Mood:  cool

We've had this discussion with quite a few Gen X colleagues over recent times. One, a barrister was commenting on a mad bad magistrate.

I explained my observations based on some Dr Google and personal observation of a high functioning alcoholic relative now dead - father in fact.

It's about the "dry drunk" routine. As the alcohol over years, and decades in the case of boomers, alters brain function causing a trend towards depression, the otherwise high functioning and generally unaware boomer starts lashing out at seemingly trivial bits of uncertainty and chaos that occur in every normal day.  A typo, a slip up, a correction or fudge that needs to be clarified.

Everyone is an idiot or a f*ckwit except of course our hero the high functioning dry drunk boomer, when actually the every day mishaps trigger a deep and powerful  subconscious and alarming reliance on the alcohol fix to smooth things out, especially after hours of withdrawal. This reliance creeps up so incrementally, probably over decades, the addict probably doesn't even realise the source of their deeper seated fear, powerlessness, depression and anger. Not for nothing is alcohol known as the Great Deceiver:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2237210/pdf/jroyalcgprac00352-0047.pdf

It's very destructive too with the mood swings, the belittling pre-emptive innuendo, the degrading personal comments - all to project the addict's problem onto others just as long as they can get that alcohol anaesthetic for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Here is one description of the behaviour of the so called "dry drunk":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_drunk

and here complete with "grandiosity":

 http://addictionrecoverybasics.com/what-is-a-dry-drunk/

The worrying thing is that this effect surely applies to everyone who takes alcohol fairly regularly over the years, whether they believe it affects them or not. Really every bad mood they have may or may not be caused by alcohol cravings. They will never know without a reasonable period of abstinence and self aware monitoring to note any difference in the upward or downward trend of their moods and contentment.

Also given alcohol is the drug of choice of older working Australians the younger generations will have to deal with the associated pathology of their older colleagues for a long time to come and probably forever.

Posted by editor at 7:12 PM NZT

Updated: Saturday, 23 July 2011 7:29 PM NZT

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Mood:  incredulous

Just how unreliable is the big media?

Very it seems. 

Even the simple interpretation of a global media event can't be accurately described.

In the now (in)famous assertion that Wendi Deng acted like a tigress to protect her mogul husband Rupert from a pie thrower, the facts just don't bear that out.

Upon re watching the incident on youtube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3SfSBjo7YE

it is quite clear Deng came in AFTER the pie man was intercepted by another woman in grey (next to and to the left of Deng) using a left arm basketball style forward stance. Then AFTER general alert in the room and crucially for the pie thrower the lost element of surprise, Deng either seeks to consolidate the interception or less charitably to seek revenge.

The woman in grey is simply not Deng, who is in pink. Both women have black hair but that's the only similarity.

Consider these two pictures of the event which makes it quite clear the woman in grey is not Ms Deng.

We suggest the former possible intention by Deng would be lawful, the latter a defence to unlawful assault by Deng of the pie thrower due to provocation, to add to the pie thrower's unlawful assault of old Rupe. Deng is clearly shown here in the pink:

Not so cut and dried as the big media are posturing this last week. And arguably two wrongs don't quite make a right, though any judge would be likely to dismiss it for provocation. Certainly Deng is not the tigress surrounded by coppers on the move. The woman in grey surely is.

To reinforce the point about how hopeless even the best of the big media and big politics can be about this otherwise trivial posturing:

 1. On reconvening the committee a member of the parliamentary select committee tries to smooth things over by commending Wendi Deng for a great left hook. Trouble is it was her right hand, not left that threw the punch.

 2. Have a look at this re-enactment on youtube which airbrushes the woman in grey power suit out of the picture and puts a man next to 'hero' Wendi Deng. Talk about rewrite history. Pathetic really. It's here 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVgcBbVQA8Y

Posted by editor at 6:34 PM NZT

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Mood:  d'oh

Richard Glover on ABC Drive show tonight poses the question - Is the backlash against the UK phone hacking scandal all a bit over the top?

And why should there be an inquiry in Australia into the well worked balance of corporate, political and social relations represented by the big media sector status quo?

His professional colleagues in the sector are also unhappy about an inquiry or greater regulation. They can't see it.

The simple profound answer is the legal norm requiring a prohibition against misleading and deceptive conduct in the conduct of business. The business world has been legally required to follow this rule since at least 1974 under the Trade Practices Act and state statutory equivalents. 

