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EXCLUSIVE ZOMBIE COVERAGE
In this week’s Bulletin:
* Martin Bryant: ZOMBIE! Exceptional reporting and writing from Julie-Anne Davies.
* How much do you think its designer was paid to create the Rolling Stones’ lips logo?
* The law finally catches up with notorious Frank Hainsworth.
* The latest Continuing Crisis column reflects on the flexible nature of time in terms of societal improvement. Or something. Mentioned are Eric Aarons, the Fazl Abad Herald, Saddam Hussein, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Robert Fisk, Tony Jones, Anthony Hubbard, and John Highfield. Speaking of Fisk, he was recently profiled in New Zealand.
“I was thinking also that I used to play the violin quite well - I’ve got a violin back in Beirut and I am thinking of taking up playing again ...”
He pauses because that confession has elicited a yelp from me. “Oh, I see,” he chuckles, “you are thinking of that scene in Master and Commander where the captain and the doctor play a duet…”
“No, I wasn’t ... I was thinking of Robert Fisk playing the violin.”
Yelp, indeed. Also in The Bulletin: an Australian Grand Prix photo gallery.
Andy: that’s the perfect “Fisked” version of Patrick O’Brian. LOL!
It never ceases to amaze how a journalist can be as inaccurate as the proverbial weatherman and still generate a large following. I suppose the ranks of “fanaticists” - those hungering for the fulfillment of the dream, however nightmarish, as long as it validates their ideological prejudices - must be huge.
I was slightly annoyed at the criticism levelled at Tasmanians in the Bryant piece, that it’s somehow shameful that they aren’t still harping on about him. Decades of bad psychology has shown us that dwelling on terrible things that have happened in the past is not very helpful; getting on with your life and putting it all behind you is.
It’s not like there’s any great psychological mystery there to be solved: Bryant was fucked in the head from an early age.
Posted by Blithering Bunny on 2006 03 29 at 10:46 AM • permalinkExcellent photo gallery.
More Photo’s Please!!!
Posted by swassociates on 2006 03 29 at 11:08 AM • permalinkSo now Fisk thinks he’s Capt Jack Aubrey? What a rich fantasy life the guy must have.
“In the United States, all I say is here is a land where everyone can own a gun and here is a land where there are raving loonies as there are in all countries. It just needs one person to take Malkovich seriously, someone who is less rational, then I’ve got a problem ... these are people who are not normal.
“There is something wrong with them, they are cracked. I don’t want the John Malkovichs scratching them and provoking them into doing something. They haven’t done anything, touch wood, but I do think about it.”
Well, Robert, not everyone can own a gun, but, you’re right, we are a land of raving loonies, so it’s probably best if you don’t come back. Ever.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 03 29 at 12:59 PM • permalinkZombie: A supernatural power or spell that according to voodoo belief can enter into and reanimate a corpse. Or a corpse revived in this way.
or: Dead body vested with either a whole or partial spirit.
zombi: a dead body that has been brought back to life by a supernatural force
Who needs the death penalty when the death spirit has entered him already for his crime. This would be torture. This would be justice for victims to see.Tim, did you see the dingo cartoons in Indonesia?
The cartoon of PM John Howard and Alexander Downer on the front page of the Islamic-leaning Rakyat Merdeka (People’s Freedom)mag. OUT Now OUT now for a butt rupee.
The Islamics love beastiality judging by what Mr Howard and Mr downer are doing. I guess they can say “a Dingo took my virginity.” They’ve given them really big ones!
Let’s hold a world wide protest in relation to how big they drew Mr Downers &*(*)&^!! but then again the Indonesians have really small ones.
Well, I gtg, as I’m training today to compete and become an athlete in China for the Olympics along with our new brothers and sister athletes called Sierra Leone-Africa-Harbord-Sydney-NSW-refugee-religion-Male-female_funded-sportsinstitutecanberra- brand new_Australians athletic field_x commonwealth running team.
God bless Australia
Rehabilitate Bryant? How about a 24/7 streaming video coverage instead.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 03 29 at 09:27 PM • permalinkThat nasty little bastard should have been given a needle; I hope the shrinks who were “supervising” him are proud of the results of their decision to treat him by “care in the community”. As to his dingbat mother, bloody hell, how could anyone be so stupid?
Sounds like he had a tough life on an invalid pension as well- no wonder he decided to wreak revenge on a socity that forced him to play tennis, scuba dive and hoon about in a boat all day.
Odd that he was fit to do all these things and run amok on a killing spree, but was too daft to sort mail or file papers.His mother adheres to the “Poor wittle Marty Bryant was the fall guy for a greater conspiracy, perpetrated by Johnny Howard so he could disarm the populace” theory.
Nutter.
The frightening thing is, is that if Bryant was declared insane at the time of the offence, he would not have been tried in a criminal court and released into the care of the Tasmanian health system. From there? Who knows? Some coke-bottle glassed, cardigan wearing, bran munching, luvvy twit would have eventually released him back into society.
