Earlier in the week GrodsCorp revealed that Sophie Mirabella had been awarded this year’s highly sought Capitalist of the Year award by Richmond’s most dedicated capitalist, Prodos. The ceremony will be held this Sunday and Ms Mirabella’s duties in Canberra will prevent her from attending so Prodos has attempted to console the disappointed hordes with a recorded phone interview.

The podcast begins with an introduction from Prodos’ wife (Sydney) on a phone in the other room.

Objective. Constructive. Creative. Welcome to Prodos Worldwide on the Solid Vox network. Discover the power of ideas at solidvox dot com. Ladies and gentlemen, we now cross to Melbourne, Australia…

(She actually means the next room in the house.)

…to bring you the solid vox with the biggest, the brainiest, the baaaadest, blockbusting, podcasting, powerhouse presenter (sharp intake of breath) on the planet (gasp for air). Kapow! Heeeeeeere’s Prodos!

It just goes even further downhill from there. After a stumbling intro from Prodos and a live read/sing of an “advertisement” (which was really some Ayn Rand propaganda and a plug for iloveprodos.com) from Sydney, Prodos finally introduces Sophie Mirabella. Here’s the topics he discusses with her.

Topics covered included…

* Why be a politician? To give a voice to the majority - who are under-represented and treated with contempt by the ruling left-wing elites.
* Journalists see themselves - and are significant players, influencing public debate. But overwhelmingly from a left-wing, collectivist position.
* Sophie Mirabella’s passion for policy development.
* How does a politician win votes and stay in power whilst not wrecking the country?
* The problem with bureaucratic advice, politicians absolving themselves or responsibility for consequences of bad policies. Politicians can lack the intellect to grasp policy consequences. Then there are the usual human flaws and failings.
* Corrupt politicians can last for ages, yet one who makes an innocent error is taken to the cleaners.
* Sophie has copped flak from the media, mainly because of ideological differences.
* Press gallery in Canberra as an “in club” who consider themselves participants (activists), not just reporters.
* Journalists bred by leftie/collectivist Universities.
* Lack of diversity of opinion across the media and academia.Media busily pushes left-wing barrows rather than examining facts.
* Sophie comments on her boycotting of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s fraudulent Sorry Day event. Why didn’t more Liberal and National Party members join in?
* Predicts disastrous future effects on Australian Aborigines of the Rudd “Apology”.
* Issues: Anthropogenic Global Warming? The science is NOT settled. AGW, as a hysteria that’s taken on a life of its own. There are politicians on both who actually do not accept AGW, but go along with it, anyway. Scientists with alternative views being ignored.
* Issues: Carbon Tax, Carbon Emissions Trading: They stem from very flawed premises. Implementation will have adverse effects on economy and on industries. Sophie says of Emissions Trading: “It’s not something I would have instituted,” but believes it will now happen, and that she can not prevent it.
* Issues: The American alliance. America as the leader of the Free World. Most significant cornerstone of Australia’s foreign policy. Australia is a key ally. Despite Labor’s anti-American ranting and raving, they end up supporting the American Alliance. We are in the midst of a worldwide clash of cultures. United by a common hate - the United States - the left aligns itself with the “Islamo-fascists.”
* Disturbed by anti-Americanism amongst today’s youth.
* America’s great tradition of vigorous debate continues and is one of the most exciting aspects of America, in Sophie’s personal experience. Praise for American think tanks. When it comes to debate and discussion, no other nation compares to the USA. America stands out.
* Regarding Australian think tanks, Sophie Mirabella says there is “extraordinary room for improvement.”
* Issues: Israel. Strong supporter. Considers Israel a speck of light amongst the darkness. Israel as a very convenient whipping horse. The depth and scope of debate that occurs within Israel, isn’t found in neighboring states.
* Recommended reading and favorite political leaders. Ayn Rand, a favorite. Also: John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine, Milton Friedman. Politicians: Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
* There are no heroes in politics.
* The shunning of non socialist or communist thinkers at University when Sophie was a student and activist.
* Issues: Flat tax? Supports a flatter taxer system. People are better able to decide how to spend their money, than government is.
* For limited, smaller government.
* Receiving the Melbourne Capitalism Award™ 2008 by Sydney Kendall.

