You then made it clear, in a pompous fashion, that you had no idea what Question Time is. That meant that you were blathering about Australian politics without even a rudimentary knowledge of one of the main features of Australian political life.

In short, your integrity and knowledge were so poor there was no reason to take you seriously. And I didn’t.

Why would such an acidic personality feel that it is necessary, obviously for his own persoal gratification, to personally insult so many, when only intelligent conversation was sought? ‘Pompous’ is the only insult he can think of, when nothing said could possibly be construed as the normal meaning of the word.

Normal procedure would be to ignore such stupidity and have an intelligent conversation on the side. Unfortunately, his need was fueled by continuous responses to his acidic (yes, I repeated a desciptor, shock horror), non-sensical, self-agrandising, irrelevant, STUPID, twaddle.

My apolgies to Venise and Bevan but I have watched this unfold for a while now, and aside from disovling in laughter, I can see no other oppropriate reponse.

Good Bye.

I’d prefer a bit of pompisity over breakfast to your endless bitching and sniping.

Dear god, is there no end to this pompous twittery?

I only just started on Crikey and am not aware of ‘Question Time’ which you refer to, so please forgive my comment and I hope it did not offend. I don’t know what the question was but the answers you summarise give some indication. I have been concerned somewhat about recent criticism of the Rudd stimulus package debt accumulation, and have seen many emotive comments implying that all debt is bad and national budgets should never run in deficit. My impression is that people making these comments are getting panicked by the sheer mounting size of the debt, without considering our ability to pay it back. Anyway this was the thrust of my comment.

I’m not sure if an unwillingness to explain decisions is a prerequisite for running for PM, so maybe you have a shot at it. Obama does seem like a breath of fresh air, and he is saying many of the right things, but so did JFK and the acheivements didn’t quite match up. In relation to the financial crisis and recession Obama is still being hobbled by the neocon aversion to regulation and direct federal intervention. Anyway, it’s all kind of interesting.

No, I have no aversion to debt. Like any good Aussie I’ve got debt stretching out for years in front of me. I was just trying to summarise the talking points from Question Time that I’d seen this week. I know the awesome power of debt, and neither party is doing a good job of articulating that.

If I was ever PM, I’d spend a lot of time explaining decisions. Hence I would never be PM. However, Obama seems to be giving the public more explanation, so maybe there is some hope for the future of politics?

Or would you prefer us to conclude that you pomposity is a flimsy cover for a bare mind?

In comments by Evan Beaver I note an aversion to debt. I find myself wondering if he runs a credit card in his personal finance and, if so, what the percentage of its balance is to his net annual income. Only a year ago debt was good. Banks were coercing people into going into debt to buy consumer goods they didn’t need, money was popping around the economy, and the Keynsian cantata continued. Now it’s all gone bad. But another day will come.

The new day is presently being shaped by policy moves around the world, heavily influenced by the mega-rich elite lobby groups, and it all looks fairly bleak. This ‘financial crisis’ and ‘recession’ presents a cyclical opportunity to analyse and address the causes of the ‘crisis’, implementing policy and regulatory changes which can prevent its recurrence, if properly applied. Unfortunately, most of what is happening along these lines in the big economies of the world are leading to an inevitable repeat of the mistakes of the past. It is therefore inescapable that the markets will revive and it will be business as usual. Best to buy some shares now while the market is on it’s knees and wait for the next bubble. But, of course the banks aren’t lending for such risky enterprises so you will need cash, and if you have fallen into their coercive call to debt, when debt was good, you have none.

I shall put Thursdays in my calendar as Ranting day in future.

The CPRS is yet another fistful of spin-dirt being flung into the voters’ faces in order to go to an early election. No-one could have flung that much dirt without realizing it would end in a DD. Unfortunately the born to rule mob haven’t spent enough time in the wilderness to earn another shot at leading the country just yet. For starters they need to learn humility. Ah Ha, ah ha. Thus does the Australian electorate suffer from mediocrity of governance. Not to mention a limited choice-I was going to say philosophies. Silly me.

Try to be a little patient with David S, it’s that time of the month!

I really don’t think anyone should be suprised at all. As has been demonstrated since the “tough” budget, this is a government of spin, and nothing else.

If they were serious about this, and though “the sky is falling”, then there’d be no hesitation etc. in doing what would be needed to reduce the INCENTIVE to pollute. Isn’t it amazing that the word INCENTIVE is hardly ever used in the media in regards to this. It’s the ONLY purpose of the CPRS. But of course we have all this talk of permits etc. yadda yadda yadda.

They aren’t serious about reducing emmisions, they just want a headline. And shame on the true believers for sidling up alongside this government. For once in my life, i actually admire the principles of The Greens.

Of course on another note, any government that proposed actual tough cuts that would hurt the hip pocket of anyone, would be thrown out the door quicker than you can say…. well you know what i’m getting at.

Tom, Thursday is ranting day, please stick to the procedure from now on. I like the colourful language though, and agree, there aren’t many men or preferably women of vision in the public sphere these days. Except Malcolm! I guess you get what you pay for, and we are shackled to a political system that includes everyone, so the debate drops to the lowest commong denominator.

Debt!

Jobs!

Nation building!

Debt!

It goes on like this.

I offer no solutions apart from taking personal umbrage with every IDEA that you disagree with. If we’re going to live in a Democracy, everyone must learn to make their point clear, play the ball, not the man, and try steer the country where you want it to go.

With that in mind, I’ve spent the week telling anyone who wil listen that the CPRS is a pig with lipstick, and if my dog was that ugly, I’d shave it’s bum and make it walk backwards.

I remember many years ago, an aboriginal fellow by the name of Ernie Bridge, then State minister of something or other, proposed that a water pipeline be built to pump water from Lake Argyle to Sydney and Melbourne via Alice Springs and parts in-between. This concept was, of course shouted down by the economic rationalistst and curmudgins of all descriptions, and yet the idea would have singlhandedly created the infrastucture investment so sorely needed at the time, and inherited from that time by the present govenment, and confronted the signs of longterm drought which were visible at the time, and have now become reality, although they may be easing now in the form of violently destructive rain-bearing storms that detsroy more than the ravages of what came before. Think of the communities which could have been created along the track between these places based on allotments of irrigatable land with water taken from the pipes. How many generations will pay for this oversight?

Where are the iconoclasts? Where are the people of vision? The ones that leave something behind of lasting benefit to all of humanity? The pyramidBuilders, the Eifeltowermakers, the SydneyHarbourBridgeConstructors? Will anything be remembered about this Baby-Boomer, greed-obsessed, money-grubbing, immitation of a generation except drought, famine, financial crisis, and recession?

Only time will tell.

That completes my rant for this evening. Would anyone who wishes to respond to the above please bare in mind that I will respond in like tone.

And since when was typing an email more time-consuming than typing a post here? What drivel and humbug.

Anyway, I’m happy for you that you have so much spare time to be potting other people. Unfortunately, my time is limited.

“To Crikey: Sorry to have made a mistake. Where it says ‘Notify me..’ was meant to be a yes. Thanks.”

If you want to contact Crikey with this kind of stuff then email them directly. Don’t waste our time by posting it here. Doesn’t seem too much to ask, does it?