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Post by slartibartfast on Nov 29, 2013 19:52:27 GMT 10
What mess?
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Post by geopol on Nov 30, 2013 7:26:52 GMT 10
I assume from that Pim that Pyne is your local member....
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Post by slartibartfast on Dec 2, 2013 17:27:52 GMT 10
7.8 from the Norwegian judge.
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Post by pim on Dec 2, 2013 17:55:24 GMT 10
I assume from that Pim that Pyne is your local member.... He has been, Geopol. It was my exquisite pleasure to be part of the 2007 campaign that almost unseated the little pyne-in-the-arse. To cast a personal vote against him on my ballot paper was an experience to be savoured. But that was then! These days I live in the electorate of Adelaide where my local member is Kate Ellis who, I am pleased to report, is finally going more public over Pyne's antics.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2013 18:29:43 GMT 10
Abbott came to power on a ticket of honesty which the electorate cares very much about naturally, I have a suspicion Abbott amongst the voters will come up smelling like roses...with help from pro Abbott media.
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Post by sonex on Dec 16, 2013 11:42:28 GMT 10
Tony Abbott really has no idea of international diplomacy. "The Federal Opposition says Prime Minister Tony Abbott risks further undermining Australia's relationship with Indonesia after he suggested it was "high time" Indonesia resumed cooperation on people smuggling operation" www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-16/opposition-says-pm-risks-australia-indonesia-relationship/5158054Apparently he has never heard of the expression "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar", rather than his bellicose remarks.
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Post by sonex on Dec 30, 2013 10:59:07 GMT 10
I was quite shocked to read that Tony Abbott declared Japan to be our "best friend in Asia". Was anyone else? Apart from the put down to our other Asia neighbours, I would like to know why Japan is our best friend. I know it is our second biggest trading partner, and it has the Security Treaty with the USA, but why would we choose Japan as our best friend.
Have we forgotten so soon their horrendous massacres of the Chinese people, their cruelty to our service men, the massacre at Bagka Island where they murdered our Australian nurses. The execution of some of them for war crimes.
I would like to know why our PM considers them to be our best friend.
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Post by Yassir Rebob on Jan 6, 2014 8:55:08 GMT 10
Te he he, too true Earl, too true.
mores the damn pity.
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Post by fat on Jan 9, 2014 9:47:12 GMT 10
Cartoonists sometimes grab the guts of the situation better than all the argument in the world.
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Post by pim on Jan 9, 2014 10:33:04 GMT 10
True, Fat, and Morrison could end up becoming the Abbott Government's fall guy during its first term. Or maybe not! Right now it's Morrison doing the Rottweiler thing for the Abbott Government at the pointy end of what is probably its most contentious policy area. Critics of the Abbott Government (and I'm one of them) point to the cock-ups with the Indonesians, to the way a bunch of boat people managed to make it to Christmas Island anyway, and to the secrecy and weasel words that Morrison hides behind, and indulge in an orgy of schadenfreude. On this board there are predictions that this will surely be a one term government.
I think that's an error and a fundamental error at that. It's the same error that Beazley Labor made between 1996 and 1998 during the first term of the Howard Government when they believed that the dominoes were falling in the Howard Government (6 ministerial resignations) and what they believed (wrongly as it turned out) to be the own goal of John Howard taking the "never ever" GST to the 1998 elections and that all Beazley labor had to do was sit tight, the Howard government would implode and government would fall back into Labor's lap.
We all know how that one played out. Howard's 1998 GST election was the last act of political courage by any Australian Prime Minister where he figured that since he had the political capital it was time to invest it. So he blew his 1996 landslide on the GST. The gamble paid off and he won the election but only just. Mind you Gillard, 12 years later, would have given her ear lobes for an election win like Howard's 1998 election win but in 1998 it was seen as "skin-of-the-teeth". Ever since then every Australian political leader has wimped it on political courage and been risk-averse. Kevin Rudd was risk-averse and pissed his 2007 political capital up against a wall. Julia Gillard had no political capital but even she and Wayne Swan ran scared from the Liberals on the economy.
