Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
Australian author and reprobate John Birmingham joins me yet again for another conversation about everything from journalism to turnips. In fact, journalism and turnips. Yes, it’s another episode of the Spring Series 2021.
Continue reading “The 9pm Bludger’s Art of Lying with John Birmingham”
Ah, 2017. A year when too much politics is not enough. What a year in Australia. What a year in the world.
For the penultimate episode of this podcast for 2017, join us for this live and extremely wonkish conversation from the wilds of suburban Sydney with two smart and informed panellists.
Continue reading “The 9pm Public House Forum 5”
My week of Monday 23 to Sunday 29 January 2017 saw my first written material for 2017, amongst other things. But it’s the third of three rush-through weeks, so that’s all you’re getting.
None.
[Photo: Spider and Fly. A spider of unknown species with its catch at Bunjaree Cottages, photographed on 15 November 2014.]
Finally, somebody understands the internet. Prime Minister Crusader Rabbit demonstrates his compassion towards Syrian refugees. And the Rabbit’s words at the launch of the Australian Border Force in July turn out to have been remarkably prescient.
In this podcast, there’s talk of Nazis, drag queens, Transvision Vamp, and maps.
Continue reading “The 9pm Clumsily Worded Press Release”Barry O’Farrell, I’ve got my eye on you. It’s one thing to start sorting out the mess left after a decade and half of NSW Labor government that was incompetent to the point of, I suspect, corruption. I’m sure we can all provide a list of folks whose bank and phone records we’d like to see pulled by ICAC. But that’s very different from threatening with sacking a local government body whose actions happen not to coincide with the interests of your mates in the pro-Israel cheer squad.
Yes, Marrickville Council decided to boycott Israel over that whole Palestine thing. So what? What business is that of yours as NSW Premier? None.
As an individual, I have the right to hold whatever political views I like. Freedom of thought and freedom of political expression are amongst the very few human rights we’ve properly protected here in Australia. Should I decide that some individual, group, business, organisation or nation holds views so repugnant that I’d rather not support them, then it’s my right not to do business with them.
As a proper, legally-constituted, legitimately-elected local government body — as a legal “person” — the Marrickville Council also has that basic legal right to choose who it does business with.
Now as it happens, I reckon Marrickville’s decision wasn’t terribly well thought through. As my colleague Josh Taylor over at ZDNet Australia points out, boycotting everything that comes out of Israel denies you access to the latest computing technology from Intel, amongst other things. The very fact that Marrickville Council didn’t respond to his questions but instead waved him off to a prepared statement at their website proves, in my opinion, that they don’t have the intellectual integrity or moral backbone to discuss and stand by their decision. By all means criticise them for that.
But until very recently I’d spent most of a decade as a citizen of Marrickville. Yes, there’s a certain idealistic leftism suffusing the place, if I may resort to that tediously tired old left-right classification. But from a resident’s perspective they got on with the job of delivering services with far fewer allegations of dodgy behaviour than certain Labor-dominated local councils I could name. Or Liberal-dominated councils, for that matter. Why isn’t your attention focussed on them?
So, Mr O’Farrell, unless you’ve got some prima facie evidence of corruption or misconduct on the part of Marrickville Council, piss off out of it. It’s up to the citizens of Marrickville to decide whether they do or don’t support their Council’s actions, no-one else’s.
You’ve got enough on your plate to be getting on with as it is, Mr O’Farrell. Get on with it.
Over a year after it was first published, my piece Super Hornets are Go has garnered an interesting new comment. I’m not sure I agree, but my response is there anyway. If you’d like to add to the discussion, do pop over and do so!