WHAT IS IT WITH LEFTIES AND THEIR FILTHY MINDS?

A caring sharing lefty sees lust in a mere compliment:

Oh dear. Now things are getting raunchy over at Beck’s. One of his regular Fuckwits Anonymous has taken a liking to Beck’s ridgeback:

He’s a handsome,fit guy.

Right Wing Dog Buggerer?

With Ant Rogenous chiming in:

Fuckwits Anonymous! What a perfect name for that miserable scumbag’s creepy little corner of the blogosphere.

My little corner of the universe might be creepy but it wasn't me scurrying around frantically removing posts and getting other people to apologise for me, Ant Cojoneless.

Update: Ant, experiencing a dry spell, fantasizes about doing it doggy-style:Ant and his mates can have free access to the dog any time they'd like to have a go.

MOTHER'S DAY GIFT IDEAS

Peter's of Kensington – goodies (many heavily reduced) priced from $3.50 to $1,959.00.

CARLA BRUNI PHOTOS DISAPPOINTMENT

A story about explicit photos of Carla Bruni has caused a huge surge in visitors to RWDB:

Hundreds of "highly intimate" photographs and videos of the French president's wife and her former lover have been stolen in Paris.

Gawkers are arriving here by the hundred having Googled "carla bruni photos" or similar. Those hoping to find the "shocking" photos they're looking for will be mighty disappointed to find a link to photos showing Bruni smoking.

STOP TEASING ME; PUT THAT CAT DOWN SO I CAN PLAY WITH IT

GREAT BEER

Pilsner Urquell

OLD CHEESECAKE

A documentary on Aussie pinups of World War II. I've only watched the first few minutes – it runs over 50 minutes – but it looks pretty good.

A DOG'S JOB

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's penchant for mingling with crowds has prompted an unusual security compromise:

The president's insistence on meeting the public has forced his guards into extraordinary measures - including deploying a team of sniffer dogs to detect explosives, despite Islam's customary disdain for dogs.

In a pinch flexibility is possible. The dogs are prohibited traveling by taxi, however.

KANCKGATE: THE EXCLUSIVE TIM BLAIR INTERVIEW

A Tim Blair reference to a single letter:

This week, South Australian busybody Sandra Kanck - whose surname is but one consonant away from complete accuracy - decided Australia’s population needed to be cut to just seven million in order to save us from “environmental suicide”.

Is pounced on by a Pure Poison intellectual dishonesty debunker:

See how Blair called Kanck a “skank” without having to quite say it? Classy.

A couple of Pure Poison's less easily stampeded readers point out that it's more reasonable to think Blair meant adding an "R" to get "crank" but the herd quickly works itself into a speculative frenzy:

Despite its utter juvenility, Blair’s insult against Kanck is clever in a way, because it can be interpreted in two ways. The most common interpretation is of course “skank,” but Blair and his minions can plausibly deny this interpretation, because of the “crank” interpretation. “The Left,” i.e., Blair’s critics, cannot prove 100% Blair’s meaning was “skank,” though this is obvious to any fair-minded person, but it’s not the Left’s job to verify Blair’s intentions. It’s Blair’s duty to defend himself against the charge that he is making a crude sexist insult against one of his female political adversaries.

On seeing this I got straight on the direct line to Blair (thanks Rupert) to ask master how he wanted to handle this grave situation. His response:

If I'd wanted to describe Ms Kanck as a "skank", I wouldn't have written that her "surname is but one consonant away from complete accuracy"; I'd have written that her "surname is but one INITIAL away from complete accuracy".

But, besides being indefensible, it wouldn't make sense in the non-sexual context of Kanck's views. It isn't skanky to believe in population reduction. A crank, however...

Anyway, this is all a fascinating Rorschach test. I wonder what these people see in, say, Pepsi bottles?

Another bullet dodged.

Update: The Pure Poison post makes much of Blair's entry in the urban dictionary but fails to mention Scott Bridges' contribution to the language. The bloke's hiding his light under a bushel.
Regardless, Bridges gets Blair's law all wrong (aren't you shocked?):

Blair’s Law is essentially code for Teh Left.

Here's the definition Bridges links to but didn't bother to read:

Blair's law

Coined by Australian journalist, Tim Blair as -

"the ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force."

1. The alliance between the radical Left and extremist Islamists is an example of Blair's Law.

2. The fact that white supremicists like David Duke supported 'Mother' Sheehan's sit-in at Crawford, TX is an example of Blair's law.

Teh idiots are where you find them.

Update II: In comments Scott admits he could be wrong about Blair's intent:

Fair enough. “Kranck” didn’t come to my mind, but it’s another possibility.

Jeremy Sear condemns this "hidden" content:

A link is provided under the text needing support, and it is implied that it backs up the assertion made - and it is only if the reader clicks on it that they will discover that it does no such thing. Everyone else - at some sites, probably the majority - will automatically assume the linked content says pretty much what the linking text says it does. You can see the opportunity this technique, if more widely-adopted, would provide the cynical and shameless.

The possible interpretation error should be noted in the original post; not hidden in comments.

BALLS DEAD

More language mangling from Antony Loewenstein, who thinks testicles can be killed leaving their owner alive:

Perhaps they should have their balls electrocuted now

Loewy has this strange nugget fascination.

STRANGE FRUIT

Concept shamelessly stolen from Grods.

KITTY KORNERED

TRICYCLE TRICK

Do not try this at home.

Via Right Wing Death Bitch

SACRIFICES REMEMBERED, LEFTY STYLE

Jeremy Sear spots a flaw in the whole military remembrance thing:

One problem I have with veterans’ parades is that there’s no distinction made between those who actually “defended our freedoms” and those who clearly (or not so clearly) didn’t.

It's beyond Jeremy's understanding that the military can defend our freedoms without firing a shot. He also doesn't understand the relevance of bagpipes to military music throughout the Anglosphere:

Why must a day for remembering the sacrifices of our brave military men and women be constantly tainted by the horrible noise of bagpipes?

Is it just me or is that "brave military men and women" stuff some of Jeremy's special lefty sarcasm?

Ant Rogenous on the other hand was far too involved with "wog shit" to spare any time to remember those who served Australia.

Oh well, at least they resisted the urge to describe our military as baby killers.

Update: A commenter says what Rogenous meant:

I fucking hate ANZACS.

Funny, I'm almost 60, yet I hate no one.

BLOG INFILTRATED

Pure Poison's squadron of bat-winged monkeys tries to derail Andrew Bolt's comments threads and gets caught. How were they discovered?

It would appear that I have now been banned from the Bolt blog. ... I think that either Bolt monitors this site or there is a mole probably both.

A possible mole is fingered:

bertus, spot the dog,aka TGordon, aka Gordon from Perth, and who knows who many more undercover screen-names—-quite dangerous is this imposter. This is the one who has a special message for Richard Ryan on Tizona’s Group.

