An Unfinished Canvas

“ They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them…

Between rim and robe naught was there to see, save only a deadly gleam of eyes…

And they became forever invisible and they entered into the realm of shadows.

The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Ulairi, the Enemy’s most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death…

The Nazgûl came again like vultures that expect their fill of doomed men’s flesh. Out of sight and shot they flew, and yet were ever present, and their deadly voices rent the air. More unbearable they became, not less, at each new cry.

At length even the stout-hearted would fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while into their minds a blackness came, and they thought no more of war, but only of hiding and of crawling, and of death.

Is there a more obnoxious, more simply awful creature than this Nazgûl, Philip Ruddock, whose entire career has been to suck the life out of all around him? In a recent outing he supported the Rudd government’s changes to terrorism legislation like this:

“ … the man who drafted the existing suite of laws, former Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, indicated in-principle support for the Rudd government’s changes: “I always saw counter-terrorist laws as an unfinished canvas.”

It is one thing to be a cold and heartless bastard in whose presence blood congeals, water freezes, the sun dims and flowers wither and die; to be a wraith who sucks the breath out of the mouths of babies and who, when he speaks, makes the sound of sand being breathed into his lungs, or of your brain being sucked out of your skull through your ears.

It is another thing to be what many might consider a traitor, if a traitor is someone who is advocates selling or giving away his country’s sovereignty to another.

Everyone can recall, with a shudder, his tenure as the “cold, callous and outrageous” Minister for Immigration, and his equally inhumane, life-sucking time as Attorney General. You may not have heard of “Mr T”, a Vietnamese Australian suffering from mental illness, who was detained three times by Immigration and whom the Nagûl blamed for the horrors that Ruddock and the dark forces of his department visited upon him.

“ In order to excuse himself of any accountability, Mr Ruddock referred to ‘contributory negligence’ and said problems of identification lie when people did not properly identify themselves.

 

“Mr T was well known to the Department of Immigration having been asked to verify his identity on a number of occasions,” said Mr Burke.

 

“When Mr T was detained for the first time in 1999 despite ‘appearing confused’ and displaying signs of mental health problems, he managed to tell the Department of Immigration his full name – with the first two names transposed -, his correct date of birth, his correct address and his sister’s correct phone number. He was identified and released after five days in detention.

 

“Mr Ruddock was the Minister responsible when Mr T was wrongfully placed, yet again, in Villawood for 242 consecutive days in 2003. He was also the Minister responsible when on 22 January, five days into this period of detention, Mr T identified himself as an Australian citizen. Mr T also provided his correct date of birth.” ‘

Ruddock has acted consistently against the rights and interests of Australian citizens. It was Ruddock who was Attorney General when the Howard Government agreed to allow Indonesia to determine Australia’s policy on West Papuan refugees.

It was Ruddock who was one of the loudest cheerleaders for allowing the – at that time – corrupt United States Justice Department, and the Pentagon, and the State Department, and the White House, to determine Australia’s policy on the detention of David Hicks.

It was Ruddock who, as the highest legal officer in the nation, through his terrorism legislation willingly buried the essential concept – and one of Australia’s hardcore values – of innocence until guilt is tested and proven, not to mention habeas corpus, for reasons that can only be guessed but probably include vanity, ambition, pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, cringing Uriah Heepish sycophancy, and just basic total bastardry. Ever so ‘umble.

Stripping away these foundational values of our nation was in our view nothing short of treachery, stupidity, ignorance and a dried and shrivelled morality.

Now Ruddock has formed the grisly view that amounts to this: Australia should allow China to determine Australia’s foreign policy.

If we give away who we are and what we stand for, if we give away the very values that make us Australian, the values that make it worth being an Australian and make being Australian so exceptional, for fear that China might take its money and go home, then Australia is a whore, owned by anyone with enough money and pimped by a politician. A politician, of course, knows exactly what this is all about. The heart of a politician’s art is to say what people want to hear, especially what their masters want to hear. Doing whatever China wants would install China as our master and we would no longer be a free people.

