John Birmingham about trolls

I have only read one of John Birmingham's books -- World War 2.1: Weapons of Choice -- and, to be frank, I found it pointless and irritating. I believe it was intended to be pulp airport literature and that may have been my problem with it (although I zipped through three Dan Browns happily enough!). I do remember one of my main problems was that he kept introducing characters and then killing them off, without there ever seeming to be a reason for introducing them in the first place.1 BUT: I have never read any of his other books and I know some people love He Died With a Felafel in his hand and its subsequent movie. So, let's give literary merit the benefit of the doubt and that of other people's taste than mine and move on.

Now, Birmingham is someone whose tweets and articles are occasionally retweeted into my twitter feed. He's normally quite good, by which I mean to say: his political convictions are not too far from mine. (Also, he hates Andrew Bolt and that's all to the good.)

Anyway, there was an article that he wrote recently which I wanted to post. In praise of artful bludgers is from the Brisbane Times website and refers, among other things, to middle-class welfare, dole-bludging, and pathetic small-minded trolls. I think it's worth reading.

1Interestingly, it seems Andrew Bolt had a cameo as an SAS demolitionist. This does amuse me.