throwing copper

In lieu of blubbering about election related things or ranting about the gross inequities that John Howard has perpetrated upon our fair country*, allow me to post a deeply offensive rascist joke that I got today.

A London lawyer runs a stop sign and gets pulled over by a Glasgow copper. He thinks that he is smarter than the cop because he is a lawyer from London and is certain that he has a better education then any Jock cop. He decides to prove this to himself and have some fun at the Glasgow cop's expense.

Glasgow cop says," Licence and registration, please."
London Lawyer says, "What for?"
Glasgow cop says, "Ye didnae come to a complete stop at the stop sign."
London Lawyer says, "I slowed down, and no one was coming."
Glasgow cop says, "Ye still didnae come to a complete stop. Licence and registration, please."
London Lawyer says, "What's the difference?"
Glasgow cop says, "The difference is, ye huvte to come to complete stop, that's the law, Licence and registration, please!"
London Lawyer says, "If you can show me the legal difference between slow down and stop, I'll give you my licence and registration; and you give me the ticket. If not, you let me go and don't give me the ticket."

Glasgow cop says, "Sounds fair. Exit your vehicle, sir."
The London Lawyer exits his vehicle. The Glasgow cop takes out his baton and starts beating the cr*p out of the lawyer and says, "Dae ye want me to stop, or just slow down?"

*Why should I do it when others do it so much better?

any old iron

Irony, actually.

Out walking at lunchtime I saw a business's utility truck being attended to by the RACQ - a new battery, perhaps. The name of the company? Programmed Maintenance Services.

Caveat emptor, I would advise.

paperback writer

With the latter day rise of the blogosphere and other various new age variants on the broadcasting if not sharing of the news, the spotlight has fallen on the quality of the mainstream media. In p0articular, and this was a discussion I had with offspring no 2 only last night, any notion of investigative journalism seems to have died, possibly with the Y2K bug if not the end of the Cold War.

As for analysis, it's not so much a cesspit as a vacuum. For every Akerman there's an Adams (well, not exactly, the right is everywhere on the opinion pages) but there are few opinion columns you'd read without knowing, in pretty fair detail, what it was going to say. As a case in point, let's look at Joshua Frydenburg today. It's not so much the tilt of his column that's annoying as the lazy dot-point interpretations he puts on his 'facts'. The link is here but if you have a sensitive stomach, don't bother visiting, simply understand that it's all about how Peter Costello will make a wonderful PM - at the appointed time, of course.

Costello is the undisputed architect of Australia's $1 trillion economy, having
overseen its growth by more than 50 per cent since 1996. In that period he has
safely steered Australia through challenging times, including the Asian economic
crisis, the dot-com boom and bust, the post-September 11 fallout and, most
recently, an extended devastating drought.

So, what exactly did he do to "safely steer" us through the challenging times. What were the policy levers (so beloved of Keating, of course) that he pulled? '

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has praised
Australia's commitment to structural reform as "a model for other OECD countries"; leading economist Paul Krugman labelled Australia the "miracle economy"; and most recently America's distinguished former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, referred to Costello in his memoirs as someone who is "unusually perceptive on global issues".

So, we're cleaving to the TINA/Washington Consensus approach, then. What a surprise that turned out to be, have to rustlethrough a lot of rubbish bins to find that out? Yes, we adhere to the OECD model, more than other countries, and come what may. That, to my mind, makes us seem rather inflexible.

And, once Costello has been unusually perceptive, what precisely does he do with his perceptions?

Indeed, should Labor continue to focus on Costello's ascension to the leadership, it will offer the Government an important opportunity to showcase the Treasurer's breadth of experience and expertise beyond economic matters. Having previously referred to himself as a "Burkean-type liberal", Costello has made the primacy of the individual the centrepiece of his political thinking.

From the time of his maiden speech to Parliament in 1990, he has emphasised the subservience of government to the citizen, warned against the danger of ideology and made it clear that his allegiance is to the individual over monopoly control.

Anyone accusing the other side of being more ideological than the current band of Libs in Cabinet should take a long hard second look at the words and deeds. Ideology writ large, none more so than on IR.

Like Howard, Costello has also shown a willingness to take the hard decisions to
advance the national interest, irrespective of their popularity. Witness his commitment to the GST, industrial relations reform and the strict fiscal discipline required to bring the budget back to surplus.

He has an ideology that he finds easy to maintain is more likely the interpretation. How about comparing this list (and actually, he's never been the minister for employment so whatever his view on IR, the "plaudits" should go elsewhere, if we were being honest) to the major decisions of the Hawke and Keating governments. In fact if you plot the rise in GDP over time you'll see that floating the dollar in 1983 has had the single biggest impact on economic growth (at it did last time I looked a year or so ago).

So too on the international stage, Costello has completed more than a
traditional apprenticeship. As a proponent of Australia's engagement with Asia
and a longstanding advocate of our alliance with the US, he has been a regular
visitor abroad.

So he's a bit ahead than George Bush was, then, on travel before assuming office. Not a strong argument, one would have thought. All those APEC Ministers meetings.

But it was at last November's G20 meeting in Melbourne that Costello assumed a pivotal role. His chairmanship of this international gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors from economies representing two-thirds of the world's population was the scene of some substantive discussions on the pressing issues of energy security, aid and debt relief, and demographic change.

And the substantive discussions resulted in what, exactly? Doesn't the chair normally sum up the arguments and gain agreement on actions? What were the actions?

Top piece of non-analysis, Joshua. Why didn't you save yourself the 30 minutes and just post the media release?

cicada that ate five dock

That song, linked on youtube here, has nothing to do with today's post but somehow while in Sydney I was reminded of it, and hence the link to make your day. I always reckoned it was magic, it's still good.

Today two pieces of campaign material oozed into the letterbox. Kevin07 has a "plan" for "Australia's Future", possibly to follow the pointless trend to capitalising all Nouns until we could almost be Germans. A Trend which, if continued, will Surely Result in an even More insidious Attack of our traditional Grasp of Grammar.