We would no longer be a sovereign people and to agitate for such a condition is to be a traitor to the country and its people.

Well, as a whore, why don’t we go the whole way? China’s politburo seems to define anyone – especially downtrodden minorities – who disagrees with its brutal, inhumane, anti-democratic, racist, butchering regime, Orwell’s ‘boot stamping on a human face – forever’, as a “Terrorist”. So why don’t we do as the Nazgûl advises and just tell the Chinese that we agree with them, that we’re not really all that fussed about “democracy” (until they’re ready to let us have it). Why don’t we take their lists of “terrorist organisations” and make them our own, round up Chinese and Chinese-born Australian citizens (same thing to the Chinese) who fit China’s “Terrorist” profile, bulldoze their homes and businesses as the Chinese do and send them back to China for a bullet in the back of the head?

But Ruddock’s not a whore. Whores have feelings.

…and now he was come again, bringing ruin, turning hope to despair, and victory to death.

 

Thank you for reading this far!  You might think producing a post like this takes a bit of work. 
It does! If you’ve appreciated it you might consider encouraging me. ( We all like validation! )   

Buy Me A Coffee

All posts

Categories

You might also like:

Even Worse Than Terrorism

“The supreme international crime”    efinitions of terrorism in western countries are remarkably similar. According to Chomsky, writing in 2006, official definitions include that terrorism is the calculated use of violence or...

Kev’s Massive Package

  It takes Balls to Punish the Jobless   he thing about the unemployed is that, well, they’re powerless; or rather, they’re disempowered, particularly by the feeling of being unemployed in a culture in which what you do, not to mention...

New Australian Anthems

Vote for your favourite   Sensitive New-Age Cowpersons?   Or Advance Jimmy Barnes?

Khamenei Swore and I Congaed

   yatollah Khamenei declared the result of the Iranian election today: The Iranian people have voted in favour of a fight against arrogance,” screamed the criminally-insane Ayatollah arrogantly, “and to confront destitution...

Oliver Sacks and “Soul Murder”

 After:  Oliver Sacks  by Luigi Novi  9.13.09 . . . the arms that long for love   ir Roger was listening to the ABC Science Show today. It was Robyn Williams’ homage to Oliver Sacks (Awakenings, The Man Who Thought His Wife Was a Hat, Seeing...

Lord Roger Migently?

Back to the Regency Future   ir Roger Migently, as you must surely realise, has been quite unwell. He has been managed like an unlucky skier in an induced coma these many months since September 2013, when the floor of the Migently Mansions...

Keelty Must Go At Last

  Howard’s last ditch: a failure called Keelty    e wish to note the news this week that: ASIO has revealed it “consistently” advised the Howard government it had no evidence connecting Mohamed Haneef to a British...

Cronnultural Promotion

Sydney Cultural Promotion Takes Off With a Bang 16 October, 2006   16 October, 2006 – The Promotional Campaign for this year’s annual Cultural Respect Classes has taken off with a bang in Sydney, beginning at Manly and Maroubra beaches. 13 people were allegedly...

ANZAC Reflections

  We’re made of “Digger” stuff   M y father was in WWII. He went to Borneo, landed at Balikpapan. Like most of those who went, he didn’t tell us much about the War. But he did tell us one story. They landed on the beach and because he was a Major he had a jeep...

The Old Tart Vanishes

  Levers and pulleys of a flimsy fantasy machine   t’s all about perception, as they say, and in politics perception is truth. But, as MacDonalds say, for a limited time only. We were struck over the last few days by the sudden...

Trump – Can He Lose?

Snake Oil & Fury  T here's no argument amongst Trump's enemies, his grovelling enablers, and even among millions of his supporters, that Trump is a professional liar, and that"liar"  defines almost the entirety of Trump's persona. It is not possible to listen...

DIC to the Rescue!

Life-Hack: How to satisfy yourself!    e reported yesterday [Black Breath of the Nazgûl] that the terrorist legislation implicitly requires you to satisfy yourself that anyone to whom you provide a service, item or product of any kind —  which...