The question remains: what will Tony Abbott do with his political capital and I don't think that question has been answered yet. That he does have a considerable amount of political capital to play with is beyond argument! His majority, while not of landslide proportions, is a comfortable one. True, there's a problem with the Senate and he's going to have to do a bit of horse trading and jawboning there and he's not too good at that sort of stuff. Foot-in-mouth disease and all that! But remember the Liberals, rightly or wrongly but they believe it, credit Tony with slaying not one but two Labor monsters, of bringing the Liberals back from a shattering 2007 defeat to almost destroying a first term Labor Government, and of keeping up such relentless pressure on Labor from Opposition over the next 3 years that Labor could never really gain the political initiative and therefore Tony set up the Libs for victory in 2013. So goes the Liberal narrative. What's important here is not whether Labor people believe it but that Liberals believe it. Tony has entered the pantheon of Liberal heroe and his prime ministership is just beginning. So don't tell me the man has no political capital. I very much doubt that the Liberals will do to Tony, in the first term of government, what Labor did to Kevin.
They'll stumble on, there'll be more cock-ups and Shorten Labor will make some political mileage out of it. And so they should! But I've noticed that some left critics of Labor are linking the deals that Australia is forced to make with the Indonesians over the boat people issue with the issue of West Papua. These so-called "left" critics could well end up becoming the stone in Labor's shoe. Especially ratbags like Meredith Burgmann. There was a case of boat people in reverse when a bunch of "activists" last year set out from Cairns to sail to West Papua in order to stage some sort of provocative stunt, get themselves arrested by the Indonesians and then force the Australian Government to become involved by having to provide "consular assistance". The then Foreign Minister Bob Carr said "Bullshit!" to that and before they'd even left Cairns warned them that they were going against the expressed advice of the Australian Government and that any legal trouble they got into in West Papua from the Indonesians was on their own heads. Dunno what happened after that. I've had sharp disagreements with left critics of Labor over this and related issues. The issue of West Papua is not the same as when the Indonesians were in East Timor. Chalk and cheese, and it is not in Australia's interests to stand by and be indifferent to the break-up and balkanisation of Indonesia. I'm sure that's the Abbott Government's position too.
I hope the boats stop. I don't want to hear of people drowning. Setting out in a leaky unseaworthy boat to cross the Indian Ocean is not the same as crossing the 150 km of sea between Cuba and Florida, or the narrower parts of the Mediterranean to get to Europe. That's my starting point when I look at this issue.
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Post by geopol on Jan 14, 2014 16:37:06 GMT 10
OBIT: Hon. Anthony John 'Tony' Abbott MP, Prime Minister of Australia
The Hon. Anthony John 'Tony' Abbott MP, Prime Minister of Australia, passed away suddenly on Friday, 13 June 2014.
He collapsed in mid-sentence at a press conference outside Parliament House with what was at first thought to be heatstroke brought on by an unseasonably hot winter day.
However his condition worsened and he was rushed to Canberra Hospital where he was admitted to the coronary care unit.
Medical treatment was complicated by the discovery of symptoms of ‘concrete heart’ syndrome and that, in combination with low hospital staffing levels due to recent Federal Government funding cuts, meant that the Prime Minister died within four hours of admission.
Tony Abbott was a man of no fixed principles, who rose to power on the back of his ability to be unrelentingly negative, viciously sledge political opponents and endlessly repeat three word slogans.
An intolerant, muscular Christian who thought the poor always responsible for their own misfortune and their children undeserving of a decent public education.
His reputation for sexism and misogyny was known around the world, as was his commitment to political untruths.
A friend to a select few – particularly those from his own religious or social background and assorted media barons.
Tony Abbott is sincerely mourned by members of his immediate family.
The Liberal Party of Australia issued a brief statement of regret on his passing, then returned to the task of choosing a new leader.
A number of spontaneous street parties were reported to have occurred across Australia when his death was announced.
There was a mixed reaction from world leaders.
Wishful thinking from North Coast Voices today:
Cardinal George Pell has issued a media release stating his intention to tirelessly work for the canonisation of the late prime minister.
Mr. Abbott’s ashes will be returned to England and interred in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, close by the grave of his hero former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven
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Post by geopol on Jan 14, 2014 16:38:22 GMT 10
That last post contained some wishful thinking from North Coast Voices.
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Post by geopol on Jan 24, 2014 6:57:01 GMT 10
Friday, 24 January 2014
Gillard would never have brought Australia to the sorry pass Abbott has
If one looks back on the life history of the Federal Member for Warringah, Tony Abbott MP, it is obvious that he operates best as a belligerent. That he thrives on conflict.
Not being known as a creator of good public policy or a builder of lasting parliamentary consensus, he seeks to aggressively oppose as a substitute for effective political action.
