Intolerance demonstrated

Marieke Hardy, the reason why Channel 7’s Last Man Standing sucked so hard, doesn’t like young’uns with flags. Here’s how she tells of a “real” conversation she had with a flagged youngster at Melbourne’s Big Day Out:

Me: Nice flag, fuckhead.

Moron child: Whatever.

Me: Why are you even wearing that? Do you have any idea what you’re doing?

Moron child: Aussie pride, man.

Me: Go and die.

In this day of tolerance of other cultures, why is it our own culture that idiots like Hardy are intolerant of? Though being cornered by Hardy at a festival is probably a little more fearful. Drunk and with eyes pointing in different directions, this kid would have been confronted with something more like this:

Anybody who is arse-over-head in love with Bob Ellis is surely as retarded as the old coot himself. ‘Nuff said.

Perking up

Channel Seven’s Today Tonight has not been shy to find stories about people being apparently crushed by WorkChoices in the past (“all I done was look at stuff on th’ net all day. It’s rool unfai-ya!”). Last night they aired a story that shows WorkChoices must be bad:

Unemployment in Australia is at a record low, meaning the worker has the upper hand for one of the only times in history.

And that means bosses are becoming very generous.

According to a Drake Recruitment survey, about 99 per cent of companies in Australia are providing some form of non-financial benefit to staff.

Businesses are throwing extra money at their staff, but the big increase in rewards is coming in the way of perks, better known in official circles as non-monetary or financial benefits.

The Drake Recruitment survey of employers found the top five non-financial benefits. Dominic Toledo from Drake said they were common across many jobs.

“The main ones are work-life balance, which includes flexible work hours, family-friendly start and finish times, the ability to work from home, workplace accessories such as laptops, mobile phones, home Internet connections, opportunities to work overseas,” Mr Toledo said.

Clearly the Aussie notion of a fair go is under attack. Those poor, poor Australian workers.

Boxer’s head needs examining

Anthony Mundine, not known for his intellect, has released a video for his rap song which shows him burning stuff.

The openly political video for Mundine’s hip-hop single Platinum Ryder, filmed at The Block in Redfern, shows indigenous residents tearing up Mr Howard’s photograph and tossing it into a barrel of flames.

A Union Jack meets the same fate.

The burning takes place against the background of Mundine’s rags-to-riches rap lyrics: “I am just one man, it ain’t the whole of the nation, politicians won’t say sorry for the stolen generation.”

Firstly, I have serious doubts about the legitimacy of stolen generation claims. Name some victims, Anthony!

Secondly, why should today’s government say sorry for something that was allegedly happening long before the political time of anybody in the current government? It’s not as if the evil neo-conservative forces of John Howard ordered the removal of Aboriginal kids from their families.

Thirdly, what would it achieve? The entire concept of a forced apology is stupid. Saying sorry these days seems to be used mostly as an attempt at a “get out of jail free” card. As a child, if your parents forced you to say sorry for punching another annoying kid, would you really mean it? Of course not. However, if you are responsible for something that is an accident and is your fault, it’s okay to say sorry… and mean it.

Why should the current Australian government apologise for something that folks like Mundine can only allege, and that happened before our current Prime Minister came to any kind of power? What would it achieve? Would it really get rid of all the problems folks like Mundine say it will? Somehow I doubt it.

Anthony Mundine, you are a fool. Do everybody a favour and shut up.

Lynch the wealthy

Ethicist Peter Singer is appearing on Channel 10’s 9am program at the moment, suggesting that Australia’s top 10% of rich people should donate one third of their incomes to the poor. One of the presenters posed the question, “what would this mean?”

It means we’d turn into filthy, stinking socialists like Peter Singer.

Not dead yet

Dictator and commie scumbag, Fidel Castro, is getting better, according to another commie scumbag, Hugo Chavez.

I can hear the collective sighs from the Fairfax press from here.

Dominic Knight, blithering fool

As what seems to happen whenever I issue a notice of leaving, I tend to find internet again fairly quickly. That said, if I were you I would expect only sporadic posting over the next few weeks.

Anyway, not that it needed me to declare it or anything, but Dominic Knight who runs the Radar blog at the Sydney Morning Herald website is a tool. A couple of days back, he decided to take on the Young Liberals.

To address the outrage that is people being actively encouraged to live longer, the Victorian branch of the Young Liberals has advocated bringing back tobacco advertising.

They have?

Really, their logic is infallible. Like the good little ideologues that they are, they know that individual free will should reign supreme. “Prohibitions on tobacco advertising are an insult to the intelligence of the ordinary Australian,” the branch says. “These bans assume that individuals are not fit to make up their own minds on the benefits or otherwise of smoking and need the Government to make the decision for them.”