Poor old bertus realises a bit of harmless fun has taken a nasty turn:

RICK68 - Mate, you’ve got it all wrong. I have nothing whatsoever to do with TGordon, Gordon from Perth etc. Have had more than one argument with him myself in the past. I think you’ll find he’s a Perth-based Yank mining engineer who sees himself as a big shot.

Once more for the record. The Bertus appearing here HAS NOTHING TO DO with TGordon. mmm’kay?

Hey guys, get lives.

FOUL BLOW

Imagine how you'd react if someone did this to you:

The thirsty Swede visited the [bottle-shop] with the intention of buying half a dozen bottles of cider only to discover at the cash desk that he had no means in his wallet with which to fund his purchase.

As the cashier began to collect back in the bottles, the man put his finger to his nostril, blew hard and showered the hapless shop assistant with the contents of his nasal passage.

The guy's lucky he wasn't smacked up the side of the head with a bottle of cider.

ANZAC DAY 2009

An ABC News roundup.

BEST. COMEBACK. EVER.

And in the category best-comeback-by-a-formerly-aggressive-left-wing-attack-blogger-now-reduced-to-making-fun-of-the-appearance-of-American-sports-stars the winner is... Ant Rogenous.

IGNORANCE SPOTTED

Wordsmith Antony Loewenstein's title for a post on Israeli ignorance:

You can’t change a lion’s spots

His conclusion: "These Zionists truly have no clue."

Update: The post is now retitled:

You can’t change a zebra’s spots

Maybe Loewenstein has a sense of humour after all; either that or he's been drinking.

Update II: Another title change:

You can’t change those spots

That was a struggle.

ELECTRIC FUN

Imagine a worldwide charity event where volunteers are Tasered live on TV. Who would you most like to see zapped? Why? How much would you pay? To which charity should the money be donated?

TASER HAZARD

It's possible a very few people have died as a reult of being subdued with a Taser. Tasers can also be fatal for users:

You've actually got to be quite close to someone before it (a Taser) can work," [Chief Commissioner Simon Overland ] told the Melbourne Press Club on Tuesday. "If you've got a homicidal maniac with an axe running at you and you're relying on this thing and it doesn't work, you're dead."

Sometimes it's best to shoot to kill. Who would envy a police officer having to make -- sometimes in a split second -- such a decision?

GREEN VS GREEN

New Scientist's Fred Pearce looks at the growing conflict between "preservationists" and "sustainable developers" concluding:

Environmentalists will inevitably find themselves on the barricades defending the natural world from other environmentalists intent on generating clean energy.

Left on left conflicts based on ideological purity tend to be especially nasty; there could be a huge bloodletting just over the horizon.

ASTONISHING COVER-UP

A little known scandal is revealed by a hive of "intellectual dishonesty" debunkers:

Janette Howard’s renovation expenditure whilst at Kirribilli including the shortening of antique furniture legs to accommodate the rodent.

What about the cost of lowering the doorknobs?

OLDER IS BETTER

Real Australian meat performs on live webcam – click and scroll down.

QUICK LEARNER

Antony Loewenstein questions the journalistic credentials of a first time visitor to Jerusalem:

Should a Middle East correspondent for a major news organisation (in this case, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) have any experience in the region?

Odd coming from a man who tries to pass himself off as an Israel expert after a one-time visit of maybe two weeks.

AIRHEAD

PP boy Jeremy Sear provides an insight into the motivations of desperate, destitute, asylum-seeking boat people:

If they had enough money to fly in, then presumably they’d just get a plane ticket. Hell of a lot safer, and you don’t end up on Christmas Island.

So, according to Jeremy, they only opt for sea travel because they lack money for air fare. Odd that many apparently don’t bring the passports and other documentation that plane tickets would require. It’s also odd that they pay vastly more for sea travel than they’d pay for flights:

“… nearly $9,000 to smugglers for passage from Afghanistan to Australia …”

Yeah, altogether I have paid $US12,000.

Afghan asylum-seekers being held in Indonesia have told how they paid people-smugglers between $US6000 and $12,000 to get them to Australia.

His father sold their family home and paid $4000 to a Sri Lankan smuggling agent to send him to Australia.

In all, including getting from Yemen to Indonesia, Poorvardi's father paid $US36,000 to seek asylum in a country they had only fleetingly heard of. Australia.

Mr Salah paid a people smuggler $US6000 ...

Queue-jumping by sea ain't cheap.

THE CUT THAT BINDS

After a couple of botched circumcisions Sweden's Muslim community no longer has a properly qualified foreskin remover. No problem.

Many Muslims therefore approach Jewish practitioners to circumcise their male offspring.

Penises bringing cultures together. Cool.

FIRE SPECULATION IRRESPONSIBLE

Despite not having all the facts the Northern Territory coroner does the right thing in telling what he does know about the deaths of three people near Ashmore Reef last week:

"Although the investigation is still underway, I have determined that these deaths will be the subject of a public inquest after I [have] received a completed investigation brief," he said in a statement released this morning.

"Because of the extraordinary interest in these deaths I have determined to release the results of the autopsies on the deceased.

"These have found the provisional cause of the deaths is drowning - subject to toxicology and other forensic pathology tests."

Interviewed this morning on ABC radio the Foreign Minister refused to comment on events near Ashmore Reef: to do so would be inappropriate in light of ongoing investigations. These investigations could take months.

Until these investigations are concluded, and official reports written, all of the irresponsible speculation about "people smugglers", "Afghan asylum seekers", "petrol spreading" and the like, should cease. For all we know that boat was full of tourists out on a three hour cruise gone horribly wrong. It's happened before.

PEOPLE SMUGGLERS TARGETED UNSUCCESSFULLY

Yesterday I noted the timely disappearance of a Department of Immigration and Citizenship fact sheet on people smuggling. The document -- revised just last November -- has this to say about government measures to date:

The low rate of boat arrivals confirms the effectiveness of efforts to target people smugglers engaged in this activity.

Overtaken by events.

TRIP INTERRUPTED

If only more men wore condoms the world might be a different place.

Update: The Mao advert is causing a stir in China. Hey, Mao did more than anyone else to keep China's numbers down.

REPUTATION DESERVED

In an article titled "Things we shouldn’t have said about Andrew Bolt" editor Jonathan Green describes Crikey's high standards:

We’d rather build a reputation for reason and well-turned argument than for insult and glib denunciation.

Crikey blogger Possum Comitatus does some reputation building in a much-lauded post titled "Why Andrew Bolt should be Sodomised with a Calculator – Part 142":

You know what shits me to tears, I mean really shits me to tears to the point where pulling someone’s arm off and beating them to death with their own severed limb starts sounding like one of the more civilised responses available?

