Raven Paradox

An old Bleak cartoon but an appropriate one I think.

A couple of weeks ago a conservative friend and I were discussing the possibility of a Labor victory at next years election. Once a staunch supporter of Little Johnny, my friend Mick has softened in his advancing years and was prepared to entertain my supposition with the offer of a $100 bet on the outcome.

Six to eight months ago, it would have been $1000.

At the time of our conversation I suggested that Beazley would not lead the opposition into the next election, rather that Kevin Rudd would. I was of the opinion that when Parliament resumed in 2007, that their might be a leadership challenge.

Recent events suggest that such an event may occur even sooner.

I certainly hope that they get their act together and oust Beazley. I don’t like John Howard as a human being, I think that he is sneaky, mean spirited, deceitful, cunning, manipulative and cold hearted. That said, he seems to have a spine - however bent it may be under the weight of his dishonesty - and a country does need a strong and decisive leader.

Beazley on the other hand appears to me to be weak and spineless.

On the “Tampa issue“, Beazley displayed an ability to play populist politics that matched Howards. His stunning “me-tooism” was a shameless pissing contest of the highest order and completely betrayed both the principles and supporters of his party. Beazley was scared that the innate subconscious racism of the average Australian needed to be placated and so trumpeted the Howard line on asylum seekers.

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As was widely expected, Ian Thorpe today resigned at the age of 24.

Cited was simply a lack of interest in swimming - and fair enough too.

Thorpe has given over ten years of his life to the sport and to his country as an ambassador on the world stage.

He has held the weight of the expectations of a sporting mad, success hungry nation upon his shoulders for most of those ten years and handled the pressure remarkably well, showing a maturity beyond his years. He has sensibly used his profile to invest in various business interests and is in a position of now being set up for life.

It is now time for Thorpe, Ian James to party.

For some time now, there has been whispered speculation that Ian is gay - though many people have denied this with such statements as “He can’t possibly be - he is too good a swimmer” - additionally, there have been unconfirmed rumours of his desire for the night life…

… and who gives a toss?

Good on him if he wants to rack up a few lines and indulge in serenading the leather clad masses with his shiny pink bed flute - it is a pity that someones sexuality can be considered a barrier to them as a sporting idol or prominent Australian… but that is what a lot of people think has happened over the years.

It has often been speculated that Ian has denied that he is homosexual for fear of losing advertising endorsements or causing some of the sheen to be taken from the lustre of Thorpe Inc - and that may well be the case.

The text of his retirement speech contained some interesting language:

“As of 2.53 on Sunday afternoon I decided I would not be swimming the world championships,”

Well, I suppose that you would take note of such a momentous decision… or perhaps it was when “Sample A” was taken. The other rumour that has dogged Thorpe of late - though it is more whispered in groups of friends than publicly mentioned - is that he occasionally suffers from the Columbian ‘flu.

One expects that we will find out soon enough.

Ian, thanks for the wonderful memories that you have provided Australians through your feats in the water and out of it - good luck in your new life, party hard and enjoy a life of hedonism.

Technorati Tags: Ian Thorpe, gay, retire, cocaine, Thorpey, Thorpedo, homosexual, 2:53, Thorpe retires

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Excellent news, Uncle Rupert - someone to whom this government seems to listen to - has spoken up about the shambles that is broadband internet access in this country.

Murdoch slams slow broadband

RUPERT Murdoch yesterday condemned the quality of Australia’s broadband services as a disgrace, warning the nation would be left behind unless the federal Government and Telstra spent billions to increase download speeds.

The News Corporation chairman and chief executive told shareholders of his Australian arm in Adelaide that high speed access to the internet needed to be increased to levels seen throughout Asia and the US.

“When you have broadband - real broadband, not the type they’re talking about here - where you get, say, 20Mbps of data into your home, it changes everything,” he said.

“People then spend a lot of time with their laptops and computers. In Australia we only have a couple of million (people on broadband) and they don’t even get 1Mb(ps).”

“I think it’s a disgrace.”

Between 50 and 70 per cent of homes in the US had access to broadband, Mr Murdoch said.

He said the Government and Telstra should be spending “$10 billion or $12 billion on it (to reach) every town in Australia; they do it in Japan, they do it in South Korea, we should be able to do it here. We are being left behind and we will pay for it.”

The Minister for Megabytes, Helen Coonan is quoted by the ABC as saying:

“About 80 per cent of households who can access fast broadband can access speeds up to eight megabytes from 19 different providers.

Fourteen providers are currently providing speeds up to 24 megabytes to about four million premises and Telstra of course is now rolling out its 3G network, which it claims could offer speeds of up to 40 megabytes.”

Even if the ABC was being naughty and misquoting her and she really didn’t mean speeds of 64Mbits, 192Mbits and 320Mbits, she is still way off the mark.

Has she ever heard of RIMs, pair gained lines or exchanges with no ports left in them?

Personally, I am one of the lucky ones - I do have access to a 24Mbit connection - which in reality, runs at about 4-8mbit due to a dodgy “last mile” of copper but is much better than many people have access to.

