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| More!? More!? |
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| Symbol of thuggery | |
No political blog would be complete without a mention of the May Day rallies
which get held around the world on May the first every year. Now that most
despotic communist governments have collapsed, it falls to those compassionate
Leftists in the First World to maintain the rage. Yes, those caring souls who respect the rights of all others are celebrating,
(or at least commemerating) a grubby little riot in Chicago 01-May-1886. It
went something like this:
1. Workers decide they want to work an 8 hour working day.
No problem with that. Most of us would like to spend more time lying on the
beach. Presumably they wanted the same pay as they were previously getting for
working more than 8 hours, but there's no problem with negotiating an effective
pay rise. 2. Employers decide not to pay them for only working 8 hours.
No problem. If the price of Big Macs goes up, you can choose to stop
buying them. If the price of labor goes up, you can stop buying it. 3. Workers strike.
Well, clearly .. if they weren't willing to continue to work for the old
rate. Seller and buyer can't agree on terms of trade. Both wait it out, hoping
the other will agree to their terms. That's what a strike is. 4. Striking workers set up a picket.
Apparently they have no problem with people blockading other people's
property. Presumably they would have no problem with the employers blockading
their homes until they agreed to work for the wage which the employers thought
was 'reasonable'? 5. Some workers decide that they are willing to trade for the
price offered by the employers, and try to cross the picket lines.
Sounds good. If I don't like the price MacDonalds charges for the Big Macs,
I can buy from Greasy Joe's down the road. The employers found sellers who were
willing to trade, and traded with them. 6. Strikers attack the workers.
Hmm. Presumably it's ok to attack people who are offering terms of trade
which you don't want them to. So in that case it would be okay for the
employers to attack the strikers as they tried to enter their homes? 7. Police retaliate. Two strikers are killed, and two others are wounded.
Clearly it's okay to attack people who who offer terms of trade that you
don't like. So what's the problem? 8. Strikers organize a riot and set off a bomb, which kills eight
police. Police respond, and fatally shoot eleven rioters.
Sounds fair enough. Thugs attack police, police defend themselves. There is nothing particularly extraordinary about this story - thugs will
be thugs. What is amazing is that so many True Believers deify
these thugs in the present day. Today thirty five
thousand people marched in a May Day rally in Brisbane, including Federal
Labor Leader Kim (Fatboy) Beazley. After trying to blame the Beaconsfield
gold mining disaster on the new IR laws, he vowed to "rip up these
industrial relations (IR) laws in 18 months time when we're elected". We have heard this broken record before. When Little Johnny introduced the
GST - unemployment was going to skyrocket, we were going to see hyperinflation,
children were going to starve, and the dead were going to walk the
earth. Instead we continued a decade of prosperity. And what of Little Johnny's timid IR laws? So far ALP has come up with a
man who claims he was sacked for smirking at the boss. But, in fairness, the
ABC managed to come up with an unidentified Tasmanian woman who claims she was
sacked because she couldn't do all the work she was assigned. Kim, you are a man of hidden qualities. Not just a two-time loser - an
eternal optimist. But you're right about the politically dead walking the earth.
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| Oil for food, money for guns | |
Most of us consider ourselves to be moral. Some of us have little blemishes on
our past we would describe as 'misunderstandings' or even (in severe cases)
'mistakes', but on the whole we like to think of ourselves as following a moral
code. A question to all such people is this: is it OK to pay a bribe in a
corrupt third world country? We are not talking about the kind of bribe which would stop you from spending
your best 20 years languishing in a Bali prison for an overweight boogie bag -
most people wouldn't have a problem with that. We are talking about the kind of
bribes that make your life (or maybe your business life) run a little smoother.
Giving the traffic cop $5 to avoid a trip to the local police station comes to
mind. Or maybe slipping the baggage handler a few crisp ones to overlook the
fact that you are overweight (your bags that is). Maybe giving the hotel clerk
a small tip to get a 'free' upgrade to a better room, or even help find you
some companionship on that lonely business trip? These things are not that common in Australia, but they are all part of the way
that business (and pleasure) are done in most countries in the world. Every
businessman who has done business overseas expects to grease a few government
palms to 'help things run smoothly'. Some people might have a problem with the
practice, but most of us believe that when in Rome, you pay unto Caesar that
which the Romans do. And Iraq is no exception. Does anyone believe that AWB hasn't been bribing Iraqi officials for decades?
