 |
|
|
|
| More!? More!? |
|
 |
| Australia's fading history | |
Modern Australians are taught to be less than proud of their history. But in
between apologizing for things they didn't
do, and grovelling like some religious zealot who insists that we are born
in sin there are some things the cultural elites allow us some pride in -
provided the history is rewritten with an appropriate politically
correct slant. 150 years ago today, Australia witnessed its only civil uprising. The local
land owners formed the political power block (only land owners got to vote),
and didn't like their workers saying 'take this job and shovel it', and
wandering off to dig for gold in Ballarat. So they put pressure on the government to charge the
prospectors exorbitant licenses to 'encourage' them back to work. Some 120 miners stood up to the local soldiers, refusing to pay the
exorbitant taxes imposed by a
corrupt government.
They formed a stockade - a pathetic area little bigger than a residential
house-block, and reinforced by hastily constructed pikes. The stockade looked
more like a picket fence than a fort. Then the soldiers came and the shooting started. 22 miners and 6 soldiers
were killed, the miners ran away and the uprising was crushed in less than 15
minutes. But it was, we are taught, the turning point - the conception for the
later birth of true Australian democracy. 150 years later, the event has become a grab-bag of political concerns. The local Aborigines
opened the festivities. But the stockade had nothing to do with the Australian
Aborigines. Then it was hailed by some as a 'multicultural day'.
But the miners were not celebrating diversity, they were celebrating
unity. They were not interested in cultivating their differences, but simply
uniting against a common enemy - the Australian government. The unions hailed it as a the formation of Australian unionism. But the
miners never asked that others be forced to give them money or on what terms -
they just didn't want the government stealing their money in the form
of 'prospecting licenses'. And a commemorative walk is to be led by Terry Hicks - the father of
celebrity terrorist
wannabe David Hicks. But the miners never advocated international terrorism, or
terrorism at all. They never sought to attack anyone. They just wanted to be
left alone. Johnny (no-flies-on-me) Howard resisted flying the flag at Parliament House
because he actually knew what it meant. For all of Johnny's commitment to
everyone having their own little picket fence around their residential block he
leads the highest taxing government in Australia's history. Today, we are taxed
at a rate which would have made even the wealthy squatters join the miners in
open rebellion. And Little Johnny would like to keep everyone very quiet about
that. He has little to worry about. As long as the various minority groups
frantically rewrite history, the truth will remain hidden - or at least barely
visible between the slats of the picket fence, and rendered inaudible by
the didgeridoo, the union slogans and the shrill incoherent rantings of
the multicultural lobby.
|
|
 |
| Oozing with promise | |
The Economist (2004-11-20) reports
some cheering news about Afghanistan - a bumper
opium crop. Apparently the area under opium poppy cultivation has jumped by 64%
this year. It is gratifying to see Afghans embracing capitalism so quickly
after being freed from their strict and oppressive government. It's not that the new government approves of their entrepreneurship, or even
that the government which removed the old one approves of it - it's just that
the new government is too ineffectual to prevent it. Many would argue of course
that the best government is an ineffectual one, but that raises issues of the
security of private ownership, and maybe that is a debate for another time. But the local farmers are now (relatively) free to produce an export
product highly in demand in The West - heroin. A cheap and (if taken
with care and moderation in its pure form) relatively safe form of
entertainment for those on low incomes. Plasma TVs, skiing holidays, fast cars, and dinners on the town also
constitute good entertainment but they are hideously expensive, particularly
with a 50% effective marginal tax rate. A
shot of heroin feels every bit as good as the black-run on the slopes of Mt
Buller or a 200Km/hr drive through Sydney harbor tunnel in a Maserati, and you
don't have to leave the safety of your own home to enjoy it. Of course the problem is that heroin is so cheap that it doesn't raise much
tax. Having someone choose to
live in a single room apartment, working one day a week and spending the other
six watching a black and white TV stoned on heroin would be a pretty good life
for many Western residents. But it would raise very little tax for greedy
Western governments. When governments are in a fix, they usually start a war. And the War on Drugs has been a
beauty. The only casualties are (by definition) 'sinners' or victims of others, the cost is
the billions of tax dollars stolen from the population to fight it, and the war
perpetuates - because it can never be said to be lost or won. Hopefully the coming influx of heroin will lower street prices in the
West. This will mean that the heroin on the streets will be cut with less
cement powder and other chemicals; it will mean that buying it will be easier,
and will involve less risk for users; and hopefully the cheaper price will make
it less attractive for users to steal in order to buy it. Who said that the other war (the War on Terror) was producing no dividends?
