Merry Christmas Folks

Merry Christmas to all from Gibbos Place, featuring, for your dancing pleasure, the "Cowper Drive Crooners"

That's me on the extreme right(hahahaha), on drumkit and esky, pretending to read the music!
What a great night it was. Beer, BBQ, belting out tunes and yacking till midnight.
Thanks to Norm & Brian for organising this once again.

The killing machine that is Marxism

"With the fall of the Soviet Union and communist governments in Eastern Europe,
too many have the impression that Marxism, the religion of communism, is dead.
Hardly. It is alive and well in many countries still, such as North Korea,
China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, a gaggle of African countries, and in the minds of
many South American political leaders. However, of most importance to the future
of democracy, communism still pollutes the thinking of a vast multitude of
Western academics and intellectuals.
Of all religions, secular and
otherwise, that of Marxism has been by far the bloodiest – bloodier than the
Catholic Inquisition, the various Catholic crusades, and the Thirty Years War
between Catholics and Protestants. In practice, Marxism has meant bloody
terrorism, deadly purges, lethal prison camps and murderous forced labor, fatal
deportations, man-made famines, extrajudicial executions and fraudulent show
trials, outright mass murder and genocide.
In total, Marxist regimes murdered nearly 110 million people from 1917 to 1987. For perspective
on this incredible toll, note that all domestic and foreign wars during the 20th
century killed around 35 million. That is, when Marxists control states, Marxism
is more deadly then all the wars of the 20th century, including World Wars I and
II, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
And what did Marxism, this greatest of
human social experiments, achieve for its poor citizens, at this most bloody
cost in lives? Nothing positive. It left in its wake an economic, environmental,
social and cultural disaster."

Read the rest here. It should be compulsory reading.
Via Dissecting Leftism

Plenty of gas Rachele!

Rachele, one of the lurkers at Crazy Dicks thinks I may have "run out of gas".

No, there is plenty of gas Rachele. As someone else said in the comments at Crazy Dick's, It is a bit like picking on kids in wheelchairs debating with your lot.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Rachele, here is just a sample.

"Personally, even though I sometimes dont understand what he's trying to say, for the most part, I agree with him."

"I never said his writings must be true. Perhaps he may never have said anything which has yet come true... but have you? Does simply doing nothing make you right"

"The Greens aren’t communists. They are rights activists."

"The left is too far right for me anyway. I want no part of it"

"HOw do you know that the world is out side when you shut all the doors and close the curtains...."

"your opnions and retalliations are perfect examples of juevenille behaviour"

"I'm pretty sure the point was shitty capitalism and people dying while people just like you sit back and scratch their arses eating McDonalds"

"What is so scary about the idea of communism and peace?"

"I would point out an example of a 'communist country in which I would like to live, if there were ever such a thing, but so far there has not yet been a country which has truly prescribed to the communist ideology."

"So you’re a sad old man eh? Beer swilling nationalistic, child rearing, typical aussie bloke…" [I love this one. Child rearing is apparently now a problem, Gibbo]

"Overwhelming amounts of people seem to think that anarchy is chaos, when in fact; this does not have to be the case. If the individuals of a society have a common sense of moral order, then anarchy is possible. Perhaps this is not the perfect system of goverment (or lack there of) in our society, but if you take a post modern perspective on things, all ideas have faults, and there is no right and wrong, because it is suggested that there is fundamental truth"

"I would like to argue that communism has never been fully implemented as a system of government"


I have to include a classic reply from Fred:
"Still, have to love commies who hate evil rich capitalists,and sit typing away on Wintels ( Or do you use a steam powered, enviromentally friendly, recycled bean tin running a copy of Linux Red Hat 5 which you nicked from a computer mag in the waiting room at the CES)."

Rachele, when you develop an original thought, or even a coherent one, we might try again. Until then, keep working on that list of Crazy Dick's prophecies. I haven't seen it yet.
By the way, if your site is supposed to be a porn one, show a bit more tit. If it isn't then knock off the fake erotica shit and improve the quality of your argument.

The final word should go to Rachele though. This from her site:
"I always assumed that people who had live journals had something profound to say, and yet I"m finding I lack the inspiration for such profound comments... perhaps I should shut up.
So I'm thinking of going to a fancy dress party as a cat..."

New Years Eve in Shepparton.

How often does Shepparton spring into your mind? Be honest. Not often I’ll bet. Well, I have had discussion recently with a certain Shane Campbell Muir of Shepparton and it jogged a few memories. Alas, none of them involve “chemtrails”.

As some of you know, I used to be a roadie. A few of my pals have been hassling me recently to publicly tell some of my “war stories”. I have resisted for a while but, enough time has passed now to make them interesting without getting people in the shit.

I have spent many an interesting New Years Eve, but among them is not the one spent in Shepparton.

From (unreliable) memory, it was 1992. I was working for a chap by the name of Rick Price who was doing good business at the time. We were booked to play New Years Eve at this pub in Shepparton along with The Black Sorrows and Daryl Braithwaite as well as one or two others(Dave Mason-Cox I think). At the time it was a very impressive line up and it promised to be a great night. The bloke who owned the pub had spent a motza on this night. He was planning to clean up on account of the fact that basically nothing else was going on for a hundred miles around. He had put a cyclone wire fence around the car park and had blacked it out with plastic. He had put a quite decent stage in, along with reasonable backstage facilities for us and the other bands. The topper was that he had knocked a big hole in the (brick) wall of the pub to allow him to sell grog at a phenomenal rate to the vast crowd. The guy had pallets of grog everywhere!

For the “PA Heads”… We had an ARX PA system of around 18,000 watts front of house and about 13,000 watts of monitors on 8 sends. The Black Sorrows had an almost identical system so we set them both up to form quite a decent system. It took all afternoon to set up and make the two systems work together. We had a crew of 6 and they had similar. They also had this poor schmuck who had “won” a competition on the tele to be Joe Camelleris’ personal roadie. He had been on the road with this particular tour for about two weeks. In the scheme of things, he was basically useless. The Sorrows’ crew made no bones at all about letting him know this. They wouldn’t let him touch anything. He was the epitome of “the lunch boy”. The poor prick was miserable but he was hundreds of miles from home and broke! Apart from this, their crew was blueing pretty good amongst themselves, so the atmosphere was “touchy” at best. Our crew were getting on well and took the opportunity to “stoke the fires” a bit.

The publican was expecting a crowd of many thousands, literally, and had invested heavily. Guess what? They didn’t turn up!

We had this massive setup, these great bands, the “hole in the wall bar”, the pallets of grog, the bar staff, the big stage, the security dudes, the backstage compound with catering, generators, cyclone fencing, but… no crowd. The artists, all of them, kicked arse. If you have never seen Joe Camelleri and The Black Sorrows live, then you have truly missed out. It is a musicians band. The musicians will know what I mean. Our band kicked too. Rick Price had a red hot band and they delivered. But no one was there. Daryl Braithwaite started the show with just himself and a keyboard player and managed to be thoroughly entertaining for about 45 minutes. Quite a feat for two dudes, but, no one was there.

At the end of the night you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. The smell of burning promoter hung heavily in the air!

We packed up our gear in record time and then attempted to leave. The Sorrows’ crew decided to get shitty at this point. What right did we have to piss off early when the job wasn’t finished? Well, we were finished! We figured that we had about half the gear each. We had packed up ours therefore fulfilling our part of the bargain. However… these dudes were fighting each other and were working like “old moles”. In the spirit of reconciliation, and with much hesitance, we decided to help these poor buggers who had just about had enough, and wanted to go home.

We eventually got their truck packed and headed off to the Motel for a well earned kip. Only, my brother and I got side tracked into another Motel room with a local band! I’d like to tell you the full juicy details but… nothing happened. These dudes were the most boring people you could meet. No sex, no drugs, no rock & roll. Not even a couple of long necks.

It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen, and no one was there!

That is my complete experience of Shepparton. In my opinion, the place could do with a few more chemtrails. It could bloody well do with something!

That's not a mullet Darp, this is a MULLET

Darp thinks he has a mullet.
Sorry to dissapoint you mate but here is the real thing. Circa 1988 and complete with FuManchu moustache!


I have a better one than this somewhere, complete with Santa Claus hat. If I find it I'll post it.

If you have a genuine 80's mullet shot, then post it on your site or send it over. Maybe we could organise a vote. Darps' mob will reckon that the vote was rigged or stolen by Mirand Airey-Fairy or something, but it might be fun

Racism for Dummies

Update: As I have been accused of misquoting someone who I didn't even quote, here is the link to the post at Darps' Blog that started all this. See for yourself.