Listen if you dare.

Each year in the lead up to the glorious International Capitalism Day (this coming Sunday, 1 June), everyday Australians and proud capitalists around the world wait anxiously for the announcement of the recipient of Prodos‘ Melbourne Capitalism Award. Previous winners include the Pentecostal Church minister, Danny Nalliah, who was charged with racial vilification (charges were later dropped), and figures from the Institute of Public Affairs, The H.R. Nicholls Society, and Brookes News. But this year Prodos has selected a Liberal politician who inspires Australians around the country and fights tirelessly for the rights of capitalists under this socialist Labor regime. Ladies and gentlemans, put your hands together for… Sophie Mirabella!

Melbourne’s Capitalist of the Year sitting on the right chair

If you — like me — can’t contain your excitement about Ms Mirabella’s amazing achievement you might like to pop along to the grand ceremony in an even grander venue planned this weekend to celebrate Sophie and capitalism.

We will be meeting for dining, drinking and general festivities at:

Venue: Don Mateos cafe restaurant
406 Bridge Road, Richmond
(next door to The Passion Fruit, opposite Reece Hardware)

Time: Starting at around 6.30 PM.

Unfortunately I’m busy (vacuuming the curtains) but if you manage to get there take some photos for us, will you?

1) Matching words with action… sort of
Victorian Premier John Brumby on Friday addressed a climate change summit and called climate change the “defining issue of our era.” We’ve heard this kind of crisis talk from Brumby and others for quite some time now but it’s very rarely matched with concrete action. On Friday Brumby pledged an extra $72 million for renewable energy projects, but in terms of the government’s overall expenditure, and the scope of the problem as declared by Brumby, $72 million is a drop in the bucket. Signing a “memorandum of understanding” with a Bill Clinton climate change foundation means nothing. Announcing that Parliament House will now be powered by green energy at a cost of $90,000 per year just makes me ask why it wasn’t already. Time for Brumby to stop talking and start doing.

2) More Prodos audio goodness
You’ve probably heard about racial vilification but have you ever heard about carbon vilification? Listen (if you can stand it) to Prodos‘ podcast interview with a svelte looking fellow from the Carbon Sense Coalition. You see, carbon is not a pollutant because we’re all made of carbon and it triggers our impulse to breathe.

3) David Oldfield throws gauntlet
Is 2GB’s overnight presenter David Oldfield (ex-One Nation royalty) so desperate for program content that he issues invitations to appear on his show to any blogger that gives him shit? Broken Left Leg questioned Oldfield’s claim that he is “A nationally successful sportsperson” and immediately received comments from Oldfield’s wife, Lisa, defending David’s sporting background. After a bit more comment argy bargy Lisa Oldfield extended a formal invitation for BLL and other commenters to appear on David’s show.

David would like to extend you and your reader, a forum for you to explain your manifesto in a fair environment with equal air time, so if you are up for it, would you like to join David in the studio ? Name the day, to discuss any topics, of your choosing, that are of concern.

Kind regards,

Lisa Oldfield.

So will Broken Left Leg go on the show? And will he post the audio for us all to hear?

Ain’t wage rises funny? In January my own salary went up by 4 per cent. Nurses last year won a base increase of 3.25 per cent. Victorian teachers want 10 per cent but although they’re poking John Brumby in the arse with a sharp stick, it doesn’t look like they’ll get more than 3.5-4 per cent. Meanwhile, those on the minimum wage must’ve danced in the street last July: they scored between 1 and 1.9 per cent, or $5-10 a week. And the goose who came up with that last figure?

Fair Pay Commissioner Ian Harper - who works for the Federal Government advising on pay standards in addition to private business interests - got a $38,000 pay rise while he considered the plight of the nation’s minimum wage workers last year and decided to award them just $10 extra a week.

Prof Harper’s own pay packet for his part-time job advising the Federal Government on fair wages has jumped 47 per cent from $81,445 to $119,830 a year after the Commonwealth Remuneration Tribunal awarded him a rise. (Source)

Someone call Prodos - his ‘trickle-down capitalism’ seems to have a fricken big blockage.

