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Last updated on June 15th, 2017 at 12:37 pm
“Is it only I who has picked up the recent rapid return of socialism in the western world?” asks Bob Ellis, now busted down to writing for the Byron Shire Echo. “Capitalism … hasn’t worked,” says Bob.
Well, not for him.
(Via reader Raff)
- “Capitalism … hasn’t worked,
It works for me. Maybe you’re not doing it properly, Bob.
Posted by Quentin George on 04/21 at 02:43 AM • #
- So this mutt Bob Ellis writes for the Byron Shire Echo, huh? According to the website of that “newspaper”:
“The Echo is the area’s free community newspaper. It was founded in 1986 by local residents the late Nicholas Shand and David Lovejoy and remains the independent voice and primary platform for those who love this region.”
In other words, he writes for a newspaper that people will not even pay money for.
At least Bob Ellis does have a job, although I’m sure that the salary that the Byron Shire Echo pays him is probably less than what an acne-filled teenager earns down at the local McDonalds. That would explain this little snippet from the Echo:
“The Byron Shire of course is not alone in experiencing pressure to conform to the big business conception of development. But surveys show that people here don’t want McDonalds or Club Med or Westfield shopping centres, TV, America or Becton dominating the local economy, trashing the environment and siphoning money off to distant corporate bank accounts.”
He’s probably jealous that he makes less than that damn kid handing out Big Macs at the local Mickey D’s.
What a fucking loser.
Posted by David Crawford on 04/21 at 02:49 AM • #
- Echo founder Nic Shand was killed while trying to bonnet/hood surf on his son’s car while he was pissed as a nit! Nic now knows how a rabbit feels as it goes beneath the driving wheels… To honour this great feat the local hippy/green council have erected a plaster of paris sculpture of the ‘great squashed one’ which gets it’s silly head knocked off every second day and is repaired at ratepayers expense.Posted by Deo Vindice on 04/21 at 03:12 AM • #
- Deo, to quote Forrest Gump, “stupid is as stupid does”. And the late Nic Shand appears to have been one stupid individual.Posted by David Crawford on 04/21 at 03:55 AM • #
- The Byron Shire Echo a free community paper.
That means either it is paid for by advertising, which will all be for a variety of capitalist businesses,
or
it is paid for by taxes, which come from the profits of capitalist businesses.I supposed there’s a third alternative. It’s produced by a collective, hand-written on eco-friendly recycled hemp-paper, &c, &c, &c.
Posted by pog-ma-thon on 04/21 at 04:54 AM • #
- I didn’t really laugh – I kinda snickered and chortled. Then I guffawed and started choking with merriment, the tears forming in my eyes. THEN i started chuckling!! But yeah,I didnt laugh – that’d be wrong.Posted by Deo Vindice on 04/21 at 05:15 AM • #
- Every time i go home for the weekend I get to peruse the latest copy of this rag.
Bryon Bay is not the town I used to visit in my youth for a weekend surf. Nowadays there are basically two classes of people – ferals, and
up themselves sea changer wankers who make the ferals look reasonable.
I hate the place.
Back on topic – at least the echo is worth a good laugh – you should have seen the October 2004 post election edition. That made me feel reeeaal good!
- As for Mr Ellis, I wouldn’t feel too sorry for him – if memory serves me correctly he lives in Point Piper looking out over the water. Capitalism worked well enough, and long enough for him to buy that, and the best bit is the cash he extracted was mostly from fellow lefties (excepting the odd bit of tax payer support from their ABC)!
- His piece starts with another amazing bit of idiot sophistry. Al-Qaeda doesn’t exist because if it did it would have killed dignitaries at the Pope’s funeral, therefore it was all made up in the first place.
The idea that it USED to exist, but actions have been taken which have been effective in eliminating it, that couldn’t possibly be, could it.
- “Is it only I…�?
Traditional English grammar says that because the verb ‘to be’ is a copulative, it has the same case after as before, thus “It is only I”.
Another example:
I believe that he is I.
I believe him to be me.However, people have been saying “It is me” for at least the last 400 years.
A lot of people think “It is I” is pedantic posing, but would still write “It is I who …”
Posted by pog-ma-thon on 04/21 at 09:18 AM • #
- We Yanks need a glossary of Australian slang. Ferals sound like a wild bunch who live by the law of the jungle. They’re probably not very nice to have around, but it’s the “up themselves sea changer wankers” who are even worse, that sound really scary. Who are these nasties?
As for who pays? We all pay one way or the other. The only way to avoid capitalism is to go socialist and have other people support you.
BTW, it uses up a lot more petro-chemicals to recycle paper than to make it brand spanky new. Trees are a renewable resource and as we all know, the world’s supply of Bush’s favorite non-renewable resource, oil, is being depleted at an alarming rate.
