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PEOPLE TOO DUMB FOR DEMOCRACY
An Age reader delivers his verdict on democracy:
Rumsfeld should never have been there in the first place. Bush should never have been there in the first place (he cheated his way in the first time, then a majority of US voters were stupid enough to re-elect an idiot (and even worse, a criminal idiot). People are mostly too dumb for democracy (just look at Australia’s ‘Prime Minister’).
Wow. Imagine how upset he’d be if the Democrats had lost. Speaking of democracy, Queensland voters may next year have the chance to vote for conservative Israeli-born Presbyterian lawyer Hajnal Ban:
This site formally withdraws any previous criticism of Presbyterians.
(Via Bernie Slattery)
"People are mostly too dumb for democracy”
If the person who wrote the above is allowed to vote, I’d say his theory is validated.
Posted by Dave Surls on 2006 11 09 at 01:02 PM • permalink"Hajnal Ban”
Btw, how does one join the Presbyterians?
Posted by Dave Surls on 2006 11 09 at 01:07 PM • permalinkWhy are Conservatives so much better looking then Lefties? Lefty women always look like they’ve been sucking on a lemon.
Posted by swassociates on 2006 11 09 at 01:09 PM • permalink"Lefty women always look like they’ve been sucking on a lemon.”
Literally true, in the case of Monica Lewinsky.
Posted by Dave Surls on 2006 11 09 at 01:17 PM • permalinkHey murph, those gals can’t hold a candle to Susan Estrich:
http://strangepolitics.com/images/content/7179.jpg
Susan’s the one on the left.
Posted by Sonetka's Mom on 2006 11 09 at 01:54 PM • permalinkSeriously, lefties are “feminists” and believe it is wrong to look pretty, that is sexist.
BTW I want to marry her.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2006 11 09 at 02:01 PM • permalinkTwenty minutes ago I couldn’t even spell Presbyterian. Now, I think, I am one. When’s services?
Posted by lumberjack on 2006 11 09 at 02:01 PM • permalinkWa-wa-wee-wa! Very niiice. [pause] She is from which country?
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 11 09 at 02:04 PM • permalinkUm...should she not gain office in Oz, might I suggest trying for State’s Attorney of my humble County in Illinois? Please?
Posted by Major John on 2006 11 09 at 02:18 PM • permalinkOK, rhhardin, the blonde hair is a little unexpected, but otherwise I think she’d fit right in with the IDF gals:
http://img11.photobucket.com/albums/v34/pretorian669/GIRLS/roni_.jpg
Posted by Sonetka's Mom on 2006 11 09 at 02:21 PM • permalinkHonestly, guys, pick up your tongues and show some class. After all, our betters have spoken. She’s blond, attractive, and conservative, so she’s obviously too dumb for democracy. She’s also Israeli-born, which makes her a baby-eating monster, and she’s Presbyterian, which makes her conflicted.
Hm. I’d vote for her in a heartbeat, were I able.
"Seriously, lefties are “feminists” and believe it is wrong to look pretty”
You wanna talk ugly leftards?
All I can say is Helen Thomas.
Sorry, I’m not going to provide a link.
I do have some standards.
Posted by Dave Surls on 2006 11 09 at 02:31 PM • permalinkThere ain’t no justice…
Queensland has Hajnal Ban, we have Dianne Feinstein.
Posted by Dave Surls on 2006 11 09 at 02:43 PM • permalinkYum, yum.
Ah, um, shoot, I forgot what I was thinking about.cold shower
that’s better.
Leftists don’t want democracy, there’s the chance they’d lose power. Thus, when they lose an election they scream “fraud” in an attempt to make people lose faith in the democratic process in order to put the left in permanently.Wow!, Hajnal Ban.
I feel a Jihad starting in my pants.
Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2006 11 09 at 02:58 PM • permalinkYou wanna talk ugly leftards?
All I can say is Helen Thomas.
I once made a similar observation on my long-neglected blog. In response, I began to get abusive emails from an “anti-Zionist”. Among the abuse were pictures of Bela Abzug.
No, I don’t understand it, either.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 11 09 at 03:11 PM • permalinkWell, yeah, they do look like that. Like I’ve said, my wife and mother-in-law joined the Presbyterian Church about 10 years ago. I think their criteria were any Protestant church with a pretty building and a summer festival with a silent auction of gift baskets. Salvation probably fits in there somewhere, but you never know.
