:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Monday, 4 August 2008 ::

BEARS!

From the incomparable Theo Spark.
:: WB 6:05 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Preach
:: WB 5:58 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

The Shorter KRudd

My name's Kevin and I am wordy, but not very bright. I think markets fail. I think they have to be regulated. I think Oz's past and present prosperity has to be hit hard because I want to differentiate my government from the Howard year. I am not interested in more prosperity. I am interested in big picture hoo-hah cos I want to be head of the UN one day

Seriously, I was gonna fisk this but it's such impenetrable gobbledygook that there's no point.

This speech is The Hollowmen all over. We have an empty vessel leader in Oz who is all about government and not about letting the governed get on with things.

Urgh.
:: WB 5:18 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Did I Do Something Wrong?

About a week ago I drove home from work, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, lights on, raininess and coldness misery outside, and all clutch in, clutch out, clutch in, clutch out, absolutely crawling. And I was zoning out a bit, listening to something classical, maybe Schubert, a lovely attempt by the radio station to lift spirits in miserable weather. The car in front of me for what felt like forever was a silver saloon of some sort. I am genetically predisposed to being excellent at picking out car makes and models, cos of my Italian petrolheady heritage. So this thing was silver and biggish and widish and non-descript. Probably a Lexus.

And from round the driver's side of the car there came a-crawling the biggest, hugest huntsman spider and he creeped and crawled his way along around the boot.

I was mesmerised.

He didn't seem to mind the teeming rain.

It was mesmerising. Swear to God he was looking straight at me, with his eight eyes....(oh my, I'm giving myself the willies just typing this). If he'd wanted to he coulda jumped onto the bonnet of my beloved car and I woulda had a heartattack there and then.

Suspended in terror (I am not happy in the company of spideys and the wipers were going full blast so it was kinda hypnotic, and I don't think I blinked once) I watched as he crawled his way along the boot edge and then...and then, with one last squoodge (know what I mean? when they kinda press themselves into an almost pouncing position, all hanging back gathering up the grunt?) staring straight at me, he crawled IN TO THE BOOT!

I did not flick my lights. I did not toot my horn.

Should I have?

This is keeping me up nights. I think my omission was terrible.
:: WB 4:39 AM [link+] 4 comments ::

James May Says It All For Me
:: WB 4:28 AM [link+] 2 comments ::

Dylan Fans Are Sooo Into Him

I know one personaly. Not just a fan, not just a student of the man, but a full blown professor of Dylan. It's all a very Jane-Goodall-and-the-apes kinda scene watching and listening to him wax lyrical about his no. 1 hero. The sitting up a bit higher in the chair, the moving of the hands, the pulling up utterly tedious facts like which bootleg comes from which gig.

I'm a fan, natch. What's not to like? But hey. Some folks has the Dylan-love pretty bad. Poor man prlly can't order a simple espresso without some Dyman junky analysing it to mean the man thinks the world is just too darned sluggish and needs a shot.

Whatever.
:: WB 4:54 PM [link+] 1 comments ::

Obsessions: Bill Henson: A Documentary

On the ABC tonight. Lovely.

"Profoundly ambiguous yet absolutely focussed at the same time". Henson describing his work. Two concepts that make no sense even in contrast. Clear arts blather. Come on Bill - hoping for more from you.

"Contrast of squalor....strange ambiguity,...huge resonances... ." Edmund Capon. Again with the untenable matching of concepts.

Nice picture of a road being shown now.

But people see roads a lot. If every blink is a photo, who needs a $30k Henson to show them something they already live. Still, good to see an image without nudity. Cos here comes the nudity. Teenage boy drinking with a chubby. Who on earth but a Thailand-visiting pederast would want to buy a shot like that? Ack. Gimme the pic o' the road. Please.

"One foot in the world of childhood and one in the adulthood produces a certain uneasiness that I find interesting". Henson, not mentioning the need for nudity.

"There's a tension, blah blah, blah". Edmund Capon again. They're nude Edmund. And they're underage. Just please notice that and comment on it. Explain why it is art.

Oh, now some underage getting-it-on pic, nude or very nearly. Please, more road, Bill.

"I do not think about art history when I make my pictures at all. Critics bring their own prejudices to my work, not me." Henson.

