Big Green Ogres

Some regard Hollywood as dominating idotiarianism, but we have our own achievers:

Pitcairn men were following custom: McCullough

Not to be confused with the favourite excuse of "just following orders".

The best-selling author Colleen McCullough has joined the debate on the Pitcairn Island rape trials, saying the men convicted of the rapes should have been allowed to follow their "custom" and have sex with young girls.

She joined the debate, and left planet earth.

"They are as much Polynesian as anything else," she said. "It's Polynesian to break your girls in at 12."

So it'd be UnPolynesian to not "break" "your" girls at 12?

"The Poms have cracked the whip and it's an absolute disgrace.

Ahh, railing against an evil hedgemon. Very popular with the intelligentsia.

"It's hypocritical, too," she said. "Does anybody object when Muslims follow their customs? Nobody's afraid of 50 Polynesians, but they are very afraid of a million Muslims."

That's a bit closer to the mark than I'd like to admit, but some have objected when bad things are done under the guise of "customs". Heard of Theo Van Gogh?

The trial deeply divided the community, with some arguing that sex with young girls was part of the island culture.

But the Pitcairn public prosecutor, Simon Moore, said the trials had sent a strong signal to a society in which men had abused young girls with impunity for decades.

To quote Mark Steyn in "Multiculturalists are the real racists":

A British district officer, coming upon a scene of suttee, was told by the locals that in Hindu culture it was the custom to cremate a widow on her husband's funeral pyre. He replied that in British culture it was the custom to hang chaps who did that sort of thing.

How terribly judgemental.

Pitcairn Islanders are descended from HMS Bounty mutineers and Polynesians, and about a third of Norfolk Island's 1800 residents trace their ancestry back to the 194 Pitcairners who settled the abandoned penal colony in 1856.

They make us Aussies look good by comparison.

McCullough is visiting Melbourne this week to promote her new novel and 16th book ***** ****

Maybe she isn't crazy, but just wants to create controversy. I guess she'd be following in Greer's footsteps in talking about child sex.

If she's one of the 100 Living National Treasures of Australia, I'm glad I'm not one.