Lyn,
Sometimes Bolt makes sense, sometimes he should be chased like Frankenstein was with flaming torches.
His argument rests on the fact that many were not stolen but rescued. As you know I am for compensation for all because there is no way to prove conclusively who was stolen and who was rescued.
I must say though that I wont be joining the Boltenstein chase as I think it would be only a fool that would suggest that many were not rescued.
Looking at what some of the camps are like now one could only guess at what they were like many years ago. I expect some could of been much much worse.

I thought it was hilarious as Gerard kept saying he couldn't hear a thing and then tried to answer the exact questions Tony was throwing out there anyway. "I've never had an issue with an Apology" - oh please! I readily admit to scheudenfraude in relation to Gerard, Boltie and all the other cultural warriors - it must be a little hard when your entire model of the world comes collapsing down around you!

Now that there are no "Howard-haters" left to attack, and finally Australia is beginning to peek out from underneath the White Blindfold, what are these "commentators" going to do for a living??

Katie,
I missed the interview. I read the transcript. This bit from Henry Reynolds is to the point re the well intentioned policies that caused lots of harm:

Well, I don't think anyone can doubt that and nor can anyone doubt that the policies for much of the time we're talking about weren't well-intentioned in the obvious sense. They were designed to absorb and assimilate the Aboriginal people. And the people who put those policies into practice were open and frank about their objectives. They wanted to make the Aborigines disappear.Now, if that is well-meaning, it certainly was seen at the time to be in the national interest to do that, but that doesn't mean that we should now look back and say they were well-meaning. The idea was that the Aborigines were a minority, it was bad to have a minority in a nation and the minority should be absorbed. That was the policy, that was the objective, the objective was absorption and assimilation. That has been the fundamental policy of the Howard Government over the last 11 years and indeed the policy that I imagine Gerard Henderson favours.

Absorption and assimilation is the name of the conservative game.

Lyn,
it was significant that Noel Pearson was not at federal Parliament's apology event. How come? Has he been too co-opted by the previous Government? Or too seriously associated with the Howard government on the Northern Territory intervention?

The assimilation and aborption was underpinned by eugenics. Geoffry Robertson says the English eugenics movement:

....held that "feeble-mindedness" and other "degenerate" traits could be eliminated by social engineering measures such as compulsory sterilisation of the "unfit" and by "breeding out" what were described as "degenerate" racial traits.

He adds that A. O. Neville, the chief protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, was the leading proponent of the policy. He was an Englishman who, inspired by eugenics:

took very young girls from Aboriginal settlements and had them trained for domestic service with white families, relying on miscegenation — and rape — to produce by the third generation an acceptable skin colour and a lack of any distinctive Aboriginality. His aim was to "merge the blacks into our white community" so that "we could eventually forget that there ever were any Aborigines in Australia".

The intellectual authors of the policy were the Fabian socialist heroes who believed eugenics principles could be applied to produce a "superior" society.

Les,
I agree that some were rescued but all should be compensated, but the hysteria Bolt is generating makes it even less likely that that will happen.

Katie,
This week must have been horrifying for them, which is why I only laughed quietly when I read Pobjie's piece. I imagine they feel a bit like I felt when Howard defended Hanson. Appalled.

Surely some of them are due for retirement?

Gary,
If the idea of Henderson imploding appeals it's worth watching the video. Henderson's response to Reynolds clearly demonstrated that for Gerry, it's got nothing to do with Aborigines and everything to do with partisanship. Just a few months ago he was trying to claim Rudd for the right.

Nan,

Was Pearson really not there? I didn't even notice. That was a mistake on his part. He and Langton have been a force together. She was there. She changed her mind when she saw the response and supported the apology.

It will be interesting to see what happens now. If, as you say, Pearson has been as co-opted as it seems he'll have some serious squirming to do. Maybe better to let Langton do the talking from the middle ground for a while, but would his ego let him?

He really wasn't there? Man, what a boo boo.

I didn't see Pearson either??
I did notice that Bob Hawke was asleep though.

Lyn,
Andrew Bolt has issues. Sometimes he is very up and sometimes he is very down. When he is up he is making lots of TV appearances as all try to latch on. I no longer read his stuff. But he is a good example of being able to remain at the top of your field with an illness.

Les,
Something weird is going on with Hawke's eyes. When he does open them he seems to be staring at the ceiling.

Well spotted on Bolt. His response to this does seem a bit frenzied.

Lyn re Hawke,
There was always going to be a down side to having half your brain removed upon joining the labor party.
It has been recently discovered that that part of the brain is necessary to keep you awake and stopping you from farting loud in later life. Oh my!
Go the Lions!