Shit, Albrechtsen’s right you know

I don’t mind right-wing commentators when they aren’t foolishly condemning the good intentions of unknown people they categorise as “The Left” while carrying on like card-carrying Liberal Party apologists with missives that are designed to provide literary fellatio of the the Party’s far right faction in NSW.

One of the worst offenders, Janet Albretchsen, has finally wiped her chin and come out with a good piece  in The Australian (yes, I said good and will shower three times) about the knee-jerk reactions by governments to tragedies.

The catalyst of her piece was calls for tougher boating laws after the tragic Sydney Harbour boat crash that killed six young people - despite the fact several existing laws were already broken in the leadup to the disaster including the boat being taken without permission; over crowding and the obvious involvement of alcohol.

She says that although the government seems to want to look like it is doing something to respond to the grief about such events, “Our sympathy for those killed and injured should not prevent us from recognizing that stupidity appears to have played a part in Thursday’s accident. We cannot and should not regulate for the lowest common denominator.”

The same thing happened happened here in Melbourne after the horrific crash in the Burnley Tunnel in which several cars, and three drivers where crushed and incinerated after a truck plowed through them. The state government immediately introduced laws to ban overtaking in the tunnel and discussed lowering the speed limit to a ridiculous 60km/h, well before the coroner released any findings.

Since then a truck driver has been charged with three counts of culpable driving, which showed how misguided the new measures were.

In her column Albretschen actually praises former UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair who criticised the ever growing blame culture.

Interestingly a lot of the people who comment on her column started with stating their disbelief that they actually agreed with her. Keep it up Janet, you might start earning some respect.

Expect KD to earn the wrath of the rightards

I imagine Andy Bolt dropped everything he was doing and started typing furiously when he read on his newspaper’s web site that US country singer KD Lang told Mel and Koshy that she was ”blown away” by Kevin Rudd’s stance on Tibet.

Lang, who is a practicing Buddhist. said she admired Rudd’s ability to “express himself so openly”.

Although she conceded she is no expert on Tibet and Chinese affairs, she felt Tibetans deserved the basic human right of practicing their religion and protecting their culture.

Although she only made commented on Tibet because she was asked about it by Koshy after performing on Sunrise, this won’t matter to the likes of Bolt, Blair and their fucktards patsies -  after all, not only (they’ll reason) is Lang American and therefore has no business in talking about Australian politics or Tibet, but shock horror, she’s a lesbian too.

Postscript: I want to confess that I thought KD Lang’s song Constant Cravings was “Can’t Stand Gravy”. I challenge you to sing it without saying that.

Check out her performance of Leonard Coen’s Halleujah on Sunrise. It’s pretty good stuff - her Tibet comments are after the song - http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/?autoplay_id=7339040#embedded-video-top

if someone can explain how to insert videos into the post properly I’d be much appreciative.

Beware the Rudd haters - Part II

 

This whole “Sorry” thing has really brought out the ugly side of Australia. Despite the fact our government did say sorry and many, hopefully the majority, agreed, you can’t deny the multitudes of people who feel our country has been “destroyed” this week because we dared to formally acknowledge past injustices.

 Which begs the question. How much of this angry reaction to Sorry would have aired its ugly self if John Howard caved in and said it? I ask this because the same people who jammed the posts on news web sites and talk back radio are actually criticising Rudd for visiting East Timor, at the request of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao after the attempted assination of him and President Jose Ramos Horta.

I’m sure if Rudd did an emergency tracheomety on a four year old girl using a pen knife and biro saving her life these fuckwits will have sneering negative comment to make about it like :

What now Rudd, are you going to say sorry now you cut that girl’s throat. Are you going to pay her compo? 
Posted by Fuck Knuckle, Frankston South

So let’s see some of the missives of insightfulness posted on the Herald Sun website today in response to Rudd’s trip to East Timor to show Australia was ready to continue supporting our near neighbour.

Beware the Rudd haters

All those people who accused anyone who dared criticise the Howard Government as “left-wing, latte-sipping Howard haters” have taken it upon themselves to spread their own hatred to the incumbent, for no other reason than that he is a popularly elected Labor prime minister.

The trouble with the whole Howard-hater tag is that it deflected the reasons why people disliked the former prime minister and his government.

Despite what the pig-headed conservatives who coined the term would have you believe, John Howard wasn’t hated simply because he was a Liberal prime minister. When he first came into power and toughened the country’s gun laws after the Port Arthur massacre, Labor voters (except those who hunt and vote) agreed with him, as they did his decision to send Australian troops into East Timor.

The so-called Left didn’t oppose Howard for the sake of opposing him. He had to actually show what a bastard he really was before people started sharing more than a passing dislike based on political or idealogical differences.