Kevin07's pamphlet is a single folded A4 sheet which is the colour of (badly) recycled paper but makes no claims to be so. It just looks Cheap. It doesn't say Much and it repeats that he has a Plan three times. The local candidate, Ross Daniels, gets 1/6th of the pamphlet. We're going to maintain our national security, possibly by keeping the Iranians out of the Leafy Western Suburbs. It's deeply unimpressive.

Michael Johnson's pamphlet is multicoloured in blue and green hues, not traditional Liberal colours I would have thought, but that's because it's all about how only the Howard Government can "responsibly manage the challenges of climate change while protecting Australia's economy and protecting local jobs." That'll be all the Jim's Mowing franchises, I imagine, because everybody else works in town or at the Univeristy of Queensland.

In a first for any Michael Johnson promotional material, no photos appear of Michael with the PM, although Howard does get a quote and his signature reproduced. The rest of it is about what you can do about climate change. Ask not what your country can do for you, indeed.

So first round points to Michael, I guess.

And the national campaign? Tax breaks? Looks like any investment in any class of infrastructure is off the agenda for another few years.

back in the ussr

Well we're back safe 'n sound. The forecast hangovers indeed eventuated, particularly after 8 schooies of Reschs at the Fortune O'War.

But we had two fabulous breakfasts at one of the many coffee shops on King Street, Newtown and last night the three amigos also had a top fang at a Chinese place in Chinatown. Salt and pepper prawns, yeah baby. And a crispy skin chicken that was also superb.

I have thirty zillion photos of the motor show with which I won't bore you, except this one because of all the loverly things that were there, this Maserati Qauttroporte was without doubt the prettiest.

So while we were away the PM called the election and tonight we have an advertisement that has Rudd ands Swan with L-plates and Julia Gillard as the plaything of the union bosses and she's never had a proper job.

It's going to be a long 6 weeks, fortunately I have lots of work to distract me.

Finally, having spent several hours at the airport this arvo, a comment on the announcements they make. "Unsullied Airways is making an urgent call for Balderstone Longbottom, a passenger on our wonderful flight to Oodnagalarbie. Our flight is fully boarded and we are awaiting your immediate arrival for its departure."

So, if Mr Longbottom is not on the plane, it isn't really fully boarded, is it? And we await your arrival for our departure. Yeah, we know what you mean but your construction could be more felicitous, could it not?

son of a preacher man

We have to admit to kind of, you know, like, sort of bogan tastes here at chateau VVB, particularly in relation to TV. Although well out of the target demographic by virtue of our advancing ages, Mrs VVB and I are constant Ch 10 watchers so there's a fair bit of Australian Idol watched.

Apologies to those who'd picked us as ABC TV and Radio National types. And SBS, although SBS is just another mainstream TV channel nowadays.

Anyway we got mightily excited about the accusations that Australian Idol was in the pocket of the Hillsong crew. Not just voting, we mean in the pocket.

Well after the token efforts on Sunday and Monday at "addressing" (really?) the issue on the show, we immediately came to the conclusion that yes, the show is in the pocket.

What this means is another thing. There's a fair bit of angst around about the increasing influence of religion, particularly the more 'fundamentalist' type of religion, on public life. In reality, any influence on a bogan TV show shouldn't be of concern. But in any contest for hearts and minds, any hill you take is hard won ground and accordingly Mrs VVB and I are less than happy should the religiously obsessive be getting their sticky fingers in where they ain't needed.

Gospel is fine - in fact, I luurrve gospel. Subliminal conditioning - nup. Proselytising - definitely not. Overreaction? Maybe. But chateau VVB is trying desperately to see all sides whenever we're looking at anything apparently monolateral. Is that a word? Who knows? I certainly don't mean unilateral, I think. Have we lost the plot? Yup, again.

Anyway, we're - actually I'm - off to Sydney for the motor show and annual boys' weekend away this weekend. Annoyingly, I have a work thing on Friday morning (which I could have sworn was originally on Wednesday) to show up at first, before a mad dash to the airport.

This is of course just an excuse for one beer too many in a decreasingly convincing attempt to kid ourselves that the three of us are still 20. The following morning/s will be the test, and I can guarantee we will be found wanting, if not utterly dehydrated.

Still, the aim is to be here at 5pm on Friday for the first of a refreshingly lumpy Reschs, served damn cold. After that, it will be all downhill.

Also, how much bloody advertising are we going to get once the election campaign actually starts? If Kevin07 tells me one more time that he's an economic conservative, the TV will not be safe. There will be more than swearing. As for the other bloke - eeeugh. You know it.

shout

I have alluded in the past to an increasing habit of shouting at the television whenever certain heads appear and/or certain whiny, hectoring voices seep from the speakers and insinuate themselves into your brain..."born to rule, born to rule, listen to me, we were born to rule."

Anyway this insidious habit has really got a hold on me (hmm, there's a great line for a song..) and so I find myself doing it without thinking.

Or, to be more accurate, Mrs VVB finds me doing and reminds me of how much it annoys her. Which is a lot, a real big lot.

So, Sunday, there we are watching the leadup to the Great Race (tm used to be Ch10, now tm Ch7) and bugger me dead, there's Mark fucking Vaile and Brendan fucking Nelson! Where on earth did they come from? Can I recall a pollie ever being at Bathurst before? Well, they may well have been (don't think it was Keating though, your average Louis XIV clock can't measure thousandths of a second) but I certainly can't recall any.

So, of course, I started 'commenting'. Without listening to whatever rubbish they were spouting. So Mrs VVB starts at me. Not without provocation, I have to admit. So I turn the sound off (both me and the TV).

Thrilling end to the race, but.

Anyway I keep checking the ABC news online for details of the governing that the PM claims he is still doing, but all I find are references to pissing money up against the nearest (marginal) wall.

This is not governing.

It's not much of a blogpost either, but I checked the stats the other day - not something I do all that regularly - and it seems about 20 deluded souls pass this way every day. If it's the same souls, they are indeed deluded.

Nonetheless, I feel some sort of obligation to give youse something to read and, today, this has been your bloomin' lot.

Not quite. Here's another Burma story from today's SMH. What you have to realise is that the 'authorities' - the junta, the State Peace and Development Council - do this sort of stuff every day and have been since 1988 (yes, when they were the State Law and Order Restoration Council).

more on Burma

This report from the Guardian rings very true. How do you like the junta's description of "systematic control"?

