Up front, I’m not a fan of “most influential” anything lists, however I do like/admire several of the women on the latest such list doing the rounds at the moment, and I do think they have done more than their bit to challenge the stranglehold destructive orthodox attitudes still retain on our society.
But. When I read the blurb accompanying nominee Chrissie Swan, I felt like poking out somebody’s eyes. I don’t know who wrote it, but in one sentence they undermine the stated ethos of the entire “most influential” thing, and reveal what really occupies the minds of organisers of contests such as this one, which is the value or lack thereof, of a particular type of woman.
Swan is described thus: “An earthy antidote to the proliferation of bourgeois, pearl-clutching yummy mummies, Swan’s influence lies in simply being herself.”
Where do I begin. I am so offended by this statement I can’t think quite straight, and I don’t even wear pearls. I did once own a very nice strand of quite good pearls with a garnet clasp, but I lost them because I am careless and do not understand the value of such things. I also like to think I was in my bourgeois youth a yummy mummy. I just dug out photos of me giving birth to my second child in a bean bag in our lounge room and my fingernails, as I thought, were manicured and painted bright red which in itself ought to be testament to my yumminess.
I was during this period entirely myself, despite my middle class circumstances, my yumminess and my pearls. Who else could I have possibly been? Can a woman only be herself if she owns no pearls, and works very hard not to be yummy? If the only real woman is the “earthy” non bourgeois variety that likely disqualifies most of the other nominees, none of whom look particularly “earthy” and all of whom look middle class, although Germaine Greer is if not earthy, at least a little bit scruffy.
Anyone with a skerrick of talent ought to be able to describe Chrissie Swan without resorting to pejorative remarks about women who are not Chrissie Swan in order to establish Ms Swan’s credentials. That the organisers of a most influential women contest have failed at this elementary task is discouraging for feminism and makes something of a mockery of the whole venture, despite their intentions to the contrary.
Pearl clutching.
No Place For Sheep 
I don’t understand this post. Isn’t the whole purpose of “The Daily Life” to bitch slap women in general on a daily basis?
As to the pejorative descriptives, if we can’t label “” with a pat and derogatory label, then how can they be diminished and “put in there place”.
After all, if you are not aspiring to be a “yummy mummy” or a “super mum” then you are obviously a failure as a mother…….here buy some of this stuff over hear to fill the whole in your life where your self-esteem should be…..
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You could be right about the purpose of Daily Life – I never usually read it!
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ooh, shouldn’t have used triangle brackets, html breaks.
should have read
…if we can’t label “insert scary others group here”
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was Ms Swan once a rabbit-ear wearing blonde on Big Brother? The article appalled me by perpetuating the MISinformation that Professor Dr St. Germaine “made those remarks about Gillard’s backside”, when in fact, GG merely said she wished the PM would ditch the peplum jackets. Daily Life transferring a bitchslap where none had been.
Such a pity that the Swan place on the list was not occupied by Dr Helen Caldicott.
you gave birth in a beanbag? you hippie you. Peace and love.
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I know, I gave birth in a bean bag with red painted fingernails! I have no boundaries!
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Jennifer would you contact me by private email? (Please)
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Just did.
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Er, no, that was Sara Marie…
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Er, no, that was Sara Marie…
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I had to ask, who the fuck is Chrissie Swan?
A “minor celebrity” seems to be the answer.
And this article upsets Jennifer why?
Not really sure, except that Swan is apparently not a “yummie mummie” and Jennifer may well have been, at a stage in history!
Jennifer, it is what is between your ears that is attractive and wonderful; the rest of you is (or at least was:) ) a bonus!
And certainly far more important to you than it is to any of us.
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DQ, that’s a bit disrespectful towards the host/ess of the blog; you must have been socialising with some macabre females for too long…
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“Socialising” doesn’t come into it, Helvi!
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No, no what annoys me is that these women have to trash another group of women in order to feel good about themselves!
