Category: Writing

Paul McGeough on Afghanistan

Watched Dateline and read McG’s articles in SMH on Sat and today.

I find it so incredible how the Afghans enjoy playing us for fools, trying to con us out of foreign aid money but then dealing with the Taliban too.

Do Afghans ever see these types of reports or read about them?

Do they realise how they appear?

Do they have laptops and wireless internet access?

Can they translate the material?

They all look so young and insouciant and insolent, toying with the US officers.

Meanwhile, we’re paying for a $US100 million highway “being built by the international security forces”.

One of the US officers joined the army to “destroy the enemy” so he seems frustrated by having to pussyfoot around being diplomatic.

Why no one’s interested in politics

“Stress, celebrity worship and rising complacency are fuelling a growing political ignorance.” The Fun-Herald on why no one’s interested in politics.

I think it’s because it takes so long to digest. It’s much quicker to get to grips with the finer points of Britney’s ups and downs, though I haven’t read much about her lately. There aren’t enough summaries and short ongoing narratives on politics.

For some news stories, it’s not even clear – if you’re not a newshound – whether they’re talking about state or federal politicians. And TV news just mangles everything. There’s no middle ground for people who just want to read summaries of poltics on-the-run.

Katharine Murphy’s piece “In the belly of the beast” makes it clear why politics is such a huge turn-off.

Dried rations are stashed under the desk. There are no family photographs because there are no families, dogs, lawns or detritus of any kind, apart from some long-suffering girlfriends.

… And the blokes absolutely run this show. They like football, and novellas, and blogs, and popular culture in boxed sets of DVDs they can devour down the back of the Prime Minister’s plane.

I enjoyed reading “In the belly of the beast”, though it confirmed what a pointless waste of time those staffers are with their skewed priorities.

 


The carpet in the NSW lower house

It hurts my eyes every time it’s shown on TV. I don’t like how they have to squish together on those benches, either. Maybe it was designed in earlier times when there weren’t so many MPs.

Fr Bob Macguire forced to retire

“The rich and powerful catholic neo-cons have had enough of my style, valued as it may be by secular society.”

He’s about to reach 75, “the age of statutory senility”, and has been told to vacate the premises and retire to an old priests’ home.

“[The archibishop] gave me two dates for compliance. One was my birthday. He expects a letter of resignation. The other is a month later. He expects me to vacate the premises.”

Fr Bob’s blog. The Age story. Fr Bob on FB. Fr Bob on Twitter. Look at all that Fr Bob does on Twitter – it’s heartbreaking that he’s getting a “pink slip”.

Phil Scott: ‘Hello, I’m a deviate.’

From Phil Scott’s column on Same Sex marriage:

“So I have a plan. Before the next ALP conference, let’s each of us get out there and befriend one member of the public who has never met a poof or a dyke. It’s not hard. You just bowl up to some beige little person in the street and say, “Hello, I’m a deviate.”
“Oh really?” they answer. “I’ve never met one of youse before. Youse don’t look much like Carlton Kressley. Why don’t we grab a coffee and talk? I’ve often wondered when someone says, ‘Go fuck yourself’ if that is actually possible…” and so on.
Of course, you have to pick the right person. Lebanese boys in souped-up ’90s cars are out. They might think you’re after sex. Fifty per cent success rate apparently, but only if you get them alone.”