Love ya, Peter. But in a manly, shoulder-slapping way.

Abu Chowdah

15 Apr 12 at 4:58 am
Well Rabz, what was it like? Unfortunately Peter of Paddington ain’t on the Cat Abu, and he probably doesn’t have Rabz’s shoe collection either.

John Comnenus

15 Apr 12 at 6:44 am
Hey John C,

It was very tasty indeed, although I only had a couple of glasses before zoning out completely. Thanks again for gifting it.

Played soccer yesterday and was absolutely exhausted by about 10:00pm…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 7:22 am
JC

15 Apr 12 at 2:21 am

And if Obama gets rolled in November, the left will with out doubt play the race card.

Mike

Mike of Marion

15 Apr 12 at 7:38 am
Women who misleads people regularly, Gets angry when other people mislead her.

Wilkie does seem to have effect on most people it must be admitted.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 7:47 am
The Dem-MSM complex just love centre-right automatons like Fisky and Oco.

Daniel Henninger WSJ: Santorum and Freedom

I went to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Monday to find out. Out of 1,189,530 votes cast the next day in bellwether Ohio, Mr. Santorum lost to Mitt Romney by only 10,288, at last count. He’s doing something right, and what one learned in Cuyahoga Falls, an Akron suburb, is that it doesn’t have much to do with the famous Santorum controversies over social issues. It’s about ObamaCare. And it’s about the idea of freedom….

Rick Santorum has linked these concerns about the status of personal freedom directly to ObamaCare and beyond that to the broader policy legacy of Obama administration…..

He followed with an tight description of how he understands the terms of the election: “This race is coming down to the economy, the deficit and control of your life, which is ObamaCare.” (There was no mention of contraception, gays or the role of women.)

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 7:56 am
Rush Limbaugh: “Folks: If I had a daughter, she would look like Ann Romney”

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 7:59 am
Rabz,

Did you win footy? or were you like the Rebels last night getting thumped by the Brumbies?

John Comnenus

15 Apr 12 at 8:12 am
MP Craig Thomson won’t talk to cops over HSU scandal

“We asked them for areas they wanted to ask me about and they declined to do so. On that basis we declined to talk to them,” Mr Thomson said last night

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 8:16 am
This seems like a more genuine case of injustice than that stupid teen thug who got himself shot. Outrageous in fact

http://www.smh.com.au/world/veterans-view-to-a-killing-20120414-1x02x.html

jtfsoon

15 Apr 12 at 8:19 am
Token,

Hilarious how people who mislead lots of people get so angry when they get misled by one person. A normal person would conclude that maybe she now knows how we feel. But to a narcissistic, faux moral superiority driven ideologue, it is all about her. I think this speaks to the suspicion of many that Julia has some kind of condition when it comes to lying.

We all know that Wilkie’s only trick is to get into a position as the insider and then to betray the confidences he holds by saying one thing in private and another in public. He is a one trick pony. The simplest counter to Wilkie is to not trust him and certainly not to speak to him privately. You always need witnesses with Wilkie.

When Abbott was negotiating with the independents I argued that Abbott should negotiate publicly by publishing the key points of each meeting with the independents, who offered what to who. Abbott would not have got into the position he was in if he did that. He also would have won lots of points for honesty and trustworthiness. But, alas, he is a politician.

John Comnenus

15 Apr 12 at 8:21 am
More on the Chamberlain case. No comparison to ‘Trayvon’ in fact.

Police are entitled to barge into your home and shoot you if you don’t let them in to ‘help’ you?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/05/echoes-trayvon-martin-kenneth-chamberlain-sr

jtfsoon

15 Apr 12 at 8:25 am
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2124973/Police-Tasered-black-ex-Marine-Kenneth-Chamberlain-Sr-death-New-York.html

jtfsoon

15 Apr 12 at 8:26 am
Romney will win this and it won’t be a small win either.

In between obsessions about shoes and thongs and fashion and real men, I’d guess some of the Catwomen are torn between the horrible reality of Odumbo’s incompetence and their imagining of his talents.

Tom

15 Apr 12 at 8:45 am
I’d guess some of the Catwomen are torn between the horrible reality of Odumbo’s incompetence and their imagining of his talents.

I’d guess you’d be wrong about that, Tom.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 8:47 am
Ditto.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 8:50 am
John C – we got smashed like the rebels.

We only had eight players which didn’t help, either.

Not happy.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:59 am
London Metropolitan University is considering banning the sale of alcohol from some parts of the campus because a “high percentage” of students consider drinking “immoral,” Prof Malcolm Gillies said.

One-fifth of the University’s students are Muslim, and of those the majority are women. It is an issue of “cultural sensitivity” to provide drink-free areas, Prof Gillies told a conference, adding he was “not a great fan of alchol on campus”.

What else can they ban? Christians, Jews, atheists? How about enforcing head covering for all females on campus? Segregated lecture theatres and tut rooms?

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 9:01 am
Great cartoon about how the attack by the Obama aartack dog has backfired and opened other “matters” for discussion.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 9:02 am
Sounds sensible to me Gab.

When will the LMU act upon the critical issue of getting all women to cover up in the name of cultural sensitivity?

After all a good and decent man may be forced to commit impure acts if the university forces them to sit around women with hair or wrists showing.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 9:07 am
I have no doubt at all that will come to pass, Token.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 9:16 am
Snap, Gab @9.16am.

They’re working on it.

nilk

15 Apr 12 at 9:38 am
In Canada…
http://www.youtube.com/embed/XOORyi9VsP8

kae

15 Apr 12 at 9:47 am
Awesome!

Twenty Spitfires have been located in Burma. They were buried by the British in 1945.

“They were just buried there in transport crates,” Mr Cundall said. “They were waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred. They will be in near perfect condition.”

They hope to get them flying again, a whole sqadron of Spits!

Will Kane

15 Apr 12 at 9:47 am
Squadron, even.

Will Kane

15 Apr 12 at 9:49 am
I’m worried about the Bunyip. He’s been crook a while now. One of you Eastern-Staters needs to take him some chicken soup or sumfin, get him back on deck.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 10:02 am
I have no doubt at all that will come to pass, Token.

It is not like it has happened before, is it?

Token

15 Apr 12 at 10:02 am
Jessica Irvine on the inequality of income in the music industry. When a NoFax Economics in Society writer starts cooking up a story, you can smell that they are shilling for another industry full of luvvies positioning for government handouts…

Earnings data from US concert organiser Pollstar shows that in 1982, before the boy band era, the top 1 per cent of artists earned 26 per cent of concert revenues. By 2003, the top 1 per cent were pulling in 56 per cent of concert revenue. Just as income inequality has risen for society as a whole, so too have incomes become more skewed in the music industry.

Technology was supposed to free up the industry and lower the barriers for talented acts. But there remains limited space at the top for music’s superstars.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 10:14 am
Has the Cat discussed the cost / benefits of the location of a 2nd airport in Sydney?

There seems to be lot of rubbish flying around over this topic yet people seem to always ignore the logical candidates – Newcastle and Canberra.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 10:17 am
I’d guess you’d be wrong about that, Tom.

Ditto to Gab and Kae on this. Odumbo is a weakling and not fantasy material, Tom. Plain as day to any sensible woman.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

15 Apr 12 at 10:18 am
Yes, I am worried about the Bunyip too. Get round there quick Master Bunyip and check out that dad is OK. Just let us know, and if he needs a longer holiday, so be it.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

15 Apr 12 at 10:23 am
Token – no.

Sinclair Davidson

15 Apr 12 at 10:25 am
A second Sydney airport should probably be close to Sydney. Canberra? Newcastle? Please. You don’t want to fly to “Sydney aiport” and then spend an hour or two travelling to Sydney.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 10:30 am
Thanks Sinc. For my its like the Yogi Berra quote:

“It’s déjà vu all over again”

I’ve had it with infrastructure discussions where the theme is similar to the NBN (i.e. stop talking about the costs and think of the benefits).

Kae, have you seen how far out the sites like Badgerys Creek from the centre of Sydney? The only way they could get a place close to Sydney is to do what they did in Hong Kong and build an island.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 10:40 am
Second airport?

Who will be able to afford to fly anywhere once the Carbon Tax kicks in.

boy on a bike

15 Apr 12 at 10:55 am
There seems to be lot of rubbish flying around over this topic yet people seem to always ignore the logical candidates – Newcastle and Canberra.

Canberra’s too far. The only way to make it work would be high speed rail, which would create a massive ongoing cost. (and no, it would not be profitable).

Newcastle is about half the distance but even so, is probably also too far for the same reason.

I don’t see why this issue is so difficult. There is plenty of land south-west, outside the city fringe, so therefore it doesn’t qualify as “in Western Sydney” – thus O’Farrell keeps his promise.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 10:55 am
Token
Badgery’s Creek IS part of Sydney.
It’s probably an hour or so out of the city CBD – whereas Newcastle and Canberra are, timewise, much farther out from the city.

How does Avalon in Melbourne go? When I was there in the early 90s Avalon was in the middle of nowhere.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 11:01 am
I can’t think of a single Leftist at the CAT who hasn’t suffered a serious mental breakdown. They always crack after a few months tops.

Unfortunately, that’s not really true.

e.g., THR for one was a regular here for several years until only recently. There are others. FDB qualifies as ‘left wing’ and hasn’t suffered any kind of breakdown, although he doesn’t tend to go to war. Homer got banned and did not leave of his own accord. Tillman is still around in various guises (although jtfsoon classifies him as a centrist rather than left-wing).

etc.

It’s true, though, that newbie left-wingers frequently crash and burn in spectacular fashion.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 11:02 am
“Odumbo is a weakling and not fantasy material, Tom. Plain as day to any sensible woman.”

oh i don’t know, he’s the president of america, wouldn’t knock him back if he bought me a drink at the local wine bar to discuss his health care package

candy

15 Apr 12 at 11:08 am
So much I want to say, biting my tongue as none of it is nice.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 11:12 am
Didn’t the Federal Government buy half of Badgerys Creek in the ’80s with the express advertised purpose of building a second airport there?

I wonder how many of the NIMBY whiners in the vicinity bought up after that.

Toxic

15 Apr 12 at 11:15 am
Good girl, kae

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 11:20 am
Second airport?

Who will be able to afford to fly anywhere once the Carbon Tax kicks in.

Quite, it is part of the reason I find this discussion interesting.

Hey, by the sound of it, Paul Howes could be one of your neighbour BOAB. It seems to be people from that extremely influential part of Sydney that keeps the discussion alive.

At least Howes is a realist.

Most mornings I am woken up at six by the noise of a large jumbo jet flying over my house preparing to land at Sydney Airport.

…Let’s just declare the second Sydney airport dead and hop on board the train to Canberra.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 11:20 am
Token

Jessica the innumerate doesn’t seem to understand that there would always be 1% no matter how music income was spread. In other words 1% is meaningless without looking at the raw data.

The real question ought to be why NoFax still employees the moron.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:21 am
More on the Chamberlain case. No comparison to ‘Trayvon’ in fact.

Police are entitled to barge into your home and shoot you if you don’t let them in to ‘help’ you?

I’d say that scumbag police officer will be going away for a long time.

I’ve commented many times on how ‘law’ enforcement in the US is out of control.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:24 am
Howes should be made to walk to the second Sydney airport, no matter where it is.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 11:24 am
Tillman is still around in various guises (although jtfsoon classifies him as a centrist rather than left-wing).

Ahahahaha.

Tillman is level-pegging with Bob Brown.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:25 am
Kae

Sydney doesn’t need another airport for several decades. Only 48% of slot capacity is being utilized at the moment and the reason it’s kept down there is for political reasons only.

Fuckers who live there always have known there was an airport so there’s no reason to feel sorry for them.

Sydeny airport is fine the way it is.

Conflict disclosure.

I own a large swag Sydney airport for my retirement account which as a regulated entity has a natural inflation hedge.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:27 am
At least Howes is a realist.

Most mornings I am woken up at six by the noise of a large jumbo jet flying over my house preparing to land at Sydney Airport.

…Let’s just declare the second Sydney airport dead and hop on board the train to Canberra.

The dishonest little runt is trying to kill two birds with one stone.

He bought his fucking home knowing full well there’s a couple of airport runways in the vicinity. So stiff shit. (You paid a discount in relative terms Paulie and if you didn’t you’re a complete idiot).

Secondly, he knows full well that a second airport would require lots of union ticket carrying members.

So the little prick is trying to upgrade the value of his house and get his members more work at inflated union wage cost.

Anyways, don’t worry about the noise Paulie. With the advent of the Dreamliner, it will see noise level decrease by up to 40% so that would be more planes coming into Sydney if the regulators were being fair… Fair in the honest sense of the word.. not the dishonest leftwing version.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:35 am
I’ve commented many times on how ‘law’ enforcement in the US is out of control.

Stossel did a great show about this topic.

The police in Obama’s home state have made it an offence to video tape a police office (22 min)

Token

15 Apr 12 at 11:36 am
I lived in Bankstown until I grew up (okay, I should probably still be there), and the Bankstown aiport is overloaded with flights – every thirty seconds.

Noise isn’t a problem, it’s just capacity.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 11:36 am
I’m just reporting the facts here, CL. He seems pretty left wing to me, but that’s what Soon reckons.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 11:37 am
Sorry 24min – Rochester New York

Token

15 Apr 12 at 11:37 am
Yeah I know, Dave.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:39 am
Tillers is a leftwinger.? Sure he is. Only the most rusted on would still be supporting Odumbo.

In fact it was only recently that he described himself as a leftwinger in some comment he made.

However he gets an honorary rightwinger ticket as he isn’t entirely knackered like the rest we see here.

Dad’s I wouldn’t entirely agree with you about FDB. He does take off for long periods of time to convalesce after a good beating. And most of the time he’s under the influence of heavy duty drugs anyways.

THR has been a stayer though.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:45 am
Tom Scocca’s piece on stupid Word makes it to Slate.

Is there some way you can get the old, no toolbars and other crap everywhere Word?

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:46 am
The dishonest little runt is trying to kill two birds with one stone.

He bought his fucking home knowing full well there’s a couple of airport runways in the vicinity. So stiff shit.

Exactly. I know about the truth about how much ability the airport has to grow as do most adults.

Unfortunately, the reason this discussion gets so much airplay as so many of the Luvvie-Australian group-thinkers who bought into the inner West did not pay attention to the fact that there is an airport nearby.

The result is they want the government to stump up billions to build an airport a long way away from them.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 11:46 am
Honestly is there a more useless organization than Skype? They really are unique in the technology area in that every single update has made the platform worse than the previous one. I guess they fit right in with Microtheft, since they were acquired.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:50 am
Santorum ran a pretty courageous campaign, but I think he lost it when he got himself caught in social issues.

You mean he lost it when he started in on the old bible bashing surely.

As for the killing fields of the Cat. Not surprised that stray lefties wither and die under the barrage of abuse. But that’s the nature of the beast and they know what to expect if they stick around I suppose. And it is therapeutic for right types to get the shit off their liver stored up for ages living in a society run by an increasingly progressive mindset.

I got the shit off my liver by being the minority right person on a special interest blog dominated by US democrats and leftie Euroweenies which also ran a current affairs thread. Although I suffered regular pile-ons the particular thread was shut down when things got too bloody. But I found that unremitting forensic argument with a judicious smattering of condescending putdowns was far more satisfying to my soul than full on abuse. I finally got fed up by being bracketed with Hitler and departed feeling cleansed of my need to do combat. Left and right brains seem to be wired differently. Aint much you can do about it and reasoned argument has its definite limits.

Viva

15 Apr 12 at 11:50 am
Left and right brains seem to be wired differently. Aint much you can do about it and reasoned argument has its definite limits.

I’m not sure about that in the sense that if you scratch deeply enough you always find there are selfish reasons when I leftwinger peddles more statism. Most of them are either on the public payroll or receive indirect support from the government.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:54 am
Fuck off, Coates. I’m backing Gillard here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-15/coates-angry-at-pm27s-olympics-snub/3950918?section=sport

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:57 am
You mean he lost it when he started in on the old bible bashing surely.

Pretty much. He really did have a good economic story to tell. I think his policy of zero tax for manufacturing businesses was distortionary but he had the right idea about cutting all corporate tax to 17%. IT would have absolutely lifted the US economy to light speed growth.

He really had some pretty decent economic policies and should have focused on those at the beginning of the campaign when he started to get a serious hearing. They were certainly better than Mr In-between. He could have toured back to social issues once he bedded down the economics first.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:59 am
I can hear heads exploding from my front porch…

Gingrich to the NRA: It’s time to make the right to bear arms a universal human right at the UN

I think we should appoint Newt Ambassador to the UN. Just for the lulz.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 12:00 pm
Europe to cut power of vacuum cleaners to save energy

europe has gone completely stark raving mad, looking to replicate the former soviet union in centralised stupidity.

Irving J

15 Apr 12 at 12:05 pm
CL

There’s more to the story here than meets the eye according to Chris Pyne (insider interview).

Coates’ people worked with her department and set a date and allowed her to set it so as to me as accommodating as possible to her. The dysfunctional idiot then backed out at the last minute making it impossible for Coates to change the time.

This is a good example of never giving the lying slapper the benefit of the doubt on anything at all as you know she’s either lying, lying about fucking up, or just fucking it up completely.

Those are the three principles/tools people should work with when discussing the lying slapper and you’d have 100% strike rate.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:05 pm
As for the killing fields of the Cat. Not surprised that stray lefties wither and die under the barrage of abuse. But that’s the nature of the beast and they know what to expect if they stick around I suppose

Do you think the message has sunk in that people approaching 40 who try that whiny beta-male BS about bullying will be laughed at?

I’ve been thinking about the topic and believe Sinc was wrong. It is possible for some adults to bully other adults, when enabled by a people like this and this.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 12:06 pm
Gingrich to the NRA: It’s time to make the right to bear arms a universal human right at the UN

You gotta really love him at times. He stops lefties breathing for 30 seconds and heart rates spike up.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:07 pm
Tom Scocca’s piece on stupid Word makes it to Slate.

I got the idea that it was the SMH which picked it up from Slate – Scocca has been a frequent contributor to the Slate blog and SMH credits Slate in a tag at the end.

Maybe Fairfax should just outsource all their articles to American bloggers…

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 12:11 pm
I don’t have much sympathy for the Olympic ‘family’ or the East German dole-bludgers running it, JC.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 12:19 pm
I don’t have much sympathy for the Olympic ‘family’ or the East German dole-bludgers running it, JC.

Neither do I of course. There shouldn’t be a cent going into that money pit.

However, she made the date and then backed out of it after the other side were accommodating and working to her schedule.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:22 pm
I’m not sure about that in the sense that if you scratch deeply enough you always find there are selfish reasons when I leftwinger peddles more statism. Most of them are either on the public payroll or receive indirect support from the government.

IMO they go for statism as in their mind it is differentiated from money grubbing commerce; the state represents the group as against the individual (as the UN does against individual states). The left feel it their role to critique and control their own while standing ready to defend the “other” whom they see as powerless. Their world is defined by power relationships in which the majority is always suspect. In fact the power of the state must be harnessed in opposition to that oppressive majority by “leading” public opinion or by regulation where leading opinion cannot be relied upon. They seem to be frozen in an adolescent world view of black and white and driven by that familiar teenage rage against perceived injustice. Their loyalty is always bonded to an abstract perception of social justice which transcends any other loyalty or common sense. They would see us all die in a ditch rather than compromise on that.

Viva

15 Apr 12 at 12:23 pm
Penn Jillette on compassion, as seen at Ace of Spades:

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 12:26 pm
Look how far the Kennedy family has fallen.

Is this their best and brightest? Really? Does he think his tweets are private or something?

Token

15 Apr 12 at 12:28 pm
Viva

I don’t disagree with any of that. Most of their arguments are of course bordering on the child like. But I also think if you scratch deeply enough there is also a great deal of personal rent seeking and sucking on the public teat… or hoping to do so in the future.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:28 pm
Interesting, if this occurred with Bush-Hitler was the president would our press be so quiet?

Argument About the Bill Alerted Hotel Authorities to Secret Service and Prostitutes Cavorting, WH Official Says

…The argument was a dispute over the bill for services rendered, the administration official said.

Hotel Caribe authorities went to investigate the ruckus and learned that there had been some activity between Secret Service agents and prostitutes, the senior administration official said.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 12:30 pm
Try again…

Penn Jillette on compassion, as seen at Ace of Spades.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 12:30 pm
Token – that’s not bullying. That is civil disorder.

Sinclair Davidson

15 Apr 12 at 12:34 pm
The Secret Service prostitutes story, along with the Ann Romney shocker, the re-appearance of Sharpton, Jackson and the Black Panthers – these are all gold for Romney. There’s a stench of hatred, corruption, lying and criminality wafting around Obama now. All he seems to have is more Let’s Hate Da Rich. I never predict election results. Why risk it on something so grey and vague. But I’m coming to the view that Obama is going to be given the baseball bat treatment later this year. Americans are sick of the communist freak.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 12:35 pm
O HAI, the Bunyip stirs!

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 12:37 pm
FDB qualifies as ‘left wing’ and hasn’t suffered any kind of breakdown, although he doesn’t tend to go to war.

A lot of left wingers would disagree about my qualifications, but yeah, no breakdowns.

There is bullying in spades here, for all to see who aren’t so blind that they will not, to mangle the old saying.

Abusive pile-ons (typically when someone says something true but unpopular, and there’s no other recourse) are de rigeur, the accusations are frequent of being less than a real man (for men), or a tranny (for women). The posting of photos of commenters with snide comments about their appearance.

Honestly, what definition of bullying are you guys using that doesn’t include those exact things?

Then you have the solo acts, JamesK and MarkL come to mind, spewing out highly personal solo diatribes like Onan The Barbarian when someone gets under their skin.

There is a difference between people acting like bullies and the feeling of being bullied though. As it’s invariably such laughable acting-out, it’s water off this little duck’s back. Does get pretty boring from time to time, but it’s almost comforting to check back in every so often and find that nothing has changed.

Stay classy boys.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 12:38 pm
Is this their best and brightest? Really? Does he think his tweets are private or something?

Token… he hates conservatives? As god is my witness I saw that fucker at this restaurant in NYC when I was there in November. I dunno who was paying but it wasn’t cheap and he wasn’t eggsactly hanging around with da poor and dispossessed.

The place has the best veal cutlet(schnitzel) Milanese dish in the world. Literately mouth watering just thinking about it. And the psata dishes are out of this world.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:42 pm
Christine Milne brings something fresh to national discourse:

Tony Abbott ‘pathetic’ says new Greens leader.

There is someone she loves:

“I know Malcolm Turnbull has a different view on this but he’s out there on his own.”

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 12:45 pm
Abusive pile-ons (typically when someone says something true but unpopular

FDB
I like how when someone is accused of being a leftie the “bullies” tend to somehow associate the leftie with far right organisations such as taliban and nazis etc. So I am curious how their thinking is. Then you get the guilt by association thing like somehow a leftie is like Stalin or Mao and will start causing the deaths of millions should they ever gain any real power. These people live in the alternate reality of the “CAT”.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 12:46 pm
Bob Kennedy’s a classic. He hates da oil and favours things like wind power. Well, sort of…

RFK Jr Nixes Wind Farm Near Kennedy Compound.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 12:49 pm
While we are talking people staying staying classy.

Bill Maher has provided some moderate and considered thoughts about Anne Romney.

But what she meant to say, I think, was that Ann Romney has never gotten her ass out of the house to work. No one is denying that being a mother is a tough job, I remember that I was a handful. Okay, but there is a big difference in being a mother, and that tough job, and getting your ass out of the door at 7am when it’s cold, having to deal with the boss, being in a workplace, and even if you’re unhappy you can’t show it for 8 hours, that is a different kind of tough thing,” Maher observed last night.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 12:50 pm
EXCLUSIVE: Canberra Press Gallery Training Film

(link stolen from @rdbrewer)

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 12:54 pm
A lot of left wingers would disagree about my qualifications, but yeah, no breakdowns.

Untrue. You’re lying.

There is bullying in spades here, for all to see who aren’t so blind that they will not, to mangle the old saying.

Bullying? You big baby. You used to hang around Lavatory Pronto which basically prevented even the most pleasant righties from ever commenting there and you have the nerve to call “bullying”.

If you say something that’s idiotic and stupid, FDB you ought to be called out on it and told why. Whenever you’ve been called an idiot, moron etc. you are also told why.

Abusive pile-ons (typically when someone says something true but unpopular, and there’s no other recourse) are de rigeur,

Bullshit. Normally there’s one person that takes exception to your stupidity and that’s me. Most of the other people here are unfortunately tolerant to your stupidity.

the accusations are frequent of being less than a real man (for men), or a tranny (for women).

The trannie accusation is only focused on one person, which is Birdie’s trannie, Phil.

I might add that you were indirectly responsible for outing him as you posted the comment here once that Phil was the banned commenter at the Lavatory (jinmaro) and was in fact a male nurse.

The posting of photos of commenters with snide comments about their appearance.

Once. In any event, it may help the lard come to his senses and save his own life as he’s very overweight.

Honestly, what definition of bullying are you guys using that doesn’t include those exact things?

Oh for god’s sake stop acting like a girlyman.

There is a difference between people acting like bullies and the feeling of being bullied though.

You delicate little petal.

As it’s invariably such laughable acting-out, it’s water off this little duck’s back. Does get pretty boring from time to time, but it’s almost comforting to check back in every so often and find that nothing has changed.

You’re only showing up here because the lavatory has closed down.

Look, FDB there’s no more fucking excuses. Since you fuckers are trying to shut down free speech, no more mr. nice guy. You voted for the party that is attempting to regulate free speech in this fucking country, you loon and you have the temerity to come here and accuse people of bullying. Get the fuck out of here you clown.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 12:56 pm
Hahahahahaha. I don’t often literally laugh out loud alone at my computer, but that’s just too precious JC.

Don’t ever change.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 1:00 pm
JC
Most of the other people here are unfortunately tolerant to your stupidity.

Often a left winger with a right wing attitude to aggression. Examples Agrees with bail outs, nanny subsidies, baby bonus. Just a partisan hack really with no real substance.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 1:06 pm
Then you get the guilt by association thing like somehow a leftie is like Stalin or Mao and will start causing the deaths of millions should they ever gain any real power. These people live in the alternate reality of the “CAT”.

Dickhead, Kelly,

Believe it or not Australia is one of the worlds oldest most stable democracies. Would you ever in your fucking life have believed that slime on the left would ever attempt to regulate free speech in this country and do it under the guise of getting support through academia?

Aren’t you in the least bit pissed off?

That’s why fisk is right in saying the left has no legitimacy in discussing anything anymore. He’s right to say they’ve played themselves right out of the game with this filthy disgusting, illiberal attempt to prevent free speech.

Where were you when the free speech wars were occurring, Kelly?

As for being non-partisan.. like a few righties I was prepared to give both Rudd and the Kenyan a chance at the beginning and reserved judgement.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:08 pm
Liberal Magazine “The Nation” Encourages Readers To Support Occupy Wall Street. . . By Applying For Its Visa Card…

Token

15 Apr 12 at 1:08 pm
Often a left winger with a right wing attitude to aggression. Examples Agrees with bail outs, nanny subsidies, baby bonus. Just a partisan hack really with no real substance.

Stop being a lying dishonest cabbie, Kelly. I supported the bailouts because of the potential dire nature the banking system found itself in.

If you weren’t so stupid you’d could at least argue from an intelligent point over the bailouts, but that would be impossible for you as you wouldn’t understand it other than the drivel you’ve picked up at far left sites.

Where have I ever supported any of the rest? Prove it by posting the link or what I have said. I’ve never supported any subsidies or bonuses you doofus.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:12 pm
Where were you when the free speech wars were occurring, Kelly?

