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INTERSPECIES SORRY DAY DEMANDED

This week’s apology isn’t enough for Michael Leunig:

One day we must surely get down on our knees to every lizard and frog and orchid — and weep an apology.

You go first, Mike. It might take a while; Australia has 114 species of gecko alone. Will Aborigines who ate lizards and frogs be forced to apologise to the Eaten Generations? How will Labor staffers know if an orchid is turning its back, and when to join in? Should Kevin Rudd be counselled for encouraging violence against plants? This could get complicated.

What are we doing now, with all conviction and zeal, that will require a “sorry” in 50 or 20 years?

Leunig still hasn’t apologised to the pro-war columnists and bloggers he wrongly suggested were behind 2006’s Iranian cartoon hoax. On your knees, duckboy.

UPDATE. An earlier version of this post linked to an image of an orchard instead of an orchid. I am truly, deeply sorry.

Posted by Tim B. on 02/16/2008 at 12:57 PM
  1. “One day we must surely get down on our knees to every lizard and frog and orchid — and weep an apology.”

    Let’s face it, he’s a girly-man.

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 16 at 01:22 PM • permalink

  2. Leunig ought to apologize to all those ducks he’s mangled in his stupid drawings.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 02 16 at 01:36 PM • permalink

  3. Ha! What about that horrendous crime of hubris and ego we perpetrate everyday against bacteria? Dominant species my ass, without bacteria we wouldn’t even be here. And think of all the anti-bacterial soaps and cleaners they’ve inspired. Hell, the field of aetiology probably wouldn’t even exist were it not for bacteria.

    Pray for forgiveness, and may your boils drain cleanly.

    Posted by mythusmage on 2008 02 16 at 01:59 PM • permalink

  4. One day we must surely get down on our knees to every lizard and frog and orchid — and weep an apology.

    That is probably the dumbest sentence ever written.

    Posted by RogerBournival on 2008 02 16 at 02:28 PM • permalink

  5. I apologize to all those hamsters I had that the cat ate.  Will this do?

    Posted by ushie on 2008 02 16 at 02:37 PM • permalink

  6. And what about non-organic objects?  Are we so full of ourselves as organic beings that we can’t apologize to rocks, clouds, and mountains for all that we have done to them?

    And then what about synthetic objects ...

    Posted by Bill Ramey on 2008 02 16 at 02:48 PM • permalink

  7. I just went out to my car and apologized to all the poor little bugs horribly splattered on the windshield and in the radiator.

    I feel better already, and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

    Posted by ErnieG on 2008 02 16 at 02:53 PM • permalink

  8. Will this do?


    Not really, Ushie. Now you need to apologize to the cat.

    Posted by ErnieG on 2008 02 16 at 02:55 PM • permalink

  9. If your cat is like every cat I’ve ever known, it will be expecting an apology.

    Posted by ErnieG on 2008 02 16 at 02:59 PM • permalink

  10. There is a solution to all of this.

    Y’all need a Minister of Apology Inclusion.

    Posted by yojimbo on 2008 02 16 at 03:04 PM • permalink

  11. Ministry of Apology Inclusion? Second floor, turn left, right across the hall from the Ministry of Silly Walks and the Fatwa Department. You can’t miss it.

    Posted by ErnieG on 2008 02 16 at 03:11 PM • permalink

  12. I apologized to the cat.  It looked at me, blinked, yawned, and fell asleep.  Typical.

    Posted by ushie on 2008 02 16 at 03:19 PM • permalink

  13. Not on your knees!  That increases your lizard footprint. You want to kill as few tiny creatures as possible when you apologize.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2008 02 16 at 04:01 PM • permalink

  14. I do like his Billy Rabbit CD however.

    Who would imagine that moonbats could meet in a musically valuable middle ground.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2008 02 16 at 04:02 PM • permalink

  15. He should apologize to his art and English teachers.

    Posted by Jim Treacher on 2008 02 16 at 04:05 PM • permalink

  16. Vicki listens to apology past curtain and laptop, in warm sunny former puppy jail.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2008 02 16 at 04:08 PM • permalink

  17. Leunig - doing his best to lower the country’s collective IQ.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 02 16 at 04:50 PM • permalink

  18. I want an apology from my genes for giving me a bum ticker and a bad endocrine system.  I think I’m owed.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 02 16 at 04:57 PM • permalink

  19. I want an apology from my grandparents for my parents.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 02 16 at 05:07 PM • permalink

  20. #5
    Brace yourself, Ushie, I hope you have a fat bank account because the hamster compensation reparations may cripple your finances.

