Can you believe how threatened the Labor Party must feel when it has to attack the Opposition Leader for referring to housewives doing ironing? Apparently he should have said housepersons or “directors of irons” or perhaps ironists or some other stupid name so as not to offend liberated women. Has it come to this? Why do we have to be so hypersensitive about our status? Is it because we don’t really believe we have arrived in spite of the “I am woman, hear me roar” cry?

We women struggled for so long for our rights. And yet we have become so ashamed of any reference to womanhood or female occupations that we jump down the throat of anyone who refers to tasks that women have done for years. Whether we like it or not we women are the ones who usually stay at home with the children. We don’t have to if we don’t want to, but it is still a matter of personal choice.

We certainly have the equipment for pregnancy and breast feeding, but I wonder how long it will be until some feminist or Labor politician becomes offended by the term “pregnant woman”. It seems as if anything to do with females is an insult to the female gender

It’s as if we still feel inferior and ashamed of being women. We are on the defensive and we attack if any man refers to anything we do as being “a female occupation”. For crying out loud, this is reverse prejudice. Why aren’t we proud of our attributes instead of becoming indignant if some man mentions ironing as if it is beneath us?

I remember when a few years ago some women decided to calculate what a housewife or “stay at home mum” was worth. This was the time when women wanted to be paid for looking after their own children. Anyhow, some brightspark listed all the things a mum does and the total came to about quarter of a million dollars per annum

How was that achieved? Well, the woman was a child minder, a nurse, a cook, a lover, a chauffeur, a cleaner (including ironing, I suppose) a counselor, a personal shopper, a barber…the list goes on and on. The problem with that is that all those jobs were calculated at the full-time salary or each one. How ridiculous is that!

And yet nobody dared dispute the figures because that would offend mums.

Politicians have to tiptoe around us in case they offend the gentler sex. To be honest, my standards as a cleaner were not professional. I was okay as a cook and I really was lousy at ironing. Thank goodness for permanent press! No reason to boast about my talents after dark either. All in all, I didn’t expect to get paid for being a mother. I was a housewife because that’s what I chose to be at the time when I wanted to be the one to take care of the children.

Poor Tony Abbott. He is the victim of his own success and the Labor Party is looking desperate when it attacks him for referring to housewives doing the ironing. This trend will continue, no doubt, as Abbott gains popularity and Rudd tells his cohorts to nitpick. I see nothing wrong with the terms housewife or househusband and believe that it is a sign of inadequacy to be so sensitive about references to gender. Vive la différence! I say.

Having just heard our Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, speak about the latest intergenerational report I sensed that Rudd has decided that seniors will be the next target after his failed scare campaign over climate change. Following the disaster of the Copenhagen Conference on climate change blah blah, Rudd has decided to focus on the problem of the ageing population in Australia. Continue reading →

The Liberal leader said today his remarks were an honest answer to a question about the advice he would give his own daughters.

“I was trying to honestly answer a series of questions and as the parent of teenage kids I wrestle with these things, I think all parents do,” he told Radio 2GB.

I don’t know of any father who would advise his daughters to screw around, except perhaps Josef Fritzel. So why would Julia Gillard and the media try to twist his words just to make a story out of nothing? Abbott was asked about his feelings for his daughters. He was asked about advice he would give to them regarding sex.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a father expressing a hope that his daughters would behave with some self-respect instead of sleeping around too early as many teenagers do.

I think it is admirable that he cares enough about his daughters to show concern. He was not giving a lecture about women or sex. He was answering a simple question about his wishes. Whether his daughters will listen to him or not is up to them, but at least they can be confident that their father gives a damn.

Let’s face it, if women were more self-respecting, there would be fewer unwanted births and abortions and there would be fewer cases of venereal disease.

As for Prime Minister Rudd’s comments about Abbott’s advice, this is what Rudd said on Radio 6PR

“You know something? I don’t think my job as Prime Minister is to provide individual, personal, moral advice for the young people of Australia,”
That’s something for them themselves to sort out with their friends, with their families, with their mums and their dads.”

Well gee, isn’t that what Abbott was doing? Sorting it out with his family? I am totally fed up with the way the media twists facts just to get a story. What should Abbott have said? Perhaps something along the lines of Rudd’s “You know something? I don’t think my job as a parent is to give moral advice to my daughters.” How would that have gone down?

Speaking of family, the Prime Minister has nothing to crow about when his own nephew struts around in KKK costume. I bet Julia Gillard won’t dare say a word about that disgusting behaviour.

I bet when all this Haiti crisis is over, the world will again start blaming the U.S for everything. The U.S is donating so much money, at least half a billion dollars and so much medical and logistical aid that the mind boggles at the generosity of just one nation.

So what will the world’s reaction to all this be? Well, there will be criticism that it took too long. For crying out loud, it was almost impossible to get through with the aid! And the U.S jumped into action immediately.

I have been looking at the list of donors and still Saudi Arabia and Iran are absent. I think I know why that is the case. Saudi Arabia is busy funding terrorism all over the world and Iran is doing likewise for Hamas and Hezbollah. That’s where those Muslim nations direct their finances.

Isn’t it about time that the critics of North America looked at themselves in the mirror? Haiti has no oil, no resources of any kind and yet the U.S is doing its utmost to help. God bless America!

Since The Guardian newspaper refuses to acknowledge Israel’s help in this crisis, I invite you to look at this YouTube video.

I wasn’t surprised to read that all those Arabs who luxuriate in the black ooze of oil have offered zilch to the relief fund. They are conspicuous by their absence from the list of donors to Haiti. When have they ever given a hoot about the rest of the world’s suffering? As long as they can develop their real estate interests and show off their wealth they are indifferent to natural disasters in the world. Even the latest silly phallic display that is the world’s tallest building in Dubai reminds me of that poem “Ozymandias” by Shelley.

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Don’t expect to hear from the Arabs or from other Muslim nations very soon, but I am proud that little Israel is sending help.

Following this morning’s frustrating performance by Michael Keenan on ABC 2 on the topic of the Oceanic Viking fiasco, I seriously advise Mr Abbott (whom I support, by the way) to stop his shadow ministers from appearing in interviews if they are not going to answer questions.

It makes the Opposition look silly when it criticises the Federal Government’s action and then fails to offer an alternative suggestion. Continue reading →

I don’t hold a strong view about whaling. I’m not for it nor against it. My interest lies in what all this fuss says about Australia. Continue reading →

Several years ago in Brisbane I witnessed a couple of thieves escaping from a house they had burgled. It happened very early in the morning. I awoke at 4 a.m to the sound of scrambling outside our building. Two young men had laden their pockets with stolen goods which were weighing them down. They were trying to make their way along the boardwalk of the Brisbane River. So I phoned the police. Continue reading →