Prime ministerial message to the nation
Sexual politics - - Posted on May, 24 at 1:14 pm by Ken L
My predecessor in this office placed a lot of importance on the economy. Well I do too of course, I’m economically conservative through and through, but you know what? Life’s about more than money.
Some of our greatest national figures have understood that. I’m referring to heroic figures like senator Brian Harradine, that wonderful New South Wales MP Franca Arena, and of course in the present day one thinks immediately of senator Steve Fielding, noble Fred Nile and last but not least Hetty Johnston, who I am honoured to call a fellow-Queenslander. People can make fun of Joh Bjelke-Petersen if they like but at least he taught us Queenslanders about family values.
You know what family values are? Well one is keeping your clothes on when you’re a 13 year old kid. During all those years when I was living in the back of a Holden Kingswood after our family was kicked off the farm we had some tough times but mum always kept us fully dressed when photographers were around.
Prime ministers can do all the economic things correctly but they have failed in their responsibilities if they don’t act as moral guardians to the nation. That’s why I am 100% behind senator Conroy’s attempts to censor the internet and I will not rest until we have stamped out gambling and binge drinking. And dancing … I think that only encourages lewdness and lasciviousness.
That’s why I have no hesitation in condeming as revolting the disgusting pictures of naked 13 year old girls removed from an exhibition in Sydney. Even though I have not seen them and I know nothing whatsoever about art, I can confidently say they have no artistic merit at all.
In conclusion, let me recommend that all you parents out there make time this weekend to close down all your kids’ MySpace sites. I’m reliably informed they are a seething cesspool of revolting nakedness.
Thanks for having me on your screen.
ADDENDUM from the alternative prime minister:
This photographic exhibition, from what I have seen and what I have been advised, violates the things for which we stand as Australians and indeed as parents.
Many a time I’ve had to chat to distraught 13 year olds, in the gutter at 3am, trying to help them rebuild lives shattered from the trauma of premature sexualisation.
As usual, Mr Rudd is all spin and no substance. Now excuse me, I’m overcome by tears of rage and compassion.
Posted in Sexual politics |
May 24th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Fly Screen, did you say! And by the by,what was the value of a Kingswood in the days of the charity dilemma!? In gross homeless money terms today!Or the equivalent of a railway fettlers wage with kids and occasional work for mother!
May 24th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I confess I take no interest in visual arts at all, but a quick Google discloses that Bill Henson has been stirring up the wowsers for years. Lucky Morris Iemma’s plucky gendarmes finally caught him in the act of perverting the innocent folk of Sydney.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
*Shudder*
Her aims are laudable, but still she makes my skin crawl.
May 24th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Anybody know any 13 year old girls? I wonder what they think.
The nearest I’ve got access to is a 14 year old boy. He can’t understand why anybody would look at naked 13 year olds when they could be looking at naked 16 year olds. Not much use.
May 24th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
The answer to the perplexing question asked by Lyn’s 14 year old is akin to…A big Flea has a little Flea all the way to eternity! And when adult humanity looks back to moralise,it “skips to my Lu my Darling” back to a age ,that seems like the beginning of the Universe.And hang onto the Big Bang theory .The revolting is therefore in the eyes of the beholder,as long as she isn’t wasting away!
May 24th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I’m sure Rudd will be just as distressed about the 13-year-olds with their clothes, and limbs, blown off by our rotten troops in Iraq & Afghanistan.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
He never found my pencil drawings revolting!
At least I never went to a New York strip club with employees of the evil overlord to appreciate the artistic attributes of ladies who dance with poles! If it isn’t perving then who cares what age they are? If it is perving, then the perver is the one with problems.
The Andy Warhol exhibition in Brisbane was promoted, sponsered and praised by the “meeja” (Rupert and ABC) and the State Government, now THERE was a pervert!
It is I who am outraged!
May 24th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
This bloke must have known that what he was doing wasn’t kosher. Why a 13 year old, not someone over 18? He’s a w!@#$r! He could still have got his kicks from a not-quite-as-young-nubile young thing. I have no sympathy.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Let’s have a show trial!
Anne Gedddes has made a lot of money from her photos of naked children.