Yes, I noticed right off that the ladies look very nice. But that’s just their outside appearance. They’ve evil inside through and through. I give you my mother-in-law as a good example.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 11 09 at 03:43 PM • permalinkAs the sites local resident Prebyterian (who seems to miss all the Presbyterian terrorist memos - obviously they don’t trust me yet...) I think you should all wait your turn :P
Young, blond, Israeli, Conservative and a Presbyterian - sounds like my dream date. (We’ll forgive her being a lawyer and a Queenslander though, the rest more than makes up for that.)
Seriously, anyway (short of moving to Queensland) that we could support her?
I also have some important questions for the candidate.
What is you stance on alternative energy tax credits? What other types of stances do you enjoy?
Are you committed to maintaining good Australian-American relations? Please demonstrate.
Can you please describe, in detail, all the articles of clothing you are currently wearing? Be comprehensive.
"I began to get abusive emails from an “anti-Zionist”. Among the abuse were pictures of Bela Abzug...”
I’d sue if I was you.
Posted by Dave Surls on 2006 11 09 at 04:33 PM • permalinkHold on guys! Granted, she’s a honey. But, I don’t know anything about the Aussie Presbyterian church but the American Presbyterian church is about as moonbatty as they come. Years ago in Madison, WI, at an upper middle class Presbyterian church during Christmas Eve services I perused some official church literature about the Middle East. What I read was straight out of the PLO’s talking points. I could not believe what I was reading and it’s worst now.
BTW: Why is her church affiliation relevant?
Posted by Mark Razak on 2006 11 09 at 05:01 PM • permalinkEND itThankyouverymuch.
I’m in the mood for a Ban roll-on.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2006 11 09 at 05:56 PM • permalinkI would move across the country to her electorate just so I could vote for her. Why are conservatives so good looking while Margo Kingston sums up the others?
Posted by Phatso Phil on 2006 11 09 at 06:16 PM • permalink#43. The American Pressies have a number of factions, the most well know of them being the rabidly moonbat Presbyterian Chruch (USA). The second largest faction, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is more conservative with some elements in it identified with the Religious Right. A third faction, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) is even more conservative, having split from the PCUSA back in the ‘30s over the PCUSA’s modernist theology (which just shows how long the moonbats have been running the PCUSA.) The OPC and PCA almost merged back in the 70’s.
Australian Pressies are more like the PCA than the PCUSA.
The PCUSA gives Pressies a bad name, which is sad given the numbers of noteable people they have provided; 9 US Presidents were Pressies at one stage for example.
Here’s an old Queensland folk song (about 15 hours old) penned in honour of those who Hajnal Ban is up against.
The Ballad of The Lost Leftie
[Sung to the tune of “Moreton Bay"]
One Sunday morning as I went walking
By Brisbane waters my spirits sank
I heard another old leftie his courage failing
As on the sunny river bank he wank
I am a veteran of Vietnam marches and mangro marshes
But left without a half decent cause
The bloody Soviet Union and Mao’s Red Book minions
Gone forever now, they slammed the damn doors.I’ve shouted loud for PLO victory
For Saddam and the Viet Cong
Any tyranny that attacks my country is good enough for me
And lately as you can hear I sing loud Hezbollah’s song
For of all places of condemnation
Of Western nations one never fails
To goddamn Israel I have found no equal
Frig that democracy and frig those friggin’ Jews.For three long years I’ve rooted for the “resistance”
In Iraq, I love them guys
But I’ve done my best to keep my distance
When they push the belt button and the bloody flesh flies
For many a man from downright hesitation
Lies mouldering now underneath the clay
By now you must know I’m a member of the Vic SL
So kiss my arse by the end of the day.Like the Egyptians and them fuckin’ Hebrews
We are oppressed under the Yankee yoke
Till an Islamist fascist lying there in ambush
Do deal these Yanks their mortal stroke
My fellow lefties be exhilarated
That all such democracies such a death may find
And when from bondage we are liberated
My new Dhimmi status will rule my mind.PEOPLE TOO DUMB FOR DEMOCRACY
Actually, there’s quite a bit of truth in that, and not just truthiness, either.
Our founding fathers were pretty dang well educated in the “old school” classics and well understood the abysmal depths to which a “democracy” such as Athens produced was able to plummet.
