The breathtakingly arrogant venality and cruel callousness of Cardinal George Pell continues to stun me. Speaking via video link from Rome to the Royal Commission into institutional child abuse on Thursday he compared the responsibility of the Catholic Church for sexually abusing children to that of a "trucking company". You see, if the company's driver picked up a passenger and then sexually assaulted that person, then "I don't think it appropriate for the ... leadership of that company be held responsible".
He said that. He really said that!
So, Cardinal Pell, what if the trucking company had a strict policy since its foundation that none of its drivers could have any sexual outlet whatsoever, for their entire adult lives? What if the trucking company had a long and sordid history, globally, not only of their drivers picking up children and abusing them, but also of moving their drivers from state to state so that after every complaint they could be shielded from prosecution, thus allowing them to continue their abuse? What then, Cardinal Pell? For your position to be consistent you have to advocate that if a trucking company continued to employ drivers that took children into their cabs and abused them, that company should not be held responsible.
Given Pell's position on not even releasing the documentation held by the Vatican over these cases of abuse, he must also maintain it is OK for the head office of this international trucking company in, say, New York, to decline to help authorities investigating this abuse, by refusing to give those files to police. Simply staggering, from first to last. HOW DOES PELL SLEEP? And how does anyone defend this?
Gag of the week
Saint Peter is sitting at the Pearly Gates when two blokes wearing dark hoodies and sagging pants (with exposed undies) arrive.
Surprised, St Peter looks out through the Gates and says, "Wait here. I'll be right back."
St Peter goes over to God's chambers and tells him who is awaiting entrance. God, irritated, says to Peter: "How many times do I have to tell you? You can't be judgmental here. This is heaven. All are loved. All are brothers. Go back and let them in!"
So St Peter goes back, looks around and lets out a heavy sigh. He returns to God's chambers and says, "Well, they're gone."
"The blokes wearing hoodies?" asks God.
"No. The Pearly Gates."
Easy drivers
Bravo, Roads Minister Duncan Gay, and your department. On a trip to Tamworth and back on Tuesday, TFF's mate who was driving was first pulled over for speeding by a cop who must have taken lessons from June Dally Watkins on how to do it politely. So there was "no" <<no>> speeding on the way back. Leaving Tamworth at 1.50pm and using that new expressway section put through that goes from south of Singleton to Newcastle, we were at the Wahroonga turnoff by 5.13pm, then the truly impressive part. Turning right onto Mona Vale Road at the 3M building, and then taking the new ramp onto the M2, we were within coo-ee of the Bridge by 5.34pm – a post-war record!
Thor really cuts it
You know that actor, Chris Hemsworth? Me, neither. At least I didn't, until yesterday. I was dimly award of some impossibly good-looking bloke, who had played Thor or something who I think had been on Home and Away or one of those soaps - and of course immediately dismissed him. But how good is he? I take it all back. Just saw him in Rush the film where he plays the 1970 British Formula One world champion driver James Hunt, and his performance was stunning. (Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm late to the party, for you already knew he was a great actor. but at least I got there in the end!)
They said it
"What the Scots do is a matter for the Scots and not for a moment do I presume to tell Scottish voters which way they should vote. But ... I think that the people who would like to see the break-up of the United Kingdom are not the friends of justice, not the friends of freedom ..."
Tony Abbott in an interview with London's The Times, on the Scottish independence referendum. How would he like it if Scotland's leader intervened to say Australia should never become a Republic??? Oh, wait ...
"When you get the pest control in, the cockroaches go away for quite a while, but then they creep back, and developers are exactly the same."
Barry Humphries on developers in Redfern appealing to the Land and Environment Court, after a council ruled against them.
"From 2010-13, he resembled a grand chess master using people as his pieces, playing with the fate of the great Labor Party and the labour movement, sitting above it all, orchestrating strategies that put the personal before the politics. His legacy from this is the eternal enmity of many Labor supporters. Voters soon realised that Kevin's campaign was only selfie deep."
Wayne Swan in his memoirs, The Good Fight, on Kevin Rudd.
"We have to realise that if we want to trade with other countries and they have an ETS, they won't allow our products to enter unless we have a similar scheme."
Things are grim, in a week like this, when Clive Palmer is the one standing out for making sensible statements.
"I decided to sell my Hoover ... well it was just collecting dust."
This effort by comedian Tim Vine was voted best one-liner at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this week.
"If anybody thinks that we should have a national security and defence policy which ignores the threat of a Chinese Communist invasion – you're delusional and got rocks in your head."
PUP senator Jacqui Lambie supporting Clive Palmer's other remarks on the Chinese being mongrels. She believes Australia should buy some missiles and point them at China.
"My position is that everyone has got to be on Team Australia."
Tony Abbott telling people not to be terrorists by using cheap American slang.
"Please honor James Foley and respect my family's privacy. Don't watch the video. Don't share it. That's not how life should be."
Tweet from Kelly Foley, sister of journalist James Foley, whose horrifying beheading by ISIS terrorists was posted on video online this week.