Senator Andrew Bartlett
Monday, September 13, 2004
 
The debate between Howard & Latham is finished. No mention of indigenous Australians, no mention of the environment and the Worm seems to have been more captivating for viewers and analysts than either of the contestants.

No mention of the Senate either of course, even though that contest is just as significant for our future as whether we end up with Howard or Latham.

Tried to forget about my disgust at the limited and narrow scope of the 'debate' by reading a book. Finished "Peace Kills" by PJ O'Rourke – quite a good read in a few places. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for PJ O'Rourke. He's reasonably amusing despite his politics, although it's funny how there's no cottage industry dedicated to pointing out factual errors in his books as a way of discrediting his arguments, even though it's a fair bet he takes more poetic licence than Michael Moore does.

I still haven't seen Farenheight 911, which I really should do. I guess I've read so much about it that I feel like I've seen it anyway. I quite like Michael Moore. It's good to see the left get a reasonably humourous polemicist – so many lefties are dour humourless self-righteous types when it comes to politics. If you're going to be self-righteous, the least you can do is try to be amusing about it at the same time. Most of the moderately amusing political commentators seem to come from the right, which is why the emergence of Michael Moore is so welcome.

I have to admit I'm a fan of Tim Blair, who has quite a knack for pointing out the internal inconsistencies in a number of actions and views of left leaning politics (except when he tries to do it to me and the Democrats, when of course he's selectively misrepresenting our position just so he can get a cheap laugh). I don't mind Peter Rhuel too, although I find his style a bit repetitive and predictable after a while. However, I usually still read his columns, so I must still enjoy them even while telling myself it's predictable.

More footy finals played and more frustration at not being able to see the games because of the campaign. The Broncos lost in the Rugby League, which was disappointing but not totally surprising. Great to see the Cowboys get a win up against the Bulldogs. Having the two Qld teams playing in the next round of the finals will be good – from memory the Cowboys have never beaten the Broncos and a final would be a good place to start. I'm always reluctant to write off a Wayne Bennett team, but if the Cowboys can maintain the enthusiasms of the first-timers and have a few things go their way, they could pull it off.

Good to see Essendon lose (see blog from 5/9/4). Pressure now on the Lions – I'm hopeful they can get through next week, but beating Port will be very tough in the big one I think. I sense there's still a lot of people still not very switched on to the election campaign – maybe once the finals are out of the way, it'll be different, although I guess if the inevitable happens this year and the AFL has two non-Victorians in the Grand Final, maybe that state will switch on a bit earlier than they otherwise would, just so they've got a local contest to follow.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Monday, September 13, 2004 Permalink
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