It is very hard for people in free country such as Australia to actually comprehend what it feels like to live under total repression, where the army is used to subdue the populace, not guard against external threats. Secret police are the same everywhere they exist, of course.

Anyway it's comforting that, despite the junta's continuing effort s to shut down scrutiny, that Burma remains on the world's agenda. It's the least we can do.

mountains of Burma

There was a small rally for Burma today at Queens Park in Brisbane. Not checking the the PA equipment was working was a bit of a mistake - most of the speakers were inaudible above the 100 odd people there.

I said g'day to Senator Andrew Bartlett and would agree with his assessment that direct action is problematic but showing support is simple and utterly necessary.

I'd taken a photo album of some of our time in Rangoon to work and people are very interested to see what the place looks like. Unfortunately the photos don't show things like your phone being (extremely obviously) tapped, the 'secret' police hanging around suburban corners and so on.

But this issue can't be allowed to slide under the carpet under the State Peace and Development Council's intranisgence and game-playing. Even Lee Kuan Yew (Senior Mentor? I love it, there's a role for Gough!) thinks the situation remains untenable over the longer term.

strange days indeed

Weird, man.

Found via Stereogum.

blogday for Burma

Late in the day, but nonetheless:

western union man

Offspring no 2 and I were going into town today and outside the Brisbane City Council's colourful new offices we saw one of their vehicles, adorned euphemistically with the explanation "Business Logistics Solutions."

We looked through the rear window at what was inside, summed up the driver and translated this as "delivery man".

They should have put the word 'strategic' in the title.

We got a different delivery in the postbox - Michael Johnson and John Howard: A Strong Team For Ryan.

The election must have been called.

Mr Johnson says we must invest for "safer roads, cracking down on local crime and improved education standards", the PM says we can only do this in strong economic times 'cos there'll be none of the Keynesian counter-cyclical nonsense around here, thank you very much.

real life

The Olympics Blogger left a comment a couple of postsd ago saying s/he doesn't support boycotting the Olympics. I tried to leave a comment but got a rejection message and as I don't comment at blogs that require registration, f.w.i.w. my rebuttal ran along these lines:
- the Burmese people chose a popular government in 1990 but the military refused to acknowledge the result, put the legitimate winner under house arrest in 1990 and continued to rule. So an argument that the Burmese have the government they're happy with is egregiously untenable.
- The military has continued to rule by force and repression, which does not permit armed or unarmed resistance without intolerable consequences (as was also proved in 1988).
- Yes it would be preferable that the Olympics not be politicised, except that understanding was abrogated in 1936 and in 1980.
- The Burmese military can only be induced to change - or something similar - at one degree of separation, in this case through putting pressure on China.

Interestingly, I had lunch today with a long time friend who had visited Burma earlier this year. He pointed out, quite rightly, that even if Aung San Suu Kyi was released and some accommodation with the junta was found, she is of an age that is a generation now stepping down, yet she is without experience in government. Burma needs a new generation of leaders, but no identifiable leader has emerged because of the faith still put in AASK.

He had been impressed by the hospitality of the Burmese people (true) but also the amount of economic freedom (ie small business) allowed.

I'm still sceptical as you have to live there to appreciate the extent and pervasiveness of political control through the 'secret' police, who are everywhere.

..at this stage there was a short break while I watched Spicks and Specks with Lloyd Cole set up to sink a putt against a lookalike Alice Cooper, complete with rubber chicken in his mouth - it seems that Lloyd has the same golf handicap as Cooper...

meanwhile back in the real world...

and in the other real world with which we are more familair, some questions arise about the Government's hospitals plan...

...while some people have simple, neat answers.

Unfortunately, they're not alone:

Market method only way to fix problems in health

It has been appalling to see recent news items showing people suffering and dying in hospital waiting rooms, in hospital toilets, and in waiting ambulances. Doctors threatening to resign and some very sick people even advised to go home.
Every politician from former Queensland premier Peter Beattie to Federal Health Minister Tony Abbot and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd have said they will fix the hospital system.

The administrative problems from which people suffer can never be fixed
while medical care and hospitals are run by the bureaucracy. Senior officials have admitted this. There are only two ways of rationing economic goods: By competitive price the market method. By queues the socialist method. In the socialist method, the queues will get so long and the service so poor that the value of the "service" falls to its direct cost to the recipient zero.

The real cost, to the suffering taxpayer, will keep rising forever. When
and where permitted to do so by the state, the market system produces all items.
Entrepreneurs emerge and supply the market with what it wants at competitive
prices, whether it be health services, water supply, educational facilities,
welfare services or any other good.
Ronald Kitching, Frenchville, Qld

This bloke needs to learn about why the private sector won't supply goods and services from it can't exact a commercial return - known as spillover effects. The poor can't afford health care at any price, that's why we pay taxes to ensure an equitable availability of such goods and services. If we want the law of the jungle, let's make it obvious and have a referenddum question rather than an election.

They should also remember that answers that are simple and neat are usually bracketed with 'wrong'.

free four

(1) The situation in Burma remains...what, exactly? It's still getting some media attention, there is plenty of talk of boycotting companies with links to Burma and also the Beijing Olympics, this last being the only currently identifiable way of putting pressure on Burma's main support. India's interests and the role it is playing remain a bit murkier.

Recent news of widespread murders of protesting monks isn't surprising. Anyone with any understanding of the military junta in Burma would know that such a massive reaction is entirely consistent with how they 'govern'.

Collective action will be needed to keep the spotlight on Burma - if news and, most importantly, pictures and video dry up, it'll be harder to maintain the level of scrutiny- even if the junta is resistant.

(2)
The Guardian runs a write-in competition to have people nominate a President of the World. Read the responses: by turns hilarious and depressing. Being the Guardian you get the usual far-left favourites (Hugo Chavez, but also Nelson Mandela who at least meets most criteria you could think of), then there's the people who try to take it seriously and say why it's such a bad idea which segues neatly into the usual pro and anti America rants after some American says they'll be ruled by outsiders over their cold, dead body. But the stupid suggestions are the best. My favourites? "My landlord's dog." "Daffy Duck. " "Pinocchio." "John Lydon."

