I listen to all the complaints about interest rates and have to wonder why I never complained when paying off domestic and commercial mortgages that NEVER had interest rates under 12%.
I lived in Canada in the 70’s and early 80’s and saw mortgage rates of 17% and second and third mortgages with rates over 20%.
So I ask why all the drama with 6% interest?

…the most significant revolt of religious groups to a government proposal in recent history.

As much as they have a legitimate argument in what is supposedly a pluralist society, sooner rather than later faith leaders had better understand that he who pays the piper calls the tune. If religious schools are going to receive public funds, they are going to be compelled to subscribe to public values, which are increasingly antagonistic to religious values. This “revolt” may achieve a delay in that process, but I doubt it will halt it. In which case, to Christian leaders in particular, I ask, what are your plans?

So I ask why all the drama with 6% interest?

18% on 52k mortgage = 9.5k
6% on 850k mortgage = 51k

We paid 63k for our first house in Parramatta in 1984. The units that were built on it later go for 900k each.

I lived in Canada in the 70’s and early 80’s and saw mortgage rates of 17% and second and third mortgages with rates over 20%.
So I ask why all the drama with 6% interest?

Similar in Oz at the time. I can recall our home mortgage rates between 14-16%. Can recall property investment loans well over that figure. But the “biggy” was our business overdraft rate of 22%! But we somehow managed – paid off our home and ran a successful business. Eventually paid off the property loans too.

So, why the drama over 6% interest? Because those paying it have no recall of those times – being mostly “kiddies”at the time. History of finance not “their thing”.

If taken all the way to the High Court, it’s doubtful the Commonwealth would be held to be empowered to control the religious identity of religious schools based on the investment of public monies. I’m sure there’s a Section 51 angle in there too somewhere.

In respect of that, it’s worth noting that neither the Constutition nor the HC guarantees freedom of religion.

Rabz at 2:42 – yep, forget the “in my day “ bullshit and look at income multiples. Particularly when you are paying 30%+ marginal tax on AWE.

The best “endarkening” was Zelig from that weirdo Woody.

I have seen proposals to make home loans run more than 30+ years to make them more “affordable”. You cant pay your house off, but your kids might.

Razey might have that problem in Japan. In reality inter generational equity doesn’t get much airplay. Niall Ferguson raises it here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jms03/episodes/guide

The hyperbole … and the arrogance … is simply breathtaking.

Once again, WA leads the way in punishing the blameless and removing individual liberties under the false guise of ‘safety’.

Premier Mark McGowan outlaws high-powered rifles after secret bunker gun cache find

High-powered rifles capable of piercing armoured plating and firing over significant ranges will be outlawed in WA from July 1.

Premier Mark McGowan announced his government’s latest crackdown on firearm ownership on Tuesday, saying the weapons being targeted by the new ban were only appropriate for war zones like Ukraine.

“These rifles can fire for kilometres. They can use armour piercing rounds. The bullets themselves can go through vehicles, even armoured vehicles,” Mr McGowan said.

“And there’s no purpose, no need, no role for those sorts of guns in our community.”

The ban, an Australian first, covers 56 different guns and 19 calibres of ammunition.

WA Police are currently aware of 248 licensed firearms in WA that are set to become illegal under the new rules, all of which much be surrendered prior to the July 1 deadline.

The owners of those guns will be compensated at “market value” in a buyback program that is expected to cost around $1.5 million in total.

Anyone that fails to hand in one of the targeted firearms will be followed up by police and have the weapon seized.

Police Minister Paul Papalia said the ban was being implemented at the request of WA Police and would not restrict the ability of professional shooters tasked with controlling populations of wild camels and horses, who he said used lower calibre weapons.

“In Western Australia, the desire to have a powerful weapon as an enthusiast is trumped by the safety of our police officers and the community,” he said.

An ongoing national amnesty means anyone who owns an unregistered gun can hand the weapon in anonymously and face no penalty.

From July 1, Mr Papalia said police would actively seek to recover any of the 248 currently licensed weapons covered by the new ban that had not been surrendered.

He conceded the kinds of rifles being targeted had not previously been used against police officers but said that was not a strong enough reason not to act proactively.

“They need to be removed. They’re a threat. You don’t wait until the event happens, you don’t wait until the tragedy occurs to act,” Mr Papalia said.