That’s why they chose the self canceling and power hampering set up of competing “houses” for our gov, based more on the spartan system of duel kings and a body of peers.
The rest was based on a modified Roman republic ideal where we choose temporary leaders to represent local concerns at the upper levels.
The “democracy” line was popularized by the quasi communist left during the “new deal” era.
Before that, we, as a nation, tended to refer to ourselves as a representative republic.
At least, that’s my understanding of the thing.
#43 Hold on guys! Granted, she’s a honey. But, I don’t know anything about the Aussie Presbyterian church but the American Presbyterian church is about as moonbatty as they come.
Relax Mark, the only Presbyterian Church here now is the evangelical orthodox rumpy one that REFUSED to join the failing Moonbat United One in 1975.
They still DO believe something about real Christianity.To those claiming Julie Bishop as a MILF. I am afraid that technically she is only able to hold the title of ILF.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 09 at 08:46 PM • permalinkMs. Ban should be aware that politics is a rough and tumble game. There will be times when she’ll be tripped up and knocked over. However, she looks the type to bounce straight back up.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 09 at 08:49 PM • permalinkOh look, it’s the salivating retards show.
Posted by Miranda Divide on 2006 11 09 at 08:57 PM • permalinkIt gives me faith in conservative politics - if she was a leftie and the Dems had lost the mid terms the discussion would be about how to get Hajnal on the legal team to sue for electoral fraud. As crass and disturbing as these comments are (except for the ‘Julie Bishop for PM’) I applaud the sentiment.
I’m going to have to start a blog just to post extracts from a mailing I received today from a Democrat who DID lose this time around.
let’s just say the bi-partisanship has sailed…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 11 09 at 09:37 PM • permalink#74 - bi-partisanship: The only ship designed to sink.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 09 at 09:45 PM • permalinkIt’s nice to know that Miranda’s fond of retards, though.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 09 at 10:21 PM • permalink#43 and #64 Aussie Presbyterians take their religion seriously, and therefore have not had to delve into ‘social justice and marxism as a better source of salvation that Christ’ policies. Those that were so inclined in an ecumencial moment joined a bunch of other proestant churches into forming the United Church. The moment passed, of course, and now hardly anyone attends the sunday service at the uniting church but the reverend herself and old Aunt May who is deaf anyway and can’t hear the crap spewed from the pulpit. The Presbyterian church is growing, and a huge church has just been built down the road from me. If Hajnal regularly goes there I might drop in to say “How YOU doin!”
Speaking of Hajnal, the fact that she is standing for preselection for the QNP is a bit of a worry. These bastards are agrarian socialists. The electorate is currently held by the Libs (Kay Ellison) so depending on preferences Hajnal is not likely to be elected. On the other hand, if the libs put up someone as attractive as say, Peter Reith, who knows?
#8, #66, Does that mean my MP is the best looking one in the country at the moment?
Congrats Julie.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 09 at 11:13 PM • permalink#8 Your theory surely comes unstuck with Bronwyn Bishop. She is a woman, right?
I’m surprised no-one has included Jackie Kelly. A stand-out surely.
Posted by SingleMalt on 2006 11 10 at 12:42 AM • permalinkAs for people being too dumb for democracy… well, they were smart enough not to elect Mark Latham as PM.
Posted by SingleMalt on 2006 11 10 at 12:44 AM • permalinkIf you screw up three
strikeoutsin a row on the cricket threads, will Tim give you a (transported for?) life sentence?Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 10 at 12:49 AM • permalinkI will release the bees.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 10 at 12:59 AM • permalinkShe’s gorgeous, but WHY OH WHY would she join the National Party? They’re beyond the pale.
Seriously, the Nats are arguably the most successful porkbarrelers of any federal democracy. Very bad choice.
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 11 10 at 03:57 AM • permalinkThose denigrating the Nats are obviously townies. We bushies need someone to pork-barrel for us.
I live about 5 km outside the Moncrieff electorate. A small boundary change could let me give her serious consideration at the next election.
But I agree that it doesn’t make sense to stand such an attractive Nationals candidate in a safe Liberal seat.The Nationals stand for all Australians - particularly those in the country and regional areas who are neglected by the other major parties.
Unfortunately it costs more to provide services to fewer people in the country - hence the constant whining about porkbarrelling. No country in the world not even the U.S. leaves it up entirely to market forces. If we left it just up to the Liberals - we’d have a first world cities and third-world rural area.
