Brain Drain: Opinion/Comment

Virtue can only get you so much

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:33:26 GMT

One of the greatest truths and finest realisations Religion has ever revealed to Man is that 'Virtue Is it's Own Reward'.

It is therefore more than a little hypocritical of them to recognise that the rewards thusly obtained are insufficient to send missionaries on nice overseas holidays to ensure the word of Their God gets spread to all and sundry or to build the massively over the top and ornate 'Homes of God' ( not to mention their own slightly less ornate homes like say, The Vatican) as befits the leaders of a group of millions and that therefore it was necessary to pass the collection plate around for the poorer people to give what they could and to ensure that on their deathbeds the servants of Mammon (massive wealth) handed over portions of estates to the church who could ensure the salvation of their eternal soul.

In other words, being virtuous can only get you so far then ya gotta hustle some money!

The logical conclusion of which is anyone who hustles better and more than you do controls more than you can - if you wanna be the best ya gotta hustle the most. If at all possible enter into a cartel - assuming you can trust those who enter into it with you.

Problem! It becomes fairly easy to spot the bastards who have control over you and resentment, ultimately ending in violent revolution to overturn those in power, results.

Solution? Get as many of the little people as you can to hustle just like you are doing then what you are doing becomes ever harder to spot. Thus was the reasoning that created the Advertising Company.

Be virtuous ( if you can).

Accept that those who can't will want to turn you into one of them to make themselves feel better about their lack.

KNOW that you are better than that and deserve more than what they choose for their selfish selves.

Spread the word to as many others as you can in as many ways as you can.

(the word being that materialism is a very poor and unsustainable substitute for personal moral growth)

If you have a differing view I should like to hear it.

Why I HATE computers

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:38:36 GMT

1. I don't do backups.

2. They sometimes crash - fatally! (the first time this happened to me in twenty years of computing was using the 'new-improved' Windows Vista)

3. Some support guys are stupid brain-dead overworked jerks who either cannot read a customer's instructions or don't have the time to.

4. Bill Bloody Gates and Micro - lets make it even MORE complicated - soft!

5. The little bastards are doing things you don't know about behind your back - at least those using Windows XP and Vista are!

Law and Justice in Austrtalia

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:55:43 GMT

In case any readers should form the opinion that i am biased against American Justice (or America in general) by reason of my most recent (and a couple of not so recent) posts I would like to explain my view of Australian 'Justice', as most recently espoused in the Dr Mohammed Haneef 'terrorist' case.

The case against Dr Haneef was dropped (after he had spent almost two weeks being held against his will and interrogated without charge by Aussie 'Law') after the Australian Federal Police's case was shown to be pathetically inadequate, not to mention almost criminally inept, false and flawed.

This is not surprising since it was based almost entirely upon guilt by association ( Fact: the Glasgow 'suicide' bomber was his cousin - son of his dead father's brother. Second Fact: he had a 'close' relationship with the bomber's brother in that he gave him a mobile phone which still had an unexpired contract period left when he (Haneef) was leaving the UK in July 2006 to take up a job in a hospital in Queensland, Australia).

What i find almost as intollerable as the incarceration without trial or (fair) charge is the disgusting way both the Senior Officer of the AFP, Mick Keelty, as well as the Minister of Immigration, Kevin Andrews, have abused any semblance of decency and fair play - not to mention True Justice in their dishonesty and manipulation of the 'truth' in their dealings with the Australian Public and media over this issue.

In support of my claim i provide the following for consideration and comparison.

Mick Keelty: "For all that's been said about the SIM card, the SIM card is still in the vicinity of London at the time that the devices were attempted to be exploded," he told journalists. "The SIM card is still at Glasgow, at the airport, at the time that the attempted bombing happened there."

Fact: The Sim Card was located 300 miles from Glasgow in Liverpool at the time of the actual (not attempted - the geek can't even tell the difference between an attempt and an actual attack) bombing!

(Liverpool is roughly half way between London and Glasgow and is where Haneef's second cousin was living and where Haneef had once lived, although not concurrently with his second cousin, when the card and phone were given to him to use up what was left of Haneef's phone contract)

A pathetic attempt to cover Keelty's incompetance was made when it was suggested that what he REALLY meant to say was people ASSOCIATED with the SIM card were in the vicinity's of both attacks.

Clearly he is under too much pressure to correctly perform his job let alone be able to say what he 'means' to the press. The words he actually said would undoubtedly prejudice most Australians who heard and believed him against the alleged 'terrorist' doctor.

Keelty is not alone in the AFP in terms of being under too much (Political - Liberal Government) pressure to perform their jobs 'correctly' (they are doing EXACTLY what the Liberal Government wants them to do - demonise Haneef)...

An AFP affidavit supplied to the court trying to charge Haneef with his 'crime' states: "On 2 July and 3 July 2007 Dr Haneef participated in a taped record of interview with the AFP and stated the following: Whilst in the UK he resided with suspects 1 and 2 (alleged suicide bomber Kafeel Ahmed and his brother Dr Sabeel Ahmed), at 13 Bentley Road, Liverpool."

However, in the record of interview, obtained by The Australian on Tuesday, Dr Haneef tells police that he lived at 13 Bentley Road, Liverpool, with several doctors, whom he names.

None are the two suspects.

It is known that Sabeel Ahmed did reside at the same address but AFTER Haneef himself left it - it is a boarding house and as Haneef was moving to Queensland, no doubt Sabeel also took over his second cousin's apartment while being given the mobile phone to use up.

Should this be considered giving support to terrorism as the AFP want us to believe? Or is it a case of a migrant cleaning up his affairs with support for members of his family before leaving the country, as any one of us would do in the same circumstances?

Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence Against the AFP concerns what they had to say concerning Dr Haneef's attempt to leave Australia under 'suspicious' circumstances (His wife had recently given birth to a new daughter by emergency caesarean section and, as their custom dictates in such circumstances, was living with her family at their family home in Bangalore. India.

The police affidavit asserts that Dr Haneef, 27, a Gold Coast Hospital registrar since September last year, "had no explanation as to why he did not have a return ticket" from India to Australia.