Have to admit didn’t really see it as a big issue in large part because it would be unworkable especially with blogs as all that had to be done is to republish something over thousands of blogs and they aren’t going to round us all up. The Kenyan’s support of NDAA is far more threatening to me given our countries close relationship with the US and that was with bi-partisan support. We did follow the US with the lock someone up without lawyer for a couple of weeks just after the US did so it is not out of the question that we would make a law of indefinate detention in a military prison also.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 1:16 pm
Hahahahahaha. I don’t often literally laugh out loud alone at my computer, but that’s just too precious JC.

Don’t ever change

Why would I change?

FDB, you publicly came out and said you voted for the Greenslime. Not once have you ever come out since they have been active in attempting to curtail our rights to free speech… not once have you have disavowed them and said that on this issue alone you would be voting for the other side.

Why should I exhibit any fucking tolerance to you when you still actively support those filthy slugs that would cut our right to speaking out?

That basically counts you out. You no longer have any legitimacy and neither do the fuckers you hang out with politically. None.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:16 pm
JC
I remember you did put some arguement about nanny subsidies being good and no can’t find the link. The baby bonus was just thrown in there to test your reaction.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 1:17 pm
Kelly STFU please as you’re now starting to embarrass me for even giving you these few minutes I’ll never get back.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:19 pm
It’s impossible for people posting under psuedonyms to be “bullied” on the internet. If you don’t like the words you read, then go away and don’t read them.

It’s just so simple, yet beyond the grasp of even the most advanced leftist like FDB or M0nty who simply wish that people they don’t like were banned.

The beta male whinging that lefties are engaging in now since you’ll invaded since LP kicked you all out for being such a bunch of whingers is extraordinary.

As CL called it: Leftist Panhandling – when the left starts getting thumped, it’s beta men start whinging “can’t we all just get along, you’re just so mean“.

This is of course inbetween fist pumping when the PM’s office organises a real life race riot against a conservative politician or it’s real life adherents are violently “occupying” and invading private and public spaces and intimidating private citizens or supporting the regime to shut down your political opponents newspapers.

That’s all totally cool and civilised.

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 1:19 pm
The logo for this year’s Democrat Convention in the Queen City is seriously gay. And this?!

Though I do love the fact that they’re doing this on Labor Day … in a Right-to-Work (non-unionsed) state (NC has the lowest union rate in the US, under 3%). Good luck finding union labor to set up your Styrofoam coliseum at the speedway, Barry!

I bet Bambi’s SEIU mates are happy. lol

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 1:20 pm
Stop teh Bullying! It’s INAPPROPRIATE!!

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 1:24 pm
FDB, you publicly came out and said you voted for the Greenslime.

You have to give FDB marks for bravery lol.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 1:25 pm
It’s testament to America’s lack of muscle these days that they couldn’t even hush up a hooker scandal. I just read what happened in Columbia. Basically, the Secret Service boys got 12 hookers in for the night and one of them wasn’t paid. So she went to the police (LOL) and they rocked up to the hotel, then filed a report with the US Embassy (and told everyone in the press, obviously).

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 1:26 pm
Glenn Reynolds on Hookergate:

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/140873/

LOL.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 1:29 pm
It’s impossible for people posting under psuedonyms to be “bullied” on the internet. If you don’t like the words you read, then go away and don’t read them.

From an expert in not reading comments (even ones he responds to!) I’ll certainly take that on board.

You may argue that it’s impossible to BE bullied under a pseudonym on the internet. It would be, I’m quite sure, the kind of argument that takes as its main premise its own conclusion, but whatevs. Make it if you wish.*

My point is that people here frequently engage in bullying behaviour. High-grade, pure and unadulterated. Absolutely quintessential examples of it. They do their level best (within the limitations of the medium that you highlight) to bully others, and then crow about it when it results in a “breakdown” of one kind or another.

It is rarely possible for anyone to have a civil discussion with someone they disagree with here, for this very reason.

*in my case at least you have a data point in your favour. I’ve never felt bullied here, even when transparent attempts to bully me are being made. But I’d argue that many people lack my sense of ironic detachment and sauve demeanor, not to mention my effortless good looks, and may thus be in a less robust self-esteem position. Fucking pansies, JC would call them, without a hint of irony, as he argues that he’s not a bully.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 1:37 pm
As for being non-partisan.. like a few righties I was prepared to give both Rudd and the Kenyan a chance at the beginning and reserved judgement.

And some of us are slow on the uptake. It took me two-and-a-half years to realise that Rudd was a Whitlamesque disaster. Since then I’ve learned my lesson and now all Labor governments are assumed to be nation-ending catastrophes until proven otherwise. I simply refuse under any circumstances to countenance voting Labor, based on their disgusting performance nationally and in every state and territory.

It’s probably a lesson that needs to be learned by every generation at some point. The younger voters took a bit longer to twig because of Labor’s reasonable record in the 80s. But talk to most old-timers who watched Labor during the 50s, 60s and 70s and they’ll tell you many a story about Labor’s nastiness.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 1:41 pm
It is rarely possible for anyone to have a civil discussion with someone they disagree with here, for this very reason.

Okay. How do you support a political party that wants to close down free speech?

And on that basis why would you or any other leftwing troll type (you have admitted to being a troll many times too by the way) be given a square inch of space from the nice department if that’s who you support, you illiberal trog?

GO!

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:43 pm
FDB – apart from talkin’ utter shite as usual – lacks insight, m’kay?

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 1:45 pm
and may thus be in a less robust self-esteem position. Fucking pansies, JC would call them, without a hint of irony, as he argues that he’s not a bully.

I think you’re confusing bullying to intolerance of disgusting totalitarians and their supporters like you FDB. Big difference.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:46 pm
Don’t be ridiculous, FDB. You are the mirror image of JamesK when it comes to snapping at people and being prickly the whole time. And it turns out you did have personal issues causing you to write angry obscenities. But the purpose is not to discuss those issues, but rather to ask why you are suddenly opposed to personal abuse when in fact you are a practitioner.

Both you and JamesK need to stop the hate.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 1:46 pm
“Bully”, it’s such an effeminate word. It even sounds like one.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 1:47 pm
JC – am I to take it you wish to have a civil discussion about Greens’ policy?

Well if so that would be quite out of character, but I’d give it a go. Before we go on though – you do know what ‘civil’ means, right?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 1:48 pm
So u – presumably – suggest that it’s u who spreads da love, Fisky?

Your an embarrassment to our side Fisky.

Its not ur stupidity but rather like most of da Left u combine it with sanctimony which even from the smart people is not a good look but from a small mind such as urs always looks ridiculous.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 1:51 pm
It is rarely possible for anyone to have a civil discussion with someone they disagree with here, for this very reason.

I’ve had plenty and one’s involving strong disagreements.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 1:51 pm
Since then I’ve learned my lesson and now all Labor governments are assumed to be nation-ending catastrophes until proven otherwise.

Fisky that sounds like a pretty good rule to live by. I think another main lesson to be learnt is for the Coalition to make sure they sell there policies better and always refer back to history. This was not done effectively in the case of refugee policy, and economic policies where the majority of the population wanted a change from offshore processing and government frugalness.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 1:51 pm
A civil discussion on Green fascism FDB?

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 1:52 pm
Here is a video of a cat who has learned to open the fridge.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 1:57 pm
At what point did I claim never to have been abusive? That’s the tenor of the site, and I enjoy a robust stoush.

I was just pointing out the transparently phony denials of bullying.

As for being a troll – given the signal-to-noise ratio here (and the practical impossibility of engaging even with the mostly good-faith commenters I nonetheless often disagree with like DD, D_B, Sinclair, Gab, plenty of others, because someone else always barges in roughshod with a blanket of baloney to spread over everyone) that’s what I’m reduced to – kicking about for the lulz till I get bored again.

I love it how you guys always say the place is tolerant of dissent, just because the admins rarely moderate dissenting views. There’s more than one way to skin a Cat, NPI, and this is clearly one of the least tolerant places on the web. It’s a cultural thing, and it’s as plain as the nose on your face unless your head’s up your arse.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 1:59 pm
It is rarely possible for anyone to have a civil discussion with someone they disagree with here, for this very reason.

There’s no ‘bullying’ on leftist blogs and sites because they ruthlessly ban anybody who even begins to upset the natives.

Then after banning someone, at best the natives very “civilly” sit around wholesale making up and then “arguing” against points that they are sure that if the commenter was still around (instead of mysteriously disappearing) he himself would be making.

After “winning” all of these self concocted arguments against the ghost of the rightwinger they then feel highly intellectual having once again dispatched a right winger and his feeble arguments.

The only reason you’re whinging about being “bullied” is because you lot are currently on the back foot. There was no whinging about “bullying” in 2009 when you were on top of the world and on the attack.

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 2:00 pm
You see what I mean? JamesK is so filled with anger and hate it’s practically spilling out his ears. It’s impossible to have a reasonable conversation with him, especially about pertinent topics such as Santorum’s complete failure to gain traction with mainstream conservatives, or Romney’s brilliance in most fields.

And please, James, learn how to write stuff without it reading like a teenager’s text-messaging.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 2:00 pm
sdog – nice.

Although it brings back a very painful memory for me*. I was helping a friend move house, and needed to take a crap. I didn’t realise, but the house cat had its food bowl on the other side of the washing machine. He finished nibbling, then sauntered over to the hallway door.

I thought, okay kitty, hold on and I’ll let you out when I’m good and ready.

Fucking thing stands up and turns the handle (a complicated maneuver involving opposing one paw against the other while hanging off the ground), swings the door wide open and leaves me sitting, turd halfway out, while two near-strangers struggle past with a couch.

How embarrassment.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 2:08 pm
CL

Old Word menu for newer versions, needs an addon:

link to add on

cheers

pete m

15 Apr 12 at 2:10 pm
Should probably have thought about a TMI warning.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 2:10 pm
Here’s a free version:

free menu addon link

cheers

pete m

15 Apr 12 at 2:12 pm
Actual ad: Woman Seeking Man Who Knocked Her Up In The Bathroom At Megadeth/Motorhead Show On Craigslist.

Did we hook up at the Megadeth/Motorhead concert? – w4m – 28 (Aragon Ballroom)

“Me: Blue hair, silver tube top, fishnets, Knee high black biker boots.
You: Red mohawk, black pentagram gauges, viper piercings.

I was grinding on you in the pit, then we went to the bathroom, and got f***ed up. You had a nice c**k and I was wasted so I let [you] raw dog it in the stall. You were really good and you had to gag me so I would not make too much noise.

Anyway I’m pregnant. It’s yours. contact me if you want to be part of your child’s life.”

At least she’s pro-life. So that’s good.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 2:12 pm
I love it how you guys always say the place is tolerant of dissent, just because the admins rarely moderate dissenting views. There’s more than one way to skin a Cat, NPI, and this is clearly one of the least tolerant places on the web. It’s a cultural thing, and it’s as plain as the nose on your face unless your head’s up your arse.

Ah the mind of the left: where everyone is “intolerant” or “bullies” if they dare argue against their political views. Being able to air his opinion isn’t enough, all must also demurely bow down to it. Even when his opinion is that his opponents should, say, be muzzled by the government.

Then we hear that this place, despite letting him speak is actually “less tolerant” than say LP or Democratic Underground where they simply ban dissenting voices.

What a joker.

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 2:13 pm
Romney’s brilliance in most fields.

LOL LOL You must be kidding. Going by reasonable budget estimates he will run debt up as quick as the ALP does in Aus. You never know if he is Arthur or Martha he changes his mind so often. What political wit and skill to be known as the “Etch a Sketch” guy who designed Obamacare. He still might win but that is not because of his brilliance it is because people don’t like the other guy more.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 2:15 pm
majority of the population wanted a change from offshore processing

Sure they did Kelly, sure they did.

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 2:16 pm
Ah the mind of the left: where everyone is “intolerant” or “bullies” if they dare argue against their political views. Being able to air his opinion isn’t enough, all must also demurely bow down to it. Even when his opinion is that his opponents should, say, be muzzled by the government.

Making shit up much?

I didn’t always, and often didn’t, agree with LPs moderation decisions, but there were plenty of civil dissenters allowed right up until the end.

If you acted like an arsehole, you got banned. That was how it happened in most cases, and usually after repeated warnings.

Anyway, you’re still clearly not reading my comments before responding twostix, and just making shit up instead, so I’m going to return the favour.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 2:18 pm
Great ad, CL. And, yes, that is good.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 2:20 pm
Going by reasonable budget estimates he will run debt up as quick as the ALP does in Aus

That’s utter bollocks Kelly.

Going by what/whose ‘reasonable’ budget estimate?

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 2:23 pm
Thanks, Pete M!

Am checking it out now.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 2:33 pm
FDB, the past events that you call bullying, I would call “howls of derision”.

Abu Chowdah

15 Apr 12 at 2:45 pm
Pete M, that add-on is brilliant.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 2:46 pm
FDB:

Then you have the solo acts, JamesK and MarkL come to mind, spewing out highly personal solo diatribes like Onan The Barbarian when someone gets under their skin.

Why, thank you, FDB! ‘Onan the Barbarian’, what an amusing little expression.

That’s a deeply interesting comment.

Y’see, after a few years or so at LP and other left-wing sites, and with Evil Pundit and I corresponding via email to examine and dissect left-wing tactics, I had absorbed the attack sequence and online ‘mob attack’ tactics of the left. I actually listed them (I think EP did too).

Now I apply these same tactics to egregiously offensive and uncivil left-wingers. They are quite effective against them.

Left-wingers absolutely hate this, it drives them spare. But turn-about is fair play, and it tends to drive them away when their own tactics are applied back at them. They really, really do not like being treated in the same way they treat others.

I do not apply such tactics to civilised, civil or non-left-wing persons. Check my discussions with Kelly Liddle and CL, for example – or for that matter with you.

But far-left ideologues who routinely use these tactics themselves? They are fair game for their own tactics to be turned back on them and deserve no quarter whatsoever. Nor do they get any. Also, as I understand their tactics, they have no effect on me. I just think ‘oh, he’s using standard lefty tactic #6′

LP’s a goldmine for analysing the tactics of the left. I was genuinely sad to see it die. The classic LP tactic is for some lefty to put words into your mouth which you have not said, and then all the other lefties pretend that you have said them. It’s a very effective tactic. Yet, the squalling, whining and whimpering when that same tactic is turned back on the people who use it is deafening!

There are many other very effective tactics I have learned from LP. They are all unfair, underhanded although I do not agree with your word ‘bullying’.

If the same standard left-winger tactics turned back onto the left wing is described as ‘bullying’, maybe that’s just the other shoe pinching too hard. Because sure as hell the left uses these tactics routinely far, far more than everyone else does. And they use them as first recourse, not last. This is what THR, Les majesty etc etc do and it’s how they act.

Please note that I exempt you, Katz and a couple of others from the above. I have had civil and interesting discussions with both of you even though we do not agree on the subject.Both of you tend to argue robustly on the merits of the issue.

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 2:46 pm
Mitt’s goal will be to bring federal spending below 20 percent of GDP by the end of his first term

:

Requires spending cuts of approximately $500 billion per year in 2016 assuming robust economic recovery with 4% annual growth, and reversal of irresponsible Obama-era defense cuts

James
Yes interesting Mitt predicts the US will be in boom times 4% per year growth. Even given all this the tax take is below 20% at the moment so no intention to get a surplus as tax cuts will be made. That 4% growth sounds a bit like the ALP budget projections a bit on the shakey side. Ron Paul has a better budget plan but the surplus is so narrow it even looks like an ALP budget. If you weren’t aware James the US is in serious trouble but they will inflate there way out of it just make people poorer by devaluing the money.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 2:56 pm
That 4% growth sounds a bit like the ALP budget projections a bit on the shakey side.

Well there’s a recovery taking shape in manufacturing in particular, and an energy boom underway.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 3:09 pm
Wreckage
The 4% might happen but it will be through inflation and population growth. Mitt is not pretending he will balance the budget though. So that counts for honesty I suppose.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 3:13 pm
ames
Yes interesting Mitt predicts the US will be in boom times 4% per year growth. Even given all this the tax take is below 20% at the moment so no intention to get a surplus as tax cuts will be made

You didn’t answer the question Kelly.

Romney’s budget is the Ryan budget.

He will radically reform the tax system to encourage growth and those changes will be revenue neutral.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 3:14 pm
He will radically reform the tax system to encourage growth and those changes will be revenue neutral.

The answer is Mitt plans to run deficits only ones a bit smaller than Obama. That means continuing to run up debt.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 3:17 pm
James
The last time the US had a true surpluss that is actually paid down debt was in 1951 if my memory is correct. It was in the 50s anyway. Even our ALP has a record of paying debt down in the 80s but later on they ran it up again.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 3:24 pm
As for bullying unto breakdown. KofK for example was into the hurly-burly and doing fine then one day, inexplicably, went totally to bits-and-shits at Gab for no reason.

That was the only breakdown I’ve witnessed. It’d be nice if some of the regulars were a little less high-handed, since it doesn’t work on the genuinely useless (Les, who is here for the lulz, SoB who is here because he can’t extricate himself from abusive pseudo-relationships).

I exclude sdfc/JC exchanges from any plea for better behaviour. Calling each other names seems to be the basis for some sort of enduring relationship there.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 3:24 pm
The deficit is 40% of government spending every year Kelly.

What da fuck is ur point?

A surplus when?

1 or 2 years?

And u still have avoided answering my original question for very obvious reasons.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 3:25 pm
“Even given all this the tax take is below 20% at the moment so no intention to get a surplus as tax cuts will be made.”

The Left will never understand that if the tax tax take is too high and you cut taxes, the government will end up with more revenue.
Kelly demonstrates that inability yet again.

Winston SMITH

15 Apr 12 at 3:34 pm
The White House projections released today call for GDP growth of 3.6 percent in 2014 and 4.1 percent in 2015.

James
I can’t find any projections that say 4% growth from 2013 on can you?

A surplus when?

That is my point their is no likely chance of a surplus for the forseeable future.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 3:35 pm
The Left will never understand that if the tax tax take is too high and you cut taxes, the government will end up with more revenue.

Winston
I understand that and what is your point it presents a one off gain for the most part. Even given this the US will still be running huge deficits.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 3:38 pm
The White House projections released today call for GDP growth of 3.6 percent in 2014 and 4.1 percent in 2015.

What does that even mean Kelly?

If the President ‘calls for growth’ of 50% will that happpen?

What have the WH budget and tax plans and Romney’s got in common?

And you persist in not answering my original question.

Whose ‘reasonable budget estimates’, Kelly?

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 3:41 pm
Whose ‘reasonable budget estimates’, Kelly?

Everybodies as I have pointed out there is no plan to balance the budget even Romney or Ryan agree with that. An unbalanced budget is not sustainable except through inflation or devaluation of the currency. This to me makes it not credible. If your bar is so low vote for the ALP next time.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 3:46 pm
“Bully”, it’s such an effeminate word. It even sounds like one.

With you, JC. The Green shemales who turn up here occasionally when they’re bored with all the government-funded and supported Left blogs behave like entitled private schoolgirls with rich parents.

Tom

15 Apr 12 at 3:52 pm
Kelly

Stop being a fucking idiot. Ryan’s plan is to balance the budget and Romney has essentially adopted Ryan’s plan.

The idea is not to force down spending but to ease off the accelerator slowly allowing the private market to take up the slack.

To suggest there is no plan is basically delusional.

You really are an idiot most times.

Jc

15 Apr 12 at 3:55 pm
Ryan’s plan is to balance the budget and Romney has essentially adopted Ryan’s plan.

By when 2050 assuming 4% growth rate? There has been no serious plan since the 50s when the debt actually went down at one stage.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 3:58 pm
“Bully”, it’s such an effeminate word. It even sounds like one.

JC, that’s a weird thing to say. Presumably it was a thought bubble that hit the keyboard before popping.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 3:59 pm
JC – am I to take it you wish to have a civil discussion about Greens’ policy?

Well if so that would be quite out of character, but I’d give it a go. Before we go on though – you do know what ‘civil’ means, right?

FDB

A debate on the fascist greens? These are the filth tha want to take away our right to political dissent. So are you kidding?

FDB, you dishonest slug, you asked to explain how you can possibly support a political party that wants to close down the “hate media” in favor of the love media.

You have to be on some serious drugs if you think this deserves a debate.

As they say the science is settled on that one and debate is over.

Oh and by the way, you mentioned how lard ball monster was given a hard time and I just recall what happened.

He basically tried in his usual way to fast talk and dishonestly attack sinc.
Someone stuck his photo album up and it became a great opportunity to turn things around and hit him back twice as hard…. And no doubt the cretin is still bawling.

Anyways you’ll be happy to know that that pumpkin stomach was calling me all sorts of names such as parasite because of the work I do. Of course you took the fat lard ball’s side though ignoring his abuse. Not surprised.

Jc

15 Apr 12 at 4:07 pm
I’ll take that as a ‘no’ to both my questions JC.

Colour me shocked.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 4:10 pm
The Dem-MSM complex just love centre-right automatons like Fisky and Oco.

JamesK you really are a tedious numbskull. But keep putting your ridiculous spin on Santorum’s inevitable and unsurprising loss, there’s a good chap.

VP/Secretary of State, my arse. What a shit analysis. I know you’re in denial about his deeply precarious position in the dying days of his campaign, but the fact is he was in no shape to be dictating terms or extracting concessions. Romney wouldn’t have had to give him anything for him to bow out. The guy got out when he did because he didn’t want to risk destroying his future prospects which would have been what he was facing if he lost PA. Got his eye on 2016, or something. Well, if Romney loses, that is.

But in that case he’s going to be battling all the GOP’s star rookies who decided they were too green for this cycle. Fat chance he has against them. This primary was his only shot, and whilst no one can deny that he gave it a red hot go, he didn’t get over the line. Deal with it, James. And stop trying to rewrite history.

Oh come on

15 Apr 12 at 4:15 pm
JC, that’s a weird thing to say. Presumably it was a thought bubble that hit the keyboard before popping.

Not really.. It’s taking on sorta similar meaning as sustainable and waaacist to suggest essentially nothing in English but simply to either assist/convey leftwing opinion or stop debate.

You now see lots of beta(ized) leftwing males calling bully if they’re given rough treatment.

In fact there was recently a leftwing flash mob on the Monster/Lardball thread calling “bully”. It was amusing.

Perhaps not effeminate, but certainly feminized.

You may like this piece in Reason.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:21 pm
I’ll take that as a ‘no’ to both my questions JC.

Colour me shocked.

What’s there to debate FDB? You support a political party that wants to cut off free speech at the knees. it’s binary. You either support them or you don’t for that reason alone. You do, so there’s absolutely nothing to debate. As I said, the science is settled.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:24 pm
Why, thank you, FDB! ‘Onan the Barbarian’, what an amusing little expression.

Not that it’s his, of course.

Oh come on

15 Apr 12 at 4:26 pm
Okay, FDB, I won’t be angry with you and won’t abuse. So please explain how you can support a political party that wants to close free speech? How are you on friendly terms with the lavatory pronto crowd when they support the curtailment of the right to publicly dissent?

Explain away.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:27 pm
THR for one was a regular here for several years until only recently.

Exactly. He was got in the end.

And is Homer a leftwinger? It seems to me that he holds one or two core fringe positions and will use whatever ideology he can employ to bolster them.

Oh come on

15 Apr 12 at 4:33 pm
The idea is not to force down spending but to ease off the accelerator slowly allowing the private market to take up the slack.

JC
That might be the case as it is stated but I do not trust politicians so I do not believe it (no debt reduction for 60 years might make one suspicious). If it isn’t slash and burn like Ron Paul would do reducing spending to 2006 levels over a few years it has very little credibility in my eyes. I might be tough on this but considering most countries stuff up big time every 30 years or so there is no reason to have a high level of faith.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 4:33 pm
The Green shemales who turn up here occasionally when they’re bored with all the government-funded and supported Left blogs behave like entitled private schoolgirls with rich parents.

lol that’s almost poetic in it’s elegance, Tom.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 4:37 pm
No, I believe Ron Paul 100% on that. I also think he would put the dollar on a gold standard as that is entirely the president right without the need to go to congress. I also think he would turn the US isolationist.

I think those policies would send the US economy into depression as he would be hardening the currency, as he drastically slowed spending. US spending needs to be brought down, bit also brought down intelligently. Fast growth would also take care of the cyclical deficit.

He’s like a butcher is to a neursurgeon, Kelly, you eggnog.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:40 pm
JamesK you really are a tedious numbskull. But keep putting your ridiculous spin on Santorum’s inevitable and unsurprising loss, there’s a good chap.

Seriously Oco, fvck off.

I have at all times maintained that Romney would be the likely nominee.

So spare us the leftist-like strawman.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 4:40 pm
That might be the case as it is stated but I do not trust politicians so I do not believe it

You fuddle headed idiot. Is Ron Paul not a politician?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:41 pm
FDB? Where are you? Get out from under that rock.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:44 pm
I have at all times maintained that Romney would be the likely nominee.

I never said you didn’t, you colossal moron. You’re the one introducing strawmen, not I. I said you were spinning Santorum’s defeat. Which you are.

Deal with what I wrote, not what you want me to have written.

Oh come on

15 Apr 12 at 4:45 pm
Not that it’s his, of course.

Bummer, you’re right. I did make it up though, mid-sentence, and hubris precluded a googling. You won’t believe me, I won’t care – let’s get on with our lives.

Gab – you set the bar for ‘poetic’ and ‘elegant’ very very low, don’t you. That was just a string of abusive cliches that don’t even cohere, and straightforwardly equates ‘masculine’ with ‘good’, and ‘feminine’ with ‘bad’.

*dons Currency Lad mask*

Why do you hate women Gab?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 4:47 pm
PS. I gave you an actual example of how you are spinning Santorum’s defeat, which – funnily enough – you didn’t touch. Gee, I wonder why.

Oh come on

15 Apr 12 at 4:48 pm
Kelly the Ryan plan gets the US down to 1.5% deficits quickly alevekl out and eventually surplus.

Obama’s doesn’t and the deficits escalate to 6.5% in the medium term.

Please spare us the drivel.

I repeat there is no pro-growth quick way of converting 40% of government revenue spending deficits returning to surplus.

Save us ur ridiculous ‘arguments’.

They are meaningless.

Obama deficits reach 6.6% of GDP in the mean term.

The only way of paying off the debt is continuous and longterm growth and governmental fiscal restraint

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 4:48 pm
So please explain how you can support a political party that wants to close free speech?

I don’t.

How are you on friendly terms with the lavatory pronto crowd when they support the curtailment of the right to publicly dissent?

They don’t.

Well, that was boring.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 4:48 pm
Fast growth would also take care of the cyclical deficit.

60 year cycle is it? The deficit is approaching 50% of revenue there is no time to pussy foot around. Cut and cut hard you need a butcher. The Romney or Ryan plans would take a few election cycles minimum of serious discipline and this won’t happen. It won’t happen but if Ron Paul was to be president I don’t think he would be isolationist but would be less aggressive and go to congress about all military action. Some things I can’t figure out about him though he voted against all FTAs based on ideology not pragmatism I am guessing, so I couldn’t see him being pragmatic.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 4:51 pm
Miaow, FDB. Put your claws away, hun. Speaking of which, how’s your puss?

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 4:52 pm
Well you do support the Greens party,,FDB. You said yourself that you voted for Madam ant because he’s your friend.

They don’t.

LOl

So you voting liberal next time FDB? hahahahahahahahhaah

Remember when you recently said that reason you come here is for the same reason people used to give for reading Playboy. They went there for the articles.

I asked to to offer up 5 important things the thread owners have pushed. However I never saw you back here for a while after that.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:53 pm
60 year cycle is it? The deficit is approaching 50% of revenue there is no time to pussy foot around. Cut and cut hard you need a butcher.

It’s not 50% of revenues. It’s smaller than that.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:55 pm
Oops

I asked to to offer up 5 important things the thread owners have pushed you supported.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 4:56 pm
“approaching” means going towards. I have heard the figure 40% presented by James just a few minutes ago. If you look at the exponetial growth in deficits from Bush to now 50% should be about 2 years off.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 4:59 pm
JC – I should have added a clause, before commencing this discussion, whereby it ought to not only be civil, but also involve saying things which contain information pertaining to the real world, and explaining what you mean with reference to real things, and so on.

