Andrew Bolt's Blog, page 1894
January 23, 2011
The soldier and the singer
New Victoria Cross winner Ben Roberts-Smith comes from an interestingly diverse family:
TWO metres tall in his boots, rock-jawed and now wearing his nation's top award for courage under fire, it's almost a relief to hear SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith admit he can't sing.
Corporal Roberts-Smith comes from a diverse and high-achieving family.
Brother Sam, 24, is an opera singer critically acclaimed for his key role in Opera Australia's production of Carmen, which is playing in Sydney at the moment; his father, Len Roberts-Smith, heads Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission… Sam Roberts-Smith is a winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland award.
Ben Roberts-Smith's VC citation tells of astonishing bravery, prowess, strength and initiative in fighting the Taliban. As for the mission:
"I do what I do because I believe in the country that we live in," he told journalists.
"I believe we are making a difference in stemming the flow of terrorism into Australia.
"I want my children to be able to live as everyone does now without the fear of getting on a bus and having it blow up."
Romney the pick of New Hampshire's Republicans
Romney gets a boost but I suspect the Republicans are still looking for their Messiah, and it isn't Palin:
In the first ever "straw poll" of New Hampshire Republican party committee members sponsored by ABC News and WMUR and sanctioned by the state Republican party, ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took 35 percent of the 276 valid ballots cast. This is just 3 percent more than Romney took in the 2008 GOP primary, when he finished in second place behind Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Coming in a distant second was Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, with 11 percent. Paul took 8 percent in the 2008 GOP primary.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is spending the early part of next week in the Granite State, came in third with 8 percent.
In fourth place was ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has yet to visit the first-in-the-nation-primary state, with 7 percent.
Arab protests spread
This wave of protests could go anywhere - towards democracy or towards Islamist control, as we saw in Iran:
Unrest has continued to spread across North Africa and the Middle East with demonstrators in Yemen on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, while riot police in Algeria clashed with demonstrators, injuring dozens.
The demonstrations in Yemen appear to have been inspired by the public revolt that took place in Tunisia, leading to the resignation of Ben Ali, who had ruled the country for more than twenty years.
Yemeni President Saleh has been in power for 32 years and is accused of overseeing a government riddled by corruption and mismanagement....The protest at the University of Sanaa, attended by 2,500 activists, students and opposition groups, was therefore unprecedented, not only in its size but also in its brazen demands, calling for President Saleh to resign and comparing him mockingly to the former president of Tunisia, Ben Ali…
In Algeria, protests have also been put down after a wave of public suicides by fire rocked the country, going to the very core of the government and its responsibility to the people.
Saturday's clashes saw riot police battling rock and chair wielding protesters in the capital, Algiers, leaving 19 injured…
In another clear reference to Tunisia, protest organisers draped the Tunisian flag next to the Algerian flag over a balcony at the opposition party headquarters, chanting "Boutef out!" in reference to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who is in his second term of office.
Elected in 1999, President Bouteflika has proposed an amendment to the constitution, which would broaden his presidential powers and allow him to run for office indefinitely, a move seen by many to be the political equivalent of over-staying one's welcome.
Algeria and Yemen are both countries in which internal politics are complicated by Islamist insurgencies. Yemen, like Algeria, does not allow public gatherings, a law aimed at combating insurgent activity, although in both countries such laws are seen as undemocratic and restrictive.
It's changed before, and will change again
Eddie McGuire means well, but clearly hasn't listened to a word I've said:
Opinion writer Andrew Bolt flat-out says that climate change is nonsense.
In fact, I believe more in climate change than does McGuire or any other warmist.
Bartlett quits just 10 months after Tasmania's election
Yet another Labor premier in trouble quits early and gets a woman to clean up the mess:
Mr Bartlett announced the shock decision publicly at his home about 3pm, more than an hour after he informed "friends" via Facebook.
He endorsed his deputy Lara Giddings as his successor, saying she had wide partyroom support.
We should presume that Bartlett means what he says:
The 43-year-old said he was proud of his achievement as Tasmanian premier over the past two years, but his family had to come first…
"I have made a very personal decision and it is based on my personal relationship with my two children ... and the personal relationship I want to have with them," he said…
He said he had started thinking about his priorities when his son Hudson came home with homework, in particular a weekly journal he had to write.
