Malcolm Fraser - shouldn't be seen or heard

In the 1950s when I was a nipper, my parents told me that ‘children should be seen and not heard’. Over fifty years later that’s anachronistic. But I think an adaption of that saying, i.e. ‘previous prime ministers should not be seen or heard’, still applies. Two years ago I wrote of it here. In that post I wrote: ‘…Malcolm Fraser, that Hamas praiser, bleeding-heartedly yabbering on about why Australia’s Middle East policy should be even-handed’. But Fraser (pictured), whose 80th birthday’s next month, and who exited parliament in 1983 (yes, 27 years ago) still yabbers on. Last week he publicly called for expulsion of Israeli diplomats from Australia because Israel forged Australian passports. The Australian Federal Police’s still investigating the matter. But Fraser, ever omniscient, said the diplomats should be ejected before the AFP reports. Why? Because in his venerable view, only a nation state could have produced such high quality forgeries. What horse shit. And what a contrast to the view of current Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott who said: ‘We can never forget that Israel is a country under existential threat in a way Australians find difficult to understand’. The late mother of one of Sweetheart Vivienne’s friends had a saying: ‘If you weren’t there, you don’t know’. This applies to you, Mr Fraser. If you’re listening – which I doubt. And, adjunctively, shame on the media for giving this pathetic has been (or never was) coverage.

farmdoc's blog post number 410

Nowadays Sweetheart Vivienne and I don’t argue much. But a perpetual source of friction is that when I shop in the supermarket I write down the price of each item I buy, and after the checkout I compare the docket prices with my shopping list prices. I often find differences. But I only report those when I’m overcharged. Which happens much more frequently than undercharging. Whereas random chance suggests overcharging and undercharging should happen equally. So the die’s loaded in the supermarket’s favour. No surprise there. And the same with Telstra. The billing errors I find are almost all in its favour – including a recent one of a few hundred dollars. Last Monday Telstra announced it’s ending the pip tones that for the last 40 years have been heard at the start of all long distance calls. It’s labelled its phase-out part of the transformation process that’s turning Telstra into ‘a world leading media communications company’. And it said ‘the removal of STD pip tones will give fixed line users a consistent experience’. What horse shit. It sounds like corporate types are incapable of honesty when spin’s an option. The upshot, of course, is that no more pip tones encourages people to talk for longer without remembering they’re on a long distance call. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 383

Sweetheart Vivienne’s been a New Yorker subscriber for many years. Apart from the superb writing and interesting content, something setting the New Yorker well above its competitors is its fact checking. Its fact checking quality’s legendary. The gold standard. It’s so easy to assume all other published work’s been fact checked to the New Yorker standard. But doing so’s stupid. Wikipedia, for example, is the world’s largest encyclopaedia freely accessible on the world’s fourth most popular website. But its content’s not invariably fact checked, and it’s open to amendment by people with less than altruistic motives. This article, reporting on the recent Wikipedia Academy 2009 Conference’ in Israel, describes several examples of Wikipedia inaccuracy. These include the repeated removal of reference to Iranian President Ahmadinejad as a Holocaust denier, and the citation of David Irving as an historian. But Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation which runs Wikipedia, said she was “quite comfortable” with Wikipedia’s mistakes which merely reflect fluctuating public discourse. That’s a copout, Ms Gardner. Horse shit. And as for your comment that “I know that more or less the same mistakes can be found in the New York Times”, it’s obvious why your exemplar publication is not the New Yorker. So from now on, I’ll be more circumspect about Wikipedia’s content. Much more.

farmdoc's blog post number 286

Mole Creek is a famous limestone cave location. One of the important inhabitants of our caves is the Tasmanian cave spider, Hickmania troglodytes [1,2]. The genus Hickmania is named after an arachnologist called Hickman; and the species name troglodytes is the Greek word for cave-dweller. Some 50 years ago, the word 'troglodyte' acquired a derogatory usage. In keeping with this usage, I hereby formally, but regrettably, label Warren Truss (pictured) as a troglodyte. Who? He’s the federal leader of the National Party. Why? Last week he urged the federal government to delay the 2010 start of Australia’s emissions trading scheme to protect jobs in the mining industry. He said that  introducing a tax on the resources sector during the financial crisis would lead to more job losses, and ‘This is a time when industry needs all the help it can get’. My response is: ‘Horse shit, Mr Truss. If you don’t know there are no jobs on a dead planet, then as leader of a major political party, you should. This is 2009, the planet faces dire climate catastrophe, and you’re worried about a few jobs. Sorry, votes. Even the Rudd government, which is woefully inadequate on climate change, has said the ETS won’t be delayed. So return to your cave, Mr Truss, you troglodyte. And don’t come out until you care about my planet and my grandchildren’.

farmdoc's blog post number 175

Last Thursday the headline writers had a field day: ‘Not in Burke’s Backyard’ and ‘Don Burke becomes ‘Gunn for hire’’ The story is that Gunns Limited has hired Don Burke – an erstwhile celebrity gardener – as ‘environmental consultant’ to its proposed northern Tasmania pulp mill. It’s a feeble, transparent ploy by Gunns’ spin doctors, because another celebrity gardener – Peter Cundall – is an eloquent, heartfelt and unpaid opponent of the mill. Burke is chairman of the Australian Environment Foundation which operates from the address of the right-wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, and is commingled with it as well as Timber Communities Australia. The AEF is arguably a greenwash organisation: according to its website it’s pro GMO, it’s open to nuclear energy, it promotes climate change scepticism, it’s pro pulp mill of course, and it opposes peak environment groups. Very nasty, Donny boy. Cundall’s a man of impeccable integrity; Burke's a hired gun. Burke said he approached Gunns for the job, and he’s received assurances from Gunns’ chairman John Gay that his role will be independent of the company. Oh yes, you read right. ‘He asked me to monitor what’s going on, and work in the best interests as a green person,’ Burke said. But he doesn’t say in whose best interests; and he’s as green as horse shit. Stay tuned, folks.