"There is something classic about his work. These are hugely and profoundly considered. There are certain resonances about twilight and mood in historical paintings which are echoed in his work." Edmund. No.

"It's hard to know what stirs people up... well, maybe it's easy to know in some cases". Henson obliquely acknowledging the fact his patrons get hard looking at his nudie pics.

"Some people might find the imagery offensive at times. That are images of despoliation and abuse but they have wondereful sensual baroque exociticism at the same time." Edmund Capon gymnastically attempting to avoid obliquely acknowledging the fact the kids are nude and viewers get chubby looking at the nudie pics.

Lord, it is just not enough to say "baroque" and "profound" and "decay" and "adolescence" and "exotic" and "it-is-beyond-photography".

Quite frankly, Henson is a way better man than his fan, Edmund Capon. And better than Phat Phil Adams, see post below. He takes a great pic of a road. And for that I am okay with him.

I don't advocate banning his nudie pics. But I do say go crazy with the mockery and the harassment and investigation. Let him defend his art. He should. In some of his pics the kids are nude. They're nude.

Nude.
:: WB 5:02 AM [link+] 3 comments ::

Never Fear, Adams Here

That gallumphing sound you can hear is Phat Phil Adams riding to a bloated "rescue" of Creepy Bill Henson of photos-of-nude-children-in-the-dark fame.

Phatty admits:

"...there’s little doubt that among those who crowd his exhibitions, camouflaged by sophistication of the setting, are pedophiles. (Of course, the high arts have always aided and abetted voyeurism...."

Great. Henson, must be thinkin' 'with friends like these who the hell needs enemies!'

The Phatty offers this wisdom:

"Having crusaded against what I’ve branded corporate pedophilia for years, Henson is the last person I’d be charging. His esoteric and melancholy photographs for the art gallery elite are not the problem. It’s in mass media that our kids are sexualised, that childhood is shortened and short-changed, rendered erotic for adult fun and profit. Look at the fashion industry’s catwalks and magazines. Or at the ad industry. It’s what we don’t see because we’re so used to it, because we take it for granted, that does the damage."

Adams thesis? Sure, pedophiles like Henson's work. But ads with nude girlies on contracts getting paid and selling stuff are worse. The typical lefty trope. Look over there - see how much worse that is. Pathetic. They cannot reason in a straight line. They cannot just deal with the topic at hand that is wrong.

Henson is the topic at hand. He is a weirdo with a long history of taking pics of naked underage folks and vaselining up the lense and shooting in the dark. I forget where I read it, but someone commented, maybe at Blair's, that Henson's pics would fit nicely in Josef Fritzl's dungeon. Can't say that many ads for knickers or perfume would be doing so.

The best Adams can come up with is not many people have seen Henson's work - and some blather about Lewis Carroll and Peter Pan. Utterly incapable of just admitting that Henson's work is titillating and the con is that he is abetted by galleries presenting those pics as 'thought provoking' - when the 'thoughts' are all about tits and arses and lips that are all underage and cumming all over those tits arses and lips. They just are.

I'll take the ad nakidity every single time. At least ad men admit they are selling something.

UPDATE: Tonight's 7.30 Report has arts wankers blathering away that photos of kids in the nude are....well, they none of them actually address that. Instead it's all the usual arts wankery cry about 'censorship'. And tonight the ABC is screening a documentary about Henson. Greaat. He'll speak about his art and not mention porn. It will be all 'adolescence and crossing to adulthood and blah blah'. Money down.
:: WB 7:57 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Hubba Hubba! Now This Is How Politicians Should Look

Whoo, them Italian politico gals is easy on the eye, no? Thanks Rob at terrific Wind Rose Hotel. for this bit of news you can use and also for this tag (scusi for the delay, here. Took a couple weeks off to enjoy other blogs a bit).

So here goes (albeit abbreviated to 10 questions):

1. Last movie you saw in a theater? For the life of me I cannot recall. Maybe Death Proof? Jeez, what is it that gives you good memory? Zinc or something? Whatever it is I need more of it.

2. What book are you [re]reading? I am reading The Food Taster by some guy has it set up as a translation of a 15th century Tuscan text. It's okaaay.