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Then they are sad individuals, Jennifer. BTW, the text to the other entries is also well wide of the mark; why should this one be any different?
(Apparently Nicola Roxon “spearheaded” the High Court decision regarding plain packaging – fairly remarkable, as she is not on the Court!)
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Thanks Doug.
Chrissie sounds a bit like the Duchess of Whatsherface, now known to humanity for suffering morning sickness, a condition never previously suffered by any woman in the history of the evolution of the species.
DQ, am hair-trigger at mo, there’s injuns out there (ffffttt sound as projectile flies overhead).
Am like a digger negotiating a tricky defile; just waiting for a photo of Mia Friedman or Georgie Gardiner to pop up from behind a rock as a test of my Magnum reflexes.
This is a trap.
Every instinct, every fibre of my soul senses it… why else has Hypo not commented…up there in the rocks, part of an ambush?
No, am with Jimbob on this.
Any thread starter that focusses on bean bags, birthing, pearls, nail polish and institutionalised, culturally-instilled inertness, is verging on seriously threatening. For a moment, I thought I’d stumbled across MTR’s site,
Urky, macabre…
So, the person who wrote the blurb, this person employs a dichotomy of dubious value, defining one in terms of absence or lack, etc and by a curious pomo reversal radicalises white pearls at the expense of the serried ranks of the New Conformity in their boiler suits with their alfalfa
diets and anti- blokey slogans?
No, much more of this and I’ll be hollerin’ for the return of Marilyn Shepherd, who at least attempts to relate her outlook back to within the fields of reality, pain, suffering and lived life, although I think Jennifer understand the concept of Leavening and uses this topic to create a change, some thing away from monotonous straight politics, so as to allow for the differentiation process, that activists sometimes miss.
To be or not to be. Cupcake or boilersuit? Abnegation or Narcissism?
How to avoid being labelled and confined or neutralised or commodified through categorisation provisional on the personal acceptance of others conceptions of what your life should be, may be for the commercial imperatives of people who do not have the interests of their fellows at heart.
As Ricky Nelson sang in “Garden Party”,
“Can’t please everyone, so I had to please myself”.
Male or female, you’ll either see through “it”(life?), or not.
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I’m surmising that the morning-sickness in question was fairly severe – as in throwing up so much that one becomes dehydrated. I never experienced morning sickness during either of my pregnancies, but I sympathies with those who have.
I wore nail polish a few months ago – first time in about twenty years…and within a few days the stuff just chipped off like it used to. I would have thought they’d have improved the technology by now.
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That should be “sympathise” – (feckin’ typos!)
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LOL, I gather you find the post trivial, PW?
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Any thing but…that’s why I’m back for the feedback.
It raises a lot of questions, the thread starter and what the response was, was a bit stream of consciousness when trying to get up a productive take upon it.
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Take Poirot, f’rinstance.
Poirot reminds bystander me that gestation, along with most other facets of female fertility, is a fraught process.
Charlotte Bronte died of an extreme form of morning sickness, for example.
My posting is probably clumsy because it is mediated from the perspective of a male who has learned painfully that there is an often complex form of underlying etiquette to be adhered to in group conversations where the experiences of one part are not experienced by the other.
My difficulty is of course one of empathy, as ann o’dyne points out exponentially momentous events occur in the life of an individual that can be barely contemplated by those outside of the group that undergoes such adventurers in adversity.
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Typo adventures, not adventurers.
Now,
off to the dentist.
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I never knew that about Charlotte Bronte
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Hyperemesis gravidarum is the term Wiki uses, although this source varies from many by counter-proposing that typhus may have been the real killer, contracted from an elderly servant who also died at this time (1855).
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Life before medicine.
Seems all three died of TB at 38, 30 and 29. Although it is correct that Charlotte the eldest’s death may have been misattributed. I’ve heard it said in those days that people who survived disease long enough would probably perish in their 50’s due to bad teeth.
I wonder what they’d have thought if they knew that a little over a century later most people would take medical science for granted!
