The Nature of Lies

THE river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Departed, have left no addresses.
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept...
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear
The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.

A rat crept softly through the vegetation
Dragging its slimy belly on the bank
While I was fishing in the dull canal
On a winter evening round behind the gashouse
Musing upon the king my brother's wreck
And on the king my father's death before him.
White bodies naked on the low damp ground
And bones cast in a little low dry garret,
Rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year.
But at my back from time to time I hear
The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring
Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.
O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter
And on her daughter
They wash their feet in soda water
Et, O ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole!

Twit twit twit
Jug jug jug jug jug jug
So rudely forc'd.
Tereu

TS Elliot The Wasteland



Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labour; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
Samuel Johnson

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long.
Leonard Bernstein

A cult is a religion with no political power.
Tom Wolfe



The nature of public discourse in Australia has deteriorated sharply in recent years, with politicians seizing upon multi-million dollar advertising campaigns to convince the public of their propaganda.

There's been so many manufactured crises now, all, not surprisingly, requiring government intervention and the expenditure of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, that you could be forgiven for losing track.

Of course there was that absolute pearlier, Work Choices. Disgracefully, the Howard government spent hundreds of millions of our dollars attempting to convince us that stripping away workers rights was a good idea; it would boost the economy and provide greater flexibility in the workplace. It was a wholesale transferral of bargaining power to the bosses. Blind Freddy could have told you stripping the rights of workers en mass would lead to a massive backlash. But with astonishing arrogance, they ploughed on with this absurdity.

Of course fathers are used to be lying too. They've been told some of the biggest porkies in Australian public life - that family law operates in the best interests of children. But stripping children of the right to meaningful contact with their children is in no way whatsoever in their best interests; nor is the destruction of the role of fathers in the best interests of society as a whole.

Recently we've been afflicted with more millions of dollars worth of advertising from the so-called Child Support Agency, this despised and sexist institution which would have been abolished years ago if it was promoting the suffering and early of deaths of women in the same way as it is doing to men. A simple, fairer system? We don't think so. Ask all those blokes being asked to pay more, fathers already struggling to cope in the grossly over-taxed Australian environment, whether they're finding the system simpler and fairer?

The lies have just kept on coming.

The Australia Says No To Violence Against Women dishonestly portrayed women as the sole victims and men as the sole perpetrators of domestic violence. They peddled the completely dishonest and long ago discredited claim that one in three women are the victims of domestic violence. In reality, if you ask men and women the only question that can get you to that ridiculous figure - "have you ever experienced any controlling or abusive behaviour from a partner during your lifetime" - both one in three men and one in three women will answer yes. But of course, the propagandists aren't going to tell you that. Nor do they tell you the Australian Bureau of Statistics findings that men experience twice the level of violence that women do. We don't want to know. The facts don't fit their ideology.

The same has been true in recent years of the so-called Obesity crisis, also sucking up millions of dollars in taxes for false and dishonest advertising campaigns. Yet as experts have tried to point out, there is in fact no obesity crisis across the broader community. The only obesity problems are being found in poorly educated and lower socio-economic groups where fast food giants exploit the ignorance of the populace by peddling garbage food rich in fats, carbohydrates and salt. In the rest of the community, we have never been more nutrition conscious. Being thin is now a status symbol.

Outrageously, we've also been inflicted in recent years with tens of millions of dollars of anti-drug campaigns. This is despite the fact these campaigns have been discredited right around the world for decades. Health experts are perfectly well aware that these campaigns arouse rather than dampen interest and define margins to which people are drawn, in other words they backfire. They increase the level of drug use in the community. But what do our politicians do? They peddle the ads because they want you to think they're doing something about this alleged social problem. They apparently don't seem to care if a few more teenagers die as a result of their ignorance and self-promotion.

Which brings us to the pearler of all the publicly funded lies - global warming. The Rudd government, despite its justifiable criticism of the Howard government for wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on propaganda campaigns, is now doing exactly the same. You would think that the population would have learnt that if you see a politician claiming a crisis that can only be cured by more taxes and greater government control than there is a close on 100 per cent chance they are lying. But apparently not. Recent polls show most Australians believe in man-made global warming.

Yet in reality there is no evidence whatsoever that mankind is contributing to global warming, or that the climate we are currently experiencing is anything but natural. As Australia shivers through one of its coldest winters in 50 years, we are being bombarded on our television screens by apocalyptic imagery of the end of the world as we know it, with the rivers drying up and the deserts expanding. Unfortunately for the government's credibility, many people are beginning to call their bluff.

While the left, desperate for something to believe in after so many failures, have seized upon global warming, many highly qualified scientists around the world are now starting to stand up to the global warming hysteria that swept like waves through our media and public life.



