Gozu wrote: Are you guys seriously this desperate? Up until last week Finnigan couldn't even be named and from memory I remember 1 or 2 threads being deleted at the time the story broke. As he's an SA state pollie I put it in the dedicated thread and given the lack of responses was clearly justified in doing so.
Mary Jo while from SA is a Federal pollie (I know it's very difficult to understand) and given we're now 5 pages in to this thread it by definition warranted it's own thread. Keep in mind R&B who was here long before I used to create new threads for most stories involving pollies (hence why I thought the 'miscellaneous debris' thread might be a good idea for stories that didn't really warrant their own threads) and I lost count of how many threads 'straight talker' started about Craig Thomson. But now we're seemingly getting a little bit precious oh that's right she's a Liberal pollie
And before one of you lot arcs up with a "but yeah what about Finnigan" whinge again keep in mind who it was that posted some of his backstory too. I'm interested in politics but party hacks of any variety shit me to tears.
No not desperate, nor serious, in my case anyway - just amused as stated...
I agree with you about the Miscellaneous Debris thread, but I thought this one was pretty minor stuff, too, because thousands of people with depressive illness commit shoplifting offences every year.
It is a common symptom described in literature sometimes as bringing down punishment for being "bad", though I think in some cases it is less that and more simply impaired impulse control due to the brain chemistry imbalance. That pattern is so well documented that most good Magistrates pick it up themselves and initiate medical opinion if the defending lawyers have been too sloppy to do so.
Giving it its own thread whipped up more activity than it deserved, as such a minor and common event.
It would have attracted little attention if she had not been an politician and if some people were not already looking for a diversion from the bad publicity the ALP was getting at the time.
R&B was one of those who used that technique frequently.