system of a down(er)

Yet more revisionism, this time from that fat fool, the previous Foreign Minister for crying out loud. Yes, how on earth did he get to that exalted position? He was once a Third Secretary, which would have equipped him to meet third-rate Australian cultural acts at the airport and conduct them around.

Now he's suddenly got views on the niceties of Australia's policy vis-a-vis the Iraq debacle. Although it 's not a debacle because, when confronted with such an accusation on TV tonight the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, said "so"? Evidently, it's not, and what a hide to ask such a question.

And what, as many are asking, was he doing at the time? Providing his views to the PM, or lobbing his characteristically patrician, nasty jibes at the thousands of Australians who saw, all too clearly, what a debacle was about to ensue?

We'll end the tedious regurgitation of cheap shots here, except to note that anyone who thinks that analysis and consideration has guided Australian foreign policy in recent decades is fooling themselves.

Whether Ross Garnaut is fooling himself or us will be a subject of intense debate for the next few decades. How any compensation scheme for regions and individuals (and working families) affected by the transmission of a carbon tax to consumers through goods and services might work will be a doozy. Would a government pass on all the carbon tax receipts? Not while we're addicted to budget surpluses, they won't.

Anyway, no doubt much to Diogenesian Gerry's derision, Prof Garnaut thinks we need to give carbon sequestration a red hot (ha ha, I'm sorry) go. And in a general sense he's right: you always need to give any emerging technology a go, although the technical issues in this case are immense and there's a fair deal of opposition, cunningly disguised as scepticism. Or in Gerry's case, whatever it is he calls what he does.

Meanwhile, in the real world Mrs VVB is visiting pied a terre du nord VVB this weekend, which will be nice. I'll need to vacuum up the 25 tonnes of dead sandflies which currently adorn the unit, and probably wipe down all the horizontal services, most of which also host dead sandflies which have been squashed thereunto.

I've bought some food to cook just in case we don't eat out all weekend.

And on that note...I've run out of things to pass on.

Enjoy Easter.