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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:31 am
A Howard-bashing triple play from the Age; first up, Peter Gebhardt:
Of course, the current Prime Minister and, latterly, the Opposition Leader, have sought to capture the populist imagination, limited as it is, by trying to codify the values in a way that will satisfy the fears, prejudices and intolerances that the electorate has been fed unashamedly for the past decade. First, you create insecurities. Then you feed them to such a point that reason is displaced by unwarranted irrationality.
Gebhardt is my former high school principal. He’s always been a hopeless snob. Next up, Richard Neville:
It is said that a leader who thinks of the next election is a politician, but a leader who thinks of the next generation is a statesman. By that criterion, it is no mystery where history will place John Howard. The key threats facing Australia today, including environmental degradation, the rise of militarism and the decline of free speech, are rooted in a decade of toxic federal governance. Instead of storming TV, the views of voters are shaped by it and the shock-jocks.
Once we were larrikins with a taste of defiance; now we are lapdogs with a thirst for conformity.
Revolutionaries hate it when The People defy them. Finally, Traceeee Hutchison attempts satire. No extracts; it’s too ghastly.
- oops . . . I meant “These guys . . . “, not “Just guys . . .”.
I really must try using Preview one day.
Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2006 09 23 at 01:36 AM • permalink
- Neville did a lot of conforming in the ‘60s to his peer group. Indeed, he’s still conforming. The obsession to denigrate John Howard which is a notable feature of the Left in this country also does not distance him from the pack. He is the one who should be more concerned about what is right than about what other people think.Posted by David McBryde on 2006 09 23 at 02:09 AM • permalink
- Richard Neville is one of those who couldn’t stand Australia in the 1960s and went to ‘groovy’ London. A sad creature today, old and irrelevant and still stuck in the ‘60s when he was famous for being arrested and tried on pornography charges.
Germs Greer made the same trip for the same reason; didn’t get tried but who cares about the old hag.
Need I say more?
Traceeeee is trying to do a ‘Clarke and Dawe’ skit a la the Thursday night 7.30 report. The latter is bad enough (used to be funny now 100% predictable) but Traceeeee’s effort shows she should stick to journalismno, making things up in the newspaper no, playing with the duckies in the park.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 09 23 at 02:20 AM • permalink
- Gebhardt was my principal at school too. I liked the way that when he was expounding on freedom of inquiry, tolerance and other liberal values at assembly, every few seconds his finger would dart at some poor kid and he would bellow `Sit still!’ He also wore a gown the late Chief Justice Rehnquist would have been proud to don.
- Peter Gebhardt thinks there’s a “populist imagination” but no such thing as
“values”, “chattering classes”, and “cultural elites”. Perhaps somebody (an editor perhaps) could have explained to him the problem of celebrating Michael Oakeshott’s “multiplicity of voices” but failing to actually use it.Traceeee Hutchison’s piece is embarrassing.
- These snooty bastards think their so clever up there on mount olympus, looking down their noses at us poor stupid proles who dont know our arse’s from our elbow’s, and who need to be herded like the dumb stupid mindless mass they so so desperatly want us to be,all for own good of course, is it any wonder they hate democracy.
- “First, you create insecurities”
How did John Howard ‘create insecurities’? If I remember correctly, many Australians started to feel ‘insecure’ after the Bali attack – and the fact that several Muslims are on trial for planning terrorist acts in Australia probably made the most secure Aussies uneasy. Is the writer suggesting that John Howard perpetrated these events to ‘create insecurities’?
“the views of voters are shaped by it and the shock-jocks.”
And telling Australians who vote for JH that they are brainwashed by Alan Jones and co. will change their minds, I’m sure. Obviously this person has never heard of jihad being preached in Australian mosques, hate literature on sale in Muslim bookshops or thinly veiled threats by Muslims to become ‘alienated’ in response to any criticism.
How incredibly lame. Same old tripe –
* anyone who disagrees with them is ‘brainwashed’
* anyone who voices the mildest concern about the activities of some members of the Muslim community is a racist
Yawn.
“it is no mystery where history will place John Howard.”
And dont they hate it! Neville and co. are choking on their own bile.
*
- Gebhardt was a much appealed against judge who was always too lenient in sentencing the poor downtrodden criminals who came before him; forgetting the rights of the victim and society. He recently retired, thank the Lord.
Just like the ‘Age’ to give a forum to this tedious person; can we expect a weekly column from him on these lines?Posted by arnienelly on 2006 09 23 at 04:13 AM • permalink
- Also of note is the article on “kidults” in the SMH good weekend magazine today. They interviewed four people and asked them various questions about acting adult in today’s world. It’s notable that the four people they asked were a JJJ DJ, two university lecturers/tutors and some guy supposedly making a living as a muso/DJ. No plumbers or accountants allowed obviously.
The best part though was when they asked them to complete a sentence beginning “In a perfect world….” Three out of the four replied on standard urban-left lines (the fourth tried some pseudo-intellectual riff on perfection). But, of those three, the uni lecuturer looked like his wishlist was issued by the local socialist collective. His included “99.5% of people would vote against John Howard” together with other standard talking points on indigenous Australians and global warming.
