The Dump

The Dump is:
For posting comments that don’t get up at the Drum, and for having a pleasant, mirthful or enlightening off-topic discussion.
It’s not for personal abuse of other commenters.
Please do that somewhere else if you must.
Play nicely or piss off.
However, why doesn’t a poster add a link for us to read and comment on here, much quicker. Maybe we can do a bit more bagging here, not that I speak for the moderators, yet.

NB: Being tiresome and boring, racist, sexist or just plain creepy is not playing nicely.

give a crap

———-

The Pig’s Arms exists because a dozen or so years ago our other favourite playpen – the ABC’s Unleashed blogsphere started to go off.  Like a sack of prawn heads  in the sun.  Something had to be done.

Moderation was taking forever.  Comments seemed to be rejected randomly – outrageous ones appeared and reasoned ones were pinged.   When they released the Drum / Unleashed ….. things actually got worse !

So many pieces from professional writers appear with no obvious merit.  And the moderation has become, to put it frankly, appalling.

As a former contributor and a commenter, I was deeply disappointed at the plummeting quality from our pre-eminent media empire.  And I resented so many challenging or dare I say, witty or funny posts in which we’ve invested seconds of our precious time – getting the chop.

So here, for all our benefit – is an open slather blog.  Copy and paste your best rejected comments here for posterity.  Does not matter whether you’re posting on the Guardian, First Dog on the Moon or wherever else.

And sprinkle pointers to the Pig’s Arms amongst your comments.  Let’s try to rescue some of the old faithful.

Cheers,

Emm.

15242 thoughts on “The Dump”

  1. Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

    • A common case of one bad apple rotting up the rest of the barrel, Cazo. Corruption is the fastest spreading of all social cancers!

      Like

  2. I am Fatty Gued!
    Tired, too, really!
    Bugger all work done but that’s mainly due to Mrs Ato not letting me scream “Fuck” enough times!
    I don’t know how I’ll manage once she’s retired. She’s had more than enough already and wants to stop now but she’s not really due until next March. She’s struggling the poor sweetheart!

    Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      There is the gardening to share – all those vegies and preserving olives and then there is sharing the cooking. Just have to ensure you don’t get under each other’s feet. It will be a challenge but it can be done. You do what you do best and Mrs Ato likewise. Might be a problem in the cooking department !

      Like

      • Haha, no cooking will be no problem, Vivie. Or at least the smallest one: I’ll be doing it and she’ll go on loving it. It’s been thus pretty much from day one. I’m good with Ancient Greek and ancient cooking… no, not ancient…
        But the lady will have to be doing the groceries and the front yard where the non-edibles are.
        But I can see an addition here. She’ll be internetting for theatre and cinema tickets and we’ll be hitting the yellow brick road to all the musicals! Yikes! I love theatre but musicals are an abomination! Against the good of the State and authors and practitioners should send to Siberia for all eternity! I shall be suggesting she goes with our little ladies, after all, what did we make them for, if not to accompany either of us to events that the other can’t stand?
        Actually, I’m anticipating some good times. She makes the cups of tea and brings them out to the huge bench in the back yard where I am sunning my chops and writing my very lengthy memoirs and philosophies…
        Who knows?

        Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          Sounds familiar. Should be a piece of cake by the sounds of it. I do transcribing work for science doctor daughter. Hubby is mowing around the house. But the best thing I did was get him his own computer earlier this year. There is plenty for two to do with 8 acres, trees, fruit trees, pruning and fixing things.

          Like

  3. Bugger! I thought I’ve posted this chat on here before. Here it is:

    …..
    Please wait for a site operator to respond…
    Operator Live Chat has joined the chat.
    Live Chat
    11:19:29 AM AEDT
    Thank you for contacting Live Technical Support. How May I Help you?
    george theodoridis
    11:19:47 AM AEDT
    Nothing on my page works!
    Live Chat
    11:20:40 AM AEDT
    can you type the problem in details
    george theodoridis
    11:21:47 AM AEDT
    I can’t post anything, I can’t respond to anyone, I can’t “like” any comments, and I can’t “comment” on anything. None of these buttons work. In fact nothing seem to work!
    11:22:34 AM AEDT
    the url is: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo
    Live Chat
    11:22:55 AM AEDT
    since how long you are facing this problem
    george theodoridis
    11:23:07 AM AEDT
    Since yesterday morning
    Live Chat
    11:24:04 AM AEDT
    and where you have the facebook on computer or on the phone
    george theodoridis
    11:24:23 AM AEDT
    both but I use the computer mostly.
    11:25:01 AM AEDT
    I had this problem once before about one month or so ago
    Live Chat
    11:26:13 AM AEDT
    so,we need to connect your computer with our secure server to fif the problem
    george theodoridis
    11:26:26 AM AEDT
    OK
    Live Chat
    11:28:00 AM AEDT
    First I need to inform you that your facebook got compromised.
    george theodoridis
    11:28:14 AM AEDT
    By whom?
    Live Chat
    11:28:29 AM AEDT
    So, there would a nominal charge you need to pay to fix the issue.
    11:28:46 AM AEDT
    By someone unknown.
    george theodoridis
    11:29:04 AM AEDT
    Is that possible even after you fix the problem?
    Live Chat
    11:30:03 AM AEDT
    No, we will secure your account from our secure server.
    11:30:37 AM AEDT
    If anything goes wrong with your account, we will take care of that.
    george theodoridis
    11:30:51 AM AEDT
    What is the charge?
    Live Chat
    11:31:01 AM AEDT
    Not only facebook, we will take care your every software issue.
    11:31:31 AM AEDT
    The charge would be $200.
    11:31:58 AM AEDT
    Including 1yr free technical support
    george theodoridis
    11:32:40 AM AEDT
    That is far too much for me. I am a pensioner and earn very little money. No. It’s OK, I won’t use FB any more
    Live Chat
    11:32:42 AM AEDT
    Also we will provide free software, anti virus, etc.
    11:33:08 AM AEDT
    Also you can go for 6months service.
    george theodoridis
    11:33:19 AM AEDT
    I have an anti virus program . I pay a lot of money for MacKeeper!
    Live Chat
    11:33:24 AM AEDT
    It would charge you $150.
    george theodoridis
    11:33:36 AM AEDT
    No, forget it. Tanks, anyway!
    Live Chat
    11:33:56 AM AEDT
    We will give you anti virus for free with 5yr license key.
    george theodoridis
    11:34:30 AM AEDT
    No, I’m only interested in fixing the FB problem. I thought you were from them. Good bye!
    Live Chat
    11:34:38 AM AEDT
    Thank you for contacting Pairsys, have a nice day.

    Like

  4. Facebook is stuffed! It’s been having outage problems almost every second day recently. I wanted to congratulate a (FB)mate on an interview he did with ABC Tassie radio, which was brilliant but…
    He’s a fantastic chef and a great gardener. Love his postings.
    BASTARDS, FB!
    This social media, is turning us all into very anti-social beings!

    Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      Ato – back in June and July I had similar problems. Could not get the site to come up. I persisted and eventually broke through some weird problem. It has been working fine for me for some time now. The problem remains a bit of a mystery.

      Like

      • Is it working for you today, Vivie?

        Like

        • I can do nothing with it. No new loads, I can’t click on anything. Dead as a dodo!

