The Dump is:
For posting comments that don’t get up at the Drum, and for having a pleasant, mirthful or enlightening off-topic discussion.
It’s not for personal abuse of other commenters.
Please do that somewhere else if you must.
Play nicely or piss off.
However, why doesn’t a poster add a link for us to read and comment on here, much quicker. Maybe we can do a bit more bagging here, not that I speak for the moderators, yet.
NB: Being tiresome and boring, racist, sexist or just plain creepy is not playing nicely.
———-
The Pig’s Arms exists because a dozen or so years ago our other favourite playpen – the ABC’s Unleashed blogsphere started to go off. Like a sack of prawn heads in the sun. Something had to be done.
Moderation was taking forever. Comments seemed to be rejected randomly – outrageous ones appeared and reasoned ones were pinged. When they released the Drum / Unleashed ….. things actually got worse !
So many pieces from professional writers appear with no obvious merit. And the moderation has become, to put it frankly, appalling.
As a former contributor and a commenter, I was deeply disappointed at the plummeting quality from our pre-eminent media empire. And I resented so many challenging or dare I say, witty or funny posts in which we’ve invested seconds of our precious time – getting the chop.
So here, for all our benefit – is an open slather blog. Copy and paste your best rejected comments here for posterity. Does not matter whether you’re posting on the Guardian, First Dog on the Moon or wherever else.
And sprinkle pointers to the Pig’s Arms amongst your comments. Let’s try to rescue some of the old faithful.
Cheers,
Emm.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
According to a study by economists at Northwestern University, cities and counties across the US have a total of $574bn in unfunded pension obligations.
That was a paragraph from this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/24633916
What’s gonna happen in Canberra, if we don’t make arrangements now? All those pensions.
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Catalyst on ABC in about ten will be interesting tonight. On cholesterol meds
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And….The Mediterranean diet trumps the lot. Cholesterol is out and in comes the nuts, olives, and plenty of vegies and lots of calamari and no coke.
I knew it.
Good program.
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Gosh darn it to heck, atomou! I want to talk about this because it touches so many areas that interest me. But I’ve got to prepare for a presentation at work tomorrow AND pack to drive up the coast thereafter.
It’s covers the abuse of statistics and evidence, scientific fraud, the wisdom of Greeks (latest theory on Mediterean diet we need a new theory if it turns out the cholesterol theory is crap), how I lost 10 kilos in 5 months AND improved my blood chemistry while eating cake and drinking 4 standard drinks 5 days a week. AND my new philosophy of everything.
I’ll bore you with it some other time.
Oh and folks, don’t eat cake every day and drink too much even if I lose weight while doing it. Its still bad for you.
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It was very interesting, Atomou. I will watch it again, and also the next week’s program.
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I watched and wasn’t that surprised at the information.
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Those of you who didn’t get to see it last night, please watch it on iVew now and let us know what you think. I can’t believe that this much bullshit is allowed to be imposed on people. Big Pharma stinks: Concoct a problem, instill fear of it in the community, manufacture a pill to “solve” it and bingo! You’re grotesquely rich!
“Poor, non existence evidence, a bold-faced lie. Science confirmation bias…”
Scum!
Next week the program will be on the meds sold to cure it.
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Your favourite word, Mr Slavedriver! “Now”. “Now” indeed. I’m flitting in out out doing (mostly) boring chores and am not about to drop everything to watch iView “now”. Indeed! I may watch it later though.
Big Pharma – yes and no. Many people have been harmed, but many owe their lives or quality of life to it. Humans are flawed and sometimes severely so – no human organisation is going to be free of that. We have to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
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I have had cause to revisit the whole cholesterol/heart disease thing recently. There is a huge body of evidence that muscles under stress (exercise) need cholesterol for repair, and that our bodies are smart enough to know this, so make cholesterol for this to occur. Thus our cholesterol levels change radically throughout the day, especially in response to exercise. therefore a single measure is bullshit! This has been proven in experimental animals (they actually teach rats to perform squats!!), and humans of all ages.
PS, Mrs M is only alive thanks to ‘Big Pharma’, so I want to keep ’em going!
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Best of British there.
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Greg Hunt in a testy BBC interview.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-24/greg-hunt-in-testy-bbc-interview/5044046
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Wow, she certainly made a fool of herself there. She obviously didn’t realise the context
Haven’t the news readers got aggressive these days.They believe that they are the celebrities and everyone wants to hear how vociferous they are. And how heroic they6 are at framing the questions.
Most questions start with: “How hard was it for you”. Or, how long did it take you to realise *********.
Lucky they don’t interview me. I’d stick it up em…………And get the sack 😉
It is much the same here. Except for Kerry O’Brien
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And you, Cazo are lucky you don’t have to interview anyone, particularly someone every day! I can assure you old cock, it bloody well ain’t easy!
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I’m gonna interview you. Watch out.
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Naturally enough and true to form the Liberal Hunt had to lie.
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What was the lie Vivienne. I listened yesterday. I can’t remember a lie. There may have been one, however to save me listening again, can you please point it out?
Ta.
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Saying Abbott didn’t say ‘crap’.
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Fair enough. I believe that he did say it. However it was in a private conversation apparently, not in Parliament. I believe that he was referring to certain aspects of it, not the whole concept.
However in all honesty, it was a stupid thing to say.
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It wasn’t in private so please refrain from attempts at excuses Jules. This is where it occurred: “December 02, 2009 , 9:24 AM by Prue Bentley
In the last 24 hours, Tony Abbott has come under fire for his comments on the veracity of climate change. The media has seized on his claim to a small local Victorian paper that “climate change is crap”.
In the context of his leadership this is curious as Mr Abbott seems to have spun 180 degrees in his estimation of human influenced climate change in as little as a few hours / votes.
The paper in question happened to be the Pyrenees Advocate and the Editor of the paper, Craig Wilson, was there when those words were uttered.”
It was in fact at a press conference. You can go here for an audio discussion from those present describing the full context. http://blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/2009/12/climate-change-is-crap-tony-abbot-said-to-the-pyrenees-advocate.html
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In this link – which is an interview by a gaggle of journos, he says, when asked by a one of them : It (climate change is crap*), is NOT his considered opinion. he then goes on to say that it (climate change) is real and ‘possibly’ man has made a contribution yo it.
Not that you or I know Viviene. So I guess he is saying what we’re all saying.
He admits saying that, however it’s not in the clip.
