tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40655922011-09-04T01:31:57.160+10:00Things are falling apart!<br><br>The centre is giving way ...<br><br>And what fat K, his hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?TFKnoreply@blogger.comBlogger591100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1102542595147600062004-12-09T07:41:00.000+10:002004-12-09T08:00:09.396+10:00

It's great, mate - woof! Peter Costello may be the more moderate future leader of a Coalition government, with wider public appeal, but Tony Abbott will always be their alpha attack dog. Here's some little gems from Tony about left media group-think in Australia: Since the election, Labor-leaning journalists have been resigning from the Latham fan club like Communist Party members after the

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1096984797414082782004-10-05T23:54:00.000+10:002004-10-05T23:59:57.413+10:00

My call for the electionWhile I am on a roll with logging e-mail exchanges(!), I might as well record this reply that I just sent to an American friend who was asking how I think our election will go in 4 days time. Hi Bill! I think that it is more likely that John Howard will be returned but it will probably be very, very close. State politics in Australia are volatile compared to the

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1096292379195610582004-09-27T23:31:00.000+10:002004-09-27T23:43:45.520+10:00

Cynical as buggery I haven't been in the habit of logging my e-mail exchanges but this one was a good example of my spiralling descent into the rejection of all fine ideals that come my way. My correspondent sent me the news of the coming launch of "Party 25" here in Brisbane with this e-mail. Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 5:45 PM Subject: Invitation to launch Dear Friends Keith and I have

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1094992394598510762004-09-12T22:29:00.000+10:002005-01-07T18:31:33.796+10:00

Go ahead, punk, make my day! So what if the worm says Latham won the debate - feeling lucky, punk?

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1094885628775532112004-09-11T16:46:00.000+10:002004-09-11T16:58:39.740+10:00

Why do they hate us so much? Posting has been very, very light indeed over recent weeks. Still I have been reasonably active via personal e-mails and dropping comments on other people's blogs. I've been thinking - maybe I should post some of that stuff here. Anyway, here's something I dropped in response to this post by Gary Sauer-Thompson. Sort of a standard "let's do what the terrorists want"

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1089551467443825522004-07-11T23:04:00.000+10:002004-07-11T23:13:58.196+10:00

Tell me he's not a liabilityTim Blair provides a neat summary of the latest piece of stupidity from Labor's "star recruit". Peter Garrett - the man who will attract to Labor the primary votes of (some) inner city left wing trendies. Votes that would have come to Labor anyway in a compulsory preferential system. Meanwhile, what will be the toll of rural Labor and conservative "genuine working

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1088251718636115752004-06-26T22:01:00.000+10:002004-06-26T22:12:25.456+10:00

Look back in five yearsAccording to the mainstream media, Iraq is just getting worse all the time. I don't buy it. Although there is plenty of terrorist violence and suffering to come, things are turning around. Strangely enough, this is a very hopeful sign. As I have been saying for some time now, look back on where Iraq is at five years after the fall of Hussein and make your judgement then

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1087913084996373322004-06-23T00:02:00.000+10:002004-06-23T00:04:44.996+10:00

Moore Crap!A truly great piece of polemics here from Christopher Hitchens on Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 911.

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1087138489440508032004-06-14T00:23:00.000+10:002004-06-14T00:59:00.506+10:00

Lessons from historyOver recent weeks, I have clarified my thinking about who is most likely to win the federal election in Australia later this year. Latham has been looking good (as a bet - not as an alternative Prime Minister!) for several months now but I am starting to think that a change of government is not on the cards. Strangely enough, this line of thinking started to crystalise for

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1086605858557817472004-06-07T20:52:00.000+10:002004-06-07T20:57:38.556+10:00

Ouch!Bill Herbert in fine form in his final Silent America essay, "Strength": Let me clarify this if I may. Senator Kennedy claims Abu Ghraib is simply Saddam Hussein’s torture chambers “under new management – U.S. management.” Taking him at his word – a somewhat iffy proposition right out of the gate – he apparently cannot see the difference between the humiliation and bullying of enemy

TFKnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1084923053806128842004-05-19T09:26:00.000+10:002004-05-19T09:39:10.403+10:00

A deep capacity for self-examinationI was amazed at the journalistic value of this article in Al-Jazeera On-line about the Nicholas Berg beheading. The article pretty clearly illustrates the role that Al-Jazeera has taken on itself in the Middle East. Despite the western apologists who are always lauding its "fearless independence", it never seriously turns the blowtorch on the repressive

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1084594304609948472004-05-15T13:56:00.000+10:002004-05-15T14:11:44.610+10:00

Lancashire lads see off another foeQuote of the week from Lt Col John Downham, the Regimental Secretary of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment: "This regiment has seen off Louis X1V, Napoleon, Kaiser Bill, and Hitler. We do not think that Piers Morgan is going to give us a problem." Those Lancashire lads certainly know how to rumble.

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1084163427468659172004-05-10T14:23:00.000+10:002004-05-10T14:38:24.433+10:00

Is John Kerry a dud?He certainly should be if proper media attention is given to this kind of piss weak waffling, equivocation and evasion. As usual, Mark Steyn goes for the jugular. In a funny kind of way, of course. From a vast distance, I don't see how Kerry can last if he gets enough scrutiny along these lines from enough voters. This is the first blog entry for 5 months - a personal best

TFKnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1072924576795695532004-01-01T12:36:00.000+10:002004-01-03T14:08:19.826+10:00

"You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"as my wise old boss (Paul Munro) used to say. The following e-mail exchange with Richard Neville was prompted by an article on his web page that (among other things) repeats the old lie that the Kurds of Halabja were not slaughtered by Saddam Hussein's regime in 1988 but rather by the Iranian military. Despite his reflexive anti-Americanism and

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1072922449672604092004-01-01T12:00:00.000+10:002004-01-03T21:00:02.983+10:00

One year on - 2004 to be the year of lazy bloggingSo, let's kick off 2004 by just dropping some e-mails into the blogosphere. This is from one that I sent to an anti-war, anti-Bush Amercian pal to let him know about some of the Iraqi bloggers I try to check out regularly: Hi Bill, A little while back, I remember mentioning to you the little explosion of Iraqi blogs on the net since uncensored

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1070054889860277522003-11-29T07:28:00.000+10:002003-11-29T07:30:35.106+10:00

How dark was the victory?While still in blogging mood, here is an excellent review in Asia Times Online of David Marr's and Marion Wilkinson's sanctimonious little propaganda-fest, Dark Victory. Very interesting to see a cool, detached and rational view of the Tampa incident from someone outside the country, writing for a largely overseas readership. In particular, Mr Casella shows that he

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1070054218280042762003-11-29T07:16:00.000+10:002003-11-29T07:20:28.060+10:00

What is green, poisonous and smells really bad?More lazy blogging via comments dropped at Tim Blair's site. This time, Tim and his resident commentariat are "debating" (as only a troll-laden comments roll can debate!) a great little article by Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun Online. Some of the debate misses the point - Bolt is not really trying to make a serious statistical point about falling

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1069476778997464132003-11-22T14:52:00.000+10:002003-11-23T00:32:05.890+10:00

Australian identity and culture "on the line"Over the last few weeks I have been playing the exciting and challenging lead role in a new Australian drama called "The Man Who Couldn't Blog". Unfortunately, Georgw W Bush is about to crush my dreams just like he crushes little Iraqi babies under the tracks of his Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Via the evils of a Free Trade Agreement, what's worse! I

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1065512974668326172003-10-07T17:49:00.000+10:002003-10-07T18:00:26.406+10:00

A whole lot of nuthin'A lot of the media coverage of David Kay's interim report on behalf of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) on their investigation of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has come out as if the ISG found nothing. As this inteview with Mr Kay clearly shows, that is far from the truth. Already it is crystal clear that WMD capabilities were deliberately maintained and concealed by

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1064489733478617772003-09-25T21:35:00.000+10:002003-09-25T21:45:35.893+10:00

Blind, corrupt or indifferent?Or maybe just pursuing an agenda? This caught my eye - an interesting excerpt about media coverage of Iraq immediately before the coalition attack from a recently published book. New York Times veteran, John Burns, goes to the heart of a serious lack of journalistic integrity. No blogging for two months virtually - I haven't had enough time on the Net away from

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1060086613936529632003-08-05T22:30:00.000+10:002003-08-05T22:30:13.913+10:00

Do as I say ...Not as I do. An amazing show of hypocrisy from some big wheels in the Arab League and another interesting article from Amir Taheri. I guess critics would say that it's in National Review On-Line, what do you expect? It's hard to find fault with the points he is making, however.

