spinbadz own

Played it like a maestro, I thought. The "oil addiction" thread got right to the heart of things. Had Hillary bouncing around like a turnip. And then, later, Wolf Blitzer too.

Wolf emphasized to viewers (several times) that numbers from an instant CNN poll - of people who actually watched the speech - were probably skewered towards Bush because those who bothered watching it are likely to be pro- the W. man in the first place.

(Actually, the thing that interested me about the CNN poll is that it was conducted both during and after the speech. When, precisely "during"? Couldn't that too have affected the stats, Wolf, contrarily perhaps?)

To the apparent chagrine of the CNN interviewer co-hosting with Wolf, interviewee Senator McCain blurted out that the addiction-to-oil part of the speech had noticeable impact in chamber.

"But he's talked about this every State of the Union!" protested the CNN guy.

"Not in this kind of detail," said McCain, "and not with Russia, Venezuela and now Iran hovering around playing the oil card."

Bush mentioned ethanol, "not only from corn"!, "clean and safe" nuclear power stations, specific (oil) reduction targets. That all certainly hit a chord with me.

The Australian Open tennis, bathed in that New Year sunshine, provides a nice diversion from the new standard scary-nasties living in a billion TVs. More relaxing to watch the cheering for Cypriot Greek Baghdatis than to hear news from that eponymous place.

The eponymous place will take years to de-US and demilitarize. Every fuleno that, which makes you wonder about alternative ways US President Bush might have confronted the pervert charade that Uncle Sam secretly loves being in Iraq and is, by osmosis, forcing Ameri-enemies to work as murderers and maimers in the course of a mission from Allah.

If hypothetically you're the master of say a television station bent, for whatever reason, on making Bush look like a muppet and a 10th Dan vampire simultaneously, then there may not be much the President could reasonably do to change your ways, though Clinton is reputed to have tirelessly worked the media and Reagan handled the arrows aimed at him; surely a president has enough hardware at his disposal to concoct evolving strategies for image control.

Somebody should, one suspects, have told the incumbent long ago that the 9-5 plus ranch holiday thing wouldn't work out. Electors probably prefer to see some sweat worthy of their main man, their mainest of men. Clinton pollsters would have been on to that. Sure, many voted for Bush precisely because he was not-Clinton and not-Machiavelli, but that doesn’t make it hurt to have a lot of white hair and a little slick.

Bush has already committed to a major Iraq troop reduction program. That fact may as well be cranked out long and hard and at top volume, for the mayhemists are rejoicing in this 'evidence of victory' on Arab television stations. The rejoicers are precisely why 3,000 New Yorkers were boiled alive one day，and why Bush can't get the soldiers out of Iraq any faster, not if stable democratic government is an aim.

Unfortunately the nutters and lemmings look like they're going to be with us for a long time. Stable democratic government in Iraq may not be possible, not at a reasonable price, not in the short term. Bush may as well get the message out on this, too.

Iraq looks like being but a battle within a war. So far the conduct of that war, by oil-financed and bloodthirsty would-be world and virgin dominators, has relied on having strong televisual propaganda in - rather than on - their recidivist corner.

Century that just was was the greatest, obviously, in the known history of humankind, the era when

electricity
the oil-engine and nuclear power
motor cars, airplanes and computers
instant global pictures, sounds, news and text
consumerism
science
space
micro-intervention
reproductive control and dramatically lengthened lifespans
global standards and widespread freedom

etc. transformed our lives.

Hugo Chavez sees things differently though. He said on Xmas eve:

"minorities, the descendants of those who crucified Christ, have taken over the riches of the world."

and he's a great admirer of Ahmadinejad, warming ties with that great pre-messiah-armaggedon-instigator.

Maybe this century will be the suicide century, the anti-century, the Chavez century ...

Some of mine, in no particular order:

(These places quite pricey ...,
these places quite cheap)

Fishface, Darlinghurst: fish and chips
Golden Century, Chinatown: fresh mud crab (salt pepper chili)
East Ocean: ditto (when the line's too long at Golden Century)
Tetsuya, city: set menu (my fave: the trout)
Sakana-ya, Crows Nest: trad-style Japanese fish sets
Flying Fish, Pyrmont: any fish main and the homemade peanut ice cream dessert
Westfield Bondi Junction Falafel stand (food court below cinema)
An, Bankstown: pho; then round the corner for baklawa
Phamish, Paddinghurst: qualidee Vietnamese
Bills 2, Surry Hills: eggs, pancakes (breakfast)
Le Petite Creme (Cafe) - Darlinghurst Road: breakfast, fresh baguettes
Tropicana - Victoria St: salads, breakfasts, fast service, good atmos.
Una's, Darlinghurst/KingsX: schnitzel + huge slab of hash brown
Balkan Restaurant on Oxford Street: Schnitzel
Max Brenner, city/Paddington/Double Bay: chocolate waffles
Burgerman, Darlinghurst: burgers
Hurricanes, Bondi Beach: steak, burgers; ribs look popular
Icebergs, Bondi Beach: qualadee total package
Malaya, King's Wharf: Beef rendang (tomato base), szechuan eggplant
Malay-Chinese (something or other), city Hunter St: chicken laksa, Singaporean fried noodles
Hugo's Lounge, King's X: good dine in pizza
Mario's, East Sydney: pizza, calamari
Jonah's, Whale Beach: fantastic view, take visitors (and romantics)


Out of Sydney:

Greenwell Point (near Nowra) fish and chips shop
Robert's (Hunter Valley. near Tower Estate): grrreat atmosphere, can't-miss food/wine


Also, so they say:

Longrain - good Thai
Minh - Dulwich Hill - "great" Vietnamese
Cosmopolitan, Manly, "best choclate milkshakes"
World Burgers Darlinghurst
Kebab World, Pittwater Rd Dee "good and tasty kebab without the special eColi sauce"
Perspolis for Iranian kabob and horesht
Sabbaba Israeli takeaway Bondi.
Radio Cairo African/Middle Eastern resturant in Cremorne.
est.
Machiavelli's in York Street: Pasta , prawn cutlets



Out of the list because ...