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          Working all the time. I installed Adblock thingamejig which originally made no difference. It was as if my connecting to facebook was like trying to connect to Mars and when it made the occasional landing I could not communicate, post anything etc. Just look but do nothing. After about 2 months of that it started to come good and then it stayed that way. Assimilated itself or something. I yahooed the problem and others were having it happen too. I thought that maybe Firefox just didn’t like Facebook !! In the end there really was no logical explanation for either the problem or the fact that it fixed itself.

          Like

        • I’m tellingya, Vivie, they’re takin’ over! Even Obama can’t fix ’em!

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          Even if I don’t need to go on to Facebook I do it everyday just to make sure that we remain connected and happy. It seemed to possibly help. If you stay off it for ages maybe it decides you are caput at your end and refuses to communicate. I mean, anything is possible. I do think it can have a mind of its own, the computer/the internet/you name it !

          Like

        • Nah, not that either, Vivie. I’m there at least once a day. I get a signal on my phone to tell me there’s message so I go… Ha! Just checked. Back up again! Who knows for how long!
          I don’t know to which god to prostate myself! Or do a moonie!

          Like

        • No one wants to see your ‘prostate’, not even the gods!

          Like

    • I did a google search on the FB problem and ended up with an on line chat. They wanted $200 to fix the problem, etc. I said no.
      Here’s the chat:

      End Chat

      Please wait for a site operator to respond…
      Operator Live Chat has joined the chat.
      Live Chat11:19:29 AM AEDT
      Thank you for contacting Live Technical Support. How May I Help you?
      george theodoridis11:19:47 AM AEDT
      Nothing on my page works!
      Live Chat11:20:40 AM AEDT
      can you type the problem in details
      george theodoridis11:21:47 AM AEDT
      I can’t post anything, I can’t respond to anyone, I can’t “like” any comments, and I can’t “comment” on anything. None of these buttons work. In fact nothing seem to work!
      11:22:34 AM AEDT
      the url is: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo
      Live Chat11:22:55 AM AEDT
      since how long you are facing this problem
      george theodoridis11:23:07 AM AEDT
      Since yesterday morning
      Live Chat11:24:04 AM AEDT
      and where you have the facebook on computer or on the phone
      george theodoridis11:24:23 AM AEDT
      both but I use the computer mostly.
      11:25:01 AM AEDT
      I had this problem once before about one month or so ago
      Live Chat11:26:13 AM AEDT
      so,we need to connect your computer with our secure server to fif the problem
      george theodoridis11:26:26 AM AEDT
      OK
      Live Chat11:28:00 AM AEDT
      First I need to inform you that your facebook got compromised.
      george theodoridis11:28:14 AM AEDT
      By whom?
      Live Chat11:28:29 AM AEDT
      So, there would a nominal charge you need to pay to fix the issue.
      11:28:46 AM AEDT
      By someone unknown.
      george theodoridis11:29:04 AM AEDT
      Is that possible even after you fix the problem?
      Live Chat11:30:03 AM AEDT
      No, we will secure your account from our secure server.
      11:30:37 AM AEDT
      If anything goes wrong with your account, we will take care of that.
      george theodoridis11:30:51 AM AEDT
      What is the charge?
      Live Chat11:31:01 AM AEDT
      Not only facebook, we will take care your every software issue.
      11:31:31 AM AEDT
      The charge would be $200.
      11:31:58 AM AEDT
      Including 1yr free technical support
      george theodoridis11:32:40 AM AEDT
      That is far too much for me. I am a pensioner and earn very little money. No. It’s OK, I won’t use FB any more
      Live Chat11:32:42 AM AEDT
      Also we will provide free software, anti virus, etc.
      11:33:08 AM AEDT
      Also you can go for 6months service.
      george theodoridis11:33:19 AM AEDT
      I have an anti virus program . I pay a lot of money for MacKeeper!
      Live Chat11:33:24 AM AEDT
      It would charge you $150.
      george theodoridis11:33:36 AM AEDT
      No, forget it. Tanks, anyway!
      Live Chat11:33:56 AM AEDT
      We will give you anti virus for free with 5yr license key.
      george theodoridis11:34:30 AM AEDT
      No, I’m only interested in fixing the FB problem. I thought you were from them. Good bye!
      Live Chat11:34:38 AM AEDT
      Thank you for contacting Pairsys, have a nice day.

      Like

    • Ah, wretched thing is back again!
      Bleh to FB!

      Like

    • Honestly ato!
      I have my hands over my eyes and can’t hear a thing. It will have online Help. If you have any more problems – use it. They hate to lose people.

      Like

      • P.S. Some expert technical advice – slow, deep breaths while you’re calmly and methodically working your way through the Help.

        Like

      • Blah, blah, blah! and take deep breaths! That’s all I get from experts these days!
        Honestly! I walk about the streets with a lit oil lamp looking for a helpful expert… a HELPFUL one! Nope!
        These folks wanted to sell me a product, Voice. An anti virus product, of which I have what is reputed to be the best: MacKeeper. Costs a fortune.
        And, I’m told often by the mac sales people that Macs need no anti-virus programs. They are impenetrable and impregnable…
        As well, the same thing happened on the 21st (ten days ago) and apparently the tweeters went mad, with complaints until FB apologised and mumbled something about “outages” and the like.
        So I thought that perhaps that’s what’s happening again for the last 24 hours.
        I’m not spending $200 per year (plus the McKeeper program) just to stay on FB!
        The people who spoke to me weren’t from FB. They were simply connected to them (probably by hacking) and they are simply a firm that manufactures and sell anti virus products.
        Crapola!

        Like

        • Facebook Help. If you have a problem, read it. At least read the headlines and summaries to find out what’s there. For certain there’ll be an area where they report outages.

          Like

        • Can’t get to it, Voice. Won’t open. Quite useful, ain’t it?
          I ended up at the chat line through google search. And that’s the only “help” I got.
          I am fussed but not angry, Voice. I’ve used the iphone to let everyone know I’ll be out of commission and to contact me through email if they want anything.
          It’s OK!

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          I found there was no Help on Facebook which was of any HELP. Ato may have landed on an Indian techy fix mob who would fix it by remote control. No guarantees there and they make the charge sound reasonable but it isn’t. A bit of a rip off.

          One thing I did do was to delete Facebook from Favs and start over again and renew my login. As I said I don’t know what fixed it in the end. Just need patience. Nothing to do with viruses or anything. I think some gremlin of no name sent to annoy selected people.

          Like

        • In many ways it’s similar to solving a problem with phoning someone not working or your toaster or your TV not working. Yes, it could be because the phone or electricity networks are down. However, you wouldn’t just assume that.
          Anyway.
          Google Facebook Help.
          Find the most likely looking site. Read it. Not all of it; it’s like looking up any reference book. The information will be organised so as to be accessible.
          If you REALLY can’t access the help site, tell me what the web address is of the page you can’t access.
          Otherwise – Deep breaths.
          And as you have already decided, do not pay anyone anything.

          Like

        • I had done all that, Voice. There is a very disorganised page with hundreds and hundreds of questions and bugger all answers to most of them. My question was asked hundreds of times also but those I checked had no answers. Perhaps the answer was there somewhere but I’d be buggered if I were going to waste four years on it. Tokk me that long to get my first degree, for Zeus’ sake.
          Anyway, I did nothing and it just now began working again. Goodness knows for how long but there you go. Also, I had forgotten that I had two accounts and had checked the other (much older) one and that was fine. Now both are fine!
          I don’t like interference by aliens. They waste too much of my (extremely) valuable time!