    #16r
    I suspect that Vicki knows you’re there.

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 16 at 05:14 PM • permalink

  21. I would like to say sorry - for this O/T link. I would be very grateful if some of you could spend just a couple of minutes completeing a very important survey I’m conducting for…um, medical research. Yes, that’s it, medical research.

    Now that’s out of the way, I’ll read Tim’s post.

    Posted by Dminor on 2008 02 16 at 05:15 PM • permalink

  22. Got some serious apologising to do? Don’t know how? Well, writhe in fear and guilt no longer, with the new Personal Apology Creator and Organiser! Make your sorry the sorriest sorry ever. This groundbreaking software takes commonly used words in apologies and randomly arranges them to form a sentence for you, so you’ll never make the same apology twice!

    But don’t take our word for it. Listen to what Michael L had to say about his new PACO:

    “I was a mess, a quivering, lip-nibbling pansy. And a mass murderer. Every night, countless dust mites suffered from my thoughtless sleeping. Even though I replaced my pillow with a wooden block, I couldn’t stop thinking about all those lives, wasted, gone forever. But my PACO saved me. I only had to type in ‘dust mites’ and it did the rest. Now, no more guilt. I can sleep easy…well, I could if I had my pillow back. I can imagine that I sleep easy. Thank you, PACO. I’m sorry I didn’t buy you earlier.”

    Posted by Dminor on 2008 02 16 at 05:46 PM • permalink

  23. Kae, it was a hideous hamster accident.  I wasn’t even in the room at the time.  I discovered a knocked-over cage and…hamster remnants.

    Posted by ushie on 2008 02 16 at 05:55 PM • permalink

  24. Sorry, I posted this in the wrong thread.

    I mean, all envirotards sound the same after a while: stupid.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 02 16 at 06:04 PM • permalink

  25. #25
    Ushie, you know that’s no excuse. There was obviously a systematic system of systematically ‘sterminating the little critters. It’s hamsterspeciesism!!!

    It’s not about money, it’s the $ymboli$m of the $orry. (trans: You’ll be crippled by reparations.)

    The cat’s fine. Ain’t got no money so s/he’ll not have to worry about reparations. (They only go after those with assets.)

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 16 at 06:08 PM • permalink

  26. Our friends in the MSM are swooning over the brilliance of Kev’s sorry speech, while skewering Brendan Nelson.
    Adele Horin struts her stuff in the SMH saying of Nelson:
    On this historic occasion, the speech was totally inappropriate: convoluted, tortured and snidely racist.
    What was needed was an unqualified acknowledgement of damage done.
    If his squandering as defence minister of millions on equipment the military did not want caused unease about his judgment, then the speech is further evidence of a lack of wisdom. Nelson came across as muddleheaded, and equivocating, pandering to his crucial party backers and to the worst instincts in the rest of us.
    Only a terrible lack of judgment could explain his inclusion in the speech of graphic descriptions of recent cases of Aboriginal child sexual abuse.

    Who’s a denialist then? More damage has been done to aboriginals by aboriginals than anyone else. Face it. Rudd, Adele, and many others are Palestinianising them. As to the squandering of millions on equipment the military did not want, this displays a complete ignorance of Defence procurement processes. Adele should stick to what she knows about, whatever that is.
    At one point she even takes Rudd to task for spoiling ALP acolytes’ election night euphoria:
    Kevin Rudd redeemed himself after having delivered such a boring speech on election night that it shut down victory parties across the nation and sent deflated guests home regretting their vote. He delivered a moving sorry speech, right in tone and content. His sorry was without qualification, as the occasion, and a genuine apology, demands. Rudd’s speech enhanced his leadership credentials.
    Without qualification? I thought he qualified the the compensation aspect.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2008 02 16 at 06:13 PM • permalink

  27. That sincere ‘sorry’ does fuck all to change actual reality. But I guess these are not the reality based wing of the movement, eh?

    Posted by brett_l on 2008 02 16 at 06:13 PM • permalink

  28. #32, 33 interchangeable to me, too.

    Could depend on the smell, however.