I’ve just noticed something extraordinary (albeit not too surprising) in the photo of Prodos from John Surname’s post below:

A Fleshlight!

Step 1: Listen to this podcast (if you can — it’s pretty turgid stuff and is quite hard work) by Prodos on the topic of racism and racialism.

Step 2: Read this post by Prodos on the inferior “stone age” indigenous people of Australia.

Step 3: Listen to Prodos’ anti-Islam tune Under Sharia Law, or if you value your eardrums read the lyrics.

Step 4: Decide whether Prodos is a racist, a racialist, or neither. Give us your conclusions in comments.

In 2006 Catch The Fire Ministry’s Pastor Danny Nalliah was awarded the “Annual International Capitalism Award for Melbourne” by Prodos‘ Celebrate Capitalism project for supposedly standing up for free speech in the face of a religious vilification charge (that was later dropped). How slagging off Islam is standing up for capitalism I’ll never work out. But Prodos was so enamoured with Nalliah that he immortalised him in his alarming anti-Islam tune Under Sharia Law.

Today The Age revealed that Pastor Nalliah addressed a meeting of the extreme right-wing and proudly anti-Jewish League Of Rights in 2005, despite being warned about their racist views. Prodos, proudly pro-Israel (just this morning he posted a piece on his blog that ended with the line “May Israel Prevail”), must be spitting chips that he has publicly supported somebody who has been dumping on the wrong religion. Will Prodos now retract the Capitalism Award? We wait with our collective breath held.

This shall be the final PRODOS post I will ever write.

In response to the insidious “I HATE PRODOS” shirts that PRODOS himself is selling, I am more than happy to offer my own unofficial PRODOS shirts at my new CafePress store.

Choose from two snazzy designs, which are sure to liven up any wedding, party, funeral, parole hearing or Independence Day celebration.

Ladies, why not show your indifference to the accidentally endorsed ex-Liberal party candidate with this fashionable top, complete with the latest in MS-PAINT™ computer-to-shirt technology. Perfect for the apathetic teenage girl in your house.

The male shirt asks the question that so few have even bothered to ask. I make absolutely no profit off these shirts, so don’t be afraid to buy one for your whole family.

Many regular GrodsCorp readers will be aware of PRODOS’s homage to privatising the ABC, named, ingeniously, Privatize (sic) The ABC. The website (really just another vehicle for PRODOS to make some cash off merchandise of dubious quality) features the song and it’s lyrics. That’s it. I was expecting some kind of detailed strategy to sell off the ABC, but trust PRODOS to leave the actual problems of selling off the ABC to someone else. In the magical world of PRODOS, all you really need for your dreams to come true is a song in your heart, and a house left to you by your parents.

Unfortunately, the American band Sparks beat PRODOS to the punch, releasing their ode to the privatisation of the ABC back in 2001. The song is called Now That I Own The ABC and is quite a rarity, as it was released only on the Australian edition of their album Balls and as a promo single. The song actually received fairly substantial airplay on Triple J, no doubt due to the satirical nature of the lyrics.

So, click here to find out how to write a real song about the privatisation of the ABC.

Since Prodos registered the ihateprodos.com domain name last week he’s been busy setting up an aggregator to collect all the anti-Prodos blog posts he can from this site and others, creating I HATE PRODOS t-shirts at an online merchandise store to sell, and writing more humble prose:

Just launched the new I HATE PRODOS website.

As well as providing a range of glow-in-the-dark t-shirts in Men’s, Women’s, and Children’s sizes, plus shopping bags, it has a nice collection of items that attack, slander, slime, smear, and misrepresent yours truly.

Please do let me know if you come across more material that I can add to the site.

I’ll write a bit more about the i hate prodos site soon.

In the meantime, dive into the sewers of the living dead and enjoy the hatefest!

Gotta say I’ve got a real sense of anti-climax having now seen the site. I was expecting something much better than this lame effort. He sure showed us.