|
|
 |
| New pedagogical tool | |
America is full of guns. Everyone knows that. And everyone knows who the
people are who refuse to give up their guns. They are the Stupid White Men
which Michael Moore told us about. These redneck KKK members in the Deep South
who insist that the anti gun lobby can have their gun 'when you you pry it
from my cold dead hands'. Of course the high crime rates in America's 'ethnic minorities' get
swept under the carpet bombing in the propaganda war. The fact that blacks
shoot blacks at a rate which would alarm Iraqi insurgents goes largely
unsaid. The ugly face of the American pro-gun movement is clearly colored white
- or at least covered by a white sheet. And a mass shooting in Minnesota earlier this week in which a deer hunter shot
five other deer hunters - killing three of them - is surely a case in
point. Everyone knows deer hunting is a redneck sport. Or is it? The shooter on this occasion was Laotian born Chai Vang, and the
incident is only the most recent in a spate a clashes between South-East Asian
and white hunters in the region. Chai opened fire on the white hunters after
they saw him on their hunting platform on their private property, and asked him
to leave. The Communist Times (2004-11-24pp15)
reports that. Locals have complained that the Hmong, refugees from Laos, do
not understand the concept of private property
and hunt wherever they want. Clearly the peasants in the People's Paradise Republic of Laos are taught that
property is theft, and emigrating to America gives them a chance to educate
the locals. Think globally, act locally. Very noble of them indeed. There is a popular notion that refugees who flee oppression
will also reject the tools of that oppression - be it Islamic extremism or communist ideology. But in
the words of the great poet, It ain't necessarily so. America, the Great Satan,
the Evil Oppressive Capitalist Empire. The most hated country in the world,
obsessed with selfishness, and the right to own private property - but
strangely, the country which more people want to emigrate to than any
other. But if Americans should dare to question the wisdom of US immigration
policy, they are labeled as intolerant red-necks. So was this tragedy more evidence of the failure of assimilation; an inevitable
consequence of a gun happy society; proof of failure of US migrant education
policy; a further cost of the scourge of communism, or merely an unavoidable
cultural misunderstanding? Well, there are three dead red-necks who have no opinion.
|
|
 |
| Hot air on Sydney radio | |
Tail-gunners were in the news again - with shock-jocks John (golden
tonsils) Laws and Steve (name your) Price in the poo over unflattering remarks
about home renovating contestants in trashy reality TV series The
Block. Militant gay rights activist Gary (ooch, it) Burns took exception to
having renovating romeos Gav and Waz described as a 'couple of poofs', and
decided to force John and Steve into a bit rear-guard action. Having Laws describe fashion tart Carson Kressley (from Queer Eye For The
Straight Guy) as a 'pillow biter' was a bit hard to swallow, particularly when
Carson protested that he had never bitten a pillow in his life. Whatever he
bites on is, of course, his own business. But the whole episode made Gary
biting angry, and he came out of the court-room bouncing around like a man on
steroids proclaiming that he had won, describing it as the "sweetest
victory of all". Most of us thought it was revenge that was sweet
- not victory. The NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal stated that the comments were
"homosexual vilification within the meaning of the Anti-Discrimination Act" and
that "even if done in good faith and in the public interest (were) not
reasonable".
Apparently the delicate egos of the gay lobby groups are more important
than 'the public interest'. The unrepentent Laws and Price, of course, feed on this kind of
publicity. Sydney commuters stuck in traffic jams, and envious of their
rail-transported brethren getting it for nothing, at least get to enjoy the
titillation of Lawsy and Pricy slanging off at some celebrity fags. So far Laws
and Price have refused to submit to Burns will, and Burns has said "I want everything, I want whatever I can get from these people".
