Double speak

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On Honesty: "One man's lie is another man's judgement call". This is a quotation from a book about to be released in Australia, written by the leader of the ultra-conservative opposition. I actually have trouble sorting this one out. A lie is a lie, and whilst I might concede that one can lie deliberately as a judgement call, it is still a lie, and no matter how you look at it, it is not what you want to hear the possible future leader of your country say. On Poverty: "We just can't stop people from being homeless if that's their choice". Choice? Pardon me? How many people choose to be homeless? Kids will run away from an abusive family situation and end up on the streets, and that's a choice? A man in his 40s gets retrenched from a low paying job and loses his house because he can't pay the mortgage, and he ends up homeless, and that's a choice? Of course if you accept his statement it means you don't have to do anything about helping them, so it's at least a useul political tool, I suppose. On Climate Change: "Absolute crap". In face of the work of thousands of highly qualified climatologists and environmental scientists, in the face of the list of highly qualified and decorated Nobel Prize winning scientists and thinkers, all of whiom believe the science, this little worm intends to frame his environmental/energy platforms on the basis that he doesn't believe in climate change? On Female Equality: "But what if men are by philosophy or temperament, more adapted to exercise authority or to issue commands?" Ladies, before you come looking for him please warn me so I can get out of the way. This comes from a supposedly devout catholic who got a girlfriend pregnant and paid for her abortion as a student (public record), who described the late wife of a former Prime Minister, herself a highly qualified and ferociously intelligent and succesful human being as "a fine Consort for her husband". On Christian Teachings: "Jesus knew that there was a place for everything, and it is not necessarily everyone's place to come to Australia." Apart from the arrogance of thinking he can speak for the supposed Son Of God, the statement is simply and plainly stupid. The hidden agenda is that he wants an excuse for sending asylum seekers (whom he refers to, quite wrongly, as illegal immigrants) to offshore processing centres in countries that have not signed the UN protocols on huiman rights. This is exactly what is meant by a reactionary, and his ideas go way beyond mere conservative politics. And he's a bloody Christian, quel surprise. Lash