BoltWatch

Dedicated to those who can tell the difference between A. Bolt and a nut.

Where Andrew Bolt's Deranged Polemic ... Gets What's Coming To It

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Andy prepares to reverse course
Is Andy preparing to join his boss Rupert's reversal on the question of man-induced climate change?

First step - a gentle, approving link to an argument that once he decried, followed by a non-threatening "of course, others disagree". Andy is recasting himself as "open to the evidence", so that he can gradually shift, along with his colleagues, away from an increasingly ludicrous position of stubborn denial.

And fair enough. He doesn't want to be the last one left standing when the music stops.

UPDATE 31/1: Listen to him today:
I’m not saying these scientists are wrong and the IPCC’s scientists are wrong. I’m just saying the incentives - up until now entirely on the side of hyping global warming - are now slowly changing.

"I'm not saying these scientists are wrong"? My, things are changing over at BoltWorld!

- posted by Jeremy @ 12:00 PM |

Bolt 30/1: "Lawyers complain. Police moved while being hit"
Some typically stupid, illogical populism from Andy today, this time condemning lawyers from the Federation of Community Legal Centres ("taxpayer-funded"!!!1!11!111!!!!) for daring to "lodge complaints" against police officers alleged to have improperly assaulted demonstrators with batons at recent protests. (It's happened before*.)

Andy's spin?
Strange. The police this time just stood and took the abuse, the assaults, the hosing with water, the smashing up of a riot bus - too scared to uphold the law for fear of legal action just like this. And still it doesn’t save them.

Well, if Andy's right, and the police in question didn't in fact improperly use their batons, then of course that would save them. (Of course, Bolt's constant "pansy passive police" refrain may actually be completely wrong. "Police moved while being hit", indeed!) If the police used batons to preserve life and limb, then of course that would also save them. They're only going to be punished by a court if they've seriously overstepped the mark. Bolt says they haven't - and if he's right, that will by definition "save them".

But Andrew is of course trying to run the standard anti-legal system rant, where you cite "extreme" lawsuits as evidence that the system is broken. You don't point out that these are mere complaints, and if they're extreme and bizarre then they'll be rejected by the courts. The whole point of our system is that you can make a complaint and it'll be determined in a court. It won't be ruled out before you're allowed to make it in the first place. The court decides the merits after hearing the evidence, not some untrained bureaucrat who won't let anyone make a complaint that sounds silly to Andrew Bolt readers.

What would Mr Bolt prefer? That anyone claiming to have been assaulted by police who goes to a community legal centre simply be told to go away? Where are the checks and balances then?

Andy's objection doesn't actually stand up to any sort of analysis. But it's not supposed to. You're just supposed to hear the words "taxpayer-funded" and "protesters" and GRIMACE WITH RAGE at what THOSE BASTARDS ARE DOING ON YOUR DIME. Don't think about it any more than that, or you'll start asking awkward questions that Bolt can't answer.

*I have seen footage of the 11 September 2000 protests at the World Economic Forum, in which a little old lady is seated in a protest line and a police member covers his name badge and then starts belting her over the head with his baton. Oddly enough, this was not widely reported.

- posted by Jeremy @ 11:49 AM |
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Oh, bollocks. He's back.
...And with a spray! 13 posts in one day. More than BoltWatch can be bothered dealing with in depth, certainly.

Still. A quick skim.
  • Andy has a new moderator - "I don’t know what rules Bernie will impose or tone demand. But I’d suggest you go easy on mindless abuse and hard on evidence, courtesy and humor." Yes - evidence, courtesy and humour. The hallmarks of Andrew Bolt's work!
  • Quick bash at aborigines - IN 5000 YEARS THEY MADE MANY ANIMAL SPECIES EXTINCT. Piss-poor effort, really. Look how much many more we've wiped out in just over 200 years! They mustn't have been trying.
  • Andy's found a member of the police force who reads his columns and agrees with him! "Why can't we go back to the good old days of bashing little old ladies at protests over the head with our batons?" complains the good detective sergeant. WHY INDEED, wonder Andy's commenters.
  • Andy thinks you should read something Christopher Hitchens has written about how to fight THE ISLAMOFASCISTS WHO ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL. He helpfully provides a link, but - taking a leaf from Tim Blair's book of half-arsed blogging - doesn't actually provide any insight of his own.
  • Bolt's not too happy with the Howard reshuffle, particularly the idea that Turnbull might take global warming seriously WHEN WE KNOW IT'S ALL JUST MADE UP BY COMMUNIST CONSPIRATORS.
  • Bolt weighs in on the Big Day Out Australian Flag "debate", taking the angle that it's not the Australian flag that makes people use it as "gang colours", it's booze and A DECLINE IN GOOD OLD-FASHIONED AUSTRALIAN VALUES. The BDO organisers should simply have shut down the Toohey's stand, played music that Andrew Bolt enjoys (some Puccini, perhaps), and the racist yobs would have sat quietly with their flags and not bothered anyone. Now THAT would be a rocking Australia Day mosh-pit all the family could enjoy.
  • Andy finds a SNOB writing in the Sydney Morning Herald. Andy, famed for his working-class tastes, is justly outraged.
  • Andy notes the racism of American reportage regarding Barack Obama. He should have a look at some of the coverage from one of his boss' other media outlets.
  • Andrew's very happy at the abolition of the word "Multiculturalism" from the relevant department's name. He's less happy that it apparently might continue to exist in some form anyway. "This is not designed to kick multiculturalism", he sadly quotes the PM as saying. Then he gives a representative series of links regarding multiculturalism - three incidents where non-Anglo Saxon Australian goons behave objectionably. Just like all foreigners, obviously.
  • Riddle of the day - Andy's bored, and asks his readers for riddles. "What has it got in its pocketsses?" suggests BoltWatch.
  • Educational expert that he is, Bolt weighs in on the best ways to teach children to read. The educational sector continues to ignore his advice, because they are lazy heathens.
  • Bolt reports on the pro-rapist video that some idiotic young Lebanese misfits were parading on YouTube. Andy remarks, ironically, "lovely little sub-culture". This is profound because gangs of toughs advocating for rape are bad, and without Andy to point this out we may have missed it and not known what to think.
  • Finally, Andy offers his forum as a source of advice on how to induce an overdue baby. Medical professionals everywhere heave a sigh of relief as the burden is lifted from them.


And that's more than enough for one day. It's a nasty surprise, really; turns out his "goodbye - maybe I won't ever be back" was just cruel teasing. Ah well.

- posted by Jeremy @ 5:17 PM |

Portions of any work of Andrew Bolt are taken from his webpage at http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/, are copyright Andrew Bolt, and are reproduced on the basis of the "fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review" section 41 of the Copyright Act 1968. Other material is copyright by its various authors, which sort of goes without saying really.