I think that worse than that is that he said, why not have a simple tax. You forgot that one?
Anyway, when you find out if it is Anthropogenic, let me know, I’m only 50% sure…I ‘am’ 100% sure that the planet ‘is’ warming though.
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You’ve cherry picked again. What you are referring to was the subsequent interview where he did his best to weasel out of it and recant his words. He did say ‘climate change was crap’ and stood by that in the original news conference. Later he changed his view. The news conference was not taped but it was reported on extensively by those reporters present. The discussion on that tape is very fair to all concerned.
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Don’t you think that people should change their views, Vivieen?
Should it be banned?
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No problems with changing views. Abbott changed his from it’s real, to it’s crap and then back to real. But his statement ‘climate change is crap’ was never taken out of context. Not like the incessant, 3 year attack on Julia Gillard over a tax which was a price on carbon.
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Isn’t it great about the terrorist victim compensation, that our government is introducing Vivienne.
It must make your heart sing on the progressive side….Oui?
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I am sure that it is man-made. Have been sure of that for a long time. I’m a 100% sure.
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Compensation for the Bali bombing victims primarily which Howard didn’t think to do, isn’t it. Don’t know that I am fussed either way. Giving more money than Labor would have. Normally you’d (Liberals) call it waste. Lovely change of topic. Finished then, I hope.
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“I am sure that it is man-made. Have been sure of that for a long time. I’m a 100% sure.”
Why?
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If this greek-speaking cocky doesn’t get you belly bouncing with laughter, then you must be dead!
He says the following in Greek:
1: ela na horepsoume (come let’s dance) to which the cocky shakes itself wildly and dances
2: followed quickly by, ela na ta kourepsoume (let’s shave them… pubes)
2: ela kato, ela kato (come down, come down) to which the cocky steps down!
3: Podaraki (little leg) to which the cocky stretches out its little leg
4: Makaronia me kima (spaghetti with minced meat!)
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Jiggling, jiggling, jiggling! Feynman made this video for Abbott… and Cazo!
It’s about fire. Awesomely explained!
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Just back from the station, our neighbour is flying to Melbourne tomorrow from Sydney to attend a wedding, her suitcase full of summer clothes. As it is rather arctic here right now, I quickly packed another case of winter gear for her, as I assumed Melbourne would not be any warmer.
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It is cold in Melbourne and it is cold here on the border. Cold winds. But anyone going to Melbourne at any time always needs to be prepared for four seasons in one day.
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As she is also going to go a horse race,( sorry I’m totally ignorant here, I’m sure she said Darby, is that same as Melbourne Cup), so she also packed some finer clothes and shoes and…a hat! I had to find room for the bloody hat. One of our neighbours is young vet who has something to do with horseracing, they’ll meet over there.
This is the woman whose daughter used to work for Abbott when he was the Minister for health. A fierce little girl and she told Abbott off, never mind they are on the same side of politics. So , there will be no taxpayers’ money going into the fares of this wedding trip.
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Shit, it’s cold in Melbourne town! Damned near arctical!
Very bloody annoying!
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All the bloody Gods visit you…even Arctos!
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I posted three good and precise comments on Reith’s latest piece. None were published. This must prove that either the moderators are not all Labor voting commie scum or that some articles are moderated by the writer him/herself.
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What do you mean by scum? And gerad and Helvi’s hounding of voice and sea mendez?
If you didn’t pick it up elswhere, I wrote that I had coffee and cake with Voice, on Sunday. I am back in Qld now.
I borrowed my brother-in-law’s car, got petrol at 11:49 from Caltex Cnr, Snape and Anzac parade, rang Voice at 11:56 (I have my records here on my desk), because I was having trouble programming the sat nav, and drove to her house. I got there about 12:25 and after meeting, for the 1st time, we went to a local coffee shop and chatted. We shared a lemon tart and an orange cake, leaving when they were closing at around 3:00pm.
I mention this knowing that the rest of the PA patrons can read this. Including Mike – hopefully.
Sea Mendez made a post at (from memory) 1:20, while I was having coffee, with a lady who goes by the name of Voice.
So you see, unless you think that I am a liar, it would be impossible.
It was a very pleasant meeting BTW.
And BTW, Sea, you asked what PoW H meant. it is The Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick. I drove there to see my mother afterwards.
If Gerad and Helvi do not stop there interminable and ridiculous bullying of two of the most articulate writers in here, I will simply fuck off.
I spoke to Asty, BTW, the silliness got to him too….Ads it did to atomou.
Enough said. Please all move on, or reap the consequences!
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I have no idea what relevance your reply has to my comment.
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You sound like Sgt Shultz.
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The PoW thing was a joke. Sorry. I’m not very good at jokes.
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I ‘d like to add that Carisbrooke was charming in the nicest straightforward way.
This reminds me of when I met asty years ago when he was still theseustoo. We agreed that he would say I resemble Nicole Kidman and I would say he resembles someone similar only male, possibly Tom Cruise, I forget precisely who.
It was a joke of course. In real life I look more like Angelina Jolie. 🙂
But this time it’s the straight-up truth.
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One thing that Caz can vouch for is the genuineness of my lack of interest in cars.
“The engine on this car is 6 litres” he says, “I don’t know if you what that means.”
Or words to that effect.
“I do know that your average family car engine is about 4 litres.” says she.
Although in fairness to myself I think I could have got that right if I’d had a long pause to think about it.
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The average family car, is now about 1.8 litres.
6.3 is ludicrous, however my B-in-Law is Scottish. They’re usually tight fisted. He’s the opposite.
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I have to bully you on that point, Cazo. I don’t think Vivienne said anything bad here. I bully Reith all the time at The Drum. I have noticed the mods bully me on certain points, like mentioning the phone card scam.
I’m going to bully Vivienne too though. I honestly can’t see the mods handing over control. I do suspect they they
are overprotective of some authors. They seem to reject certain lines of bullying of Pilger. Voice bullied him quite effectively once then they took if down. I bullied the mods then they put it up again.
Ah well. Sometimes you’ve just got agree to bully each other. Got to go finish proof reading my daughters essay. I’m impressed by a line of bullying she’s taking.
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Since it’s over a year (I think) since I last did so I’m going to express my opinion about Drum moderation at the time you’re talking about. I think that losing comments and having them re-appear was largely technical difficulties. They were so inconsistent about what comments they allowed that it couldn’t have been systematic bias. I got the impression it was due to technical difficulties, actually losing comments, but it could have been down to insufficient moderators for the job.
