You can't really argue with that logic

Arguably, cigarettes and alcohol poison far more children than soft porn like Playboy and Ralph

How the Corporations Broke Ralph Nader and America (and Australia), Too

I met Ralph Nader briefly in the 70’s when I helped organise one leg of his Australian tour. He struck me as a good man.

So I was interested to read How the Corporations Broke Ralph Nader and America, Too by Chris Hedges in TruthDig.com about the intentional marginalisation of Nader by corporate America.

Among other things, I was fascinated by the account of how the big end of town copied Nader’s own tactics, establishing “lavishly funded think tanks and conservative institutes to churn out ideological tracts that attacked government regulation and environmental protection … and … organizations to monitor and pressure the media to report favourably on issues that furthered corporate interests…”

Which got me to thinking about the plethora of right-wing think tanks established and funded by corporate Australia in recent decades to represent their interests over all others.

Judging by the daily column inches and airspace given over to the likes of the Australian Business Foundation, the Brisbane Institute, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, the Centre for Independent Studies, the HR Nicholls Society, the Institute of Public Affairs, the Lowy Institute, the Menzies Research Centre, and the Sydney Institute (to name a few) it is clear that the same tactic is a work here. Supported so enthusiastically by big media of course.

Other suggested reading:

• Think tanks, oil money and black ops by Clive Hamilton at the ABC’s The Drum
• The Intellectual Sorcery of Think Tanks by Sharon Beder
• Think tanks in the 1990s  by Georgina Murray and Douglas Pacheco

If I made a lot of noise would my business get free publicity like this?

I've never much liked the Red Baron seaplane tourist business. It’s always annoyed me that if I were to make the sort of intermittent noise that this guy makes from my home-based business I’d be closed down within days.

But perhaps making a lot of noise (and wearing a funny hat) is exactly what I need to do to promote my business – after all the Baron got a free half page spread on the cover of today’s Bulletin and another on page four.

Best headline of the week - so far

Well, four best headlines actually.  They all relate to the same story and all are a good chuckle until you read the last one and find out what happened to the killer wombat:

• Flowerdale man attacked by wombat - from The Age
• Wombat mauls camper - from ABC Online 
• Wombat assaults 60-year-old man outside his caravan - from News.com.au 
• Man-mauling wombat felled by axe

Perfect timing

Easter Sunday - perfect timing for this announcement of an evolutionary discovery!!

Easter messages

I was going to blog about some of the nonsense spoken by Christian leaders this Easter and in particular this incoherent doosey by Anglican supremo Peter Jensen : "Atheism is every bit of a religious commitment as Christianity itself"
However, I found these two posts which say most of it for me:

• An Easter message from an atheist by Jonathan Meddings at Young Australian Sceptics, and
• Unpacking the Pagan Elements of Easter by Austin Cline

Suffice to say, the Christian Churches obviously have their backs against the wall (no pun intended) if they are spending their second most important marketing weekend of the year attacking unorganised atheists and reverting to the use of Godwin’s Law as the Catholic supremo of Parramatta, Anthony Fisher has.

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful"  Lucius Annaeus Seneca (ca. 4 BC-AD 65)

Bob's still got it

I'm a big Bob Dylan fan and, along with many others, consider him the greatest songwiter of his generation if not the last century so I was pretty impressed to see this headline (although I bet the article was written by a 25 year old that had to look up his entry on wikipedia in order to write the last couple of throw-away lines):

China refuses Bob Dylan right to perform

Keep shakin' 'em up Bob

Of Jeeps and jilted workers

Questions need to be asked about today's story in The Bulletin about TCC workshops doing work on Manager's cars while (real) work vehicles have to wait in line.

The line spun by the "council spokesperson" that one of the vehicles was simply there for a safety inspection doesn't ring true.  If I buy a new car, I don't mediately take it somewhere else for a safety inspection (unless it's a Toyota perhaps). And if the manager's cars are brought (or more probably, leased) as part of a salary package, all responsibility for the vehicle (including converting it from a soft-top to a hard-top) rests with the staff member and/or the leasing company and not with Council.

But I suspect the real story behind this headline lies in how ready Council staff are to rat on their bosses. As I've pointed out before - my sources tell me that morale in Council is at rock-bottom at least in part because the organisational re-structure that is currently under-way is being handled abysmally by Management (and their Brisbane-based consultants) and, while creating enormous angst among workers, is doing nothing about (and in fact is increasing) the already bloated management layers in the organisation.

You can expect many more such leaks from Council workers - particularly as the new structure gets rolled out

A truly shocking number

Further to my earlier posts here and here about the hypocracy and ciminality of the Catholic Church comes this via from John Richardson at yourdemocracy.net.au:

Figures from the John Jay School of Criminal Justice estimate that since 1950, an estimated 280,000 children have been sexually abused by Catholic Clergy and deacons.

Truly shocking, fightening and appalling - mind-bogglingly so.

Comradeship, unity, equality, solidarity, justice – the ALP in Herbert

Occasional guest blogger Slim Cayenne sent this copy of the latest letter doing the rounds to ALP members in response the shoehorning of Tony Mooney into the party's candidature for the race for Herbert (click on the pick for better view).

Slim added the following comment:

"Governments lose elections by not listening to those who will make the decisions about who they will vote for.  The LNP will hold onto Herbert."

I agree on both counts Slim.