{"id":3096,"date":"2009-06-21T04:24:10","date_gmt":"2009-06-20T18:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=3096"},"modified":"2009-06-25T03:14:30","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T17:14:30","slug":"well-did-you-evah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=3096","title":{"rendered":"Well, Did You Evah!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian (‘The Christian’<\/a>) Kerr is ace; your heads are full of rubbish because you have read too many books<\/a>, and:<\/p>\n

Our blogs too analytical, intolerant<\/a>
\nChristian Kerr
\nThe Australian<\/em>
\nJune 15, 2009<\/p>\n

AUSTRALIA has very few anarcho-capitalist [sic<\/a>] bloggers like Paul Staines of Guido Falkes [sic<\/a>] fame, reformed raver libertarians with an eye for scandal (and another on the latest market moves).<\/p>\n

And we have no political bloggers who break stories. What we have on our political blogs is analysis. And talk. Endless talk.<\/p>\n

Some of the analysis is excellent… <\/p>\n

Peter Brent’s Mumble<\/a>… [is good] Scott Steele of pollytics.com<\/a> [and] Poll Bludger<\/a>… William Bowe… [are bad].<\/p>\n

Club Troppo<\/a>… [and] Catallaxy<\/a> [are good] Larvatus Prodeo<\/a> [is bad].<\/p>\n

Some are sharp. Sometimes. Others are the online equivalent of soapbox speakers. Then there is the group that provides the cyberworld’s answer to the sad sacks you see on the street holding intense conversations with no one in particular.<\/p>\n

And there is one final type of political blog: the online shit-sheet, the internet equivalent of the anonymous lies, smears and distortions that get peddled in the parties, particularly the ALP and particularly at pre-selection time.<\/p>\n

Australia’s most notorious practitioner of this blogging<\/a> is a Melburnian with impeccable links to the local ruling right, John Brumby’s Unity faction.<\/p>\n

Rumour says powerful Labor figures keep him going, but everyone concerned has plausible deniability — for now.<\/p>\n

If someone wants to claim the first scalp of the Australian political blogosphere, perhaps they should dig deeper<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where to begin?<\/p>\n

At the start I guess.<\/p>\n

1. Paul Staines of Guido Falkes [sic] fame<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m not surprised Christian The Christian champions Paul Staines. After all, they have a lot in common, having both carved out careers as Tories-for-hire, relied upon their fellow Tories for leaks to ‘break’ stories, and consumed illegal drugs (how naughty!): cocaine\/ecstasy in the case of Christian the Christian<\/a>, XTC\/LSD\/MDMA in the case of Mister Staines. Both champion self-interest, and appear to base their views on a dull form of ‘libertarianism’ (most familiar to a North American audience), one made famous by its espousal by philosophes<\/em> such as von Hayek, Friedman, and Cartman.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object>
Cartman Whateva<\/a><\/b>
Uploaded by stewie_g<\/a>. – Sitcom, sketch, and standup comedy videos.<\/a><\/i><\/div>\n

2. Mumble \/ pollytics.com \/ Poll Bludger \/ Club Troppo \/ Catallaxy \/ Larvatus Prodeo<\/strong><\/p>\n

A confession: I’d never heard of Mumble, and have read the other blogs on only a handful of occasions. The first three listed concentrate on examining the entrails of the members of The Johns Party<\/a>; Club Troppo defines itself as expressing “Politics, economics, law and life from a ‘radical centrist’ perspective, defined by Noel Pearson as “the intense resolution of the tensions between opposing principles” — to which I can only reply ‘What-ever<\/em>‘ — and its disco on ‘politics’, law and ‘life’ reads very much like such things do when interpreted by a commerce studies graduate (the kind best avoided at parties); Catallaxy is startlingly similar. The dull earnestness of both is… well… dull<\/em>.<\/p>\n

3. one final type of political blog: the online shit-sheet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which, though Christian The Christian fails to name it, is rather obviously a reference to Andrew Landeryou’s ‘THE OTHER CHEEK’, now known as ‘vexnews’. Famous for his legal battles with businessman Solomon Lew and involvement in the scandal<\/a> which destroyed the Melbourne University Student Union, Landeryou comes from pedigree Labor stock — Daddy was a Victorian State Government Minister — and uses his blog to attack factional rivals in the ALP. Several years ago (May 23, 2006), he was declared a bankrupt<\/a> — which, as it happens, appears to have been a fate shared by Paul Staines of Guido Falkes [sic] fame.<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, Landeryou’s Blog(s) of Freedom really isn’t that far removed from Paul Staine’s Guido. (Falkes.)<\/p>\n