Auspol December: All I want for Christmas is a new government.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Auspol December: All I want for Christmas is a new government.

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adamantium|wang: Sep 14, 2003; Missing you

Eddie Obeid has been stripped of his OAM.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:12

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 07:58

ShoeFly: Dec 28, 2006; Waiter, there's a fly in my shoe!

DFAT has just been evacuated because of a bomb threat and suspicious package.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:13

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

Found in the DFAT cafeteria. That's one suspicious lunch.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:19

Jonah Galtberg: Feb 11, 2009

Anidav posted:

Found in the DFAT cafeteria. That's one suspicious lunch.

Probably halal

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:23

Freudian Slip: Mar 10, 2007; "I'm an archivist. I'm archiving."

DeusExMachinima posted:

TFR just found the news anchor's intentional understatement to be amusing due to it being technically very correct. You and the Brits are good at the droll stuff.

I don't buy the 1m+ numbers but here you go: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-27/how-often-do-we-use-guns-in-self-defense
Murder totals right at the top: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8

Ultimately it doesn't really matter what anyone wants though, just give it 20 years.

Thanks for the links mate. Ok now we get to the quibbling part. So a defensive Gun Use is where a gun owner feels threatened and then brandishes their gun to prevent harm to themselves. Now while I am sure that in some cases this may have prevented violence, I was also argue that violence was not always going to have happened if a gun wasn't present. I would also argue that in some cases this has escalated a situation (ala Trayvon Martin)

Also comparing it to gun related homicide is only looking at the tip of the ice berg.

In the US there were 32,351 deaths due to firearms, which includes accidents and suicides.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm

You are also ignoring non-fatal injuries related to firearms. In 2013 there were 84,258 people admitted to hospital for non-fatal firearm related injuries.

http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html

So I figure it's ~115,000 deaths and injuries from firearms Vs <100,000 avoidable harm from gun ownership

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:23

Smegmatron: Apr 23, 2003; I hate to advocate emptyquoting or shitposting to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

Lol at the Americans who think anyone regards their opinions on guns as anything other than the lunatic fringe. Just loving lol.

Go and argue about all of the innocent people who were shot by police in the US last week instead of making GBS threads up this thread by trying to debate an issue that the rest of the world considers settled.

Seriously, just gently caress off and read this. Today isn't the time for this poo poo. We have more important issues to deal with today than your delusions of heroism.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:29

CrazyTolradi: Oct 2, 2011; It feels so good to be so bad.....at posting.

Anidav posted:

Found in the DFAT cafeteria. That's one suspicious lunch.

Someone left yoghurt in the fridge for a month, person opens door, sees what's growing inside and proclaims WOW THAT IS SUSS! Next minute.....

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:30

Fruity Gordo: Aug 5, 2013; Neurotic, Impotent Rage!

Give me a gun and I shall rid the world of gun crime.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:31

ewe2: Jul 1, 2009

Shakira Hussein, Crikey posted:

Sydney gunman a criminal, not a terrorist

Expect the unexpected. The gunman in the Sydney siege did not fit the profile (either the media or the security services profile) of the �lone wolf� terrorist who increasingly dominates our nightmares and our mediascapes. He was not a second-generation alienated Muslim youth, �self-radicalised� from extremist websites. He had his own �extremist website�, of course, but it was hardly likely to become a nexus of anything beyond his own deluded and barely coherent ramblings. His website, like the crimes for which he had already been charged, bore the hallmarks of an unpleasant middle-aged man, not a troubled teenager.

He was not, in other words, the kind of figure that anti-terrorism �experts� have subjected to so much recent analysis (and over-analysis), although he was already known to them, and to the media, and to the authorities.

And of course he was known to Muslim communities as well, at least in the sense that we have been aware of his existence in the years since he was charged with sending offensive emails to the family members of Australian service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Muslims have been urged to report on any radicalised and potentially dangerous figures in our midst -- yet what could any of us have usefully told the police and security services about �Sheikh� Haron that they did not already know? The response from Muslims on social media to the release of the gunman's identity mingled disbelief with �that figures�. Not �that figures� because he was a known henchman for Islamic State (the last anyone had heard, he was Shia, not Sunni), but �that figures� because he has been so viably dysfunctional and disturbing for so long. But if the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the cops couldn't figure that, why should we have been able to work it out on their behalf?