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 16 at 06:23 PM • permalink

  29. Leunipig: Duck my Sick

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 02 16 at 06:35 PM • permalink

  30. I forcibly relocated about a ton of snow to where I wanted it, not where Gaia, in her infinite majesty, deposited it.
    Should I build a snow commissar and apologize to it?
    Wouldn’t that just make matters worse/

    Posted by Merlin on 2008 02 16 at 07:31 PM • permalink

  31. Leunig plays to his audience because it is they who keep his pockets filled with dollars. His fans are the kind of adults who have the Snuggle Bunny ring tone on their mobiles (can’t find a link to that but most Australians have heard it and vomited). They are people who leave out cakes for the fairies every night and have teddy bear hubcaps on their cars. They see Leunig’s little man-boy persona as the dream husband because he would prefer to feed the duckies and pet kitties than grope them under the doona and ask for dirty sex.

    They are, in other words, very much like Australian Democrat voters, whose aversion to adulthood ultimately left the party with anyone to vote for them.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 02 16 at 07:39 PM • permalink

  32. Michael Leunig is often referred to as a cartoonist but the titles of; sociologist and philosopher would hold far more truth. While his drawings are often conveyed in a simplistic manner; each of his characters quirks reveals an unspoken societal truth.

    Leunig’s current style developed in 1969 when he decided to put an end to his political cartoonist career. *In dong so, he drew a man riding towards the sunset on a large duck, with a teapot on his head.

    Leunig later stated, “...the man was most definitely me and the teapot, worn like a fool’s cap, symbolised warmth, nourishment and domestic familiarity,” while the duck, “represented feelings of primal freedom and playfulness.”

    * I apologize for Michael’s Freudian slip and/or typo.

    Michael, the only way for you is…get the fucking teapot off your head. You look like a fool wearing that cap.

    You must play with your Duck or Dong, whichever you meant, everyday to get the feelings of primal freedom and playfulness, represented

    Posted by El Cid on 2008 02 16 at 07:40 PM • permalink

  33. Yeah right! and what about the Dugongs, Turtles etc. that the Aborigines slaughter on a daily basis for food.  Why doesn’t Greenpeace jump up and down over these atrocities.

    Posted by Howzat on 2008 02 16 at 07:41 PM • permalink

  34. #40 coz there “sustainably” harvested with high powered rifles and zippy out-board powered boats that are well known ancient hunting methods of the Australian Aborigine. By the way Dugongs are held upside down in the water till they drown, Turtles are left on their backs on land sometimes for days before having their throats cut. But I suppose you gotta kill em before ya eat em .. Your average luvvie would shit their pants with disgust and grief if they saw the way these creatures were dispatched week in week out in this great land. How do I know? I have seen it bro.

    Posted by WaZoBia on 2008 02 16 at 08:25 PM • permalink

  35. I am afraid my comments for this thread appear in the previous thread in positions #18 - #20.

    I am not sure how that happened - I was inspired to write while reading this thread.

    Posted by Toiling Mass on 2008 02 16 at 08:26 PM • permalink

  36. #40 - only white people say sorry.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2008 02 16 at 08:28 PM • permalink

  37. My apology, which art in heaven
    Hallowed be thy blame.
    Through Kingdom Come,
    No head-tilt undone.

    So-ree.

    Posted by Rob Read on 2008 02 16 at 08:37 PM • permalink

  38. #43
    Only white people have to say sorry.

    Or else…

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 16 at 08:39 PM • permalink

  39. #38 - Excellent analysis, Contrail. Leaves me sorry that the AusDems didn’t recruit Leunig for Party Leader… oh, the fun that would have unrolled from that.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 02 16 at 08:45 PM • permalink

  40. Orchid. Need a picture of an orchid.

    Posted by m on 2008 02 16 at 08:49 PM • permalink

  41. #47 try here

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 16 at 08:52 PM • permalink

  42. every lizard and frog and orchid ...

    and the biota growing on his arse ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 02 16 at 08:54 PM • permalink

  43. #45 - whoops, sorry about that Kay.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2008 02 16 at 09:03 PM • permalink

  44. Meanwhile, Phatty’s missus is happy to report that the clean-up campaign for the Beijing Olympics is going full steam ahead - with recycling programs such as homeless thrown into wood chippers and used as blood & bone for the city gardens beautification program, just marvy ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 02 16 at 09:04 PM • permalink

  45. I wish I could transport Rudd , Leunig, Jill Singer, and the entire mob of lefty wankers to the outback - to live in some of the worse gang raping, petrol/ drug/ alcohol abusing Aboriginal communities where the leaders are the principal criminals. And force them to live there for the rest of their stupid lives.

    Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2008 02 16 at 09:06 PM • permalink

  46. Ur awful, egg!

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 16 at 09:07 PM • permalink

  47. This guys is as sorry as he can possibly get.  Traceeeeee had best be on her guard, there’s a challenger for Most Idiotic Australian Writer, Ever breathing hard at her heels.

    Bet Leunig’s got a filthy plume of his own, too, the cunning bastard.

    Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2008 02 16 at 09:08 PM • permalink

  48. #39 Cid’s onto summut, Leuny’s prolly secretly into strangling turkeys ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 02 16 at 09:13 PM • permalink

  49. #54 /heavy sarcasm ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 02 16 at 09:16 PM • permalink

  50. #40 and 43,
    Only white people have done something to be sorry about.

    Posted by Nic on 2008 02 16 at 09:31 PM • permalink

  51. OT. Sharron Burrows is on the box and making it clear that Labor and the Unions are back in control of the country.

    Greg Combet seems committed to reintroducing collective bargaining into legislation.

    While the country sleeps the rats are running the ship.

    Posted by mehaul on 2008 02 16 at 09:38 PM • permalink

  52. The level of bile thrown at Howard is amazing. What was it about him walking each day in a green tracksuit that pisses people like Leuning off so much? Remember, it’s us who are meant to be the’haters’.

    Then there is this:

    In my experience of being in Aboriginal communities, it has seemed apparent that the failure of government agencies in serving indigenous people well has had something to do with the failure of spirit and imagination at the level of practical detail

    I am astounded at Leuning’s own racism. Aborigines are mere children, whose fate does not involve any input or actions of their own, though purely lies at the feet of civil servants.

    Imagine a conservative politician coming out and saying that essentially, Aborigines are not to be regarded as being capable of determining or being responsible for anything in their daily lives. Leftists though, say this all the time and they get away with it.

    Posted by Nic on 2008 02 16 at 09:39 PM • permalink

  53. One day we must surely get down on our knees to every lizard and frog and orchid — and weep an apology.

    It looks like we’re behind the curve.  At least some animals have already apologized to us for their transgressions.

    Link1 (sorry dog)

    Link2 (sorry dog)

    Link3 (extremely sorry dog)

    Link4 (apparently cats are extremely regretful of their actions, too)

    The least we could do is return the favor.

    Posted by kcom on 2008 02 16 at 09:39 PM • permalink

  54. Jeebus, what a friggin wussy…
    Someone posted a link to a video - an Aussie character whose theme was “Harden the fuck up…” This put me in mind of that… BTW I have incorporated that phrase into my life. Almost every day I need to remind someone to harden the fuck up.

    Posted by Latino on 2008 02 16 at 09:39 PM • permalink

  55. I just find it hard to believe in the first three cats.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2008 02 16 at 09:59 PM • permalink

  56. Oh I think he should look out—in a few years’ time he and his stupid editor might get sued not for the real “Insect generation” claim and fiasco but for satire on the “sorry day ” and implying Aborigines are at the level of insects…..DUH!

    Posted by Jazza on 2008 02 16 at 10:02 PM • permalink

  57. “the apology we must surely owe to the Iraqi people for the million violent deaths of war”

    LOL.  That would be 5% of the population, which is a higher percentage than the combined civilian and military losses suffered by Japan in WWII…and there is NO possibility that that’s the case.

    Sorry, I don’t apologize for imaginary deaths, and I for sure won’t apologize to a country that brought their troubles on themselves by:  invading Kuwait, attacking American embassies, helping terrorists kill my countrymen, shooting at coaltion aircraft on mercy mnissions over Iraq, and doing a bunch of other stuff that finally brought the wrath of America and our allies down on their heads.

    Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Iraq over the last twenty years (most of those murdered by various terrorist groups), and just about all of those deaths are ultimately the responsibility of the Baathist leaders of Iraq.

    No apology from me, pansy-boy.

    Now, get back down on your knees, where you belong.

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 16 at 10:07 PM • permalink

  58. This almost makes me feel guilty about the European wasp nest I’m planning on taking out this evening. But only almost.