It’s when MSM sites like this herd the dross of the internet into advertising, by tickling the bigoted little underbellies of their audience with pig-ignorant bullshit being masqueraded around as “fact”.

As Bolt might ask: "What is it with the left and violence?"

Bolt is further described as a "Caped Crusader for the Cretinous" and "The Undescended Testicle.*"

* The Undescended Testicle.
Andrew Bolt doesn’t like criticism – fair enough, but the cure for that is to stop writing bullshit – anyways, he especially doesn’t like criticism when it pings him exactly for what he does. He really, really, really doesn’t like that kind of criticism when it comes from Crikey. A while ago there was a flair up with Bolt over Somali crime numbers, where Bolt couldn’t ignore what was said here (our readership is too widespread, and there was far too much mirth going on in the blogosphere at his expense over it all), but neither could he confront it properly because to do so would be to send his readers to a complete takedown of their hero, that describes many of them as the suckers they are. So the poor princess was in a bit of a pickle.

But rather than have the balls to link into the article here and address it properly, he used just one ball and quoted very, very selectively from the article (in comments too) in such a way as to remove all context and pretend I was actually agreeing with what he was on about.

He has enough balls to selectively confront his detractors, but not enough balls to do it in the open and transparent way that is the acceptable norm of the modern online world.

He is The Undescended Testicle of the Internetz

Clever stuff. In amongst those many hundreds of words of rant -- the post runs to almost 2,000 words -- Possum analyses asylum seeker trends, deciding Bolt's position is "pig-ignorant horseshit" and he should therefore "shut the fuck up".

Unfortunately, Possum's elaborate analysis appears to be flawed:

• Bolt was voicing his opinions on apparent trends in boat people numbers, not asylum seeker numbers.
• Since asylum seeker policy changed less than a year ago it is perhaps too early for a statistically significant trend to emerge.

It's a first class rant nonetheless.

Update: Possum is told his analysis is "worthless" but there's no way he's going to admit it.

RAINFALL POSSIBLY AFFECTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

Global warming could cause west Africa to be dryer, or wetter.

MORE SOFT TIMES AHEAD FOR PROSTITUTES

Internet, amateurs and do-it-yourselfers blamed.

ADDITION FOR THE LIST OF THINGS CAUSED BY GLOBAL WARMING

Warming cause drought; drought causes kangaroo attack. Add it to the list.

PEOPLE SMUGGLERS: FROM MERE CRIMINALS TO THE WORST OF THE WORST IN ONE WEEK

At a brief news conference today the Prime Minister effectively diverted attention away from the increasing number of persons attempting to enter Australia illegally and onto the evil people smugglers, describing them as "vile scum" and the "lowest form of life", who should "rot in jail", or "hell", as appropriate. So, according to Mr Rudd, it's the evil people smugglers we should be thinking about.

Rudd's preoccupation with people smugglers comes as something of a surprise. Yeah, people smuggling is a crime but many on the left must surely harbour admiration for those who facilitate the entry into Australia of people desperately seeking a better life. I therefore decided to see what the federal Labor government has to say about people smugglers.

Searching "people smuggling" results in several government links. The first, to the Australian Federal Police, condemns people smuggling, but doesn't explain how it is that people smugglers are perceived to be so much more evil than is their illegal cargo.

The second link is to Department of Immigration and Citizenship fact sheet 73. Clicking it produces: "Page Not Found This website was recently redesigned. This means the bookmarks and addresses you have used in the past may no longer work." Entering "fact sheet 73" in the window's search function eventually leads to the "Fact Sheet Index" page. Five of the 11 "Border Control" fact sheets, including no. 73, are currently unavailable, shown as "under review". Hmm, this is at odds with the site's claim Fact Sheet 73 is unavailable because of a site redesign.

Better double check that. Googling "fact sheet 73" "people smuggling" leads again to "Page Not Found". In contrast, Googling "fact sheet 70 - managing the border" leads directly to Fact Sheet 70. It's odd but no big deal that the reason for Fact Sheet 73's unavailability is misattributed. I mean, it's not like there are sinister forces at work here trying to hide a select few "border control" fact sheets for some reason.

Anyway, Fact Sheet 73 is temporarily available, cached "as it appeared on 9 Apr 2009 08:33:32 GMT". As of that date, people smugglers apparently weren't the "evil scum" they now are:

People smuggling is the organised illegal movement of groups or individuals across international borders using the services of trans-national people smuggling organisers, usually on a payment for service basis.

People smuggling is a lucrative, relatively low risk activity for people smugglers and is primarily the work of sophisticated and highly organised networks.

People use the services of people smugglers for many reasons, including to seek protection, because of limited opportunity for legitimate migration and to pursue economic opportunities.

Surely Fact Sheet 73's disappearance in the past few days is a coincidence. Right?

Update: The cached Fact Sheet Index page shows Fact Sheet 73 was still online as of 13 Apr 2009. It's removal was timely indeed.

Update II: It's interesting that Fact Sheet 73 was last revised on 17 November 2009, so its content should reflect current government policy and perspective. But of the 10 fact sheets not currently available as "under review", as indicated on the Fact Sheet Index page, Fact Sheet 73 is the only missing sheet not displaying its "last revised" date. Another coincidence, surely.

JEREMY SEAR IS NOT AN IDIOT, TRUST ME

Crikey's Guy Rundle, who is -- correct me if I'm wrong -- the lone lefty thus far targeted by the PP Boyz:

To be fair, Jeremy contacted me to get my side of the story, effectively asking me to justify myself without offering an opinion of his own. My reply is irrelevant, except that the word "commissar" is in it. If Jeremy's going to set himself up as Crikey ombudsman, he needs counselling about his role.

Commissar, err, ombudsman Jeremy doing his "fairness" thing:

By the way - no comments alleging Andrew Bolt is “racist”. Such comments will be deleted.

The thing is, all Pure Poison comments are vetted by the PP boyz prior to publication so, unless one of them screws up, no "Andrew Bolt is a racist" comment will ever require deletion. Nope, what we have here is a wink-wink, nudge-nudge acknowledgment for PP's faithful that, "even though we can't say it, we all know Bolt's a racist". This is reinforced later in the thread by commenter Bloods05:

Bolt is not a racist, but….

Ah, for the good old days before Jeremy went commercial, when he was all brave, calling Bolt a "dickhead", "racist", and "misleading and dishonest".

By the way, where is "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enema" PP boy Ant Rogenous?

PP Update: Teh cuteness from Scott Bridges:

... Andrew kindly lets us know who exactly is going to be crushing that free speech of ours in the near future: Teh West on behalf of Teh Muslims.