Leaving aside for the moment that voting for my local Greens member in 2010 need not entail approval of every Greens policy even at the time, let alone now, the fact is that “close free speech” as a phrase means next to nothing, and certainly bears no relation to Greens policy or the attitudes of the various LP posters.

Y’know, I want to believe that you are capable of a real discussion – I’m sure I’ve even seen you do it somewhere once or twice – but this ain’t it buddy.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 5:00 pm
“Speaking of which, how’s your puss?”

Cuter than a hatful of buttons, and curiously healthy despite the FIV thanks Gab.

I’m glad you took my auto-misogyny jibe well, but seriously now – how is it that you square yourself with the idea around here of femininity as a term of abuse? I guess I understand, having copped the reverse at LP, that it’s not a deal-breaker, but I don’t think I ever let it pass without kicking up a stink.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 5:05 pm
2016, the next POTUS.

*sigh*

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 5:06 pm
JC – I should have added a clause, before commencing this discussion, whereby it ought to not only be civil, but also involve saying things which contain information pertaining to the real world, and explaining what you mean with reference to real things, and so on.

FDB, you voted slime and to make it worse you voted for the biggest commie this country has seen since the days of whitlam when he did his best to hide those loons in the cupboard.

Leaving aside for the moment that voting for my local Greens member in 2010 need not entail approval of every Greens policy even at the time,

Of course. Why I think that you voting for them meant you supported their policies. Of course that means you opposed them. Lol

let alone now, the fact is that “close free speech” as a phrase means next to nothing, and certainly bears no relation to Greens policy or the attitudes of the various LP posters.

Umm it does mean they want to reduce our right to speak out and it is the Greenslime policy. As far as the Lavatory set goes, I took the word of people that visited there. I personally couldn’t stomach the disgusting place.

Stop playing these childish female teenager games, FDB. Fess up to what you believe and who you are supporting at the next election as of now.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:07 pm
I’m glad you took my auto-misogyny jibe well, but seriously now – how is it that you square yourself with the idea around here of femininity as a term of abuse?

Why would Gab think males thinking and behaving like feminized little panies would be a good thing? Take Steve from Brisbane for instance.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:09 pm
curiously healthy

Great to hear.

femininity as a term of abuse?

Qué diablos estás hablando?

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 5:09 pm
LMAObama.com

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 5:17 pm
voting for them meant you supported their policies

On balance, more so than the ALP and LNP, sure. Good God man – you can do better. It’s simple reading comprehension.

they want to reduce our right to speak out

Can you explain what you mean? As I understand it, it’s about not being allowed to repeatedly say false things in a public forum without issuing a correction when they are shown to be false.

Personally, I don’t think the policy is a good idea. But then, I also don’t think it’s a good idea to repeatedly say false things in a public forum, so perhaps I don’t have as much skin in the game as *ahem* others might.

Stop playing these childish female teenager games, FDB.

Oh dear. Well, that was nice while it lasted.

Fess up to what you believe and who you are supporting at the next election as of now.

I’ll be supporting whoever, by the time of the next election, offers the policy platform with which I most broadly agree. Given the shortage of policy discussion permitted in the media, this will be hard to determine at the time, let alone now.

From here, if I had to take a stab, Green though.

What about you?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 5:19 pm
To the war room ladies……please

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 5:20 pm
FDB, as that one persons bully is another persons assertiveness, being a bully is obviously a subjective interpretation. Through your eyes, how do you define bullying?

And in the interests of your request for civility… I hope you are well.

DavidJ

15 Apr 12 at 5:21 pm
I should have added a clause, before commencing this discussion …

Standard Left tactic #1: attempt to claim ownership of the language and its definitions. #2: When you’re getting your arse kicked, deconstruct. You can see this pathetic sub-species working its craft any day on the Fairfax websites and The Drum (same thing).
BTW, I love women, especially smart ones and those born with ovaries who don’t work in a revue in Oxford Street.

Tom

15 Apr 12 at 5:21 pm
Y’see, after a few years or so at LP and other left-wing sites, and with Evil Pundit and I corresponding via email to examine and dissect left-wing tactics, I had absorbed the attack sequence and online ‘mob attack’ tactics of the left. I actually listed them (I think EP did too).

If you want the best form/content-based dissections of Leftism, check out Lawrence Auster. He’s most comprehensive.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 5:21 pm
but seriously now – how is it that you square yourself with the idea around here of femininity as a term of abuse?

I usually steer clear of this topic, but I can help with this one.
The short answer is that the insult (or disparagement if you like) only applies to men; femininity is celebrated in women.

Now you can take that as simple sex-role stereotyping, but there’s a bit more to it. The meme in right-wing circles is that radical feminism is radically anti-male; that this entails a specific hatred of ‘masculinity’ rather than simply being biologically male; and that although radical feminism has only ever been a small extremist movement these attitudes have permeated into broader society where men have been de-masculinised. Thus, it’s variously a disparagement and a pep-talk and sometimes both at the same time.

As talking points you can chew on the following:
* in Germany, men aren’t allowed to pee standing up;
* across the Western world boy-like behaviour is pathologised and medicated (I’m talking about ADHD and aspergers);
* the education system being reoriented to be more favourable to girls; (Glenn Reynolds coined the phrase “the war on boys” to capture these last two)
* family courts;
etc.

Hope this helps.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 5:23 pm
Gab – do you want dozens of examples, or more than there are on this thread?

Cos I’m a lazy man, and you can just use your scroll-up button if the former.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 5:23 pm
First we had the redneck cat opening the freezer door.

Now for some refinement from a higher order catemplation. Je suis un chat, donc je suis.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 5:23 pm
From here, if I had to take a stab, Green though.

What about you?

Voting for parties that are in objective alliance with advocates of anti-semitic principles is a non-starter. So I won’t be voting Green.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 5:24 pm
FDB, stop nagging me like an old woman.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 5:24 pm
Have the Greens given the ALP any grief over the ALP’s current and proposed anti-speech laws? Not so far as I can see. I’d call forming an ironclad coalition with the party that passes the laws the same as supporting the laws.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 5:25 pm
From here, if I had to take a stab, Green though.

I’m shocked.

Can you explain what you mean? As I understand it, it’s about not being allowed to repeatedly say false things in a public forum without issuing a correction when they are shown to be false.

You mean, like you want to make it illegal for a journalist to say something that you consider dishonest? That’s what it amounts to.

You really have no fucking idea what Free Speech is all about, FDB.

Well actually you do, but you prefer to act dishonestly about it.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:26 pm
Nope. The Greens are all for cracking down on speech they don’t like. As am I actually. I believe that Leftist speech, being objectively far more damaging and ruinous than non-Leftist speech (you only have to look at the Leftist governments that Leftist speech inevitably produces to see this), should be heavily restricted for at least 10 years.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 5:26 pm
Personally, I don’t think the policy is a good idea. But then, I also don’t think it’s a good idea to repeatedly say false things in a public forum

Look, I hate it when people say things they know are wrong, or at least, that I think they should know are wrong, or, let’s be honest, things I believe are wrong. But speech that is free provided you can prove in court that it’s true is a fuuuuuuuuucking long way from free speech, isn’t it?

so perhaps I don’t have as much skin in the game as *ahem* others might.

That right there is tacit approval of the curtailment of free speech, and you’re plenty smart enough to see why. Stop being obtuse.

Apart from that, it’s been a while, good to see you around here again.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 5:30 pm
And here I thought Gab found me strangely alluring, JC.

FDB’s commentary on the “bullying” issue is pretty accurate today.

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 5:32 pm
so perhaps I don’t have as much skin in the game as *ahem* others might.

A change of government would quickly put paid to that. We can tweak the laws a little, and mine twitter day and night for court-fodder. There’s so much actionable Left-wing material we’ll practically be drowning in cases before long.

After 10 years of that, I would change the constitution to enshrine free speech. But not before.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 5:34 pm
Yeah, see, if harmful and false speech is illegal, then the Left are doomed.*

*It’s cheating to tell you that my point is implicit, but it is. I’ll let you have the lightbulb moment for yourself, I’m just making it easier by telling you that it’s in there.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 5:34 pm
Stop your lying, SFB. I’m sick of it.

Damn. I’ll have to hose the place down and disinfect it now.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 5:35 pm
After 10 years of that, I the left would change the constitution to enshrine free speech.

FIFY.

It doesn’t take people long to forget what it’s like to be on the pointy end of the stick; about as long as it takes for them to seize the stick themselves and reverse it IMO.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 5:36 pm
Apart from that, it’s been a while, good to see you around here again.

I’m honestly curious. Why?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:37 pm
You mean, like you want to make it illegal for a journalist to say something that you consider dishonest? That’s what it amounts to.

*patience running out*
*calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean*

No, as I very clearly said, I think it’s a bad policy.

I’m not sure why it’s such a big Free Speech!!1! deal for you that people should be allowed to lie publicly. For me it’s just a poor idea to set up a new system for administering things that our current laws do a good enough job of handling.

DD:

Hope this helps.

The topic you raise is an interesting one, and one I give a lot of thought to as a quite ‘masculine’ man on any objective measure (hairy, sporty, good with hands, killer-of-edible-things-even-if-cute, sweary, assertive in traffic, aggressive in argument, disdainful of bullies) and a lover of femininity in women.

But no, it doesn’t help explain why somebody would use feminine attributes as terms of abuse when responding to blog comments about entirely un-gendered topics.

Or perhaps I’m wrong, and I know I can at least count on you to at least try and explain how without abusing me.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 5:40 pm
Seriously

He’s appeared here accusing one and all of de bully, plays fucking word games and not wanting to answer a reasonable question, finally admits he’d vote for those vile slimers and is supposed to by male, single and owns a fucking cat.

Why Wreckage?

This constant yearning by some righties to have lefties over here amuses me.

For what purpose?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:41 pm
Is Barnaby mad???
Baby Bonus

I have never contacted Tony Abbott to push for a doubling of the Baby Bonus.

With a strong on the ground experience of the problems that large lump sum social security payments can create, I don’t think I ever will support a policy that would exacerbate these issues.

Before the last election gross debt was to peak at $220 billion but it is now forecast to peak in excess of $270 billion so unfortunately, like the nation, our aspirations are affected by Labor’s debt.

The Nationals believe that the Baby Bonus should be made in interval payments over a longer term to avoid the social problems of lump sum payments being made that, in some instances, do not go toward the baby but go to alcohol or other items that are actually at odds to the welfare of the child.

More information: Matthew Canavan 0458 709 433

I wish I’d been in Australia at the time the Govt paid a bonus per baby born

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 5:45 pm
No, as I very clearly said, I think it’s a bad policy.

Bad policy is spending money burning down 200 homes. Sticking in rules to curtail free speech is not just bad policy, you mental midget, it’s a direct attack on our rights. It’s a far different old growth tree, to use a vernacular you’re more familiar with.

I’m not sure why it’s such a big Free Speech!!1! deal for you that people should be allowed to lie publicly.

You never seemed to have a problem with the Lying Slapper lying or at least breaking her pledge. So why would you want to potentially throw journalists and blog owners in jail if your opinion is different? Why one standard for the lying slapper and another for non-lying slappers?

For me it’s just a poor idea to set up a new system for administering things that our current laws do a good enough job of handling.

It’s a little more than that you oaf.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:46 pm
Hey Steve are you the Ferny Hills Steve as well as the Brisbane Steve?

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 5:47 pm
Is Barnaby mad???
Baby Bonus

If you have twins you can get quite a nice car.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 5:49 pm
f you want the best form/content-based dissections of Leftism, check out Lawrence Auster. He’s most comprehensive.

Link?

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 5:50 pm
I’ve tried and I can’t see it wreckage.

What I meant was purely that certain people might care more than I do about this bad policy because they’re, y’know… liars.

As far as ‘harmful’ speech goes, as I understand it the speech must be both false AND harmful. So simple bullshitting is fine, and so is saying something ‘harmful’ but true.

Anyway, as I said, we have courts already well able to deal with these things and it’s a waste of time and money.

If it gets enacted and turns out to be worse than a mere waste of time and money, I will stand corrected.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 5:50 pm
I’m not sure why it’s such a big Free Speech!!1! deal for you that people should be allowed to lie publicly.

Agreed. Gough Whitlam and many on the Left denied the Cambodian Holocaust while it was happening, and said racist things about Indochinese refugees. There is no statute of limitations on this, and I would lock Gough Whitlam up immediately for what he did. Utter scum, he was.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 5:50 pm
But no, it doesn’t help explain why somebody would use feminine attributes as terms of abuse when responding to blog comments about entirely un-gendered topics.

I was too lazy to go back and find the specific comments that were being referenced, so if it doesn’t help, it may not be as relevant as I thought.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 5:51 pm
Link?

http://www.amnation.com/vfr

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 5:51 pm
Covering yourself in glory today JC.

Go on, call me more names. That’ll prove me wrong if anything will. Why change a winning formula?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 5:52 pm
Hi FBD how ya doing? Do you have a new lady in your life?

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 5:56 pm
As far as ‘harmful’ speech goes, as I understand it the speech must be both false AND harmful. So simple bullshitting is fine, and so is saying something ‘harmful’ but true.

Yes, but you’re fine with “harmful” free speech from the Lying Slapper a few days away from an election and then promptly doing the opposite immediately after that stern undertaking. Gaining an election win under false pretenses isn’t harmful? You magnificent delusional fucking moron. FDB. Stick around as we need another punching bag. The other ones are worn out.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:56 pm
Go on, call me more names

For goodness sake, FDB. First you wail and rale about abuse and now you’re asking for it.

Is this the S&M version of FDB?

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 5:57 pm
Covering yourself in glory today JC.

Not hard, really.

Go on, call me more names.

LOL

That’ll prove me wrong if anything will. Why change a winning formula?

‘sactly.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 5:57 pm
something else to blame Abbott for
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/greens-leader-christine-milne-blames-abbott-for-budget-surplus-imperative/story-fn59niix-1226326997717

NEW Greens leader Christine Milne says Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is to blame for creating an environment where Labor feels it is locked into delivering a budget surplus in the May budget even though economic circumstances have changed.

The Greens believe the Gillard government shouldn’t be rushing to bring the budget back to surplus if it means tough spending cuts and delaying reforms such as the introduction of a universal dental care scheme.

“Everyone in Australia knows if the Prime Minister hadn’t come out and made an emphatic statement in 2009 saying the budget would return to surplus this year on the basis of Treasury modelling about the extent of the growth that was predicted we wouldn’t be in the position we are,” Senator Milne told Network Ten on Sunday.

“But it’s actually Tony Abbott and the Ju-liar community who are responsible for this because it’s a political imperative.”

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 5:58 pm
has any other politician in Australian history ever been so powerful that he can be blamed for everything

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 5:59 pm
Gab remember to put your high heels on before you punish your victims

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 6:02 pm
Bullshit SOB.

Both you and FDB are pansies hiding behind your outrageous outrage that any robust disagreement which does not support your flowery, childlike view of the world are bullies.

The world is cruel and there are always going to be winners and losers. Even in your Utopian world of socialism.

Besides it is only the internet, nobody physically took your lunch money or tackled you too hard. To claim you are being bullied on any blog demonstrates a character which is weak and pathetic.

DavidJ

15 Apr 12 at 6:03 pm
I’m not sure why it’s such a big Free Speech!!1! deal for you that people should be allowed to lie publicly.

There are some libertarians who disagree mildly with the ‘absolute’ free speechers (i.e. you should be able to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre). They’re happy to defend free speech with a caveat that, along with the current standards for defamation, you cannot knowingly mislead other people to their detriment. However the standards for proof of ‘knowingly’ should be extremely high.

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 6:04 pm
Val,Penny Wong was yapping on about Howard this morning,it runs deep

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 6:05 pm
The world is cruel and there are always going to be winners and losers. Even in your Utopian world of socialism.

Even more so. That’s where the least deserving (the bureaucrats, the power junkies, the manipulators) get the lion’s share.

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 6:05 pm
Thanks Fisky!

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 6:08 pm
There are some libertarians who disagree mildly with the ‘absolute’ free speechers (i.e. you should be able to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre). They’re happy to defend free speech with a caveat that, along with the current standards for defamation, you cannot knowingly mislead other people to their detriment. However the standards for proof of ‘knowingly’ should be extremely high.

100% right.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 6:08 pm
If it gets enacted and turns out to be worse than a mere waste of time and money, I will stand corrected.

No you wont as we will never know.

Woolfe

15 Apr 12 at 6:14 pm
Tal; I agree, it runs deep; do they need psychiatric help? Has it become obsessive and if so what does that mean?

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 6:14 pm
You magnificent delusional fucking moron. FDB. Stick around as we need another punching bag. The other ones are worn out.

Ok, so no deliberate attempts at bullying then.

In real life, as on the internet, I make a point of calling bullies out, but only in real life do they then back down and slink off. Perhaps that’s what you guys all mean when you say there’s no such thing as bullying at Catallaxy? That you can get away with it here, when you wouldn’t dare do it “for real”?

Tal – yes, and she’s simply lovely. Thanks for asking.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 6:16 pm
You should be able to yell “Fire” in a crowded theater.

I bloody hate that example, as if it’s the pinnacle of immorality or something. Let’s put it on the table: The worst that can happen is that people will evacuate, which is exactly what will happen if there’s a fire anyway.

If there’s a stampede, that’s not the “fire” yellers fault, that’s the fault of whoever put too many people into an enclosed space.

At any rate, yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre is unlikely to have much effect at all. I’ve been in a theatre where there was a real fire, and the lack of panic was surprising.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 6:17 pm
“But it’s actually Tony Abbott and the Ju-liar community who are responsible for this (call for a budget surplus) because it’s a political imperative.”

Milne is a serious idiot. The “Ju-liar community” is a majority of the Australian population.
Early call: not one of the three Green senators facing re-election next year (Brown’s nominated replacment, Hanson-Young and Ludlum) will be returned; Greens national Senate vote <8% (-1% in the Reps). Thanks, Val.

Tom

15 Apr 12 at 6:19 pm
FDB is right, in that there is such a thing as bullying online, and it does apply when pseudonyms are used. (pseudonyms don’t make people any less real).

However JC is right (in his inimitable way), “bullying” isn’t a useful word. It’s vague, it’s loaded, it implies patterns of behaviour rather than actual instances. I suggest “Abuse” is a more useful descriptor as it has a clearer meaning and instances are less debatable.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 6:20 pm
There are some libertarians who disagree mildly with the ‘absolute’ free speechers (i.e. you should be able to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre). They’re happy to defend free speech with a caveat that, along with the current standards for defamation, you cannot knowingly mislead other people to their detriment. However the standards for proof of ‘knowingly’ should be extremely high.

There are also people who don’t identify as libertarians (if only because of all the retards who do) and agree with that. Although I personally think that the definitions of ‘mislead’ and ‘detriment’ are also wobbly and best worked out via case law.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 6:21 pm
Oh, there we go with the pansification insult.

FBD: there is no explanation necessary other than that it’s what teenage school boys do in the school yard. [Well, until they started to have sensitivity training, I suppose, and boys from private schools started asking if they could date each other at the prom instead of the girls from the private school across the road.]

Anyway, since most males here who use it are probably age 35 and above, my point still stands.

It’s simply that this blog attracts men who act like they never left the school yard. An all boys school yard, at that.

But credit where its due (for once). I think JC did join yesterday in with the criticism that it was irrelevant to be talking about Browns sexual activities in order to criticise him as a politician. A point I had made earlier in the day.

So congratulations to JC. Who will now ruin it somehow.

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 6:21 pm
If there’s a stampede, that’s not the “fire” yellers fault, that’s the fault of whoever put too many people into an enclosed space.

Oh, so you’re an OH&S type in deep cover?

Let the market decide how many people can fit in an enclosed space!

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 6:24 pm
You should be able to yell “Fire” in a crowded theatre.

Personally, I think it’s beyond question that people will use free speech knowingly to the detriment of others for purely malicious purposes at some stage. Furthermore, I’m sure some people will work out a way they cannot be prosecuted for doing it under other law.

But I totally agree the cost of this is lower than putting unreasonable restrictions on free speech.

As such, I’m perfectly happy to have people defending free speech to the level you are advocating, and I’ll support them rather than oppose them.

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 6:25 pm
JC; what? If there’s no-one to argue with, where’s my fun? And Les and probably SoB don’t count since they don’t argue.

FDB, whoever has the power determines who’s right and what’s harmful. Up until recently the right was much, much better at seizing the morality stick to beat the left with. Assuming your side is going to have the Aura of Righteousness (TM) for very long is a mistake.

As for “no such thing as bullying” I really don’t think that the medium allows what I would normally call bullying, since bullying usually entails a power relationship, and all JC is to you is text on a screen. To an adolescent that can still be deadly, but JC can’t force you to read his posts or reply to them and unless you’re under about 20 you really shouldn’t feel it too badly.

I may well be wrong, but that’s the theory.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 6:25 pm
copy of an e mail I received today:

Nolan’s Transport
For those of you who do not know, the Gatton District is located some 100k
west of Brisbane, Nolan’s Transport is one of the biggest employers in the
area, and only last year was given the “Business of the Year” award.
Now read on!
Julia Gillard’s Labor Party and the Greens are going to take us all down
with this Carbon (DIOXIDE) (PLANT FOOD) Tax. We, as Australians, should protest and protest until
we cannot protest any more! This is a real scenario, brought on by Gillard.
Nolan’s Transport, which operates out of Gatton, has been earmarked as one
of Gillard’s 500. This Company has been going for 102 years, is still run
by the family, operates 126 transports and employs 265 people. Gillard has
targeted this Company as one of her 500 ‘guests’ to pay carbon tax. Just
imagine. Last year, this Company was told it put out 144,700 tonnes of
carbon gas. So, 144,700 tonnes x $23 = $3,328,100.00. Yes, that is correct –
3.3 million dollars!!!
Where is Australia headed if companies like this one, (and there are several
much bigger than Nolan’s – LinFox comes to mind) are put out of business?
Our Prime Minister said there would be no extra charges on transport or fuel
What do you call 3.3 million dollars on just one operator?
Any transport Company producing less than 25,000 tonnes of carbon tax pays
nothing. If Nolan’s goes broke or shuts down operations and another 126
replacement transports are put on the road by smaller Companies under the 25
000 tonne limit to take up the slack, then exactly the same amount of carbon
gas will be produced, illustrating the futility of the whole exercise.
Mr. Nolan said in an interview that if he put what the Company was worth
into a bank account, he would make ten times as much in interest as he makes
now, throwing 265 people out of work. We must, as citizens on Australia and
tax payers – not to mention consumers of goods – somehow force Gillard and
her Green and “Independent“ cronies to an election on the issue of Carbon
Tax before July this year to keep this Nation going. If we don’t, this
country will be ruined!
This is just one scenario. What about the other 499 companies that will also
be hit by this ridiculous tax?
Additionally, we must not forget the other smaller companies which will fail
because they depend on these larger companies which are doomed to either
fold or cut back on their work-force.

are the 500 listed anywhere?

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 6:26 pm
DD – I disagree. I’m actually referring to patterns, not instances.

Also, I like the schoolyard connotations. As Steve says, they’re quite apropos.

Although not confined to all-boy’s schools, nor to co-ed. It’s a regrettably universal human trait to engage in bullying.

Sometimes the jokes are worth it, but rarely.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 6:29 pm
JC can’t force you to read his posts or reply to them and unless you’re under about 20 you really shouldn’t feel it too badly

Look, you’ve shown up late so no biggie, but that’s what I’ve been saying all along.

For me, his and others’ attempts at bullying are laughable, and one of the reasons I come here is to laugh at them.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 6:31 pm
Val, if you drop over to the Nolans website, they note that the email is a fake. Even if they don’t support the carbon tax.

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 6:31 pm
FDB, I apologise for the lack of commas.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 6:35 pm
val m, it’s amazing. When we think of individuals using their private motor vehicles, I calculate that roughly 60c out of every dollar they spend on petrol goes to the government (including fuel excise, GST and income tax). Yet in the market for transport, private motor vehicles still rate at over 95% of all trips.

Of the 39c of fuel excise a recent study put 9c going back to transport infrastructure.

Clearly the demand for private transport is largely inelastic and the large taxes are at point where they must be hurting people more than they are doing good.

I imagine businesses must be same. How many will the carbon tax destroy?

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 6:35 pm
How does Avalon in Melbourne go? When I was there in the early 90s Avalon was in the middle of nowhere.

It goes crap. You need to take a cut lunch if you’re heading there from my place (Bogan Central North), whereas it takes 45min to get to Tulla.

nilk

15 Apr 12 at 6:36 pm
it seems Ms Milne is a very strong minded lady, who totally believes in her Green stuff, no questions asked.

She talks tough too. I kinda admire her for that. She’s a bit of a match for Mr Abbott, sort of interesting really.

candy

15 Apr 12 at 6:37 pm
What the left describes as ‘bullying’ is a behaviour perfectly acceptable to them – when they do it to someone else.

It’s a way of trying to gain an edge by trying to hold an interlocutor to a higher standard that they hold themselves to.

Bog-standard lefty tactic.

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 6:39 pm
She will lead the Greens in the way that Stott-Destroyer led the Democrats. With the same outcome.

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 6:39 pm
“She will lead the Greens in the way that Stott-Destroyer led the Democrats. With the same outcome.”

quite possibly, but i admire people who truly believe in their cause with some passion, (like Mr Abbott) and she stands out (so far).

candy

15 Apr 12 at 6:44 pm
Oh, so you’re an OH&S type in deep cover?

Let the market decide how many people can fit in an enclosed space!

smart-arse.

Fire regulations are good regulations, so on that score I guess I am an OH&S type.

I suggest you (or anyone) run an experiment and go to theatres, nightclubs, cinemas, etc, yell “Fire” and see what happens. I’ll tell you right now what will happen: nothing will happen, other than you getting escorted off the premises.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 6:44 pm
If I may be so bold Candy: Not ur best sh1t-stirring effort.

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 6:49 pm
So let me get this right. Milne, the superbrain of the Greens, sez it’s all Abbott’s fault that Gillard is insisting they will deliver a surplus?

What moronic logic is that?

Who’s was it to go the surplus?
Gillard.

Why did they decide a surplus was a great idea?
Because they are economic and fiscal dummies.

And now that they realise they’re not going to deliver a surplus – for longer than one day – they need to blame someone for their stupidity.

In comes the useful idiot Milne.

Oh and when are they going to realise Australia’s credit card is going to reach the limit in about a month?

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 6:49 pm
but i admire people who truly believe in their cause with some passion,

Hitler? Mao? Hussein?

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 6:53 pm
The goose and the laybore pardee have two chances of delivering a surplus in 2012-13, Yabbott or no Yabbott.

Buckley’s and none.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 6:53 pm
I forgot FDB, you are a tough guy when you are in a fish and chip shop, in a country town, witnessing racism by a local, who is shirtless and covered in tattoos. You loudly confront this dirtbag and he slinks away. You are the ballsy unsung hero. Awesome.

Some would ask if a “for real” tough guy would be bragging about this heroic act on an internet blog, whilst covered in a cloak on anonymity?

Personally, I say you are just one modest dude.

DavidJ

15 Apr 12 at 6:54 pm
“If I may be so bold Candy: Not ur best sh1t-stirring effort.”

you are bold and charming, JamesK, be happy.

candy

15 Apr 12 at 6:55 pm
… that’s what I’ve been saying all along.

effs, you started this entire meme about bullying BTW, condemning it and yet then claiming that it didn’t affect you, no siree.

Conflicted, we much?

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 6:56 pm
Hey FDB,it’s jumpy.
I’m doing a beer batter for some strips of chicken breast( deep fry),what herbal condiments would you suggest?

