Sunday, April 27, 2008
DISMAY DEEP
Phoney Ruddlemania has bitten the dust:
The unity and goodwill that radiated from Kevin Rudd’s 2020 Summit last weekend have evaporated, with some participants saying they cannot recognise the “big ideas” attributed to them while others claim they were “systematically silenced”.
Among the silenced is Melbourne theatre reviewer Alison Croggon:
I was at the Summit, in the Creative Stream. There was general and deep dismay about the report that was handed up on the supposed fruits of our labour. Quite a lot was lost or altered in translation. In fact, we came up with quite a lot of substantial suggestions for policy, and our aspirations were rather different to what was eventually posted.
Alison and her fellow Creatives remain determined “to advocate more effectively for what they do”, whatever that is:
Firstly, perhaps, to change that inevitable, snarky percpetion that artists have nothing to offer and are always asking for more money.
Those perceptions are so unfair. Who might have suggested them? Wherever might they have come from?
The funding threat to La Mama Theatre is a threat to Australian society as a whole, writes Alison Croggon.
Oh. Back to Alison’s initial comments, in which she vows to maintain a Peter Garrett vigil:
I think Garrett might be feeling a bit nervous at present. What he’s created here is a bunch of empowered people wanting to hold him accountable.
Maybe they’ll shout at him.
(Via AJ and Max the Cat)
UPDATE. Chris Berg:
Wasn’t it better during the Howard government, when we weren’t able to quantify how dim Australia’s best and brightest actually were? Or how few ideas they had?
TAX TAX TAX
Having already boosted taxes on girly drinks, Ruddite puritans are now urged to attack cigarettes:
The Rudd Government’s chief adviser on preventive health has called for an increase to the excise on tobacco of 2.5 cents a cigarette, which could raise $400 million a year on top of the $500 million to be raised from the increased excise on “alcopops”.
Getting with the pleasure-tax program, a Sydney council is pondering a plastic tax:
Sporting groups may be slapped with a “tape tax” to curb increasing amounts of sticky strapping left on fields after weekend matches.
Warringah Council is considering introducing a cleaning fee after residents’ complaints about litter, which also included cans, bottles, ring pulls and chip packets.
Electrical tape, used to tie down laces on football boots and to hold up socks, was the worst offender.
Older players - Toaf may be among them - also use tape to protect against injury and brace aging joints. Taped-up players who enjoy a post-game drink and cigarette might need to take out a second mortgage.
MINNESNOWTA
In accordance with tradition, Gaia stomps her fans:
The St. Peter Food Co-op tried to be nice to Mother Earth, but she wasn’t nice back.
The group’s first Procession of the Species Earth Day parade had to be postponed after organizers were greeted with a coating of snow, high winds and temperatures hovering near freezing Saturday morning.
All over Minnesota - Lileksland, to blogfolk - conditions are abnormally frosty:
Places across the state saw a wide range of snowfall Saturday, on the final weekend of April.
To give you some perspective, on the same day last year, it was 85 and sunny.
One Minnesota newspaper is now inclined to scepticism:
Bemidji has again been buried in snow for the third weekend in what is supposed to be spring ...
So this is global warming? From our own little corner of the globe, it’s a concept that of late is hard to grasp.
Concept-wise, the Australian warmther who last year screeched “What are you doing about global warming? There is no snow, there is no snow” may now deal with this:
A cold snap at the Anzac Day long weekend brought up to 25 centimetres of snow to Victoria’s alpine resorts and much-needed rain across the state.
With the official start of the ski season still five weeks away, Mount Hotham got the best of the winter-like weather, with its main runs covered in snow.
PAMELA BONE
Pamela Bone - a genuine humanitarian, and a friend of this site - has died at 68.