    Posted by Burbank on 2008 02 16 at 10:08 PM • permalink

  59. #51 - whoops, double sorry Kae!  Can’t even get your name write.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2008 02 16 at 10:11 PM • permalink

  60. #64

    Yeah, that guy is a man.  Leunig is just a pathetic little bitch masquerading as a man.

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 16 at 10:11 PM • permalink

  61. #72
    Nevamind.
    It’s not all my name anyway. I only use it as a nic here, er, hear.

    har.

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 16 at 10:17 PM • permalink

  62. I reckon that if Leunig is gonna get down on hid hands and knees to to apologise to the the frogs and lizards, he’d better watch out for that newly discovered species- the lip lickin’ good Ruddster.
    Mind you, it’s just as well that the species known as the Bob Collins is no longer with us, or Leunig could well have been rear-ended.

    Posted by jorjac on 2008 02 16 at 10:18 PM • permalink

  63. #1
    Calls for a rerun of girly-man

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 02 16 at 10:29 PM • permalink

  64. What Leunig and his phony friends are doing when they make up this phony “apologizing for stolen generations” crap is avoiding the real issue, which is the guilt they feel because a bunch of Europeans, their ancestors, came over and drove the Aborigines off the lands which Leunig and his lefty friends are now camped out on.

    Of course, if they started apologizing for that, then some wag would point out that that could all be remedied by the foreign devils simply packing their bags, getting off the lands they stole, and sailing back to Europe, which Leunig and Rudd and all the other phonies have no intention of doing.

    Their little pity party is just a big smokescreen.

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 16 at 10:31 PM • permalink

  65. “One day we must surely get down on our knees to every lizard and frog and orchid — and weep an apology.”

    Spare me.  If you’re so guilt-stricken because urbanization has destroyed the habitat of the little lizards and froggies, then why don’t you actually do something about it? 

    Knock your house down, restore the original habitat so the lizards will be nice and comfy, then get naked and go live in the outback where you’ll have minimum impact on their habitat in the future.

    Money talks, and bullshit walks, pal.

    And, your “I’m sorry” is 100% bullshit…so start walking.

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 16 at 10:52 PM • permalink

  66. I’m sorry I ever heard of Leunig.

    Posted by Penguin on 2008 02 16 at 10:57 PM • permalink

  67. “the apology we must surely owe to the Iraqi people for the million violent deaths of war”

    Of course, there’s no blame attached to looking the other way for 30 years while a madman takes a weed whacker to the population of his country.  That’s an honorable position, of course.  Especially from one who is the champion of the little man and the “fair go”.

    The UN shouldn’t have to apologize either for their impotence.  Coddling dictators is part of their job description.  Benan Sevan had to earn a buck somehow.

    And, of course, the whole sentence is ridiculous for depending on a patently bogus statistic.

    I wonder if Leunig would plug his ears and look the other way if he passed a mugging in progress?  “Nothing to see here,” he’d presumably tell himself, and anyone who would listen.  And, by all evidence, he would be damn proud of it.

    Posted by kcom on 2008 02 16 at 11:01 PM • permalink

  68. Well, one thing Krudd has achieved. He will surely go down in history as the first leader of a nation to make ‘$orry’ a word meaning: a) Make a profit with no effort.
    b) Give every loon, malcontent and ideologue (Leunig is but one, there will be plenty more), legitimacy.
    c) Create a viable victim culture, for which most in the legal profession will be forever in debt to the ALP.
    Apart from potentially stuffing the economy, his legacy is already looking as good as Gough’s and we have only had approximately three months of this lot.

    Posted by BJM on 2008 02 16 at 11:17 PM • permalink

  69. 82. ann j

    Just read that and it is muck grubbing in the extreme. Mal puts his money where his mouth is and gets what??
    Slandered under parlimetry privellige?

    Lab has a kiddie rooting man thyve covered up for decades and its “old news”.

    This bit sums up what you can expect.
    “And as Aboriginal people, they will feel there is a reciprocal obligation and engage him..”

    The subtext being, “because they are only ignorant darkies and me and my uni mates allready know what hasnt worked for the last 30 years will, if we just wish it so”.

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 02 16 at 11:28 PM • permalink

  70. “What are we doing now, with all conviction and zeal, that will require a ‘sorry’ in 50 or 20 years?”