WA Police acting Commissioner Kylie Whiteley said there had been an increase in the number of high-powered rifles legally owned across the State despite her agency “on occasion” challenging the decision to grant a license in the State Administrative Tribunal.

“Quite frankly they’re not safe to be to be in the community and they’re not safe for police officers to have to have that risk of having to confront them,” Ms Whiteley said.

Ms Whitely later told talkback radio there were “ongoing liaison” with shooting organisations, but police had been steadfast on their attitude towards high-calibre weapons.

“It is very clear the position that we have and always have had and those firearms are consequently part of the ban,” she said.

The ban follows the announcement last week of the McGowan Government’s plans to introduce mandatory mental health checks for gun owners – another Australian first.

WA Police Union acting president Paul Gale welcomed the push to remove high-powered weapons from the hands of ordinary West Australians.

“For the safety of themselves and the community, police officers need to have an ‘edge’ over the type of firearms that they may encounter during their job,” Mr Gale said.

“The best way to achieve that edge is to tightly regulate the private ownership of firearms so that police officers don’t need the very high-powered variety for general duties.

“Otherwise, you’ll get a US-style outcome where some general police officers need to patrol around with AR-15s in armoured vehicles just to keep a lid on things.”

Nineteen different calibres? What will they be? My guess would be anything above a bog standard 30.06

“These rifles can fire for kilometres. They can use armour piercing rounds. The bullets themselves can go through vehicles, even armoured vehicles,” Mr McGowan said.

That’s some very precise data you got there Mr. McGowan.

I have seen proposals to make home loans run more than 30+ years to make them more “affordable”. You cant pay your house off, but your kids might.

I met a guy in the late 1980s from Bonn. He told me he was expected to take over the family’s house mortgage when his father retired. I thought the notion of passing property debt down through the generations was absurd and ridiculous. But here we are in a country with more land than we can fly over but the cost of real estate is through the roof. Multi-gen debt does not seem so far-fetched these days.

The Paywallian reporting Mrs Pirate Pete dumped Channel 10 lawyers for her own.

Fight, you bastards, fight! I hate peace!

Fair Shake at 3:35 – in Australia it will be complicated by the interaction with superannuation. Up till now you took a lump sum, went on a European river cruise and bought a caravan. Increasingly you will be paying off the home loan. Expect the tax treatment of both to come under scrutiny.

Sneakers knows the value of a good scare campaign.

When her husband passed away, the wife put the usual death notice in the newspaper, but added that he had died of gonorrhea. Once the daily newspapers had been delivered, a good friend of the family phoned and complained bitterly “You know very well that he died of diarrhea, not gonorrhea”. Replied the widow “Yes, I know that he died of diarrhea, but I thought it would be better for posterity to remember him as a great lover rather than the big shit that he really was”.

Here we go … the calibres banned from July …

Forty-two suspected Chinese-made cameras have been stripped out of Defence sites across Australia, ­including from highly sensitive ­locations such as the submarine base at HMAS Stirling, the Air Warfare Centre at RAAF Base Edinburgh, and the home of Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment, the Campbell Barracks.

Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to install Chinese made electronic equipment of any sort anywhere near military locations? I would love to know who signed off on it.

The Liars Ministers forAgriculture are always an affront to farmers (amongst others). Who could forget Labor’s Idiot Son Joe Ludwig? It is a matter for conjecture whether this is done on purpose.

“And there’s no purpose, no need, no role for those sorts of guns in our community.”

Which is to say that whereas you used to own things outright you must now be ready to justify to the government your right to own them. And if you disagree the government, which is able to foist laws and rules upon you – which you as a citizen have no such power with regards to them – prevails. They have armies of bureaucrats, battalions of lawyers, and financial resources as deep as ever citizens pockets combined.

But to many people McGowan’s words will seem innocuous enough. Everybody knows America is a bloodbath from coast to coast. We don’t want that!

Being required to justify yourself to the government all the time is an extremely insidious thing. Those stupid checking in things during the Covid Panic-a-palooza being a case in point. I heard people (again, entranced by the siren song of government) defending the preposterous rigmarole with the argument that no one doing the right thing would have anything to hide. Well, the Soviets certainly felt so. Was the only bit of injustice in the USSR was that the government were ‘the bad guys’?

Or is it that to be human we need to feel out of the gaze, to have our public life balanced with a private one, even things that we feel might seem a bit silly to other people. We speak indulgently of ‘guilty pleasures’ because they aren’t morally guilty but because they are the things we enjoy that our public persona (which must reconcile all sorts of social, political, and professional relationships) would scorn.

I did try asking some people if they really felt comfortable with the idea that at some point they are challenged on where they were and for what purpose on some day in the past they cannot recall. If, without any recollection of anything they were presented with the ‘evidence’ and they had to prove their innocence. It might have happened, it might have been a cock up, it might have been something innocent, or it could be an act of spite by someone with a gripe. That was what those check ins did, and as more and more private information is clocked up on each of us the accusations will get worse and the potential penalties more severe.

It’s like temperature time series. You choose the start point you like.

Veteran Independent councillor Paul Garrard, 71, was orating the 1892 classic “The Man from Ironbark” at the start of a dinner following an annual budget weekend planning session for Cumberland Council …

Jebus. Probably listens to Macca on Sunday.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/truck-new-york-strikes-pedestrians-driver-taken-into-custody-media-reports-2023-02-13/

On the anniversary of an Allans Snackbar truck mowing down peeps in 2017..

Premier McClown is currently talking about something called “Abortioncare”

Isn’t that an oxymoron???

US Tells Americans to Leave Russia ASAP!

From Armstrong Economics –

COMMENT: I am an American living in Moscow. We were just told that all Americans should leave Russia ASAP by the US embassy. I think all the governments are now looking at Socrates. Your name is even well known here in Moscow. Maybe you have more influence than you realize.

anonymous

REPLY: Well, I have been interviewed on Russian TV several times. RT even asked me about our forecast that Ukraine would be the hot spot a year in advance and we predicted that this would be where WWIII would begin. It is the American press that refuses to cover any of our forecasts. Amazon and Netflix refused to show the movie the Forecaster in the United States. You can what it on Amazon only outside the USA. Then, we were selling the DVD on Amazon in the USA since they refused to stream it. Then that listing was “hacked” to shut that down. The only way to get the DVD is now to order it through our site. All of this just shows how desperate it has become in the United States to actually have a free society. I get a lot of requests for interviews outside the United States. Even the Forecaster Movie was funded by German TV. No American firm would dare produce a film that exposed the corruption in our Judicial system!

Look, EVERY intelligence service monitors our forecasts. Everyone knows this is a computer, not my personal opinion. Consequently, they want the cold hard facts and the timing. Are they acting because of our timing models? No. If they were, they would back off because our models also show the US will lose this one.

Historically, when such an advisory is issued, it is because of a conflict that is imminent. Beware in April/May. The Pi Target on Ukraine is April 26th, 2023. We are headed into a period in that only the computer can project timing with an objective attitude.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/russia/americans-told-to-leave-russia-asap/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Two young guys were picked up by the cops for smoking dope and appeared in court on Friday before the judge. The judge said “You seem like nice young men, and I’d like to give you a second chance rather than jail time. I want you to go out this weekend and try to show others the evils of drug use and get them to give up drugs forever. I’ll see you back in court Monday”.

Monday, the two guys were in court, and the judge said to the first one “How did you do over the weekend?” “Well, your Honour, I persuaded 17 people to give up drugs forever”. “17 people? That’s wonderful. What did you tell them?” “I used a diagram, your Honour. I drew two circles like this…

…and told them this (the big circle) is your brain before drugs and this (small circle) is your brain after drugs”. “That’s admirable” said the judge.

“And you, how did you do?” he asked the second boy “Well, your Honour, I persuaded 156 people to give up drugs forever”. “156 people! That’s amazing! How did you manage to do that?!?” “Well, I used a similar approach”.

The guy draws two circles.

“I said (pointing to the small circle) ‘this is your asshole before prison…’”

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘no, I went to films.’

– Quentin Tarantino

“15-minute cities” theory collides with the reality of cops being stranded at bollards when trying to attend a 999 call.

Very humourous, but his ego won’t allow it. It will go ahead. Hun:

Premier Daniel Andrews has been urged to check his “white male privilege” and refuse a statue for his long service in favour of bestowing the honour on a woman.

Mr Andrews will have served 3000 days in office on Monday, the trigger for immortalisation in a statue under a Kennett government policy from the 1990s.

If a bronzed Andrews monument is erected beside some former premiers outside One Treasury Place it will join about 570 men with statues across Melbourne.

Only nine women have monuments, including Queen Victoria, Olympians Betty Cuthbert and Shirley Strickland, opera star Dame Nellie Melba, AFLW player Tayla Harris and French military heroine Joan of Arc.

La Trobe University historian and co-convener of activist group A Monument of One’s Own, Professor Clare Wright, called on the Premier to act.

“Whether we need another statue of a white male public figure is open to debate and certainly a point at which Daniel Andrews might stop to consider whether the resources could be redirected to closing the gender gap when it comes to commemorative justice in this state,” she said.

“He would be well within his progressive rights to be able to put forward other names of women who have contributed a great deal to the political history and civic culture of Victoria who have gone unrecognised thus far.”

Prof Wright said Mr Andrews had been a great leader and deserved his electoral success, but he had been aided by “other levels of privilege and advantage that he’s had on account of his gender”.

She said that women’s rights pioneer Vida Goldstein, who was among the first women to stand for federal Parliament, deserved a statue.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who will have served 3000 days in office later this year, said she didn’t want her state to adopt Victoria’s practice, and would “definitely not” accept a statue.

However, at this stage the Andrews government is sticking with the protocol, while also ensuring that more women are recognised in public art.

“Under a policy decision put in place by the Kennett government, Victorian premiers who serve 3000 days or more in office will be the subject of a statue to be installed along Treasury Place in recognition of the longevity of their service to the state,” said a Department of Premier and Cabinet spokesman.

“As a matter of practice, the Department of Premier and Cabinet would provide a brief to government initiating the commissioning after a qualifying premier had left office.”

Institute of Public Affairs Foundations of Western Civilisation Program director Bella d’Abrera said the Premier should refuse a statue.

“If Dan Andrews was truly committed to diversity as he claims he is, he would vacate the pedestal to a woman or a person of colour,” she said.

Dr d’Abrera said the late Queen Elizabeth II should be honoured instead.

Businesswoman and former Western Bulldogs vice-president Susan Alberti questioned why the statue policy had to continue.

“I know the precedent’s been set, but do we have to continue along that way when there are women who have done outstanding work for this state who don’t get recognised ever,” she said.

“I don’t want to be controversial … I’m just over men being recognised all the time.”

Ms Alberti said a portrait could be done of Mr Andrews, and she suggested that a “smart and humble” person like Governor Linda Dessau should get a statue.

“Our governor has done a wonderful job, she’s been outstanding,” she said.

City of Melbourne councillor and CFMEU official Elizabeth Doidge said she wasn’t bothered if the Premier got a statue, but generally didn’t favour “glorifying politicians just for the sake of it”.

“There should be more recognition of women, but not just for a tick-box exercise, there are plenty of women out there who have done amazing things,” she said.

Ms Doidge said that her childhood hero was Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman, who has a statue in Sydney.

While there was a broad call for more female statues, there was support across the political divide for the Premier to get his monument.

Former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett said the 3000 days qualifying period had been set on advice from public servants, and he didn’t oppose Mr Andrews being so recognised.

“Of course, the criteria can be changed by the government of the day, as they change many other aspects of community life,” he said.

Mr Kennett said he had previously unsuccessfully urged governments to erect a statue to Victoria’s first female premier Joan Kirner.

“Maybe they could commission one of Joan and Daniel to stand among their predecessors outside number One Treasury Place,” he said.

Also backing a Kirner statue is Deputy Lord Mayor and ALP figure Nicholas Reece, who is leading a City of Melbourne push to redress the imbalance of male over female monuments.

“Joan was such a trailblazer, she deserves a statue,” he said.

All in all, a rather crap attitude by the ladies. Just examples of the Left trying to put Left each other. Mongyang is such a perfect title for the city formerly known as Melbourne.

Families are awesome.
Catholics have had the role models of the Holy Family for 2000 years.
I was reading a twitter thread of a Vietnamese American priest who was grateful to his mother, she went to see her parish priest in Vietnam after her fifth or sixth child and asked if she could use artificial contraception, he said it would be a mortal sin and she went home and ended up with twelve children, he was the eighth.

Someone snapped a photo of Mr and Mrs bandanna off overseas the other day.
Both in masks, her in big sunglasses, him in a cap, I’m assuming the masks not for covid but for anonymity.
Unsuccessful.

Graham Himmelhoch-Mutton.

With Mutton being pronounced ” moo – ton “

There’s a very Adelaide name that applied for the ABC board, Graham Himmelhoch-Mutton

Sounds ideal.

Cassie’s favourite in the news, Daily Telegraph:

NSW Labor has accused the government of a “secret privatisation agenda” after a senior minister refused to rule out the potential for selling off the state’s assets, saying there is “nothing wrong with privatisation”.

Speaking at the Property Council of Australia’s Western Sydney Outlook conference, the Liberal Minister for Transport, Veterans and Western Sydney, David Elliott said asset recycling will continue to be an option for governments, even if there were currently no confirmed plans.

“There are no plans for privatisation but that’s not to say that privatisation won’t occur, because there’s nothing wrong with privatisation,” he said on Tuesday morning.

“There is no ideological difference between Labor and Liberal when it comes to privatisation because we’ve both done it, we both do it, and we both will do it.”

He also highlighted the sale of Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank which occurred under the government of former Labor prime minister Paul Keating.

Furthering his point, Mr Elliott said “there’s no way in the world” that Opposition leader Chris Minns could “put his hand on a Bible right now and say that there will be no privatisation”.

“Saying there will be no privatisation in my mind is dishonest because governments sell assets, governments create industries, create networks, create opportunities, and then they sell it,” he said.

Shadow Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said Mr Elliott’s comments were proof of a “secret privatisation agenda”.

In the lead up to the March 25 state election, Mr Minns has repeatedly criticised the government of selling state-owned assets, and blames privatisation for the increasing costs of power bills and toll roads.

“Dominic Perrottet and Matt Kean can’t get the story straight on further privatisation from this government,” he told NCA NewsWire.

“But David Elliott, a member of the government with nothing to lose in the next term of parliament, has come clean about the government’s secret privatisation agenda.”

Mr Elliott denied Mr Mookhey’s allegations.

“Mookhey should get his facts right before he commented because I specifically said there are no plans for further privatisation but Labor have a hide complaining about it given they sold Qantas, The Commonwealth Bank and tried to sell the state’s electricity assets last time they were in power,” he said.

Whether a Coalition government would privatise further state assets has been a key question faced by the NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Treasurer Matt Kean in the last week.

In the first leader’s debate of the election campaign, Mr Perrottet said Labor would not be able to fund their infrastructure projects without funding from privatisation, a process Mr Minns likened to “flogging off the family jewels”.

“What you’re saying is, you’re not going to privatise anything. Is that not going to leave you with your hands tied? When it comes to building stuff that NSW needs?” said Mr Perrottet in the radio debate moderated by 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

On Monday, both Mr Kean and Mr Perrottet maintained there are “no plans” for further privatisation, but cited an economic strategy that involved asset recycling (another term for privatisation) and borrowing money to fund the government’s economic strategy.

However, previously speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr Kean unanimously ruled out privatising Sydney Water and Hunter Water.

NCA NewsWire has approached the Premier and the Treasurer’s offices for comment.

Just had a peek at twitter.
Apparently transmen, who are in fact women are mad at gay men who won’t ‘date’ them and claiming that those gay men aren’t really homosexual just lovers of male sexual appendages.
What?

Graham Himmelhoch-Mutton

lamb dressed up?

Zulu,
Went to Singleton Infantry Museum today and, among other artefacts, saw the Gatling Gun.

Is the new display on “Weapons of the Frontier Wars” open yet?

I thought they only boxed gays in Islamic countries?

Katie Hopkins: LIVE example of how media silencing works….a peep behind my curtains (so to speak)

Dutton’s got the Abbotts.
Terminal, I’m afraid.

He was a placeholder at best. Thanks to KRuddy they are stuck with him to the next election. Who’s up next?

Do you trust the Palaszczuk government to solve the youth crime crisis?

I don’t trust the Palaszczuk government to sit the right way on a shitter.

“Now is the time for the LGBTQIA+ community to show boxing is for everyone and we belong in the ring!”

Being ‘punched in the ring’ would be normal for them.

A sort of Ouroborus, but instead of the serpent eating it’s own tail eternally feeding on and growing itself we have the creature with its head up its own arse, continually eating its own shit.