As I was warning:

Ever since 2006, when Muslims worldwide rioted over newspaper cartoons picturing the prophet Muhammad, Western countries, too, have been prosecuting more individuals for criticising religion. The “Free World” may be losing faith in free speech…

In pandering to his audience's prejudices Bridges omits Bolt's link to the warning's source, a Jonathan Turley article in The Sydney Morning Herald. Very tricky, indeed. Screw accuracy; hits are money.

SURPRISE PACKAGE

Susan Boyle gets her big break at 47. What a champ.

Via Theo Spark

BUSH SLANDERED

Guess which journalist, author and blogger – he has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Guardian, Juan Cole, Mondoweiss, Washington Post, Dawn, Haaretz, The Nation, Adbusters, Sydney’s Sun-Herald, The Australian Financial Review, Melbourne’s Age, Brisbane’s Courier Mail, ABC Unleashed, Amnesty International Australia, Adelaide’s Advertiser, The Bulletin, Znet, Overland, The Big Issue, Counterpunch and many others – wrote this little gem:

Independent Australian Jewish Voices blogger Michael Brull looks at the Obama administration’s foreign policy and finds it remarkably similar to George W. Bush.

That particular author's writing skill is remarkably similar to a bush.

IT'S HUMANE, REALLY IT IS

Australians don't need a squirrel detonator when we have the fun-to-use Bunny Blaster. (The Bunny Blasters logo and home page cartoon video are a hoot.)

THE RULES DO NOT APPLY

Looking for that ideal camping destination? You know, where the dogs can run free and bonfires are Okay. Try a National Park, you won't be disappointed.

CAT FANCIER ALSO A DOG AND ALLERGY EXPERT

A 27 word Andrew Bolt post on Obama's new dog draws a 188 word response from cat lover Jeremy, who uses the President's daughter's allergy problem as justification for breaking a "campaign promise":

Those Americans who voted for the Democrat candidate on the basis of his apparently firm and well-publicised (but oddly unquotable) “campaign promise” to adopt a dog directly from a shelter (notwithstanding his daughter’s allergies and Obama’s sensible desire to avoid the difficulties which could therefore arise were they to adopt a mongrel of uncertain heritage) should be entitled to take their votes BACK. A broken “campaign promise” is a broken “campaign promise” and Andy is right to hold the new President to account.

Just ignore that Bolt never mentioned Obama's "campaign promise" to source the family dog from a "shelter". Humans allergic to dogs aren't allergic to dog hair, they're allergic to skin oils and skin cells sloughed off by the dog. There is no guarantee a low-shedding dog of any breed is not going to cause allergy problems.

I know this from experience as a an owner of many different Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Ridgebacks are, like Portuguese water dogs, low shedding dogs but can, in my experience, cause huge allergy problems.

My wife is not known to be allergic to dogs. She is, however, unable to touch our Ridgeback without risking a reasonably severe reaction: touching the dog causing her to develop urticaria, that is, hives, and asthma. She has no problem being around the dog 24/7 but is at risk when she pets him. Other people petting my various Ridgebacks have experienced similar problems. This probably has something to do with Ridgebacks having rather oily coats.

Regardless, there's no way Obama could turn down a dog from Edward Kennedy, allergies or no. Spending time with a dog, pedigreed or mongrel, is the only way to know if the mutt causes allergy problems. Another fail for Jeremy.

THE ANTI–RECESSION

Not all the economic news out of Europe is bleak:

The "shadow economy" - which includes untaxed trade in goods and services, such as cash-in-hand construction work or car repairs, but excludes serious crime such as illegal drugs and prostitution - is predicted to expand by 0.3 to 0.9 percent this year in 14 rich EU states, which are also members of the OECD.

The turnaround comes after 15 years of decline in black market activity and occurs at a time when the legitimate EU economy is expected to contract by two percent.

The research gathers together motivating factors such as rising taxation, unemployment and mistrust in the state as well as direct indices such as demand for cash from banks and trends in the use of electricity.

When the chips are down, government is not to be trusted.

WOMBAT POO STORY A LOAD OF CRAP

A bad news, good news story from the ABC. First the bad news:

The industrial town of Burnie in north-west Tasmania has been hit time and time again by job cuts but one industry is going from strength to strength.

Last week another 280 jobs were slashed from the town's main employer, Caterpillar, and over the years, thousands of jobs have been lost from the Pulp and Paper Mill in Burnie.

It used to employ 4,000 people but now just 300 locals work there and the paper mill is so run down it could soon be closed.

Now the good news:

But another company in town is making handmade paper out of a material no one else wants - wombat scats.

The natural-looking paper is a hit.

Never fear, the wombat turds aren't produced in a factory wombat-battery setting, rather being gathered from where they were deposited in the wild. Unfortunately, at $2.50 a sheet ($2.00 in bulk) demand for the paper isn't great: one wombat (Nugget) produces more than enough. The "booming" "wombat poo paper industry" consists of one producer, the creatively named Creative Paper, staffed by just four people. It's great that a small company has found its niche but unemployed Tasmanians are unlikely to give a damn.

MEMORY FAULTY

Camerman Laith Mushtaq decsribes the US assault on Fallujah:

I saw myself a lady—I was sitting to smoke for a moment, and I saw an elderly lady coming with her children, going in a big truck to leave Fallujah or try to leave Fallujah. After a quarter of an hour, she came back as pieces, and even people, the—when they opened the ambulance and I was photographing that, the minute the medics saw the body, they took us back stand from the gruesomeness of the scenery.

That was during a 2006 interview. Here's the same story today:

One day, I think it was April 9, 2004, someone with a loudspeaker in Fallujah's main mosque said: "The Americans will open a gate and women and children can go out."

As soon as he had finished, all the women and children of Fallujah tried to find a car to leave the city but when they were in the streets, the US forces opened fire.

There's a picture that I cannot forget. An old woman with three children, I saw her on the street and took a picture of her and the children.

She said: "We don't have any men here, can anyone help us?" Many of the men from Fallujah worked in Baghdad, once the city was sealed off they could not get back to their wives and children.

So, some men helped her, I decided to film the scene and then I sat down to smoke.

Ten minutes later, an ambulance came down the road. I ran to follow the ambulance and when they opened the door, I saw the same woman and her children - but they were in pieces.

Funny how memory adds detail over time.

LITTLE SECRET REVEALED

Failing to plan ahead, Jeremy Sear goes all whiney and ranty at being unable to satisfy his steak craving on Good Friday (like it came as a surprise Victorian workers had, like Jeremy, the day off). Someone posing as me posts a comment to cheer him up. Jeremy responds:

Oooooooooh, Becky!

I love myself I want you to love me
When I feel down I want you above me
I search myself I want you to find me
I forget myself I want you to remind me

I dont want anybody else
When I think about you I touch myself
Ooh I dont want anybody else oh no, oh no, oh no

Youre the one who makes me come running
Youre the sun who makes me shine
When youre around Im always laughing
I want to make you mine

I close my eyes and see you before me
Think I would die if you were to ignore me
A fool could see just how much I adore you
I get down on my knees I do anything for you

I dont want anybody else
When I think about you I touch myself
Ooh I dont want anybody else
Oh no, oh no, oh no!

