Hard Rubbish Collection

Friday, 21 March 2003

When I first read the Yobbo's comment on this post, my first inclination was to zip over to Haloscan and ban him for irritating and unconscionable earnestness. He may be relieved to know that he he's been given a reprieve, largely because he's inspired me to make my own, highly subjective, list of phrases and other uses of language that I've found objectionable (on the other hand it's more likely that he won't give a shit). While I'm at it, I've decided that I might as well do some intellectual housekeeping over the weekend and throw out a few other ideas that I've had kicking around for a while. Mainly they're topics I've been thinking about posting on but for one reason or another haven't managed to get anything down on hard disk. Once they're out of the way, I can get on with other things. Anyone who wants to pick one or two of them up and run away with them is welcome to do so.

In the meantime, here are some interesting items from other Oz bloggers. Bargarz found this article from BBC News inspiring. It is. It's also reassuring to think that the troops will be treating the enemy with more respect than the Pringles munching victory monkeys who are no doubt busily recycling those old jokes about Italian courage into "new" jokes about Iraqi courage even as I write.

Ken Parish finds reassurance from an unlikely source - some remarks of Donald Rumsfeld. And, via John Quiggin, there's Geoff Kitney on Question Time from the SMH.

Less interesting have been the various attempts by more stridently pro-war bloggers to maintain the fiction that Australians are, finally, solidly behind this war. For the [record], Monday's Newspoll found 68% of Australians still opposed a war without UN sanction. Today's Morgan Gallup Poll shows that there is now a slight majority of Australians, [a little over 50%], in favour of US action in Iraq, but the position on Australia's involvement is more evenly divided and less favourable: 46.5% for and 48.5% against. The fact that the war has been a walkover so far has probably helped shift opinion. Expect things to change if it gets nasty.

Finally, a special cheerio to the opportunistic Bible-toting arsehole who popped around, totally uninvited, this morning to offer some friendly advice on coping with the state of the world. Don't bother calling again. If the day comes that I decide to get evangelised, I'll be moving to Sydney, where they know how to do it properly.