First up, readers of The Age letters page will have noted the considered submissions over the years of one, Shirley Scanlon. An arch-conservative-cum-reactionary-cum-extra for George Romero's zombie movies, Ms Scanlon's wit and intellectual prowess has ever provided us with howls of laughter. Saturday's tidbit is not one of her best ... or is it? On the subject of Kevin Rudd's bonnet-popping, gingham-unravelling raid on the Future Fund to bring us up to the broadband speeds of Lower Slobovia, Ms Scanlon had this to say:

Rudd is pandering to the trendy at the expense of the welfare of our children and grandchildren.

We pray The Age will one day publish her collected letters.

Courtesy Bill Leak and The Australian

Adele Horin (How the PM's attack dog bit his own tail) is a masterful dissection of that cockroach's sweaty anus, Santo Santoro:

When moralisers fall from grace, it is hard to resist the urge to rub the salt in. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, asks us to show compassion to Senator Santo Santoro now that he is undone by his undisclosed share dealings.

But Santoro was not just any minister in the Howard Government. He was the holier-than-thou patriot and right-wing Christian who mercilessly harassed the national broadcaster for its alleged political bias, imagined anti-Christian bias and lack of patriotism. He was the Government's chief attack dog in the quest to shackle and intimidate the ABC. The ABC has come through rather better than Santoro. It was Santoro who didn't do the right and proper thing, not the ABC.

When gap between word and deed is great, as it was with Santoro, it is worth recalling the man on his high horse in the Senate in 2003 berating the ABC for being "sloppy and shoddy".

Just click on the above link to read the whole thing. You won't be sorry.

-- Olney Garkle