And we worry that K-Rudd might be robotic. Check out the amazing consistency of Obama’s smile.
Barack Obama’s amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.
Tag: K-Rudd
The union war
K-Rudd has declared an end to the History Wars that crippling battle for supremacy between Australia’s academic elite… but there’s one philosophical battle between the elite and the working class that will not be ended by Prime Ministerial decree…
We’re flying to Brisbane this weekend. We’re heading south for a Rugby match. Of all the things to head south for… I don’t really like Rugby. But Robyn does. So we’re going to watch Australia play South Africa.
Robyn really likes Rugby. She owns a number of jerseys and actually understands the rules enough to yell at the ref about an infringement before he gives a penalty. This is what marriage is about.
But, so that my protest is recorded for posterities sake – here are three areas where Rugby League is clearly the superior game…
- Pointscoring – the union point scoring matrix is messed up. It discourages attacking play. Union can not hope to be a spectacle while a penalty goal is worth more than half an unconverted try. There is no incentive to chance your arm for a try when you can do half the work and score more than half the points. Drop goals are also significantly overvalued. If Union swallowed its pride and adopted League’s point scoring methodology attack would be suitably rewarded.
- Penalties – Penalty goals are only such an issue because penalties are so common. Seriously. Is there anything in Union that you’re actually allowed to do? Every time the ref watches the play closely he blows his whistle and the team in possession boots the ball between the posts.
- Scrums – The claim by Union fans that I find most risible is that their scrums are superior to those used in League. Contested, yes, superior, no. 98% of scrums contested in a Union test are packed more than once, 65% result in penalties. 12% result in wins against the feed (I made these stats up). They’re just as pointless as the scrums in league – it’s like a coin toss to see whether the attacking side gets a penalty or has to stand around in a hemorrhoid inducing group hug.
But I’m a good husband. So I’ll go along without pointing out too many of these areas.
When to make unpopular decisions
John Howard has re-entered the political fray – and probably done more bolster Rudd’s leadership than to aid his former parliamentary colleagues. He’s commended Rudd on a couple of points – and made this interesting comment, which I think probably applies to starting at a new church too…
From the SMH.
The time for unpopular or difficult reforms should always be in the first term for new prime ministers, who tended to be cut a lot of slack by the public.
When you’ve been there two years, you haven’t done anything that’s the least bit unfriendly – jeez, it gets hard in the third year.
Working Families
So, K-Rudd isn’t actually to blame for coming up with the phrase… because the West Wing did it. Back in season 2. I wonder if politicians feel the pressure to outdo the West Wing. Like South Park and the Simpsons…
SAM
[reading] “We want a real tax cut for working families to help them pay for higher
education and housing, while our opponents want to help the rich pay for bigger swimming
pools and faster private jets. [pause] No, I don’t think so.
Reader Poll
Does anybody actually care about Utegate?
K-Rudd isn’t going to resign. Swan isn’t going to resign. Turnbull isn’t going to resign. The guy from the public service is going to get fired jailed. It seems he’ll be the only one remembering this whole saga a year from now.
What I think would be awesome would be if the alchopops thing is the trigger for a double dissolution. Imagine being the Prime Minister booted out for trying to make grog more expensive. That’ll play in headlines all over the world.
I also hate the way we add “gate” to the end of every political scandal. It didn’t happen in the Watergate building so it’s not analogous.
I hope K-Rudd is learning his lesson about how it pays to be nice to your public servants and not make them work at break neck speed. They’ve claimed his Defense Minister and now they’re after him.
Costello to retire… one day… soon
The best Liberal Party MP never to lead the country has called time on his career (at the next election). Ending over a year of speculation and no doubt taking some pressure off Turnbull.
I like Costello. Particularly during Question Time.
Today both K-Rudd and Turnbull had some nice things to say about him – his Costelloesque* response (appropriate given that he is Costello…):
“It is just possible both sides of the dispatch box are happy with the announcement I’ve made,” he said.
“It is a very nice thing to actually come here and not be quite departed and hear the kind of speeches one hears as eulogies. In fact, I might come back tomorrow, I’m enjoying it so much.”
*the coining of a new adjective.
Stimulated
My stimulus payment has finally arrived. So I thought I’d express my thanks to K-Rudd via this open letter.
Dear K-Rudd,
Thank you for the very generous gift that arrived in my account today. I am not sure whether it is a “gracious” act – because I do work and pay taxes so it may be “deserved” – but it’s certainly a pleasant interaction with your government.
