Troll? Moi?

I try to avoid visiting Andrew Bolt's blog, but sometimes it has the same morbid fascination as a pool of red wine vomit on the pavement. You don't really want to look at it to check if Billy Connolly was right about the diced carrot, but you just can't help taking that sidelong glance - and then you wish you hadn't.

Today I made the mistake of not only taking the sidelong glance, but dipping my finger in to push the bits around a little, with a comment on one of Andy's posts - this post. That got me named "Mr Troll" by the man himself - and it didn't affect the loyal acolytes and disciples who prostrate themselves before Mr Bolt's callipygian features, waiting for oracle to trumpet forth another revealed truth.

Tha "Mr Troll" bit is a bit rich, since I rarely do comment on Bolt's blog and in one comment I made last year (on a post about the Trevorrow case) I inadvertently ghost wrote a whole column for him:

Before you make a scapegoat of the hapless Mrs Angas, Andrew, perhaps you should have a careful read of sections 90 and 91 of the judgement:

90 It is relevant to observe that a departmental officer with the Aborigines Department, Mrs Angas, who had been appointed as a welfare officer in the Department for less than nine months, apparently took on responsibilities with regard to the removal of the plaintiff. At that time, as earlier observed, it was the practice of the APB and the Aborigines Department to act to remove children thought to be neglected, and to do so with the state of mind that they lacked the legal authority or power to so act. Mrs Angas’ conduct would appear to be consistent with this practice.

91 Although precise findings cannot be made, it would appear that this practice of deliberately and knowingly acting beyond legal authority and power – as it was understood – ceased by the end of the 1950s when the Aborigines Department openly and publicly acknowledged that it had no power to remove neglected Aboriginal children from their parents, and the departmental approach had been altered to an attempt to persuade rather than to remove without approval.

It might be wise to check that she’s actually deceased too, before you hang all the blame for this on her.

It's all a bit galling really. Where's the gratitude?