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LONE MAN ESCAPES NATIONWIDE SEDATION
My former high school headmaster spectacularly beclowns himself:
In the push to make us “relaxed and comfortable” we have been desensitised, and any questioning is regarded as “un-Australian”. There has, moreover, been a progressive “dumbing down” of those institutions that dare to probe and doubt ...
While the people are sedated, the Prime Minister has been able to pursue his “cultural wars” unabated, to create his own version of political correctness and to vandalise the institutions that keep our minds alive and our lives human: there is more to man than economic aggrandisement.
Peter Gebhardt’s newfound distaste for “rampant authoritarianism” may come as a surprise to his former students. Thank Gaia this joker is no longer in education.
What’s ignored is that high standards and higher order skills depend on rote learning and mastering the basics. Also ignored is that in the real world there are right and wrong answers and that generic skills such as problem solving are subject-specific. To make matters worse, teachers are generally given a left-wing view of such matters,teachers are told “to decide whose side they are on” and who to vote for even influencing young at a political level. For all we know, which ideology teachers have introduced to children. We don’t know, as there are no other “intellectual” or outside influences within the school system.
;The subtext of both Gebhardt’s and Marr’s whimpering is not that they are ‘silenced’ but that no-one is fawning over their opinions as would be the case under a left-leaning Government. It’s their irrelevance that hurts them the most, which is quite pleasing actually.
Hey, 1.68, good to see you back!
“arrests of US journalists are at a record level”. Really, WTF is Naomi Wolf talking about? I recently had to sit through an agonizing dinner with a schoolteacher acquaintance who was genuinely despairing that Australia had been ranked a lowly 35th on the Lefty Journalists Without Borders poll of ‘freedom of speech’. The fact that out in the real Australia there are no restrictions on press freedom meant nothing to him. But I keep forgetting, for these people, the fact that any media outlet anywhere publishes anything other than lockstep far-left groupthink means that there is brutal suppression of freedom of speech.
I’m shocked- an educator with unreconstructed marxist views! Who’d imagine such a creature would even exist, let alone be permitted to give vent to its views in Jackbooty Johns fourth reich redneck wonderland? I expect the spooks will be around directly to drag him off to a dank cellar somewhere to perform bestial acts of torture upon his unyielding, indomitably resistant person (public servants- pah. A gestapo run by Halliburton would’ve had pianowire around his testicles licketty-split).
Must be a bit sad to be so desperate for attention, yet so ignored and ridiculed.
Being ridiculed is the very worst form of torture for the aging Marxist. Simply diabolical.
Probably gives Reporters sans Frontières the vapors.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 06 12 at 10:11 PM • permalinkWhat part of the democratic process whereby we elect our government do these people say has been subverted?
The only part I agree with is the higher limits imposed on FOI requests.
The Beattie Govt in qQld is famous for its trolley load of document approach to cabinet meetings, where they index a bunch of papers, whack them on a trolley, walk the trolley into the cabinet meeting room, have a good laugh about them all, then say they were “considered” in cabinet, and therefore non-FOI’able (hehe). This gross abuse of cabinet secrecy really stretched the actor’s ability in Beattie, but he was up to it.
The breathless arrogance with which this was done, and the non-appearance of a single “lefty” to decry it - tells you exactly why these people need the STFU.
If I need to throw up some bad food, I’ll click the traceeeeeee link bookmarked for such emergencies. Thanks love.
One of my professors defined an intellectual as “someone who thinks he’s found something more interesting than sex.” He also said, that in a 30+ year career in Academia the more some preened themselves as ‘intellectual’ the more thick-headed they were. Of course, he was a hard-drinking Irishman who taught stat and regarded Eric Clapton as God.
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2007 06 12 at 10:17 PM • permalinkSorry, I just followed the link. What a twit. I think, if I have properly decoded his idiocy, he’s just jealous that it’s not his jackboot on society’s neck.
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2007 06 12 at 10:21 PM • permalinkOh, to live in a concentration camp of the mind, where one can dig escape tunnels under the cover of darkness and slip ground glass into the kommandant’s wienerschnitzel without ever really having to fear being cut in half by the guard in the machinegun tower, or flayed by the lash of the torturer! Emotional, context-free, day-dream heroism. So easy, so enjoyable, so . . . childish.
So who are these jailed American journalists?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 06 12 at 10:31 PM • permalinkOle Gep didn’t mention Chavez?
This was a moot point posted on Bolta’s site this week:
The utter hypocrisy of the British National Union of Journalists, which recently voted to boycott only Israel, has now become evident in the face of the silence over the recent move by Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez to suppress dissent by the media in his leftist regime.