Maybe she is next?
May 25th, 2008 at 2:04 am
I’m a bit disturbed that Rudd would jump onto any bandwaggon driven by the likes of Hetty.
He’s starting to sound like he’s got more in common with Arthur Rylah than with any other politician this country has seen in the last 30-odd years.
For those who may not recall, Arthur was the Chief Secretary of Victoria under the late and unlamented Henry Bolte.
He’s the guy who had the coppers cover-up the naughty bits on a replica of Michelangelo’s Statue of David while it was doing the rounds in an exhibition some years ago. He was also responsible for prosecuting a number of actors in a production of a play called “The Boys In the Band” for using indecent language of the kind you hear on the TV every day of the week these days.
Yes Arthur was quite a role model.
He was quite fixated with smut and reportedly used to keep girlie mags in his desk drawer to show to visiting journos. (All in the interests of protecting public morality and showing them what not to print, of course).
I always thought that Arthur was the last of the Great Political Wowsers, but I guess I was wrong.
You can always tell a wowser. They’re the ones that condemn this or that without bothering to see it or to learn anything about it first.
Seems our Kev is rapidly becoming a worthy successor to Arthur in the wowserism stakes.
I’m sure that pretty soon he’ll get the short back-and-sides haircut and the pork pie “Homicide” style hat too.
And who knows? He may even end-up going the girlie-mags-in-the-desk-drawer caper too, although I bet if he does, Therese will have something to say to him about it.
For a bit more on Arthur and his ceaseless battle to Keep Victoria Kleen see:
http://www.adam-carr.net/boys.html
May 25th, 2008 at 11:12 am
There needs to be limits set here. That this is in the name of art may well be right, and there may not be any intent here. This is a classic case of when the laws need to be changed to protect children from themselves, when obviously their parents have no interest in the long term future of their child. What happens if and when that child seeks employment in a position of authority, or a governmental position, police etc, this will come back to bite her, and at 13 she would have no idea of the consequences. I am aware of some who try to shock in the name of art, but our children are precious ans should be protected. I say give the artist a stern warning, as I believe he only wanted to shock, but change te laws to include this type of thing as child pornography. What next, 12 year children in strip clubs, why not some call the dancing art. I find the whole episode dosgusting but have kept an open mind because some disagree. Regardless protect out kids.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Dave there are already laws against child pornography. Apparently there will now be a court case to decide if this artist has broken them. Do we really need the prime minister of the nation making gratuitous comments?
The artist in question has been exhibiting for many years and his works hang in many public galleries including the National Gallery. Speculating that he ‘wanted to shock’ seems completely without foundation. If people like Hetty Johnston didn’t appoint themselves as the nation’s moral police, the vast majority of the population would never have even known the exhibition was on.
I’m not defending the photographs - I don’t have a view because I’ve never seen them. I am ridiculing a society in which a police raid on the exhibition and the ill-informed tut-tutting of the prime minister and opposition leader are front page news.
May 25th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Charles Dodson (aka Lewis Carroll) did hundreds of studies of naked children of all ages up to 10-12 (viz Alice Liddell) writting to their parents asking them to spcify the degree of nakedness.
Just another common-or-garden moral panic co-opted by ethics free politicians. Who needs to see them, we have the Tele and its ilk to tell us howt to pontificate.
