Economy
NATION: Shirtfronting Vladimir
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It is possible something has been lost in translation …
A shirtfront in Australian football involves two players hurtling together at a speed approaching warp, chests out and, assuming a thought flitters into their adrenalised brains, the wild hope that there will simply be a collision that would cripple a mere mortal and that they manage to avoid a clash of heads, which could lead to an unfortunate tribunal hearing.
A shirtfront in Australian pubs involves two juiced-up blockheads lurching into a belligerence involving the actual grappling of shirtfronts, often to prevent both combatants from toppling to the ground.
Either way, such an event would certainly inject the G20 in Brisbane next month with near irresistible liveliness, not to mention virility.
Mr Putin may not yet have grasped the precise definition of a shirtfront, but his champions in the Russian media have taken massive affront on his behalf.
“I would advise Russia’s President Putin to wash his hands carefully and sterilise them after shaking the paw offered him by Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbot …
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Read more, The Age here, where there is a cute ‘toon and other links
• SMH: Coal is ‘good for humanity’, says Tony Abbott at mine opening
• Mark Kenny, SMH: Coal comfort for Tony Abbott
• SMH: ‘Absolutely ridiculous’: Joe Hockey denies Australia is dirtiest greenhouse gas emitter in OECD
• Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru: Open Letter to Tony ‘Shirt-Front’ Abbott So, Australian Prime Minister wants to shirt-front Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, does he? It is difficult to find a more blatant example of childishness, incompetence for the position, criminal intent, downright nastiness and an indication of a disturbed mind crying out for therapy. Don’t the Australian people deserve better?
• Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru: Tony Abbott: The chip on Australia’s shoulder
• Kim Peart, in Comments: The loss of face and national pride has led to war at times, so we had better man-up our 1880s coastal defences, built to protect DownUnder from the Russians. Which nation allowed passenger flights to fly through their air space and over a conflict zone where planes were being shot down? Ukraine was being paid for those flights, so did Australian citizens die for profit?