NEW DEMS ARE OLD LOSERS
Barack Obama is the new George McGovern:
If you look at Obama’s vote in Pennsylvania, you begin to see the outlines of the old George McGovern coalition that haunted the Democrats during the ‘70s and ‘80s, led by college students and minorities. In Pennsylvania, Obama did best in college towns (60 to 40 percent in Penn State’s Centre County) and in heavily black areas like Philadelphia.
Scroll down for previous 1972-ish thoughts. Meanwhile, Hillary is the new Al Gore:
One thing many people haven’t noticed about Hillary Clinton’s 55% to 45% victory over Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary is that it put her ahead of Obama in the popular vote.
(Via James Taranto)
UPDATE. The New York Times is in deep Democrat despair. Paul Krugman:
Mr. Obama was supposed to be a transformational figure, with an almost magical ability to transcend partisan differences and unify the nation. Once voters got to know him — and once he had eliminated Hillary Clinton’s initial financial and organizational advantage — he was supposed to sweep easily to the nomination, then march on to a huge victory in November.
Well, now he has an overwhelming money advantage and the support of much of the Democratic establishment — yet he still can’t seem to win over large blocs of Democratic voters, especially among the white working class ...
Unless Democrats can get past this self-inflicted state of confusion, there’s a very good chance that they’ll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this fall.
You can almost feel the air seeping out of the Obama phenomenon. The candidate and his aides are brainstorming ways to counter the Clinton death-ray machine and regain the momentum. They need to generate some new excitement and enthusiasm, and they need to do it soon.
One of the problems is that anger is growing like a cancer among Democrats ...
What we’re witnessing here — in what was supposed to have been a championship season for Democrats — is a potential train wreck.
Hillary grows more and more glowy as Obama grows more and more wan.
Is she draining him of his precious bodily fluids? Leeching his magic? Siphoning off his aura?
Only Frank Rich is holding fast to the dream:
The Democrats’ unending brawl may be supplying prime time with a goodly share of melodrama right now, but there will be laughter aplenty once the Republican campaign that’s not ready for prime time emerges from the wings.
Keep those chins up, Frank.
CIVILISATION OVER
A list of sciency predictions includes:
Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.
That’s from Harvard biologist George Wald; click to discover when he said it.
(Via Powerline and Currency Lad, who currently observes: “The Left treats Obama like a boy”)
WORLD COOLING ON WARMING
“The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries,” writes Mark Steyn:
In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death. On April 15, the Independent, the impeccably progressive British newspaper, editorialized: “The production of biofuel is devastating huge swathes of the world’s environment. So why on earth is the Government forcing us to use more of it?”
You want the short answer? Because the government made the mistake of listening to fellows like you.
Another enviroscam may cause hardship locally:
Low-income families in areas with poor public transport will be hundreds of dollars a year worse off than hard-up households in the inner city, under the Federal Government’s plan to introduce a carbon trading scheme.
Some politicians are wising up, according to Newsweek’s Evan Thomas:
In the summer of 2006 I went to see Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who was running the Democrats’ successful effort to regain control of the House of Representatives ... I asked Emanuel, how are the environment and global warming playing out there in the heartland? Is it stirring voters? No, he replied. In the 2006 congressional elections global warming was virtually a nonissue, he said, a low-priority item way behind the war and the economy and old staples like education and health care. Global warming is an issue for the elites, he said, not for the average voter ...
There is an enormous class divide on the subject. The chattering classes obsess about greenhouse emissions. The rest of the country, certainly the older and less well-off voters, can’t be bothered.
Good.
(Via AJ)
NEWS BRIEFLETS
• Incredibly, humankind has existed until this point without once previously mentioning cheerleader Tabitha from Uzbekistan.
• The internet has two years left.
• That leaves just 24 months to enjoy the Old Crow website.
• Obama pal William Ayers is a compassionate head-tilter - even in his police mug shot.
• Whatstandwell Ballyduff Robin - king of labradors. Incidentally, if you’re in the market for a gundog, this place seems to have all the bases covered.
• A beautiful piece by Car & Driver’s Aaron Robinson.
