1,498 thoughts on “Open Thread – Weekend 27 Aug 2022”

  1. I’ve no doubt they’ve got some legitimate grievances against federal and state governments.

    Heck…haven’t we all?

    My sovereignty was violated every fortnight for about 30 years.

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  2. Wasn’t Shaq in Australia for a range of paid corporate appearances?
    And a couple of new ads?

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  3. The fact remains there is a shitload of UK data, curated and crosschecked back to ONS and NHS regions to varying degrees.

    Even so, this data has been “massaged” to a considerable extent. See well respected medical statistician Professor Norman Fenton’s opinions which have been pilloried by the medical bureaucracy.

    Vicki:
    Sadly (genuinely) Norman Fenton was a victim of his own hubris. He is indeed a respected statistician (something of a god to Baysian theorists); but he made the double-barrel mistake of using statistics to prove a point of view, rather than to try to illuminate a situation, and having a personal shot at another doyen of UK statistics in the endless struggle for academic supremacy.

    Unfortunately for him, the point of view he chose to support was on the wrong side of the data and he ended up looking a bit of a goose. His core argument was that:

    According to the NIMS vaccination survey the population of England is 61,941,471, whereas the ONS population survey estimate is 56,550,138.

    Contrary to the implications in Prof. Spiegelhalter’s tweet, it is not at all clear why the NIMS population estimate is any more ‘biased’ than the ONS estimate (which we believe drastically underestimates the proportion of unvaccinated).

    The England Wales 2021 Census showed that the ONS estimate was, in fact, very accurate (the Census estimate was 56,489,800 – ie within 60,000 (1%) of the ONS). By contrast, the NIMS estimate was heavily biased – by nearly 5.5 million.

    In the event, Dr Fenton’s preferred denominator won the day and was used in the UKHSA Covid reporting series through to early 2022. Which massively overstated the unvaccinated population used to calculate infection/hospitalization rates – and created the on-paper impression that vaccination caused Covid, or made Covid worse, or increased Covid mortality rates, or caused AIDS in the jabbed.

    Which is why we get to see “Government reports CONFIRM that Vaccination is depopulating the World and IMMUNITY is crashing…” from vermin like Daily Expose.
    Which then gets picked up as a truth…

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  4. Rabzsays:
    August 29, 2022 at 9:50 am

    A couple of thoughts about electrickery, or the soon to be complete lack of it.

    Saw that numbskull bowen on the telly crapping on about nuclear being the most expensive form of electrickery. This was shortly before an ad from the ETU basically stating “the more wind and solar that are installed into the grid, the cheaper electrickery will be”. Clearly, people are imagining that their bills are increasing at a phenomenal rate.

    I’m not sure that a lot of people out in voterland have twigged to the real agenda of the greenfilth and the WEF types – that is, there will be no access for the majority to cheap reliable electrickery (or ideally in their view, any electrickery at all). In the meantime, we have labore and those ridiculous turkeys in the gliberal party falling over themselves to destroy what remains of our energy generating capacity.

    The ultimate agenda is to impoverish us all, make us completely dependent on the state and reduce us to mere vassals with no ability to ever better ourselves. All the while being tracked by a monstrous new global surveillance apparatus that not even Orwell could have envisaged. A dystopian hell that I want absolutely no part of.

    What’s more if, as is possible, a war is declared or there is an invasion of our territories, the Australian response will be totally neutered by the inadequacy of its power supply. Gearing up to provide even minimal support using the proposed RE grid would be impossible. We may as well just wave a white flag. And all this to possibly reduce the World’s temperature by a possible 1 o2 degrees. Absolutely insane nonsense unless you are making money out of importing Chinese turbines and solar panels or one of the big boys who are going to re set the way things work to meet a treasonous WEF agenda.

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  5. Thank you Dr. Faustus.

    There are times – eg when statistics are involved – that I am in over my depth. Critical thinking can only get you as far as your comprehension allows! I will let others critique your response to Prof. Fenton’s contentions.

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  6. I’m sure the questions have been asked here. How will The Voice be implemented and by who? Yes I know it won’t pass the referendum but the big boys around Australia are eyeing off a place at the table.
    How will this Voice initiate action? Who is the Voice accountable to, Shaq notwithstanding?
    If the referendum is successful, how long before it is up and running? How many people making the decisions? What will be taken from the Budget?
    There’s much more of course but it’s Rudd the Second. That ‘apology’ made not one iota of difference to black fellas lives. It was telling that Rudd had this as one of his gold letter achievements.

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  7. Won’t they be surprised when such course of action negates native title & resets Australia to “terra nullius”

    An armed band of settler militia could invade the place, and have the locals sign a formal surrender?

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  8. It was telling that Rudd had this as one of his gold letter achievements.

    the mindset of a dilettante.

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  9. I’m not sure that a lot of people out in voterland have twigged to the real agenda of the greenfilth and the WEF types

    Rabz, imagine being over 40 and buying the bullshit that cheap electricity was due to poor maintenance, and that pentupling of energy costs is therefore due to maintenance despite magically cheaper ruinables now being in the mix.

    But then again these are people that think free stuff is magically free and that it’s not paid for by everyone else. And that when everyone gets free stuff at the expense of everyone else that it will not add up to far more than if everyone just paid what things cost in the first place.

    Morons will believe anything, and most Australians are suddenly morons when it comes to politics.

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  10. One minute hospitals aren’t busy because the vaxxed are carking it without getting within cooee of a hospital, next ambulances sirens are deafening us.

    rosie – it beats me what is going on. Last week we had the unenviable occasion to rush husband to a certain hospital in the northern suburbs of Sydney in the early hours of the morning. Only one or two people in Emergency at the time – AND a multitude (I am not exaggerating) of nurses and nurses’ aides. Not only that – but there were doctors (identifiable from their different attire) in the central office area adjacent to the Emergency cubicles.

    Now we (husband was the patient) were attended to immediately by a nurse who entered all details on a computer which was attached to a large mobile unit all nurses pushed around. She took temperature/pulse and brought appropriate robe. And that was it for several hours, except for an inquiry re pain and the production of 2 Panadol. I believe it was almost 5 hours before a doctor consulted and ordered a CT scan and a Full blood test.

    Look – the standard of diagnostic equipment (which were eventually applied) was the latest and greatest. The hospital was immaculate with new and comfortable facilities. But the organisation was atrocious. And worse, such of the “care” was not as emphatic as we can recall from the distant past. But I can’t see that this has anything to do with Covid or the lack of staff (which there was not).

    Our last experience was at the height of Covid when our grandson, with a jaw broken in two places, was not able to be operated on at one of Sydney’s finest inner city hospitals for a week, and was only saved from a week of pain by his grandparents using connections to have him admitted for immediate surgery to another hospital.

    Personally, I can’t make head nor tail of any of it. Maybe I spend too much time in the bush.

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  11. FMD I’m tired of all this stuff about The Voice. The saga is almost turning into a mirror image of that God awful singing show.

    Ditto.
    Sleazy could legislate such a body tomorrow and we get to see it action before making it permanent with a referendum.

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  12. I meant the “care” was not particularly “empathetic” not “emphatic”. It wasn’t the latter, either!

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  13. Whatever happened to ATSIC(?)?

    Shut down after no financial oversight, much nepotistic in fighting and thievery of taxpayer money.

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  14. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says: August 29, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    Won’t they be surprised when such course of action negates native title & resets Australia to “terra nullius”

    An armed band of settler militia could invade the place, and have the locals sign a formal surrender?

    Quite a boat ride to get there, then they’ve gotta hold the place.
    I was more thinking along the lines of: That is the island where native title began (Murray Island, Mabo case, etc) if they leave Australia for China, then native title is left totally & completely without the keypane (so to speak)

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  15. According to Linda Burney, the (in)voice will be set up to be “just like ATSIC, only this time they cannot abolish it”

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  16. Beery

    Rabz, imagine being over 40 and buying the bullshit that cheap electricity was due to poor maintenance, and that pentupling of energy costs is therefore due to maintenance despite magically cheaper ruinables now being in the mix.

    Whenever the subject (or anything even remotely related) comes up at CL’s, Homer is in like Flynn with exactly that argument. I suspect that he is well over 40. I think that Steve from Brissy also uses it, but not with quite the same level of fanatical certainty. Homer also blames unreliable electricity on maintenance problems with fossil fuel generators.

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  17. Maybe Keith Windshuttle is right (in the Quadrant Online) that The Voice lobbyists will eventually push for a separate state within Australia.

    Well, it is spelled out clearly in letters on the lawn in front of Old Parliament House S-O-V-E-R-E-I-G-N-T-Y. They’re like the WEF and very clear and upfront about their intentions, it’s just that the general public chooses not to see it.

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  18. Vicki, sorry to hear about your sudden emergency dash in the night. I hope your husband is alright.

    Your experience sits fairly well with mine in a small hours dash for suspected cardiac problem.
    So much time is wasted in over-staffed facilities with so much boundary maintenance by the various colours of uniforms. Turf wars over job specifications similar to those of the old Union days.

