WHAT IS IT WITH LEFTIES AND THEIR FILTHY MINDS?

First Scott Bridges finds double entendres in a brochure for kids and then sees a penis in a Pepsi bottle (after photoshopping, mind you). Now his good buddy Jeremy Sear (Wally, to his mates) reads a story in the Age correctly reporting that grandfather Jim Clark is engaged to a much younger Kristy Hinze, naturally prompting Sear to think... INCEST! Weird. Really weird.

Update: It's no wonder Sear told Google not to cache his blog. You know, so that such stuff-ups can be quietly deleted. Also smarter than I thought, Bridges has removed his archive, which now shows: "Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here."

Update II: Bridges notes in comments that his archive was unavailable due to a technical problem.

DEATH THREATS? NO WORRIES!

Rob Bates provides some background on Antony Loewenstein for readers of the Wentworth Courier:

Loewenstein’s first book, My Israel Question, received mixed reviews ranging from glowing praise to death threats as it offered a critical Jewish perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The fearless Ant is not to be deterred by death threats, real or imagined:

“This hasn’t intimidated me, which was clearly the intention, but inspired me because I know many people want free and open debate on Israel’s behaviour without fear of being labelled.”

Free and open debate is not allowed at Loewenstein's blog, however, with all dissenting comments consigned to oblivion.

SKIN CANCER = INSTANT DEATH

In between articles on the internet and the Hubble telescope New Scientist carries a piece on "the odds that John McCain will drop dead in the next four to eight years due to a skin cancer relapse". This is rather curious in that no one has ever "dropped dead" due to skin cancer. But just to be safe, better not vote for McCain just in case his cancer recurs, killing him at the oval office desk causing him to slump forward, his head hitting "the button" thus ending the world.

FILTHY MINDED

School teacher Scott Bridges, who found sexual innuendo in an innocent brochure, now sees a penis in a soft drink bottle. Gee, I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees a person drinking from one of the supposedly phallic containers? Yep, it's a worry.

BJORN LOMBORG LAMBERTED

Computing teacher Tim Lambert sums up The Skeptical Environmentalist:

Have you noticed that Lomborg wrote a book where he said that while there had been been some environmental problems in the past, we had solved them all and nothing further needed to be done.

This is another of Lambert's lies; here's what Lomborg actually wrote under the heading Things are better – but not necessarily good:

Mankind’s lot has actually improved in terms of practically every measurable indicator.

But note carefully what I am saying here: that by far the majority of indicators show that mankind’s lot has vastly improved. This does not, however, mean that everything is good enough. The first statement refers to what the world looks like whereas the second refers to what it ought to look like.

"Scientist" Lambert is not to be trusted, ever.

"THE EDITOR" HAS HEAD UP ARSE, AS USUAL

The idiot posting as The Editor at left-wing hate site GrodsCorp reckons I'm "indignant about the fact that a blackie with a muzzie name looks likely to win this year’s US election". Yeah right, I have a grand total of four posts on Obama, none overtly opposing his candidacy. Not only that, I have no posts supporting McCain.

To be honest, an Obama victory won't exactly please me but I have no problem with the political seesaw swinging the Democrats way, for a while. The Republicans have had a go; if the people want Obama, that's the way it goes. It's all part of the ebb and flow of politics.

Update: While on the subject of left-wing idiots with their heads firmly and deeply inserted twixt their buttocks, here's Antony Loewenstein spruiking his new book The Blogging Revolution. The background noise is more interesting than his talk.

Update II: Lawyer Jeremy "Wally" Sear's head also smells strongly of butt-fudge. Wally uses his lawyerly skills to examine the evidence, concluding that Sarah Palin accused Obama of being a terrorist. Never happened. Let's hope Wally does just a bit better with the evidence he handles in court.

Update III: The Editor, apparently a Victorian school teacher, finds double entendres in the contents pages of a 1994 booklet, co-authored by the University of Technology Sydney's Janette Griffin, one in a series published jointly by the Science Teachers' Association of NSW and ICI:

Exploratory activities p.12

What does my body look like? p.12
What’s inside your mouth? p.13
Swallowing hard p.14

That a school teacher finds sexual humour in the innocent entries of a 14 year old booklet is, well, disturbing.

GIVING THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

Bob Brown reckons the government must do more to fight climate change because that's what the people want:

"I would say to Kevin Rudd, listen to the people of Australia," he said.

"I think you'll find more ecological wisdom in our average primary school than you'll find round your Cabinet table."

Brown is just slightly out of touch:

A new survey suggests the commitment of Australians to tackling climate change might be waning.

The Lowy Institute surveys the attitudes of Australians to foreign policy issues every year.

This year, climate change has slipped in ranking from first to fifth most important.

Those surveyed still consider both global warming and water shortages critical threats to the country.

But tackling climate change itself has fallen as a foreign policy goal, replaced by job security and strengthening the economy.

The poll also revealed that a majority of people are unwilling to pay more than $10 extra per month for greener electricity.

Brown's probably right about the lack of wisdom round the Cabinet table, however. I say give primary kids the vote.

LET'S TALK

Director Ridley Scott on interrogating terrorists:

"If I want to get the information out of somebody, I have to do it, and it makes it a lot easier if that person put a bomb in a square or blew up a bunch of kids. I'd definitely take a cricket bat to him."

