Look, we all do it. We hurl about terms like psychopath and narcissist with reckless abandon and almost always without fully understanding the nature of the terms and the subtlety and nuance that goes into a clinical diagnosis.
Former PM Kevin Rudd was labelled “a psychopath” by former MP Steve Gibbons, and “a psychopathic narcissist” by former NSW premier Kristina Keneally. Peter Garrett ratcheted it up a notch by calling Rudd “a megalomaniac”. And that’s just the diagnoses from within Rudd’s own party. Why, the man must be a veritable walking copy of the psychiatric bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
It is arguably true that Canberra is a magnet for narcissists of various stripes. In fact, anyone who wants to get into the caper knows that getting elected to parliament involves a bevy of posters featuring their name and smiling face being nailed to lampposts and wedged in front gardens all over their home suburb. It has to be more satisfying than looking in the mirror for hours.
The trouble is, once these narcissists get to Canberra, they find themselves outgunned by bigger, badder, more vain, more hollow, more manipulative narcissists. Interacting with narcissists more narcissistic than they are must be a real blow to their bloated egos.
Full column here.
Somebody compared what is happening to the Liberals to the death of a thousand cuts. I think it’s more like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEacGiMO3K0
That was particularly weird TBLS…..:)
Chris Morris has a very, very dark humour.
I think the image of a man repeatedly throwing himself off a first-storey balcony and, when he becomes too broken and exhausted to continue, is helped back up the stairs by on-lookers so he can do it again, is very much akin to what the Liberals are doing today. It’s weird and sad and funny all at the same time.
Dismayed, March 1, 7.57am – As you were happy to quote from Solidarity.net (and I have before) here is another article from them:
http://www.solidarity.net.au/mag/back/2012/50/labors-accord-how-hawke-and-keating-began-a-neo-liberal-revolution/
This is in response to your suggestion that Hayden was the first neo-liberal treasurer. Even though this headline suggests that Hawke and Keating “began” the neo-liberal stuff, I won’t quibble with your assertion as I didn’t know Hayden was a neo-liberal too.
Keating and Hawke have earned accolades from both sides of politics, and almost unanimous support from big business for there neo-liberal reforms. The lone voice that I have read, aside from Solidarity, was from Bob Ellis who was certainly no fan of Keating’s neo-liberalism. I think you also think neo-liberalism is a failure too?
Keating for President!
Yes, rorting the public purse seems par for the course at all levels in our society.
It’s been part of our LSD since “invasion day”.
But we should have no reservations whatsoever in utilising whatever means are available to expose all those who are complicit in wreaking such injury on our nation’s scarce finances.
Bleeding hearts need not apply.
And your point is honey?
To flush out those who are blissfully ignorant or have their mitt in the cookie jar.
have you got yourself a cape carl? what colour is it? floor length or knee? do tell.
Nah, board shorts and thongs Wraith; when I’m not caring.
More like a cardigan with socks and sandals.
Had a look at the pic of James Packer on todays Oz and he is starting to look like Kate Fischer (now Tziporah Malkah bat Israel).
I saw that….maybe it was an old file photo? It surprised me because I saw a photo of him with his diva and he looked thin?
Are you sure your browser is properly configured? I presume you must have the magnification settings configured above unity for on my particular browser Jamie looks more than spectacular.
Can’t do a lot with XP 🙂
On other matters Milton I note that Trump has endorsed Tony Abbott’s immigration model as worlds best practice.
And from what I have read that Triggs person appears to have yet again mislead the senate hearing. Is she a liar, out of her depth, incompetent, being mislead or (hopefully not) not well.
And possibly India will get a fine for providing a sub standard wicket. Personally I hope the next one is just as bad.
A bit miffed that they don’t get bigger crowds over there? maybe too expensive or too hot. There certainly isn’t a lack of punters.
Yeah, he’s really porked out since he went off my special diet
A snap of Donald Trump’s key adviser Kellyanne Conway kneeling on a White House couch has sparked debate online, Mr Insider. photo article linked. I am thinking Ms Conway may just be a “few shillings short of a pound” given this and other strange incidents.
http://tinyurl.com/hm6tadm
Kellyanne can do whatever she likes ‘ Enery. Unkind persons might say that the only rational explanation for her elevation and behaviour is that she has the wood on The Donald, big time. Gossips speculate that she may have spent some time on the casting couch in times past.