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  19. So which attributes are important in backing up his view. Because he is :

    Black ?
    Supports BLM which has leaders that are dodgy to say the least.
    A multi millionaire ?
    A basketball player ?
    Tall ?

    Either way I think the Albo stunt has not helped the cause.

    “I think Shaquille O‘Neal brings a lot of style, power and attention to an important issue.”

  20. “This weak little ‘get Trump’ item above has all the appearances of a total beat-up.”

    Oh, no -not at all!
    I’m sure it’s as serious as the classified docs that they wanted Trump to FedEx to them.

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  21. According to Linda Burney, the (in)voice will be set up to be “just like ATSIC, only this time they cannot abolish it”

    I knew it! At a recent address the Sydney Institute by Prof George Williams on the question of The Voice, George claimed there was “no model for The Voice”. I said, unfortunately there is : ATSIC.
    He rolled his eyes and replied that it will nothing like ATSIC.

    Yeah. Pull the other one. Burney is at least honest about it.

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  22. Timothy, I checked back. It was Bern who in a tandem comment spoke of my lack of comprehension skills and you who found cause to object to my defense re my capabilities. I also replied to you that when under a constant barrage of attack it is easy to miss a referent in someone else’s comment on a fast moving blog and belief it forms part of an ongoing discourse that does concern you. It happens to others here at times, not just to me.

    I will not change who I am and what I say and how I say it just to satisfy what others think I should or should not be doing. I trust that is perfectly clear now. I am happy to try to keep discourse civilised.

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  23. Vicki, sorry to hear about your sudden emergency dash in the night. I hope your husband is alright.

    Thank you Lizzie. Yes – he is fine. Nothing sinister.

    Had a bit of fun with the senior consultant who was amazed that husband is not on any prescription medication. He unwisely and innocently said, “I take a lot of vitamins” – at which the said doctor became incendiary, launching into a diatribe against the natural health industry.

    “They rip the public off millions of dollars!” he barked.

    “Oh, and the pharmaceutical companies don’t?” – said I from the back of the room. Wicked, I know.

    He wheeled around & spluttered that “at least they save lives!”
    No point in continuing that argument. As with most things – he was right – to a point.

    Thank God he didn’t ask if wither of us were vaccinated!

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  24. From milton at 3.33 – this is the quote:

    Damn – the thing refuses to copy and paste. So, I will transcribe this tweet from Zali Stegall:

    Did you know switching one pack of mince per week for a plant based alternative saves around 48kg of CO2 emissions? That’s around 196km in your average car. Warringah constuent Nick Hazel, CEO of @V2foodofficial, is helping Australians make the transition to plant-based meat.

    This is ‘the science’ from the usual suspects, with nary a source to be seen. Junk science, in other words.

    And, what’s with ‘transition’ being so fashionable these days? What with children being encouraged to ‘transition’ their sex, and all of us being told that we are ‘transitioning’ to expensive and unreliable energy sources, now we are also supposed to ‘transition’ to eating manufactured muck instead of healthy meat.

    These people want to rip our way of life out by the roots and replace it with their unachievable and unattractive fantasies.

    I don’t think that they will succeed – it’s all very hip and sick until the rubber of their pies in the sky (how’s that for a mixed metaphor) hit the road. But reaching that point is already costing trillions.

    In Germany, as power prices soar into the stratosphere, they are still intending to close down their nuclear plants. It’s like watching Mao or Pol Pot in the West.

    In the US, the Biden administration’s response to supply chain problems and Chinese encroachment is to borrow a few trillion more dollars and use some of it to reduce the legally incurred debts of Harvard graduates. Billions will be funneled to economically unviable wind and solar projects, the ‘researchers’ and think tanks that support them, with a few bob set aside for cash handouts to selected consumers.

    We all know what is happening right here.

    It makes the tulip craze and the South Sea Bubble look like a school fete lucky dip.

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  25. Checking back however did allow me to see a comment I had missed before – from our oldest commenter, Macbeth. Hiya Macbeth and good luck to you, great to see you here again. Yes, I still enjoy dancing so much, heart leads feet and I feel like a teenager again. My happy place.

    In spite of the state of the world today.

  26. Faustus, here’s what Kirsch actually said. The 2019 numbers were incomplete. Read on:
    But the 2019 numbers are misleading because it reflects only part of 2019. The full number was probably around 170 for the year. So the number of doctor deaths in 2021 seems to be about double normal, but more troubling is the age of death. I’m working on a full analysis and will publish the spreadsheet so you can see this for yourself.

    They’ve removed earlier deaths because, according to the CMA, it was “too hard to maintain” that data. That makes no sense. So they just show recent deaths.

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  27. Steggles againproves Mosman is where your brain goes to die. Fuckwit central.

    There are some first rate fuckwits in Mosman, to be sure. But the green/teal shaded ones are in every affluent suburb in every city in western nations today. It is the scourge of affluence.

    I hate to be a prophet of doom (in any case, I am not alone in this) but the global economic collapse soon to sweep up those with affluenza will be a nasty slap to the senses. But it will wake them all up pretty quickly from their ridiculous dream.

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  28. Did you know switching one pack of mince per week for a plant based alternative saves around 48kg of CO2 emissions? That’s around 196km in your average car

    A car does what, about 20k km/year?

    So that’s a yuuuge 1% of your cars’ annual output.

    The asparagus caught between Zali’s front teeth would exceed most cows’ annual grass consumption.

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  29. The people of Mer Island in the Torres Island Group, are thinking of following the Solomon Islands government in negotiating with China, according to the SBS website.

    I attended the 1988 conference on Thursday Island, called by Torres Strait island leaders threatening to secede from Australia and travelled extensively through the islands, from Mer in the east to Saibai and Boigu 5kms from PNG, which you can walk to at low tide.

    These Melanesians – totally different from Aborigines because they’re generally quite happy souls not susceptible to alcoholism like the abos, though they are susceptible to diabetes – have longstanding grievances about shit service from state and federal governments and look at the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to enslave PNG with its debt trap as a bargaining wedge.

    I wish them well and hope they succeed in shaming the Elbow regime to comply with their demands.

    The islanders are good people whose leadership is utterly unlike the corrupt, mainly white Australian abo industrial complex.

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  30. Ah, I see that Lizzie is back with her umpteenth comment after imperiously declaring that the subject is closed yesterday.

    As we know, that is code for ‘unless someone has the temerity to say anything about it, in which case I will be back with more self-justifying dreck.’ Again and again, milking the sympathy vote with ‘poor me.’ Sharing her disappointment with the behaviour of people here. Telling us yet again (if only it was true) that she is going to spend less time here. Hilariously claiming that her long and boring record of telling every detail of her life story – with elisions and lies that somehow never put her in a bad light – is comparable with the occasional snapshot or reference by others.

    We’ve done this dance many times before – she declares that there is nothing further to say about criticism of her – but alas, that is never, ever true, unless she thinks she has the last word.

    Her poor husband.

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  31. What sort of stupid bastard would be desperately trying to get sheep out of metal yards in a thunderstorm.

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  32. No, no, no no. We must raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, because they know not what they do.

    Or maybe not (the NT News):

    An elderly woman was restrained and forced to watch as a group of five youths allegedly ransacked her home in Tennant Creek.

    NT Police say on Sunday, August 28 they received a report an 84-year-old woman had been confronted by five known kids inside her home. It’s alleged the woman was restrained by one of the offenders while the group searched the property before leaving.

    The woman suffered minor injuries and was treated by St John Ambulance. Police found the alleged offenders through CCTV and arrested them a day later.

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  33. There’s something seriously fucked up when someone joins a pile-on and talks indirectly in the third person about the target. Is that supposed to be more persuasive?

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  34. JCsays:
    August 29, 2022 at 4:10 pm
    Their both disk shaped, so they could very be UFOs.

    You bastard head prefect. I won’t sleep tonight.

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  35. Gah! But you know what I mean.

    yes I do Johanna- Steggels is a particularly abominable abomination.

    I hate to be a prophet of doom (in any case, I am not alone in this) but the global economic collapse soon to sweep up those with affluenza will be a nasty slap to the senses. But it will wake them all up pretty quickly from their ridiculous dream.
    The mindset in Mosman or Kooyong or Brighton or Darling Point is that economic collapse is only for jumped up little people in their McMansions out at Harrington Park.

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  36. Lizzie.
    You seem to project an unshakeable air of self-confidence on all manner of subjects.
    Why, then, do you give a fat rat’s clacker about who upticks what?
    Here’s something to add to your vast experiential baggage. When you over-react (to the point of requiring a fainting couch and smelling salts) to something others see as trivial, you will get teased about it.

    Fair enough, Sancho, if the teasing was good humoured.
    But mostly it is not. And my defensiveness is not always faint-worthy.
    Trouble here for me stems usually from an original vicious insult and then it’s on again for all to pitch in. I had thought it might have resolved, but clearly not. That’s my reality here, for me to recognise.