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          One thing that was happening at that time to me on Facebook (not getting it) was also happening on a couple of other websites. It was ‘waiting for platform ……’ and that was happening on The Drum too – well it just waited and waited, the Adblock thing was supposed to fix that but actually it didn’t. I spent ages searching for a solution. I am known for my total persistence at fixing a problem. I could live without Facebook but it coincided with the Indi campaign and a lot of stuff was on their FB site. It all came good just in the nick of time although in the beginning the ‘coming good’ was intermittent. I’d get on one in say 5 days and then it was all the time.

          Like

        • Some funny bugger sent me this as a remedial exercise when I’m stressed and can’t solve stuff. Shit, I can think of a thousand things that would be more remedial, starting with plunging forks into my eyes!

          Like

        • It’s not exactly “all that”.
          It’s Step 1, find the Help page.
          In the meantime, the “deep breaths” is a bit facetious, but it’s Step 0 in solving any problem. Written on the front cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in the form “Don’t Panic”. Expounded upon in the first chapter or two of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
          Then your brain has the chance to think of a few common sense things to do, as you would if your TV wasn’t working. You’ve already stopped swearing and complaining long enough to think of some of them – hopefully not just from sheer exhaustion. 🙂 Trying to use your older facebook site. Trying to access the site using your newer facebook site from a different computer (your mobile). I can think of a few more common sense things to do. So can you.
          Clarify (TO YOURSELF!) exactly HOW it’s not working. What can you do. What can’t you do. Do you get any error messages online or on email? You don’t need to write a book on it. Five minutes should be enough.
          Keep a record of the results of your common sense things and the date, so if it happens again you have a kind of “what to do” guide as well as a record of your problems.
          If you still can’t solve it, use Facebook Help. Find the table of contents or its equivalent. Or use the index. Choose the 3 pages most likely to be relevant. Read their description and/or take a look.
          Be calm and methodical. Always assume the fault is with yourself, not them. If it looks disorganised, for example, assume it isn’t. Then if there’s a key to the organisation you’re more likely to find it.
          Voilà.

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          Hi Voice – I’ll say it again, FB Help was useless, no help. Ato seems to have the same problem I had. The problem was not me!

          Like

        • What I’m writing about is problem solving, not Facebook. It holds good for Facebook though. Assuming you are at fault is important. It doesn’t mean you think you are at fault. It means you make that assumption and see where it gets you. Other good rules of thumb (not infallible or inflexible) are “have a rest and try again in the morning”, “the more catastrophic the symptoms, the simpler the solution”, “think before you press that button”.

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          Indeed – often the problem is a PEBCAC. I thought were still banging on about FB’s Help. Sorry.

          Like

        • I had a look at FB for you. There’s just a picture of a dog asleep with a baby…..that’s it!

          Like

  5. Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

    Some burly men with gadgets and instruments were in my street today…And I found a note in my letterbox, from SILCAR NBN.
    Apparently they’re installing it.

    Like

    • I expect henceforth, Cazo, your posts, replies and other sundry missives to get here much faster -henceforthwith!

      Like

      • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

        I’ll need Hadron Collider for that. my wireless 4G is faster than Billy The Kid on FF.

        Like

        • The real NBN (RNBN) is much faster than that, Cazo! The collider is a donkey by comparison.
          The RNBN moves faster than a thought… well certainly faster than some of my thinking and I think Turnbull is using that (the speed of my thinking) as a measure of data transport speed achievement (DTSA) which is why you’ll have to walk to your nearest nob -oops, sorry, node- to pick up your mail.
          This, of course, will give you a chance to take the canines out for a gentle and unhurried promenade.
          You may leave the bags of their “settlements” at that node for Abbott’s Green Army (AGA) to pick up…

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Just for the record, to try to bypass your partisanship:

          There are 5000 yro copper pipes in Egypt, still functioning.

          You shouldn’t take up the silly mantra, “rotting copper wires”. It’s just one of those silly slogans, designed to indoctrinate the weak in the head 😉

          I can understand Vivienne et al, doing it, however you ‘should’ know such (historical) things.

          Like

        • Cazo, thanks for the confidence you have in my knowledge of “historical things.” It is a knowledge, however, which is includes the crucial fact (so far as this issue is concerned) that old, ancient even things still exist and may still work but like the choo-choo trains and the steam driven cars, do not work as well or as EFFICIENT as modern society and (what your mob is more interested in) economy.
          There are mantras from the left and mantras from the right,both equally vociferous and equally adamant that their mantra is the correct mantra.
          The debate has ended and the results are in. The Turnbull mantra is crap for many reasons, the most important being that it will need to be updated in a very short time, The ubber capitalists simply won’t have it. They’ve laughed at it, so they’ll get the all faber optic model.
          It will be us poor punters -in the cities and in the remote bush- who’ll be stuck with this unnervingly bizarre grotesquery of communications.

          I know about old things, Cazo. I am old myself!

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          I have a Sabatier. It’s 30 years old and better than any new knife.

          Yes the copper will wear out, however don’t be so greedy, for new, new, new.

          Be patient; like China, they don’t have much of it. the only cable that they use, is coaxial.
          Anyways, as you say the debate is over. I’m just prodding the prone body.

          Malcolm will see it through. We, as Australians, should trust him – as he is a man of great intellect.

          Off to The Isle of Capri. No no no no, it’s the one up here…sigh.

          Like

        • ‘I have a Sabatier. It’s 30 years old and better than any new knife.’

          Good, no I’m not getting into the FTTP vs FTTN argument, I just want your advice on how to treat the handles on these knives, as I have a couple that are also 30 years of age, but the wooden handles don’t look so pretty anymore!

          Thanks.

          Like

        • And I have an electric toothbrush that must be of the same generation but, knives and toothy brushes are quite different to telephones and TVs and other such tools of modern communication and calculation… speaking of which, the abacus worked well in the roman days and I’m sure it works well still. So did two tin cans joined by a bit of a wire. They all work well, in their own minuscule way.
          And China is for the chinese. They have their own agendas and time tables. Slow on some things, bloody fast on others. Confusius once said, there are only the fast and the dead. We’re all gonna be dead fast enough so we might as well be fast while we’re still alive.
          I want speed, man, SPEED! And I don’t mean heroine!

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Big M.I’m just popping out, however I found a Youtube thingee,on it last year, as I has a problem with on of mine. My handle is man made, but you can use wood.

          Like

  6. Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

    The opposite of Chaucer………

    .

    .

    .
    .

    DIARY OF A POM IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

    August 31
    Just got transferred with work from Leeds UK to our new home in Karratha , Western Australia .
    Now this is a town that knows how to live!…
    Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings.
    I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday.
    It was beautiful.
    I’ve finally found my new home.
    I love it here.

    September 13
    Really heating up now.
    It got to 31 today.
    No problem though.
    Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car.
    What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this.
    I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in Leeds !!

    September 30
    Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today.
    Lots of palms and rocks.
    No more mowing lawns for me!
    Another scorcher today, but I love it here.
    It’s Paradise !

    October 10
    The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week.
    How do people get used to this kind of heat?
    At least today it’s windy though.
    Keeps the flies off a bit.
    Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected.

    October 15
    Fell asleep by the pool yesterday.
    Got third degree burns over 60% of my body.
    Missed three days off work.
    What a dumb thing to do..
    Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!

