Gus: Published in the SMH a couple of years ago this little snipet from one of our rateous GrandMaster of Spin, Gerard Henderson:

...

"However, for the most part, the Liberals walked away. At one Eureka 150 function last week, the conservative historian Geoffrey Blainey was quoted as saying that Governor Hotham had no option but to arrange for the military to storm the Stockade.

Yet in his A Shorter History of Australia (1994), Blainey referred to Eureka as "a minor rebellion that could have been put down by sane law-making" but which "was crushed by force at dawn". This interpretation makes more sense and, potentially, puts political conservatives back in the Eureka debate.

Let's hope that, by 2054, the federal Liberal leadership recognises that the battle for the Eureka legend requires more than a brief written message. After all, culture wars can be fun - and they are important."

....... 

Today, I was advised, with a whiff of coffee and toast, that our Rattus Historicus had decided that the national history curriculum in our school should be managed by, of course, Gerard Henderson and Geoffrey Blainey... Am I dreaming this? Very clever indeed... but fiendish if true... Most likely, we could end up with an abomination of historical manipulation by someone (GH) who claims "he is not an expert in curriculum" but professes to be a "historian" who bases his knowledge on "facts". If GH is very clever, to appear balanced, he would work out his "facts" 67 per cent in favour of the conservative right and 33 per cent in favour of the left, including a few nice touches of Green in that figure. Under this Byzantine structure, arguments entered cannot change the "facts" as expressed...

The problem with history since humanity fell from its apple tree is who decides what is "fact" and what is "opinion" in matters in which there are many hidden agendas and secret undercurrents that do change the results, often tooted as the "facts".

History is not a science. History is not a palm tree of dates. History is a collection of opinions on events. History is the memory of our civilisations but we know how much we can modify our memory of events by lying to ourselves, including the myths of religion used to contain our angst... In any event, there is a million parallel histories that influence the flow.

For example which are we going to believe: that the Intelligence was crook on Iraq WMDs because a few basic big mistakes were made at gathering of information level or because Bush had decided to go to war, no matter what, and made sure such mistakes were made in the process — and further more, to prepare a bunny to take the wrap when things were going to show the wrong way up?. How can we find the truth, when the truth is hidden by the perpetrators, and masticated for public consumption by the historians enamoured with the perpetrators?  ...And historians who are also part of the BS process?

For example: I was told by a friend that Gerard had left the great play "Stuff Happens" at interval... Do I believe that my friend was mistaken should GH argue that he did not leave the play till the end? Should I believe GH if he tells me he had a toothache that night? Or can I assume the play was going against the grain of what he only wants to know "officially"? Many other scenarios are plausible. Only Gerard can tell me about his reasons, but he can lie about it... He may not lie, but he can put a nice spin on the "facts" that could trouble the waters... and I would not be the wiser. And this just on the value of a theatre ticket. Imagine what can be done on the "global history", or just the history of this country.

Fantastic interpretations mixed with "facts"... Beaudifool...

The ACNielsen poll comes a day after a Galaxy Poll found former journalist Maxine McKew could win Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney seat of Bennelong at the election.

That poll, published in News Limited newspapers, found Ms McKew had 53 per cent two-party preferred voter support in Bennelong.

The only previous Australian prime minister to lose his seat in Parliament was Stanley Melbourne Bruce in 1929.

Mr Rudd said Ms McKew had the race of her life ahead of her to unseat Mr Howard, who has held Bennelong since 1974.

"And I would say when interest rates in 1989 reached 17 per cent under Labor, that was too high. When interest reached 22 per cent under Mr Howard when he was treasurer in 1982 that was too high as well.

"And we can have debate about what happened back in the 80s. I'm concerned about the future, I'm concerned about the best settings to keep interest rates low in the future."

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Gus: actually the interest rates under Howard-"the-failed-treasurer" (as described by Peter Costello) hit up to 23 per cent if my pigeon loft remembers the carnage on the floor.... but as Johnnee keeps reminding us ratshitfully, the higher the rates the better the economy is performing... BS, of course...

Spin johnnee out of the political lansdcape..

As always, Gerard Henderson opinion pieces make me spew my breakfast in laughter on Tuesdays... Today his analysis of the Bennelong kerfuffle is a masterpiece of straight face that Buster Keaton would be proud of... Here is a bit that made me loose my bundle:

"As Judith Brett points out in her essay in Michelle Grattan's edited collection Australian Prime Ministers, "Bruce was a stolidly unimaginative, wealthy man who inhabited an extraordinarily narrow and privileged social world".

No comparison with Howard there."

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Gus: Yep we know there is no comparison here, because... If we replace the name Bruce with Howard we end up with "Howard was a stolidly unimaginative, un-wealthy man who inhabited an extraordinarily narrow and privileged social world..." — except he came from a middle-class garage...

Why did Howard joined the government?... since he always believe that private enterprise was the way to go? Well my small biased narrow view of this matter is that his ultimate goal was to sacrificed his own "private enterprise prospects" to go and dismantle the government services and place them in the hands of private enterprise — a narrow and privileged world where the world "social" is expunged... Thus "the user pays" and those with no money "can't use"... and become bottom of a poor barrel, fighting for survival — getting crumbs for their hard work — while the rich get their hands on maximum loot, in a system that fosters masters and slaves... No Mr Howard is not there to take Australia back to the 1950s... He appear to be taking us back to the 15th century — or the dark ages... And this includes land grabs, like a modern Visigoth or Atilla the Howard...

My opinion for what it's worth.

Get rid of him.