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PW WTF has me commenting got to do with anything?
I have no idea WTF you are on about.
I have been off line since my last post yesterday and this very minute.
One criticism for too many posts yesterday, now yours for not enough.
PW Chip meet PW shoulder.
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Anonymous December 11, 2012 at 8:05 pm #
Is me.I uploaded b4 the email inserted…..
(You should have figured it out pretty quick)
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A nonny-mouse, where did I mention “Anonymous” or any statements made by this vivacious person, in my posts?
And which “Anonymous”actually ARE you, given so many posts from that quarter turn up here that you have to think there must be more than one “any-nonny-mouse”?
Why not use your birth name instead, then you won’t get mixed up with the other anonymouses.
Who votes I flick “Anonymous” off my shoulder, since I’m told chips on that part of the torso aren’t sartorially appropriate.
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But I have claimed ‘this’ anon-e-mouse!
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Typo: “anonymouses” should read, “anonymice”.
Hypo, a cunning swipe from behind?
I would not have previously considered such a low blow possible from a source so revered for non-adversarialism.
You still haven’t asked me how I’m feeling after returning from the dentist this afternoon btw…
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About the dentist.
Have you finished dribbling and gnashing yet?
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Be quiet, or will send the cat in.
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At least I now know what a prick inside the mouth feels like.
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I find that big overhead light, with it’s radiant warmth, quite disturbing for some reason.
Avoid Minties old bean.
When are they going to lace sugar with fluoride?
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Was going to give up smokes first, last time I got off them I ground my teeth during withdrawals and lost fillings.
Eventually I will again try to get off them, and then grind out this lots fillings as well and then be up for more pain where I feel it worst, in the hip pocket.
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and we know how ‘pleasing himself’ ended for Rick Hilliard Nelson.
His mother is to blame of course, for harping at him to always “pick up your clothes Ricky”.
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Strange, the stories of Hollywood kids and life in the bubble and how many lost skin or their lives, despite the so called advantages. From Garland and Rooney to David Cassidy, Karen Carpenter, Davey Jones and the like; “Sunset Boulevard”, where are you?
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Michael Jackson didn’t fare too well either,just quietly.
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Hmmm… this leads me to the sobering conclusion that my fate is sealed, no one got nagged harder than me when it came to untidy rooms.
Significant, how the trail always leads back to mums.
Like lawyers, they appear to be “wolves in sheep’s clothing”.
Yes. That’s it.
Deceptively camouflaged as nice people, the Dreaded Legion of Mums with their hidden venoms, “red in tooth and claw” and their crimes list longer than Errol Flynn’s member.
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Australian Crawl Lyrics
” Errol ”
Convict state
It just don’t rate
He want to get higher
Apple Isle, the inbred smile
He’s going to get by’a
His mother’s hand
He could not stand
He left for the islands
To fish and hunt
He take a punt
The New Guinea Highlands
Ohhh Errol
I would give everything just to be like him
He had to go
The Sirocco
He’s sailin the high seas
Hollywood, Captain Blood
He’s billing the Nazi’s
Took a rebel stand
Contraband
Coast of Mexico
He want to pounce
Like an animal
To girls he just can’t say no
Ohhh Errol
I would give everything just to be like him(x2)
He had them all
Screamin for more
He play the wild scene
Ah scandalise, no compromise
He’s down on his knees
Swashbuckling
He was the King
The toast of Tinseltown
They build him up
They took it all
And then they just cut him down
Ohhh Errol
I would give everything just to be like him(x2)
Don’t tell me it’s true
I don’t wanna hear about it (4x)
Ohhh Errol
I would give everything just to be like him(4x
_________________
BTW
For years I thought the line about ‘sailing the high seas’ was,
“He’s selling the hashish…”
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Wouldn’t you like a dollar for every rock or pop song distinguished by its incomprehensible vocals injury done someone else’s lovingly crafted lyrics?