We ought not let Man Haron Monis' self-declared title of sheikh and his �exotic� robes and turbans distract us from the fact that he fits a profile that has been familiar to the Australian court system since the still-unsolved attacks against the family court system during the 1980s. The information that is emerging about the background events to yesterday's siege -- an unpleasant divorce, a bitter custody dispute, domestic violence and alleged domestic homicide, the emergence of historic sexual abuse allegations -- fit the pattern not of the disenfranchised Muslim yoof but of the stock-standard post-divorce mid-life crisis Australian man who reacts violently (usually against family members and ex-partners but sometimes against the court system) to the loss of what he considers to be his entitlements.

The tragic events of the past 24 hours raise questions about the government funding and media oxygen that has been devoted to counter-terrorism �expertise�. Criminologists are a more likely source of useful academic analysis, and the increased funding for ASIO could be more usefully deployed in combating family violence. And Helen Garner's This House of Grief provides a more insightful reading of men like the Sydney gunman than does any of the media analysis I have read so far.

Yep, a system failure. This is being papered over immediately as an "isolated incident" - wtf is that supposed to convey? That it can't happen again? Obviously it can given the system's weaknesses. How many "isolated incidents" are necessary before the system recognises a failure? In the end there was nothing that remarkable about the incident other than it took place in Sydney CBD with hostages. If it had taken place on a farm and the hostages/victims were his own family, we'd all click our tongues and tell ourselves "there goes another one".

The blame-game is already going on; certain elements are already blaming the Muslim community for somehow not reporting him more than they did. So desperate are our media and politicians to have home-grown terrorism, they invent it wherever possible and are furious when the people we slyly demonise won't play along. It just shouldn't have got this far .

Bernard Keane posted:

Meantime, Fairfax, where the Financial Review also went with an Islamic State connection despite having longer to realise it didn't exist, was today running the absurd typing of an American journalist who insisted yesterday was Australia's "9/11 moment" -- and 9/11 of course was famously the day America lost its innocence, a description that requires almost complete historical ignorance, or at least a healthy sense of sarcasm, for use.

Americans would do well to shut the gently caress up about parallels.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:34

plumpy hole lever: Aug 8, 2003; ♥ Anime is real ♥

BlitzkriegOfColour posted:

Noted Jewy-Jew John Safran is p. good.

It's true though, because Jewish humour is inherently superior to Irish comedy. It's not punching up, but it's not punching down like Irish humour does, either. It's punching yourself in the face and rubbing it in. May Allah bless the superior Jewish humour gene.

this is racist as gently caress mate and i would have expected better from someone who purports to hold themselves to a higher standard

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:35

Nibbles!: Jun 26, 2008; TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP

make australia great again as well please

ewe2 posted:

This is being papered over immediately as an "isolated incident" - wtf is that supposed to convey?

I think it's presented as an isolated incident in that it isn't connected to anything else, nothing is going to follow from this particular persons actions.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:37

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

And here's New Matilda:

NM posted:

The Narrative Must Shift: Randa Abdel-Fattah On The Need For A New Conversation
By Randa Abdel-Fattah

The exploitation by media and some in our community of the events of the Lindt Cafe siege compel a different response, writes Randa Abdel-Fattah.

It�s an ISIS flag. No it�s not. It�s a flag with Islamic writing. Wait Islamic isn�t a language. Sydney is under siege. Well, actually a man has taken hostages in a chocolate cafe in Sydney. The police are working on the situation. No Ray Hadley is� no the police are� no Ray Hadley� Devices have been planted around the city. We�re not sure how we know this because no contact has been made with the gunman but let�s whip people into a frenzied panic anyway. People have evacuated nearby buildings� except for those who were taking selfies one hundred metres from the caf� and posting them on social media.