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1059779304129144932003-08-02T09:08:00.000+10:002003-08-02T12:15:35.926+10:00

Who's afraid of the big, bad Wolfowitz?While on the subject of Paul Wolfowitz and his long-standing desire to topple Saddam Hussein's regime ... Steven Den Beste, writing in OpinionJournal On-Line, encapsulates fairly neatly the deepest and most enduring reason why the US Government got involved in the recent unpleasantness in Iraq. Den Beste is a little too "gung-ho" in his tone and sounds

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1059461298255742492003-07-29T16:48:00.000+10:002003-07-29T16:48:18.243+10:00

More than half fullWhile on the subject of more positive assessments of Iraq ... Journalists who want to report only negative news from Iraq can always capitalise on events like the continuing killings of American soldiers, even if only a few thousand Fedayeen among a population of 24 million are responsible. Remove the "we were right all along" agenda and a more honest and realistic assessment

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1058584523031268322003-07-19T13:15:00.000+10:002003-07-22T08:20:20.416+10:00

Dredging defeat from the jaws of victory ...Surprisingly, the war over Iraq drags on. While Iraq itself is being steadily rebuilt - surely the biggest news on the international scene for many years - left wing journalists and commentators are striving to create their own alternative reality by ignoring the forest and staring at splinters. At the present time, they are involved in a concerted

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1057707485410681632003-07-09T09:38:00.000+10:002003-07-10T01:11:13.426+10:00

Watch out, it's Frankenfoods!It is not getting much coverage in the media, but the gifted and impressive GM food advocate, African biotechnologist Dr Florence Wambugu, is presently in Australia for the international conference on genetics in Melbourne. Read the Globe and Mail article (first link) to get some sense of who she is and what she stands for. Sadly, many intelligent - but not

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1057034146100455822003-07-01T14:35:00.000+10:002003-07-01T15:00:40.333+10:00

Dumb and dishonestI just dropped a lengthy comment over at Tim Blair's site again and might as well log it here, given the minimal extra effort involved. Tim has a good piece called Articulate Adams in which he exposes the pomposity and "smart-guy" stupidity of Australia's Lard Bard - Phillip Adams. The whole thing is in response to this pretentious piece of leftie groupthink by Adams in The

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-1056896443329926362003-06-30T00:20:00.000+10:002003-06-30T07:57:45.243+10:00

A load of sewage in IraqNo time to blog but this is funny - and a different perspective from the prevailing negativity we keep on hearing. Will return with some updates and the latest Donny news later. Mark Steyn thinks that things in Iraq are not as grim as some would have us believe.

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-955022772003-06-10T22:18:00.000+10:002003-06-10T22:25:53.000+10:00

Why the "beads of sweat", Donny?No bloody time or inclination to blog recently - sorry to anyone who might occasionally check. Just the usual with other bits of life expanding and no time to even catch up on the news, let alone blog about it. I just dropped a comment at Tim Blair's new blog and thought that I might as well log it here as well. Especially since I had written a few weeks ago

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-946526892003-05-21T07:43:00.000+10:002003-06-10T22:20:19.000+10:00

Is Salam for real?Well, in an earlier post, I seriously doubted it. It looks like I was wrong (again!). Salam is up and blogging and certainly seems to be in Bagdhad. Seen by a Guardian journalist and all. Paul Boutin always thought so.

