The age of entitlement
Assad Elepty writes: Re. “Entitlements loopholes suit pollies just fine” (yesterday). Had Tony Burke been prudent and sincere, he would have contemplated the words of King David before indulging in a relentless attack on Bronwyn Bishop. “Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, a wise old adage, words of wisdom to be wary of especially if you are guilty of having the same skeletons in your own closet.
Tony Burke has now been exposed as dubious, engaging in political mud slinging to depose the speaker with whom he has been at logger heads since the LNP secured government. At the end of the day, Mr Burke has fallen into the very trap he dug for Ms Bronwyn, the astute would have heeded the words of King David Psalm 57: “They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down; They dug a pit before me; They themselves have fallen into the midst of it.”
Megan Stoyles writes: How can Abbott appropriately and adequately compensate Bronwyn Bishop for her grievous loss of the Speakership? It might be cheaper for the country for him to confer a Dameship on her rather than the traditional consolation Ambassadorship sinecure. The potential transport costs for Her Excellency’s travel could swallow DFAT’s overseas budget. But one or the other not both, PM, and both conditional on leaving Parliament.
Click click
Robbie Moore writes: Re. “The AFR’s editor-in-chief sent a secret email to staff about clickbait. What it said left them speechless” (yesterday). The answer to many occult clickbait mysteries is in the URL. Hovering your mouse over clickbait reveals the secret of its content at the bottom of your browser. What are politicians scared to say about Russia? Well: if it crumbles, a nuclear nightmare looms. Curiosity: sated. No need to even click.
Bolt’s brethren
Iain MacPhail writes: Re. “Rundle: why The Oz has abandoned Bolt and the populist right” (yesterday). Guy, your writing has been getting odder and odder, but as offensive to my demographic as any of Bolt’s racist idiocies is your, “the columnist Fairfax retains to sate the enlarged-prostate section of the readership.” I was born in 1941, and your thoughtless barb is really on the nose. Please ensure brain is engaged before hitting the keys, mate.
John Kotsopoulos: Andrew Bolt, the self-described conservative, is and always was a one trick polemicist who seemed to have little understanding of true meaning of the word conservative. I applaud The Australian for cutting him loose. Australia needs more civilised public discourse and less rabble rousing if we are to achieve our full potential as a nation.
Guy Rundle: “You don’t “recognise” your own arm. It’s part of your undivided wholeness.” In the pyschoneurological condition known as autotopagnosia, the patient does not recognise parts of their own body. Oliver Sacks discusses a case in The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat of a man who of a man who did not recognise his own leg, and was revolted to find it in his bed.This is caused by a lesion in the brain. So if we think of Australia as the body and the government as the brain…wait, that metaphor is getting very shaky.