Bloody David Flint again! Why am I at all surprised? This unctious little right wing toady and apologist of Alan Jones is once again so far up his own fundamental.
Talkback come of age? Get real, its been a manipulator of the less wholistically educated for decades. Many USED to turn to it for light entertainment,now many turn to it out of habit,a desire to be titillated. Sadly many dont possess critical reasoning faculties to discern between truth and dribble. Many more see a justification for their simplistic views.
Power over a gullible audience? You betcha. Flint claims radio doesnt affect the gullible, yet advertisers buy spots on those very programs.
Journos 'have to come from a soft leftie culture? What utter nonsense. They're exposed to more of everything than most of us read. Due to time and 'editorial reasons' (censorship by any other name) we see/hear a fraction of the news of the day. Journos tend to be'left'? 'Human' might be more accurate. They see and hear it all, unvarnished. They're sceptical of the right...AND the left.
Multiculturalism has ALWAYS been a part of our society.we have ALWAYS had immigrants from all over the world, and we're the better for it.
Flint's arguments are as usual both specious and political, motivated by his desire to maintain some degree of privelege for a 'select few' for whom he dares to maintain some sort of pseudo spokesperson role. He's a fraud.

its not easy going and AMSADL,

Good on you,for your first posts. (I have not gone beyond the first few comments.)

I just wonder why OLO gives so much space to people like Flint, who has little credibility, other than amongst those who would align with any 'cunning jock' dressed in civilised veneer, to batter those who are not on their side.

Another such favoured person is Kevin Donnelly. Especially when his status as a hired gun of the government was never revealed. (Please, those tempted, refrain from telling me that Donnelly can have his professional integrity sometimes, and the spin that his employer requires other times.)

Cheers

Chek

Yes Rancitus,

I am aware Karl Marx was a committed egalitarian. But his stated desires far exceeded anything Australian egalitarians desired. Recall his views on the distribution of Land, Wealth and the Means of Production. Unlike our egalitarians Marx rejected concepts of individualism, religion, and individual rights. Many of our instutionalised egalitarianisms were already in place by the time Marx published the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1847-49.) and his three part Das Capital (1867 to 1895).
I think we can discount Marx as an influence on our much earlier flowering of egalitarianism. Maybe he followed our lead?
You made no mention of transportion systems in your initial post and I assume you'd agree that is an entirely different subject to communications.

However rancid a few find the sale of telstra, it will still occur. It will not be the end of the world and really I've detested the whole concept of public owned communications since I received my first bloated telephone bill. It was just so disgustingly not a 'fair go'. I've never changed that opinion and hope privatisation will change that abberation in our society.

Australia Post was privatised and the sky didn't fall in. Does anyone post letters these days?
Who is against public schoolling etc? I haven't assumed you are a leftie dogoodder. I was hoping you'd pass my post on to your leftie mate.

You were merely addressing the immediate observation. That's a commom error. Our present is not isolated from our past.

I don't know who suggested to you the public education system, public ownership of utilities are socialist concepts. I thought I showed they're not. Socialists die...nahhhh they turn into greens, democrats, social democrats, academics and a myrid of other cleverly disguised non-de-plumes.

I agree about the inaccurate labelling here. I've been called a 'Cultural imperialist' and 'a trendy leftie'. Both bought howls of derisive laughter in my household.

However the Australians who instigated our now traditional egalitarianism didn't know about socialism - they preceeded it. In light of that fact I do see how you have self-indulged yourself...playfully of course. :-)

Rancitas,
When some one brainwashed you they left the sudds in.
Karl Marx was a low life bum who bludgged of everyone else and never worked, (Sounds Familiar these days) bribed his own mother and father, and committed extortion against his own family, and was a vindictive racist, hated everyone, far left if you like.All his mates were the same. Interesting read some of his publications to News paper’s, Sounds more like a Hitler Rant than an intellectual;but that is the point; read more and you will find where Hitler’s inspiration actually came from. No ,not a coincidence ether. Leftists do have more in common, Pathological;Neurological, relative investigations.
Here is the link, and translations of most of his publications: You will be disappointed very disappointed.
http://marxwords.blogspot.com/
This explains everything;
Sorry to be the one that destroys the left’s Messiah, but it has to be done in the name of Civilization.
I can deconstruct Chomsky to if you like, but a little off the thread.

Arjay, what are these not real punishments the judges are giving, and how have the police been neutered?

Can you give me one example of a Lebanese gang member who has been let off a criminal charge because they are Lebanese? Can you point to any research which indicates that sentences are lighter for ethnic minorities? Why if the system is so soft on minorities are they so over-represented in jail?

I'm not saying that there isn't fault on both sides here, but I keep hearing this claim that police and courts are soft etc without any evidence to back it up. And how have the police been neutered? Have their batons gone limp the poor things? Are they not allowed to do as many back alley bashings anymore - if that's neutered, then tough luck, the police are meant to enforce the law, not break it.

I could be wrong about all this, but I just find it a bit hard to accept that crime is so out of control etc when I live in a fairly multicultural area of Melbourne and I haven't seen or experienced any trouble except for the occasional beggar - I've never felt safer in my life.

Well hello there,an appropiate name.Which sand dune on Cronulla Beach do you regularly stick your head in?Only the serious Middle Eastern thugs actually make it to gaol.You have to do something pretty nasty to end up there.Well our gaols will be a lot fuller if Morris Iemma has the ticker.I don't think he has.Mr 45 degrees is looking a bit obtuse and scared.These nutters will stop at nothing.

When my son was assaulted the police advised him not to press charges because they were under age and the magistrates would do nothing.It was a waste of time.Much of the crime perpetrated by these gangs goes unreported because we don't have the police numbers to cope with it.

Nearly all of the thugs and rioters at Maroubra and Cronulla are out on bail.Morris is pretending to be unhappy.It is all a political stunt to deflect the blame from his PC Govt.