Spock

And you never should have.
No you never should have.
So don’t break your back, if you ever hear this.

Chasing our tails

Going around like a comet.
Running over the same old ground
I’m close to the sun for a while before gravity sling shots me back into space.
What have we found?
Fucking gravity. It always wins.
The same old fears

I have started dreaming again.
The last couple of weeks, every night I have been dreaming.
I haven’t had a dream I can remember in almost 2 years before last week.
But every night, I have had a dream. I have dreamed about everything.
I dreamed about girls: I dreamed about girls I liked in primary school. I dreamed about girls I haven’t seen in years. I dreamed about girls who broke my heart and girls who’s heart I broke.
Sometimes they were memories. Sometimes they were were what-ifs. Sometimes they were just dreams.
I dreamed about tying my shoes. In excruciating detail.
I dreamed about music and I dreamed about writing.
I dreamed about traveling and being famous.
I dreamed I wasn’t so awkward. I dreamed I was invisible.
Some are mundane and some are incredible. But they are vivid.
Always vivid.
Not only is it in colour, but I can smell. I can taste, I can feel.
I have never been able to taste and feel in dreams, ever. And I haven’t had any dream I can remember in over 2 years.
I don’t know what it means. It’s been sudden. It just started happening. The dreams came and they have stayed. I have had them every night for 2 weeks and they show no sign of stopping.

And by that I mean going offline for a while. And by that I mean, just going online a lot less.

It’s not that I don’t love the internet. And it’s not that I feel like I’m wasting my time on it. I just feel like I’m burnt out on it.

I haven’t been good at a lot of things, but I have normally been good at the internet, even when I’m sucking at everything else.

This week I’m running on no sleep, far too much wine and way too many emotions.

When IRL was getting me down, I turned to the internet. Where I can (sometimes) be funny and charming and shit. But I tried too hard, the jokes fell flat and my grammar and spelling had gone to hell. My brain wasn’t working and I started to feel even worse. I figured looking to the internet for a sense of accomplishment and validation was pretty unhealthy.

So, I am going to step back from the internet for a while and stop trying so hard.

But I love you guys and I’ll see you again soon.

Most of the time the throwaway comments are the ones that mean the most. Spoken without regard for consequence. Exactly what you are thinking. I have hurt people, insulted people and made people’s day, just with a small sentence I didn’t think about before saying.
Yesterday a girl said the words I can’t get out of my mind.
“For fuck’s sake. Trust me… I’m not her”
…
“I’m not her”

I hated her for saying it. I hated me for her needing to say it.
I covered so much distance but I haven’t really gone very far.

And the silence, it became so very clear
That you had long ago disappeared
And I cursed myself for being surprised
That this didn’t play like it did in my mind

“’cause I’ve still got miles to go”

In the past week I have slept about 6 decent hours and have drank close to my body weight in wine.
I also bought a typewriter. Had a telephone job interview. Had a follow up IRL interview. And DIDN’T do an assignment. I still haven’t done the assignment.
You may ask, why haven’t I been sleeping? And that is a reasonable question, I must admit.
I haven’t been sleeping very well because I haven’t been feeling very well. It is just the usual teenage angsty bullshit, so I won’t bore you with the details suffice to say that girls may be involved.
Girls really do ruin all of the best songs.
But I don’t want to talk about that today. I want to talk about my typewriter. It’s so awesome I wish I could blog on it. But it doesn’t have an explanation mark. Crazy, I know.
I have also spent much time this week watching the vlogbrothers on YouTube. They are so funny that I want to start video bloging. I did it once. And I am no where near as good as those guys are.

Anyway, I hope that once I finish this assignment, I can sleep.

Marc Webb: he makes the best music videos

Seeing as all my political, sarcastic thoughts will now be posted on Groupthink, I suspect this blog will be the place where most of my emo musings will get dumped.

None of you have done anything to deserve such punishment and so I feel I should give you fair warning to remove this blog from your RSS Reader of choice.

I am a pretty rational person. I have been an annoying over achiever all my life and this does tend to isolate you a little bit. Being a precocious little cunt also doesn’t help there.

I’m a musician too. So all together I am a dangerous package of emo.

A song.

I have started blogging over at Groupthink.

Here is my first (and hopefully not last post) over there.

http://www.groupthink.com.au/2010/04/19/i-agree/

This morning on Twitter, Kevin Rudd announced some exciting news:

KevinRuddPM and his wife were understandably stoked.