    As for giving a fat rat’s clacker, and having an unshakable air of confidence, I know I am assertive, I have had to be in my life, so that is learned survival behaviour from numerous contexts.
    All I am going to say on that. Please don’t try to change me. Too late for that now anyway.
    And I am very much at peace with myself and life these days.
    Through the shoals to the shore, as I once wrote here a long time ago.

    Going off to hit the detective trail now. I don’t believe it is the usual suspect nor the other one. lol.

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  37. It is the scourge of affluence.

    Yes that does seem to be the case; coupled with complete ignorance of where their wealth and convenient lives come from.

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  38. The mindset in Mosman or Kooyong or Brighton or Darling Point is that economic collapse is only for jumped up little people in their McMansions out at Harrington Park.

    I don’t think so, Miltonf. People, at least not Teal supporters nor leftwingers, realize that prosperity for all lifts all boats or in this case all stocks. 🙂

    There’s no one with a half brain ( ie not Teal supporters or leftwingers) who would believe a recession hurting the lower economics rungs wouldn’t ping back on the rich who are very exposed to the stock markets.

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  39. Farmer Gezsays:
    August 29, 2022 at 4:31 pm
    What sort of stupid bastard would be desperately trying to get sheep out of metal yards in a thunderstorm.

    A happy shearers photo

    Given its a lightening strike I guess you could say those sheep were….Thor!

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  40. My oldest son, double vaxxed with Pfizz-up, has had a very bad case of Covid for the past week. So have his ex-partner and his autistic son, the week before. He’s kept himself in iso by himself now for nearly two weeks. Refuses my help as he is concerned I’ll get it again, even though I am not worried about that. He’s being so diligent about quarantine. I tell him that in Britain when you feel well enough you just get on with life again. He is currently mulling that over.

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  41. Ask Zali about the poor insects.

    Wind turbines killing 1.2 TRILLION insects a year (6 Aug, via Climate Depot)

    A whopping 1 200 billion insects (or 1.2 trillion) are being smashed to pieces by the wind turbine blades every year. This is bad. And this figure is for the wind turbines that are in Germany alone. If you would combine the number of killed insects of all the wind turbines in the world, you would get truly frightening numbers.

    You know all those people that want you to stop eating meat to save the animals, well, maybe they would want to save all these trillions of insects? I guess not.

    In fact, so many insects are being squashed by these blades that it is leading to significant energy losses. Every insect weighing about 0.1 grams means that all these insects are adding 1200 tons of weight on the turbines, meaning that they are losing large amounts of potential energy they could produce.

    We should save these poor creatures! I think a protest in Manly with people dressed up in insect suits would a good start. And demand a boycott of those horrible food companies who want us to eat these cute inoffensive creatures. Zali could come and lend her support.

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  42. I don’t think so, Miltonf. People, at least not Teal supporters nor leftwingers, realize that prosperity for all lifts all boats or in this case all stocks.

    Quite so, JC.

    Teals and the self-haters who vote for them — all property millionaires –will be killed economically when a recession wipes out their property values.

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  43. Quite so, JC.

    Teals and the self-haters who vote for them — all property millionaires –will be killed economically when a recession wipes out their property values.

    Funny that, Tom, but I’ve never considered the principle cave an asset that I’d even count as part of net worth, but I guess a lot of folks do.

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  44. Tom, I am inclined to agree with your analysis about Mer.

    As someone who first read Drums of Mer (Ion Idriess) as a schoolkid, I recognise that he ginned up his stories to make them more saleable. Nevertheless, he is regarded as an important source of anthropological information about Torres Strait Island culture, which few people were interested in at the time.

    The Meriam were way more advanced than Australian Aborigines, whom they regarded as ignorant savages. Meriam people had permanent settlements, gardens, property rights and boundaries, and courts for settling property disputes. They were also, according to Idriess, the religious and strategic brains trust of the TSI.

    It is no surprise that the native title initiative came from them. Its extension to completely different circumstances is another matter, not their fault.

    Given their long history of playing politics to their advantage, the China thing is no surprise. But, I seriously doubt if they would sign up for Belt and Road. They just want the Queensland government to throw more shekels their way – fair enough, IMHO.

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  45. Given its a lightening strike I guess you could say those sheep were….Thor!

    Mighty Thor. The old Ita Buttrose joke.

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  46. JC, the teal supporters that I know around Wentworth are firmly convinced that the new hozzanah of renewables will deliver the promised land to the plebs as well as to their gracious selves. This fabulous free energy will arrive as a bounty in some immediate future, no worries at all, just a short ‘transition’ in the name of the cause. Most of them are seriously dumb: ‘put your masks on’. The teals of course will just carry on living as usual, with some of the worst ones raking in the money on it all.

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  47. Take your point JC- still blows my mind that so many people in effluent ‘burbs are fully onboard with this economic destruction. I can only assume that they don’t believe that such destruction will impact on themselves.

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  48. Thank you Lizzie. Have fun while you can. Pity about the nastyness that’s crept into this blog.

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  49. Pleased to say my youngest son is having blast in the US. Travelling between properties building repairing stuff.

    Life is good.

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  50. Teals and the self-haters who vote for them — all property millionaires –will be killed economically when a recession wipes out their property values.

    They’ll be affected Tom, but far less so than others, because the biggest Teals (major property developers, Atlassians etc) live in enclaves of similar properties in very scarce and limited localities where the vast amounts of international floating money often like to settle. It will still continue to float in for Australian elite property still mostly costs peanuts. It is quite another market to the regular Australian market.

    Here I am talking about very large houses on good land harbourside, especially with views. Currently, despite any downturns, speculators are testing our our humble home as a development site, for we are downsized into a boutique underdeveloped Art Deco block of three single-floor apartments on nearly 1000sq ms of prime land with harbour views. Offers have been coming in, but none of us here want to move. We’re into aging-in-place. We all like our large garden and orchard and don’t want to live out our days in a glassed-in concrete box. Vicki, I have been thinking of chickens, but Hairy reckons even around here the fox would get ’em.

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  51. Thank you Lizzie. Have fun while you can. Pity about the nastyness that’s crept into this blog.

    Don’t you worry about it, Macbeth.
    Blood on the floor here is usually wiped up by morning.
    It’s spring outside, with daisies popping up in the street verges and jasmine flowering.

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  52. Vicki, I have been thinking of chickens, but Hairy reckons even around here the fox would get ’em.

    I think its time to ask yourself.
    Are pigs really that bad?
    The only piggery with harbor views, just think of how grateful the neighbors will be when you ask them to leave a swill bucket out the front for collection once a week.
    For the planet of course.

    You may even use it to future proof the local grid!

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  53. That’s hosanna – reading back I thought it looked odd so I checked the spelling.

  54. Fair enough, Sancho, if the teasing was good humoured.

    You have a right to good humoured teasing only, because? Does everyone else have that ‘right’?

    This is the Cat, not a Jane Austen novel. Speaking of which, how is the book going?

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  55. I think its time to ask yourself.
    Are pigs really that bad?
    The only piggery with harbor views, just think of how grateful the neighbors will be when you ask them to leave a swill bucket out the front for collection once a week.

    LOL, Mole. And I love pigs so much too. Truly. I used to look after pigs in my early teen years.
    I know what they eat. I can farrow them and keep the little runt warm in bed with me. I think it is a great suggestion. I had thought of goats, but worried about the fruit trees and ditched that idea.

    Hairy will surely see the sense in pigs? Surely?

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  56. It could be ‘The Good Life’ all over again. A notch or two up from Surbiton though.

    Who will play Margo? There’s one neighbour I could think of.
    She’s objecting to our electricity pole now.

    I could do Barbara ‘cos I’ve now got a lively fringe and had my eyebrows done.
    And I bought a Gingham dress for my recent birthday party with the girls.
    Just the shot.

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  57. Black Ball says:
    August 29, 2022 at 3:18 pm
    I’m sure the questions have been asked here. How will The Voice be implemented and by who? How will this Voice initiate action? Who is the Voice accountable to, Shaq notwithstanding? If the referendum is successful, how long before it is up and running? How many people making the decisions? What will be taken from the Budget?

    If passed, the referendum will add the following three sentences to the constitution:

    1. There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
    2. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
    3. The parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

    Unsurprisingly, the ABC is in favour. Note the absurd comment within “that 73 per cent of Australians agreed ‘”strongly” or “somewhat” that there should be constitutional change to give Indigenous Australians a greater say over their lives”. (Which is not the same as a ‘Voice’ as contemplated)

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-31/what-is-an-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-and-uluru-statement/101285958

    Others take the view that changing our Constitution goes further than simply entrenching standover identity politics. It would enshrine what amounts to an extra-parliamentary body in our constitution.

    It’s not clear ‘who’ the Voice would be accountable to. Albo says the Voice would be ‘below’ Parliament (not equal to or above) yet if enshrined in the Constitution, the Parliament would have limited overarching control. Parliament could ‘probably’ change some of the laws impacting the operation of the Voice but…… well……. good luck with that.

    The Voice would consist of 20 elected members drawn exclusively from the Aboriginal/TS community. Each State and the NT would have 2 members, the ACT have 1, the TS community have at least 2. It isn’t clear how the total number of members (20) will be achieved but it appears that representatives from existing A/TS organisation(s) may be added (presumably at the discretion of the Voice membership).

