sorrow

As the 7.30 Report comes on and the familiar, negative and wholly puke-making visage of the PM appears as he is about to lie, obfuscate and slide around any questions relating to nuclear power, climate change and/or the (non) sale of the Snowy, I hit the mute button. Actually, I change channels. I know I should stay informed, I know about 'know thy enemy' and so on, but I just can't stand it.

Actually, I doubt the Rodent knows that I am his enemy so Sun Tzu probably doesn't count.

Is the electorate slowly waking up? That you can't keep on selling capital assets to fund recurrent expenditure? That the massive costs involved in infratsructure mean that governments will need to go into debt? And that governments can borrow more cheaply than private organisations? That if you keep on screwing those at the bottom of the economic tree, eventually they will rebel?

The optimistic among us will think so and maybe, just maybe, the pendulum will begin to swing. The longer it takes the greater the cost, of course. Some 'informed' commentary might start to recognise the sense in moderate levels of government debt to fund new infrastructure, but the headlines will still scream about red ink and so on. And of course, there is always this. Very informed. "Reputable think-tank". Yeah - if reputable means predictable. Same-same as the Australia Institute - you get what you pay for.

It's in fact hard to find genuinely impartial opinion and analysis. I guess the various places I inhabit on line and in print don't provide it. That said, I have no more time for organisations or individuals whose slant I might agree with if there's not a lot of analysis underpinning it. Like here, I suppose (squirms).

Look, this is just the usual namby-pamby stuff you get a v v b, I just wanted to get it down and maybe at some stage when I've got more time I'll do something a bit...deeper. Hope springs eternal.