General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan too has now imposed massive press censorship. In many other of the hard left’s favored countries - Cuba, China, Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe - suppression of the press is routine and imprisonment of journalist is common.
But there is not a peep about these countries from the British National Union of Journalists who seem to admire tyranny and condemn democracy and openness. Only Israel, which has among the freest presses of the world, is being targeted for sanctions.
“Peter Gebhardt’s newfound distaste for “rampant authoritarianism” may come as a surprise to his former students. Thank Gaia this joker is no longer in education.”
From what I read in the note following his article, he is a retired judge. I’m not sure I’m comforted. I thought judges were supposed to live in the real world.
Ok lets go through his laundy list. (I read the Wolf article it was pure crap)
The steps she delineates include the following:
1:invoking a terrifying internal and external enemy
Sorry but the evoking was done by a group of terorists, the same ones who killed 100 of my and your fellow counttymen in an attack targeting civillians in Bali. It has been proven that that terrorist group recieved funding and support from individuals within Australia. It has also been proven the group involved in the attacks had a sister organisation within Australia itself. It would be criminaly negligent for any organ of the government to pretend they didnt exist and try to shut them down.
2; creating a gulag (Guantanamo Bay)
When you can show me due reason for terroists to be treated the same as uniformed combatants you might have a case. This gulag is reserved for terroists not “brave dissidents” such as yourself who flap their gums in an attempt to compare a system in the old USSR which imprisoned anyone.
3; developing a thug caste (security contractors)
This is just silly.
4; setting up an internal surveillance system
See my response to #1, any organ of the goverment which isnt looking out for the safety of its citizens is negligent. I might add I have very few problems with the odd drug dealer or pedophile who gets caught up in the surveilance as well.
5; harassing citizens’ groups
Name names. Why should the government fund advocacy groups whos idealogical bent is soft socalism? Many of these groups you refer to USED to perform social work and advocasy quietly and effectively. Many now seem to believe they should run social/welfare policy without the hassle of being elected to office.6 ; engaging in arbitrary detention and release
Name names. Being suspected of a criminal act, detained for questioning and released, is not arbitary detention by any standards I can think of. If I made a conscious decision to associate with criminals and suspected or known terror groups I shouldnt be too precious about some suspicion falling upon me.
7; targeting key individuals
Again name names, this nebulous “something is oppressing someone, somwhere” is getting a little silly. If you have the courage of your convictions then you should be naming those you believe are victimised so your general arguement can be judged on its merits. At the moment you could be talking about anything from Alquida to NAMBLA to the boy scouts.
8; controlling the media (arrests of US journalists are at a record level)
Name names and cases. Again having a nametag that says “press” doesnt prevent you fom doing illegal things or lying with dogs and geting up with fleas.9; believing that dissent equals treason
No, I challenge you to show where that arguement has been run by the government. It may be stated that “it is/isnt in the best interests of the nation” but as for accusations of treason? What a silly strawman to put up.10; suspending the rule of law.
If you had been payying attention you would find most of the problems the government has been having introducing “Australias Gulag” have been fitting them in with existing Australian law. There have been to my knowledge, no Australians within Australia who have been unjustly detained who have not been compensated. This is a way for the government and courts (and the only way) they can redress mistakes (note mistakes) made by the organs of the government. There has been no “suspending of the law” in any real sense of the term.To sum up you arguement seems to consist of “The government is doing something, to someone, somewhere, in the intention of keeping law abiding and peaceful citizens safe. And I dont approve as the people who associate, support or are these individuals who wish to cause harm to their fellow citizens may face increased scrutiny”.
You sir are an ass and a cad.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 12 at 10:42 PM • permalinkFrom what I read in the note following his article, he is a retired judge. I’m not sure I’m comforted. I thought judges were supposed to live in the real world.
Sadly, not all of them do, which explains their bizarre decisions and behaviours.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 06 12 at 10:46 PM • permalinkAnyone who “puts everything in quotes” looks like “a dickhead”.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 06 12 at 10:58 PM • permalinkReal world? Judges? I give you Kirby, Gaudron and Big Bucks Bill Deane for starters. And so it goes down the judicial food chain to Ms O’Shane.
See the point above re wanting to set social policy without the inconvenience of having to be elected.
Posted by anonymous guest on 2007 06 12 at 10:59 PM • permalinkMargos Maid
I resemble that remark!!
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 12 at 11:06 PM • permalinkSigh. Another one of those silenced dissents.