May 26th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I completely agree with Ken. Rudd should learn from Howard’s downfall and keep his private morals in private and out of the public eye. They’re his business and up to him but surely he knows better than to be another JWH confusing his moral views with what’s good for the nation.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:04 am
It clearly hasn’t occurred to Rudd et all that their comments are probably causing the 13-year-olds involved more distress that their couple of supervised hours in Henson’s studio. The poor lass who came out of that session thinking she is beautiful now has the PM telling her she’s revolting. Well done, Kev.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Children used as cannon fodder by many types…too often by politicians, usually on the RIGHT…lonely people craving attention…or those who like to distract because of their own inability to deal w/ guilt or TRAUMA…hypocrites…sad, genetically damaged, brain injured perverts looking for a cathartic act…& knee-jerkers w/ nothing better to do trying to look like they’re working…& careerists hoping to gain profit or solidify their job or companies importance by finger-pointing &/or SELLING sexualisation of children (plenty are good at combining both wearing many masks to hide the face of an opportunist)…& wily individuals of influence who use the methods of their enemies to create CHANGE…& policy makers w/ power on their mind who sacrifice children’s & adults rights to protect children…& Christ-story remembering crusaders who understandably feel incredible pain for exploited & abused children across the world but forget where the crusade ends & Xmas begins…& nostalgics yearning for a better place based on distorted memories and wishes…& artists trying to break boundaries in their desire to KNOW all & to have TASTED/EXPERIENCED all but sometimes forgetting the consequences to others in the process as they impetuously shoot for the moon in a wobbly ship (the journey can be one heck of an experience & morally eye opening tho…better than sitting in a cave & being fearful of imaginary creatures created on the whispering wind)…and fading stars who crave the sky again…and parents looking for a comfy retirement &/or applause for their genes…
I think I know which one Rudd is. So i’m not going to criticise him. Tho he has characteristics of some of the others…& who can blame him? Unless he transforms into a REAL mutant. Like some of his predecessors & their enablers.
I think I need a cuppa tea. And to recite Voltaire to the cats…but I don’t reckon i’ll be hanging a certain artists pics on my walls…taste…strange, complex thing. As is meaning.
Interesting comments…some insightful. Some purposeful. Some confusing. Some quite truthful. Some revealing. Some red herrings. Somewhat like the issue. Good topic Ken.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Several hundred thousand people must have visited Henson exhibitions at the NSW, Victorian and National Galleries. And it seems that most of them enjoyed their visits (since the galleries keep showing his work).
Are all these people perverts? That seems to be what Kevin Rudd is implying.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
In the mood for a crusade to save the little children of the world? Why not start small and ban THIS shit?
‘America’s Army’ Targets Youth
By Jacob Hodes & Emma Ruby-Sachs
August 23, 2002
The universe of online computer games is home to 200,000 players at any time. It’s also where you can find the newest innovation in military recruiting. Check out America’s Army, a state-of-the art computer game featuring 3-D graphics, surround sound and the most advanced gaming technology available. It’s as entertaining as current favorites Counterstrike or Doom, but there’s a different agenda at work. Unlike commercial games designed to make big money, the aim of this taxpayer-funded project is to generate Army recruits.
In 1999, recruitment numbers hit their lowest point in thirty years. In response, Congress called for “aggressive, innovative experiments” to find new soldiers, and the Defense Department jacked up recruitment budgets to $2.2 billion a year. Hence we have America’s Army, one of a number of new initiatives designed to help the military reach America’s youth. The game consists of two parts: “Soldiers: Empower Yourself,” a role-playing segment that instills Army “values,” and the more violent (read: entertaining) “Operations: Defend Freedom,” a first-person combat simulator where players engage in virtual warfare over the Internet.
On July 4, the Army put a preview version of “Operations” called “Recon” on its website; within a week over half a million people had downloaded the game. When America’s Army is distributed later this month at recruiting stations and as an insert in gaming magazines, millions of players will be able to go online to “defend freedom.”
War games are nothing new, of course, but the realistic detail of America’s Army–which was produced completely within Army ranks–sets it apart from its competitors….
May 27th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Hey Mars,
I wonder how realistic the US Army’s games are. Do the players lack body armour and have to use unreliable weapons? Do they get blown to bits by friendly fire mistakes evey now and again? What about IEDs?
Do they get to torture prisoners?
And what happens if they don’t want to go back for that second or third tour of duty online? Do they have to go AWOL and skip to Canada? Do they get prosecuted for refusing to play?
If not, it seems to me that the Army’s version of realism lacks somewhat.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:36 am
“Load Saved Game”
Done.
Bring back conscription! NOW!
May 27th, 2008 at 1:48 am
End this game that is Ender’s Game…so no more youngsters are exploited for profit & asked to kill from a distance under the banner of God & Corporatism…those who grow up in the aftermath…often in angst & with suicidal thoughts once they’ve slowed down & reflected…& feel the need to redeem themselves by speaking & apologising to the dead & their loved ones.
End this Ender’s Game.