Sunday, January 28, 2007
CONTROVERSIAL COLE
Congratulations to Beccy Cole:
Her controversial song Poster Girl, which promotes pride in Australian troops, was named the Single of the Year and the APRA Song of the Year.
Cole wrote it in response to a fan’s letter of criticism for the artist performing for Australian soldiers serving in Iraq.
“I’m absolutely thrilled, thrilled beyond belief,” she told the audience.
“I don’t want this to be my moment, I want it to be a moment when we think about the diggers past and present who do such a great job for our country. They’re incredible people.”
Controversial? I prefer this description, from AAP:
The 34-year-old’s patriotic single Poster Girl was also named APRA Song Of The Year and Single Of The Year.
Via Adrian the Cabbie. Wally Anglesea forwards video.
TARGET: 300
Australia have won the toss in Perth. Thank God for that.
Friday, January 26, 2007
CLAIMS CONSIDERED
The Daily Telegraph’s Ian McPhedran - who has worked in Baghdad alongside Robert Fisk - considers recent claims made by the great military expert.
EARTH RUINERS CONFESS
Charles Krauthammer asks:
Is there anything more depressing than yet another promise of energy independence in yet another State of the Union address? By my count, 24 of the 34 State of the Union addresses since the oil embargo of 1973 have proposed solutions to our energy problem.
The result? In 1973 we imported 34.8 percent of our oil. Today we import 60.3 percent.
That is depressing. Yet more so is the Melbourne Age’s front page confession:
We’re ruining Earth
Well, only for those few earthlings who read the Age. In other Melbourne depression news:
With just $3.3 million in public funding, [Sydney Festival] boss Fergus Linehan smashed two successive records - last year his first festival made $4.1million, the first profit in 30 years, and this year earned $5 million with a program 30 per cent bigger.
Meanwhile, Melbourne’s International Arts Festival last year sucked up $5.5 million and raised just $1.6 million ...
PROBLEM DISCUSSED, ADDRESSED
Wealthy anti-capitalists lose their food to opportunistic feasters:
Dozens of street children have invaded a five-star hotel food tent and feasted on meals meant for sale at the World Social Forum in Kenya’s capital.
The hungry urchins were joined by other participants who complained that the food was too expensive at the annual anti-capitalist get together ...
The gathering in Nairobi is discussing social problems, including poverty.
Hold these events more often and global hunger would be ended. Except for World Social Forum attendees.
WHEN DAVE COMES TO TOWN
This week’s column.
FOLLOWINK ORDERS
Spiegel Online reports:
The number of Germans who have converted to Islam has increased fourfold within one year—despite the negative perception of Islam among the general public.
Why is this happening? According to a German Muslim, it might have something to do with a certain fondness for rules:
Salim Abdullah speaks of “defiant reactions” in the face of the constant criticism brought against Islam, although he’s also familiar with converts who appreciate the “clear rules for behavior” provided by the Koran.
AUSTRALIA DAY
Whoa! Almost out of time to run an Australia Day post, featuring our chilling gang colours:
Fear us, world! Apologies for not posting earlier; work, etc.
UPDATE. Not everybody enjoyed Australia Day. Keith Mobbs, for example, promised to spend the day with “the nearest Aboriginal group, mourning the invasion of their land”:
As a “true, caring Australian”, how can Keith describe himself as an “Australian”? He’s nothing but the descendent of invaders, and should go back to where he belongs.
(Via Andrew H.)
UPDATE II. Further frightening flaggery via Andrew Bolt:
Thursday, January 25, 2007
TILTS AHOY
Sophia College. And the staff of Sophia College.
DARRYL REVIEWS DARRYL
Someone named Stan Lorne promotes a fine new book in comments at the SMH:
There’s a couple that have been discussed on MySpace that have caught my attention.
One novel is called ‘Dead Sydney’ by DP Mason and is about a bird flu pandemic hitting Sydney and killing all but a few hundred people.
I read the first three chapters last week, now I can’t wait for the rest. It reminds me a little of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ ...
It’s an interesting idea that DP Mason has to publish a book online in instalments.
It’s even more interesting that “Stan Lorne” is actually lefty blogger Darryl P. Mason, author of the work in question. Here’s Darryl at his own site:
I’ve just started writing a novel about a bird flu pandemic breaking out in Sydney. The virus kills all but a few hundred people, who choose to stay in and around Sydney’s central business district.
That post features two comments praising Darryl’s online publishing idea. They’re also written by Darryl. For more Darryl, visit Road to Surfdom or any other of the eight cross-promotional sites Darryl currently maintains.
UPDATE. Other Darryl aliases – assuming Darryl itself isn’t an alias – include Max Dreswell, Sam Lowry, Ferris Fremont, and PitchMaster:
I heard Universal laywers are very unhappy at this Mason guy who posted his take on Scanner Darkly for free at a fan site … Darryl Mason has also written a very detailed outline for a Philip K Dick bio-pic, also available to read free at philipkdick.com. There was a rumour kicking about the message board there that this young Australian writer has had a number of offers and is working on a full screenplay …
Darryl’s a big fan of Darryl. Of course, around here we know him best as Leftie Latte Lover, the Loser who Lied.