Original Post:
There has been great discussion recently regarding the topic of racism and, as Australians, our supposed predisposition toward it. It is a topic that is simply too complex to discuss back and forth in the comments section of someone’s blog, so I thought I would take a few moments to put my thoughts down in some sort of order.
To give you some context, I would like to explain a little about myself and my background. I am a fifth generation Australian (as far as I have traced so far), of basically British origins. I was born in 1962 and raised in Sydney’s Western Suburbs. Cabramatta, to be precise. That makes me a white male, 42years old and a westie. Prime racist material eh?
Cabramatta was then, and is now, a melting pot of many different races. We had wads of post-war immigrants of many different nationalities. I lived in a short cul-de-sac that had the migrant hostel at the bottom. The makeup of our street was roughly this: On our side it went Scottish, Russian, Italian, Aussies, Latvians, Serbs, Italians, Italians and Croatians. The other side went Italians, Italians, Italians, Serbs, Italians, Various, Aussies, Aussies, Ukrainians, Scots, Macedonians, and this was just my street. As you know, we then had a large influx of Asian refugees starting in the 70’s. In short, if you were racist, you didn’t have any friends. This community was remarkably harmonious. People just plain got along. Sure, there were people you didn’t like but it was usually something more substantial than their racial background. I will have more to say in a future post about why I think that this community was as successful as it was, but it serves to show you some of my background and why I get so upset when people say I am a racist because I am a white male or because I vote for John Howard. It is simply not true. It is a concept that I reject out of hand. This is not to say that Australians are not racist or that I have never been a racist. I am simply stating that we are no more racist than anyone else. I believe that all races use this “evil power” whenever it suits them.
It is not something that white people do to brown people. It is not something Aussies do to wogs. It is something people do to each other.

Let me explain it like this:
I support Parramatta in the football. I go along to games or watch ‘em on the TV and I get all worked up. When my team plays your team, I don’t like your team. Say we are playing against Newcastle, then that Andrew Johns is a mongrel bastard who must be stopped at all costs. Phoooey on him. Kick him in the nuts, pull his hair, whatever. Just beat them. But… when State of Origin time comes around, Andrew Johns no longer is a mongrel bastard who plays for Newcastle. He’s the bloody captain of NSW and a top bloke. Skillful, wiley, just a brilliant player. Great to see my man Nathan Hindmarsh in the same team as the great Andrew Johns. On the other hand, that Shane Webke is a prick eh? Bloody fridge on legs. I don’t like him at all! Smash him boys!!! Bloody Queenslander.
But… when the Aussie team gets picked to go and wallop the Poms, that bloody Webke. Top bloke! Never stops trying. Proud to have him in the side. Go Shane, smash those Poms.

That, my friends is exactly how racism works. It is all about the current perspective and what suits you at the time.
When it suits we are citizens of the world.
When it suits we are Aussies.
When it suits we are part of Asia.
When it suits we are of British descent.
When it suits we are ANZACS
When it suits we are a multicultural paradise.

I have never met a specific race or culture who is not capable of pulling out the race card whenever it suits. The problem is that it stifles genuine debate and the possibility of actually fixing some of our countries serious problems. If you shout down every argument that is not yours as racist, then you are not helping. Some examples of “Aussies inherent racism” were given to me at Darps’ blog today. One fellow said that he had never seen an Aboriginal married to a white person in Australia so therefore we must all be racist. Mate, I lived next door to an Aboriginal chap and his white wife for many years. It is not as uncommon as you think. Another person said that by my treating all races as equal, I was being ethnocentric and therefore was a racist. What the fuck? One person even said that I must be a racist because voted for “the right”. Just what we need mate, sensible debate.
I know it has become fashionable in some circles to be a self flagellator but don’t include me in your guilt trip. The we had the call for an "indigenous" blogger to come in and tell us once more how racist we are because only black people know. IE Black person says white person is racist. Ipso facto... white peole are racist. QED.
While we are talking about Aboriginals. Don’t think that they aren’t as bad as anyone else at this stuff. Many of the tribes are openly hostile to each other for no more reason than their “race” IE My tribe is better than yours. I have personally witnessed the unbelievable amount of diplomacy it takes to get some of these people to just be in the same room as each other, let along carry out a meaningful dialog. This is not a put-down. This just proves they are human like the rest of us. By segregating them into a sub-group of our society that is treated inherently different is racist beyond belief as just does not help. If every problem is looked at through the lens of “it must be whitey’s fault”, then you are missing many opportunities to fix things.
If someone in this country is living in sub-human conditions due to genuine neglect then that is a tragedy and should be fixed. The problem is not a worse one because the victim is black. When you are constantly told that your circumstances are not your fault, then life becomes easy. Any problem you have must be caused by someone else’s actions. Therefore, it is not your responsibility to fix. It might even surprise you to learn that not Aboriginals live under a piece of corrugated tin in Bumfuqnowhere. Not all of them are drug addled fuckwits from Redfern. The vast majority of them lead happy, fulfilled, quiet lives in suburbia, far from the hue and cry of the racist politics of the left. They even marry white folks sometimes Davo! By categorizing them as all being disadvantaged because they are black is racist in the extreme.

I’ll say it one more time for the dummies. It is not something that white people do to brown people. It is not something Aussies do to wogs. It is something people do to each other. If you think that it is an Aussie thing then you simply don’t mix with a wide enough group of people. Go out and make friends with some wogs. Most of them are nice people, just like everyone else. Most of them are capable of being racist pigs when it suits, just like everyone else. You might even enjoy the food. Better than chops, peas and potatoes anyday.

Andrew Wilkie. Hahahahahahahahaaaa choke gasp hahahaha

I have been having a nice little conversation over at my good friend Darps' place about the apparent disappearance of Andrew Wilkie. His website is gone and he has been expunged from the greens site.
So... I did a little googling and found this classic on the greens site.


It almost made my coffee come out my nose!!

Even wonder Bobs mob rate John Howards' version as more reliable than Weasle Wilkie.

Made my day it did!

It's all getting silly.

Copy cats are coming out of the woodwork with various food items that may or may not resemble "things"
The latest is a salmon sandwich that looks, and smells, like a vagina.
I've also managed to find another potentially famous grilled cheese sandwich here. The original "Virgin Mary" model seems to have sparked the whole thing off, while good old ET started me on my search for riches.
What's next?:
A haggis that looks like Michael Moore?


A peanut that looks like Mark Latham?


A goose that looks like Bob Brown?

A ferret that looks like Paul Keating?


Hey, once we have finished with food we could move on to other stuff.
Like the wing nut that looks like Bob Carr


or the donkey that looks like John Kerry


Where will it end?

Gibbo strikes it rich!

After all the kerfuffle lately regarding Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese and ET lookalikes in a Nutrigrain box, I thought that I would try and make a sly dollar myself.
A quick search through the pantry brought me face to face with certain riches.
The first one I found was the spitting image of Richard Neville. What do you think?



If this wasn't great enough by itself, then I found a group photo of some of the "special" folks that hang around in Richards' comments section.





Then folks, the topper of all toppers!
May I present: Kerry Nettle, Bob Brown, Andrew Wilkie and Peter Garrett.



I'm justing popping in to eBay now to list them. Man, I can see the dollars rolling in now!

Staff Training Procedural Changes.

Preamble:
Budgetary constraints now dictate that all staff training sessions should follow a set procedure regardless of their intended topic.
In the spirit of procedural integrity, all staff training will now reinforce positive approaches and frameworks, which will seek to enhance effectiveness and allow us to implement new paradigms with a “can do” attitude. Trainers will facilitate getting attendees “back on track” within a pedagogical context by developing “Personal Management Plans”.
Outcomes and synergies can be structured and measured against these frameworks in order to value the collective input.

Staff Training Structural Matrix:
Training sessions will now follow the following structure, which all trainers will attempt to follow, as follows:
1. Start of session. Trainers will get all participants to stand up and introduce themselves and describe their position within the organisation. Remember, a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met! This is an opportune moment for telling the attendees how special your particular circumstance is and how no one really understands you. You are permitted also to give brief examples of mistreatment from under achieving superiors.
2. All attendees will now talk amongst themselves at a progressively louder volume.
3. The trainer will now attempt to get the session “back on track” by writing things on a white board. If staff are still inattentive, ball games or lolly throwing may be instigated.
4. Morning tea will now be provided. This is another opportunity to let the other attendees know how hard it is in your particular department ad how unfair your boss is. Be sure to underline the fact that no-one really understands you or values your input.
5. After morning tea the session will move onto Conflict Resolution. Please open your workbooks to the approved activities. The trainer will then facilitate discussion in a small group scenario after taking nominations for team captains. Team captains are to facilitate the facilitation, which was instigated by the trainer, at a team level. This is to be done with consistent, incremental growth in volume to the point that the trainer needs to again throw lollies.
6. The team captains will then vocalise the outcomes of the group discussions. Attendees are invited to but in at any point to confirm that their boss doesn’t really value them intrinsically or extrinsically.
7. Spontaneous group discussion is now encouraged with a focus on each attendee’s particular, personal situation.
8. Drawings will now be made on flip charts.
9. Team captains will be invited to stick coloured squares of cardboard onto the flip charts. Brisk discussion at ever increasing volumes will then ensue.
10. Lunch will now be served. This is again an opportune moment to meet new friends and to explain to them how no one really understands your situation and how you feel undervalued as a person.
11. After lunch, all attendees except two will return. Brisk discussion will be undertaken as to the possible reasons for their tardiness.
12. The trainer may take this opportunity to attempt to show a video about Conflict Resolution, which may or may not feature John Cleese.
13. The missing two attendees are to walk in at 2 minute intervals after the video has started. Embarrassed looks are optional.
14. Discussion will now start about the lateness of “Some People”
15. At the conclusion of the video the trainer will attempt to get the session “back on track” by introducing the actual topic of the training session.
16. [INSERT TRAINING TOPIC HERE]
17. A PowerPoint presentation will now be attempted.
18. Attendees are invited to fiddle with the projector at will. Eventually, the person “who knows all about projectors” should step forward to direct the button pushing frenzy.
19. After watching the presentation about [INSERT TRAINING TOPIC HERE], the trainer will discuss the upcoming afternoon tea and the possibility of going home early as this has been a particularly “special” group today.
20. Afternoon tea will now be served. Note: This is one of your last opportunities to discuss your unique situation within the organisation. Make use of it! This is the best time to again explain the uselessness of your superiors and about who is probably rooting who in your office.
21. Attendees are now invited to reluctantly shuffle back to the training room.
22. The importance of Conflict Resolution will now be reiterated.
23. One last round of valued input will now be facilitated with special attention paid to vocalising underlying constraints within your personal context.
24. A Values Statement will now be prepared in consultation with the Mission Statement as it applies to the Outcomes Statement within the contextual framework.