    Members will either be elected via ‘popular acclaim’ or by an election (exclusively by A/TS people). The membership of the Voice has to be ‘gender equal’. What’s more, members should represent a mix of urban, regional and remote A/TS communities.

    Beyond that, there is serious talk of an ‘Ethics Council’ who will advise the Voice plus a Youth Council and Disabled Council to advise on A/TS youth and disability issues. I would expect other advisory Councils to add on as time progresses.

    (with me so far?)

    The Voice will advise Parliament and the Government on social, spiritual, economic and legal issues of significance to A/TS people. It will provide both informal and formal advice. Where the Parliament or Government wants to make laws specific to A/TS people, the Parliament will be compelled to seek the advice of the Voice. Laws passed that have an specific impact on A/TS people will also carry information on when the opinion of the Voice was sought and, what that original advice was. (seriously).

    Albo and Co are banging on that Parliament will always have primacy but the Voice (if approved) seems destined to become a de-facto third chamber of Parliament. It is also arguable that every law has an impact on A/TS people to some extent so there is potentially no limit to the degree of influence/control.

    As for how much this will all cost? Who knows. But we do know who is going to pay.

    13
  58. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare says:
    August 29, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    I think its time to ask yourself.
    Are pigs really that bad?
    The only piggery with harbor views, just think of how grateful the neighbors will be when you ask them to leave a swill bucket out the front for collection once a week.

    LOL, Mole. And I love pigs so much too. Truly.

    Someone in the US took a grown pig onto a flight as a comfort pet. As the plane was landing, the pig went completely bonkers tearing up and down the aisle. I think they banned some comfort pets on airlines after that.

    This one was kicked off the flight for being a disruptive swine.

    1
  59. This is the Cat, not a Jane Austen novel. Speaking of which, how is the book going?

    The one I am reading is going very well, and Jane Austen would make mincemeat of you.

    2
  60. Brick Top: And when you got your six pieces, you gotta get rid of them, because it’s no good leaving it in the deep freeze for your mum to discover, now is it? Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You gotta shave the heads of your victims, and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies’ digestion. You could do this afterwards, of course, but you don’t want to go sievin’ through pig shit, now do you? They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, “as greedy as a pig”.

    4
  61. House of the Dragon episode two.
    Like episode one, good not great.
    One thing that has irked me is why Sonoya Mizuno agreed to be part of it.
    Great actress, great career so far & it’s a bit of step down to star in a glorified soap opera.

  62. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bearesays:
    August 29, 2022 at 4:09 pm
    … It happens to others here at times, not just to me.

    Yes, but they haven’t pranced around trumpeting that their comprehension skills are “excellent”, so when they do get something wrong it isn’t a slapstick boffo self-administered custard pie.
    I did suggest that you could have toned it down by e.g. just saying “there’s nothing wrong with my comprehension skills” or something like that, which would have been perfectly adequate, but you replied that the word “excellent” was carefully chosen even though you knew it would “draw fire”. So you really set yourself up for the pratfall quite deliberately.

    I will not change who I am and what I say and how I say it just to satisfy what others think I should or should not be doing. I trust that is perfectly clear now.

    OK, but if you are going to continue setting yourself up for the situation comedy denouement, knowing that your lead in is going to antagonise some people, you can hardly deny them the liberty of making reference to the gag when it transpires.

    As for the more general point about self-promotion, I think your attitude is like saying “I am who I am, so I’m not going to stop eating baked beans, lentils and Madras curries before being sealed into the submarine with the rest of the crew”. Well, maybe not entirely because there is the scroll wheel on this site, but don’t you think that part of being a civilised person is making at least some attempt not to irritate other people unless there’s a real reason for doing so – even if you think that their propensity for irritation is overdone? And if you know you’re going to irritate people with a comment but you choose to post it anyway, because you won’t change who you are etc., why should others refrain from responding with what they think just because it will irritate you?

    [PS Johanna I did suggest that Lizzie reply to my email, so this isn’t an appropriate occasion for deprecating “last word” syndrome.]

    6
  63. In fact, so many insects are being squashed by these blades that it is leading to significant energy losses. Every insect weighing about 0.1 grams means that all these insects are adding 1200 tons of weight on the turbines, meaning that they are losing large amounts of potential energy they could produce.
    I don’t think the mass of the insects is significant. What is, is the disruption of the airflow. The bugs act as turbulators and you get no laminar (low drag) flow. Turbulent flow is much higher drag, like 3 to 5 times that of laminar flow. This is problem in modern sailplanes where performance (glide angle) can be degraded by up to 30% with a load of bugs on the wing leading edges. The solution is “bug wipers”, gadgets which hug the leading edge and scrape off the bugs, then are retracted into the fuselage.

    2
  64. Tom, I am inclined to agree with your analysis about Mer.

    Like most Torres Strait Islanders, they also tend to be quite devout Christians, whereas many (but not all) mainland aboriginals are post-Christian and/or attempting to reboot animism/totemism.

    6
  65. Lizzie earlier.

    Fair enough, Sancho, if the teasing was good humoured.
    But mostly it is not.

    You may, as you claim, know a lot of things.
    But you cannot know the intention of anyone when the stick a pin in your over-inflated balloon.
    Perhaps it is time to reflect that it might be your own hyper-sensitivity which leads to your overreaction.
    An overreaction which is totally counterproductive if your intent is to turn off the fairly mild piss-taking

    25
  66. One thing that has irked me is why Sonoya Mizuno agreed to be part of it.

    Was she the person who invented Mizuno blades? Forked out two grand on my set before I realised they were useful only for people with talent.

    1
  67. mainland aboriginals are post-Christian and/or attempting to reboot animism/totemism.

    Very ‘progressive’

    1
  68. No, no, the one you regaled us with for years and years, that you were writing, about King Arthur. It was going to rewrite history.

    I remember you doing previews, and some deluded people here saying they couldn’t wait to read it, about the same time some were saying Julie Bishop would be a great PM.

    Those Were the Days.

    For many years, you claimed to be an interlecsural because of this book that was going to open new horizons. You mentioned it here at every opportunity, and what your dinner party and cocktail party guests had to endure is immesurable. Except for:

    Guest: Hi Lizzie, how did the book go?

    L: (blushing modestly) Well, it’s not quite finished yet.

    Guest: No, no, I mean the one you told us about five years ago.

    L: Oh gosh, excuse me, I have to greet a guest. Champagne?

    Oh, and where is it you live? Could it be Double Pay? 🙂

    15
  69. Genuine question.
    A lot of European soccer players dying over the past 12 months didn’t translate into any AFL players keeling over here.
    Your typical Australian soccer player doesn’t cover the same ground as their European counterparts.
    And league & union players don’t cover as much ground either.
    So if there was a link between vaccine & deaths & sport, why was it only apparent with one group (European soccer players) & nothing similar regarding distance (AFL) & really nothing else sporting related.
    As I said, it’s a genuine question.
    Hopefully that doesn’t make me traitorous.

    8
  70. The one I am reading is going very well, and Jane Austen would make mincemeat of you.

    Factcheck: true

    4
  71. By bringing in a wealthy foreigner to boost their argument, Anal and Blubbersack again show they live on a different planet from Joe Public.

    Any normal person would die of embarrassment.

    12
  72. The solution is “bug wipers”

    That sounds like a job for Albo’s 600,000 strong Green Army.
    They can abseil down each blade with a rag and some Bam cleaning spray.

    5
  73. I had thought it might have resolved, but clearly not.

    Elizabeth, the ulcer of your angst will never be resolved while you keep picking at it. You’re jousting with pixels, for goodness sake! They can only hurt or offend you if you allow them to.

    Someone has to be the grown-up here and let this tired old confrontation die. Please!

    19
  74. I’m assuming the round-ball players were actually the first wave of monkeypox deaths.

    2
  75. Very ‘progressive’

    And potentially lucrative.

    Nobody is quite as credulous as a post-Christian, cashed up white progressive.

    As Chesterton’s Belgian translator noted, when men (and particularly women) stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, but are prepared to believe anything.

    PS
    Good to hear your son is having a blast in the US.

    4
  76. I listened into the Fortescue conference call today post their result.
    Analysts were concentrating on the green hydrogen & FFI & a little bit on one of their more challenging projects.
    There was only one question on them committing 100mill to the Belinga deposit in Gabon.
    500km from deposit to port.
    Half of that through the jungle.

  77. Cheers Roger.

    His uncle and aunty works and play hard core. Guns, quads raceing Harley’s ect.

    2
  78. Down the ritchie rabbit hole.

    the chap that played ‘the baptist” in lock stock and 2 smoking barrels was an actual massive hard nut.

    But I dont know what you would describe his build as
    Someone put a tribute up of a few of his fights, have a look at the bloke at about 2 minutes in, hes just a barrel of muscle.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ka-ZmWnHAE

    1
  79. Roger says: August 29, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    Tom, I am inclined to agree with your analysis about Mer.

