Methinks thou doth protest too much, Johnny
If you are after William Shakespeare works you are going to be disapointed, so try the Classic Literature Library’s William Shakespeare section.
Apparently stating the bleeding obvious is only permissable if it follows the official government line. Even if you’re a politically neutral public servant allegedly protected by the separation of power. Following a comment by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty on television the other day, Howard and his cronies fell over themselves to decry and discredit him. The PM questioned his credibility. His personal lapdog, Australian Killbot Factory chief General Peter Cosgrove, was wheeled out in front of the media to express his disappointment. Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock admonished him for lacking the evidence to reach such conclusions. Perpetual political featherweight and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer even implied he was peddling al-Qaeda propaganda. The quote?
“If this turns out to be Islamic extremists responsible for this bombing in Spain, it’s more likely to be linked to the position that Spain and other allies took on issues such as Iraq.”
Apparently this isn’t a conclusion which should be arrived at by anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together. Apparently Howard and his goons think we’re complete morons (but then again, he WAS re-elected purely on a platform based on a tough stand on asylum-seekers throwing imaginary children from boats, so perhaps he’s on the right track). Disgustingly, Keelty was successfully cowed by the overwhelming pressure of the parrots for censorship and released a statement claiming he was “taken out of context”. Even more disgustingly, following his public distancing from his own comments, the MPs were suddently full of praise for their new best friend. And all was right with the world again.
But this touches on a point I was trying, unsuccessfully, to make in my previous entry. Yes, Operation Oil Industry Privatisation and WMD Easter Egg Hunt (hereafter abbreviated to “Iraq War”) has boosted Australia’s standing in the list of loopy Islamic terrorist targets, as did East Timor and our surrogate role as an American ally in the Zionist Christian Conspiracy?. But so fucking what? Why doesn’t Howard have the balls to just say “Yeah, and? What, you’re going to let fucking terrorists dictate the national political agenda?”, instead of all this limp-wristed umm-ing and uhh-ing. Believe it or not, you DO have the moral high ground in this case. Stop trying to obfuscate everything into a partisan political advantage. Get your heads out of your arses and take some goddamned responsibility for your actions.