(3)
Some blooper jokes just to cheer you up.

These sentences (with all the bloopers) actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

• The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
• The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."
• Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
• Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.
• Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
• Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
• For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
• Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
• Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
• A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
• At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
• Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
• Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
• Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
• The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
• Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
• The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
• This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in t he park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
• Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.
• The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
• Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
• The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
• Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
• The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."

(4)

A new Howard Government ad on the teev tonight, all about the evils of marijuana. They're onto something here, but I reckon you actually need a couple of decent spliffs to stomach the other ads, particularly the two extraordinarily well-informed blokes in the pub who are such happy beneficiaries of SerfChoices. Bartender, another number please.

freedom

The Heritage Institute, that bastion of free market ideology, says Burma is 88.3% free from government. The Heritage Institute also says the following about Burma:

As an autocratic state, Burma imposes severe restrictions on many areas of its economy. Investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, and corruption are weak. The almost complete lack of a judicial system means that domestic and foreign companies must negotiate directly with the government to resolve disputes. Foreign investment is adjudicated in each instance, with no clear guidelines for investors. Heavy restrictions in the financial sector and labor market inflexibility are serious economic problems.

Background:

Burma is a repressive military dictatorship. The country gained its independence from Britain in 1948 and has been ruled by a military junta since 1962. The current
political incarnation of martial rule is the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC). The SPDC offers its "roadmap for democracy" and National Convention to
rewrite the constitution as examples of reform, but little real change has been
forthcoming. Though Burma has significant national resources, restrictive economic policies and international sanctions have impeded economic development. In addition, foreign aid plummeted during the 1990s in response to the government's harsh anti-democratic repression.

As you can see from that excerpt, that conclusion is based on government expenditures which are of course very low as the State Peace and Development Council - the ruling junta- mainly only spends its money on armaments. About 40% of its budget, we believe.

And tax is low - mainly because there is no properly functioning government in the sense that we would understand it - which spends most of its time in repressing its people rather than collecting taxes from legitimate private enterprises.

Lies, damned lies and statistics.

And, in this case, sheer blind stupidity. You will notice that the Heritage Institute, true to its mission, is all about what might happen to your capital should you seek to invest (hey - opium is a good cash crop) rather than should you hope to just stay alive as a citizen of the investment target country.

Here's some freedom from government that the Heritage Foundation might like to get its head around, if it could only bring itself to realise that there's more to life than low government expenditures and tax rates.

I hope that Japanese corprations are reviewing their investment in the the country as long as its civilian press are getting slaughtered there.

Don't forget, Heritage and its friends are the people who think they have the simple, incontrovertible, correct answer for how we should organise our lives.

Should I be making cheap accusations against an organisation with which I have ideological 'problem' when Burmese are dying in the streets? Probably not, but knowledge is power and if you read the Heritage's web page on Burma, what conclusions would you draw? Hmm, yes, big investment risk.

People are dying. They were in 1964, they were in 1974, they were in 1998.

everybody needs a little time away

The actions of the police in Canberra against the protesters at the Burmese Embassy got me very angry and I guess that showed in how I wrote the post last night. Didn't anyone think for two seconds about how such aggressive actions would look against people who, particularly as they are Buddhists, are usually pretty passive in their protesting? And how it sits against what those people were actually protesting about?

In the absence of other suggestions or ideas - and believe me we know here at Chateau VVB how resistant the junta in Burma is to any sort of pressure - I'm increasingly drawn the need for a widespread boycott of the Olympics in Beijing as a way of pressuring China to pressure Burma. No-on else has the leverage (yeah, that word just wrote itself, I meant " ability to influence') on Burma that China does. Any change that we can exert on Burma will have to be done at one degree of separation.

Anyway, we cannot live by anger alone so, while keeping up the pressure, let me tell you about how I was leaving the Gold Coast during the week when I, and a number of other cars got overtaken, undertaken and generally blown into the weeds by a highly enthusiastically driven Aston Martin roadster. The driver had his pedal to the metal and this thing just really got up and boogied as he wove around a few cars to get to clear road. So: I want one. And although it's my birthday today, the fambly didn't quite rise to the occasion, in Aston Martin terms.

And I just discovered Blogger Play, which will give you a running slideshow of recently uploaded photos to blogger blogs. It really is addictive but even moreso because I had Pink Floyd's Run Like Hell from Pulse on as the background - no, foreground - music. Just magic.

Just back to Burma, it's on the news behind me. Even though the junta has shut down communications - a typical response - this time, unlike 1988 when we were there, the world has been given an insight into how Burma operates. Just remember, though, this sort of stuff happens daily there. There is a pervasive secret police operation and paid informers network, so ordinary Burmese people have to be ultra careful abouyt what they say to whom.

Oh, and now the news is having a big go at the government about the level of advertising (one of their number, didn't turn around to hear which one) reckoned people would be focusing on the football. Quite so, but the extent -and cost - of the the onslaught is being increasingly registered.

no words suitable

This is how we support the protesters supporting their families and friends back in Burma? Utterly disgusting. When did these kinds of actions suddenly become commonplace in Australia? I've just seen TV coverage of similar protests in London, there didn't seem to be any need for concerted police action to barge people off the street there.

The PM says there's little we can do. I would have thought the first thing would be to allow relatives and friends of Burmese people to demonstrate. This is a free country isn't it? WELL?

i've just got to get a message to you

I've just sent the PM one, 'cos I'm not listening to his. Apparently I'm not the only citizen (subject? target demographic?) who's a bit fed up with the taxpayer funded media blitz aimed at getting the little liar and his ideological fellow-travellers back onto the Treasury benches.

I really, really hope it backfires on them the way it seems to be.

Update: oops, forgot to put the tags in - again. Just like forgetting to take the camera to the Noosa car show.

Anyway, while we're updating, I've just been belting this out upstairs, but in a very acoustic way rather than this somewhat souped-up version (hmm, the timing's a bit, er, variable, is it not? exciting, but). Anonymous Chris probably thinks it's crap, I love it. Silk Degrees was - is - a great album, I just couldn't see it when it came out. I remember going to a disco - called Silvers if I recall correctly - in Melbourne with some friends. One bloke was a big Boz Scaggs fan, he was already married (unlike the rest of us), his wife turned up with face glitter and all. Those were the days.

i like java

Oh indeed I do.

