I’m a troublemaker sometimes
I’m sure I wrote about this before, some time ago, but I can’t find it right now. I wasn’t there. I’m not to blame. But that doesn’t stop me expressing regret that it happened, especially if it helps to heal old wounds, and I applaud our new government in making a national apology. Sorry. … ... [More]
A phrase which is being thrown around in some circles (particularly government) recently is the Chatham House Rule. Perhaps it’s always been around, but I’ve only noticed it more recently. I think some of those using it don’t really know what it means. What it strictly means is: You can talk about whatever you hear, ... [More]
Sometimes my brain doesn’t join the dots. Context in particular can throw me. I’ve had numerous emails over the years contributing to my Weird News page, most of them from a fairly small number of dedicated contributors. A few weeks ago at the Walk Against Warming, one of those contributors came up and said hello, ... [More]
Final word for now about the election. There was much discussion with friends on Saturday about the perils of who to put last — particularly in the Senate, where every man and his dog was in the race, including parties nobody had ever heard of before. Do you put the racists last? Or the nutbags? ... [More]
…before election day. I really liked the Kevin Rudd interviewing himself clip, but I think I like this one even better. Very funny stuff.
Oh, nice. That treacherous Liberal Party has turned Glen Waverley into a suburb of Beijing and instigated the genocide destruction of our white Australian identity. Vote 1 Neil Henry Smith One Nation to enforce a 100 years moratorium on coloured immigration. — One Nation candidate for Bruce’s pamphlet, as quoted in The Monash Journal. (via ... [More]
So after pondering how heat-efficient my house is (at least for summer), and my water consumption, I was thinking about the rest of my energy use. Since I don’t have air con, I’m hoping the house is fairly efficient, despite heavy use of two computers. Recent bills show usage at around 8-10 kilowatt hours per ... [More]
What did you do in the war, grandad? Sunday is Remembrance Day, when we pause to remember the generations of young soldiers who went away to war to fight for the freedoms we enjoy today, many of them paying with their lives. Those of us young(ish) adults no longer have the threat of world (or ... [More]
The other week at dinner with friends, we got to talking about being a spokesdude. Michael was describing his experiences doing media on behalf of an organisation, as I just sat there nodding in sympathy. He was describing being rung up by 3AW at half-past-six in the morning, to be quizzed on his particular expertise, ... [More]
Bob Geldof on Live Earth: “I hope they’re a success. But why is Gore actually organizing them? To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody’s known about that problem for years.” But some don’t. I keep hearing about people who routinely use their clothes dryers for everything. Or people who leave lots of lights ... [More]
I’m sure most of us have already worked this out, but let me decode the phrase “aspirational goal” for you. It means “goal that we’d like to reach, but we’re not going to actually make any effort to reach, and there certainly won’t be any penalties or anything if we never come close.” In other ... [More]
Cameron Reilly’s done a podcast followup to his Age article encouraging people to “get off the bench”. Listening to it reminded me of something I once wrote: “Every person has the potential to create a great work of art; to work for the benefit of humanity; to become a spokesman or a great leader; to ... [More]