But soon after Tweeting this good news to the world, tweets like this one began to emerge:

A quick search on Twitter for the term @KevinRuddPM, will show you that this was not the only such tweet.

Being a strong supporter of Gay Marriage, as I am, I retweeted this without much thought. I believe that all people deserve the right to be married to the ones that they love if they so choose. The happiness that our PM felt for his son getting married should not be exclusive only to parents of straight children.

Soon after, #SocialMeadiaExpert and “self-facilitating media node”, @s_bridges tweeted this:

This tweet made me step back and question what was happening. Is it right to use the engagement of the Prime Minister’s son to make a political point?

My gut feeling (after being forced to check myself) was no. The private lives of politicians should remain private and public discourse like this only serves to degrade the political debate to cheap personal swipes. He was tweeting as a proud father, and in using it to make a political point seems to be a low blow.

However, on a day like today, when he is celebrating the engagement of his son, Kevin Rudd who has previously stated his opposition to changes in law to allow for same-sex marriage, may be in a sympathetic mood to appeals that play on the emotion and excitement he is feeling. As long as it’s not done with malice (I will be honest and say that most of the tweets did walk the line here), I think there could be quite a legitimate cause for using Rudd’s announcement to make your case. After all, he himself has made this information publicly available (on a social media platform where comment is to be expected).

Obviously this is an emotive issue for all involved. In fact, in many ways the gay marriage issue is based on little more than emotion. An emotion (and I feel irrational) view that a same sex marriage is threatening to your heterosexual one. An emotional view on homosexuality itself. I like to think that I am on the rational side of this debate. Is using a highly emotive appeal to our PM (and by extension and parent who has felt the excitement he is feeling) an effective persuasive tactic and use of rhetoric? Or is invoking such tactics on what should (rightly so) be a happy day for our PM just vicious and ultimately undermining our cause?

Groupthink is proud to announce a brand new set of lyrics with a local and contemporary flavour set to the tune of Tex Williams’ “Some, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette)” …

“SORRY, SORRY, SORRY (SINCERE REGRETS)”

Now we’re a country with a heart of gold,
Or at least that’s what we’re taught and told,
The kinda place that’s the envy of the world.

 But there’s some things that ain’t too thrillin’
Like “The X Factor” or seam gas drillin’,
That when I hear about, do make my toes fair curl.

We’re very sorry for Pauline Hanson,
She can’t wash a car and she’s shit at dancin’,
She ain’t much superior to anyone.

Sorry for whinin’ and fallin’ to our knees-
Whoops! Here’s a boat from Indonese!
Run for the hills and don’t forget the guns!

(CHORUS)
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sincere regrets,
Sorry for all the things we’ve done, and the things we ain’t done yet.
We’re so sorry it makes us cry,
Sorry that our planes don’t fuckin’ fly,
Sorry for the floods and the levy and the flies and the sharks and the pests.

Alan Jones is sorry for his choice of language,
I wish he were the meat in a gay leper sandwich,
Alan Joyce is sorry he’s brung The Troubles.

We’re sorry ‘bout the price of bananas,
And Coles and Woolies fuckin’ over the farmers,
But I still shop there, ‘cause the other places cost me double! (Sorry)

We’re sorry about Andrew Bolt’s pity,
The sook could be heard from city to city,
But old Andy, he ain’t sorry ‘bout much at all.

“My freedom of speech is under threat!”,
And, “Ordinary folk can’t place a bet!”,
“These Muslims and ni**ers gonna rape and kill us all!”

(CHORUS)
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sincere regrets,
Sorry for all the things we’ve done, and the things we ain’t done yet.
We’re so sorry it makes us cry,
Sorry that our planes don’t fuckin’ fly,
Sorry for the floods and the levy and the flies and the sharks and the pests.

We’re sorry for climate change,
No doubt these scientists are all insane!
You can predict the climate from the entrails of a chicken!

And we’re sorry for Katter and Barnaby Joyce,
Add Angry Anderson and you’re spoilt for choice
For candidates with the brainpower of a kitten!

And we’re bloody sorry for Julia Gillard,
And for Kevin Rudd, whom she doth spill’ed,
Poor dear went off his Iced Vo-Vo’s for a month.

