So you think you’re cultured?

Pro-Palestinian activist finally makes it to Israel

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?

Professional agitator, Michael Coleman, was among the activists trying to break the arms blockade to Israel last week. The previous time he tried to sail to Gaza was in July of this year. On that occasion, he was stopped from doing so by the Greeks. This time he managed to leave Greece and sail towards Gaza for the purpose of provoking Israel into arresting him.

The arms blockade of Gaza has been declared legal by the U.N but that doesn’t seem to make a difference to the activists.

So Coleman and his mates were stopped by Israel and given a choice. They could go on to Egypt or they could be processed in Israel.

Well, with all that’s going on in Egypt, especially massacres of Christians, the activists decided that the big bad Satan, Israel, was a safer bet than Church-burning Egypt.

With all that’s going on in the Middle East, the massacre of Syrian protestors, the burning of Churches in Egypt, all evidence of human rights infringement, it is mind-boggling that 27 activists, including Australian Michael Coleman, would continue to provoke Israel.

However, there is a simple explanation for this.

In answer as to why foreign activists don’t agitate against human rights violations in the Arab Spring countries it’s because they are cowards. If the activists performed their stunts against Egypt or Syria or Yemen or any other country in the Middle East, apart from Israel, they would be arrested, tortured and never heard of again.

The ironic reality behind these stunts is that the activists feel safer in Israeli hands than in the rest of the Middle East. They know that in Israel the Irish or Canadian or Australian consuls will be allowed to visit them to assist them. This would obviously not be the case if they were detained by Israel’s neighbours.

So that’s why these twits will keep on demonstrating against Israel, while real massacres and deprivations in the rest of the world are left unchecked or put into the too-hard basket. That’s the easy way out, isn’t it?

Senators Bob Brown and Doug Cameron are into name calling

liligans Politics

You have to admire Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas. There he was at the Senate inquiry into Qantas’ lockout on Saturday, one solitary figure defending his actions before the big wigs of the Senate. He gave as good as he got when Doug Cameron attacked him and said he was like Richard Nixon to which Joyce replied that Cameron was holding a McCarthy trial.

A petulant Bob Brown, hostile as ever to big corporations, resorted to calling Joyce devious and obscure. The more I see of Brown the more I mistrust him.

Joyce doesn’t look tough. He looks gentle but he definitely has mettle. One could not argue with his claim that the unions were trying to wreck the company. He described the protracted on again off again strikes by the unions as “Death by a thousand cuts”.

Sadly, Qantas may yet become too weak to survive but at least Joyce will have fought for the company.

And you have to respect a man who says that the decision to take strong action against the unions was his and his alone. A bit of a Western Hero like Alan Ladd in “Shane” or Gary Cooper in “High Noon”.

Occupy Melbourne see sense for now

liligans Politics, Society

When one holds a protest one really does not want to alienate the rest of the public. The people of Melbourne had put up with the protesters for a whole week and became fed up with their abuse of democratic freedom.

There were so many different agendas among the protesters that they had become a collective farce.

Some were against this, some were against that, so they all got together to disturb life downtown. No doubt there were some legitimate grievances among them. Not many as I said in my last post, since Australia is a lucky country when compared with the rest of the world.

The problem with the protesters is that they had been highjacked by formal advisers to the Green Party who saw this collection of copycats as an opportunity to disrupt the status quo. There were the usual suspects who wanted to demonise Israel as well, but there’s nothing new in that.

But mainly they wanted to take a stand against stuff. It was happening elsewhere in the world and this generation wanted to become part of something.

Well, it’s not hard to rouse naive folk by telling them that there failings are due to someone else. A protest sounded good. Sitting on your bum and shouting slogans is easier than going to work, isn’t it?

Anyhow, yesterday, they decided that since the rest of Melbourne was so much against their disruption of the Royal visit they would postpone their venture into destroying the evil monarchy. The vote was close, though.

They will continue their agitating on the weekend or whenever, but for the time being let’s hope that Melbourne can enjoy a pleasant day today.

By the way I’m not a monarchist, but that’s another story.

Occupy Melbourne. Just a bunch of puerile copycats!

liligans Politics, Society, totally absurd

About 100 policemen have just been brought into the city of Melbourne for a rehearsal. The Queen is coming to town tomorrow and so the protesters have decided to demonstrate against the “evil woman”, big business, small business, medium-sized business, the banking system, the weather, the price of petrol, Qantas, Israel (of course) and anything else they can think of. You name it, they’re against it.

Of course these people are not against the dole which supports them while they demonstrate. They are not against students’ allowances which support them while they lie around in the street chanting. They are not against making promises to the police that they will move on when they are asked to and then refusing to move.

So why are these stupid, stupid, spoiled brats throwing a tantrum on public property and causing problems for ordinary Melbournians downtown?