The Big Media are of course big business too. And they must be held to the same standard and account for their rampant dishonesty.

Only today Crikey newsletter has exposed a massive lie by the Sydney Daily Telegraph claiming their coverage was unbiased in relation to the GST in 1998-2000 compared to the carbon tax announced in 2011. That is misleading and deceptive conduct which should be legally actionable. Anyone who follows politics in NSW already well knew the SDT was a slut to the Coalition party, but it shows how brazen the dishonesty is that the SDT thought they could editorialise this lie recently and get away with it.

Or that big boss Hartigan thought he could run the line in a defence on 7.30 show a week ago. 

Another example of dishonest dealing was Media Watch last Monday night exposing the corruption of a senior journalist's byline by adding material into his story that he didn't write. In that case Steve Lewis article altered by someone in the Sydney Daily Telegraph (again).

Then there is Fairfax every week running an apparently learned educational institution that sounds publicly funded and objective. Namely the "Sydney Institute" which in reality is a covertly funded big corporation propaganda machine that refuses to reveal it's funding sources. This is unacceptable in a decent and honest industry sector. 

Lastly but not least there are nasty biased characters like Alan Jones who poses as a commentator but is no more than a boorish Coalition party stooge. Why anyone would want to listen to a Liberal Party meeting on a public radio programme escapes this writer, but the point is that Jones is an overt propagandist for one political party. He should be so described to avoid misleading and deceiving any poor unfortunate who happens to be sucked into the vortex of his poisonous bile.

All this is obvious to those outside the big media sector - the deep culture of flouting the basic prohibition against misleading and deceptive conduct in the course of business is why the sector needs an inquiry. But more than this - it needs some high profile prosecutions under some new and stronger laws.

The second glaring basis for an inquiry is the common element between the UK phone hacking scandal and the operation of News Ltd tabloids in Australia. Namely the protection racket aspect of emotional violence absent any public interest, that demands any public or private figure pander to the News Corp self interest  in terms of power mongering, financial opportunity and influence peddling.

Quite a few of these bunch of grubby liars and mediocre thinkers have arrogated to themselves the role of social bully boys and girls. There is a base motive of bad faith behind so many stories for self aggrandisement and mindless aggression. It's as if all that alcohol has turned the journos into bitter and twisted caricatures as the drug cooks their brain cells and their personality sinks deeper into chronic depression taking their audience down with them into mindless conflicts and sensation. How bored and boorish they must be.

This protection racket is great sport and a fat pay cheque for those on the inside and predictably with such great power comes great corruption. Journalists are forever leveraging their profile for self interest and many seem to have lost any sense of a vocation to inform and provide 'the closest version of the truth" as possible. 

Posted by editor at 11:03 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 21 July 2011 11:04 PM NZT

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Mood:  down

A working class guy over 50, qualified mechanic for 30 years, but not very literate and not very keyboard able, has mindlessly forwarded this email to the writer last Friday 15 July 2011. A colleague has indicated it should be reported to the Federal Police - we do agree. It is a misogynist fraud from the extreme right echoing the call to armed political violence made to shadow minister Joe Hockey last week.

Coalition voters with intelligent and talented wives, daughters, sisters, mothers should think very carefully about who is barracking for Tony Abbott with this sexual violence smear on a female prime minister. What does it say about their quality of economic and environmental thinking, let alone national defence, the last Iraq war etc etc.

And especially the cohesion and stability of Australia if and when GFC mark II arrives, which seems likely in the next 1, 2 or 3 years.

Really there is no decision. The Sydney Daily Telegraph are the local arm of what we are seeing in the UK with closure of News of the World. The implication of all this is that a vote for Abbott will close down Australia in a most unexpected and disastrous way.

Just go and see Harry Potter with your kids and ask yourself if Murdoch is the precedent for Voldermort, owner of the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Sydney needs a new Sydney Daily Tabloid to replace it.

Posted by editor at 11:27 AM NZT

Updated: Sunday, 17 July 2011 12:08 PM NZT

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Mood:  quizzical

How terribly sad goes the right wing drum beat over the lonely death of a widow in Surry Hills who lived in Kippax St. Family provides photo of attractive young woman, and the large scale coverage somehow echoes with the current tv promotion for 1920ies glossy crime show to run on Ch9.

