Evidently aware that this morning's ACTU-dixctated expose of sexist discrimination in the workplace was but more of the ho-hum whining feminist same, the Fairfax press has decided to add a new element to the coverage by arranging catchy combinations of bylines.
Today's scoop is the work of Marnie Banger and Griff Tapper
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
The Gospel According to Kevin
On Q&A last night, Kevin Rudd explained his conversion to the gay marriage cause as no violation of scripture, alluding to St Paul's alleged endorsement of slavery and from there leaping somehow to the conclusion that those who oppose "marriage equality" would have been morally obliged to take up arms for the Confederacy.
What this tells us is that there is nothing this wretched facsimile of a man will not twist or misrepresent to advance his cause, which we knew, and that he has not lately read his Old Testament, especially Deuteronomy 23:15-16:
As to Saint Paul, who cops quite enough grief already from feminists, Rudd was thinking of the Apostle's letter to Philemon, which does indeed record the returning of a slave to his master. Yet contrary to Rudd's assertion, it is also quite clear that Paul, who was in prison at the time, has come to accept and endorse same-sex action. He makes that very clear in verse 7:
All scriptural knee-slappers aside, if Rudd had not been intent on misrepresenting Paul he would have been obliged to explain that, while honouring the law, the Apostle also dropped a very broad hint that manumission would be a fine thing indeed.
But that wouldn't have been Rudd's style. Why tell the truth when a lie will do?
What this tells us is that there is nothing this wretched facsimile of a man will not twist or misrepresent to advance his cause, which we knew, and that he has not lately read his Old Testament, especially Deuteronomy 23:15-16:
15 Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee.
16 He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him.
As to Saint Paul, who cops quite enough grief already from feminists, Rudd was thinking of the Apostle's letter to Philemon, which does indeed record the returning of a slave to his master. Yet contrary to Rudd's assertion, it is also quite clear that Paul, who was in prison at the time, has come to accept and endorse same-sex action. He makes that very clear in verse 7:
For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
Paul and the runaway follow Tom of Finland's latest adventures
All scriptural knee-slappers aside, if Rudd had not been intent on misrepresenting Paul he would have been obliged to explain that, while honouring the law, the Apostle also dropped a very broad hint that manumission would be a fine thing indeed.
But that wouldn't have been Rudd's style. Why tell the truth when a lie will do?
High and mitey
It seems this story is a beat up, not quite as serious as the media initially suggested -- but it should still cost size-ist bigot Andrew Demetriou his job.
Yet that is precisely what Andrew Demetriou did when the topic came up on last night's Footy Classifieds. Would he be so callous, do you think, if Andrew Jaspan were sitting beside him?
Dwarfs aren't meant to burn, Mr Demetriou, except during the Multicultural Round, when allowances can be made for very short Buddhist monks.
Demetriou is the man who makes us pay $46 to sit through smoking ceremonies and possum pelt theatrics before matches can begin, who seems intent on ordaining every single AFL round a tribute to anything from solar energy to sodomy -- take your pick or name your own cause because, sooner or later, it is bound to get a gong. (What about a round to hail those who shot down the Bombers with leaks and lies? Or perhaps Demetriou could cast wider his encomiums and celebrate kangaroo courts, reporters suckling on the teat of whispered slanders, and trial by smear and headline.)
This is the holier-than-thou world of conspicuous caring and exquisite sensitivity Demetriou has inflicted on a nobly rough-hewn sport.
Judged by his own proclaimed standards, he must step down immediately.
UPDATE: Thank heavens Kim Duthie no longer has anything to do with the Saints. A hunka-hunka burning dwarf, the St Kilda Schoolgirl and 18 football players fresh from the waxing salon -- such a wild bacchanal could never have been subdued without the assistance of Joel Monaghan and his dog.
A POPULAR dwarf entertainer claims he was set on fire during an AFL club's Mad Monday celebrations.In the first reports the dwarf was said to be wearing a bear suit, which would have added a far greater gravity to the St Kilda player's alleged assault by stove lighter. Still, no thoroughly modern and sensitive member of the AFL community, let alone the Fat Wog himself, should condone such mischief with gales of unrestrained laughter.