"Dr Haneef, whose wife, Firdous Arshiya, gave birth to their first child by emergency caesarean section on June 26 in Bangalore, India, was trying to leave Australia on July 2 on a one-way ticket bought the same day by his father-in-law in India.

While the police affidavit stated Dr Haneef "had no explanation" about his one-way ticket, the record of interview shows that he gave a detailed explanation to police while answering questions.

Dr Haneef told police that as he did not have funds in his Australian bank account his father-in-law had booked and paid for the one-way ticket with an understanding that "when I go there we can arrange for the coming back ticket. Because I just got 7 days' leave approved".

The final nail in the coffin of any semblance of accuracy or intelligence existing in the Keystone Kops AFP's case was actually the first and primary blunder in the affidavit trying to charge Haneef with supporting terrorism... they attempted to get a Judge to believe that Haneef's former SIM card was located in the jeep used to blow up Glasgow Airport's entrance hall.. it was found, as almost all people concerned knew well before the affidavit was written up, in Liverpool with the man to whom it was given over a year before by Haneef.... as any one of us would have done were we about to leave the country for a new job half-way around the world.

Haneef's only crime (yet in any way 'proven') is to have a second cousin who was deranged enough to want to blow himself up in a jeep in Glasgow.

The desperation of the Howard government to want to hold onto power in the forthcoming federal election by whipping up enough redneck ill-informed frenzy over terrorist/xenophobist hysteria via manipulation of a federal agency's toying with the truth should by now be a well-worn and fmailiar tune - not to mention a highly successful one thanks to modern media and the constant demonisation of an 'enemy' we should all be meant to 'fear' and whom only the likes of George W Bush and John W Howard and formerly Tony Blair can save us all from (while ensuring their own aggradisment and personal power and glory).

It is time we started to Wake UP Australia!

Law but where's the Justice?

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:24:35 GMT

So Paris is out of Jail after 3 and a bit days (but gets five days 'credit').

Effectively her 45 day jail sentence, that was commuted into a half sentence for time off for good behaviour before she even entered the prison, has been reinstated but as home detention (she has to wear an ankle bracelet 'tag' and it's not even from Rodeo Drive's jewellery stores, shock! horror!) minus five days for the three and a bit days she actually spent inside a 'real' prison - albeit one for special people with special needs (read the Rich and Infamous). This is LA LA Land we're talking about,after all.

'Undisclosed Medical Reasons' is the official reason issued by the Sherriff's Department for letting Paris out of jail 'almost free'. There is no proof that those medical reasons were actually all her jailers being totally sick and tired of her endless whining about the inhuman treatment she was forced to endure for those three days - she wasn't even allowed room service for pete's sakes! It was either she goes or they would!

If EVER there was any doubt that there is one law for the rich and one for the rest of us, or that the American Justice and Legal system is completely up for sale and that money really pulls the puppet strings before, this case ends completely any and all 'doubt'.

How America can have the balls to pretend that they can dictate to any other country what they should or should not do on the basis of some morally Higher Ground is a never-ending source of wonderment for me.

Guantanamo and the Paris Hilton destroy ANY credibility as a moral nation they might once have fooled people into believing they had.

All societies are corrupt - it is just a matter of how well you try and hide it - America is losing it's ability to keep it's corruption under the mat.

At last.

Stem cells and 'The Right To Life'

Fri, 04 May 2007 05:28:09 GMT

Here's one for all those convinced that it is wrong for scientists to experiment with stem cells to think about.

God so cares for his human creations that he ensures all women (but for a few faulty mutations that he obviously wants to be allowed to live and exist as 'human' beings as He is All Powerful) create and then utterly wipe from the face of the Earth (and out of their bodies) the germ of a new human being, in it's egg form, not once in their lives - not twice or even three times - but once every single month for almost 40 years, on average. That's 500 potential human lives flushed down the toilet - the only one's 'saved' are those with whom a male human sperm comes into contact with and which then successfully negotiates the danger strewn, nine-month, death defying process of embryolisation and birth. Typically this is between two and three out of the five hundred human eggs per non-sterile female in our 'enlightened' western society.

Let me restate that in terms more easily understood. Within our lifetimes, in Australia alone, over 5 BILLION potential human lives will literally be flushed down the toilet - according to God's perfect plan.

Now tell me that stem cell research is wrong because it is against God's will, you jerks.

Speaking of Jerks that reminds me - the five billion potential human lives flushed is but a ridiculously small fraction of the lives lost through the male habit of shooting five billion sperm cells (the male half of the birth equation) every time he cums when only one ever usually gets a shot at real life (assuming at the time he is with and stays inside his partner and is not wearing a condom, etc).

Make no mistake here - i'm not talking about destroying embryo's that a woman or a couple have decided will be kept in cryogenic limbo if and until they ever become ready to have 7 kids before throwing away the unwanted ones. I'm referring to exactly the same human eggs that end up in our sewers every single day which can instead be used to save and improve human life suffering by means of an ingenious man-made method (nothing to do with 'God' made human conception)

Sucking out an ovum's dna and replacing it with dna from a non-sex cell does NOT create a human embryo - it creates a cell production factory that is totally artificial - it just uses humanlike cells and processes.

Got That?

Now get Over it and go back to doing what you do best - restricting your own tiny little minds growth.

Judgement day

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:39:57 GMT

I am among the first to roll the eyes, throw up my hands, and cry out " What are those idiots thinking of - are they really on the same planet as me?" whenver i see yet another ludicrously insignificant (to the perpetrator) 'punishment' meted out by a namby-pamby, out-of-touch Wuss of a judge or magistrate in Australian courts for a crime that has had massive effects on it's victim(s).

So in the interests of fairness i guess it is also beholden upon me to comment on those seemingly much rarer occasions when a judge or magistrate actually seems to be the only one showing an ounce of intelligence and 'reality' in a situation.

The case i have in mind is the no-doubt widely seen debacle between a father/swimming coach and his Young Adult daughter/swimmer at the World Swimming Championships, being held in Melbourne at the moment.