Have I been in the public service too long? 18 months in and this is the result!

Back soon

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Work beckons at the moment.
I'll be back in early December.

Love you'se all.

Pickle Me Grandmother!

Sorry for the light blogging of late. It can be explained by two words. "Euphoria".
I've spent a bit of time just reading lately and it has been quite interesting. This morning I thought I would check out a few lefty blogs for their thoughts on Mr Bushs' victory. Most didn't have much(intelligent) to say but I noticed that there is still a lot of angst regarding John Howards win.
According to such luminaries as Darp, it was another "stolen election" made possible by underhanded people posing as greens who tricked everybody into voting Liberal. Check the how to vote cards here and make your own mind up.
I left this comment on Darps site:

Darp, I just had a look at your friend Mirandas' web site. It clearly shows an image of the how to vote card that she was handing out. Do you REALLY think that this constitutes "fakie Greens How to votes"?
It is quite clearly a Liberal HTV. Again, your excuses turn out to be nothing more than the pathetic rantings of a serial loser. If you truly think green voters mistakenly voted Liberal because of these HTV cards then you are more of a goose than I originally thought. Maybe you understand the stupidity of your own mob better than I?
Calling your communist party "The Greens" doesn't give you carte blanche on environmental issues. This is the bit you haven't figured out yet. Most people ARE sympathetic to genuine environmental issues but they also understand that communism won't fix it.
Your arguments grow more shrill and thin every day. Thanks again for the entertainment.

To which I got this classic reply:

Gibbo,

Those HTV's were not meant to dupe EDUCATED Greens voters, they were meant to dupe well-meaning but politically niaeve voters who "kind of like the Greens cos they're like...cool ..like eh"

Ie, people who wouldn't know the difference between Labor and Liberal or people who don't know the Canberra is the capital city of this country.

If she wasn't trying to dupe potential Greens voters, why was she saying stuff like this as she handed out her HTV?

'Vote for a Green Australia' ...or 'Voting Green?'

Hmmmmm...and don't knock Gibbo's blog -It's like Kingswood Country online. TED BULLPIT LIVES - IN CYBERSPACE!

Now it all makes sense. It's all about stupid people again. The ones who didn't know who they wanted to vote for and were tricked by the evil and ugly Miranda. If only Darp could convince more stupid people to vote for the greens then the world would be a better place! This, from the same idiot who handed out How To Vote cards for Andrew Wilkie. Ha ha ha. I notice Mr Wilkie has been erased from the greens web site like he never existed. Beautiful.

Anyway, I'm off to give Neville the tastefully decorative concrete aboriginal another coat of Berger Breeze after which I'll take Gay Akubra and Repco Lad for a walk. Leave your money on the fridge darp.

Happy Birthday Bwian

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you
You look like a monkey and you smell like a zoo.
Take this quick quiz then go here for the answer


38 today eh? You're catching me!

As good as it gets.

What a weekend!
Friday:
Pub with Brian. Actually pulled money OUT of a pokie! Walked out with a bit more than I walked in with after paying for many beers. Top night.

Saturday:
Got up early to vote and look smugly at greens HTV people. Unfortunately the green lady didn't offer me a card so I didn't get to reject her and look smug. Never mind.
Pulled weeds out of the garden under a glorious clear blue sky.
Played my drums for a while, whilst watching Bathurst on the tele. Cracked a beer.
Had pizza for dinner and sat down to watch every moment of the election coverage. Cracked a few more beers. Things go well from the start and the "Westie with one teste" is smashed. Greens lose their only seat and are rendered (more)useless in the senate. One or two more beers then off to bed with an ear-to-ear grin.

Sunday:
Up early for Bathurst breakfast at Brians. Bacon & eggs taste better when someone else cooks. Crack first beer as green flag drops. Many beers..... Finally, a Ford fan turns up that we can put shit on. Thanks Dave.
Snags on the barbie for lunch. More beers... Holden wins!!!!!!! More beers.
Gibbo junior takes a wicket and a great catch to help Camden beat Picton. Whoohoo.
Australia beats India.
One more beer.
Off to bed still grinning.

Does the sky look a bit clearer today?

It doesn't get much better!

The Turning Point.

John Howards' Tasmanian forestry policy was, for my money, the turning point of the election. I finally feel confident that Howard will win. Latham was outmanouvered brilliantly and now stands to actually lose what were some reasonably safe seats in Tas.

It was the "Young Bull Vs Old Bull" cliche all over. Howard hints a few weeks ago that he will do something in Tas that might even get him Green preferences! This was never going to happen & he knew it. This forced Latham to react and react he did. It showed his inexperience in being forced to spend $800mill and piss the unions off at the same time. The greens were never going to preference the Libs. Latham should have shut his mouth, said nothing and he would have achieved the result he needed. Instead, he has spent the last few days panicing and screaming out for Howard to show his policy. Howard, wisely, did virtually nothing and managed to make the front page of todays Tele being feted as a hero by the foresty workers. Sheer brilliance!




This is the first time that I have really felt confident in tipping a win to the Libs. I am even going as far as tipping them with an increased majority.

Add to this ABC news going into its' shrillest mode. Music to my ears. Panic has set in big time!

Halelujah!

Entrenched Perceptions

This today from the moaner.

Today's Herald Poll finds voters are persuaded that Howard has been more
responsible in his election spending promises than Latham, by 42 per cent to
34.
This is false, but it illustrates the power of entrenched perceptions.
Australians have long believed that the conservatives are better economic
managers.

I'm glad I found out that my perceptions were entrenched! It is completely beyond the lefties to admit that they simply have no idea. Idiots!

Praise the Lord for the Private Health System

Is it just me or does anyone else find it ironic that Mark Latham turns to the private system to be the saviour of our ailing public health system, so lovingly administered by state labor governments?

He says that the old codgers can now have publicly funded beds in private hospitals because they don't have any waiting lists and have a surplus of beds. What the?

This is not an admission of the superior service that a free market system can provide is it?

What next? We could pay for public school kiddies to go to private schools maybe?

That's tops!!!

By the way, is all this free health care happening after the end of childhood poverty in 1990 or is that off the list now?

Sweden, the workers paradise. Again...

I found this today from USA Today via Dissecting Leftism.

Many Swedes say fatigue is enough to skip work
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — In a country plagued by skyrocketing sick-leave costs, a new survey presented Friday found that 40% of Sweden's population believes it is acceptable to skip work because they feel tired or have trouble getting along with colleagues.
The survey, by the National Social Insurance Board, also found that 65% of the 1,002 people interviewed think a stressful work situation is also a valid reason for calling in sick and collecting pay under Sweden's liberal social programs.
The survey shows "a deep lack of knowledge about what the health insurance is meant to cover," board director Anna Hedborg said of Sweden's 9 million residents.
Alf Eckerhall, a social insurance expert with the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, went a step further: Many Swedes deliberately abuse the system.
"The insurance laws clearly state that inability to work because of illness" is the only valid reason to stay home, Eckerhall said. "The key word is 'inability to work' — not 'illness.'"
The survey, conducted June 17-24, did not have a margin of error.
Sweden's extensive cradle-to-grave welfare system includes generous programs covering sick leave, parental leave and unemployment benefits. But paying for workers on long-term sick leave and disability has become one of the government's biggest expenditures. Sick leave compensation tripled from $2 billion in 1997 to $6 billion in 2002.
In Sweden, the employer pays for the first three weeks' sick leave, and workers can call in sick for seven days before needing a doctor's certificate or medical proof.
People who call in sick do not receive any compensation for the first day they are absent. But Eckerhall said many people get around that by leaving work a little early, and then calling in sick for that day. That counts as one sick day, which lets them start receiving sick pay the next day.
"That means your day without compensation was 15 minutes long," Eckerhall said. Hedborg said the board will launch a massive nationwide campaign to inform people that illness is the only valid reason to stay home from work. "To many, this message may seem hard and even insensitive," she wrote. "The truth is, that if we don't defend our common insurance today, we won't be able to afford keeping it."

