A Dill And The Missing Link

That darn A Dill Horin, what a disappointment she is! As we all know, A Dill is very good at copying and pasting, which often seem her greatest talents. Yet here we are with another Saturday column and somehow – and this is very hard to understand – she neglects to transcribe a perfectly good quote and share it with her Silly readers.

In examining why parents kill their children, A Dill begins her thoughts with some quotes from the animal Ramazan Acar, who has just been denied an appeal against the life sentence he was handed last year for disembowelling two-year-old daughter, Yazmina. As A Dill notes, Acar murdered the little girl to punish his estranged wife, and she demonstrates as much by quoting from his postings on Facebook, where Acar taunted her for several hours before taking up the knife.

“'Bout 2 kill ma kid”, Acar wrote, followed shortly after by “Pay bk u slut.” Later in her column, A Dill mines another quote from the trial:

Ramazan Acar's motives were spelt out on Facebook, in texts and phone calls that [motherr] Ms D'Argent received even while in a police station with officers who listened in as their colleagues tried to hunt him down. ''I killed her to get back at you,'' Acar said. ''I don't care. Even if I go behind bars, I know you are suffering.''

Acar did say that, no doubt about it. But he also said this, the quote A Dill mysteriously neglected to share:

"U wanted to convert ma kid do it u wanted to lock me up I did it u wanted 2 b indapendant do it u take full custdy do it u wana kill me il do it wat eva makes u happy nw tel me".

Yes, Acar is Muslim and his ex-wife Christian. Now it is unfair to focus too much on that difference of faiths, especially as A Dill lists several other murderous parents for whom religion does not seem to have been an issue.

But still, given that the quote was free of charge and its use would have required no further effort on the columnist’s part than the customary Control + C, why not toss that fact into the mix?

Do you think it could be, just could be, because that information might have diminished the appeal of multiculturalism?

A Dill Pushes Her Borrow

IN TODAY’s Silly, A Dill Horin writes about bad bosses and addresses the topic with a vehemence the casual reader might conclude can only be the result of harsh personal experience. Now this is a real curiosity, as A Dill has spent her working life in the service of just one employer, Fairfax. Indeed, she is a little piece of that company’s institutional memory. Her insights were first gifted to the reading public by the original National Times, the forest-products version, which has much to answer for. David Marr, Marian Wilkinson and A Dill – all are graduates of that defunct publication, and not one has ever deviated from the exclusionary arrogance and didactic dementia which, back then, characterised just that one weekly corner of the Fairfax empire.

Today, as many former Fairfax readers have recognised, the attitudes and perspectives have infected and colonised the entire group.  Purchase tomorrow’s Sun-Herald, a mass market product ostensibly aimed at the widest possible readership, and you will see the consequences: a paper filled with the preciousness and picayune fancies of those who produce it, rather than the interests of those who no longer buy it. (According to a friend of the Billabong, a former Fairfax employee, the Sun-Herald once sold in excess of 800,000 copies every Sunday; the latest figures barely exceeds half that number). Whatever A Dill’s experience of bad bosses, her personal perspective would seem to have been shaped not by bullies but buffoons forever prepared to indulge subordinates’ peculiar disdain for all unlike themselves. If A Dill has ever encountered a boss who took her to task for that attitude, word of such an encounter would come as an immense surprise.

And it also would appear she has never met a boss who reminded her that she is paid for original thought, not simple mastery of her keyboard’s CONTROL + C function. In today’s column, for example, she lists some of bad bosses’ defining deficiencies:

Here are some other traits bad bosses are unlikely ever to admit:
They are control freaks and micro managers.
They are pushy and overbearing.
They cling to plans and opinions despite overwhelming evidence that they're dead wrong.
They won't protect staff from the idiocy raining from above.
They hog the credit.

Now where would A Dill have acquired such a scorecard? Click the following link, follow the prompt and observe the similarities to the content of a web site operated by American author and management guru Robert Sutton.

Now it is true that A Dill acknowledges Sutton two paragraphs subsequent to the list of points she has borrowed from him, which is probably enough with her light paraphrasing to see the charge of full-blown plagiarism dismissed, at least on the strength of this one exhibit. But when you dive a little deeper into the dribble of A Dill’s thoughts, it is the unintended irony of the following passage that is perhaps the most striking element of A Dill’s effort. 

Bosses are not the only ones to suffer from lack of self-knowledge, of course. All of us do to some extent unless we have been through therapy or a crisis that reveals uncomfortable truths about ourselves.

The “uncomfortable truth” about A Dill is that she needs one of those “bad bosses” in the worst possible way – someone prepared to point out that originality is a condition of employment.

UPDATE: A little more borrowing.

A DILL in the Silly: NetApp topped Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2009 and a month after the ranking appeared announced it was laying off 6 per cent of employees. Google, top-rated by Fortune in 2008, also shed hundreds of full-time workers.

