Now that Miranda the Devine is safely back in the bunker, it's time to ask what's happened to Moorice?
Towards the end of each week, the pond could look forward to momentous insights on any number of matters in the lizard Oz. It gave a fillip and a leg up as the weekend loomed.
It might well get to the point where the pond is forced to recycle Moorice columns as a sweet reminder of the way we were ...
It might well get to the point where the pond is forced to recycle Moorice columns as a sweet reminder of the way we were ...
Oh those were the good, no, the grand days of Oz, and frankly the hapless, wretched Freedom Boy is simply no substitute, though the reptiles have put Freedom Boy blubbering away at the top of the page as their featured opinion piece for the day ...
Now this is tedious in the extreme, not least because the pond is well over the plebiscite and all the jibber jabber around it - we haven't even got to the wording or the legislation - and extremely tired of linking to Freedom Boy's original thoughts on a plebiscite here ...
But since we've been forced to return to the turf, it should be acknowledged that there are other minority groups that are even more demonised at the moment, and it has managed to produce appalling poll responses ...
So how do the Terrorists and the Bolter respond? They double down, natch ...
So how do the Terrorists and the Bolter respond? They double down, natch ...
But since we're in the turf, we should pause to note the Bolter's righteous indignation on that other matter ...
And what was the Bolter so indignant about? What was he defending?
Well Ben McLeay can look after himself and he had his say here ...
The pond is aware of the Bolter's way with cherry picking words - why it's indulged in the game itself - so it might be just worthwhile sampling a little of what McLeay had to say ...
The pond is aware of the Bolter's way with cherry picking words - why it's indulged in the game itself - so it might be just worthwhile sampling a little of what McLeay had to say ...
Well yes, indeed ... it's hard to see much funny in this ...
Or this memorial ...
Oh wait, the pond sees that Bill Leak has been to Berlin and done another funny prank ...
What a card he is, how worthy of the reptiles and the Bolter, what fun it is to do dirt on people ...
Now if we do a Greg Hunt, we might remember that between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals ... and now we might imagine what impact Bill Leak's attention seeking might have made if he'd drawn a bunch of Jews as Nazis ...
Pay attention to the Siren Song of the Bolter Serpent ...
Now if we do a Greg Hunt, we might remember that between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals ... and now we might imagine what impact Bill Leak's attention seeking might have made if he'd drawn a bunch of Jews as Nazis ...
Pay attention to the Siren Song of the Bolter Serpent ...
Yes Jews, the free speech of Bill Leak will save you.
See how he saves the homosexuals!
There's your freedom of speech for you. When someone says something naughty, you run off to big government and demand that they be banned, or better still have all their money taken away. Talk about freedom to speak. Where's big punisher Fifield!?
So where's Freedom Boy in all this?
See how he saves the homosexuals!
There's your freedom of speech for you. When someone says something naughty, you run off to big government and demand that they be banned, or better still have all their money taken away. Talk about freedom to speak. Where's big punisher Fifield!?
So where's Freedom Boy in all this?
Yes, that immortal line "What Shorten and Band'ts conduct does do is set the tone of the debate."
Actually Freedom Boy, what the Bolter, Bill Leak and the reptiles of the Oz and the Terror do sets the tone of the debate, and what an ugly tone it is ...
And if you'd been serious about the Mercure you would have matched it with a reference to the Joy 94.9 bomb threat ...
The ratbags are out in force and it's going to get even uglier, if the Leaks, the reptiles and the Bolter have their way ...
But you knew all this, once upon a time ...
You would be tragic if you weren't so pathetic, or perhaps you'd be pathetic if you weren't such a tragic irrelevant figure, a quisling lick spittle, or if you prefer Bolter terminology, a thug ...
Well anyone who disagrees with him is a thug, so welcome to the land of thuggees ...
A responsibility not to divide society?
Go tell it to the reptiles of Oz and the Bolter and the rest of the right wing hounds you now hunt the foxes with ...
By the way, have you checked your underpants? Pope did, and more papal alarums here ...
Well anyone who disagrees with him is a thug, so welcome to the land of thuggees ...
A responsibility not to divide society?
Go tell it to the reptiles of Oz and the Bolter and the rest of the right wing hounds you now hunt the foxes with ...
By the way, have you checked your underpants? Pope did, and more papal alarums here ...
I came upon the first edition of the Oz yesterday. 1964 or thereabouts.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty dull. Short on pics and heavy on type.
One thing jumped from each page. The near absence of bylines and certainly no picture bylines which have the happy effect of freezing the author in time as the same snap is used over and over again through the decades.
So, commentary was, by and large confined to the editorial.
Of course such a paper would put Dot out of business.
Miss pp
I see that the first edition of The Oz hit the streets on 15th July, 1964, Miss pp. In its first year it would therefore have completely missed out on reporting:
Delete1. 10th Feb: the Melbourne-Voyager collision
2. in April: The Menzies government refuses to ratify the International Labor Organisation convention on equal pay for women.
And
The editors of Sydney satirical Oz magazine – Richard Neville, Richard Walsh and Martin Sharp – are charged with printing an obscene publication. [What was that ting about "oppressive customs and canons" again ? And the "radical leftists" who fought for liberty for us all ?]
But it would have got:
3. 10 November – Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces the reintroduction of National Service [the Vietnam adventure begins in earnest]
4. 31 December – Donald Campbell sets new water speed record of 276 miles per hour at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia
And
The Beatles tour Australia.
So what amazing things did The Oz's first edition report ?
Interestingly enough the lead story had a contemporary air.
DeleteSTRAIN IN CABINEt - Liberals and Country Party row of supposed CP dealings with ALP
There were warnings that economy was overheating and that spending cuts were in order.
A page one column introduced the first edition saying:
'in these pages you will find the impartial information and the independent thinking that are essential to the further advance of our country' and that the paper was 'tied to no party'
Miss pp
Ah yes, an 'overheated economy' - while Holt was still Treasurer (about 2 years before he became PM) and roughly 3 years since the Holt 'credit squeeze' of 1961 had caused a recession that nearly cost Menzies the 1961 election (he ended up in very nearly the same boat as Malware is in now).
DeleteMy recall - it is quite a long time ago - is that The Oz actually was a fairly good newspaper in its early years. It even had Pill Adams as a regular columnist back when Adams was almost worth reading ... sometimes.
That 'tied to no party' is funny though - of course it was tied to whatever party Rupert wanted to tie it to for however long he wanted it tied. Nonetheless, my (again uncertain) recall is that it was not then anything like the raving partisan rag it has turned into nowadays.