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Post by jack on Dec 13, 2013 19:57:20 GMT 10
Comparing Bolt with something that is receptive, useful and productive?
I wouldn't have gone there.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 13, 2013 23:15:52 GMT 10
"The Bolter wants to have 18C repealed"
I get the impression that he's not expecting to get that. He wouldn't be fuming quite so loudly otherwise. He definitely wouldn't be laying out the bridge-burning "look what I've done for you" case (which, if one thinks one needs to be making it, probably isn't going to do any win any arguments or friends, doubly so if one thinks that making that argument in public is the only avenue left).
A new podcast I've been enjoying: Welcome To Night Vale. It's weird, and nice to listen to. I've been listening to them to wind down before bedtime. 99% invisible blitzed its target for donations, so I think they're planning to go weekly now (and I get some new t-shirts!). The latest episode about blue screens is cute. Stuff To Blow Your Mind has been very good lately; I think that's my current fave "Stuff". Chris Mooney and Indre Viskontis split from the CFI and have their own pod now, called "Inquiring Minds". Just have a listen to the first episode - an interview with astronaut Marsha Ivins.
I'm looking forward to the xmas break. Taking a few weeks off this year. I have plans ... or at least good intentions :-)
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Post by angra on Dec 14, 2013 13:01:55 GMT 10
I thought Spigelman gave a good account of himself at the National Press Club today. But expect the usual bile and shit from the fascists.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 14, 2013 16:09:31 GMT 10
Sweet Jesus Just read it. I'm not going to quote the whole thing. Then go read the actual judgement. I think it's reasonably clearly written, and nowhere near as .... dubious ... as one or two high court decisions I've read in recent months (sometimes I wonder if the high court is really a creative writing workshop accidentally classified as a legal institution) blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/high_court_uses_slippery_slope_argument_to_defend_same_sex_marriage_where_i/Bottom line .... no, the high court is NOT defending the federal marriage act by way of the slippery slope argument. What it is doing, with all that precedent mumbo-jumbo, is countering the argument that the constitution is limited to the understanding of marriage in 1900 when it gives the power to legislate "marriage" to the federal government. It is going to great lengths to argue that the "between one man and one woman, for life" has not been the limit of federal understanding of "marriage", and so the ACT can't just conjure up a new definition of "marriage" that runs around it. In no way does it argue that allowing same sex marriage now means that we'll have to allow bestiality and incestuous unions at some point in the future due to some unstoppable flow of history. That's the suggestion made by the wingnuts in the same-sex marriage debate, and the high court doesn't endorse it. Sorry Andrew, but Turnbull was right. I'm not a lawyer, but a simple reading of that judgement doesn't make bolter seem very good at "reading comprehension". But that's ok - his readers will never bother to check his claims. I don't think bolter understands what "embarrassment" means.
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Post by jack on Dec 14, 2013 19:09:54 GMT 10
It turns out i was wrong only in one detail - one that actually underlines my point. That was as far as I got.
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Post by angra on Dec 15, 2013 5:04:25 GMT 10
And Hyde vs Hyde, which Bolt includes in his selective quote, is an 1866 case in which an ex-Mormon was not granted a divorce from his second wife, as the UK courts recognised that his polygamous marriage was perfectly legal in the country in which was was contracted. The judges stated "The fact that polygamy is permitted by the law of the country where the marriage was contracted does not render it invalid, or there can be no such thing as a valid marriage in polygamous countries. A marriage between two persons competent to contract marriage, and valid by the law of the place where it was contracted, is valid in every country in the world."
So we've recognised polygamy in common law for 150 years or so. And Bolt thinks this knocks Turnbull for 6?
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Post by angra on Dec 15, 2013 19:40:25 GMT 10
The blek cannot be allowed to celebrate a dead man with Obama, as they are bleck and he is almost bleck and stood next to a man who was also bleck and was psycho.
So he must be a bleck bastard.
God bless Seth Effrica! And don't be such a bore!
