Reds under Every Bed

Am so cranky, as always...

Lets just do an exercise in compare and contrast shall we:

John McDonald doing his little rant on a building site.

and

from the transcript of 4 Corners broadcast 18/06/07

GREG WINN, TELSTRA CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER (voice only, 30 May 2007):
We're not running a democracy. We don't manage by consensus. We're criticised for it but the fact of the matter is we run an absolute dictatorship and that's what's going to drive this transformation and deliver results.
It's a cultural issue. If you can't get the people to go there, and you try once and you try twice, which is sometimes hard for me but I do believe in a second chance, then you just shoot 'em and get them out of the way you know and put people in that you can teach the new business process to and drive on.
And that's the kind of thing that you have to do if you're serious about changing things and we are obviously changing.

Now apparently the difference between the first and and second incidents are that the first is an example of union bully-boy tactics and proof that the Unions are under the bed and going to ruin the economy (even if that means their members losing their jobs and living on the street obvs). The second is merely 'colourful' language and in no way having any bearing on the type of workplace that gives employees no choice but to accept AWAs and exerts the kind of pressure that can drive some to suicide...

Why is Rudd scrambling to hose this down is beyond me. Well not really, he's reacting to concerns in the community. I just don't know why he isn't just pointing to the quote above and saying "Listen, I know McDonald is an idiot, and his behaviour is unacceptable, but can we look at the bigger issue here people: Big Business considers you little worker bees to be worthless, below contempt, and here's the proof"

And the media is very happy to play along with this - further entrenching the public's hate and distrust of the Union Ogre.

Not happy.

HECStrodinary...

I was pleased to read in the yesterday's SMH about Labor's plan to offer interest-free loans to enable households to install environmentally-friendly retro-fitted items such as water tanks, solar panels and the like.

I was pleasantly surprised, firstly, because it was such a clear statement about the fact that the little things really do make a difference, if not in regards to the catastrophic End-Times scenario with which we are constantly being belted over the head of late, then in relation to the environmental impact we all have on our individual communities.

Secondly, I was happy to note that the Labor policy-makers obviously read Ross Gittens (aka The Guru*). And this makes me a very happy little Lefty indeed.

Ross wrote a column** in March, expounding the view that the HECS system could be easily applied to many other aspects of government, giving the example of drought-relief. It's an incredibly good column, making a great deal of sense. And it seems, Other People read it too... because the basic gist of it is that interest-free, income-dependant loans (but with that dreaded indexation) should be made available for certain cases - ie student loans (HECS), drought relief, emergency welfare and so on. It's a brilliant idea.

It will mean that households such as mine, will be able to access funds to install a number of environmentally-friendly devices which we have been simply unable to afford.

We already have a water tank (which is constantly full, what with Bellambi consistently getting the highest rainfall in the state... what bloody drought I ask???), however I won the tank***, and Dad and MrB installed it. It only collects the water from one half of the roof however, and then is only connected to the watering systems. We really want to get another couple of tanks - one to collect the water off the garage roof, and another large one to collect the rainwater from the entire roof. We then want to connect these tanks to enable us to use this water for the laundry and toilet-flushing. The water collected off the garage roof would be enough to supply the watering systems.

Because our house, as an old Brethren Chapel, is just basically an enormous rectangular prism, it has a large roof expanse, and consists of just the two planes. Very simple and very effective of water-collection. Our house also faces directly south, which means one half of our roof gets the brunt of the afternoon sun - perfect conditions for solar panels. But another massive investment that we just can't afford at the moment.

We want to be able to do the right thing, and thankfully Labor seems to be about providing us with the means to do so. Yay!


* MrB went to a lecture given by Mr Gittens, way back in the day (ie late 80s) when he was doing Economics at school, and idolised Mr Gittens as an Economic Guru. He has a book signed by Ross - 'To MrB.. (something funny only to economists)... Ross Gittens The Guru'. It is now the only way he is referred to in our home...

** I've put the bloody link in, but know none of you will actually go read the column. Because site meter tells me all, and no-one ever follows the links... But you should this time. It's damn good.