Classic stuff!

ALP Education Policy Comments

As regular readers will know, I'm no socialist. However, I am a genuine believer in the public education system. I went to a public school as do my kids and I actually work in a public university.
You know as well as I do that there are problems though, the biggest in my opinion being the evil influence of the teachers federation which is one of the most blatantly communist organisations that ever existed. Being a free enterpriser I also have no problem with people choosing to send their kids to private schools. I have friends who bust their arses to do it too.
My concern about Mark diddly ding dong Lathams' policy, is that it will now send a large amount of funding directly to the largest competitor of the public school, the local Catholic/Anglican school. This will make it easier to lower their fees and expand their schools which will in turn make it easier for the average Joe to send his kids to a private school.
I also think that by topping up public school funding it will make it more tempting for State Governments to lower their portion of funding again, making private schools more attractive.
The problem that public schools have is not one of just inadequate funding. Recent surveys have found that parents are willing to bust their arse to fund their own school expenses rather than put up with the constant political indoctrination from rabid communists. They would rather that their kids could spell than know how to rage against the machine. They would rather that their kids can add up instead of knowing about the violence inherent in the system. They would rather that their kids could be proud of our country instead of being told that we are a bunch of bigots who invaded the country.
It strikes me as strange that the very people who bitch about our public school system are the ones who do it the most damage.

Shithouse Scrubbers of the World Unite!

I left a comment recently over at Robert Corrs' site in response to his post about poster tampering.
this is it:

This is happening on an on-going basis at the Uni where I work. Anti greens
posters last about 12-24 hrs before dissappearing. Anti-Labour posters last
about 2 days.I find it amazing that the "equality loving left" feel that they
have an exclusive right to display their propaganda, but anyone else...
gooooone!If I was half the bastard that I am supposed to be, I would remove a
few posters myself. Us right wingers believe in free speech though so I'll just
leave the greeny ones alone and keep replacing the others.greens = fascists.
Free thought is not encouraged at all. This is another fine example of the
elitists knowing better then the plebs.
Posted by Gibbo at 7:21am on 14
September 2004.

In response, a charming person called Jockman left this classic:

Gibbo,"greens=facists", bitching about the elite, and you're a right winger who
works at a uni. My guess is you are not in academia. Do you by any chance scrub
shithouses or cut grass for a living?
Posted by jockman at 9:22am on 14
September 2004.

I left an answer there, but would like to publish it here too:

Jockman, sorry mate, guess again! No shithouse scrubbers here.I nearly wet my
pants laughing when I read your comment. I love the idea that I can't be an
academic because I don't vote green. Classic stuff!Thanks for once again proving
what a caring, sharing and equality loving person you are. The best thing about
this election has been the spotlight on the stupidity of the left. What if was
the "shihouse scrubber"? In your eyes my opinion wouldn't count. You prove my
point succinctly. Thanks.

The hypocrisy of these people is astounding! The public face is all cuddly koalas & save the whales but the reality is a bunch of bitter and twisted elitists. Communism with a marketing campaign.

Idiots!

Shithouse scrubbers of the world unite!

Just because!

Michael Moore is a fat fuck

In search of an intelligent argument

I found this classic today on one of the noticeboards at work. You expect a university to attract a few left wingers(whingers?) but you also expect an intelligent argument.



The best line for my money was: "He did all that Iraq stuff"

Evil bastard! Imagine voting for a prick that cut down all the forests, stole your funding AND all that Iraq stuff to boot.

About Time.

Finally got around to sorting out images...

here is a great one to start with.

I was wrong!

I know some folks don't read the comments section of blogs so I thought that I should "publicly" answer some very important questions that have been raised.
Here are the comments as they appeared.

"LAWS to force people to ride bicycles more often and eat less meat.This is where the word "force" is used."Force" and "encouraging" are completely different. The former is the act of a totalitarian state; the latter can be achieved with better facilities, subsidies, other forms of positive encouragement.You know, like everything else the government does to enact policy. You don't describe Howard's policies which encourage people to buy 4WDs (the tax discount for 4WDs) as "forcing" people to buy 4WDs, do you?And you ask where the funding's going to come from; obviously it's going to come from taxes. Der.C'mon, guys, admit that the Hun article was a contemptible beat-up and filled largely with lies. Yeah, sure there was some truth - the Greens DO want to create equality for gay and lesbian people, for example. (And why shouldn't they?) But the extremist stuff was complete bullshit. It was a hatchet job, and you should be ashamed of yourself for supporting it.
posted by Jeremy : 6:38 PM "

Jeremy, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise to you & your fellow greens. I was wrong!.

Were I went wrong was in thinking that by stating something in a policy and actually putting a target figure on it, then you would actually want to enforce it. You see, I thought that these were policies, not suggestions. or things to be "encouraged" . I thought 20% actually meant 20%. Sorry, I'm a bit new at green policies suggestions positive encouragements proposals submissions hints ideas.
As far as 4WDs go, I agree. I would remove any subsidies for these things too. However, I don't see a Liberal policy that has a target of 20% 4wd's. Surely if they were encouraging it they would have a policy for it? Sorry, I'm getting confused again. It's the greens that have encouraging policies and the Libs that tell lies. Now that we are back on track...
If we vote green, will we then have speed suggestions instead of speed limits? Will we be encouraged to not drink and drive or will we have laws against it?

By the way Jeremy, I re-read the policy and you are right. The word force does not appear. Neither does the word encourage. It says 20%. Do they mean it or not?

Thank you for finally admitting that taxes will rise under green influence. Finally one of you developed the balls to own up. Scroll down to my writings on Sweden to see the real cost of the Workers Paradise.

As far as the gay and lesbian issue... Can you please explain to me how segregating people by their sexuality and having different policies for each sub-group is not discrimination? The same question needs to be asked of your indigenous and refugee policies. They are simply racist by any sensible definition. Multi-racialism has never been a problem in Australia. I grew up in a place where if you were racist, you didn't have any friends. I am very proud of Australia's multi-racial backgrounds and am actually married to an immigrant to this country. Multi-culturalism however, has been an abject failure. Your policies are sexist, racist and divisive.
You either believe in equality or you don't. Make your mind up. The only true equality is the equality of opportunity. Stories abound in this country of people who have overcome all sorts of circumstances and have made good. But to do well here, you need to get off your clacker and stop suckling from the teat of the State. I am 42 years old and the highest qualification I have ever had is a drivers license but he last time I needed the dole was in 1982. There is work and opportunity in this country for everyone who wants it and has the gumption to do something with their life.

The reality is that your mob are simply another tired old reincarnation of the communist and anarchist movement. You have nothing positive to offer on the environment. You have nothing positive to offer on equality. You have nothing positive to offer toward peace. You have nothing but negative viewpoints. You see nothing but problems and strife in the world. You see conspiracies everywhere. You take no responsiblity for your actions. It is always someone elses fault. Everyone is telling lies but you.

I would offer you the same advice that I offered your mob a few weeks ago. If you honestly know of a place where your communist ideals are being met then why aren't you living there? You simply don't have the courage of your convictions do you? It is all well and good to live in a strong capitalist system and to bag it but actually living under a real communist regime? No way. You are gutless!

So far the only policy you have sparked up on was the pushbike one. You have had no sensible argument or refutation against any of the other charges laid against you by the Herald Sun or anyone else. So, again, I was wrong when I used the word "force". Now it's time to admit where you have been wrong.

Get something through your head and understand it. The vast majority of Australians reject your ideologies outright. Stop thinking of yourself as an elite with all the answers and see yourself for what you really are. A bitter and cynical communist.

You are finally coming under genuine scrutiny and you're all shitting your pants & crying like adolescent girls.
Grow up!

Finally, someone is doing their homework.

I was absolutely heartened today by the story that someone else other than me had gone to the trouble of actually reading the shit that passes for Greens policy. It managed to make the front page of the Herald Sun under the Headline "Greens policy backs illegal drugs" I have been telling everyone I know to actually take the time to read their various policies. They truly are barking moonbats. They comment on just about everything and yet almost always never suffer any scrutiny of themselves. They are passed off as caring, sharing people yet their policies are truly ridiculous. Dig this:

"The Greens manifesto backs official supply of the dangerous drug ecstasy as well as state-sanctioned heroin and marijuana sales at what it calls appropriate venues."

and

* LAWS to force people to ride bicycles more often and eat less meat.
* DRIVING farmers from their land.
* MEDICARE funding for sex-change operations.
* CAPITAL gains tax on the most expensive family homes.
* AN OPEN door policy on asylum seekers.
plus many more... including my personal favourite, "Green Collar Jobs"

Here is where I get serious folks. These idiots are making a determined effort to win a controlling block in the Senate. Make no mistake folks, this would be an absolute disaster for most Australians. These people have nothing to do whatsoever with a responsible environmental movement. They are quite simply radical communists and anarchists who want to grab power. Don't let the whackiest 6% of our population have a controlling say in parliament. Do your patriotic duty and dump the Greens, Democrats, Shooters Party, Lesbian Fisherpersons For Christ, Marijuana Party and all the rest.

