Hi Joe,

"brilliant career move!", but poor old Nicolaus went to Hell, where he is now burning for eternity, I have it on good authority that eternity is rather a long time. Sister Mary, an old Irish Catholic nun, who I had the misfortune to cross paths with in the third grade gave me the good oil on all this stuff. at a very early age I must say. Remember this, the only thing worse than atheists and pagans, are those haters of the Holy Father, Protestants. Sister Mary had a long list of hates, she condemned me to purgatory several times. Purgatory for those who are not familiar is a sort of hotted up holiday camp for sinners.
On Galileo Galilei, "Both he and Galileo put many years of observations into their findings" He quickly admitted it was all crap, particularly when he thought about having his arms and legs stretched on the rack. I think Sister Mary would have liked her very own rack, she could have used it on Protestants, and naughty 8 year old boys.

Cheers Paul.

Dear SM,

You ask for -

One example that is not "left Whinge," as you so
intellectually put it, in New Matilda?

Ok. I'll give you two. Jeff McMullen's, "The Road To a Treaty."
And Marni Cordell's article on Reza Barati's death.

Then of course there's the articles by Waleed Aly,
Julian Burnside QC, Michael Brull,
and many others.

Hi Paul,

Galileo agreeing that his findings were crap - well, one might do that if one's arms and legs are being slowly pulled out of their sockets. He added, something like, 'Ma il muove,' i.e. the Earth moves, it isn't fixed at the centre of a God-made universe. I wish I had his courage. I think that, if NM was pulling my fingers out of joint, one by one, I would probably, in extremis, agree that some of their articles were worth reading. But they would have to keep pulling :)

Cheers,

Joe

Dear SM,

You don't have sufficient "pointless platitudes?"
Really?

This may help. Taken from the web:

Wink Knudge

"That's a good point - one can easily
deride all the verbal concoctions
developed over time and oft used by the
masses. Maybe an example of a new
authorative variant of a turn of phrase could
be offered to demonstrate the superior ability
for a unique response in those situations.
If the foo shitz, wear it."

Dearest Foxy,

Thanks for this, but I'm a bit alarmed that Jeff McMullen, Marni Cordell, Waleed Aly, Julian Burnside QC, Michael Brull, and many others are not counted as being on the 'Left'. Do you mean that they're all part of some secret undercover pro-Government Del-Con clique ?

So who's left on the 'Left' ? What can any of us do about it before it's too late ? How can any of us stimulate discussion on NM in order to provoke the proper exposition of key issues for the GCC like gay marriage and a republic (of course, a people's republic, a people's democratic socialist workers' republic), and kale vs watercress.

It's vital that some of these issues be thoroughly thrashed out (for example, whether or not kale should ever be eaten raw) and the only way is to allow complete freedom of expression, even of opinions (since opinions are not all equal) with which we disagree.

Funny, a comment I made on NM recently disappeared ...... Probably a computer problem ......

Love,

Joe

Dear Joe,

Sorry to hear that you're alarmed.

Don't be.

The issue is not whether journalists are left-leaning
or right-leaning, the issue is whether this is a
serious problem. I don't believe it is because
the journalists/authors mentioned are genuinely
fair-minded ones and they strive for objectivity
in their work. This is far more powerful an influence
than cynical readers like yourself seem to believe.

Of course, it is also true that every piece of writing
involves subjective judgements as I stated earlier.
One can strive for fairness and balance, but even in
one's choice of topics and the presentation of facts, one
inevitably shows one's hand (something you'd be familiar
with) and a writer's personal views may sometimes
glimmer through.

Still take heart that what with the fragmentation of
the media in the era of the internet, cable TV and talk
radio - this allows for more opportunity for different
views to be aired.

We should all be happy with that.