No longer being able to oppose the Federal Government because he is now the head of that very government, one has to suspect that Abbott is now casting about for another political enemy – a ‘baddie’ to his own ‘goodie’ - to fight for the sake of being seen to be fighting.
I fear that he seeks to engage Indonesia as his new opponent and that he would not (given his obvious admiration of all things military) be averse to leading Australia into a physical skirmish with this close neighbour.
One senses that Abbott finds the idea of being a ‘wartime’ prime minister an attractive proposition, given his recent rhetoric about the enemy and war with regard to towing/turning back asylum seeker boats.
If the Liberal Party of Australia doesn't swiftly depose this mindless adrenalin junkie he will bring our country to its knees.
(This has ben copied from North Coast Voices today.)
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Post by geopol on Jan 24, 2014 7:03:27 GMT 10
Indonesia believes Tony Abbott may be deliberately inflaming tensions between the two countries for political reasons and to allow his government to continue turning back asylum seeker boats. Apparent sabre-rattling over the matter intensified in Indonesia on Thursday with an air force spokesman reported as saying ''Australia is reachable'' by its 16 Sukhoi warplanes based in Makassar in the event of a confrontation, and a navy spokesman reportedly saying extra warships had been deployed. But the comments seem to have been overblown or taken out of context, with navy and air force personnel confirming to Fairfax Media there had been no change to routine monitoring of air and sea borders. Advertisement Government spokesman Agus Barnas said Mr Abbott's blunt comments in Davos about sovereignty ''will only worsen the prospects'' of trying to normalise relations. ''It may be [that Prime Minister Abbott is deliberately making inflammatory statements] because he's tied to his campaign promises,'' said Mr Agus, the spokesman for co-ordinating security minister Djoko Suyanto. ''Maybe he is also receiving big pressure domestically, but turning back boats is not the answer, because that only benefits one party, namely Australia.'' President Read more: www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/indonesians-think-prime-minister-tony-abbott-is-inflaming-tensions-for-political-gain-over-asylum-seekers-20140123-31bsz.html#ixzz2rG2fq9XA
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Post by pim on Jan 24, 2014 14:17:03 GMT 10
It might be a good idea to become a regular reader of this publication ... TNI gears up, sets sights on foreign threatswww.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/01/22/tni-gears-sets-sights-foreign-threats.htmlAs the Indonesian Military (TNI) begins to perceive the growing threat from other nations, it is accelerating efforts to strengthen deterrence by overhauling its structure to allow for faster troop deployment, expanding the Marine Corps and procuring long-range offensive weaponry. In what is expected to be among President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s most far-reaching military policies, a regulation is planned for June on the formation of defense groups under joint-command, locally abbreviated as Kogabwilhan. The plan will integrate the regional resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force into multi-service groups that will be positioned in certain defense flashpoints integral to preserving the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. “But the function of the Kogabwilhan will not be limited to that. It will also serve as a deterrence to other countries as the command will have the flexibility and the needed resources for rapid deployment,” said Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro recently. Each Kogabwilhan group will be equipped with its own fleet of warships, jet fighter squadron and Army units. Each group’s commander, a three-star general, will be given the authority to respond without having to go through the red tape at the TNI headquarters in Jakarta. Under the existing structure, the TNI cannot immediately respond to, for example, a foreign incursion into the eastern territory until its central command assigns a three-star commanding officer and drafts deployment and logistics orders. “We’re always on alert over future threats from other countries. But our existing structure and command are not sufficient to promptly respond. The Kogabwilhan will patch up the holes,” said Defense Ministry’s director general for defense planning Rear Marshall FX Bambang Sulistyo. The government is planning to have four Kogabwilhan groups cover several flashpoints, which according to the ministry officials, are Aceh, Natuna in Riau Islands, Papua and Attambua in East Nusa Tenggara. Aceh was included due to fears another separatist movement could emerge, and also because of its strategic location at the mouth of the busy Strait of Malacca. Meanwhile, Natuna sits near the South China Sea, where China is in border rows with several ASEAN nations that are mostly backed by the US. Indonesia is not involved in the territorial disputes. Papua was chosen because of its separatist conflict and Attambua for its proximity to East Timor (Timor Leste) and Australia. The headquarters of each Kogabwilhan group will not necessarily be at the deployment location. For example, to cover Natuna, the command could either be set up in the West Kalimantan provincial capital of Pontianak or in Riau’s capital of Pekanbaru. “We have not decided whether to have three or four Kogabwilhan groups. If we have four then it should cover the areas of eastern, western and central Indonesia. The command for Java should be a stand-alone,” said Purnomo. To