Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘australian election’

You all remember Old King Canute taking his throne down to the beach, right – “Cnut set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet “continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal [...]

Read Full Post »

How can every human being on the planet not spend their days being puzzled about pretty much everything? Every day I ask myself questions like: How does that work? Why did that happen? Who was responsible for that? What was the purpose of that? Where did that come from? Constantly, one or more of the [...]

Read Full Post »

It is becoming increasingly clear, as time goes by, that, just as is the case for Obama in America, Julia Gillard is facing a media determined to force Labor out of office, backed by a ruthless Opposition, supported by an army of Tea Party-style astro-turf groups backed by billionaires. These groups are determined that no [...]

Read Full Post »

Look forget about the Monarchists for a moment. The ones with flags and funny hats and collections of Charles and Diana commemorative mugs; the ones who camp out for two days on the street to possibly catch a glimpse of a gloved hand waving from a speeding limousine; the ones who spontaneously sing “god save [...]

Read Full Post »

The horrible lot (Bachmann, Perry, Cain and the rest) seeking the Republican nomination in the states, and the equally horrible lot trying to overthrow the government by bombast in Australia, have more in common with radio shock jocks than with the politicians of the past like Eisenhower and Kennedy, Menzies and Whitlam. It is politics [...]

Read Full Post »

Long long ago, as the oldest of my Watermelon friends may just remember, there used to be talent competitions in community and media. At Eisteddfords performers performed, judges judged, winners grinned, losers were praised and encouraged, audiences applauded loudly in appreciation. Then the geniuses who produce tv programs decided this was all wrong. In the [...]

Read Full Post »

Another NSW state budget, they seem to roll around quicker than ever these days. All follow the same pattern – all budgets that is, not just NSW. The Leader/Treasurer, after massive pressure from International Monetary Fund, big business, some economists, radio shock jocks, choose a permitted figure for total budget expenditure in a year. Divide [...]

Read Full Post »

Imagine how different the last four years would have been if the mainstream media had enthusiastically supported the idea of providing a massive increase in school infrastructure, and a big boost to insulating homes to reduce energy costs? If they had got behind the programs, explained their purposes, published anecdotes about happy customers. Imagine if [...]

Read Full Post »

There is a curious political narrative (I could write a book on curious political narratives) beloved not just of journalists but of political commentators, supposedly a much more serious breed of political observer. A discussion will be under way about, say, leadership questions, or the date of next election, or the winner of a bye-election, [...]

Read Full Post »

When you have a fever your perception of the world gets distorted, your brain cells manipulated by virus and high temperature to see all kinds of things that are not there. Chemotherapy is similar. After you have it you are left not knowing what changes to your body are the result of the illness, which [...]

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,324 other followers