If, like me, you witnessed the TV footage and thought that Dad , while 'losing' it a little, got a decidedly hard deal by the media who were basically putting all the fault for the attacking going on down to him and him alone, and that he got an even harder deal by an over-enthusiastic and unbalanced police force who placed a temporary restraining order on Dad refusing to let him within 200 m of his daughter or allowing him to even telephone her, seemingly forgetting that he is (was) her coach and his daughter is a swimmer competing in the games.

Well I am happy to report that when the case was brought before a Melbourne court this week the judge threw it out and determined that the father had no case to answer and that the restraining order be lifted immediately (Dad and daughter, who looked incredibly embarrased by the fuss everyone had made on her 'behalf' got into a taxi together after the hearing).

The Judge obviously saw the issue the same as i did - one of a protective and caring father reaching a point of utter frustration with his daughter's 'attitude' and refusal to discuss important issues to both her AND her father in anything like a satisfactory manner and losing the ability to remain calm and rational himself, particularly when a 19 year old starts throwing fists at you.

I am not a sports physiologist such as the ones who attend football tribunals and explain why players are not really doing what it looks like they are doing to the camera's view, but are actually protecting themselves or were just attempting to punch the ball and not the guy opposing him in the balls but i believe that any good sports physiologist who analyses the video of the 'attack' will point out that what looked to some like a man hitting a smaller woman was, in fact, a man trying to prevent the woman from landing some telling blows on him.

Anyway, to a Judge who was able to display intelligent common-sense when everyone else was clearly not, I Salute You.

Now, if you could just have a word or six with some of your contemporaries...

The tossers seem to be winning

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 04:54:24 GMT

I'm not negative - it's the rest of the world (ok - to be fair - only a significantly large part of it) that has the problem!

What evidence do i have for such a, in some people's eyes, Pessimistic outlook?

Something caught my eye (and associated utter disgust) while Christmas Shopping last year and i tried to forget all about it, but naturally, business being what it is and what it does, found a way to drag it back into my awareness for yet further derogation...

I submit the following for your edification:

A United Kingdom company (the land of my birth and once a land that held proud and distinguished traditions, particularly amongst it's manufacturers and retailers, many of whom sought and were granted Royal patronage) inspired, no doubt, by that wonderful (well, watchable) American film starring Gene Hackman - The French Connection - has generated a most 'intelligent and desirable' brand and is promoting it world-wide.

It is a perfume, and in the style of world-leading manufacturers like Calvin Klein and Armani who produce 'for Him' and 'for Her' fragrances.

'Ladies and gentlemen', someone was apparently proud to present to you (personally i reckon they thought it a good gag once, when they were drunk as a skunk, but it accidentally 'took off' with some jerk high up in the company and it's way too late to admit it now)....

FCUK Her by Fcuk

FCUK created by French Connection UK ( wonderfully witty and clever acronym, don't you agree? Possibly not quite on par with DKNY but with more of a 'ring' to it if you'll pardon a disgusting pun). She makes her presence known with an overture of fresh. illuminating musks. She surprises and provokes with the voluptuous and suggestive floral notes of the barringtonia flower from Madagascar. She leaves a lasting presence with decadent cedar wood and sandalwood engrained with vanilla. (My own addition: 'What is that delicious fragrance?' he asks her, entranced and captivated by her feminine 'presence'. She leans to him and whispers in his ear... 'Fcuk Off!'.... How wonderfully 'witty', with a capital S. H.!)
FCUK Her 100ml EDT	£30.00
FCUK Her 50ml EDT	£19.95
FCUK Her 30ml EDT	£16.00

No, sadly, as witnessed with my own eyes, this is NOT a joke - it IS REAL!

Some fcukwit has actually written the above SERIOUSLY for a genuine, available world wide, perfume called... FCUK!

Imagine the kind of 'lady' who would wear and appreciate a perfume, sent by her loved one, called FCUK Her???

The fact that this 'fragrance' is being advertised (and presumably sold) at hundreds of websites all over the world reinforces in me the fact i am quite right when i say; 'This world gets stupider (and 'gross-er') by the day'.

When we sit back and do nothing but watch self important tossers, out to do nothing but make a fast 'bcuk', degrade and have our level of standards assaulted daily by such trash, is it any wonder so much negativity and lack of respect for our fellow man is the result?

P.S. Not to be called in any way sexist, French Connection do, of course, produce and retail 'Fcuk Him' as well! : (

Death, where is thy (by now, much more dulled and painless) 'sting'?

There are times when i long for it.

I suppose a fcuk is out of the question now?

Aussie Values

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:34:19 GMT

What are they?

Well, to the best of my knowledge no-one yet has made an complete and agreed upon list.

Few can even agree what a value should be (some include speaking English, or 'integration' as values)

I have sought input from all for my list that I hope is representative of what all who aim to call themselves Australian aspire to and place highest regard for in their lives and in their country. It is always open to discussion, negotiation and potential change, but I feel personally, that it is pretty close to perfect as is.

Australian Values Listed are primarily Aspirational ones and are not always able to be followed by us all, all the time for various reasons, but to deny or be unfaithful to any one of them would be, in my mind, UnAustralian.

The list presently stands at:

Honesty, Respect, Courage, Strength (through diversity?), Integrity, Responsibility, Fairness, Compassion, Equality, Mateship of the Anzac Spirit, Allegiance to the sustenance and improvement of the Australian Nation.

A few points to note:

Politicians are mostly 'honest' in that they mostly try not to tell outright lies, they merely tell only the truth that has been 'spun' to support their personal goal of staying in power. Honesty means being honest enough to say when you are wrong, even if it costs you personally and open enough to tell the truth affecting both sides of an argument not just your own.

You are not deserving the Respect of others if you do not respect the rights of others to do differently to you. You owe it to yourself to respectfully say if you disagree with others and your reasons for doing so.

Courage means having the Honesty and Strength to do even that which might hurt you personally so that the greater Australian good can prevail. It also means having the courage to face your fears for the lies they are and to not always go for the 'easy', simplistic option.

Strength does not equate to rigidity and stubbornness. True Strength requires suppleness and agility, the ability to move from one fixed spot while recognising also that you can gain in strength by keeping your feet firmly planted with the solid ground and not moving from those beliefs which are part of you (unless they can be shown to be outdated and no longer of useful value).