Understand this. An Independant politician is usually just some whacky headed idiot that couldn't get party backing.

Lets have the balls this time to elect a government with enough of a majority that they can actually govern. If they are shit, we will kick 'em out, simple.
Those who have read my rantings know which way I lean. I am voting for Pat Farmer and I hope that John Howards' Government is re-elected. If this is not to be, then elect Mark Latham with a majority and let him go. We live in a democracy and I'm willing to live by the wishes of the majority.

I am not prepared, however, to be held to ransom by a couple of wingnuts who speak for so few.

Tell everyone you meet. "Make your mind up. Labor or Liberal. No third choice"

Make sure that they understand that if they vote green, their vote is probably going to go to Labour through preferences anyway. If you are going to vote for Latham anyway, cut out the middleman and vote for Latham. Don't encourage the greens along the way.
Fuck the minor parties.

Slatts has had a few words to say too.

By the way. Take the time to look over the greens policies. This is no conspiracy folks. You can't make up shit that stupid. The scary part is that some of them believe it. The more scrutiny the better.

No new LeviesTaxes

Day One, Mistake One.

Knacker Lacker says no new taxes, but apparently levies are different. "What's the difference?" you ask. I'll let Mr Latham explain.
"There are levies and there are taxes, and I think economists have got clear definitions of the two and I think that's all established in economic theory and practice,"
??????????????????????????????? Please explain!

My Pal Brian.

I was sitting, having a couple of quiet ones, with my pal Brian the other day watching the Olympics. The weighlifting was on and we saw this Chinese ball of muscle struggling to lift his weight. After he dropped it, I thought I saw him swear. I asked Brian what the Chinese word for "fuck!" was, as he had spent time in China and was sure to know. He thought for a minute then said " I think it's just Fuck! I think Fuck is universal."
"So they understand Fuck, eh?" I said.
"They seemed to understand it when I said it" was the answer.

Sweden just gets better and better

In response to some comments regarding the new Workers Paradise, Sweden, I thought I would check the place out further. This document has the detail but the guts of it is this:

• State taxe rate of 29% -34%
• plus national taxes of 20% - 26%
• plus additional taxes of 1.5% for "the rich"
• plus contributions to a pension scheme
• plus a VAT(GST) of 12% - 25%. Most commonly 25%
• Corporate tax rates of only 28%

So, all we have to do to be a super dooper place like Sweden is:

• Double our GST
• Raise personal taxes
• Lower corporate taxes
• Introduce compulsory military conscription
• Halve our migrant intake
• Increase our private sector
• Drive Volvos

It seems to me that all the folks sitting around the bong, twirling their dreads and dreaming of Sweden, the workers paradise, have never bothered to check the joint out. As usual.

I think I will change my name to "Skye Moonunit Gaia Johnhowardisalyingbastard Gibson"

But you can call me Gibbo still.

You don't need a long neck to be a goose!

My Pal Brian

My pal Brian sent me this today.

In the village of Hurbum, Hertz near Tillet Town, lives Lucy Lykes who owns the Cockwell Inn.

Her address is...

Lucy Lykes,
The Cockwell Inn,
Hurbum, Tillet,
Hertz.

Idiot!

I saw something funny the other day.

I saw something funny the other day. I walked into a classroom in the institute of marxism higher learning where I work to see the remains of someones lesson on the board. It was obviously a lesson on politics of some sort. It had three columns headed Labour, Liberal & Greens. In each of the columns was a brief description of the ideology of each. In Labor it said something like.. Believes in social democracy, large public sector, blah, blah blah. Under Liberal it said... Believes in private ownership/enterprise, small government blah, blah blah. Under Greens it just said "Anti..."
I nearly pissed myself! This is probably the most honest political lecture ever given.

Sweden. The Workers Paradise

A lovely fellow by the name of Andrew has alerted me to the fact that there apparently is a genuine Socialist Workers Paradise, Sweden, which really blows my theory away.
Now, I heard Sweden mentioned just recently in a conversation with a member of the left side of life. This could be a coincidence, or maybe the mythical beast really exists and us Free Enterprisers should all just shut up. I thought that I would check out Sweden for myself to see what all the fuss was about. I was sure that armed with the correct facts that I could shoot Andrews argument down. Surely, I reasoned, if Sweden is a genuine Socialist country then it will be a shit heap, right? They all are, aren't they?
Well folks, I was wrong!
The very first place that I checked was the CIA World Factbook. Then I called up the page for Australia so I could compare the two. Pretty similar really in most areas. I tell you folks, I was getting really pissed off! This place looked alright! Then the killer. The bit about Swedens economy. (Emphasis is mine)

"Aided by peace and neutrality for the whole 20th century, Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits. It has a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external communications, and a skilled labor force. Timber, hydropower, and iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented toward foreign trade. Privately owned firms account for about 90% of industrial output, of which the engineering sector accounts for 50% of output and exports. Agriculture accounts for only 2% of GDP and 2% of the jobs. The government's commitment to fiscal discipline resulted in a substantial budgetary surplus in 2001, which was cut by more than half in 2002, due to the global economic slowdown, declining revenue, and increased spending. The Swedish central bank (the Riksbank) is focusing on price stability with its inflation target of 2%. Growth remained sluggish in 2003. On September 14, 2003, Swedish voters turned down entry into the euro system, concerned about the impact on democracy and sovereignty"

Now I'll give you my interpretation of your Workers Paradise Andrew.

"When you leave a Capitalist system alone to do what it does best, the
people who actively participate in it are rewarded with a prosperous and compassionate society."
Gibbo

You goose Andrew. Sweden is the perfect example of successful Capitalism. In fact the place is so good that I have decided to become some sort of politically radical dude & subvert our evil capitalist/facist/alarmist/racist/sexist government, in the hope that we can eventually rise up and allow people power to deliver us to Swedens level of wisdom. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!! I am born again. Thank you Jebus! It's a murkel!

Lastly Andrew, the two things that really stuck out about Sweden when you compare it to our racist/capitalist country.

1. They take half the amount migrants that we do per capita.
2. Their bottom 10% of wage earners was twice as big as ours and their top 10% was smaller than ours. in other words, The gap between the haves and have-nots is much bigger in their ultra-equitable society

Any other places that you would care to put forward Andrew?

Update
Apparently Sweden has compulsory conscription into the military for everyone with two arms & legs too. I'm really starting to like this place. The further I look, the less left wing the place seems.
I stand on my previous statements. Socialism only works when supported by Capitalism.

Go and read this now!

I wish that I had written this. Go and read it now.

The world According To Gibbo. Part 1of thousands

Put the kettle on folks, this could be a big one. I haven’t posted here for a couple of weeks. I’ve had business, work & family commitments galore and to be quite honest, I just haven’t been bothered. Anyway… here we go again.

Before we go too far, I would like to introduce a new symbol. <*> This symbol is hereby known as “Does Not Necessarily Equal” as in “Theory <*> Fact” and “Time Spent <*> Experience”. Get it? It just saves a lot of typing and serves the purpose of this discussion. Now that we have that established we can get on with it.

It is only relatively recently that I have become concerned about political and social issues. I suppose it’s one of the traits of getting older. The older I get though, the less tolerant I am of those who hold particular viewpoints because they might be fashionable. For some bizarre reason it has become fashionable over my lifetime to be part of a group that I will loosely call “The Looney Left” side of politics. The reason that I find this position bizarre is largely due to the type of person who is likely to be spouting this crap. It is all well and good to see some rabid, left-wing unionist slogging away on a building site somewhere. They have always been part of our culture. The ones that shit me are the new crop. The “Champagne Socialists” The well paid academics that think that YOU should work in a bicycle factory. The well paid teachers who only manage to work 40 weeks a year, who think YOU should give your ¼ acre over to the indigenous community or that you don’t need to spell as long as you understand “the violence inherent in the system” and can rage against the machine. The well paid journalists who think that Iraq was better off under Saddam and that it’s only torture if Americans do it. There are some common threads through this group. Firstly, they are all espousing theories that none of them would ever live by. They just think YOU should be doing it. Secondly, they are generally quite well off and often in the employ of the government(taxpayer). This is where my symbol comes in:
Theory <*> Fact.