Prodos has been very active in a comment thread of this website over the past week, defending his viewpoints without ever resorting to childish insults. Besides from utterly destroying the arguments of people like John Surname and Bridgit Gread by telling them to think (you see, Prodos truly believes that he is the only person on earth who thinks, and that everyone else is unable, too lazy or too stupid to do the same), Prodos used a sound effect (.wav) of a toilet flushing (called “flush_the_editor_down_the_loo”) to conclude his argument that I am a poo. It’s this intellect of titanic proportions that makes all of us here at GrodsCorp tremble.

Over the years Prodos has left a vast spiderweb of footprints all over the internet and I have a long list of URLs pointing to Prodos bizareness. Going through this list this morning I rediscovered an interview that Prodos did with a New Zealand website called Free Radical in 2001. The interview is worth quoting from extensively because it’s brilliant in the extreme. The title of this post is a direct quote of Prodos talking about himself.

Perhaps the most interesting question and answer in the interview is this:

Free Radical: In Australia you face the imminent prospect of a Labour (sic) Government. Could it be much worse than the weasel-worded appeasement of John Howard’s Liberals?

Prodos: Personally, I don’t get that excited about politics or politicians. I don’t think they’re that relevant. At least not to the work that I do.

And yet, five years later Prodos is shouting “John Howard Forever!”, is a Liberal Party member, and is desperately running for election in any federal or State seat that presents itself.

The next thing that jumps out of the interview is instant hypocrisy. Near the beginning Prodos says, “I’m not the proselytising type… It just isn’t my cup of tea.” yet by the end he is explaining his efforts to convert the (unthinking?) masses to the cause of capitalism through his Walk For Capitalism campaign. Prodos’ conversion mindset is revealed when he says, “It’s a tough battle ahead, but with Ayn Rand at our side, I am hopeful that victory will be ours.”

However, the strongest theme in Prodos’ interview is humility. Talking about his “radio show” (actually just audio files downloadable from a website) Prodos says this:

I am the greatest. I am the best. No other show even comes close. Many thousands of listeners log on to PRODOS.COM every day.

It’s impossible to keep up with my fan mail from all over the world: India, Norway, France, Japan, the UK, Israel, lots from the USA, everywhere, everybody loves PRODOS!

Those shows must be pretty awesome. They’re still online at prodos.com (scroll waaaaay down the page to find them) so go have a listen to find out for yourself. Two of my personal favourites include How to find love and romance and What exactly is Coca Cola?. You simply must listen to the Coca Cola show for the bit where Prodos opens a can of Cola and analyses the fizzing sound.

And finally, Prodos talks the talk of capitalism but does he walk the walk?

I’m actually terrible at making or saving money.

No.

As at 10pm last night Prodos Marinakis, ultra-freak independent candidate for Albert Park, was sitting in fifth place at 5.01% of first preference votes. The good voters of Albert Park were extremely perceptive in placing the Family First Party, who are ultra-ultra-freaks, behind Prodos on their ballot forms.

There were a few seconds of very disturbing footage on Channel Nine News last night, showing Prodos singing his campaign song for the cameras. But the quote of the campaign comes courtesy of The Age and a female voter at Albert Park Primary School:

“I can’t vote for him, he’ll scare my children”

Prodos dreams of a victory filled with electorate adoration and taxpayer cash

Democracy is in action today in the State seat of Albert Park. Public education-hating, Muslim-vilifying Prodos Marinakis will be roaming the streets asking for residents’ votes. If you’re not from Albert Park district but are taking the air in St Kilda or Southbank today you’ll know it’s Prodos because he’ll be the only freak carrying a large Australian flag and “a copy of Ayn Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead.” If you are from Albert Park district, remember to vote early and vote often for Prodos. His presence in State Parliament for the next three-and-a-half years would make for a fascinating spectator sport.

We’ll bring you a full report on Prodos’ electoral fortunes tomorrow.

Clearly impressed by Lachlan Connor’s radio interview some months ago, Prodos has followed his trailblazing lead and done a 1am phone interview with radio station Triple R. Make sure you listen to the interview all the way through to the end for an encore performance of Prodos’ hard rock MIDI campaign tune.