Cricket bat? I'm partial to the good old propane torch and pliers.

OPTICAL ILLUSION

Wally Sear has, through careful composition, made the truly bizarre appear nearly normal. The guy's some sort of photographic genius.

DUBIOUS MEDICAL DEVICE

NEW ANEROS PERIDISE Unisex Prostrate Health

FALSE APOLOGY SYNDROME

Brilliance from Theodore Dalrymple.

BEST-SELLING AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR SUPPORTS TALIBAN

Middle East "expert" Antony Loewenstein – expert in the same sense I'm a dentistry expert, having spent more time getting my teeth worked on than he has time in the Middle East – hopes for a Taliban victory in Afghanistan:

If anything may make governments think twice again before embarking on an ill-conceived mission, a solid thumping would certainly help.

Cool. When the religious thugs are back in power Afghanis won't have a thing to worry about. And if a few unfortunate locals do end up dead, at least they will have been killed by their own.

Loewenstein has expressed a similar wish before:

The defeat of America and its allies in Iraq is vital to ensure similiar acts are not carried out again.

In hoping for a "solid thumping" in Afghanistan Loewenstein is effectively advocating the killing of Western military personnel – including Australians – operating there. He knows this but does not care; a bit of controversy might generate some interest in his new book.

TOADBUSTERS

The great toad muster is in progress with some 25 volunteers rounding up lots of the nasty little critters:

Almost 50,000 cane toads have been destroyed within two weeks on a Northern Territory cattle station near the WA border, says a group fighting the pests.

Those thinking of traveling north to join in the fun need to be aware that using toads for cricket or golf is forbidden: caught toads are euthanised with carbon dioxide. Anybody got any firecrackers?

WALLY WORRY

Lawyer Wally Sear, worried that "virtual body search" scanning technology might cause damage to, and reveal the size of, his dangly-bits, bemoans the introduction of the "new, intrusive airport x-ray machines" which provide a "higher level of radiation whenever you get on a plane".

Now whereas Wally might rightly worry that his declothed image will produce chuckles amongst those tasked with viewing it, he need not worry that his testicles are going to be fried; the scanners do not use x-rays.

MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING

Self-proclaimed blogging expert Antony Loewenstein links to a story on the money to be made online:

Blogs with 100,000 or more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 annually...

Using his currents stats, and assuming a constant value for each unique visit, Loewenstein can expect to earn that $75 grand in something over 16 years. His blog really is a "non-profit site".

TALIBAN MORE THAN MIFFED

A U.S. attack across the Afghan border into Pakistan causes more than death:

Based on information from informants and agents in the field, the intelligence officials said the Taliban appeared extra-perturbed over the latest strike.

Yeah well, I wouldn't be too happy either if someone fired a Hellfire missile into my previously out-of-bounds not-at-all-secret hideout.

THE EPIDEMIC THAT ISN'T

The Sydney Morning Herald voices the concern of the nutrition Nazis:

Obesity experts have called on Cricket Australia to end its sponsorship deal with the fried chicken chain KFC, saying the relationship is "unhelpful and irresponsible" during a childhood obesity epidemic.

Only yesterday from the ABC:

New government research shows that levels of childhood obesity have remained largely unchanged for the past decade.

The relatively unchanged levels of childhood obesity comes despite a common conception in today's society that Australian children are in the grip of an obesity epidemic.

It's the busybody epidemic that needs to be controlled.

MY ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN QUESTION

Wanna be cowboy and atheist Jew Antony Loewenstein, interviewed by Castro-admirer Cameron Reilly on The Podcast Network, outlines his credentials as a Middle East commentator (this occurs in the middle of a rambling monologue on what makes him different as a journalist):

Yes I like to think I have some experience in this issue. I write a lot about Israel and Palestine and I spent a long time in the Middle East. So yes, I like to think I have more knowledge than the average person, that's true, but I like to think also that I'm happy to be enagaged and provoked and challenged on these kinds of issues equally and the reality is that the majority of journalists are not.

Loewenstein's desire to be "enagaged and provoked and challenged" does not extend to his blog however, which is tightly moderated to exclude difficult comments.

Anyway, here's my question for the best-selling author: exactly how much time have you spent in the Middle East over your entire life? There's no way he's going to answer because doing so would wreck what little credibility he has, but there's no harm in asking.

Update: A quick review of Loewenstein's latest potential best-seller, The Blogging Revolution:

I had a very brief look at this dude’s book last night. It looks like shite.

Yep, same as the last one.

Update II: Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of the Loewenstein-promoting Global Voices, knows how to make us all get along:

So here’s the question I’m interested now: how do we build real, productive connections with people across national, cultural and linguistic boundaries… without putting people on airplanes? Or trains? How do we efficiently manufacture xenophiles?

And since you guys can’t answer, I’ll go ahead and offer one solution that works really well - intermarriage. If you fall in love with someone from a very different culture, you’ve got a strong incentive to connect with that person’s family, learn their culture, change your perspectives. And while I’ve thought about this, it’s even harder to figure out a scheme to make intermarriage mandatory on a massive scale than it is to figure out how to put a substantial fraction of the world’s population on airplanes.

Forced marriage is one thing; hopefully the uniform won't be mandatory.