Obama’s amazing, fantastic nuclear summit!

liligans So you think you're cultured?

It looks as if climate change is not the biggest problem that the world has to face, after all. Now it’s the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of the terrorists. Will this summit go down the way of the climate change fizzer in Copenhagen with lots of hot air and no results?

It seems as if nuclear weapons must be kept away from the baddies, the current baddies, that is. Apparently, the baddies are always the other guys.

In our humble opinion, we are good and can be trusted to handle our enriched uranium very securely and so we must hold conferences and summits and protocols etc to show how responsible we are.

And we must resolve to halt proliferation by the other guys, those who threaten us with their nuclear potential.

Does anyone else observe a paradox here? We in the West don’t approve of nuclear weapons except in our own hands.

So now we have the Ukraine announcing that it is going to dispose of its enriched uranium. Call me a cynic, but I can read “Destination Iran” in that announcement. Now isn’t that what the nuclear summit is allegedly trying to prevent? Or is this merely another of Obama’s walks in the clouds?

I often think that holding constant summits is one way of not doing very much but trying to look busy about it. But then, I wasn’t born yesterday.

Rudd versus Abbott health debate

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?

Let others comment on the debate itself, I want to comment on Prime Minister Rudd’s rudeness today.

Rudd has done this sort of thing before. He refused to look at the Premier of N.S.W when she was discussing health with him. He purposely looked down and ignored her. No eye contact, no acknowledgment of the other person. Just look at your notes or straight ahead and be as uncouth as possible.

Well, Rudd did it again today during his debate with the Leader of the Opposition. Tony Abbott would direct a comment to him and Rudd refused to face him.

I find that kind of behaviour to be so crass but I am reluctant to put it down to bad upbringing. In Rudd’s case I feel it has more to do with arrogance. He exhibits many qualities of a narcissistic personality by failing to validate other people.

His spin may be annoying. Quite frankly, I’m totally fed up with his mums and dads references and that working families phrase. But what is worse is the way he treats other people. He simply can’t look them in the eye.

I wish that Abbott would have said “Hey Kev, look over this way, mate! Don’t you have the decency to face me?”

Evidently, the answer to that question is no.

Peter Costello eats sour grapes once again

liligans So you think you're cultured?

Former Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, who teased the Australian public for months on end by not revealing whether he wanted to be the new leader of the Liberal Party, has demonstrated once again what a sore loser he is.

In an article in today’s The Age newspaper Costello has criticised the Leader of the Liberal Party’s plan for paid parental leave.

By doing this Costello has confirmed my view that he is gutless. He didn’t want to seek the leadership of the party after Prime Minister John Howard left. He was asked over and over again by the media and his party to make a stand. He played games with the Australian public and kept us guessing. And then he packed up his toys and skulked home. To write his memoirs…and act as a spoiler for his own party.

I find it reprehensible that from time to time he opens his mouth and snarls at what his party is doing. Just to prove that he’s still around and lurking in the background. There’s no dignity in that and we are very fortunate that he was too cowardly to offer himself as the new leader.

We have not heard the last of Costello who’s green with envy that Abbott had the courage to go for it. From time to time, Costello will reappear, break wind and leave a bad smell in the room. You can count on it.

Does Prime Minister Rudd appeal to women?

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?

The problem with Kevin Rudd is that he is not masculine. He’s as asexual as Alexander Downer was but without Downer’s kindly demeanour. Whereas Downer reminded us of a benevolent uncle, Rudd is more like a petulant child. He sulks. He is disrespectful to women as he was to Premier Kristina Keneally and he is disliked on a personal level. The more he feels threatened by the popularity of the Opposition the more bombastic he will sound.

For a man to appeal to women he has to possess the manly trait of inner strength, not to be confused with blind ambition. Rudd is brimming with ambition to strut the world stage at the United Nations.

I don’t get the sense that Rudd is a strong character by way of temperament. A bully he may be to all around him, but bullying is the antithesis of masculine strength.

Rightly or wrongly, the way women regard a man has to do with an hormonal response to him. Former Prime Minister, Paul Keating had masculine appeal, and in a different way, John Howard demonstrated it also. That certain something that makes a man a man. Hard to define, but a politician either has it or he hasn’t.

I suppose that it has to do with a woman being able to imagine the man having sex. I’m being intentionally basic here, but it really is comedic to imagine a sex scene with Rudd asking himself questions such as “So how do I feel about this?” “Am I having a pleasurable experience?” and then answering himself with “The bottom line is…”

Quite frankly, I suspect that Rudd would be more content doing it all by himself with only himself in mind. He is self-sufficient in a most unattractive way.

And it’s not about looks either. There are many handsome men who are not attractive to women. Take male models, for example. Say no more. And there are many plain men who exude masculinity. I guess it has to do with behaviour and getting things done in a quiet and dependable way. Less talk and more action would do it. It’s about time that the government stopped promising change and started getting down to business in a serious manner.

Those countless announcements of revolutions are becoming ho-hum and it appears that the public is tiring of them also if the polls are to be believed.

On the other hand, do we really have faith in a government that screwed up so badly on something as simple and finite as the insulation fiasco? So, as long as the Prime Minister keeps talking and ordering reports, we are probably safer.

Rudd has been eloquently described by Tony Abbott as ‘all hat and no cowboy’. He seems to be talking through it as well. To be honest, we could forgive him for not being appealing to women if he would just do something apart from talking all the time and pestering patients in hospital.

How to unclog Emergency Departments in Aussie Hospitals

liligans So you think you're cultured?

Our emergency departments are not coping with the huge numbers of patients seeking attention. People in desperate need often take eight hours to be seen by medical staff. There are even cases of people having to queue up outside emergency departments after having been brought there by ambulances. These are obviously patients, suspected heart attacks, stroke victims and asthmatics who require urgent attention.

We have been told that on Friday and Saturday nights the emergency facilities are over stretched because those are the nights that drunks and drug addicts clog the system. Mayhem is the result as those people attack staff and threaten waiting patients.

Doctors and nurses find themselves dealing with ranting, vomiting and convulsing outpatients who are a danger to themselves and to anyone around them.

The sad thing about it all is that the same alcoholics and druggies will be back the following weekend since drug and alcohol abuse are here to stay.

Since they are entitled to medical assistance I would like to propose that such people should be taken to a separate clinic in the hospital in which staff have been trained to handle dangerous and aggressive patients.

This would remove bottlenecks (pardon the pun) in the ordinary emergency departments. It would keep staff and patients safer so that they can do the job of attending to emergencies without the problem of raging and uncontrollable abusers.