    Like most Torres Strait Islanders, they also tend to be quite devout Christians, whereas many (but not all) mainland aboriginals are post-Christian and/or attempting to reboot animism/totemism.

    Mmm…hmm…
    They’d know a thing or two about Christianity, having Eighteen different denominations represented there. Not including Three separate Anglican .. denominations, due to a split in the Anglican church, which then split again.

    Does Voodoo count as animism/totemism? Coz if it does, (Murray Is. excepted) they’d be able to show the mainland mob a thing or two about slavish adherence to what may rate (Voodoo) as one of the more off-the-wall religions in Australia.

    1
  80. BoN, thanks for the Hu clips the other day, according to the comments, they were here recently!

    I had no idea, would have gone along if I’d known. Does anyone know how their visit went?

    Whoever makes their clips deserves an Academy Award.

    As does their hairdresser. 🙂

    4
  81. Sutton Hoo, the archaelogical site where the movie ‘The Dig’ is set, now boasts a pig farm over the vast acreage where years ago I wandered alone because I’d forgotten to check the opening times. It was isolated, freaky and scarey then but hugely impressive as an imaginative setting. Now it is just a site where the ship burial was and a whole heap of piggies, the land leased out by the National Trust, ruining the atmosphere of it all.

    1
  82. We will be out of Australia for the CPAC Conference, but Hairy has booked us into Nigel Farage’s Sydney talk on an evening just before we go. So we can at least catch up on one of the speakers.

    2
  83. johanna says: August 29, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    Tom, I am inclined to agree with your analysis about Mer.

    As someone who first read Drums of Mer (Ion Idriess) as a schoolkid, I recognise that he ginned up his stories to make them more saleable. Nevertheless, he is regarded as an important source of anthropological information about Torres Strait Island culture, which few people were interested in at the time.

    Idriess spent at least two years there working as a wharfie. Of his Fifty-odd books somewhere between one & two dozen are about the Torres Strait. (Exactly how many I can’t recall of the top of my head.)

    2
  84. johanna says: August 29, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    ….. They just want the Queensland government to throw more shekels their way – fair enough, IMHO.

    Why is it “fair enough” that more of our money is slung their way?

  85. Someone has to be the grown-up here and let this tired old confrontation die. Please!

    Direct your attention to where it will do the most good then Delta.

    I am quite happy to be called Lizzie, by the way. A full name is what my mother used to dress down a child. Not necessary for an adult of my years, my dear.

    I have been happily here back commenting as usual, and in comes ‘the ususal suspect’. I am not being confrontational. I am not on any fainting couch. I am simply a woman like you who pops in for an occasional look-see and to make some contribution, light-hearted or otherwise.

    And let me put my Arthurian stuff to rest as an issue. It is still live, it will get done when it gets done. It is an ongoing project and not urgent. I have many other activities and duties to get on with in my life as well as having had some health problems. Let those who mock put their pen where their mouth is, as I have said here previously. If anyone is really interested, re-read my long article on it in Quadrant.

    3
  86. Jimmy Carter brown bread.

    Any word on Roger Moore?

    4
  87. Nobody is quite as credulous as a post-Christian, cashed up white progressive.

    As Emile Cammaerts observed in his treatise on G.K. Chesterton: “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing. They then become capable of believing in anything.”

    What has happened in the past two decades is that the newly minted athiests of the political left have not only started believing in anything, but have become simple-minded animists with the emotionali anti-intellectualism of youmg girls who worship animals and plants – the inevitable destination of “environmentalism”.

    The 21st century left are exactly like the Stupid Fucking Liberals: they believe in nothing except childish fantasies like Net Zero and the destruction of everything that delivers their standard of living – in other words, it’s a death cult.

    8
  88. Idriess spent at least two years there working as a wharfie. Of his Fifty-odd books somewhere between one & two dozen are about the Torres Strait. (Exactly how many I can’t recall of the top of my head.)

    Idriess served in the Light Horse at Gallipoli and Gaza, and one of his books was a manual of guerilla warfare, should Australia be invaded in 1942.

    6
  89. [PS Johanna I did suggest that Lizzie reply to my email, so this isn’t an appropriate occasion for deprecating “last word” syndrome.]

    Timothy, you have emailed me? I haven’t checked my email today as I have as usual been busy.

    You are welcome to ask Dover for my email if that is how you wish to communicate with me.

    2
  90. I have been happily here back commenting as usual, and in comes ‘the ususal suspect’. I am not being confrontational. I am not on any fainting couch. I am simply a woman like you who pops in for an occasional look-see and to make some contribution, light-hearted or otherwiseI have been happily here back commenting as usual, and in comes ‘the ususal suspect’. I am not being confrontational. I am not on any fainting couch. I am simply a woman like you who pops in for an occasional look-see and to make some contribution, light-hearted or otherwise

    Oh, FFS. After numerous teary-eyed comments (several being allegedly being the last word) after I called out her boasting and lying, she now claims to be “I am simply a woman like you who pops in for an occasional look-see and to make some contribution, light-hearted or otherwise.’

    So, not the pages and pages of Angelas Ashes transported?

    So, not the pages and pages about your ex hubby’s University Medals? Except, the dates were changed and we will never know if it was true,

    So, not the pages and pages of soft porn for the old blokes, not to mention telling us how often you and the beta you married have sex?

    How about your descriptions of your tits? So classy.

    Go on, whimper about about how someone on the Internet is being mean to you, and extract sympathy from that pussywhipped husband of yours.

    Again.

    24
  91. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bearesays:
    August 29, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    No, I meant that your 4.09pm comment was in response to my comment around 8.40 odd this morning, in which I’d expressly said something to the effect of inviting a reply.

    2
  92. I got 31 upticks earlier today.

    I am now validated as a human being. In fact, I am indestructible, immortal, walking the earth like a god*.

    *Not the God. A god.

    h/t Bill Murray

    5
  93. the political left have not only started believing in anything, but have become simple-minded animists with the emotionali anti-intellectualism of youmg girls who worship animals and plants – the inevitable destination of “environmentalism”.

    The worm has to turn sometime, Tom.

    After 2024 is my bet for the US. Even if the Democrats get back in they will themselves be unable to sustain the cognitive dissonance between the chaotic thought-free nightmare they have birthed and the technocratic civilisation they will need to sustain. If the Republicans get in, with either Trump, de Santis or a decent conservative leader, then things will most faster and more quickly towards the good. We have no alternative but to live through ridiculous and difficult times right now.

    5
  94. Carter lives!!

    Did the rabbit survive?

    Poor man. When “events dear boy” was first uttered I don’t think Macmillan ever thought a US President might fight a small furry animal and lose.

    2
  95. I am tired tonight. To tired to cope with pixels of any sort, so I’ll pass on this place now.

  96. Johanna at 7.05pm, Delta.

    Bollocks from start to finish.
    I rest my case.

    She’s drunk again I suppose.

    4
  97. Not including Three separate Anglican .. denominations, due to a split in the Anglican church, which then split again.

    If you have news of locals rejecting the leadership of the Brisbane metropolitinate, I’d be inclined to regard that as a feature, not a bug.

    3
  98. But, we all need to know that she is retiring for the night.

    This is the stuff of international importance.

    Although, on past performance, she’ll be back to complain.

    14
  99. Elizabeth, the ulcer of your angst will never be resolved while you keep picking at it. You’re jousting with pixels, for goodness sake! They can only hurt or offend you if you allow them to.

    This is spot on.

    11
  100. From the Oz. Contains the “N” word – well, done , Albo, you fvcked up that one, properly….

    Albanese’s Shaq endorsement a shocking oversight Cameron Milner

    2:00PM August 29, 2022
    30 Comments

    There’s a great Hunter S. Thompson quote about politics: “Most days in politics are boring, but every so often you get a wild one. One that wakes the ’ol boys from their slumber.”

    That for me was last Saturday as I watched the most bizarre press conference of Anthony Albanese’s career – the one with American basketballer Shaquille O’Neal. It was just so tone deaf, so patronising and so clueless to think the voice could be helped by a celebrity endorsement from Shaq.

    This has rightly been condemned by Indigenous representatives across the political divide – senators Lidia Thorpe and Jacinta Price. No doubt other leaders from the community will also speak out.

    I understand this had taken up the full bandwidth of the Prime Minister’s media unit as it made plans for the Saturday announcement. Sure, a big-name US sports personality best known for his massage table innuendo-laden ads for online betting has a media edge to it. But did anyone check out Shaq’s other post-game career – his rapping?

    I did and the lyrics are full of toxic masculinity in its most profane form. Shaq’s most played song has the line: “Taxiderm your bitch head, mount it on a wall.” He sings in another lyric about punching a girl in the stomach because “yo, she breathed on my neck”. The worst is in his other “hit” song, You Can’t Stop the Reign – “we want the exotic, erotic ladies, not them toxic ladies that burn a lot”.

    It’s disgusting, but clearly Albo’s brains trust thinks this will help the voice.

    Shaq’s use of “nigga” may well be culturally appropriate but when sung as “Kobe, nigga, tell me how my ass taste” can only be topped by the lyric “To tell niggas to suck c–k, run and get a gun”.

