Pete,

If you examine Individual's posts over the past year (and several others like him) a pattern is readily discernible. The first comment usually addresses the topic under discussion. From then on it is a series of ad hominen comments, often completely off topic. It is a pattern too well established to be just by chance. We know from the modus operandi of Operation Mockingbird that certain avenues are followed. Raise a red herring here, attack the critic as a "conspiracy theorist" there; suggest they live in academic ivory towers; have an irrational hatred of the US etc etc. I am sure you recognise it.

The author of the article nominally under discussion actually raised some important points. Nothing in the reported comments of Bishop/Morrison/Abbott on foreign policy issues in the days since would lead one to think that the author has somehow got the wrong idea.

Australia's place in the Asia-Pacific region, our trading patterns on which our prosperity depends, our ill-starred choices in foreign policy (remember 'all the way with LBJ'?) and publicly siding with Israel on UN votes are all topics worthy of serious discussion. Can I respectfully suggest that what you have to say is valuable and I enjoy reading your substantive comments. Don't be sucked into tit for tat trivia. Life is too short and the issues too important.

Hi James

It is true what you say. The joys of prodding the rogue knuckle-draggers who baboonize OLO frequently distracts and detracts.

Several things have held me back from putting in serious work on OLO articles including: 7-8 OLO articles per day (a la throw it on the big pile)...the fate of articles mainly being drawing 70% of comments from extremists or ad hominen wolves...writing on my own website for the benefit of a serious security-intelligence crowd...and knowing it might be quite destructive to write about some subjects (of expertise) like Aus-Indonesia at the moment.

So basically until some of the above conditions wain I'm spending most of my sideline time writing on my own website - Australia by the Indian Ocean at http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/

Cheers

Pete

It may be news to the arrogant and dismissive David G that the "village idiot" who is our present PM has three uni degrees, one of them from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar, possibly a higher level of intellectual achievement even than that of the brilliant David G.

Tonyo