Symmetry discerned

This blog won’t be getting bogged down in Webdiary reactivism, I can assure you — look what happened to Harry! — but I found the irony in the following to be both somehow amusing and salutary.

A couple of months back, Webdiary’s Richard Tonkin introduced a piece by another contributor thus:

Its brilliant powerful prose explains how she believes our perceptions are being clouded. I thought her words an incredible piece that deserves to spread across the net as such...

In a comment on the thread, an individual known to have trolled AppliedH replied to Richard:

Submitted by Geoff Pahoff on June 13, 2008 - 10:49am.

You’re easily impressed Richard. But I think we already knew that.

In a metacomment to this, Richard replied, “You underestimate me, Geoff..”

Indeed. Fast forward to yesterday’s remark by Richard about a comment by his sneering critic:

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on August 22, 2008 - 6:25pm.

I’ve been empathising with you more of late, but that last post was a window into where you come from. I haven’t appreciated a piece of writing so much for way too long.

A couple of months, to be exact. Somehow I doubt any opinion will have modified.

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Russian coal miner interviewed

The description of this youtube reads:

The video clip is from a Russian news programme. There was an accident at a coal mine and people were accused of drinking on the job. The interviewer is trying to see if there is any truth in the rumour, and then one of the other worker’s turns up unannounced. Don’t need sound, unless you can speak Russian.

view this video at youtube

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Fish Friday

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She's a sharp gal...

Said it last year and will say it again: Annabel Crabb is always worth the read. This very pointed observation from her SMH Blog:

The worst moment in last night's scrambled press conference by Treasurer Wayne Swan and his Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, came when one journalist asked simply whether they would release the ACCC modelling on which the pair base their continued faith in the idea of FuelWatch.

Journalist: ``All we've got is the modelling that came out at the end of the year. The Assistant Treasurer has just said that the ACCC has refined that econometric modelling. Will you release that?''

A horrible pause ensued. Wayne Swan looked blank. The realisation dawned gradually but unmistakably on gathered observers.

He didn't know.

Mr Swan glanced down, and met the trusting eyes of his assistant treasurer. It was a Sonny Hammond moment.

``What do you reckon, Skip? Shall we release the modelling?'' But Mr Bowen didn't seem to know, either.

This is the problem with the whole FuelWatch saga. It's not as if it's the world's biggest issue. If the entire Budget was a trolley-load of shopping, FuelWatch would be the pack of chewing gum you pick up at the checkout. The unsettling thing about FuelWatch is watching the Government struggle to deal with the nightmare it has become.

How can a Government start with something as inoffensive as a $20 million scheme to give motorists some clarity about petrol prices, and somehow spin it into a screaming debacle in which the Australian Treasurer announces that he doesn't have faith in his own departments?

The unspoken question behind all this actually has nothing to do with FuelWatch. It is: If they can let tiny problems get this out of hand, what's going to happen when something serious goes wrong?

I'd totally agree.

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Breaking news...

Former treasurer Peter Costello says he will not be challenging for the leadership of the Liberal Party.

Thank God one of the pillars that supports our society stands as solid as it has done this past decade...

Oh yes, I'm the great vacillator (Oh oh oh oh...)
Wavering over what I will do (Oh oh oh oh...)
My indecision is such, I delay so much
I'm decisive but can't tell what t'do

Oh yes, I'm the great vacillator
Procrastination an noun made my own
I play the game, but to my real shame
God left me without balls of my own.

And Eliot Parsons, C Ramsay, Paul Morelsons or whoever on WD reckons the corporate offers have been flooding in. Even if that's so (and the corporate world prefers rather a more ruthless decisive individual), the Great Vacillator shows a decided preference for the comfort of the public tit.

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Wednesday curiosity

It’s funny what turns up on one’s blog at certain times. Such as this visit yesterday from someone following a google search on the terms “tim blair damian lataan jacob” shown below.

Digging, digging, digging. Such tenacity ought to be rewarded, so one hopes they find what they’re looking for.

UPDATE

I see Guff now wants to deny what I referred to in comments here about how “for over 2 years now, [he has] insulted and misrepresented me,” etc.

He will, of course, continue to deny his puerile antics but the record is there on several blogs over a period of time. For example:

... What a pompous piece of shit. Shotgun Stam taking it upon himself to speak for Dork, Three Minute, Ratbag and his other bigot mates.

You just don’t get it do you Shotgun? You’re their bitch. Right? Like with Roslyn Ross. When they suck, YOU suck.

Posted by: Geoff Pahoff - Friday, October 05, 2007 at 14:39

‘Shotgun Stam’ is a little ditty Guff composed about me which had been sprayed liberally around Harry Heidelberg’s kramgasse blog, and was, with such courage, anonymously reprised here several times, e.g.,

Anonymous said...

Shotgun Stam

1.
I’ve sucked down a dungy deal of dirt through out my worthless life
With all my grand accomplishments I couldn’t tell left from right,
The thing I most excel in is shepherding the fascist to the fight,
A noise all over the ‘net for sure, but ne’er an honest opinion in my own name.

Chorus:
For Shotgun Stam is my name, Rooting for the bullies is my game
For sucking up islamofascist lies, any degenerate regime will do,
Shotgun Stam is my name, pissing on democracies is my game
Good enough for Damo, Dork and all of them boys, and you can bet for sure you know Roslyn Ross too.

2.
The way I gain’d my title’s by a hobby which I’ve got,
Of never letting a critic of my nazi mates pass without a shot,
Whosoever thinks for themselves are treated all the same;
You don’t like terrorists, tyants, slavers and the filthy stew that spawns them?
I’ve got nothing to say to you, you filthy racist slime.

Chorus:
...

http://musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/ajolly.mid

10/10/07 1:51 PM

Hmmm... all the wit and charm of an infant fingerpainting the nursery wall with his own faeces.

Guff wrapped up his trolling of my site on that occasion with:

Anonymous said...

Fuck off Stam. These are important matters to be discussed and you’re not qualified to take part.

11/10/07 6:09 PM

As I noted in reponse, it seems the only person “qualified” also happens to be a fraud and prevaricator.

Anyway, overall I don’t think my approach to Guff in that comment below was at all over the top, by any stretch.

Note: This update appears ‘below the fold’ because I don’t want this blog’s front page lowered by all this crap.

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