    1.  What a dreadfully written line:  “20 or 50 years” surely?

    2.  As for being “sorry” 50 years from now, I can only quote Keynes:

    “In the long run, we are all dead.”

    Posted by JJM Ballantyne on 2008 02 17 at 12:26 AM • permalink

  71. One day this guys needs to get some serious psychological help…  Maybe even some electro-shock therapy perhaps??

    If he has any friends who aren’t in the same boat, they should do him a favour and tell him its never too late!!!

    Posted by casanova on 2008 02 17 at 12:52 AM • permalink

  72. orchard instead of an orchid

    You still on those drugs?

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 17 at 01:05 AM • permalink

  73. Memo to Tim Blair: Native Australians are not to be compared to orchids or ants or anything else. They’re your neighbours.

    No apology to orchids is ever going to be required. No apology for the near extinction of the small-pox virus will be entertained.

    Again the comparison between environmental extremism and religion is irresistible. The obvious religious parent being Jainism.

    Posted by John A on 2008 02 17 at 01:28 AM • permalink

  74. O/T but this is slipping quietly under the radar here in Oz.
    Govt to endorse UN indigenous rights Or as I like to call it the “stick whitey” bill.

    “..The declaration - more than 20 years in the drafting - was supported by 143 nations but the Howard Government refused to support it, arguing it would put Aboriginal customary law in a “superior position’’ to national law.

    That claim was dismissed by Labor, indigenous leaders and law experts..”

    Would these be the same Labor, indigenous leaders and law experts who assured us the “sorry” wouldnt result in compo claims???


    From the UN.

    This little bit from the UN legislation itself seems fairly specific.
    “..Article 3
    Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development..”

    “..Article 4
    Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions..”

    “..Article 5
    Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State..”

    2 countries in one land?

    Doesnt this little section allow Lab a nice
    little dodge out of kiddie protection??

    “..2. Indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group..”


    Visualise Slater and Gordon facing Michael Kirby with this in their hands.


    Its asking for a huge Fisking, the whole document effectively nulifies Australia one small piece at a time.
    The US had better make sure Obama doesnt have ratifying this turd of a treaty on his agenda as well. (Article 28 is a doozy)

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 02 17 at 03:14 AM • permalink

  75. Stackja1945: more than 20 comments in one thread might be slightly overdoing it. Please consider the people reading these threads as well as those you are chatting with here.

    Same goes for all commenters. Don’t make me get out the deletion stick. Thank you.

    Posted by Tim B. on 2008 02 17 at 03:19 AM • permalink

  76. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the possum I had removed from my roof.

    I should not have removed you from your natural habitat, nor should I have tempted you with that apple and peanut butter to get you in the cage. I should not have resorted to tempting your animal instincts to deceive you.

    I heartily apologise.

    I also apologise for covering the hole you used to gain access to your native environment, so you can’t get back in. That was also wrong of me.

    Once again, I apologise.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 17 at 03:36 AM • permalink

  77. #40, #41.  There is an aboriginal trawl fisherman up at Gladstone that reckons he doesn’t need to comply with fishing regulations as he is indigenous.

    Riccardo Yasso was charged under s. 84 of the Fisheries Act with unlawfully possessing commercial fishing apparatus of dimensions greater than that prescribed, while not holding an authority to do so—namely a 53m long monofilament gill net with a 51mm mesh size.

    In 2003, Mr Yasso was found not guilty in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court. The magistrate concluded that Mr Yasso was acting as an Aborigine under s. 14 of the Fisheries Act i.e. in the traditional way of an Aborigine taking fish by means of a net.

    The DPI&F appealed the decision on the grounds that s.14 did not apply to s.84, but the decision was upheld. 

    The DPI&F have apparently not tried to amend the legislation to ensure that s.14 does not preclude violations of s.84, I wonder why? A bridge too far perhaps?

    Posted by entropy on 2008 02 17 at 03:38 AM • permalink

  78. Sorry.  forgot the link

    Posted by entropy on 2008 02 17 at 03:40 AM • permalink

  79. #105

    “..Article 3
    Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development..”

    self determination… freely pursue their economic. social and cultural development…

    Well, I wouldn’t call petrol sniffing, alcholism, child abuse, wife bashing etc “cultural development” myself.

    But it is the UN, after all.

