Loose cannons

September 14, 1994
Issue 

Cow jumped over the moon

lctext = "Space is not an empty void. It is a cash cow waiting to be milked by Australian space companies ... [according to] Dr Bruce Middleton, an aerospace consultant ..." — Sydney Morning Herald, September 6.

The same thing, isn't it?

lctext = "Surely being a member of parliament is no more demanding than being an actor?" — Australian Democrats NSW leader Elisabeth Kirkby.

Business as usual

lctext = "I don't have any scruples. What is good we use to our advantage, what is bad we hide." — Brazil's finance minister Rubens Ricupero, admitting that the government has been manipulating economic figures to aid its candidate for president. Ricupero's remarks, made "off the record" before a TV interview, were accidentally broadcast.

A long way to go

lctext = "If you haven't got a sense of humour, I have to say to you, really and truly, really and truly, if you don't have a sense of humour, you have a long way to go in this society like ours." — Alexander Downer, calm, cool and collected when journalists challenged him on his "joke" about domestic violence at the annual dinner of the NSW Liberal Party.

Sound judgment

lctext = "I can't believe he'd be so bloody stupid — he sent up our whole new strategy." — An unnamed "senior Liberal official" quoted in the September 9 Sydney Morning Herald on Downer's performance at the NSW Liberal Party dinner.

Non-wimp

lctext = "I like people who hold grudges. I think if you get kicked and you don't want to kick someone back you're a wimp." — James Packer, son of Kerry, in an interview in the September 10 Sydney Morning Herald, revealing the previously unrecognised fact that everyone kicks the children of billionaires.

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