Yet that is precisely what Andrew Demetriou did when the topic came up on last night's Footy Classifieds. Would he be so callous, do you think, if Andrew Jaspan were sitting beside him?
Dwarfs aren't meant to burn, Mr Demetriou, except during the Multicultural Round, when allowances can be made for very short Buddhist monks.
Demetriou is the man who makes us pay $46 to sit through smoking ceremonies and possum pelt theatrics before matches can begin, who seems intent on ordaining every single AFL round a tribute to anything from solar energy to sodomy -- take your pick or name your own cause because, sooner or later, it is bound to get a gong. (What about a round to hail those who shot down the Bombers with leaks and lies? Or perhaps Demetriou could cast wider his encomiums and celebrate kangaroo courts, reporters suckling on the teat of whispered slanders, and trial by smear and headline.)
This is the holier-than-thou world of conspicuous caring and exquisite sensitivity Demetriou has inflicted on a nobly rough-hewn sport.
Judged by his own proclaimed standards, he must step down immediately.
UPDATE: Thank heavens Kim Duthie no longer has anything to do with the Saints. A hunka-hunka burning dwarf, the St Kilda Schoolgirl and 18 football players fresh from the waxing salon -- such a wild bacchanal could never have been subdued without the assistance of Joel Monaghan and his dog.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Otherwise occupied until tonight
At Imperial Bearbrass the committee frowns upon antics such as these.
UPDATE: How do they manage to get such speed out of golf carts? Well here's a tip that will be useful for anyone contemplating a holiday on Hamilton Island, where such vehicles are the only approved means of motorised transport: open the engine bay, find the carby and give the throttle-contol stop nut a few turns. The formerly sedate conveyance will then be able attain what must be about 40kph -- and more than that on a decent incline.
And here is another tip for those who roll their surreptitiously hotted-up golf sleds:
First, collect spilled passengers and severed limbs from ditches and roadside trees.
Second, return the stop nut to its original position.
Third, when the hire company desk jockey indicates you will be charged for damage, throw a pink fit and announce that you will be suing for damages, psychological trauma, loss of conjugal rights (this happens immediately upon your companion striking the tarmac) and anything else that comes to mind.
Your holiday will end unencumbered by liens and with an apology packed in your suitcase.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Rob Hulls keeps the faith
One of the immutable aspects of the progressive mind is its refusal
to progress beyond whichever warm and fuzzy nostrum first suggested itself as
the solution to any particular problem. The Carbon Tax is the most recent
example – the fact that a slug intended to change behaviour was immediately
mitigated by politically motivated handouts intended to minimise that impact raised
no eyebrows amongst its supporters. It was the idea of a planet-saving tax that is the article of their faith, the
real world utility of that beloved initiative being entirely beside the point.
If common sense fares well next weekend and the polls are
vindicated at the ballot box, that particular example of the left’s cognitive
dissonance will be both repudiated and repealed. But there are other tenets of modern
liberalism that continue to thrive, despite being rejected at any number of elections.
Like Patterson’s Curse, these notions tend to be attractive from a distance,
toxic when swallowed and almost impossible to uproot. How to punish criminals –
or not punish them, if truth be told –
is perhaps the most durable of them all.
The few remaining readers of The Sunday Age who are brighter than Earth Hour saw yet another recitation
of the “root causes” catechism this morning, courtesy of state political editor
Farrah
Tomazin’s weekly column (emphasis added):
“As Victoria heads towards a state election next year, it is time to reframe the debate. The last thing we need is another law-and-order auction based on expensive, punitive ideas. The emphasis should be on justice reinvestment - directing funds into programs that prevent criminal behaviour and tackle generational disadvantage rather than just the consequences of crime.
If it sounds like the bleeding obvious, it is.”
Obvious to whom,
one wondered, only to have that question immediately answered: obvious to former
state attorney general Rob Hulls, who found refuge in academia after his Labor government’s
defeat in 2010 and now heads RMIT University’s new Centre for Innovative
Justice.