Integrity is possibly the most easily misunderstood, or perhaps the hardest value to personally adopt. Something though, usually only has 'value' BECAUSE it is hard to come by, such as: jewels, gold, a true love that lasts, a happy and decent child who always appreciates everything you do, wisdom and Truth. Integrity is the ability to personify your most strongly held values without betraying yourself or others in the process. You must Integrate those values into your being while at the same time recognising that it is most likely you are not yet perfect yourself and so have a capacity to learn, grow and if necessary, change. It is a constant balancing act that very few, if any, can master. If it was easy it wouldn't have as much value as it does.

Mateship is a combination of Integrity, Camerarderie and Self-sacrifice and is one of, if not, the most Uniquely Australian Values, best exemplified by the fledgling Anzac Fighting Force of WW 1. They have developed a worthy legend of respect amongst friend and foe alike. I love the story that when a German Panzer tank group commander from WWII heard there were Aussie troops in his path he told his men that they were just English soldiers dressed as Aussies to frighten the German troops! The Aussies proved him wrong! Mateship means more than just 'loyalty'. Loyalty can force us into misguided actions.

Allegiance to the sustenance and improvement of the Australian Nation.This last listed value might sound a bit strange. It is intended to recognise that all Australians need to both maintain our Nation and not seek it's stagnation or disintegration. We all bear responsibility for 'feeding' it and to help it meet the challenges that lie ahead and not to just rest on our laurels and remain lost in past glories. The world is changing and we need to keep at least at pace with that change, and possibly, even to lead it.

It is my hope that by clarifying and refining these Values for ALL Australians that becomes easier for us all to achieve and more difficult for us to find disagreement in.

Just by writing these values down myself I see areas where I have imperfections more clearly and can begin to work on improving myself, refining and polishing, so that my light can become more clear and bright.

By all means copy them, share them, write them down and discuss them with others. Incorporate them into a firm reality, but remember, you saw them all here First! ; )

What the World Needs Now....

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:25:47 GMT

I am getting heartily sick of the divisism that we as human beings show to one another, usually while believing we are right and other, well-intentioned people, are totally wrong.

One current example of this is the sniping and bickering of people over the United Nations' inspired Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.

The goal of the protocol is to bring the WORLD together to take action, appropriate to each country’s economic position and ability to achieve changes, that will BENEFIT THE PLANET!

I find it amazing that intelligent people can do nothing else but bleat about how so-and-so doesn’t have to do what we’re supposed to do so I don’t think we should play – I’m for taking up my bat and ball and going home so nyaaahh (He pushed me first, Miss) – more like petulant kids in a schoolyard than adults capable of understanding that we are facing evergrowing problems if we keep on affecting the planet and producing ever more kids at our current rates while doing nothing to reduce our impact on the One Planet we all have to live on.

I'm looking in your direction Prime Minister - try leading instead of following for once.

This is THE Big Picture Issue people – try moving out of your tiny little perspectives and opening your eyes and minds a little.

Why is Kyoto or something similar needed?

Take a look at part of the Big Picture… Does anyone understand the term "exponential growth series??"?

This graph is almost 10 years old today. In that time 300 million more people have been born than have died - THATS AS MANY AS WERE ALIVE AFTER 2 MILLION YEARS OF HUMAN GROWTH AND EVOLUTION!!! (up to the year 1000 AD) IN JUST TEN YEARS!!! What will the next 50 bring us?? Less pollution? More land? More rainfall? More water? More fish stocks? Improved crop production from more fertile and vitamin enriched soils? Subsistance farming on Mars? or the Moon?

Forgive me my scepticism on any of those projections.

In the last century our population multiplied four fold - it is increasing, not slowing down, as are almost every other human environmental factor you care to measure (the natural result of this one 'problem' that no-one, apart from China, has yet had a government with guts to even contemplate, far less take any kind of remedial action). What is clearly shown here is that all the problems we currently face are not going to get ANY smaller – Unless of course America and Islam unleash ‘Nuclear War Three – Day of Reckoning’ and quite frankly I am NOT relishing seeing that one folks.

The graph shows a ‘slowing of growth’ some time around twice the population we have now – and just exactly who and how is that going to be achieved by – do you think??? Just who will stop having babies when the food cannot be produced fast enough to feed us any more – when there is no more land to rape of forests for agriculture nor water to feed the crops (or us). Which one of us will be the first to be voluntarily sterilised or insist upon zero population growth? America? The UK? India? China? Anyone in Africa?? Australia??

The graph to the right of the vertical dotted line is FICTIONAL! - It is a best case scenario - I am not as hopeful as the graph's creator that it will be that 'positive'. I can see a much worse future 'line'. One that involves a rapid sudden turning point and trend reversal which means the death of billions of us.(graph line moves back downwards)

Nice thought huh?

It is time those with intelligence stop bickering about who goes first and who needs to do more and took some damn leadership at the risk of a potential ‘loss’ of a tiny fraction of our economic growth to avoid the unavoidably dramatic drop in lifestyle and even LIFE that so many people will soon be made to face within our own lifetimes.

NOW is the Time! It should have already started to save greater pains that are now unavoidable.

Are your eyes opening yet?

Can you see your way 'forward'?

Bleak Future

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 04:13:26 GMT

With these two representing the Most Enlightened Democracy's on the planet?

( N.B. I cannot claim credit for the title caption. I observed this in a placard being held by a four year old... Out of the Mouths of Babes...)

How To Pray - Not!

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:58:34 GMT

For those who don't already realise - I have a pretty twisted sense of humour. Not so much sick, as 'coming down with something' : )

I submit as evidence the following video clip which i first saw on Channel 10's evening news program.

I hasten to point out it was not the video of a guy doing his own 'Homer Simpson skateboarding across Springfield Gorge' imitation (minus the skateboard and all the 'D'Oh's') that i thought was the funniest thing i had seen or heard all year...