Hmm. That's a worry. No wonder Laws and Price seem to have their backs against
the wall. Or maybe Mr Burns has some hate issues of his own.
|
|
 |
| Tax-man gets screwed | |
Canberra's Communist
Times has a little snippet about a landlord being put on trial for
demanding sex from his female tenants. The enterprising American demanded
sex once a week from a woman who wanted to rent a house from him. Oh the outrage! Especially since many of his female tenants were on low
incomes and and desperate to find housing. Generally sex seems to numb the brain, but a little rational thought wouldn't
go astray here. Was the randy landlord asking the market rate for rent,
and then sex as well? If that were the case, then why wouldn't the
women just buy their accommodation from elsewhere? Perhaps they enjoyed the
weekly carnality as much as their oversexed landlord? If the man was offering a
discounted rent in exchange for the sex, then he is really just asking
the women to become part-time hookers to help pay the
bills - they can refuse, and pay market price elsewhere, or accept his offer of
part-time employment. So
then the question becomes is how much of discount was he offering? Was
it more or less than the cost of a local hooker? Those of us with no
experience in such matters are forced to theorize at this point, but the US
street price is probably around $US50.00 a pop. So if the discount was more
than $50.00 he is effectively offering them rent at below the market rate -
which hardly makes the women
victims. If he is offering
less than $50.00 discount, the women would have been better off peddling their
wares on the nearest street corner, and keeping the excess. This doesn't make
him a criminal - just another
hard-up guy looking for a bargain. So why prosecute a man who is merely trying to get prostitution off the
streets? No-one here was forced into anything they could not have just walked
away from. Well not quite. The Department of Justice has brought a civil
trial against them man, but Prosecutors said Koch, who owned or managed about 50 rental
properties in the Omaha area, also entered women's homes without notice and stole things if they rejected
his advances. So the man is a trespasser and a thief - but instead of charging him with
forcibly violating someone's home and property, the Justice Department charges
him with offering voluntary and consensual trade. Omaha Justice is not just blind -
it's stupid. Probably the real concern for the authorities is that he is avoiding tax. If he were to take the rent
as cash, and then spend it on a local hooker, he (and possibly even she) would
have to pay income tax (and maybe sales tax) on the transactions. In making a
snug little arrangement he is cutting the tax-man out of the
transaction. That's why he can give a discount less that the market price of a
hooker, and have both of them come out smiling.
|
|
 |
| Wedge politics reaches new bottom | |
Normally it's the Coalition in Australia
who make wedgie politics work for them. The fundamental spits in leftist
ideology can only be papered over for so long, and having leftists run around saying
'we have to put up a united front - by doing it my way' have been both
entertaining and politically expedient for those on the conservative side of
politics. But Tony (no-longer-PM-material) Abbott has started a right-wing
wedgie of his own by his comments on abortion. Tony ('just-adopt-em-out') Abbott has expressed concern about 100,000 abortions a year in
Australia. Of course he doesn't say how many is the right number of abortions
is - how many abortions should Australian women be choosing to have?
Apparently this is not a matter for individuals to decide, but a matter for
governments to determine - moral elites like former
seminarian Tony Abbott. If a man woke up one morning to find his body organically connected to another
person who would die if he detached them within nine months, few of them would
feel obliged to remain attached. But somehow when when a woman is involved, her
body becomes the property of The Collective, and she
is expected to make that sacrifice 'for the good of others'. While chauvinists and
rednecks might regard this as just desserts for supporting affirmative action,
continual male vilification, the Family Law Court, and other
Wimmin!'s rights, the reality is that not all women support such things, and
such punishment by The Collective is just more repression. A woman's body is not Collective property. It is private
property. And unless she has agreed to contract otherwise, she has a right
to dissociate with other bodies. Including the body of an unborn foetus. Of course such political
issues will not be decided on any real moral basis, but on political
expediency - it will be based on power broking. And the one thing more scary
than a politician who wants power at all costs is one who
has a true personal agenda to control other people's lives. Tony (punch-drunk)
Abbott is true zealot, and a powerful player in the Coalition. Is it any wonder that Little Johnny has tried to clamp down on debating the
abortion issue by telling his MPs to be extremely 'cautious' when commenting on
it? The Left, which has
long branded any open debate on controversial issues (such as refugees or the Aboriginal Industry) as
'divisive' and 'damaging to the social fabric', is suddenly all to keen to
bring the abortions out from the back yard barbecue and into the media
spotlight. The Left have finally found a wedge they can apply to The Right of
politics. There have always been funny stories about what goes on in the
seminaries. Maybe that explains why Tony would want to give himself a wedgie.