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-945114072003-05-18T07:10:00.000+10:002003-05-19T00:03:52.000+10:00

A different viewIs the constant flood of negative reporting from Iraq in some news media, Our ABC included, truly representative of the situation on the ground? Not really, according to Jonathon Foreman, an embedded journalist who is getting out and about in Bagdhad, as he explains in this Weekly Standard article Bad Reporting in Baghdad. While news is trickling through daily of life in Bagdhad

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-940752812003-05-10T07:45:00.000+10:002003-05-10T07:51:09.000+10:00

Fantasy vs RealityI have just read this very clear-thinking and well-witten article by prominent American government and foreign policy academic, Robert J. Lieber. In a small gem of dispassionate logical writing, Lieber identifies and attacks one of the more silly (and ugly) memes regarding the US administration taking hold among some leftist commentators - that American foreign policy has been

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-936862802003-05-03T13:14:00.000+10:002003-05-04T00:39:51.000+10:00

The suffering continues ...It is four weeks since the liberation of Bagdhad and still the suffering continues. The suffering caused by disappointed and depressed left-wingers whining on and on, that is. They are still desperately latching on to whatever they can find to criticise the US and its allies and justify their opposition to the toppling of Saddam. One of their favourites in recent

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-934645842003-04-29T23:46:00.000+10:002003-05-01T08:52:09.000+10:00

Being Jonah GoldbergWell, becoming like Jonah Goldberg. Me, that is. Here is Jonah writing in the National Review Online on 28 April about the childish attitude of entertainment industry "stars" who expect freedom of speech to mean freedom from all criticism. Or at least no freedom for other people to withdraw their patronage, organise boycotts or react in other legal, non-violent ways to

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-929534162003-04-21T10:32:00.000+10:002003-04-21T20:24:13.000+10:00

You just gotta laughThis is an amazing discovery - left wing sneering humour that is actually funny! Some very clever photoshoppers at whitehouse.org have had a field day designing a new generation of patriotic posters. Sure, they trot out a lot of the same old facile anti-US slogans and seem to be slave to the usual leftie groupthink, but at least they do it with style! Great work, guys and

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-929289482003-04-20T23:08:00.000+10:002003-04-21T00:14:19.000+10:00

Mary, Mary, quite contrary ...I can't help wondering why high profile United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson, isn't speaking out against the outrage of non-democratic and oppressive regimes conspiring to prevent UN human rights monitoring of states in which serious human rights abuses are a daily occurrence. Countries like Sudan, where the UN Human Rights Commission has just

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-927400932003-04-17T07:59:00.000+10:002003-04-17T21:42:04.000+10:00

Too good to be trueIn an earlier post on Aussie thickhead "human shield", Gordon Sloane, I referred to a blog called Where is Raed? that was supposedly maintained by an Iraqi still living in Iraq. As I said at the time: One of what must be very few native Iraqi bloggers on home soil, "Salam Pax" at Where is Raed, takes a very dim view of all this poseur nonsense. In his post of 6 March (scroll

TFKnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-924650812003-04-12T13:05:00.000+10:002003-04-13T12:47:42.000+10:00

My blinkers are like a shield of steel ...A lot of the political blogs and mainstream media commentators are presently serving up great examples of left-leaning anti-war writers "trying to see the cloud behind the silver lining" in the rapid collapse of Saddam's regime and the dawn of a new era in Iraq. Only a precious few seem to be engaging in any degree of re-evaluation. Others like The

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-923590052003-04-10T23:49:00.000+10:002003-04-11T22:32:38.000+10:00

Acts of desperation in wartimeWell, I am finally back from Tassie just in time to catch a whole lot of middle east "experts" and pundits with egg on their faces (not that they will ever admit it) and "no war" types who seem to be seriously depressed and increasingly desperate to show us how bad and wrong actually doing anything really is. The military campaign has gone well and quickly with

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-908537862003-03-18T00:04:00.000+10:002003-03-19T00:27:08.000+10:00

Blogholiday for three weeksI haven't been reading much news in the last few days while my wife and I have been attending to social obligations and preparing for a three week holiday in Tasmania, far from a computer keyboard. It's not that they don't have computers in Tassie (I think!) but more a deliberate strategy for a genuine break. There isn't much happening in the world at the moment