SUTTON in The Harvard Business Review: NetApp, declared number one in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for 2009, announced it was cutting loose 6% of its employees less than a month after the ranking appeared. Google, top-rated by Fortune in 2008, has shed hundreds of full-time employees.

A Dill's At The Clag Again

FAIRFAX, as both readers and investors are well aware, is in all sorts of trouble, so it is good to see innovation being brought to bear on the company’s bottom line. The agent of change is none other than A Dill Horin, who continues to demonstrate that, when it comes to reporting, her expertise starts and ends with the keyboard’s CONTROL + C function. Sooner or later, someone at Fairfax World Headquarters will notice there is no need to pay her, as it would be much cheaper to give her friends in the Caring Industrial Complex open access to run their press releases untouched in the pages of the Silly and Phage. But such is her concern for shareholders, A Dill selflessly persists in providing further demonstrations why she is not needed. Consider her article in this morning’s paper, which reports on the Australian Council of Social Service’s notions of a better and more equitable tax system.

ACOSS yesterday issued a press release in which it summarised the many areas of the productive economy it would penalise to support the social workers and hanky-wringers whose mortgages depend on an assured supply of mendicants, these days known as “clients”. Demonstrating the skills of a modern Fairfax prober, she then went to the extraordinary trouble of actually opening a .pdf file. No doubt exhausted by that effort, she then cut and pasted big chunks of the ACOSS position paper beneath her byline and the heading "Tax breaks for wealthy under fire".

A DILL: ... proposed measures would help resolve the tension between the government's commitment to restore the budget to surplus from 2012-13 and the urgency of unmet social needs.
ACOSS: The submission aims to resolve the tension between the Government’s commitment to restore the Budget to surplus from 2012-13 and the urgency of social and economic needs not yet met

A DILL: ...Australia is the eighth-lowest taxing country among the 30 developed nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Australians were not overtaxed but taxed unfairly and inefficiently. The main problem was an array of tax shelters and loopholes that enabled well-off people to avoid paying tax at the appropriate marginal rate.
ACOSS:  Australia is the eighth lowest taxing country among the 30 OECD nations. Australians are not over-taxed, but they are taxed unfairly and inefficiently. The main problem is an array of tax shelters and loopholes that enable well off people to avoid paying tax at the appropriate marginal rate.

A DILL: ACOSS says individuals could reduce the marginal tax rates on their income by:
■Sheltering income in a private trust.
■Sacrificing salary for superannuation, which enabled taxpayers on the top marginal rate to reduce their tax rate from 46.5 per cent to 15 per cent.
■Taking advantage of the concessional treatment of ''golden handshakes'', which in many cases were taxed at 15 per cent.
ACOSS:  Individual taxpayers can reduce the marginal tax rates on their income by:
* sheltering income in a private trust;
* sacrificing salary for superannuation, which enables a tax-payer on the top marginal rate to reduce their tax rate from 46.5% to 15%; and
* taking advantage of the concessional tax treatment of termination payments such as ‘golden handshakes’, which in many cases are also taxed at the relatively low rate of 15%

A DILL: In addition, small businesses could reduce their tax by taking advantage of capital gains tax concessions not available to other taxpayers, and international companies could shift profits from Australia to lower tax jurisdictions while maximising Australian debt levels.
ACOSS:  Businesses can reduce their tax by:
* in the case of international companies, shifting profits from Australia to other lower tax ju-risdictions by maximising their Australian debt levels and their overseas profit levels (profit shifting);
* in the case of small business, taking advantage of Capital Gains Tax concessions not available to other taxpayers.

What remains of A Dill’s report is a lightly paraphrased regurgitation of the ACOSS  press realease.

Isn’t it good to see Fairfax putting such an emphasis on quality journalism?

A Dill's Gem: Made Of Paste

JUST in case you missed it, A Dill Horin confirms the trope that, while the right regards the left as misguided, the left sees only wickedness in those who dare to disagree.

I was surprised because, let's face it, as regular readers of my column might suspect, I hang out with people the forces of evil would describe as ''politically correct''.

The forces of evil? It is not a pleasant to hear oneself described in such terms, to be told point-blank that one's opinions are the result not of faulty analysis or even misguided preconception, but of  blind hatred, bigotry and industrial-strength intolerance -- all traits, just by the way, that Horin demonstrates with her every column.

Would it be evil to suggest that Horin owes her Silly sinecure not to merit or the originality of her ideas but to being part of the push -- "the mates I hang out with" -- who are happy to sling her cheques for never, ever calling their shared view of the world into question, especially her friends in the caring-industrial complex? These are thoughts she often takes down to reproduce verbatim, often with only a slight nod to their origins. There is one example of A Dill's enlightened poaching of other's words which went to press last year -- so long ago the Professor would normally be inclined to let it go without comment. But as Horin is tossing about the word "evil", let us in response think of a term to describe someone who appropriates another's work. "Light fingered" comes very readily to mind.

