This one from Piers Ackerman in todays Daily Telegraph was so good that I have reporoduced it in full here.
"Do we really want a work in progress
April 22, 2004
Before Mark Latham tries his hand at running the country he should follow Charlie Bell's example and flip a few burgers.
CHARLIE Bell, the new global head of McDonald's, and Mark Latham, the new federal Opposition Leader, were born in Sydney just four months apart.
The different directions they have taken since birth are telling.
Charlie Bell started working part-time at 15 at the Kingsford McDonald's and was the youngest store manager in Australia by age 19.
Mark Latham worked as a part-time glassie in a pub as he was helped through an economics degree at Sydney University by a group of his father's friends, a number of whom remain quite bitter about what they believe was his penchant for political betrayal.
By the time he was 26, Latham was embedded in local government as Liverpool City councillor.
Mr Bell, who did not attend university, was a vice president of McDonald's by the time he was 27 and on the board by 29.
By then he had worked for the company's European development arm in Germany and with joint-venture partners in Sweden, Norway, Holland and Belgium. He was McDonald's Australia managing director by the time he was 33.
By the time Mr Latham was 33 he was in Federal Parliament.
His experience consisted of working for a number of current and former Labor politicians. He had left Liverpool City Council, where he had been a councillor for seven years and mayor for three.
According to evidence given to Professor Maurice Daly's commission of inquiry into the ill-fated Oasis development by the former CEO of Liverpool Council, Brian Carr, one of the most experienced local government managers in NSW, "Latham's council borrowed heavily and used whatever cash reserves council had" to build a number of projects which needed to be resourced from the current account which caused the working capital to spiral downwards to a 15.4m DEFICIT" (the emphasis is Mr Carr's).
When he was 38, Mr Bell was appointed president of McDonald's Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa group. He was president of McDonald's Europe when he was 40 and appointed to the board and named president and CEO when he was 42.
Mr Latham speedily exited the looming Liverpool disaster and was parachuted into Werriwa, his mentor Gough Whitlam's former seat, just before his 33rd birthday.
He became Leader of the federal Opposition on December 2 last year when he was 42.
He has since declared that almost everything he said and wrote during the nearly 10 years he had already spent in Parliament cannot (my emphasis) be taken as a reflection of his views.
McDonald's corporate office could find no evidence yesterday that Mr Bell had refused to stand by anything he had said in the nearly 28 years since he has been working for the organisation.
No one could be found who would say he achieved his position through anything other than hard work, nor is there any evidence to suggest that he has ever talked about the rungs of opportunity.
He may have received a good grounding at Marist Brothers in Randwick but he doesn't dwell on his school years. He has been too busy.
As well as the responsible senior positions he has held with McDonald's, he has also been a member of Business Council of Australia, a member of the advisory board of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and chair of the Small Business Deregulation Task Force, as well as serving as a trustee of the Sydney Theatre Company and as a director of the Pact Theatre in Sydney.
There is nothing in the biographical data posted on Mr Latham's website to indicate that he has any interests outside politics.
From Monday, Mr Bell will head a global company with more than 30,000 restaurants in 118 countries.
After this year's election, Mr Latham hopes to head our country.
Mr Bell is credited with turning McDonald's around (with his predecessor Jim Cantalupo, who died suddenly on Monday).
Together they changed the company's marketing strategy, focussed on older consumers, improved customer service and introduced new menus which included salads.
Mr Latham cannot be credited with anything prior to his appointment as Opposition Leader as he his rethinking all his (sometimes contradictory) positions.
Mr Bell's corporate vision can be seen in the "I'm Lovin' It" slogan, the company's first global campaign.
Mr Latham's vision for Australia is being cobbled together from a series of old speeches written for other politicians.
Charlie Bell has worked to join an illustrious list of Australians heading significant global organisations.
People like Geoff Bible, who ran Phillip Morris, David Newby, at the Mars family company, Doug Daft, who has been at Coca Cola, Jac Nasser at Ford, and Rupert Murdoch, who runs News Corporation which controls The Daily Telegraph.
Charlie Bell has real runs on the board. Mark Latham has no runs on the board.
McDonald's has a lot riding on Mr Bell but it knows what to expect.
He was nominated by his predecessor as "absolutely qualified" to step into the top job.
Mr Latham scrabbled for his position, winning by one vote.
Mr Bell is a former hamburger flipper made good. Mr Latham heads a party which says hamburger flippers aren't in real jobs.
I think the nation, and particularly young Australians, could do with more Charlie Bells as role models and fewer Mark Lathams."
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Friday, April 16, 2004
The Joy Of Knitting
Here is something from a new blog I found today that sums up the situation beautifully.