    And there’s so much more.

    What on earth was Albo thinking? Surely he didn’t do this knowing these were Shaq’s attitudes to women, guns, domestic violence and drug use.

    The voice is such a fragile, precious thing, but as recent polling shows it is not yet supported by the majority of voters in any state, not even Victoria.

    Albo should sack anyone who recommended this act of self-harm to the voice. He then needs to apologise to Australians, especially Indigenous Australians, for participating in this.

    10
  101. What has happened in the past two decades is that the newly minted athiests of the political left have not only started believing in anything, but have become simple-minded animists with the emotionali anti-intellectualism of youmg girls who worship animals and plants – the inevitable destination of “environmentalism”.

    Add to that the amazing proliferation lately of healing crystals and various strange products sold by Gwyneth Paltrow. Plus the several million witches who cursed Trump each full moon during his presidency. Unsuccessfully. The religiosity is weird as well as infantile.

    It’s not just the US. Here in my suburb quite a few houses have in their yard cast plaster elephant idols with fat babies riding on them. I presume it’s Buddhist iconography, but certainly at the shallowest of levels. Why?

    3
  102. Palaszczuk’s polling reportedly beyond redemption.

    I predict an early retirement to spend time with…someone or other.

    9
  103. Bollocks from start to finish.
    I rest my case.

    For Lizzie, ‘resting her case’ is like environmentalists getting a temporary injunction. As we have seen here again and again, when her personal vanity is involved, she never rests her case, although she frequently tries to use it as a way of shutting down discussion.

    Her poor husband.

    19
  104. I have come to the conclusion that the identity called Elizabeth Beare is a bloke using a female online identity. Using sheer volume of posts and with his considerable command of the language he is capable of silencing and deterring many from commenting. How do I know this? Call it woman’s intuition. No woman would refer so constantly to their partner.

    19
  105. ‘bern at 6:16.

    There was only one question on them committing 100mill to the Belinga deposit in Gabon.
    500km from deposit to port.
    Half of that through the jungle.

    Translation.
    “We would rather develop mines in some shithole in Africa with ridiculous pit-to-port distances through a bog than risk it in Australia”.
    You don’t reckon Plibbers putting that phosphate plant on hold in WA after construction started has got the big boys tweaking their Riskometers?

    4
  106. Vicki, I have been thinking of chickens, but Hairy reckons even around here the fox would get ’em.

    Lizzie, a friend in Mosman had a chook for about eight years in a little coop in the backyard. He was brought up on a farm, and his kids just loved that chook. He reckons it laid an egg every day for years. It is not all that usual for a commercial chook to live that long, but it was loved and well cared for all those years.

    My old professor also had chooks all his adult life in the city. Apparently he had scarlet fever as a child in New Zealand and his mum bought him a chook to keep him company. He said it sat on his bed – the mind boggles! I went a few years ago to his 90th birthday party in Longueville and he still had a coop in the backyard!

    5
  107. I have come to the conclusion that the identity called Elizabeth Beare is a bloke using a female online identity. Using sheer volume of posts and with his considerable command of the language he is capable of silencing and deterring many from commenting.

    Duck and cover, people. It’ll be raining pebblecrete for days.

    21
  108. Did someone say “drunk”? On my second flute of Qantas bubbles in “the lounge”. And no, it isn’t because BC, just our complimentary annual indulgence because enough FFPs to take us to Pluto and back.

    Report: 99.95% unmasked, apart from the “servant class” and a couple of pax. When I see a droob in a mask, I immediately think, are you sick or do you think I am?

    Vicki, I have inhaled muchly on your Vicks nasal spray and so has the Beloved. I will keep it handy throughout the trip.

    The airport is quiet – security was a dream compared to the overblown reports on the TV.

    9
  109. Says Mem, re Lizzie :
    No woman would refer so constantly to their partner.

    Only if she loved him completely.

    Maybe you haven’t noticed, Mem, but I am guilty of it too. My man is one in a million – to put up with me! But really – we are “a unit” – and the wonderful life that we have had has been very much a joint venture. We have complementary skills – as any marriage should have.

    4
  110. Elizabeth Beare is a bloke

    Baiting the Cat trap with a gourmet sausage.
    I’m keen to watch as see what you catch mem.

    11
  111. Knuckle Draggersays:

    August 29, 2022 at 7:10 pm

    I got 31 upticks earlier today.

    I am now validated as a human being. In fact, I am indestructible, immortal, walking the earth like a god*.

    Hate to break it to you, Sunshine, but 26 of those were mine.
    Slow day here.

    5
  112. The voice is such a fragile, precious thing, but as recent polling shows it is not yet supported by the majority of voters in any state, not even Victoria.

    Clearly, we’re just a bunch of dumb, drunk racists recalcitrantly refusing to kow tow (!) to our moral betters.

    And, don’t forget, the world is watching!

    Elbow must surely see the upside, though, to being a Whitlamesque one-term PM: a post-politics career trading on how unworthy the nation was of his superior moral vision.

    7
  113. Geoff Clark,
    There you go.
    I recall oozing out of the back end of a 747 in Paris and when passing the First Class sanctuary seeing Clark and his Warnambool mates sitting smugly in their luxury while casting sneering looks at we we taxpayers who filed past.
    I did wonder why a bunch of white Victorian blackfellas would be flying into Paris wearing hats with crocodile teeth hat bands.
    For the next week, French media was dominated by outrage generated by Geoff and his thugs. They were assiduous in telling on we white ….
    It all led to the First Nations’ UN idiocy. Clark was brilliant.
    Oh, and he had a travelling ABC ditz in his gang. I met her a couple of times. I had no idea that ditz was a critical selection criteria for the ABC.

    7
  114. Vicki, I have inhaled muchly on your Vicks nasal spray and so has the Beloved. I will keep it handy throughout the trip.

    Yay, Calli! I swear it stopped me from contracting Covid from husband. I worry about my constantly bathed nasal passages with this stuff – and am a bit more sparing. But since you are OS in some tight places – go for it.

    Have a wonderful trip, Calli!!

    5
  115. I’ll refer to the Beloved with gay abandon – he just bought me two bottles of Chanel! 😀

    6
  116. Palaszczuk’s polling reportedly beyond redemption.

    Don’t gloat: roger.
    Next up: Stephen Miles, or Cameron Dick..

    God help us.

    8
  117. What on earth was Albo thinking?

    We’ve seen some possible explanations for that triumph of tone deaf idiocy.

    The Shaq’s blak
    He’s an aspiring wrapper
    He used to play baseball
    He’ll convince the honkies that the inVoice is the greatest thing since smallpox blankets
    He’ll make burney and me look super cool

    As we’ve seen, the last one in particular didn’t exactly pan out as expected – glove puppets, anyone*?

    *H/T Tom.

    6
  118. Glad to say I’d never even heard of Shaquille O’Neal. What the fuck it’s to do Australian Aboriginals, I have no idea.

    12
  119. I can see a Black Market developing in upticks. It reminds me of all those Twitter “followers” Rudd had.

    Do not believe upticks! That way madness lies.

    2
  120. This none believer’s having no guiding principles needs a clarification, Roger.

    Oh…right; the Anglican archbishop of Brisbane, by virtue of being the bishop of the metropolitan see of Brisbane, is the spiritual leader of all Anglicans in the ecclesial province Queensland.

    I’ll refrain from further coment on him and his views as it might be deemed actionable.

    3
  121. bonssays:

    August 29, 2022 at 7:39 pm

    Geoff Clark,
    There you go.

    Jeez.
    There’s a blast from the past.
    Last I heard he had been charged with tickling the till at some Indigenous Co-op or Communidy Corporation or somesuch.
    But I don’t know what happened.
    Maybe Kerry Judd QC lost the brief down the back of the filing cabinet.

    7
  122. Don’t gloat: roger. Next up: Stephen Miles, or Cameron Dick..

    Or it just might be the leader of the Opposition…what’s ‘is name again?

    1
  123. Glad to say I’d never even heard of Shaquille O’Neal. What the fuck it’s to do Australian Aboriginals, I have no idea.

    Actually, I do have an idea- it’s an attempt to introduce O’bumma style race baiting down under. More poison brought across the Pacific.

    6
  124. he just bought me two bottles of Chanel!

    Oh, you show-off you. 🙂 At my rate of usage, that’s about 12 and 1/2 yearsof exquisite perfume regime.

    Your Beloved deserves a very big callis kiss for that.

    #love chanel!

    4
  125. Do not believe upticks! That way madness lies.

    An Iron Law.
    The Siren call wrecks many a loose sailor.

    3
  126. Thanks Bons. I’ve just had to listen to some dweeb yapping loudly on his mobile about his comfy bed in the pointy end. Considering I’m in the business lounge…hmmmm. 😀

    Anyways, we will fold ourselves into our EC seats and be grateful – they were acquired at the last minute and the flight is as full as a goog. They are right down the back so the turbulence will rock us to sleep. Always keep that glass of life half full.