- sea change was a ghastly abc program about a woman leaving a high pressure law practice to live in a quirky seaside town populated in the main by whimsical lefty deadshits – sea changers refers to those who in midlife leave the city & move to the beach to boost the national macrame output & victimise semi-rural communities with demands for latte & focaccia
- “Up themselves sea changer wankers�? is either the Best. Band. Name. Ever. or a faboo way of saying “Full of themselves freeloaders.�?
Not quite “freeloaders”, Nightfly.
The “sea changers” are generally retirees who have sold their house in the the city for big bucks, and bought a much cheaper place by the sea. They are relatively cashed-up. However, if they change their minds and want to go back to the big smoke, the money they get for their beach house won’t buy them a hen house (chicken-coop) in Sydney.Feral (from the Latin fera = wild animal) refers to animals which were originally domesticated, but have gone wild. Like the mustangs of the US.
We have feral goats, feral cats, feral camels, feral horses, feral pigs, etc, and, of course, feral people.
Ferals are generally “dole bludgers” = work-shy freeloaders living on welfare.
Posted by pog-ma-thon on 04/21 at 06:58 PM • #
- Is he getting paidto write for the Byron Shire Echo. Then he’s right. Capitalism hasn’t worked.
As to how these papers pay for themselves, well, here in the states it’s usually by the brutal exploitation of women. Papers like the LA Weekly or the Village Voice usually run big thick ad sections for strip clubs, outcall prostitution, etc…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 04/21 at 07:10 PM • #
- “Capitalism … hasn’t worked,�? says Bob.
Well, not for him.
Given that Michael Moore and Phatty Adams can get capitalism to work for them, Bob must be one hell of a loser…Posted by ArtVandelay on 04/21 at 11:03 PM • #
- The particular breed of ‘sea changers’ in Bryon Bay sell their Sydney house for big bucks and purchase a fibro 2 bdr cottage in Bryon Bay or nearby Bangalow for prices just below $1 million. The sellers (often the previous generation, traditonal rural types that used to vote Country Party in the area)then move 30 km south to Lismore and buy a modern four bedroom brick home with a double garage for less than $250,000 and live off the the interest from the balance.
The sea changers try to engage in major renovations, only to be stopped by the sea changers already living there who want to retain the appearance of the quaint little cottage that they can see from their window.
This attitide extends to any commerical development that may provide employment or other demeaning activities to the local populace.Ferals, on the other hand, are the left over hippies from the ‘60s who moved into the hinterland of bryon bay to live the alternative lifestyle, which appears to be dependence on welfare cheques, copious pot smoking and the absence of bathing.
The ferals ally themselves with the sea changers to make sure there are no successful capitalists in the area unless you deal drugs, run a bar or a backpackers hostel.
Bob Ellis, of course, is a wannabe sea changer who has not learnt to dress any better than the ferals, and is still trying to compete with his intellectual superiors at Sydney Uni during the sixties.
- I knew a couple that moved up to Byron in the ‘70’s. They now cringe when the train pulls in, another load of far-out hippy-yippy types from Sydney. Hey man, thats cool!
Bangalow is full of yuppy shops selling balinese furniture and wind chimes.
They hate the place and want to move somewhere were there are 4 seasons and normal people.
Doesnt Margo(t) recharge at Byron?
- Hey Rog2, teh NSW Govt just killed the train service.
Yeah, forgot how some of the only allowable ‘commercial activities’ appear to be balinese furniture, wind chimes and those tibetan prayer flags.
The only time I ever thought I could support something done by Gerry harvey (of the Harvey Norman discount chain) is when he ran roughshod of the BB shire council and opened up his holiday apartments without approval (they were delaying it for unclear reasons, which seemed to centre on the fact that he had money). The council went even more feral than usual!
- Rog2 — Byron sounds like Howard Dean’s Vermont.Posted by richard mcenroe on 04/22 at 09:15 AM • #
- entropy — Launching a pocket rocket are we?Posted by richard mcenroe on 04/22 at 11:20 PM • #
- The Byron Bay Shire Echo certainly attracts only the best of writers,now being able to boast the addition of the alcholics alcholic,Ellis,to its strength.Does this mean that their previously resident dipso,Mungo MacCallum,has permanently retired to the rubber room at his favorite commune or are these two Whitlam-suckholes going to perform a double act? I wonder if the Echo has any room left for those other two aged haters of all things Australian,Ramsey and Carlton,as both must be nearing their use-by dates at the SMH and 2UE.
- Capitalism doesn’t Work! (Bob Ellis)
Nothing Works! (Catweazle) – “C” Changer = century changer, & Wizard from a far off TV program.
http://propaganda.com.au/catweazle/index.shtml
Yes Bob, it’s just you.