Socialism/Communism is a THEORY that has simply never worked in practice. Not once, ever. Those of you who are tempted to contradict me on this point should consider the following. If you can name me one country where communism is working, then my first question to you is, why don’t YOU live there? Simple as that. If there is a place better than this one, then why aren’t you there? Maybe you don’t really have the courage of your convictions?
You see, communism is a great theory as long as it stays in the realm of theory and while it is being supported by a capitalist system. While you are living the high life on a government wage, working 40 weeks a year, it’s all well and good to have your theories on how us plebs should live.
I might be dumb but I like to think that I look at the facts before taking a position. Name me one communist country that is having trouble with illegal immigrants. Coming in that is, not trying to escape. How many people cop a bullet in the back escaping from Australia? How many Australians part with their life savings to climb aboard a leaky, death trap and set sail for Cuba. How many Australians land on the shores of China each year? It’s not a big number folks.

Socialism/Communism is one of the most demeaning things that humans inflict upon each other. It is elitist and fascist in the extreme. To reduce human beings to a commodity which exists purely to serve “The State” is abhorrent to me. In my world “The State” is strong and prosperous when its’ citizens are strong and prosperous. Not the other way around. It really is as simple as that folks.
Next time that you pick up the paper, or turn on the tele & some elitist goose is telling you that we will reduce unemployment by whacking tax increases onto evil businesses, or that that you should be sorry for what someone the same skin colour as you did to someone the same skin colour as them 200 years ago, tell them this. When you give your land back, I’ll consider it. When you move to Cuba, I’ll consider it. When you sell your car & house and move into a low environmental impact yurt, then I’ll consider it. When you give up your government job & work 50 hours a week in the bicycle factory, I’ll consider it. When you trade your Armani suit in on a nice industrial grey number with matching cap, I’ll consider it. When you increase your taxes to pay for “green collar” jobs, I’ll consider it. Until then, shut-up. You are too stupid to understand how stupid you are.

Labors' Dirt Unit

Busted! Those sly pricks at the ALP have been caught out with their own dirt unit.

"A SYDNEY public relations firm with links to the Labor Party has taken responsibility for a contentious website critical of Prime Minister John Howard.The website, johnhowardlies.com, had been falsely registered by a group or person going by the name "ABC DEF", but has now been authorised by Manly-based Springboard Australia Pty Ltd.
Its director Tim Grau, was a policy adviser to former Queensland Labor premier Wayne Goss and a senior political and communications adviser to the Keating government attorney-general, Michael Lavarch."

After squealing like stuck pigs about non-existant dirt units, the truth finally is exposed. I don't normally resort to "language" here but... Fuckin' hypocritical cunts! Fuck off and die!
There, now that I have that off my chest, where do these mongrel bastards get off? Basically, anything that they accuse the Government of, they are probably doing themselves. They think the rest of the world is like them so if they have a dirt unit, Johnny must too.  Stands to reason, eh?
I saw the same shite out of Michael Moores gob this week too. He accuses Bush of propagating an atmosphere of fear via non-existant terrorist threats in order to prop up their immoral regime. Well.. I accuse him of exactly the same shit. The whole green/left movement is based on scaring the world into submission with lies like Global Warming etc.
A pox on them all!

The Trouble With Mark

"The trouble with Mark
The most likely outcome of the next federal election is an increased majority for the Howard government. This may or may not involve a two party preferred swing to the Coalition. (Perhaps even a small swing to Labor.)
Here's the problem with Latham: he's a strategist, not a communicator. Knows the value of a multi-faceted brand-name and the need to construct an alluring picture, to let punters join the dots and feel involved.
Comes up with effective five second six o'clock news grabs. But at anything longer or more substantial he is flat, uninspiring and evasive. He can't present - let alone defend - a policy or stance. And he has difficulty reconciling his party's inclinations with his own."

This site, while quite left leaning, has some very interesting theories on the upcoming election. Check it out for more.

I think that this weeks efforts have really made people stop & think about whether Back Flip Boy is a genuine contender. It's all well and good to say "anyone but Howard". The trouble is it ain't necessarily so. A lot of us still remember 17% interest rates and 11% unemployment. Mark has not responded well this week for a guy who can dish out great steaming gobfuls of his own. One thing Aussies don't like is a bully. All well and good if you can take some back, but when you turn to water at the very first sign of criticism, well...

Back Flip Boy = Frilly Girls Blouse

Apparently "Iron Mark" was close to tears today after the Sunday programs half-hearted expose. I watched it, and to be honest, there wasn't too much in there that I thought warranted much of a fuss. Lets face it, how many people can say that they grew up in Green Valley and hadn't been in a fight? I grew up not far from Mr Latham and attended the same high school as him and I must admit to being involved in a punch up or two, although I've never beaten up an old bloke.
Where I think they got traction was in his dealings with Liverpool Council. I believe that anyone who looks even slightly will find enough "bad form" to really get a story up. It strikes me as odd that the team who brought you the Oasis Affair in all its' glory, the Silly Moaning Herald, aren't interested in having another quiet dig around Liverpool Council regarding Mark.
The real story for me was how Back Flip Boy handled it himself. Not well! After an absolute dream run from the Aus media since being elected, he turns to water at the very first negative story. Weak as piss mark, weak as piss! I thought you were some kind of "bovver boy" who was fearless. Or is that only under parliamentary priviledge?
You are nothing but a frilly girls blouse.

My Pal Brian

I was at my pal Brians' place last night having a quiet bourby and watching who wants to be a mullionaire when a question was asked regarding a new doll called Cindy Smart. Now, as my kids are getting a bit old for dolls, I hadn't heard of this one. Brian informed me that among other talents, this doll has two 16-bit microprocessors, voice-recognition software and a digital camera in her chest. The doll can do simple math, recognize basic shapes and colors, respond to 70 preprogrammed questions and read flash cards in English, German, Spanish, Italian and French.
My comment was along the lines of: "I wonder if it sucks?" to which Brian uttered these immortal words. "No, it doesn't suck but its little hands make your cock look so big"
Hmmmmmm. I worry about that man sometimes.

Back Flip Boy Part 6

I knew they wouldn't let me down.

"After more than two years of fierce opposition, the ALP yesterday decided to support the government's decision to increase co-payments under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme by $1 from $3.60 to $4.60 for pensioners and by $6.20 from $22.40 to $28.60 for everyone else.

Opposition finance spokesman Bob McMullan said the backflip was needed to ensure badly needed funds flowed into the health sector."

"Cameron Thompson (LP, Qld) said the PBS needed to be managed in an affective manner and the government had been doing that.

"Eventually economic reality has got to catch up with everyone ever the Labor Party," he said.

"Economic management is the core of running a good economy like Australia. We have been doing very well and enjoying the benefits of that. Unless we face up to the need, not only across the board but in individual cases like the PBS, then there is no future. You have got to manage it effectively and the Labor Party is finally catching on."

Warren Entsch (LP, Qld) said there needed to be further scrutiny of Labor's planned spending to show where they were planning to get the money from.

"The first real policy he (Opposition Leader Mark Latham ) tried to develop was superannuation and I think there was only a hole of something like $8 billion," he said."

What ever happened to that superannuation policy anyway? It seems that MarkyMark's stuff ups disappear quite quickly from media scrutiny.

Peter(the Pine Nut) Garrett seems to have disappeared from sight too. I think that maybe his parachute opened a little too close to the ground and that he is now damaged goods.

Terrorism. A Definition.

(emphasis is mine)

"'Terrorism,' the professor had lectured, 'has a singular goal. What is it?'
'Killing innocent people?' a student ventured.
'Incorrect. Death is only a byproduct of terrorism.'
'A show of strength?'
'No. A weaker persuasion does not exist.'
'To cause terror?'
'Concisely put. Quite simply, the goal of terrorism is to create terror and fear. Fear undermines faith in the establishment. It weakens the enemy from within... causing unrest in the masses. Write this down. Terrorism is not an expression of rage. Terrorism is a political weapon. Remove a government's facade of infallibility, and you remove its people's faith'
Loss of faith...
Is that what all this is about?."
Dan Brown. Angels and Demons. pg201

Clueless? Hardly

This today over at USS Clueless.
Always good reading there.

"Capitalism is like that. It gives you the opportunity to be wealthy, but you can also be poor, and you actually have to compete and work hard and perform. There's plenty of opportunity, but there are no guarantees. If you're not used to doing that kind of thing, it's a shock. Some people don't really successfully make that transition.

I understand why some people and some groups fear it. I understand them, but I don't sympathize with them or excuse them for it. There's a price for everything; there's no free lunch in life. If they want the benefits, they have to pay the price.

If you want to be free, you have to pay a really big price, one which many think is much too high. If you want to be free, you have to put up with everyone else being free. If you want to be able to do things that your neighbors disapprove of, you have to put up with the fact that they will do things you disapprove of. If you want to be able to say things others despise, you have to put up with it when others say things you despise.

In other words, if you want to be free, you have to be tolerant. For some people, tolerance is very difficult. For others, it's heresy. And that's a problem, especially if their intolerance knows no borders or limits.