    6
  127. Oh lol I got sucked in by a tweet

    soon, a prince will kiss you and you’ll live happily ever after

    4
  128. Jeez.
    There’s a blast from the past.

    He and his mob had a reputation for provoking pub brawls in whatever part of the part of the world they came from. Clark got his arZe handed to him one night by an amateur boxer of some note, and that was the end of that.

    2
  129. m0ntysays:
    August 29, 2022 at 6:39 pm
    Jimmy Carter brown bread.

    m0ntysays:
    August 29, 2022 at 6:40 pm
    Oh lol I got sucked in by a tweet. Carter lives!!

    LOL. Does being a (perpetual) sucker suck?

    2
  130. Geoff Clark,
    There you go

    Encountered this disgusting thug in a professional capacity. Every bad thing you’ve read/heard about him is an understatement

    4
  131. Warning: don’t drink it. External use only.

    I suppose it may be used as a gargle in an emergency. Diluted.

    1
  132. Anyone who disagrees must be drunk.

    I am drunk

    BBQ’ing sausages but drunk

    well, tipsy anyway

    5
  133. he just bought me two bottles of Chanel!

    Ah, so he’s had Covid and his olfactory sense is offline.
    And figures that the pong will keep the pickpockets away.
    Men are very practical.
    Otherwise he’d’ve bought them for you on the return journey.

    4
  134. Tom says: August 29, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    I attended the 1988 conference on Thursday Island, called by Torres Strait island leaders threatening to secede from Australia and travelled extensively through the islands, from Mer in the east to Saibai and Boigu 5kms from PNG, which you can walk to at low tide.

    In these thrilling blog times of travelogues, one from circa 35 yrs ago on a part of Australia we never see would be a charming addition.
    Did you actually walk from Oz to PNG at low tide? It must be quite an experience.

    I wish them well and hope they succeed in shaming the Elbow regime to comply with their demands.

    What are their demands? Do you really think Elbow should give in (especially if it involves trainloads of taxpayer money)?

    The islanders are good people whose leadership is utterly unlike the corrupt, mainly white Australian abo industrial complex.

    I’ve a selection of bridges to sell you.

    1
  135. Add to that the amazing proliferation lately of healing crystals and various strange products sold by Gwyneth Paltrow.

    Gwyeneth reminds me of a wise woman in Wodehouse advising Bertie never to trust a woman whose first name started with an unnecessary ‘G’.

    5
  136. Megansays:

    August 29, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    Geoff Clark,
    There you go

    Encountered this disgusting thug in a professional capacity. Every bad thing you’ve read/heard about him is an understatement

    Wasn’t there an event in his past where he got a free pass on the “all women must be believed” rule?

    3
  137. Ah, so he’s had Covid and his olfactory sense is offline.

    True. Not Covid but a chill on the course a week or so ago. So you are half right.

  138. bons

    Oh, and he had a travelling ABC ditz in his gang. I met her a couple of times. I had no idea that ditz was a critical selection criteria for the ABC.

    I haven’t watched Their ABC voluntarily for a while, but my memory suggests that the ditz might have been the smartest of the lot.

    2
  139. The voice is such a fragile, precious thing, but as recent polling shows it is not yet supported by the majority of voters in any state, not even Victoria.

    Harsh but fair.

    11
  140. How do I know this? Call it woman’s intuition

    Your intuition desperately needs a major service and definite tune up. It’s sending out 100% fritzing vibes.

    Never a good place for your intuition to be operating.

    2
  141. The Shaq thing is best thought of this way: what if ScoMo had done it?
    The MSM would’ve been incandescent for weeks.

    (I’m still chuckling to myself about the photo MT linked this morning. Photographers love catching pollies suggestively, I’m sure it was entirely intended by whoever it was who took it.)

    5
  142. He and his mob had a reputation for provoking pub brawls in whatever part of the part of the world they came from. Clark got his arZe handed to him one night by an amateur boxer of some note, and that was the end of that.

    Thanks for the info.
    He had a reputation for getting into a brawl every time he set foot in a pub in or around Warrnambool. I was told that about half the police work in that part of the Western District was created by two Aboriginal families, Clark and Clarke, of one of which he was a member.
    But then he and his ATSIC mates used to drink at the Elms at the top of Spring Street and there was never a hint of trouble. At the time I wondered whether the Warrnambool issues were a kind of vicious circle thing, suspicion from past events leading to hostility, leading to more events, leading to more suspicion and so on.
    But maybe those days at the Elms were just post him losing the title fight.

    2
  143. Oh lol I got sucked in by a tweet

    That’ll teach you for turning around the talking points so quickly, without any comprehension or validation.

    It might pay to pause, breathe and at read it at least once before reposting here. Fact checking beforehand would be nice too, but small steps for you Monty.

    4
  144. “Do not believe upticks! That way madness lies.”

    My ad blocker allows me to render them invisible, also the report comment link. Outlaw!

    For some reason Rosie’s comments always show the report comment despite it.

    2
  145. “One’s things for sure, Anal and co are proving to be every bit as bad as anticipated.”

    And to think, they haven’t even started yet. This is going to be a grind.

    4
  146. Flowers and perfume set you on the road to serfdom.

    I thought the boys referred to this as “on a promise”. As I said, live life with the glass half full. And hopefully.

    2
  147. Wasn’t there an event in his past where he got a free pass on the “all women must be believed” rule?

    Which of the five times or so that he’s fronted the beak on such charges would that be?

  148. The voice is such a fragile, precious thing, but as recent polling shows it is not yet supported by the majority of voters in any state, not even Victoria.

    Harsh but fair.

    True.
    The Red Centre of Australia is NOT in the Northern Territory.

    4
  149. Miranda Devine Retweeted
    Byron York
    @ByronYork
    ”I’m uncomfortable that we would move forward—that we would give millions or tens of millions of doses to people—based on mouse data,’ said Paul Offit, an FDA adviser.’ From @WSJ

    7
  150. we’re just a bunch of dumb, drunk racists recalcitrantly refusing to kow tow (!)

    basically, Vikko hasn’t changed a jot in 150 years

    2
  151. This has got to be a first in history, a first lady physically moving the president backwards while he’s speaking to the press.

    A giant white rabbit did it some months ago.
    Makes me think more charitably about Carter.

    4
  152. ”I’m uncomfortable that we would move forward—that we would give millions or tens of millions of doses to people—based on mouse data,’ said Paul Offit, an FDA adviser.’ From @WSJ

    Correlations between animal trials and human trials are notoriously poor.

    4
  153. Had to stop listening to Paul Murray due to Reece and Barnaby shouting over each other.

    Totally out of control and pointless.

    4
  154. I feel no pity for Biden.

    Nor me. Go back to 1972 and examine his record from then on. There is NOTHING good to say about him.

    5
  155. Just saved $3-$4k.
    Our combi boiler was giving me the shits.
    Goes OK for weeks then flames out.
    Always looks to have condensation inside and dripping water out the bottom when it shuts down.
    But plumber can’t find a leak.
    It dries out and runs OK for a while, then plays up again. Did it again Friday and I couldn’t reset it. Got plumber in (it looks drier) and it starts first time for him.
    Fuck it, I say. Get a new one.
    Later today Mrs P is re-planting the herb garden near the back door and I notice the tap she is using is dripping water into the heater air intake below.
    Ring plumber to ask him if that would be the cause. He reckons it almost certainly is.
    Cancel order.

    6
  156. Mater

    It might pay to pause, breathe and at read it at least once before reposting here. Fact checking beforehand would be nice too, but small steps for you Monty.

    Speaking of fact checking, has m0nty-fa yet offered any actual evidence for his assertions this morning about Trump carrying classified materials abroad (presumably after he left the presidency) or his supposed actions causing multiple CIA agents to be compromised?

    Thought not.

    1
  157. Go back to 1972 and examine his record from then on. There is NOTHING good to say about him.

    He did try to talk Argentina out of taking on the poms in 1982, on the basis that the poms would roll up their sleeves give them one helluva lickin’

    1
  158. Guy Verhofstadt
    @guyverhofstadt
    · 15h
    Welcome to the start of the new political year, where Europe’s old political problems remain on the table…

    Whatever vital role Poland is playing to help Ukraine, it will NOT get EU recovery funds unless it fully restores the rule of law ! ?? twitter.com/goodlobbyprofs…

    Liberals will always stab you in the back. Good on Hungary for telling them from the get go to go and pound sand, they will do what is in their interests.

    6
  159. he just bought me two bottles of Chanel!

    Is that as good as Talisker?

    Great with Diet Coke.
    Fanta at a push.

    Also works as a Morning Stiffener in an Aldi Espresso.

    3
  160. From the link posted by rosie. How many failed “Voices to Parliament ” have there been?

    ATSIC’S CONTROVERSIAL HISTORY

    The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission was the latest in a line of failed Indigenous advisory boards.

    It was created by Bob Hawke’s Labour government in 1990 out of the ashes of the National Aboriginal Conference.

    The NAC – itself formed out of the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee, formed by the Whitlam Government in 1973 – was riven by division and clashes with the government by the time it collapsed in 1985.

