Here's a lovely piece by Peter Ryan, ageing lefty-basher. It gracefully encapsulates what I've been thinking a lot lately, that Howard's persistence is finally paying off, and that the jackbooted fluffy wuffies really are on their way out. More and more people are finally realising that Howard really has got his lucid, humane eye on the truly Big Picture. (Unlike Keating, who had his reptilian, gimlet eye on one the size of a friggin' laptop screen.)

In the future, Howard, along with Reagan, Dubya and his old man, and Maggie Thatcher will all be remembered as great leaders. But Clinton, Keating, Whitlam, etcetera? They'll all be forgotten almost entirely. If they are remembered at all, it will only be as bad examples.

More on that infant-ingesting clown from Beijing: As this article states Mr. Zhu, the alleged artist -- a Christian -- is shown explaining to the doco maker "that he set up the baby-eating performance after realizing that no religion or secular law expressly forbade cannibalism".

Yeah, well, I reckon no religion or secular law expressly forbids shoving a live taipan up yer blurter while rollerblading back and forth along the top of a train as it rapidly approaches a tunnel, but that doesn't mean you should fucken do it!

Ugh! The pure, distilled idiocy of it!

Fuck but it shits me.

Here's a pretty unequivocal piece on how best to deal with terrorists from a former Seppolian soldier. It's as funny as it is persuasive.

Bob Ellis pads out a really threadbare piece on the cloning kerfuffle. His argument: because so many bubs are born in different ways, what's the difference if some are cloned?

But the sad old sot doesn't understand. There is a big difference. A cloned child is completely unlike any other that has come before, because it, er, has come before. It's a copy, not a unique being. It has no real parent, only an original. This is the unalterable fact from which so many ethical risks emanate.

These include the possibility of people using cloning for spare parts, or the rich and powerful using it to further increase their advantages (as a leftie Bob should be pissed off about that one).

And what about being the clone himself? Imagine knowing that you are in effect the twin of your "mother" or "father". Imagine realising that the only reason you exist is to replace your long dead twin, because your "parents" still can't get over his early death. That'd do your head in for sure.

Yep, there's enough about the mere idea of cloning to creep out any reasonably intelligent, compassionate person. No wonder the fluffs don't have a problem with it.

In this article about the fallout from a notorious doco about a baby-eating artist in China (see my post of 1/1/2003), the peckish performer in question is quoted as saying that it was his "duty as an artist to spark debate about morality and art". Yeah, well it's my duty as an artist to say that this guy's a fake and a tosser, not to mention an extremely sick fuck.

Talk about the end of civilization. Just do something truly revolting, call it art and the squitterati will herald you as a friggin' genius. (And moral considerations aside, where's the skill in what he did? If he'd expertly diced and fried it -- or perhaps juggled the body parts while riding a unicycle -- then he might have scored a few points for acumen. But nup. Couldn't be bothered. Just wolfed back the infant raw. What a talentless prick.)

This particular "performance" did take place in China, but it's just a matter of time before it happens here. My guess is that at the next Melbourne Whinge Festival some bong-suckling barbarian in a beanie will out-bleck! the Chinese cannibal. He'll pull about six titanic cones on the trot, get a ferocious attack of the munchies, then completely devour some poor bastard in the front row.

The cops will show up and arrest him, but not before he dismembers at least one or two of them. The Age will run a story about police brutality, and Barrie Kosky will be seen on Lateline quacking on pompously about "the death of creative freedom under Howard's totalitarian regime".

Fuck. I'm an atheist but I'm considering becoming a Christian just so I can pray for lightning bolts to strike these fucking tossers and turn them into piles of ash!

Now that would be a work of art. (Wouldn't get a grant for it, but.)

Are there any celebs who aren't either petty thieves, bong-sucklers, smack-heads or out-of-contol friggin' dipsos?