Does anyone believe that the AU$300M in kickbacks to Iraqi government
officials is anything other than business as usual? Does anyone really believe
that the AWB didn't pay bribes when the ALP government controlled it? Do you
own a flock of flying pigs? This is why the Labour opposition has been so spectacularly unsuccessful at
getting any mud to stick to the government over the AWB weapons-for-oil
scandal. The AWB's charter was to sell Australian wheat to corrupt ratbag
governments, and they were expected to use corrupt ratbag methods. And they
didn't come much more corrupt and ratbaggy than Saddam's regime. Not that the current Iraqi officials won't complain about the AWB's actions. Of
course they will - it gives them more justification for demanding more bribes
now. Do these officials really wish that Iraq hadn't bought Australian wheat in
the 1990s? Do they wish their children had gone hungry during those years? It
seems unlikely. And from the average wheat-farmer's point of view, the AWB did what was necessary
to sell their wheat. That makes them .. maybe not good blokes .. but the kind
that you keep employing. Or voting for in the next election. It may go against the grain but the ALP is not sowing the seeds of an election
victory.
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| Little Johnny gets Tasmanian woman pink slip | |
Little Johnny's new IR laws are off to a good start, according to an ABC report
A woman, known only as Elizabeth, says she was sacked after working at a
small Tasmanian sports club for 10 years.
Funny, most people have two names, but they do many things differently in Tasmania.
Elizabeth says she had fallen behind in her job after doing the work of
two people since a colleague resigned.
Excellent! She was almost doing the work of two people, which means they are
going to have to employ two people to replace her. One person loses a job, two
people gain a job, net gain: one job. Little Johnny's IR laws have created
their first job! There is a catch though. Clearly there is an unemployed Tasmanian wandering
around whose productivity is nearly twice that of the average worker, and who
only expects a standard wage. A greedy capitalist employer's wet dream!
Unfortunately all those greedy capitalists are unable to find her because the
ABC only identified her as 'Elizabeth'. Every Tasmanian Elizabeth is probably
fighting of job offers as you read this. 'no, sorry, it's not me, I'm just
the garden-variety Elizabeth who takes extended smoking breaks and does her
nails in company time'. But it won't be long before the real Elizabeth is tracked down, and is once
again placed in useful and productive employment. .. assuming of course that employers believe that bastion of fair and
objective reporting the Australian
Broadcasting Commission. And why wouldn't they?
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| Gettin' the numbers | |
Worried about when you will have to convert to Islam? Considering getting
a second wife? Not sure whether your Robby Junior should be leaning Chinese or
Arabic as a second language? Wondering whether to start buying burqas or
blankets for your Little Debbi's glory box? Considering mutilating
Sally-Anne's genitals now, before she really understands what she is missing?
Wondering whether it's worth sending Little Tracy to school at all? Can't cope
with having to make decisions about your life, and want to know when you will
be told exactly what to do? Hoping you won't have to wait Danna Vale's full 50
years? Guidance is here from the intellectual elite. This calculator is for you!
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| Crowding out choice | |
One of the great things about living in a wealthy country is the privacy.
Money may not buy happiness, but it can buy a nice big house on a large enough
block of well-fenced land so that you don't have your neighbors living in your
pocket. But the collectivists are fond of describing man as a social animal. Many of
them define the worth of a human being as merely the collective opinions of
other people. Apparently it's not what you know, it's not even
who you know - it's who knows you. Some of us choose a life of social gatherings, Tupperware parties, rotary
groups or kinky group-sex parties. And good on them. But others make a
very different choice - a quiet and secluded life, enjoying their solitary
hobbies, and having relatively little to do with the outside world. And good on
them. So it should come as no surprise that some people die without other people
knowing it. Recently, Sydney woman Vira Lascotte was found in her home some
some six weeks after she died. And this is not the first case. She was the
seventh elderly person found dead in similar circumstances this year. Outrage! Steve Price is appalled 'this is becoming a self obsessive
society' and others lament 'that is a sad indictment on society' and 'what ever happened to community
spirit?'. NSW Housing Minister Cherie Burton seized the political opportunity today by
launching a Good Neighbor Campaign - where people in public housing are
encouraged to monitor their their neighbors habits and movements. There are
already cries to launch a similar campaigns for the rest of society. But there is no evidence that these people wanted others to check on them, to
interfere in their lives, or that they really cared about lying around rotting
for a few months after they were dead. Quite seriously - who cares? If these people were found one day after their
death by some good Samaritan (instead of six months), would the people be
any less dead? Would they be any happier? Is there any suggestion that
monitoring would have saved (or even prolonged) their lives? Old people die.