The commentary: "She’s had enough, I think. Enough coffee ice cream. Enough coffee-toffee topping. Enough coffee. She's looking at that coffee-flavored ice cream as if she can't decide which orifice to jam it into. In a year she'll be shooting Folger's crystals betweeen her toes.When your pupils are as wide as the saucer beneath your cup, you’ve had enough."

Indeed.

From here. Via Hoydenish.

The fortunate many who share my corner table at the other office will no doubt substantiate.
And don't forget to add your voice to the many supporting the Burmese people, whether at Avaaz or elsewhere.

you took the words right out of my mouth

David Jones in the CBD has its Christmas decorations and Yuletidey stuff on sale.

It's September for crying out loud.

Wrong wrong wrong.

the road to mandalay

Nineteen years ago, more or less there, were protesters on the streets of Rangoon. We were there at the time and sneaking around the place trying to find out what exactly was going on, as the State-owned media simply printed warnings to the populace to go home and forget about democracy.

That hasn't changed:

State media has explicitly ordered the monks to stay out of politics, and accused foreign media of fuelling the protests that have become the biggest challenge to the regime in nearly 20 years.
"All the members of the Sangha (clergy) residing in the Union of Burma are directed to avoid getting involved in party politics and instigation," the official New Light of Burma newspaper said.
"Some foreign media telecasting the protests aim to cause unrest in Burma," the paper said.

After the 1998 protests, subsequent reports said maybe 10 or 20 thousand people may been killed as the army put the protest down. The lack of factual data was why we were sneaking around trying to get a handle on what was going on.

The military then held elections, the wrong people won and all of a sudden we had the State Law and Order Restoration Commission (SLORC), superseded - once everybody was suitably cowed again - by the State Peace and Development Commission. Both of course were simply front organisations for the army which refused to accept that Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has won, and put her under house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi is of course the daughter of Burma's original leader of decolonisation from Britain, Bogyoke Aung San.

After returning to Australia, whenever people asked me about Burma I'd say that it will take a lot of bloodshed before the country will ever get close to its peoples' hopes for a bit of freedom. Regrettable as it may seem, I still think that's the case. The army is not going to give up its privileged position and the rent it extracts from the country's people and resources.

The pathetic bleating we hear from the West, including our own excuse for a Foreign Minister ("there's little we can do"), are as ineffectual as you could imagine. If we invaded Iraq to free the populace, why not in Burma? It's got oil, it's got gas. Why are we collectively reduced to begging?

Hmmmm. It seems even the Chinese, traditionally cosy with the regime in Burma, are sniffing the wind, informed no doubt by their self-interest. But that's what drives foreign relations.

kodachrome

Although only on the very periphery of political blogging in Oz, Chateau VVB would like to offer a reflection on the current situation...no, maybe the vibe...of the non-campaign campaign at the moment.

We've detected a certain ennui - much more than as reflected by the letters to the editor and blog comments saying "come on John, let's just have the damn thing and get it over with."

No, this is more along the lines of utter disenchantment with the whole political landscape. The country has been politicised well beyond its previous somewhat lackadaisical 'live and let live' approach to politicians and their tricks. 1975 aside, perhaps.

As a card-carrying Howard-hater I feel obliged to sheet home the blame to him and his perpetual campaigning. That is no doubt a factor, but the role of the media has been well to the fore, beating up stories beyond their natural life and inventing new crises whenever public attention started to drift.

And even beyond that, I feel that Ozplogistan has started to tire in its search for the new line, the new twist. With the honourable exceptions of those who do the numbers, Possums Polytics, Mumble etc.

So, is it just Chateau VVB that feels this way? And is it a retrievable situation? I guess for every blogger still consumed by the daily goings-on there are some that feel similarly to me, and for all them there are hundreds of thousands of Aussies who don't give a fig. Good on 'em, I am inclined to think, provided they do a little mental arithmetic before casting their votes. But Aussies as a whole don't see their world through a political lens, so I hope the attempt fails to insert that lens into our national landscape.

Well we're back from the weekend and it went almost as forecast in the previous post. The first house we saw was by far the most suitable, particularly if we were to move tomorrow. It wasn't outrageously expensive, though, so we were wrong on that one. Trying to imagine ourselves in ten years' time, either retired or (more likely) semi-retired but doing different work, proved to be the major factor in identifying what we might want in a house. Or, to be more accurate, in identifying where we might be living such as either still here in the leafy western suburbs or somewhere else. And if somewhere else, where?

No wonder we have ennui.

Unfortunately we didn't take the digital camera to the Noosa Beach Classic Car Show or we could have inserted some nice piccies of Aston Martins (the featured marque this year, I utterly fell in love with a green DB9) along with all the sorts of cars we'd love to have for a toy: Triumph TR6, big Healeys, MG TC and TF. But we forgot the camera.

out on the weekend

There will be no blogging this weekend either as Mrs VVB and I are off to the Sunshine Coast to look for the next Chateau VVB. Predictably, we will find something at about twice what we can afford, which in turn will be about 4 times what we are prepared to pay. It will be just right for what we would need were we to move on Monday, and totally unsuitable for when we are in our 70s and our joints have all seized up.

Will there be the sort of infrastructure we might might need by then (stroke centres, paid dementia carers on every street corner, a choice of good latte mongerers)?

We don't want a house that's too big because (a) it will be hard to clean and (b) the offspring will never leave home or will keep returning. It has to be a quiet, safe street so we can safely get another Abyssinian kitten when Top Cat is no longer with us. Close to the shops, though.

With good views, of course.

And with one room that can be made soundproof so I can set up a little studio and go crazee with the guitars and my rusty voice. And sufficient garages to store a few toys: a Healey Sprite or perhaps an MG TC, a Fiat Bambino, a Moke, and a Maserati Quattroporte for weekday work.

So we shall see, but it will be a weekend away at least. We'll stay away from the news so we don't get the hysterical sneering and smearing that characterises current broadcasts, but will have to watch Wockwiz on Saturday night of course.