3. Favorite board game? Chess.

4. Favorite magazine? Still is Car magazine, even though LKJ Setright is dead and James May has moved on.

5. Favorite smells? Soffritto.

6. Favorite sounds? Third gear whining.

7. Worst feeling in the world? Hangover.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up? News.

9. Favorite fast food place? Toto's Pizza, Lygon Street, Melbourne

10.Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Yes. Flat Eric.
But only when the fiancee is travelling outta town.

And one nice thing about the person who sent this to you? One? Is Rob. Is All Good.

Who would I tag? What the heck - Romeo Mike. He owes me no favours at all - let us see what happens.

Out.
:: WB 12:39 AM [link+] 9 comments ::

In Bocca Al Lupo, Timmy

That is 'good luck', for youse ignorant skips. Link at left duly fixed for Tim Blair's new News Limited venture.
:: WB 12:36 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

See You In Court, Al

Suing Gore is some litigation I could really get behind, the lardy wanker.
:: WB 8:02 AM [link+] 1 comments ::

What the ...?

Who knew the Italians were so organised as to even have the nation's taxpayer details all online? Crikey, eh?
:: WB 6:57 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Hillary on O'Reilly

Poke fun at her all you like as the linked LGF post does and squeal about her selling out as this Huffington Post thread does , but I saw her today getting interviewed in the "No Spin Zone" and I reckon she did real well.

Real well. And if it were down to me (which it is not cos I am an Oz citizen) I prolly would not be voting for her cos of her policies. But she knows her arguments inside out and she talked to them. She was happily dropping her 'g''s all over the place: "we gotta get goin'" and such. Strikes me as a determined candidate for the POTUS job. Determined. And by the mere fact of going on O'Reilly's haranguing show she shows she has bigger balls than Obama cos O'Reilly is hardcore nuts. He is fightin' Irish with an ego from here to eternity.

Whatever. I am in Oz. This is all theatre to me. Darn interesting but, seeing as how POTUS matters well outside the borders of the US.
:: WB 5:25 AM [link+] 1 comments ::

A Gigantic Waterfront Orb

Check out the Rem Koolhaas design for Dubai. Man's a genius. He got a vote from me in the Prospect public intellectual thingy.

H/T Wretchard
:: WB 4:59 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Equal Treatment for Gays

Same superannuation rights, same succession rights, etc etc as for hetero couples.

I am for it. What possible reason can there be not to be for it? Gays can be couples too. Guh.

I say Goooo, Gays.
:: WB 4:54 AM [link+] 2 comments ::

Rightie Mayor Wins

In Rome, that is.

In London, they vote ... any minute now I guess. A rightie win predicted in some quarters. And, in a show of tedious obviousness, The Guardian is appalled at the prospect.

I say Gooooo, Boris. He hates bendy buses and I do too. They are wrong. Like those sand spiders in Iraq.

Oooh. I have just given myself the willys with that link.
:: WB 12:53 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Obama down another 2 points in North Carolina

Man, we are living in interesting times. I am a happy wog living in the best country on earth - Oz, natch - and watching the U.S.A have one heck of a big ol' discussion about race, whether some folks want to realise it or not. Atchally, the discussion is about black grievance whining of the Reverend Pussy variety in an age when it has been 140 years since slavery ended and 40 years since segregation ended.

The 'discourse' such as it is does not seem to be going too well for black folks. Which is hardly a surprise given what a charlatan and nutbag ol' Rev. Dr. Pussy is and the fact he is the fellow who is getting this 'discourse' rolling.

I find the apologia for his black-centric idiocy, whether it comes from blacks or whites, pretty impressive, in an unscaleable-wall-impenatrable-force-of-stupidity kinda way. I mean, no other group in the US was enslaved as blacks were. So blacks are unique and it is a godawful uniqueness. But then there hasn't been a slave in the US for 140 odd years so the uniqueness is irrelevant. No other group was singled out for segregation laws like blacks so that is a uniqueness and it is also godawful. But then segregation ended 40 years ago. Every other group in the US has been singled out for prejudice in some form altho' no other group had to endure the cretinous and murderous Klan, so blacks have a definite and godawful uniqueness again there.

Truth is, but, time passes and in 2008, in fact for the last 40 years, blacks are not any more oppressed than any other ethnic group in the US.