The Daily Telegraph revealed yet again that it operates according to a different version of the English language when it referred to a single gunman as a �death cult�, ignoring important details like evidence.

Anecdotal stories came through of Muslim women wearing hijab being abused in public because clearly the only way to fight extremism is with racism and bigotry. The leader of the Australian Defence League, an anti-Muslim organization, went to Martin Place to express his rage at Islam. Presumably this was in solidarity with the hostages who would clearly have been delighted to have their indescribable fear and terrifying experience exploited for the sake of scoring some Islamophobia points.

Muslim organisations � weary, under-resourced, under pressure � were ready to condemn, to distance, to reassure because after 13 years of condemning, distancing, and reassuring, the Australian public seems to still be in doubt about Islam�s position on terrorism.

Hostages escaped and the media helpfully publicized it just in case the gunman missed them. Various radio stations took emotional calls from people who were in the Lindt caf� � not in the caf� yesterday, or even the day before, but in the caf� ever, giving a whole new meaning to �insider account�.

People around Australia were all feeling sick to the stomach, sucked into a vortex of fear at the thought that the IS threat had reached our country.

To combat the fear among some Muslim women wearing hijab of being attacked in public, an #illridewithyou campaign was launched, quickly going viral and serving as a heartening antidote to the anger, fear and helplessness many felt.

Like all Australians, Australian Muslims too worried about the fate of the hostages, about their friends and family in the city. They also contemplated (and in some cases experienced) the inevitable backlash, and the repercussions of condemning (but doesn�t this just feed the narrative that we are collectively responsible?) or not (but I don�t have the luxury of assuming people will perform basic logic and accept that, dare I say it, 1.6 billion Muslims might just happen to be a diverse bunch of people).

Commentators and experts pontificated and speculated but nobody knew what the gunman wanted, who he was, or what his motives were. Then the experts in the US and UK woke up and we were condemned to hear their long distance theories.

Of course, it was not surprising that the tragic events of yesterday would be interpreted and analysed through the war on terror narrative, even before any information about the gunman had come to light. Once that black flag was sighted, a hostage crisis metamorphosed into a crisis of terrorism, even if politicians, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and the police, were not adopting that language.

In the end, the gunman was, according to various reports, a person well-known to the legal system and police, with suggestions that he suffered mental health issues. Despite his violent criminal history and serious charges of murder and sexual assault, he was in the community because he had been released on bail.

There are many people asking the right questions, and while no-one can sensibly claim that this tragedy could have been foreseen and prevented, it is reasonable to ask why it is that, as a systemic issue, the system does not take crimes against women seriously enough?

There is another issue though, too. And that is whether Australian Muslims will be entitled to grieve the deaths of the two hostages and the trauma suffered by the survivors in a way that does not make their empathy and grief contingent on condemning, apologizing and distancing themselves from the gunman.

Some people will no doubt accuse me of insensitivity in raising Islamophobia at this time, assuming that I cannot simultaneously feel incomprehensible sorrow at the senseless death of two innocent people, and also care about how the narrative we allow to play out as a result of this crisis has far-reaching implications on matters of justice, anti-racism, asylum seeker demonizing and individual�s rights.

It is not polemical to say that a mark of honour to the lives of those lost is the capacity to step back and evaluate not only the moment, but what it says about our past and our future.

Expectations that Muslim organisations must apologise or �explain� and comment on the siege demonstrates that 13 years of press releases, press conferences and community activism have not sufficiently undermined the notion that Muslims bear collective responsibility for people who profess to act in the name of Islam.

What is astonishing is that the gunman did not even make such an explicit declaration. The mere presence of the flag-that-was-not-the-IS flag was enough to squeeze the Islamic faith and Muslim community into the witness box.

As a person straddling academia and activism, I am in a position to sympathise deeply with Muslim activists and organisations because they are caught in a double-bind, where to not speak is just as damaging as speaking. The chasm between philosophy, on the one hand, and policy, strategy and the complex, practical work of community leaders is wide.