support the policy, the ministry is undergoing a so-called “right-sizing” in its personnel assignments, in which priority will be given to strike units rather than to support ones. “There will also be no expansion in the number of troops. What we are doing is reassigning personnel to priority divisions,” said Purnomo. Indonesia has around 460,000 military personnel, as of 2013, and every year around 13,000 retire. As part of the restructuring, Purnomo said that the ministry was in the process of expanding the Marines, with the latest addition being the 10th Marine Battalion in Setokok Island, some 4 kilometers southeast of Batam Island in Riau Islands province. President Yudhoyono is scheduled to inaugurate the battalion, initially commissioned with 600 personnel, in March. In a sign that the TNI is serious in setting its sights outward, it recently agreed to the purchase of a dozen Russian Kilo-class submarines. A team is scheduled to fly to Moscow at the end of the month to process the purchase through Russia’s export credit facilities, which carry low interest rates. “What will be the game changer is not the Kilo-class subs themselves, but the Club-S cruise missiles onboard,” said Purnomo, adding that the missiles could hit a target 400 km away. The country is also waiting for the deliveries of 30 refurbished F-16 fighters and a dozen Apache attack helicopters from the US starting this year, as well as 103 refurbished Leopard main battle tanks from Germany. House of Representatives defense, intelligence and foreign affairs committee member Susaningtyas Handayani Kertopati said the TNI should strengthen its “outward-looking” approach at a time when there were signs of escalating threats. “The greatest threat will obviously be from Australia,” she said. Just recently, Australia apologized to Indonesia after its border patrol boats entered Indonesian territorial waters without permission in their bid to stop migrants. A Defense Ministry official has warned that Australia’s “tow-back” policy may soon ignite conflict. The policy involves the Australian navy intercepting and forcing back to Indonesia boats crowded with undocumented migrants heading to Australia. “Now that we have three frigates on the border, a clash could be imminent as our Navy will prevent the towing back,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.The TNI has been occupied for more than four decades with quelling domestic threats — primarily, separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua, as well as communal and sectarian violence in Kalimantan and Maluku. Its resources and command structure have been mostly tailored accordingly. But as domestic threats have receded in the past eight years, the TNI has gradually shifted its focus to building deterrent capabilities, and has taken a more serious approach regarding foreign coercion than before.
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Post by geopol on Jan 28, 2014 12:08:41 GMT 10
[April 1, 1854?]
Government is a combination of the people of a country to effect certain objects by joint effort. The best framed and best administered governments are necessarily expensive; while by errors in frame and maladministration most of them are more onerous than they need be, and some of them very oppressive. Why, then, should we have government? Why not each individual take to himself the whole fruit of his labor, without having any of it taxed away, in services, corn, or money? Why not take just so much land as he can cultivate with his own hands, without buying it of any one? This has been taken from North Coast voices. It was penned by A. Lincoln.........Abbott would probably regard it as teary eyed nonsense, wet in the extreme. When will the punters see the Liberals for what they really are. He will make government expensive simply by giving handouts to the rich and undermining the self respect and economic security of the poorer and lower skilled workers.
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Post by Yassir Rebob on Jan 28, 2014 19:05:50 GMT 10
By 2050, Indonesias GDP will eclipse ours. We need Indonesia more than they need us, far more.
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Post by sonex on Jan 29, 2014 12:19:07 GMT 10
Such hypocrisy from Tony Abbott, he has accused the ABC of being unpatriotic, when he himself has rubbished the Australian Opposition Government to the world, and has said that our Navy has been inept. Exerpt: "Pressed further on how the incidents could have occurred given the sophisticated technology on the vessels and the skills of the personnel involved, he proffered the following theories, including a sporting analogy. On-water operations were complex and even elite professionals made human errors. “On the high seas all sorts of things happen; there are winds, there are tides, there are other things that they're focusing on,” he said." www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/28/navy-indonesian-incursions-after-wind-tide-distractionsIn the next article he says..... ""You can't leap to be critical of your own country and you certainly ought to be prepared to give the Australian Navy and its hard-working personnel the benefit of the doubt," Mr Abbott said." www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-29/tony-abbott-steps-up-criticism-of-abc/5224676He has been critical of his own country and told the world that our Navy made mistakes.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2014 12:50:00 GMT 10
Abbott the Dangerous has false patriotic notions....hopefully the new senate doesn't swing to the right and endorses the un-Australian neo right policies he espouses for a future Australia. In short he is a furking drongo and anyone who has voted for him is a drongo.