The Italian community gets along and it has been stereotyped for yonks as a bunch of goomba-crotch-grabbing-mafiosi-types and excluded from polite white society. The Asian community, as broad as is it in the US, has managed to get along well too, stereotyped as it is as a bunch of weird-food-eating-nunchuckin'-swots. Heck, even the Mexicans seem to get along stereotyped as gang-member-low-riders-who-eat-too-much-corn.

Blacks can be angry about their history Stateside - why not? Good grounds, seems to me, if you can be bothered keeping it up 40 years after the event. But, leaping from anger to lunacy is plain ol' lunacy at the end of the day and, like Andrew Sullivan, I think it does not deserve any patience or politeness and should be called out and challenged head on.

Obama does not seem to be that challenger. He "can no more disown Wright than he can the black community".

And his 15 point lead in North Carolina has been halved. Fascinating.
:: WB 8:51 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

W

Thanks to Theo and his team.
:: WB 7:49 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Barack Obama on Reverend Pussy - I Cut You

I do not have the energy to capture this whole thing for the blog (others have it covered) except to note that this is a lot like wogs fighting.

And plus Barack's wife is a black grievance wallower like his pastor.

His closest folks are....how you say? Not normal. Out on the spiral arm. I could almost feel for him - it has to be unpleasant, but his 'ginned up' comment about Oz troops, well, ... no.

And double plus he has dropped 5 points in the North Carolina primary since this all started.

Sheesh.

UPDATE: Iowahawk is beloved in this neighborhood.
:: WB 6:37 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Acknowledging Aboriginal Tribes

Bin busy today, a part of which was spent in the company of politicians (do not ask, I have only just washed off the stink of it). Anyhoo, opening remarks by politico number 1 was an acknowledgement that the Four Seasons hotel in the Rocks in Sydney "is on original tribal land of the somethingorother people", no disrespect, I just could not understand the names.

Look, I am not having a go at Aboriginals, I am not. Sweet heavenly Lord, surely they do not think the mezzanine at the Four Seasons is connected in any way with tribal land much less with any tribes. Back in 1776 the land, the earth on which it is built, it definitely was. By 1788 it was not - it was all Brit, Irish and wog (I am including everyone who was not Brit or Irish, so yeah, Chinese etc) built.

And 230 years later in 2008 the tribe(s) has even less to do with modern Sydney.

I am with Bolt on this - the bullshit "recognition" of tribes of people in places where they have very obviously not contributed to the modernity that now appears there (like the Four Bloody Seasons Hotel in the Rocks in Sydney) is sad.

It is "acknowledging" the happenstance of folks who lived someplace before others came along. They lived someplace without impacting on it before other folks came along and did some serious impacting like building on it, irrigating it, powering it up etc, all the things that make it possible and even desirable for wogs to come from far and wide into the place and start new lives, which, as you might gather from the name of this blog, is something rather dear to my heart.

The "acknowledgement" of Aboriginal tribes of some place into public speech to my ear highlights all the people who are going unacknowledged - every skippy and every wog who has actually built that place into a modern lively place in Oz.

It very politely and with sincere deference commits Aboriginals into the national language and psyche as nothing more than a bunch of pre-1776 boomeranging tribesmen.

Damn sad shit this. Cos Aboriginals are around right now, and they can be as modern as anyone else.
:: WB 4:39 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Oooooh, God
:: WB 4:32 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Put the Foot Down Abir

A Jordanian woman rally driver. Thanks to Foreign Correspondent for a great story showing a fab modern Arab woman who thinks "woman have the right to be just like a man".

Damn straight.
:: WB 4:53 AM [link+] 1 comments ::

Ah, the 80s

52 Girls

Hmm. "Hillary & Chelsea".



These are the girls of the U.S.A. The principal girls of the U.S.A.


Radio Free Europe



Stands up, doesn't it?

How Can The Labouring man Find Time For Self-Culture



...

Maybe it was not such a bad decade, eh?
:: WB 1:41 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Wogs Behaving Badly

Tim Blair links to the slapping-crying cricket incident in India. Read the comments in the YouTube thread. Apparently Punjabis do not get along with Mullases. They are like the Croats and Serbs of the subcontinent. Who knew?
:: WB 9:45 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Brazilian

I merely point out the nationality. I make no comment. That is all.
:: WB 9:09 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

"Capisce?"

Capisce? Capisce? What are you, a mafioso now?

Va. Fa. Cu.

Capisce?