Boomers utterly rule, don't we?

running jumping standing still

This is by way of a placemarker post just to say that:

• House of VVB still exists;


• it's still unconscionably tired all the time, presumably from last week's lurgy;


• many people at work are similarly still tired, sick, all those things;


• there is absolutely no point in going into some irrelevant rant about anything political until the election is called;


• and it won't be yet;


• because there's a quite a lot of your taxes still to splurge on advertising;


• but I've fallen into a bloghole and there is currently no suitable provocation for climbing out.

Some semblance of normal activity will return at some unspecified time in the future, maybe another car story. In the meantime, rant amongst yourselves.

in like a shot from my gun

David Barnett is, by this byline, "a Canberra writer." That is being a little disingenuous, as he is probably better known for this and other crimes against good taste. For someone so immersed in and proud of the conservative political tradition in Australia, you'd think he'd be a bit more open about his credentials.

He's gone a bit far this time though. He thinks the Chaser fellows should have been shot. Well, that's what he wrote. Letters to the editor of the Canberra Times didn't seem to support him, I wonder why? Because it's a Labor town, I suppose. Only Labor supporters wouldn't support shooting people on sight, even if they were dressed as bin Laden. In downtown Sydney. At a time of high alert. Right where you'd expect undisguised Islamic terrorists to be. Out in the open.

Anybody who doesn't think thereisn't a fascist fringe in this country needs to read Barnett's obnoxious tripe again and have a rethink. They're not all out in the scrub, evidently. I wonder what senior Government Ministers - the Attorney-General, perhaps - think about Barnett advocating the use of summary executions?

I didn't think that as soon as the so-called Coalition gained control of the Senate we would automatically lose the rule of law, but that seems to have been the message that had been received by the self-appointed defenders of democracy, freedom and liberty (as redefined from time to time).

You know, it's distressingly easy to get angry and pump out bile like this. It's made Chateau VVB the blog it is today (inconsequential, perhaps).

But surely we have to keep pointing out what utter bastards these other types are? Don't we? It's our country too.

rumours

The real-life angst and heartache and general intermarital naughtiness that formed the backdrop to Fleetwood Mac's stunningly successful Rumours album was a mere whisper on the breeze compared to the almighty brou-ha-ha that enveloped the political desperates of this fair country this week following the Lying Little Man's request to his ever-faithful Foreign Minister to 'do the numbers.'

This Alex did - smoking a cigar if reports are to be believed, can you even imagine that? - the Littlest Liar stared 'em down again, the country let out a combined 'wha?' and we all moved on.

The blogosphere went into a massive orgy of reporting on itself, the mainstream media played multiple roles (well, they do get funded for this of course) and everybody else, the sensible ones, let it pass by.

In a parallel world, the flu hit my work team with a vengeance and Chateau VVB has been well below par all week, and still not well.

Which is a fairly longhanded way of saying we won't be adding to the week's frenzy now that it's over, but this rumour in today's Tips and Rumours in Crikey.com.au really struck us as likely to be true. And - he said, having two bob each way - even if not true, it's too delicious a piece of rumour-mongering to be confirmed to Crikey, so Chateau VVB gleefully reproduces it here:

An illustration of the vanity of John Howard and his urge for self glorification
is the fact that, unlike his Labor predecessors, all Cabinet Documents
(Submissions and Decisions) during his reign have been prefixed with a "JH". I
am not aware whether any Government prior to Howard's did this.

Enjoy, mes petits.

rongwrong

I'll stay as long as the party needs me but just listen, the party discussed that last year and doesn't need to do it again.

There must be a word for that. Hubris and arrogance suggest themselves, delusional is a different one. There must be more. Forever minutely twisting the truth, rewriting history, introducing just enough doubt that he couldn't be immediately accused of lying. A small man with a small lawyer's mind. No wonder we don't know what the direction is.

Oh yes we do - it's Dolly on the 7.30 report reading from the Crosby Textor hymn book: "the right direction", "right direction", "trade union officials", "John Howard has massive energy", "John Howard is the right answer for Australia's future", "the public feel that Australia is heading in the right direction."

Just call me 'talking points Alex'. Don't expect it to make sense, just tell the plebs what they need to believe. Just fuck off already.

I am so angry that we have collectively let this pack of amoral hyenas feed off the wealth of this country for so long. They have no scruples, no vision and no brains beyond self-interested rat cunning and bastardry.

baby you can drive my car pt (n+1)

The story of the Triumph Dolomite. You'll need to go back to this post to see where the Dolly came in the parade of VVB-mobiles. It was the third car we owned for the time we were in Singapore. The first was a Datsun 1200, the second a Mercedes 200 which I bought because I figured that an old, smoke-infested 200 would be the only Merc I would ever own.


It was mistake in many ways and so I eventually sold it for its scrap value (the Preferential Additional Registration Fee or PARF, which was Singapore's bureaucratically complex but effective way of getting old cars off the road).

The Dolly was a non-Parf car so while its purchase price was relatively low, the risk was that I wouldn't be able to sell it easily when we came to leave. However...



While only a standard 1850cc single overhead cam model, not the hot Sprint version (a bloke in the office had one of those), this thing really honked. It had been the personal car of the Managing Director of the local Leyland distributors and I suspect had been "breathed" on a bit. I had previously driven a standard Dolly while uncle still had the garage in Dubbo, and it was as arthritic a piece of automotive uselessness as I'd pretty much ever encountered. However, even though mine was an auto didn't slow it all that much.



Like all Trumps, it was comfortable and with an excellent, high driving position. It had an aircon which did dent the performance a bit was but essential in Singapore.



We took it up through Malaysia once, up the west coast through Port Dickson and then across to KL and up to the Genting Highlands, then to Kuantan on the east coast. On the night we came home I was really making good time: although it only had a short wheelbase and so could be prone to bucking about a bit on rough roads, it handled the run back down the east coast, actually a pretty good road even in those days, really well. And leaving Johore Bahru and coming back home to Singapore across the Causeway was always a buzz.