"Anti Americanism
About a year ago I happened to talk with an acquaintance of mine, a teacher of Belles Lettres, and she expressed her distaste for American culture. She said it lacked depth. I replied that I had read several works by Americans and that I didn't find them superficial. At which she insisted, and I asked her if she had ever actually read anything written by an American, to which she replied "Not really". "Not really what? Almost, but not quite, or never?" I went on, feeling terribly nasty indeed, and stated quoting some well known authors. Henry David Thoreau? Herman Melville? Edgar Allan Poe? Henry James? Edith Wharton? "Not really, no." Not even oft quoted poets? Walt Whitman? Emily Dickinson? "Ehm, no."
Then she she said solemnly, "I don't need to know American culture to understand that it's worthless."
This, in a nutshell, is the essence of European anti-americanism. A mixture of ignorance, arrogance, and prejudice. I always thought that to judge a culture you need to know it, at least a bit. But no, why waste time when superciliousness can do your work for you?
I quote this episode because it illustrates a feeling quite common over here. Americans are superficial. They lack depth. They lack complexity. And so, no matter what they do, they're always wrong. Better sit gracefully on a fence than actually do something, it's so vulgar."
I don't love or hate America any more than anyone else but this Anti-American bullshit attitude that is so common now really shits me. Next time some dickhead starts sprouting their crap, do what this person did and take them to task. Ask them to justify their stance without using cliche's. I do this regularly and it is surprising how few people have any reasoning that is based on fact or research. They tend to just regurgitate the same old leftist crap without any of their own thought at all.
It seems to be that anti-Americanism has become a fashion accessory.
"Anti Americanism
About a year ago I happened to talk with an acquaintance of mine, a teacher of Belles Lettres, and she expressed her distaste for American culture. She said it lacked depth. I replied that I had read several works by Americans and that I didn't find them superficial. At which she insisted, and I asked her if she had ever actually read anything written by an American, to which she replied "Not really". "Not really what? Almost, but not quite, or never?" I went on, feeling terribly nasty indeed, and stated quoting some well known authors. Henry David Thoreau? Herman Melville? Edgar Allan Poe? Henry James? Edith Wharton? "Not really, no." Not even oft quoted poets? Walt Whitman? Emily Dickinson? "Ehm, no."
Then she she said solemnly, "I don't need to know American culture to understand that it's worthless."
This, in a nutshell, is the essence of European anti-americanism. A mixture of ignorance, arrogance, and prejudice. I always thought that to judge a culture you need to know it, at least a bit. But no, why waste time when superciliousness can do your work for you?
I quote this episode because it illustrates a feeling quite common over here. Americans are superficial. They lack depth. They lack complexity. And so, no matter what they do, they're always wrong. Better sit gracefully on a fence than actually do something, it's so vulgar."
I don't love or hate America any more than anyone else but this Anti-American bullshit attitude that is so common now really shits me. Next time some dickhead starts sprouting their crap, do what this person did and take them to task. Ask them to justify their stance without using cliche's. I do this regularly and it is surprising how few people have any reasoning that is based on fact or research. They tend to just regurgitate the same old leftist crap without any of their own thought at all.
It seems to be that anti-Americanism has become a fashion accessory.
Sounds Like Bullshit To Me
I read this in today's Silly Moaning Herald
"An Australian aid worker taken hostage in the Iraqi flashpoint town of Fallujah said her capture was terrifying, and she claimed she had been placed in great danger because of "inflammatory" comments by Prime Minister John Howard.
Donna Mulhearn, from Maitland in NSW, was captured by local Mujahadeen fighters as she and three other foreign aid workers tried to leave the embattled town on Wednesday afternoon. They had been distributing humanitarian aid to civilians....
But she claimed "inflammatory" comments by Mr Howard, which were given wide airplay on Iraqi and Arab television in the preceding days, had placed her in danger.
"I realised quickly that my prime minister, John Howard, had placed me in great danger by making inflammatory comments about the war just a few days ago," she said....
Ms Mulhearn said she felt very lucky and grateful, saying the leader of her captors had a "kind face"."
Talk about a load of shit! I would be willing to bet my left one that this "kidnapping" never actually took place and this is just another attempt by this ALP candidate to promote her communist cause.
I loved the remark about the "kind face". You have a kind face too Ms Mulhearn. The kind of face I'd love to slap.
Idiot.
"An Australian aid worker taken hostage in the Iraqi flashpoint town of Fallujah said her capture was terrifying, and she claimed she had been placed in great danger because of "inflammatory" comments by Prime Minister John Howard.