And Miss Ban is standing for the seat of Forde because she is a Beaudesert councillor and is known and well liked (so I’m told) in the area.
Posted by The Mild Colonial Boy on 2006 11 10 at 05:24 AM • permalinkAs young as she is, it may be a “training run”. The powers that be might not really expect her to run but want her to start building some “game time” in campaigning. There’s also no better way to “clean” a possible future candidate than by running them out into public and seeing what the press digs up.
It’s not unusual for newblood to be put through a few loosing runs just to make sure they’re surviviable when the big money gets spent on them for a real shot.
It should be remembered that Miss Ban hasn’t been preselected just as yet - just nominated. And nominations closed today at end of business.
Personally I think she’s the candidate with the greatest chance of taking the seat of Forde from the Liberals.
Posted by The Mild Colonial Boy on 2006 11 10 at 05:57 AM • permalinkgee, Mild Colonial Boy, there isn’t much difference between your justifications and that of the gaia worshippers in a more recent thread. its just that the item getting ‘special consideration’ is ‘rural and regional’.
I am a country boy too, BTW, so I think more than others on this thread, I can provide a very long list of things that are made more expensive for “all Australians” just so rural and regional people can delude themselves into thinking they are the “engine room of the Australian economy (they just don’t make any money)” to borrow a Katterism (he was rent seeking for the wool industry in his electorate - of course they are profitable beef producers these days).
How’s this for a current example. No imports of bananas are allowed into this country, so instead of paying $2.99/kg like our siblings in NZ we are currently paying $12.99/kg because of cyclone larry wiping the local industry out. Imports are prohibited for bullshit quarantine reasons, but its really about protection. If was really a disease risk, just prevent imports north of Newcastle. Of course, this is no good to the nats (eg Katter and Boswell) as the major banana markets (except Brissy) are all south of Newcastle. QED.
I could go on. Your only excuse is that the US and EU are even bigger bastards.
And while I am venting about the Queensland Nats (note to self: stay off the coke in these rumbos), why the fuck is Ron Boswell even under threat of losing preselection? I know compared to Ms Ban he is no spring chicken but he is a hard working bastard even though I don’t agree with everything he says. In the 2001 election I put him number one below the line in the senate, just so I could ensure Pauline Hanson didn’t get in. A lot of my city friends did the same. Rest assured this was not repeated for Barnaby Joyce in 2004, and the Pauline Strategy tm may be applied to him the election after this if he doesn’t stop the show pony act..
.43 Aussie Presbyterians do not fit into the moonbat category. We occasionally fit into the argumentative category. The Presbyterian Church of Australia is a Conservative, Evangelical denomination. As such it stands against moonbat ideology, though within the denomination are people of a range of political persuasions. I am an ordained minister in the PCA, and I am a Queenlander too, however I am in no position to provide introductions to the lady in question. I wouldn’t know here from a bar of soap. Sorry to disappoint :-P
If you want to see for yourself what the PC Australia believes, look at http://www.presbyterian.org.au
#93 “I agree that it doesn’t make sense to stand such an attractive Nationals candidate in a safe Liberal seat.” - Skeeter.
Sorry, isnt that the point?
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 10 at 01:50 PM • permalinkCorrection to #108:
“She joined the Nationals four months ago after being rebuffed by the Liberal Party.” - Link in #103
Johnny, mate, you need to sort out that QLD bunch…
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 10 at 01:55 PM • permalinkActually skeeter, even though you no doubt noted from my rant about the Qld nats above, I am not a fan, they are at least coherent, unlike the Qld libs. Why do you think Beattie keeps getting re-elected. it isn’t love.Many people vote lib federally and labor at state level. The state libs inspire no confidence whatsoever, and no rational person wants the nats in charge.
#93, #95 - no one deserves porkbarrelling, not even “The Bush”. Sure, it costs more to live in the country. Don’t like that fact? Then move to the city. No one’s forcing you to live where you are; obviously you’re there for a reason. Why should I (or anyone else, for that matter) subsidise your choices?
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 11 10 at 07:03 PM • permalinkSkeeter - yeah, if she’s a Barnaby Joyce fan, well...that’s a bit of a worry, too.