(this is not a smart arse question)

Jumpnmcar

15 Apr 12 at 6:57 pm
” Hitler? Mao? Hussein? ”
i’m a simple soul who knows nothing of history, Gab, xxx

candy

15 Apr 12 at 6:58 pm
Thanks Steve, I’ve sent an e mail back to the person from whom I received it

But are the 500 biggest pollooters listed somewhere?

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 6:58 pm
As I understand it, it’s about not being allowed to repeatedly say false things in a public forum without issuing a correction when they are shown to be false.

I’m not sure why it’s such a big Free Speech!!1! deal for you that people should be allowed to lie publicly.

You make it sound so simple, like the truth is something one can conveniently dial up when needed, or that’s carved in stone somewhere. In the real world what is false and what isn’t can be highly contentious – finding the truth can itself require robust discussion. An obvious example would be establishing what is true when it comes to the temperature record of the last 100/1,000/etc years, say.

Preventing the publishing of ‘falsehoods’ sounds nice on paper but its effect will be that truth that has survived the crucible of debate and discussion will increasingly be exchanged for officially accepted ‘facts’.

Andreas

15 Apr 12 at 6:59 pm
Rubbish, Candy. Your acting dumb (at least i assume you are acting) is no defense for a silly vacuous statement.

You give females a bad name.

Hugs and kisses.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:00 pm
FDB, I apologise for the lack of commas.

If you’re making a some oblique reference here I don’t get it. If you’re just mocking my overuse of commas then fair enough. I overuse them.

Except in that last para where I consciously avoided two. And this one where I conscously avoided another two.

I genuinely thank you for the reminder about this, my biggest gramatical failing. [I'm standing by that last one]

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:03 pm
Milne.

Is there anyone who thinks this pursed-lipped hectoring greentard wowser is capable of anything useful?

Her performance on the box today after Bolt indicated she has zero grip on reality and a the sort of worldview normally found in a fever dream.

As near as i could make out, her ‘economic policy’ consists of ‘completely stop all mining, manufacturing, agriculture and energy industry activity via taxing them to death and then new green industries will magically appear to replace them.’

All while maintaining a madeyed unblinking stare at the camera and speaking in the hectoring tone of a drug-addled schoolmarm.

She’s a freaking fruitloop.

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 7:04 pm
I overuse them.

Comma bully.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:04 pm
Candy

please stop trolling.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 7:05 pm
No, FDB, I just realised I was using scantily-punctuated run-on sentences. I blame “kelly liddle”.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 7:05 pm
Milne. May she be allowed to speak long and often and receive massive amounts of media coverage.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:06 pm
Amen

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 7:07 pm
well, with an extra ‘m’ I am…

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:07 pm
As near as i could make out, her ‘economic policy’ consists of ‘completely stop all mining, manufacturing, agriculture and energy industry activity via taxing them to death and then new green industries will magically appear to replace them.’

All while maintaining a madeyed unblinking stare at the camera and speaking in the hectoring tone of a drug-addled schoolmarm.

She’s a freaking fruitloop.

She is, then, the perfect expression of that particular and modern brand of environmentalism that has taken hold amongst the upper middle class.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 7:08 pm
Yeah Gab, the limit, $250 (remember that youtube where Rudd couldn’t say ‘billion’)

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 7:09 pm
here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJFL6ZUe-fI

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 7:10 pm
well, with an extra ‘m’ I am…

oh, okay: commma bully.

——————————–

So what happens once the credit limit is exceeded? Extend the limit? Go for the trillion?

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:12 pm
Rabz – read the thread. It will help you to understand how wrong you are.

But don’t thank me for the helpful advice, and certainly don’t actually follow it, just abuse me some more without knowing what anyone is talking about.

Do your thing, in other words.

Wreckage – in any case, thanks for inadvertently reminding me about my overuse of commas!

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:12 pm
Jumpy, from memory FBD has some great cooking tips as does Mark50

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:12 pm
I can’t believe an afternoon has been whiled-away on talk of bullying here at the Cat. Well, I suppose I can. HMS Dawkins sunk off South Head. The sun very likely setting on the Greens. Aftershocks following the disaster loss in Queensland to the ALP. Another national poll predicting electoral disaster for the ALP nationally. And so on. Lefty panhandling, as CL would say.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:13 pm
Yes SOB, a pansy is someone who purports to be utterly offended by another’s remarks (in your case Mk50), who rather than confront this person, would choose to leave the pub/ bar if this said person entered, rather than take a stand, rather than confront them, rather than speak their mind and then be willing to deal with the consequences of their words…

As the hard man FDB says, slink off.

Yes, pansy is a very apt to description of you, despite your outraged level of indignation.

DavidJ

15 Apr 12 at 7:13 pm
Correction: disastrous loss in Queensland for the ALP.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:14 pm
Ah well, if they can raise the standards of discourse here, that will be one victory, however small.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 7:14 pm
Well, I suppose I can. HMS Dawkins sunk off South Head. The sun very likely setting on the Greens. Aftershocks following the disaster loss in Queensland to the ALP. Another national poll predicting electoral disaster for the ALP nationally.

What a nice week.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 7:16 pm
She is, then, the perfect expression of that particular and modern brand of environmentalism that has taken hold amongst the upper middle class.

She’s prissy petit-bourgeoisie personified – stop insulting the upper middle class.

I am so looking forward to these utterly insane harridans (with beta boy ant helplessly squealing on the sidelines) tearing themselves to shreds.

Thanks, festering zombie, even more entertainment!

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 7:16 pm
NEW Greens leader Christine Milne says Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is to blame for creating an environment where Labor feels it is locked into delivering a budget surplus in the May budget even though economic circumstances have changed.

Ahahahahahaha.

“But it’s actually Tony Abbott and the Ju-liar community who are responsible for this (call for a budget surplus) because it’s a political imperative.”

Ahahahahahaha.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 7:17 pm
lol monumentally awesome loss in QLD for ALP.

Do you remember where you were/what you were doing when the QLD ALP was gutted, filleted and deep fried?

It’s one of those moments in life.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:18 pm
jumpy, I’ve seen enough of you at LP to know that you don’t do smartarsery or vexatious crap anywhere near as often as you were accused of it.

If it’s not too late, and if you’ve got some, coriander and lime is what I’m putting on the (albeit skinless and chargrilled) chicken I’m about to make.

Minced garlic, lime juice and zest, fresh coriander, oil, salt and a bit of fish sauce, all smashed up together, and basted on as it grills. But you could just drizzle same over the fried bits if you’re as tolerant of raw garlic as we all ought to be.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:18 pm
What a nice week.

wreckage, completely agree. Topped off with a gloriously sunny and warm afternoon here in Melbourne and a great win by the Hawkers. My cockles have been well and truly warmed.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:19 pm
I think the bullying discussion started when m0nty had a giant meltdown. I describe it as such because he just suddenly got very hurt and sad, which is a bit worrying. He’s seemed quite impervious to the BS until recently.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 7:19 pm
Gab, stop supply? Be nice wouldn’t it

val majkus

15 Apr 12 at 7:19 pm
Who’s doing the frock watch for the logies?

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:20 pm
She’s a freaking fruitloop.

No doubt.

I’m still considering which of your suggestions as to why Brown quit is the most valid.

I’m leaning toward he was pushed because after 20 years of sycophantically reporting the clown, his “Earthian” speech let the cat out of the bag and the MSM couldn’t be trusted to hide his moronic ideas any longer and the Greens knew it. He didn’t fight it because he could see the writing on the wall – losing 13% in Queensland election – so was happy to jump ship.

As far as I can see and as batty as Milne is, she could actually be the of them. That being the case, the Greens will exit stage left quicker than the Democrats.

The more Milne speaks, the quicker they will go.

jupes

15 Apr 12 at 7:20 pm
It will help you to understand how wrong you are.

NO, as usual, you are lying.

I read the thread and stand by my original comment.

Do not whine about behaviour you supposedly strenuously object to and then claim that it doesn’t affect you.

You wouldn’t be whining about it in the first place if it didn’t.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 7:21 pm
Well I’m very surprised to see Steve come out against ‘bullying,’ and with references to the school playground! We all recall bullying apologist Steve’s passionate abhorence when this boy defended himself.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 7:21 pm
Who’s doing the frock watch for the logies?

Federal Cabinet – they are trying to pick up tips on how to appear manly.

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 7:22 pm
Monty’s alright like Joe says he’s a red- headed step kid

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:22 pm
I can’t understand why anyone cares about the Logies, or why anyone watches it. It’s nice that they have industry awards but can’t they go and just eat finger food, get pissed and have some speeches without broadcasting it across the country? That’s what other industries do.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 7:23 pm
Well I’m very surprised to see Steve come out

FTFY, CL!

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 7:23 pm
I wish them luck ,Mark

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:23 pm
For deep fried chicken I’d consider a little garlic powder, a little onion powder, a little salt, and a tiny bit of pepper. It’s more of a fast-food sort of a thing than the sophisticated and delicious suggestion of lime and fish sauce.

Don’t spill that stuff. Fish sauce is… you know, there’s no analogy. Things can be compared in potency to fish sauce, but not the other way round.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 7:24 pm
Good point, CL. He was dead against Casey defending himself and was most upset that nobody agreed with him. Steve had the most glorious of meltdowns evah. Better than Chernobyl. Even continued to rage and wail on his blog. For days. The fallout was magnificent.

Good times.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:24 pm
Tal

Jumpy, from memory FBD has some great cooking tips as does Mark50

True,but too late, was in a rush and salt,paprika powder and pepper won the day.

Jumpnmcar

15 Apr 12 at 7:24 pm
I think the bullying discussion started when m0nty had a giant meltdown. I describe it as such because he just suddenly got very hurt and sad, which is a bit worrying. He’s seemed quite impervious to the BS until recently.

I mustn’t have been around at the time. m0nty seemed like an okay guy; just misguided on some things.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 7:25 pm
You wouldn’t be whining about it in the first place if it didn’t.

As the thread shows, I was merely responding to denials of bullying, by pointing out obvious examples of bullying.

As the thread (and a longish history here) shows, I am impervious to the hamfisted attempts at bullying so obviously and regularly on display here.

Suck it up, bully.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:25 pm
wreckage, yes, I noticed the same thing. But m0nty has been goading people like this for at least a year so I’m not surprised it escalated this week (although the personal remarks about appearance were a bit much). A long while back I simply decided to ignore him unless he addressed me directly.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:26 pm
Damn, should refresh more often.

Jumpnmcar

15 Apr 12 at 7:26 pm
Daddy,you have to get your fashion tips from the red carpet / scarc

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:27 pm
I’ve been a resident contrarian at various websites in the past (the word “Troll” has been used to describe me more than once) and having been on the receiving end, I can tell you that the abuse does get to you.

There was one website in particular I would like to have continued participating at, as the principle subject matter wasn’t politics; but I just couldn’t handle the aggravation and stress in the end. I had stalkers that would monitor and jump in on me, every time I commented, even if it was just a totally banal, innocuous, or humorous comment.
Sure, I could take them on but there’s a cost in doing so.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 7:30 pm
Gab, didn’t that little meltdown lead to his temporary departure whereupon he continued the war against the Cat at his own blog.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:31 pm
Here you go, Tal. Natarsha Belling was simply stunning!

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:31 pm
Some would ask if a “for real” tough guy would be bragging about this heroic act on an internet blog, whilst covered in a cloak on anonymity?

Oh, I missed that DavidJ.

So you’re bragging about calling me a liar under the cloak of anonymity? Way to go, tough guy!

Seriously though, I don’t ‘tolerate’ bullies. Logically, I don’t think there is any such thing as tolerating bullies. You let them win or you make them lose.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:31 pm
Sounds nice Jumpy
FBD,hey great to hear about your lady friend
Dover, how are you going in the relationship department?

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:32 pm
I had stalkers that would monitor and jump in on me, every time I commented, even if it was just a totally banal, innocuous, or humorous comment.

Yeah that kind of crap is just pollution. I think I see what you mean.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 7:32 pm
I reckon the real one to watch is Lee of the KGB. She’s been running a maskirovka for two decades as the old hardline communists of the ACP infiltrated and took over the NSW Greens.

her problem now is how to keep the bong-addled airheads of da Greens in a nice subservient role as useful idiots while taking over the top echelons and implementing more of her stalinist agenda.

She’s been able to pull the wool over the eyes of the cretinously gullible like Brown and Milne for years by remaining in the deeps. But now she’s swimming very close to the surface indeed and can only get closer to the surface.

it’s a new game and her KGB controller is not there to help her any more.

Now she’s reliant on her native wit and her skills as a stalinist apparatchiki. This is going to be VERY interesting to watch. We’ve never had a KGB-trained stalinist in the Senate before.

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 7:33 pm
Suck it up, bully.

You protesteth too much, beta boy.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 7:33 pm
temporary departure

Yes, Dover, but somehow he managed to get a visa and was allowed back in.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:33 pm
I had stalkers that would monitor and jump in on me, every time I commented, even if it was just a totally banal, innocuous, or humorous comment.
Sure, I could take them on but there’s a cost in doing so.

Aww…

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:35 pm
Good, Tal, very good. Unfortunately, she’s half a world away in NY pursuing her dream. But I may have some news for you in the not too distant future.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:36 pm
I agree Gab just stunning

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:36 pm
Damn Sinc and his open borders policy.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:38 pm
Oh Dover you sweetie

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:39 pm
But I may have some news for you in the not too distant future.

Oooooh. How long must we wait, Dover, before you tell us the news? Just ballpark figure.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:39 pm
Gab – my good friend Tim Wilson wasn’t in those photos. You should keep an eye out for him.

Sinclair Davidson

15 Apr 12 at 7:39 pm
June/ July; I’ll be in NY for at least a month.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 7:40 pm
Thanks for the heads-up, Sinclair. Tim’s real cute.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:41 pm
effs’ new ‘goilfriend’…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 7:42 pm
Oh jeez, is the single white male cat owner still going on about de Bully. FFS FDB, give us a break from that please. It goes through one ear and through the other.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 7:42 pm
C’mon FDB, rather than point out examples of what you consider to be bullying, define it for all.

Set the bar.

That way when the line is crossed everyone understands. You know, then it is clearly just a Act away, the future Regulations can deal with pesky matters missed by the catch all Act.

Our Utopia can be a little closer, or at least lawfully punishable if disobeyed.

Make bullying history.

DavidJ

15 Apr 12 at 7:43 pm
Wish you the best Dover. So about 2 months min and 3 months max before we know. I can deal with that.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:43 pm
I reckon the real one to watch is Lee of the KGB.

Definitely. More power to her. Let’s hope she sucks in the truly idiotic SHY to help her gain more power. That pair would end the Greens in one election if they were in charge.

If we had a patriotic press KGB Lee wouldn’t be sitting in the senate now.

jupes

15 Apr 12 at 7:45 pm
She’s a freaking fruitloop.

Tubbsie? She’s the intellectual lioness of the senate. Possibly the best mind the nation has ever seen grave the red well.

“A futurist” is how the Dog described. “A visionary and a futurist”.

FFS.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 7:47 pm
I reckon the real one to watch is Lee of the KGB.

I don’t think so. She’s has no redeeming qualities about her. You see her in person, hear in that droning soviet trained apparatchik voice of hers and you immediately begin to despise her.

Listen to her next time she pronounces “nafink”. Nafink! She sounds kind of semi-retarded.

But hey, let me take it back. She would be a great leader ‘off’ the pardy.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 7:51 pm
Good news Dover, she sounds like a nice person and comes from a good family,all the best

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 7:54 pm
C’mon FDB, rather than point out examples of what you consider to be bullying, define it for all

I repeat, a-fucking-gain, I have been responding to denials of bullying behaviour here, and repeatedly asking for the definition of ‘bullying’ on which those denials are based. So far, only crickets have responded to the latter.

Literally NOBODY is prepared to advance a definition of bullying which absolves typical Catallaxy thread behaviour of the accusation.

I have pointed to activity which fits my, and the dictionary’s, definition of bullying behaviour.

Do you have anything to say about any of that?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 7:55 pm
First we had the redneck cat opening the freezer door.

Now for some refinement from a higher order catemplation.

Hahaha! Great video, Gab. Though in my typical contrarian redneck way I can’t help but suggest that if your sophisticated-but-bored Eurocat were to be a little more of a self-starter and learn how to, saaaaay, open the fridge door and suchlike, he might not suffer such existential ennui.

Not bullying! Just a friendly suggestion

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 7:55 pm
Oh yeah, Abbott the homophobe:

It was one of the relatively rare moments on Q&A when something unpredictable happens and the audience starts laughing rather than responding in factional blocs.

What was funniest about the incident was the sudden role reversal. The most politically correct male presenter on ABC television was trying to convict a right-wing Catholic opposition leader of homophobia. But instead of it being an open-and-shut case, Abbott pleaded no case to answer and made it clear that if anyone was uncomfortable in his own skin, it was Jones.

As the Sydney Institute’s Gerard Henderson noted at the time, it was also surprising that so experienced a journalist should have been unwilling to let the facts get in the way of his presuppositions, given that Abbott’s friendships with Kirby and with me had been widely known and a matter of public record since 1994.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/tony-abbott-is-not-the-messiah-hes-a-believer-who-stands-by-his-sibling/story-e6frg7ko-1226325188557

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:55 pm
“A futurist”

A “post futurist” more like…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 7:56 pm
The one from QLD is actually really cute. She could actually have me voting slime if she was in my electorate…Larissa Waters.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 7:56 pm
Not bullying

No you’re lying.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:57 pm
Do you have anything to say about any of that?

Unbunch your panties and toughen up, FFS!

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 7:57 pm
Literally NOBODY is prepared to advance a definition of bullying which absolves typical Catallaxy thread behaviour of the accusation.

I’ll have a crack.

It is impossible to bully someone posting anonymously.

jupes

15 Apr 12 at 7:57 pm
I have been responding to denials of bullying behaviour here, and repeatedly asking for the definition of ‘bullying’ on which those denials are based. So far, only crickets have responded to the latter.

Literally NOBODY is prepared to advance a definition of bullying which absolves typical Catallaxy thread behaviour of the accusation.

You know what FDB… so what and if you don’t like the site, fuck off and simply don’t return here.

There’s plenty of other fodder around.

Up to you.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 7:58 pm
Actually, Spot, your cat is rightwinger – wants to feed himself, waits for no handout, gets on and gets the job done. Achieves his goal.

My cat represents the luvvies.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 7:59 pm
Joe you really have to curb this sexist attitude of yours,it’s unbecoming

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 8:01 pm
I’m plenty tough Rabz.

It’s not me I’m worried about.

It’s not even the poor fools who wander in here and are chased away by the lack of civility. Although the proprietors of an allegedly ‘tolerant of dissent’ website ought to be.

My problem is that the attempted bullies here, nae doubt kings among men though they be, can’t justify their bullying behaviour as anything but bullying behaviour.

You are one of them, so suck it up.

If you ever find yourself with an actual argument against something I’ve actually said, let’s talk again, shall we?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 8:04 pm
Yeah you know I never really got the”it’s a safe place” or a “friendly place” concept, folks fight here it’s what it is

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 8:07 pm
Oxford Dictionary: Bully
noun (plural bullies)

* a person who uses strength or influence to harm or intimidate those who are weaker

verb (bullies, bullying, bullied)
[with object]

* use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force them to do something

Origin:

mid 16th century: probably from Middle Dutch boele ‘lover’. Original use was as a term of endearment applied to either sex; it later became a familiar form of address to a male friend. The current sense dates from the late 17th century

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 8:08 pm
Real question FBD,why bother posting here?

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 8:09 pm
As the thread shows, I was merely responding to denials of bullying, by pointing out obvious examples of bullying.

Possibly the sneakiest, most dishonest weasel I’ve come across in the blogosphere. You’re attempting to force Cat readers to accept the pinko definitions of the language you’re using. And you’re attempting to misuse a particularly pathetic style of authority projection …. “obvious examples of bullying”. Yeah, right.
What the fuck are you doing here, anyway? Trying to collect war stories about your heroism for whichever red zombie sewer you normally live in?
Some sort of weirdo wanting to show up in a place where everyone loathes you and you’re not welcome. Why are you here, troll? Are you being paid or working for favours?

Tom

15 Apr 12 at 8:10 pm
JC, stop using your superior strength to intimidate those who are weaker than you.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 8:11 pm
You are one of them, so suck it up.

And you are demonstrating beyond any doubt the fact you feel bullied, by your responses.

I’m testing you effs – and sad to say, you’re failing big time.

Bullying is all in the mind.

It only succeeds if there’s a kernel of truth in the allegations being made.

No one gets physically hurt here.

I learnt as a pup, the ol’ saying about sticks and stones.

Rodent’s backsayeedah, Squire.

Not giving one.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:14 pm
My cat represents the luvvies.

Fluffier & more exquisitely-groomed; more sophisticated voice; spends his days overthinking things; drips hipster ennui; totes incapable of looking after himself…

You might be on to something.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 8:14 pm
Rednecks, on the other hand…

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 8:15 pm
Spot, I canna access the vid.

But have a look at this clever dog. And you can tell he just loves it!

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 8:19 pm
We are all, more or less, guilty of bullying given the above definitions.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 8:19 pm
We are all, more or less, guilty of bullying given the above definitions.

I’m not.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:20 pm
Then Rabz, you’ re trying hard enough

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 8:26 pm
Val
The email is false, google Nolan’s Transport and check their disclaimer.
Though they are against the tax, they are not one of the 500 and they won’t have to contribute anywhere near what the email says they will.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 8:27 pm
Then Rabz, you’re trying hard enough

Evidently not, Tal…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:27 pm
Tom:

Possibly the sneakiest, most dishonest weasel I’ve come across in the blogosphere.

Can you point to any dishonesty?

You’re attempting to force Cat readers to accept the pinko definitions of the language you’re using.

No. If you disagree, explain how and why, and we can have a conversation.

And you’re attempting to misuse a particularly pathetic style of authority projection …. “obvious examples of bullying”. Yeah, right.

See above.

What the fuck are you doing here, anyway?

Whatever I like. It’s a libertarian site, don’tcha know?

Trying to collect war stories about your heroism for whichever red zombie sewer you normally live in?

Why would you even ask such a thing, after reading my comments? Oh wait…

Some sort of weirdo wanting to show up in a place where everyone loathes you and you’re not welcome. Why are you here, troll? Are you being paid or working for favours?

I’ve been here a lot longer than you Tom.

I remember when dissent was (comparatively) welcome here.

I remember the site’s founder, Jason Soon, emailing me to apologise for abuse I’d received here and encouraging me not to leave.

You are obviously someone who cannot handle the idea of heterodoxy.

When I came here first, that noun was in the banner.

But back then, there were way fewer retards.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 8:29 pm
Sorry Gabs – Youtube may work better.

Stupid National Geographic won’t make Rocket City Rednecks available outside the US… which means that people who might otherwise have obtained it legally may be tempted to turn to the torrents. Which would be evil and wrong and I am in no way suggesting that.

If you have a US account for Amazon or iTunes you’re allowed to download it, but Aussie accounts are blocked. Whoever works a lot of publishers’ distribution rights needs to EVOLVE already.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 8:30 pm
We are all, more or less, guilty of bullying given the above definitions.

Exactly.

So why the denials?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 8:31 pm
Though they are against the tax, they are not one of the 500 and they won’t have to contribute anywhere near what the email says they will.

What a fabulous own goal.

Get ready for a lobotomised lamestream meeja attack on Nolans, who’ll be caught in the confected hysteria.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:32 pm
Sooo why post here FDB?

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 8:34 pm
So why the denials?

Because, for the last freaking time, I don’t bully commenters on this blog, you precious li’l petal.

Hence the entirely valid denial.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:34 pm
It’s one of those moments in life.

Not quite the Neil Armstrong on the moon moment but it ranks up there Gab.
Don’t worry you will get a ALP wipe out experience very soon.

Splatacrobat

15 Apr 12 at 8:35 pm
Thanks, Spot, found it. Some serious AL accents there.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 8:35 pm
I remember the site’s founder, Jason Soon, emailing me to apologise for abuse I’d received here and encouraging me not to leave.

That was a very specific set of circumstances and the other individual involved remains banned.

Sinclair Davidson

15 Apr 12 at 8:37 pm
Sooo why post here FDB?

His spiritual ‘ome was recently extincted and he’s distraught, the poor li’l thang.

So he drops in here looking for company and the odd argument or ten…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:38 pm
I don’t think it will be to the same magnitude as the QLD 2225 megaton blast, Splat. But I’ll be happy to see them trounced. Champagne already chilling.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 8:38 pm
Rednecks, on the other hand…

I got pipped at the post for a couple of years in Hunstville last year. Still hoping for a stint over there end of next year. That culture suits me to a tee.

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 8:38 pm
That dog does look like he’s having fun! Good for his owners.

Ben Folds: My Dog

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 8:39 pm
The meek shall inherit the earth…….if thats okay with the rest of you?

Splatacrobat

15 Apr 12 at 8:40 pm
“I reckon the real one to watch is Lee of the KGB.”

Absolutely not.
she’s an embarrassment to Australia.

candy

15 Apr 12 at 8:41 pm
Sooo why post here FDB?

It is a piece of theatre of the absurd.

On the one hand he argues it is possible to be “bullied” online…

…while on the other hand showing that it is impossible for someone to be “bullied” when you have self confidence and don’t hang your own self-esteem upon the approval of others.

Token

15 Apr 12 at 8:42 pm
But back then, there were way fewer retards.

That’s hatespeech – you vile li’l hypocrite.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:43 pm
That culture suits me to a tee.

Me too. I want to go to Space Camp when I grow up

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 8:44 pm
Just this once Splat
Rabz FBD is ok really,he needs a slap but he’s ok

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 8:45 pm
she’s an embarrassment to Australia.

She’s an embarrassment to the late unlamented soviet unionionion as well.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:46 pm
I want to go to Space Camp when I grow up

Me too! And then I want to be an astronaut.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 8:46 pm
On the one hand he argues it is possible to be “bullied” online…

He’s correct on that point.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 8:47 pm
Now you’re just being silly!

John Mc

15 Apr 12 at 8:47 pm
Rabz FBD is ok really

Tal – I know that, just being a kitten with a ball of wool so to speak…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:47 pm
Rabz FBD is ok really

Tal – I know that, just being a kitten with a ball of wool so to speak…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:48 pm
He’s correct on that point.

Well maybe if you are a 13 year old girl.

jupes

15 Apr 12 at 8:50 pm
Has everyone had a few too many sherbets tonite??

This is one of the weirder open threads.

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 8:51 pm
This one time, at Space Camp…

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 8:52 pm
Rabs
The email has been circulating for a few weeks, I received it from Merilyn W. ages ago.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 8:54 pm
“I reckon the real one to watch is Lee of the KGB.”

Lee aka Irma Bunt? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwTI-ZWoUB4“>

Splatacrobat

15 Apr 12 at 8:55 pm
Well maybe if you are a 13 year old girl.

Don’t be a fuckwit.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 8:57 pm
it is possible to be “bullied” online

OK, I’m going to hate myself for saying this, but it’s time for some post futurist deconstructivism on the alleged problem of online bullying in the political blogosphere paradigm (pauses for breath).

The term ‘bullying’ implies a ‘power imbalance’ – the bully has the power, the bullied doesn’t.

Online, the balance shifts – the bullied can fight back, giving as good as they get, if not piling on even more.

So use it people – you’re only bullied if you can’t fight back.

Never shrink, never shirk, never let your poor pwecious hurty feewings get the better of you.

We’re not all cowering vassals of the state and its stupid lard laden PC enforcers yet.

We are free men and women, born under the Southern Cross.

Fight back and fight hard!

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 8:57 pm
His spiritual ‘ome was recently extincted and he’s distraught, the poor li’l thang.

So he drops in here looking for company and the odd argument or ten…

Yeah, cos I’ve never been here before. Say, 5 years before you.

