How right he is. People aspiring to run the country should be able to sort out the matter of whether an item is debated at a political party’s conference. That was the view yesterday of Justice William Nicholas in the New South Wales Supreme Court when granting an injunction to a Liberal Party member that stops this weekend’s state party conference going ahead.
It really was an embarrassing setback for the party’s controllers. The Liberals clearly have some major internal disputes of the kind that are bedevilling the US Republicans.
Wayne’s interest justified. Treasurer Wayne Swan is quite right to be giving a view on the political situation in the United States just as Crikey is in covering the presidential election so thoroughly. Who runs the US and how is probably far more important for all of us than who wins a poll in our own country.
The shrinking male member — feminazis to blame. I’m surprised that Andrew Bolt has not already featured this. His American talkshow host peer Rush Limbaugh yesterday lashed out at feminists — who he called “feminazis” — over the news that male genitalia are shrinking.
The conservative radio host pointed, reports The Raw Story, to an Italian study that found that the average male p-nis was 10% smaller than 50 years ago. Researchers cited weight gain around the waist, smoking, stress and environmental pollutants as factors.
But Limbaugh wasn’t buying that explanation. “I think it’s feminism,” he declared. “If it’s tied to the last 50 years — the average size of [a male’s] member is 10% smaller than 50 years — it has to be the feminazis, the chickification and everything else.
“Give ’em time and they’ll blame Bush. But air pollution versus feminazis? Ha!”
Listen to the audio from The Rush Limbaugh Show via Media Matters, broadcast September 20, 2012.
News and views noted along the way:
- Could Asia really go to war over these? The bickering over islands is a serious threat to the region’s peace and prosperity
- Fox won’t disclose News Corp testing contracts at heart of the Chicago teachers’ strike
- Is the United States an empire in decline?
- The slow bank run that could still doom Europe
Limbaugh’s brain is way more than 10% smaller than it was fifty years ago. The Italian sexuality study: any direct link to the paper or the institution that backed it? Does it actually exist?
Richard;
I think it is fair to observe that Swanny was directing his comments to an audience closer to home than you suggest.
The evidence of the influence on large sections of the Liberal Party of the extreme right enunciated by the Tea party of USA is plain to see.
Although, we have for many years had a Liberal Party under the spell of the National Civic Council and H R Noicholls Society etc, it has had limited impact on nation.
Today’s influence by the financially secure Tea Party on the traditional Aussie warriors of the extreme right should be of concern to the saner heads in the Liberal Party.
Wayne Swan’s comments on the situation in the US are a bit like Mark Latham’s comments some years back regarding George W Bush (that he was the most dangerous and incompetent President in recent history). Perfectly true but perhaps he should have used different words.