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Post by pim on Jan 29, 2014 22:47:50 GMT 10
Abbott the Dangerous has false patriotic notions....hopefully the new senate doesn't swing to the right and endorses the un-Australian neo right policies he espouses for a future Australia. Dream on ... Rubbish - I totally reject your contempt for the Australian electorate, Spindrift. The thing about democracy - and I mean the really hard thing about democracy, the thing that really challenges you - is the fact that "majority rules" means that the "majority" might vote in a way that you personally don't agree with. And here's the kicker about democracy: the people always get it right. Even when they're "wrong" (i.e. they elect the mob you don't like) they're still right. And that's hard to accept - but accept it you must. That's if you adhere to democracy. But if you fail that test, if you reject the notion that the people are always right, even when they're "wrong", then you're no democrat. Just full of sour grapes.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2014 1:46:49 GMT 10
Very assumptive post there Pim and you are repeating yourself.
Forget sour grapes I am honestly alarmed by the Abbott government and rightly so, now your telling us the people have it right even when they are wrong, nothing to worry about because the people are rightly wrong in a democracy... crikey ....better leave this to a quote:
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” Abe Lincoln.
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Post by pim on Jan 30, 2014 6:34:41 GMT 10
Spindrift, and I don't mean this unkindly, there are a couple of people I hesitate to get into a debate with on the board. Skippy is one because of his intellectual laziness. He puts up an inflammatory c & p of some polemic or other and follows it with a one sentence sneer at people he assumes will take exception to the rubbish in the c & p. That's just trolling and that's what Skippy is here to do. Why feed the troll?
The other individual is your good self. Now I'd never accuse you, Spindrift, of being a troll. But you are often incoherent and it's hard work wading through the morass of your tangled prose. So the shorter your post, the better. Now, turning to your latest post...
I don't know what "assumptive" means. Sorry, but I don't. It's a word you've invented. I guess to you it means something but it means nothing to me. So that first sentence is useless because it doesn't communicate anything.
Moving on ..
You say you're "honestly alarmed by the Abbott Government" and I believe you. I share your sense of alarm. So how can I reconcile what I said about the people being "right" even when they're "wrong" with our shared sense of alarm at the Abbott Government? I see no contradiction or inconsistency. It was the shameful record of the Labor Party ever since the Keating defeat of 1996 that has led us to where we are today. Labor, and I'm talking about Beazley Labor, pissed the years in opposition up against a wall by curling itself up into a ball and allowing the Howard/Costello Liberals to scoop up and claim as their own the benefits of the economic and social restructuring of the Hawke/Keating years, while internally the ALP factions, freed at last from the constraints and the restraints of the Accord of the Hawke/Keating years, roared back with a vengeance. The outcome of that was that when the Howard government finally died of exhaustion in 2007 we ended up with the Rudd/Gillard civil war - which was a factional war which ripped Labor apart. As a spectacle it was bigger than Ben-Hur and as a tragedy it could have been scripted by Sophocles or Euripides as a Greek tragedy on an epic scale. It has shattered the Labor Party - not finished it as a serious force but left it in a parlous state, and created a space which opened an opportunity for someone like Abbott to smash the almost-achieved bipartisanship between the Turnbull Liberals and Rudd Labor on climate change and to toxify and debase public discourse over the subsequent four years. Tony Abbott is Prime Minister today because the Labor Party presented him with the opportunity of becoming Prime Minister. The majority vote in last year's election wasn't so much a vote for the Abbott Liberals as a vote against the Rudd/Gillard civil war. I'm not going to "blame" the Australian people for casting a vote which reflected their disgust at, and their distaste for, the self-indulgence and the "look-at-me" prima donna-ism of Labor tearing itself apart. As Tanya Plibersek said, and she was 100% right: for policy Labor gets 8 out of 10, but for politics they scored zero. And it was politics, destructive, self-serving Labor politics, that gave Abbott his chance. If Labor had been in any way credible politically, in other words if its politics had been as good as its policies, then not only would Tony Abbott never have come within a bull's roar of the Prime Ministership, the Liberals would never have elected him to the leadership in the first place.
