Reading the tea leaves

Leigh Sales seemed reluctant to accept tonight that politics can be more than bluff and bluster. Does it come from being in church too often, or is the possibility of some truth telling just too much of a shock.


Fortunately the democratic spokesperson was a little less interested in the tealeaves and like the other guests , made the real position of representatives a lot clearer. The combination of hype ,spin and substance is, like hot air, not subject to experimental observation.


Very interesting that both sides of politics on the ETS are using words like "credibility and effectiveness".
---The ETS could fail simply because the case has not been put very well .
---Has the ABC helped or hindered the debate over an ETS?

---Will the ABC be blamed by both sides of politics for the crisis of confidence that is now widespread.
---Too many tea leaves and not enough quiet and "effective" ( to use Malcolms word) teaching on a subject that takes more than a mere tax grab and a best intention to be effective?

Some good stuff

I wish I could do this more often, ...but the ABC have done very well to bring us LILIES -the reason for this post; its so good because it doesn't make light of personal challenges to change and review and its heroes are young people . Keep up the good work.
While I am at it thanks too for GEORGE GENTLY,COLLECTORS , MIDSOMER,THE WIRE. reruns of old movies on ABC2 and quite a few other things.

When the highest art is really the lowest

Mark Stone might be congratulating his team for being adventurous at the Andrew Olle lecture, but I've seen much better entertainment for YOUNG PEOPLE than the ABC provides at the school concert ( yr 8,9) this week .
Its time Mark Stone got serious about dealing with the cynics and wooses in his highly predicable and reactionary old spaceship I will call RAGE on indefinitely.

The compares on the stage at school were exceptionally original, funny, clever and realistic. The girls danced and sung a treat ,kept their clothes on , and the drama got everyone in to laughing and sharing big time.( nurds, nasties and naughty got to act and laugh at themselves and with the audience together - very therapeutic))
Here was a school where everyone enjoyed being there - wow! When are the ABc going to put that sort of video on?
Mark Stone might be congratulating his team, but many many Australians are looking for something better than they get on Wednesdsy nights. Maybe his staff can't get beyond their own cynicsm- contract some new ones before our young people become completely overwhelmed !

That much more balanced show called the Simpsons has some lessons for ABC management about dealing with the depth of an issue, not just the depression of an issue.
Mark Stone might be congratulating his team for being adventurous, but simply pulling down everything is a dopy dead end strategy . Good Comedy deals with serious concrete contradictions and doesn't live on careless condemnation of the other side . Constant Condemnation , criticism and crucifixion is indeed a dead street with nothing but the Devil to play with at the end of it .

Fence sitters on 4 Corners? Which fence ?

Sarah Ferguson's interviews with the malcontents on FOUR CORNERS on Monday night threw up something quite unexpected; esp to those who fancy themselves as agents of the predictable; the sure bet ,the need for change; the need for hype - the happy hedge merchants of the team. Short term gain mate -long term pain .

Here we have .....a party that THINKS ; now wouldn't that wake up a few marginals who think noone in the party does THAT any more.I for one was quite impressed by the range of views presented and their reasonability . Had a calming effect . Clearly Labor are all sitting quietly and reverently in church. The not so pushy party talk is good .
The 4 corners program was a good program in that respect - more clarity from the 4 corners of the ring ? lots of diversity in both opinion and commitment. We were sharing for a change, rather than sermonizing and point scoring . Sharing the reality that amongst the public and the scientists, there are a wide range of views . Healthy. The big guy might be throwing the punches but he is just warming the air?


Nobody likes to be pushed, but some leaders clearly don't know that - they tend to be the more dangerous sort of leaders ; They can be like some 2nd hand car salesmen, always claiming the vehicle has been "fully checked by those that know - those in our payroll" .
Naturally this bad and suspect behavior by our leaders pushes the not so stupid public to greater and greater doubts about where we are all going in this god forsaken rush to bridge the problem with the solution.
They can't even corner the problem - let alone the solutions!
Wong doesn't know where she is going wrong; her biggest and dumbest contribution on Monday was to fall for the olde " THEY are the ones with the ideological chains on " ;projection at work I suggest

Fighting with bubble bullets
Karoly is silly enough to mention the amount of licenced paper as a litmus test of authority . If you know what you are doing YOU only use ammunition of the right size and target it well. Bring out only big guns mate. Same with lining up the Institute clones ( "institute " is a word in modern use that is highly sus - eg AMI on our TV screens each week) . who knows? the public may well ask - The answer is an interesting one - even the children know . The reason we don't hear the story is because as Barnaby says the left have left off trying to convert us by branch stacking - they've build a bully base in the bureaucracy . Non reactionaries and conservatives ( those quiet achievers who studied and kept studying instead of reacting and reacting) give up trying to get a word in edge ways .like carter and Plimer you have to spend years of your life telling kindergarten stories when fellow geoscientists are too busy working . Unlike Wong's ever searching substance seekers they have found ways that work and were not just researching, but creating sustainable solutions . Who can compete with the media too-- when its on a downer .

Wong should give up selling - at least a 2nd car salesman would know --never ever change the car you first hit on . If Wong keeps "researching solutions" ( her words) we will all leave the car yard and wonder whether any of the cars have wheels on them . The children in the street have spoken, the cars have no wheels and many of the drivers want to hide their bodies from the shame .