Reverend "Pussy" is back in the limelight, with all the class and scholarship that we have come to expect of a man who likes to pass off a 2 month "Doctorate of Ministry" course as if it demonstrates his academic chops when it is just barely one step up from an frickin' internet "university degree".

The man is a fabricator, an obfuscator, a self-aggrandizer, can I get an amen. Oh yeah. Them blacks do like the aliteration, what with their right-side rythmic brains and all.

Seriously. That is what Reverend Pussy reckons. Blacks learn differently.

I will go out on a limb here and say he is wrong. They do not learn differently at all. Some of them just behave differently, because people like Reverend Pussy give them licence to think of themselves as victims at exactly the same time as thinking of themselves as exceptional people via the idiotic Black Liberation Theology.

Exceptional? Exceptionally tolerant of nutjobs like Wright, maybe. Whatever.

Who would not be hard to teach with their heads so full of such crap.

He talks as if he has been enslaved, in chains.

Really.

Check the transcript of his National Press Club appearance.

As Barack Obama bloviatingly pointed out in his big speech about the black race in America, slavery was abolished 140 years ago and there has not been segregation for 40 years. Reverend Pussy has never been enslaved nor has been in chains. He is such an exaggerating conman.

And for a guy who hates Italians he does not mind appropriating the lingo, eh?

His speech has probably set back black and the rest relations in the US altho' maybe in days to come some blacks will come out and just call Wright as they see him - an embarrassing nutjob on the lunatic fringe.

I certainly hope that happens.

But jeez, what a pezzo di merda, eh? I am sure he capisces that.
:: WB 7:28 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Creeping Sharia

Here's hoping the noxious weed does not make into Oz.

UPDATE: From the fine David Thompson evidence that the snivelling to Sharia has made it to the UK but there are still folks there who mock it all.
:: WB 4:06 AM [link+] 0 comments ::

Stop the Active Contribution. Please.

Brace yourselves. Elizabeth MacGregor, who runs the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney has written a piece for the Daily Telegraph about her role at the 2020 summit. Is it any different to Cate Blanchett's blather before?

Youse know the answer.

Here she goes now - opens by patronising her audience, natch:

...I am keen to address some of the misunderstandings about the ideas which emerged.

Um, we understood just fine. Artists at 2020 have their hands out for cash and relevance.

One of the key issues of the summit was the need to communicate what artists contribute to society.

Key, right? What is this contribution then?

There are many examples of situations where the involvement of artists can make a difference. Take the built environment - what role could artists play in making sure that the concrete monoliths of the past are not repeated in the future? Artists have rallied to climate change issues - how can complex ideas be communicated visually to more people? What about the role of the arts in mental health? There is evidence that involvement in creative projects can actually save money.

Wha'? What the heck is she asking questions for? Give us some examples if there are so "many".

As a board member of the Australian Children's Music Foundation, I am proud to have witnessed the success of the provision of musical instruments to young people within the criminal justice system.

Oh. An example. Teaching kids music. And it is a 'success' because...what...juvenile crime reduced? Who knows. She is not saying. Not much of an example of "contributing" then.

There are many examples of the role of the arts in dealing with social issues, where people who feel alienated can be given the confidence to move on through an engagement with the arts.

So name some. Jeez, if there are so "many".

What about the role of literature and film - the telling of stories, ours and others?

Orunno. What about it? Never mind your questions, lady, we are all just waiting on some clear examples of the arts doing good for society. Ya got any?

When we discussed the idea of a 1 per cent dividend, it was not about a hand out. It was not even necessarily about new money but about asking government departments to identify things that they already spend money on which could be improved by the involvement of artists (in all disciplines).

Right, so mandated spending. They were asking for mandated spending of existing money...on them, artists...but that is no handout, how exactly?

It's not about what can government do for artists but what can artists do for government - to help them achieve their objectives.

Exsqueeze me? This is priceless. She believes in forcibly taking taxpayer money and commissioning artists with it and this is somehow not the govt "doing for artists" but the other way around? The receiver of the largesse becomes the giver in this woman's head. Incredibile, eh?

By working with businesses, arts organisation can find ways in which artists can contribute to the things that business wants to do - not a subsidy, an active contribution.

