If only our elected officials were as fair-minded and reasonable as pop singers.

And I’m still waiting to hear your mulesing alternative.

Again Andrew, what alternative? Both the Vetinary association of Australian AND the RSPCA accept that there is no current alternative to surgical mulesing to control flystrike.

What is their Agenda? We all know what PETA’s is.

Persumably you’re also happy for millions of dollars farmers’ money (as well as taxpayer’s money) to pay inner-city elites to run drawn out court cases against PETA and Australians who disagree with you as wel

Actually I would be far happier if they just ignored PETA.

Next you’ll say the federal government is being honest in saying they have improved animal welfare standards for Australian live sheep exports to Egypt.

To be honest I find it very difficult to get worked up about the short-term comfort of sheep who are on their way to be slaughtered. And since my family actually is involved in this industry and they would like to keep actually earning a living, I put their concerns firmly ahead of the few hairy-armpitted ferals who turn up to protest against it.

but I prefer to actually look at the facts.

The only relevant fact here is that you’ve never seen a market you didn’t want to intervene in.

We’ve already been through this hundreds of times and neither you nor PETA has been able to provide an example of a single workable alternative.

No, you just don’t like the alternative, so you pretend it doesn’t exist – even when it’s farmers who are saying otherwise. and then follow it up with lame abuse of anyone who thinks otherwise. Persumably you’re also happy for millions of dollars farmers’ money (as well as taxpayer’s money) to pay inner-city elites to run drawn out court cases against PETA and Australians who disagree with you as well.

You can pretend you’re the only person that works for a living if you like, just like you pretend there are no alternatives. Next you’ll say the federal government is being honest in saying they have improved animal welfare standards for Australian live sheep exports to Egypt.

It’s always easier to say nothing when you know it will just bring out the prejudices and cliches – particulary when it gives people an excuse to be dismissive about everything else one says – but I prefer to actually look at the facts.

And as far as the advert on Tim Blair’s site goes – it’s probably not the most fertile audience, but I wouldn’t rule out them getting a few converts from the curious or open-minded that click on the advert. (there mightn’t be many open minded folk amongst the commenters, but I’m sure there’s some amongst the readers). PETA’s not always my cup of tea – they can also be guilty of too much hyperbole and not enough fact – but they do have a way of grabbing people’s attention. Of course, anyone who does find themselves agreeing with PETA on any issue is hardly likely to open their mouths on Tim’s site, and perhaps not on this one either.

Somehow I think Joe Bloggs from Arkansas criticising Australian Farmers from the back of his trailer isn’t quite as damaging.

I am quite like a lot of your stuff, and so my cognitive biases should work in your favour, but I was pretty taken aback when I read your post by the strength of the impression that you actually thought that Tim B, personally, was promoting PETA.

You wrote: “Tim Blair is promoting animal lib organisation PETA on his blog.” Incorrect; PETA is advertising at my site. There’s a difference.

It’s a flat fee (about $US200 in this case, I think; I’ve spent most of it on diamond-bladed penguin mincers). Payment not related to clicks. Also not related to readership. I simply set a (very low) fee and advertisers do the rest.

You might like to read what I actually wrote. I didn’t say that you were promoting PETA. What I said was: “he might review whether the modest income from Blogads is worth having his site used to promote this sort of air-headed mungbean crap” i.e. allowing your site to be used by advertisers (in this case PETA) to promote themselves. I presume you wouldn’t deny that PETA IS using the advertising on your site for the purpose of promoting itself and its views?? Nor that you are allowing your site to be used for that purpose?

Seems it’s PETA’s ambition to convert me and my readers to their cause. Hopefully this will take decades, and cost many millions of dollars.

Regarding Ken’s notion that I’m “promoting PETA”, I’d point out – as if to a child – that PETA simply bought advertising space at my site. This doesn’t indicate the approval Ken suggests. Advertising at my site is non-ideological. So is my blogroll, where I link to several groups and individuals I disagree with.

One of them is called Club Troppo. Those dopes even get their “promotion” for free!

Total breed strike cases per season (animals surviving)

Number

Percentage

1999-2000

Control sheep

58

14

24%

Breech Strike Prevention method

66

4

6.1%

Surgically mulesed sheep

65

1

1.5%

2000-2001

Control sheep

55

25

46%

Breech Strike Prevention method

61

8

13.1%

Surgically mulesed sheep

63

5

7.9%

Source: CSIRO Livestock Industries

We crutch AND mules. You have no idea what you’re on about. Crutching is not an alternative to mulesing. Unless you are crutching your sheep every month, they are still being flowblown. Congratulations on condemning your animals to a painful, sickening death.

From my observations in the bush, farmers have a pretty good, pretty easy life, doing what they like when they like. A bit of fencing over there, a bit of a morning’s mustering over here and best knock-off when it gets too hot. (for the stock of course). This myth about the farmer (bloke) who works like a dog is just that

From my observations in the bush, farmers have a pretty good, pretty easy life, doing what they like when they like. A bit of fencing over there, a bit of a morning’s mustering over here and best knock-off when it gets too hot. (for the stock of course). This myth about the farmer (bloke) who works like a dog is just that–a myth. Nice try though at trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes and perpetuate this fallacy. Farmers have a good life and probably more autonomy than most workers anywhere. Farmers have lost their sacred cow status, stop flogging a dead horse.

You have no idea what you are talking about and are as much an air-headed mungbean as PETA are.

We’ve already been through this hundreds of times and neither you nor PETA has been able to provide an example of a single workable alternative.

The fact that you believe there is one (but just can’t think of it right now) but farmers won’t use it (and therefore are sadists) is just proof that you are a run-of-the-mill moonbat.

Please leave Australian farmers alone. People that work for a living don’t have time to deal with the uninformed brayings of Urban environmentalists.

Oh, and post details of people being “gagged”. Here’s me betting that being “gagged” means being prohibited from throwing blood on people and the like.

Air-headed mungbean is too generous a description for people like you.

Even if you disagree with my view, it astonishes me that I hear barely a squeak from the usual defenders of free speech about the Wool Industry paying millions of taxpayer dollars to lawyers for the last couple of years trying to gag people who want to say what I have just said (including everyday Australian activists, not just well-off foreign groups like PETA) (and even though they might have a fair bit of dough, I’d also be surprised if PETA gets anything like the public funds the Australian wool industry gets to ‘promote’ itself, which it then uses on multi-million dollar court cases trying to gag people from expressing their beliefs.)

Pink rocks, but I’m a meat eater and I’d probably wear a fur if it was cold enough. Frankly, she’s entitled to her opinion and she’s far more interesting than most pop puppets. She’s got soul (or a soul), which is more than can be said for some.