|
|
 |
| Prognosis - poor | |
Outsourcing offshore is something that many of us struggle with. Getting
baby toys and sports shoes made by someone earning twenty cents an hour in an
Asian sweatshop clearly helps the family budgeting in both countries - so this
normally gets a big tick. IT outsourcing to India makes some of the
intellectual elites (okay, nerds) nervous, but this is more that outweighed by
the satisfaction of seeing Telstra employees lose their jobs. But when the
outsourcing becomes insourcing it can hit us at a very personal level. In particular, something seems to have gone wrong in Canberra Hospital if
witnesses in the current Coroners Court are to be believed. The Communist Times reports that
doctor Prafulla Samant would not allow senior colleague Anne Leditschke to help
him as he struggled to get oxygen to critical patient Norman Ritchie for ten
minutes. The two doctors literally jostled over the patient as he turned blue,
and later died. In his defense Doctor Samant stated that he had 15 years experience as
a doctor and anesthetist in India before coming to Canberra. Glad
we cleared that up - clearly he was actually better qualified for the
job. Anyway, we wouldn't want to hand over to a mere woman would we? She might
have had seniority, but they were both equally qualified for affirmative
action, and that's what counts. 'Doctors who don't speak English' is one of the most common
complaints from rural Australians, but city slickers are generally spared the
worst communication problems with their doctors. Cities are more desirable
places of work for doctors, and the urban hospitals tend to employ those with
an acceptable understanding of the Queen's English, and this tends to
keep out the Bombay blow-ins. Little 'mishaps' like the one in Canberra
Hospital can be inflicted on our country cousins and then blamed on long
distances, lack of resourcing or plain old country ignorance. One of the much touted achievements of Australia's social democracy is
its comprehensive public health system - a system in which government, not patients,
choose the doctors in the public hospitals, and which has little accountability
to the public. Most people would be prepared to change their doctor if they
weren't satisfied with that doctor, but few would be willing to change their
vote if they weren't satisfied with their doctor. And the solution will be obvious to the statists - we have to spend more
and more money on a failing
system. When private
enterprise fails to deliver it goes broke. When government enterprise fails, it
gets more money. And the system of 'universal' health care will be heralded as
a triumph of a compassionate progressive society. The operation was a success, but the patient died.
|
|
 |
| Thai'd up and beaten | |
Every poor person knows that someone else is to blame for their lack of wealth, and the 6 million
Muslim population in Thailand seem to be no exception. Several thousand members
of Religion of Peace
protested about their poverty and discrimination
(particularly in seeking jobs). Apparently the infidels
have an obligation to make them
rich. But the actions of the Thai authorities suggest that they may have a
point. A few protesters were shot in the melee, and then the real fun
began. Arrested protesters were made to crawl along the ground while being
kicked and beaten; some were forced to lie in water with their hands tied
behind their backs (3 drowned); and then they were piled on top of each other
in police vans and left for hours before being driven off to detention. All in a good afternoon's work for the local authorities, but 78 of them died
either through broken neck or suffocation. This was a bit over the top even
for the Thai authorities who are used to getting away with this kind of thing
with the local Musso's. One really good way to judge someone's character is to watch their instant
and unrehearsed reaction when under stress. Cheryl (The Victim) Kernot's
"that's a terrible thing to say to me" suggested that she really
thought she was entitled to special treatment. Mark (Maddog's) Latham monster
pre-election handshake with Little (but not cowering) Johnny confirmed
suspicions that resorting to physical force is just under the surface for
Maddog (though Sydney cabbies knew this already). Elton John's petulant
outburst in Taipei revealed what a precious little queen he really is. And
Prince Harry's recent stoush with a photographer confirmed that he hasn't
forgiven the paparazzi for what they did to his mum. And the Thai Government's initial response to these deaths was pretty telling
too: the Musso's had brought it on themselves, weakening their bodies by
fasting, and not drinking enough. Poor nutrition is known to weaken bones, but
'broken neck due to fasting' is not a post-mortem finding yet seen on
CSI. Many countries have an embarrassing problem - a disturbed, fanatical and
violent section of the population obsessed with the belief that it's their
right to assault others and kill to satisfy their own sick agendas. In the case of Thailand, that group is the government.
