Forget Kyoto. Get a stylist for Mrs Rudd

Looks like we are going to get a new Prime Minister of Australia. On Saturday, the longest election campaign in our history (excluding the hundred years war that is the American election) will very likely see the election of Kevin Rudd. Unless a miracle occurs and these do happen occasionally, I have heard.

Mr Rudd has promised to sign the Kyoto agreement immediately. He also said he will get rid of the “hated” Industrial Relations Laws. He will create an education revolution. All well and good, but first things first, Mr Rudd. Should you be elected, please, please hire a stylist for your wife!

Mr Rudd’s wife is known as Therese Rein. She is a very accomplished woman who has created a multi-million dollar enterprise. But to look at her, you would be forgiven for thinking that she has never visited a hairdressing salon in her life. Therese sports the tousled frizzy look, a hairstyle in search of a comb.

Her taste in clothes is, well, absent. Yesterday, for example, she appeared on some TV show sitting next to her husband. Therese was wearing a very short skirt which almost disappeared when she sat down and her ample thighs took up most of my 40 inch TV screen. The top she was wearing was tight, as are most of her clothes and over it she had donned a bright cyclamen jacket with frills around the neck and sleeves. With respect, frills and Therese should part company. There should be a farewell to frills forever funeral during which all her frilly clothes are laid to rest.

Today, for another example, she wore a very magenta coloured jacket with big Hawaiian flowers in green and brown festooned all over it. I think the brand of the jacket was ” A Disaster Original.”

Am I being catty? For hissing out loud, why did God give me talons if not to scratch?

Now I freely admit that one should never judge a book by its cover, but where would that leave bookjacket designers? How many of us pick up a book thinking “Geez this book sure looks boring but how about I read it anyway?” So perhaps the real truth lies in that other famous saying, “Clothes maketh the man” or in Mrs Rudd’s case, “the woman.”

The world is a superficial place. “First impressions”, as Jane Austen originally called her most famous novel, do matter, even though they are notoriously unreliable. Sadly, though, it’s all about appearances.

After all, “all the world’s a stage.” There I go quoting somebody famous again.

A little part of me, that bit that says “be yourself, Therese and hang public opinion!” wishes that Therese Rein would continue bucking the system and wear whatever she likes. It would be refreshing wouldn’t it? Quite frankly, what we don’t want are clones of, say, Nancy Pelosi and her perpetually stunned expression.

But politics is all about impressions and Therese could soon be strutting the world stage as our First Lady. She is a very intelligent person when she speaks but her style of dress does her an injustice. She is even pretty in a Wal-Mart way.

If Hillary Clinton could be turned into a presentable First Lady in spite of Mother Nature having been less than generous to her, then surely Therese Rein can be turned into a silk purse as well.

Cheap and nasty? No way.

Reading the ads for Mothers’ Day I was once again stunned by the cheapness of electrical goods from China and S.E. Asia. At a time when a meal in a restaurant is rarely less than $50 you can buy an electric wok for the same price. An electric rice cooker sells for as little as $29. Such appliances are so inexpensive that when they break down the manufacturer doesn’t even bother repairing them. It wouldn’t be worth his while. Instead, the manufacturing company replaces any faulty appliances in the first year.

Can anyone ask for better than that? Continue reading

Up to their necks in it

How full of hatred can you get? The Palestinians in Gaza have been flooded by their own raw, smelly and foul sewage this week. Apart from the symbolic meaning of such an event, lives have been lost, people taken ill and there is a danger that disease will spread.

Israel has offered help.

Haven’t heard yet if the Palestinians have accepted the offer but they were quick to blame Israel for the “tsunami” of effluent . Why am I not surprised? It’s so easy to blame someone else for your troubles. The Middle East could have been at peace by now had it not been for the sheer stupidity of the Arab nations who are only united when they have a common enemy like Israel. Let’s face it, they aren’t kissing cousins in Iraq, are they?

I wrote in a previous blog that global warming is going to be blamed on little Israel in spite of its lack of natural resources and in spite of the fact that most of its emissions are brainwaves.

I remember when the Iranians suffered a massive earthquake a while ago and many people were waiting to be rescued. Israel offered help then and was refused. The Iranians would rather see their families die than have to be grateful for the Israeli aid.

It is in this respect essentially that Muslims differ from Jews. Jews value life and will do their utmost to save it. Muslims are the antithesis of this. They would rather see their children suffocate under heavy rocks than accept humanitarian help from an enemy.

In the end this sort of fanaticism can only cause further suffering for the Muslims and much misery for the rest of the world. And if they think that it is more dignified to refuse help, well, wallowing in your own shit doesn’t sound so superior to me.

A Convenient Cult

On the long road from Brisbane to Sydney, you’ll find young Sarah Bishop. She’s busy running the 1000 kilometres for a good cause, as she told the reporter from the TV station on the 19th of this month.
Her purpose is to bring attention to the problem of global warming. And she is even rotating four pairs of sneakers to achieve this.

Is Sarah’s gesture really necessary? Continue reading