Now they seem to have cleared up their technical problems – largely by eliminating Unleashed altogether and using the same commenting system as several of their other sites.
P.S. I get it that your redefinition of the word bullying to mean “making a cogent argument” is a joke, albeit a pointed one, but some won’t!
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I always thought a lot of the problems were down to resources. I’ve had a deal of experience in public sector finance and I know how hard it is to keep the plebs happy with limited resources. Taxes are always too high and service always too low. They favour general economy and particular expense as the saying goes.
I was a little uncomfortable with the mod bashing that I encountered here while lurking (see top of page for an example). We’re an odd bunch gathered here. We think it matters that our thoughts are published. We take ourselves far too seriously and I feel are far too easy to criticize when they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got.
Bullying means whatever I want it to mean. I’ve worn a lot of sledges on the theme that I’m socially isolated and can’t get a husband. Imagine the potential harm if it were true. Social isolation kills. What tragedy/misfortune might lie behind my absence of husband? That’s fair game though. Lampooning a stridently repetitive idea is off limits.
‘Plebs’ is joke too by the way.
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Yes, Humpty Dumpty. There’s a nice knock-down argument for you.
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I don’t think Carisbrooke ever fully reads a comment and sees one word which sets him off on a strange tangent. The mods did have techy problems and they have been solved. Some time ago I mentioned emails I had with Chip Rolley, the Drum editor.
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A lot of replies on The Drum were also taken out because they were in breach of guidelines and were of a personal bullying nature forever mentioning Gerard and Helvi. Not much different from what is happening on the P/A, and other blogs.
The issue is bullying not just the multitude of pseudos.
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Yes, Viv, I’ll be forever envious of your correspondence with Chip Rolley 🙂
Anyhow, I got something from him too: an apology, he seemed genuinely sorry moderators had let through a post by someone imitating me, in my name..
The nice moderators signed it as well…I have printed it and framed it 🙂
Actually it happened twice on the old Unleashed. I did not mind the one by Madeleine, because it was funny, and she was my friend.I miss her….
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Good job that none of this is wasting ink.
It’s all gobbledegook.
The best method to adopt is to outbully the bully, as long as only a sprinkling of expletives are used.
The best argument should win.
Either that or a war of attrition, where one party caves in.
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gerard, you wrote : “The issue is bullying not just the multitude of pseudos.”
You have to accept that there are people who are regulars that use multiple pen names. it goes with the territory.
I get trolled and abused, bacuase I am not in tune with many on the left, and I make that clear.
Mulga, used various pseuds (and admitted it) and I could reel off others. but who gives a monkey’s.
BTW, there are pollies, scientists, academics, judges,. ministers, doctors and whores, who use pseuds in The Drum. You are just a nobody to them — as am I.
it doesn’t matter. You reap what you sow. You have made hundreds and hundreds of boring comments over the years and people take you to task for it. You are vary anti-Australian, for a start….So you can expect people to be rude to you.
But at the heart of most of your recent discussions is that Voice, is Sea Mendez. You have exposed her name on here twice. That is a clear breach of the trust that Mike gave you.
Helvi has made numerous sly comments insinuating that it is Voice who has criticise her.
Please get over the fact that numerous people find your comments vacant, nebulous and stupid. It’s the way of blogging. Divers opinions in an electronic world.
my advice to both of you is to stop participating (in The Drum), and stop bitching to The ABC about other writers.
I can tell you something; I will not be happy, until you have apologised to Voice and sea mendez. they may be – however, I won’t!
It will not end with me unless you acknowledge you mistake and apologise. that’s the story of my life: accountability! You must have noticed that on The Drum.
Well?
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Just to refresh:
That’s been the tactics that Voice,Sea-Mendez and Co have used on many different blogs from which she gets continually banned. (BANNED BY WHOM?)
However she comes back under a different pseudo (NAME THEM)and starts the game all over again. It is just a pathetic bullying game where she pretends(SHE BEING YOUR FALSE ACCUSATION) others(NAME THEM) are backing her opinion but by using different pseudos.
She must be in a bad way and I feel sorry for her.(THAT”S A GROTESQUE INSULT!) (more like a trick of Hung’s).
Mike on several occasions has asked for people to stop personal abuse, but…I think Mike should now step in.(WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE HIM TO DO?)…………..Maybe ask you to apologise for accusing Voice and sea mendez of being the same person?
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Rein it in a bit there, Jules. You don’t want to say something you’ll regret later. Take your own advice and accept some people are going to rub you up the wrong way.
No one believes I’m Voice anyway. Its not that big a deal.
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Sometimes I agree with you SM about it not being a big deal, other times I think it really should stop. Frankly, I thought you were more sensitive to it than I. It isn’t only you and I involved, you know – they frequently include others in this blanket accusation, and in quite a nasty way. I feel for the others, who usually seem quite bewildered or angry or a combination of the two.
I believe it’s a blatant lie and that’s troubling as well. Surely nobody could actually believe there’s only one person in the world willing to call them out? It beggars belief.
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As I said elsewhere my only sensitivity is on your behalf. Its not fair that you get tarred with the crap I write. Excuse the mixed metaphor. Its not fair that I’m used as evidence that you’re some nerd in a dark room when you’re out and about gardening and speaking French to other French speakers and whatever else you do.
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Viv,I very seldom write anything on Reith’s blogs, he irritates me too much.
I remember thinking though earlier on that he must be moderating his own pieces. He did not come across as a very pleasant person on that SBS program “Go Back Where You Came From.”
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Tonight (or rather tomorrow morning, 12.25am) on the ABC:
E. O’Neill’s much acclaimed “Long Day’s Journey into Night”
The only thing I can remember about this play is that it was an excruciating play to read, to study and to watch. The film has some redeeming qualities because Kath Hepburn, to my mind at least, is the most watchable actor ever but notwithstanding her immaculate performance, I could not erase from my mind the horrible memories of pain the play inflicted upon me, during my Uni years, so I did not enjoy that either. O’Neill, of course, would argue that this was precisely his intention: for us not to enjoy the play, perhaps even to feel viscerally the pains that he felt living its reality. If so, he succeeded. I did not enjoy it one bit. Not its content, not its literary style, not its theatricality.
Others, of course, may well disagree with me.