Matsuri: nr cnr Crown & Cleveland Sts: reasonably priced good Japanese (rec chicken)
... has changed hands, lost the X factor
Nick's Seafood Restaurant, Cockle Bay
... over-rated

Back in the day, so I'm told, the arrival of "pizza pie" and souvlaki with the football-loving immigrants from (around) southern and eastern Europe added welcome dimensions to life on the united continent.

Even committed "wogball" haters might have found a soft spot for Con the Fruiterer and Nick Shehadie, or a hard spot for Jana Wendt, or a honey (s)pot in the urban and employment dimensions made reality by "new boys" network supremos like Lowy.

Now there is a new immigration challenge.

The old folk used to say that "Asians just don't integrate" (like Christian Europeans do). But of course "they" do integrate. Just, differently.

We're audience to the event, forced also to have a good hard look at our own fears about things unknown. Our world may never be the same again. It so changed after WWII and as it came then, good comes with bad now.

But mostly good.

Now, as education standards lift, "Australia's brainiest kid" is likely to be of Asian ethnicity. Sydney's cuisine variety and quality (and danged prices) are as good, perhaps, as anywhere on earth. The Orthodox church and mosque are part of the cityscape. Congregants enthuse about the A-League and upcoming Dragons and you-know-who games.

They may also, especially the younger ones, talk - in different tones to the general populace - about figures like Osama and al-Zarqawi, and Saddam. As well as about some sponsored local firebrand who would guide their political consciousness.

The Cronulla race riot had, we can safely assume, a bigger effect on such youth than it had on you and I. Speaking for myself I sure have been on the lookout, on occasions, for personal incidents to fill in gaps on what it all, if anything, means to me.

But I wasn't so looking on a driving trip down the NSW south coast over NY.

There we were, 3 people , trekking through a lush national park path to one of those pristine white sand beaches that many non-Australians think exist only on postcards and in dreams, let alone a short drive from Sydney.

Close to the beach we were dismayed by the numbers of fellow holidayers. Though it wasn't like Bondi on Boxing Day or something.

Where the path meets the sand, on this particular beach, was a quirky reminder of Cronulla, being 4 or 5 youth of the recently televised-to-death "Middle Eastern appearance" persuasion, complete with imam-like longbeards.

They were in high spirits and having fun, and certainly there only for that reason. Maybe weirdly, to an extra-cultural and an oldy, like you or me in any clique of youth.

Continuing walking I took note of the (very) ethnically diverse crowd, found a towel spot. Everybody around was in intent getaway mode.

A group of people decided to kick around a soccer ball in the formerly open area right behind us, our quiet enjoyment disturbed by the fear that the ball would eventually come our way, which of course it did.

So the missus (let's call her that, and the other her sister) gives 'em a mouthful. The soccer group (who are Chinese) apologise and move on.

Now we had, of course, fodder for that great Australian beach sport: bagging and talking about the other people on the beach. At least until the next incident a couple of sunbaked hours later.

This time a couple of youth (of "Middle-Et cetera)") decided to plant themselves - after considering miles and miles of private possibilities - about 1 metre in front of us, strategically turning to face away from the water, a view coincidentally spiced with the open legs of two said ladies accompanying.

Now I don't care where you're from or how old you are, if you behave like that and you've hair on your balls then you're a cunt. Thankfully, said state of affairs didn't last for long, girls upping with their towels and scurrying backwards about 15-20 metres. The offending cunts appeared crestfallen, trying to save face by marching away, within inches of the new spot, eyes burning the ladies as they pass.

Over the next few days, and over and above this incident, there are even more exciting gossip-inculcators. Especially: young guys intruding on space, trying to impress women.

Which is, after all, the usual fare on a crowded summer beach downundah.

But one common thing about some of these kids (stress: some. only.) is that, even though testosterone levels and testosterone-motivated actions are a factor regarding all young males, there does here seem to be a particular tendency to openly stare, long and hard and shamelessly, at attractive beach-clad females.

Maybe that's because: some young adults, from some areas maybe without a beach in cooee,

a) just aren't used to this kind of scantiness,
b) carry cultural baggage abhorring it,
c) might be exposed to a strain of thought that such is necessarily a corollary to being a dirty whore, but:
d) love to go to the beach.

However you explain it it's still a pain in the ass. The extreme end of this mindset seems to reject male responsibility for controlling carnal desire.

Anyways, after the holiday, arrived home late evening and flicked on the idiot box.

During the commercial breaks there were detailed and lurid ads for Internet dating sites like "gaymatchmaker.com.au", and other sites promising entreaties from horny housewifes, wife-swappers, threesome seekers (etc., but not kiddy fiddlers and animal persons, yet).

Made me recall that these ads are played night after night on free-to-air.

And wonder whether those angry Muslim preachers railing against western decadence have a point.