“You can't just
jail your way to a safer community,” Hulls advises, and. Tomazin concedes that this
might be a hard sell, what with memories of Jill Meagher’s murder still fresh
in the public mind. The ABC employee’s killer, the multiple rapist and bash
artist Adrian Bayley, was allowed to remain on the streets, despite already being
on parole, after being found guilty of a brutal and unprovoked attack on a
Geelong man who was doing nothing more offensive than eating his dinner al fresco. Many Victorians are still wondering how such a travesty could ever
have come to pass.
The magistrate in
that case, Ron Saines, former
partner in a Trades Hall-associated law firm specialising in workers’ comp
cases, was a 2002 Hulls
appointment, but Victoria’s ex-attorney-general diplomatically neglected to
mention the beak or his pedigree. Had he done so, Age readers (the brighter ones, anyway) might have surmised that it
would indeed be possible to jail your way to a safer community, at least as far
as unaccompanied women leaving Brunswick pubs late at night are concerned.
To support the alleged
benefits of giving criminals earlier access to the streets, Tomasin cites what
she presents as the Texas model.
“If we need evidence of what works, the conservative US state of Texas makes a compelling case. Not long ago, the prison population in Texas was projected to grow by 17,700 people within five years, which would have required about $5 billion to be spent on new jails.
What did the US Republican government do? It directed more money towards programs that tackled disadvantage, kept young people in school for longer, and helped parolees curb their reoffending.As a result, crime reduced significantly, and some prisons even closed because demand dropped.”
We know that
summation of Texas justice comes straight from Hulls, who
used the same numbers – and very nearly identical words – in an Age opinion piece published back in May. Unless Tomazin is angling to win a
re-cycling award, she might want to fact-check anything and everything Hulls says
or writes from now on, especially when presenting his unattributed cut-and-pastes
as impartial fact.
The truth about crime
and punishment in Texas is a little more subtle than Hulls would have us
believe. Certainly, as the prison population witnessed its slight decrease,
overall crime statistics also declined – but not across the board. As the
Texas Department of Public Safety noted when releasing its 2012 numbers,
the latest available,
“While we are pleased that the overall index crime rate has decreased somewhat over the last year, it is concerning that at the same time Texas experienced an increase in the actual number of violent crimes,” said DPS Director Steven McCraw.
“Moreover, we are still relying on a crime index reporting program from the 1930s that does not reflect an accurate picture of the threats posed by criminal enterprise organizations currently operating in our state. Drug smuggling, human trafficking, extortion, corruption, bribery, money laundering and kidnapping are just a few of the crimes committed by these ruthless organizations that are not reflected in current UCR data.”
The FBI numbers similarly
refute the idea that reducing prison populations persuades criminals to change
their ways. Again, the numbers show a slight decrease in some offences, but they
also reflect an increased incidence of “murder, robbery, rape and aggravated
assault” in
20 of the state’s 33 surveyed jurisdictions. Where declines in those
categories were observed, they tended to be statistically insignificant. Fort
Worth, for example, saw violent crime in 2012 drop from 4579 incidents to 4516,
which is probably not the landmark improvement Hulls would wish to showcase.
And there is one
other aspect of Texas justice neither Hulls nor Tomazin felt worthy of mention.
While the state’s inmate population has declined slightly, from the 163,503 in 2000 to around 152,000 as of yearend 2012, authorities do not
expect the trend to be sustained. As
the state legislature’s Budget Board puts it:
Adult Incarceration: The Texas adult incarceration population is projected to remain relatively flat in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 and begin a gradual increase through fiscal year 2018 … the incarcerated population is projected to increase to 153,885 by the end of the 2014–15 biennium, and to 156,877 by the end of fiscal year 2018.