That's actually one of the big reasons why we're at war. The Islamic extremists consider tolerance to be heresy. They cannot accept us as we are, even though we're quite willing to accept them as they are. They demand that we conform to their view of how we should behave, and we won't do it.

So either they'll force us to conform, or they'll kill us all, or we'll force them to be tolerant, or we'll kill them all. Or maybe everybody will end up dead.

The first of those won't happen. My nation is not going to surrender, and they are not going to convert this nation into an Islamic Republic without exterminating the vast majority of us first. (If they try, they'll discover the true reason for our Second Amendment.) Each of the others is a distinct possibility, but the third one (us forcing them to be tolerant) is by far the least bloody of those outcomes. That's the basis of the US strategy in the war (though there's much more to it than that).

If it fails, the body count is going to get extremely high. Islamic extremists may eventually gain the means to slaughter large numbers of us, but they won't ever have the ability to wipe us out completely.

On the other hand, we have the ability to wipe them out now, if we're ruthless enough to kill 10,000 innocent civilians for every militant we kill. Burning down the house to kill the roaches is pretty extreme, but there's no doubt it actually would kill almost all the roaches.

If it comes to that, it would be nearly as much of a disaster for us to do that as it would be for them to have that done to them. But if we face the stark choice of surrendering or committing nuclear genocide, then the body count is going to become very large in a very short time.

I'm willing to do almost anything to avoid that. But I am not willing to surrender in order to avoid that."

Preparation H

I found this today and just cacked!

"Preparation "H" Thursday, May 20, 2004
Not long ago I was at the doctor for a regular check up and he asks me if I have any problems I want to tell him about. So I tell the guy I think I need him to refer me to a butt doctor to get my 'roids checked out. Guess what? He wants to see for himself. Oh great. I wasn't expecting that. Now he's telling me to turn around and drop my pants. I'm thinking two things right away. First, "How well did I wipe my ass this morning"? Second, this guy seems awfully eager to get a look at my butthole. I mean, if I was a doctor I'd be thinking, Oh shit now I gotta look at some dude's hairy ass. Why didn't I listen to my mother when she told me to go to lawyer school? Now I'm bent over in the doctor's office and a man with a pen light in his mouth is grabbing my ass and flexing my cheeks apart.

He didn't even kiss me first, the bastard.

After I finished crying he tells me my 'roids aren't that bad and I should use hemorrhoid cream. Which brings me to the point of this story.

'Roid cream is BULLSHIT. First of all it ain't no cream. It's friggin' medicated vaseline. Second, every time you shit you have to apply this stuff by putting your finger in or on your asshole..........Let me repeat that.

EVERY TIME YOU SHIT YOU HAVE TO PUT YOUR FINGER IN YOUR ASS.

Let that sink in for a minute, I'll wait.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it ain't no instant cure either. You gotta keep using this worthless bunghole lube for at least a week to get any results. Now I don't know about you fags, but walking around with a lubed up greasy butthole and having oil slicks in my underware for a week is not my idea of living. Frankly I'd rather have the 'roids. I have gotten so used to the idea of having my own "special" friends down there that I have decided to name them. Evelyn, Queen of the Burning Itch, and Betty. I gave them both girls names since everyone knows that women are a pain in the ass.

Who knew butt-blisters could be so entertaining?"

A Backflip Of My Own

A backflip of sheer joy that is.

WE HAVE NOW WON TWO IN A ROW!!!!!

Go those mighty, mighty EELS.

Yeeehaaaah!

Good liars need a good memory

As my dear old Dad used to say... "if you are going to be a bullshit artist, then you better have a good memory"

Cop this, on his second day on the job.

"ALEXANDRA KIRK: On your voting record Peter Garrett, can you explain to us when you went on the silent roll and what your understanding was then, and what year did you go on the silent roll?

PETER GARRETT: I'm still digging out the details of this. What I do know, is that it was my understanding that I was on the silent roll, and I think from a period somewhere towards the late eighties, early nineties, and from that point on, I voted whenever I was able. I went into the polling booths, you know, I filled my voting form in, I lodged my vote.

I never received any communication from the Electoral Commission to the effect that I wasn't on the roll or that my vote hadn't been received.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Well we've examined the electoral roll from 1990 on, and you may be surprised to learn that from 1990 to '94, you're actually on the roll and not as a silent voter, but your address in the Northern Beaches of Sydney was named there until '94. Can you explain that?

PETER GARRETT: Well I think what's happened is that the period when I've gone onto the silent roll or thought I had, probably comes from that '94 period on, when it looks like I've dropped off.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So it wasn't the late eighties that you went on, it was the mid-nineties was it?

PETER GARRETT: I think it looks like it is the mid-nineties Catherine, that's right. And when I said yesterday at the press conference, I said look, we'll dig out the details of this. I had no more idea than anybody else, and I said from the best of my recollections I want to be completely upfront and honest about it, and as the material comes to light, I'm going to respond to it, but I think without any doubt now – and certainly I've seen the reports this morning, '94 seems to be the date when we disappear, and from '94 seems to be the date when I believed I was on that silent electoral roll.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So did you when you moved away from that northern beaches area of Sydney, did you change your electoral enrolment, your address and those details?

PETER GARRETT: No, because at that point in time I thought I was on the roll.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: But when you moved home from that area of Sydney.

PETER GARRETT: That's correct.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Sorry, when, when did you move from that area of Sydney?

PETER GARRETT: Well I don't know the exact date, as I said again, I'm starting to dig that information out, but it'll be in that sort of '94, '95 period.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So you did, as far as you know, put in a change of address to the Electoral Commission at that time?

PETER GARRETT: Catherine, I don't have a complete recollection at this stage. I've got to tell you that in absolute honesty, what I'm saying is that my belief was that I was on the roll, that I was on the silent roll, on that basis I went to vote. When we moved, and we did move '94/'95, I continued to go in to vote, said I was on the silent roll…

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So did you vote, just clarifying, did you vote in '96 and '98 and 2001?

PETER GARRETT: 2001, definitely yes. '98, I'm pretty sure, and '96 I'm not certain yet, I'm checking.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: And what about the public referendum in 1999?

PETER GARRETT: Look, I voted whenever I was able Catherine, I'm going to dig these details out and present them to you when I can do it in an accurate fashion. I don't want to sort of give you answers on the run, I want to be able to do it in an honest and straightforward fashion."

The full article here

Short memory must have a?... I forget!

Back Flip Boy part 5

Remember when back flip boy was going to bring the troops home by Christmas?
Well... that was then.

This is now.
"A Labor government would consider leaving troops in Iraq to protect diplomats, federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham said today.

Mr Latham has previously outlined a timetable for Australia's withdrawal from Iraq under a Labor government, saying he hopes to bring soldiers back by Christmas."

I think we can expect much more of this now that he has a "sidekick" who chipped in with his own demonstration of the back flip with pike

"PETER GARRETT: It is our intention to give 12 months notice of termination of the above agreement on the 19th day of October 1986."
Ahh... but that was then.

This is now.
"PETER GARRETT: I don’t believe that Pine Gap should be closed. I'm fully prepared to accept the position that Labor has taken. There is no doubt about it, that it is the threat of terrorism and the intelligence that we can gather from terrorism that is now one of the primary and most important things that Australia, in terms of our national security, needs to consider."

Like all good sidekicks, he needs a catchy(but subserviant) name. Pity that Cato is taken. I think it should contain inferences that he is actually Mark Lathams' missing testicle. Like "The Pine Nut" or similar.
All suggestions welcome.

Back Flip Boy part 4

Our glorius opposition, Mr Flip-Flop, has struck again.

[I]"commit myself to this great national purpose: reinventing and revitalising our democracy, opening up greater public participation, cleaning out the excesses of the political system, governing for the people, not the powerful."

Well, that was before....

Now, he has decided that democracy isn't all that important and has "parachuted" Peter Garret into a safe labor seat.

Word is though.. the parachute may not open in time!

Update.
These gems from big Pete:
"it is essential to imbue democracy with the spirit of a robust civil society where the community, not only those capable of marshalling power or public opinion, plays an active role".

and...
"I don't have any inclination to get back out on the campaign trail. My perspective now is that politics doesn't really change that much."

and...
"I would [run again] but I would only want to do it if a lot of people wanted me to, because it's a dog's life surrounded by hypocrites and drunks. It's no way to spend the rest of your working life."

After the first two albums, it was all shite.

Margo Kingston is a fuckwit

Margo Kingston is a fuckwit.

Just because...

We Won One

Yeeeeeehahhhhh!!!
The world is alright today. The mighty EELS have won an unprecedented one in a row!
A "come from behind" win no-less.

Suicide postponed.

Having The Courage Of Your Convictions - Land Rights

The latest installment of Having the Courage of your Convictions is indigenous land rights.
Put simply, if you believe in this policy, then hand back your house & land immediately. If this turns out to be a positive step for you, let us all know & we might do the same.

Oh well, stiff shit!

