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HOWARD ALLOWS GREED
Among those who have nominated themselves for a $10,000 prize as Australia’s best bloggers are lefties Marieke Hardy and Jess. As Mark Thurston asks: “Why have we allowed Howard to make greed and self interest a way of life?”
Besides the lack of actual links, the page design is also downright horrible, what with the ill-advised use of justified text.
BTW, you really need to click to the Smartyblog mainpage for the full disaster. Dumping hundreds of unlinked blog URLs into your posts in lieu of creating an actual list of participants…if that doesn’t say “professionally-run contest”, I don’t know what does.
OK, I have to ask this…...is Margo disqualified from this contest because she’s considered a professional?
If so, oh, the irony!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 12 03 at 04:00 PM • permalinkDidn’t realise that Ms Fits was the granddaughter of Frank Hardy. You can’t walk a block in Melbourne without running into an icon and I think Ms Hardy considers herself one of those.
Posted by Major Anya on 2005 12 03 at 05:02 PM • permalinkErrr, and by the way, a friend nominated me and I nominated myself, but I cannot see myself listed anywhere. Am I sooooo bad that I don’t even get to make the list?
Never mind, my blog is liked by people who count. “Best female blogger in Australia” said somebody with a name strangely the same as mine.
Now just excuse me while I drink, cry and gnash my teeth.
Posted by Major Anya on 2005 12 03 at 05:38 PM • permalinkMs Fits thinks that good political commentary consists of swearing a lot. Leigh has found someone even better than her.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 12 03 at 05:46 PM • permalinkTook a quick spin through the two lefty blog sites mentioned, and it was a hilarious trip, highly recommended. Hardy’s is more of a peep show interspersed with left-wing, bumper-sticker slogans, while Jesse comes off as a professional mourner on a permanent crying jag (note to Jesse: you’re not morally superior because you like to cry; nothing weeps more readily than a block of ice).
I was looking through the Margo Kingston comments, and I was fascinated by the leftist rhetoric. Themes:
1) Imminent doom - we are always on the edge of a revival of fascism/nazism worse than the 1930s. (Assuming we aren’t already there). Economic collapse, the end of democracy, even concentation camps are all in our immediate future (or are already happening). When someone points out these bad things haven’t happened, the lefties sneer at him.
2) Imminent triumph - any minute now, the people are going to rise up and throw off their shackles, and naturally, we will be the ones to lead them. The idea that this contradicts theme #1 doesn’t seem to matter.
3) Demonization of the opposition - sometimes this consists of accusations, sometimes it’s merely sneering, pointless stories, or bizarre metaphors.
4) Elitism - we are better than they are. Sure, they have all the power, but we have abilities and powers far greater than they do. We don’t have their power, because ... well, we’re not as organized. We’re not as ruthless. Perhaps an evil conspiracy is involved.
I was surprised by two things: the seriousness of the commenters (they all seem to believe ferverently, with little or no humor displayed), and the consistency (everyone has and knows the same talking points).
Beyond the obvious contradiction of #1 and #2, it seems strange that we are always on the edge of both, and yet neither ever arrives. I’m sure they were thinking the same thoughts 5 years ago, and I’m sure they’ll think them in 5 years. We approach these two destinations, but we never seem to actually get there.
Also, the uniform goodness of “us” and the uniform badness of “them” is astonishing.
Sorry this has gone on so long, but the content MK’s web site needs to be preserved. Future historians will be fascinated by the peculiar mentalities displayed there.
John Howard invented capitalism? He is so cool!
Posted by John Nowak on 2005 12 03 at 07:47 PM • permalinkThat Marieke Hardy is a great writer - she’s up there with Lileks and Mark Steyne! (rolls eyes)
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 12 03 at 08:22 PM • permalinkJayC (#12), nice work on distilling the moonbat droppings at the Margoyle’s coven.
I get a headache reading stuff over there, so it’s nice to know nothing has changed since the new and innovative independent Webdiary arose from the ashes.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2005 12 03 at 11:53 PM • permalinkSo, has anyone even heard of 99% of those entrants listed?
Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2005 12 03 at 11:56 PM • permalinkPaco, I haven’t seen anything on Fitzy’s blog that’s made me more than mildly disinterested, but Jess is bloody funny. I highly recommend a trip to her send-up blog, The Fucking Latte Left, which is a little like a left-wing version of the ‘right-wing death beast’ joke.
I couldnt enter that competition because the AWA/EBA i made with myself won’t allow for it ;)
Posted by W i l l i a m on 2005 12 04 at 03:30 AM • permalinko/t today’s Insiders-an anorexic virgin troll,Malcolm Farr,Piers-host hopalong..
Bazza tries half heartedly to annoy John Howard(guest)..
on I.R. Laws “but have you tried too hard to please the dissidents and wound up pleasing nobody?”
Sedition and anti terror laws-“but they’re laws that haven’t been used and there’s no need for them” and “but then as I understand it Malcolm Turnbull is saying there IS no need for them.”
P.M. “I believe a free press is the cornerstone of our democracy.”
Gerard resignation,tax,Defence,death of Peter Cook(and the gracious words of Howard later used for news)....
Bowow’s cartoon segment obligatory bbq with Warren Brown (Howard’s Reich).
Teasers about the “insiders’ political personality of the year -no surprises there it was of course Barnabus.
A Merry Christmas from the P.M and Alan Kohler Business programme.
No Merry Christmas from the host of Insiders but why would he???Hey, lay off- Marieke needs the dough because she’s heard Kerry Stokes has hired some toe-cutters to recoup some of the thousands pissed down the dunny on Last Man Standing, and Jess needs the cash for prosthetics- after all, wooden legs don’t just grow on trees. (Or is it another Jess? I didn’t bother looking, and the only one I know of is the unidexter failed Democrat candidate).
BTW, anyone know who’s stumping (sorry) up the dosh for this? By the look of smartyblog’s home site, they’d be using their namesake for currency- they can keep the blue ones.#12 Good analysis, JayC. They have a lot in common with the old Gnostics and the crazier New Agers: an all-wise ingroup versus a large doomed outgroup. Apocalypticism: sudden doom is needed so that the Righteous can be vindicated as the world’s Evil Rulers are exposed and defeated.. global warming is very useful in this respect.
They are the intellectual giants, but are stifled by all the others not ‘in-the-know’.
Earth and the flesh are evil: only the ingroup has a pure spiritualism derived from Knowing the Truth. This used to be Marxism of course, and they unconsciously still think it is.
There is a false Christian version of all this of course, as in 120AD. Margo is a true Gnostic Nun.
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SmartyBlogs is so smart that it apparently can’t provide actual links to the nominated blogs. Or maybe it’s just embarassed about the standard of its self-nominees and is counting on visitors being too lazy to paste in the URLs themselves. It worked on me!