I like Fisky’s repeated comment that Iraq has never had a civil war. What was that thing in 1991 with thousands of Iraqis rising up against Saddam in South Iraq? Why did Saddam think he had to invade Kurdistan and gas the village of Halbji? Sounds pretty much like civil wars to me, instigated by Saddam’s tyranny. But Fisky and his ilk could care less about the numbers of corpses Saddam stewed about the sands of Mesopotamia. Looks like Fisky figured they were only Arabs after all. How stupid and evil of Bush, Blair, and Howard to think Arabs are real people, n’est-ce pas? It’s attitudes like that, a total disregard for mass murder by tyrants, which give the lefties the moral high ground, just ask ‘em.
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 03 29 at 11:39 PM • permalinkNo civil war, but let’s face it- the place has been a squabble with borders ever since its inception- to expect such a rabble to immediately start acting civilised when they’ve got the keys to the gun and liquor cabinets is a tad naive.
With due deference to Tim, the Bulletin piece on Martin Bryant is a bit nasty. Seems like Bryant’s lawyer is trying to make a buck out of “show and tell” - not the Bully piece, but maybe in a book?
Is Bryant’s not for the trapdoor & drop, then he & his memory should be locked away in a lonely, dark corner and not revived every time theres an anniversary or when some lawyer is after some publicity for a book.
Absolutely no stars for the Bully on this occasion.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 03 30 at 03:40 AM • permalinkMedia Report on Radio National have just run a feature on the Bulletin article and its lack of sensitivity regarding the Port Arthur anniversary. The presenter took the high moral ground with the piece while admitting that their scheduled programme, bumped to next week, would deal with - you guessed it - Port Arthur.
The whole show reeked of this hypocrisy, but it started to border on the surreal during the interview with the Port Arthur ferry captain. The man came close to breaking down more than once; presumably he didn’t think it insensitive of the ABC to broadcast his obvious distress. Then toward the end of this very peculiar interview, having spoken for fifteen minutes about how the people of Port Arthur want to forget the shooting and Martin Bryant, the ferry captain added that his local newsagent has sold out of Bullis this week. He didn’t seem remotely aware of the contradiction.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 03 30 at 09:05 AM • permalinkCongratulations to the Bulletin for an exceptionally well researched and well written article on serial killer Martin Bryant.
In particular, the transcripts of the lawyers and police negotiators conversations with Bryant were most illuminating.
The Tasmanian government may well wish to bury Bryant in Risdon Gaol, never to be heard from again, but there is a great deal of public interest in what motivated this creep to murder thirty five people in cold blood.There will always be unanswered questions about Bryant, his background and motivation while the Tasmanian government refuses to release the full range of evidence.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 03 30 at 09:55 AM • permalink#27, there are some things (and some people) that are just not explainable. Martin Bryant is obviously one of those exceptionally rare people who are born “without a soul” so to speak. To make matters worse, he was born to parents who coddled and enabled his bad behavior by protecting him from consequences. He might have grown up to be just another dysfunctional jackass rummaging through garbage bins, but instead he became a mass murderer, because maybe that day, he was irritated, or he wanted to know what it felt like to kill a bunch of people, or it was the only way he could feel anything at all. That’s a mindset so alien to the rest of us that we can’t understand it no matter how hard we try.
In any case, failing the death penalty, it’s clear that he’s where he belongs and where he needs to stay until he dies. There is no rehabilitation for people like him. If he remains silent and unresponsive, so much the better for the people who have to deal with him daily.
Hi Pedro
I’m sure it wasn’t your intention, but the comment that the “Tasmanian Government refuses to release the full range of evidence” sounds just like another conspiracy theory.
It was a public trial y’know? Reporters present in the court; full newspaper & TV coverage; psycologists reports of his motivation - experts quizzed in court by prosecution & defence; records of interview read to the court; witness statements etc etc etc
I’m afraid that any “great deal of public interest” might just have to be satisfied by a trip to the library to see the reports at the time - and/or buy the Bulletin.
What I understand Bryant’s lawyers are trying to get released now are their private conversations with their client - pretty unusual don’t you think (sorry, not sure if you are in Oz or elsewhere but almost unheard of in Oz).Actually, why would anyone want to now know more about his motivation, beyond what was found before? What would one do with that tid-bit of information? Store it away and do what with it later? It may be a curiosity, but I don’t think any-one really needs that question answered afresh.
Unless you live in Tas, or one of the small communities around the world where multiple murder atrocities have been committed, you can have no comprehention of the public revulsion to Bryant and his memory there (which I visit regularly). I assure you that its not the Government, but 99.99999% of the Tasmanian population - and a fair chunk elsewhere - that want Bryant kept locked up and simply forgotten.
All we need now is some exhibitionist lawyer proclaiming Bryant’s innocence and agitating for ‘justice’.
Trust me mate, its better just left where it is and the creature forgotten.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 03 30 at 07:27 PM • permalinkDavid, I wondered that too. I liked the movie so much that I bought it, and I didn’t even remember anything about violins. Does Fisk watch the movie every day or what? Reminds me of that Gladiator-obsessed guy on the Sopranos.
Posted by Sarah Brabazon-Biggar on 2006 03 31 at 09:12 PM • permalink
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Yes, I was so deeply moved in Master and Commander when Nelson was quoted saying, “Let the French kick our asses. We deserve to be punished for our evil imperialist intentions to take over the world. No war for sugar islands.” And then later when the crew recalls these brave words and surrenders to the French frigate, I was in tears for the next 20 minutes.