    ATSIC was to set up to to advise Governments at all levels, provide peak national and international advocacy for Australian Indigenous affairs, and deliver and monitor Indigenous programs and services.

    It was made up of 35 regional councils with over 400 councillors, the ATSIC Board with 18 zone commissioners, and an elected chairman.

    The behemoth billion-dollar-a-year agency was also backed up by several hundred public servants who did all the research and helped draft policy.

    But it was wracked by controversy and in 1996 Pauline Hanson called for it to be abolished in her maiden speech.

    It was also criticised for its lack of autonomy and that its policy advice was ignored by the government.

    Others said it was not properly representative of the Indigenous community

    It would survive for another eight years but the final nail in its coffin came when Labor joined the call for it to be abolished, 14 years after it was created by a Labor government.

    It was replaced by the hand-picked 12-member National Indigenous Council but that did not survive beyond the election of Kevin Rudd’s Labor government in 2007.

    The Uluru Statement From The Heart calls for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament which will be locked into the Constitution to protect it from being axed politically.

    Labor has proposed a referendum on the question before the end of 2023

    5
  161. TaliDan’s new unionised CFA bureaucracy has the shits up because very few volunteers have submitted their vaccination status.
    Big state daddy sending out personal email warnings that we can’t man the trucks if we haven’t filling in all the paperwork. Let’s see if this bit of bullshit survives till fire season.
    It would be a good look to have VicPlod drag volunteers off trucks and fine them for firefighting without the approved vaccination pass.

    19
  162. There’ve been more invoices than voices.
    So far at least. I suspect the latest voice will mean more invoices.
    That seems to be how it works.

    3
  163. fFS, over 10 million Australians have bothered to let the authorities know they have the couf. What is the point of vaccine mandates anymore?

    3
  164. Megansays:
    August 29, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    How do I know this? Call it woman’s intuition

    Your intuition desperately needs a major service and definite tune up. It’s sending out 100% fritzing vibes.
    Never a good place for your intuition to be operating.

    Hmm – “fritzing vibes”. Is this what you mean? “Fritzing can be seen as an electronic design automation (EDA) tool for non-engineers: the input metaphor is inspired by the environment of designers (the breadboard-based prototype), while the output is focused on accessible means of production. As of December 2, 2014 Fritzing has made a code view option, where one can modify code and upload it directly to an Arduino device.[7]” Reference from Wiki. Perhaps you have a colloquial usage that you might care to explain. My intuition has stood me in good stead for many years and through lots of bullshit. Fritzing or not.

    5
  165. The social media pages tell me that paragon of sportsmanship, Adam Goodes will shortly begin a position in an advisory role in the development of indigenous soccer.

    Good. Goodes and socka deserve each other.

    3
  166. Adam Goodes will shortly begin a position in an advisory role in the development of indigenous soccer.

    I thought he would have been a prime contender for the “Voice?”

    2
  167. Knuckle Draggersays:

    August 29, 2022 at 9:14 pm

    The social media pages tell me that paragon of sportsmanship, Adam Goodes will shortly begin a position in an advisory role in the development of indigenous soccer.

    Soccer was way ahead of him.
    They banned “studs out” tackles before he even thought of the idea.

    4
  168. Speaking of fact checking, has m0nty-fa yet offered any actual evidence for his assertions this morning about Trump carrying classified materials abroad (presumably after he left the presidency) or his supposed actions causing multiple CIA agents to be compromised?

    What’s hilarious is monty and his enablers pretending to be concerned about a situation (a hypothetical fantasm) wherein the security of The West is “put at risk”.

    There’s more sincerity in a plastic dog turd.

    6
  169. There’s more sincerity in a plastic dog turd.

    The comparison between m0nster and a dog turd is apt.
    At least with a dog turd, you know someone has bent their back and put in an effort.

    9
  170. over 10 million Australians have bothered to let the authorities know they have the couf.

    Oops! I forgot to tell them!

    6
  171. That sounds like a job for Albo’s 600,000 strong Green Army.
    They can abseil down each blade with a rag and some Bam cleaning spray.

    No abseiling.
    Straddling the blade and sliding all the way down.
    They were trained by a master of the rub-and-tug.

    5
  172. CC Berka

    Straddling the blade and sliding all the way down.

    They shall ride the Mare of Steel?

    3
  173. Fibreglass mostly these days, Boambee, but what a sado-renewabist and a consenting turbine do in the privacy of their own public hillside is none of my business.

    3
  174. I thought he would have been a prime contender for the “Voice?”

    he volunteered which is what prompted Luigi called Shaq .. LOL!

    1
  175. Entropysays:
    August 29, 2022 at 9:09 pm
    fFS, over 10 million Australians have bothered to let the authorities know they have the couf.

    some of those may be ‘catching’ the couf every month or so to avoid their work vaccine mandates.

    .. just a thought.

    8
  176. “Sliante.”

    Sitting on the verandah, with a large single malt, reading Keith Windschuttle, and waiting for the next round of dividends declared is a good and worthy occupation, in a self funded retirement.

    5
  177. Looking back, I see I’ve spent the day laying sword to Trusted Bloggers promising death to Covid jabbees on the basis of shite statistics.

    I probably should also have noted that, on exactly the same basis, since the early vaccine trials, I have also been critical of those who believed the statistically impossible dream that Covid vaccines would deliver Herd Immunity.

    The maths never stacked up.

    At the bottom, the political lure of herd immunity through vaccination has created the various tyrannies of government we have all suffered over the past two years.

    Mandates, the National Lockdown, State lockdowns – and the supporting masking social distancing minutia – all done on the basis of pressuring for 90%? 95%? vaccination rates that would ‘stop the spread’ and ‘save the hospital’ system.

    All obviously based on bullshit assumptions: all discussed here on the Cat in 2020.

    I might say I put the Morrison Government in a similar place as the Daily Exposé.

    12
  178. … been enjoying a bourbon lately myself

    Philistine.
    Unless the enjoyment is from pouring it down the drain.

  179. Youngest is in PEAC course, primary extension and challenge. Kids are picked on academic ability and thinking skills, although year after year the chosen are 9/10 girls, so methinks there’s a thumb on the scales.
    So far, they have-
    -built a diorama of a city of the future
    -made lego robot police
    -written free-verse poems about ancient Chinese maths
    -presented a quiz show starring their favourite Greek superheroes
    -acted a play with the minor characters from fairy tales
    …and a few other low-energy fingerpainting activities. I’ve stopped myself from asking her about it, because all and sundry can read my bafflement at the pointless pettiness of what they “work on”. I had discourse with the course co-ordinator early on after she sent a ditzy “thanks for letting us have your children, we’re going to make their dreams a reality and teach them how to change the world for the better!!!” cover letter out. I have banned myself from contact her again.
    I mean, jeeezus crist. I did PEAC last century and it was matchsticks and baking soda and tidy girls from the fancy town schools, but I know now that it was chemistry, engineering, maths, and work work work, crunching concepts and equations and taking measurements.
    The latest bit of tat to come through was a consent form for publishing names and photos on their amazing social media platforms to show the interwebs the amazing workings and learnings of our wonderful talented kiddies- not even from PEAC but from a third party provider who was running a dumbarse “tournament” in a city up the way. The tournament involved making costumes from recycled materials, and some sort of five minute play about what Mr MacGregor did with Peter’s dad when he got caught.
    I flat out said no- (wifey has probably fished it out of the bin and signed it, conformity with the crowd is essential for Kiddo’s mental health)- names and faces on Facebook has got nothing to do with educating kids, it’s simply free advertising for the company on the smartfone pixel-go-round of the mummies. I’m very wary that the soft-serve Disney+ curriculum and affirmation of the crowd is replacing the self-respect that a kid gets by ploughing through difficult work, difficult times, difficult classmates.
    At a glance, the whole PEAC program could now be mistaken for a scheme to take the brainy girls out of school and water down their diet to the point where they really really wanna just be Tik Tok ditzes.

    5
  180. Zulu!
    sláinte agatsa

    … been enjoying a bourbon lately myself

    2004 – on holiday, in Scotland, with Mm Zulu, in the Whisky centre, on the Royal Mile, an aggrieved American was complaining that they didn’t sell bourbon……

  181. he volunteered which is what prompted Luigi called Shaq .. LOL!

    The Luigi – Shaq presser was pure absurdity.

    If his PR Mongs haven’t realised by now that they done fucked up. Elbow is toast.

    2
  182. Rub’n’tug crashing and burning-
    “Smash her!”
    Not knowing the unemployment/interest rate
    Not knowing the price of bread or snaggers
    Running from press conferences
    Shafting the memory of Kimberly Kitching
    …the man is a cockroach. Sheesh, he just kicked off an inquiry into the ancient past which will pre-emptively hobble his only leadership rivals, Shorten and Plibersek. He’ll hang on for a while yet.

    6
  183. Adam Goodes will shortly begin a position in an advisory role in the development of indigenous soccer.

    Sooker surely? The life of a Professional Aboriginal. Or the luck of the Irish?

    2

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