Many people are suggesting that this payment is a waste of money that should by rights belong to future generations – I disagree. What have those future generations done to deserve the payment? I think we should do more. Future generations should be doing more for us. We’re always told to look after the planet for them – and I notice that you’ve shelved the carbon pollution reduction scheme for another year. Good move.
Spending our kid’s inheritance is all the rage these days – if I was old and had children – I’d do it too. Kids of tomorrow don’t know how easy they’ll have it, and how hard things were for us. They’ll take everything for granted. Shackling them with debt will build resilience and be good for their character.
Here are some other ideas that will help us enslave future generations for our comfort.
- I need a new car, the car industry needs jobs – why not get everybody in Australia a new car, or perhaps significantly subsidise cars for us – I’m happy to pay a bit. I know you’ve got that deal with Toyota for green cars – but I don’t want one of them. I want a gas guzzler – how bout a V8 incentive. Future generations don’t really need petrol, by the time they’re around we’ll no doubt have gone nuclear.
- The first home buyer’s grant is a good idea, but all it does is drive prices up by $21,000. How bout we take into account the fact that future generations will no doubt spend even longer living at home and give every Australian a house. For free. It might be expensive, but it will create jobs for builders and tradesmen. They don’t have to be luxury houses – but they’ll need lots of bedrooms in order to store future generations.
- These future generations will no doubt want our jobs one day, and they’ll be pretty cut-throat and selfish if the current trends are anything to go by – this means my generation will be forced out of the workforce earlier than expected. Super isn’t really going to be worth much in the future – if current trends are anything to go by – so the government should pay us our future unemployment benefits in gold, now. That’s future thinking. And it will help provide jobs for the people who make gold ingots.
I’m sure there are some other great ideas for how the present generation can ride the back of the future generations – we’ve ridden on the sheep’s back for too long. The children are our future – and our present. They’re such a great asset, provided we use them right. I commend you for taking this bold step and giving me all this money.
My wife doesn’t really want to spend it – can you please contact her, you’ve no doubt got our address, we pay taxes – and tell her that spending the money is in the country’s best interest.
I take back all the mean stuff I’ve ever said about you. And I’m sorry I posted that video of you eating your earwax.
Sincerely,
Nathan Campbell
Arty fact
I was once convinced (and probably still am) that that which divides art from the everyday is the frame an artist puts around something. The declaration that it is, in fact, art. Without a declaration the thing is just a thing.
Turn your fruit into art with this revolutionary still life fruit bowl. I would buy one of these. If K-Rudd had given me my money.
K-Ruddy rating
K-Rudd has scored 114th place in an online Time Magazine “World’s Most Influential Person” survey. The guy who won was “Moot” – the founder of 4chan.org (the creators of LolCats).
Stimulating questions
Has anybody out there received their stimulus money yet? I’m curious. Townsville readers probably haven’t – but I’m wondering what percentage of people have.
Apparently the Government is essentially casting lots to determine who gets paid when.
All cheque and EFT payments will be made using a post code selection process that is randomly generated, ensuring all post codes are evenly distributed to each state and territory each night (using the Australia Post predetermined percentage spread).
So, are any of you punks feeling lucky?
Have any of you done the morally, socially and theologically responsible thing and spent it? Or is it going in the bank?
Protect us from ourselves
I got this email today, from a colleague.
“Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock ( MADE IN JAPAN ) for 6am . While his coffeepot ( MADE IN CHINA ) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG ). He put on a dress shirt ( MADE IN SRI LANKA ), designer jeans ( MADE IN SINGAPORE ) and tennis shoes ( MADE IN KOREA ). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet ( MADE IN INDIA ) he sat down with his calculator ( MADE IN MEXICO ) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch ( MADE IN TAIWAN ) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA ) he got in his car ( MADE IN GERMANY ) filled it with Petrol from Saudi Arabiaand continued his search for a good paying Australian JOB At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his Computer (MADE In MALAYSIA ), Joe decide to relax for a while.. He put on his sandals ( MADE IN BRAZIL ) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE.! ) and turned on his TV ( MADE IN INDONESIA ), and then wondered why he can’t find a good paying job in … Australia….. “
Is it just me or is protectionism so hot right now? “Buy local” campaigns are the new economic black. I think A Current Affair is running a story (or they have already run it) encouraging their legion’s of viewers to buy Australian made. It’s odd. And pretty stupid. In fact I think it’s just clever marketing and a nice, easy PR campaign to boot. Who’s not going to cover a story about keeping locals in jobs. It seems the first thing advertisers do in a recession is call for protectionism – buy local campaigns etc…
Magnetic Island is in the midst of a protectionism row at the moment after a local operator missed out on a tender to a Sydney based comments. This operator’s comments to the local paper that these fly by night Sydney operators would “be crucified” if they tried setting up on the island no doubt does our region a world of good as we try to attract investment and tourists. Here’s a message to you new businesses from the businesses on Magnetic Island… “die or we’ll kill you”. Nice.