It is widened even more when a crisis is urgent and the public discourse has not shifted. The hope that you can �change the narrative� may, in the immediate circumstances, seem noble and lofty, but too risky when the price to pay for not playing by the rules is too high.

To even express sympathy and offer condolences becomes tainted. Do we offer as human beings, as fellow Australians, as Muslims? To think that these categories are neutral is dangerously na�ve. For all those many Australians who have the decency to see such expressions for what they are � sincerely felt grief as fellow human beings � there are many divisive voices operating in the structures of power in this country that will use such gestures to reinforce the idea � even implicitly, even unintentionally if you will � that Muslims must take responsibility.

I do not know what the answer is, or how to narrow that chasm, other than to say that we are all, in our own ways, trying to do so and that the burden is heavy. And for every organization or leader who acts one way, there are many who will have wished he or she had acted another.

What I do know is that there are those in the Australian community (and, incidentally, media magnates too) who have already demonstrated a callous and vile capacity to exploit the horrors of the past 24 hours to further their Islamophobic agendas.

The narrative must shift or we are condemned to a cycle which does little to illuminate the issues at hand, and denies Muslims their dignity as fellow citizens.

We are all in this together. Racism does not stop when a Muslim woman is abused on public transport and anti-racism does not stop when you �ride with her�.

The real work begins when we acknowledge that campaigns like �illridewithyou� are necessary because racism exists, rather than necessary to prove it doesn�t.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:38

Smegmatron: Apr 23, 2003; I hate to advocate emptyquoting or shitposting to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

ewe2 posted:

Americans would do well to shut the gently caress up about parallels.

Americans are notoriously bad at understanding things without first placing them within the framework of the American context. Their media is especially egregious in this case. Everything they talk about has to somehow be related to the American experience, or they simply can't make heads or tails of it. It's why ignoring them about anything with which America isn't directly involved is a loving excellent idea.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:39

ewe2: Jul 1, 2009

And here's a thorough Crikey wrap-up of the state of play after the Victorian state election. Verdict: ahahaha (my bolding)

quote:

Poll Bludger: Andrews faces a daunting challenge in Vic upper house

Over two weeks on from polling day, the new Victorian government finally knows the shape of the parliament it will face over the next four years.

The Victorian Electoral Commission this morning pressed the button on the preference distribution for the eight five-member Legislative Council regions, having yesterday completed the laborious process of data entry on a much-increased number of below-the-line votes.

This confirmed what had been clear since election night: that the make-up of the chamber will be scarcely less daunting for Daniel Andrews than the Senate is for Tony Abbott.

Labor has won 14 out of the 40 seats, two fewer than it was able to manage at a losing election in 2010.

But the Coalition fared a good deal worse, now reduced to 16 seats after having a majority of 21 in the previous parliament. This includes four losses for the Liberals and one for the Nationals.

The resolution of counting delivered the Greens another good turn following their surprise win in Prahran last week, confirming a haul of five seats.

This included a seat in the South Eastern Metropolitan region that the ABC computer had been projecting to go to the Sex Party, based on the assumption of all votes being above-the-line.

However, it appears some of the preferences that the Sex Party absorbed from Animal Justice and the Voluntary Euthanasia Party leaked away as below-the-line votes, causing them to fall behind Labor at the second-last exclusion.

Another seat that remained significantly in doubt until the moment the button was pushed was in Northern Victoria, where Labor sneaked a second seat that earlier looked like going to the Country Alliance.

Labor had contentiously placed the Country Alliance ahead of the Greens on its preference order, which would have been decisive if Labor rather than the Greens had dropped out of the count at the second-last exclusion.

However, Labor's Jaclyn Symes was narrowly able to stay in front of the Greens candidate, after which Greens preferences determined the issue by flowing to Labor ahead of the Country Alliance -- a favour Labor had failed to return.

The Greens likewise got out of jail with its preference deal with Palmer United, which in a slightly different scenario might have delivered PUP a seat in Western Victoria.

The arrangement proved to the Greens' advantage in the Western Metropolitan region, helping re-elect Colleen Hartland to a seat that under an alternative PUP preference arrangement might have gone to Labor instead.