God, Barnaby Joyce is a dingbat. I have no idea why he thinks he has some mandate to act like an independent, considering the vast majority that elected him voted ‘above the line’ and naively assumed he’d support the National Party platform, considering he was a NP candidate and all…
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 11 10 at 07:13 PM • permalinkEntropy, I agree with your assessment of Qld state Libs. I’ve been a Queenslander for only 20 years so I haven’t had time to sort it out yet.
Southerners tend to blame it on our yokelism but I suspect the real cause is that the Libs have spent too many years as the junior partners in the Coalition. After you live here for a few years you learn that the moron:genius ratio is much the same in Qld as it is in the other states.James, I moved from the city to the bush to grow food for the hungry townies and happily paid the financial penalties. Apart from increased costs, my income dropped to 10% of its city level.
The only “subsidies” I have received are the refund of the road tax on diesel used in my off-road engines, and a HiBIS subsidy on satellite broadband that didn’t work.
I have paid taxes to fund DPI services that don’t exist in my area.
I have paid levies on my crops to finance horticultural research that has produced no benefit to me.
But I would not for a moment want to go back to the city.
Sadly, after twenty years of happiness, the city has come out to me. Residential development on neighbouring farm land has forced me to close down my farming business.
The townies won’t starve of course. We can always import our food.Skeeter - you and other rural residents didn’t/don’t do “hungry townies” any favours by moving to the bush or remaining in the bush - they buy what you produce. If you didn’t produce it, they’d get it elsewhere.
By the same token, the cities that provide rural areas (how does “parasitic provincials” sound as a response to “hungry townies”?) with an indispensible administrative and logistical hub aren’t running a giant charity, either.
No one is doing any one a favour in a free market; each individual is acting in his/her own self-interest. Like I said before, why should I subsidise your choices?
By the way, lots of people in the cities pay various taxes (which can be just as stupid, ineffective and ill-targeted as the ones you mentioned) that they derive no direct benefit from.
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 11 10 at 08:26 PM • permalinkAll true James. I was just trying to show that we ‘parasitic provincials’ were actually operating as part of the free market and are not the subsidy-hungry hounds that we are often assumed to be. It was also an attempt to answer your comment recommending that we move back to the city if we don’t like the bush.
My “hungry townies” was tongue in cheek and not intended to be pejorative. I love my rural life and did not move here to do you a favour. But it’s one of those wonderful jobs that somebody’s got to do.
Your ‘administrative and logistical hub’ are a long way from running a charity. Recently, I received 50c/kg for fruit that took me a year to grow. After passing through the logistic hub, it retailed for $6/kg at my local fruit shop.I’d like to filibuster her. If you know what I mean.
Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2006 11 10 at 09:16 PM • permalinkSkeeter - okay, perhaps you didn’t realise that my original comment at #92 was referring to the porkbarrelling National Party, rather than the the average rural citizen. Still, a lot of average rural citizens keep on voting for ‘em…
Anyway, my comment at #114 was dealing with folk responding to #92. Incidentally, the guys at #93 and #95 sure sounded like “subsidy-hungry hounds” to me - take a look for yourself.
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 11 10 at 09:40 PM • permalinkSkeeter, the supermarket contracts pay a substantial premium over the wholesale market to the producer. The problem is that this premium also comes with stringent production/packaging requirements that also impose effort/costs on the producer. Nevertheless, these contracts overall are more profitable to the producer than someone selling at the fruit markets. This is one reason why the price in supermarkets generally does not change much (the other being locating price and the most profitable point of the demand curve, which BTW, is not always higher). To give an example, watermelon contracts go for about $800/pallet, while at the Bris markets they go for $300. The difference between the producer price at the markets and the retail price at fruit shops is because the supermarkets set the price. The people raking in the doe are the middle men between the producer and the small retailers.
This of course begs the question as to why all producers don’t just cut out the middlemen and set up contracts with retailers. There is a continuity of supply issue, plus, and I think this is quite relevant, for many producers, there is a mind set that if they produce it, someone will pay the price they demand. This is particularly prevalent in Queensland, which for years had a statutory marketing board in each region for each type of agricultural produce (Burnett brush millet marketing board, for example). Apart from imposing ludicrous transaction costs on the community in general, and artificiallyfixingraising the price of whatever the commodity is, the only purpose of these boards seemed to be a training ground for QNP MPs.
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One might say that everyone who thinks people are too dumb for democracy is proving his own point, though that’s obviously not the implication that such intellectual giants are going for.