You gotta admire the guy; it took a lot of guts to finally make his feelings known.

Update: It's always possible the little woman, not Jeremy, was tasked with arranging the weekend-away food.

Update II: Jeremy's song of love has vanished. Now ain't that unusual.

Update III: Jeremy's loyal sleeping bag buddy tells a shameless whopper trying to explain the missing comment:

It got caught in moderation because it wasn’t Jeremy’s.

The comment (#721) wasn't caught in moderation, it was published. Jeremy's comment seems to be causing some embarrassment.

Update IV: At least four comments have been deleted from the thread so far, including one by Keri. Oops, sorry, that's incorrect; the comments weren't deleted, they were "unapproved".

TOUCHED BY WOODY

An unusual case of mistaken identity:

Woody Harrelson defended his clash with a photographer at a New York airport Wednesday night as a case of mistaken identity -- he says he mistook the cameraman for a zombie.

"I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland,' in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character," Harrelson said in a statement issued Friday by his publicist.

"With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo, who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie," he said.

The video is worth watching for two reasons: the paparazzo's hilarious, alternately whining and confrontational commentary; and to see environmental activist Harrelson drive off in a massive SUV at the end.

BRITAIN'S PAKISTAN PROBLEM

Sadiq Khan, British MP and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government with special responsibility for Community Cohesion and the Fire Service (a totally appropriate pairing given current European trends), wants UK foreign policy to be guided by the misperceptions of Pakistani youth not in Britain but in Pakistan:

Khan, London's first Muslim MP, said the UK must differentiate itself from the US after attending meetings at universities in Pakistan. "I listened to the anger and pain over the challenges that young people growing up in Pakistan face, including the anger and frustration over US drone attacks," he said.

The attacks by unmanned US drones have provoked fury in Pakistan, where scores of militants have been killed in the country's remote border regions, along with innocent civilians.

"The anger and frustration at the drone attacks was huge," Khan said. "The view they [the students] had was that the UK was somehow responsible for this. They haven't understood this was purely a US matter. They lumped us together with the US, which to me is a poison. It demonstrates to me we have a big problem."

The big problem is Pakistan; unfortunately, the solution to the problem is probably going to entail the application of extreme violence.

BUNNIES POPULAR

Cute and tasty:

Around 300,000 rabbits are slaughtered for the table every year. Some of these come from rabbit breeder Britt Levander, who attributes the popularity of rabbit meat in Easter week to its association with the much-loved, traditional Easter bunny.

STEAM CAR TO ATTEMPT RECORD

The official speed record for a steam-powered car is 205.5 km/h (127.7 mph), set in 1906 by the Stanley Rocket. Stanley Steamers used conventional liquid fuels to fire their boilers.

The British Steam Car team aims to better the record, in the process increasing public interest in more environmentally friendly forms of transportation:

A hydrocarbon fuelled internal combustion engine such as a petrol or diesel engine is inherently “dirty” by virtue of its operation. All hydrocarbon fuels produce carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and water vapor (H2O) as byproducts of combustion.

And the fuel used by the British Steam Car? It takes a bit of looking around the site to find it – good old reliable hydrocarbon LPG. And here I was hoping it was nuclear-powered.

Update: According to New Scientist the car is powered not by LPG but by water:

The car itself is 8.5 metres long and weighs 3 tonnes. It is powered by demineralised water, which is pumped into a dozen 250-kilowatt boilers - equivalent to about 1200 electric kettles. These provide steam to a 268-kilowatt turbine that drives the rear wheels.

Wonder how much energy it took to demineralise the water?


Editing note: The record was set in 1906, not 1903. Corrected.

BEARLY BITTEN



CASH COW CAMERAS

The West Australian government wants to at least double the number of red light cameras at Perth intersections. Road Safety Minister Rob Johnson:

I am convinced they are an important element of a comprehensive road safety strategy.

Red-light cameras are by no means the sole solution, the problem is much bigger than that, but they do help slow drivers down and gradually change attitudes towards speeding.

As for any suggestions that speed and red-light cameras are for revenue-raising, that argument is an absolute nonsense.

It's an argument used by people who haven't lost someone dear to them because of a speeding driver.

Assistant Police Commissioner Steve Brown is also convinced more cameras will improve road safety :

These cameras are not revenue raisers, they are lifesavers.

So many crashes are caused by people ignoring red lights and people do not realise the ramifications of T-bone crashes.

We would rather not be handing out fines, but we will do whatever it takes to slow people down and stop them running red lights.

Messrs Brown and Johnson might be "convinced" that cameras improve road safety but it appears there are no convincing studies showing that red light cameras reduce crashes at intersections. The revenue raising potential of the cameras is well known, however, with the 20 most active of the existing 30 Perth cameras photographing 34,479 violators, resulting in $5,171,850 in fines over a period of approximately 18 months.

If the powers that be are really concerned about improving road safety they should forget about red light cameras and instead do something about road deaths outside the metropolitan area. In the 10 years to 2004 1,146 people were killed on country roads while 860 died on metropolitan roads. To put this in perspective, the 2004 fatal crash rate for Perth was 8.0 per 100,000 passenger vehicles but in rural areas was 33.6 per 100,000 vehicles. Now whereas a number of variables – higher average country driving speeds, for example – make the city-country fatalities comparison iffy, it's clear that more needs to be done to reduce the rural road toll.


Note: Road toll statistics for Western Australia are available here.

BRUSH WITH DEATH

An eight year-old British boy has been taken into protective care after a sickening assault:

Judy Morris, prosecuting the mother this week, said that during an interview, the boy had said he had got up late and his mother was angry and sad. She had then hit him on the shoulder, once with the back and once with the hairbrush spikes.

Poor little fella's lucky he wasn't killed.

WHITE HOUSE INTRODUCES GREENER EGG

Participants in the Easter White House egg roll traditionally receive a painted wooden egg as a souvenir. The Christian Scientist Monitor reports on an Obama innovation for this year's event:

The White House on Thursday unveiled the official 2009 Easter Egg which is purported to be much more environmentally friendly than past Easter Eggs.The eggs are coated with "renewable, vegetable oil-based" paint.

This is quite a change from the Bush years, when the eggs were painted by detainees in secret CIA prisons using "lead-based arsenic paint probably made from nuclear waste and ground-up dolphins".

Speaking of Bush, here's a photo from Easter 2008.

Better to hug a bunny than bow to a king.

UNREALITY TV

Bin Laden exonerated:

A Dutch TV jury has found Osama bin Laden not guilty of the September 11 attacks.