Well, they envy the uprising in the Arab countries. They envy the Wall St protesters who decided to take a stand against the government’s bail-out of big companies.

These Occupy Melbourne, Sydney, Perth etc groups of brats have very little to gripe about and this is the problem. Things are too good for them here in Australia.

If they don’t want to work, then either mummy and daddy will support them or they will get the dole. If they want to study then this will be free and they will also get paid to do so. Out of the public purse!

This sort of bludging is a shameful abuse of democracy. They throw around the term, “democracy” as if they know what it means. For them it means they want rights. The right to TAKE rather than the right to contribute. You can’t talk to these people about responsibility.

It costs a fortune to police these silly circuses, money that could be spent on the genuinely needy members of our society. But try telling that to these excrescences who will turn up tomorrow to mar the visit of the Queen.

Let’s face it, she won’t be perturbed by their carrying-on. She’s seen all sorts of spectacles in her life and had to keep a straight face when confronted by them. This won’t faze her. The police will cope too. They behaved admirably last week after the squatters broke their promise to move on when asked.

So go ahead you silly buggers, make nuisances of yourselves. You have absolutely no idea how lucky you all are to be living in Australia where the police won’t turn hoses on you, even when you deserve it.

Equal rights for women in Australia and Saudi Arabia. Wow!

liligans Society, totally absurd

So in five years time Aussie women will be able to take part in frontline combat. Now this is certainly a boost for equal rights in the military. Here comes Private Benjamin, I guess.

No, I’m not poopooing the idea of women fighting hand to hand in combat. On the contrary, I think that on some occasions it will be fantastic since there is nothing more frightening than women with PMT. The Taliban will be shaking in their boots (or sandals) at the prospect of a temperamental shrew hating everybody in the world and ready to kill. If the women are given lots of salty French Fries to eat and they then become bloated with fluid retention, the enemy had better watch out.

Unfortunately for the military, the male soldiers in the Aussie defence forces will cop it as well and they may even feel a little sympathy for the Taliban who are destined to be savaged by these “hormonal” women.

Still, all’s fair in love and war.

Which brings me to another equal rights story. In 2015 women in Saudi Arabia will be given the right to vote. Unfortunately for them, however, they will still have to hitch a lift to the polling booth as they are not allowed to drive a car. Anyone else see the humour in that? I think it’s called irony.

Shame about the Gloss store at Chadstone

liligans So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd, What Pisses me off

Thought I would buy an eyebrow pencil while shopping at the Chadstone Fashion Mall. Was told by the staff in Gloss, a cosmetics and accessory store, that there was no difference between eyebrow and eyeliner pencils. Was persuaded to buy an eyeliner. Left the store unconvinced that the advice had been correct. Decided I had better return the wrong product and was told that there would be no refund. It had been half and hour since I had been sold the wrong product.

I could get a credit or buy something else of a similar value since Gloss’s policy is “no cash refunds”. I was forced to choose something else since the young girls were adamant that Gloss does not give refunds if you have doubts about the product. Mind you, the pencil had been unopened and had not even left the shopping centre.

There was no warning in the Gloss store about not giving a refund and so this came as a surprise to me. This sort of meanness would not occur in other stores such as Priceline, for example. So in future I will shop at a store that cares about its customer service.

I return the MacBook Air

liligans So you think you're cultured?

The folk at the Apple Store were very gracious when I gave back the computer yesterday. I had no problems getting my refund. After all, they had promised that if I could not get used to the annoying track pad they would let me bring it back.

My previous post had already mentioned that I found it hard to get used to being mouseless. It was just too strange for me to have to do those crazy movements with my fingertips instead of simply clicking the mouse.

Quite seriously, the advantages of having a small and portable computer failed to compensate for the frustration of stuffing things up.

So now I am back to my iMac and it’s good to be happy in familiar territory.

However, I must emphasise that the problem was not with the MacBook Air, nor with the people in the Apple Store. They could not have been nicer.

It simply was a case of what I am used to.

I look forward to the day when Apple can incorporate a mouse with a small resting platform into their MacBook Air. A sort of platform that would jut out when necessary, something that doesn’t require loops and strokes of the fingers to make it work. Then I would love to give it another go.

I buy a MacBook Air…

liligans So you think you're cultured?, Society

It’s possible that life was becoming somewhat too bright. The sun was making a shaky attempt to shine through the clouds. Birds twittered excitedly in the fecund branches. Fluffy white clouds floated serenely in an azure sky and I was becoming comfortable with things in general. Well, more or less.

Such a sorry state of affairs could definitely not go on. I would have to louse things up for sure. So I decided to go to the Apple Store and investigate the possibility of buying a MacBook Air computer.