They have a right to die in and solitude if they so choose to. By any objective measure these undiscovered deaths are a testament to our
affluence and freedom. People have the choice of withdrawing from society and
going their own way. In the end we all die alone, but some of us choose to live
alone too - even when we are close to death. Et viva la difference.
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| Please - no flogging | |
One of the better techniques in manipulating meetings is the art of keeping
your mouth shut when things are going your way. Sometimes even committee
structures lurch clumsily in the right direction, and on those occasions all
that is necessary is to give an encouraging nod and grunt to speed things up.
The most tempting strategy of shouting 'get on with it, morons!' is
actually counter productive - it might upset the flow. Today was one of those days in the big meeting called Australian Politics. One
of those days that goes so well, that the sensible thing is to just sit back
and enjoy the machinations. That's why yours truly feels compelled to write about it. Little Johnny started the black-ball rolling by repeating prophetic statements
he had made two days before the Cronulla riots about there being unwelcome
Islamic extremists in our midst. Not be outdone, long-suffering Treasurer and PM in waiting Peter
(Smirky) Costello criticized "mushy,
misguided multiculturalism", and suggested that people who didn't adopt
'Australian values' should be stripped of Australian citizenship if they had
dual (or multiple) citizenship. Exactly what 'Australian values' meant wasn't
really clear, and the government mechanism for making this decision wasn't
discussed, but it achieved its purpose: the Islamic lobby started squealing
like stuck pigs and saying that Australia was 'moving away from its
multicultural values'. Nice of you all to notice. Most people don't know what to make of a Treasurer who makes statements outside
his portfolio, and would normally dismiss such things with 'shouldn't you
be sitting at your desk raising taxes or something?'. Most people need a
compass to help them know what to think, and they have discovered one: when the
Muslim leaders complain about
it, it's probably a good thing. The Muslim lobby have gotten so much benefit from pig-squealing over the last
two decades, that they don't know how to do anything else. Like a spoiled child
who learns that the best strategy to get their way is to immediately throw
themselves on the floor and wail. Even when it stops working, they keep doing
it because they don't know anything else. It's quite funny. And the reaction from state governments? Far from vilify Smirky, NSW party
leaders Morris Iemma and Peter Debnam both heaped praise on the
Treasurer. Further away from Sydney (and further away from the problems that multiculturalism has
caused) it was a different story. Steve Bracks said that 'Mr Costello [was]
playing politics'. No flies on Steve. And Peter Beattie says Mr Costello's
comments were a cheap shot for populist approval. Yes Peter, it's the way to
win elections in a democracy. Of course Bob Brown-nose just followed the example of the Muslim lobbys
and screamed something about 'wedgie politics' as usual (must be a fantasy
boy thing), but the most interesting response came from Kim (Fatboy) Beasley.
Opposition Leader Kim Beasley says if the Government has concerns it should do
more than make speeches about it. "Costello's in power, he's been in office for 10 years if he's got a
problem with people who've come into this country who are committed to Jihad or
committed to any form of violence," he said, "Why doesn't he do something about
it?"
Well Kim, it seems that most of them arrived on your watch (during the reign of
the last Labour government in
which Fatboy was a senior minister). So are you going to admit that you got it
wrong (and presumably be too ashamed to contest the next election)? Kim is
playing his usual game - whining about the Howard government without actually
criticizing anything they do - in the hope of pleasing both sides. Kim, Kim, redneck feminist academics don't breed fast
enough to swing the vote, and even Danna Vale says that the Muslim
majority is 50 years away. This is no way to win an election.
