Tory Maguire Paul Colgan, and another "News Corp is evil" piece ...

(Above: Travel alert. Make sure you avoid Munich in your travels).

The fine art of House of Murdoch bashing is given another spin in Unfair and unbalanced: how News failed to fell government. Noted by The Punch, in its punch drunk conversation with the world, as:

Maintaining the rage is getting to be a community sport. Or should that be cultivating the defensive paranoia in the House of Murdoch?

But Another News Ltd is evil piece seems to miss the point that these days the global vertically integrated media company goes by the name News Corporation. Another News Corp is evil piece, please sir, and can I have some more Murdoch gruel, and it would be ever so much more tasty if it were written Another "News Corp is evil" piece.

Gee, the pleasure of pedantry mingled with abuse.

Speaking of the cheap assed end of the House of Murdoch, what's The Punch been offering up lately?

Well there's Tory Maguire wringing her hands and suggesting Let's just pull the pin on Delhi 2010 now.

Could we pull the pin on Tory at the same time? One of the subbie wits, or perhaps Tory herself put up a snap of a burning car to accompany her piece, with the title Games organisers conduct a pyrotechnics rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth games.

No doubt Tory was also around, wringing her hands and warning people not to visit Munich back in 1972. If the Olympics in Munich in 1972 demonstrated anything, it's that German authorities were totally incapable of conducting a slick security operation.

Our suggestion? Whatever you think of doing, drop it and stay at home, cringing in fear in the lounge room, and make sure you avoid the Olympics in London.

There's clear evidence that the British authorities are totally incapable of conducting a slick security operation, unless of course you think it's pretty slick to chase an innocent man into a train carriage and blow him away. Not to mention all those bombs going off on various forms of public transport.

And whatever you do, don't travel to Villawood. It seems there's some kind of stand-off going down ...

But here's a thought. Instead of reading yet another paranoid rant from a House of Murdoch journalist, why don't the athletes, administrators and advisors make up their own minds, and if they deem it safe to travel, with suitable precautions, let them travel. And if they don't want to, let them stay at home. It won't matter to me, because the very concept of the Commonwealth Games bores me to tears.

But between Steve Moneghetti and paranoid rants, would you be better off trusting him or Tory Maguire doing her best to whip up fear mongering in an hysterical way? (and you can hear an interview with Moneghetti on security here). Between security and an inability to finish off the athletes' village, it seems the muddle theory will win yet again.

Speaking of paranoia - it seems you read The Punch all you cop is drivel or paranoia or an expert blend of both - Paul Colgan managed to bring out a hearty dose in Anonymous comments: why we all need an escape goat.

Colgan gets his juices flowing by quoting Jolly Joe Hockey:

Back here in Australia shadow treasurer Joe Hockey threw in his two cents of indignation over the weekend on Twitter. “I admit I am losing faith in Twitter (& BLOGS) because the anonymous commentary is often banal, nasty and meaningless,” Hockey said. “No name = cowardice.”

Of course Jolly Joe is in a position of power, and can - if he so chooses - name names and defame anyone within the shelter of parliament. No need for anonymity with that sort of power.

It's possibly passed unnoticed amongst the few casual readers of this blog that the real Dorothy Parker is long dead, and this blog relies on a pseudonym.

Using a pen name doesn't guarantee you anonymity or refuge from legal action - it always amazes me how little people know about how easy it is to track them on the web - but it does take the heat off you when it comes to casual evidence being compiled against you by friends, enemies, relatives and employers (or employees wanting to get you in hot water).

As someone sometimes paid to track things on the web, paranoia tells me that the less you put of your personal details and opinions up on the full to overflowing intertubes - the trivial, the opinionated, the personal identifiers and indicators of identity - the happier you'll be. Which is not an invitation to uncivilised behaviour.

Jolly Joe's comment is the kind of luxurious nonsense only a politician or a person paid to expose their views to the world would take seriously.

Have a read of David Rowan's explanation of Six Reasons Why I'm Not On Facebook, and you'll get an idea why anonymous comments, which aren't either overly abusive or defamatory, are welcome here. And why people who put up personal information are cruising for a bruising. I was first online way back in the early nineties, and damned I'm glad I've kept my details close.

A couple of quotes to get the flavour:

Founder Mark Zuckerberg once joked dismissively about the “dumb fucks” who “trust me”. I admire the business Zuckerberg’s built; but I don’t trust him.

“When you’re young, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff,” President Obama warned high-school students in Virginia last September. “Be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age whatever you do will be pulled up later somewhere in your life.” He’s right: anything posted online might come to haunt you permanently, yet all of us need space to grow. As the writer Jaron Lanier said in a recent lecture, if Robert Zimmerman, of small-town Hibbing, Minnesota, had had a Facebook profile, could he really have re-created himself as the New York beatnik Bob Dylan.

Meanwhile, Colgan sets to brooding about how to improve online conversations:

What are your tips for improving online conversations? Bonus points if you post under your real name.

Bonus points? For stupidity? I'd no more think of using my real name in a comment on The Punch than I'd think about walking down the streets of Newtown wearing a dunce's hat, with my name, passport and driver's licence details scribbled on it.

Naturally the bulk of the comments on Colgan's piece ignored his suggestion, and instead used pen names.

The level of absurd surreality in the comments section reached this nadir when "Russell" - yes his real name is "Russell", a dead give away as to his identity - offered up this thought bubble, getting upset when a person using a "funny" assumed name called him - the real "Russell" - a liar:

That person was a coward. Calling someone a liar is actionable. My integrity and professional reputation (if it mattered, and if I was fully identified) could have been damaged, and such matters regularly end up in the courts.Of course I would never take action in circumstances like this, but the fact remains, the level of “debate” on this site and many others, is pathetic.

Pathetic? Too true "Russell". You don't mind if I call you "Russell", seeing as how we're on a first names familiarity?

One thing's for sure Russell. You were wise to use your real first name. Now there are thousands of employers wondering if their "Russell" is this dipstick "Russell" wasting his time during a working Tuesday.

Meanwhile, here's what the moderators let through in Tory's comments section:

1. That’s what happens when guilt and political correctness form every decision made. We must apologise for all of the wrongs done in India when it was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. Let’s hold the games there, old chap ! That’ll show ‘em that we’re sorry ! Pip, pip…and all that !

2. If only we had a Caste System like India - no-one would call us racist then.

Emerging Superpower my arse.

3. Any one who travels contrary to a DFAT travel advisory is a complete irresponsible idiot. This stuff isn’t cooked up by a bunch of dudes with a few week old newspapers thinking ‘whoa, shits getting real bro’. We’re a party to the UKUSA agreement, which shares signals intel straight out of terrorist infested hell holes like the sub-continent.

And so on and so forth. It almost made me miss Eric, the right wing loon.

Hmm. How to improve the quality of online conversation?

Ban Tory Maguire and The Punch would be a good starting point ...

(Below: one of many good reasons to avoid London and its Olympics. Suggested witty, oh so clever Punch header: Games organisers conduct a pyrotechnics rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Olympic games).