The jury also ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove bin Laden was the real head of terrorist network Al Qaeda.

What the hell, kill him anyway.

CARDBOARD BOX INNOVATED

Take an existing design for a solar oven made from two cardboard boxes add a clear plastic lid and win £50,000.
The aptly named Kyoto box is going to change the world. Right.

CLEVER PLAN TO CONTROL THE FUTURE OF MOTORING

In a two page article titled "Riding a new wave of power" that's really an advert, the Age plugs entrepreneur Shai Agassi's vision of the electric car's future:

The fuel needle hovering near E used to mean a quick calculation on the location of the nearest petrol station and how much petrol was left. Now the computer performs that calculation. If it is a short trip, to the office or a shopping centre, it announces the location of the nearest points where the car can be recharged while it is unoccupied. If it is a long trip, the nearest station where the battery can be replaced, free of charge, is shown. That transaction will take about five minutes, or about the time, from start to finish, it would take to fill and pay for an ordinary fuel tank at a service station. The new battery will run for 160 kilometres.

Before discussing battery replacement, let's take a look Agassi's company, Better Place:

Better Place is a venture-backed company that aims to reduce global dependency on oil through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles, providing consumers with a cleaner, sustainable, personal transportation alternative.

All warm and cuddly, ain't it? In reality, the company's goal is to make money. Nothing wrong with that, of course.

It is worrying that Better Place is forming parnerships with governments around the world, aiming to put in place its battery recharge and replacment infrastructure. Once established this infrastructure, especially if backed by government, will be nearly impossible to replace should a superior vehicle power source become available – hydrogen, for example. In criticising the current oil-based automotive fuel infrastructure Agassi unwittingly condemns his attempts to establish the electric car battery standard:

It wasn't that oil was so much better — electrons are better than oil — we just didn't have supply and demand at the critical time of the 10 years of formation of the industry.

So, just as the establishment of an oil-fueled vehicle infrastructure locked us into oil-fueled vehicles, Agassi hopes to lock in lithium-ion battery powered vehicles as the new de facto standard. This begs an obvious question: where the hell is all of the lithium going to come from?

Anyway, back to replacement batteries, which are anything but free – Better Place owns the batteries, with users paying a charge likened to a mobile phone usage fee. Here's how battery replacement works:

In addition to widely deployed charge spots, the Better Place network will provide fully-automated battery exchange stations. These swap stations are designed to extend the driver’s journey beyond the 100 mile range of a fully-charged battery. ... These Better Place battery exchange stations are even more efficient and convenient than conventional gas stations. Each is roughly the size of your average living room. Like the charging spots, they are fully automated. ... The depleted battery is removed, and a fully-charged replacement is installed. In under three minutes, the car is back on the road. ... The battery exchange stations will be able to accommodate any Better Place-compliant vehicle. All manufactured batteries will be stocked so that any electric vehicle with a swappable battery, regardless of make or model, can pull in and be serviced.

As Better Place infrastructure becomes established there will be considerable pressure on manufacturers to use Better Place-compliant batteries, having paid a Better Place licensing fee, no doubt. (Mercedes rejects the battery replacement plan, by the way.)

Better Place seems to have made an unheralded breakthrough in battery technology:

The batteries have a range of about 160 kilometres, and a lifespan of 400,000 to 800,000 kilometres.

A number of variables affect lithium-ion battery lifespan but it's doubtful any battery currently available can cope with the many thousands of recharges required over 800,000 kilometres. By comparison, Tesla estimates its roadster's battery, with a claimed range of close to 400 kilometres, will experience 5,000 charge cycles over its predicted 160,000 kilometre life.

Regardless, the Age article is designed to persuade rather than to inform:

A question about whether the economic crisis will serve as the necessary tipping point for mass adoption of electric vehicles sends Agassi careering off in an unexpected direction. The answer traces the history of energy use, from whale oil for home heating, to the trial and massive error of early attempts at an electricity grid. He explains how one technology leap-frogged another at a critical time — the development of the so-called horseless carriage — and how, as a consequence, 100 years of American and European brainpower shaped the evolution of the internal combustion engine, while the battery remained inert, heavy and toxic until the late 1980s.

Whale oil was used for lighting, not heating. The electricity grid evolved with AC winning out over DC for technical reasons. Let's just hope our engineering brainpower isn't wasted on lithium-ion battery powered cars when it's possible all that thought could be better invested somewhere else.

Finally, where all of the low or zero-carbon footprint electricty required to charge the batteries will come from has yet to be worked out.

RUBBER CHICKEN OUTRAGE CONTINUES

Consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier on the North Melbourne rubber chicken video:

Here's the real issue. The video wasn't an aberration. People develop, over time, patterns of behaviour. These patterns of behaviour are driven by thoughts and beliefs that are formed over a lifetime of experience. The boys who made these videos have very distorted cognitions - they most likely see women as disposable, inferior, and worthless. Something to exploit. Further, their behavior would suggest they harbour aggressive thoughts towards women - they simply must if they think depicting women in this light is ok!
Further, as they read this, they may say things to themselves such as 'it was just a joke', or 'It was a chicken - not a real woman', and so on. They will justify their behaviour to themselves to see themselves in the best possible light (no one wants to see themselves as a monster - even people who commit monstrous acts).
The scary thing is these distorted cognitions are - if left unchecked, dangerous. They can be the precursor to actual abusive behaviour towards women. And even worse their hopelessly out of his depth CEO is unwittingly condoning their behaviour - probably because he too, to some degree has similar beliefs.

Not only is the "victim" not identifiable as female, human or otherwise, the video shows no overt sex acts – the head of a rubber chicken penetrating the body cavity of a chicken carcass, through the opening from which its organs have been removed, is hardly sexual.

Interestingly, Ferrier is not averse to using sexual inference as a marketing tool, founding the provocatively named Naked in Australia in 2004. But that's Okay because he's not a woman-hating footy player.

CORNERING THE SERVER MARKET

An entrepreneur who went bust in the country's financial collapse wants to make Iceland the world's computer server farm. Servers sited there could be cooled not by refrigeration but by "just open[ing] the doors and let[ing] the wind blow through". There's also plentiful zero-carbon-footprint electricity. Cisco and Microsoft are reported to be considering establishing Icelandic server farms. So it looks like Iceland might be notable for something other than Björk Guðmundsdóttir and water-skimming cars.

Note: The title should actually be "CORNERING THE SERVER FARM MARKET".

P. J. O'ROURKE INTERVIEW

O'Rourke on Presidents past and present:

KERRY O'BRIEN: Jimmy Carter?