Donna Mulhearn, from Maitland in NSW, was captured by local Mujahadeen fighters as she and three other foreign aid workers tried to leave the embattled town on Wednesday afternoon. They had been distributing humanitarian aid to civilians....
But she claimed "inflammatory" comments by Mr Howard, which were given wide airplay on Iraqi and Arab television in the preceding days, had placed her in danger.
"I realised quickly that my prime minister, John Howard, had placed me in great danger by making inflammatory comments about the war just a few days ago," she said....
Ms Mulhearn said she felt very lucky and grateful, saying the leader of her captors had a "kind face"."
Talk about a load of shit! I would be willing to bet my left one that this "kidnapping" never actually took place and this is just another attempt by this ALP candidate to promote her communist cause.
I loved the remark about the "kind face". You have a kind face too Ms Mulhearn. The kind of face I'd love to slap.
Idiot.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
The Similarities of Vietnam and Iraq
"Some politicians (especially ones with brobdingnagian heads) have been comparing the war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam, and, since politicians are smart, this must be taken seriously. Here are some of the similarities I have identified:
* Both Vietnam and Iraq have an 'i' in them.
* Both are foreign countries.
* Both wars were opposed by stupid, smelly hippies.
* Both wars were supported and then opposed by John Kerry.
Those are some striking similarities. So, if the war is like Vietnam, what did we learn from Vietnam? Well, what we learned from Vietnam is that, if you lose a war like Vietnam, forever after people will question future wars by saying they are like Vietnam. Think about how things would be different if we decisively won Vietnam; then, someone not liking a war would say, "We're going to get bogged down in this war like... well... no other war in American history." And no one would listen to that person.
Moral: Win your g'damn wars."
Found at IMAO
* Both Vietnam and Iraq have an 'i' in them.
* Both are foreign countries.
* Both wars were opposed by stupid, smelly hippies.
* Both wars were supported and then opposed by John Kerry.
Those are some striking similarities. So, if the war is like Vietnam, what did we learn from Vietnam? Well, what we learned from Vietnam is that, if you lose a war like Vietnam, forever after people will question future wars by saying they are like Vietnam. Think about how things would be different if we decisively won Vietnam; then, someone not liking a war would say, "We're going to get bogged down in this war like... well... no other war in American history." And no one would listen to that person.
Moral: Win your g'damn wars."
Found at IMAO
Never a truer word said...
This from the Knacker Lacker...
"Youth of Australia, Labor's policy is bling-bling" said Mr Latham, "Bling-bling for everyone"...
"Bling-bling is the best policy I've had so-far"
Ya don't need a long neck to be a goose!!!
"Youth of Australia, Labor's policy is bling-bling" said Mr Latham, "Bling-bling for everyone"...
"Bling-bling is the best policy I've had so-far"
Ya don't need a long neck to be a goose!!!
Break Up Iraq Now
This is an interesting viewpoint.
"New York Post- July 10, 2003 -- PRESIDENT Bush consistently has done the right thing by ignoring the nay- sayers before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yet he's in danger of making the same mistake his father did at the end of Desert Storm - doing only half the job.
Just as the failure to press on to Baghdad in 1991 left Iraq and the entire region with cancerous problems, today's failure to recognize the artificial, unjust nature of the Iraqi state promises enduring discontent.
Will American troops need to return to Iraq a third time, in another decade?
Speaking of Iraq as a single, integrated country is a form of lying. Its borders were drawn by grasping European diplomats almost a century ago, with no regard for the wishes - or rivalries - of the local populations.
Today, the Iraq we're trying to herd back together consists of three distinct nations caged under a single, bloodstained flag. Our problems are with only one of those nations, the Sunni Arab minority west and north of Baghdad."
Read the rest here.
"New York Post- July 10, 2003 -- PRESIDENT Bush consistently has done the right thing by ignoring the nay- sayers before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yet he's in danger of making the same mistake his father did at the end of Desert Storm - doing only half the job.
Just as the failure to press on to Baghdad in 1991 left Iraq and the entire region with cancerous problems, today's failure to recognize the artificial, unjust nature of the Iraqi state promises enduring discontent.
Will American troops need to return to Iraq a third time, in another decade?
Speaking of Iraq as a single, integrated country is a form of lying. Its borders were drawn by grasping European diplomats almost a century ago, with no regard for the wishes - or rivalries - of the local populations.
Today, the Iraq we're trying to herd back together consists of three distinct nations caged under a single, bloodstained flag. Our problems are with only one of those nations, the Sunni Arab minority west and north of Baghdad."
Read the rest here.
Well Put!