"I started thinking heavily about this when (my son) Hudson brought his school work home this year," he said.
"There were far too many entries that started with: 'Daddy went to work this weekend.'..."
I can understand that pressure, and I greatly respect the man who puts his family first.
That said, the temptation to stay in the job regardless may have been tempered by other considerations:
Mr Bartlett has presided over a slide in the polls in recent months, prompting disquiet within the ALP; however his position as leader did not appear to be under immediate threat, with a state election more than three years away.
And I suspect that election would have been rugged, given that Bartlett spent most of his political capital, and trashed much of his credibility, within days of the last election.
Remember this:
Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett on The 7.30 Report, February 24 [last year]:
A BACKROOM deal with the Greens is a deal with the devil, and I'm not going to sell my soul for the sake of remaining in power.
Hobart's The Mercury, Wednesday:
TASMANIA is poised to have a Labor minority government that includes Greens ministers within cabinet for the first time.
And this:
Bartlett last August [2009] ridiculed Greens leader Nick McKim for suggesting Greens could be included in cabinet but still be able to vote against the government.
"That is immature and muddled thinking and would guarantee instability and government inertia. The news I've got for him is that no matter how he twists and turns his arguments, he will never be in a Labor ministry."
Followed by this:
Labor Premier David Bartlett handed the Greens two positions in the ten person cabinet. Under the deal, Greens leader Nick McKim will become a Minister and his colleague Cassy O'Connor, will take up the role of Cabinet secretary.
How could any voter ever again believe a word Bartlett said? But the Greens, now handed power, won't be letting go:
TASMANIAN Greens leader Nick McKim says his party will continue to work with Labor in government after the resignation of David Bartlett as premier.
January 22, 2011
A strangely disconnected PM may need more connected staff
Labor MPs are turning on Gillard's staff, blaming them for the Prime Minister's disconnect with the public:
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is coming under pressure from senior Labor figures to reorganise her private office…
MPs have said there is widespread discontent in the Caucus over the quality of the political advice the PM is receiving from inside her office.
"We are drifting into an iceberg and it is widely recognised the staff are a major reason," one MP said yesterday.
The pressure to replace Ms Gillard's chief-of-staff, Amanda Lampe and her deputy, Tom Bentley, has intensified in recent days following widespread criticism of the Prime Minister's response to the floods in Queensland.
Ms Lampe is on maternity leave following her partner, Frier Bentley, recently giving birth to twins.
And Tom Bentley is from Britain.
(No comments during break.)
Cate's green act doesn't come cheap
Cate Blanchett could at least act embarrassed at this transfer of wealth from the poor to the poseur:
TAXPAYERS are spending millions of dollars to subsidise the electricity bills of Cate Blanchett's Sydney Theatre Company and replace in-room fridges with "green" Eskies on Heron Island.
Designed to demonstrate solar power and save water, the Gillard Government has spent $15 million on the Green Precinct program at just a dozen "high profile" demonstration projects.
They include a grant of $1.2 million towards the Sydney Theatre Company's Greening The Wharf project that will reduce energy costs by just $100,000 a year. The total program cost is $5 million.
The cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is sky high under the scheme compared to the Government's failed bid to introduce an emissions trading scheme with a carbon price of around $30 a tonne.
Based on the projected savings under the scheme, the Opposition estimates the Green Precincts Fund comes with an estimated price tag of $2022 per tonne of carbon dioxide saved..
The Department of Sustainability disputed the Coalition's calculations on the cost of the scheme in terms of the cost of carbon abatement per tonne, but was unable to provide its own estimate.
A spokeswoman said, for example, if the Sydney Theatre Company saved 555 tonnes per year over 20 years, the cost per tonne would be $108 per tonne, not $2162.
If.
(No comments during break.)
Not just communism and Islam, but fascism, too
Turkish-born Necla Kelek is a German sociologist and author of Journey to Heaven: My Fight with the Guardians of Islam. She explains the problem:
I see a parallel between socialism or communism and Islam. Both are collectivist ideologies. The individual has no rights of his own. The individual is part of a larger whole and is obliged to do everything to make the community flourish. The system supports the group, not the individual.