About 9.30pm we were just turning off Dunearn Rd and only about 1km from home, and the timing chain snapped. With two young babies aboad it was still a business to get home, but far better there than if it had happened at 100km/hr (approximately) on a deserted road in Malaysia.



Coming time to leave Singapore and with the aforementioned fears about unsaleability swirling around my head, I advertised it but also mentioned it to a few people I knew. So a fellow from the Hash House Harriers, an institution which had provided me with many enjoyable Monday evenings and as many hungover Tuesday mornings, showed some interest in it as a second car that his wife would use. But he brought it back and said it was "too powerful." Fortunately, we did find a loving home for it.



Here's a picture of offspring no 1 helping with some routine brake maintenance. Now he knows where he gets it from.

morning theft

Saturday night is a good time to trawl the overseas papers and the bastion of leftish thinking in the UK, the Guardian, serves up a couple of thought teasers tonight.

First,the Tories are lurching right again after several years of pretending to be in the middle.

You'd reckon people would wake up when a political party has to reassure the populace that they will be "compassionate", wouldn't you? Remember Bush, the "compassionate conservative?" What happened there? Shouldn't the need for such an admission - or 'clarification', perhaps - be seen as an admission that, by nature, your party and its members are not, and never have been, compassionate?

Colour me stupid, I can't get my head around this. If you are genuinely hard right, then be proud of it and drop the sham. People know what they're going to get from you, you may as well be honest.

On the other hand, if you believe that society needs some compassion, then drop the other rubbish because you know what it's going to do to society.

Provided you believe in societies of course, rather than the all-conquering economies that we have all lived in since the 1980s.

In this vein, Naomi Klein continues her assault on TINA with some analysis of the extra factor that Milton Friedman and his followers use to impose their pure model of how economies should work: disasters as the pretext for unilateral imposition of extreme free market ideology.

No doubt this new work from Klein will attract a fair bit of comment. She's got form, of course, but the slow emergence of the inevitable consequences of extreme free market economics - increasingly inequality, less concern for others and the sucking up of wealth to the top .1% - is now becoming more widely recognised. Popular disgust at CEO salaries is probably the easiest example to identify.

When the US deposed Saddam, their first acts were to topple the statue, secure the oil ministry and then attempt to privatise the entire economy. I wondered at the time how they would do it, and it seems they failed. I can't think of any more disgusting act to foist on a country you've just invaded under the pretext of liberation than to expropriate their resources and goods. It's truly medieval stuff.

The price signal is a very powerful mechanism for an efficient economy and allocation of resources. But theft is not capitalism.

say my name

Peter Martin at the Canberra Times lovingly chronicles yet another HMAS Born-to-rule's stuff-ups, the not-a-universal-access-card.

For a party that is always rabbitting on about Labor being the party of social engineering, the "nanny state", the Libs (let's leave the agrarian socialists out of this as their influence is minimal) do a pretty good job of working their nasty little way into Australians' lives to make them far less 'liberal' and enjoyable.

There's no doubt that they are absolutely certain that they're right on everything, and that should send up masses of alarm flares. I guess sometime in the past, governments would make somewhat more of an effort to make projects actually work while still keeping them aligning with the relevant ideology, but maybe not?

Not with this lot. A PM who wanted to be PM since he was ten, a petulant, thin-skinned idiot son of the aristocracy, Captain Smirk and a band of useful idiots, they reckon they have the only answer on everything. TINA, remember that?

Utter bullshit.

They are, I suspect, about to find out that enough people have tumbled to them. In the words of Muhammad Ali and the memorable Mr T, I wish them lots of pain.

Update: mind you, everybody does it nowadays.

i started a joke

In lieu of the reams of garbage that I could write today on the APEC/Bush ("OPEC", "Austrian", etc etc etc)/Howard/Chaser/Hu Rudd/etc etc etc) circus, I give you a short joke sent to me today by a good mate - the John Howard stamp joke.

JOHN HOWARD STAMP

Australia Post created a stamp with a picture of John Howard to honour his
achievements. Unfortunately, the stamp was not sticking to envelopes. This
enraged our Prime Minister, who demanded a full investigation into the matter.
After a month of testing, the investigation revealed three
findings:
1. The stamp is in perfect order.
2. There is nothing wrong with the applied adhesive.
3. People are spitting on the wrong side.

a quick one

On the first day of a four-day visit to Australia for the APEC summit, the American President heaped praise on Mr Howard for his "vision" on the Iraq war, his "leadership" on climate change and nuclear power, and for his economic management.

See my previous comments on "leadership."

I guess that it's always been the case that politicians have made statements that are so demonstrably disconnected from what everyone else understands to be the case that people just sigh and move on.

But really, Bush's comment is either quite, quite delusional or an outright lie. Or of course, the usual disclaimer - he was badly 'advised' by his advisers about what the Coalition has actually done on climate change, so it's not actually a lie.

I said last night that State Department people are very good at their jobs, so I can't imagine that they have misreported the Federal Government's very recent conversion to belief in climate change.

Whatever.

It's utter shit.

Update: oh, and what about these AEC ads about the election being called "very soon?" If it's that soon, surely there must be a date?

You know, my bile is really rising. This country has been bastardised, pillaged, diminished, f*cked over,....geez, what word do you use to signify how much we've lost through the machinations, lies, depredations, sheer hubris combined with stupidity?....aaaagggh, lost for words again. I hope there is the biggest clearout of all time...

get over it

Chateau VVB will again demonstrate its reflexive anti-Americanism by giving you this short post about the visit of George W Bush.

What is it about American presidents that gets everyone, the media in particular, in a state of such breathless excitement.

The TV was on in the background last night as all the happenings happened. The President arrived, was driven in a car and, presumably, breathed in and out for the whole time. This was relayed in a mood of utter incomprehension that such a wonderful person was amongst our poor, formerly colonial and obviously second-rate, midst.

Then , tonight, we get "the leader of the free world." No. Maybe the president of the world's most influential country, by virtue of military and economy. But that economy is hanging on a thread and the military stressed to the limit.