The campaign to reverse the Townsville City Council’s incredibly above board tender decision took on new legs over the weekend with a protest group carting around signs that said “Beach Hire is un-Australian” and “local jobs for locals”… Apparently coming from Sydney is un-Australian now. Basically this guy thought the job was his by right – and barely even scraped together a tender (and submitted it after the closing date). He lost. That’s life. Move on.
I like to preface these pretty broad posts by saying “I’m no economist but” so here’s the standard disclaimer. I’m no economist but in the face of a global financial crisis it doesn’t make sense to be acting in the national not global interest – because to me, the bigger problem for Australian jobs is the rapidly collapsing resource sector. A collapse fuelled by slowing demand from overseas. That’s right. We export this stuff. So we need other countries to be in a financial position to buy our stuff.
This is why I think the fact most of the stimulus package being spent on things produced overseas is a good thing. Sure, buying local is good. But buying foreign made is ok. And why should we value employment in our prosperous country with better than adequate social security over jobs in other countries with non-existant unemployment payments?
I’ve had a few conversations with a few people who “don’t want the money from K-Rudd” on principle. That’s fine. Give it to me. I’ll spend it wisely.
These conversations go along these lines:
1. We should be helping big business that’s how to fix the economy
2. We should be investing in infrastructure that’s how to help the economy – we need to be ready for the next resources boom…
3. This money is only going to keep retail employees in jobs – and most of it will go overseas to China.
4. It’s a big debt that we can’t afford to pay now – and it will be a burden on future generations.
From my very, very laymans meta-analysis of the current economic situation the downturn in Chinese production fueled by the lack of demand for their products seems to me to be a pretty prime factor in our resource prices tanking.
Pouring money into Chinese manufacturers is a good thing because not only will it give us access to technology as they develop it to suit demand, it will also stimulate demand for our resources – there won’t be another resource boom if other countries don’t want to grow and develop.
Sure, we could have a locally driven resource boom. But then the Greens would get angry that we’re chopping down trees to pave paradise for multi-storey car parking.
The debt thing is an issue – but once we’ve decided to spend money saving the economy rather than letting it tank completely and picking up the pieces the solution is going to require spending money, and governments are really the only entities in a position to borrow.
So here’s the response I sent to my colleague… some of the points are a stretch – but I wish sometimes people would think a little bit past the obvious “that money’s going to support a Chinese person not an Australian person” bias.
“Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock ( MADE IN JAPAN – using Nickel from Townsville) for 6am . While his coffeepot ( MADE IN CHINA (using aluminium mined in Australia) – (with coffee grown on the Atherton Tablelands ) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG ) (using technology developed in Australian universities). He put on a dress shirt ( MADE IN SRI LANKA – using cotton grown in Australia ), designer jeans ( MADE IN SINGAPORE – also using Australian cotton) and tennis shoes ( MADE IN KOREA using Australian leather ). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet ( MADE IN INDIA from Australian steel ) he sat down with his calculator ( MADE IN MEXICO using components made from Australian resources ) to see how much he could spend today (based on Australian research). After setting his watch ( MADE IN TAIWAN using Australian components and sold to him by an Australian salesman ) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA and installed, repaired and serviced by Australian technicians ) he got in his car ( MADE IN GERMANY – sold in Australia by a local dealer who employs local mechanics – unless the locals are so lazy that he has to bring in workers from overseas ) filled it with Petrol from Saudi Arabia (shipped to Australia by an Australian company, transported by Australian truck drivers) and continued his search for a good paying Australian JOB (he wasn’t looking hard enough) At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his Computer (MADE In MALAYSIA ), Joe decide to relax for a while.. He put on his sandals ( MADE IN BRAZIL – That is unAustralian – he should have been wearing pluggers) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE.! – again, there’s plenty of good Australian wine) and turned on his TV ( MADE IN INDONESIA filled with Australian content), and then wondered why he can’t find a good paying job in … Australia….. probably because nobody wants to buy our resources anymore because we’ve stopped buying stuff, or he’s too lazy to do anything he considers “menial” or beneath him…”
Can K-Rudd hear me
Some time ago I posted a link to one man’s audacious bid to be heard by google. Can Google Hear Me won the hearts and minds of millions. Including Google – who were interested enough to take this man’s journey to the next level.
