Author’s Note.. Apparently some people didn’t realise that this was satire, so I’ve been asked to add a a clarification. This is satire. I hope it’s clear enough now. Unfortunately, Donald Trump, Malcolm Roberts and the current federal govenment aren’t, so I guess it’s easy to see how some people could be confused.
Now if there’s one thing that irks me it’s trial by media. Lately a lot of lefties have been getting stuck into people just because someone accuses them of something. And let’s be quite clear here: Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence until they’ve had their day in court! Unless, of course, the person is someone like David Hicks, Craig Thomson, Peter Slipper or any Labor MP with a citizenship question about their eligibility. Or someone subject to a police raid because of the alleged planning of a terrorist offence.
In the case of that well-known gardener, Bon Dirk, there have been claims that he behaved inappropriately. However, as he puts it, the claims are totally without foundation. They’re all the result of a few thousand disgruntled ex-employees. Oh, and a few dozen people who appeared on the show. But, hey, he’s famous and famous people sometimes rub people up the wrong way. Or offer to. And there’s no reason to take the word of all those people alleging that he’s a sexist bully. I mean, what boss doesn’t have almost everyone they work for “disgruntled”? After all, have you ever heard of a gruntled employee? No? Exactly.
Personally, I think this is just a distraction from the real issues of the day, such as the protection of religious freedoms. Before changes to the marriage bill go through Parliament, I think that we need to ensure that religious people are protected. When I said this the other day, some idiot asked, “Protected from what?” It was the sort of tricky sophistry I’ve come to expect from the sort of person who voted “Yes”, when they attempted to suggest that marriage equality was simply about the rights of people to marry whomsoever they chose. Of course, I don’t have a simple answer because there’s so much that opponents of same sex marriage need protection from, even though most of these have no obvious link to marriage.
Take Safe Schools, for example. Parents need to have the right to withdraw their children from any class that puts forward such contention ideas as: “Everyone has a right to feel safe, whatever their sexuality.” Now, this doesn’t mean I’m homophobic. I just don’t want my children learning about sexuality until after they’re married. And then there’s the possibility that religious people could be refused service in bakers and florists. We need to ensure that a Christian has the right to walk into a bakery and ensure that their buns were made by a heterosexual person without being called names and kicked out the store. This is before we’ve even looked at the right of people to prevent gay people from working in the same office.
Of course, that’s not the only important thing being overshadowed by all these accusations. I mean, they squeezed out the story about Harry and Megan’s engagement. We have Brexit to thank for this, because clearly the EU would have blocked it if Britain was still beholden to those foreigners in Europe. And we didn’t hear anything about Donald Trump breaking with the Thanksgiving tradition of pardoning a turkey by announcing that it was a Democrat turkey and he was going to “nuke” it unless it agreed that he was the best president ever and that nobody did president-hood like he did. Nor did we give Triple J’s decision to break with centuries of tradition and announce the Hottest 100 on January 27th instead of January 26th the attention it deserves. As one critic put it, the ABC shouldn’t be political so they should have the release on the neutral Australia Day which would offend nobody except people whose opinnion doesn’t count.
And let’s not forget the outrage from some Queensland voters at Pauline being left off the ballot paper in seats where One Nation wasn’t fielding a candidate. Let’s not forget how the media have attempted to destroy PHON’s chances by constantly giving their candidates air time. Ok, they may have failed to get their own prediction of eleven or more seats by a margin of eleven or more, but they still did exceptionally well in polling 14% of the vote, while Labor was a massive failure for only getting a primary vote of over twice that. As Pauline said, “We’re not going anywhere.” And I’d suggest that they’re not going anywhere fast.
Yes, let’s forget all about this #metoo, and get back to the things that matter. Stopping boats, ignoring human rights abuses on Manus Island, complaining about energy prices, blaming Labor or The Greens and believing Malcolm when he says that things are just fine and we’re going to get unspecified tax cuts at an unspecified time by an unspecified new leader of the Liberal Party.
Great stuff…a bit of me enjoys those stories about the people being annoyed that PH’s name wasn’t on the ballot paper…the election is obviously rigged…but on reflection I just feel a bit disheartened.
Well said, Rosslegih.
It is wrong to discuss Bon Dirk without evidence (the testimony of a multitude is all just hearsay) and absolutely right to sniff out anything that may smell a bit dodgy provided it is on the silly left.
It will get to the stage where guys wont try to date girls in case they are accused of some thing , I dont doubt some guys push the envelope but not all are that stupid. I have been married nearly 57 years but in todays climate I may never of got past the first date. Things were definitely better in the “old Day’s ” My thoughts are if you think the guy has done some thing wrong report him when he does it not 20-30 years down the track
Yep, I said a similar thing to what Michael said to a friend last night. More division of the sexes.
Nice read, Rossleigh.