    October 20
    – Didn’t notice Kitty (our cat) sneaking into the car before I left for work this morning.
    By the time I got back to the car after work, Kitty had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stuck to the upholstery.
    The car now smells like Whiskettes and cat shit.
    I’ve learned my lesson though: no more pets in this heat.

    October 25
    – This wind is a bastard.
    It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer.
    And it’s hot as hell!
    The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged $200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from fucking Perth …..The wife & the kids are complaining.

    October 30
    – The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner.
    House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now.
    Bloody $600,000 house and we can’t even go inside.
    Why the hell did I ever come here?

    November 4
    Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost $1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 25 degrees, but the humidity makes it feel about 35.
    Stupid repairman.
    Fucking thief.

    November 8
    – If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’
    I’m going to fucking throttle him.
    Fucking heat!
    By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat.
    Fucking place is the end of the Earth.

    November 9
    – Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car.
    I thought my fucking arse was on fire.
    I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking arse.
    Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried arse and baked cat.
    Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

    November 10
    — The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording..
    Hot and sunny.
    Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny.
    It never fucking changes!
    It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 fucking months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.
    Fuck!

    November 15
    – Doesn’t it ever rain in this damn fucking place?
    Water restrictions will be next, so my $5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool.
    The only things that thrive in this fucking hell-hole are the fucking flies.
    You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little bastards!

    November 20
    – Welcome to HELL!
    It got to 45 fuckin’ degrees today.
    Now the air conditioner gone in my car.
    The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’
    I wanted to shove the fucking car up his fucking arse.
    Anyway, had to spend the $2,500 mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid prick.
    Fucking Karratha!
    What kind of sick, demented fucking idiot would want to live here!

    December 1
    – WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
    You are fucking kidding me!

    Like

    • Haha! Not quite the opposite but not the same either.
      She’s lovely that Rachel girl. Quirky. And I can see why she likes this from Wilde: (same sentiment of the despair of loneliness and isolation)

      “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.” O.W.

      Like

    • I love this (diary). It’s journalistic panto.

      Like

      • I am one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean muse.

        Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Ah ha. Twerking. Someon tried that on DWTS, last night.

          Like

        • Ah, but can you say the word?

          Dance? Did you say dance?
          Come on, my girl! Together!
          Let’s go! Again!
          Ooooopa!
          Now’s your chance to go head-to-head in a furious Greek dancing contest against Zorba himself!

          Trepsi – horri – an
          Not, as some would have it, Terpsi – CHORE – an. Not “chore” as in “chore” but “hor” as in “horror” or….”whore.”
          But if you pronounce it that way to a bunch of non-Greeks, they’ll ask you, “what’s that when it’s at home, then? You mean a tipsy whore?

          Like

    • What a pussy!
      I worked there for years up North, WA

      Like

  7. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is on the ABC (2 am!!!!) tomorrow morning. The 1944 version.
    Brings memories of hearty laughter and joy, not only when I was studying it but when I was reading it to my newly married wife, at night, in bed!
    What a time that was! I sure lament its passing but it has been replaced with other, equally good stuff, so, the fun continues!
    From reading Chaucer to the wife to telling Greek myths to our babies! Huge eyes, widening with anticipation. Words fell into their eyes, not their ears, like honey falls onto a tongue.
    Yummmmmmm!

    Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      I’ve set the machine to record it.

      Like

      • It’s quite a pleasant watch, Vivie.
        But the book! If you can get a reasonable translation -and I think the Penguin one is quite adequately revised now- you’ll spend the whole reading time with a bubble in your heart and a chuckle in your belly. It’s one of the best.
        Boccacio’s (almost a contemporary) “Decameron” is of the same vein. Folksy, rustic, humanist, earthy humour of the days and works of the agricolae; Chaucer of England and Boccaccio of Italy.
        Chaucer, it may be said, pushed the Italian and French out of the English language by wedging the english vernacular between them. It may also be said that people like Shakespeare, Bacon, Marlowe, et al, completed the displacement of those languages… but let’s not get all academic here. The filum is great viewing!

        Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          It was during The Elizabethan era that English took great strides. Helped of course by Shakespeare.

          Here is a link that will interest you ato. Actually, it should interest every English speaking conutry…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English

          Mine is a mixture of, ” Received Pronunciation” and “Estuary”, laced with some “Cockney” characteristics, that I took on in the late 60s and 70s, because it was fashionable.

          Like

        • Thanks, Cazo but I’ve spent two years studying the mutations of the English language. For a while there I thought I was Eliza Doolittle training to be a Greek Pygmalion…

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Aaaah, but you wouldn’t have known all about the regional accents, and of course it’s your prerogative not to be. Who could blame you.

          I was just offering you a further insight.

          I could never compare my knowledge to yours. I’m just a faded dilettante – as I wrote on Unleashed once 😉

          Like

        • You could, Cazo, you could compare your knowledge with mine… if you were so naive as to think that the comparison would favour yours! My knowledge of the English language and its regional dialects and quirks is soooooooooooooooooooooo much superior to anyone’s on this planet and maybe on all the planets of the whole cosmos!
          Did I ever mention that I have two letters from the publishers of the OD thanking me for pointing out two of their mistakes? No kidding. I have framed them and they hold pride of wall in our house.
          So there!
          I am unique!
          I am unparalled!
          I am flawless
          I am unerring!
          I am… Superlingo!
          (Though most times I am an idiot, sitting joyfully in his idiot’s throne.)

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          King Rat ?

          Like

        • Lurking round the mat
          with a bat
          waiting for a cat
          to sing it the sweet
          lullaby
          of the dead!
          I am the Superrat
          so,
          beware of my bat

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

        • Ah! I see what you mean, Cazo. No I haven’t read Clavell’s book… alas and alack! But if Mr King Rat was a smart, gorgeous and strong rat, particularly in linguistics, then I’ll accept the comparison. Otherwise, I am the rat with the bat!

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          Have a Chaucer book here which hubby translated or wrote into current English – has extra page stuck in – page by page. It is now a unique edition.

          Like

        • What a brilliant thing to possess, Vivie! I used to hate to write on the books or in any way disturb their pristinity, but hubby’s efforts are there for eternity not to mention posterior.
          It was such an exciting text for me to work on because of the grammar; still adopting the Latin and ancient Greek rules of declensions and conjugations. etc, etc, etc.
          Very juicy stuff!
          Amazing you found it, Vivie!

          Like

        • Mrs At has a bat
          too.
          But Mrs At’s bat is not for the
          Cat
          But the big, king Rat
          lurking round the –
          snoozing blissfully on the –
          snoring dreamily on the-
          sunning his whiskers on the
          front door – front door, I say,
          mat!

          …is that a voice I hear with my perky nostrils and my ratty
          eyes?

          My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words of that tongue’s utterance, yet I know the sound!
          I know that voice!

          Like

        • Tell her it’s an emergency. She’ll know to include the scrubbing brush. “And when that room’s finished you can start on the shed.”

          Like

        • Bugger! I forgot to record the damned thing!
          Buggery bugger!
          I must have seen it a good half a dozen times back in them good old days of proper movies* but I’d still love to see it again. Maybe my pirate friend can find it somewhere on the net and download it for me.

