Headlines Monday 11th August

Labor would like a lot less success
Andrew Bolt
He says it like this is good news for Labor:

The new GROCERYchoice website received 1.8 million hits in its first four days, showing consumers are interested in the information it provides, federal Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen says.

Bowen should in fact despair. That’s a hell of a lot of people who are finding out for themselves just how useless is the site and just how much the Government has duped them
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POLICE BE UPON HIM
Tim Blair
The almighty is fallen:
A man who legally changed his name to Almighty Allah is facing a narcotics charge in South Windsor.
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FORBIDDEN LITRES
Tim Blair
Australia’s leading promoter of father/daughter incest stories, 60 Minutes, last Sunday examined the role in Australia of the motor car.
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THE ONE, THE OM
Tim Blair
Obama’s campaign rejected NASCAR sponsorship. Perhaps yoga classes are more his speed
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RISE OF THE HOLLYCONS
Tim Blair
Author Andrew Klavan on the silence of the creative right:
At a recent writers conference in Southern California, one of my colleagues on a screenwriters panel told the crowd of about 50 people that she hoped Barack Obama would win the presidency. A number of people applauded. When it was my turn to speak, I politely said that I disagreed with her politics and moved on to other topics. There was no applause for me, but several writers approached me afterward. Each dropped his voice to a whisper and, looking around to make sure no one would overhear, said, “Thank you for saying that.”

Which raises a question for all conservatives in the arts: Why are we whispering?
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VIOLENCE DELAYED
Tim Blair
The Age, Saturday:
Rising temperatures are likely to bring increased levels of violence to Melbourne by 2010 ...
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NO CROSS-BAT SHOTS
Tim Blair
Theologians who’d previously concluded that Jesus was a hot rod builder now have this to consider:
It is possible that cricket, a game venerated all over the Commonwealth, is older than currently thought.
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LABOR DOWN UP NORTH
Tim Blair
Following Gippsland, another swing against Labor:
The Labor Government is clinging to power after suffering a massive swing against it the Northern Territory polls ... the possibility remains of a hung parliament, with the balance of power resting with former chicken farmer Gerry Wood, who was returned as the independent member for Nelson.
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SAY IT CLEARLY
Tim Blair
David Thompson on the value of clarity:
There are plenty of writers who grapple with technical or unobvious ideas, and the good ones make it as easy as possible for the reader to follow the thinking and determine whether or not it’s sound - and if not, to determine where the doubt or error is. Such-and-such a mistake happens there. Or, this doesn’t follow from that. Or this other thing could be the case. This preference for transparency starts a process of critical thinking, or is at least amenable to it. It also entails honesty and the risk of public correction, as opposed to posturing and the hope one won’t be rumbled. This is a matter of no small importance, especially if the ideas in question are supposed to justify an adamant political worldview. Clarity invites dispute, possibly refutation, and refutation of one’s politics can, for some, be intolerable.
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QUESTIONS ASKED
Tim Blair
Five questions about the Edwards scandal, including: “Why did [Margaret] Sweet remove [Bob] McGovern’s resume and contact information from her site two days after the story broke? Perhaps more importantly: As an astrologer, why didn’t she do it before the story?”
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HYGIENE ATTACKED
Tim Blair
A vision of horror from Caroline Lucas:
Sitting in a teepee in the peaceful Kent countryside, surrounded by campaigners from across the UK mulling over the future of renewable energy and swapping vegan cake recipes, you could be forgiven for ...
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SILKYPONYDADDY ‘FESSES UP
Tim Blair
Bedward Edwards quits lying:
John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.
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Mark Davis and the hostile truth
Andrew Bolt

(Update now added. Update 2: Mark Davis responds in comments below, and, as I note, does so with so little integrity that I’m tempted to describe his response as dishonest.)

I cannot believe Mark Davis is a liar. So I’d suggest merely that this Melbourne University academic is simply ignorant or astonishingly incompetent in even basic research.

In his new book, The Land of Plenty - Australia in the 2000s, Davis offers up what the blurb claims is a “lacerating dissection of the ideologies of the new Right’’. But the only lacerations being inflicted are to Davis’ reputation as an academic. And to his publisher, Melbourne University Press.

Example 1:

A low point was a Bolt-penned ‘beat-up’ that appeared on the front page of the Herald-Sun to discredit the Aboriginal leader Lowitja O’Donoghue with the incorrect claim that she had falsely claimed to be ‘stolen’...

First, Davis cannot even get right the title of the main newspaper of his home town. Second, and more importantly, Davis is wrong in his main charge. Completely wrong.
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Going cold on global warming chatter
Andrew Bolt
If there’s hot weather, The Age sees signs of global warming. If there’s cold weather, The Age seens no sign of global cooling.
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Draft dodger tends the Anzac legend
Andrew Bolt
Living off a legend he refused to help build:

AUSSIE Diggers are outraged that a draft dodger holds a key role in Premier John Brumby’s veterans unit.
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How the next president would handle a war
Andrew Bolt

How would the next president of the US react in a crisis - say, a war unexpectedly unleashed by a superpower? Barack Obama and John McCain have been set a test with Russia’s attack on Georgia, and Roger Kimball checks their answers:
John McCain said that “Tensions and hostilities between Georgians and Ossetians are in no way justification for Russian troops crossing an internationally recognized border.” McCain also called on “Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of Georgia.” ...

For his part, Barack Obama called for “talks among all sides and said the United States, the U.N. Security Council and other parties should try to help bring about a peaceful resolution.” Obama looked forward to “an international peacekeeping force” under “an appropriate UN mandate.” ...
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Labor on notice
Andrew Bolt
First the 6 per cent swing against Labor in the Gippsland by-election, and now this:

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, acknowledged yesterday that the big swing against the Territory Government at the weekend poll sounded a warning to federal Labor, while the Coalition was buoyed by the surprise swing.
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Time the ACCC stood up to Rudd
Andrew Bolt
Henry Ergas blasts the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for backing Kevin Rudd’s GroceryChoice stunt:

Only weeks ago, ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel told the ABC’s 7.30 Report that “there would be very few observers in the marketplace that would say to you, ‘Coles and Woolworths are not vigorously competing against each other.”’ Now, in a somersault worthy of an Olympic gold medal, Samuel has concluded that “the grocery market is workably competitive. That term is used to describe a market in which competition exists but it is definitely not as competitive as it should be.”