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.
I admit that I have not managed to follow the full thread on this article, but I want to comment on the penalty rates issue in the hope that I am not covering old ground. The one outcome I never want to see in Australia is hospitality workers begging in order to make a living. By which I mean the appalling tipping culture that exists in countries like the USA. Tipping should be very strongly resisted in this country and if reducing penalty rates encourages tipping then it’s a really bad decision regardless of the politics of left and right.
Yes, unlike some on here, at least the FWC understands how the private sector businesses operate. They realise hard working proprietors should retain what’s left of their meagre profits (if any) and not splash it around on some of the ungrateful, over-paid, clock-watchers.
Honey what planet are you on sweetie?
Are you sure you are in the right place or have you just lost your way?
Jack is there anyone to replace Turnbull he’s bloody hopeless?
The Liberal Party is a hare’s breath from schism. It’s not so much a leadership spill that’s likely but more defections and a split in the broad church that’s impending.
They’re also a rabbit’s breath aware from a hare.
Could be a very thin hare?
good…
I don’t have the Insider knowledge you have JTI, but to me what you suggest seems inevitable. There’s a fine line between a broad church and a Frankenstein’s monster. The Liberal Party’s old traditional ruling class body has had so many mismatched parts sewn on to it over the years — a neoliberal arm here, a “standing up for the battlers” leg there, a libertarian appendix, a populist spleen. It’s only a matter of time before spontaneous rejection sets in.
This penalty rates decision will will really pit the incompatible neoliberal and populist factions against each other.
The same problem exists in the conservative movement globally, especially in the U.S. where the word can mean anything from white supremacist to radical libertarian. It will be interesting when Trump is faced with a comparable test.
I don’t have any insider knowledge, JOH. You’ve summarised the Liberal Party condition well. I would add that conservative parties before WWII almost routinely fractured and splintered. The Labor Party was a very broad church, too, until 1953 when it cracked under the strain of bearing moderate and extreme philosophies and members. And these are for more difficult times in politics than ever before.
Lots of talk about minimum wages. But never any about a maximum wage.
Something to think about?
‘scuse me, that name is taken.
I know how you feel
Lots of John Smiths in the phonebook too
absolutely…x multiple of the lowest paid?
I surveyed Oxford Street, Sydney tonight (pre Mardi Gras) and there were more police than revelers …. and there were only 6 coppers. There were less revelers than letters in the LGBTQI acronym! Thanks Casino NAB Mike!
Does anyone give a sweet fanny adams?
Whilst we are at it we should remove the minimum wage concept. Who came up with that? And who came up with the salary cap nonsense for some sports players? Not the boss of oz post!
and why aren’t those on the dole, pension and disability pension paid time and a half, or double time on weekends or public holidays? Where are the left and their union bosses on this gross injustice?
Not to mention the seals and elephants etc who work on those days. And priests!
Good points as usual Milton.
When I was employed part time on Sundays harvesting all sorts of produce for our local market gardener we had to wear a celery cap lest we got struck by the noonday sun. And we were allowed all the blemished tomatoes we could eat during our 15 minute lunch break.
We were ever so grateful.
There was nothing more satisfying than toddling off home with a belly full of the boss’s blemished Brandywine Pinks.
I fear we are breeding a generation of milksops and whingers whose only concern is the size of their paypacket. Their obsession in this regard, stoked and fanned by the usual urgers, is quite astonishing.
Whilst we are at what pet?
One needs to be aware that those who choose to use multiple pseudonyms may find themselves in a sobriquet sinkhole.
The ex boss of Oz Post will be enjoying his retirement renovating his multimillion dollar mansion in Hawthorn it seems. Will he get priority mail there?
Ah you can lean left, or you can lean right, but nothing beats the Greenies.
in a lengthy post criticising Left Renewal (Lee Rhiannon’s Marxist faction), Dexter Duckett and Vanamali Hermans (real people) have said in part:
“Left Renewal’s praxis is a pseudo-vanguardist one, tacictly signalling that if enough disruptions are made in the political hegemony, the class consciousness of the masses will rise up in the vanguard”.
JB, you’ve been usurped.
Usurped? What, by dreamers talking about class consciousness in the masses? The masses have had their brains turned into custard by the Orwellian screens of the oligarchs. There is spectre haunting the planet though Lou, and one you’d better start paying attention to. Starving masses with pitchforks looking for food, and vengeance over the betrayal of the assumptions of duty of care implied in the social contract.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYlRk377Wq0
Watch the opening at least. Great clip for CCR.
Ah CCR – noice!
You know its all Marxist propaganda JB. Just admit it and relieve yourself from your misery. You’ll be flying like a bird.
