So you think you’re cultured?

So 60% of Australian voters want Kevin Rudd back as PM

liligans Politics

Isn’t it amazing how quickly people forget! Kevin Rudd was a hopeless Prime Minister who couldn’t get on with his ministers and his staff. He was a tyrant who refused to listen to caucus. He was a one man band, a law unto himself and his main ambition was to use the Prime Ministership position to inveigle himself into the post of Secretary-General of the UN.

So why do the Aussies suddenly want him back?

The answer is quite simple. The public has realised that the current Prime Minister is even worse in many ways. She has the foolish habit of announcing policies before they have been assessed. She even announces policies which are up in the air under the misapprehension that announcing the policy is a done deed. It’s been announced, therefore it exists.

For example, take the Malaysian solution for our boat people problem. It had not even been finalised when she jumped in, mouth open, and put her foot in it. The Malays had not yet agreed and yet she put herself and Australia in a weakened position for the negotiations. She would have to agree to anything the Malaysian government demanded because they now had the upper hand. Now that’s pretty stupid.

So why did she do this? Well, it’s because she is desperate. She has Kevin Rudd as a nemesis, ready to pounce. He must be gloating every time she makes a big mistake.

We have now witnessed her terrible handling of the live cattle fiasco. She has managed to put a hold on a thriving export industry when all she had to do was to reserve the export of live cattle to abattoirs that were humane.

It’s all because of desperation. She simply does not think things through. She reacts in a knee-jerk way like a person who is out of control.

The public have become thoroughly sick and tired of her and in fact, the more she appears on TV the less people like her.

If she wants to appeal to the public then she should make herself scarce. That’s what Kevin Rudd did by avoiding Australia.

Apparently, absence makes the heart grow fonder when it comes to politicians and the ordinary public is very forgetful. When Rudd is flying around the planet bringing joy to other climes, they begin to wonder if he really was as bad as all that.

Yes, he is that bad and it didn’t take long before he gave an interview this week in which he told everyone to “pop a Mogadon”. Not a wise bit of advice, is it? What a patronising creep he is and a drug pusher to boot…

Pay up for your own funeral or else!

liligans Society, T.V, What Pisses me off

You can’t switch on the television nowadays without being bombarded by ads telling you that you should take out a funeral policy. Either you sign up for payments until you die or else you can pay for a funeral today so that your heirs don’t have to fork out some money to bury you.

The message here is that you don’t want to be a burden to your children after death. So not only do you have to support them while they are growing up and often when they are all grown, but if you love the poor dears, then you will save them the expense of paying for your departure. In other words, the responsibility is all on your side.

Apparently, it is not enough that they will inherit the family estate, meaning your money. You have to facilitate everything for them by depriving yourself of money while you are still alive so that they can inherit absolutely everything.

These ads must be working or those companies would not continue advertising all the time.

So what does this say about today’s society?

Well, it says several things. First of all, that parents do not actually trust that the children will provide a decent burial for them. Secondly, that older people have been subjected to guilt trips about being a burden on society. The ads concentrate on guilt and even parental love when it’s really all about Money.

Thirdly, that there is a feeling of entitlement among the younger generation. They want it all, they want it now and they don’t want to share. The least we can do is to get out of their way and we should pay for the fare out of this world ourselves.

Seems to me that there is something very satisfying about reverse mortgages. Perhaps the crocodile tears would turn into genuine ones when the will is read.

Another day another Aussie soldier killed in Afghanistan

liligans Politics, totally absurd

The Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, today said that we are in Afghanistan for the long haul in spite of having lost another of our soldiers. She says that we are having great success in getting rid of terrorists and that all these deaths of our soldiers are worth the sacrifice. Why? Well , because we will prevent the terrorists from establishing themselves in that country. Go ahead, Julia, tell that to their grieving families.

How can anyone believe this propaganda? As soon as we call it quits, and we must inevitably leave one day, the Taliban or whoever else is ambitious there will creep back in, raise their ugly heads and cheer as the infidels retreat.

I read today that five U.S soldiers were killed in Iraq. This is a fiasco. The only people who can get rid of terrorists in Iraq or Afghanistan are the locals themselves. It seems to me that if some of those Afghan soldiers are actually shooting our soldiers, we are not very welcome there.

This is a lost cause. Let us not add to it with further losses of our brave young men and women.

Twenty-six Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan…and counting!

liligans Politics, What Pisses me off

Today two more Aussie soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. One of them was killed by an Afghan soldier he was mentoring. What a sick joke this is!

So far 26 of our soldiers have been sacrificed in a war that cannot be won. Nor is it worth it. We should leave Afghanistan immediately because the cause is a waste of time. Even if we are successful, what does success mean?

There will always be Taliban types in that part of the world. These people are totally tribal and don’t really want to change the way they live. We should leave them to their fate.

And if we think that 26 are too many then how must the Americans feel when they have lost thousands, not to mention the poor invalided ones (157 Aussies wounded) whose lives will always be blighted?

I weep for them all.

Wasting U.S lives and money in Afghanistan

liligans Politics, totally absurd, What Pisses me off

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on international affairs, but I do understand the realities of life.

What has finally prompted me to write again is the devastation that I have been watching on TV. The Midwest and the South in the U.S are being flooded. On top of that there have been tornadoes that have killed over one hundred people as well as destroying entire towns. Many people are still missing.

My heart goes out to those people who will need fathomless aid to rebuild their lives.

Quite simply, they will need lots of cash. And it’s up to the government to supply it to them.

I understand that money is a finite resource and that the U.S has just suffered from the GFC. Indeed, it is still trying to recover from it.

At the same time it keeps on spending billions on a futile war in Afghanistan. It is wasting money trying to win over hearts and minds among the local population of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, American and our Australian soldiers are returning home in body bags.

