The Sydney Siege: The wrong conclusion, the wrong lesson.

(Transcript from The Viewpoint Podcast)

Welcome to the programme, thank you for downloading and listening to this podcast. We're going to start with the story that has been dominating the news all week from Australia, and that was the siege at a Sydney chocolate cafe. When it started, I hoped and prayed for a swift, safe and just conclusion. My prayer was not answered. It wasn't swift. The siege lasted over 16 hours. It wasn't a safe conclusion, as police were forced into storming the cafe by the actions of the gunman. Nor was it a just conclusion. Two of the hostages were killed in the siege, as was the gunman. I would have prefered that the gunman had been able to be taken alive, to stand trial for his crimes.

Yes, crimes, and not just this siege. He was already on bail for a string of offences when he took those people hostage. He should have been standing trial for those crimes. Instead, he is dead, and we will never truly know what drove him to do this. Now there is a query about how the gunman was allowed to be on bail, and this is one of the issues that will have to be investigated, but it looks like an individual failing case, rather than something systemic.

However, this hasn't stopped some trying to take advantage of this issue to try to push their pet projects onto the agenda. Such as Senator David Leyonhjelm, advocating that Australia should follow the US example of arming citizens, and allowing for guns to be concealed about the person. He says he wants a discussion about the right to practical self defense, saying that “What happened in that cafe would have been most unlikely to have occurred in Florida, Texas, or Vermont, or Alaska in America...” Evidently, he's not heard about the large number of violent deaths that occur in America due to the prevalence of guns. Gun deaths in the US are around 100 times higher in the US, than in Australia. I didn't agree with former PM John Howard on a lot of things, but he was right, when he increased controls on gun ownership after the Port Arthur massacre. And so Senator David Leyonhjelm wins this week's W.T.F. Award in the Idiot Brigade Awards.

The Idiot Brigade Awards: Monday 8th September 2014

Okay, time to give out the most coveted prizes in blogging world (not), today’s medals in the Idiot Brigade Awards.

The Bronze medal goes to Conservative MP John Redwood, for suggesting that the Scots should be banned from voting in the 2015 General Election if they vote for Independence.  John, you do realise that such an idea is pretty guaranteed to make the Scots vote for Independence, just to spite you?

The Silver medal goes to Patriarch Filaret, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin as being possessed by Satan.  You know, this is not going to help de-escalate the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, but worse than that, you actually compared him to the wrong person.  If anything, Vladimir Putin is looking more and more like George W Bush did during his second term, where all he had was his own certainty, his own beliefs, his own omniscience, and little to no connection with the real world at all. That is about all Putin has left at the moment, is his own certainty, his own omniscience, his own superiority complex, if you will.

But the Fools Gold Award winners today, are Ray Rice, The Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League, The National Football League themselves and the Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell.  You may recall that Ray Rice was suspended by the NFL Commissioner for two games, after TMZ released a surveillance video tape showing Ray Race dragging his then fiancé Janay Palmer out of an elevator.  Since then, Roger Goodell and the NFL have taken a public relations pummelling over the lenient punishment.  That led to a change in policy, that was not backdated, that all domestic violence offenders would be suspended for 6 games on a first offence, and banned indefinitely on a second offence.

Today, TMZ released the ‘other video’ that the police had had all along, which showed what happened inside the elevator.  I’m not going to link to it directly, or embed it on the page, as I consider it too graphic and too violent.  But suffice to say, his actions in that elevator made the two game suspension look far worse than farcical.  It made it look utterly shameful and a complete disgrace.

Almost instantly, the Baltimore Ravens released Ray Rice, followed in equally quick succession by the Commissioner, Roger Goodell, announcing that Ray Rice was being suspended from the NFL indefinitely, and all based upon this release of the ‘new’ video, a video that both the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens deny having previously seen, but knowing how the NFL has a great working relationship with the Police, I find that whole scenario incredibly unlikely.

I have little doubt in my own mind, that they were just trying to ride it out, wait until the heat died down, and then everything would be a-ok, and they could quietly bury it.  Today, those thoughts were blown out of the water, and the speed of both organisations reactions unfortunately give away exactly what they knew.  They had to have seen the video, knew what it contained, and yet still, they tried to diminish it, by only suspending Ray Rice for 2 games.  Today’s video demonstrated that you cared as much about domestic violence, as much as you had previously cared about concussions, prior to last year’s settlement, which was not a lot.

Baltimore Ravens, if you had taken some responsibility in the first place and suspended Rice before the NFL had taken its original decision, the one that now looks incredibly ridiculous, you would have looked strong, and in command, instead of looking weak, feeble and out of touch, as you do now.

Roger Goodell, you surely don’t expect me to believe that you hadn’t seen the second videotape until now.  I find that very hard to believe.  Again, rather like the Baltimore Ravens themselves, you look weak, feeble, indecisive and out of touch with the people who matter most to you and your organisation, your fans, especially the large contingent of female fans that the NFL attracts. 

Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell.  Not only our Fools Gold Award winner today, but unequivocally, today’s Worst Persons In The World.

Viewpoint - Idiot Brigade Awards! - 7th-13th June 2009

Ian Beaumont has 3 gold medal worthy moments of idioticness to talk about, but only one can get the first Idiot Brigade Awards Gold Medal!  Will it be the Malk Maid, Michelle Malkin who gets the gold medal?  Or perhaps Boss Limburger of the Republican Party himself, Rush Limabugh! 

 

Look out for another Idiot Brigade Awards episode next Saturday here on Viewpoint.

Idiot Brigade Awards - Wednesday 4th February 2009

Today's awards start with the Best Act of Political Suicide, which goes to the leader of the UK Conservative Party, David Cameron. In Prime Minister's Questions today, after PM Gordon Brown had said "Does anybody want British jobs not to go to British workers?" Cameron stood up and without saying the word, basically answered 'Yes'. His response was that the PM had basically was a protectionist and an oppourtunist, and was pandering to people's fears. Way to go, Cameron! That's really talking the economy up. Oh and nice to have known you, since that one statement just lost him the next election next year.

But now to the medalists, and the bronze medal goes to CNN's Lou Dobbs, for parroting a talking point without checking it. He claimed, as others have done before, that more than $4blln dollars would go to advocacy groups like ACORN under the cover of a neighbourhood stabilisation programme. In fact, The Neighborhood Stabilization Program is a programme from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a government department. Lou, you used to be a journalist, a business journalist, and a damn good one. Now, you're starting to sound like a poor man's Rush Limbaugh!!!

Our silver medal today goes to Dick Morris who has been caught lying! Back on 24 November 2008 on Hannity and Colmes, Morris denied claims that he was working with the National Republican Trust, claiming they had only bought ads on his website. But in an email to his mailing list, which also appeared on his website, Morris says and I quote, "...As I did during the election, I am working with the National Republican Trust to do what I can to stop this (stimulus) package from passing..." So not only did Dick Morris lie about his relationship with the National Republican Trust, but he wants the USA to remain in recession! Charming fellow!!!

But today's runaway winner has to be Bill O'Reilly, who last night on his Fox News show, accused some of his favourite bogey-men, The New York Times, the ACLU and George Soros, of using the illegal immigration issue as a cover for creating a one-party state. Funny, cos the Republican party just tried to use 9/11 over the past 7 years as a cover for creating an effective one party state! A Republican party state. But guess what... in 2006, the electorate threw the Republicans out of Congress, and then two years later, threw them out of the White House. I guess they're smarting a bit!!!