But we’re mortified by Tony Abbott,
In his budgie smugglers with his budgie’s scabbard,
I’m sorry, but I’m about to lose my lunch!

(CHORUS)
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sincere regrets,
Sorry for all the things we’ve done, and the things we ain’t done yet.
We’re so sorry it makes us cry,
Sorry that our planes don’t fuckin’ fly,
Sorry for the floods and the levy and the flies and the sharks and the pests.

Our Fellow Australians,

We of the Australian pharmaceutical industry and its related interests and concerns are alarmed at the Federal government’s recently announced policy intentions seeking to introduce mandatory dosage recommendations on prescription and non-prescription medicines and medicinal products.

It is our firm belief that introducing such restrictions on products that are legally and freely available to any Australian within current age regulations will seriously impact on the ability of the Australian pharmaceutical industry and its related interests and concerns to continue operating on the level of profitability necessary to viably invest in much-needed further research into the medical, scientific and pharmaceutical fields that are vital to the continuing health, well-being and welfare of not only all Australians, but people throughout the world.

Our independently conducted research has concluded that the introduction of such mandatory dosage restrictions and recommendations may potentially cost the industry upwards of $13 billion in lost research and development investments per annum, which carries with it dire implications for the average Australian citizen’s health and their ability to treat their health issues and concerns responsibly and independently of government interference. By restricting such current freedoms, the government also fails to grasp the enormous cost and pressure such a policy of restrictions will place upon the national health care system as more and more people, unable to responsibly self-medicate will, potentially, consume the time and attentions of health professionals on relatively trivial matters that would be best served on those far more serious.

The Federal government’s current policy intentions signify not only an interference in an individual’s right to choose their own treatment regime as their needs may dictate, but a breach of confidentiality between the recommendations of health professionals and their patients. Therefore, it is our most sincere intention to continue to aggressively protest the introduction of such a policy by the current government as we believe it represents not only a highly unfair and discriminatory imposition on our industry and its related interests and concerns, but a violation of every Australian citizen’s right to live and make decisions about the course of their lives unhindered by government intervention and restrictions.

It is down paths such as these that the seeds of totalitarianism are sown.

Sincerely,
The Australian Pharmaceutical Industry and its Related Interests and Concerns

Once upon a time on the internet something both spontaneous and hilarious happens and last night was one of those nights. It may be that this was just a “you had to be there” kind of moments but as word went out on twitter to watch the #occupyBrisbane webstream it quickly became clear that we were watching something very special. No doubt my words can in no way replicate the experience of the live show, but I will try and summarise this failed revolution as best as I can.

For the uninitiated the Occupy protests are a spin off of the Occupy Wall Street protest that has been happening in New York for about a month now and in this past weekend several local Occupy protests have been started in Australian cities. Occupy Sydney and Melbourne seem to be the biggest and most organised, but these also seem to be more tightly controlled by the various socialist groups that regularly attend most left of centre protests. Quickly these protests morphed into the same Free Palestine/Capitalism is bad/Boycott Max Brenner of most far left protests of recent months.

Occupy Brisbane on the other hand had more of a touch of unpredictability about it, it seemed to be less professionally organised and acted as a magnet for various unrelated people who were angry at “the government” and “the man”. The real fun started when twitter found the live feed yesterday afternoon and the spontaneous hilarity it provided. As no-one recorded the feed I will attempt to try and explain some of the lulz, but it may very well be one of those “you had to be there” things that is lost on anyone who didnt originally see it. But anyway, here is a breif summary of some of the funniest bits of Occupy Brisbane.

Photo via @JamesCroft

Big pharmaceutical companies are suppressing cures for cancer.

Reserve bank, is part of the 1% and holding down the 99%

A colourful character referred to on twitter as “ute-guy” told a story of buying a nice ute via GE Money credit. When he failed to keep up with his repayments he was horrified when GE Money repossessed his ute. Presumably he was attending Occupy Brisbane to fight for a world where he doesnt have to pay for utes, or something.

Various anti-vaccinations, chemtrails and this being Queensland anti-fluoride in the water cranks giving their screed over the feed.

And then the real star of the show turned up, 18 year old Tayne or “DC Hat Guy” to his fans because of his Fred Durst style backwards skater hat. Some of the insightful gold from DC Hat Guy.