Rude Britannia & Australian Values

How Very Dare You!  Yes, we know, the British are the world leaders in "la politesse"  and "cortesia" (ironically*). They will never be impolite to anyone. They would never call a black person a "nig-nog". Not to their face. They would never call an Australian a...

Ike’s Insight

t seems so strange to realise that Dwight Eisenhower, a 5-star General and highly-respected Republican President in his day, would nowadays be regarded by most ordinary Republicans as a pussy, a commie and a traitor to “traditional” American...

Expertology

  How the Experts Won the Iraq War in Weeks Rather Than Years   he newest Bill Moyers Journal episode includes an interview with Victor Navasky and Christopher Cerf, whose new book MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! OR HOW WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ looks...

“Visa Bob”‘s Dept Ruins Yet Another Life

Oh Dear ... DIC's 'Very Bad Event'. Again Mr Bob Correll, Deputy Secretary, Department of Immigration, Citizenship and Wrongful Detention Shit, Bob, (You don’t mind me calling you 'Shit', do you Bob?) You and I go way back, Bob, and I know this will seem out of...

Thomas Paine on David Hicks

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.”

Disaster Capitalism

  In other news… Better the devil you know?   oward’s appeal on 60 Minutes tonight fits right into the well-worn Disaster Strategy.   On the one hand: “you’ve never had it so good” but on the other: “these are savage, uncertain and...

Migently Mountain Manifesto: 1

  S ir Roger is returned from the Mountain with the Migently Mountain Manifesto.Here are Tablets One to Five:    1.  Do what is right.     2.   You are safe. Now, at this instant, you are safe.You are safe, right here, right now. This might allow you to...

B’Bye

EXEAT - The Planet's Narrow EscapeKnock! Knock! Who's there? B'bye! When I was a young lad in an English-style boarding school (of course!) we were permitted, once a term, to leave our prison to spend a day with our parents. In order to do so we had to complete a...

Australian Value #1

Values Australia's Aussie Values T-Shirt on display and immortalised in Museums VictoriaEllen Sludge Breaks the Cardinal Law Many moons ago, Sir Roger wrote the First Law of Australian Values.  Australian Value #1:   Politicians do NOT own Australian Values...

Life in Australia

One word: Durian   obert – a self-styled “foreigner” to our shores – is most upset to have been hoaxed by the false promise and dashed hopes of life in Australia. A few days ago Robert commented on an ancient post here at Values Australia and...

Herald Accuses Values Australia of ‘Rhetoric’

  Nothing whatever to do with the Government Values Australia does not want to pretend any false modesty. It is delighted to have been mentioned by its favourite page in the Sydney Morning Herald: Stay in Touch. We think that most people are probably like George...

Trump – Can He Lose?

Snake Oil & Fury  T here's no argument amongst Trump's enemies, his grovelling enablers, and even among millions of his supporters, that Trump is a professional liar, and that"liar"  defines almost the entirety of Trump's persona. It is not possible to listen...

Sir Roger Gets Ogd

  es. It’s true! After everything he has said, Sir Roger’s scepticism has been swept away by his discovery of a new, an alien, religion. And who would not want to be part of such powerful theatre, such wondrous ceremony, gorgeous ritual and...

We Are Humbled…

…and yet proud…  o have some of our work considered worthy of inclusion amongst the writings of the doyens of the ozblogosphere in the Top 40 collection at OnlineOpinion. The piece the judges have chosen is “The Nation That Hangs Together”. We have...

Three Stooges

Howard's 3 Stooges   redictably enough, the rightwing’s stooges are being wheeled out to divert the taint of almost inevitable defeat away from John Howard. Downer “Larry” Downer is a self-deluding fop and a dandy. He’s a joke. But as long as...

On War: Notes For My Son

  …and for yours, and for all of us.   ir Roger is currently in the land of the poppy (the other one) but not near Flanders fields. Yet there are poppies here in the South of France and the whiff of war and bloody conflict is inescapably,...

Oh, no, you bloody don’t!

I'm just a soul whose intentions are good Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq. In an...

0 Comments