Spot the difference

Credit card fraud.

Credit card fraud fraud.

Queensland Election: Surprise Winner. It’s Peter Beattie!

Gliberty allowed Peter to speak for himself when he resigned. Just in case you missed that, here’s the link.

That was a while ago but, thankfully, Peter’s wisdom has increased with age and he generously shared it with us on Insiders on Sunday morning in an interview in which he showed as much humility and grace as Anna Bligh did with her concession speech.

But the greatest testament to his brilliance was provided by a columnist in The Australian on Saturday morning. This sage not only predicted Anna’s wipe out but cast a keen eye over Labor’s history in government. In an article about Anna’s and Labor’s demise, the writer somehow managed to get in quite a few references to Peter’s brilliance and many successes.

Who was this scribe? Why, none other than some occasional columnist named P. Beattie. Surely, no relation? No, it couldn’t be. Not our humble Peter! His hide’s not thick as his top lip’s wide!

Please consider the environment before printing this email

Being immature, Gliberty hates being told what to do. But the inanity of this message has never caused more than mild irritation at being forced to read for a nanosecond longer than necessary. After all, a literal reading could lead the reader to 1) read the email; 2) decide to print the email; 3) consider a pretty pastoral scene or a view of Earth from an imagined point in space; and 4) print the email.

Another formulation may not lead to a different result.

“When deciding whether you should print this email, please consider the impact on the environment that printing it will have and then don’t print it”.

That doesn’t assist. For a start, it’s too much like an order and those suffering Gliberty like immaturity would print solely because they were asked to not.

Of course, the real risk associated with that message is that the requested consideration would lead many, if not all, would be printers to conclude that the environmental impact of printing would be so negligible as to not alter their inclination.

And look what’s happened now! The stupid message has provoked Gliberty to (not) harm the environment by using power and other resources necessary to create this fatuous post.

Conroy - keeping an open mind as usual

The ABC reported Minister Conroy's open mindedness:

'This morning, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Ms Rinehart was not breaking the law as it stands, but said he wanted new laws to include a public interest test on media diversity.

"Clearly she is seeking to exert her influence but is she breaking the law by exerting an influence? No," Senator Conroy told ABC Local Radio.

"Do we need stronger laws in this area? Yes.

"We want to see a debate around a public interest test."'

He wants a debate but on an issue he's already decided. Gliberty has experienced this kind of debate manipulation in the communications sector before. In Beijing. We shit you not.

ABC. All biased coverage?

The ABC is biased.

Compare the BBC news website’s reporting of two events - the murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist and a video which appears to show US troops urinating on corpses.

The ABC headlines shout “Israel accused of killing scientist with magnetic bomb” for the former story and “Marines filmed urinating on Taliban corpses” for the latter.

The BBC headlines? “US Marine Corps probes 'Taliban desecration' video” and “US condemns bomb attack on Iran nuclear scientist”.

No doubt the ABC’s defenders will say the articles make the stories clear, but to the browser of news websites the message is completely different and grossly misleading.

Note the caution of the BBC with its use of inverted commas within the headline around ‘Taliban desecration’ video.

Privatise the juvenile creeps, now