“The vibes are so good here that I havent smoked drugs for three days”

“People are not sleeping in Africa”

“We went to like round up some homeless people to give them food, it was rad”

“I don’t think this is a political thing, it’s an equality thing, i just want people to be happy. If people were happy that would be sick!”

DC Hat Guy quickly became very popular on twitter and before long he had his own parody twitter account and t-shirt.

But just like most revolutions it wasnt long until the revolution would be betrayed. For all the talk of freedom and direct democracy slowly and slowly the big wigs of occupy Brisbane got more and more reluctant to answer questions and engage in discussions with the live webstream. More and more often the moderators of this supposedly leaderless group would ban commenters from the stream and shut down debate entirely. It was the “some animals are more equal than others” moment for Occupy Brisbane. All the youthful idealism of an ideal world of three days ago was lost as the faceless men of the movement sought to control the flow of information from the movement. They even informed the webstream that the General Assembly would NOT be livestreamed. The move from open democracy to backroom dictatorship controlled by faceless men was around 72 hours.

But there was one idealist who stayed true to the belief of the revolution and it was the one and only DC Hat Guy. Over the livestream we saw DC Hat Guy stay true to the principles of the revolution to the autocrats in the movement. When they had an argument about freedom of speech in the movement and over the webstream the autocrats supported more banning and controlling of debate but DC Hat Guy gave an impassioned plea to stay true to their principles declaring

“They can troll the crap out of me, I don’t give a shit. Trolls are people too”

Threatened by DC Hat Guys popularity with the public as the unofficial face of the revolution the autocrats had a talk about keeping strict control over the webfeed. It could be the last we see of DC hat Guy as the faceless autocrats seek to make him an unPerson. So to the Leon Trotsky of this revolution, DC Hat Guy, we support you. They may silence you but they wont silence your message. For FREEDOM!

“If people were happy that would be sick”

via @ErikVeland

Update: Some other posts about Occupy Brisbane here and here

Lots of people on twitter mentioning bits that I didn’t see, unfortunately I only saw a small part of last night so feel free to add your own highlights in the comments section.

Andrew Bolt has a bi-weekly full page spread.

He appears every weekday on the radio.

He has his own TV show.

I don’t think his speech is really that threatened, do you?

The take away from today will be a discussion about “free speech”. There will inevitibly be those who wil argue that speech should be completely free and unrestricted. These libertarian types will no doubt get their knickers in a knot over it all. They will use the word “freedom” like the smurfs use “smurf”. And then there will be those who are quietly (or perhaps less quietly) glad that Bolt is finally getting his comeuppance. I have to admit that it’s like watching a murdering drug kingpin go down for tax evasion; it’s not how I’d like it to happen but part of me enjoys it all the same.

I love the idea of free speech, don’t you. I haven’t heard anyone argue otherwise. I think this debate centres more around degrees of free speech than any level of opposition to it. But like everything I think it gets pretty murky when you start looking at the details.

I think free speech would work great if everyone’s speech was equal, but it isn’t, is it? My speech is not equal to the speech of Andrew Bolt or his media asset owning overlords. Chances are, yours isn’t either.

So if a powerful media organization decided that it would like to say something about you (perhaps it is to do with your race, your performance at work, or you personal opinions outside of work) what chance does your speech have against that? Can you yell as loud as News Ltd?

Maybe these “restrictions” on free speech aren’t such a bad thing if it protects those that don’t have as much free speech as others. Maybe ensuring that those with more forceful free speech treat it with the respect and responsibility that it deserves is a good thing, even if it occasionally gets into murky water around issues of “freedom”.

Of course, when the legal system is used to shut down blogs *cough* and trample on those with soft voices the system is probably not working.

I don’t have any answers, but I think framing the discussion as “for freedom” and “against freedom” doesn’t help anyone. I think today was about “being a dickhead about it” vs “rationally discussing issues”, I think the court came down on the side of “don’t be a c***”.

But I will leave the last word to well known advocate of unity, Andrew Bolt:

“I argued then and I argue now that we should not insist on the differences between us but focus instead on what unites us as human beings. Thank you.”

That’s about all I have to say this morning. Carry on being free.

UPDATE: Dave over at Pure Poison has a copy of the law and the judgment on the blog. The issue doesn’t seem to be expressing his opinion. It seems like it was about the lies and distortions and stuff.