This from The Bulletin
"Recent events in New Vietnam (formerly known as Iraq) have thrilled those whom for whatever perverse reasons wish to see liberation fail. We're currently at a strange warp in history where the blood-guzzling, bomb-launching, baby-eating pro-war Right craves peace, while the cuddly, thoughtful, useless Left seizes delightedly on tales of mutilation and mayhem to boost their case that the invasion should never have taken place. Reminder to the cuddly: there was no peace in Iraq before the invasion. There was tyranny. As The Guardian's David Aaronovitch wrote last week, after listing various failings of the West in dealing with Iraq: "Of all the things we have done, the invasion may be bloody appalling, but it is the least bloody appalling thing of all. And the only thing that has offered hope." Meanwhile, the extreme Left's only hope is for more deaths. "
"Recent events in New Vietnam (formerly known as Iraq) have thrilled those whom for whatever perverse reasons wish to see liberation fail. We're currently at a strange warp in history where the blood-guzzling, bomb-launching, baby-eating pro-war Right craves peace, while the cuddly, thoughtful, useless Left seizes delightedly on tales of mutilation and mayhem to boost their case that the invasion should never have taken place. Reminder to the cuddly: there was no peace in Iraq before the invasion. There was tyranny. As The Guardian's David Aaronovitch wrote last week, after listing various failings of the West in dealing with Iraq: "Of all the things we have done, the invasion may be bloody appalling, but it is the least bloody appalling thing of all. And the only thing that has offered hope." Meanwhile, the extreme Left's only hope is for more deaths. "
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Cricket Explained
I love this.............
"The Rules of Cricket as Explained to a foreign visitor
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in, goes out, and when he's out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When both sides have been in and out including the not-outs, that's the end of the game."
From the UberSportingPundit
"The Rules of Cricket as Explained to a foreign visitor
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in, goes out, and when he's out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When both sides have been in and out including the not-outs, that's the end of the game."
From the UberSportingPundit
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
The rot has begun
This from An Aussie View about poor Mr Lathams falling fortunes.
"I tell you, if this bloke was a stock on the sharemarket a month ago, I'd say his price to earnings ratio was ridiculously high... and it still is. Sooner or later, people will realise that Maddog is a bigger idiot than Whitlam. And to give Whitlam the benefit of the doubt, his idiocy was bred in the hippie era of the sixties and seventies. The problem for such radical socialists today, is there aren't as many born losers ready to support them as there were back then (anyone who thinks the Greens and Democrats are legitimate parties just left-of-centre the exceptions)."
"I tell you, if this bloke was a stock on the sharemarket a month ago, I'd say his price to earnings ratio was ridiculously high... and it still is. Sooner or later, people will realise that Maddog is a bigger idiot than Whitlam. And to give Whitlam the benefit of the doubt, his idiocy was bred in the hippie era of the sixties and seventies. The problem for such radical socialists today, is there aren't as many born losers ready to support them as there were back then (anyone who thinks the Greens and Democrats are legitimate parties just left-of-centre the exceptions)."
The Real Australia
I got this via email. I don't know who the original author is, but if someone knows, I'll happily add the credit.
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
The Modern Australian Version:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and storing supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving.
The ABC and Channel 9 show up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table filled with food.
Australians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.
The Democrats, the Greens and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house.
The ABC, interrupting an Aboriginal cultural festival special from North Queensland with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."
Bob Brown rants in an interview with Jana Wendt that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. And the ALP quickly passes it through the Senate.
The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers.
Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
The ant moves to Asia, and starts a successful agribiz company.
The TV stations later show the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food though Spring is still months away.
While the government owned house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it.
Inadequate government funding is blamed, Kim Beasley is then appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000. plus Round the World Trips to get an overview of similar situations in other countries!
The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Sydney Morning Herald blames it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity.
The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, (highly praised by the government for enriching Australia's multicultural diversity), who promptly terrorize the community.
Who says we don't live in a democracy?
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
The Modern Australian Version:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and storing supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving.
The ABC and Channel 9 show up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table filled with food.
Australians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.
The Democrats, the Greens and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house.
The ABC, interrupting an Aboriginal cultural festival special from North Queensland with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."
Bob Brown rants in an interview with Jana Wendt that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. And the ALP quickly passes it through the Senate.
The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers.
Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
The ant moves to Asia, and starts a successful agribiz company.
The TV stations later show the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food though Spring is still months away.
While the government owned house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it.
Inadequate government funding is blamed, Kim Beasley is then appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000. plus Round the World Trips to get an overview of similar situations in other countries!
The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Sydney Morning Herald blames it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity.
The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, (highly praised by the government for enriching Australia's multicultural diversity), who promptly terrorize the community.
Who says we don't live in a democracy?
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