How did this poor widow die alone, her body on the floor for years, before discovered in the heart of the stereotypical cold hard cruel metropolis that has by implication lost it's god fearing, church going, charity supporting, neighbourly white picket fence ways, in a right wing fantasy of gentle approbrium?

Trouble is the News Corp headquarter in Holt Street is also at right angles to ..... Kippax St in said Surry Hills. Probably ten thousand staff passed that old lady's house for decades .... and not one of them knew or helped her, or befriended her? Mmm.

Are we really reading about a company that has no soul and is projecting a guilt about it's own ruthless driven ambitious cold heart? I do wonder.

Which makes me wonder about Mr Hartigan on the 7.30 Report last night. He looked so "sincere", and he's worked in news rooms for decades. Just down the road in fact from the dead lady from Kippax St which crosses Holt St - home of News Ltd in Australia ... served by the surrounding brothels and pubs.

Hartigan says their papers went just as hard at the conservative Howard Govt. That's a lie. This writer is an eye witness over the last 14 years of press including 2 as night shift reader analyst for Media Monitors 1999-2001. Howard was on record that the Sydney Daily Telegraph was his favourite newspaper.

Rest in peace Natalie Jean Wood, you are released from this world of trickery and double talk.

Posted by editor at 8:26 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 15 July 2011 8:42 AM NZT

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Mood:  chatty

Gerard Henderson is pretty loose with the truth in a complex and tragic middle east situation that needs more light not lies.

Israel is no victim country with 100-200 nuke weapons. There is no 'destruction of Israel' by anyone, anytime, this side of the Rapture.

And Syria is a terrible dynamic with 1,500 deaths in the Arab Spring no doubt. But so is 1.5M Palestinians on starvation rations in Gaza for a decade or more. These are different issues and the sophistry of saying they are morally comparable is pretty dumb.

Another curious omission in GH's piece today in the SMH - apart from the long time omission of his corporate funding - is that the Max Brenner shop seems to be targetting by the International Solidarity Movement for supporting the Israeli Defence Force.

Also the issue of one state democracy and two state theocracy plus democracy is far more profound than the old 'anti semitism' smear. You can't call Desmond Tutu an anti-semite and get away with it, as a supporter of the BDS campaign.

Finally Henderson has failed to address the land theft aka 'settler' predators like assassin Yigal Amir. That would be far more intellectually honest.

Posted by editor at 10:57 AM NZT

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Mood:  energetic

How very strange to see the above graphic next to an article by a, if not the most, senior conservative political columnist in Rupert Murdoch's broadsheet The Australian, last Friday. Just as the ethics of the News International newspaper are being debated globally over the NotW shut down ..... today.

A colleague from the United States was aghast at the choice of image.

We noticed the newspaper didn't put the image online. Perhaps because they have had terrible trouble in News Corporation with allegations of racism in the past.

Nor is the "black face" graphic acceptable in Australian civil society after the furore over a misjudged skit on a popular tv show here in 2009. Nor for the same reason can ignorance be an excuse for the choice of graphic by big media here. For that incident read here, suggesting a current willful blind to the sensitivities:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/tv-radio/articles/2009/10/08/1254701089809.html

Even their own tabloid has this online today:

 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/world-covers-hey-hey-its-saturdays-red-face-over-blackface-jackson-jive-skit/story-e6frf96f-1225784091474

World covers Hey Hey It's Saturday's red face over blackface Jackson Jive skit

• Kate Rose
• From: Herald Sun
• October 09, 2009 5:48PM

How very inconsistent with the so called higher ethical standard trumpeted the very next page, in the editorial, which surely must be seen as insincere in light of the graphic the other side of the middle line:

The corruption of journalism

• From: The Australian
• July 08, 2011 12:00AM

BRITISH politicians and journalists have vied to use the strongest possible adjectives to condemn the behaviour of phone-hackers paid by the News of the World.

This newspaper shares their revulsion at practices at the Sunday tabloid owned by News International, a British subsidiary of News Corporation, which publishes The Australian.

Allegations that the mobile phones of a murdered child or the loved ones of terrorist victims were tapped are, quite frankly, sickening. We welcome the Cameron government's move to commission a public inquiry. The claims, which News Corporation's chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, has stated are "deplorable and unacceptable", follow earlier admissions by the paper that the phones of high-profile people, including the actress Sienna Miller, were also tapped.