|
|
 |
| Making it happen | |
Mark (Maddog) Latham's approach to politics is anything but
un-sexy. While somewhat short on policy, the king of motherhood statements,
once dubbed Dr Man Boobs by the Smirking Treasurer, has put together a shadow
cabinet consisting, seemingly, of wall to wall women. But the gaggle of women on the front bench is more than just a Cunning
array of Stunts on the part of the Shining Wits in the ALP. Maddog is a Smart Fella and
says they are, 'talented, young, progressive' women. The young is (at least comparatively) self evident, the
talented is a personal call, but it's hard to know exactly what Maddog
meant by 'progressive', dictionary.com
gives some clues. Removing all the definitions of progressive
which use the term progressive in their definition (how stupid are these
people?) leaves.
- Moving forward; advancing
.. as opposed to the Labour Party, which is slipping backwards.
- Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods: a progressive politician; progressive business leadership
.. so progressive just means better? Right.
- Increasing in rate as the taxable amount increases: a progressive income tax.
.. ahh, these women can sell the fiction that rich people have a higher effective marginal tax rate.
Progressive also suggests a commitment to leftist ideology, like
.. say, affirmative
action for women. A group of women who are firmly in favor of their own
promotions is a good start, but where does it go from there? In the roaring
'80s, and early '90s, affirmative action was fashionable enough to win
popularity. In 2004 through, it's a little bit old. At least it'll be a bit of comic relief. Most of us have to go searching on
the web for Asian lesbians **, but we now have one on
the front bench, and some of us are looking forward to her progressive
contribution to Australian politics. Affirmative action
is a wonderful thing. In fairness to the ALP though, at least it has finally achieved its much
touted Generational Change. In fact Simon Crean will look quite out of place in
this group - slumped in the front bench like a decaying fossil - a relic of
happier (and more unionized) times. A bit like Little Johnny sitting on the opposite side.
** Actually a cursory examination of the URL behind this link suggests that
one doesn't have to actually look very hard.
|
|
 |
| Sink or swim | |
Superstitious sailors will tell you that rats have the ability to tell when
a ship is about to sink, and leave in the last port. So one would have thought
that an election filled with accusations about lying rodents and children
overboard, would have produced the occasional rat slinking quietly off to a
unionized dockside to avoid drowning in the political oblivion of opposition. But after a triumphant fourth victory for John ('I'm very humbled') Howard,
the ALP doesn't understand how
they could have possibly lost to a government which was so 'out of touch'. Such
bad luck - they must have walked under Mark (Maddog) Latham's ever shifting
ladder of opportunity. Seven ALP front-benchers have now chosen to waddle off to the backbenches
instead of suffering the humiliation of facing grinning Johnny, and a
perpetually smirking Peter Costello. They had to find some way to ease the
squeeze. So, after the ship has already sunk, they are leaving Maddog, who looks
like he might be a little lonely up on the front bench. At this rate it might
just be him and Peter (Lapdog) Garrett - who will probably spend most of his
time hugging trees. And didn't the tree hugging help Maddog in the election
campaign! Lapdog Peter is likely to be an embarrassment. It's a little hard to read what is going on behind the scenes, but this
could well be because they can't stomach Mark Latham's new economic
agenda. This is what happens when you elect someone with an economics degree to
the ALP leadership. Unlike most of his leftist brethren, Maddog
understands the concept of effective marginal tax rates,
and the effect they have on incentive. His colleagues can't accept the reality
that incentive is a more effective creator of wealth than 'opportunity' -
especially so called 'equal
opportunity'. Maybe they realize in a new world more focused on creating wealth than of
sharing poverty, they are
liabilities - mere fossils of a time (and a philosophy) gone by. Or maybe the
socialist old guard are plotting a bloody coup from the backbenchers - building
a new ladder of opportunity for themselves .. .. just as soon as they find someone to lead them.
|
|
|
>> Please Sir, I want some more
|
|
| Feedback/Forum |
|
- ANON -- Anonymous Coward 2011-12-02
|
|