(Dont' try this at home folks! Oh, and ignore the advert at the start)

http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=13873@ktvt.dayport.com

No - what made it SO funny was the impeccable comic timing of Sandra Sully who announced, deadpan, after the fall that:"The man was praying to Jesus to cure him of Epilepsy!"

lolololololololololololol : )

Dave Allen or Monty Python could not have dreamed that one up.

I would also refer to the video as evidence that Jesus DOES have a sense of humour - somewhat similar to my own - apparently?

Note to christians! God (and therefore Jesus) is INSIDE of you - not in the external world, ruled by the prince of darkness - therefore you can speak to him best by talking 'within', not by outward displays of stupidity such as the one witnessed above, even if done in Jesus' name.

Church is only a place where you can pray with similarly inclined folk - God doesn't live IN there exclusively. (or in Statues, which, if you read Exodus carefully, instructs us to not make graven images of anything on the earth OR in Heaven above! Columbia and Rio De Janeiro - are you listening? It is the Second Commandment if you were wondering or wanted to check)

Anyone got any other such humourous examples? : )

Yeah Yeah, I DO know it's wrong to laugh at other's misfortune (sheer stupidity in this case) but i can see humour in it - Hey I never said I was perfect! ; )

Democracy or Dictatorship?

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 02:31:05 GMT

So, you’re happy living in a Democracy and you will be willing to fight to ensure that no-one ever tries to turn your country into a Dictatorship?

Well – I have some news for you that may come as something of a shock - almost ALL of those who claim to live in a democracy NEVER spent ANY REAL time at all in one for the first 15 or 20 years of their lives!!!

The way we all grew up was to understand that it was NEVER the majority who ruled and who got what they wanted… there was always a dictator ruling over us with an iron fist unable to be toppled or effectively challenged or made to listen to (our) reason.

For the first two or three years of our lives this was mainly our mothers or our fathers. They would tell us what to eat and what to wear. Where we were allowed to go and where we were not. What we could play with and what we could not… all for OUR own good! As moulder’s of our lives and destiny they were dictators without equal – they had ultimate power, although a fair number used this power (or at least made an attempt to use it) ‘benevolently’.(although even then with the intention of getting what THEY wanted… which was a ‘healthy’ member of ‘The Society’ as this, they had been forced to believe, was what would give the future member ‘The Best Chance’ in Life).

Once we had been sufficiently well trained into following orders from a ‘superior’ and began to establish some form of rebellion and independent thought we faced our next group of dictators who were given authority, under painful penalties, (when I was young! - not so physically painful anymore) to mould our way of thinking, reacting and behaving in order to make us supplicant to the political dictators that control all 'individuals'. This next group were known as ‘Teachers’.

Supposedly they were there to teach us to think for ourselves and learn what we needed to in order to survive in a democracy. In reality they taught us far more deeply that we either co-operated with the establishment and were given crumbs as rewards – or we rebelled and were punished and isolated, while made to feel like we were useless and some kind of a threat to ‘normal’ society. It is under these dictators of thought that we first learned how to despise those of us who think differently to the established 'way of the world'. We also learned the ‘benefits’ to be gained from the ridicule of minorities and those who are not like ‘we’ are and how to avoid such ridicule ourselves by playing along with what the majority ‘wanted’ – regardless of what was Fair or Just.

Once we had passed these dictators, and for some the greater dictators of tertiary ‘programming’, the great majority of us we were handed over into the final stage of our dictatorship democratisation – ‘The Bosses’.

In return for a wage we were given the privilege of providing for ourselves (and perhaps then selling another part of our souls to another category of dictator – the 'Bank Managers') and the security of a relatively safe, consistent ‘well-paying’ job and the potential to climb up the corporate ladder – always assuming we could be made to supplicate our original ideas and will to the ‘Boss’ and give Him (or Her) the ultimate say on what we do and how much we get paid as a reward for our efforts – regardless of what the majority thought! The penalty for disagreeing with the boss was either failure to step up the ladder of success, ensuring menial jobs with little or no work satisfaction, or even worse - 'The Sack'!

Ultimately, it was realised that the majority would not silently put up with such a one-sided dictatorship system and an opposing force – The Trade Unions, those defenders of the rights of the ‘little’ man (supposedly the majority) – were allowed to assume some share of control and became fellow dictators (and, as with all human nature, some felt driven to ask for More!) when in reality all they ever really accomplished was to further divide and conquer the ultimate source of weatlh and power in any democracy, that of the People themselves.

To those who played the game and always did what the dictators of ‘Freedom’ wanted, the majority (who had not perished beforehand) were rewarded with a pension and a life of 'luxury' in retirement while a lucky select few joined the ranks of the dictators charged with ruling the masses and ensuring they all ‘played ball’ and did not upset the political gravy train and an even more select few, who carefully went about their business and lives doing pretty much what they (or their fathers) wanted, continued to reap the greatest benefits of a safe, secure ‘Democracy’ - in name only.

This is the 'Freedom' that George W Bush and his family enjoy and who tell you that you can have that same freedom that they love and revel in - That that is what ‘THEY’ are fighting to defend – the right for your family to become president of the greatest nation on Earth! Last time I looked there had been less than fifty families who had one or more of their members become President in the last 2 centuries and over a Billion people had lived and or died as American citizens in the same period… can YOU do the math???

The sad thing is….

…the majority of you suckers fall for it! Because you think the ONLY other choices are Fundamentalist Dictatorships or Cruel ‘poor’ Communism – IF you ever are able to still ‘think’ of it at all between everything else you are made to deal with and what the ‘majority’ tells you is good for you via the mass media.

Have no doubts…. Should any of you ever devise a plan that will bring True Democracy to your country (and should you ever find the guts to stomach it yourselves, let alone try and fight for it) you would not be given a snowball’s chance in hell for it to be allowed to come to pass!

The only real difference between a large group of people and a flock of sheep is that the flock of sheep have a much greater ability to remain focussed upon what is important to them at any given moment – Be that eating, drinking, sleeping, evading dogs or wolves, or following the farmer’s directions to move them to a fresh paddock or the shearing sheds. They rarely become ‘polarised’ i.e. they will not be split into two opposing camps upon any one issue - and if they ever do become ‘divided’ they are always very keen to return to living as one community with a common goal and singular direction almost immediately. Oh – and one flock of sheep will not declare war of any kind on another flock.

