freediver wrote on May 15^th, 2014 at 9:29pm:


But Sri Lankan Tamils invented the suicide bombing vest.

Can anyone tell the difference?

They’re all tinted, after all.

Watch out ! There's a Muslim under your bed.

polite_gandalf wrote on May 15^th, 2014 at 11:31pm:


Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:234, 5:58:236, 7:62:64, 7:62:65, 7:62:88, Sahih Muslim, 8:3309, 8:3310, 8:3311, 41:4915, Sunan Abu Dawood, 41:4917  al-Tabari 1987, p. 7, al-Tabari 1990, p. 131

freediver wrote on May 26^th, 2013 at 6:54pm:


Australia does not have 'free speech', genocided the Aborigines, and it is almost impossible to get elected without using union money, mining billionaires money or corrupting money from the taxpayer like NSW Liberals do.

Why are you not afraid of Australians?

Karnal wrote on May 16^th, 2014 at 1:42am:


Perhaps you should try Indonesian newspapers. You can maybe find out what Abbott is actually doing with the boats if you do that.

Don't forget how much free speech our government has to too. They are even allowed to lie to us.

Our military also has much freedom:


Quote:

freediver wrote on May 16^th, 2014 at 8:28am:


We do have free speech. We don't have free thought. Thought in Australia is mediated by a media which is bought, sold and paid for. If you can afford lobbying, PR, advertising and Alan's comments, you have more freedom than most.

Mining companies, for example, have a lot of freedom. Those who oppose them, like anti-coal seam gas locals, or Aboriginal communities who don't want mines on their own land, generally have less freedom.

This doesn't mean they can't say what they think, or use creative ways to get their voice heard. But it means that the defacto, status quo position will automatically be implimented by governments because their support can be bought.

God forbid a government who goes against the grain. Clive threatened Campbell Newman behind closed doors. The big foreign miners threatened Rudd by commissioning a series of ads against his mining tax.

Yes, we have free speech, but money talks much louder than anything else. This is the reason we have a government in power that stands against the mining and carbon taxes, but is prepared to tax GP visits and cut pensions, health and education.

The Libs will cop a slide, but in the long run they'll bounce back with the support of Rupert and political donations from corporate Australia.

If speech was genuinely free, political doors would be open to all and political campaigns would be funded equally. This is why Australia is not a genuine democracy. Essentially, the party with the biggest electoral coffers AND the support of Rupert wins.

It is the same in the US and UK - Obama won 2008 with a bigger war chest than McCain, but without the support of Fox. In the UK, Murdoch's candidate has won every election since Thatcher came to power. These two factors decide elections. I'm not sure why polsters haven't given up on polling the electorate and just created an algorythm to predict who will win an election.

Campaign finance +/- Rupert's support = real political power.

Freedom of speech and democracy are nice ideas, but when no one's listening, they're worth squat.

Karnal wrote on May 16^th, 2014 at 12:07pm:



Nobody is limited to the Australian commercial media. You can buy overseas publications and there is non-commercial media like books and some semi-obscure TV and radio stations funded by Tony Abbott.

And then there is - are you sitting down? - this fancy new invention called internetz.  OMG. I came across it only very recently (I am an early adopter, I am proud to say) but you obviously haven't heard of it yet. Look out for it, you will be amazed. It has all sors of text, pics, even vids. With sound!
What will they think of next, eh?

Gandalf, what percentage of Australians want to pander to Islamic extremists and censor hollywood movies the way you would like to?