Oh, for the love of Benji!

The world's sexiest, one-eyed, animated woman!

As I understand it, the media seems to be furious with Julia Gillard for doing something they had earlier urged her to do.

No, that doesn't make sense to me either.

The hatred and bile coming from the New Limited media I can understand but at at a loss to understand why the Age had no less than three (three!) idiotic opinion pieces on this in the paper today.

The general thrust of the Age seems to be "OMG, OMG, OMG, this could bring the Government down!!"

Mmm, let's see.

The Age has in the past said "this could bring the Government down" on the previous instances;

• Kevin Rudd,
• The Queensland flood subsidy,
• The National Broadband Network,
• Craig Thompson,
• Kevin Rudd (again)
• Craig Thompson (again)
• Peter Slipper (again and again and again)

Yet, oddly enough, the Government hasn't fallen.

What to make of this, I wonder.

UPDATE

A very sage account of the whole thing here.

A "there seems to be a theme developing" PSF.

When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
This I could not do;
I took my gun and vanished.

I have changed my name so often,
I've lost my wife and children
But I have many friends,
And some of them are with me.

An old woman gave us shelter,
Kept us hidden in the garret,
Then the soldiers came;
She died without a whisper.

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
But I must go on;
The frontiers are my prison.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
Through the graves the wind is blowing,
Freedom soon will come;
Then we'll come from the shadows.

Raymond Aubrac is dead.

Raymond Aubrac and his wife Lucie, heroes of the French Résistance. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

Raymond Aubrac, one of the last resisters to the Fascist regime in 1940s France, has died - aged 97.

French journalist Agnes Poirier has written a moving tribute to Mr Aubrac here and I urge you to read it in its entirety but I'd like to highlight this section.

"What is most admirable with Aubrac, whose wife died in 2007, is the fact that he fought all his life against injustice. He and Lucie were always present at protests, speaking out, tirelessly visiting schools, writing columns in newspapers, battling and arguing, with as much passion as reason."

Being of a morbid disposition, I sometimes wonder what I would do if I were confronted with the same monstrous evil Mr Aubrac fought with so much courage. Would I resist? Would I keep my head down and hope to survive? Could I place my family in peril by resisting?

It's thanks to the actions of Mr Aubrac and his comrades that we don't have to face such terrible choices.

For the time being.

To conclude with Mme Poirier

"I have grown up with all of them but what will the next generation feel about this period of our history when the last résistant has passed away? The familiarity and proximity will have gone. It is our role to be Aubrac's living memory and to keep his fight alive."

Also, the film  Lucie Aubrac, about his escape from the Gestapo with the help of his wife Lucie is an absolute cracker.

Oh Aardman, you've done it again!

Fuck, this film was funny.

As the father of an eight year old, I've seen a lot of kids' movies* so it was interesting of late to come across two interesting examples of the genre**; one shit-hot and the other just shit.

The less said about Dr Seuss' The Lorax, the better; a soulless exercise in marketing and merchandise.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits, on the other hand, had a wildness of imagination that all the best kids' films have. It was though the makers thought "yeah, bugger it, let's whack that in" to every crazy idea that came up.

Charles Darwin as a girl-obsessed, cowardly schlub? "Why not!"

A chase scene where a bath-tub full of pirates pursue Darwin and his monkey butler down a flight of stairs, after Darwin stole the last dodo? "Makes sense to me!"

Jane Austen throwing a beer stein at the Elephant Man? "Absolutely!"

And after The Pirates! Band of Misfits, I watched a film I recorded earlier about Nazi zombies.

What a top night!

* And I mean a loooooooooot of kids' films.

** Ooooh, high-brow.