I'll concede your point about the tiger comment on the dangerous grounds, but I still think it was a pretty passive-aggressive insult at the most. Calling him a hay-horned bull or a snake would be more negative. but I didn't say that the American leadership, or the American
Indeed. Last night on MSNBC Jenine Garofolo (however you spell it) said to someone "You seem like a pretty intelligent person, how can you support Bush?" You get that a lot from the left. They seem genuinely bemused that anyone who is intelligent could possibly have different political views than themselves. <br
An article in the British newspaper 'The Guardian' (known for its liberal, left-leaning stance) referred to George Bush as a 'smiling tiger'. The inference being that President Bush, because he is determined, because he is an exponent of the right-wing of American politics, because he is a Christian who neither hides nor obfuscat
US has courts too btw... Yeah, and I don't think the Patriot Act would stand either - that's not the point. Australia has a similar if not more draconian version of the Patriot Act as the US, and both do little to ensure that either the populace is protected or that any "rights" are protected either.
Apparently, cops in Australia can search your house without a warrant: That's true, and I can also be detained without reason or cause for up to a week and be forbidden to speak about it or risk breaching various Secrecy Acts - (one of the side results of the Australian anti-terror leglislation). Howev
Actually I meant the statement about capital gains tax having a lower tax rate, thus making shares and real estate a more effective way of earning money than actually working. It doesn't make as much, but more of it is made in the clear. Personally I think Brad would have a better chance of making money - he is after all a self-made millionaire/billionaire/whatever. Lobo's an obnoxious idiot, but
t
Gerry, Draginol has often mentioned sources, this last article was just one of many articles about the same subject. OTOH I would really like to see the sources of some of Lobo's more fascinating statements. Which ones? I'm still a student so have access to all sorts of really good economics dat
Working in a brothel will definitely be fascinating. My cousin works as the receptionist for one of those places, and the stories she can tell about some of the clients... it's hilarious! You'll just have to get used to the terrible music and dubious smell.
That's hilarious! "Oh my God, what have I just said?"
I believe compulsory voting is on the whole a good idea, but there are weaknesses. For example in the US it's presumably difficult to grant the franchise to the dead due to the small electorates. But in Australia, and especially in Queensland, the AEC (electoral commission) spends half its time visiting graveyards to keep the dead out of the polling booths. The Labor Party has a proud tradition of believing in truly universal sufferage, but the Libe
When the police start rounding up people on bogus terrorist charges and holding them let me know. The police haven't started, but what else is Guantanamo Bay? There were hundreds of presumably innocent people released from there recently without charge. Same with Abu Ghraib. Just because it's in the
Plus it is about OIL not about anything else Nothing in this world is so simple that it can be boiled down to a single cause. There are many who truly believe that they acted to free the Iraqi people - who's to say they didn't have a voice on the cabinet which met to decide war? Thanks for all
It's a shame that the American political system relies on money rather than integrity. It's a shame that all political systems rely on money rather than integrity. George Soros is an especially nasty character - he's rumoured to have been involved somehow in the collapse of the Asian tigers (he sold of
There has been a lot of calls for the eradication of the martial technique known as terrorism recently. Terrorism has always been with us. Roman legions were let loose on civilian camps who defied them in order to spread fear and terror amongst the restless peasantry. Crusaders used catapults to launch the severed heads of the dead over the walls of Jerusalem. Nin
I've never heard of laundry stuff powered by natural gas - wonders never cease it seems. But yes, most places use natural gas for stoves and occasionally for heating. But then again most Australian roofs are peaked (thus getting full sun on one side nearly half the day, and full sun on the other the other half) and all new homes, at least in my area, must be built to take advantage of natural heating and sunlight, so usually don't need heating or air
I'd agree with the author about US reliance on foreign oil (it's not going to be easily reduced) and that alternative power sources aren't a waste of time for anything other than the largest and most crowded of cities. The argument that only massive sources of power are in any way useful is ludicrous. If the average house can collect enough power through solar cells to be self-sufficient in energy terms for 15 years (a rough shelf-life for so
The same sort of thing happened in a boxing match between an Australian and a Greek. For every hit the Aussie made, the Greek got a point. It was the most laughable boxing refereeing I've ever seen.
Australia is not the US. Australia is not the US. Australia is not the US. We have no Congress and the Post Office is a not-for-profit organisation. Stamp duty is paid on housing, not stamps. Chances are anyone who votes for the Greens will either be voting for them because the Democrats have self-destructed and they don't want to vote for the major parties, or they like one of the candidates. I'll probably vote green in my electorate b
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First of all, you should never stockpile funds unless you're trying to buy something. 10.3 million sitting in your bank at the end of the turn is 9.3 million wasted. Try making TV ads on the key issues in marginal states. My favourites are the Environment, More Jobs and Capital Punishment. Just go ape with them in one state, being careful to put a pair of webmasters in first to limit ongoing costs. If you make it half-half positive-negative on one
Echelon is real - the Australian SIS head admitted its existence a couple of years back. A NZ researcher also broke into an Echelon unmanned listening post and videotaped the interior computer complex - I think he's serving time in maximum security at the moment. Most of the material is sent to the US for analysis, and it works (or rather, sort of works) through recognition of keywords in text and occasionally voice. Probably only a thousandth max o
In Australia we have a media program called MediaWatch that has a sort of oversight role. It tends to pick on the Murdoch press more than anyone else, but then again Murdoch news tends to have a greater tendency towards newstainment than anyone else. Everyone who's anyone in the media or the government watches it, because nearly always it's the show that breaks the big stories of media perversion. It's only 15 minutes, but it has a significant role
Urbandictionary.com already has brugly as being defined as "someone who's name is Brian and ugly" eg Brian Wilson is brugly. Your definition is a lot better though - you should add it to the definition!
These crackheads and junkies have absolutely no harness over their mental strength while they continue abusing their body with substances like these. I dont think this relates to the topic. A drug induced mentatility is a false sense of being that interferes with the brains opera
Good article on the whole, but there are a couple of issues I think are important. Firstly, there is a difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty. You address relative poverty, which is fine, but the kind of grinding, might-not-be-able-to-eat-today kind of poverty is covered by absolute poverty, not relative. There should be seperate figures for this group. If there isn't, then that's a problem. Relative poverty is usually defined as
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