Hang on. "Find ways...to contribute"? Wasn't the opening of this piece a statement that artists already do? Whatever - it was a bullshit premise to begin with. What she is contemplating here is the insertion of artists into business. As with the govt mandated spending and commissioning, she thinks business should commission artists too.

Hmmm. Wait a minute. I think I get it.

You station a poet-in-residence at, say, the Road Traffic Authority registry or at the bank or at the factory, yeah? In the office kitchen where people gather away from their desks. The breakout room. Her role is to launch into spirited readings of her poems whenever someone puts the kettle on or puts something in the microwave or the toaster.

Get the heck outta there and get back to work.

Or the artist will start "contributing".

Not sure that is quite what Ms Macgregor has in mind but I can see productivity going through the roof. Thankyou artists.
:: WB 10:50 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Facts in Context

The very best kind.

Another one I love is the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. They reckon that, in the 2006-2007 year, they experienced a jump in complaints of 42%. How awful eh? Except they did not. [You will be wanting part 4.3.4]. They used a lowered baseline of averages over previous years to generate that percentage jump. In reality the jump was 27%. Not sure why they have to lie about it. The jumps have been hovering around 10% for the previous three years, so 27% is a big hike.

I guess they want to make us all feel horrible about ourselves. It is definitely what the Palestinians are about.

Gi. Fa.
:: WB 9:48 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Mahmood is making TV...

...and it is good.

When was the last you saw an Arab making jokes about Saudi?
:: WB 7:06 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Mamma Mia! Che Brutte Facce



But with Ennio Morricone accompanying.

So never mind the truth of any of it, never mind if there is even any message beyond that some folks is ugly. Just enjoy the whole tone. I have not seen Italia-as-evil and conspiracy-peddling this good since the 70s with the The Godfather and The Omen.

Looking at all these faces, they are some of them quite gruesome.

Fabulous. (H/T Beppe Grillo)
:: WB 10:42 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Opera Fantastica

Diana Damrau as the Queen of the Night. She is brilliant, Mozart's opera is wonderful, the staging is perfect. Opera is art. And for it to be this good it ain't cheap. This is art I can get behind, funding wise I mean. You do not even need to like opera to get into this.



Thanks for this go to Andrew Bolt for putting up a bunch of opera clips on his blog of late which is terrific and has inspired me to YouTube some operastuff myself (and other stuff natch). And to my mates Droob and Magoo who shared this with me on ANZAC Day over bubbles.

Nice.
:: WB 8:05 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Best of Breed

When I was a toddler my parents made a decision. I think at that stage the car of choice was an FJ Holden. They got in it and drove it to a kennel in Northeastern Victoria and when they drove back home they had Duffton Massimus Caius with them, the world's greatest and most maginificent specimen of black labradorhood ever. Well, my world, anyway.

They made the decision after some consideration. Should they purchase a Dalmatian or a Black Lab? Two books were bought, both hardbacks, both the same size. They addressed the merits and pitfalls of each breed (well, pitfalls for Dalmatians, but none for Black Labs, God's most perfect canine creature - do not argue.) The books lived on the shelf of the walnut antique Canterbury cabinet we used to house the small teevee.

Inside the Labrador book was a vision of perfection such as to be seared, seared into the memory.

I give you:

Whatstandwell Ballyduff Robin.

What a name. What a stance. Heroic.

And, money down, being a Labrador, he is hungry.

Pondering this memory I oiled the bolts of the internet engine and located, incredibile, his entire genealogy. Thankyou Google.

And here is an Italian site with a bunch of sensational champions including Whatstandwell Ballyduff Robin his good self. (Be warned, this site seems weirdly to have automatic bagpipe music just pipin' on through. I cannot get 'em to stop so 'mute' if like me you are allergic to that dreadful noise, pace Scots.)

The objective appreciation of physical canine perfection is a borderless thing and wog/non-wog thing.

Massi looked just like him.

Salute.

That is all.

UPDATE: It is a Blairvalanche. Yay. Welcome Blairites - do have a look round.
:: WB 7:16 PM [link+] 4 comments ::

Must Mark ANZAC Day

2008. Love.
:: WB 6:55 PM [link+] 2 comments ::

Australia in 2020 will...

...have 16 (UPDATE: make that 20 now that the actual report is out - there is a new agency in Productivity and a new one in Rural too and another one in Health incredibly given they already have so many, and a new one in Families, that one to do with the government insuring people against serious injury) new government agencies. That is my count from the Summit recommendations reported this p.m.