Here’s the ABC’s blurb:
An autobiographical account of Eugene O’Neill’s early years tells the story of a mother ravaged by drug addiction, an embittered alcoholic father, and two maladjusted brothers. DIR: Sidney Lumet CAST: Katharine Hepburn (1962)
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Earlier this week, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, said the fires proved the world is “already paying the price of carbon”.
According to Abbott she was talking through her hat. What a rude and ignorant comment from Australia’s PM.
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According to the ministry of defence, they started the fires.
The rude, stupid ,idiotic Ministry. Don’t they know it wasn’t them, especially after you just told them. Ignorant bloody ministry. Sheesh, it’s hard to hire good ministries now.
Funnily enough I do admire Christiana, she got her masters in anthropology in my home town.
Maybe Asty knows her?
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And then this : “Experts blame climate change for a huge rise in the number of venomous spiders in England.”
Abbott was indeed very rude. The explosives and the 11 yo kid did not start all 100 fires.
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Abbott on same sex marriage:
“But look, I am a traditionalist on this.
“From time immemorial, in every culture that’s been known, marriage … has been between a man and a woman.”
How stupid, how ignorant, how unread is this man?
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“How stupid, how ignorant, how unread is this man?”
Not as ignorant as Little Willie Shorten. You just watch his weekly epiphanies.
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Yes indeed Ato. It is not just Abbott who is ignorant. The Liberal party excels in ignorance. When not being openly ignorant they prefer lies as the easy way out on everything from expense claims to climate change.
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Abbott and his boys are “traditionalists” on everything. Scratch them a little and they’ll swear black ‘n blue the earth is only as old as they are and it’s flat and it was Gee-zeus who made all those stars “Up There.”
Greg Hunt embarrassed himself on the BBC early this morning in an interview about the fires and climate change. Totally embarrassing lies and BS! The interviewer (Razia Iqbal) must have had the view about the colonies totally confirmed after that one.
https://soundcloud.com/bbc-world-service/newshour-could-australian-bush
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Annoying responses and the topic is closed so I can’t correct the idiot: “Stuffed Olive:
22 Oct 2013 11:06:08am
Your question Ardy is BS. Burning off permits have been the way for decades and the conditions also include having a water appliance (fire tanker) on standby. You seem to be the weasel here. Why do you persist with throwing up this rot.
Alert moderator
ardy:
22 Oct 2013 2:54:40pm
Get stuffed: Where do you live in the bush? Most probably not or you would not come out with such rubbish. Try and get a back burn approved in the bush the paper work is horrendous and puts most off.
I also object to Brians attitude “Greens don’t object to people living in the bush” sounds authoritarian to me.
Alert moderator
Now ardy does not know what a back burn is ! It is a fire fighting tool/method – fight fire with fire. Is he talking about ‘burning off permits’ or about burning off for fuel reduction. The latter is done by State Government departments, not individuals. Our local bush fire brigades used to do hazard reduction stuff along the rail line – Council issued the permit. Burning off in rural areas is often burning stubble after cropping but less of that is done since many took up direct seeding. If you live in a real bush environment you don’t burn off, full stop. You’re really in a forest and probably shouldn’t be there. For those interested, one can ‘burn off’ anytime prior to the declaration of the bush fire season and you don’t need a permit then. Still, they yabber on about back burning and it is they who talk RUBBISH. Anyway, it is clear ardy is a moron by his own words. For anyone interested I remind you that I worked in local government (for five years) – I actually issued burn off permits and I put the declaration or revocation ads in the local paper and when I was a Councillor I was successful in getting a Grade 1 fire fighting unit for our shire. I got them to adopt a whole new policy – some of them fought me tooth and nail but I convinced the majority. Three years later the Mayor said it was the best thing the council ever did (and he was the one most against it at the time, preferring to ‘do up’ old trucks).
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Its bloody annoying is when they imagine your circumstances and ignore your point. Particularly when they get it so wrong. I’m enraged on your behalf (and reliving my past wounds).
I’ve a real bee in my bonnet about that. It’s oppressive. It’s dumanising.
And its bad philosophy:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2005/motivation-speculation/
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American Dream!
hah haa…
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Foreign Correspondent.
Tonight.
One word:
WOW !
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Lose your leg or pay $ US200.000.-The American dream. Still, there was charity. I suppose, competition will eventually force the US to match Chinese wages. If not, things will just collapse even further.
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2 dollars and 13 cents per hour job in the service industry.
27 dollars-a-week net income after tax and other deductions
Our Liberals would love to see this type of labour-wage arrangement in Australia.
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The man is working full time at Walmart and his family of 4 is sleeping in a rented single room.
The owners of the Walmart – The Walton Family- all SIX Waltons have more wealth than the bottom 30% of Americans.
That’s 90 MILLION people!
This is criminal.
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The computer you’re using was made in China.
For billionaires!………………………………………………………….. And you!
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Seems many businesses have outsourced paying wages – the customer pays the wages via tips. There was the one cafe owner who paid reasonable wages as he wanted happy staff. So it is clear that there are Americans who are complete shits as well as a lot of nice ones. And our own new government and many Drum effwits hate Unions!
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Yes, Viv, but what was that stuff they were eating, nice of the Australian journalist to by the poor girl a brekkie and the other two a drink…
How depressing it was ,all those rotten houses boarded up..
My friend has just come back from a holiday to States and to Canada, can’t wait to hear what she has to say…of course she did not visit New Jersey.
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Obviously the States vary a lot state by state. It is a land of huge contrasts and few employment laws. The breakfast was hard to recognise but it looked very filling. I’ll stick to vegemite on rye.
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WOW indeed, bloody unbelievable, an American Dream, more like a nightmare..
Watched Edmond Capon’s first one on Australian art, very good, had forgotten how wonderful Streeton’s paintings are.
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Sunday night: new series of Luther, can’t wait…
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Thought Annabelle Crabb carved up Windbag Joe very well tonight. What an absolute clown this bloke is.
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Alge, I only saw the tail end of the interview, pity, because what I saw was pretty good, I actually liked her style…tough, but the attack dog style of Sales…
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It is real, yet unbelievable, Helvi.
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I do have a complaint.
it’s about the bias on ABC, by the moderators. of course they are mainly left and gay. I accept that.
That’s why most of my posts are on the cutting room floor.
Ive got one big beef now though. They won’t let me call Bill Shorten, ‘
Little Willie’.
All the years of abuse against that kindly, benevolent Tony – yet 10 tries at getting Little Willy up – – and no go 😉 😉 😉 😉
I better go and see the doc, or shall I try the www?
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Try seeing a big, burly man with a moustache and a beard.
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Might suit you. I’m more Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely.
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Why are you being so touchy? I was just showing you a way out of your suffering. You are the one who is coming here and telling everybody that your little willy is not getting up. Personally I don’t care if your little willy is getting up at the ABC or not. You brought up the subject and I responded. Maybe you should take it up with the ABC and ask them to employ a big, burly moderator with a beard and a moustache who comes from a long line of Viking sailors.
Besides, if your little willy gets up over at the Drum, who is going to notice it? …Hah!
Over here, everybody can see your portrait.
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FYI, because your new and blundering around:
So here, for all our benefit – is an open slather blog. Copy and paste your best rejected comments here for posterity. And sprinkle pointers amongst your comments. Let’s try to rescue some of the old faithful.
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…goes by the name of Froyd-the-mind-and-body-healer.
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Sighhhhhh!
Remember the days when one could hold a ha;f decent conversation on the Drum (the old ABC)?
Here’s a sample. The first, incidentally that I bumped into, googling Democracy and Fora:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2009/10/14/2716056.htm
Published 14 October 2009
Is Democracy Not For Everyone?
g3 : 20 Oct 2009 1:31:49pm
democracy
does not yet exist
make it so democracy
….that is wot u call urselves.
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g3 : 20 Oct 2009 1:27:43pm
democracy…social and political equality.
not 1 greater nor lesser.
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Sea Mendez : 21 Oct 2009 8:58:57am
Democracy: A system of government in which all outcomes accord with G3’s dictates.
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atomou : 22 Oct 2009 10:52:03am
…and those which don’t agree with Sea Mendez’ dictates.
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Sea Mendez : 22 Oct 2009 6:54:06pm
I don’t have dictates. Notice how most of my comments are questions?
Ever noticed how I shy away from definitive statements?
Notice how I carefully support arguments with evidence?
Its all about Socrates, answers are unimportant.
Its the next question that matters.
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atomou : 23 Oct 2009 5:17:21pm
“Democracy: A system of government in which all outcomes accord with G3’s dictates.” There seems to be a question mark missing in this question, Sea.
And where on earth did you get the dictate about Socrates? As I read him, questions are an equal half of a discussion, with answers being the other. Or what that another “question” you posed?
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Sea Mendez : 24 Oct 2009 2:07:02pm
It was quiet obviously a facetious definition. Perhaps it was too subtle for you, atomou? I’ll spell it out for. I believe that G3 doesn’t ask enough questions. G3 spews forth some really tenuous (but hackneyed) stuff about (for example) about the spiritual characteristics of nature. And the supernatural nature of humans. Where I see animals applying their natural attributes (usually harmfully) to the environment G3 sees evil supernatural beings defiling Gaea.
What evidence does G3 produce to back up these extraordinary claims? None. And to protect him/herself from critique the lame ideas are put about in gobbledegook. It is a prime example of what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls epistemic arrogance. I note amongst the epistemologically arrogant a distrust of others’ ideas. Hence they tend to attack any democratic outcome they disapprove of as undemocratic. They will also focus the expedient necessary limits to democracy and argue these therefore prove the whole system is undemocratic. My Socrates in a nutshell is via John Ralston Saul who seems to think questions are the essence of Socrates. Why don’t you look up ‘Socratic Questioning’ on wikipedia. If you want to ascribe this approach to me well that’s fine, but I think you’re wrong. Or read the dialogues. To me they often consist of Socrates leading someone (via questions) into a series of definitive statements. Then when they are satisfied he demolishes their position with another question.
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atomou : 27 Oct 2009 5:18:00pm
Sea, I have studied all of Plato’s works and more scrupulously all of his “Dialogues.” And I have read much of (one of my favourite authors) JR Saul. I have also just come back from wikipedia. Let me get this off my chest first: I think that G3 expresses himself as best he can the way he sees fit. You are doing the same and if I may be so bold, let me opine that it is you who is the epistomologically arrogant (I hope you do know what the phrase means, other than what you think Taleb says it means). Questions are vital for very simple reasons:
1: They must be asked, if one needs find out the truth about something.
2: To examine an issue to its fullest.
and
3: To have a dialogue.
What sort of questions did Socrates ask? They were simply, questions that tried to get to an answer. No question, no answer, no dialogue! All three are of equal value when one is in need of examining a thought, an idea, a belief.
There is nothing magical or weird about that. Students of Plato examine Soc’s questions and they find that they are of a unique sort. Yes, because he was after some unique (particularly for his time) answers. He led his interlocutor to see just how valid his (and the interlocutor’s) idea was. His questions were questions of a philosophical nature, the crux of which was always, “what is good? what is virtuous? what is justice?
“ It seems to me that it is now your turn to do some reading. Do read the Socratic dialogues… let’s see… begin with Protagoras, Parmenides, Phaedo, of course…both Hippiases, Crito certainly, can’t not read the Apology… Gorgias, Meno…
Jowett’s edition is fantastic because he also does an excellent analysis on all of them.
Do also read his intellectual rival, Aristotle to see what his beef was about the young boy… I’m not sure if I’ve still got Saul’s books around but I’ll check.
And don’t be so bloody pompous, darling. It’s so un-bloody-becoming!
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Sea Mendez : 24 Oct 2009 3:17:01pm
I thought I might draw your attention to this to, atomou.
A small example of my general rule. abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2720156.htm#comments Sea Mendez : 22 Oct 2009 9:09:14am See how I carefully construct my sentences so that they might be refuted? See how I base speculation of evidence? See how when I speculate I have the grace to qualify my statements?
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atomou : 27 Oct 2009 6:13:01pm
Oh, about G3, I forgot to add that perhaps he has read and accepted Caesar’s dictum about words: ”Tamquam scopulum, sic fugias inauditum atque insolens verbum.”
All right, I won’t be a smart arse and give the translation. It goes something like this: “Avoid (flee from) a strange and unfamiliar word, as you would a rock.” (The “you” here implies a ship’s captain) Or else he has learnt from the Spartan how to be laconic. As economical with words as is possible.
Often a line in a good poet’s poem stimulates thinking more so than a thousand statements, all neatly qualified.
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
It’ll do me.
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I don’t think ‘fullest’ is a word. Either full, or empty. Isn’t that so?
Some people thinking that voting is democracy. I say there is much more to democracy than that.
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Yes, Vivie but the word does have its use, particularly in law: “to the fullest extent of the law” is different to “to the full extent of the law” in that, when you are found guilty, you will be given the maximum punishment, rather than anything less. Also that you will be charged with the highest crime available, etc.
So, it is, I submit, your Honouress, fair game for other use.
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However! The point of posting this string of dialogue here is to show that back then – four years ago- one could conduct a reasonably sustained dialogue, without fearing the onset of cogitus interruptus, which I hate enormously… and to the fullest!
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Yes, the example of was as you say. Doesn’t happen too often any more at the Drum. It is infested with moronic twerps, twits and twaddling dingbats and very acrobatic Lib supporters.
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Funny, I read that about 2 weeks ago .
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That was to atomou.
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Aye, aye, sir. I got it! How come you hit on it then?
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I was looking for something else. And you know how it is on the www, one just keeps f*****g reading. it’s a bloody pain.
I look up something on WIKI, and a demon takes over and keeps pressing the blue highlighted areas.
One starts with a story, then Thomas hardy, then Yorkshire then weather then AGW, then drought, then GM food corn, then villages in South America, then Mesopotamia, then civilisation, then religion. It goes on and f*****g on —-if one is a googlehoover like me. “Apologies to the originator of that pen-name.”
One goes around in circles. hence my vast knowledge of trivia and nonsense that no one else knows – or ever wants to!! 🙂
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I hate reading my stuff. I’m such a pretentious jerk.
I do miss the hydras-heads (its always the Greeks isn’t it) element of Unleashed. One topic would provoke two others and the mods would tolerate it. I miss the old rough and tumble too.
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Them was the days, sm!
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Does anyone watch The Indian Doctor? It’s one of my favourites. Set in Wales back in the 60s.
Sanjeev Bhaskar, is brilliant, remember The Kumars?
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I read somewhere that this show is adored by gays.
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What a stupid thing to say.
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Gee Julie, you say stupid things virtually non stop. Did I strike to close to the bone?
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Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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Semen Dez, never said their was a problem, just passing on a point that I read in this months issue of Campaign.
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I’ve told you before I was making that joke in the late ’90s. If Jenifer Lopez is J-Lo who am I? Then I’d walk away while a confused person shouted the answer after me. God I was a funny bastard!
I chose sea mendez in haste to rush into an Unleashed battle. I’m considering consolidating on an identify I use elsewhere. But every time I try someone pulls this joke and I have to wait.
I keep trying to get out but they keep dragging me back in.
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Whitechapel use to be half tolerable until last Sat. night with all the crappy mumbo dumbo stuffing up the works. Why do they do this? Always the twilight zone rubbish, never a good story all the way through!
And that bloody Spicks and Specks, Vivie! I’m holding you fully responsible for clogging up the telly with all these crappy, chatty, chucking crap! I mean, what does a man do when he needs a rest from all this highly intellectual work he does all day long? (And his missus is at work.)
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I love the show,because of the two main actors, Phil Davies and Rupert Penry -Jones…
The English shows, even the good one, often lean towards the twilight zone….
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I feel roughly the same way about the show atomou, only I stopped watching it earlier. It was a wrench because the characters are compelling but there’s too little light to contrast with the shade.
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Get a recording machine and record good stuff to watch when the crap is on. Landline is always good and informative. Some films which are worth recording and if on a commercial station you can skip all the ads. There is always 24 hours a day of news repeated or the current total nonstop coverage of gigantic bush fires.
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I really like Landline when I watch it. It’s so upbeat, while not hiding or ignoring problems, and a real eye-opener as to the professionalism and hard work that takes place out there (as opposed to in here in the Big City). Of course most things are available online these days, so recording is only one option. Landline’s on iView.
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I do prefer to watch it on the tele. The idea of watching a lot of stuff on-line just does not appeal to me. Would do it rarely. I love recording stuff for later on. I have a selection of things to watch when nothing else interests me. Voice, the ‘out there’ is where I live but I do agree that it is the show which big city people should watch.
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Yeah, but the tele and the computer are merging these days. You can use many flat screen TVs as your computer monitor.
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True, but I have enough bother sorting out hubby and his notebook without adding to my jobs to do. If you get my drift.
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Whitechapel = crap
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I love my blog, if not for the enormous intellectual exchange it affords me, at least for the laughs it doubly affords me. I have seen my name spelled in what must be the full array of spelling variations. Today it’s Theodorus. On other days it has come down as Theodosius, Theoprogos, Theodorios, Theologos… Laugh a minute is my blog!
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How about Theopopodopolus?
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I’m sure that’s been tried, too, Cazo. I seem to remember a Fromius in there somewhere, too.
Barnacles and Vanstones will provide me with some chuckles tonight, or maybe Sorrenti. Here’s hoping!
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Goodness, atomou, I just idly typed Theodoridis into google images. Talk about eye candy. Theodorus is a definite come down.
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Na, that’s my grandfather, Voice. He’s always showing off. The nearest I can claim near relationship is on the next page. Giorgios, Ass. Prof at Aristotle Uni. Scientific brain extraordinaire but, politically at the wrong end of sanity! I was brought up on his dad’s lap, when he (dad) was studying at uni.
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I guess you would love your blog George, some one has to.
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Did anyone catch this?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/sexism-google-search_n_4124737.html
I did note the search terms were all in English. Testing a popular theory I tried it on Google Germany (frau soll nicht…), Google France (les femmes devraient…) and Google Sweden (borde inte…) and got similar results. I think I’d get stronger results if I was more familiar with grammar and syntax.
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I don’t go there to catch it ! They got a little thing wrong – women shouldn’t work – should read shouldn’t be in paid work! I think a lot of it was very outdated. But, oh dear, Yahoo those questions and it comes up. Still it is reflecting shit which sits on their site. Putting such search words into the system probably just adds to the shit. So, don’t do it …….
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You’re just being an ajon pro … agent provoka … stirrer.
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Yes and no. It is an issue that occupies my mind. You must know this from my feminist meanerings at The Drum. And when I saw it I did notice the as was all in English my curiousity did lead me to investigate further.
I will, however, confess that an antifragile emnity did distract me somewhat from the purity of the cause.
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The thing is though: There’s serious feminism, like not smothering women’s voices in the workplace, and there’s fluff pieces and manufactured outrage. On a sliding scale the Huffington Post article appears to me far closer to the second.
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Huffington (SMH picked it up too) is covering the UN campaign. I don’t think it is trivial.