That leaves the traditional forces of the Left, Labor and the Greens, with a total of 19 seats -- the best they could have hoped for under the circumstances, given that Northern Victorian and South Eastern Metropolitan respectively went in their favour.

But the decisive factor of the new upper house remains the five piggies in the middle: two from Shooters & Fishers and one each from the Sex Party, the Democratic Labour Party and Vote 1 Local Jobs.

The latter party is the vehicle of Moyne Shire mayor James Purcell, who won a seat in Western Victoria that the earliest projections had going to Nicole Bourman of Shooters & Fishers -- whose husband, Jeffrey Bourman, won a seat for the party in Eastern Victoria.

The DLP returns to parliament after having won a seat in Western Victorian in 2006 and lost it in 2010, this time taking the last seat in the Western Metropolitan region.

The Sex Party's president and long-established figurehead Fiona Patten has become the party's first elected member after taking a seat in Northern Metropolitan, a result that became apparent early in the count.

The election of another confusing array of micro-party candidates again calls into question the utility of the above-the-line voting system and its consequence of mass preference transfers determined by party deals.

But in most cases, a quota's worth of voters did indeed make the decision to vote outside the established channels of Labor, Coalition and Greens, and in doing so arguably provided a mandate for a parliament with a more-than-usual amount of colour.

However, that Shooters & Fishers in particular should have been the beneficiary in two separate cases was more to do with adroitness in preference negotiations than the clearly expressed will of the voters.

It was outpolled by DLP in Northern Victoria and both the Liberal Democrats and Sex Party in Eastern Victoria, the Sex Party being among the less intuitively obvious of its preference feeders.

The favour was returned duly with Shooters & Fishers preferences ending up with the Sex Party in Northern Metropolitan -- although their votes were few in number here, and Patten would have won the seat in any case, the Sex Party preference snowball having put her well ahead of Labor's third candidate.

For all that it may have been worse for Labor, the result puts the new government in a diabolically complex position in cobbling together the 21 votes needed to pass its legislation in circumstances where the Coalition lines up against it.

Greens support will at all times be essential -- beyond that, it will need to find a further two votes out of the curious mix of the Sex Party, Shooters & Fishers, the DLP and Vote 1 Local Jobs.

Suck it ALP, after all that you're hosed without us. And I'm rather pleased that the results for ACA didn't go as they wished, another reason why ALP will be beholden.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:45

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

What the ALP did in Victoria does nothing but confuse me. All it did was harm the government's majority and probably spoiled relations with a vital minor party for awhile. It's like shooting yourself in the foot then declaring it's more honest to hop towards victory.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:53

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Smegmatron posted:

Americans are notoriously bad at understanding things without first placing them within the framework of the American context. Their media is especially egregious in this case. Everything they talk about has to somehow be related to the American experience, or they simply can't make heads or tails of it. It's why ignoring them about anything with which America isn't directly involved is a loving excellent idea.

Slate's series about American events written as if they were in another country is good for a chuckle or two.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:53

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

ewe2 posted:

And here's a thorough Crikey wrap-up of the state of play after the Victorian state election. Verdict: ahahaha (my bolding)

Suck it ALP, after all that you're hosed without us. And I'm rather pleased that the results for ACA didn't go as they wished, another reason why ALP will be beholden.

Noice.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 05:53

Divorced And Curious: Jan 23, 2009; democracy depends on sausage sizzles

Anidav posted:

What the ALP did in Victoria does nothing but confuse me. All it did was harm the government's majority and probably spoiled relations with a vital minor party for awhile. It's like shooting yourself in the foot then declaring it's more honest to hop towards victory.

If your reaction is one of confusion as opposed to "coulda seen this coming labor gonna labe" then you clearly understand your own party a lot worse than a lot of people who left it years ago or were never part of it.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:05

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

I don't think Queensland Labor ever tried these kind of militant anti-green preferencing. I'm happy to be wrong.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:10

Nautilus42: Jan 14, 2008; Unrelated sea creature

I wouldn't take the upper house results for granted until after the 17th, as interesting as it sounds. The VEC can be requested to recount between now and then...