Oh, and only the very wealthy will be able to afford fags, grog and alcohol cos it will be taxed to fund the arts and Aboriginals so much.

Plus government operatives will force all of us to eat fruit. I think.

(UPDATE: and the government is gonna secure mortgages, provide more drought assistance, fund Aboriginals into the future, presumably whether they need it or not, and all our kiddies are all gonna be forced to learn about rural Oz, climate change and the arts...with lots of new funding from taxpayers including, get this, the Federal Govt has to pay for all insurances to do with the arts. The luvvies do not even want to pay for any of their own insurance premiums. The Rural stream at least ahd the decency to suggest that their insurance only be subsidised by gumment. Not the arts rorters, but. Oh no. Not really gonna be able to look at Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman ever again without thinking of them both as snouts in troughs of government money.)

Ignoring the motherhood overarching stuff, here we go with actual ideas - the verbs and nouns, peeps. Brace yourselves:

Productivity - set up a uniform national education curriculum.

How many bureacrats are gonna be needed for that, eh? Gumment money will be needed natch.

Aboriginal - um, this is just shite blather, but now finally, an actual thing, build capital works in Aboriginal spaces with govt funding.

More govt money to be spent on Aboriginals.

Economy - create a commission, undertake a tax review, reform regulations, set up a body for prioritising infrastructure, something else, not sure what, something about the public sector, more funding for education (this got applause, natch), law changes to remove barriers to participation (barriers to who, noone knows, bankrupts? crims? infants? who knows?).

Ah, we got 2 new adminstrative bodies and one expensive review project.

Health - create a commission, create a national health agency funded by tax on grog, fags and junk food, issue "wellness passports", partner with Asia on scary Asian infectious diseases, allocate money according to 'cost effectiveness data', putting traffic lights on food and limit ingredients in food and bann junk food, introducing something called 'fast fruit' which presumably means govt funded fruit delivery and forced eating, delivering fresh food to Abos and presumably forced eating, making Australians have a healthbook/facebook with all their helath details in one vulnerable IT space. Yah. And something about a "wellness footprint" measuring the impact of lifestyles on health (presumably smoking drinking folks to be shamed about their "footprint"), set up some volunteer force to teach first aid including mental health first aid to all Australians and presumably forcing them to learn, change organ donation arrangements from the current 'opt in' system to one where you have to 'opt out', and all jobs to include half an hour of enforeced exercise. Sackable offence if the worker refuses? I wonder.

So we have 2 new govt bodies, more admin for 'wellness passports' and 'wellness footprints', more taxes, more funding, enforced education and eating and exercise.

Future Security - develop a plan for Asia literacy in Oz, set up an agency for partnerships with Asia, develop a confederation entity with pacific states, set up a regional energy forum with US China Japan, India, force Aust govt to report on US relations every 4 years, set up 4 centres, set up a Oz Jap regional peacekeeping centre, establish a council.

Hmmmm, I make that 1 plan and 9 new govt entities. O yeah, no cost there.

Sustainability & Climate Change - establish a national climate change agenda, conduct an audit, establish national sustainable cities program, more money for public transport, change building standards to address water, establish a system for Australians to "manage" their "personal carbon footprint", install "smart meters" in all houses.

Sooo, we got 1 agenda, 1 audit, 1 program, more tax and interference in people's homes.

Future Government - set up a commission, conduct a plebiscite to decide whether to sever ties with UK, conduct a referendum on the form of an Ausralian Republic, develop an internet site called ourgov.com. That is it.

That is, 1 commission, 1 plebiscite, 1 referendum and a website all funded by govt. Seriously. That is it. And Maxine McKew who is insufferably self-congratulatory for this rubbish, just called her crew "The Red Brigade" and laughed. They kidnapped and killed Italian PM Aldo Moro in 1978. No laughing matter for wogs.

Families - develop a plan, develop a national development index to measure how many homeless there are and how trees have been planted, establish a body for giving confidence???, (obligatory jab by Tim Costell and his own brother, Liberal party member and former Treasurer), set up a foundation for microloans ($30m funding from National Australia Bank therefore Costello calls this a no cost policy), establish a foundation for homelessness using 0.5% of State stamp duty revenue, permanent fund for community organisations??? instead of annually funding, volumetric tax on alcohol with revenue to alcoholism treatment, a PM's statement on creating a non-violent society.