Not to be a
nitpicker, but the Hulls/Tomazin remedy – the “emphasis should be on justice
reinvestment - directing funds into programs that prevent criminal behaviour
and tackle generational disadvantage rather than just the consequences
of crime” – differs somewhat from the measures outlined by Texas lawmaker Jerry
Madden, a Republican and architect of his state’s reforms, during an April
appearance on Lateline. Rather than round up the usual suspect clichés,
Madden is quite specific in urging beefed-up parole administrators, swift
action when conditions of early release are violated, and a sharper focus on
drug-addicted and mentally disturbed inmates. All of which sounds a lot more
like old-fashioned nous than Hull’s rather vague desire to see kids remain
longer in school.
Just by the way, would that “generational disadvantage” include among its victims the late Jason and Mark Moran, products and victims of Melbourne’s underworld aristocracy, ice dealers, killers and, poor underpriveleged lads, Essendon Grammar old boys? For those interested in what is really happening in Texas and other US states, Washington Monthly magazine recently published a long and fascinating report on the push by conservatives to reform prisons, including an interview with Madden.
There is one aspect
of the Texas prison system which would be well worth imitating, however: what
it costs to keep a villain behind bars. According to Tomazin’s Age column, “Victorians spend about $240
a day - or $87,600 a year - to house one prisoner.” In the Lone Star State, locking up a thug ran
to a more affordable $21,390 in 2010 (see
Figure 4) and is unlikely to be much more expensive today. Could it be that the same mentality which looks to remedy those “root
causes” long after the twig has been bent also makes prison life more congenial
than genuine deterrence suggests it needs to be? Drug kingpin Carl Williams was
beaten to death with an iron bar taken from a piece of gym equipment in a maximum
security unit. He might yet be alive if prisoners still broke rocks to occupy their time, as any
sledgehammer needed for that public-service homicide would have been locked up and
safely out reach when prisoners were returned to their cells. They would have been too tired to murder
each other in any case. Far too tired.
As a charter member
of the caring-industrial complex and preacher of the root-causes gospel, it is
perhaps only natural that Hulls would interpret the slight Texas prison-population
decline as the consequence of the sort of policies and social engineering he
favours. To people of his sort, it is always the idea, which in this case would be guaranteed to draw the enthusiastic support of social workers, teachers union types, lawyers, judges, specialists in Aboriginal excuse-making and other justice-system hangers-on. Had he been of a different persuasion he might just as easily have
pointed to Texas' enthusiasm for capital punishment and the largely
unfettered right of unconvicted citizens to buy and bear arms.
But modern liberals
don’t think that way, to the extent they think at all. Theirs is a form of
tunnel vision perfectly captured by a thoroughly
baffled New York Times report that
appeared in 2004 beneath this headline: “Despite
Drop in Crime, an Increase in Inmates.”
Cause and effect -- it’s
a concept they find as difficult to grasp as the idea that bad men doing irksome penance for long periods behind high walls are most unlikely to find time or opportunity for raping and killing. .
Pulling it all together
It could be fairly said that things have not gone well for Kevin Rudd since the election was called, no doubt against his wishes, as he is the smartest person in any room and always happy to stage what he sincerely believes to be irrefutable demonstrations of that fact. If only he had been given a bit more time by his party's warlords, time to settle in and attend the G20, to weave those show-stopper election promises and plans into a cohesive whole, why everything would by now be so very different.
Imagine, if you will, what might have been:
"Men, women, and all good folks of Australia, I come before you today to unveil my new, integrated approach to policy and the great moral crusades of our age as well.
"When re-elected, my government will declare low tax rates for development-minded gay couples who move north of the Tropic of Capricorn to wed and there enter into local-equity partnership deals with Chinese agricultural concerns whose investments are reviewed by Treasury, except when they are not.
"There, that takes care of last week's loose ends.....
Imagine, if you will, what might have been:
"Men, women, and all good folks of Australia, I come before you today to unveil my new, integrated approach to policy and the great moral crusades of our age as well.
"When re-elected, my government will declare low tax rates for development-minded gay couples who move north of the Tropic of Capricorn to wed and there enter into local-equity partnership deals with Chinese agricultural concerns whose investments are reviewed by Treasury, except when they are not.
"There, that takes care of last week's loose ends.....
Always someone else's fault
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