Steve Irwin’s not the only stupid one

Steve Irwin looked foolish but how many of us have done stupid things
with a babe in arms, like drink a hot coffee. Luckily we don’t get
documented doing it.  Channel Seven’s inundation with complaints,
in my opinion, reflects the way success works in Oz. Do something good
and you’ll barely get noticed, make one mistake and your head’s on the
chopping block.

There’s also the angle that the megalomaniacs running the world don’t
want self-made individuals getting to popular. Just recently I was
pondering the fact Irwin was getting supremely powerful and wondering
how long till they bring him down. It seems to happen to most talent
from Oz. Weigh up all the good things Irwin has achieved and balance
that against taking his baby to work, not actually breastfed on the job
as happened in federal parliament last year. As much as I thought his
actions were stupid it’s not to say everyone hasn’t done something
stupid and stupidity can lead to high appointments in the mad, mad
world.

Ruth
Gawler SA

Croc Hunter conspiracy theories

Hate to be all conspiratorial, but has the media shellacking of Steve
Irwin been payback for his pro-Howard and Bush views. Several surveys
that I have seen have all indicated public support overwhelmingly in
favour of one of Australia’s leading export figures. The Age website
poll came up
with 66 per cent of people supporting Irwin. A similar poll in the
Herald Sun indicated support of around 70 per cent. However, the
leading papers, most notably, the left-leaning Age, ran with headlines
such as “No Place for Babies” and “Irwin the Hunter now the Hunted.”

Cheers
Adam Schwab


Endangered babies and suspect “child experts”

Loathe as I am to jump on the bandwagon which includes every fool and
their dog offering an opinion of the recent actions of Steve Irwin, I
think an alternative view must be heard.

There are fewer things more dangerous to the upbringing of a child than
grubby “experts” offering their “expert” opinions on how to raise them.

All these cries of “one slip and it would all be over” are making me
dizzy and nauseous. What will these “experts” have us do? Lock our kids
in a white sterile room until they reach adult age? There is risk in
every step they will take in their lives, and I applaud Steve Irwin for
bringing that reality home.

Until now, I haven’t liked Irwin. I thought he was capitalising on the
barbarian stereotype propagated by the world media about our people.
But after looking at the shock-horror, heart-bleeding, knee-jerk
rubbish being spouted by these “experts”, perhaps the stereotype is
well founded. After all, how does a cliche become a cliche?

Keep up the good work.

Tim from the UKay.

Who really knows when the election will be?

Is there a better psephologist than Antony Green?  Honestly,
everyone else should just give up and consult Antony before launching
into any story related to elections past, present and future 
(sorry Hillary, even you).

He is such a contrast with that Liberal party cheerleader Malcolm Mackerras and other hacks.

Is there anyone in the country who comes even close?   I can’t really see Antony being the boozing
good-time party boy but it would be fun getting plastered with beers with him one night and just get
him talking.  There must be a bundle of stories in there that are filed away for his reference that
will never be published (to protect the innocent no doubt)

Antony, let me know if you are in Sydney and feel like a good drink sometime.  All the best.

Andrew Lewis

Latham had cancer too your know

I say Janette Howard IS fair game because I can still remember the
vitriolic attacks that the Liberals made on the gracious Anita Keating
when the Coalition was in Opposition, as always playing the man and not
the ball.  It has been said by Howard himself that Janette is a
pivotal part of his political life, not family but political.

As for this malarkey about laying off her because she has had cancer
well, do you think that because Mark Latham has had cancer too that the
government will lay off him? Not on your Nelly! Anyway for someone
who’s supposedly so sickly she sure gets around the world with
J.Winston pretty snappily and doesn’t look at all wearied by it and has
never been known to beg off a trip yet. People do get over cancer you
know and actually don’t appreciate being discriminated against because
of it, or felt sorry for.

As well she’s a big girl and can fend for herself if she wants to,
being possessed of a political hide as thick as Jessie the cows and
probably inured to criticism by now.

P.S. Go Mrs Crikey against the male dominated ethics of the
self-regulated Advertising Industry-all MCP’s{Male Chauvinist Pigs}
seemingly fighting a rearguard action against the hard won gains made
by women in the recent past. One wonders if they would ever approve,
even in jest, an ad which finished with a shot up a male jacksie!

Victoria
Killcare Heights NSW

Look out Camelot, here comes the first family

Normally Crikey proves to be a good read, but your attacks on the
Howard family show that really, you and your subscribers are a bit
antsy that your faction fails you time and time again.

The Howards are the first family. They live at Kirribilli. Deal with
it. If your daughter was getting married, you’d hold her engagement
party at your house, and you might even have the wedding at your house,
if you had a nice place.

Leave the family alone. Your beef is with Howards policies, not his
family. Get back some of the journalistic integrity you claim to have
and leave the family alone.

Unimpressed.

Gossip at the Daily Terror and the Orstralian
 
I think it’s a little rich of Mark Day to continue his jibes at the
glossies over the truthfulness of the stories they run, particularly as
he know his charming PR wife Wendy loves to make liberal use of their
pages to promote her clients when it suits her..they are all on her
invite list to film premieres when Nicolle and Russell want to promote
a film. OK he is correct, but he’s using the Media pages now to push a
barrow in which he has a personal stake via the much loved Wendy.
 