• Twenty-five years of concept tyres.
BULLS BANNED
The oppression never ends in Bush’s Amerikkka:
Senators in Florida have voted to ban fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state.
Republican Senator Cary Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis, Florida, called the adornments offensive and proposed the ban.
Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like ‘Truck Nutz’ and resemble the south end of a bull moving north.
No word yet on a ban for fake turkey nuts.
(Via Alan R.M. Jones)
UPDATE. Lee M. emails: “Fake balls might get you fined in Florida - but you’ll win a prize in Boston.”
WORD USED
The Sydney Morning Herald’s David Marr - prone to censorship fantasies - complains:
Unlike this newspaper even today, television has been able to use the f-word for years ...
Nonsense. Here are two examples of the SMH’s f-word use from 2003; one from 2004; three from 2006; and another from two months ago (also including the innovative noun “moive”). Dave clearly can’t be bothered reading his own newspaper, which is understandable.
CHILDREN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Australian teenagers, traditionally inclined towards sobriety, were lured to drunkeness by John Howard’s party animal regime:
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has blamed the former Howard government for the rise in teenage binge drinking.
Not even Kevin Rudd himself was immune.
UPDATE. Surprising news:
Most drunk drivers are found in the Upper Midwest
They’ve done well to get there. But what’s the attraction? Is it Iowahawk?
FIGHT ON, EAGLES
Hero birds could do with some warming:
There is a life and death struggle going on right now in the snowy Cascades of your Deschutes National Forest. Eagles are battling the cold to protect their precious eggs. Will they succeed? Will they survive?
Watch their battle against global coldening here.
(Via Lee M.)
Saturday, April 26, 2008
MANGA SQUIGGLED
This week’s column is a little different, as sometimes happens. Due to the negotiation required with various departments, unconventional pieces can only really be done if you work in the office. For example, our publishing platform isn’t able to build the precise layout I wanted, so it had to be composed by designer Nate Armstrong and dropped into the page as you would an illustration.
Nate came up with the four logos, too. Originally the TV listings ran 15cm deep, which I changed to 20cm - no big deal, since it only made an already unusual page look slightly more unusual. That further compressed the space for Dave Follett’s usually single-panel art, however, so he devised the two-panel manga-Squiggle shown above.
Cutting the art entirely wasn’t an option as the page ran opposite Laurie Oakes’s column, which, because it shares space with the editorial, is difficult to draw in any other way than with the headline at top of page. My page needed art on top to avoid headlines running into each other. As well, with this week’s “column” being built outside of the main editing system, sub-editors and lawyers were unable to gain access. They got print-outs.
All of these non-normal processes eat into production time - everyone involved was, of course, also working on the rest of a 144-page paper - and therefore can’t be too prolonged. There isn’t much chance for revision once the basic elements are settled.
Impressive fact: not once when I’ve come up with these extra-work-for-everybody notions has anyone complained, which might not have been the case 10 or 15 years ago. Newspapers - well, some newspapers; the good ones - are becoming more flexible.
WARRIOR AND ANTI-WARRIOR
When peaceniks attack:
A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents had told him to shut up, authorities said Wednesday.
In other assault news, an intemperate Sikh warrior overreacts in New Delhi:
Harbhajan Singh found himself embroiled in yet another controversy after allegedly slapping Kings XI paceman S Sreesanth during their Indian Premier League encounter on Friday ...
The paceman was seen crying bitterly on the ground at the end of the IPL match, which his team won by 66 runs.
Crying? That’s not the Sreesanth we know: “Sreesanth’s way is to be aggressive. Sreesanth will always remain Sreesanth.” He could use some lessons in fortitude from that girl in New York. Slappy Singh’s received a please explain from Indian officials.
DARE TO HOPE
Pie-eyed moonchild Traceeee Hutchison discovers the joy of conforming:
A little thing is growing. We have a chance to sing from the same songbook. And we can dare to be hopeful again.
(Via Steve)