THE BIGGER STORY:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqgQCcv26kB1dkgZRZNHmbn_1J8gD92JMR180

As of Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008, at least 4,143 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,368 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is one fewer than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ivtu80QZuoISEq3_XqAcHWlNEeXgD92K6E0G0

Golden Phelps eager for his own bed

By PAUL NEWBERRY – 52 minutes ago

BEIJING (AP) — Michael Phelps kept every swimsuit, every cap, every pair of goggles he wore during nine magical days at the Water Cube. Every memory will be savored, too, from goofing off with his U.S. teammates to bowing his head not one, not two, but eight times to receive a gold medal at the Beijing Games.

"There are moments I'll never forget," he said.

Neither will the whole world.

Phelps took down the grandest of Olympic records Sunday in the final event at the pool, helping the Americans rally for a world-record win in the 400-meter medley relay. That victory, one more than Mark Spitz managed at the 1972 Munich Games, assured him a place in sports history and a legacy of, well, does he even need one?

Wait, there's more. In his pursuit of Spitz, which actually began four years ago with six gold medals in Athens, Phelps became the winningest Olympian ever with 14 victories, five more than any other athlete.

Even though the Americans have never lost the medley relay at the Olympics, the latest gold was hardly a breeze. When Phelps dived into the water for the butterfly — the third of four legs — the Americans were third behind Japan and Australia.

But Phelps, swimming the same distance and stroke that he used to win his seventh gold a day earlier, powered back to the front on his return lap, passing off to Jason Lezak with the Americans in front. Australia's Eamon Sullivan tried to chase down Lezak and appeared to be gaining as they came to the wall. But Lezak touched in 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds — the seventh world record of Phelps' remarkable run.

Afterward, Phelps gathered his three mates in a group huddle, then hugged each one of them separately. He thanked them for their role in the last of his three relay wins. They congratulated him for his remarkable feat.

"It was cool," backstroker Aaron Peirsol said. "We got to be a part of it."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=a59BRRG6ZMCg&refer=home

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- On a day when Michael Phelps won his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, China claimed another eight titles for a Games-leading total of 35, its best performance in history.

With one week left of competition, the host nation has already surpassed its haul of 32 gold medals in Athens in 2004. China's eight golds in 37 medal events yesterday was the best single-day showing of the Games.

``For China, teams are strong; whereas for the U.S.A., individuals are strong,'' Chinese table tennis coach Shi Zhihao said. The U.S. ``managed to have one athlete win eight, it took the entire Chinese team to win eight.''

Phelps eclipsed the single-Games record of seven gold medals he shared with fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz by helping the U.S. win the men's 400-meter medley relay in world record time. That victory capped nine days of swimming competition that produced 25 world records.

Phelps reached two gold medal pinnacles in Beijing, surpassing the previous career record of nine and the 1972 performance of Spitz, which many Olympic historians considered the ultimate individual Olympic achievement. Phelps now has 14 career gold medals.

``I literally wanted to do something that no one's ever done before in this sport,'' Phelps told reporters. ``Without the help of my teammates it wouldn't have been possible. We all came together as one unit.''

Pool Dominance

American swimmers won a meet-high total of 31 medals in Beijing, including 12 golds.

The U.S. team has 19 total golds and holds a 65-61 lead over China in total medals.
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200833/1769/Press-conference-Bigfoot-hunters-insist-their-find-is-real

Georgia hunters Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer sparked an almighty Internet explosion late last week when they announced the discovery and frozen preservation of a Bigfoot corpse, claiming to have finally put credence to the mythological half-man, half-ape creature that supposedly roams the forestry of North America.

In light of such a media furore, and with sceptics reacting to the story with almost as much passion as true-believers, the hunters have duly attempted to support their claim during an official press conference, which was held yesterday in Palo Alto, California.

With several hundred expectant journalists and Bigfoot experts in attendance, Whitton (an officer of the Clayton County Police Department), and Dyer (a former corrections officer), sat alongside long-time Bigfoot hunter Tom Biscardi -- apparently the only person to have physically seen and verified the corpse -- and fielded a variety of probing questions.

While the hunters failed to produce the actual body, something Biscardi had previously intimated in a Scientific American report, their promised substantiation came in the form of a somewhat questionable e-mail communication from a scientist regarding DNA samples, and a selection of photographs showing the apparently disembowelled creature stuffed into a freezer in order to prevent decomposition.

One of the most telling, and potentially damaging, questions thrown at the insistent trio asked why anyone should accept the Bigfoot claim as truth given their continued unwillingness to reveal its actual frozen corpse or confirm exactly where it had been located?

Standing firm that their three DNA samples provided credible evidence, Whitton, Dyer and Biscardi offered up a supporting e-mail from University of Minnesota scientist Curtis Nelson. However, of the three samples tested and reported in the e-mail, the scientist returned that the first likely belonged to a human, the second to an opossum, and the third could not be tested due to technical issues.