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:13

MysticalMachineGun: Apr 5, 2005

ewe2 posted:

Yep, a system failure. This is being papered over immediately as an "isolated incident" - wtf is that supposed to convey? That it can't happen again? Obviously it can given the system's weaknesses. How many "isolated incidents" are necessary before the system recognises a failure? In the end there was nothing that remarkable about the incident other than it took place in Sydney CBD with hostages. If it had taken place on a farm and the hostages/victims were his own family, we'd all click our tongues and tell ourselves "there goes another one".

I raised a similar issue with my wife yesterday - by the time I got home we knew it was only one or two people, and I pointed out that when a guy holds his ex-wife up with a gun in Salisbury it's business as usual but do it in the CBD and be Arabic and holy poo poo suddenly it's ISIS here on our doorstep. Looks like I was closer to what was happening than NewsCorp.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:16

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

Anidav posted:

I don't think Queensland Labor ever tried these kind of militant anti-green preferencing. I'm happy to be wrong.

Because the Greens aren't a threat in what is arguably Australia's shittiest state and you only have a unicameral government so no need for hedging and wheeling and dealing.

But mainly the part about QLD being poo poo.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:17

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

Yes, so forgive me for not having an as poo poo ALP as the other states. It's still pretty poo poo though and I intend to correct my party memberships soon.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:20

mastershakeman: Oct 28, 2008; by vyelkin

American perspective: after seeing the emergency vehicles as we drove from Sydney to the Blue Mountains yesterday at 10 am, we flew from Sydney to Melbourne this morning. I was completely shocked that there wasn't a huge amount of security theater occurring at the airport - we arrived early on the assumption that we'd need to take off our shoes, have everything searched extra thoroughly, all the standard hallmarks we're used to dealing with in the States. Yet apparently your government and population recognizes that doing so is really stupid and wasteful and doesn't give in to the pageantry. Was really nice to see.

If I hadn't been with my family I'd have been happy to walk around the police cordon sight seeing - my wife and mom were quite freaked out about it, despite me reminding them that in Chicago (where I'm from) there's hostage takings all the time and multiple murders every single day on average, often quite close by. It's just perception, I suppose.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:21

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

3.59pm: Meanwhile, back at DFAT, ACT police have tweeted that the package is not suspicious.

Oh, it must have only been a tuna sandwich.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:23

Murodese: Mar 6, 2007; Think you've got what it takes?
We're looking for fine Men & Women to help Protect the Australian Way of Life.

Become part of the Legend. Defence Jobs.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:23

Tokamak: Dec 22, 2004

ewe2 posted:

And here's a thorough Crikey wrap-up of the state of play after the Victorian state election. Verdict: ahahaha (my bolding)

Suck it ALP, after all that you're hosed without us. And I'm rather pleased that the results for ACA didn't go as they wished, another reason why ALP will be beholden.

Who keeps voting in the Shooters and Fishers? Is it some sort of preference deal between a heap of the minor parties? Are Australians apathetic about politics and see the party as doing 'one good thing' for them? I wouldn't have thought there were enough recreational hunters/fishers to support even one member in the upper house.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:24

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

Guys I'm worried about our leftest imagination, it seems to have powers that control other people's posts on Andrew Bolt articles.

EDIT:

"Men stood on top of a Townsville shopping centre holding a racist sign in the wake of the Sydney siege"

Anidav fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Dec 16, 2014

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:26

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Tokamak posted:

Who keeps voting in the Shooters and Fishers? Is it some sort of preference deal between a heap of the minor parties? Are Australians apathetic about politics and see the party as doing 'one good thing' for them? I wouldn't have thought there were enough recreational hunters/fishers to support even one member in the upper house.

Yeah, they get a lot of mileage out of preference deals. Lion Helm and Druery have both been associated with them (or vice versa, if you prefer)

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:28

NTRabbit: Aug 15, 2012; i wear this armour to protect myself from the histrionics of hysterical women

bitches

Tokamak posted:

Who keeps voting in the Shooters and Fishers? Is it some sort of preference deal between a heap of the minor parties?