For what? Is it worth it? Will it prevent further terrorist attacks against us? I seriously doubt it. Vigilant intelligence is better than body bags.

Why should the U.S have to sacrifice itself in the hope of bringing civilisation to those parts of the world which are still living under some primitive code? It’s not as if these countries are going to be grateful to the U.S and its allies. They hate our guts. Blowing us up is not a Welcome Mat.

Don’t the U.S states such as Missouri, Minneapolis and Oklahoma which are suffering all these catastrophes deserve help from their own government? And how about the victims of Hurricane Katrina who are still waiting to come home?

I’ve heard the saying that charity begins at home, but in my opinion, taking care of your own people is not charity. It is the primary duty of all governments. That is why they are elected.

Why tree changes for retirees are not a good idea

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

I haven’t written for a whole month because my friend’s husband was seriously ill and I was very distressed at their plight. She and her husband had been living in a small Australian town, population 3000. They both loved country life. Neither of them wanted to return to the big smoke.

But he became ill as older people do. His knees gave out and he had to wait a year to have a replacement. Once that was done, there were the melanomas followed by all sorts of horrid symptoms.

This bush town has only one doctor who is not popular with the residents so that some choose to travel to the next town for medical attention.

Specialist treatment is unavailable and my friend had to go to a medical centre, three hours drive away or Sydney (6 hours) for surgery for his melanomas. The waiting list is long and something went terrible wrong for my friend’s husband.

He stopped talking, he couldn’t hear, his body was covered in all sorts of weeping lesions. My friend begged the local GP to visit her husband but this fellow refused to come unless the patient requested it personally.

It was going to take months before the dermatologist could see him. Finally, he was driven to Sydney by his desperate family. The medicos admitted him immediately and wondered why it had taken so long for him to get proper attention.

He lingered for six long weeks at St Vincent’s Hospital and then he died. There is an autopsy going on right now.

I have no idea why the poor man died but a major contributing factor was the handicap that he lived in the bush. Away from proper medical treatment, a victim of the long waiting list in the N.S.W hospital system.

My friend and her husband dreamed of retiring happily in the country. They were tree changers but the country is no country for old men.

The experts on nuclear dangers are crawling out of the woodwork.

liligans So you think you're cultured?, Society, T.V, totally absurd, What Pisses me off

As if reports about the potential threat of a nuclear meltdown in Japan aren’t enough to drive me to despair, enter The Experts.

Every news bulletin unearths its own expert on the situation at Fukushima. He is usually from some obscure university such as the School of Miscellaneous Panic Studies in Antarctica. The interviewer asks him for his considered opinion based on his considerable knowledge of nuclear power only to hear:- “Well, it’s too soon to tell.”

The desperate interviewer prods Dr Mumbles for an atom of information, a sound byte perhaps? but no, the expert pleads ambivalence. “We don’t have enough information as yet,” he explains. “I would be loathe to predict the outcome of this situation.”

“But the situation looks pretty grim, doesn’t it, Dr Mumbles?” prods the interviewer.

“Well, yes… and no, although it’s too soon to tell,” Dr Mumbles responds. “It all depends on…”

“Thank you, Dr Mumbles,” interrupts the interviewer before going back to shots of the steaming nuclear reactor.

“That was Dr Mortimer Mumbles from the University of Antarctica expressing concern over the extremely grim situation at Fukushima.”

What was all that about? I ask myself. They could have interviewed me, and I would have said “Dunno, but it ain’t lookin’ good.” But I wasn’t asked because I don’t have the cachet, the info, the insight, the expertise. My dunno would lack credibility, I guess. However, it is comforting to know that I’m not alone.

Why we were wrong in buying the latest Series 5 BMW

liligans So you think you're cultured?

In June of last year we decided to replace our nine year old Series 5 BMW. It had been an excellent car and so we were confident that the 2010 release of the Series 5 would be as good if not better than what we had.

Mistake No I.
We made an assumption because of BMW’s elite reputation. The new model was released in June and in fact we bought it from the showroom before we could test drive it. Quite honestly, had we test driven it we would not have bought it. Our mistake.

Mistake No2.
We had test driven a Lexus and were very impressed by its performance. I have personal experience with a Lexus and love it and yet we thought that we should stick to BMW since it had given my husband many years of happy driving.

So there you are. It was all on the toss of a coin really. From the minute we began to drive the BMW, the Professional Navigation System got on our nerves. Please refer to a post of mine in December 2010 which explains what was annoying about it.

The car was noisy and bumped a lot in the streets of Melbourne. BMW told us that the streets of Melbourne with the tram lines are responsible for this problem. The passenger seat headrest was uncomfortable and when we returned to BMW they told us that unfortunately nothing could be done about it.

What really decided things for us is our recent trip to Sydney from Melbourne and back again. The BMW was easy to drive. It has power and we can’t fault that.

But I had to place a travel cushion behind my head so that the headrest would not annoy me. I never had this problem in the previous BMW. The Navigation System informed us that we off the highway when we obviously were on it. Plainly, the maps were out of date.

Anyhow, when we arrived back home after doing 2000kms, we finally concluded that we had been wrong to buy this latest model BMW. We could not tolerate the stupid navigation system that informs you of the latitude, altitude and longitude but does not tell you which suburb you are in.

And yes, we had complained to BMW about the headrest, the navigation and the bumpiness. We even wrote to BMW Australia.

Conclusion:-

We traded in this nine months old car and bought a Lexus GS 300. Life’s too short to have to persist with a poor decision. The Lexus has a great and informative navigation system, the headrest is perfect and I even have a lumbar support for me in the passenger seat.

And guess what? For some mysterious reason the streets of Melbourne have become less bumpy and noisy. Amazing…