I just they could be, well, a bit more silent. It would certainly improve their credibility if they did not spout crap.
Posted by Apparatchik on 2007 06 12 at 11:09 PM • permalinkYeah, I remember the head bastard at my high school. He was so mean, he’d chain students to their desks and then set fire to the classroom. Why, once he . . . Oh, wait a minute. Telephone. Hello? Yo, Michael Lonie! How’re you doing, you old brainiac, you? Still working on that fusion reactor in your garage? What’s that? Are you sure? Headmaster? Not head bastard? Oh. Jeez, how am I going to square this one? Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah, that ought to work. Thanks, Mike!
So, as I was saying, Tim, my headmaster was so full of crap that Roto-Rooter used to do him for free once a month just to show prospective clients how good they were.
18: Gebhardt was chucked out of Geelong College and limped back to the the law where he could write poetry in the morning and snore in the afternoon.
Martin Flanagan writes (second link):
‘Asked about the similarity between education and the law, he said: “In both you’re dealing a lot with young people.” He worries that debates on criminal justice don’t look enough at the causes of crime.’What is the article meant to be, a Wolf and Marr cut & paste?
And just when Julian Baggini says that Bush is a liberal, FFS ...
#27, I checked your link and had to guffaw at this:
The judge doesn’t reveal himself in his poetry but the shadow of a father figure can be discerned. Seen through the prism of childhood reflections, his father appears a remote, self-sufficient man at home on the land with his dogs. In one poem, the poet says he would have run to his father along with the dogs had he been called. The unspoken inference is that he wasn’t.
Snigger, its another Leunig!
#11 peter m
partial FOI discovery gives you a good clue which docs they’re nervous about. Then discover or subpoena the balance and if that doesn’t get all you need gives fertile ground for cross examination of govt employees, who generally understand the concept of perjury, once it is explained to them.
Emails are particulary delicious.
Things have changed since I was at High School - I was carpeted by the Principal for inviting the Socialist Workers’ Party to sell their Resistance paper (since superceded by the GreenLeft Weekly) outside my school.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 06 13 at 02:19 AM • permalinkInteresting article on education in the June issue of Quadrant.
The author, Mike Alder, is in the Dept of Mathematics and Statistics at UWA. He reports on a 16 question maths test given to first-year science students (e.g., 2*[5-2*(7-8)], 4/(4 + 1/5)) and says that the average mark has gone from 14/16 back in 2000 to 4/16 (with the most common mark being 2/16) in 2007. He calls educational experts “charlatans” and says that “[w]e have given our education system over to fools”.
Personally I think fools have been in charge for a long time - long enough for all the level-headed types to have retired or died and for there to be almost no one left in teaching, or the teaching bureaucracy, who isn’t a fool trained by charlatans.
38/36.
I wouldn’t say idiots as such. One Justice I have had a few conversations with is fairly assured of a high court/ Fed court position a little later on in his career.
He is a notoriously light sentencer for Aboriginals, used to work for the Aboriginal legal service, and I have seen him take the word of a savage thug over the word of 2 sworn officers (A 50 year old lady was supposed to have assaulted a fit, strong 25 yr old causing him to punch her in the face repeatedly).
Having said that he has absolutely no impediments to further advancement, having been on the “correct” side of the law since he started.
Yet in conversations I have had with him he is well aware of the results of his sentences, but sees no reason to jeopardize his future advancement to impose sentences which will be overturned, or appealed by the same higher court Justices who will ensure his advancement.
I dont know how common his attitude is but hes the only Magistrate I know on a professional and personal basis, and a frighteningly intelligent man.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 13 at 04:13 AM • permalinkThese near-superannuated lefties are annoyed because the Howard government ignores them. They interpret this mild slight as suppression.
They long for the halcyon days of Hawke and Keating when the government sought them out for their (usually fatuous) opinions and hung on their every word. They can’t understand why they aren’t taken seriously and their widely-promoted views instantly taken on board and implemented.
Their big moment was the Commission for the Future, a pointless talk-fest headed, I think, by Barry Jones, which cost a lot of money but achieved nothing and is now consigned, as we say, to the dustbin of history.
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 06 13 at 04:43 AM • permalinkTheir big moment was the Commission for the Future, a pointless talk-fest headed, I think, by Barry Jones, which cost a lot of money but achieved nothing and is now consigned, as we say, to the dustbin of history.