In response to "US sends President to stand next to self-confessed violent schizophrenic"
(I love it the way Bolt revels in his ability to speak south African phrases with the correct pronunciation. Boer become "Boo-er")
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 20, 2013 23:20:30 GMT 10
Sweet jesus. In Tasmania: Apparently. And in the most cultured way possible. I'll be disappointed if we don't get a cheese report and a few words about Riesling at some point (Riesling's German, you know - totally European, not at all indigenous). - the Tasman Peninsula, simply lovely and made lovelier still by not being wilderness, is marred only by the world’s biggest collection of “for sale” signs outside homes, abandoned housing lots, holiday houses and farms. That's the warning? Tell the SMH - they'd call that an opportunity. - even the Penitentiary at Port Arthur, built by convict labor, is more beautiful than almost anything built in Hobart in the past 50 years by free men, under the instruction of the best-educated architects Hmmm. Yeah, but which would you actually prefer to live and work in? I've seen Port Arthur too, and it's physically impressive, but you've got a few problems if you think that's a useful template for modern architecture. To actually BUILD something that way now would be expensive madness. They only did it that way in the olden days because it was all they had. Oh, and in case you missed it .... it was a prison hell-hole, it was draughty, cold, damp, poorly ventilated and shitty to live in. But it sure is pretty from a distance, and that seems to be what interests the modern Lewis Mumford. - the MONA museum, built with a gambler’s money, is a rare example of indifferent art being made to seem twice as good by the building and the élan of the founder and his curators. The museum is actually the work of art, with the art works just components of the whole. Some of the art is, literally, shit. So basically analogous to NEWS then? - if Hobart’s city council had not been so keen to improve the city Hobart would be even better. I cannot believe many of the newer buildings are more handsome than what they replaced. That's fine for you as an outsider to pass judgement on, but you don't have to keep up rotting old buildings. Maybe let's just let the Hobart population decide whether they want their town to be livable or just right for day-trippers to photograph. - Hobart’s museum caught a dose of the illness that virtually killed Melbourne’s museum. Objects are displayed with a bower bird’s eye for pretty and shiny. Explanations at times are minimal. Attitude is often rated above knowledge. Wow, a museum critic too. You've got everything going on. Those fools who wasted all that time studying how to run museums must sure feel silly. The Aboriginal section has been handed over to Aboriginal curators for fashionable preaching about identity and dispossession. How DARE they let Aborigines curate Aboriginal displays? The NERVE! Lots of space is wasted. Little European settlement history is covered, although there is some interesting stuff on the great Mawson. Yep. And Mawson is absolutely central to Tasmanian history. Convicts are described as the “dispossessed” who in turn dispossessed Aborigines. You don't think convicts were dispossessed? - there is a nice display on the Tasmanian tiger. I am sad it’s extinct but am less sure why it really matters. Well, it was a unique species - a marsupial canine, having evolved separately to the wolf yet having the same outward form and place in the ecosystem. It posed no real threat to people or wildlife, it was hunted to extinction as a result of ignorance and carelessness. We trapped, hunted and killed every single one, for no good reason. But hey, you don't see why it really matters. I get that. You like meringue! If Tasmanians worried less about such things, would the state have done a lot better? No. It wouldn't. After all, they KILLED all the tigers, and it made no difference. Tasmania is currently worrying about the Tassie devil, and it's not holding the state back as a result. In fact, it's probably the one reason that most of the world even knows the word "Tasmania". But sure, if andrew bolt thinks letting the Tasmanian devil die out will save Tasmania, let's give that a try. Let's not hold Tasmania back. It has the oldest surviving Catholic church in Australia and the oldest stone bridge. Its colony was something when Melbourne was nothing. Now it is our poorest state. Memo to Greens: you can’t eat scenery.