Which brings us to Melania, is she sucking on a lemon to keep the smirk off her Smersh dial, or is she looking like that because there’s something about The Donald or “The Donald’s ” appointees that is getting right up her sculptured nose?
All the ingredients for a thriller Enery, let’s hope no-one is found floating in the Potomac off the banks of Foggy Bottom.
Cracking address to Congress today by POTUS Trump, just 6 weeks into his 8 year tenure, Mr Baptiste. I know you arnt his No1 fan but even you Sir must have a sneaking admiration for this super confident man who has shaken the old Establishment down to its roots! Go hard Donald we all scream!
ere here enery Henery, you nouse your onions like me mate Abbott. Wouldn’t be surprised if the old wheeler dealer extends the lease beyond 8 yrs. By then the tired looking White House will be sold to Disneyland Florida and I envisage the new digs to havva whole lotta bullet proof glass on the outside and within a lotsa rococo, baroque, Slim Diddy, Iced Coffee etc with lotsa gold and hot and cold running blondes. The worlds looking up Hank, don’t weaken. I can see Melania now entreating the better types like us into the inner sanctums, Poor JB will be downstairs playing the 5 cent machines and drinking watered down beer (that is most American beers!), and looking for $5 dollar hookers and wishing he was back in Nth Korea.
btw, JB how many of the worlds refugees are received in NK?
I wouldn’t have a clue Milton. What snide point are you trying to make? NK gets such bad press I don’t think anyone would want to go there.
This might interest you tho’.
http://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-policy-forum/tactically-smart-strategically-stupid-simulated-b52-nuclear-bombings-in-korea/
As you know North Korea was bombed into the stone age during the Korean war. Literally nothing left to bomb. They watched the US handiwork of millions of tons of bombs dropped on Indo China. They’ve been subject to some extraordinary harassment and provocation from the US. Are they paranoid? They’d be crazy if they weren’t. History tells us that the US has a nasty attitude to little countries that wont go belly up on demand.
Best wishes to you, model citizen Milton.
Au contraire Enenery, 40 days of reality check has informed the bumptious one that he only thought he was going to be running the country.
The movers and shakers and lobbyists have got The Donald on the chain, hence the conciliatory nature of the usual hollow rhetoric coming now.
He has no idea how to go about manifesting his hollow promises, his wings are clipped, his balloon is pricked, he’s been knackered and he will do as he is told, the overblown little boy he’s always been inside will play the game.
The smirk on Pence’s face has turned into a sassy grin “He’s our boy now, bend over the table Donny and take your medicine, just keep on making them fine speeches for the flag waving simpletons while we quietly give them the same treatment. Give us fifty billion or so first up for the syndicate as a sign of good faith Donny.
My Daddy was wrong, he told me you only ever get one Ronnie Reagan in your lifetime. Hallelujah! Let the good times roll!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgWPnPvOcZE
Hahaha JB Laughing out loud now!
Onion News is the best for ‘bullshit happening somewhere’.
Thanks, Bella
Good on Michaela Cash. Fran Kelly always likes to get the answer she would like to hear when interviewing and more often than not overtalks her interviewee when that is not happening.
But not with Michaela! – who sorted her out swiftly.
I see Dutton and Michaela are today’s suggestion for PM and Deputy. Interesting.
JB: on the subject of penalty rates. Would ypu agree that it would be preferable for a small business to actually be open and giving employment opportunities to perhaps students or those who would like to earn some dollars? If it’s closed no one is earning anything.
The people already working in the small businesses will work more hours for less pay. There will be NO extra jobs just more hours for those working there for less money. WAKE UP. Cash is a shrieking misleading freak. No wonder you like her.
Tried your hand at running a small business have you Dismayed or are you just a theoretician pumping out the propaganda.
JS. Oh my HAHAHA is that another attempt to have ago at me? Weak. Really is my business any of your business? Presenting Data and research outcomes that you don’t agree with is NOT propaganda.
