Of course appalling right-wingers will be feeling vindicated over last night's episode of 60 Minutes and their story on the "failure" of multiculturalism. But they so hate diversity they would say that, wouldn't they?

And the report by Michael Usher really was a disgrace. It was a truly appalling beatup of a non-problem. Thankfully, the team redeemed themselves with their unflinching portrayal of the terrifyingly cataclysmic risks posed by the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors. Surely journali...
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It is International Women's Day today, fellow travellers, which is obviously cause for great celebration! You'll all be pleased to know that I danced a dance of empowerment and joy to that Helen Reddy classic with my feline, feminist fellow traveller Jocelyn.

But there was sadness too. My cat and I wept about the fact that blonde jokes are still being told in the workplace in this country, sometimes even by women themselves! And our tears flowed over the tragic dearth of the gentler (and also ...
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It's a given that conservatives are eeevil, hateful bigots who desperately want to hurt the planet. But sometimes they cloak their sinister intentions in "rational" arguments.

Take this appalling screed by Terry McCrann, one of Rupert's rotties, in which he claims the proposed carbon tax is akin to a suicide pledge. While at first blush it may seem like a logical take on Julia Gillard's bold promise and its consequences for our nation, there is much vile prejudice and falsehood at work undern...
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Fellow travellers, as we all know, conservatives want nothing more than to take Australian society back to the fifties. But when we point this out they always deny it. It's very much like their reaction to accusations of racism. You know for sure that someone is guilty of that if they deny they are. Really, it's as clear as black and white (and I don't mean that in a racist way of course).

But sometimes they don't deny it. On the contrary, they occasionally proudly claim allegiance to some opp...
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Yesterday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard committed to the introduction of a carbon tax.This brave, visionary pledge to the planet was verballed into a betrayal of the Australian people by the usual conga-line of Gaia-phobic right-wingers.

I mean, really. Why are they so scrupulous all of a sudden? Remember when Tony Abbott admitted that what he said wasn't always the "gospel truth". That was so ironic because clearly that was one of the few times he actually was being straight up. They were all...
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When our nation's sassy, feisty and very real leader Julia Gillard broke down in tears over the human toll of the (human-caused) Brisbane floods, of course those hate-peddlers on the right just couldn't handle it. They had been pushing this line that she was robotic and unemotional for so long, after all. So they had to ask: "Was her crying genuine?"

Well of course it was! I was so deeply moved by her response that even though she was holding an Australian flag, I actually didn't want to burn ...
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Why am I not surprised at the appalling Andrew Bolt's bellicose reaction to sharia advocate Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon's mildly provocative statements regarding his desire to have the law changed in Australia.

The bilious blowhard accuses him of being 'troubled" and "angry", then goes on to say: "The guy clearly is someone with an ego that’s outsized in comparison to his real worth, and is getting off on the attention."

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! (And I don't mean that in a racis...
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Fellow travellers, it must be remembered that Andrew Bolt, Tim Blair, Piers Akerman and Miranda Devine aren't the only reactionary, conservative columnists in the Australian media. Don't forget Paul Sheehan as well. The fact that he is still employed by our fellow travellers at Fairfax is one of life's enduring mysteries. I mean, they did manage to get rid of the (not very) Devine Miss Miranda, who's now peddling her hatred at that revolting News Ltd tabloid that simply doesn't bear mentionin...
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Fellow travellers, as we all know racism and sexism often go together, particularly in the media. This is to be expected, since the whole paradigm is dominated by white male peenie wavers.

And sometimes this sinister subtext exists even in stories that appear at first to be attempting to deconstruct that depressing state of affairs. Take this article about how there are more and more Aboriginal women working in West Australian diamond mines. The whole tenor of the piece implies that this deve...
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Fellow travellers, one thing that I find extremely annoying about appalling right-wing peenie-waving climate change denialists is how they constantly bleat about how there's "no actual evidence" for global warming, and that it's "all just a theory" about what's "going to happen in the future" based on "dodgy computer models".

