tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post4055669155551725514..comments2024-03-29T06:12:04.668+11:00Comments on loon pond: In which the pond finally fries the Coke of Western Civilisation ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-29600201528753944632018-06-15T02:07:19.748+10:002018-06-15T02:07:19.748+10:00Not so good during the kanaka 'blackbirding...Not so good during the kanaka 'blackbirding' times either. And pretty damn bad when the Tasmanian aboriginals were driven to extinction (at least of the so-called 'fullbloods'). Not all that terrific during quite a few times of aboriginal massacres either.<br /><br />In fact, really only any good in the times of Fisher and Chifley, though Stanley Bruce was kinda ok too.GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-39447814327154804242018-06-14T16:17:34.355+10:002018-06-14T16:17:34.355+10:00"...Australia's achievements were overwhe..."...Australia's achievements were overwhelmingly positive..."<br /><br />except during the Howard yearsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-52873981373206693562018-06-14T14:12:25.737+10:002018-06-14T14:12:25.737+10:00The Great Rubin says: "Western society has i...The Great Rubin says: "<i>Western society has its faults but ...it has generated the most humane moral and intellectual ideas and standards in history</i>."<br /><br />Yes, yes, maybe, but please do tell when "Western society" is ever going to actually live by all of those wonderful "<i>ideas and standards</i>".<br /><br />It not just the appalling horrors of the 20thC, or having a "democratically elected" President who is perfectly at ease contemplating "<i>20 or 30 million deaths</i>" in Korea, it's the whole history of wars and conquests and enslavements for the past 2600 years (counting 'Western society' to have begun with Draco the Lawgiver, a decade or two before 600BC).<br /><br />All of those lovely religious wars and all the people tortured and killed in them, the plagues, the famines, the purges, the suppression of the legitimate aspirations of the lower classes (see Martin Luther for instance) - all of that. Sure, heaps of wonderful "<i>ideas and standards</i>" but never any appreciable effort to actually implement them and live by them. And I'll bet that none of the 'Ramsay Clique' have ever heard of Euler or John Graunt.<br /><br />Not to mention that Ramsay clearly hugely overcharged sick people for his services to be able to leave a Au$3.3 billion legacy.GrueBleennoreply@blogger.com