For years I Iaboured under the illusion that Bowie’s Jean Genie “does shit his dacks” instead of being a person who merely “loves chimney stacks”.
As for the Stones and Robert Plant, don’t ask..
Interesting, the hashish bit.
Going back to the days of my youth, am again put in mind of what a revelation my own first smoke, on hashish, was.
Nice house, Dr. John singing his voodoo tales from the bayou in the background and the amazement that is still with me at how that first smoke went, nothing could have prepared me for it.
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Hee, hee…reminds me of the years when I was “not quite old enough to go to a nightclub”…but I used to go anyway. The Pointer Sisters had a song out at the time titled “The Best Disco in Town”. One line said “…You’ll never get a rest there…. – but because I felt rather guilty at being under age, I was convinced it said “…You’ll never get arrested”!
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Doug,
When you say “who the fuck is Chrissie Swan?”, given that she is on a list of women to be admired, don’t you think that it is you who could be missing out. Apparently she has something to offer! And yes it is between her ears, but then there are few if any exceptions to that rule on the whole list, and perhaps as few in real life. So that tells us nothing we shouldn’t have known to begin with.
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Or it could be she is there to make the numbers up.
Maybe it’s a Melbourne thing.
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I’m not quite sure you’re getting this yet.
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Damned by faint praise that isn’t even praise!
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Better to be a pearl-clutcher than a rosary-clutcher.
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Well I have to admit I hadn’t thought of it in that way but you’re right
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Given that a yummy mummy is a good-looking, well-groomed mother of young children whose figure doesn’t show any obvious signs of having given birth, I wonder if they are actually bitch-slapping Chrissie Swan. Their praise of her is very faint and the pearls and bourgeois look like awkward last minute add ins.
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You and I haven’t always agreed on issues, but that is a beautiful comment.
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I really appreciate that instead of a put-down because we have disagreed on other things. Thank you.
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That’s interesting and could well be so.
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I’m sorry to say that it’s the first thing I thought of. It’s dog whistling. In ostensibly lauding Chrissie Swan for not being like yummy mummies, we all know exactly what is being said here. Chrissie Swan is not a size 8. Or a size 10 nor even a 12, 14 or 16. And that, I believe, is the angle they were going for only they chose to hide it behind bullshit and pearls. The “earthy antidote” is code and spin for “not thin”.
FWIW, I’ve had a gradual path towards Chrissie Swan, initially dismissing her as just another Big Brother wannabe celeb however I have changed my mind since reading her column regularly and seeing her on several shows and hearing her occasionally on the radio and while I wouldn’t say I’m a “fan”, I really do like her and enjoy her work. She makes me laugh and she’s clearly smart. And I’ll bet her sons and hubby reckon she’s the yummiest mummy around.
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I don’t know how I didn’t spot that, but I think you’re right. That’s even worse than what I initially thought was going on.
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I presume everyone has heard about Gillard arse kissing the ‘top’ womens advocates at her special vote for me luncheon?
Anything for a vote.
I believe she is also pounding the Christian school circuit too.
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Who gives shit about this. I’d like to see you criticize Abbott for a change. Abbott is the real liar in Australian politics.
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2013 is the year we trash Arsebot.
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Too right. Arsebot is an enemy of women, an enemy of marriage equality, an enemy of democracy, an enemy of truth, an enemy of science, an enemy of all things progressive.
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silkworm, at least Slipper got justice today…
Shame on Abbott and his ugly scheming helpers.
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They both lie.
You can have them both.
Abbott doesn’t need me to highlight his deficiencies.He is a walking billboard.
But it’s official,there enough people here who think Gillard could never do a bad thing.
Form a fan club.
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I know Abbott is a compulsive liar, but what lies, pray tell, has Gillard ever told?
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Annoying AND lazy.
She was screaming from the parapets that offshore processing was evil and Labor would NEVER go there for one.There are dozens more.
You can lead a worm to water but you can’t make it handle the truth.
Why is your little pumpkin so inept at accepting that the sun does not shine out of her arse?