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| Party Party! | |
The animation to the left is actually a collection of pictures from a little
booklet given out by the local police. On Saturday, the police were handing it
out to vulnerable looking young women in the mall. Exactly why they gave one to
the missus is not really clear, but it certainly got my attention. It's a
pretty raunchy document for the police to be handing out. For those without the patience to work out what it is about, the booklet warns
of the dangers of drug rape - where people drop knock-out drugs such as Rohypnol
into a victim's drink, and rape them while they are unconscious. Exactly why
someone would want to have sex with a warm corpse is a bit of a mystery, but it
takes all kinds. While this is does happen, and it's a serious problem, it's less common than
the victim groups would have us believe. Even the local police have reported
'an increasing number of young women who simply get drunk, and can't remember
what happened'. Oops. Just because you regret it the next day doesn't make it rape. Getting maggot drunk in a room full of strangers is probably not a very
sensible thing to do without a sober and trusted minder. All drugs affect the
mind and seriously affect the judgment and choices people make. In an already
complex area involving informed consent, the issues around alcohol or drug
taking make the issues even fuzzier. Some of us view a drunken young woman dancing (or rather lurching) in a
nightclub, who is obviously desperate for the attention of the men, with
disdain, or even disgust. But for others it's an opportunity. Advertising
pays. Even for the local police.
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| When the going gets tough .. | |
Some people believe that with the right incentive-based management system
that even public
servants can be made to work productively and conscientiously. Of course
people who believe this are unreformed socialists, but they are not
totally wrong. With a sweet enough carrot and big enough stick, even government employees can be
made to, grudgingly, do their job occasionally. Like the NSW police force for
example.
Police
today announced that eight males, aged between 16 and 21, had been arrested
over the violence at the beachside suburb of Maroubra on December
11. Of course one can't lay all the blame at the police. A systemic culture of
corruption a decade ago
was replaced by a systemic culture of donuts and multicultural
sympathies. The new social-work-environment
didn't offer the same rewards for taking bribes, but at least the job wasn't
hard: leave the ethnic gangs alone, and harass middle-class family men for
speeding by a few Ks or failing to indicate correctly on a round-about. But public pressure after the Cronulla riots was building steadily. Police
arrested many of the rioting white thugs, but none of the ethnic gangs which
terrorized southern Sydney in the days (or rather nights) afterwards, and people
weren't happy. Police tried to bury a video showing a man being set upon and
beaten by around 40 men 'of middle eastern appearance'. Police denied that the
tape existed until it was televised, and then started finger pointing at each
other. People were even less happy. Then there was the issue of the 'missing' police radio tapes which
reportedly contain instructions to police officers to ignore convoys of
Middle-Eastern gangs. It was an 'internal procedural matter', and hence it was
'inappropriate to comment'. People probably had had enough, and even the NSW
police were forced to actually do something. All this makes the next NSW election hard to call. Is the ethnic violence
issue going to decide the next election? How much concern is there about ethnic
violence in Sydney at the moment? There are many people who will quietly vote
for any party which offers a plausible solution to the problem - but how many?
Morris Iemma and Peter Debnam are doubtless examining this issue carefully, but
their tried and true popularity gauges may fail them. One Nation took many people by surprise because they didn't detect the
undercurrent of anger and dissatisfaction with leftist political
correctness. Knowing what people really think is a hard thing to do. People
tend to socialize with people who think the things that they do - and
politicians (almost by definition) socialize with the lowest class of
humanity. Chatting to other politicians, and Canberra
call-girls (most of
whom seem to be ANU students) doesn't give a
really balanced view. Political parties try to overcome this natural bias by using 'focus
groups'. They get about a dozen swinging voters, ply them with a few beers and
videotape the conversations. This is a good mechanism, but it doesn't pick up
the silent undercurrents. If the media, the politicians and the intellectual elites
have been screaming 'RACISM!
RACISM!' for the past
decade, most people will keep quiet about ethnic violence concerns in the
company of strangers - even under the tongue-loosening effects of mild
inebriation. But at least the police have been forced to their their job for a
change. And it could be said that under the right incentive-based management
system that even politicians can be made to work productively and
conscientiously. Unfortunately the democratic process isn't it.
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| Finding common ground | |
In politics, it is
sometimes too easy to de-humanize your opponents and forget that they have real
feelings. And it seems that members of the Religion of Peace are a more
sensitive group than many of us realized. Yes, the same religion which brought you September-11, countless
suicide bombings, infibulation, and the murder of several hundred innocent
people in Madrid and London have a sensitive side. Many of them have been
squealing like stuck pigs over the publishing of 12 cartoons of the prophet
Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. It seems that publishing cartoons of Mohammad crosses "one of Islam's sacred
boundaries". While most people in The West don't have a
problem poking fun at a thug turned warlord pedophile who has been dead for
1500 years, it seems that in the Middle East, this is a
violation of their citadel of dignity. Warlord pedophiles are to revered, not
mocked, in the cradle of civilization. The Weak-end Australian has labeled this as the biggest clash of cultures
between Christianity and Islam since Salman Rushdie dared to publish his
'Satanic Verses'. Apparently the spate of suicide bombings and a gulf war,
didn't qualify as a clash of cultures - they were just misunderstandings.