Most computer experts like moi would, no doubt, be familiar with the insides of an Apple Store. A large but crowded place filled with teenagers in blue T-shirts, a sort of kindergarten for nerds, one of whom you summon by pressing a key on an iPad. You are then informed that you are next in line for service.

Presently, a beaming Matt or Hamish welcomes you to Apple World and offers to help.

Where do I start? Do I know what I want? Not really. Well, yes, of course, I’m thinking about getting a new computer or an iPad or…I really don’t know.

Why don’t you show me what there is?

Hard to describe the expression of joy on Matt or Hamish’s face. Because it wasn’t there. I felt sorry for him. This was going to be a long night.

The store was crowded and hot. Everybody was talking loudly and I could barely understand what M or H was saying to me. I looked around for a white flag to wave and a cry for HELP flashed silently in my frazzled brain.

What did I want from a computer? Well, I just want to be able to use it with as little fuss as possible.

Simple simple simple. No gimmicks, no creating my own memoirs of trips to Antarctica replete with pixies of penguins. I just want to surf the net, look up info, catch up on world news and do a little writing on my blog.

As I said, very simple, very basic.

The drone of voices in the shop sounded like a rattling train crashing through an ancient Roman tunnel. Apparently there were a million amazing apps I could buy. This computer would do cartwheels. I desperately wanted to press the ESC key or the FORCE QUIT key and leave the building.

Dear Reader, I took the MacBook Air home. Apparently, in the midst of all the racket I agreed to buy it.

This thing has no mouse. I am now having to caress the pad with three fingers or two or press hard in a certain way. I cajole the damn thing and titillate it with occasional success. But hey, isn’t that the way with most things in life?

You tickle this and fiddle with that and hope for the best. Sometimes you end up in the wrong place and have to start again.

And just when you think that you’ve got the hang of things you decide to try something new.

And that’s when the troubles begin all over again.

Raped and then accused of being racist

liligans So you think you're cultured?, Society, What Pisses me off

What is the world coming to when an alleged rape victim can’t call the alleged rapist “a black bastard”?

Apparently, according to political correctness she should have referred to him as the footballer of indigenous appearance who raped her when she was in no position to defend herself.

My ears pricked up when I heard that the alleged rapist’s barrister, David Grace QC accused the woman of being racist. How low can you stoop when you have to turn your client, Andrew Lovett, into some sort of victim of racism?

Lovett’s barrister, David Grace, kept on hammering her with:- “you didn’t want to have sex with an Aboriginal man, did you?” The woman replied that she didn’t want to have sex with anybody.

Now I don’t know whether there was a rape or not. It’s up to the law to decide. But I am utterly fed up with the outrageous demands of political correctness that is pervading our society. How can such limitation on freedom of expression be tolerated?

If Andrew Lovett is guilty of rape then he is a bastard. And if he is black, which he is, then he is black. So be it. What is wrong with being black, anyway? Methinks the barrister’s own prejudice is evident here.

On the other hand, if you don’t have much of a defence why not concoct a race issue?

Anyway, let’s say that the alleged victim is a racist, does that mean that it’s okay to rape her?

Let’s stick to the matters at hand. This is a rape trial and should be treated as such.

p.s Latest news about the trial. Verdict on 26th July. Lovett found not guilty.
p.p.s. Lovett is now being investigated on another rape charge.

Congratulations to the Suzanne Grae stores

liligans So you think you're cultured?

I’m back to being a fan of the Suzanne Grae fashion stores. It’s been an on again off again relationship since 2001. I used to love them. Then I hated them and now I love them again.

I couldn’t stand their trailer trash period which lasted for several sad years and so gave them a miss.

In 2009 they had announced that they would change what they were selling, but I wasn’t convinced enough to shop there.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I ventured into one of their stores and was pleasantly surprised by what they had on offer. It was the Suzanne Grae store that I had missed for too long.

They had come back to offering interesting items that mixed and matched perfectly with a trendy flair. Casual and easy to wear, the clothes are smart and appealing. I bought four items and then went back the following week and bought one more.

What I also appreciate is their policy of exchanging a purchase after one month if you are not perfectly happy with it. I can’t imagine that many people would take advantage of such a policy but it’s good to know that after sales service is not forgotten.

In 2008 I gave Suzanne Grae a real drubbing because they had gone downhill, in my opinion. Now I’m only too happy to sing their praises again.

I must declare that I have no connection with these stores apart from being a consumer who can feel quite fed up with the rather moronic trends that everyone seems to follow in the manner of lemmings.

Oops there goes another faux fur vest. How original!

I enjoy combining separates in my own way. No fluro colours to distract from my rather lively personality. It’s how I like to be. The choice at Suzanne Grae allows me to wear the clothes rather than the clothes wearing me. Let’s hope this welcome change lasts…