Presenting data is fine – presenting massaged data to suit your arguments is not.
The latter, your specialty, is propaganda.
I have to admit thinking I shouldn’t have wasted all those years in a classroom studying economics if I knew I could get lectured on it by an oilfield roughneck and a retired muso.
It is clear your “learning” stopped at the same time Milton Freidman’s “theories” were shown to be wrong about, 5 minutes after he released them in the early 70’s. You have just proven again you have no ability to learn from anyone but those that reflect your already held bias.
see what you learnt? nothing. if you had known would you have bothered? btw, its snotnosed having a shot at someone wrt their occupation. makes you sound like a horses arse from the old colonial days. im sure you’re not though.
Well said Bassman. The problem with the teaching profession is that people have no respect for what you do. Parents particularly. It’s OK at primary school level, where there is some degree of job satisfaction, but get to high school and it’s all downhill from there.
Even first year University students are pains in the backside, because they firmly believe that they are a protected species with the right to be given fantastic grades for very little effort.
Dwight, I think you’ll find the retired muso was also a teacher. I also have some muso friends who have degrees in economics…..
However I take your point, it can get frustrating when people try to lecture you in your area of specialty. Happens to me every day with my online students…..
If you think about it Dwight, Pauline is one of the few people in Federal Parliament and all the commentiariate who actually knows how hard it is to run a small business.
Most on the Labor side are experts in destroying any business.
Those on the Liberal side – well enough said.
The Nats have a pretty good idea how cruel the commercial world can be.
The Greens – well one day they will realize that the fairies at the bottom of the garden do not exist and the prosperity of this country depends on a few very tough and resilient businessmen.
By the way, this is not an endorsement for Pauline – just saying!
Education is a hindrance isn’t it.
Otherwise we could all be quoting the Guardian and other dubious sources as fact and be feeling superior and really good about it.
Michaela’s great! A real hoot – good value. Strong woman I can understand why you would be terrified of her
Get real! The reason they are closed is because the owners wont get out of bed or give up their leisure time for a lousy thousand bucks or so in the kick.
The reason places never close in other places around the world is because it is highly competitive with very motivated operators., with a lower sense of entitlement.
If you cut the rate to a flat ten bucks an hour, there might be more places open but they wouldn’t be making any more money because there would be more competition. You might have a marginally higher employment but collectively the workers will be getting the same cut of the pie or less in a race to the bottom.
Increase the price of the product and the extra profit will mean more competition.
The operators are doing very nicely, they are just trying to gouge the workers to line their own pockets.
On penalty rates, I think it’s a very dubious theory that business owners stay open as long as they can afford to pay wages. The FWC decision itself acknowledged that there was no evidence for this. In fact, they stay open as long as there is demand.
But even granting this theory for arguments sake, what would be the end result? Businesses would now stay open a little longer, until they have spent the same amount on wages as they were spending before. Thus, they have an opportunity to make a bigger profit (provided demand somehow automatically goes up), but the the workers as a whole have worked longer but go home with the same amount of money. Great for business owners, bad for workers, who are already struggling on the lowest pay of any industry.
no real evidence just anecdote i suppose, but i do know folks who got out of a business or two because the penalty rates made it uneconomic to open Sundays unless they hiked the prices, or had all the work done by the family for family rates.
i also know folks in F&B who don’t find it an imposition to work weekends and public holidays but do it because it suits them much better than working during the week.
but as i say just anecdote.
this debate is a measure of how badly the government is going though.
the review into the penalty rates was called by Shorten, or at least that’s my recollection, and the decision was made by a body purpose built by a Labor government, the chap handing down the decision is an impeccably credentialed Labor and Union man, and yet Labor and the Unions are attacking the government on this and look like winning.
Turnbull seems unable to call them out on this.
Let’s face it, mate. The Coalition is never going to win that one.
they should be able to turn this back on shorten and the actu,
keating could have, so could howard
Maybe so but every day this remains a big issue in voterland is a bad day for the Coalition. MT’s problems just got a bit bigger with Eric Abetz calling for all current employees affected to have their award rates kept in place with the new lower rates of pay for new hires only. Not helping, Eric.
