Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Editorial’ Category

Ten Years of News & Views!

Posted in Culture, Editorial, Society, tagged on August 1, 2019| 1 Comment »

Well, probably more views, but time has flown in a decade of strutting and fretting on the meejah stage, to mangle Macbeth. The 10th anniversary date of the online launch of this august journal was actually on 18 June, so we’re a little late with the self-congratulations. 

Apparently a 10th anniversary is celebrated with tin or aluminium, which is easily acquired at the local bottle shop in handy six packs or slabs of a favourite drop. Don’t you love all those short-hand ways of not referring to liquor? But I digress.

Now listen up folks, this time it’s mainly about you lot, our loyal readers. I dunno all your names but I do know what youse like by perusing our reader viewing stats. No need to guess what your favourite subject is: sex.

Since 2014 our top story Very Wicked Camper has been viewed by an astonishing 54,547 readers, due to a US aggregating website sending it globally viral, as they say, or is that virally global? All because of the naughty dick murals on said vehicle. The power of this internetty thing is a big worry, as they were pretty infantile images with few accompanying words. 

Second biggest story was Sex, Sand & Sculpture, which was really about art, society and censorship, but salacious it definitely was not. Still, it had 4,533 readers, so I hope they also pondered after checking out the evidence of offence to public morality. 

Third comes Magic Pudding, which had no sex – reassuringly – but maybe promised fantasy and a cooking story for kids? But then in fourth place was Eruv Erection Troubles and in fifth position Shark Season. So I conclude that you’re mainly into sex, fantasy and horror. But you suck up the other worthy high brow stuff (another 185 posts!) in between the tabloidy items.

You mob are truly awesome: both intellectual and low brow in one handy package! And very patient. What’s not to love about you. You’ve stayed the course, through good times and mediocre. Hopefully you’ve had some laughs, as we shared a few yarns, prejudices and occasional insight.

Ten years of sharing, togetherness and happiness – how good is that, as ScoMo would say, and gods bless you too. So keep the KC faith, dear readers, and we’ll sail (powered by wind) into that uncertain future together. 

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

War on Iran?

Posted in Diplomacy, Editorial, World, tagged , , , , on July 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Oh no, here we go again – I have that sinking feeling in my stomach, or is it my blood boiling. ScoMo is already following that long tradition of erstwhile Liberal PMs sucking up to a US president by offering to support the USA in actions against Iran (following America’s withdrawal from a nuclear deterrent agreement!). All the way with Donald J, who didn’t even request our help. Just like Vietnam back in the day, where we asked to join in. Remember how well that went for Australia, not to mention the poor Vietnamese?

Ironically within days Professor Hugh White, noted academic military strategist, has launched a new book ‘How to Defend Australia’, where he apparently argues strongly that we should shed any further delusions about Australia sheltering under the safety of a US security umbrella. A fictitious treaty obligation used by successive Australian governments to justify going to war alongside Uncle Sam, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan? Another calamity for all sides involved!

As China rises and US dominance in Asia wanes, we are gunna be on our own, says the expert professor, who also suggests doubling our military expenditure and even discuss getting our own nuclear weapons. Tell him he’s dreaming, which he clearly is! But meanwhile he could drop by ScoMo’s Canberra office on his way to uni, and let him in on the latest strategic thinking. So that we don’t have to risk Australian troops on another needless military excursion into the Islamic world. With no guarantee of US protection insurance. 

Read Full Post »

Press Freedom & Failure

Posted in Editorial, tagged , , on June 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Following recent attempts by ScoMo and his attack dog Dutton to intimidate journalists and whistleblowers with Federal police raids and legal action, we should rightfully clamour for better protections of ‘press freedom’ and journalist sources.

However, the sine qua non of that protection, and privilege, is that the Fourth Estate must exercise that freedom rigorously in the public interest. A letter to SMH editor (28 June) succinctly points out its failings:

Read Full Post »

Shooters Rule, OK.

Posted in Editorial, Politics, Society, tagged , , , , on March 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Only eight days after the (terrorist) mass murders in Christchurch, punters voting for the glorious state parliament of New South Wales have elected three Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Party members in the lower house. 

The three seats comprise the western half of the state, which roughly equals the size of Germany (albeit with a somewhat smaller population), and are their first in the Legislative Assembly. 

How can country punters have the murderous event still fresh in their minds and vote for a political party referred to as Shooters, its original name? If they are the answer we are asking the wrong question.

Yeah, the discredited Nationals (ex-Country Party), are on the nose in the bush, but come on folks, what about the vibe? How can the Electoral Commission even allow a political party name to be registered these days as Shooters – a world first.

The three seats of Barwon, Murray and Orange encompass the disappearing Murray-Darling river system, which is literally that country’s lifeblood – the scene of massive fish die-offs and corrupt water mismanagement overseen by the Coalition’s junior partner. 

The Greens clamoured for decades to protect those vital rivers, and scored dismally in the same electorates. Country voters know that Greens are watermelons (green on the outside, red inside), evil socialists, the devil incarnate, etc., and so they viscerally reject a party defending their own environmental interests.