Now before we go any further, I don't want to appear absolutely ridiculous on America's influence - it is, and has been for some time, the foremost power in the world. But not to the extent that its similarly powerful cultural export agency, Hollywood, has liked to depict it. And the mechanisms by which the US wields its influence are not all open and benign. The links between its political, commercial and military power are immense. Its power over supposedly multilateral insitutions, many of which it helped to establish in the post WW2 period when America was seen almost universally as a force for good, is now malign, if declining somewhat.

Bush is a president whose election was at best question questionable and at worst fraudulent. We have seen plenty of hints as to the lengths that the powers behind him will go to ensure their particular world view attains dominance. But we didn't vote for him and he certainly doesn't "lead" Australia in any sense of the word.

In fact, equating what Bush does with "leadership" is a more interesting exercise than one might think. You might think that leadership means laying out a desirable vision and then explaining how you're going to get there. With Bush, it's "freedom, liberty and democracy" all OK, but that's the end of it. Every action he endorses, whether authorising the deaths of Texans while Governor, embarking on a pre-emptive invasion despite the facts and (at least some) advice and reducing the capacity of swathes of his citizens to enjoy the fruits of democracy, is at odds with the rhetoric. He is, in sum, not authentic. And it's authenticity a leader needs to be seen as a leader.

Bush isn't even a manager. Try this: you'd think a God-fearing conservative would be all for saving. But no: those dang Chinese can't buy enough American crap because they save for a rainy day.

Spare me. Now, the inevitable disclaimer: this is about Bush, not America, and it's not reflexive anti-Americanism. I've known lots of Americans and have benefited directly from their generosity and ability. State Department consuls and other reps are first class.

Just spare me the breathless media coverage (this explains why I watched no news tonight).

Update: Oh yeah, I got one of those e-mail newsletters from a bunch of solicitors today. Quoting some work done by another, similar, firm, the newsletter said:

Work Choices
Getting the basics right
On 27
March 2006, the Work Choices amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996
(‘Act’) became operative. Work Choices made wide-ranging changes to Australia’s industrial relations system. These changes deliver significant opportunities
to employers. However, employers need to firstly understand the extent to which
Work Choices affects their employment arrangements

The article then went on to explain some of the legal background and instruct employers what their minimum requirements are. But that one sentence stands out, doesn't it:

These changes deliver significant opportunities to employers.

The 'choice' is only one way, as people keep on pointing out. Bombast and threats won't work any more. Suck it up, Mr Hendy.



.

lady in red

If you were going to have a fabulous model car on your mantelpiece (or some other suitable spot, maybe in Dad's 'den'), wouldn't you plump for this?

The Lancia Fulvia was just a gorgeous piece of design.

This one is priced at about 90 Euros, not including postage. I'd even be inclined to look for it here in Oz, it'd make a good Christmas present (he said, to any fambly members who may be reading). Not a hint. Not at all.

In any case, it doesn't meet the current criteria for models:
a) it's 1/18, not 1/43;
b) I never owned one (damn! damn!); and
c) it's not an historically significant Australian car.

Not really a good hint, was it? In fact Mrs VVB even asked the question, having arranged the new cats she got for herbirthday on the mantelpiece alongside the old cats, whether one could have too many cats. Looks like she may be in need of a new theme, or some product extension, too.

Meanwhile in Sydney, otherwise law-abiding Australians are shut out of their own city. $400m it cost? Is that not absolutely obscene? You know, I really don't know what we do about this. I have no idea whether it was Australia's turn to host, if it wasn't well it's the job of Australian diplomats to lobby and get it, particularly so JWH and Hyacinth can grandstand. Shame about Laura (not). And shame that most people (Kevin07's "ordinary" people) just don't get international boondoggles conferences and certainly don't get the benefits of trade liberalisation. Nor do they get why you can do this on environmental concerns but not that.

Anyway, whinge whinge whinge. Where's my latte?

It's raining and, having just gone up to check the mesh guard on the gutter, the water is going into the tank from whence, all things being equal, we can direct it into the pool so that we can run the pump so that the man can come and detect where our leaks are. Leaking.

money for nothing

Today was a relatively low-productivity day as well - the hangover after the hangover. Driving up and down the Gold Coast looking for a hotel that the online directory placed about 15 km away from its actual location didn't help. But I've just had one of those moments. I opened the guitar case to get the Aria out for a bit of practice and there was some money in the case.

It took a minute for the penny to drop. While the partygoers had been waiting for the bus to collect us from Southbank, where we had watched Riverfire in a non carbon-neutral way, and take us back to Party Central, I'd got the axe out to play a few songs.

We were on the footpath, and one of our group had placed my guitar case out where all the passers-by were passing. By.

So I have earned my first money from busking, a whole $5.30. Including, would you believe, a $5 note. Money for nothing!

I'd been getting into the entertaining so hard and so quickly that I hadn't even noticed.

Stardom, here we come!

Meanwhile, the PM thinks that anybody who disagrees with the way he sees the world to work is wrong.

Where have we heard this before?

Ah yes, There Is No Alternative. But he's got a point: it takes a lot of preparation to properly cement international relations.

And, where the bloody hell are you? Down at the police station.

Oh, and here's a useful site for looking up the meanings of phrases.

father's day

For father's day I gave myself an industrial grade hangover, therefore, last night's party must have been pretty damn good. I believe it was, from those bits I can recall. Preparations for guitar playing were put at risk when I sliced into my left thumb while cutting some meat for lunch. I was thinking at the time, "be careful", unfortunately I wasn't listening.

In other excellent news, the Broncos got slaughtered by the Eels, so no doubt tomorrow's letters to the editor of the local fishwrapper will be full of excuses and cries of "we wuz robbed." I'll never be a true Queenslander, not while the Broncos are treated like some pack of deities whose every move is as a gift from heaven. Makes one-eyed people look positively binocular.

And in even better news, there's going to be a Eurovision Dance Contest. Can't wait.

Anyway the effects of last night are still with me and as I've just realised I'll have to go past the office tomorrow morning to get a suit coat for a work thing on down the Gold Coast tomorrow morning, I'm going to take my poor old bod to bed.

Finally, some snark: didn't Peter McGauran look uncomfortable on TV as he commented on the PM's (*) announcement of the inquiry into the equine flu outbreak? I guess we see what we want to see.

* insert usual descriptive elements here