Kids TV

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:22:28 GMT

I noticed something today. TV has changed from my day. It's changed a LOT!

When i came home from school and wanted to avoid doing my homework i got to watch shows like: I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, Gilligan's Island, Lost In Space, The Whacky Racers, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in Looney Tunes cartoon shows, Dick Dastardly and Muttley, F-Troop, Dr Who, Play School, Sesame Street, The Muppett Show, etc,etc,etc.

Sure they were predominantly American shows and often portrayed violence, but mostly they were pure enjoyable FUN! and as kids we knew and appreciated that.

Compare those classic 60's and 70's shows (often repeated up to the late 90's on Aussie TV) with the typical commercial children's after-school (free-to-air) TV shown in 2006 between 3:00 pm and 6:00pm, when the news/current affairs shows begin in earnest:

Rafferty's Rules (hour long Aussie made adult drama - Maverick magistrate Michael Rafferty dispenses his own brand of courtroom justice with his own brand of humour - ironic and black respectively, coloured by a dislike of privilege and a suspicion of the police. This tough series portrays events from Rafferty's life, both inside and outside the courtroom. Kids really get irony and black humour - Right?); News - on both 7 and 9 networks from 4:30 - 5:00pm; M*A*S*H* - remember how much fun the Korean War was when shown from the perspective of an Army Surgical Hospital operating theatre complete with blood gushing everywhere and Hawkeye and BJ getting plastered on home-made gin to dull the pain of watching young kids getting butchered for nothing?, Antiques Roadshow - UK show valuing hand-me-downs. Great Kids entertainment!; The Bold and The Beautiful - US adult?? drama soapie showing kids what wonderful people they can grow up to become - NOT!!!; News (10 network for an entire HOUR 5 - 6 pm); Deal or no Deal - hugely popular (God! Take me NOW Lord!) Aussie reproduction of overseas guessing 'game' show hosted by a former Lawyer - just how bad can it GET???; Bert (Newton)'s Family Feud - ok so I just answered my own question! - feuding family's battle it out with a semi-senile TV 'living legend' to adjudicate and add occasional (and sometimes intended) humour. Sadly, it is mostly homophobic and suggestive innuendo best compared to Benny Hill. If you are a kid and have never heard of him or this show count yourself lucky!

I missed out (guess why?) Judge Judy, Huey's Cooking Adventures, and Entertainment Tonight.

Out of the 45 hours of weekday, after-school free-to-air TV over the three main commercial Networks that just leaves the following: McDonald's Farm (pre-school aimed 30 minute show. ie. ages 6 and under), It's Academic (kids quiz show), Totally Wild (nature show), The Shak (Kid's 'magazine' style show) and Streetsmartz (wonderful spelling guys!) - an Aussie Kids Drama program. These last two alternate and so total 2.5 hours a week.

I don't know about you but I think that is appalling - three hours after school program timing a day over three networks, five days a week and all we can give our school-aged kids is about half an hour a day of programming aimed primarily at them, while the rest of the time is dedicated to adult drama, news and two really facile game shows!!!

Is it any wonder our kids would rather play computer games or surf pornsites and paedophile chat rooms on the web? Whatever happened to the genius of those creators of such shows as The Muppetts, F-Troop, Get Smart and Looney Tunes? People who really knew how to make shows that appealed Universally to kids and adults alike? Shows that entertained people by putting instantly recognisable characters in funny and zany situations without moralising or preaching to us (But perhaps mildly brainwashed us into accepting certain stereotypes - not that that could ever happen in today's socially aware, Politically Correct world - Yeahh Riiigghhht!!! We leave that job to our politicians today!)

Gunpowder Treason and Plot

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 03:17:08 GMT

(For first-timers and the uninitiated - the following paragraphs may contain Irony and Sarcasm if not downright Cynicism. I know those are not usually nice qualities but they are honest feelings 'inspired' by one particularly nasty Jerk who can't see past his own bigotry - you may know someone like that yourselves?)

First it was the Treacherous, Treasonous, Communist menace we needed to be afraid of;currently it is the Evil, Hateful, Muslim Menace that threatens us and we need to be very, very afraid; Get in early and lets pick on and kick out the horrible hordes of the billions of Godless Chinese; we know they are trying to overrun the world in sheer weight of numbers and now the sneaky bastards are starting to overcome the world economy - Australia must be their next target!

And all the while we gladly hand over more and more of our culture, lifestyle, companies and allegiances to the Silent Invaders - America - making us ever more dependent upon them for 'our' identity. All Australians (and Kiwi's) repeat after me: "911 is NOT the number to dial for emergencies!"

And after over 105 years of standing on our own as a Nation we STILL pay our allegiance as a country to a woman who lives 10, 000 miles from us and visits for a couple of days once a decade or so. Can anyone please explain to me a rational reason why we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for one federal and six state governor's general (the Queen's representative while she is 'away') and not representatives of an Australian person/institution??

Not all treasonous acts are carried out by Communists, Muslims or Chinese - our government is quite capable of selling out Australians all by themselves.

Thank You Thank You ThankYou

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 03:22:32 GMT

To the ABC'S Four Corners TV program for showing (Monday 18/09/06 and repeated Wed 20/09/06)exactly what kind of people the US supports, arms and defends in Israel.

If they ever had the right to exist (not that that could ever supercede the rights of the Palestinians who lived there for the last 600years and more) they have relinquished that right by their actions over the last 60 years and as culminated in the abominations of the most recent massacre of defenceless civillians (whatever else it was it was not a 'war').

It is long past time the world stood up and said loudly and in the strongest possible manner - "ENOUGH!!! The Zionist Experiment is now cancelled!"

Why does Osama REALLY Hate the US?

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 06:07:33 GMT

John Howard was asked if the war in Iraq was making the world a less safe place because it focussed dissidents' anger and energy against the US and her Allies.

Typically, he chose not to make a personal declaration of his 'true' belief that could later be shown to be based upon entirely false reasoning but took the 'easy way out'.

He said something along the line of: You would have to ask Muslim Fundamantalists what drives them to perform the atrocities the world has been experiencing since Sept the 11th 2001.