This today from The Australian.
"Mr Howard's lead of 22 points is the biggest over the Opposition Leader since Mr Latham's first weekend in the post after succeeding Mr Crean as ALP leader.

Since March this year, when Mr Latham virtually equalled Mr Howard as preferred prime minister - 42 per cent against 43 per cent - Mr Latham's support has steadily declined by 10 points to 32 per cent.

Satisfaction with the way Mr Latham is doing his job as Opposition Leader has been erratic but also trending down since his record high of 66 per cent in March. Last weekend it slipped to 54 per cent, down from 57 per cent.

Mr Howard's satisfaction generally has been climbing incrementally since March and a rise of three points to 57per cent last weekend is his highest since Mr Latham became Labor leader."

When will Mr Latham learn that we want to see SOME COSTED POLICIES before anyone will believe his crap. Come on, don't be shy. Tell us how we will be better off with Gough MkII.

A bit more on the Knacker Lacker from Tex at Whacking Day. "While the government's budget was a mass of wasteful electoral bribes, Labor's budget response bordered on the insane. Latham is somehow going to A) cut taxes even deeper, B) spend more on everything, C) start a Coast Guard service, D) sign the Kyoto protocol, while still keeping the budget in surplus."

More froth and bubble from the ALP. Substance please, substance!

It's "Having The Courage Of Your Convictions" Month at Gibbo's Place

Hi All,
I have decided to declare the month of June as "Having The Courage Of Your Convictions" Month. It is a time for standing up for what you really and honestly believe in. I'll start the ball rolling with Socialism.

If you truely, and I mean rooley trooley, believe that socialism is the best way to spend a life, then you need to Have The Courage Of Your Convictions and move to Cuba, North Korea, China or maybe even Spain. Go on. You know you want to. After all, these are genuine workers paradises aren't they?
Lets face it. The capitalists have ruined this place so you might as well go now, before it all gets worse.

Free Palestine!!

With every burger purchased.

That is all.

This could well be said of Australia

From the folks at PC Watch

Emphasis is mine.
"Rushing to dilute the curriculum further with "multicultural" course requirements, colleges across the country, like many of those outraged by Mr. Ehrlich's and Mr. Schaefer's remarks, fail to understand that American(Australian) culture is English. Seeing America(Australia) as a diverse nation, they conclude that diversity is its most important truth. And then, seeing diversity as multiethnic, they conclude that America(Australia) is multicultural.

It is not, of course, for a culture means far more than eating ethnic foods, celebrating ethnic holidays, singing in ethnic bands and donning ethnic costumes to dance at ethnic festivals. Are not the most important cultural truths about America(Australia) crystallized in its Western heritage as transmitted by the English experience?"

Well Said!!

This today from Whacking Day.

"Oh, one more thing: fuck David Hicks. I'm tired of hearing about this stupid cunt and the weenie hands-wringing about his "illegal" detention in Cuba. As far as I'm concerned, he should be shot through the forehead and his carcass used as lunch meat for starving dogs. He decided of his own free will to travel overseas and fight for the Islamic Death Cult. I'm hoping the marines at Guantanamo put a bullet in his head and save the American taxpayer the cost of keeping this little Taliban shithead alive."

My thoughts exactly. I think treason like this should be punished accordingly. A quick lead injection would do the trick.

Get Serious For A Minute

This whole Iraqi "Torture" thing is really starting to give me the shits. Bad!!
Really, who would you rather be tortured by?
Some dumb woman who pulls your pants down & takes pictures of your willy or some bastard who cuts your head off? If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable.
So how come the willy story has been running non-stop for three weeks & the beheading story has dissapeared. Apparently it's only torture if Americans do it.

But seriously folks... Remember what happened to the last country that thought it was cool to hack off the heads of POW's? Does Hiroshima or Nagasaki ring any bells?

Some Good News For A Change

Get over to Arthur Chrenkoff's Blog for some good news in the Iraq situation.

Go Placidly!!

Via National Lampoon...

"Go placidly amid the noise & waste, & remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof. Avoid quiet & passive persons unless you are in need of sleep. Rotate your tires. Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself and heed well their advice even though they be turkeys; know what to kiss and when. Consider that two wrongs never make a right but that three do. Wherever possible, put people on hold. Be comforted that in the face of all aridity & disillusionment and despite the changing fortunes of time, there will always be a big future in computer maintenance. Remember the Pueblo. Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, & mutilate. Know yourself; if you need help, call the FBI. Exercise caution in your daily affairs, especially with those persons closest to you. That lemon on your left, for instance. Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet. Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face. Gracefully surrender the things of youth, birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan; and let not the sands of time get in your lunch. Hire people with hooks. For a good time, call 606-4311; ask for Ken. Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting enough cheese; and reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee. You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive Him to be: Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin. With all its hopes, dreams, promises & urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate. Give up.

By Tony Hendra - 1972"

Socialism. The last bastion of the bludger!

This today from Paul & Carls blog.
(empasis is mine)

"That's why people like Cox love socialism so much- despite their overwhelming mediocrity, they are elevated to a position of influence and a better than adequate income by regulation and legislation; in the real world, Eva would be doing well to score a gig mucking out the dunnies at a Megaplex.

There is something almost childlike in the belief still held by some that government and public funding is the answer; one dingbat started to waffle about "the sophistication of the electorate wanting a mix of tax cuts and better services" which to me is as sophisticated as a cargo cult; one of the CIS boyos hit the nail on the head when he said "taxation has increased and services have decreased- government thinks you fix this by taxing more and persuing proven failure."

A blind reliance on government to me is like never growing up and leaving home- mum and dad will look after it for me; someone show me anything in the way of a government program that has achieved what it set out to, ever had it's budget reduced in real terms due to efficiencies and actually reduced the number of people dependant on said program, I guarantee to eat a bucketful.

The converse of course is that I believe government at every level finds it comfortable to have a sizable part of the population dependant on its largesse'; after all, if virtually everyone looked after their own affairs, where's the need for a growing army of bureaucrats and politicians? Where also is the incentive for the power-hungry and greedy to seek to slither into public office when there's not much money and less influence in it?"

The Smartest Words To Ever Come Out Of These Mouths.

...and this is from his friends!!!

"I am sick and tired of hearing about Mark Latham, a professional politician all his life, who has never been on a normal job, who, because he lives in Campbelltown is able to pull a cloak of working class respectability around himself for the bullshit he goes on with. It is outrageous, he has never had to battle to pay his MasterCard or mortgage." Doug Cameron AMWU Secretary

"Well, I'd say that his (Latham's) ideas and policies are maverick and deformed. I think that they have very little substance behind them." Tony Sheldon TWU NSW Secretary.

"Mark Latham is a bright bloke, but sometimes the brightest of blokes can come up with the dumbest of ideas." Kevin Rudd

"I wanted talent and teamwork (on the front bench). The teamwork question was not in doubt with anyone else. It was with Mark." Simon Crean

"We don't always agree with Mark Latham. He's said some very silly things about trade unions and a few other things in recent times. So I wouldn't take anything that Mark says as being a reflection of the position of the ALP." Michael Costa

Back Flip Boy Part 3. Iraq.

Via The Age.

"Opposition Leader Mark Latham plans to leave 400 Australian troops involved in the Iraq campaign in the region after Christmas as the government accused him of running a policy of chaos.

Labor revealed today it planned to bring home only 460 of the 850-strong military contingent in Iraq and Persian Gulf in the first release of detail on the policy since Mr Latham committed himself to the Christmas timetable earlier this week."

Back Flip Boy Part 2. Kirribilli House.

First: He was going to sell it and live in the lodge.

Then: "It's valuable public land so you'd want to keep it in good public use so that it's more accessible to the people of Australia who own it," Latham told NSW Central Coast radio SeaFM.

"It's a heritage site, it's valuable public land on Sydney Harbour.

"The state government certainly wouldn't want it sold, I wouldn't want it sold."

Backflip Boy Part 1 of many. Free Trade.

I generally hate the terms "Backflip" and "Flipflop" as they are used these days. It implies that someone should ALWAYS hold a static position on any given topic no matter what new circumstances may arise. However....... Our friend Mad Dog Latham is heading for the title of "Back Flip Boy".

Try these choice cuts (more to come).

Free Trade.
Supports it: "Tariffs and other forms of protection are the economic equivalent of racism. They encourage Australians to think poorly of people from other countries and to believe that we would be better off isolated from the rest of the world."
Opposes it: "Speaking in the heart of the motor industry, in Adelaide, Mr Latham said he opposed the proposed cut in car tariffs from 15 per cent to 5 per cent without a thorough review."
Supports it again: "Labor may abandon its opposition to a free trade deal with the United States after party leader Mark Latham today argued an inquiry may find it is in Australia's national interest."
Opposes it again:"If we were asked to vote on it today or in the parliament tomorrow we would be opposing it," said Labor leader Mark Latham. "It is not a free-trade agreement at all, it's a partial trade agreement that from our assessment this morning is not in Australia's interest."

More as I find it.