Loved the reference where Pauline eschewed dollar chasing. We can be assured no such action is taken by the loonie left who milk ever cent out of the voters.
The presumption of innocence has not been afforded to many non-Australians pre-67 and to Aborigines since.
I find it racially disgusting for the police to describe a suspect as ‘of Aboriginal appearance’. I was shocked at the Lord’s confession that he never saw Aborigines till the shiny black Africans came to Australia.
Indeed presumptions made of students with Aboriginal appearance in schools is made by education systems and the majority of teachers.
Eg in Xavier Herbert’s time Aborigines in Kahlin were educated to grade 3. Today the year 12 certificates minimum level is grade 3 but this can be negotiated down for Aboriginal students.
Not much incentive for teacher or student QED??
ps now women have the burke initiative get out the green white and purple??
Unlike the burke, most men behave in a civilised manner, keeping their hands and thoughts to themselves when it is not invited…Like that moment when the girlfriend or good lady come swishing into the lounge between yourself and the replay on the plasma and with a sensuous barefoot twirl, displays that new little red number she is going to wear the the niece’s wedding that clings to every one of her curves tighter than a new set of Michelins to the “Eagle on the Hill” road…and asks you..:
“Well…what do you think?”
You might give it a moment to re-adjust your thoughts, but you do know she’s talking about the dress…
Another excellent “think piece” Rossleigh! So many truisms & items to talk about. Well done!
Well said Rossleigh, Australia is now in the midst of political correctness from the right of politics./ media Delay and stall, on technicalities which up until the issues became front and centre The Right were happy to let sit and tell us ‘everything is alright its working fine and dandy.
Hmmmm, a bloke abusing his power for sexual gratification being tried by media. Where will it end? He should have taken a leaf from his mate’s handbook. If there was such a charge as ‘guilt by association’, can we start with these two?
http://www.farmonline.com.au/story/4341435/don-burke-backs-planting-apvma-in-barnaby-joyces-back-yard/
What a pair of berk’s. There is no evidence to suggest that any ‘allegations’ of a sexual nature against Joyce are from disgruntled APVMA employees. Most of them just resigned. If bikie’s can be charged on the basis of three associating, can’t we reduce the level to two for berk’s?
As to your question “Protection from what?”, followed by reference to the Appalling……
This is a report from The Guardian live feed on the ‘SSM debate’ in the senate. The link to the article is at the bottom of the post, and the extract is about half way down page 4. I only say that because there is every likelihood you would think I had Poitín instead of coffee this morning.
“We’re back in the Senate on the same-sex marriage debate.
In a remarkable feat of logic, the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has used what she says is “reverse racism” against white Australians to argue against same-sex marriage.
Bear with me here. I’ll do my best to get to the bottom of that.
She has likened the same-sex marriage postal survey to the 1967 referendum on including Indigenous Australians in the census. Hanson says people thought they were voting to give Indigenous Australian equality. But, alas, we were all tricked and Indigenous Australians now have it better than white Australians. Now white Australians face reverse racism, she says.
“We have now made laws that is giving them more rights than other Australians. There is a division in Australia, there is reverse racism.
People did not vote for that. Hence my concerns about this plebiscite. People say they want equality, they want the right to marry. I have no problem with that … if it was to be called a civil ceremony, Australians would not worry about that. But why is it that this push for people where the last census in 2011 there was 33,700 gay couples. And I can tell you all those gay couples don’t want to get married.”
So … yeah.
Make what you will from that.
Also, the children. What happens when they’re asked to draw a picture of mum and dad?
“What do we do as a society when these going to school … so the kid’s there saying ‘well what do I do, I don’t have a mum or a dad, it’s Peter and Sam, or it’s Elizabeth and Amanda. They’re not known as mum and dad’. So are we then going to say well we can’t discriminate against these children, so we must call that person by their real names. Is this the impact it’s going to have on our educational system, in our school rooms. What about grandma and granddad, it’s alright for this generation, but what about the next generation?”
Just as a postscript. Hanson asks why we are being “dictated to by the minority”. It’s a good question. One that the 61% of Australians who voted for same-sex marriage may well ask of One Nation.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2017/nov/28/banking-inquiry-looks-certain-as-nationals-break-ranks-politics-live
Every occupation known to humanity is told to live in fear of automation or AI taking their job. Satirists have to live in fear that these idiots will deprive them of any material. I think the Poitín would have been a better option.
Seriously, Mr Sir Brisbane, as a word of caution, you’re going to have to lift your game. The competition for good satire is getting fierce. I’m tipping she gets paid more than you do too. Over $200k from her candidates, over $1mil from the QEC, and that’s just for a state election, where she may get one seat.
Thank you Mr Brisbane and commenters. Take care
This is just a comment (TKS Tony Jones)
AIMN has attracted a terrific number of observant writers. Next step is for a representative collection of observant writers.
🙂