BTW did I mention I like your ‘familiar’ scent, Silky?
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FYI
http://www.google.com.au/search?num=10&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=834&q=chrissie+swan+big+brother&oq=chrissie+swan&gs_l=img.1.1.0l10.1906.7130.0.9818.13.12.0.1.1.0.962.5179.1j1j3j1j1j4j1.12.0…0.0…1ac.1.lxdLDmeWJ9s
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Pearl clutching could so have many connotations.
Like PW intimated,this topic is a potential minefield.
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I was asked the other day if I found the story “trivial” and replied that it was still being cognitively processed.
That actually included checking up more closely the links as well as working out if it was a shot at media weasel-wording, sexism, the accelerated process of deification of cupcake icons of a conservative type for marketing and so on.
In fact, am glad I stuck it out.
Posters here have indicated two things that happened. Firstly, that setting the scene for advertising means that there will continue a never ending production line stream of cupcakes, big hair, white pearls and teeth and little cocktail numbers to engage the audience “guest”, likely from Chrissie Swan’s demographic “out west” as with the audience that views TDT, ACA etc that is also captive to heavy advertising.
It is odd that the ABC, the last decade the heaviest pusher of “formal” TV presentation, should attempt to waffle away the sexist contradiction that Chrissie Swan demonstrates as a flesh and blood Australian, against the promotion of females presented as “alpha” on appearance and staging, which reinforces a form of cognitive detention in the class wars, in particular the War on Women, that has ordinary women and men despairing of ever finding a place in a world that values only Americanised physical beauty and consolation in mall consumerism.
As for Chrissie Swann, half her luck for figuring out how the system works and demonstrating that we oiks can take “them” down a bit, too.
Now, THAT’S Aussie, I’d reckon.
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Just the start of the wheels of Justice turning to roll over Abbott, as the Judge ruled Ashby’s case “an abuse of process” and with ulterior motives.
The judge as good as said that Mal Brough, James Ashby and Karen Doane engaged in a conspiracy to bring down the Speaker, and indirectly no doubt hoping to bring down the Government.
And if Abbott, Brandis and others were not involved I will eat Rocinante.
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What Grubs. Another Gordon Gretch and am glad they are exposed again.
Even Aussies must wake up to Abbott eventually?
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Godwin.
Are the new teef playing up?
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Gillard would instantly claw a bees dick worth of cred back if she calls an enquiry into all the sleazy coalition setups from Howard on.Abbott would do it to her and the unions, at a blink.
But she would need to start to whistle her own tune,behave like a Labor leader and shunt the power brokers.
Oh look, I’ve gone from idealism to hallucination.
Slipper was setup,no doubt, but sadly i think he had some baggage.The coalition knew that,but it backfired.Brough will need plastic surgery and a name change after this.
He always did repel water.Karma all round.
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The case against Slipper was thrown out of court. So, what type of baggage does Slipper have, Mr Cleverpants?
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Do your own archival research Ms Lazy Bones.
It’s not exactly a secret.
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Yep…definitely “Slipper-gate”….now someone needs to get to the bottom of it and expose the collusion.
It’s the sort of stupidy stupidy thing that the opposition would do…a real Baldrick of an idea – a cunning plan, no doubt.
We may be saved from Abbott yet!
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An ordinary person battles with what’s conjured when we watch stories like Thomson and Slipper unfold.
The mentality we recognise from following US politics, where Tea Party politicians would happily send their country to beggary to get their own way, so much like the German politicians of the thirties of last century (godwinnned), is astonishing for its callousness and total lack of awareness.
We see the same whatever it takes outlook in sections of Labor, making it also seem a runaway, The best we have had to hope for is that that Labor are just fudging it, to avoid being outflank by Australia’s hard right.
We know the only alternative proposition that is feasible is the one offered by sceptics like Hypo and Marilyn who believe comprehensively that there is no hope from Labor also and we know deep-down there is a serious chance it’s so.