Just blew in now…

Token, your comment indicates that you don’t understand the concept of bullying. Or that if you do, you’re hiding it well.

To re-cap…

I cannot be bullied. I will shove it right back in the bully’s face and ask if that’s all s/he’s got. [Online at least - clearly I'll make exceptions for large and/or armed people in dark alleys etc - but even in person I wouldn't recommend trying your luck.]

However, and uniquely, online interaction gives people a space for bullying that they would never dare inhabit in the real world.

As Daddy Dave says, anonymity doesn’t prevent bullying. I would go further and say it enables bullying by people who for whatever reason don’t quite feel up to doing it in real life.

If I were a misogynist and a homophobe, I’d have a ready term to describe such folk, but as a decent person I’m struggling…

Let’s settle with “weak as piss losers” for now.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 8:57 pm
Mark this is how the Sunday night open thread used to be,We had culcha and stuff,grab a drink

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 8:58 pm
“You give females a bad name.”

bit hurtful, Gab. I’m trying to stick up for Ms Milne who’s thrust into a position of some importance.

as far as I can see, Ms Milne is not the lying type with a dubious past.

give her a go. Greens policies are distressing, that’s not the issue at all.

candy

15 Apr 12 at 8:58 pm
Has everyone had a few too many sherbets tonite??

Shut up, you bully.

[j/k]

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 8:59 pm
Splatacrobat,I think it’s bedtime fir the meek

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 9:01 pm
sure, Candy, we will give her a go, in that everyone gets judged on their merits, and on their actions and words. Many of us don’t hold high hopes for her…

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 9:02 pm
If I were a misogynist and a homophobe

Yet you’re happy to call people retards, aren’t you?

I’d posit you’re also both of the archetypes in the blockquote above, given what I’ve already pointed out.

You’ll just try to be a lot more circumspect about letting on, hence the projection in the BQ.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:03 pm
Shut up, you bully.

That’s so bullying I could cry… under the broader definition of bullying. After all, you tried to make him do something.

wreckage

15 Apr 12 at 9:03 pm
Candy, why should we give her a go ,real question,

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 9:04 pm
Don’t be a fuckwit.

OK.

But what hope is there for any society populated by adults who can be bullied posting as anonymous bloggers?

How utterly spineless can you get?

jupes

15 Apr 12 at 9:05 pm
Shut up, you bully.

[j/k]

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 9:06 pm
Say, 5 years before you

Whooooaaaa – a pecking order call to authoritah!

effs, just remarking on the fact that you’d dumped the Cat for the lavatory and it didn’t quite work out.

And now you’re back like the proverbial prodigal.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:08 pm
FBD do you think The Cat is the only blog that allows this misrepresentation ?

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 9:08 pm
But back then, there were way fewer retards.

See how the beta male leftist works?

He’ll spend 8 hours wearing the place down, relentlessly trying to convince everyone that they’re bullies, racists, sexists etc according to his “progressive” all inclusive definitions.

He places himself above the fray.

Then, when exhausted from defending against his pushy, manipulative nonsensical rantings he strikes, calling everyone “retards”.

Pretty good troll action FDB: 6 / 10

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 9:09 pm
That’s so bullying I could cry… under the broader definition of bullying.

You called me a bully for calling someone out for bullying.

I feel meta-bullied.

That’s INAPPROPRIATE.

Make him stop, Sinc.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 9:09 pm
I freely admit Rabz that because of my audience the terms which sprang to mind were “pussy” and “fag”.

I have standards that will occasionally preclude my rule for speaking to my audience in terms they will most readily understand, and this was one of those occasions.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 9:10 pm
“Candy, why should we give her a go,real question,”

They be third party and being respectful means we should listen to them ‘cos they have 10 percent of vote.
A 10 percent is meaningful, 10 percent of Australians have something they want need to say about Autralia and future.

you be so nice Tal,

candy

15 Apr 12 at 9:10 pm
The email has been circulating for a few weeks, I received it from Merilyn W. ages ago.

kae – wasn’t aware of that – just hoping we’d finally unearthed one of those 500 mythical “big palloodahs”.

Bugger…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:10 pm
Meta-bullied?

Hmm. Wonder what the karma deficit is for meta-bullying?

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 9:10 pm
Jupes, actually I have to admit something. I called you a fuckwit, in part, to get an emotional reaction… in order to demonstrate a point. (also because I disagreed with you) As I said upthread, FDB’s kind of right, but the word “bullying” isn’t really helpful.

Some adults are more tough-minded than others.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 9:11 pm
Make him stop, Sinc.

Listen, Sinclair has kids of his own, teaches kids all day, and now you want him to sort out the kiddie squabbles on the Cat. Have a heart.

Poor Sinclair.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 9:13 pm
My meta-dogma likes chasing meta-karmas.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 9:13 pm
Some adults are more tough-minded than others.

It used to be that the great majority of adults were tough minded. Now we have adults bullied while posting anonymously online.

What a weak society we have become.

jupes

15 Apr 12 at 9:14 pm
So what have we learned for 2012?

Bullying.

It’s the new “death threat.”

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 9:15 pm
US Preshizzle (Paco ™) Karl Marx Hussein Odumbugger makes a power grab to overturn US state control over their own shale gas resources.

If true, this is going to kick off a legal firestorm in the US.

Mk50 of Brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 9:16 pm
FBD do you think The Cat is the only blog that allows this misrepresentation ?

I don’t know what you mean Tal. What misrepresentation?

Also, it’s the ‘d’ before the ‘b’ – but no biggie.

effs, just remarking on the fact that you’d dumped the Cat for the lavatory and it didn’t quite work out.

Nah, I was there for a while before I first came here, on the strength of some Jason Soon comment I can’t recall now. Probably lost in the server crash of ’07 anyway.

It’s all so long ago now, when relatively lighthearted banter used to bounce from Left to Right, while still permitting actual deep discussion of actual issues.

Gone but not forgotten.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 9:17 pm
…my rule for speaking to my audience…

How privileged we are tonight to be in your audience. Next you’ll start referring to yourself in the third person.

Tom

15 Apr 12 at 9:18 pm
Entrepreneur and capitalist of the future.

9 year old Caine Monroy, who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto parts store, is about to have the best day of his life.

Dear USA

Please grow more kids like Caine and less like Obama.

Ta.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 9:18 pm
It’s the new “death threat.”

Quite so.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 9:18 pm
True Jupes true

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 9:19 pm
I freely admit Rabz that because of my audience the terms which sprang to mind were “pussy” and “fag”.

Oh effs, for the last time, what part of “we can’t be bullied” (online) are you not getting?

Do your worst, FFS, we’ll live, unbloodied and unbowed.

Just don’t whine about the ordure you cop shortly afterwards…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:19 pm
It used to be that the great majority of adults were tough minded. Now we have adults bullied while posting anonymously online.

What a weak society we have become.

Worth repeating.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 9:21 pm
“How privileged we are tonight to be in your audience. Next you’ll start referring to yourself in the third person.”

My audience is the people that can hear me, Tom. Nothing grandiose about it. I’m fully aware it’s just a bunch of folks on the internet.

Would you have preferred “my readers”?

“You douchebags”?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 9:24 pm
“we have adults bullied while posting anonymously online:”

kids call the whole thing “hate blogging”and understand some older people carry on with bullying on line over various issues including political. kids notice.

candy

15 Apr 12 at 9:26 pm
what part of “we can’t be bullied” (online) are you not getting?

I’m “getting” all of it, and disagreeing.

What’s your counterargument, if it goes beyond mere assertion?

Actually, take it up with Daddy Dave.

I’m bored again.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 9:27 pm
“You douchebags”

The mask has slipped!

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:27 pm
I’m bored again.

Then toddle off and make love to your cat.

Infidel Tiger

15 Apr 12 at 9:30 pm
FDB if it’s “no biggie” why mention it?
Look I don’t want to pile on I think you’re a nice bloke but god you sounded like Fran bralow

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 9:31 pm
Worth repeating.

Not really gab. In the interests of civility I was going to let it slide, but then you decided to highlight it.

Point 1. “what a weak society we have become” … ignores the fact that the internet has seen codes of civility thrown out the door. This is really just a function of anonymity. Road rage is exactly the same phenomenon. People forget that they’re dealing with humans because they can’t see them.

Point 2. If anyone spoke to my mother the way people regularly talk online, here and elsewhere, let me tell you I would be after you. Now the fact of the matter is, given that this is all under the cloak of anonymity, you can’t guarantee that you haven’t abused her. So help you God if I find out you have.

3. Verbal abuse is, quite frankly, fucking hard to take. That whole thing we teach kids about “sticks and stones” is bullshit. Verbal abuse is still abuse. I suggest, if you don’t believe me, find a big American left-wing blog and try to take people on for a day. Tell me that it means nothing. If it means nothing, how come you aren’t there? Because it’s fucking tiring getting abused, even if you’re anonymous.

4. having a pseudonym doesn’t make someone not a person; just like driving a car with tinted windows doesn’t make them not a person. The whole pseudonym thing is a big red herring.

5. Abuse is often a substitute for debate.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 9:34 pm
What’s your counterargument

I’d prefer you were more honest – is that too much to ask?

We know ‘progressives’ are intrinsically dishonest.

I’d sort of hoped you’d drop the pretence.

If you think we’re knuckle dragging, homophobic, misogynist, waaaaacists who hate gaia, just come and say it, FFS.

We know doublespeak when we see it and we’re f*cking sick of it.

Just be honest for once – it might even make you hate yourself just that little bit less…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:35 pm
The mask has slipped!

Confected outrage – from either side – makes my teeth hurt.

C’mon, guys. Regardless of his history on this blog, at least FDB would appear to be better value than the likes of MaryBob Samson and the like.

Most of us probably think he’s wrong in his support of the Greens, The Fink Initiative and his claims about “bullying” … but at worst, he’s just wrong, not evil.

Also, at least I don’t know where he stands on the issue of pubic hair trimming, because he hasn’t thought to expound upon such issues. And that can only be a good thing.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 9:40 pm
I don’t know where he stands on the issue of pubic hair trimming,

If I had to guess, I’d say he’s against it.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 9:41 pm
That whole thing we teach kids about “sticks and stones” is bullshit.

Still ‘taught’ is it?

There I was thinking you’d be busted by the thought/diversity police.

Verbal abuse is exactly that – verbal abuse.

Insults on teh interwebs are even softer.

Physical abuse is where I draw the line.

However, if you are verbally abused and you don’t give as good as you get, then you are a pussy.

Society has become too soft and certain ‘people’ are taking advantage of that.

No one has a right to litigate over hurt feelings.

Over to you, Dave…

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:42 pm
Bullying and abuse are problems, but they are overwhelmingly caused by the Left. The Left are the worst offenders by far. If you don’t believe me, book a lecture theatre at a university and advertise it as an “Israeli” event. Then do the same the following week but this time say it’s a “Hamas” event.

See which session gets violently disrupted and by who.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 9:43 pm
he’s just wrong, not evil.

I’ve never claimed he was – he’s just dishonest, which was my whole point.

P.S. You have lost your weekend challenge.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:45 pm
It used to be that the great majority of adults were tough minded. Now we have adults bullied while posting anonymously online.

No.

It’s a mere weapon used by (currently) deflated leftists such as FDB and m0nty to try and get people banned or prevent people from attacking them.

It’s simply an update on last years “civility” bullshit. Which as we’ve seen with Obama’s campaign stating that they are going to “kill” Romney was a whole load of shit.

M0nty was dog whistling to Sinc to ban or moderate JC. FDB is trying to set up a standing narrative where anybody who takes offence to his waffling attempts to bully them into accepting his label for them is themselves somehow a bully. This while he gets to call everyone he doesn’t agree with “retards” – but he isn’t a bully himself.

Get it?

It’s complicated.

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 9:45 pm
Over to you, Dave…

Nah, I think I’m done. This discussion’s kind of run its course.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 9:46 pm
No daddy has a good point and we should deal with it

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 9:49 pm
Worth repeating.

Point 1. If you are concerned with uncivil language, don’t frequent blogs that have it.

Point 2. Wow, you are one scary hombre. Please don’t let your mum open this blog.

Point 3. Same answer as point 1.

Point 4. Having a pseudonym allows someone to be whoever they want to be.

Point 5. You idiot.

jupes

15 Apr 12 at 9:50 pm
“Nah, I think I’m done. This discussion’s kind of run its course.”

Yeah, there’s a neat circularity in it too, now that we’re back to twostix repeating things I never said 5 hours ago.

Props to you for trying to raise the tone though DD.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 9:51 pm
Literally NOBODY is prepared to advance a definition of bullying which absolves typical Catallaxy thread behaviour of the accusation.

I’d delighted to – however as you are one of the most abusive and hatefilled people here (when you’re around), it would obviously include you.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 9:51 pm
Worst Open Thread Ever.

—————————————-

Check out this amazing baby ping-pong player:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n5uFGk2pnc

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 9:52 pm
Point 5. You idiot.

Considering I called you a fuckwit earlier, that’s some mighty restraint you’re showing there!

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 9:54 pm
The Bierkeller is full of brownshirtslime tonight.

Samson Agonistes

15 Apr 12 at 9:55 pm
It is a shocking thread, and FDB is the cause.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 9:56 pm
Yeah, there’s a neat circularity in it too, now that we’re back to twostix repeating things I never said 5 hours ago.

Look FDB, LP is closing and you’re looking for a new home, I get it. You’ don’t like this place because people here will call you out for being the smug dickhead you generally are when you’re here but besides LP it’s the better political blog’s in Aus.

So you’re looking for a place to roost and this “bully” stupidity is your attempt to create a barrier around you.

You get to call people “retards” but anybody who calls you a smug, but average, bloviating beta male is a “bully”.

What exactly did I “repeat” that you never said by the way?

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 9:58 pm
FBD I wish you and your lady friend all the best

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 9:58 pm
The Bierkeller is full of brownshirtslime tonight.

Following your unwelcome arrival.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 9:59 pm
ignores the fact that the internet has seen codes of civility thrown out the door.

The internet is society writ large. I do not for one second believe we are a more genteel society, a more civil society, today than say 10 years ago. Each generation seems to become more and more uncivil. Compare civility today, as say exhibited by Democrats, to that of 1950′s. Compare the abuse on TV from the political commentariat today, to 60 years ago. Blaming the internet for bullying or being uncivil is just silly.

This is really just a function of anonymity.

I don’t buy that as in this era of technology no one is really anonymous. As well, I don’t for one minute believe that I will never ever meet you or others here in person, one day. There’s always that chance.

Road rage is exactly the same phenomenon. People forget that they’re dealing with humans because they can’t see them.

Except for the ones that get out of the car and shoot the other driver.

If anyone spoke to my mother the way people regularly talk online, here and elsewhere, let me tell you I would be after you. Now the fact of the matter is, given that this is all under the cloak of anonymity, you can’t guarantee that you haven’t abused her. So help you God if I find out you have.

I don’t understand – do you believe I have abused your mother?

Verbal abuse is, quite frankly, fucking hard to take. That whole thing we teach kids about “sticks and stones” is bullshit. Verbal abuse is still abuse. I suggest, if you don’t believe me, find a big American left-wing blog and try to take people on for a day. Tell me that it means nothing. If it means nothing, how come you aren’t there? Because it’s fucking tiring getting abused, even if you’re anonymous.

Try being a telemarketer, or a policeman, or an ambo, or a waitress….and then come back and tell me about verbal abuse. If you cannot handle name-calling on an internet forum then you need to undertake some type of course that enables you to deal with written abuse.

“Gab” is the shortened form of my real name. Why would I put my surname on a public forum for crazys to track me down. It’s a matter of protection, daddy dave.

having a pseudonym doesn’t make someone not a person; just like driving a car with tinted windows doesn’t make them not a person. The whole pseudonym thing is a big red herring.

I don’t think of the commenters here as non-persons. If I did then I’d really be communicating with robots.

Bullying has been occurring for eons but our current society has gone soft and weak. Bullying is also more widely reported and blown out of proprtion than ever before.

IF, as a grown man, you don’t know how to handle a bully writing comments on the internet, then you too are weak.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 10:00 pm
Oh dear

Tal

15 Apr 12 at 10:06 pm
Try being a telemarketer, or a policeman, or an ambo, or a waitress….and then come back and tell me about verbal abuse. If you cannot handle name-calling on an internet forum then you need to undertake some type of course that enables you to deal with written abuse.

IF, as a grown man, you don’t know how to handle a bully writing comments on the internet, then you too are weak.

Now you’re starting to piss me off. Actually, not “starting to”. That whole sanctimonious screed pissed me off mightily. Okay, so you can behave however the fuck you want, can you? We’ll see how that plays out.

As for this: “I don’t understand – do you believe I have abused your mother?” Probably not, but neither of us know for sure. The point is, you can’t guarantee you haven’t.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 10:07 pm
Tal, what did you think of my baby ping-pong player?

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 10:08 pm
Now you’re starting to piss me off. Actually, not “starting to”. That whole sanctimonious screed pissed me off mightily.

You delivered a sanctimonious screed, so I was just replying in kind.

Okay, so you can behave however the fuck you want, can you? We’ll see how that plays out.

Yes, I can “behave” how I choose and if I cross the line then I will be taken to task and will consider if I then choose to modify my behaviour. Or else I will face other consequences of my actions. So what?

The point is, you can’t guarantee you haven’t.

I’m pretty sure I can.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 10:12 pm
Bullying has been occurring for eons but our current society has gone soft and weak.

Yup. We have a generation of school children who have learnt that they are not ever allowed to hurt anyone’s feelings.

I even had the discussion this arvo with young Magilla who asked if it pulling faces was bad and upset people.

I told her that I personally don’t care, and people who get upset about faces are weak.

She reminded me that when in preps the boys used to call her sook and cry-baby. “But that was when I was little and used to cry. I know better now.”

When 9yos worry about poking faces at each other then we are in trouble; heaven knows how it’s going to be in the next few years when this current crop are unleashed.

We don’t need rules to curb free speech because the kids are indoctrinated from kinder onwards.

nilk

15 Apr 12 at 10:13 pm
Whoah Gab – I agree with most of what you’ve said and I have met Dave in person.

He’s a member of the CCC and I’d like to think of him as a friend.

And I’ve never insulted his mother.

This is a very complex topic and the two of you have very different ‘o’pinions regarding it.

The fact that all this aggro is even happening in teh first place is entirely the fault of effs and his fellow leftist travellers.

They bring teh stupid.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 10:18 pm
Thanks Rabz.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 10:20 pm
Here’s some real bullies – SION:

since the 33-year-old’s killing spree, the counter-jihad movement – a network of foundations, bloggers, political activists and street gangs – has continued to proliferate.

Campaigners cite the formation three months ago of the Stop Islamization of Nations (Sion) group, designed to promote an umbrella network of counter-jihad groups across Europe and the US, as evidence of a global evolution.

An inaugural Sion summit is planned in New York this year to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11.

Campaigners are concerned that US neo-conservative and evangelical groups will begin sharing resources with the leagues. Images of EDL demonstrations are already used at Tea Party movement fundraising events, while officials from groups such as the Christian Action Network have met EDL activists. Other US and UK links include the Virginia-based anti-Islamic blog, the Gates Of Vienna, which counted Breivik as a contributor.

Samson Agonistes

15 Apr 12 at 10:20 pm
The point is, you can’t guarantee you haven’t.

If we’re going to moderate the place based on what might and might not offend peoples mothers then this place will be more boring than LP.

Blogs are like a rowdy bar.

twostix

15 Apr 12 at 10:21 pm
Wow! What a bun fight. people should simply ignore FDB or simply abuse him explaining why (of course).
Now to better things:

I watched Moneyball this evening. What a terrific movie. It actually reminded me of how I chose traders in the first job I had in NYC after I left here. It was so funny because even the dawky dude Beane had running around him reminded me of the trader I used to help me decide who to hire and the stats to look for. We never had much money to spend on traders because the head office wouldn’t sign off on big deals so we had to always be on the look out for outfielders to man the trading desk and keep the guys moving around until we found the right niches. And we really didn well as a team in the end…. until the bigger firms started to knock off our better people.. and we were back to looking again.

One of the best movies of all time… for me anyway.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:21 pm
The fact that all this aggro is even happening in teh first place is entirely the fault of effs and his fellow leftist travellers.

I don’t agree. Blaming FDB for how people respond to his comments is silly. He is not responsible for anyone’s cdomments except his own.

As for Daddy Dave, I have never met him, Rabz, but I have a lot of respect for his intelligence and insights. He strikes me as a learned man, and a gentleman.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 10:22 pm
It’s unfortunate that the topic of this thread has diverted from the pressing matter of the Left’s lack of civility, abusiveness, and lies. Can we stay OT please?

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 10:23 pm
Thanks Dave.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 10:23 pm
There are a lot of cat ping-pong videos.

Dogs? Notsomuch.

sdog

15 Apr 12 at 10:24 pm
He strikes me as a learned man, and a gentleman.

He is, Gab.

I was only intervening in own clumsy way because I also consider you a friend, albeit a purely online one. I hope that will change one day.

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 10:26 pm
He strikes me as a learned man, and a gentleman.

most of the time I guess. I try… :-/

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 10:27 pm
yeah we should organise a joint meeting of the Melbourne and Canberra cat collectives.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 10:28 pm
…is entirely the fault of effs and his fellow leftist travellers.

Yes. They caused d-d to more or less agree with them, leading to dissension in the ranks of all that is good and right and honest in the world.

It’s very bad of “lefties” to point out that completely OTT and irrelevant abuse is frequently a feature here. Very bad indeed.

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 10:29 pm
I missed most of this, Can someone please put up to speed in case I am missing something. This is how I see things.

LP closes down and FDB really has no other place to hang out so he’s kinda like a boat refuge and he figures this would be a good port in storm. However there are a few issues. He would like it to become a little like LP so he starts some bullshit about bullyboys here and he would only stay if they were nice to him.

Am I getting the gist of the play so far?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:30 pm
He strikes me as a learned man, and a gentleman.

Doesn’t hold a candle to me of course.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:31 pm
Fair Dinkum Bargains is a boat refugee from LP?

Good, send him to an offshore island for processing.

kae

15 Apr 12 at 10:31 pm
DD, I agree that exposing your thoughts to a barrage of criticism on blogs can be draining because strongly held opinions aren’t just thoughts; they are expressed through bodily emotions which quicken the pulse. IMO, that means regular physical exercise (walking is good) is important if you’re going to spend extended periods tapping stuff into a laptop/desktop/phone that is having a physical effect on you. And blogging should be consumed in small quantities, IMO.

Tom

15 Apr 12 at 10:31 pm
Yes, that’s exactly what happened, JC.

Fisky

15 Apr 12 at 10:32 pm
“Blaming FDB for how people respond to his comments is silly.”

Oh, I dunno about that.

Oughtn’t Ivan Pavlov get some credit?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 10:33 pm
yeah we should organise a joint meeting of the Melbourne and Canberra cat collectives.

Yes, but no lefties please. They will likely welch on a round of drinks or cry about having to if they can’t avoid it.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:33 pm
Thanks Fisk. I thought as much. It’s the feminine side of strong intuition instincts coming out.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:35 pm
Oughtn’t Ivan Pavlov get some credit?

Troublemakers, the pair of you.

Gab

15 Apr 12 at 10:35 pm
Good, send him to an offshore island for processing.

Lol. great come back.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:36 pm
Oughtn’t Ivan Pavlov get some credit?

Rabz

15 Apr 12 at 10:37 pm
@Samson. Interesting, as I was just sent this link: HnH’s list of Oz extremists.

I find it rather unlikely that SION is populated by bullies, and your linking the nucking futs murdering scumbag to people who are making a stand against sharia and islamisation is disingenuous and ignorant.

nilk

15 Apr 12 at 10:43 pm
LP closes down and FDB really has no other place to hang out

Okay, let’s clear this up, seeing as it’s being repeated so much as to become a “rightwing meme” or whatever.

I haven’t been commenting much at LP for at least a year, nor here.

In the meantime, I gots me a lovely girlfriend. So even less bloggery, due to, oh I dunno, things mummies and daddies do, plus the fact that she really likes my cooking. I’m fucking busy alright?

She’s been away on a family wedding errand to Glasgow since the end of last week, and LP folded a few days after that.

Now I’m here killing time with you douchebags.

Don’t flatter yourselves.

You’re no substitute, and it will nae last.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 10:43 pm
Fair Dinkum Bargains is a Scotsman?

LOL

kae

15 Apr 12 at 10:46 pm
Hitler was bullied

Look how he turned out after being rejected as a struggling artist.Just imagine if he had access to the amount of government largess like there is these days he might not have been so unhappy.

Well thats the excuse I would use in applying for my next grant…”don’t bully me by not supporting my art or i’ll destroy you all”.

Splatacrobat

15 Apr 12 at 10:47 pm
Yes. They caused d-d to more or less agree with them, leading to dissension in the ranks of all that is good and right and honest in the world.

I’m not sure that’s a new thing stepford. Dad has always been the perfect gentleman here and I’m sure winces at times when people get a tad abusive. There’s nothing new in that and I respect Dad’s opinion a great deal. However I don’t agree with him on this issue.

I am very serious when I say I have lost complete respect for the Left in Australia since the advent of this government/Rudd and what come with it. Anyone that gives tacit support to what is essentially a fascist movement (the Greens) deserves no respect whatsoever. There can never be any meeting of the minds or agreeing to disagree because I would never agree to that. Perhaps I’m a little too honest in how I feel, but anyone who supports this government and their partners have basically left the realm of the reasonable as far as I’m concerned. Free speech and the right to free speech is never traded for niceties. Ever.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:47 pm
Before you go, FDB: is it “gay” for a bloke to trim his pubic hair? Opinion at this blog seems divided.

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 10:48 pm
The state of play on the OF:

SDB is batshit leftist feelin’ roney cos LP is finito and is reinfecting the Cat but he’s not as bad as some cos he’s not fixated on pubes and such like fellow batshit leftist liar-stevefb™.

Have I missed anything?

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 10:49 pm
FDB

JamesK

15 Apr 12 at 10:50 pm
Okay, let’s clear this up, seeing as it’s being repeated so much as to become a “rightwing meme” or whatever.

I haven’t been commenting much at LP for at least a year, nor here.

So you’re suggesting that if I went through that toilet with plastic gloves I wouldn’t find your name posted there to a comment in the past year.

What odds are you offering, you clown?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:50 pm
There are six comments from you that I counted here, FDB.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:56 pm
Perhaps I’m a little too honest in how I feel, but anyone who supports this government and their partners have basically left the realm of the reasonable as far as I’m concerned. Free speech and the right to free speech is never traded for niceties. Ever.

I tend to think it pays to react to what the actual government response is to something like the Media review. Afaik, that hasn’t come out yet?

But I trust you’ve already sent your cheque off to the IPA to conduct the official “the sky is falling” campaign.

I heard Geoffrey Robertson talking about this the other night. He thought the recommendations were a bit “unwieldy” and had some danger to free speech, but I can tell you his tone was measured, and at least contained the acknowledgement that England demonstrated the complete and utter ineffectiveness of industry self regulation.

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 10:57 pm
I found this oe pretty touching. It actually brought tears to my eyes.

+1 please Brian – you are a legend.

And pretty obviously a great dad as well.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 10:57 pm
Here’s some real bullies – SION:

Thanks for the (unprovided) link to the far-left extremist Guardian, Samson.

You mean a network is springing up to oppose honour killings of women, murders of homosexuals, lynchings of artists, stabbings of film-makers and sundry other Muslim crimes?

And you’re saying the left opposes this and the Tea Party supports it?

Wow. That’s a real gotcha, Sam. We’re all very embarrassed.

Not.

Note this epically mendacious paragraph in the Guardian piece:

The report, by anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, states that since [Anders Breivik's] killing spree, the counter-jihad movement – a network of foundations, bloggers, political activists and street gangs – has continued to proliferate.

In other words, the rise of this supposed movement had nothing to do with Anders Breivik.

