After the emotional trauma of Paul Sheehan's last outing - wherein he wanted to donate free taxi rides to any Sydney sider waiting for a bus - it's a relief to turn to Stop the rot: debt crisis must end, and discover he's channeling Tony Abbott on carbon dioxide:Oh dear, I wonder if it's weightless too.
Thereafter what follows is a very dull and predictable berating of Obama and the Democrats in the current United States debt crisis, with a quite handsome endorsement of the products of the Tea Party movement, fervent proponents of a grass roots campaign to save billionaires from tax increases.
No doubt the billionaires will offer free taxi rides to poor sods reduced to catching buses.
Hey ho, on we go, pausing only to celebrate John McCain's mangled Lord of the Rings analogy, which led to a flurry of Tolkein references and homages, including a spot on Stephen Colbert.
Well it makes for more fun than reading Sheehan's second hand account, when primary American sources are close at hand.
Meanwhile, over at The Australian, Glenn Milne seems to have returned to favour (Glenn Milne leaves the Oz).
Milne, who was dubbed "the Poison Dwarf" by Paul Keating, no doubt with a keen eye for Lord of the Rings analogies, today scribbles an entirely useless piece, Get out of perpetual election mode and just govern, seemingly designed to get the week off to a good start with a handsome bout of fatuity.
The theory, according to Milne, expounded at great and tedious length, is that Labor must leave the carbon tax debate behind, and get on and govern.
Milne then explains how it will be impossible to govern, by brooding about the planned tax forum, and then he comes up with a priceless insight:
This is the worst of all worlds for Swan. He gets to host a tax forum at the behest of the independents, which he must neuter from the outset by vetoing any changes to the GST, the mining tax or the carbon tax, but which still gives the Murdoch press, and in particular the Daily Terror, a licence for a scare campaign.
Oops, damn you, laid off Murdoch subbie, you know very well that Milne line actually talked of an "opposition licence for a scare campaign."
Anyhoo, by the end of the piece, it turns out that it's simply impossible for Gillard to govern, because she's going to lose either the support of Mike Kelly in Eden Monaro or independent Wilkie in Tasmania in relation to the poker machine club industry's desire to keep on fleecing the punters. How do they put it?
We will decide who comes into the clubs of this country, and the circumstances in which they are fleeced of their family fortune.
Yep, it's just another day at The Australian, destroying that special weightless, odourless, colourless substance, called fair and balanced opinion-making. Truly when Milne scribbles ...
... he and the minions of Murdoch will continue to ensure it's a rocky road, while Tony "carbon dioxide is weightless" Abbott will get plenty of room to write self-serving election mode tracts for the Oz like Why Gillard needs a new mandate from the people.
We have to admit that we read it hoping to discover how carbon dioxide was weightless, only to reach a point where a great chortle redeemed all the suffering:
Now, we still need a stronger economy but we need a stronger society too. Bodies such as the CIS and the Institute of Public Affairs have acknowledged this through the priority they give to social and cultural issues, as much as economic ones.
The Institute of Public Affairs? The pro-tobacco, pro-alcohol, pro-poker machine, pro-healthy weightless carbon dioxide, pro-what else have you got to ensure that the bandits can still make out like bandits, Institute of Public Affairs?
The home of Chris Berg running a valiant rear guard action against plain packaging in Plain packs pointless when smoke gets in our eyes?
The home of climate denialism (let's not dress it up with the honorary title of scepticism, since science is based on scepticism, not denialism), as outlined in The benefit of the doubt:
''Of all the serious sceptics in Australia, we have helped and supported just about all of them in their work one way or another,'' he says, listing some prominent figures on the local circuit. ''Ian Plimer - we launched his book - Bob Carter, Jo Nova, William Kininmonth.''
The IPA's operating budget is small but its influence in nurturing climate scepticism in the wider community is large. About a quarter of its $2 million in annual funding comes from corporations with a direct stake in the climate change debate, not including contributions from its 1000 individual members, some of whom also have a personal interest in climate change.
The IPA's operating budget is small but its influence in nurturing climate scepticism in the wider community is large. About a quarter of its $2 million in annual funding comes from corporations with a direct stake in the climate change debate, not including contributions from its 1000 individual members, some of whom also have a personal interest in climate change.
The home of Chris Berg celebrating the joys of alcohol, in Alcohol Is Good - So Let's Drink To That? Of course the point isn't to downplay the evils of alcohol, it's to celebrate the joy Fosters brings to shareholders ...
The home of Chris Berg celebrating the joys of industrial food, and deploring anyone who takes any interest in any other kind of food, in Dig in, don't wait. Our slow food nostalgia is misplaced.
The home of Chris Berg explaining how poker machines are just jolly good fun, in The Road To Hell Is Not Paved With Poker Machines.
Oh yes, the Institute of Public Affairs certainly gives priority to key social and cultural issues.
Oh yes, the Institute of Public Affairs certainly gives priority to key social and cultural issues.
Thank you Tony Abbott, but the pond is still waiting for that explanation of the science behind carbon dioxide turning out to be weightless, briefly noted in a regional rag, The Canberra Times, under the header Abbott chokes on greenhouse gas.
It's going to be a long week, and no doubt there will be many crises of confidence, most likely induced by reading the commentariat and worrying about Tony Abbott being in bed with the IPA ...
(Below: this found on the tubes. Who knows what it means).
Chris Berg is almost as annoying as Wil Anderson, who is a sanctimonious, smarmy, nod-nod-wink-wink dick of the worst ABC type.
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