Who brought down the Soviet Union? According to liberals [lefties], it collapsed of its own, with an assist from the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev. But this explanation not only scants the role of Western anti-communists - it implies they had exaggerated its dangers all along. Now, John O’Sullivan gives credit where it’s due. The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister is a sweeping, dramatic account of how President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher together took on the most powerful and aggressive foe that liberty has ever known — and won.
O’Sullivan begins by reminding us that when these three figures entered the world stage, Communism — far from imploding — was on the march around the globe. Jimmy Carter and other Western leaders had pursued a defeatist policy of “dialogue” and appeasement. But Reagan, Thatcher, and the Pope (who, as a Pole, knew Communist tyranny first-hand), would have none of it - and thus began one of the great moral-political battles of will that history has ever known.
The founders of the United States of America distrusted democracy so much they designed a whole government to prevent it. Not once does the word ‘democracy’ appear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights. The Constitution is basically an elaborate restriction on what the voters can do. There are different branches of the federal government, expected to offset each other’s power. And there’s the Bill of Rights itself, limiting the power of the central government – no matter how many people vote.
Picture this: a young student gets offered a top management job in a large multinational at the end of second year uni (a remarkable stroke of luck. He takes it, deferring uni and taking a leave of absence for a total of two years away. At the end of the second year, with his career in full swing, he has to decide whether to go back to uni or to quit. Thankfully, at that time, the Howard Government introduced fee paying domestic students, which allowed me to go back and finish off uni in my own time (within eight years). Eventually, some two years later, I went back and finished uni, paying for the final subjects on a per-subject basis. The Government funded me at the beginning, I funded myself after life took me on a journey, something I’d suggest is pretty common.
But now, Rudd wants to scrap these places. Strangely, he’d prefer to allow overseas studnets more flexibility and opportunity in Australia, than Australian students. The guy is a pimp. I keep saying it, stop flying overseas every 20 minutes and hanging around with Cate Blanchett like some sort of starfucker, and make some decisions, KRudd, you useless shit of a trumped up mid-ranking diplomat.
Only months after the Melbourne Model was introduced, the Rudd Government announced that “from 2009, full fee paying undergraduate places will be phased out in public universities for domestic students.”
Kikkoman rocks. I just bought a bottle of their plum wine, and I’m reminded of their cool ad from years ago.
The bit that freaks me out is when the cat hangs in the corner? Weird. If anyone speaks Japanese, please translate the lyrics in the comments, I’m mightily intrigued.
What positives could you possibly bring up about Senator Stephen Parry’s letter re: Bill Henson?
a) That it is spelt correctly?
b) That it contains relatively good punctuation?
c) That he has included a mobile phone number, which may allow you to call him and tell him how stupid this letter is?
Following in the foolish footsteps of his Federal counterpart Kevin Rudd, John Brumby has claimed that Bill Henson’s pics have “crossed the line”.
Funnily, he admitted he had not seen the pictures:
I haven’t seen them
But still thought he would contrive some sort of bullshit response - Brumby the art critic:
Art is always a very fine line - I probably lean in this case to saying it crossed the line
I’d suggest Brumby has demonstrated (not for the first time) that he’s more than willing to cross the line between stupidity and outright “say whatever it takes in a piss poor attempt to win votes”.
In the light of the Bill Henson saga, where the major argument against his work is that his 12 or 13 year old models and their parents don’t have the wherewithal to approve of their own images in an artistic context, we hear of the Federal Court’s approval of a sex change for a 12 year old.
The court felt it was in the 12 year old’s best interests, and that she was able to make the decision with the family responsibly.
In one of the most blatant shows of the incompetence and hypocrisy that are the hallmarks of ALL ALP governments, Family Minister Jenny Macklin said “I think we have to understand that these issues are extremely complex, so I don’t want to go into the details of it”.
Had the Rudd Government’s response to Bill Henson’s art been thus, then I think it would have been far healthier for all concerned. However for the Rudd Government to condemn Bill Henson and to condone what is, quite frankly, a totally ludicrous, dangerous and disgusting act as a sex change for a clearly disturbed 12 year old, shows how twisted their thinking is.
Superstar Australian artist Bill Henson has been the victim of a vicious and ignorant political / media witch-hunt that has led to the cancellation of his latest show in Sydney, and a rebuke from Kevin Rudd, who called his art “revolting”. This is the same Bill Henson who has been lauded the world over, representing Australia at the “Olympics of art”, the Venice Biennale.
Rudd, typical of most ALP figures (the myth that they are in support of art, but in fact are philistines and slobs), has no clue. Nudity and innocence depicted in art are totally removed from porn. To see an innocent, naked child in art and immediately think “sexual object” says a lot more about Rudd being a weirdo than it does about Bill Henson.
Since when does nudity automatically imply sex? What sort of a strange culture are we living in? What sort of strange value set is Rudd promoting?
Let’s compare some of Henson’s shots with those of other artists, times and eras:
No wonder Kurt killed himself - it was because of the hopeless attitudes of philistines like Kevin Rudd, who would have banned this album from the shelves were it around now.
Rudd would see no artistic merit in this, calling it “pure filth”, no question.
Rudd sez: “Revolting”
Maybe Rudd has child sex on his mind right now because this week his former state ALP colleague, Milton Orkopoulos, was done for over 30 child sex and drug charges?
Or maybe he keeps thinking about former ALP Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bob Collins, and is worried about the ALP being seen as the party of child sex offenders?
The morons in the Rudd ALP Federal Cabinet have, for no good reason, increased the threshold on private cover from people earning $50,000 to people earning $100,000. In essence, the incentive to move to private health care, thus taking pressure off the public system has been removed. PriceWaterhouseCoopers have analysed the results and believe that it will mean an extra 1 million people will drop their private insurance and flood into the public system, putting incredible pressure on an already underfunded area.
With all of these extra 1 million people in the public health system, health services will decrease, doctors will provide lower quality health, hospital waiting lists will increase, etc.
The Australian Health Insurance Agency is calling it a “potentially catastrophic” blow for the health national system. Already, states are asking the federal government for over $1.8 billion to make up for this stupid policy shift. That’s $1.8 billion of taxpayers money which would have efficiently made it’s way through the private system, which is now being diverted to fund this abysmal decision. Rudd, Swan and Roxon are fools. Already doctor friends of mine (and their left leaning wives) have told me it is a disastrous decision. “Are they trying to deliberately destroy the health system?” they ask.
It makes you wonder what the hell the Rudd ALP Government were thinking - apart from trying to fight some bullshit class battle like stopping private health companies from earning money? Why discourage a system which outsources health funding to people and private companies and provides better health outcomes? Anything that reduces Government funding and administration is a good thing - but of course Rudd and the rest of the ALP wouldn’t have a clue. Scratch them and they’re still socialists without a clue.