We don't have to ask!

The most wanted man in the Western World has told the world very clearly and without any possible contradictory 'spin', exactly why he chooses to attack the US and it does not quite fit in with what George W. Bush and John Howard want everyone to believe - that terroists hate everything 'we' (they) stand for. In fact he made it clear that his position is in complete agreement with George W's position on why war is necessary to protect liberty and freedom!

He did this quite clearly and publicly three years BEFORE September the 11th.

Here is what he had published for all to read and understand (after first seeking 'approval' for his position from Muslim leaders and scholars, as he is a devout follower of ( his views of) Muhammed (pboh) and Islam):

Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans
Published in Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998

Statement signed by Sheikh Usamah (Osama) Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu- Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Islamic Group; Sheikh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; and Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh

Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said "I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but God is worshipped, God who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders." The Arabian Peninsula has never--since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas--been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All this is happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.

No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.

If some people have formerly debated the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it.

The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, still they are helpless.

Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once again trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.

So now they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.

Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there.

The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.

All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al- Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said "As for the militant struggle, it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life."

On that basis, and in compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."

This is in addition to the words of Almighty God "And why should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated and oppressed--women and children, whose cry is 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'"

We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.

Almighty God said "O ye who believe, give your response to God and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And know that God cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered."

Almighty God also says "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of God, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For God hath power over all things."

Almighty God also says "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

It is worth noting the following points:

It was Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, who first invaded a fellow Muslim (but largely 'westernised') country. He also fought an 8 year long devastating war against America's long time enemy, Iran, a short time before. It was the US who helped provide Saddam with many of his weapons and funding to fight Iran, so they can be seen in one light to be partly responsible for the setting of Arab against Arab over all of the eighties and early nineties.

It was the Invasion of Kuwait that was the major impetus for the US to establish US army bases in the home of Islam, Saudi Arabia in 1991 and they have never withdrawn ever since, firstly using the bases to ensure the blockade of Iraq's land and Air-space remained in place long after the Kuwait Gulf War ended, even until the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan (Osama's place of refuge) and the 2003 Gulf War began and they remain there some 3 years after the 'war was 'won as declared by George 6 weeks after it began.

Osama made an offer of sending 12.000 muslim mujahaeen fighting 'troops' to help protect Saudi Arabia from an Attack by Saddam - which shows exactly how much of a fan he was of America's former ally - at the time of the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. (Osama has many, many family members in Saudi Arabia who are close friends of the Royal Family).

The Royal Family chose to accept the 'offer' (that they could not refuse) of help from the American's and rejected Osama's offer.

It was the fact that America, a Christian country, set up bases of war in a Muslim country, Saudi Arabia (and also supported the unjust Israeli occupation of Arab land by giving them most of their weapons they use to hold a massively superior firepower over the Lebanese and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of Jordan), and had maintained them there for over 7 years that convinced Bin Laden that the time had come to fight to push the 'invaders' of Muslim Holy lands, ie. America, out of THEIR countries.

Eight years after Osama's declaration the world can see that the strict Ismaist Taliban Government, whom Osama befriended, has been pushed out of office in Afghanistan and an American sympathising government imposed in their place. The once proud home of Sunni Muslim government in Iraq has been wiped out and it's leader placed on trial by an American sympathising 'elected' government (elected by the same Iraqi people who have learned over the last 25 years better than to not support a powerful and dangerous man in power with an army behind him if you wish to live). Israel has massacred a thousand or more Arab Lebanese civilians and destroyed their economy with full support by America and America threatens nuclear war with Iran (and Syria should they be foolish enough to argue the point in favour of their 'ally').

Some might say that Osama had some kind of point and reason to mistrust US offers of 'Help' for Muslim nations, particularly considering that Bill Clinton tried to assasinate him with a cruise missiles attack on an Afghani 'terrorist' training camp long before Sept 11th 2001!!!

It was not out of a hatred of the Freedoms 'westerner's enjoy in their own lands but the desire to 'purify' and protect their OWN freedoms in their own country's that led to the 9/11 Attack on American's where they could see how it feels like to have an invader kill your own people for a change. American's are very good at 'giving' but hate being 'given' back.

In this Americans and Muslim Fanatics are in complete agreement.

The rule should be if you can't take it - don't deal it out!

To get an Idea of Osama's position imagine how you might feel as a 'Christian' Westerner if a Major Islamist country, Indonesia for example, Insists that your government allows it to establish major military bases in the middle of your own country for your 'protection', and then proceeds to launch punishing air strikes (shock and awe campains) against a fellow christian based country who opposes Indonesian occupation, where you may have relatives living and being killed by Indonesian bombing runs!!!

Can't happen here you say??

The American's are our powerful allies who support us you say??

Just bear in mind that a mere 20 years ago America counted Saddam Hussein and Iraq as their Ally and supported him in his war and five years before that America supported Osama Bin Laden and his fellow Mujahadeen 'freedom fighters' in their war against Russian Imperialism.

American's have a very short memory as to who is 'with them' and who is agin 'em.

America has only ever done what is for the benefit of powerful Americans and has broken 'treaty's since they first made them with the native's of their own country over two hundred years ago!

They had no interest in protecting the freedom of democratic Europe in World War Two against the fascist enemy until Japan bombed Pearl Harbour over two years after the war began.

Similarly they had no interest, other than what they could make out of it financially, when the Kaiser threatened democratic Europe in World War One and dragged their feet in helping their western allies.

History makes it very clear exactly what American motives are if we bother to take the time to look at it.

If we should ever try to be truly independent and FREE to decide for ourselves what is in our, rather than America's, best interest we are likely to find out just how 'good' our good friends we have 'over there' are.

Australian's generally are known as a fair and honourable people - we have no problem with dealing with Saddam Hussein to sell our Wheat to the Iraqi people nor do we have a problem buying Oil from Iraq or Islamic Saudi Arabia. We hope to have a stable and prosperous relationship with our closest and enormously populated neighbour, Indonesia, another Muslim country.

To tie ourselves so favourably with ALL the policies of America is NOT in our best interests and we should have a better appreciation than the media fills our minds with, of exactly why that is.