But please don’t choose the ostrich me old mate.
Man with pitchfork never hungry for he can tuna fish
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154603696869888&id=122620739887
What’s wrong with people JB?
You could try Sebastian Maniscalco, Bella.
I say, having a picnic under a bunch of wind turbines sounds really cool. The surrounding kinetic energy alone would be enough to give one a decent appetite.
But I’m wondering how does one keep the starched linen table napkins in place?
Seems as though it could be a dashed nuisance.
Barnaby again claiming credit for the price of sugar, beef, wool, pork, goats etc etc. What is this guy smoking? Why wont the Speers call him out, these products prices are market driven. What a disgrace and those that believe him”? Well that just proves their ignorance.
It’s the corruption inherent in the market that will eventually bring all these pigs down. Whilst milksop leftists such as yourself adhere to the system whilst still carrying your begging bowl, to be filled at the whim of the capitalist elite no real change will occur. Your pathetic prose in defence of the worker is rendered laughable by your forelock tugging adherence to the world powers who rape and pillage the earths resources so they can further lock in labour and furnish their palaces of shame. Revolutionary change can never occur whilst dupes to the system such as yourself appear to offer a voice for the downtrodden yet bow to the shrine of capitalism. It is you that prolong the struggle for labour because you offer hope to the worker when in fact the multinational oligarchs will always win unless soft left patsy’s such as yourself move aside and allow the inevitable power shift to begin. A power shift which can only be accomplished by the establishment of a true workers party. Your bourgeois existence is the gangrene that is rotting the system and the smell of the corruption will one day be the catalyst to revolution.
Hey rupert. Do you understand the difference between making a point and insult? No you don’t.
We have enough who do little but name call like your good self on this blog already without adding more. You add nothing of value. You are stealing blog space, take a hike.
It is clear you are part of the masses who have been indoctrinated into believing the promises of the pseudo left whilst smugly kneeling at the altar of the capitalist pigs to receive your daily bread. Your imbecilic attempts to silence the voices of the true workers are but feathers before the wind. Until the corrupt edifice called parliamentary democracy is usurped by the revolution of real labour, people such as yourself will be beholden to the false gods of profit. It is the real worker who will lift the veil of bourgeois revisionist thinking from your eyes so you can toil with like people, in the field side by side, to the greater glory of a true workers party. The individual will become but one with the state and the rights of the worker will be as ashes in the mouths of the capitalist elite who currently oppress people such as yourself.
That’s easy for you to say.
Took the words right out of my mouth Rupert. Bravo!
Welcome Rupert and your penmanship. You are awful, but I like you.
You never call people names on this blog yourself then ?
Quiet it may be Mr Murdoch in disguise.
More evidence from the Newscorp commissioned report that price rises in SA due to renewables is LESS than the states with coal in the last decade. QLD Up 136%, Vic. 118% NSW Up 109% SA 87%. Oh and QLD has the most expensive average yearly bills.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/graph-day-electricity-prices-rises-not-driven-renewables-41686/
Don’t you go getting in the way of a a good lie by putting things like stats up. You know the gov can’t deal in numbers that don’t fit their fantasy.
RFX …. AVL… flow batteries.. tick tock
Julie goes to the US to meet the VP & is this gal sticking it to Abbott or what? https://www.google.com.au/search?q=julie+bishop+running&oq=julie+bishop+running&aqs=chrome..69i57j35i39l2j69i59j69i60.9926j0j4&client=tablet-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=DOMNdbFmGWqomM:
Wouldn’t he just love to be running up the steps of the Capitol in lycra!
Eat your heart out Tony, you could’ve been a contender.
she can stay
Spotto Bella. I saw the clip of Bishop Balboa scuttling up that halloed stairway and standing magnificently hands on hips looking out over that historical vista as if claiming the territory as her own. Crikey Moses, that’s Presidential stuff Jules.
It’s nice to dream but you’ll have to settle for Prime Minister of Australia, and the Presidential name of Julio Shipshop.
I would back Bishop 100% for next PM, just for the conniptions and caprices of Antonio and Increduloso.
Give ’em heaps.
Is this her?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NubH5BDOaD8
No! That’s Henry Blofeld by crimminy. Cant find the performance by Bishop on you tube but crikey it was well choreographed. Very symbolic that “reaching the top” business. Who could she have the wood on do you think?
That’s the one Dismayed!!
Believe it or not mate but Rocky was my Nana’s all time hero. At her funeral she bowed out with the loudest rendition of the Rocky Theme Song the crematorium had ever heard, at her request of course.
“Gonna Fly Now”
My best, Bella
I am sure she also had the eye of the tiger. Bella