There are two types of supporters of any cause, political ideology or movement. There are those who genuinely and passionately believe in what they are fighting for, and the others. You know the types, the ones who support a cause because they think its fashionable to support, that it will be trendy to be associated with. You know, the Catherine Deveny’s of the world. PETA, a notoriously trollish animal rights group attracts more than its fair share of celebrity supporters. Some of which genuinely support their cause, and some who or more than happy to pretend to support their cause for the positive publicity they receive.

Latest of the celebrities who are supposedly concerned about the use of animals in fashion is local MTV host Ruby Rose. Ruby is posing naked in this month’s Maxim magazine to promote the cause of PETA and specifically against the use of fur in fashion. But just how sincere is Ruby to the animal rights cause? Well she may be passionately anti-fur since at least last Tuesday yet when she created her own fashion line last year they included…. leather.

 

The casual range includes distressed jeans, leather jackets, denim skirts and slouchy T-shirts, with an emphasis on digital prints.

Perhaps she’s only interested in saving the cute animals.

OUTRAGE! SHOCK! HORROR!

Some days it seems like being whipped up into a collective outrage over the days nontroversy. Be it people being sacked for telling risqué jokes on their twitter accounts or the Prime Minister getting stuck into the chaser because their media adviser told them the people on talkback radio didn’t like it, it does seem like being perpetually outraged over complete non-issues is this nations favourite pastime.

Yesterday there was another outrage at the very mediocre ABC comedy At Home With Julia. According to the press reports tonight’s episode features a scene where Julia and Tim have sex under the Australian flag. Cue the usual suspects that this demeans Julia Gillard, the office of the Prime Minister and my favourite that it’s disrespectful to flags.

Mr Forrest told colleagues the satirical take on Ms Gillard’s private life demeaned the office of prime minister, after learning tomorrow’s episode features on-air prime minister Amanda Bishop and actor Phil Lloyd, playing Tim Mathieson, naked on her office floor under an Australian flag.

“Having sex in the prime minister’s office under the Australian flag is the last straw for me,” Mr Forrest reportedly told MPs.

“The old English traditional shows like Are You Being Served – they were funny, but this isn’t. And to desecrate the flag dishonours what my dad did.”

Eh? I fail to see how your dad fighting in a war and one scene in a comedy program are connected in any way. And in fact if we weren’t fighting for the right to have a shag on our flag then what was the point?

Seriously though, Liberal MP’s are even calling for ABC’s funding to be slashed because of this great offence.

 

A Coalition MP yesterday called for the ABC’s funding to be reviewed, describing the episode as a “pathetic and disrespectful” denigration of the Prime Minister’s office.

So lets get this straight, the governments media enquiry is a great threat to freedom of speech and freedom of the media according to the coalition, but threatening to slash funding to the national broadcaster because they find a single scene offensive isn’t? OK then.

The simple thing to do is given the prior warning over this great Australian outrage, if scenes of a comedian playing the Prime Minister having sexytime under the flag offend you, just make a note not to watch the show. Simple, everyone wins. But that isn’t outragertainment, all these precious petals will take special care to tune in just so that they can be outraged and have something to complain about.

As for the show itself, the most offensive thing about it is that it isn’t terribly funny. Is it disrespectful to the Prime Minister? Meh, probably. But I’d rather live in a country where do have the freedom to be disrespectful to the offices of power if we so wish.

UPDATE: More from the ever perturbed John Forrest.

Victorian National Party MP John Forrest said abuse of the flag should not be tolerated and called for a debate on whether the the episode should screen.

“I’m thinking about my late father who lost three brothers for that flag,” he said. “The veterans are going to go ballistic.”

Incorrect. The current flag did not become our national flag until 1953.

5.30 on Channel 9′s “Today” show this morning opens with the headline story, “They’re here! More boats headed for our shores carrying potentially hundreds of asylum seekers and they could be here as soon as today!”, it’s Groundhog Day, I punch the mute button on the remote and wait for it to go away.

Lordy, lordy, won’t you help me please, for I was about 41 or 42 when this conversation about refugees became the Australia’s Cup of political footballs, and I am almost 53 today, and this conversation continues, and it surely does exhaust my tired ol’ mind sumfin’ awful and wearies my chalky ol’ bones to the marrow, yes’m, indeed it do, amen to that and praise this day.