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-906966472003-03-14T17:18:00.000+10:002003-03-14T17:41:24.000+10:00

The casualty auction heats upI'm a reasonable man, but the ever-increasing and ever-crazier estimates of casualties in any war in Iraq that are being bandied about at present are getting right irritating. Despite my generally pacific nature, they are making me want to see the Yanks pull their fingers out and get on with it, if only to show these smartarses just how far off-beam they are. Not

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-906154412003-03-13T09:30:00.000+10:002003-03-13T09:46:29.000+10:00

The curse of the neoconIt's a pity that there is no proper Australian word to descibe people who were basically fairly "left wing" in outlook for a good part of their lives but fundamentally re-oriented their political thinking over time. Such people are easily found throughout the politically engaged and chattering classes of Australia and I am one of them. The Yankee term "neoconservative"

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-904273412003-03-10T11:21:00.000+10:002003-03-11T22:58:51.000+10:00

Gordy gets voted out - again!It looks like part time "human shield" - and full time self-important, ego-driven airhead - Gordon Sloane, has been voted out of the "human shields" house by their official Iraqi handler, Dr Abdul Al-Hashimi. Gordy continues to show his deep understanding of Iraq and world affairs in general in his apparent belief that the selection of sites for "human shields" in

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-900432252003-03-03T20:38:00.000+10:002003-03-06T14:41:15.000+10:00

What would you know about fighting for freedom?This must surely take my prize for the most smug and sanctimonious self-conceit piece of the year so far. It is an open letter to Jose Ramos Horta from a staff writer for The Age, Ray Cassin, presuming to lecture him for supporting the liberation of Iraq by force. In the most obsequious and mealy-mouthed way, Cassin virtually accuses Jose Ramos

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-896431362003-02-25T00:19:00.000+10:002003-03-06T11:15:31.000+10:00

Earth to Gordy, Earth to Gordy ...I couldn't beleive this article about Aussie "human shield" for Saddam, "Gordy" of Big Brother fame (apparently!). Gordy is a deep political thinker who believes that the Americans are quite happy to carpet bomb Bagdhad! Does this guy know what "carpet bombing" means? Provided that they had at least half a brain, even the most bitter US-hating Trot would have

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-896168062003-02-24T08:13:00.000+10:002003-04-15T21:40:29.000+10:00

The USA is the REAL terroristSomething to help "anti-war" protestors sleep easy at night, confident in their own moral rectitude. Disturbing material on the massacre at Halabja just to remind you that "moral equivalence" is morally bankrupt. One of the more disturbing trends among some in the intellectual left at the present time is a form of historical revisionism which seeks to attribute the

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-895025922003-02-22T02:14:00.000+10:002003-03-03T17:30:53.000+10:00

What happens if the protestors "win"?While I am on the subject, this analysis of the effect of the "peace" marches is also worth a read.

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-893034772003-02-18T23:30:00.000+10:002003-03-03T21:03:53.000+10:00

You're Nicked again!Without further explanation at this stage, another article by Nick Cohen criticising "anti-war" feel-good action. It's actually better argued than a sign that says "NO HoWARd", believe it or not.

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-892355572003-02-17T22:24:00.000+10:002003-02-19T03:46:14.000+10:00

"Peace" for whom?More on the theme of Iraqi voices in support of toppling Hussein by force, The Sydney Morning Herald mentions an e-mail from a British Iraqi student to her friends in which she expresses her bewilderment and disappointment at their support for the "no war" cause. You can read the enitre text of the letter on the 10 Downing Street web site. OK, OK - in dire times, some

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-891448572003-02-16T01:29:00.000+10:002003-02-16T11:50:47.000+10:00

The high price of moral superiorityLast month I posted an item about Labor's confusion on Iraq, which included a link to Jim Nolan's piece in Workers Online about why the left should support toppling Saddam Hussein by force. An article of a somewhat similar nature by Tony Horwitz appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday and is also worth a read. Maybe it is even worth some serious

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-891338462003-02-15T17:16:00.000+10:002003-02-15T22:24:06.000+10:00

