Perth March in March mystery: the bloke in the yellow sheet

Have you ever had an experience that was highly reminiscent of a thriller or horror movie that sent chills down your spine? You know, like waking up in the middle of the night and seeing some butt-fugly face staring at you? Frozen in horror, you were unable to breathe for what seemed like minutes until suddenly the hideous mug disappeared and you came to full consciousness ... Or maybe while stopped at a traffic light on a wet day you saw rain drops collecting on your window that spelled out the word "death". But no sooner had you apprehended this terrifying omen than it was scattered to oblivion by the windscreen wiper.

Yeah, well, I just experienced something similar ... kind of.

See, about an hour ago I was down at Langley Park for the start of Perth's March in March, intending to shoot some vids for YouTube.

Anyhoo, when I first arrived I took a shot with my phone. Tweeted it about twenty minutes ago. It was only after I did so that I noticed a most intriguing figure in it. He was a bloke in the crowd who seemed to be wearing nothing but thongs and a yellow sheet (or was it a towel?).

Now I find this very mysterious. Actually, I feel a bit like the David Hemmings character in the champion Antonioni flick Blow-Up. While developing shots from a fashion shoot, he realizes he may have inadvertently captured a murder.

Sure, nothing was murdered at this event except common sense. Still, shrouded figures are always fascinating. You've gotta wonder, who was this be-sheeted bloke?

He seemed to be a visitor from another dimension whose presence was deeply symbolic. But what did his sinister presence mean, exactly?

Hmm. Some of the protesters were chanting their desire to put Tony Abbott on a guillotine. Was he some kind of antipodean unionist version of Ingmar Burgman's Death character, perhaps?

If so, I'd say watch out Tony. Particularly if this same figure appears at the next Abbott presser.

Chilling. Truly chilling ...

Labor's poisonous culture reminiscent of the movie The Firm

As Labor presses on with its disastrous plans to inflict a spectacularly pointless carbon tax upon the good people of Australia, secretly skeptical party heavies are going insane with frustration in their climate closets. There are quite a few in the party who must desperately want to do something (knife Ju-liar, get her to dump the tax, or preferably both) to make the problem go away. But there's a truly flightening level of bloody-minded groupthink in Labor that is keeping them pinned down and silent, at least for the time being.

Niki Savva writes about one wretched soul whose life has been made utterly miserable by the carbon tax policy:

As despair sinks into depression, one cabinet minister recently revealed his desolation in a conversation with an acquaintance when he confessed political life had become near intolerable.

He acknowledged the carbon tax is destroying the government, yet they could not walk away from it. He could not see - or he was not prepared to admit it that openly yet - a way out and this only fed his frustration.

This prominent member of a government, which recites like a Gregorian chant the mantra that climate change is real, then admitted his grave doubts about the science. He didn't use the word crock, but that was pretty much what this secret deniers' camp follower was saying.

In an interview with Bolta she expanded on why the poor bastard couldn't break ranks and do the right thing. Doing so would ultimately bring down the Government, and he would become Labor's "king rat for all time". Knowing how much the party hates its "rats" (remember their loathing of Mal Colston, whom Robert Ray memorably derided as the "quisling Quasimodo from Queensland") you can understand why he's currently choosing silence.

While Labor isn't quite in the Mafia's league when it comes to reprisals for betrayal, it certainly does have some rather effective compliance methods in operation. I can't help thinking that this poor pollie's predicament is more than a little like that of the protagonist in the movie The Firm, based on John Grisham's book:

Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is a young man with a promising future in law. About to graduate from Harvard Law School, he is approached by Bendini, Lambert & Locke, 'The Firm', and made an offer he cannot refuse. He and his wife, Abigail "Abby" (Jeanne Tripplehorn), move to Memphis, where The Firm is located. Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) becomes his mentor at The Firm.

Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, including a house and car, he is at first totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and informing him that not only is The Firm mob connected but every associate that has ever tried to leave The Firm ends up murdered. His life as he knows it is forever changed. He has a choice: work with the FBI and risk being discovered by The Firm, or stay with The Firm knowing that at sometime he will get involved with laundering mob money and in the end go to jail when the FBI cracks The Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it.

Of course the murderous criminality is not present in Canberra, but this miserable minister is clearly in a similar bind. He must either turn against his own party in the interests of the nation or obediently toe its line -- a line based on a mountain of lies. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it.

Spooky, isn't it. I can see a great political thriller being made about this bloke a few years hence. Can Tom Cruise do an Aussie accent?