Piers Akerman
VETERAN social researcher, Howard-hater and Fairfax columnist Hugh Mackay was one of those euphoric about the election of the Rudd Labor government last November.
But Mackay acknowledged in a recent interview with the ABC’s Kerry O’Brien that such euphoria is unsustainable - a view Prime Minister Kevin Rudd seems to unable to entertain.
According to Mackay, voters “thought this was a government that was going to, if not perform miracles, then at least do something dramatic to the spirit of the nation.
“And things like Kyoto and the apology and the 2020 Summit - those big symbols early on - really stood as reinforcement of that rather euphoric expectation.’’
Euphoria, Mackay says, “by its very nature is ephemeral, and we’re already seeing it evaporate just a few months after the Government has come to office.
“Already, there’s some cynicism - certainly scepticism - in the community about whether the symbols are more significant than the substance, whether all this big-picture, statesmanlike stuff that fed the euphoria is gonna happen or not.’’
But it’s not a “few months’’ since the Rudd government came to office
It’s a week short of eight months, and all the public has seen is symbolic gestures: several bold statements that have then been whittled of almost all meaning by reference to committees and inquiries, or the announcements of initiatives that will not be taken until after another election, if then.
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CSIRO heavy: don’t trust CSIRO’s scares
Andrew Bolt
Art Raiche, former Chief Research Scientist of the CSIRO, says the organisation’s fear-mongering over climate change can’t be trusted:
Sadly, over the last decade, CSIRO has transformed itself from a once-respected research institute into a highly centralised, government enterprise (oxymoron?), replete with intersecting layers of expensive management, focused on continual reorganisation. Scientific independence has been lost…
For this reason CSIRO no longer attracts top young scientists except as an employer of last resort… It employs a much higher percentage of second and third rate people than was the case two decades ago. In short, much of CSIRO can now be regarded as a sheltered workshop.
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Oxygen for extremists
Andrew Bolt
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, visits New Zealand at the first time to talk about trade and the fight to keep Afghanistan free.
Can someone explain to me why the ABC’s The World Today decided that the best way to mark this significant visit was to devote a long report to the juvenile rants of two members of the local rent-a-mob - spokesmen of the Auckland University’s Student Association and Global Peace and Justice?
These people represent exactly which fringe? And itsn’t this simply rewarding the usual campus airheads not just for their extremism, but their stunt-threats to “arrest” Rice for “war crimes”?
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GLOBAL PURRING
Tim Blair
It’s not enough that 1276 Queenslanders will be warmed to death. Now we must face this:
Global warming may boost kitten population
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SICK CULTURES CONDEMNED
Tim Blair
An ethical leftist is annoyed by my …
… dog-whistle chant about Western values.
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Drugs, weapons smuggling rife in NSW prisons
Hundreds of visitors to New South Wales prisons are being caught trying to smuggle drugs and weapons to inmates.
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Anna Wood's father enters politics
The father of Anna Wood, who died from an ecstacy overdose in 1995, is set to join politics as a candidate in Sydney’s local government elections.
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Minister takes mate on terrorism junket
DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has taken a close friend with no security expertise on an official visit to Turkey and Afghanistan.
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Jeff Kennett in gay football storm
By James Campbell
FORMER state premier Jeff Kennett has provoked a gay rights storm by backing a football club that sacked a trainer for being gay.
The Hawthorn president and potential Melbourne lord mayor sparked calls for his sacking after saying Bonnie Doon Football Club was within its rights to sack veteran trainer Ken Campagnolo after it found out he was gay.
"The club felt that once this had been pointed out and you had this gentleman there who was obviously close to young men - massaging young men - it ran an unnecessary risk and that's why it decided it was best that he not perform those duties again. So the club was trying to do the right thing," Mr Kennett said.
Bag snatch break-through
By Ellen Connolly
THIS is the woman wanted for questioning over a crime spree targeting patients at Sydney hospitals.
Police have appealed for information on the whereabouts of Alyaa Elali, who has allegedly robbed hundreds of people - many of them new mothers in maternity wards - of more than $1 million.
Elali's crime wave, preying on the sick and vulnerable, has been unrelenting for more than a year.
After stealing wallets, Elali, 33, uses her victim's credit cards and licenses to reap thousands of dollars due to lax security at Australia's biggest banks.
In one incident, she allegedly stole $22,500 from a woman's bank account in less than 45 minutes.
Elali was freed from jail last year after serving four years for remarkably similar offences, and it seems she picked up where she left off.
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Rudd’s cyclonic hype
Andrew Bolt
More evidence that Kevin Rudd’s hyping of the ”super cyclones” scare is not just irresponsible but pure beat up. Here’s the claim his government leaked to the Courier Mail:
QUEENSLAND will become hotter and super-cyclones will batter the coast as far south as Brisbane by 2070, the nation’s top scientists have warned.
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Breeding barbarians
Andrew Bolt
And what would they do to complete strangers?
VIOLENT attacks by teenagers against parents and other relatives have soared by 23% in the past five years, a study focusing on assaults on single mothers by their sons has revealed.
We’ve lost our skill at socialising children. Some taboos and traditions urgently need restoring.
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Diary of a planet-saver
Andrew Bolt
Julia Hollander describes in the Spectator the life-cycle of a global-warming devotee. But first, some background on Hollander, an English opera director and writer
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So why not just double the price?
Andrew Bolt
Victoria’s Premier wants you to hurt:
JOHN Brumby says he is “comfortable” with the looming rise in energy costs because he wants Victorians to rethink their use of electricity.
This would make Brumby the first Premier in Victoria’s history to think of higher power bills as a sign of success. But this is also the man who thinks making Victorians use less water, and pay the highest price possible for more are also indicators of brilliant management.
With benchmarks like there, which numbskull could fail?
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CSIRO heavy: don’t trust CSIRO’s scares
Andrew Bolt
Art Raiche, former Chief Research Scientist of the CSIRO, says the organisation’s fear-mongering over climate change can’t be trusted:
Sadly, over the last decade, CSIRO has transformed itself from a once-respected research institute into a highly centralised, government enterprise (oxymoron?), replete with intersecting layers of expensive management, focused on continual reorganisation. Scientific independence has been lost…
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Minister takes mate on terrorism junket
CALLS for an investigation into defence minister taking friend with no related expertise to Afghanistan.- there is nothing wrong with the minister taking his gay lover on long trips. It probably gets very lonely for him, being away from his family for such long stretches. It saves the cost of putting prostitutes on the ministerial expense account. -ed
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