And the War Against Terror? Nothing to do with Islam. It's just coincidence
that the enemy are all Muslims. Even Dubya talks of Islam as being one of the
'Great Religions'. Well, if popularity is the measure of Greatness, then it
stands to reason. Over a billion people call themselves Muslims. Usually incidents of Islamacist ranting can be dismissed by Leftist apologists as merely
the opinions of a few 'hardline Islamic leaders' (ie psychopaths), and to deny
that they represent any significant feeling in the Muslim community. But in
this case that's a bit harder, as evidenced by the fact that it has obvious
widespread support - Danish products have been voluntarily boycotted around the
Middle East, and Danish companies are having to lay off workers as a result.
One misguided psychopath can attack an embassy or blow himself up on a train,
but one person does not have the buying power to cause mass layoffs in another
country. There can be few surer indications that the teachings of Islam are not
compatible with notions of freedom of speech, personal choice or even freedom
of thought. Ultimately any argument can be silenced with 'I find that
deeply offensive and it violates my sacred boundaries'. Many Leftists
might entrust governments with making a
fair trade-off, but how many are willing to trust a Muslim cleric? Democracy, it is often
said, is the compromise between beliefs. Different people in democracies want
different things, and democracy works because it tends to find a solution
which, while it doesn't please everyone, at least everyone can live
with. However there are some things which cannot compromise. There is no
compromise between the beliefs that 'I have the right to rape you' and 'You do
not have the right to rape me'. The two are not just different opinions
worthy of equal consideration and compromise. They are just incompatible
beliefs. Any compromise 'well then you can rape me on Thursdays' is not a
compromise at all. It is a capitulation to evil. Likewise the belief that blasphemy laws can be imposed upon non-believers
cannot be reconciled with beliefs about personal freedom. They are just
incompatible. These Islamic teachings are just not compatible with Western
culture, and have no place in it. On the other hand it could be argued that the Muslim world is becoming more
Westernized. In modern Western culture, everyone wants to be a victim - the feminists, the
Aboriginal lobbyists, the multicultural groups,
and now of course, the Religion of Peace is claiming that status. Maybe the
followers of the Religion of Peace are more Westernized than we realize?
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| Advance Australian's fare | |
Another Australia day has come and gone, and the honors list contains the usual
gaggle of elitist tax leeches. Exactly what qualifies someone for the honors
list isn't really clear, but it seems to have something to do with justifying
bigger government. We have come to expect elite sports people to be on the list. The masses are
forced to give money to people to play zero-sum-games (sports) to further their
own individual achievements so the government can glorify collectivism. This is
just puzzling. But it gets worse. Surely honoring a former head of an officious price gouging
government monopoly (ie Telstra) stretches the envelope of good taste. But the most offensive honors must surely be the ones given to former
politicians. Tax thieves using taxes to give honors to former tax thieves
is something which every decent human surely finds totally repugnant. There is truly honor among thieves. Not that yours truly is against the idea of having an honors list on Australia
day. On the contrary - yours truly would like to nominate Norm from the 'Life
Be In It' campaign. For those too young to remember Norm, he was the lovable,
animated, beer-gutted, 'all round sportsman' created with tax money who graced
our TV screens for a brief time some 25 years ago. Our government tried to
control our lives and get us to spend more time outside, and less time watching
commercial television. Norm was truly a champion. He has fallen out of the limelight since then, but
for the past 30 years he has consistently done his own thing. Presumably his
kids are fully grown now and no longer interested in going out and flying
kites, but Norm has stuck to his guns (or at least his favorite lounge chair)
and remained defiant in the face of peer pressure, government incentives, and
tax-payer funded health warnings about everything from salt intake to domestic
violence. He choose his own course in the face of collectivist pressure. Norm may have been imaginary, but no more imaginary than the collectivist
common good created by continual government intervention and social
programming.
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>> Please Sir, I want some more
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| Feedback/Forum |
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- ANON -- Anonymous Coward 2011-12-02
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