P J O'ROURKE: Jimmy Carter! Jimmy Carter was - he still - he remains to this day America's most ex of ex-presidents. You just can't believe that we elected this doofus. He was a bright enough guy and sort of well meaning. But he was about as prepared to be President of the United States as your goofy old uncle, you know, the one that memorises baseball statistics. He just wasn't there.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Bill Clinton.

P J O'ROURKE: Yeah. You know, I'm sure you've got the type in Australia - a very recognisable American type and I'm sure you have an equivalent. He's the Carny Barker, you know, just an absolute sleazeball - brilliant sleazeball. I grew up in the car business. My family had a Buick dealership in Toledo, Ohio. And if we could've hired Bill, I wouldn't be talking to you on television, I'd be on my yacht in the Mediterranean we would be so rich.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Barack Obama.

P J O'ROURKE: Well, early days. Too soon to tell. I mean, he's a little bit of a Harvard know-it-all. One of these people that, you know - they have a different kind of bull session at Harvard than at the kind of college I went to. You know, instead of sitting up drinking beer and talking about girls, they redesign health care for America and the world. They talk about GATT tariffs and UN resolutions. And these guys have got it all figured out, you know. And you know, one great thing about not being so smart is that at least you know you don't have it all figured out. If you're as smart as Obama is, you're so smart that you may think that you have it all figured out. And, you know, one thing you know when you get over 60 that guys Obama's age don't know yet is: ain't nobody got it figured out.

With reference to O'Rourke's recent cancer diagnosis:

KERRY O'BRIEN: So no change of priorities in your life. I guess this brush with death could be God giving you one last chance to be a Democrat.

P J O'ROURKE: Oh, he wouldn't do that. You know, my theory of long standing: God's a Republican; Santa Claus is a Democrat.

Here's the full quote for those unfamiliar with O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores:

I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat.

God is an elderly or, at any rate, middle-aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men strictly accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well-being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on literally everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God's heavenly country club.

Santa Claus is another matter. He's cute. He's nonthreatening. He's always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who's been naughty and who's been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without thought of a quid pro quo. He works hard for charities, and he's famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.

The interview transcript is here – there's a video link in the right sidebar.

AUSTRALIA: LAND OF CASUAL RACISM AND SWASTIKAS

An unusual observation from the Sydney Morning Herald's Travel Blog:

That's the thing about Australia - on the surface we're a pretty happy, knockabout bunch of larrikins, but underneath lies a sad undercurrent of casual racism and xenophobia.

We might not all be One Nation voters, sitting at home carving swastikas into our foreheads, but I know a lot of people who fall into the, "you're in Australia - speak f---in' English" mould of fear.

That's fucked up on so many levels it ain't even funny.

A FEW MILLION JEWS NO BIG DEAL

Jew Michael Brull on name-calling:

Desperate to promote Israeli Government policy, the Australian Jewish establishment has resorted to calling all kinds of people anti-Semites — even Jews.

It's therefore reasonable to assume this comment from newmatilda.com managing editor Rod McGuinness refers to Zionists attacking those speaking truth to Jewish power:

We have been following the comments on this article and as you may be aware, deleted some over the past few days.

We have been very concerned at the number of personal attacks and comments which do not contribute to the discussion.

For these reasons we are suspending comments on this article. We are also reflecting on our current policy of moderating comments.

In fact, the most significant of the deleted comments claimed the holocaust was a beat-up:

It is pretty fair to say that historians have shown that 6 million jews did not die in the "holocaust", maybe 1 or 2 million among 70 million other people.

McGuinness should have made this clear.

RUBBER-WEARING RUBBER CHICKEN VIDEO RUBBED OUT

A bit of fun by North Melbourne players has caused quite a stir:

A video depicting degrading sex acts filmed in the rooms of the North Melbourne Football Club and posted online by one of the side's young footballers is being investigated by the club.

North Melbourne chief executive Eugene Arocca said last night he was "embarrassed" about the four-minute movie that depicts sex acts by a toy rubber chicken — being manoeuvred by an unidentifiable human hand — in a supermarket, a pub toilet and in the club's locker rooms and offices.

Throughout the video, which was posted on YouTube, the toy chicken has a condom on its head and is manipulated to look as if it is penetrating the carcass of a real chicken that also features throughout the film.

The photo with the story shows the rubber chicken sans condom so it's immediately clear a condom wasn't worn throughout the video. Maybe there should be an outcry over unsafe rubber chicken sex. Regardless, it's fanciful to claim a rubber chicken can engage in "degrading sex acts" with a plucked and gutted chicken carcass. Clearly some imagination must come into play:

The real chicken seemingly plays the role of a woman. The storyline becomes increasingly menacing as the two characters go to the pub — he has beer, she has white wine — and end up having sex in the toilet.

The whole thing sounds like immature horseplay by some young players trying to let off some steam. Really, why would anyone care?

BOOK BURNING ON THE CARDS

Child pornography was legal in Sweden for much of the 1970s. The national library, required to acquire all domestic publications, dutifully bought and shelved pornographic publications. The library has now been reported to the police for "the possession and distribution of child pornography". I'm guessing the kiddie porn will be dumped, and rightly so, rather than being saved for posterity.

HOT WHEELS

With its mid-2008 acquisition of MV Augusta (including Cagiva) Harley-Davidson offers an eclectic range of two-wheeled transport.

Cagiva:
Buell:
MV Augusta:
Harley:
For those wanting an all-Italian super-bike, there's still Ducati:

RENOWNED AUTHOR IGNORED

According to Wikipedia:

Antony Loewenstein is a Jewish-Australian political activist, atheist, Sydney-based freelance journalist, author and blogger.

Loewenstein has written for The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Sydney's Sun-Herald, The Bulletin, ZNet, The Big Issue, Crikey, CounterPunch and others. He writes a regular column for online magazine newmatilda.com and is a board member of Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies. He appears regularly on radio, in public and at universities discussing current affairs and politics.

He's also written two books, one a best-seller.

The guy's drawing power is phenomenal with "at least 120 people packed into the lecture theatre " at Melbourne University to hear a Palestine Solidarity Week lecture. His blog is equally unpopular.

WORKER ABUSE OKAY WITH LEFTIES

Andrew Bolt obsessives liken his objecting to a 10¢ plastic bag fee to the Prime Minister making a flight attendant cry over a meal mix-up. The two scenarios are vastly different.

Bolt and the sales assistant who advised him of the bag charge were dealing on approximately equal terms – neither had power over the other.

The sales assistant did not appear to be upset as a result of the conversation.

It was Bolt, the supposed aggressor, who reported the incident.

This is in sharp contrast to the Prime Minister berating probably the most junior member of a military flight-crew, who had no option but to silently stand and take whatever was directed at her – she was reported to have been reduced to tears.

This incident being deemed by the fight-crew to be so significant as to warrant an official report up the chain of command. Such a report would not be career enhancing.