          And, if anyone can get their hands on Boccaccio’s “Decameron” do so and watch it. It’s also great. Mind you, the book is even greater. You are taken into that medieval world with great finesse and mastery and, since you are well protected by the sturdy but invisible walls of H.G. Wells’ Time Machine, you will be comfortable in feeling quite sympatico with the charm of its characters. It’s a stunning book.

          I could recommend a number of other related authors if anyone is interested in the era. A miserable era but a most engaging Literature for us 21st centurians (not centurions, κεντυρίοι)

          *Movies which were not utterly destroyed by unbearable noise which today they call Sound Effects, or by Visual Effects like fast cuts, supper impositions, lap dissolves, split screens and a whole lot of busy bullshit. Story telling in the movies these days is treated with abject disdain… New Topic Alert!

          Like

    • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

      Of course ato, you may have thought differently, were you to have had to do as I did; recite long passages of Chaucer (minus the salacious bits 😉 ) – especially if I was a naughty boy at school.

      It was later when I came to an understanding of his impact and influence

      Like

      • Cazo, I recited it with absolute relish at Uni. Ethnic Chauvinst me (back then, not now) I wanted to prove to my tutorial mates that Chaucer pinched his (decasyllabic) metre from Homer (the Iambic pentameter)!
        I think I’ve convinced one of the four co-scholars! The tutor was amused, particularly by the way I strained the recital to meet Homer’s meter!
        Oh, the memories!

        Like

    • I’m on cat duty, Mz Voice, mam!
      I can only quit my post when properly relieved, mam! Fifth sentry’s order, mam!
      Excuse me mam… Halt, who goes there… or there… or there… or somewhere…

      Like

  8. The Vatican visits George!

    The impish part of my brain splurted out a bit of a chuckle this morning when I saw that, overnight, I was graced and blessed with the presence of five (count them, FIVE) visits from the Vatican!
    Or at least my website was.

    It was the impish part of my brain because it wondered, for just a brief second, what pages on my site these Vaticani visited. Were they those of Aristophanes (he, of the dirty but splendid mind) or those of the tragedians, whose words and thoughts elevate the audience to those lofty heights occupied by the words and thoughts of the Olympian gods?

    That question, unfortunately, is not answered by the stats of the website, so I can’t tell what the proclivities of my visitors were.
    But I’d sure love to!
    I wish they would have done what other visitors do and left me a question or two or a comment.
    Bugger!
    And,
    Hallelujah!
    ‘Aλληλούϊα!
    הַלְּלוּיָהּ

    Like

  9. Peter Reith on the Tele Drum!
    I knew it. Every time he writes some shitty article, up he jacks his anguished face on the tele! The world hasn’t given enough to Peter!
    He’s the only human I know who actually makes the argument convincing that some babies are smacked in the bum when they are born and some are made to sit on a fucking porcupine!
    Phlegm is niagaring down over his eye brows!
    Back to Plato!

    Like

    • Some babies are so ugly, the doctor smacks the mother. 😉

      Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      Ato – Reith has a gig on the tele Drum every week and it is usually Tuesdays, the same day as his written piece of total crap appears on the ABC website Drum. I’ve yet to hear him offer any real advice or comment (other than about 4 words) on the Liberal Party. Seems he is the expert on any dam thing and especially what’s wrong with the Labor Party or the Greens.

      Like

      • Just can’t read his stuff and just can’t watch his sour mug. It is obvious he is sitting on something excruciatingly prickly when he talks and to watch him is an act of masochism… which I avoid at all costs! Simply spew out words of profanity and switch the tele off.
        I wonder if the ABC gets any complaints about that mongrel; not that they could do anything about it now that it’s Abbott time in Oz!

        Like

  10. Before they closed comments over there, I would have liked to reply to the recalcitrant rotter who had the gall to suggest I move along to the next war having himself raised the subject of Sadam Hussein on an article about Afghanistan – “Yes, if I met Sadam Hussein in a dark alley I probably WOULD shoot first. But I wouldn’t invade Iraq in order to put myself there in the first place under the pretext he could reach me thousands of miles away.”

    Like

    • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

      They must have had aboooot 25 comments after ‘closing time’, yet thought mine worthy.

      Don’t worry about the missiles. They were only meant for Jews, Kuwaitis and Wahabis*.

      Unless of course one had a boyfriend or girlfriend visiting the impact site at the time. Then of course one’s body would have been dismembered.

      What about the poster accusing the us and its allies of starting the war to get the oil…Duh. Ten years on and it went to the Dutch, amongst others. And whatever.

      I think that some people have a template post and just press a button, no matter what the subject.

      I have a brother like that.
      *Although The US had bases there of course. Anyway now there’s Syria – all America’s fault.

      Anyways I’m over it.

      Thunderstorm rolling in here. Down with the patio blinds.

      My Mum, is being moved to Palliative care hospice today. The registrar didn’t think that she would last the weekend. I’ll come back down To Sydney this week. Other (sensible) brother landing from Paris tonight.

      Life and the world affairs are circular. And repetitive. We will only stop warring when there is a world democracy.

      So if anyone in the future is reading this blog, they will know that I have predicted it here and elsewhere.

      Like

      • Jews , Kuwaitis and Wahabis were at low risk. None of them is defenseless. The chance of Hussein invading another country in the forseeable future was low. The risk of a drawn-out war with many civilian deaths due to invasion of Iraq however was too high. And it came to pass.
        The war was sold on the basis that Sadam Hussein was connected to 9/11 (outright lie and later false but constant insinuation) and (in Britain at least) that Britain was at risk from Iraqi missiles. Another outright lie (or at the very least, Blair just propagated some isolated intelligence without checking because it suited his agenda).
        It’s completely absurd to suggest that getting Sadam Hussein was worth it. If he was the whole problem an internal coup would have taken care of him long ago.
        Whatever.
        Sorry to hear about your mother. End-of-life is further complicated by geographical distance.

        Like

      • All the best with your mum. Hope the hospice treat her well.

        Like

      • All the best with mum, Cazo!

        Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Cheers. She is 92. Of course at this stage she doesn’t have any power to say, “more morphine”. She can’t coomminicate too well Justy an eye squint or a moan. There was a mix up where a new nurse thought that she was groaning (and gave her extra morphine), but I guessed it to be AAAAaaaa, for Arnie, her dachshund – which I now have, bringing my total to 3.

          When I realised and repeated it, she nodded and came out with the full name Aaarrnieee. It was quite heartbreaking.

          I don’t know why I am writing about it in here, but I have been emotionally preoccupied these last 3 weeks.

          There is a lot to be said for being able to going into a long (induce)sleep?

          Anyway, we have some rain at last. must be at least 2-3 months. I just ran around the nature strip and small lawn, scattering fertilizer.

          As my Mum dies, my her great granddaughter has reached on year, named after a character (girl) in a Shakespeare play. Also alluded to by Oscar Wilde. That’s all I will say for the informed.

          Like

        • First cab off my rank for a name is Gertrude, who in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is Hamlet senior’s widow (Hamlet junior’s mum) and Hamlet’s murderer’s wife, King Claudius.
          She appears again in Oscar’s “An Ideal Husband,” as Lady Chiltern.
          Can’t think of a second cab… Alice, perchance?

          Like

        • In which Wilde play is Ophelia a persona?

          Like

          • First rule of problem solving atomou – read the spec! 🙂
            In a Wilde play isn’t the requirement, and Ophelia is an intuitive guess.

            Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          I’ve emailed the name to Voice, ato, just to put you out of your misery/curiosity.