Hilariously, Wiki names three official ambassadors of “Hope Not Hate”: Alan Sugar, boxer Amir Khan and Eddie Izzard. Sugar has been criticised as a thug and been condemned by anti-bullying charity, Kidscape. Khan has been charged on several occasions with reckless driving and in 2006 he killed someone on a zebra crossing.

It’s cool, though. He’s a Muslim.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 10:57 pm
yeah we should organise a joint meeting of the Melbourne and Canberra cat collectives.

Yes, this is a good idea. But the CCC would have to come to Melbourne. Fair’s fair; we love you guys but not that much.

dover_beach

15 Apr 12 at 10:57 pm
CL, HnH are great for when you’re liveblogging demos. The lefties seem to be more effective at utilising the social media stuff than the non-left* so I tend to get info via them and mobs like Counterfire.

*possibly because those who lean away from the left tend to have jobs and families that take up the time that could be used going to demos, facebooking and stuff like that.

nilk

15 Apr 12 at 11:02 pm
I tend to think it pays to react to what the actual government response is to something like the Media review. Afaik, that hasn’t come out yet?

Why would I even do that. The fact they had the nerve to even run a ‘quiry of that nature suggests the Lying Slapper, senior cabinet and the senior Greens should be charged with fucking treason.

But I trust you’ve already sent your cheque off to the IPA to conduct the official “the sky is falling” campaign.

Well yea, I have and of course you know that because you read my comment on that thread along with others who pledged money.

I heard Geoffrey Robertson talking about this the other night. He thought the recommendations were a bit “unwieldy” and had some danger to free speech, but I can tell you his tone was measured, and at least contained the acknowledgement that England demonstrated the complete and utter ineffectiveness of industry self regulation.

I don’t give a rats arse what that twobit would-be thinks about here or England.

You think this is a fucking joke and that it will just blow over, Stepford you dickhead. I’ll be fine with going to jail on this issue and I’ve never ever been so pissed off with any government like before. You really think there are more people who think the way i do? You’re seriously demented.

These rights are for keeps and no one is going to take them off me or my kids.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:06 pm
I’m willing to assert that this will be the funniest thing I’ll read this month:

SMH: Catholicism dictates hospital services.

The Acting Health Minister has confirmed that religious beliefs are likely to affect what services are provided at the Midland Health Campus [in Western Australia] which is due to open in 2015.

At this stage of negotiations, procedures such as vasectomies and abortions would not be carried out at the new hospital because the likely service provider, Catholic, not for profit group- St John of God Health Care does not allow their staff to perform them.

Acting Health minister Troy Buswell confirmed that he did not expect such procedures to be done at the Midland Health Campus…

Opposition health spokesperson Roger Cook said the service provider would not carry out procedures that they considered to be interfering with the process of life and this was a concern to the community.

Imagine it. A hospital that won’t ‘interfere with the process of life’ (that is, kill people). And this is a “concern” to the Labor health spokesman.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:07 pm
Despite observing numerous acts of bastardry in the workplace I confess I still managed to be shocked by what the internet revealed about human nature in my early days of interacting with others. You may be surprised to learn that for intensity of vitriol, mass verbal lynchings (often joined in by the moderators!) fangirls on some fandom blogs take some beating.

Still I found participating in discussion forums an excellent toughening up experience (especially during the last US presidential campaign) as well as fascinating to observe all the dirty tricks of debating that certain individuals get up to. I also found I could become utterly outraged and would approach certain sparring partners as one would a gladitorial contest. I actually found I began to enjoy provoking a response.

As mentioned above I finally got fed up with what seemed to be the futility of it all and also a bit sad. People who I got along with quite well discussing topics other than politics became sneeringly and abidingly hostile on discovering my political views.

So here I am mostly content to just puddle along and keep out of fights – except when the subject of the Republic comes up lol.

Viva

15 Apr 12 at 11:08 pm
Before you go, FDB: is it “gay” for a bloke to trim his pubic hair?

No.

‘Gay’ is when a male has sex with another male. The length of their pubes has nowt to do wi’t.

JC – yes, I’ve commented frequently on their LAST EVER FUCKING POST. Given it was the the first place I ever engaged with the ‘blogosphere’, and the first place I met such intellectual luminaries as Homer Paxton and… who’s that other guy?… oh yeah Joe Cambria, I hope you’ll forgive me a trip down memory lane.

Douchebag.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 11:10 pm
Thanks for the (unprovided) link to the far-left extremist Guardian, Samson.

Bob. Lol

Bob’s like a bunch of kids running up a hill and there’s always the fat slow one… and the nice kids keep calling out …” Come on Bob, keep up, it’s not far”, and from distant they see him and feel a little sorry for him and he finally starts walking.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:13 pm
Pity I’ll not ever know your name so I could post it here, FDB. Ya think Fisk would be good enough to give it to me so I could do the same shit to you and double, you disgusting little worm. I wonder. What do you think? He knows you, right?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:15 pm
Kae –

Fair Dinkum Bargains is a Scotsman?

Half on each side, but the missus is born and bred. And I wouldn’t, for your own sake, unleash her here. She’d have your balls for bracelets, the lasses and all.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 11:15 pm
Heiss’ book is no longer for sale on Amazon.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 11:15 pm
Fisk,

FDB is posting what he thinks are people’s real names on the web in an act of vengeful cowardice. Any chance you letting us know his real name? It would be a fitting tribute.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:16 pm
‘Gay’ is when a male has sex with another male.

Penny Wong and gay partner expecting baby.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:17 pm
How do you know Dad?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:17 pm
Follow the link. The comments are still there but on the right it says “not currently available.”

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 11:19 pm
Honestly JC, I had no idea that you were still protective of your name. It’s out there in so many old threads I assumed you didn’t care.

Now that I know, I won’t say it again and I hope an admin is reading soon who can erase it from my comment.

I take this shit seriously, and I apologise unreservedly.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 11:19 pm
will he or won’t he.. will he or won’t he.. will he or won’t he?

Is that currently going through your mind more than a little FDB as Fisk knows well enough who you are.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:19 pm
Honestly JC, I had no idea that you were still protective of your name. It’s out there in so many old threads I assumed you didn’t care.

Bullshit.

Now that I know, I won’t say it again and I hope an admin is reading soon who can erase it from my comment.

No you didn’t. You did as a deliberate act of vengeful payback.

I take this shit seriously, and I apologise unreservedly

Keep the apology as I don’t need or want it.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:21 pm
No, FDB, I just realised I was using scantily-punctuated run-on sentences. I blame “kelly liddle”.

Wreckage a bit of advice don’t copy my grammar or you might look like a fool.

5. Abuse is often a substitute for debate.

DD
Yes so true I can be having a good arguement or conversation with someone trying to pick their brains and some numpty like JC will come along which completely diverts their attention and they end up talking to him.

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 11:24 pm
The Guardian seemed to have no problem supporting all of the Bush Middle Eastern wars, so I don’t see how that makes it leftist.

But if you are a Breivikian Muslim-hater it all becomes clear.

Samson Agonistes

15 Apr 12 at 11:24 pm
No, Fisk doesn’t.

Nor does anyone shonky enough to respond to your call JC.

I’m much more careful than that. Plenty of Catallaxy folks know, but they’re too classy to do knowingly and publicly what I did by mistake and apologised for immediately and am now trying to rectify.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 11:25 pm
Thanks a mill dad, I just bought the fucking book to see if was true. I just paid her a share of the 18 bucks they’re charging.

Good one. You owe me when we meet for ever round of drinks.

Amazon said they are sending it to my kindle account. I going to see if I can reverse it.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:26 pm
Heiss’ book is no longer for sale on Amazon.

Am I Remaindered Enough For You?

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/4244/thatsracistgm74ul6.gif

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:27 pm
I’ll be fine with going to jail on this issue

Uhuh. How exactly is that going to be achieved?

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 11:28 pm
oops.

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 11:29 pm
Just to reiterate, if any Catallaxy mods are reading, JC would like my post from 11:10 edited pronto, because he is apparently not Joe Cambria.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 11:29 pm
sorry JC … but it does say “not available”

daddy dave

15 Apr 12 at 11:30 pm
OH Dad

Here’s Amazon’s fucking email thanking me for the order.

Thanks for your order JC

I writing back, no don’t thank me, thank Daddy Dave.

You know this is like getting stung for 10K. I would rather freaking lose 10K on a trade than give her 6 bucks or whatever from that sale.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:31 pm
What’s wrong with you JC? Your name is the worst kept secret in the Australian blogosphere.

steve from brisbane

15 Apr 12 at 11:31 pm
Uhuh. How exactly is that going to be achieved?

I’m sure there will be ways of getting involved in certain forms of civil disobedience and other things. I’ll be happy to help fund things of that nature.. etc.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:33 pm
Before you go, FDB: is it “gay” for a bloke to trim his pubic hair? Opinion at this blog seems divided.

FDB spends all that time bragging about his first ever root, and you still ask him that question.

Beta males get no respect even from beta males.

And it threw poor FDB. Totally derailed his Scottish accent and sent him off to Yorkshire.

Abu Chowdah

15 Apr 12 at 11:42 pm
“If you cannot handle name-calling on an internet forum then you need to undertake some type of course that enables you to deal with written abuse.”

Abuse is different from bullying. Name-calling and derogatory comments are part and parcel of certain gatherings, some blogs included. For example, Dot and I frequently call each other names, but we’re not being bullies. Bullying is more about patterns of behaviour and cumulative impact.

Calling someone a douchenozzle a few times isn’t bullying, but responding practically every time with abuse, deliberately being obnoxious (rather than getting carried away with the heat of argument) and trying to make someone feel bad, perpetually trying to push them away and get others to exclude them, almost never responding to the actual content of comments… those who behave like that are unequivocally bullying their target. Few are that bad, thankfully, but Catallaxy has its share. It’s a simple fact.

Still, so what? People are here voluntarily. I’m pretty sure we’re all adults, and sticking around for more than a few comments suggests a minimum level of fortitude. Catallaxy won’t be the cause of any suicides, unlike some bullying cases. We’re not here on equal terms – some are more vulnerable because they are not anonymous or less so, or have characteristics that make them easy targets for certain types of douchenozzle – but when is a level playing field in social relations ever true anyway?

There are a gazillion online forums, available to all. This one allows everything except defamation. If you want less abuse and more discussion, there are other places you can go. I’ve been here less and less partly because I’ve been finding those other places, and FDB is right – the same old crap from the same old people gets boring.

Jarrah

15 Apr 12 at 11:46 pm
OH dad..

I also just received another email from amazon asking me if I’m interested in other similar books such as:

The little coffee shop of Kabul

Before I Go To Sleep

Catching Fire (Hammy, if you’re reading this as I’m sure you are seeing you don’t have much to do, this could be a great book for you)

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:48 pm
But if you are a Breivikian Muslim-hater it all becomes clear.

Breivik killed 77 people.

According to the Guardian’s Nick Davies, leftist icon Julian Assange killed many more Muslims than that:

He gave an example of The Guardian’s handling of the US diplomatic cables on Afghanistan obtained by the WikiLeaks website.

“It became apparent that the material contained information which could get people on the ground in Afghanistan seriously hurt,” he said.

“They are implicitly identified as sources of information for the coalition forces.”

But Davies alleged that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told him: ”They deserve to die, they are informers, they are collaborators.”

Also, according to the Guardian and Assange hinmself, he is directly responsible for the deaths of 1300 blacks:

“1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak,” says Assange. It’s a chilling statistic, but then he states: “On the other hand, the Kenyan people had a right to that information and 40,000 children a year die of malaria in Kenya.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:50 pm
I’ve been here less and less partly because I’ve been finding those other places, and FDB is right – the same old crap from the same old people gets boring.

Oh yea, like the US is 37th in the world’s healthcare leagues. They other places buy that swill?

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:50 pm
Also, according to the Guardian, Assange the facilitator of mass murder (all non whites) is a Nazi collaborator.

He is also charged with rape and is a known stalker.

Soooo…

How did the Australian left respond to all this?

They gave him a Walkley Award, of course.

C.L.

15 Apr 12 at 11:51 pm
Jarrah, you are rarely boring, and I would like to subscribe to your pamphlet.

Mods?

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 11:52 pm
“They other places buy that swill?”

They typically make arguments to support their statements. You see, that’s when… ah, you wouldn’t understand.

Jarrah

15 Apr 12 at 11:55 pm
“No you didn’t. You did as a deliberate act of vengeful payback.”

Because you are SOOO respectful of other people’s names, right? Right?

Jarrah

15 Apr 12 at 11:57 pm
CL
I actually read up to the point where assange mentions the possible death toll. So what is your point? Can no one expose corruption now because someone might get hurt?

kelly liddle

15 Apr 12 at 11:58 pm
They typically make arguments to support their statements.

So you never read the replies, yea? You went away and never looked at that thread again to see not only the arguments but the links explaining your league table crap was just that. Crap.

Never admit an error jazzabelle. Don’t ever admit you’re wrong. You just can’t do it, can you.

JC

15 Apr 12 at 11:59 pm
But seriously Jarrah, where are these places of which you speak, where people talk in a civilised fashion about weighty matters?

I know I must sound ironic, asking it here, but I honestly don’t know what to do about that.

FDB

15 Apr 12 at 11:59 pm
Because you are SOOO respectful of other people’s names, right? Right?

I haven’t been? Whom did I ever out like that, Jazzabelle?

JC

16 Apr 12 at 12:00 am
This is a boring Open Thread. Not even the catfight between FDB and JC can enliven it. I think it needs Nazis.

You are all Nazis.

wreckage

16 Apr 12 at 12:03 am
Jazzabelle

For someone that like less aggro, you’re now getting involved over an issue with FDB which really has absolutely nothing to do with you. Oh stop the sanctimony, you fake.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 12:04 am
I know I must sound ironic, asking it here

No, now you’re just sounding whiny.

wreckage

16 Apr 12 at 12:04 am
No Nazis for you!!

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:05 am
No, now you’re just sounding whiny. You Nazi.

Fixed.

Oh bugger, we already had Nazis.

wreckage

16 Apr 12 at 12:06 am
FDB

Just letting you know that I will get your name and post it right here when I do. Take that as a given. I will get it, you know that right?

JC

16 Apr 12 at 12:07 am
Aww, JC has retreated to his endgame… talking about talking to me as if he were never shown, by me, to be an idiot.

Cute.

Now to bed.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:09 am
‘Night all, have fun threatening each other with un-anonymity.

wreckage

16 Apr 12 at 12:09 am
You know that, right? I just wanted to make sure you were aware of what you’ve done and what will happen as a consequence.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 12:10 am
I recall when Evil Pundit was bullied out of Larvatus Prodeo the subsequent thread included swipes at his admitted clinical depression (which he’d revealed in a somewhat foolish moment of bonhomie with that site’s leftist trash).

I’m pretty sure nobody protested.

It was all cool.

Hey, for old time’s sake here are two LP threads on which Evil sent, first, Chris Shiel, and then various apologists of Mohammed, batshit bananas.

You how they end.

Have I Got A Deal For You.

Rape In The Third World.

Enjoy the tolerance and commitment to discourse.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:13 am
Cowbell.

Everything’s better with a little more cowbell.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 12:15 am
You KNOW how they end.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:15 am
What I’ve done, JC, is to make reference to a name which I thought was common knowledge.

Also, it was common knowledge. Since the early days of blogging.

You seemingly now want to claim either that the name concerned is not your real name, or that you are not the person who commented under that name from (roughly) 2006-2008, and are instead a different person.

I don’t know why you’d do either of these things, but anything I can do to help you conceal who you really are (in the first case), or to reveal who you really want to be (in the second), I will happily do.

Help me out, dude!

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:20 am
Just letting you know that I will get your name and post it right here when I do. Take that as a given. I will get it, you know that right?

WTF, JC?

Play him off, Keyboard Cat. I’m out.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 12:23 am
FDB

Don’t worry about a thing. Lets talk after I’ve found out your name and posted it. Lets just continue on as before until then and we’ll regroup at that time.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 12:24 am
This Cat “bullying” accusation reminds me of another whiny lot. The It’s Abbott’s Fault mob.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 12:24 am
Dad

You’ll be happy to know I got a refund for Amazon. Seesh. That was close.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 12:24 am
So the Guardian routinely criticises Assange and that makes it extreme left?

Muslim-haters always get the causality wrong: the Americans and their allies murder millions, not their critics.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 12:27 am
Dennis Shanahan loses the plot:

THE Greens have lost their reasonable face with the departure of Bob Brown and a new face of change to the balance of Australian politics has appeared.

The face of reason gone, the ramifications huge.

Mmyes. That’s how we’ll all remember Bob Brown.

As the face of reason.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:28 am
CL – were you hoping that nobody would follow the links?

You must have been… so why post them?

Self-flaggelation?

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:30 am
Not so tough all of a sudden. Beta.

Big dumb fu

16 Apr 12 at 12:31 am
Shanahan is a good politician. When your adversary leaves the stage praise them and then excoriate their successor. Always attack your current enemy!

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 12:32 am
sdog – you give JC much more credit than he deserves.

Keyboard Cat has standards.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:32 am
BDF – WTF?

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:36 am
Thanks again, Samson.

You’re confirming that you don’t support a network that’s opposing honour killings of women, murders of homosexuals, lynchings of artists, stabbings of film-makers and sundry other Muslim crimes.

You’re saying the left opposes this network and the Tea Party supports it.

OK!

Thanks for your honesty.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:36 am
American asininity – threatening Australian relations over a moribund institution:

A confidential record of the Rogers conversation, held on July 30, 1973, reveals the alliance was threatened over US suspicions about Labor’s position on the South East Asia Treaty Organisation, formally dissolved in 1977.

The Australian ambassador to Washington, James Plimsoll, had first sounded the alarm on February 9, 1973 in a secret cablegram to Canberra. He warned that an attempt to withdraw from SEATO – the military alliance of the US, Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Asian nations, including The Philippines and Thailand – could result in an American abrogation of ANZUS.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 12:43 am
CL – were you hoping that nobody would follow the links?

No, why would I do that?

You must have been… so why post them?

Verballing, bullying behaviour. I think I’ll curl up beside my pussy cat and have one of the most remarkable day-long blubs in Catallaxy’s history.

Oh wait, that’s you!

Self-flaggelation?

Mmm. A compelling argument.

Which links, exactly?

And what do the links not prove?

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:44 am
No, we don’t think killing half a million kids is a price worth paying.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 12:45 am
As the face of reason.

Geez grin it up bobby!

Read the article and in your mind put the word “reasonable” in air quotes and it becomes more useful.

THE Greens have lost their “reasonable“ face with the departure of Bob Brown and a new face of change to the balance of Australian politics has appeared.

The new face looks more like this:

“being green is daring to care…..in a society that has only just begun to realise its damage and repercussions, being green is standing up, admitting mistakes and the many comforts that ‘progressive’ modern society has provided, as detrimental to ecological processes and making changes. In many cases being ‘green’ will be more expensive, harder work and more personally energy intensive but in the long term….being green is looking way past the short term economic agendas, personal and political.

- The artist whose painting hangs in the Greens new Dear Leader’s private collection.

twostix

16 Apr 12 at 12:45 am
Er… the links do not prove anything, CL.

What are you suggesting by linking to them?

Why not come out and say what your problem is?

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:51 am
Public service announcement: You’re not ‘anonymous’ if you’re registered on Gravatar and your username contains your real name.

Toxic

16 Apr 12 at 12:55 am
The Taliban launches its ‘Tet Offensive’ – the end is nigh.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 12:58 am
Is, for example, your problem with the robust to and fro between EP and the world?

Is it with Fyodor being allowed free reign?

Is it with the shortage of deranged abuse?

Help me out.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 1:01 am
Er… the links do not prove anything, CL.

What are you suggesting by linking to them?

Why not come out and say what your problem is?

Have you been drinking, FDB?

I still don’t know what links you’re talking about.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 1:03 am
Is it with the shortage of deranged abuse?

Umm two seconds over there:

‘Irritates’ is the right word, Mr Beck. I’m irritated that I don’t have a right-wing-nutter spray … you know, like mortein, so that all commenters like you would be sent somewhere else to type.

awwwww, Evil, poor baby. You’re OK pal, except you have to realise the sperm scam has happened, and it’s time to move on. We all know the story.

Now, answer me this: does it hurt to be EP’s sock-puppet? I’ve heard he’s an easy lover. He’ll take your heart but you won’t feel it. He’s like no other. Before you know it you’ll be on your knees. Better forget it – you’ll regret it.

Yeah, real civil.

Oh that’s right it’s your “team” doing the abusing so then it’s just civil “debate” rather than bullying.

twostix

16 Apr 12 at 1:09 am
Dick Smith in the Oz
Having more people is folly

JC

16 Apr 12 at 1:10 am
Help me out.

Well that’s a tall order.

OK.

Take II (verbatim):

Hey, for old time’s sake here are two LP threads on which Evil sent, first, Chris Shiel, and then various apologists of Mohammed, batshit bananas.

You how they end.

Have I Got A Deal For You.

Rape In The Third World.

Enjoy the tolerance and commitment to discourse.

——————————————-

Is, for example, your problem with the robust to and fro between EP and the world?

I didn’t day I had any problem with anything.

Thanks for the laugh, though. After your performance today, you now make approving reference to “robust to and fro.”

LOL.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 1:11 am
Amazing what you find in a stack of old blogs. Jazza at LP fro CL’s collection.

fatfingers

Does a once-in-a-blue-moon post make me a lurker? If so, to answer Amanda’s question – I want thought-provoking, rational debate. And that’s what I read (mostly) here at LP. I also like Troppo, JQ, Catallaxy, Surfdom, ALS. I don’t have the time I used to, to read dozens of blogs, so must confine myself to those worth my time. LP is among the best.

He’s so demanding of others in terms of what he wants. Not much has changed since then either.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 1:19 am
Here’s shiny whining about not being able to get to Blair.

Tim Lambert
September 27, 2005 at 4:05
The only meaningful opportunity for dissenters to interact with Tim Blair seems to be on those occasions when he ventures outside the censorship-secured safety of his own blogspace.

I suspect those occasions will become increasingly rare.

A short while late I think he tried to steal his blog by creating a mirror site.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 1:23 am
…I want thought-provoking, rational debate. And that’s what I read (mostly) here at LP.

Ahahahaha.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 1:35 am
“Whom did I ever out like that”

No-one ‘outed’ you.

Jarrah

16 Apr 12 at 1:39 am
Fuck Off jazzabelle seriously. You come here acting all sanctimoniously most of the time with mostly oppositional positions for the sake of taking that line. You automatically take FDB’s position for no other reason than previous hurt feelings and you make what is clearly a false statement.

Dickhead, there are lots and lots of new people here who would not know my name. What do you think it means to those people. And there was no other reason for that little prick to post what he thinks is my name other than to try and get back at me for some reason.

Seriously, just fuck off, you’re a fucking waste of time and space.

And yes, uni has seriously fucked you up because you’re really no different to what you were before but now find it harder to accept being made to look like a fool.

And you still have refused to concede the 37th league table bullshit too.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 1:47 am
JC, heed Toxic’s 12:55 comment. If you don’t want to be connected with a certain name, don’t have that name as your Gravatar username.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 1:52 am
Yea Thanks Dog.

You know it doesn’t worry me really, but it just shows the level of underhanded things leftwingers will do to try and get even in some way.

It’s almost like punching someone in the back of the head.

I will find FDB’s name and post it up because I know he’ll squirm like a stuck pig.

Vengeful malice from the left always needs to be repaid in whole or double if possible.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 1:59 am
I remember Jarrah hitting out at me for using his old moniker. And I remember him disliking people even using shortened versions of that older moniker. Sensitive sausage aren’t you, Fatso?

Some degree of prudence and consideration is owed by the anonymous to those who aren’t – or who weren’t at an earlier date. There are good reasons why somebody may have become more wary of publicity over time. Professional reasons, privacy reasons, security reasons, spouses, children who’ve grown up over the last several years, etc. So yes, one can “out” a formerly self-naming individual. I’ve made a decision to refer to Homer only as Homer, for example. He doesn’t use his name anymore and there may be good reasons for that. Because he’s such a legend of the blogosphere, his name is almost moniker-like… slang, almost… so I hope I haven’t slipped up on this too often. It’s a matter of principle.

It was a cheap shot by FDB. But that’s what he does while harrassing others. He’s the classic embodiment of LP’s imperious moral cluelessness and hypocrisy.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 2:09 am
FDB…

Dude, help he out here willya? I figured out who you are in about 3 mintues. Should I post your real name or shouldn’t I and why.

The gentleman in me says I shouldn’t post it. However the payback son of a bitch says I should. The payback son of a bitch usually wins, so what can I tell you.

Should I toss a coin? Here I go. I’m calling heads and heads it is. So what should I do now?

Lets ask Jazzabelle your beautiful assistant as I find that your real name is on the web and therefore it wouldn’t be an “out” as the litigating attorney suggests.

Jazzabelle, What should I do? Can you help Please. It all rests on your ummm shoulder without the chip on it.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:09 am
“there are lots and lots of new people here who would not know my name.”

I understand that. But I have to point out your hypocrisy in this matter. In the thread that brought up the subject of Catallaxy bullies, where DavidJ linked to the picture of m0nty, you didn’t say that was wrong. No-one, not even the new people, knew what m0nty looked like. DavidJ exposed him to ridicule for no reason. You got stuck in good and proper, more than anyone else, and now you’re crying foul because the equivalent has happened to you? Hypocrite.

m0nty was angry because had no way to respond – no-one has pictures of DavidJ (or m0nty’s other tormentors). Maybe you can understand something of how he felt, considering how angry you are that you can’t retaliate against FDB in the same way. Do you have enough empathy to feel even a little bad about how you acted?

In the later thread put up by Sinclair about m0nty’s reaction, you justified yourself by saying that the picture was “publicly available”. Well, so is your real name, since you used it for years on many blogs. Again there’s a parallel, but you can’t even see it, going by your response.

Jarrah

16 Apr 12 at 2:11 am
“It was a cheap shot by FDB.”

I agree. I don’t condone it.

“I remember Jarrah hitting out at me for using his old moniker.”

Because I extend the courtesy of using the name people choose, and I don’t like it when they don’t return it. Sometimes I lapse, and make fun, but generally even in heated exchanges I stick to what they present themselves as. It’s childish to do otherwise, and it’s no suprise that JC – with the body of an 80-year-old and the mind of a 12-year-old – does it all the time.

Jarrah

16 Apr 12 at 2:16 am
“What should I do? Can you help Please.”

Sure. Don’t do it. Be the better man. Unless you want to be a “disgusting little worm” and a “vengeful coward”, which is what you called FDB for doing it.

Jarrah

16 Apr 12 at 2:22 am
Go to 2.45 a pity I was arguing from ingnorance before the Ryan plan is to balance the budget in 30 years this does make the ALP look like fiscal conservatives. So for 8 presidential terms this plan will be stuck to? Anybody who defends the US gov on spending has rocks in their head. So the only discernable difference from Obama and Romney is green energy versus military spending. All the rest is just talk and ok some well off and rich people might do well under Romney with taxes.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 2:23 am
Maybe you can understand something of how he felt, considering how angry you are that you can’t retaliate against FDB in the same way.

One small difference. I never posted those pics. Someone else did. So somehow suggesting I was to blame is being ridiculous. Anyways he’s even directed people to his pics before and I’ve made reference to his red, rusty colored beard and he never took offense.

Do you have enough empathy to feel even a little bad about how you acted?

Not really, because he was being a total asshat to sinc and deserved a little of what he was giving back. He’s at times joked about people not having any hair in reference to some of the thread owners here.

In the later thread put up by Sinclair about m0nty’s reaction, you justified yourself by saying that the picture was “publicly available”.

And I left the other part out when I also should have said that someone else posted it. (I thought I did)

Well, so is your real name, since you used it for years on many blogs. Again there’s a parallel, but you can’t even see it, going by your response.