Shucks! I soooo much wanted to live in the Multi-Function Polis! Guess I’ll just have to wait for GeoThermia…
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 06 13 at 05:44 AM • permalinkI was carpeted by the Principal for inviting the Socialist Workers’ Party to sell their Resistance paper (since superceded by the GreenLeft Weekly) outside my school
BTW, I got better…
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 06 13 at 05:46 AM • permalinkYou say repression, I say progression…
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 06 13 at 06:15 AM • permalinkSedation! Sedition!
Repression! Progression!
Let’s call the whole thing off…John says it’s terror, I say that’s no error
Geb says it’s frightful, I say Get A Life, Fool!
Terror! No error!
Frightful! A Life, Fool!
Let’s call the whole thing off!Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 06 13 at 06:24 AM • permalinkAnimal Farm by George Orwell used to be in the school curriculum. Your old headmaster might be familiar with it. I find the current machinations of the ALP and the ACTU and affiliates no less chilling than that pork laden allegory.
Union members are to be subjected to close examination of their voting intentions. Not once, but several times by phone, with the exercise culminating in a house call.
This is not campaigning, it is an intrusion into the secret ballot system.
It is not informing the members, since the instructions are to leave out advice about certain safeguards and guaranteed conditions.
It is no mere dirty tricks manual. It is an exercise of standover tactics. It looks a lot like a plan for Intimidation.I studied Animal Farm when Sir Peter was headmaster. No cartoon animal, not even Sylvester, could approach his mastery of self-contradiction. `Above all SIT STILL I am pleased SIT STILL to have imparted a spirit of inquiry SIT STILL…’ [typical early 80s assembly: if we had mobiles and YouTube then I would link to the silly gown, Rehnquist on casual Friday, he wore to tell us to disbelieve authority]
48. hooligan
Absolutely. No doubt in my mind at all. BTW I have an invite to attend a meeting with the chief justice for WA on about the 18th in Kalgoorlie. (Its a JP function). Are there any suitably RWDB questions i should ask if given the opportunity? (speak truth to power, yadda,yadda,yadda)
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 13 at 08:24 AM • permalinkHe quotes a “Naomi” who writes about Fascist America. Why are all bird brained left wing birds called Naomi?
How original for the left to complain about lack of democracy when they’re sagacity is ignored by the great unwashed.
How original for Naomi to courageously write about Fascist America.
These people should stand back and take a look at themselves. I bet they’ll be embarrassed to read their drivel 20 years hence.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 13 at 08:28 AM • permalinkHeres the article by Wolf he refers to, I wouldnt advise reading it, go and find something more fun to do like sticking pins though your testicles.
A sample for the brave.
“Right now, only a handful of patriots are trying to hold back the tide of tyranny for the rest of us - staff at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who faced death threats for representing the detainees yet persisted all the way to the Supreme Court; activists at the American Civil Liberties Union…”Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 13 at 08:37 AM • permalinkmurph
Wasnt Scooter libby a journo???
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 13 at 08:42 AM • permalinkC’mon, you all remember Naomi Wolf’s real claim to fame, don’t you? She tried to turn Al Gore into some kind of tribal chieftain/warrior/Alpha male during his presidential campaign, but only succeeded in converting him into a puffing, herky-jerky, wind-up politician who stripped some gears (most notably in the televised debates with George Bush), and eventually ran down like a mechanical monkey playing a drum.
I think they mean Judith Miller, who was jailed for criminal contempt of court. Self-important twit bit off more than she could chew, and when the going got tough, the brave progressive management of the NYC left her to twist (karma’s a bitch, etc). She never got over it.
1.618
Stop this shit and continue posting. If you lurk, give us your rich mind and body.
I’ll go along with that.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 06 13 at 09:18 AM • permalink1.618: please don’t hide in the shadows. Come back and post. I really miss your joy as well as your art work (even though I haven’t purchased any - I’m broke). Just because (and I’ll take the liberty of speaking for many) we don’t often acknowledge your charms and abilities publicly, definitely doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate them. The place is lacking that brilliant sunshine you bring.
#47 “Union members are to be subjected to close examination of their voting intentions. Not once, but several times by phone, with the exercise culminating in a house call.”
The evening news tonight told me this was no more sinister than an automated pleading phone call from JoHo. He’s campaigning, they’re campaigning, who’s to say what’s right and wrong, what with all our modern ideas and products?
wreckage
Youd be suprised how happy people are to have burly chaps and chappetes lob on their doorsteps and ask their voting intentions. Works much better when the 2nd of the pain notes in a loud voice “Beutiful place you got here, it insured? You know insurance cant cover everything, fire can be a terrible thing….”