Well, it’s true. I feel it’s a bit of an extreme example, however anytime that the government bans anything it is a result of nanny-state thinking. There are times when you need to ensure you don’t let ideology get in the way of pragmatism — and I believe this is one of those situations — however at the end of the day, it is simply not good to have a society who always needs the government to distinguish right and wrong for them. The individual should reign supreme. On the other hand, it is refreshing that in saying this, Dominic Knight implies he is not up to the task of making his own decisions and that government bureaucrats should make them for him.

And while we’re at it, why not leave more things up to the wisdom of ordinary Australians, like whether to take drugs? We should be able to determine the “benefits or otherwise” for ourselves, surely?

With adequate education programs in place, there is no reason why not. The thing is, regardless of whether drugs are illegal or not, the idiots that will misuse them will obtain them somehow. Decriminalisation is not necessarily allowing a free, unregulated market, rather than allowing a little more government control over a black market. At any rate, Dominic would prefer the government to tell us what we should and shouldn’t do because he simply cannot look out for himself.

In fact, this argument applies to the whole of organised society. How dare society interfere with my individual choices about whether to vote, wear clothes, pay taxes, or unleash a hail of bullets into a Young Liberals convention!

Now society is interfering? I thought Dominic’s rant was against the Young Liberals, who don’t like the government interfering? How confusing. A genuine intellect at work. At any rate, voting is part of any democratic society — and I’m sure Dominic wouldn’t like to see that disappear. He can not wear clothes at his own peril. I’d love to pay significantly less amounts of tax, however the cuts in non-essential government services and mass public service sackings would not sit well with Dominic (who presumably wants to pay no tax, but have the government provide everything for him and make his decisions for him). And unleashing a hail of bullets at a Young Liberal convention is a bit much; though it shows how idiot lefties are all for dissent unless it’s against their point of view.

I’m sick of the nanny state interfering with my choices about whether to inject heroin, and it’s time I was given the liberty.

Of course. Just because the government won’t throw you in jail for doing it means it’s a good idea and that everybody will do it. This is sickening.

There must be some limits to this bountiful individual freedom, of course. The same people that passionately advocate liberty for all generally draw the line at allowing women to “make up their own minds on the benefits or otherwise” of proceeding with their pregnancies.

An issue like this is what distinguishes libertarians from social conservatives. I’m sure you’d get a good mix of both if you went to a Young Liberal convention. Just as you’d get a mix of hardcore socialists all the way to Keynesian thinkers if you went to a Young Labor convention. And it’s not as if the Liberals have a monopoly on social conservatism — Kevin Rudd is about as Catholic as they get, and I’m sure he doesn’t like the idea of abortions.

Dominic continues dribbling on for a few more paragraphs, before coming out with this:

The Young Libs have lots of other great policy ideas as well, like the flat tax. Although that was Pauline Hanson’s idea first. Still, that never stopped John Howard.

I’m sure that idea has been around long before Pauline Hanson came around. And considering it’s a libertarian policy (that the government should be as small and non-intrusive as possible), it’s unlikely Hanson came up with it herself. She’s said a lot of silly things in her time, however a flat tax is not one of them. The flat tax is a core policy of the Liberal Democratic Party as well, but I’m sure Dominic wants to put in a cause-and-effect argument forward instead. The Young Libs are proposing something that Pauline Hanson proposed years ago, therefore they agree with everything she ever said, especially those things about Asians!

Dominic Knight is a complete idiot. Perhaps he could be eliminated with a hail of bullets through somebody’s own free will like he suggested in his post.

Notice

Due to circumstances completely within my control, posting will slow to a squished-bug-like stop over the next little while. Moving houses and continuous internet connectivity don’t usually go hand-in-hand, and this will be no exception. As such, if I disappear for a while, you’ll know why.

I’m not able to give any approximate timeframes, but I’ll pop in to post up some rabid rantings from time to time when I can.

Counting down…

… To the big one.

The brilliant, wonderful Top Gear is returning to television this weekend to the British peoples. And they’ll be showing footage of Richard Hammond’s 290mph crash (that’s over 460km/h).

I, for one, am glad Richard has made such a speedy recovery and that there will be more Top Gear goodness for all. Oh yes.

UPDATE: Hammond’s crash is available at certain places on the internet. YouTube is a good place to start, though BBC’s lawyers will no doubt be onto it like a cheap suit any time soon.

Free speech, but only if others agree to it

I’m all for free speech and whatnot, but sometimes people should be punched in the face out of principle. Like this guy:

An Australian who lives in Britain has threatened legal action against Qantas for barring him from a Melbourne-to-London flight wearing a t-shirt depicting US President George W Bush as a terrorist.

So? Qantas is a private enterprise and can bar whatever shirts they wish. It’s not like they were discriminating, since this tool would be allowed to board if he swapped shirts.

Airline staff argued the t-shirt, which bears an image of the US president with the slogan ‘World’s number 1 terrorist’, was a security risk or an item likely to upset passengers.

