Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Has our PM, Tony Abbott, lost his marbles?

It is now manifestly obvious that Tony Abbott has the tendency of making ridiculous decisions, without consulting his team. This is a worrying sign that Tony is suffering from “Foot in Mouth Disease.” I recall that this was the same affliction that Kevin Rudd was suffering from.

I have supported Tony Abbott, but since giving Prince Phillip, on our National Holiday, an Australian title, I’m no longer sure if I can. This was a monumental and embarrassing mistake. I think that knighthoods are not befitting anymore in a progressive modern Australia.  It is a blast from the past.  And where is the sense in bestowing a knighthood on a prince who already has more titles than he can remember?

We have to change our Prime Minister, because if he remains as PMthen Bill Shorten will be our PM in two years time, and the thought of this makes me shudder. There are quite a few people in the federal Liberal party who are very capable alternatives. Scott Morrison, Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull are just a few of them.

Australia needs more straight shooting politicians like Scott Morison, who don’t give a damn about political correctness.  He is the man who stopped the boats when everybody said that it couldn’t be done. Scott Morrison is a politician who isn’t going for the politically correct spin; he is unambiguously straight forward and to the point.  I have never seen Scott Morrison suffering from the foot in mouth syndrome.

Freedom of speech is very important to every true Australian.
I’m not talking about the many pretend Australians, who get a citizenship paper after only two years, yet they know very little about this country and many of them have divided loyalties. This brings me to an interesting interview by the Australian Journalist Jason Morrison who gives Al Jazeera more than they bargained for in the discussion of Freedom of Speech – Werner
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Here is part of an interview of Jason Morrison, an Australian newspaper columnist on the "Daily Telegraph," about the Charlie Hebdo killings, aired on Al Jazeera. Date 9/1/2015

MORRISON: I’m sorry. I have to interrupt here. I’m sorry I am not going to sit here and listen to people stupidly suggest that the French or the magazine or anyone brought this on themselves. Are you for real? We have a dozen people dead, killed in the name of a religious belief and you are seriously going to even slightly justify this?

COMPERE: I don’t think anyone is justifying anything here.
MORRISON: Well that’s not what I am hearing. I’m hearing this vaguely worded defence that France shouldn’t have done this and Sarkozy said that two years ago, and if they didn’t draw Mohammed then this might not have happened or whatever. It is obscene and a gutless way of almost saying they all deserved this. Well, if you believe that you are about as bad as the idiot who thinks the pretty girl in the short skirt is asking to be raped so she better watch out.


COMPERE: That’s a ridiculous comparison.
MORRISON: Is it ridiculous? Tell me how? It’s the “you were asking for it” way of thinking. Your logic is those who drew the pictures should have known better and should have known what the response would be. Whereas I say, if you can’t accept that people have different views to you then maybe the problem is with you if your response is to pull out an AK and go nuts.

COMPERE: Well, the material was designed to offend.
MORRISON: And so what? A lot of what I’ve heard here today has offended me, but if you’re civilised, and I think that’s a major issue with some of the people we are talking about, if you are civilised you just get on with it. We shouldn’t have to have special rules for special people.

COMPERE: No-one is suggesting special rules just an understanding that some things are offensive.
MORRISON: So OK, we can have a bit of fun with the Pope, with Buddha, Jesus Christ on the Cross, The Dalai Lama, The Queen, Barack Obama. Want to add to the list? But not anything or anyone associated with Muslims. They’re special apparently. And that’s where all this free speech talk I’m hearing falls to bits. If you defend free speech then you defend offensive speech as well. It’s real easy to stand up for the nice stuff but sometime it gets ugly and if you are fair dinkum, as we say in Australia, you stand for all. Now, I’m not fond of Jesus Christ jokes but if you crack one you shouldn’t fear a few goons showing up with AK47s and shooting everyone in the office dead at their desks. So please, spare me the justification garbage for these terrorists being upset and just responding to provocation. If you think they are even slightly justified for killing people who drew some pictures then I’m afraid you are over in their column.

COMPERE: OK I take your point, but if you deliberately set out to offend there are consequences.
MORRISON: Yes there are. People might not buy your magazine or you get nasty letters in the mail from upset people but not a dozen of your workmates dead at their desks, and here we are again talking about consequences. It’s back to the same argument as the pretty girl in the bar example. If you think she’s asking to be raped you are, in my view, unfit for civilised society. You are uncivilised and maybe that’s something we should be spending a bit of energy on. Transcript produced by iSentia. Source of interview: Click here.
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This interview also supplements what I have written in my blog posting. Click here.
See also, “Wasted Dames and Wasted Knights” by  Stu of NT Click here
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My thought for today.
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. - Joshua J. Marine
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8 comments:

Brian Denton said...

Tony has the right to appoint anyone as knight, even me!At least he did not appoint an entertainer, as Britain is fond of doing. His colleagues should show him more loyalty even if, like me, they disagree with his choice.

Lorraine Roxon Harrington said...

I think it was crazy and only adds to my support of the labour Party. Lorraine

Jeff Bennett said...

Brian Denton you are right that Tony Abbott can pick whoever he likes, but you would have thought he had enough commonsense and pick an Australian.

Activist said...

Well said Jason Morrison! We need more people with the courage to speak the truth, or we will all eventually suffer the consequences of our wimpy political correctness.

Sonja said...

Wasted Dames and Wasted Knights - what a clever parody, and so true!

Merilyn said...

I agree – that was totally absurd!


Beverley Prescott said...

I tend to agree with you, Werner. Like you, I could not stomach Bill Shorten or any Labor Prime Minister for a long time to come. They have proved for too long that they are not worthy to rule.
However, Tony Abbott has made a "blue" this time.
I would like to see him be much more Statesmanlike when he is being interviewed as well.
I hate to think what is going to happen if the prime minister does not wake up soon that people are starting to see him in a bad light.
Bev

Ursula said...

Strange that a stupid but irrelevant decision is that damaging to Abbott, who took decisions much more damaging to everyday Australians. By all means, protect the 1% who own 50% and let the other 99% fix the budget.