I’ve been following on-line sexism for a couple of years since the ‘Elevatorgate’ incident. A brief summary: Rebecca Watson suggested skeptics conferences would attract more women if strange men didn’t try to sleaze onto women in elevators at 3AM. For this she attracted an ongoing online bullying and hate campaign including rape threats.
Its out there. It happens. I think the google autofill algorithims are part of the symptom.
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Whoa there! My comment related to phrases that appear in google autofill, NOT to online bullying and hate campaigns against women for speaking up against sleazing on women who dare to use elevators in the early hours of the morning.
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Yeah understood.
What I’m trying to say is I think the smaller google phenomenon is symptom of the bigger problem. The googlers are on the sliding scale at a point that needs to be challenged. We wouldn’t want the sliding scale to turn into a slippery slope.
The point about the algorithm too.is not the severity of the offences (against feminism) but how widespread they are.
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Oops!
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I just googled butterflies. To see what damaging things google autofill would say about them. No luck there with a counter-argument but I’m sure you see my point. So I googled google autofill to find out if someone had made my point for me, and sure enough : http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6896075/15-things-we-can-learn-about-humanity-from-google-autocomplete. Point being – it’s easy to ascribe a deep significance to auto fill, but whether it’s really there is a different matter.
I also can’t help noticing they googled women shouldn’t, not just women. That suggests to me they made several attempts before they came up with the desired shock/horror results. I also wonder if I couldn’t come up with shock/horror results for men if I kept trying different combinations (men shouldn’t didn’t get the desired result and I couldn’t be bothered seeking more combinations).
I think things like this ultimately polarise the debate – believers pounce on them as proof and non-believers pounce on them as counter-proof (due to being so questionable). Polarisation hinders achieving a good outcome.
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Voice – I agree, very much. Sort of what I said.
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Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Germany, on 19th February, 1898. He studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Munich before becoming a medical orderly in a German military hospital during the First World War. This experience reinforced his hatred of war and influenced his support for the failed Socialist revolution in 1919.
After the war Brecht returned to university but eventually became more interested in literature than medicine. His first play to be produced was Bael (1922). This was followed by plays deeply influenced by the work of Ernst Toller. This included Drums in the Night, a play about a soldier returning from war, Jungle of the Cities (1923), Man Equals Man (1926) and A Respectable Wedding (1926).
Brecht’s plays reflected a Marxist interpretation of society and when Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933 he was forced to flee from Nazi Germany. While living in exile he wrote anti-Nazi plays such as The Roundheads and the Peakheads and Fear and Misery of the Third Reich. This was followed by Life of Galileo (1939), Mother Courage and Her Children (1939), The Good Man of Szechuan (1941), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1941) and the Caucausian Chalk Circle (1943).
After leaving Germany in 1933, Brecht lived in Denmark, Sweden and the Soviet Union. He arrived in the United States in 1941 and after settling in Hollywood, helped with the writing of the film, Hangman Also Die (1943).
In 1947 the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), chaired by J. Parnell Thomas, began an investigation into the entertainment industry. The HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as “friendly witnesses”. During their interviews they named nineteen people who they accused of holding left-wing views.
On 30th October, 1947, Brecht appeared in front of the HUAC. He denied he was a member of the Screen Writers Guild and the American Communist Party. Brecht pointed out: “As a guest of the United States, I refrained from political activities concerning this country even in a literary form. By the way, I am not a screen writer, Hollywood used only one story of mine for a picture showing the Nazi savageries in Prague. I am not aware of any influence which I could have exercised in the movie industry whether political or artistic. Being called before the Un-American Activities Committee, however, I feel free for the first time to say a few words about American matters: looking back at my experiences as a playwright and a poet in the Europe of the last two decades, I wish to say that the great American people would lose much and risk much if they allowed anybody to restrict free competition of ideas in cultural fields, or to interfere with art which must be free in order to be art. We are living in a dangerous world. Our state of civilization is such that mankind already is capable of becoming enormously wealthy but, as a whole, is still poverty-ridden. Great wars have been suffered, greater ones are imminent, we are told. One of them might well wipe out mankind, as a whole. We might be the last generation of the specimen man on this earth. The ideas about how to make use of the new capabilities of production have not been developed much since the days when the horse had to do what man could not do. Do you not think that, in such a predicament, every new idea should be examined carefully and freely? Art can present clear and even make nobler such ideas.” Soon after giving evidence he left for East Germany.
In 1949 Brecht founded the Berliner Ensemble and over the next few years it became the country’s most famous theatre company. However, Brecht wrote only one new play, The Days of the Commune (1949), while living in East Germany.
Bertolt Brecht died on 14th August, 1956.
…
Credit goes to: John Simkin
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbrecht.htm
In September, 1997, Spartacus Educational founder and managing director John Simkin became the first educational publisher in Britain to establish a website that was willing to provide teachers and students with free educational materials.
According to a survey carried out by the Fischer Trust, Spartacus Educational is one of the top three websites used by history teachers and students in Britain (the other two are BBC History and the Public Record Office’s Learning Curve). The Spartacus Educational website currently gets up to 7 million page impressions a month and 3 million unique visitors.
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He’s a good bloke. Found my way there today while trying to check out Brecht quotes.
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Apropos of political ignorance:
The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life.
He doesn’t seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics.
He doesn’t know, the imbecile, that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and, worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.
Bertolt Brecht.
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Crazy Tea Party Quotes:
“American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains.”
-Christine O’Donnell, discussing cloning with Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly, 2007
“If we took away the minimum wage -if conceivably it was gone- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.”
– Michele Bachmann, Energy and Community Development Committee. January 2005
“Our nation was founded on violence. The option is on the table. I don’t think that we should ever remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms.”
-Tea Party-backed Texas GOP congressional candidate Stephen Broden, suggesting the violent overthrow of the U.S. government if Republicans don’t win at the ballot box, interview with Dallas’s WFAA-TV, Oct. 21, 2010
“There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.”
-Michele Bachmann
“The greatest threat to America is not necessarily a recession or even another terrorist attack. The greatest threat to America is a liberal media bias.”
-Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)
“We needed to have the press be our friend … We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported.”
-Nevada GOP Senate nominee and Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle, during an interview with Fox News Channel’s Carl Cameron, Aug. 2, 2010
“You know what, evolution is a myth….Why aren’t monkeys still evolving into humans?”
