Not over lunch. I wouldn’t recommend watching this little video while you eat your lunch. The latest offering from Animals Australia, shown to MPs in Canberra this morning and now on the web, is a gruesome reminder of how meat gets on the plate in Indonesia.

Not that it’s likely to have much impact on the immediate political process. Both government and opposition are more concerned about the financial plight of a few northern Australian property owners and haulage contractors than in stopping animal torture.

And after you have eaten your next lot of lamb chops, spare a thought for those thousands of sheep left stranded in Adelaide on a ship that was quite inadequate to transport them to the Middle East for their turn at throat slitting.

From bad to worse. President Barack Obama is off on his bus version of a whistle stop campaign tour and according to Gallup he needs to rustle up a bit of support.

It makes for a dismal survey with dealing with terrorism the only area where he is held in more regard now than back in February.

But the President still has one big thing in his favour. The American public’s view of the Congress, where his Republican opponents are being so obstructionist, is even worse.

My kind of endorsement. Not being known as a fashion-plate I appreciated this morning’s story about the trendy American outfitters Abercrombie and Fitch offering to pay a television celebrity not to wear their clothes during public appearances.

In a reversal of the normal rules of product endorsement, A&F have offered a “substantial” sum to Michael Sorrentino — AKA The Situation from MTV’s Jersey Shore — not to wear its clothes.