Memo to Andrew Bolt: yes, you can build a lot of nice things with forced labour. You're quite right. That was very good for the early history of the state. Write a letter to guv and suggest that they reintroduce it - you might be surprised. Hobart might get some more stone bridges, it'll make huge difference to their quality of life. - a local paper interviews six women who all complain about the lack of Christmas decorations. All are friends and relatives of Middle Eastern background, and one has the surname Mohamed. Whatever. Papers publish the interviews that they want to. You should know that. - the art work in the Tasmanian art gallery that best sums up a gorgeous state led astray by its elite is an illuminated photograph of an artist who, having shaken the hand of a token Aboriginal then hangs himself for being white. Exactly how is this relevant to the simultaneous complaints of (1) Tasmania lagging the country in economic growth and (2) Tasmania daring to replace its old buildings with newer ones? - Nearby a video installation shows another whie artist who has taken off his clothes, stuck feathers or fluff on his well-fed body and now is filmed stumbling awkwardly on unshoed feet in the bush. It is unclear what he seeks. Civilisation? A grant? I am, however, certain he did find his clothes again and spent the night in a comfortable bed. He was pretending. There's a lot of it going around. - a lot of people are out of work on this island. Most of the place has been turned into a national park. That is great for artists wanting to hobble around the bush naked, with just a few feathers glued to their hide. It is less good for people wanting to cut down some trees to make furniture, houses and paper. Except they weren't doing that, were they? They were exporting it as wood chips. It's short term - if nobody replants those forests then they will eventually be gone, and for not enough jobs to make a big difference to the state's economy. If they DID replant those forests, then there wouldn't be any argument - it's now over 40 years since the green movement was born, and that's long enough to grow a tree to make woodchips ... - Daci and Daci is a most excellent bakery and cake shop. I recommend the pistachio and rose water meringue. Yeah, but were the pistachios harvested from an eastern or western slope, and was the rose water imported or sourced from local spring-water artisans? These things make all the difference when making a meringue that you can brag about. - if I had to hide myself somewhere beautiful to write a book or flee the madness of contemporary culture I would probably choose the Tasman Peninsula. I just wish I knew more about boat engines. But that would bore me. I completely believe that mechanical devices would bore a mind like yours. That's what makes you great.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 20, 2013 23:34:19 GMT 10
If he ever reads that, 100$ says he goes and looks up Lewis Mumford. But I bet he'll never match my first-edition of Technics and Civilisation ;-)
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Post by jack on Dec 21, 2013 10:55:53 GMT 10
I did say once that Bolt could maybe move into doing a Michael Paliney kind of travel series.
I take it back. While Palin is informed and open-minded, that thing was less about Tasmania than a portrait of the columnist as a grumpy old man.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 21, 2013 11:38:18 GMT 10
"a portrait of the columnist as a grumpy old man"
Not just that, but a very very very very cultured grumpy old man. Who knows everything.
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Post by angra on Dec 21, 2013 12:18:20 GMT 10
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Post by jack on Dec 21, 2013 23:48:27 GMT 10
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Post by angra on Dec 24, 2013 9:59:56 GMT 10
Andrew's on form today.
In getting stuck into Trigg for saying there has been no more money given to the HRC for Wilson's appointment (which is usually provided when political appointees are parachuted into place with huge salaries and no valid selection procedure) and that therefore some programmes may have to be cut; he comes up with this gem...
" Professor Sinclair Davidson examines the annual report of a gravy train staffed largely by well-paid women:
On page 150 we get to see the staffing profile – 143 employees (of whom only 38 are male) – and the salary rank those individuals earn. More than half of the Commission are on salaries above $72,900"
Only 38 are male! The rest are well-paid women!
Shameful discrimination!
Incidentally how much does Bolt earn? Paid to lick the arse of Murdoch and associated billionaires?
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Post by angra on Dec 24, 2013 12:07:20 GMT 10
"...gravy train staffed largely by well-paid women" Why did he have to say 'women'? A bit of a Freudian slip there Andrew. Incidentally there was an excellent UK Channel 4 show called "The Gravy Train" which is well worth watching. Here's a bit - www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWVH4JpqBS0
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