When news of the incident leaked out, Prime Ministerial staff apparently denied anything unusual had happened. Only later did the Prime Minister apologise for his actions.

It's odd that lefties continue to support perhaps the most powerful man in Australia's abuse of one of the country's weakest workers.

Update: With the advent of Pure Poison, The Blair/Bolt Watch Project was shut down. But for a serious Bolt-obsessive like Jeremy – he obviously thinks about little else (other than the poor service provided by mobile phone carriers) – it's impossible to write too much about Bolt. So, Bolt Watch has been reactivated.

Everybody needs an interest but thinking about Andrew Bolt 24/7 is ridiculous. Bolt is inside the guy's brain.

Correction: I misread the date on Bolt Watch: the date is March 2008, not March 2009. Bolt Watch has not been reactivated. I am, like the Prime Minister, subject to error. The story is actually recycled at Jeremy's personal blog.

CLASSIC HEADLINE

Japanese popstar dressed as pineapple robbed in Malmö

LOW COST SCHEME COSTLY

The Sydney Morning Herald reckons Paris's Velib low-cost bicycle rental scheme is "a huge success". Brigid Delaney's gushing report notes a few minor problems while totally ignoring the scheme's financial reality:

A popular bicycle rental scheme in Paris that has transformed travel in the city has run into problems just 18 months after its successful launch.

Over half the original fleet of 15,000 specially made bicycles have disappeared, presumed stolen.

They have been used 42 million times since their introduction but vandalism and theft are taking their toll.

The company which runs the scheme, JCDecaux, says it can no longer afford to operate the city-wide network.

Since the scheme's launch, nearly all the original bicycles have been replaced at a cost of 400 euros ($519, £351) each.

The Velib bikes - the name is a contraction of velo (cycle) and liberte (freedom) - have also fallen victim to a craze known as "velib extreme".

Various videos have appeared on YouTube showing riders taking the bikes down the steps in Montmartre, into metro stations and being tested on BMX courses.

Also, the bikes tend to accumulate at downhill collection points from which they must be redistributed. Now since it's doubtful Velib employees are riding the bikes back uphill it's reasonable to assume the machines are trucked to where they're needed. Sort of makes the whole thing silly, now don't it?

HOUSE UNPACKED

Much-ignored anti-Israel activist Antony Loewenstein toots his own horn:

I spoke on Wednesday for Palestine Solidarity Week at La Trobe University, Monash University and Melbourne University to packed houses...

Loewenstein's Palestine Solidarity Week photo gallery contains only one audience-shot so it's probably safe to assume that's the biggest crowd he drew. It wasn't exactly standing room only. But you have to admire the guy for continuing to pitch his self-promotional message.

MORE PP VANISHINGS

Strange happenings in lefty-land, folks. First Ant Roenous's Tim Blair-uses-a-sockpuppet post disappears from Pure Poison. Then Rogenous's follow-up post at Grods is deleted without explanation (cached here). Now Jeremy Sear's apology to Blair, on behalf of the Pure Poison crew, is stealthily obliterated (cached here). What's going on?

COMPLAINT EMPOWERING

Enlightened lefty Keri James is all for attacking a worker with no control over an error:

I read with - I have to admit - a hint of pride the tale of the Prime Minister of this big brown land giving a flight attendant a telling-off for buggering up a meal request.

I'm sorry, but if you get shit service, you complain. Why shouldn't the Prime Minister be able to do the same? And has anyone not wanted to do the same? Aeroplane food is awful. Universally, all-encompassingly bad.

The Prime Minister should complain if the meal he requested is unavailable but there's no point in attacking the flight attendant who simply serves the meals; it's not like she could return to the galley and whip up a vegetarian meal from scratch when the food is prepared in advance and loaded on the plane ready for serving. A complaint should be lodged with Commander of 84 Wing with procedures put in place to ensure future food orders are processed correctly. Then again, berating service staff seems to delight and empower some people.

Editing note: The missing meal was perhaps not meat-free, so is now referred to as simply a "meal".

Update: Gallant Jeremy defends Keri:

It's all second-hand hearsay crap anyway.

There's no evidence he did give her a "telling off". He could have just said something short and annoyed and she, because he's the PM, was devastated by it.

As you point out though, it's a non-issue. If JWH had done it the righties would agree.

It is important for powerful people to realise their actions can have an extraordinary impact simply because of who they are. As Julia Gillard put it:

As a general statement about politicians, anywhere, anytime, we should be treating the people who are dealing with us with respect.

The PM therefore needs to work on his people skills if this predicted scenario is to be avoided:

One day, something will happen and it will all come undone.

All it will take is for someone to spill coffee on him when he thinks there are no cameras there.

Time will tell.

BYE BYE ANT ROGENOUS

Ant Rogenous, aggressive PP boy and Grods.com blogger, has had a bad run. He has authored only four Pure Poison posts, one of which was deleted and an apology issued. His most recent PP post was on 16 March. He does no better at Grods, with one of his three latest posts disappearing without explanation.

Ironically, the now gone Grods post addresses Rogenous's disappearance from the blogging scene:

As difficult as it might be to believe, sometimes a pesky little thing called the Real World intrudes on hobby blogging. A hobby blogger, facing such an incursion, might wish to spend a few days with his mind exclusively in this Real World — perhaps because of a new job* he might just have begun, or perhaps because family matters might have required much more attention than usual. Maybe even both.

While it’s entertaining to indulge in conspiracy theories and wishful thinking about the whereabouts of such a blogger, you’ll usually find those follies are way off the mark.

I have not been “sacked” from Pure Poison over WBIPgate. The events surrounding the article’s removal from the site have nothing to do with my absence from the interpipes this past week or so.

The post above was written on the 10th of March. His latest PP post was 12 March with his most recent Grods effort on 19 March. Thus it seems that Ant Rogenous's short (and less than illustrious) blogging career – blogging for money at Crikey makes him more than a hobby blogger – is over.

AVENGING BUNNIES VS EVIL DROMEDARIES

Cat Shit One! By the way, the rabbits in the clip speak Japanese but are American. So, how did Japanese animators come up with American military rabbits? Simple, the Japanese word for rabbit is usagi.

PAYBACKS ARE HELL

Chechen military types are biting the dust.

"MOST RIDICULED" IS NOT THE SAME AS "MOST HATED"

Speaking at a Foreign Correspondents' Association luncheon, Antony Loewenstein is introduced as a man "who must be one of the most hated people in Australia", who somehow manages to "cope with the attacks he is facing on an almost daily basis". It is revealed for the first time that Loewenstein is not only an author and writer of renown, he's an "academic". The truly ridiculous introduction and Loewenstein's presentation – try to count how many times he adjusts the microphone – are availble here. Please note: I accept no responsibility for IQ reduction suffered by anyone clicking that link.

By the way, what about that new hairstyle?