Liberal Rule Blues

A Bolt Out Of The Poo

Rightwing nutjob columnist Andrew Bolt was in the news today complaining that he was insulted by being lablled a racist by people on 'Q&A', and when the ABC issued an apology, he found it to benot good enough. At which point I think I rolled my eyes. We all know this man; he's the one who got into that court case where he claimed a woman was somehow gaming the system by pretending to be an Aborigine despite the fact she had white skin - and promptly lost that court case. Since then it's metastasised into a cause celebre for the right, with George Brandis vowing to repeal section 18C of the Anti-Descrimination act. George Brandis thinks that somehow a great impeditment to freedomeof expression in this country (the very same George Brandis who is threatening to withdraw Australia Council funding from artists who boycott the Sydney Biennale! Scum and Villainy!).

Anyway, it strikes me as somewhat odd that there is a group a of white men who really want to repeal the bit of the Anti-Descrimination Act which is written so you can't belittle people for their race. But it turns out these people have skin as thin, if not more, than the groups of people who do not want it repealed. Indeed, the various 'wogs', 'chinks', 'gooks', 'kikes', 'spics' 'abbos' and 'boongs' of Australia have asked through their community groups and organisations not to repeal 18C.  If they do repeal it, I'll be the first to congratulate these honky-cracker-skippies by calling them one. But you do get the feeling they just don't quite get it.

It's one thing for 18C to be repealed by a bunch of white men of the dominant mainstream who are taking away the sense of protection from people who aren't anywhere near mainstream in their representation in Australia. It's entirely another thing to see a white man who has a dominant position in the mainstream through his presence in the mass media complains that he is somehow done wrong by being accurately described as a racist. If you talk about people in generalities based on their perceived race and make a pile of judgment calls based on that (faulty) perception, then you deserve to be branded a racist. They're the damn rules, Andrew Bolt, you dolt!

Brain Damage

Apropos of the Ian Roberts concussion thing I've been thinking about our Dear Leader Tony Abbott, who in his youth was a pugilist. We know from reports of the time that his style was 'raging bullshit' and not much skill, just flailing away hard hoping to connect with the other guy. Mike Tyson he was not - and you'd think that as such he must have taken quite a few blows to the head, boxing that way. And you wonder what sort of brain damage he must have sustained, and perhaps that is maybe why he is the way he is. Combined with the fact that the brain of a conservative is already misshapen towards needless fear and paranoia, you get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, this country is being led by a severely deficient human being.

But then again, the total irrationality of his policy agenda would have alerted you to this fact. The real corker question is what's the rest of the Liberals doing following this madman about?