The new parliament will have three Shooters members and three Greens members.

Say no more.

Meantime the NZ government is now scrambling to finally fix up its slack gun laws. Not surprising that a NSW-grown terrorist murderer moved to New Zealand a couple of years ago: after wandering the globe building up his so-called manifesto, he then easily put together an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons.

Read Full Post »

Philistines Rule, OK!

Posted in Culture, Editorial, Society, Sport, tagged , , , , , on October 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

So, the ‘iconic’ (obligatory adjective) Sydney Opera House is our biggest billboard, so sayeth PM Scott Morrison aka ScoMo, endorsing NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s approval of advertising on the famous roof sails of this UNESCO Heritage-listed building, to promote a horse-racing event. 

It’s a quintessential Sydney story, where Shock Jock Supremo Jones pulls the strings on Our Gladys, and we then learn that his business partners have nags running in the race – a redolent whiff of his ‘cash for comment’ era. 

I’m not sure that’s what UNESCO had in mind, but maybe it’s the epitome of OzCulture for crass gambling promotion to prevail over aesthetic considerations in a display of rampant philistinism (a word to put back into common usage). To cap it off, ingenuous ScoMo doesn’t get what all the fuss is about. I believe him.

The Pentecostal PM evinces a daggy soccer dad image, and as self-styled marketing guru who in a previous gig at the Australian Tourist Commission oversaw the cringeworthy ‘where the bloody hell are you’ advertising campaign, he has a track record as Chief Philistine. And is Our Glad channelling Edna Everage?

The horse racing event is called The Everest, so how the image of that word on the Opera House will promote tourism here is a mystery only explained by bluster and bullshit. And make no mistake, the Sport of Kings is for gambling, and certainly not for the benefit of exercising the poor nags and jockeys.

Cultural cringe at being Australian is the only response to this travesty, at least amongst us elitists, but it’s not a comfortable feeling. Optimists thought we had left fundamental philistinism behind us in the maligned 1950s, but it’s in our DNA!

ducks in a row

Read Full Post »

Australian Government AAA-Rated

Posted in Editorial, Politics, tagged , , , , on August 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Well, it wasn’t rocket surgery for KC to correctly predict the PM’s imminent demise.

The political circus act in the big top tent in Canberra had its inevitable denouement yesterday with the elevation, so to speak, of the egregious ScoMo to the top job, after all semblances of personal loyalty and party unity were rudely trashed in a week of bald-faced lying and treachery amongst thieves.

Amongst the many Brutus look-alikes the Big Belgian aka Mathias ranked highly in his treasonous volte-face: one day standing photogenically alongside our erstwhile PM Malcolm of Point Piper, and the next day embracing the assassin’s cabal.

It’s another sad day for Australian politics, when once again personal enmities and hard-nosed ideologues behead their own leader in an orgy of self-destruction. The three As choir boys Abbott, Abetz and Andrews, all inspired by Christian self-righteousness and revenge, got their man. But they over-reached when their anointed Trojan horse Dutton went down to ScoMo, who of course is another bible-basher – is something Machiavellian going on there?  

Malcolm’s valedictory speech predictably also, was full of self-congratulations for a PM job well-done. He looked like he’d won the lottery instead of unceremoniously chucked out on his ear. That man’s ego is bullet-proof. An insincere opportunist, who will disappear into the ever-growing dustbin of minor prime ministerial figures who strutted and fretted their time on the political stage and signified nothing. 

A threnody to the disappearing Australian body politic, may it not rest in peace!

images

Read Full Post »

Shorten Sweet

Posted in Editorial, Politics, tagged , , , on August 21, 2018| 1 Comment »

Since this yummy headline appeared over a Paddy Manning article in The Monthly on 30 July, I’ve been hoping for an opportunity to recycle it, shamelessly. Regular KC readers know already that we favour and savour two-word ‘rhyming’ captions, and this one is a beauty: it’s short and sweet!

Manning was looking at the results of the ‘Super Saturday’ Federal elections, where Labor scooped four of the five electorates contested that day. Alternative PM Bill Shorten’s prospects of continuing as Labor leader and prevailing at the next election got a sugar hit indeed.

Well, today that recycling opportunity arrived, as PM Malcolm of Point Piper was metaphorically wounded (mortally?) in his own party room while staving off a leadership challenge from arch-conservative Peter Dutton. I agree with the pundits that Malcolm will not survive as PM, and the coup de grace may even come later this week.

Political soothsaying may be a sucker’s game, so to speak, but I reckon Shorten’s odds of electoral success just shortened again, and he’s definitely looking very sweet for the upcoming elections, not to mention the rest of his party in general.

The proverbial drover’s dog would also be looking pretty sweet against the motley Coalition crew running around like a mob of sheep in ever-diminishing circles, or is that lambs to the slaughter. Dutton is on the nose, outside a few supporters in the Shallow Deep North just up from Brizzie, so another feckless challenger may eventually claim the Titanic captain’s guernsey and get to re-arrange the deck chairs. Plus ça change!

images

 

 

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

%d bloggers like this: