Latest News: Australian Govt refuses to admit its fuck ups
So the Australian Govt is going to appeal the Haneef visa ruling.
Kevin Andrews justified this by saying:
Further information has been provided to me after I made the original decision and that further information actually highlighted my suspicion in relation to Dr Haneef
Oh really Kevin? If your case was strong in the first place you wouldn’t need “further information” would you? You’re not just making that up to cover your own arse are you? What exactly do you have other than your suspicions?
For the record Kev, evidence and suspicions are not the same thing.
Also Kev while we discussing how the dangers of unused SIM cards can undermine national security can I ask you about the millions of dollars the AWB directly gave Saddam Hussein? Has everyone involved in that gone to jail yet? I hope so! But I doubt it.
Now before you call me un-Australian (which is an abstract, bullshit term used by idiots) I would just like to clarify that I expect the Australian authorities to protect us from “threats” and pursue and punish those applicable. I just want them to have some real evidence before they do so and that they don’t use people like Hicks or Haneef to push their own agendas.
Surely that is not too much to ask?
SIM cards
When I was at uni I shared a flat with a guy from Lebanon. I never gave him a SIM card. We didn’t have SIM cards back then.
I think I might have given him a capuccino-maker that I didn’t want any more.
Stupid little men and their big cars
Once again we hear of the Australian male’s infinite capacity for stupidity when a teen driver got caught driving at 213kmh along the Great Alpine Road. I know that road well. It’s a popular tourist route so a police officer, radar in hand is always waiting, ready to catch stupid people. And then when they do get caught they probably feel hard done by.
I think that stupid people should spend some time with my dad. Back in the day my dad drove a tow truck and would attend car accidents. He saw everything from bruised egos to bodies torn to bits. One night he had to scrape brains off the road with a shovel. Another night he found a hand and promptly told the ambo’s. The nice man in the hospital sowed the owner back onto the hand. No damage done eh?
So knowing first hand (nice pun that!) the consequences of unsafe driving I am getting bored of seeing drivers who think they own the roads and that their wants are more important than mine.
- Why do cars have the capacity to go as fast as they do? It’s completely unnecessary.
- Why are cars allowed to be advertised as racing machines? If you want to go fast and get your thrills buy a bicycle and generate the pace yourself. You might even lose that gut and get an arse half as good as mine.
- Why has it become acceptable to screech the tyres, honk your horn and yell at anyone who gets in “your” way? Its stupid and people who do it look stupid.
I use to think it was sad when people died from their own dangerous driving. Now I don’t care, not even a little bit. If you are stupid enough to drive like Little Man was on the Great Alpine Road and you lose control and die horribly… suck shit! No damage done eh?
I pity your family and friends who you leave behind but you should not have been so selfish in the first place.
This ad sums up my feelings nicely.
Showing my age
Went to see Peeping Tom at the Forum last week to relive my early-twenties fascination with Mike Patton, who was the front man for Faith No More. Saw him at Alternative Nation in 1995 (I think) when he was 10 times better than headlining Trent and Nine Inch Nails who climaxed with a lame instrument smashing exit effort.
Mike was great then and is great now. He is funny and he has a great voice with awesome range and he assembled a diverse bunch of musicians ranging from a sultry songstress with Macy Gray hair to a slim girl with a huge beat box talent, to a dextrous DJ and a geeky guy on keyboards and close trio on drums and guitars. They did hip hoppy tunes and got the crowd involved and there was a bit of banter. It was great.
Until a bunch of morons in black tshirts in the front row started spitting. At Mike. He’s seen it all, being a festival heavy in the eighties and early nineties, but even Mr Patton commented on the gross gesture chosen by these supposed ‘fans’. They persisted. And so it was only right that he reciprocate. Good one Melbourne morons. Thanks for making us a memorable crowd for all the wrong reasons. And reminding us just how ‘base’ the Australian male can be.
I look forward to hearing him again, next time in a smoke free venue.
Howard’s discoveries
For decades John Howard and his government have denied climate change.
Then, belatedly, we get what is at best a half-hearted, crowd-pleasing response.
Now, again after decades of advice, reports and calls for assistance, Howard has ‘discovered’ that there is a crisis in Aboriginal communities.
And once again we get a knee-jerk, back to the ’50s, media attention grabbing response. As critics have noted in the media today
- Some of the measures will weaken communities and families by taking from them the ability to make basic decisions about their lives.
- There are no measures in the Prime Minister’s statement to set up services for children who are abused.
- The problems of child abuse will only be addressed when Aboriginal communities and professional services are empowered, engaged and driving the process.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has said that the focus in the first six months would be on stabilising the communities, before establishing a “comprehensive, ongoing health plan” for indigenous children.
How conveniently that coincides with the electoral cycle.
What’s next?
Maybe he will discover the drug problem and propose that to cope with overcrowding in our prisons we should transport undesirables to distant outposts of the empire. (Oh wait we’re already doing that).
Drinks at the Carlton Hotel, Melbourne
A few days ago myself and three friends were having a quite couple of beers The Carlton Hotel on Bourke St in Melbourne. Recently The Carlton Hotel has undergone a significant refurbishment so we thought it was worth taking a look.
One of my friends is a keen photographer and before meeting us had purchased a new lens. He thought the surrounds of the Carlton Hotel would be an ideal setting for some test photographs, so he took a handful of portraits of us as we sipped our beers and chatted.
Next thing a bouncer is standing above our table abruptly telling us that no photos are allowed and to put the camera away or have it confiscated. It was pretty intimidating and made the four of us feel pretty awkward. I asked why taking a few photographs was a problem, especially as we weren’t getting in way of anyone.
At this point the bouncer got very aggressive and told us “because I said so” and that he would throw us out if he was questioned any further. I said that because he was being so rude that we would leave after we finished our drinks, to which he said “he didn’t care”.
I emphasize the fact that I wasn’t drunk and wasn’t trying to challenge or antagonize him. I just wanted a sensible answer to a sensible question.
I can’t understand why that bouncer at The Carlton Hotel had to be so aggressive and treat us like we were naughty little children who were lucky to in “his bar”? Surely if he treated us like adults it could have been so much easier, and we wouldn’t have left feeling hard done by.
I have been to many bars that let people take photos of one another (flash and sans flash) and it has never caused problems, after all it is just people “letting their hair down” and having a little fun. So why is The Carlton Hotel any different and why does The Carlton Hotel allow its bouncers to treat its patrons like they do?
I appreciate that bouncers must have to deal with some very drunk and unpleasant patrons however this was certainly not the case.
We finished our drinks and left. It was a sad ending to an evening at The Carlton Hotel. We won’t be going back ever. There are plenty of other places to have a beer in Melbourne.
Paris grows up
I generally don’t like to add to the hysterical publicity machine that surrounds Miss Princess Hilton, but feel compelled to share her latest wisdom with you.
You are no doubt aware that Miss Piggy recently suffered a memory lapse two or three times when forgot she wasn’t meant to drink and drive. And then that she wasn’t meant to drive without a licence. And then that she’d been warned once already about driving without a licence, like.
This week she stepped out of the limelight and off the red carpet to do her time in detention for her bad memory and left us with proof of her maturation:
“In the future, I plan on taking more of an active role in the decisions I make.”
An inspiring new role model is born.
Mind the gap
We are all tired of suffering the daily commute on trains that:
A) Turn up late
B) Turn up late and heaving with human cargo
C) Don’t turn up.
For those of us lucky enough to avoid the daily commute (like me), we are tired of reading about everyone else’s misfortune and how little is being done to improve our public transport system in the face of skyrocketing fuel prices and looming environment disaster. Yippee, new trains by 2008. The local authorities who govern our illustrious city’s centre are investing much energy in extending parking meter hours to raise revenues lost by reduced numbers choosing to drive into the city to work. Why the deafening silence from the legislators when the complaints from their constituents are becoming louder and louder?
I read with interest how commuters in Buenos Aires make their frustration plain…
You’re not Shannon Noll are you?
The other day I was standing at a bar buying a couple of pints and the old guy next to me says…
Excuse me, you’re not Shannon Noll are you?
I have been told I look like Dave Grohl or the guy from The Whitlams stacks of times but Shannon Noll is a new one.
I was in Canberra at the time so that could explain things.
At least he didn’t say Casey Donovan.
Up shit creek with a turd for a paddle
Usually whenever I start a new project at work the conversation goes something like this:
Client: Hi Ben, nice to meet you. I am the client and I have these ideas and these requirements. Do you think you can help me out?
Ben: Hi Client, nice to meet you too. Yeah sure I can help you. I like your ideas but have you also thought about this and that?
Client: No but I am glad you ran that past me. Thanks.
Ben: No worries. Lets get working then.
But the project I am currently working on goes something like this:
« go back — keep looking »Client: Hi Ben, nice to meet you. I am the client. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Do you think you can help me out?
Ben: Hi Client, nice to meet you too. Yeah sure I can help you. This is the first time I have worked with your Dept so please be patient with me. Do you think you can repeat that so I can understand your requirements a little more? Give me a scenario so I can see exactly what you do.
Client: Oh sure! Sorry about that, we get use to using our terms and jargon. We’ve all been working here for so long it is easy to forget this topic is not easy to understand. Anyway what we actually want is lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis ligula. Donec ac dui non tortor nonummy congue. Proin viverra lectus. Morbi non ante. Quisque urna enim, pretium vel, ultricies nec, mattis ac, ipsum.
Ben: Um…
Client: You know! Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis ligula. Donec ac dui non tortor nonummy congue. Proin viverra lectus. Morbi non ante. Quisque urna enim, pretium vel, ultricies nec, mattis ac, ipsum.
Ben: Um…
Client: Great! Its all sorted then. See you next week for the first deliverable. Oh and by the way a bunch of stuff relating to that deliverable is not available yet. We’re not sure when it will be but you can just fill in the gaps.
Ben: Um…