don't worry be happy

Just a couple of quick observations.

How come TV interviewers can accost the PM on the street with "Kevin" when they want to ask him a question? Did they ever call that poxy, lying little (several paragraphs of quite old but heavily spit-encrusted adjectives deleted here) (and you can choose your noun, I'll settle for **** because you know what I mean), "John"? Does this mean that our new PM is indeed a man of the people, or just of TV interviewers?

Why do the two otherwise quite adorable, similarly attired brothers in the TV ad for AAMI insurance roll their r's ("customerrrrrs") like goddamn Yankees? How far does this cultural imperialism have to go before we say "enough"?

Does being able to read a question about the Non-accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment (or NAIRU as it is known in textbooks, but nowhere else) make you smarter than the Treasurer? Apparently Malcolm Turnbull thinks so, but then he did trip over the word "Treasurer" in asking his question. That Wayne Swan didn't know the answer means precisely zero. Did Peter Costello?

In fact I have a kind of moth-infested, certainly dormant memory fragment from studying (that's studying in the loosest sense of the term) economics in the early 1990s that the NAIRU had been discredited. Mind you, that probably means it got reconstituted somewhere in the meantime.

I saw/listened to/had in the background some of the Four Corners doco on the Liberals 2007 nosedive, but even in the lingering euphoria of a well-deserved win, it still grates to hear some of 'em prattle (that'll be you, Downer). The after-the-event conversions to the value of signing Kyoto were nothing short of puke-inducing.

Several of 'em are just ideological machine men who really need to shut away in in a big box That'll be you, Nick.

Some are just plain scary and need to be sedated pdq (that'll be you, Tony Abbott).

It's almost, just almost, very tempting to have a rant. But I have to admit, I had a little one watching the program while on the phone to Mrs VVB earlier tonight, just to remind her of what she's missing by not having her man about the house (now there's a phrase that should induce some side-shaking mirth both thither and, of course, yon). Man about the house indeed. Spit-encrusted and somewhat dented TV, courtesy of. Nicde to get him out of the way for a few months, the vibes have settled immeasurably.

Outside, the mighty Fitzroy is slowly rising again and the forecast is for it to reach almost the same height as two weeks ago.