Glad to see someone is pointing out how the ‘social/gossip’ pages of
the Sunday Tele are now becoming just like a promotional brochure. It’s
bad enough that Melissa Hoyer never fails to mention the bosses’
daughter-in-law/wife Sarah O’Hare in between snippets about Foxtel and
her own fashion program, along with reams of forgettable ‘socialites’
no-one knows except La Hoyer (as she is known).
Hoyer recently crossed swords with another PR, the delightful Glen-
Marie Frost of Olympic fame. Glen-Marie, who is largely loved around
town made the faux pas of inviting La Hoyer to a party via email. Not
only did the hapless Frost receive a personal rebuke for, firstly not
realising that she Hoyer, and not Ros Reines was the editor of the
laughable ‘social’ pages, but an added spray in print about the emailed
invitation.
Perhaps she should remove her email address from her pages, which presumably is there so people may contact her!

Hooray Henry!

Hoyer’s Bonds advertorial

Come on Crikey!  Surely you’re not serious?!  “Almost as good
value as free advertising in the Sunday Daily Tele! The IPO valuation
for Pacific Brands has just risen another few million.”

Nobody with any nous takes any notice of that lightweight fluff
Hoyer!  She’s an absolute joke and that she’s maintained that
inane page all these years is testament to how out of touch News Ltd
is!  It’s very sad.

Media Girl


Wendy Wedge and those Green attacks

I’m not sure if Wendy Wedge is being a bit ingenuous or disingenuous in
her spray on Green tactics. Does she really think that “Port Phillip
Bay, the Harbour and the Yarra and Hawkesbury Rivers” (and she can
include the Parramatta River if she likes) and other environmental
improvements would have occurred if it weren’t for the effects of Green
consciousness and activism? Sewers they were, and still are, but better
managed sewers. ‘Sfunny, but her given date seems to correlate nicely
with the rise of Green politics. And in the face being ignored by
vested interests, what’s wrong with a little wedgie here and there to
spice up interest.

Isn’t it time that some people realised that production produces a
waste output that, if not controlled properly by us so-called sapient
beings, will degrade the environment, and that broad-scale the
degradation is increasing, despite the local little victories. I think
I’d rather be accused of “wedge politics” – is it so wrong? As for
Howard, the only thing green about him is the peas in his “meat and two
veg” mentality. Lomborg? Dangerous, if believed.  Greetings from
the watermelon patch,

Olfaht


Wendy Wedge and the Greens catch-22

While agreeing that there are people out there that prefer to be proved
right than to hear good news, WW’s analysis is lacking on a number of
points.

Firstly there’s the catch-22 the Greens find themselves in – whatever
they do they’re either too idealistic or just like all the others. Not
being across all the claims and counter-claims regarding Bjorn Lomborg
I’ll leave the specifics to one side and pick up on the legitimacy of
the environment as a “wedge” issue. Surely there is a difference
between appealing to the worst in our nature (WE will decide who comes
to this country, etc…), and appealing to a desire to conserve the
natural environment for future generations.

Also, it may indeed be true that the environment is improving in
certain areas, though this is almost exclusively due to the efforts of
the various environmental organisations. While this isn’t the
appropriate forum to debate the particulars of humanity’s impact on the
planet, how is it getting better and how it is getting worse, I find
the “correlation” of increased prosperity to environmental improvement
fascinating. I guess it follows that all we need do is get the third
world to start driving 4WDs, install air conditioning and use more
plastic bags and we’ll transform the entire planet into a veritable
Garden of Eden. Or it could just mean that the third world picks up the
environmental tab for the first world’s excesses.

Richowski
Melbourne


Tell ‘Bleeding Heart’ Baxter’s no desert hell

Your correspondent “Bleeding Heart” (Your Say 5 Jan 04) needs to know
that being economical with the truth to make a point is silly.
Presumably, to exaggerate the plight of illegal immigrants, “Bleeding
Heart”, describes the Baxter detention centre as being “in the desert”
and as a “desert Hell”. In fact, Baxter is located minutes from the
sea, inland on the coast, between two of South Australia’s largest
provincial cities, Port Augusta and Whyalla. For other reasons some
might find it Hell, but desert it aint.

Paul Clancy
Adelaide


How big are the New Year’s Eve fireworks

This is a request for information. Every year, especially since NYE
2000, we hear that the Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks are bigger than
ever and costs millions.
 
How much do the fireworks really cost and which arm of government uses
our money to pay for it? I have had a quick search on the web and can’t
find it mentioned on the web site of the Sydney City Council or the NSW
government. I am hoping that this is all hype and really the cost is
not rising and the fireworks are much the same each year.
 
I know I risk being a party pooper, but do the fireworks cost more than
the $2m the Australian government found to give for relief of the
Iranian earthquake?  Also, if the fireworks are really getting
bigger and more expensive each year, surely this is a fireworks bubble
and must stop sometime.
 
Finally, is there a competitive tender for the fireworks, or do the same people do it each year?
 
Paul Partypooper