Like many people who use computers, I use Microsoft Word for much of what I write for this blog and I also for my scientific papers. In addition, I used to be the editor for a scientific journal from 1996 to 2016 and, when I started that, it was a very steep learning curve using rather clunky software called Pagemaker1. Eventually Pagemaker was replaced by the superb InDesign which was part of Adobe Creative Suite2.
As reported here some time ago, Jillian Segal was appointed Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism by the Albanese Labor government in 2024, and the main aim of her report seems to have been to conflate criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza with antisemitism. This was stated to be untenable by Justice Angus Stewart in a recent Federal Court case against Islamic preacher Wissam Haddad, whose posts it was ruled were antisemitic because he had conflated Zionism and Judaism.
Back in 2017, I wrote a piece about the likely fragmentation of the conservatives in Australia1. Here, most of the conservatives largely belong to what is ironically named the Liberal Party, with a few other small fringe groups soaking up the racist and religious extremists. That article was precipitated by one of the religious nutters in the Liberal Party, spitting the dummy, leaving that party and attempting unsuccessfully to start his own2.
On Substack, which I frequent daily, a German-American writer, cartoonist and commentator, who goes by the name of Oliver Markus Malloy1, is one person whose posts I read fairly regularly.
After a stupid statement by the silly old fart Bob Katter stating that every school should have an armoury in which each child could store their rifles, I wrote a piece about him and the reason he was so keen to sell more guns to Australians. That reason was that his son-in-law owns a large supplier of arms, ammunition and accessories1. Ever the spiv.
I saw a short video where a UK policeman was arresting someone for supporting Palestine Action, an organisation which is all about trying to prevent the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The person being arrested asked if it was because she supported Palestinians, and the copper said that it was. She also asked if she would be arrested if she supported Israel and the copper replied that she wouldn’t.
The appalling Josh Frydenberg has come out blaming Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the atrocity in Bondi. Always a Liberal. In this he is just echoing the bullshit spouted by the monster of Gaza, Netanyahu1.
After the horrendous events of December 14th, it didn’t take long before self-serving lies of people like Netanyahu surfaced.
We have just been to a movie matinee put on by some friends of ours. The movie was Frank Capra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’1, which I haven’t seen for a few decades. While the movie was made in 1946, it has many resonances with the modern world.
It is set in small-town America (of course), and the brief blurb on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) encapsulates it as follows: “An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman see the value of his own life”1.