And now – following news that the Federal Government will now trawl critical blogs I ask the question. Can Kevin Rudd hear me?
It hasn’t taken long for people to make a connection between trawling blogs for criticism and the clean feed/blacklist campaign – particularly because the Government’s own media release listed Whirlpool.net.au’s criticism of the blacklist as one of the examples the Government’s beady eyes were watching.
I have said several things about the Ruddster and his ability to make even the most clear things unclear through erudite obfuscation. That was Rudd speak for using simple words in a complicated way so as to make things impossible to understand.
Kevin, if you’re here, and you can hear me – of if your staff are and they can – let me know in the comments. Perhaps you’d like to give me a job making your unclear communication clear.
Who knows. Perhaps you’d like to read through all the things I’ve had to say about you in the past.
Regards,
Nathan
Foetal position
Ben just sent me a link to this ABC story where Tony Abbott attacked Kevin Rudd for allowing changes to Australia’s aid policy and aid money being used to fund abortions.
The comments thread is telling. These discussions always bring out the rabid atheists who want to accuse Christianity of “holding back society”… I do like it when they put together a coherent argument.
Like this:
“Lets not forget that the bible tells the story of how god drowned every living person except Jonah and his family because he was annoyed with them. So to say the bible condemns murder is a very selective interpretation.”
Sadly comments are closed. So I couldn’t point out that Jonah was the guy eaten by a whale and people were saved at the end of the Jonah story because they repented. Anyway. There’s a lot of stupid Christians in the debate too. But Coloru seems to be a pretty rabid atheist, he says:
“Wakeup! If you cant find god in your own heart and mind then it doesnt exist. The bible isnt going to help.*”
*lack of apostrophes his own.
This again highlights the atheist’s fundamental misunderstanding of the place of the bible in Christian faith. It’s central – not an afterthought. It’s the way we find God. And hands up Christians who can find God in their own heart and mind…
Election Scorecard: Labor’s attack ads
The Labor Party is telling us we can’t trust Springborg because a couple of months ago he said the current economic climate was not like the Great Depression. That it was different.
The ad runs a bunch of clips from world leaders (Obama, Rudd, and Brown) telling us what a crisis this is, and comparing the situation with the Great Depression.
So, was Springborg wrong for saying it’s not? No.
Here’s the thing. A lot of the problems we’re currently facing are caused by a crisis of confidence. Obama’s address to congress last week was optimistic. Politicians should be talking up the economy. We all know what happened when Wayne Swan said the inflation genie was out of the bottle.
It’s perfectly reasonable for a politician to be optimistic, or positive. Particularly when they’re in opposition. That’s their job.
The other thing is – the representatives featured in the ad are all from the left – the same side as Labor. The fact that Springborg disagrees with these people should be expected – and possibly applauded.
Labor at a state level hasn’t really learned the power of a positive campaign – and the cost of a negative campaign – even after Obama’s victory, and Rudd’s, the electorate is sick of smear campaigns. We want to know what you offer – not what the other guys do.
The ads look nice though. Black is the new black for election advertising.
Grade: D+
The Strip
It seems I was right. Apparently The Wire, Underbelly and The Sopranos – and any other media “text” that demonise Strip Clubs are on the money.
The Courier Mail reports that Queensland’s adult entertainment businesses are regular law breakers and dens of iniquity.
Treasurer Andrew Fraser made a comment that I’m sure the Courier Mail story delighted in presenting in an almost out of context fashion…
“Treasurer Andrew Fraser yesterday defended his department’s enforcement, saying many “cowboy outfits” had been removed in recent years.”
I believe he was talking about businesses not complying with legislation – rather than a Western theme.
I promise this will be the last time I write about strip clubs. But it’s interesting to note that they aren’t particularly nice places after all. Remember that Mr Prime Minister.