why bother?

My weekend will be mostly taken up with caring for elderly relative, collecting various members of the family from the airport and the interminable battle to keep the quantity of dead leaves that decorate the yard and paths to under about 4 tons. So, just some quick comments (and yes, there will be no surprises):

• several more acres of newsprint about the lying rodent today. He's been the most effective politician this country has ever seen. You won't get any argument from me on that. His loyalty is to the Liberal Party - as he often notes - not the nation. So we deserve what we get (well not me, I didn't vote for his up-yours-Jack party) and a few more years will give him time to subvert every institution of governance in the country.
• Costello. Hah! How to make the unexceptional exceptional in the cause of self-promotion. Good luck, chump.
• In the current upsurge in violence/murder/however you describe it in Iraq, I heard (admittedly in the background as I made dinner) George Bush stringing random words together, in middle of which, unlinked from any context, was "freedom". So far, on message. But he forgot 'liberty' and 'democracy'. The man's losing his touch. He, naturally, was immediately followed by that peculiar mix of whine and talking-to-a-small-child admonishment that signifies that the lying shit of our PM is communicating with his 'mob'. He similarly strung words together, in the middle of which was the unequivocal statement that it was all al-Qaeda's doing. On message. Good. But given the analysis I've been reading elsewhere, I'd say the statement is based more on hot air than facts.
• Now, why can't we be nicer to each other. Tell you what. I'll be nicer to you. Because I admit I can't be to...(insert usual phrase here).

And that, you-who-I-was-talking-to-in-the-lift-yesterday, is what I meant by learning by doing in running a blog. It's harder than it looks.

Afterthought:

I'd meant to link to some good articles about he-who-cannot-be-named-except-as-lying-rodent in yesterday's Daily Briefing. Including one I thought particularly incisive but now can't find which also identifies the undermining of national insitutions as his greatest 'success'. Gee, what a legacy. Thanks a bunch. And while the blood pressure's up, there is the lying shit beaming out from the front page of every paper in a carefully staged photo from Kirribilli. I guess it's just me who sees that as a deliberate 'up yours' to those taxpayers who know how wrong it is. Aaaahh, f**k it. Off to get some fish for din-dins. And some chardonnay, natch.

Thought after the afterthought

The fish for dinner worked remarkably well - best I've ever achieved I would say. It was washed down not with chardonnay but 3 stubbies of batch no 5 (which is flat but just about drinkable from the bottle) and a glass of dregs from a cask of red. No elites aorund here, no sirree.

And the part of elderly relative caring that I was dreading - the shower - went OK too. I have to say that nothing prepares you for that sort of occasion and it provokes all sorts of reflection.