In the case of Islam, the relevant group is the Umma, and the group decides in very dictatorial ways — the need to do so proves that individuals do not follow the rules of the Umma voluntarily in all cases, as is often claimed. I very strongly fear that the dictatorship of the group might win. This type of ideology, based on seventh-century pre-modern traditions, is spreading rapidly in many Muslim countries. Some people claim that Islam is only a religious faith. But that's only part of the story. The other facet is Islam as an illiberal political ideology. When we talk about Islam these days, what is at stake is not freedom of faith, but individual rights. A collectivist ideology is about to take over, together with an oligopoly of power. I'm worried about this.
A similar theme is touched upon here:
(Thanks to reader Dean. No comments during break.)
David Williamson slinks back to his conservative home
Playwright David Williamson is the muse of the middle-class Left. His ideas seemed to be just the driftwood on the current of the Left's most fashionable cliches.
So he once despised signs of Australian patriotism - like Australia Day - when it was fashionable. He was a global warmist when it was fashionable. He was a believer in the fundamental racism of Australia when it was fashionable. He was a Howard-hater when it was fashionable. He was a sneerer at "aspirational Australia" when it was fashionable (among those richer than their inferiors). Indeed, his biggest success was to climb on board the Gough Whitlam bandwagon with Don's Party.
His eye for ideological fashion has been as keen as his desire to sign up for it. The column he notoriously wrote in 2005 of a cruise he'd taken betrayed all these Williamson characteristics:
It struck me that this cruise ship was a kind of metaphor for Australia. Cruise Ship Australia, all alone in the south seas sailing to God knows where. And in fact, like Australia, many of the passengers didn't care where we were headed. The cruise itself was the thing. The sunbaking, the chatter, the eating, the very solid drinking, and the all-important on-board entertainment…
Right-wing columnists and commentators have a habit of sneering at what they call "elites". Elites are presumably those who are not aspirational Australians. We are urged by the columnists to accept that all wisdom resides in aspirational Australia and none in the ranks of the effete elites with their wanky interest in art, films and their bleeding-heart concern for the future of Australia and indeed the world. The pathetic "elites" should accept the ballot box wisdom of the aspirationals and stop their whining, say Paddy, Andrew, Piers and the boys. Perhaps if they spent time on a cruise ship they might start to question this belief…
The credo seemed to be that whatever we Australians had was thoroughly deserved. Not perhaps because a small, manageable population came to inherit a British concern for judicial, parliamentary and human rights in a land that initially seemed limitless in its natural resources. A land of abundant pastures for sheep, wheat and cattle, abundant water, and huge reserves of coal, iron ore, gold and many other metals. A land in which the original inhabitants could be reasonably easily pushed aside.
Except of course that first appearances were deceptive. In fact we'd inherited a very fragile ecosystem; probably after Iceland, the most fragile in the world. And the fact is ... we're all living on borrowed time…
With climate change now well and truly upon us, the prime agricultural and urban areas are getting less and less rainfall and already NSW has decided a huge desalination plant, with its profligate use of energy, is the only way out… Some economists already believe that we'd be better to shut down our farming efforts completely as they're a net cost to the country rather than a net gain....
Our present prosperity isn't from farming; it's largely coming from our vast coal, natural gas and iron ore deposits… But coal and gas and iron ore are non-renewable… And if President Bush finally concedes that the ferocity of the natural disasters hitting his southern states might have something to do with all that extra energy in the biosphere due to greenhouse warming, then our coal exports might not be as welcome as they are now… Coal is proving such a disastrous polluter (try finding a patch of blue over any Chinese city) and greenhouse gas generator, that its use may well be banned not too far into the future.
But if Williamson is a tide marker in the flow of suburban Leftist thought, what should we conclude about his column today? Several apparent changes in the Williamson world view seem significant.
First, there's the implied mea culpa about his past fashionable attitude to Australia Day, now dated:
IN MY early years, our national day raised no other passion than resentment. January 26th signalled that school holidays were coming to an end…
The next stage for me and for many Australians, was that it was a non-event. Back then we were embarrassed by anything hinting at patriotic fervour… Basically we found the attempt to ratchet up sentiment about January 26th off-putting. Did we really want to be reminded that Arthur Phillip had come ashore with a heap of flea-ridden debilitated convicts and that that had constituted the birth of Anglo-Celtic Australia?… The overwhelming feeling back then was to forget Australia Day as quickly as possible.