As for your Abe Lincoln quote, I agree! And it's a ringing endorsement of democracy. I'll see your Abe Lincoln and I'll raise the stakes with a Berthold Brecht:
The context is the popular uprising against Communist rule in East Berlin in 1953 that was put down by Soviet tanks. Brecht summed up the Soviet disdain for "the people" in this poem, of which this is a fragment. The original is in German.
the people had forfeited the confidence of the government and could win it back only by redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier in that case for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2014 9:46:04 GMT 10
Well Pim I agree that my missives can be jumbled, often dismayed when I come back and read them, I only hope that the drift of what I am saying is clear enough to make sense and that seems to be generally, if not then lets just say I enjoy wasting my time prattling on here putting my two bobs worth in.
I doubt they you do not know the word 'assumptive', perhaps more the case you do not know it when it applies to you.
Assumptive is the adjective of assumption, or a person who is assuming something.
Assumptive \As*sump"tive\, a. [L. assumptivus, fr. assumptus, fr. assumere.] Assumed, or capable of being assumed; characterized by assumption; making unwarranted claims. -- As*sump"tive*ly, adv. [1913 Webster] commnetp.
You assumed because I stated that it was mistake to remove Rudd from leadership that means I am a Rudd supporter and anti Gillard, you assumed because of a sledge "drongo" directed towards Abbott supporters that I was sour grapes with the defeat of Labor.
Unclear by me at least is just why you leap to make such assumptions, maybe just to have a bit of a niggle because you think I have been anti Gillard...I assume so.
You quibbled with me in the past for stating Abbott is dangerous...perhaps the shades have fallen off now and you see him for what he really is, not just a combative politician but a very dangerous politician.
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Post by sonex on Jan 30, 2014 10:13:43 GMT 10
Cor blimey! Spinner 'as been more pedantesque than Pim! Merde, I had to google that word Earl. Don't think I have ever come across that one before.
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Post by pim on Jan 30, 2014 10:59:14 GMT 10
Spindrift it may surprise you that I have actually moved on from the Rudd/Gillard civil war. Feelings ran high at the time and rightly so but there comes a time ... What makes it easier to move on is the fact that both those individuals have departed from the political scene. I have my views on Rudd/Gillard and they are at sharp odds with your views on Rudd/Gillard. I can accept that and move on since that debate is now about history rather than the current situation. What I feel I can say is that more cohesive Labor Governments between Dec 2007 - Sep 2013 whose politics matched their policies in quality and substance would have meant that wherever Australia would have been today, it would have been without Tony Abbott as Prime Minister or even as Leader of the Opposition. I wasn't having a dig at you about Rudd, and <sigh> can we please move on from that? Both he and Gillard are h-i-s-t-o-r-y. The acres of newsprint produced by the Murdoch Institute of Toxic Discourse have long since ended up as wrapping for fish & chips. I mean, really mate, am I to be treading on eggshells with you about Rudd/Gillard forever and beyond? It's over. It's a pity you don't know French. There's a song of Edith Piaf that springs to mind called Je ne regrette rien = I regret nothing, in which she sings about wiping the slate of the past clean and starting over again from scratch ( Je repars à zero). She sings: C'est rayé! Balayé! Oublié! Je me fous du passé! - which ends the song and at which point during live performances the audience would surge cheering to its feet C'est rayé = It's rubbed out Balayé = swept clean Oublié = forgotten Je me fous du passé = I don't give a fcuk about the past (quite literally, that's what it does mean) She dedicated that song to the Foreign Legion which is full of people who have a past that they'd like to rub out, sweep away and forget about. Here is Piaf in all her glory singing that song. The tune might be familiar. Regarding "assumptive", I dragged out a mountain of reference material and I'll have to concede, grudgingly and with deep reluctance, that "assumptive" is a word - although may Skippy's nasty vindictive old testament sky god-who-smites smite me with one of his lightning bolts, may Thor strike me with his hammer and may Poseidon sweep me away with a tsunami and skewer me on his trident if I know where you dredged up a word like "assumptive". It sounds like something describing the way the Virgin Mary (Catholicism's castrated version of the pagan goddess Isis) is supposed to have been "assumed" up to where Skippy's nasty vindictive old testament sky god-who-smites is supposed to hang out when he isn't smiting people he's pissed off with. Personally I wouldn't describe a post as "assumptive". It's an obscure use of the word. However it would be churlish of me to quibble. Earl Grey ... "pedantesque"? Don't distribute the accolades too quickly. This one isn't over ...
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