Shutup those ***ing drums!!Life being what it is, I haven't had much time for even reading news this last week, let alone writing blog entries! The time that I have been able to spend on the computer at home has been mostly occupied learning simple Visual Basic programming. I need this for work so that I can automate some statistical analysis tasks in Excel. Life is so unfair! In fact, it is

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-887391702003-02-08T13:21:00.000+10:002003-02-08T22:29:16.000+10:00

The very loud AustraliansI went to see Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American the weekend before last and I will admit that I enjoyed the film very much. It was shot well, was well-written with deep and complex characterisation and contained some superb performances, particularly from Michael Caine. Needless to say, it probably had a head start given that it was based on the eponymous work of

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-883748852003-02-01T22:57:00.000+10:002003-02-01T23:09:20.000+10:00

Your Satan is bigger then mineOne of my favourite Ozbloggers, Professor Bunyip, has gone in to bat for "the Great Satan" (that's the USA, if you haven't taken the wisdom of the Ayatollahs fully on board). In this article, he makes some good points in reply to one of the most tired left-wing cliches trotted out (pardon the pun) in this sad piece by Phillip Knightly in The Diplomat. Knightly's

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-880659852003-01-27T09:24:00.000+10:002003-01-28T08:50:46.000+10:00

Right wing madman gets it rightMark Steyn may be a blood thirsty, war-mongering, right wing lunatic - I am sure that he would be happy to admit as much himself - but he has a gift for delivering some serious thinking in easily digested pieces while remaining one of the most consistently funny political commentators on the web. What he says about the potential of Iraq to become the Arab world's

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-878626452003-01-23T08:05:00.000+10:002003-01-28T13:57:02.000+10:00

You made your kids fat - deal with it!Good to see that a US District Court has ruled that fat little kids have only themselves and their parents to blame. As far as I know, Ronald McDonald hasn't been in the habit of lurking in dark alleys waiting to pounce on poor little kiddies and force-feed them Big Macs. Let's face it, these are lazy little buggers who have no self control - that's why

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-875272012003-01-16T21:05:00.000+10:002003-01-28T13:58:08.000+10:00

Our position on Iraq is clear ...More policy confusion from Labor under Simon Crean. A little gem from Simon appearing in The Australian the other day caught my eye in particular - especially this reported Labor "position": Labor's policy allows it to support a US-led invasion of Iraq without UN support only if a direct threat to Australia could be shown – such as proof Iraqi leader Saddam

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-874155602003-01-14T23:23:00.000+10:002003-01-28T13:59:26.000+10:00

What have the Romans ever done for us?Have you ever asked yourself the question "Why do so many of our intellectual elite - eg academics, journalists, tertiary educated middle class people in general - seem so curiously disconnected from the society around them"? I certainly have, and more so in recent times. Too many of the intelligentsia act almost as if they have no stake in carrying forward

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-873288652003-01-13T11:39:00.000+10:002003-01-28T14:01:06.000+10:00

Thinking like a chickenThe Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in the UK has proved again what geniuses they are. In an attempt to "liberate" 7,000 free range (yes, free range!) chickens from the oppression of a modern poultry farm, they caused the needless and (no doubt) rather nasty slaughter of 150 of the birds. In a move that must strain the cognitive dissonance-handling ability of even the most

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-873042052003-01-12T23:48:00.000+10:002003-01-28T14:08:44.000+10:00

From the grassy knoll to you ...The terrorist attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001 have caused a lot of once moderate leftists - like me - to turn in our pink cards forever and leave that increasingly whiny "separatist" subculture in disgust at the kind of reactions elicited from so many of its gurus. I wonder if the same events might yet do something useful for those "left behind"? Like

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4065592.post-867830562003-01-01T21:01:00.000+10:002003-02-02T00:21:53.000+10:00

This is the first post to what will be an occasional weblog of links and random comments on things on the web that catch my eye, especially in the areas of politics, science and history. Things that make enough of an impression on me to log them at the time, so that I can find them again myself in future, or easily refer others to the original material along with my oh-so-witty jokes and

TFKnoreply@blogger.com0