Dear O Sung Wu,

Thank You for your comments.

They are greatly appreciated as is your honesty
and openess. I for one will always want to hear
your opinions on all issues. I firmly believe that
hearing other well reasoned opinions
broadens the discussion and
gives a different perspective. Which is a good
thing. So please keep on sharing your views.
They are appreciated.

otb,

I did not "cherry pick" David Marr's comments.
They are taken from the very first chapter
of Marr's article in The Quarterly Essay -
"Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott."
The Quarterly Essay presents significant
contributions to the general debate. Each issue
contains a single essay written at a length of
about 25,000 words. It aims to present the
widest range of political, intellectual and
cultural opinion.

And of course -

David Marr's reputation as an author is very
well known and respected.
Mr Abbott gave him a great deal of
his time when Marr interviewed him for this
essay.

Larry Pickering is of course - a totally different story.
As the link listed below clearly shows -

"Larry Pickering - commonly known as a cartoonist -
but also an inveterate liar, a bankrupt conman,
with a seedy history of fleecing the gullible of
millions of dollars, while not paying his own bills..."

"With various failed business ventures and numerous
personal relationships of equal standard...For
decades he has plied a grubby trade behind sundry
stooges ...assisted by the odd sharp lawyer and
hapless corporate and consumer regulators.
He is not a nice man!"

http://www.smh.com.au/business/larry-pickering-the-conman-stalking-gillard-20120820-24hxi.html

Beach, is that the same Larry Pickering who is commonly known as a cartoonist, but he's also an inveterate liar, a bankrupt conman with a seedy history of fleecing the gullible of millions of dollars while not paying his own bills. A serial bankrupt with a millionaire's lifestyle. The runner of a punting SCAM.

With various failed business ventures and numerous personal relationships of equal standard, for decades Pickering has plied a grubby trade behind sundry stooges and partners, assisted by the odd sharp lawyer and hapless corporate and consumer regulators. He is not a nice man.

Beach you can sure pick em. After supporting Jim Saleam, Pickering would be considered positively honest in your book!

Dear Paul,

And otb speaks about wanting views that are
"independent" and "balanced."

This from a man who sees things in terms of
labels. Aka, - Fabians, Aka - Progressives, Aka -
Socialists, Aka - Watermelon Greens, Aka - Emily
Listers, and the list goes on.

This points to "independence"
and "balanced" thought in his mind
and clearly a political career with the Liberal Party.

Foxy, what a laugh as OTB tries to present himself as the forums moderate voice of reason, he does such a pathetic job at it. So often his extreme ultra right views come to the fore. He can't help himself. When I seen Pickering Post in his link, I thought this must be a gee up, no one in their extreme right mind would try and use Pickering as a back up!
Maybe Beach is Pickering.
I recall Pickering didn't have much to say when 'A Current Affair' was chasing him down the street a few years back over a betting scam he was running.

Foxy,

You easily demonstrate your bias and partisanship by omitting this detail on Pickering (from the site linked to),

Pickering,
"Four-time Walkley Award winning political commentator and Churchill Fellow"

The adds that he "returned to the fray over concern that news sources are being threatened by the Gillard Government". That definitely wouldn't make Larry Pickering your choice, and most would admit that.

Of course you cherry-pick and most commonly from those Left 'independent' sites that so many have called flakey and unreliable. Of course you choose words from David Marr because your opinion always comes first and you Google relentlessly to find something, anything to match your bias.

Where you don't find anything you simply post a link to something irrelevant to the thread but suiting your prejudice. Or you regurgitate something long and tedious you have posted repeatedly word for word over the years and notwithstanding how many times other posters have corrected you for your assessments and factual correctness.

Pickering Four-time Walkley Award winning political commentator, Churchill Fellow and BETTING SCAM OPERATOR! Once a crook, always a crook!
Good posts Foxy keep em' up!

Beach are you Pickering? if not, why not, you fit the mold.