          I just prefer some things to be kept off the www, even though my family use Facebook. I don’t use it.

          No offence to PA, however anybody can tune in. And they do.

          Like

        • Imogen sounds like a pretty good candidate!

          Like

        • Sorry, Cazo, completely misread your last para. I took it that you were giving us a Lit. Competition. Profuse apologies. I shall say no more!

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          “Sorry, Cazo, completely misread your last para. I took it that you were giving us a Lit. Competition. Profuse apologies. I shall say no more!”

          No no, you were correct, I was making it into a little test; like a sort of scrabbly thing.

          You know how silly I am. Any way you will know because Voice will tell you.

          She said, ” why don’t you tell him yourself”?. And I replied, “I like the intrigue of using you ” 😉

          Like

        • I see…. I think!

          Like

        • I didn’t think “alluded to” was meant to be taken seriously. I mean one would have to have read every syllable Wilde wrote to know which women he “alluded to.”
          Now I need a headache ouzo!

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Clue: Dorian Gray.

          Like

      • Jules, like Big M said, our best wishes go to you and your family at this difficult time. I have found the people who work in hospices are so often the most caring and kind folk.

        One thing that I didn’t do before my father passed away was to tell him how much I loved him, how much I appreciated all he had done for me and that he should be very proud of all the good things that our family has done and had.

        But I did that many times before my Mom passed away and it helped both of us I think. And I gently gave her my permission to let go whenever she wanted to.

        Kind regards, Emm.

        Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Cheers. yes I had plenty of time. I mopped here forehead with a damp towel.

          Of course, I was sort of de facto carer here in Qld (for 2years), since her house is next door. However we thought that my sister would be a better companion in the very end.

          You know nurses and doctors are wonderful, but divers. A registrar was quite matter of fact and heartless, the nurses were great and two out of three doctors were angels.

          Just as if they were real people, ‘like us’, with all of their workload and personal worries. 😉

          Like

        • helvityni's avatar helvityni said:

          All the best with your mum, Carisbrooke…Is Archie missing her..?

          Like

        • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

          Arnie is now a resident here with my Cavaliers.

          Thank you for asking.

          Like

      • All the best with mum. These are always difficult times. My mum was 94.

        Like

      • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

        World peace would be best.

        Like

      • algernon1's avatar algernon1 said:

        Jules my though’s are with you and the family at this time, look after yourself.

        Like

    • Ah, got it! When he’s shouting out all those names of women hard done by… I remember he said nothing of Helen of Troy! Goethe did, though!

      Like

  11. Brock Uni (Ca) Department of Political Science has added my page to their texts list.( 2P91: Political Theory I Fall 2013)

    Looked over their curriculum. Looks bloody great. I often let the idea of doing a correspondence course with some of these unis, swirl around in my far-too-adventurous and dreamy head for a while… until Mrs Ato smacks me over the back of the head and reminds me that I haven’t done the floors yet!

    Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      Congratulations – another feather in your cap as they say. You’re a legend now.

      Like

      • Thanks Vivie. It’s always interesting to see what Dept. uses what page on my site. This one is Politics and having read the curriculum I so lament the passing of Uni age! Wish I were 18 again and starting over! Very envious of the exercise, of the research, of those aha! moments!
        And I’ve noticed how much slower I am these days with every new piece I’m working on. I can feel my braincells keeling over one after the other and the kids asking ever more frequently with every passing day, “God, dad, don’t you know ANYTHING?” the way kids have a way of saying such things! Ever more and increasingly more frequently!
        Oh, weeeeeell! We can’t have good looks AND brains AND youth, now can we?
        As someone with higher IQ than me once said, Bleh!

        Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          I think the ‘problem’ is that the older you get the more there is to remember. More experience, more stuff, more reading – more of everything. Not so much that you/we are getting slower but the brain has to sift through mountains more information to get the bit you are searching for. It is not that you don’t ‘know anything’ – you know too much!

          Like

        • Quite possibly so, Vivie but there’s also the fact that the older the synapses the lazier they get.
          I was at our local library about an hour ago (having had ordered a Greenwood book last night) and the moment I got to the front desk, all my synapses emigrated to some foreign head. It took me ages to tell the lady what I was there for! Lucky I can blurt out stuff occasionally, in spite of my lazy… synapses!

          Greewood’s “Medea.” Looks unusually large, compared to all her other stuff. Dying to see what she did with that myth. Over 400 pages and looks like quite an elaborate exercise, academically speaking. Greenwood I think followed me at Uni and had the same great Classics teacher, Dennis Pryor.
          I’d love to know what that faculty is like now but back then, in the hey days of the Classics, it was the hive of thinking. Languages, ancient and modern, Literature, ancient and Modern, Philosophy, ancient and Modern, politics, religion… one couldn’t go to sleep at night, so wound up one would be! And the exams, the endless tests, the bzillion word essays! Bliss upon bliss upon heavenly rapture!
          Siiiiiiiiiiiigh!

          Like

        • Ah, Mr Atomou, you found another Greenwood? Excellent work, although the librarian probably helped!

          Like

    • Yes, congratulations, Atomou, you’ll be wearing laurels, next.

      Why not do an online course? Just give the floors a quick flick of the vacuum, here and there.

      Like

      • Big one, you of all people should know what nurses are like! She who must be obey, must truly be obeyed: she is a nurse. One speck of dust -even in the furthermost corner of the broom cupboard and my tongue would have some new challenges of “what’s that taste like?” to deal with.
        No, I always lying about Mrs Ato’s temperament. She’s the paradigm of tolerance!
        (Heley, if you’re reading this, don’t tell mum what I’m saying about her behind her back)
        (Mother, if you’re reading this… I didn’t write it!)
        Love yaz all!

        Like

        • Yes, we are both nurses, and both obsessive-compulsive about different things.

          At the moment she’s on about “When are you going to finish installing that rangehood???”

          I did half the job 18 months ago, settle down, love.

          Like

        • helvityni's avatar helvityni said:

          BigM, I never saw you as an obsessive compulsive person, I took you as a very calm an relaxed type,I’m not judging you after one meeting but this obsessiveness does not seem to be in writing either…
          May I ask what are you obsessing about 🙂

          Like

        • helvityni's avatar helvityni said:

          in your writing

          Like

        • Helvi, NICU nurses obsess about everything from hand washing to how the baby is positioned in the crib, and then some!

          Like

  12. Waterloo Sunset. 2014: 28 Oct 2013 2:37:09pm

    “Serenity, I am from London; lived through the 60s and had business through the 70s. You would have to have been there to feel the vibe and emergence of influences that have ramifications today. Or, you can buy books, I suppose, as many Australians have to.”

    So, you are from London!

    I was right the first time and you replied “NOOOO….”

    Like

    • ABC Drum Article:
      Walk on the wild side: the art and life of Lou Reed

      Like

    • Oh for goodness sake, hph. It’s contextual. He is to a certain extent a TCK/3CK. So am I. Google it.
      I tell people in Sydney I’m from Adelaide. It’s true in many respects and it simplifies things for them – they wouldn’t have the faintest interest in the long version anyway.
      WS is a London context. Carisbrooke is an Isle of Wight context. Get over it.

      Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      He’s a Pom. Where you are from and where you were born – to some one and the same, to others not necessarily. I was born and lived in Melbourne for 20 years. Am I still ‘from Melbourne’ – not really.