The article in question detailed Horin's admiration for Wayne Swan ("a better treasurer than Paul Keating") and hailed the economic stewardship of the then-Rudd government. To make her point, she referenced in passing an article in The Atlantic by Don Peck, who described the longer-term impacts on US families and individuals of recession and diminished opportunities. Consider the similarities:

PECK: One recent survey showed that 44 percent of families had experienced a job loss, a reduction in hours, or a pay cut in the past year.
A DILL: A survey found 44 per cent of American families had experienced a job loss, or a cut in hours or pay in the past year.

PECK: ...unemployment and underemployment ... reached 17.4 percent in October, which appears to be the highest figure since the 1930s.
A DILL: The proportion of Americans unemployed or under-employed hit 17.4 per cent last year, the highest since 1930

PECK: One recent survey showed that 44 percent of families had experienced a job loss, a reduction in hours, or a pay cut in the past year.
A DILL: A survey found 44 per cent of American families had experienced a job loss, or a cut in hours or pay in the past year.

PECK: The unluckiest graduates of the decade, who emerged into the teeth of the 1981–82 recession, made roughly 25 percent less in their first year than graduates who stepped into boom times.
A DILL: ... graduates who began to look for work in the US during the teeth of the 1981-82 recession made 25 per cent less in their first year than those who graduated in boom times.

PECK: ... it’s as if the lucky graduates had been given a gift of about $100,000 … or, alternatively, as if the unlucky ones had been saddled with a debt of the same size.
A DILL: Even 17 years later, they were still earning 10 per cent less on average than the luckier graduates, the equivalent of carrying a $100,000 debt

PECK: Experienced workers holding prestigious degrees are taking unpaid internships
A DILL: Experienced workers with prestigious degrees are taking unpaid internships

PECK: According to a recent Pew survey, 10 percent of adults younger than 35 have moved back in with their parents as a result of the recession
A DILL: 10 per cent of people under 35 have moved back in with their parents, according to a Pew survey.

Is it plagiarism? Almost, but not quite.

But it is certainly slack if one considers – and it is a dubious proposition to be sure – that a weekly pulpit on the opinion page of a premier broadsheet is a privilege. Some might think such a gift worth honouring with at least a little dash of originality -- but not, apparently, those in the Silly sheltered workshop who weave their baskets with other people's reeds.

A. Dill's Prescription

THERE IS a bit of thick-headedness at the Billabong this morning, a consequence of an evening that began with several Boag's lagers, moved to some whites and then a bottle of red, plunged into the champagne and tailed off in the wee hours with a little port -- well, more than a little, actually -- before drawing to an end, according to the evidence of the morning on the bedside table, with, of all things, a vodka and orange. The last item is something of a mystery, as it has not been a favoured tipple since the Fourth Form break-up party, and that was back when John Gorton occupied the Lodge. The emptiness of the adjoining pillow is another riddle. Memories are foggy, but it is a near certainty that a special someone occupied that spot when the lights went out. Very shortly it will be time to place a diplomatic phone call, one that will need to begin with a carefully weighted choice of words and the option thereafter of veering into the realm of apology.

Not to worry. If there are to be  recriminatory words about  the Professor's behaviour -- and the remains of a barbecued lamb leg used as an ashtray, also on the bedside table, suggest there will be --  then praise be to the Great Bunyip for shaping from the clippings of social workers' manuals, dried-out chardonnay corks and designer coffee grounds the wonder that is A Dill Horin. It is true that the Silly's joyless scold seldom adds to the sum of human knowledge, but this morning's column is the exception. If there was bestial behaviour last night and if some judicious grovelling will be required, the latter can now be qualified by quoting from A Dill's praise for the Nanny State and its regulations.

Intoxicated? Obstreperous? Back on the fags? Thank God for Adele, who proves that all those grave flaws of character are the fault of naysayers who would stay the state's hand from crafting fresh rules to regulate  the individual's folly. As Adele explains it,

Yes, we have reason to be thankful that governments sometimes legislate in ways that infringe on our liberties. Personal responsibility is too flimsy a bulwark against the forces of irresponsible, laissez-faire capitalism.

So very true! If only legislation had been on the books to foil the mixing of drinks and gnawing of lamb bones in bed, the Professor's head would not be throbbing, nor would this post have been interrupted twice by the demands of a fractious bowel. In this instance A Dill is putting the case for controls on punters' right to lose their money on poker machines, but her wisdom is clearly universal. After the pokies, let our governments and bureaucrats save us from fatty foods and riding bicycles in unapproved attire. Hang on, they have already attended to the latter, so Adele and her morally superior friends will be free to focus on their next campaign of legislated betterment.

Compulsory jogging, anyone? Wait a bit and Adele and her pals will tick that box as well, no doubt about it.

Now for that ticklish phone call.