No, there’s no real parallel at all as there would be if I had posted the pics, but I didn’t.

Now what should I do with FDB, Jazzabelle?

If you’re suggesting what I got from FDB was payback for Monster, is the next chain in the link paying back FDB for his misbehavior?

Try and be a fair adjudicator here jazza.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:27 am
…and it’s no suprise that JC – with the body of an 80-year-old and the mind of a 12-year-old – does it all the time.

That’s seriously offensive. I work every other day and walk for an hour at least on other days. I have a great great body.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:29 am
If you’re suggesting what I got from FDB was payback for Monster, is the next chain in the link paying back FDB for his misbehavior?

Gang warfare on the CAT I like it. Left Vs Right. How many embarrasing things will come out? Just hope I don’t become a victim.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 2:30 am
Go to 2.45 a pity I was arguing from ingnorance before the Ryan plan is to balance the budget in 30 years this does make the ALP look like fiscal conservatives. So for 8 presidential terms this plan will be stuck to? Anybody who defends the US gov on spending has rocks in their head. So the only discernable difference from Obama and Romney is green energy versus military spending. All the rest is just talk and ok some well off and rich people might do well under Romney with taxes.

Kelly, you imbecile, there are two deficit problems for the US. One is the cyclical deficit and the other is actually the potentially more serious one ……a structural deficit of around 3.5% of GDP that will progressively get worse. The latter one is very hard to close as you cannot do it by simply growing the economy alone. There has to be cuts and reorientation the way the spending occurs. These, especially in the US, will take a great deal of time.

They could run a cyclical surplus and still be in deficit structurally. You got to know this shit before you hit the keyboard, you old cabbie doofus.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:35 am
The gentleman in me says I shouldn’t post it. However the payback son of a bitch says I should.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

There are a surfeit of popular aphorisms about, but there’s a reason that one has stood the test of time.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 2:39 am
Jazza.

You hit a nerve. You got my better angel this evening. I’m not going to post his name because I’m not resorting to those low level tactics. I’ll leave that stuff to people like FDB and Shiny.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:42 am
Leave FDB in his chosen anonymity, JC.

I think the lesson is learned.

If he doesn’t understand, I refer him to my 2:09.

—————————————————

I won’t weight in to the meta-topic. It’s an appallingly stupid thread.

My policy is to attack if attacked (if I can be bothered; less so than once) and to be civil – or, at least, no more than moderately, good-naturedly stirring – towards the amicable foe.

I thought the attacks on Monty last week were childish, personally hurtful and disrespectful of his actual – as opposed to his moniker-ish – self. That was heart and soul stuff, folks. That wasn’t nice. That wasn’t OK.

I don’t wish to hate anyone or give others to understand that I hate them. I do of course hate particular ideas and – here’s the vexatious rub – I hate what I believe to be the dishonesty or malice with which those ideas might be posited or defended. The result can be brawls that, if not wilfully personal, certainly resemble the wilfully personal. Provided I’m being true to myself for just intellectual cause, I don’t worry about this “robust to and fro” – as FDB now calls it.

Anyway, that’s all from me. (Excepting a probable necessity to swat Steve when he shows up to review the thread and post my name 20 times before morning tea).

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 2:42 am
CL

Fair is fair though, Monster is rarely ever nice here. He admits he trolls, he called the work I do disparaging names, he made reference to other people’s appearance with regard to their lack of hair. He’s done those things before the other day.

He attacks the thread owners like he would attack a dog on the street at times in the sneering way of his.

Perhaps he got back a little medicine of his own.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:49 am
To cleanse the palate now…

36 × 48-inch portrait of George Zimmerman made out of 12,250 Skittles glued to plywood

Extraordinary.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 2:52 am
Tim Geithner on Obama economics and 38 straight months of unemployment above 8%: “remarkably successful.”

Ed Morrisey deals with the US Swan.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 2:56 am
They caused a supply side crash. They basically crashed the production side of the economy and odumbo is still doing it by trying to turn people against each other as the former CEO of GE said the other day.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 3:12 am
Missed this part.

I thought the attacks on Monty last week were childish, personally hurtful and disrespectful of his actual – as opposed to his moniker-ish – self. That was heart and soul stuff, folks. That wasn’t nice. That wasn’t OK.

But look at what Jazza said about me.

and it’s no suprise that JC – with the body of an 80-year-old and the mind of a 12-year-old

In the immortal words of Jackie Chiles I was shocked and chagrined when I read that about myself. It was lascivious and challenged society’s conventions.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 3:17 am
It’s all so INAPPROPRIATE.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 3:22 am
They basically crashed the production side of the economy and odumbo is still doing it by trying to turn people against each other as the former CEO of GE said the other day.

How former was he as GE is one of the Aus carbon tax proponents? Hope he is having a go at his new CEO this is assuming he wasn’t around last year because if he was he is just a hypocrite.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 3:44 am
Kelly,

It’s Jack Welch he was around 8 odd years ago. Stop babbling.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 3:52 am
But if you are a Breivikian Muslim-hater it all becomes clear.

@Samson.

Good try, but fail. I have major issues with a belief system that says I can’t insult its ‘prophet’ even though he’s been dead for centuries, thinks I should be kept wrapped up and out of sight, not allowed out without permission from my male guardian and should be beaten if I step out of line.

The people are the biggest victims of this scam, and where on earth did you get the term ‘Breivikian Muslim-hater’ from? The nucking futs murdering scumbag actually rather prefers al Qaeda’s tactics to the EDL, so I wouldn’t call him an muslim-hater.

nilk

16 Apr 12 at 7:04 am
@CL regarding Catholic health services. It’s amazing how many people get so surprised when Catholics say they don’t want to do abortions or head down the euthanasia path. It’s not like it’s some sort of secret.

nilk

16 Apr 12 at 7:06 am
Things You Might Have Missed on Twitter This Morning:

Rupert Snarking at Lefty Whingers

Imre Salusinszky live-tweeting the 2CH ‘secret sound’ contest.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 7:53 am
Fisky is obviously unaware that I work on weekends and generally have no time for this site from Friday night through Sunday.

This thread makes for interesting reading. There are some inklings getting through some skulls. I even got a nice letter from JC, offering for me to buy him lunch. Stranger things have happened.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 8:27 am
Has the number of people visiting your website grown noticeably this year M0nty?

Token

16 Apr 12 at 8:38 am
It grows every year, Token, and has done so again this year, though at a slower rate than previous years.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 8:40 am
It grows every year, Token, and has done so again this year, though at a slower rate than previous years.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 8:40 am
This should be fun:

Reader challenge! Add the terrifying words “quite so” to a celebrated speech, song, political document or work of fiction so as to dramatically amplify the threat of violence.

As usual, the winner receives a basket of completely worthless carbon credits.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 8:40 am
Good news!

I guess I didn’t look hard before, but I notice there is more prominent advertising this year.

Token

16 Apr 12 at 8:42 am
I am a capitalist, Token. I don’t have to apologise for making money. Least of all at this site.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 8:44 am
I don’t have to apologise for making money. Least of all at this site.

I’ve never understood why people are made to feel they have to apologise. It is a reality I know, but I don’t understand it as it is tied to so many negative destructive emotions.

Token

16 Apr 12 at 8:48 am
Three Queenslanders charged with stealing a fairy penguin named ‘Dirk’.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 9:06 am
Obama suddenly remembers “innocent until proven guilty” tenet:

PRESIDENT Barack Obama said yesterday that he will wait to pass judgment on Secret Service agents accused of improper conduct involving prostitutes, but added that he will be “angry” if the reports of misconduct are true.

Obama said during a press conference at the close of the Summit of the Americas that he expects the Secret Service investigation of the incident to be “thorough” and “rigorous.”

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 10:14 am
Britain’s Lord Nazir Ahmed Offers £10 Million Bounty for Obama, Bush

Stressing the seriousness of his offer, Lord Ahmed said he would back the bounty at any cost, even if it meant selling his house. Qazi Muhammad Asad, minister for education in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, was among those present at the conference at which the announcement was made.

Following are excerpts from a report on the announcement that appeared in the Pakistani daily The Express Tribune:

“In an expression of solidarity with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, British parliamentarian of Kashmiri origin Lord Nazir Ahmed has announced a reward for the [capture] of U.S. President Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush.

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 10:23 am
PRESIDENT Barack Obama said yesterday that he will wait to pass judgment on Secret Service agents accused of improper conduct involving prostitutes, but added that he will be “angry” if the reports of misconduct are true.

He hates men who behave like this, he really does.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 10:57 am
Cheney: Obama “Has Been An Unmitigated Disaster To The Country”.

True.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 10:59 am
Don’t miss this event, if you get there by driving through Bunyah you might get a glimpse of Les Murray.

And Jo Nova gives The Conversation a serve.

Rafe

16 Apr 12 at 11:27 am
This thread is lamer than a land mine victims convention. Burn it.

Infidel Tiger

16 Apr 12 at 11:34 am
Cheney was too busy feeding his own private interests and torturing innocents to even worry about the country.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 11:38 am
Awkward headline of the day? http://twitpic.com/9aczp7

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 11:40 am
@James

The most disturbing thing of all is that the man Lord Ahmed was defending when he placed the bounty on Bush and Obama was the founder of the organisation that carried out the Mumbai attacks. What Ahmed has just done is intervened on behalf of a group of people who murdered 160 people.

Ahmed is a Labour peer appointed by Blair (who else?) when he was sucking up to the Muslim community. Harry’s Place (where else?) have compiled a list of his misdeeds:

Lord Ahmed has embarrassed the Labour Party on countless occasions. He gave a lobby pass to a representative of MEMO, the pro-Hamas group, and has participated in trips to visit the Hamas leadership. He booked a room in the Lords for the antisemitic hate preacher, Raed Salah. He met with the dead Al Qaeda fundraiser, Abu Rideh. He campaigned for the admission of the banned hate preacher, Zakir Naik. He supported the anti-Labour, pro-Islamist Mayor, Lutfur Rahman. He invited the neo Nazi who calls himself “Israel Shamir” to the Lords. He killed a father of two.

Despite all of this, Labour have never considered kicking him out until now.

Fisky

16 Apr 12 at 11:41 am
Goose proves once again why he will be sitting on the podium with Jim Cairns as the worst Australian Treasurer, ever.

Mr Swan attacked the ANZ after its decision, but Mr Robb said:”He always seems to come out of the blocks after the horse has bolted and makes loud noises.

“But the fact of the matter is that it’s his government that has put this pressure on interest rates which actually increases the cost of money.”

Token

16 Apr 12 at 12:06 pm
Ironically Lord Nazi is calling for war crimes trials for Blair.

jtfsoon

16 Apr 12 at 12:10 pm
Cowardly old killer given guest column in the New York Times.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:10 pm
Ironically Lord Nazi is calling for war crimes trials for Blair.

Lambert still angry with Tim?

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:13 pm
Another difference, JC, is that mine was a genuine mistake, for which I immediately and sincerely apologised.

I genuinely did not know you were protective of your identity, and I once again sincerely apologise for revealing it.

See how a real man acts?

Try it some time, you silly failed bully.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 12:47 pm
FDB, your 11:29 pm demonstrates that you weren’t being sincere at all.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 12:52 pm
“Another difference, JC, is that mine was a genuine mistake, for which I immediately and sincerely apologised.”

I call bullshit on that one, FDB.
You’re just trying to defuse JCs reasons for belting you over the head.

The moving finger, mate…

Winston SMITH

16 Apr 12 at 12:53 pm
FDB

Firstly Go fuck yourself and don’t tempt me. Against much of my better judgement I took Jazzabelle and CL’s advice last evening and decided to give my better angel a shot at coming out. Don’t tempt his evil twin though.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 12:53 pm
Hahaha. James Taranto retweeted my screencap of the Oz:
http://twitter.com/jamestaranto/status/191712915554963458

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 12:56 pm
Bwahahaha!

Infidel Tiger

16 Apr 12 at 1:03 pm
hahahaha nice work, sdog!

Oh come on

16 Apr 12 at 1:11 pm
Facing someone’s frank and unabashed hostility and dislike is much to be preferred to a purring facade of reasonableness followed by a sharp stiletto in the ribs.

Viva

16 Apr 12 at 1:28 pm
From CL’s “cowardly old killer” link:

But I’m not grieving over the absence; I don’t have and never have had a single qualm about not bringing that child into the world.

But you did bring a child into the world, why else the need for an abortion? Or is a woman’s uterus not part of this universe?

dover_beach

16 Apr 12 at 1:29 pm
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1. Robust debate is tolerated here. We will strive to maintain the most laissez faire comments policy on the web but this is subject to the following caveats:
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Sinclair, please don’t turn the Cat into LP.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 1:34 pm
It would be interesting to know how much difference there is between these two policies in practice, but of course there’s no way of knowing.

Commenters around here seem to regularly call for people to be banned in violation of rule 2 so I can’t see much love for ‘laissez faire’ sometimes.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 1:38 pm
Readers are most welcome to comment and debate. Rational disagreement and constructive interchange is thoroughly encouraged.

A complete lie.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 1:42 pm
Bobster:

I’ve called you to be banned on numerous times because I think your comments are basically useless and take up valuable pixel real estate.

Unfortunately however I know it falls on deaf ears.

Generally speaking the desire to ban is almost always related to the level of stupidity on display which you demonstrate in spades full.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 1:44 pm
Commenters around here seem to regularly call for people to be banned in violation of rule 2 so I can’t see much love for ‘laissez faire’ sometimes.

1. “Regularly” is false.
2. Despite a couple of people on rare occasions asking for a “ban”, the moderator makes his own decisions based on the stated rules of this site.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 1:45 pm
It seems lefties have a real problem understanding the concept of free speech. From the abominably stupid Sanchez to the others, there seems to be a real brain block in what it means.

Banning say, Hammy the self terminator or Sanchez the pool cleaner from commenting here is not a breach of their right to speak, as it’s a private blog and the owners are able to do what they want.

Hammy the kero can boy and Sanchez can for instance open their own blogs anytime they wished or stand in a park and bark obscenities about the CAT.

I really don’t understand why this is a difficult concept for them.

Bobster, you seem to suffer from this brain constipation too. Can you please explain the problem here.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 1:52 pm
Australian judges aren’t big on justice:

Council wins appeal over dog attack payout.

A council in western New South Wales has won its appeal against having to pay damages to the family of a girl who was mauled to death by a pack of dogs.

The four-year-old girl died after she wandered onto a neighbour’s property and was attacked by up to six dogs at Warren in 2006.

Her father Peter Kuehne sued Warren Shire Council, saying its officers did not ensure the dogs were kept safely despite numerous complaints about their behaviour.

The Council was ordered to pay the family more than $120,000.

The Supreme Court has overturned that judgement.

C.L.

16 Apr 12 at 2:03 pm
In the name of “Allah”

EXPLOSIONS and gunfire rocked the Afghan capital Sunday as suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan in coordinated attacks claimed by Taliban insurgents as the start of a spring offensive.

The US, British, German and Japanese embassy compounds came under fire as militants attacked the city’s diplomatic enclave and tried to storm parliament, sparking a gun battle as lawmakers and bodyguards fired back from the rooftop.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 2:10 pm
If you ask for people to be banned on the basis of what you think is good sense then you are in violation of rule 2.

And, yes, the moderator makes his own decision but that’s LP’s position too – the word of the moderator is the word of God.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 2:13 pm
If you ask for people to be banned on the basis of what you think is good sense then you are in violation of rule 2.

Nope. You are free to speak and call for a ban. Anyone can. Does not mean the request will be executed just becuase you ask for it.

And, yes, the moderator makes his own decision but that’s LP’s position too

Yes. What’s your point? Every site has it’s own rules, some more restrictive than others.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 2:19 pm
Bob
Can I invite you to comment on the blog of your biggest fan on the net?

http://graemebird.wordpress.com/

jtfsoon

16 Apr 12 at 2:19 pm
If you ask for people to be banned on the basis of what you think is good sense then you are in violation of rule 2.

But it’s not my blog, you mental midget. If it were mine I would add the following to 2.

2. No argument or point of view, no matter how controversial, will be censored subject to the conditions listed above. This is of course conditional on the comment or commenter being so intolerable stupid and thick headed they deserve an early blog death and life time ban, such as the Bobster.

And, yes, the moderator makes his own decision but that’s LP’s position too – the word of the moderator is the word of God.

Bob, you ignoramus. If this blog followed the lavatory’s rules, you would have been gonsky ages ago. Don’t even try and flatter yourself.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:20 pm
Bobster,

Birdie loves you like the dad he never had. Go over there and speak to him.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:22 pm
It seems lefties have a real problem understanding the concept of free speech.

The main problem I have with Sinclair and how he moderates this forum is not free speech, but poor quality speech. It is possible to be libertarian and also have manners. It is possible to be laissez-faire and also have self-restraint. That’s all.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 2:27 pm
It is possible to be libertarian and also have manners.

You’re obviously blind, Monster. This site is teeming with gentleman for instance. It’s teeming with us.

It is possible to be laissez-faire and also have self-restraint. That’s all.

Obviously. And you don’t believe how self restrained I am for example.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:29 pm
Good piece on Eric Holder. Just look at the fucking pic.

Eric Holder rode in on the stench of Marc Rich and will ride out on the stench of Al Sharpton. He’s spent the three-plus years in between branding Americans as “cowards” on race matters; investigating the CIA

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/296005/holder-meets-sharpton-andrew-c-mccarthy

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:31 pm
There’s not that much difference between you and Bird, JC. That’s probably why you two hate each other so.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 2:34 pm
There’s not that much difference between you and Bird, JC

Careful, Monty.

When Bird reads that, he’s going to put out a fatwa on you.

Actually I’m not sure who’s going to be more chagrined, Bird or JC.

jtfsoon

16 Apr 12 at 2:39 pm
The more they both squeal, the more it’s true.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 2:40 pm
It is possible to be libertarian and also have manners. It is possible to be laissez-faire and also have self-restraint. That’s all.

There are one or two people on this site who could make this point without coming across as sanctimonious hypocrites. Dover Beach springs to mind. There are a few others.

However, m0nty, you are not amongst this small bunch, you sanctimonious hypocrite.

Oh come on

16 Apr 12 at 2:40 pm
It is possible to be libertarian and also have manners. It is possible to be laissez-faire and also have self-restraint. That’s all.

You flatter me mOnty, but thanks for noticing.

Infidel Tiger

16 Apr 12 at 2:42 pm
And of course IT. How could I forget.

Oh come on

16 Apr 12 at 2:43 pm
There’s not that much difference between you and Bird, JC. That’s probably why you two hate each other so.

Wrong. Birdie is of course a red neck Kiwi and an illegal alien. I’m neither of those things.

Secondly I don’t hate birdie and possibly never will. We all had a falling out with Birdie when he decided to re-direct his loyalties to the sheman he loved (phil) instead of us.

Thirdly, I’m pretty conventional in my theoretical make up and don’t tend towards fat atoms or explodia.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:49 pm
Is Odumbo’s adviser, David Axelrod, Shane Wand’s better looking twin brother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xFUYhN3ikxI

They seem to share the same mannerisms and generalized lying patterns.

Watch the hand movements and shaking of the top of the body when making a point

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:55 pm
You tend to obsess over Graeme’s partner, JC. It’s not healthy. You and Bird have a rather passionate relationship, there’s no room for Yoko.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 2:56 pm
Monster

If I was gay, which I’m not, Birdie would possibly be the last person on the line and after you.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 2:57 pm
oops… should read… before you…

JC

16 Apr 12 at 3:00 pm
That you have even considered the order is weird.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 3:02 pm
RNC Chair Rips Buffett Rule: ‘A Shiny Object’ That Would ‘Raise 11 Hours Of Revenue’

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 3:02 pm
Free speech is fine, but you’d think people would respect the rules and not even ask for rulings on matters that clearly violate a rule.

Empty speech is boring and constant demands for bans and contant infantile abuse is empty speech.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 3:14 pm
“Dover Beach springs to mind.”

Except he’s not a libertarian.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 3:14 pm
Free speech is fine, but

Now you’re trying to finkelstein us. That’s very boring.

Empty speech is boring

Yes, but don’t be so hard on yourself.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 3:18 pm
… contant infantile abuse is empty speech.

So how’s about you cease and desist, then?

Rabz

16 Apr 12 at 3:23 pm
Bunyip still hasn’t received an answer to his question from Faifax “journalist”:

http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/silence-of-luvvie-lamb.html

The question to Ms Howden was simplicity itself: Could she provide one example, just one, of racism on that [Amazon] thread?

As well, there’s an..

UPDATE: Their ABC will tonight give Ms Heiss yet another dollop of free publicity. There is a comments thread as well. How long will this one last, do you reckon?

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 3:25 pm
Except he’s not a libertarian.

Really?

dover_beach

16 Apr 12 at 3:30 pm
dover is a fan of the smarter Oakeshott.

That makes him a sort of libertarian leaning conservative though Oakeshott had his quirks like complaining that privatisation of buses led to them being a boring colour

jtfsoon

16 Apr 12 at 3:34 pm
How do you classify yourself, dover_beach?

Jarrah

16 Apr 12 at 3:34 pm
What are the preconditions to being a libertarian? Like what must a person believe to be a libertarian.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 3:40 pm
though Oakeshott had his quirks like complaining that privatisation of buses led to them being a boring colour

Where does he say this?

How do you classify yourself, dover_beach?

Does it matter? What matters is the fact that I think government is a limited activity; limited, principally, to the maintenance of peace and order. I would have thought that makes me a libertarian.

dover_beach

16 Apr 12 at 3:41 pm
Like what must a person believe to be a libertarian.

Obviously not the hodge podge of stuff you believe in, kelly,

how’s the taxi?

jtfsoon

16 Apr 12 at 3:41 pm
Obviously not the hodge podge of stuff you believe in, kelly,

how’s the taxi?

So what stuff then? Should have a taxi by the 30th or a few days later if the bank is slow.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 3:43 pm
My apologies, dover.

My faulty memory attributed the buses argument to Oakeshott but it was actually an extrapolation of an argument made by another one of his Australian fans

https://cis.org.au/images/stories/policy-magazine/1999-winter/1999-15-2-sam-roggeveen.pdf

jtfsoon

16 Apr 12 at 3:45 pm
Hyperbowl alert.

These dogs and slaves seem to be treated a lot better than the poor people who had trucks being unloaded at Baida.

Token

16 Apr 12 at 3:50 pm
Apologies, D_B – I thought I remembered you saying a long time ago that you didn’t self-identify as libertarian.

Must have misremembered.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 3:53 pm
I’ll probably regret saying this, but I think FDB can also be a reasoned, calm interlocutor, so long as he doesn’t feel he’s being cornered, or treated frivolously. dover beach is just blessed with a temperament such that he does not feel any separation anxiety by simply turning off the computer, if things get all too unseemly or tiresome.

Peter Patton

16 Apr 12 at 3:59 pm
My apologies, dover. My faulty memory attributed the buses argument to Oakeshott…

Apologies, D_B

No worries, Jason and FDB. The idea that Oakeshott would even offer an opinion about the color of buses at all struck me as totally out of character.

dover_beach

16 Apr 12 at 3:59 pm
What are the preconditions to being a libertarian? Like what must a person believe to be a libertarian.

kelly liddle

The expectation of minimum interference from the state in our daily lives.
It basically explains the relationship a person has or wants with the state.

Sme libertarians go much further and believe the state should be entirely dismantled. Others don’t go that far.

I’m in the Milton Friedman camp. The state should be about 10% of the economy. This would take care of the military, police and legal system with a little left over to take care of the truly destitute.

Dismnatle nearly all of the government leaving the treasury, AG, defense and the PMs offices staffed.

Foreign policy could be run on Skype in the PM office.

Jc

16 Apr 12 at 4:00 pm
Oops. Jason, thanks for that article.

dover_beach

16 Apr 12 at 4:00 pm
too bad you aren’t blessed with the same qualities as db, PP

jtfsoon

16 Apr 12 at 4:00 pm
“Sme libertarians go much further and believe the state should be entirely dismantled. ”

that would be like that Lord of the Flies movie wouldn’t it – pretty thought provoking stuff, and no taxis!

candy

16 Apr 12 at 4:04 pm
Apologies, D_B – I thought

Lord, it’s getting fucking boring, FDB. You’re now spending all your time apologizing now.

He’s some advice. Stop fucking up like a moron and that way you don’t have to feel the need to apologize so much.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 4:05 pm
oh god, jason, I would send them back, if I were to be so blessed. But I am much better at ‘borrowing’ those qualities than I used to be. But you’re right, I always hand them back at the end of the session. It takes all sorts to make the world go round, and all that.

Peter Patton

16 Apr 12 at 4:06 pm
…that would be like that Lord of the Flies movie wouldn’t it – pretty thought provoking stuff, and no taxis!

I’ve never understood that argument much because one of the first things humans do when creating groups that are essentially unwieldy is form governments no matter how small.

I believe that not having any government would actually work fine for some people.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 4:08 pm
With the exception of JC, this thread is sounding like the ending of the Tale of Despereaux today. (Everyone – mice, rat and humans, apologise to each other for all of the misunderstandings and hurt caused.)

steve from brisbane

16 Apr 12 at 4:24 pm
I believe that not having any government would actually work fine for some people.

I suspect we will soon run out of cyberspace on this thread but it’d be fun to play ‘pretend PMs’ with a simple government model that puts money back in people’s pockets by dismantling the socialist nanny state model and re-establishes personal responsibility as a guiding principle – after we rewrite the constitution to forbid the state from removing basic personal liberties.

Tom

16 Apr 12 at 4:24 pm
Yes JC, we all know your attitude to apologies.

Never offer one, never accept one.

The perfect gentleman.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 4:32 pm
I feel sorry for those 300 Toyota people losing their jobs.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 4:32 pm
I feel sorry for those 300 Toyota people losing their jobs.

Stop being an idiot, Candy. Take this in. There is a 2,0000,000 jobs flow in the US each month. I don’t what ours is but assume the same on population proportion which means there is 140,000 flow here per month.

On a daily basis that would around 7,000 people losing and gaining jobs.

You should be feeling sorry for far more people than that mollycoddled 300.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 4:37 pm
JC

Your idea on Libertarianism might be ok in theory but in the real world it is not going to happen. So do you have a more pragmatic approach to deal with reality?

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 4:48 pm
Essential:

Q. If a Federal Election was held today to which party will you probably give your first preference vote? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward?

Q. If don’t know -Well which party are you currently leaning to?

Sample size = 1,906 respondents 2 week rolling averages

Liberal 45%(down 2)
National 3%(steady)
Labor 31%(steady)
Greens 11%(steady)

2PP

Lib/Nat 56%(down 1)
Labor 44%(up 1)

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 4:50 pm
So you think that 10% GDP going to the government is going to turn us into the Sudan, Kelly. We would become a veritable Brutopia.

Funny that, because it wasn’t long ago when governments had around 10% and no one was going around eating babies and drinking their blood.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 4:51 pm
Some libertarians go much further and believe the state should be entirely dismantled.

Actually, if you ‘go that far’ you cease being a libertarian and become an anarchist, IMO.

I’ve had this argument before with ‘government is cancer’, ‘tax is theft’ anarcho-capitalist types who wish to be called ‘libertarian’ because it sounds less threatening.

I can understand property-rights an-caps not wanting to be confused with the far left ‘property is theft’ anarcho-communists (what most people see anarchists as), but libertarianism is about small government not no government.

Of course what constitutes ‘small’ is a matter of opinion and frame of reference, but I think the lower end it would be a ‘minarchist’ libertarian who thinks the role of government should be restricted to police, law courts and maybe national self-defence. On the other end a libertarian can be anyone who generally supports less government and less regulation/taxes than there are currently.

But I’d argue that most libertarians would reject anarchy asthey would see it in resulting in less individual liebrty, not more. See Somalia, PNG etc.

papachango

16 Apr 12 at 4:51 pm
What are the preconditions to being a libertarian? Like what must a person believe to be a libertarian.

I always liked the Roger Ebert summation.

I was primed to review “Atlas Shrugged.” I figured it might provide a parable of Ayn Rand’s philosophy that I could discuss. For me, that philosophy reduces itself to: “I’m on board; pull up the lifeline.”

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 4:53 pm
Kelly,

You’re mind is a fucking mash. You’re all over the fucking place and have no consistent thinking. You’d vote for Ron Paul who would do/try exactly what I’m suggesting but you think it wouldn’t work.

Tell me, did you ever do logic and reason at school?

The mark please.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 4:54 pm
m0nty you have NFI about both Rand and Libertarianism. Rand was not a libertarian BTW, even if the economic bits of Objectivism had similarities with Libertarianism.

papachango

16 Apr 12 at 4:57 pm
So you think that 10% GDP going to the government is going to turn us into the Sudan,

No that is why I said it is ok in theory but the Aus government or US gov will not do this in our lifetime and probably never so it is not realistic. You did argue with me yesterday or this morning that taking 30 years to balance the budget in the US is ok and that to me is showing extreme pragmatism or accepting reality that the US govs fiscal position is doomed so just forget about it. So what is your pragmatic position to the Aus government?

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 4:58 pm
always liked the Roger Ebert summation.

m0nty you have NFI about both Rand and Libertarianism.

He’s now quoting us a leftwing movie critic as an expert on what constitutes libertarianism.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 4:59 pm
“I’m on board; pull up the lifeline.”

I prefer to think of it in terms of airline safety:

If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person.

Look after yourself, take responsibility for your actions and help others when in genuine need.

(Sorry, monty, I hope my disagreeing with you doesn’t offend or upset you).

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:01 pm
At least that post went some way towards constituting an interesting thought, Gab. Though you probably read it somewhere else first.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 5:03 pm
Mighty kind PP – perhaps too much.

To be honest, I’ve flown off the handle a few times without much provocation. Although that was mostly during a fairly dark time for me personally, when I probably just shouldn’t have been commenting.

To add to your list of things that tick me off, which I think we can all relate to – making shit up. Assuming that because I hold opinion x, I must be a doctrinaire n-type person, and therefore hold opinions y and z as well. I’m sure I do this to others too – it’s a very hard thing to avoid and almost impossible to catch yourself in the act.

This an environment where it can be very difficult to get any nuanced position across even on a single issue, for reasons I’ve already gone over, but to also have it decided in advance what positions I simply must hold is really unhelpful.

I mean, look at the level of disagreement between self-identifying libertarians*. To assume that everyone else is one of a handful of rigid cardboard cutouts would be extremely arrogant.

*although I grant that the herd of cats metaphor is particularly well-suited to them.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 5:03 pm
Though you probably read it somewhere else first.

Not true.

(Sorry, monty, I hope my disagreeing with you doesn’t offend or upset you).

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:06 pm
yeah I figured that JC. Has anyone seen the Atlas Shrugged movie BTW? I imagine that the book wouldn’t lend itself very well to a film adaptation.

papachango

16 Apr 12 at 5:07 pm
Rarely in Australia has a coming out story been spun so shamelessly to excuse anti-gay prejudice. But like many other gay Australians, I’m not deceived.

Yabbott! Yabbott! Yabbott!

Rabz

16 Apr 12 at 5:10 pm
No that is why I said it is ok in theory but the Aus government or US gov will not do this in our lifetime and probably never so it is not realistic.

So it’s not something to aspire to, jsut be defeatist?

If we can convince the Liberal party to advocate 30% free market and libertarian ideas, while softening down the rest of it statism, we’re well on the way. That’s where the real battle should be.

You did argue with me yesterday or this morning that taking 30 years to balance the budget in the US is ok and that to me is showing extreme pragmatism or accepting reality that the US govs fiscal position is doomed so just forget about it.

The US has serious structural budget problems and a constituency deeply mired in taking something for nothing. It would take time to wean them off. In addition the reforms will be harsh, and I’m not sure the place could take a sudden when without descent into something quite ugly.

I’m actually not too much bothered by the current level of debt provided growth, paydown and monetary policy settings are calibrated correctly.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 5:10 pm
why the nice qualifier to m0nty? did he get upset abiut something? you lot were a bit hard with those comments about his weight, inappropriate IMO.

papachango

16 Apr 12 at 5:10 pm
Gab forgot the addendum: “But if your child is a bit of a moocher, and let’s face it, they usually are: take your time. Have a cigarette first.”

steve from brisbane

16 Apr 12 at 5:12 pm
I didn’t comment on his weight, papachango. I wanted to say something but thought better of it as I saw it as the male rough’n'tumble equivalent at the Cat. And besides, i thought monty could stick up for himself.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:13 pm
wanted to say something against everyone picking on monty for his weight

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:14 pm
Has anyone seen the Atlas Shrugged movie BTW?

Yea I saw it. I thought for a low budget movie it was very good and remarkably true to the book.

I loved how “Hank” Rearden, when asked about how he felt about the poor, replied.. “I don’t care about them”.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 5:14 pm
“I don’t care about them”

The Hammster would be horrified…

Rabz

16 Apr 12 at 5:17 pm
And Atlas Shrugged part 2 is currently in production.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:17 pm
yes Ok Gab, but why so nice to the m0ntster now? why the pre-emptive apologies for the possibility of offence?

papachango

16 Apr 12 at 5:20 pm
The US has serious structural budget problems and a constituency deeply mired in taking something for nothing.

Yes, the finance sector, energy companies and the military all want something for nothing and get it.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 5:21 pm
I want to avoid hurting his feelings.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:22 pm
why the nice qualifier to m0nty? did he get upset abiut something? you lot were a bit hard with those comments about his weight, inappropriate IMO.

Look, guilt hit me last evening when Jazzabelle and CL made me feel bad about giving monster a hard time. It’s a novel experience feeling guilt, as i rarely feel any for the obvious reason that I never fuck up or make an asshat of myself (like FDB does and has to apologize every second comment because he’s a first rate idiot).

So I looked up his email address on that dog’s breakfast of a site he has and sent him a nice email apologizing for what what I said and getting out of hand. The big mouth boofhead of course, unable to keep shit to himself comes on here earlier this morning and mentions I sent him an email.

Having said all that, I need to make the point that the apology was never to do about his attire on the golf course, because in a just world he would be facing potential execution for showing up on the golf course in shorts, black socks and sneakers.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 5:22 pm
Ayn Rand was a welfare cheat, amazing but true.

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 5:23 pm
JC, I say let monty wear what he likes

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:24 pm
m0nty – as I recall it, everyone here was very nice to you when you were travelling around the US, and helpful with suggestions. I mention this just in case people think that Cat regulars are meanies, especially to weary travellers in need of a cheer-up.

Candy – I am sorry too for anyone who loses their job, even though it is necessary at times because their industry is not competitive. It would be less distressing if we didn’t have Julia Prawn in charge, because, putting it in simple terms, there would be many other jobs for people to go to.

One for the pub: The Bunyip on Julia Prawn: “the meat in her tail and nothing but crap in her head’

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Apr 12 at 5:25 pm
So it’s not something to aspire to, jsut be defeatist?

I would say lets aspire to gov revenue representing 30% and spending 29% (take 1c in the dollar off people for the future which at the moment that idea causes panick) first and this must be an upper limit. Then if that gets achieved go for 25% and so on. One step at a time or people will give up.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 5:27 pm
JC, I say let monty wear what he likes

There are definite limits, Gab. I don’t think I would be able to retrain myself from clubbing him with the drive and the 3 iron if he showed up to a course in that attire. And a fair and just court of my peers would see it my way in the end and acquit.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 5:28 pm
I don’t think I would be able to retrain myself from clubbing him with the drive and the 3 iron if he showed up to a course in that attire

You and anyone else with a different sense of attire.

Actions have consequences, JC, as you know. If monty wants to dress in that way, who are we to prevent those consequences?

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:31 pm
Here is a lovely picture of JC on the golf course.

Infidel Tiger

16 Apr 12 at 5:33 pm
I’ve never seen m0nty be so snarky in his time.

He was obviously vewy hurt by all the discussion of his physique.

Quite so.

Rabz

16 Apr 12 at 5:33 pm
Ayn Rand was a welfare cheat, amazing but true.

Yea bob, like Abbott was separating from his wife because you noticed he didn’t have a ring on his wedding finger one day in parliament or that other horseshit you peddled about Kennedy.

She took social security and medicare like everyone else in the country including Buffet, you eggnog.

And I’m entitled to it too and will be taking it up as “it’s my fair share” seeing I paid into the trust fund for 16 years. It’s my money and I want it.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 5:34 pm
“Ayn Rand was a welfare cheat, amazing but true.”

i believe she were atheist too, just out of interest

candy

16 Apr 12 at 5:36 pm
Here is a lovely picture of JC on the golf course.

FFS, stop being a metrosexual goose, IT. There’s no problem wearing a nice pair of shorts and even sneakers to a golf course. But for lord sake how could he possibly wear regular black socks with that get up. It’s an act against nature itself.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 5:37 pm
I was ruminating on this “ban” issue and perhaps this site could adopt a slight interventionist policy that the nanny statists would agree be social justice. Perhaps those with a sensitive predisposition to words written on an adult blog should be banned for their own protection. For their own good, as it were. Just a suggestion for consideration.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 5:38 pm
The big mouth boofhead of course, unable to keep shit to himself comes on here earlier this morning and mentions I sent him an email.

I was careful not to mention the apology, lest your reputation as a fancy-free blackguard be sullied by the stain of your moment of weakness.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 5:39 pm
And I’m entitled to it too and will be taking it up as “it’s my fair share” seeing I paid into the trust fund for 16 years. It’s my money and I want it.

This is what confuses me about some characters like Sir Joh and Ron Paul they actually knocked back entitlements. I am a greedy like you JC if the government is going to give it to all the bludgers I want it too and forget about my moral objection.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 5:40 pm
no she didn’t cheat but she said it was wrong for people to accept welfare, that’s just hypocrisy not cheating

candy

16 Apr 12 at 5:40 pm
that’s just hypocrisy not cheating

Candy
No it isn’t it is only asking for the share even though you believe you do not deserve it. Have you ever heard of someone knocking back a pay rise because they know they are not really worth that much to the company?

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 5:44 pm
I am a greedy like you JC if the government is going to give it to all the bludgers I want it too and forget about my moral objection.

I’m not being greedy you mental oaf. The deal in the US is understood and has always been understood that FICA is a pension plan and that you pay into it which you will get back on retirement. That’s the fucking deal. They even send you a 1/2 yearly account to show the movement. It’s your money and they even describe it as your money and that it’s gone into the trust fund. There is nothing greedy about wanting your money, you nimbus.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 5:46 pm
JC, you still got that photo of m0nty posing and pretending the ball whet down da middle, when his followthrough position clearly shows he sliced the arse off it?
And was he hitting off the ladies red tee markers?

Jumpnmcar

16 Apr 12 at 5:47 pm
Kelly
I’m a dimwit and can’t argue about anything, just making the comment that’s all.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 5:48 pm
JC
You do have a moral objection to the government running pension schemes I would have thought. Just as I have a moral objection to paying taxes for baby bonuses but if some gf or wife has a baby one day I won’t knock it back. You are just using semantics.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 5:52 pm
Samson

Ayn Rand was a welfare cheat, amazing but true.

Didn’t she just access universally accessible Medicare when she was dying of cancer, provided out taxes people paid all their lives? She cheated? She didn’t really have cancer? She just wanted to hang and chill in the hospital until she died?

Peter Patton

16 Apr 12 at 5:52 pm
May I remind the court that I hit a hole in one on the 17th at Collier Park GC on January 5. Six iron from 135m, starting a little left, pitching hard and rolling right into the cup. Thus any references to golf bring up a happy recent memory for me.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 5:53 pm
JC

Is that true, you can access US medicare when you’re old and grey, even though you haven’t lived there for decades, or aren’t a citizen?

Peter Patton

16 Apr 12 at 5:55 pm
JC – have you found the “No Denim” rule much of a pain when considering your golfing attire? Must be a real kick in the teeth that some bloke can wear a $30 pair of slacks from Target, but you can’t wear your $800 “Ïce Washed” Dolce & Gabbanas on the course?

Infidel Tiger

16 Apr 12 at 5:55 pm
May I remind the court that I hit a hole in one on the 17th at Collier Park GC

Doesn’t count off the ladies tee.

Six iron from 135m,

That’s an easy 8 or 9 iron for men.

Jumpnmcar

16 Apr 12 at 5:56 pm
“Candy – I am sorry too for anyone who loses their job, even though it is necessary at times because their industry is not competitive.”

Elizabeth, i understand that i’ve been reading a bit about subsidies and competitiveness and stuff.

i was just just thinking some people can take retrenchment and get right back on their feet because they be adaptable, but for others it tips them a bit mentally, money stress being really awful, keeps a person awake at night. After the ‘mollycoddling’ JC mentioned, reality steps in, i guess.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 6:08 pm
Jealousy is a curse, Jumpnmcar.

m0nty

16 Apr 12 at 6:10 pm
i was just just thinking some people can take retrenchment and get right back on their feet because they be adaptable, but for others it tips them a bit mentally, money stress being really awful, keeps a person awake at night.

This is a cultural thing which changes over time according to state support and events in your life time. If people know that they must look after themselves they will save money and this happens after major collapses such as people who experienced the great depression acted conservatively with their money and visa versa in Australia at the moment the government has offered to help the people recently unemployed at the Toyota plant implying they will get special treatment for people probably on fairly good wages who could have saved money no problem. What about those who already didn’t have a job? The Labor/Union movement does not care about the disposessed only their members.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 6:21 pm
some people can take retrenchment and get right back on their feet because they be adaptable

…or because their skills are tranferrable to other available work on comparable pay.

FDB

16 Apr 12 at 6:22 pm
“has offered to help the people recently unemployed at the Toyota plant implying they will get special treatment for people probably on fairly good wages”

Kelly i agree they should not get ‘special treatment’ from the Government if that be true, all should be equal, why should a person retrenched from a small business be any different to person in big car company, that’s not fair.
Just a comment about retrenchment in general.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 6:47 pm
Jealousy is a curse, Jumpnmcar.

Any response, from me, on that issue, would demean us both,so, with many commas, I say to you, m0nty, congratulations and,,, get fucked.

Jumpnmcar

16 Apr 12 at 6:55 pm
Candy
You seem to show a lot of empathy towards everyone and that is a good quality but taking a step back and thinking might be an idea, this situation did not exist before the 70s people would just get on with it and not rely on government support or suffer relative hardship because they new how to look after themselves. The modern day governments have created much of this dependance.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 6:56 pm
I feel sorry for those 300 Toyota people losing their jobs.

I find it hard to feel sorry for people whose jobs and fantastic terms rely on government handouts, but still on Mondays a third of them call in sick.

And they wonder why!

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 7:04 pm
Actually, if you ‘go that far’ you cease being a libertarian and become an anarchist,

I agree, I’m a libertarian, but I’m only ever two beers away from being an anarchist.

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 7:06 pm
JC

Is that true, you can access US medicare when you’re old and grey, even though you haven’t lived there for decades, or aren’t a citizen?

Yea. I’ll take it up too, because if you really get sick you can’t beat some of those clinics like Cleveland and Mayo clinics.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 7:07 pm
All this talk about Atlas I saw a great movie last week.

ayn-rand-the-prophecy-of-atlas-shrugged

If you get the chance.

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 7:10 pm
Thank God Dirk the flightless bird is home safe and sound

Tal

16 Apr 12 at 7:31 pm
Let Madam Ant read your palm.

Tom

16 Apr 12 at 7:34 pm
Oh and Lad I do like that ping pong thing,not as good as bong smoking dolphin though

Tal

16 Apr 12 at 7:36 pm
Class hatred:

I find it hard to feel sorry for people whose jobs and fantastic terms rely on government handouts, but still on Mondays a third of them call in sick.

And they wonder why!

Samson Agonistes

16 Apr 12 at 7:43 pm
JC

Well I’ve paid tax there too. I’ll see you on the patio for cocktails!

Peter Patton

16 Apr 12 at 7:47 pm
Why should we pay for RDOs?

Tal

16 Apr 12 at 7:47 pm
Class hatred:

Really

Why?

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 7:48 pm
Class hatred:

Really

Why?

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 7:48 pm
Oh and Lad I do like that ping pong thing

Good on you, Tal. He’s been posting that vid for a few weeks now hoping someone would notice. Maybe now he’ll stop….but I doubt it

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 7:49 pm
JC
Shout me a beer when you pick up your $1000 AUD from your US pension plan in 20 years. That is my estimate of the value after QE18.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 7:50 pm
Does this thing burn out a valve when it passes 1000 comments, Sinc?

Tom

16 Apr 12 at 7:53 pm
Well Gab someone had to comment
Btw the new green leader is on tv at the moment wearing the most revolting pink blazer ugh

Tal

16 Apr 12 at 7:53 pm
I don’t want to look, Tal. I’ve seen enough ugly for one day.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 7:54 pm
1000

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 7:55 pm
Tom if you call him your lordship he will start a new thread,you have to grovel

Tal

16 Apr 12 at 7:57 pm
Fair enough Gab,I did have my brave hat on tonight

Tal

16 Apr 12 at 8:01 pm
Thanks, Tal. It’s just that it gets a bit scary when the counter has to start inserting commas. If one of those flies off, it could end up in someone’s front yard or accidentally kill a pet.

Tom

16 Apr 12 at 8:02 pm
SILENCE! The Honorable Wayne Swan, Treasurer of Australia, tweets!

http://twitter.com/SwannyDPM/status/191810501183946752

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 8:05 pm
You’re right Tom, and the rules do say thing about not creating legal liability for the site.

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 8:06 pm
Well, Wayne likes to make them worth waiting for.

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 8:08 pm
Well, Wayne likes to make them worth waiting for.

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 8:08 pm
I’m not doing that, promise.

CraigS

16 Apr 12 at 8:09 pm
JC
Shout me a beer when you pick up your $1000 AUD from your US pension plan in 20 years. That is my estimate of the value after QE18.

You’re a monetary economist now, Kelly.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:09 pm
The Honorable

Isn’t it about time we dispense with this sham of an honorific?

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 8:11 pm
Yes why not you have called me everything else.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 8:11 pm
Mullah Omah did you read Tom’s last post? This thread could kill.Have you no shame

Tal

16 Apr 12 at 8:13 pm
“Yes why not you have called me everything else.”

kelly that’s really funny, you are a good sport!

candy

16 Apr 12 at 8:14 pm
Isn’t it about time we dispense with this sham of an honorific?

Yes.

Applying it to a senior government minister who Logie-tweets (or to former PM Kevin “ZOB ZOB ZOB” Rudd) feels a bit… forced.

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 8:17 pm
A. Bolt is losing the plot a bit I think, calling for execution of the Norway murderer.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 8:18 pm
A. Bolt is losing the plot a bit I think, calling for execution of the Norway murderer.

Ya think he didn’t murder enough people to deserve capital punishment or you think he’s innocent?

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:20 pm
It’s just that it gets a bit scary when the counter has to start inserting commas. If one of those flies off, it could end up in someone’s front yard or accidentally kill a pet.

What the Honorable Tom said, Sinc.

O Doomlord, do you not care about our Elfin Safety here?!

sdog

16 Apr 12 at 8:20 pm
Hey Kelly JC said you a monetary economist and called me an idiot. what a pair we make! I think you come out better tonite!

candy

16 Apr 12 at 8:20 pm
Candy
Agree with you there, what is Bolt talking about when he suggests secret trials and execution. He all of a sudden supports non open trials. Imagine poor Mr Bolt in front of Judge Gillard.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 8:23 pm
“Ya think he didn’t murder enough people to deserve capital punishment or you think he’s innocent?”

You are nasty.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 8:24 pm
Excellent idea, the Honourable Spot. No point in letting them go to waste when folk more deserving…err.. deserve it.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 8:24 pm
I didn’t call you and idiot candy. I said stop being one, which means there’s still lots of hope.

For kelly, not so much.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:25 pm
Have you no shame

Gab – you know full well I have no shame. None. Zip. Nada. I am shameless.

Sinclair Davidson

16 Apr 12 at 8:25 pm
Good point. Memory fades…

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 8:27 pm
Tal,,,not moi….but I would have said it too.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 8:28 pm
A. Bolt is losing the plot a bit I think, calling for execution of the Norway murderer.

I was being sarcastic obviously. Not nasty. The fucker killed, was it 30 people. Why is Bolt off his rocker for calling the death penalty on this barbaric animal?

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:28 pm
A. Bolt is losing the plot a bit I think, calling for execution of the Norway murderer.

Why is he losing the plot?

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:28 pm
Ya think he didn’t murder enough people to deserve capital punishment or you think he’s innocent?

Totalitarian alert. At least Bolt thinks a trial is ok even if it is secret but JC thinks that is too nice.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 8:28 pm
Isn’t it fantastic? Even in its death throes LP can only get 426 comments in a week.

Sinclair Davidson

16 Apr 12 at 8:30 pm
So we have James, JC and Obama all on the same side. Me and Candy on the other. What a turn of events.

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 8:30 pm
The fucker killed, was it 30 people.

67 odd on the island, 8 in Oslo from memory.

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:30 pm
Totalitarian alert. At least Bolt thinks a trial is ok even if it is secret but JC thinks that is too nice.

I never read the comment Kelly, you dill. I assume Candy was correctly referencing what Bolt said and I was presuming Bolt wasn’t suggesting there should be a trial of course, In other words his sentencing should be the death penalty.

You know what pisses me off about you Kelly. It’s that you’re always impugning the worse motives of people here.

It does get pretty tiring having to always explain your presumptions are faultily based.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:32 pm
Obama’a not pro capital punishment surely?

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:36 pm
It’s that you’re always impugning the worse motives of people here.

I learnt from the master. Now just to get it straight he was a right winger right?

kelly liddle

16 Apr 12 at 8:36 pm
Bolta isn’t calling for an execution. He’s saying that with this show trial and circus there is no possibility of one even if it were on the cards.

Breivik’s (henceforth to be known as the nucking futs murdering scumbag) is not a complete idiot and he obviously knows his socialist Norway well.

Because they are all supposed to be so very understanding and caring, and also it fits the paradigm of teh Evil Right Wingnuts, he’ll play them to ensure that he’s found not guilty by reason of insanity, and his alleged influences will be convicted in absentia and in his stead.

He gets to live in peace and notoriety at the State’s leisure, while said State can use him as en excuse to crunch down ever harder on dissent in any form.

That’s my prediction, anyway.

nilk

16 Apr 12 at 8:36 pm
Just read it. Bolt didn’t suggest the animal not undergo an trial. He’s suggesting it shouldn’t have been telecast as there is no reason to. He doesn’t deserve an inch of publicity. Why is he wrong, you two?

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:36 pm
Opened a new forum.

Sinclair Davidson

16 Apr 12 at 8:37 pm
Obama’a not pro capital punishment surely?

Nah, just death by Seals.

nilk

16 Apr 12 at 8:37 pm
Why is ur mind full of twaddle Kelly?

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:38 pm
I learnt from the master. Now just to get it straight he was a right winger right?

European type right winger, yes he was. Your point being what eggsactly, Kelly, you drunken Irishman.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:38 pm
Before A. Bolt removes it -
he said:
“This is a man who should have been tried quietly, almost secretly, and executed miserably, humiliatingly. (I’m reminded here of the powerful finale of Angels With Dirty Faces, in which a priest persuades a murderer who’d resolved to die game to go instead to the electric chair screaming and crying, to “die yeller” to warn off the buys who admired him still.)”

it’s disappointing he would say that. the norway killer should be judged, put in jail/psych and forgotton. like martin bryant – just the same.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 8:40 pm
Wash ur mouth JC.

Kelly couldn’t possibly have the blood of Fionn mac Cumhaill coursing thru his/her/its veins surely?

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:41 pm
He already had a psych eval and the judge dismissed it. Rightly so too.

Gab

16 Apr 12 at 8:41 pm
This is a man who should have been tried quietly, almost secretly, and executed miserably, humiliatingly.

Well said that man!

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:42 pm
…it’s disappointing he would say that. the norway killer should be judged, put in jail/psych and forgotton. like martin bryant – just the same.

Why? The scores of lives he took should mean he spends his time in a nice psychiatric hospital with nursing staff and medicos looking after him and group therapy sessions every afternoon.

That’s all the lives mean.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:43 pm
It’s disappointing Candy would say that.

The norway killer should be judged, tried quietly, almost secretly, and executed miserably, humiliatingly.

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:44 pm
Kelly couldn’t possibly have the blood of Fionn mac Cumhaill coursing thru his/her/its veins surely?

It’s all that freaking cheap beer he drinks from 12 on.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:44 pm
Candy

He killed 67 people. He doesn’t deserve to live nor even talk other than strictly supervised statements to defend himself, not talk about the right of the court to try him.

He has nothing to say that people would want to listen to.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 8:46 pm
Look this needs to be said for leftists about and those influnced bt their excrutiating ego-driven piety.

It would be immoral not to execute Breivik should he be found guilty of mass murder.

And that I predict will be the verdict.

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:48 pm
James K
take a look at the comments tomorrow on Mr bolt’s forum on that article and i bet you will see a lot will feel like i feel.

it depends on the moderation though, his moderators live in a world of their own.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 8:49 pm
Morality isn’t a populist game Candy.

In fact for ur information the majority of our population quite rightly support capital punishment.

It would be immoral not to execute should he befound guilty of mass murder.

It’s not even remotely difficult consideration.

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 8:54 pm
it’s not up to us rational people to take out life, JamesK. God expects us to keep a lid on that kind of thinking.

candy

16 Apr 12 at 9:00 pm
In fact the bible explicitly supports capital punishment Candy.

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 9:02 pm
it’s not up to us rational people to take out life, JamesK. God expects us to keep a lid on that kind of thinking.

It’s totally disrespecting the dead.

JC

16 Apr 12 at 9:02 pm
Why should the family friends and loved ones of a victim of a callous murderer pay taxes to keep that murderer incarcerated in prison where he has legal rights for 20 years before he’s free?

The murderer deprived the victim of life permanently and cruelly.

JamesK

16 Apr 12 at 9:05 pm
This obituary has gone viral

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2129627/Michael-Flathead-Blanchard-obituary-internet-sensation-Facebook.html

A Celebration of the life of Michael “Flathead” Blanchard will be held on April 14th, 3 pm 8160 Rosemary St, Commerce City. Weary of reading obituaries noting someone’s courageous battle with death, Mike wanted it known that he died as a result of being stubborn, refusing to follow doctors’ orders and raising hell for more than six decades. He enjoyed booze, guns, cars and younger women until the day he died.
Mike was born July 1944 in Colorado to Clyde and Ethel Blanchard. A community activist, he is noted for saving the Dr. Justina Ford house from demolition and defending those who could not defend themselves. He was a Republican delegate, life member of the NRA, founder and President of the Dead Cats MC. He loved music.
Mike was preceded in death by Clyde and Ethel Blanchard, survived by his beloved sons Mike and Chopper, former wife Jane Transue, brother Stephen Blanchard (Susan), Uncle Don and Aunt Cynthia Blanchard(his favorite); Uncle Dill and Aunt Dot, cousins and nephews, Baba Yaga can kiss his butt. So many of his childhood friends that weren’t killed in Vietnam went on to become criminals, prostitutes and/or Democrats. He asks that you stop by and re-tell the stories he can no longer tell. As the Celebration will contain Adult material we respectfully ask that no children under 18 attend.

jtfsoon

17 Apr 12 at 2:33 pm
You gotta love the birthers. They’re still at it.

Here’s a court case on you tube.

LOl

Challenges to Obama’s name on the 2012 election ballot have appeared in more than half a dozen states already.

I’m still waiting for the important case: Graeme Bird vs Barack Obama to go to the Supreme court.

JC

17 Apr 12 at 3:05 pm

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