Who is that "we", David?
But now:
Then came the bicentenary of Phillip's landing in 1988 and all those magnificent tall ships sailed up the harbour. The national mood began to change. There had to be something good about our national origins and we started pushing a new way of looking at them. We started to reframe the event as a success story.
Again, who is that "we"? Does it include, say, Geoffrey Blainey? John Howard? Bruce Ruxton? Dorothea Mackellar? Me? All those people who kept marching on Anzac Day back then? The many people who saw not shame but enterprise and even redemption in the earliest settlers - much as does Williamson now:
Despite Anglo-Celtic Australia starting with a bunch of convicts dumped in a hostile and infertile land, they had survived, many showing enterprise and fortitude… Their arrival on January 26th, 1788, had given us all the chance to live in a country that has become one of the most prosperous and liveable in the world
Second, Williamson seems to have dropped his once fashionable sneering at the "aspirational" mob, and even the assertion that we have a racist core. It seems that he, like some common conservative, is now seeing the virtues of our citizenry and remembering that for every racist you inevitably find anywhere, there's hundreds of better people around them here to drown their malignancy:
(This is) a country that's far from perfect but allows us political and personal freedom and the kind of lifestyle which causes Australians to rate themselves as one of the happiest people on earth…
(Some bigoted) Australians wrap themselves in the Australian flag and glower menacingly at anyone who isn't Anglo-Celtic. Fortunately there are many more Australians who welcome Australia Day and its gradual evolution into something more complex than 1988…
There are still occasional ugly flare-ups of ethnic hatred such as the Cronulla Beach riots in 2005, but there are also very positive signs of our future. The intermarriage rate between Anglo-Celtic Australians and Australians from indigenous and other ethnic backgrounds is the highest of any multicultural country on earth.
It's as if we all know, perhaps as a result of our egalitarian beginnings, that whatever its faults, we're lucky to live in a prosperous democracy that prizes decency and tolerance. We're a people who'd prefer to live in harmony with each other than hatred.
Williamson even tut tuts Aboriginal activists who claim white men ruined an Aboriginal paradise:
Our indigenous activists sometimes go over the top when they claim that their culture was a garden of Eden before the arrival of "whitey". It wasn't. It was a tough and precarious life in a deeply male-dominated culture and there was frequent tribal warfare.
Goodness me, Williamson is sounding the very model of a modern conservative columnist now. In fact, now that the battle is over, he's even prepared to admit that the One Nation protest vote was created in part by a high-handed elite that wanted to remake Australian on ethnic lines without bothering to consult the despised masses who'd have to live with the consequences:
The depth of that resentment was shown by the rise of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, which garnered an astonishing one in four votes in a Queensland state election. Those Australians feel the ethnic nature of Australia has been changed by the political elites who didn't bother to consult them.
When I said this at the time, it was evidence of my evil. When Williamson says it, now that it's safe, it's a sign of his magnaminity.
Same with Australia Day itself. Williamson damned it when sneering was fashionable, and now praises it when the day has become fashionable:
Australia Day to many means that we're all in this together. And if that becomes its meaning to most of us, then it will become a very important day indeed.
Williamson implies with this that the meaning of Australia Day has changed, and his views with it. In fact, Australia Day for generations had the message he claims now to discern. It's just that it was once chic to pretend it meant something shameful, and guess which side of that battle Williamson was on then?
But he's home now, I guess. And rather than carp, I should take heart, and especially from this change in the Williamson credo:
The early settlers had assumed our country would have a settled and regular climate like Europe and tried to farm it accordingly, not realising that La Nina and El Nino, those villains lurking out there in the Pacific, were going to inflict on us forever those droughts and flooding rains that were going to make life unbearable for so many.
See? No mention at all of climate change or global warming. Natural phenomena only are cited to explain the droughts and now these floods.
One more fashionable thought is now suddenly so yesterday. I know, because Williamson, albeit still a believer, now proclaims it less loudly.
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