For I have worn out my last pair of rubber underpants and peed my last panicked puddle of despair over the dire straits of it all, I can pee and squeal no more, I’m plum all peed and squealed out, looks like they’re here and they’re here to stay and they’re coming, more of them, every day, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of whacked-out dingbats in bomb-laden dinghies to blow us all to that great brick shithouse in the sky, fuck our sheep and fill our pies with felafel.

By God in the almighty heavens above our tender heads, it is a sad truth today that the fabric of our society is indeed a torn and ragged rag of a thing now.

Yes, Sweet Jesus, it is but a pair of ol’, piss-streaked y-fronts on the spindly and spotted frame of an 80 year old digger with its arse all hangin’ out to buggery, and the people of this fair land ain’t havin’ none of it no mo’, they’s a souffle of social unrest a-risin’ in the heartland, all angry cheese and righteous dustings of outraged flour over the changing state of this nation and these seemingly endless series of vile upheavals that have seen our shores swarm with murderin’ beards and their murderin’ ways, smokin’ hookahs and bakin’ flatbreads and those little jelly sweets that are dusted with sugary shit, I quite like those and I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth.

…

…

Sorry, where was I?

Oh.

Yes …

5.30 on Channel 9′s “Today” show this morning opens with the headline story, “They’re here! More boats headed for our shores carrying potentially hundreds of asylum seekers and they could be here as soon as today!”, it’s Groundhog Day, I punch the mute button on the remote and wait for it to go away.

Lordy, lordy, won’t you help me please, for I was about 41 or 42 when this conversation about refugees became the Australia’s Cup of political footballs, and I am almost 53 today, and this conversation continues, and it surely does exhaust my tired ol’ mind sumfin’ awful and wearies my chalky ol’ bones to the marrow, yes’m, indeed it do, amen to that and praise this day …

Yesterday I wrote about the leadership crisis that the media has entirely manufactured. I am sure that it goes without saying for most of you that the media are not mere observers, gathers and reporters of news in our political space. They act in the space perhaps even more than the politicians. The media defines the terms of our political debates and the context those debates take place. No one else in the political space has the power to manufacture reality like the media does.

Not to labour the point, but I think The Age today illustrated my point beautifully.

Gillard firm as MPs waver

MPs waver? So Labor MPs have expressed doubt about Gillard’s leadership? A challenger is counting their numbers? Anything?

No. Nothing of the sort.

That’s not to say Labor MPs aren’t feeling a touch of dispair. They have been getting nowhere in opinions polls, and the two biggest media stories of the week are how the government is incompetent (High Court ruling) or just plain stuffed (Craig Thompson). This despite the Parliamentary Budget Officer bill being introduced to parliament.

SOME of Julia Gillard’s own MPs have declared she is stuck ”spinning her wheels” and predicted an election rout ”in varying degrees of diabolical”, as Labor’s internal despair spills out into public view.

That’s not leadership speculation. That’s not MPs wavering on leadership. That’s a feeling that has been expressed for months. They’re not getting anywhere in the public’s mind, and it’s frustrating the hell out off them.

The Age then reports that the ALP is feeding information to the opposition on the Craig Thompson affair, but then The Age tells us that “Both sides agree the leaks do not appear to be motivated by a desire to damage Ms Gillard”. So not wavering on leadership then.

And this is where the story enters self-perpetuation mode,

Both sides agree the leaks do not appear to be motivated by a desire to damage Ms Gillard; but the Thomson affair, along with the High Court’s ruling last week against the Malaysian refugee swap deal, has intensified speculation about Ms Gillard’s future as Prime Minister.

Speculation from where? The media. But that doesn’t matter, by this point the idea of media speculation is so entrenched that they don’t need to justify it, they just need to say it. The Age is reporting on the media’s own speculation.

The only reason that Gillard has even commented on matters of leadership (or anyone has commented on it, for that matter) is because the media has asked about it.

Then the article come crashing to a close almost contradicting the first half of the article,

Sources across the party insist there is no imminent move against her, citing a prevailing view that she should be given time to pass carbon price laws and sort out Labor’s stoush over gay marriage.

Former New South Wales premier Bob Carr insisted the party was not considering a change of leader. ”I know they’re not. There’s no basis for leadership speculation,” he said

Bob Carr is probably right, or at least he was. There wasn’t any basis for leadership speculation. The point I am labouring here is that the media may have been imagining all of this leadership speculation, but the media has the power to imagine it into reality. Leadership speculation is very real now even though it wasn’t before.