It’s certainly an inflammatory shirt, and anybody who wears a shirt like that is asking for conflict. I wonder what this guy would think if I wore a shirt that said “The Australian Greens: World’s Number One Terrorist Sympathisers”? Chances are, because it’s something he wouldn’t agree with, he’d cry foul because I’m not respecting his beliefs or some such nonsense.

I hope this guy hasn’t reproduced; it’s a little painful to think that some poor kid would have this nutbag as a parent.

Bathing under siege

In Brisbane, water supplies are very low. There has been very little in the way of rain for our dams in the last few years, with water levels for Brisbane currently at 23.16%. So things are pretty dire for us here.

Peter Beattie, current Queensland Premier and congenital idiot who has undertaken the “Minister for Everything” role, has not built any new water infrastructure in his almost 9 years in office. The population of Brisbane in 1997 was, according to this report from the ABS, 1.54 million people. Now its population is pushing 2 million (with about 1.77 million in 2004 and about 1.81 million in 2005). At any rate, the population of South-East Queensland is rapidly increasing, and yet no more water infrastructure has been built. More people brings more water usage, and it takes a few years for water infrastructure services to become useful.

But since it took dam levels to plummet to 30% before the Beattie Government decided they should do something about it, residents in South-East Queensland can expect worse to come:

Rationing – limiting the amount of water each household uses, with penalties for overconsumption – is understood to be an option once dam levels drop to a meagre 10 per cent of capacity.

Can’t wait for that. And with major infrastructure works not expected to be functioning until 2009, we’ll almost certainly have to put up with this.

The Local Government Association of Queensland said yesterday average water bills for residents could rise from $350 a year to about $775 by 2010.

I like how residents get penalised big-time because of a completely incompetent government.

Acting Premier Anna Bligh, who has conceded there would be price rises, yesterday said she was waiting on cost estimates from the Water Commission, which are expected next month.

“Until then, I’m not prepared to speculate on any price rise, as speculation is just that,” she said.

Under no circumstances will she take responsibility for her own Government’s lack of action since 1998. Beattie is yet to come out and use his “I’m sorry, I’ll fix it” routine, but it’ll be forthcoming once dam levels drop below 20%.

The Water Commission is running out of restrictions that will have a major impact on water savings.

[...]

[Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale] said the commissioner should be upfront with people about its worse-case scenarios.

“There’s no need to hide anything. I’ve got pensioners out there who are having showers with bucket of waters. We have to do what we have to do to keep people alive. Nothing is going to shock me.”

Why do I get the impression that the State Government and most Local Government members do not accept that our lack of water is a failure of the Beattie Government to keep infrastructure in-line with population growth and public demand? I keep getting the impression that it’s somehow our fault for not having any water. I can understand and appreciate that Queensland is going through a period of below-average rainfall, but going by population growth alone, we should have been looking at extra water infrastructure years ago.

The Courier-Mail’s article ends on a positive note, however:

Malaysia, Taipei and Venezuela are among the countries that turned to severe rationing in 2002 and 2003.

Residents were provided water only a few days a week, water was turned off at night and flows controlled during the day.

There were steep charges for people using excess water.

Brisbane gets to join an elite group there, that’s for sure.

Blame the Joooos

According to a “respected” and “highly influential” radical Muslim cleric from Sydney, Jews are pigs:

Sheikh Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, delivers the hateful rants on a collection of DVDs called the Death Series, sold in Australia and overseas, News Limited newspapers report.

Almost sounds like a normal lecture from Antony Loewenstein. Still, moving on from those evil Joooos, this “influential” cleric has more to spray:

“Today many parents, they prevent their children from attending lessons,” he says in the video.

“Why? They fear that they might create a place in their hearts, the love, just a bit of the love, of sacrificing their lives for Allah.”

“We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam.

“Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid (holy warrior).

“Put in their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom.”

I got cornered by a girl from Amnesty International on the street today, saying they wanted to stop the use of children as soldiers in war zones. Given that there are so many terrorist (and radical Muslim) apologists on the Left, and that organisations like Amnesty International are mostly made up of lefties, this must be a real brain buster.

I can hear them screaming “think of the children” now, however their leftiness is also crying out that we’ve got a higher chance of being killed by lightning than by an act of terrorism, so fighting terrorists is a stupid idea. But we have to stop militant Muslim groups recruiting young children to fight for them. But lightning is more harmful than terrorists. But the children…

I suggest we bomb the sky to get rid of lightning, and then we can save the children. Yup, foolproof.

Another retirement

So Michael Bevan has retired from one-day cricket.

Bugger.

While he hasn’t played in the Australian one day team for a few years, when he was playing, he was an invaluable asset to the team. A saviour of many a match for Australia. A batting average of 53.58 in one day international cricket is certainly nothing to be sniffed at.