Yet time and again there is irrefutable evidence of a catastrophically warming planet right before their very eyes! Take this fire in Gooseberry Hill on the outskirts of...
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Fellow travellers, as any of us who has worked in Australia's thriving arts sector knows only too well, Australian films are without doubt the best in the world! But sadly, local audiences are usually too stupid to appreciate them. Consequently they often fail to attract substantial crowds and lose money.

Of course, I don't consider box office failure a problem in itself, since I am against the profit motive in principle. However, it is undeniably unfortunate that every time an Aussie movie l...
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Fellow travellers I am sure that you are all as deeply appalled by recent developments regarding Labor's ban on nuclear power as I am. It looks like Julia may actually allow a debate about whether they should allow it. This is horribly, terrifyingly irrational, fellow travellers!

And this argument that if they can debate gay marriage, then they should also be allowed to debate nuclear power is highly specious (as well as speciesist). I mean, gay marriage is an extremely important issue that i...
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Fellow travellers, I found this story about a market stall being banned from the Rockingham local markets to be very heartening. While we can't be sure of exactly what the reason was, it was quite probably due to a strong sense of cultural sensitivity. The stall sold "bogan paraphernalia" after all.

The appalling sub-human redneck who flogs the vile merchandise whinged about the ban.

"If I was selling porn and bongs I'd expect them to say they don't want me there, but this is stickers and st...
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Fellow travellers, I am deeply disturbed by the election result in Victoria. The Liberals seem to have won! And as Bob Brown said it was also the Liberal Party's fault that the Greens didn't win a seat. We would have had several now if not for Ted Baillieu's appallingly unprincipled decision.

Of course, evil capitalists and nature rapers will be rubbing their clammy hands with glee. It's a truly distressing outcome for human and non-human Victorians, as well as for the environment globally.

A...
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Fellow travellers, as we all know today is Anzac Day, surely the most racist, sexist, homophobic and Gaia-phobic ritual we Australians have (and we have quite a few!).

Really, why we still allow this grotesque festival of hate to continue is completely beyond me! I mean, it is nothing less than the overt and shameless glorification of war. High ranking officials actually line up to celebrate acts of mass murder, which peenie-waving patriarchs describe, in their usual deceitful way, as "acts of...
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Fellow travellers, I'm sure many of you will remember Claire Werbeloff, who enjoyed a brief period of "stardom" after pretending to witness a shooting at Kings Cross.

Well, she has made the news again! It seems that she has been asked to be a Liberal candidate for the seat of Bradfield. As this article says, that appalling men's magazine Zoo Weekly has offered to pay for her to run.

You know the Liberal Party is simply beyond hope when they are commissioning these appallingly sexist peenie wav...
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Fellow travelers, it's almost appropriate that the horse who won this year's Melbourne Cup was called Shocking, because I found the whole exercize shocking in the extreme. In fact it wasn't just shocking. It was appalling!

Firstly, it was extremely elitist, as races invariably are. Finding the fastest horse was highly discriminatory, since horses have a lot more to offer than just speed. And I'm sure they don't judge themselves merely by that criterion. Were their values considered? Of course ...
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That appalling oil spill off the Western Australian coast has prompted a brave protest in which sassy sisters in bikinis covered themselves in oil and paraded in front of the Perth offices of the evil corporation responsible for the catastrophe.

While I heartily endorse the statement that these feisty feminist fellow travellers were making with their protest, did they really have to confirm the dominant paradigm of phallocentric lookism to make their point? While they weren't quite participati...
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I never thought that I would be thanking an AmeriKKKan for his contribution to Australian culture. After all, their appalling entertainment industry dominates ours to the point that we might as well be their fifty first state! But I have to say a big "thank you!" to Harry Connick junior for his courageous act of defiance on Hey Hey It's Saturday!

Appalling racists in the media have made much of the fact that the Jackson Jive were mostly non-white members of racial minorities. So for white peop...
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