(Lifted straight from the PACO debt recovery branch)Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 13 at 09:46 AM • permalinkPain=pair, but still apt in an odd way.
PIMFPosted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 13 at 09:47 AM • permalinkI’ve lost a total of 7.6kg since 16/April.
I’m chuffed.
Oh, and my computer seems to be off the fritz… for the mo.
I finally got help from Dill Tech Support who actually conference called with my ISP. Problem solved, eventually. (Nobody knows what was wrong with it, had to reformat hard drive and STILL had problems…Arrgh!)
Thanks to those who gave advice. Much appreciated.Texas Bob
Tried a new and ingenious marketing approach for the Texas Bob Beer Fund.
Street Corner. Shades. White Cane. Tin Cup. Man did it ever bring in the dough. In three days I got, $5.73.
Had to toss out the wadded up gum wrappers and paper clips and shit such as, though. Cheap bastards.
Fortunately, I’m quick, escaped unharmed and there are lots of other street corners to work.
Hi Rebecca H
If you have a run of bad luck quite often it’s said that you must have killed a chinaman, I suppose it’s like breaking a mirror. It’s bad luck to kill a chinaman. It’s something that I’ve heard my whole family use at one stage of adversity or another.
Here, search for chinaman. And here’s an article which may entertain, which I found while searching for “kill a chinaman”. I hope you find it humorous.In more insane judge news, the administrative law judge in Washington, D.C. who sued a dry cleaner for $54 million dollars over a misplaced pair of pants finally got his case to trial. And what did he do? He cried.
Later, while recounting the day he says the cleaners tried to pass off a cheaper pair of pants as his, Pearson began to cry, asking for a break and dabbing tears as he left the courtroom.
Why did he cry?
In opening statements, Pearson cast himself as a victim of fraud on a historic scale, perpetrated by malicious business owners who had no intention of delivering on those promises.
I admit I don’t know what an administrative law judge does but whatever it is he’s in a position to make decisions that affect peoples’ lives in one way or another, you can bet. What a confidence booster in the judicial system his behavior has been.
Here’s the good news (I hope). His term expired on May 2 and a decision to reappoint him has not yet been taken. Surely, it’s a no-brainer. Surely. Of course, you can’t argue with his qualifications, though. He was a “longtime legal aid lawyer” before being appointed to the judgeship.
Of course, he always has his city job to fall back on that pays him $100,000 a year.
67 Becca that’s really pretty. Thank you I’ll cut and paste it on my fridge where all my special post its go.
El-cid, My boobs are better and bigger! Still, thank you for your lovely picture. YOU!! YOU!! YOU!! I told you I’ll have to do lessons with you one day.
:’;;;’;;’‘;’; ‘;’;’;;’
;;;’‘’‘’‘’;’;’;
‘;’;;;;’;’;’;’;;’;’;
“”Ëmber sparkles”” for Ashy by 1.618
for sale $ 444While the people are sedated, the Prime Minister has been able to pursue his “cultural wars” unabated, to create his own version of political correctness and to vandalise the institutions that keep our minds alive and our lives human: there is more to man than economic aggrandisement.
<b>The People! Sedated!
Will Never Be Elated!The People! Sedated!
Will Never Be Elated!The People! Sedated!
Will Never Be Elated!</i>Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 06 13 at 08:28 PM • permalink#86 kae
Goodonya! (For your weight loss)
Thanks for that link - I’ve added it to my collection of Aussie slang dictionaries - what a great language we have here
Posted by aussiemagpie on 2007 06 14 at 03:26 AM • permalinkHi kae,
Thanks for the compliment. I feel all aw-shucks-ish.
The boy, well, young man, is doing fine. He’s actually up here right now, on patrol boats. They’re having certain maintenance difficulties so we’re getting to see quite a lot of him. It’s lovely! Noisy house again. Mess everywhere. Interesting conversations. What more could a mother want?
‘Fuckwit’ is the only word that comes to mind when I read anything written by Richard Neville. As for Traceee, she lives in the same parallel universe as Phillip Adams and Mike Carlton, in which they all share the same gift for humourous writing.
I suppose we should be grateful to that pathetic left-wing rag The Age for providing employment to ‘writers’ like Traceee and ‘social commentators and futurists’ like Richard so at least unlike the majority of their audience they are not sucking on the public teat at the nearest Centrelink Office.#37 - Janice - that’s a great reference. I’m going to quote that as part of a post I’m doing.
Posted by Jack Lacton on 2007 06 14 at 07:17 AM • permalink
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Yawn- another paint by numbers leftist essay on the evil Howard government.