“READ EVERY OECD REPORT”
Kevin Rudd wonks it up:
On the question of the economy, the fundamentals of what we’re on about in the economy of course derive from macro-economic stability. There’s broadly a bipartisan consensus in terms of monetary policy, inflation targeting and also fiscal balance and don’t take my word for that, read carefully the Boyer Lectures of the recently departed Governor of the Reserve Bank, Ian MacFarlane. He says that, in effect, over the last decade-plus, we’ve achieved that level of bipartisan political consensus, and that’s a bogus debate which Mr Howard wants to have on the economy, on macro policy. What I’m talking about is this on micro policy, most particularly, how do we boost productivity, how do we do it through human capital investment, how do we raise the quality and skills of our work force for the future economy, that is the core of the productivity debate - not Kevin Rudd’s say so. Read every OECD report and every Productivity Commission report that’s been produced. This is the battleground for the economic debate and I challenge Mr Howard to join it, because the numbers are against him in terms of the data which has been produced on declining productivity growth.
Man. Bring back the fork in the road.
MESSAGE OF HARM
Peter Garrett hails the coronation of environvangelist Tim Flannery:
Newly-crowned Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has the ability to cut through the fog of scientific data to communicate the message of harm being done to the environment, Labor’s climate change spokesman Peter Garrett says.
Oh, he cuts through data, all right. I wonder if Flannery celebrated with a few drinks from a Buick-sized refrigerator?
UPDATE. Another bearded religious fellow also cuts through the fog of scientific data to communicate the message of harm being done to the environment:
John Mitchell, chief scientist at Britain’s Met Office, noted al Qaeda had already listed environmental damage among its litany of grievances against the United States.
“You have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other nation in history. Despite this, you refuse to sign the Kyoto agreement so that you can secure the profit of your greedy companies and industries,” al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden wrote in a 2002 “letter to the American people.”
Reported by Reuters. Of course.
TOO DUMB TO BE TRUE
Reader tabmow notes showbizzy dizziness from touring Pink Floyd songwriter Roger Waters:
I saw him on the 7.30 Report last night he referred to Hicks as “that kid in jail in America”.
Ha, ha! Stupid rock guy! How embarrassing for him! Everybody knows David Hicks is locked up in Guantanamo ... including Roger Waters, in fact, as a check of his 7.30 Report interview reveals:
ROGER WATERS: They haven’t whittled it away. They’ve taken the whole thing and thrown it out the door and said “We’re not interested in it any more. Life is too dangerous for us to live by the rule of law.” You have it here at the moment with the kid, what’s his name, in Guantanamo?
SCOTT BEVAN: David Hicks.
ROGER WATERS: David Hicks, right.
Tabmow appears to specialise in almost-believable claims that don’t check out. He might have better luck with Terry Lane.
AND THEN THEY KILLED AND ATE HIM
John Pilger exposes another vicious neocon campaign:
In 2005 Andrew Jaspan, a Briton newly appointed editor of the Melbourne Age, was subjected to a vicious neocon campaign that accused him of “reducing” the Age to “another Guardian”.
UPDATE. If Pilger thinks the campaign against Jaspan was vicious, what must he make of Jaspan’s campaign against Gerard Henderson?
UPDATE II. Alas, the campaign didn’t exactly silence Jaspan and his fellow Fairfaxistas:
Former Fairfax chief executive Fred Hilmer has confessed that he struggled to cope with an editorial culture that naturally leaned to the Left and where journalists saw themselves as advocates rather than straight reporters.
The admission comes in a book to be published next week which contains a revealing account of his seven years at the helm of the group, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review.
“Fairfax’s default position was to turn left and be agenda-driven,” Mr Hilmer writes in The Fairfax Experience.
“Journalists often conducted campaigns where they persisted in covering stories long after readers had lost interest.”
Which would be somewhere around the second paragraph.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
OPPORTUNITY FOR ACTIVISM
An email currently puking its way around a Sydney university:
Hi there.
You may have heard that Google intends to take high resolution photos of Sydney on Australia Day as part of its Google Earth project.
We think it’s a great opportunity for a bit of activism.
We’ll be chalking up the word “Sorry” in a bunch of places that are clearly visible from Google’s plane. Given our record on Aboriginal human rights, Iraq, Kyoto, East Timor’s Oil, &c. we have plenty to apologise for.
The author is correct: on these issues, they should be apologising like crazy.
Saying “Sorry” recalls the popular campaign for reconciliation, and will have strong resonances with an outpouring of emotion from progressive folk that followed the last US election. It’s a great opportunity for us to express our solidarity locally with the Aboriginal people here and internationally with US citizens who have also been coopted into representing their administration’s agenda of colonialism and environmental destruction. Like them, we understand that in a globalised world our policies make a difference to the lives of people everywhere.
Unlike the US movement, however, this needn’t be solely about regret.
After all, it’s an election year.
So saying sorry is also a promise - it says we don’t want to be sorry about our country anymore.
They were for sorry before they were against sorry. Via Larvatus Prodeo, which helpfully advises: “For spaces where chalk won’t adhere or won’t show up with enough contrast, remember that sheets and towels can be used to shape the letters of SORRY just as well.”