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 17 at 03:45 AM • permalink

  80. #111
    Was it a traditional aboriginal No.6 (3/16”) braided polypropylene line or a No. 9 nylon seine twine net he was using?

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 02 17 at 04:06 AM • permalink

  81. “..2. Indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide…”

    So…does that mean we’re allowed to carry out genocide against tourists?

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 17 at 04:28 AM • permalink

  82. #90, frollickingmole - and others interested

    Mal Brough hits back

    Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission(formerly the Social Justice Commissioner with ATSIC - predecessors Mick Dodson and William Jonas) should be immediately summoned before a formal inquiry to justify the outrageous charges he’s made.

    Scum really does rise to the top, doesn’t it?

    Posted by ann j on 2008 02 17 at 05:14 AM • permalink

  83. The UN declaration on indigenous people is so bad for countries with indigenous minorities that even Marxist Helen Clark in NZ rejected it. But not Rudd’s mob, which is now addicted to the cheering and adoration of Aborigines and the media here and abroad.

    Signing this declaration will be the stupidest thing Rudd does. There is no written Aboriginal law and as we have seen in the recent past with Aboriginal ceremonies, it will become whatever they want it to be at the time. The country will become unworkable.

    Interesting, AAP’s take on this story is not to mention that NZ opposed the declaration. All it says is that 4 countries voted no and 143 voted yes and one of the no votes was the evil John Howard.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 02 17 at 06:20 AM • permalink

  84. The BBC is totally up itself and is another danger to the world. Read this report where they have had to back down after comparing the status of Hariri and Mughniyah as “great national leaders”. Our ABC is a mini-me BBC, but has little appetite for apologies, or even acknowlegement that they might be fallible.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2008 02 17 at 06:48 AM • permalink

  85. #114 Read this ABC take on Calma/Brough story. Note how the headline does not quite match what the Nguiu spokesman was saying.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 02 17 at 06:52 AM • permalink

  86. Why do I get the feeling Australia’s Aborigines have just given up and are waiting for extinction?

    Posted by mythusmage on 2008 02 17 at 08:07 AM • permalink

  87. After being warned for thread pollution, stackja1945 posted three more comments in this thread. They were deleted. He then posted another five comments.

    Now, stacky is a nice guy and a friend of this site, but a warning doesn’t mean much without something to back it up. So his new comments have now been deleted, plus all his previous comments in this thread and any comments that even mentioned stackja1945.

    That’s the kind of tough love this place is famous for.

    Posted by Tim B. on 2008 02 17 at 08:42 AM • permalink

  88. #87 Tim, you better be completely over that medical stuff, with all these threads you’ve been posting!

    Let me know when you’re in Melbourne, and Amadora and I shall shout you a meal which meets with your doctor’s approval.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 17 at 09:08 AM • permalink

  89. This post has shamed me into apologizing for the termite control measures I have taken to eradicate termites from my 125 year old house. It was wrong, wrong to behave in such an imperialistic manner, as though I know what is best for the native residents. The termites were simply doing what termites do.

    Posted by viz on 2008 02 17 at 03:57 PM • permalink

  90. Sorry about all the wildlife my dogs have killed.

    And the various kangaroos and birds taken out by my car….

    But they shouldn’t have been trespassing/on the road.

    Posted by kae on 2008 02 17 at 05:33 PM • permalink

  91. I’ll settle for a apology from Leunig for comparing Auschwitz with Israel.  Gargantuan with lots of weeping and tooth-gnashing.

    Otherwise, the thought of him permanently on his knees apologising to all the organic elements of the earth appeals to me - a lot. He’d be responsible for far less cerebral and literary pollution that way, and his bowed, kneeling body could act as a resting-place for passing trekkers.

    Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 17 at 08:47 PM • permalink

  92. #75, you have a deletion stick!!?
    And you haven’t used it on Traceee, Bob Ellis
    or Leunig’s scribbles?

    There’s an apology that needs to be said…

    Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 17 at 08:59 PM • permalink

  93. While we’re apologising for interspecies, and Australian people having to apologise to other Australian people, this got me to thinking about whether Abos should apologise to the Chinese for eating a lot of them in the 1800’s.

    Apparently a Chinaman was quite a delicacy to the Abos. They used to hang them by their cues from a handy tree until they were ready to be eaten.

    mmmm, definitely think an apology is in order.

    Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 17 at 09:44 PM • permalink

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