Duck hunters, fishers who think marine parks and bag limits should be outlawed, and preference deals

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:28

hooman: Oct 11, 2007; This guy seems legit.; Fun Shoe

Miranda Devine is like Sideshow Bob locked in a rake factory.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:28

Cleretic: Feb 3, 2010; Ignore my posts!
I'm aggressively wrong about everything!

ewe2 posted:

And here's a thorough Crikey wrap-up of the state of play after the Victorian state election. Verdict: ahahaha (my bolding)

Suck it ALP, after all that you're hosed without us. And I'm rather pleased that the results for ACA didn't go as they wished, another reason why ALP will be beholden.

Wait, Victoria elected a party called Vote 1 Local Jobs? I always through names like that were relegated to languishing near the bottom, below the far-right lunatics and with the no-namer independents.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:28

Asphyxious: Jun 25, 2012; I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life.

Cleretic posted:

Wait, Victoria elected a party called Vote 1 Local Jobs? I always through names like that were relegated to languishing near the bottom, below the far-right lunatics and with the no-namer independents.

Melbourne really likes Melbourne.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:30

Murodese: Mar 6, 2007; Think you've got what it takes?
We're looking for fine Men & Women to help Protect the Australian Way of Life.

Become part of the Legend. Defence Jobs.

Junkee has a nice metapiece about the media coverage of yesterday, including a pretty nice quote:

http://junkee.com/how-australia-covered-the-sydney-siege/47337

quote:

�When you are able to stand behind police tape in Martin Place, in the centre of Sydney, and watch a jihadist hostage siege unfold, you know that the War on Terror has arrived,� opined Herald Sun reporter Paul Toohey.

Nope. If media and the general public are able to stand around at their leisure, gawking at, filming and photographing a crime in progress while the rest of the city goes about its business, it�s probably not terrorism.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:31

froglet: Nov 12, 2009; You see, the best way to Stop the Boats is a massive swarm of autonomous armed dogs. Strafing a few boats will stop the rest and save many lives in the long term.

You can't make an Omelet without breaking a few eggs. Vote Greens.

The people at my work are crowing that recent events have proved them right. Cue "why don't the Muslim community do something / why wasn't he in gaol" and racial epithets.

:negative:

gently caress.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:31

Those On My Left: Jun 25, 2010

Cleretic posted:

Wait, Victoria elected a party called Vote 1 Local Jobs? I always through names like that were relegated to languishing near the bottom, below the far-right lunatics and with the no-namer independents.

Google them, they don't even sound that bad

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:32

adamantium|wang: Sep 14, 2003; Missing you

froglet posted:

The people at my work are crowing that recent events have proved them right. Cue "why don't the Muslim community do something / why wasn't he in gaol" and racial epithets.

gently caress.

Let them know that Shia clerics have been asking the AFP to look into this guy since 2008, and when he converted to Sunni Islam the Sunnis wanted nothing to do with him.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:34

Smegmatron: Apr 23, 2003; I hate to advocate emptyquoting or shitposting to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

froglet posted:

The people at my work are crowing that recent events have proved them right. Cue "why don't the Muslim community do something / why wasn't he in gaol" and racial epithets.

gently caress.

Tell them someone from Sydney told them to shut the gently caress up.

You can quote me.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:35

Doctor Spaceman: Jul 6, 2010; "Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

adamantium|wang posted:

Let them know that Shia clerics have been asking the AFP to look into this guy since 2008, and when he converted to Sunni Islam the Sunnis wanted nothing to do with him.

Is there more I can read about this?

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:36

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 07:58

Tokamak: Dec 22, 2004

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Yeah, they get a lot of mileage out of preference deals. Lion Helm and Druery have both been associated with them (or vice versa, if you prefer)

Well in that case, they are getting one hell of a preference deal.

# ? Dec 16, 2014 06:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Auspol December: All I want for Christmas is a new government.

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