Dead right, JTI. The Liberal Party will always get blamed for bad IR news, whether it’s their fault or not (although let’s face it, it usually is.) It’s their Kryptonite, like refugees are for Labor.
keating or howard would hang this around shorten’s neck,
Turnbull can’t. That much is certain. The Fair Work Commission has requested a submission from the government on how to transition to lower penalty rates. The govt is yet to do so and has no policy position. In the absence of a policy position, it has no response besides backing the independence of the FWC. And that’s not enough for the 300,000 or so people who are looking at less pay in future for the same amount of work. This is the problem with the Liberal Party now, mate. It is caught in a battle on two fronts and has simply become inert.
Dear Boadecia penalty rates are a vexed question. I recently had a small holiday at Stradbroke Island in Queensland and on the Sunday service was slow but we were informed at the hotel they couldn’t employ more staff because of penalty rates. I thought it was greed myself but none the less it was a great time. The highlight was a yacht trip from Amity point to a place called Wellington Point. Fantastic water, beautifully appointed boat and the young people happy to work for cash. The prawns were a delight for my old soul and the crew seemed delighted to attend upon us.
Lucky you KO. Sounds lovely. Yes, when the newsagent here is open on a PH the queue is long. The owner was alone. He apologised but said he could not afford staff at $60/hr.
Innovative and agile HAHAHAHA not in this country.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/battery-storage-held-back-by-ignorance-of-regulators-ministers-64037/
It is no surprise that Abbott is trying his best to get rid of Turnbull. If he can secure Dutts as PM by white-anting Turnbull, he will be assured of another gig on the front bench. A position he has begged the PM for but to no avail. Problem is, The Plod would take the government further to the right than it is now, foolishly ignoring Howard’s brief that the party must govern from the centre. Turnbull’s dilemma is he is still trying to sell Abbott’s policies instead of his own.
Bassman: 11yr old PC running XP! Bloody miraculous…..
Not really…XP was the pinnacle of the Windows OS, everything since is friffery. That’s why MS killed it off, they weren’t making any money out of it.
My argument against all of the new operating system is this. xP takes up 2 gig of space and does everything i want it to do. Why do I need an operating system that takes up 18gig of space such that every time it starts up it has all of that junk to sort through before it can get going. What amazes me about Microsoft is that operating systems should be getting SMALLER not bigger. Then you have the millions of people who have this huge operating system just to send emails. Microsoft should have a windows ‘lite’ for casual users. But I edit movies, DVD’s, music music clips. There is nothing I cannot do that I wanna do on xP. As Bi-Valve said. They made xP too good. I have tried all the new ones and they are crap. Windows 7 is not too bad.
Why should they be getting smaller when the demands keep increasing?
Haha Triv, probably an accurate assessment. I don’t like Windows 10 at all. Wish I had stayed with 8.
I think U can put a windows 7 or 8 facia on it..even an xP if U like
SLB and others still use it it’s so good, read stable.
I’m jealous!
They could buy Microsoft if they wanted!
Who is SLB? I saw xPt being used in a hospital last year!
If we told you we’d have to kill you
Dinosaurs!
And how much is a gigabyte of disk space these days compared with the 1990’s? Probably about 1/100th.
Not much difference between Win 10 and Win 8 except Win10 is far more robust.
As to XP – ye Gods – Primitive!
Ok, JS, it works with tablets. But really, what do 8, 8.1 and 10 (where’s 9?) do that XP doesn’t and we *need*?
Touch Screens (not only on tablets.)and pretty well better everything else.
Screen rendering – try running a large screen under XP.
The viewing of photographs.
The whole thing just holds together better.
Confession time – I run Win 10 using the Windows 7 screen – works like a dream.
The “other” screen – the metro one is designed for touch screens.
The target market for Win 10 is not us.
We could all get by with Open Source stuff – Ubuntu and OpenOffice but we would find it as clunky as XP.
friffery is a great word btw 🙂
…and it runs 10 hours a day
I always leave in on even when i go out.