– Christine O’Donnell
”We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”
– Sarah Palin, admitting that her family used to get treatment in Canada’s single-payer health care system, despite having demonized such government-run programs as socialized medicine that will lead to death-panel-like rationing, March 6, 2010
“I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change. It’s not proven by any stretch of the imagination…It’s far more likely that it’s just sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ‘gets sucked down by trees and helps the trees grow.”
– Ron Johnson
”Do you know, where does this phrase ‘separation of church and state’ come from? It was not in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists. … The exact phrase ‘separation of Church and State’ came out of Adolph Hitler’s mouth, that’s where it comes from. So the next time your liberal friends talk about the separation of Church and State, ask them why they’re Nazis.”
—Glen Urquhart, the Tea Party-backed Republican nominee for the Delaware House seat held by Rep. Mike Castle, April 2010
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There are plenty of people in the world who lean into ridiculous zealotry every now and again. Why quote these particular ones? Is it leading up to something interesting?
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Probably, Voice, because this is a group which obviously can wield an enormous amount of influence upon the politics of not only the US but, by extension, upon the rest of the planet.
And,
Because it is a prime example of how unruly a dog’s tail can be and what havoc it can wreak upon the dog.
And,
Because it is proof, if proof were ever needed that America is run by extremists of one sort or another.
And,
Because it is proof that a duopoly, as a form of Govn’t is not and cannot run by democratic principles.
And,
Because it is proof that idiots -zealots or otherwise- can emerge as rulers, given the fertile ground of political inertia by the rest of the leaders. Reminds me of Brecht’s “Caucasian Circle” where a village idiot is given a judge’s gown and by that alone, becomes a judge!
This isn’t some little group with little influence on the running of important institutions. This lot had as much sway upon the govn’t of the biggest economy on the planet as does Wall St; and frankly, Wall St is more than enough.
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How you divined hph’s intention from a list of whacky quotes I’ll never know, atomou.
Be that as it may, is there some particular reason for interest in the Tea Party today as opposed to last week or last year? Has something happened? Or is it just a slow news day?
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I did say, “probably,” Voice.
In any case, I rode on hph’s coat tails to air my disquietude about this lot of ignorant thugs and the disquietude I have about the American govn’t.
The TP are a particularly nasty political virus and, in a govn’t that is particularly sick and almost totally bereft of an immune system that can combat such viruses, such viruses are lethal. “Catastrophic” is the word used by many in the observation gallery.
Mind you, my cynical nature was hoping beyond hope that the world “economy” (to continue with the delusion) would stop functioning altogether so that a new, fairer system would be given a chance to emerge. But I knew neither of these was possible. Not the cardiac arrest nor the emergence of a new, fairer system.
Back on our heads, alas!
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Your ‘silver lining’ quote a while back has been playing on my mind, Atomou.
To the extent that you the Tea Party is isolationist, and many of them are, you want it.
I suspect many of its members want to see the American and hence world economy fundamentally reshaped. I suspect many of its members want the US government’s credit rating downgraded and for it to be harder for it to borrow money. A default is their goal.
They want to destroy the current order and replace it with a lower government spending, lower intervention, lower debt order.
To the extent that this would reduce the US’ central role in the global economy, you want it.
Lampooning them is one thing. They are easy to lampoon. But when we dig down you share some common ground with them. Even if you don’t love each other there’s one or two common goals.
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SM, I don’t think that whatever the American Admin is, it and I have shit in common (phrase taken from Rob Redford’s lips in The Candidate). And I would have thought it would have been glaringly obvious that this was the case from my previous rants about unfettered capitalism and its corollary, unfettered power, that is to say, unfettered power to be and to corrupt.
The TP was a case of my enemy’s enemy is my friend… until one of them gets eliminated, or learns the appropriate lesson. Nothing more.
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Atomou I was trying to avoid ‘enemy’s enemy’ cliche but that’s exactly the point I was trying to make.
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Sea, reducing government spending will not solve the problem.
Reducing private-sector greed will. Partly.
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So you’re broadly supportive of the level of US military spending, hph? Many in the Tea Party aren’t.
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As if you don’t know my answer already!
As for the tea party, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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There are arms of government in the US trying to introduce a sugar tax. Meanwhile another arm is busily subsidising agribusiness production of corn, assuring a ready cheap supply of high-fructose corn syrup to soft drink and fast food industries.
So there’s your big government solution. Two bureaucracies working against each other.
What would the Tea Party do (at lease in theory)? Remove the subsidy. Cane sugar costs more and is slightly more healthy (I believe sucrose is better that fructose). Soft drink costs more. Health improves. Two bureacracies uneccessary.
Many libertarians (not all) have noticed that generally there is a symbiotic relationship betweeen big business and big government. One can’t live without the other.
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VoR,
Just imagine…
Old man John McCain becomes president. Sarah Palin vice president. The old man trips over the steps of the white house, bangs his head and goes into coma.
Then we have Sarah Palin sitting in the oval office in charge of the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world.
Can you imagine what would happen next?
The military-industrial complex of the United States of America would send Sarah Palin to the *other side* faster than you can say “What the heck!”
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If you’re into catastrophe scenarios, why not imagine Sarah Palin as President in the first place? OK, that’s a silly question. There are an infinite number of possible catastrophe scenarios so asking why you favour one over the other 99.99999 recurring % is pointless really. A more interesting question is: why bother imagining catastrophe scenarios in the first place?
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This was a demonstration of the ‘proof’ that the tea party lunatics will never be allowed to have the full control of the Empire-USA. The full control resides in the hands of the Wall Street Free Market Capitalist Corporations. They know how to control and sustain big masses of miserable, poor and unemployed people at an acceptable level. Tea party is a clown in the circus. They are the bellringers on festival days. Entertainers to keep the middle & high class amused with whacky ideas.
In a nation of 300 million people, if you cut government spending on education, welfare & medical benefits altogether and subsequently increase the crime rate up 1000 %, then you will see the US Army, Navy and Air Force attacking its own citizens with depleted uranium shells
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Poor old Cheney had to change the settings on his heart to prevent terrorists from hacking into it.
Apparently they can also undo vasectomies and re-install polyps in bum-tracts.
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Wouldn’t find much in there.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-19/cheney-reveals-defibrillator-altered-to-thwart-terrorists/5033354
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Thanks, Gerard. I read it five minutes ago.
It is amazing that the doctors were able to find a heart in this man.
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It took hours but finally they found it. It was made of granite with traces of lead, hatred, and copious malice in the lower half.
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