*** I won the tank as a lucky door prize after attending a Wollongong City Council conservation workshop. At one of the punters drinks last year, I mentioned how it's the only thing that pops up in Google if you enter my Real Name. Miss Mex hastened to disagree, informing me that I'd actually won a front-loading washing machine, while simultaneously outing herself as a manic Googler... The prize was officially a front-loader, but I already had one, so I ended up with a 2700L tank plus pump! Bonus!!!!!!

Encounters of the Boomer kind

The other day I had the privilege of spending a few days with Actual Howard Voters™ (AHV). You know, they really are differently-programmed. Really truly. Things that I and MrB think are undeniable truisms to them are actually, well, debatable. And I'm not even talking contentious issues such as Hicks and Iraq, these are things that, as Christians, we should be agreeing on... yet don't.

The weird thing is:

MrB's parents are Christians, both from working-class backgrounds, but now both solidly middle-class. You don't get much more bourgeois than the Shire! They ran a Small Business, and have backgrounds in nursing and banking. Your average everyday BabyBoomer in fact.

My parents are not Christians, both from working-class backgrounds, but both now solidly middle-class. And yes, they also live in the Shire. They run a Small Business - also your average Baby Boomers.

And yet, politically, MrB and I have so much more in common with my parents, not his. Very weird.

They are so similar in many ways, and yet so vastly different in terms of their political views. My parents are avowedly left-wing on most social issues, proud of their trade union heritage, yet not so narrow-minded that they're not prepared to see positives in some more right-wing policies. They were always supporters of the GST for instance... MrB's parents?

Well.

Back to the AHV™s... we didn't even discuss Hicks, because there's seriously no point. But we did discuss Iraq - and it's the only thing that they disagree with Howard over. The only thing. And it's only because we haven't won yet.

We threw at them:

• WorkChoices - they say it's all good because employers are the salt of the earth and need a break because these rascally employees just rort the system.
• Detention Centres - (in particular the recent story about the Sri Lankans being sent directly back to Sri Lanka) - they say it's all good because there were thousands and thousands of 'asylum seekers' - hordes in fact - coming over in boats to rort our system... [My question - What would Jesus Do? He said to take in the strangers... His reply - Render unto Caesar. At this point I exploded (and I had been very very good and had bitten my tongue on so many occasions) Right. So using that logic Jesus would have done nothing about the Holocaust and the gas chambers, because y'know Hitler said it was OK????? And you really don't need to know what his reply was.]
• Notable Christians taking the Government to task over the serious slide in social welfare over the last 12 years - they say they're not really evangelicals so it doesn't matter what they say... and besides they're all out to rort the system.

My all-time fave quote of the weekend, from MrsB Sr, was: I don't think Howard's a Christian. But he does listen to his wife a lot, really respects her... and she's a lovely Christian lady. Fred Nile says so.

Hmmm. Quite so. [How precisely does one respond to that?]

But the biggest thing, the massivest conspiracy theory that I'm surprised I hadn't heard on the interwebs yet, but seems to be the only way these conservatives can actually cope with the web of lies we've been told over Iraq is this:

The reason we haven't found the WMDs is because they were smuggled out of the country into Iran or Syria (doesn't matter which) during the invasion. But they were definitely there, and they definitely very very nasty and scary otherwise there wouldn't have been such an unseemly rush to go to war. Because there's no way that Tony Blair would have supported the invasion without concrete evidence of Saddam's evilness. And he's Labor, so you know we (MrB & I) have to believe him...It's just unfortunate that the haven't found the damn tricksy things. But they were most certainly there. Because they'd never lie to us.

The nasty scary thing is: they believe it. Whole-heartedly.


Updated to hopefully make more sense. In brief: MrB & I are Bleeding Heart, Latte-sippers etc. The object of much derision and scorn by his parents. Who I really do love very much. As long as politics aren't discussed. Because then I struggle to be tactful. Which, as anyone who knows me IRL would know, is a struggle indeed.

Obviousness

... and in breaking news Gerard Henderson reckons Howard's done nuffin wrong...



Well!

Knock me down with a feather!



Is it just me (and MrB), or is he losing it? His famous ability to read the electorate slowly unravelling..?

Or is it just wishful thinking?????