So you can’t even escape Howard bashing in the weekend mag.
- A little too caught up in his own rhetoric, perhaps?Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 09 23 at 04:29 AM • permalink
- Some one of y’all (was gonna say ‘down there’ but yeah, need it ‘up here’ too) need to get off the ball with a quickness and start up an alternative print outlet, grass roots sorta thing, family values, realistic politics, supporing self defense, attacking the PC dronisms, etc etc.
You can call it “The Torch and the Pitchfork”
with a subtitel “a return to issues and ideas that have stood the test of time”
- ”… trying to codify the values in a way that will satisfy the fears, prejudices and intolerances that the electorate has been fed unashamedly for the past decade.”
Ahem!
Those fears, prejudices and intolerances are actually the ones voiced by the electorate, who “mostly get it right”, according to some pollies, and me.
- “Richard Neville is one of those who couldn’t stand Australia in the 1960s and went to ‘groovy’ London….
Germs Greer made the same trip for the same reason…”Ah yes – the 1960s artistic and intellecual flight to ‘the old country’. All Greer did is get her ass screwed off, develop a hatred of men – with nothing to show for it. Now an embarassing maiden aunt.
As it happens there was a third Australian who made the pilgrimage and succeeded without making an ass of himself: Clive James.
One might even include Rolf Harris in this group.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 09 23 at 04:54 AM • permalink
- Was Peter Gebhardt both a school Principal and a judge? I’ve know some fairly septic specimens of both, though mainly the former. Anyway his writing reveals him as a wanker.Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 09 23 at 04:58 AM • permalink
- geez walterplinge, a bit rough putting Rolf in with the scum like neville & Germs. He may have decided to live in the UK, but he doesn’t bad mouth his former country.
Clive James is just a tosser.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 09 23 at 05:32 AM • permalink
- I am slightly surprised that Peter Gebhardt as a past Principal does not see much value in ‘National values’. What of his own (presumably)Germanic background and the Protestant work ethic that got him where he is today? What of the Confucian ideal that sets Chinese Asians apart from other groups/nationalities? Cultural values do exist, good and bad.
Its amusing also for him to talk of ‘dissent’and ‘insecurities’. Maybe we should ask the families of those attacked in Bali whether or not they validate such disent as Peter Gebhardt does.
County Court? When I first read it I read it missing a vowel. I wasn’t wrong after all.
As for Trace? Can’t get rid of the ‘little Johnny’ tag the left love so much. Is there a trace of anything inside her head?
- I’m just annoyed that she dissed Biggles. Even I read Biggles when I was a kid.Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 09 23 at 07:19 AM • permalink
- Mad Donna: I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing
Isn’t she a Kabbalah-type Jew now? What right has she to be doing ‘crucifixions’ and speaking for Jesus, then?
Or is she now into something else, like the occult? Can’t keep up with the Pornographic Queen any more.
And she has no right to her stolen professional name.
- 34. Hate to disappoint you, Barrie, but Madonna is her real name. Madonna Louise Ciccone, if I recall.
(Yes, I’ve got True Blue on vinyl and I still love it).
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 09 23 at 07:48 AM • permalink
- Hey didn’t anyone else wonder at how The Age describes Richard Neville. As “a social commentator and futurist.”
In fact, isn’t every single member of the Australian population a ‘social commentator and futurist’?
Anyway, I am certainly such a person (’don’t worry about housekeeping money right now dear, the stockmarket will be higher next week and I’ll sell some shares’), and so is my wife. (“You will never learn where the white cups go in the cupboard, you stubborn man!)
- Independence of the judiciary?
Imagine a retired politician slamming the judiciary like that? The prick has no respect for parliamenterians, who don’t have a job for life and don’t put people in jail for contempt. I don’t like our MPs much, but at least we only have to wait 4 years to be rid of them.
For a futurist Nevill sure talked alot about the past. Glad I didn’t pay for the paper.
- Man, the press has got that whole “lapdog” meme down to a babble dont they?
Think they’d sound any different if we put that Good Ol’ Boy (Southern term for larrikin) Bubba Clinton in the same room?
You wanna make a bet they’d totally redefine the word “lapdog”?
Posted by Sharon_Ferguson on 2006 09 23 at 10:20 AM • permalink
And who would be interested in an anti-social commentator and pastist?
Well, I would.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 09 23 at 10:34 AM • permalink
- Barrie – I used to feel insulted that Madonna took the Blessed Mother’s name in vain as well…until I learned that a local Indian tribe (I live on the Gulf Coast of Texas) called the Karankawa had a particular name for ‘pig’ – get this : “madona.”
Now, this *did* cause problems for the Catholics that tried to convert them (didnt work); but in this day and age, I take great joy out of saying it. Removes the Blessed Mother from that skank’s blasphemy.
Madona (Pig) – Queen of Pornography. Kinda has a ring to it, don’t it?