This time, ordinary people are involved. Some who had their privacy violated were experiencing extreme trauma at the time, which made them highly vulnerable. In one case, the hackers allegedly intervened in the mobile memory bank, removing messages to influence the "story".

It is true that some of News's rivals have leapt upon the allegations in an effort to block its proposed takeover of BSkyB. It is also the case that in the highly competitive tabloid market in London, cheque-book journalism, the use of illegally obtained phone conversations and other corrupt practices are not unusual. None of this reduces the culpability of those who performed or sanctioned activities that, if proven, would be not just unethical and illegal but also lacking in common decency. The desire for a journalistic scoop may go some way to explain, but can never excuse, such rogue acts.

The Times, also published by News International, this week described the case as a watershed moment for British journalism. We agree, and would go further: the reputation of all journalists is damaged by such behaviour if it goes unchallenged. For the most part, Australian journalists have shown greater respect for the division between private and public lives than their European counterparts. Newspapers here have long eschewed corrupt news-gathering techniques, such as paying police for information. But there is no room for complacency. The fourth estate plays a vital role in civic society but as with every other institution in a democracy, its legitimacy requires public trust.

One might think promoting divisive racially charged graphics is unethical news reportage.

For all News Corp's hand ringing sermonising, there doesn't appear to be any real basis for the trust requested by News Corp from the market place in Australia let alone the United Kingdom.

Posted by editor at 1:29 PM NZT

Updated: Friday, 15 July 2011 8:44 AM NZT

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Mood:  d'oh

It's hard to know with people like Andrew Bolt if he is dragging Israel further into the mire over conflict with Palestine and especially Gaza and therefore constitutes a serious danger to Israel's peace, welfare and good government.

He seems to be an apologist for the right wing splinter that has led Israel so woefully for the last few years: Who can forget the recent conviction for sexual assault of the former Israeli President. Then there was former PM Olmert investigated for real estate fraud. Then there was the foreign minister Lieberman charged with corrupt political payments by the Israeli Attorney General.

But perhaps the most worrying thing for the best interests of Israel is why implicitly Bolt appears to be an apologist for the land theft aka settler movement undoubtedly inside the Israeli military, who glorify this bloke - Yigal Amir at right above - the smiling assassin of Israel Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. A 'settler' Jew rotting in an Israeli prison.

Bolt's embrace is a clammy one for a peaceful future for Israel. Either you support discipline on the violent rogue land theft movement or you don't. Bolt appears very comfortable with them and presumably that Israeli bulldozer that deliberately crushed the living skull of peacenik Rachel Corrie in 2003. Nice people those 'settlers'.

. 

Posted by editor at 4:57 PM NZT

Updated: Sunday, 10 July 2011 1:11 PM NZT

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Mood:  accident prone

Curious indeed to hear federal resources minister Ferguson compare apples and oranges - foreign renewable energy companies investing in Australia who don't rip $50 BILLION in profits out of Australia in the next 5 years compared to mining multinationals who do, unless a government with balls applies a decent tax for our sovereign wealth in minerals. 

That's a $50 BILLION non sequitur from Ferguson, and jarring, like he's not the minister in an Australian Government. How sad.

Posted by editor at 10:31 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 1 July 2011 10:34 AM NZT

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Mood:  caffeinated

The new editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph is beating the divisive drum for all his cheap backside is worth with today's front page howler.

Only he seems to be completely ignorant of the forensic document analysis expertise regularly used in fraud cases in Sydney's legal profession. These experts, and not magistrates, provide expert evidence on authentic signatures - with spectrophotometer equipment, pen lift inspection, and all kinds of scary scientific methods - and they are objective.

And the signatures have to be the original document for expert analysis to be useful. The signature they "revealed" is a photocopy and not an original. Copies just don't cut it for legal signature analysis.

There wouldn't be a magistrate in Sydney who would offer a contrary opinion to a forensic expert with access to the original signature, and wise magistrates and judges would never claim to be conclusive either. In short the quote on the front page of the SDT today that a magistrate states the signature looks "almost identical" just doesn't cut it. 

Indeed fraudsters who practise signatures that look "almost identical" are a dime a dozen in the criminal world. The whole point of fraud is to look "almost identical".

2 strikes for Mr Paul Whittaker in the area of race relations in one week?

Posted by editor at 10:24 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 1 July 2011 10:32 AM NZT

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