      Like

  13. Is this a ALP?

    Like

  14. I am having a look around. Ir this free and free speech?

    Like

  15. Hung One On's avatar Hung One On said:

    Even stupid gits that don’t blog in the drum however see themselves as being somewhat superior are all God’s children.

    Like

  16. Heading towards more privatisation and consequent social disaster.

    First this:
    Privatising HECS debt

    http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/privatising-hecs-debt/

    Then this:
    AUSTRALIA will follow in the footsteps of the UK and privatise the mail service within five years, policy experts believe.

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/experts-predict-australia-post-will-be-privatised-within-five-years/story-fni0dcne-1226677891939

    And then this:
    Labor and the unions have leapt on reports the Abbott Government is considering a plan for Australia Post to take over Centrelink’s front office operations.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-28/australia-post-plan-to-takeover-centrelink-operations/5049336

    US style free market policies championed by our beloved Liberal party in a resource rich country with only 23 million people.

    No wonder when somebody mentions the Scandinavian model, the defenders of the free-market & privatisation throw tantrums.

    It’s all about profits.

    Ordinary people are just numbers.

    Like

    • Moving Centrelink services to Australia Post is a very clever tactical move since Liberals are also planning secretly to privatise Australia post in coming years,

      Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      Remember what happened with Howard got rid of the CES and put in place all those private and religious bodies to look after the unemployed. No one ever did a cost analysis of that but I know that we are being ripped off and more so the unemployed with these fake jobs and so on. I think some withdrew from the deal when Howard wanted rules tightened so much that the agencies couldn’t stomach it any longer.

      Like

      • I do remember it very well, Vivienne.

        Now, there are plans by the Liberal government to privatise TAFE colleges as well.

        Governments have introduced a voucher funding and student loan system to TAFE and Vocational Education and Training. This so-called ‘entitlement system’ is privatization by a different name.

        Key issues:
        1. Course Fees are skyrocketing as private colleges seek to make more profit, and TAFEs try to make up for massive funding cuts;
        2. Students now only get one chance at a government subsidized course. After that, they must pay full fees fortheir course (e.g. $27,000 for an Advanced Diploma at Canberra TAFE);
        3. Government funding is being channeled away from courses for young people, career shifters and women re-entering the workplace, to courses run by private colleges to make huge profits;
        4. Private colleges have few checks and balances in place to assure quality, even though they are publicly funded;
        and
        5. TAFE campuses are being forced to close as governments withdraw funds for facilities and student support.

        Like

        • Some TAFEs are already not funding particular courses. Fine Art courses and many of their offshoots are no longer funded. So a Diploma which cost about $1500 last year are now costing $8100 a year. The lifeblood of many country towns cut off by this short sighted decision. Its now cheaper to do this at University by around $2500 per year.

          Like

      • helvityni's avatar helvityni said:

        How honourable are all these private collages and ” academies”, many years ago a friend’s son attended one of these shady expensive private collages to gain computing skills, he did not gain anything, he lost a lot of money…the teachers were hardly ever there…
        As he had to work , he did some night courses at TAFE, and is fine according to my friend.

        Like

    • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

      What about people who don’t throw tantrums or defend privatisation but point out the Sweden has been doing an awful lot of privatising lately?

      Like

      • So, you watched QandA tonight.
        So, you heard Sloan.
        So, what?

        Get back to me with a list of “an awful lot of privatizing” in Sweden.

        What are they?

        Who benefited more? …people or the private companies?

        Like

      • You mean people who introduce inconvenient facts? They are “Sweden haters”, sea mendez. DO try to keep up. 🙂

        Like

      • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

        This extract from Education in Sweden: “Independent schools
        The number of independent schools in Sweden is growing, and today school choice is seen as a right.
        The Swedish government supports the establishment of independent schools, which must be approved by the Schools Inspectorate and follow the national curricula and syllabuses. In 2010 roughly 10 percent of school operations were carried out by private players. Twelve percent of compulsory school students and 24 percent of senior high school students attend independent schools. There are also a fewinternational schools whose curricula follow those of other countries. These schools are partly funded by the Swedish government and are mainly aimed at the children of foreign nationals who are in Sweden for a limited time.
        The independent school system in Sweden – in which education is free and students have general access to schools with the freedom to choose among a variety of providers – has attracted interest from around the world. In Sweden, some people think it is wrong to run schools for profit, and highlight examples of poor conditions and inconsistencies as a consequence of the system. Advocates of independent schools note the many positive results found in statistical surveys. One is that parents with children who attend independent schools are more satisfied than those with children in municipal schools.”

        It all depends on what one thinks is privatised or independent. Not the same thing here as I read the information. My view is that I would not, ever, put the running of the school in the hands of some community board or council. That is my experience tells me what P & Cs and School Council are like in operation. Often a pack of busy bodies and some people with bad agendas.

        Like

        • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

          Its all too complicated for me. But I will say the idea of for profit education sticks in my craw. I find it crass. Their is an idea abroad in Sweden that it has led to declining standards.

          Like

        • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

          Also I don’t know why we’re focusing on schools when Sweden is privatizing lots of stuff. They’re outsourcing health on a similar model to education, again I don’t like that. I wouldn’t want to see it here.

          They’re also selling a lot of state owned enterprises. I believe they’ve already sold rail.

          Like

        • helvityni's avatar helvityni said:

          The sensible thing to do, is to try and improve Australian schools and healthcare.

          Like

  17. Sloan and Pyne on Q&A tonight!
    I better get my puke bag ready.
    What is aunty thinking?

    Like

    • Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

      Thank your lucky stars that it’s not Rudd and Conroy 🙂

      Or Obied and Ian Macdonald…Now that would be a quinella.

      Like

      • algernon1's avatar algernon1 said:

        Did you know in his infinite wisdom that O’Farrell, renewed the three leases that Obeid had obtained rather dubiously at Circular Quay, on the first day the Obeid fronted ICAC. What on earth was he thinking!

        Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      Still waiting on Abbott to front up to a solo Q & A. He might eventually have to do it but I’m not sure he is man enough to actually. But Ato – I think a puke bucket would be more appropriate or are you referring to a big green garbage bag.

      Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      And …. we can thank ourselves that Mirabella is off the invitation list. Wonder what she is doing on Monday nights now. She has said nothing since losing. One written statement. But it is good she has gone to ground – the local tele and paper quality improved.

      Like

      • Mirabella will be popping up on every shock jock radio and TV station, Vivie, probably also on Q&A, doing her… penance, as per her master’s dictates.

        Pyne is unwatchable and certainly unlistenable. Nothing but fascist bullshit is ever expelled from Sloan’s mouth. We had a Libnut here one night when she appeared on the Drum (TV). She (the Libnut) kept saying loudly, “Oh, for the Lord’s sake, Judy, DO put a sock in it!” Which is what ameliorated our desire to puke. I don’t think she was doing it out of kindness because she knew we find most Libnuts revolting.
        Her exasperation seemed pretty sincere to us.

        Cazo, methinketh that even you will, in not too long a time span, become an apostate, if not a downright convert… not to The Greens, I grant you but… the PUP, perhaps? Anywhere but the Abbey, I reckon!

        I think you’ll realise that this mob isn’t a normal Liberal Party mob. It’s quite beyond the realms of decency and, worse, logic; and I reckon there’s a great deal of decency in you still and quite a bit of logic, trying to escape the shackles of this party of malevolent clowns. Don’t fight it too much. Logic deserves to be with logic. Scarce stuff these days but in the Abbey it’s even scarecererererer!

        Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          I’ll bet you whatever you fancy at the Pub that Mirabella does not pop up anywhere. Gone to ground and staying there. Might even be thinking about moving back to Melbourne (sorry about that suggestion).

          Like

        • That’s also a possibility, Vivie.
          Mirabella will have to make a life-enduring choice: Have I lost Indi and any hope of ever winning a seat in Parl’t or have I not? If she believes her burgeoning delusions she’ll believe that she should try again; and if Abbott is still in love with her nastiness and idiocy (birds of a feather love each other) he would insist on the penance, which shall be perpetual public appearances between now and the next election which could be as early as Feb next year (Double Daggers) or around 2016. (Public appearances being the stuff of advertising which is often confused with good publicity, which, in turn is often confused with effective mind-altering tactics).
          If she thinks she’s got no chance, nor any party support, then she’ll go back to her fish shop or wherever else these people emerge from. Otherwise, get your sick bucket ready.

          Last night’s Q&A was as I suspected: Jones is hopeless in passing the mic to everyone on the panel. It was a Pyne-and-Sloan fest all night. Why on earth he invited fantastic brains like that of Harmer, is totally beyond me. I saw her going red trying to control the steam of anger building up inside her nostrils.
          And Joel Fitzo showed us just how closely aligned the ALP mindset is to that of the Libnuts.

          I was surprised with just how many coherent phrases came out of Ray Martin’s mouth.

          Like

        • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

          Joel was, is and remains a lightweight. Labor has so much quality but Joel is not really quite up to it.

          Like

        • Viv, didn’t Pyne love being the ‘star’ on last night Q&A, he did not stop talking, and Jones was allowing it, the rest of panel were just ‘decoration’….
          At least Ms Mirabella wasn’t there, not that the moaning Sloan is much better.

          I remember when Hung told her on Unleashed:you have been eating too much cake, those were the days 🙂

          Like

    • algernon1's avatar algernon1 said:

      Be a beauty won’t it, Sloan well shes at odds with nearly every other economist and Pyne, give him an inch and he’ll run miles.

      Like

    • vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

      Well it was a dreadful hour of Q & A – Pyne yabbering on and on and on. Everyone else bored stiff. Three lovely young Liberals sitting there in the audience with one asking his carefully loaded question and eliciting a big smile from Pyne. All downhill from there.

      Like

  18. vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

  19. helvityni's avatar helvityni said:

    Happy Birthday, Algernon, and many, many more to come!

    For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,Which nob’dy can deny.Which nob’dy can deny.Which nob’dy can deny.For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,Which nob’dy can deny.

    For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,and so say all of us.and so say all of us.and so say all of us.For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,For he’s a jolly good fellow,and so say all of us.

    Like

  20. Yeaeeeee, Luther on at 8.30 on AbloodyBandC!

    Like

  21. vivienne29's avatar vivienne29 said:

    • Oh my god, what bloody hypocrites they are, hounding others for few hundred dollars…I’m feeling sick…move away Milo…

      Like

    • Snouts in the trough as usual, its in their DNA.

      I see the B grade tennis player went to Margaret River for a study tour of traffic flows on the public teat. Well having an association with the area as I do. There isn’t any.

      Me thinks the areas fine Cabernet’s were more what he looked at. Especially as he stayed at Yallingup some 50 odd kms away

      Like

  22. Abbott: “Let’s be under no illusions the carbon tax was socialism masquerading as environmentalism,” he said
    .http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-26/abbott-attacks-shortencarbon-tax-socialism-labor/5047758

    Bastard is behaving more and more like George the Turd!

    Like

  23. My contribution to the Urban Dictionary, on the word “bullshit.”

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bullshit

    Or simply google “bullshit” Urban dictionary and look for no 32.

    I just had to help them there, after what I’ve been reading for the last 24 hours here.

    Like

  24. European leaders have united in anger to reports of widespread US spying on its allies.

    Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, says he has asked US officials if it is true that the office of the European Parliament in Washington had been a target.

    “If it is true that, for example, the office of the European Parliament in Washington is the target of spying, I asked United States officials if this is true. They said, perhaps, because of anti-terror measures. I could guarantee the European Parliament is not planning terrorist attacks on the United States,” Martin Schulz said.

    HAHAHAHAHAAAAA……

    Like

    • Alas, hph, it all means bugger all! What are they going to do, send drones over there?
      They’ll chuck a few wet and weary lettuces over and the yanks will respond with “ouch, that hurt! We get the message!” and off they’ll go again, lording it over everyone on the planet.
      Shut up Sea M, it’s true!

      Like

      • 🙂

        Like

        • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

          Sorry cholestol is a lipid. My mistake. Fat is also a lipid.

          My general point is that everything we thought we know about nutrition looks like it is wrong. Including the role of cholestol in plaque formation. And I’m assuming from Atomou’s outrage a whole lot of people are reluctant to tell us the truth. Especially because it looks like the extra carbs they’re been telling us to eat may be the culprits in plaque formation.

          Like

      • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

        Testing…

        I heard my name and I really did want to share something with you. The good fat theory of the Mediterranean diet is a vicious slur on Greeks! It implies the outcome is due to the accident of what they eat and not the wisdom of how they eat it.

        I didn’t see Catalyst but I know we’re reassessing ‘good fats’ and ‘bad fats’ right. We’re also reassessing the five food groups especially the idea that you need set quantities of the each group every day. It seems for example that having a constant supply of food, never being hungry and always having insulin in ones system might cause diabetes. It seems that protein is better for you if you eat it like a hunter, big serves every few days.

        So where did they do the Mediterranean diet study? Who are the baddest assed fasters in the Greek orthodox world? Same answer. Crete. They’re on some kind of fast about 220 days a year. Latest theory is that its the fasting not the fats that leads Creteans to be so long lived.

        The Greeks knew it all along.

        I lost 10 kilos in 5 months on intermittent fasting. Fasted two days a week and didn’t eat for up to 16 hours on the fasting days. Ate crap and drank like a fish the whole time but blood chemistry improved.

        Abbots an ignoramus. Pricing the environment was invented by the Republicans. When they knew they had to do something but didn’t want it to be a centrally planned, socialist rationing option.

        Like

        • I knew it. From the manner of your previous post that you didn’t watch the program, but I didn’t want to say anything, until now.

          It wasn’t only about good fat and bad fat. It was primarily about the distinction between two different studies undertaken at different times in the past. The most interesting part for me was how the human body produces 80-90 % of the cholesterol, and how cholesterol gets deposited under the damaged tissue cells of the artery walls, and, why and how the tissue is damaged in the first place.

          Watch the program, Sea, it’s important. Remember:: Don’t raise your blood pressure when your team is loosing on the field, or, when someone says “football” instead of “soccer” while discussing The World Game.

          Let it go and live a stress free life.

          Like

        • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

          Cholesterol is a fat.

          Like

        • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

          Some cholesterols are allegedly bad and some are allegedly good.

          Like

  25. Carisbrooke's avatar Carisbrooke said:

    This is on here. They are practising. Noisy fuckers – I can’t here myself typing….

    …………http://www.v8supercars.com.au/

    Like

    • sea mendez's avatar sea mendez said:

      I used to live at Newington adjacent to Sydney Olympic Park. You can still hear it a Concord where I am now. I feel your pain.

      Like

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