Posted by Sharon_Ferguson on 2006 09 23 at 10:35 AM • permalink
- Richard Neville – open the dictionary at ‘irrelevant’ and you’ll find him there.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 09 23 at 10:37 AM • permalink
- #34 Isn’t she a Kabbalah-type Jew now? What right has she to be doing ‘crucifixions’ and speaking for Jesus, then?
She dabbles in the Kabbalah. This does not make her a Jew, nor does it indicate even the slightest real understanding of the Kabbalah. It’s more like a celebrity hobby for her, you know, play-acting at having spirituality.
until I learned that a local Indian tribe (I live on the Gulf Coast of Texas) called the Karankawa had a particular name for ‘pig’ – get this : “madona.”
Given that the pig arrived in the New World at the same time as Christianity, I’m curious as to how the Karankawa chose that particular word.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 09 23 at 12:08 PM • permalink
- Speaking of intolerance, for those of you who enjoy Tim’s Quiggin Watch, be sure and catch Quiggy’s latest self-congratulatory piece. It’s an unbearably funny display of total lack of self awareness. Log in and tell him how much you appreciate the fact that blogging hasn’t disrupted his “productivity”. One brave soul inquired what policy outcomes the Quiggler has ad an effect on.
http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2006/09/23/a-good-year/#comments
- #50 – good question! – until the Anglo settlers arrived in the Mexican State of Coahuila y Tejas in the 1820s, the only exposure the Karankawa had were the Spanish Conquistadores (Cabeza de Vaca). Then again, there were the javelinas (native wild boar). Its been a while since I looked at the document where that was written – an interview with the daughter of one of the settlers at the turn of the 20th century. She had befriended one of the last remaining Karankawa in the area and learned some of their language.
Will have to go look that up now! 😀
Posted by Sharon_Ferguson on 2006 09 23 at 03:13 PM • permalink
Revolutionaries hate it when The People defy them.
Now if only we could get the People to defy them the way the Bolivian peasants defied Che…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 09 23 at 04:25 PM • permalink
- Javelina and peccary make sense. Hadn’t considered any native porkers; in the east, the only wild ones around are escaped domestics.Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 09 23 at 06:21 PM • permalink
- There’s something beyond parody occurs when the terminally humour-challenged try to pen an amusing missive- something so awful, ugly and pointless it makes Canberra look like a vibrant, viable and productive conurbation.
How long before Traceeeeeeeee gets a gig as a gag writer for The Glass House? Her schtick would go over like gangbusters with the pathetic undergraduate dweebs who bother toddling over to Gore Hill to squirm in their seats, waiting for the laugh light to come on so they know when a punchline’s been delivered (at least untl the nitrous kicks in).
BTW- has anyone had the misfortune to catch the silly bint on that horrible ABC2 music show for the permamently unhip, dig.tv? She manages to perform a seemingly impossible feat, by making James Reyne appear to be an intellectual.
- BTW- I think you’ll find the vast majority of listeners for Lawsie, the Parrot et al is the old fart/wrinkly leech/embittered fossil demographic; most younger types listen to dreadful commercial FM radio, if anything while they’re busy making a quid.
As to the ABC, underemployed academics, permament post-graduates and Centrelink-funded activists pretty much makes up their limited audience- why a conservative government continues to provide oxygen to a hostile propaganda organ, listened to by the perpetually outraged who would vote for nazis in preference to the Liberal Party is beyond my ken.
- Holy crap! Whatever happened between Traceeeee and the blackfella at that smoking ceremony must have been amazing! Her mind is as loose as a wizard’s sleeve.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 09 24 at 12:59 AM • permalink
- Neville is an odious troll. His reasoning beggars belief. And it is becoming almost too difficult to bear. The more so having this morning watched, over the net, one of those awful snuff movies that Moore’s minuteman love to star in and produce, this weeks performance provided by the so-called Army of Ansar al Sunnah. Reportedly, the leader of this group has been captured. I would like him given the same treatment he himself provided those he captured, and we could say without fear that he thoroughly deserved it. But, alas, this will be rigorously avoided.
But I have been a long time coming to my point. What I find odious is this train of thought which suggests that Bush’s or Howard’s or Blair’s fingerprints are all over the kitchen knife that has been used to behead those captured by groups such as Ansar al Sunnah. Or it is the yes followed by the but, or it is the reference to some useless date in the past which is supposed to make the beheading all the more clear and intelligble. It involves the tut-tutting of any criticism of Iran because it supposedly portends some future invasion or strike; the criticism is thus inappropriate even though it is flouting the NPT, murdering victims of rape or beating and imprisoning students, closing down media critical of the Islamist regime, etc., etc.
The irony of Neville being published in a major daily all the while complaining of living in a police state is beyond satire.
Posted by dover_beach on 2006 09 24 at 02:24 AM • permalink
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Self-appointed “elites” thinking everyone but themselves are idiots do themselves no good, and do their preferred alternative government no favours. No wonder John Howard has been in the job for 10+ years and is looking good for another three.
Just guys are no better than the Dixie Chicks shitting in their nest.