Saturday, September 14, 2013

Julian Burnside QC defends his Tasmanian solution to Ben Fordham

If you want a really good insight into the psychology of the Left, then you can't go past this interview that Julian Burnside QC gave to Ben Fordham on 2GB. In it he argues for turning Tasmania into a big detention centre.

It starts out with Fordham asking: "Are you serious?"

Burnside prevaricates a little and says, somewhat halfheartedly, "It could work". He adds that of course it won't be adopted anyway ...

It's pretty obvious from his tone of voice that he's not offering a serious solution to the whole asylum seeker problem. And if he's not serious, then why suggest it?

It's merely a rhetorical exercize that enables him to demonize the two major parties (LNP mostly). He can look at the machinations of democracy, turn up his nose and sneer: "If only you were all pure of heart and compassionate like me and my fellow travellers!"

If anything it shows how little he truly cares about humanitarian issues. Not only is he unmoved by deaths at sea -- endorsing a policy that will guarantee that they continue -- he's just using them as fodder to show how much cleverer and more visionary he is than those appalling politicians. (And who elects those nasty pollies? Why, those thick, primitive proles, of course ...)

Julian Burnside QC, like all his latte slurping, finger wagging ilk, thinks it's all about him. He believes that anyone who is not in his luvvie elite is invariably cruel and heartless, always driven by the basest motives.

When Fordham says that both major parties are pushing for a hard-arsed border policy to deter arrivals and thereby stop the drowning deaths he immediately impugns their motives, asserting with no evidence whatsoever that politicians "don't care about people dying at sea". Fordham notices the casual arrogance inherent in this statement, asking if he's become a mind reader.

As well as being pompous and sanctimonious, Burnside is also intellectually dodgy as all get out. In a shamelessly deceitful tactic he says that the rate of boat arrivals "tracks parallel with international refugee movements". If that were an accurate statement then every democratic nation on Earth would have experienced an astronomical rise in refugee arrivals. That's simply not the case and he knows it.

He also refuses to acknowledge that even his beloved ABC defines those coming here by boat as "illegal arrivals". When Fordham presses him on this point he quite curtly -- and without a hint of self-parody -- says "Trust me. I'm a lawyer." It's comedy gold.

The interview contains many more gems of self-satire from one of the high priests of hand-wringing. Definitely worth a listen.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Peta Credlin's DUI charge vs Gillard and the AWU scandal

It's not at all surprising that leftists are already attributing the dropping of Peta Credlin's DUI charge to borderline corruption by the Liberal Party. It's early days with this particular issue but I'm sure they'll keep seething about it for as long as they can. We'll probably even see a coupla competing conspiracy theories ...

Makes a marked contrast to how they reacted to Julia Gillard's alleged involvement in the AWU scandal. Without a doubt she stonewalled for years and even personally bullied media big wigs to keep the story suppressed. And during that whole period lefties either remained completely silent, or actively joined the campaign for censorship of reporting of this issue. They're still saying "nothing to see here folks, move along" even though the Victorian coppers are investigating the former PM.

Sure, these people aren't the sharpest pencils in the box, generally speaking. They'll just believe anything their thought leaders tell them. But the smarter ones creep me out. They must see how condemning Credlin and the Libs while defending Labor and Gillard is an outrageous double standard. Yet they do it anyway. If that's not a kind of corruption in itself, it's pretty damn close.

That said, if Gillard does end up in the clink, it can be seen as a plus for Labor. They will be able to finally truthfully say that they do have at least one conviction politician.