“Live in hope; die in despair”.
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“The best we have had to hope for is that that Labor are just fudging it”
I’ll be going to my grave loyal to my principles on that one.
It is a compromise too far away for me, to license obvious deception,whether it is temporay or opportunistic.
Give them an inch…..
We are where we are are because we said.
(about Howard) “Aw shucks, he aint too bad, he has our best interests at heart.
He knows stuff about money and that.”
We have not been the same since.Had Howard NOT been the social vampire he was,the bar would be closer to normality.
Gillard would still be washing windscreens at the traffic lights, and refugees would be described as victims instead of an enemy.
Abbott is just the third leg of the Howard relay.Make of that what you will.
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Well it certainly reeks.(Reeked from day one)
It reeks of Abbott,Morris,Brandis,Morris,Abetz,Morris,Brough,Morris,Abetz.Pyne,Morris,
Abetz and some pro bono advice from Minchin and Howard.
Did I mention Morris?
Abetz?
Hmmmm.
Now where is he?Strangely quiet, innit?
Whenever those two are not driving a campaign in front of a camera this sort of shit is running red hot off camera, and vice versa.
It reeks.Big time.
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They’re a horrible lot and far too much deadwood on the ALP’s side also.
The teeth have settled hypo- off to the axe-grinder tomorrow to file the sharpness back into the incisors and then I will join the affray anew.
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Goodo,
Just don’t let me read somewhere that you got busted masticating madly in full view of vulnerable adolescents, with no idea about tooth decay!
As to the scum on both sides,lets wish for a complete ‘come-a-gutsa’ scenario……
We should demand (expect/get) respect from our elected reps.
We need big picture people to watch over us.
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Hypo, I never masticate in public and rarely in the toilet, particularly since those two little old ladies passed such scathing comments concerning me and a Mars Bar on the bus one time.
You and the rest know Marilyn, good and bad.
As is her want, she mailed another story from an online journal called the Daily Globe, just out, by one Aubrey Belford, “Australias Deadly Game”, about the nature and extent of cooperation between Australian officials and Afghani and Pakistani authorities, involving (against) Hazaras.
To me it was good Guardian style journalism, yet who will read it beyond a few activists online?
Why would a media outlet want to run a story on something as mundane as morning sickness when they could set up a discussion on issues like the one above?
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Throwing my hands in the air as we speak…
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Have you guys read the full judgment? (it’s linked on the ABC news site)…I’m halfway through it…..extraordinary skulduggery by the looks of it.
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Yes, Poirot. I have just finished it. Nothing is clearer than that Ashby, Brough and Doane (at the very least) conspired to bring down the Speaker using an abuse of process.
There is no evidence that Ashby was concerned, much less distressed, by the activities of Slipper.
Ashby’s lawyer is in deep doo-doo (sorry about the legalese) over including scandalous and irrelevant material in the Claim.
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Where were Abetz and our future George GRANDIS, in all this?
In the bunker?
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They didn’t get a guernsey, Hypo;
but you can bet your last cane toad that they were on the sidelines with Abbott, Pyne, Bishop, and the Cardinal (all sounds rather religious doesn’t it?) shouting themselves hoarse after demolishing the month’s communion wine.
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Gra-Gra Morris would have been pushing a few buttons too,I reckon.
It would pretty much have been the entire Howard Worshipping Sisterhood,resplendent in their fishnets, sticking the pins from their heavily polished (Libs are heavy polishers from wayback) Liberal Party badges in the little voodoo effigy of Slipper.(A recycled Gotwind Grech doll, with a hand drawn mask on it,kindly donated by Ghoulie Midship.)
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Sleep well coalition dudes>
Rock-a-bye Ashby, in the +tree top
When the *wind blows, the #cradle will rock
When the Brough breaks, the #cradle will fall
And down will come Ashby, Abbot et al.
*Wind = truth
#Cradle = Opposition
+Tree = Court
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Reblogged this on I can add up but I cant spell..
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