Good work Uncle Rupert - perhaps this government will sit up and take notice now… heh.

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After a little more research using the official Reserve Bank of Australia’s website and also the Australian Prime Ministers website, I discovered some interesting facts about Howard’s years as treasurer.

Fact - he was treasurer from the 19th of November 1977 until the 11th of March, 1983

Fact - during his time as treasurer, interest rates peaked at 22%

Fact - the average interest rate during his tenure was 12.66%

Fact - he left Labor with interest rates of 13.95% when Fraser’s government lost office in 1983

Fact - when he became treasurer, interest rates were 10.25%. when he left office as treasurer, they were 13.95% - 3.7% higher.

Fact - during Labor’s tenure in government (12th March, 1983 - 11th March, 1996), the average interest rate was 12.22%

Fact - Labor left Howard’s government with 90 day interest rates of 7.51%

Fact - Labor reduced interest rates by 6.44%

On the balance of it, it would appear that Howard’s claim of interest rates always being higher under Labor is, well, quite untrue.

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John Howard has been consistent.

He has consistently been a master at playing upon the fear of the electorate.

Most of the time, the fears and prejudices he has evoked from within the dark recesses of the minds of the populace have been ill conceived - but they have worked - they have kept him in power.

The sad thing is that it hasn’t just been the ignorant or uneducated who have fallen for the seductive speeches of the master of wedge politics - at some point, almost everyone has fallen for it, I know that I have, sadly it seems that the educated and affluent have fallen for it regularly. Some examples of the fears that he has played upon regularly are:

• Interest rates
• Refugees
• National security
• Economic prosperity
• Industrial relations/Unions

Look at the above five items, they are all issues that might be used emotively, that might be used to cause fear because they are all related to our sense of personal security.

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I was lucky enough to view the 2006 Karate World Cup - held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre - over the weekend. There were some exceptionally talented karateka representing their countries.

Below are some photographs of various competitors:

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Goats get a lot of undeserved stick… from having their image used to represent Satan to being accused of being walking rubbish dumps - and it gets worse it would seem.

I just found out that there is a type of goat called the “Judas Goat”.

It is quite amusing actually, they are trained to lead other animals to the slaughter and also to lead hunters to feral goats which is pretty bloody clever I think.

It is unfortunate that the name Judas isn’t really used all that much in modern times, I think that it is a great name. I may even start a campaign to have Judas as the top boys name for 2007…

Technorati Tags: Judas, Judas Goat, Goat, Satan

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Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali is quickly becoming the clown prince of Australia.

He would almost be amusing if he didn’t have the capability of being quite dangerous… actually, his latest speech is pretty funny.
In his latest speech, Hilali promises to “place a masking tape on my mouth in public for a period of 6 months, to discipline this mouth for uttering these words” if he is found by an independent panel to be:

“… guilty of giving justification for the crime of rape, that I have given incitement for the crime of rape, that I have claimed that any woman without the veil deserves to be raped or that she is the one responsible for the occurrence…”

Whilst it is debatable that his original speech could be said to be an incitement to rape, it certainly appeared to justify it on the grounds that the woman, as an “weapon of Satan” sashayed about suggestively with the sole intention of inviting Neanderthal knuckle dragging animals to do to her what they pleased. It also seemed to suggest that rape was never the mans fault as the woman had lured him into acting in such a manner.

This man is a liability to all Australians - but especially to the majority population of moderate Muslim Australians…

I really hope that an independent panel takes him up on his offer, it would be really funny seeing him walking around with a taped up mouth for six months… better still, one of those Pulp Fiction pool ball gags - that would be great!

Technorati Tags: Mufti, gag, masking tape, pool ball gag, ball gag, al-Hilali, Pulp Fiction

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The Internet has been responsible for a number of good things - and a number of things best not mentioned… Probably the greatest crime that it has committed though has been the utter bastardisation of the English language.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines “log” as:

log ¹ - n.

1. a part of the trunk or a large branch of a tree that has fallen or been cut off.
2. (also logbook) an official record of events during the voyage of a shop or an aircraft.
3. an apparatus for determining the speed of a ship, originally one consisting of a float attached to a knotted line.

v. (logged, logging)

1. enter in a log > achieve (a certain distance, speed or time).
2. (log in/on or off/out) go through the procedures to begin (or conclude) use of a computer system.
3. cut down (an area of forest) to exploit the wood commercially.

- DERIVATIVES logger n. logging n.

The word “blog” apparently has its origins in the words “web log” or “weblog”. Calling either “blog” or “weblog” a word grates on me a little, but let us assume for the purposes of this exercise that a word is defined as a jumbled up mash of letters that forms a somewhat pronounceable utterance.

As such, let us presume that:

• a “blog” is a log that has been placed on the web.
• a “blogger” is someone who places that log on the web.
• “blogging” is the act or placing these logs on the web.

As yet, despite my searching, I am yet to find any site that claims to be a “blog” that falls within the correct definitions of a log that is on the web.

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There has been a lot of talk about why The Glass House was axed - most of it supportive of the cast and crew and critical of the ABC board, and rightly (no pun intended) so.

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