So, that's 1 plan, 1 index, 2 foundations, more tax on grog and a $30m from NAB.

Rural Oz - Wha'? Water, climate change, urgent, research, wha'? No actual actions? Except this no cost deelio which is a good 'un: Visit somewhere in rural Oz when you go on holidays. Nice.

Presume government funding - it is everywhere else.

Creativity - make art education compulsory in the new national curriculum, set up a new agency: National Endowment for the Arts, force govt agencies to spend 1.0% of all spending on creative acts, set up a national indigenous Cultural Authority. So, what have we got?

We've got 2 new arts agencies, forced education and more govt funding of arts.

Nothing new under the sun. Bolt agrees - keep scrolling for his take. Maybe when they release the actual list of real ideas there might be something there that I can get behind.

Cripes, this has been mesmerising and I have not been able to look away.

This has ostensibly been for me. I am an Oz citizen, I am (fingers and toes crossed) gonna be around in 2020.

This vision of a leftist educated and fed and funded Australian Republic where my perfectly legal lifestyle habits are knowable to all areas of govt and subject to their interference is a frickin' vision of hell to me.

Hell, I tells ya.

This 2020 Summit has been just all government, all good. That is what these 1000 people have damned the rest us to to. No mockery? No pisstaking? No larrikinism?

Jees, I think I need to get intoxicated. Best do it now before Rudd follows his summiteers make it all too shameful.
:: WB 9:02 PM [link+] 0 comments ::

Nuclear was not mentioned

[NOTE: Link is to The Age's roundup.

The Sustainability stream of the 2020 summit. It appears to have a consensus to ignore nuclear energy as a sustainable future energy source. Seriously. But this cannot be right, can it?

Urgh.

Gonna just let this thing go on and comment later in the week cos this process, day 2, is absurd. The Health stream has just proposed taxing fags, junk and grog to fund ...something about ....oh, who cares. How utterly predictable to tax those things. And they want a traffic light system on food - red, amber and green. Why not skull and crossbones on burgers and fried chicken? Sheesh.

I reckon these folks are sincere - not just in Sustainability but every other stream, I mean, who would bother to go to Canberra if they were not? But really, there has not been a genuine fresh idea yet and this thing is winding down.

Get this, from the Sustainability stream:

By 2020 all Australians will have the tools to measure their carbon footprint.

What is this then? A frickin' bump on a log? I got it offa a google seach for 'measure carbon footprint'. We got the tools already. We hardly need 12 years to develop and implement this.

This is what has made me so "angry". The people at this thing are earnest but they seem to me to have little to no idea of how my world works, by which I mean how the actual world works and what it has to offer.

Another example - some fellow earlier just getting interviewed somewhere in Parliament house, said by 2020 his idea was that we would be able to send Australians to study in Asia.

Why would we want to "send" anyone anywhere? What worldview leads someone to think it is a good idea, an aim, for this country to be treating its citizens as foodder to be moved around at the government's will? Well, I think we know the answer - it is a hardcore fascist worldview dressed up as a lefty mush that really cares about "engaging" with Asia and does not actually care a whit about individual Australian's liberties. (And no, drug use is not a liberty, if any of youse were thinking that. It is illegal and it is rubbish and you do it around me, I will shop you to the coppers, friend or stranger, as soon as look at you. First rule of criminal behaviour, peeps. Never do it front of witnesses unless you are sure they on your side. On this issue, I am not a witness who's on your side. Doubtless there may be some in your life, but not me. Whatever, I digress.)

What worldview leads someone to think it is a good idea, an aim, for the Australian government to interfere with people's decisions about what food they eat by sticking a big red light on certain food? A nanny worldview that just has to interfere.

Anyhoo, time to cheer up a bit, eh?

Here are some Australians doin' stuff that make me happy.

Out.

UPDATE: Ooops, Made the mistake of hanging in for the Creativity & Arts stream. Youse will never guess what their ideas include. Lots of funding for, get this, "indigenous and settler stories".

What? No wog stories?

Oh yah, that will work in 2020.
:: WB 5:34 PM [link+] 0 comments ::