R . I . P .

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 15:49:26 GMT

Hundreds of millions of people in the Western World will be mourning and remembering the tragic and devastating events, five years ago today, of September the 11th 2001.

Many, if not all of them, will harbour anger and resentment at some kind of archetypal 'terrorist' who helped organise, finance and even perpetrate this atrocity on the innocent victims in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC, and on their families and friends around the globe.

Yet to me it is a far greater tragedy that those same people, as well as the families of the innocent victims, will not be asking 'Where is the recognition of the suffering of the thousands, even tens of thousands, of innocent victims in Afghanistan and Iraq?'

The people in America can still relive in their memories the horror they felt when they realised what had happened - the enormity of their personal and national devastation that took place in just over an hour but which their news networks ensured they lived many times over in the following weeks and months and years - lest we forget!.

While the actual events lasted a little more than 100 minutes of their lives, the bombings and explosions and fear of imminent death is felt by the innocent Iraqi and Afghani women and children and even fathers of families, every single day, and has been going on daily five years in some cases.

The people who remember, honour and mourn Sept the 11th could not possibly imagine the horror their government has orchestrated, initiated and perpetuated, on those tens of thousands who have died and the hundreds of thousands, millions even, who must endure a nightmare of seemingly endless violence and uncertainty of life is going to be like - if they survive the next day, all while having to deal with inadequate power and water supplies and bombed out homes and cities in the two countries America blames for being 'behind' such a catastrophe.

When will the West mourn those victims - the ones of the West's own creation. The victims both directly of their soldiers - who's duty is to protect their homeland half a world away from where they drop their bombs and fire their tank guns and rifles - and of the political destabilisation their overthrow of Foreign Sovereignities has assured.

Two Islamic lands are paying an unforgiveable price for the US version of 'Freedom' the US president tries to tell the world he wanted to bring to unwilling people as an excuse to cover his belief that He has the right to decide what is in another country's best interest.

Initially most American's supported and believed their President when he launched all out war on Afghanistan and then Iraq in revenge for what 'terrorists fanatics' did to his home "on His Watch".

Those two nation's people have just cause for thinking the horror was perpetrated on them in the name of 'freedom' by a far more powerful 'terrorist' than any muslim fanatic could ever dream of becoming - George Walker Bush.

R I P ALL who have died as a result of September the 11th.

I mourn not just for the ones who died in the US.

Many will turn away and try to ignore those who died elsewhere at the hands of more 'noble' assassins - lest we forget TO LEARN!

You Get What You Pay For - NOT!

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:21:19 GMT

Yesterday Australia's politicians 'accepted' yet another 7% annual pay rise. This is considered on the LOW side of 'fair' at a time when Australia is supposed to be undergoing one of the best periods of economic growth in the last fifty years and the leaders of industry, that politicians like to compare themselves to financially, take home million dollar a year bonuses and life at the top end is looking pretty damn fine.

The trickle down effect (and a short-sighted, penny-pinching government responsible for a shortfall in critical trades personnel who can now command enormous sums for their labour) means that there is a greater number of people who are now making more money than their parents could dream of and who help spread the word of how great this government is (for the 'better' people at least - you know - the ones who REALLY count!).

Yet despite this 'Golden Age' (or perhaps because of it) the Great Australian Dream of owning your own home is moving ever farther out of reach for the significant majority of young families who currently face the highest petrol prices known in a country that is dependent upon their cars for everything they do.

In this same golden age where both Federal and State governments make multi-billion dollar surpluses of tax taken, against our money spent; when 'loss making' government businesses have been sold off along with billions of dollars worth of publicly owned assets and enormous sums are made from the sale of minerals dug out of the ground only to cost us many times over when we buy them back after they have been value added in cheap labour economies; how then do we explain the Western Australian government's refusal to pay our police force a pay rise that amounts to less per year in percentage terms than they just 'accepted' for themselves???

When actual dollar-per-person costs to the public purse are considered, politicians will make two to three times more than would a policeman, even if all the police union demands were willingly met!

The cry of those apologists who support our politicians pay rises (that they need never demand or have to strike for to be awarded so generously compared to the bulk of those they 'serve') is that we will get a better quality politician if we pay them a 'decent' salary.

This is quoted as if it is somehow exclusively the case for politicians - that some how politicians are more deserving of such equity than is any other member of society who could never dream of being awarded a regular 7% pay rise without having to even ask for it.

The same people somehow believe that a politician, who does not need to pay for up to 6 years of tertiary education to get their 'qualifications' for their job, nor do they have to work in the same company for thirty or forty years to reach the pinnacle of their company's leadership, and who is only selected for their position on the basis of how popular they might be in a public vote and how well they sucked up to their party's power brokers, not how good they are at business, or law, or environmental or immigration issues or running a country's economy, can somehow do their jobs better just by being offered better Award conditions. And if work agreements are such a good thing for Australia why won't the Prime Minister and his party put themselves on one with the people of Australia as employers (and NO! that is NOT what is currently the case! - the employees NEVER write up the conditions of their employment for the employers to just impotently sign and agree with as we have had to do for J Howard and Co. and less than one in three Australians have ever 'approved' the awarding of the 'contract' to run this 'democracy').

There are over 20 million people in this country but even with compulsory voting less than five million of us ever vote for Liberal federal politicians.

I do not believe that any person enters politics or chooses not to enter politics because of the 'low' salary rate our nation's leaders currently get.

I do not believe that making public service salaries for politicians even further ahead of the 'average' wage can ever provide this country with better qualified candidates to decide what is in the majoritiy's best interests.

It can certainly make politicians even more elitist and out of touch with the rest of us but it will never guarantee that it will bring a better and more representative, democratic, politician who truly cares what is best for those people who's views and opinions they were elected to represent.

Contrary to what many high profile and wealthy citizen's would like us to believe, a country is NOT just a very big company and our leaders should not be seen as company executives who can be prised away from another company with the promise of better salary conditions.

Public servants should be JUST that - servants who Serve their community, not above-the-law Masters of one.

Jim McGinty and Neale Fong PLEASE note!