What a great combo Tony Abbott has on his front Bench:
Barnaby Joyce who is in favour of the mining of Antarctica and whose greatest goal in public life was to ban the "unfortunate carnage" of abortion.
Nick Minchin who strongly supports privatisation, thinks the harmful effects of passive smoking is "inconclusive" and is a rabid Climate Change sceptic.
Bronwyn Bishop who called for muslim headscarves to be banned in public schools.
I'm sure some of the others are just as colourful and it's going to be hugely entertaining watching the Libs over the next few months. I can see a few more politically related posts coming up in the near future.
Shock and awe indeed!

Thanks to Stephen for piquing my interest.

You Idiot - part 1

I don't know who or what is to blame. Whether it's parenting, schooling, food additives, global warming or whatever but it still amuses me a bit (or maybe it's just amused disappointment) that there's so many people like this around the place.

Little hooligans

This particular has got to be tagged as "Oh my god, I sound like my parents!"
Apparently last night an eight months pregnant woman was punched and robbed by two 12-year-old girls and a 14-year-old boy.
What's going on in the minds of these kids and where did they get it from?
Seems to me like some "Contact Counselling" is in order, not only for the teenagers but for the parents too.
Show me a little kid that calls someone "ni**er" and I'll show you racist parents.
Show me kids with a f**ked up attitude and 99% of the time I'll show you crap parents.
I don't mean to sound flippant but how come we need a licence to keep a dog and nothing at all to bring children into this world?

School's out!

No, this isn't some sort of diatribe about ''Schoolies Week" down at Victor Harbor.
It's about me quitting my studies at Uni$A.

Reasons:

1. I started studying part time back in 2003 so I could get qualifications in the field I was already working in (for the last 15 years).
2. The first three years were hard but I had a fantastic bunch of mature age (full time) friends to study with and we all motivated each other to study hard and became really good friends outside of Uni as well.
3. Uni changed the course and told me that they'd stop graduating my degree in 2009.
4. I said that I was working full time and couldn't increase my study load in 2008 and that they had an ethical obligation to help me finish the degree I started all those years back.
5. They said that while it was unfortunate, unless I finished the rest of my subjects in 2008 then they wouldn't graduate me in 2009.
6. I said I couldn't physically (and wasn't going to): 1) work full time, 2) study full time, 3) travel between two campuses, 4) do Open Learning through OUA to finish a subject they'd stopped already, 5) continue with the CFS and 6) put extra stress on the most important thing in my life which is my relationship with W.

The result:

1. I've paid for, studied and passed six subjects that don't exist anymore. Effectively, I've done these subjects for nothing.
2. I enrolled in the new course and have just finished 4 subjects in my first year.
3. I can only get credits and recognition of prior learning for four of my old subjects that I did at Uni.
4. The first year is generic to a lot of degrees and contains stuff I will never ever use or need again.
5. The fees for Science and Maths related degrees have been reduced to attract more students but because I'm classified as a continuing student I have to pay the more expensive pre-existing fee.
6. Industrial action at Uni$A means some lecturers are withholding our marks until they get what they want. So much for students being the first priority.

How I feel (apart from really pissed off):

1. The light at the end of the tunnel has been moved even further away and I can't see any short or intermediate term rewards for me continuing to study.
2. I'm already working in the field and this was just to upgrade my TAFE qualifications that I got ages ago.
3. My relationship with W takes priority over everything else and even though she doesn't mind, I don't want to continue if it's not going to give me anything apart from a f**ked sleep pattern and a lot of days and nights when we can't go out because I've got Uni stuff to do.

Thus endeth the rant.

Tony's new job

So Tony Abbott has become leader of the opposition.
Well as I said yesterday, that's better than electing someone who is in touch with the electorate and the real world.
Now just wait for the scare campaign against the ETS.

Turnbull, Hockey or Abbott?

The libs used to be known as a tight, right, conservative political party. Now they're tearing themselves to bits.
At least Johnny kept everyone in line.
They lost the last election, in part to their stance on climate change. Now they're turning on Malcolm Turnbull who as far as I see it was trying to get them to face reality and give them a realistic chance at the next election.
Joe Hockey or Tony Abbott?
Can anyone think of a more frightening scenario than Tony Abbott as leader for the opposition. This is a man whose own 18 year old daughter called him a ''lame, gay churchy loser''. The man is intolerant, religiously fundamental, right wing, a climate-change sceptic and a no-compromise opponent of the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). I should clarify something here. I'm an atheist (and my fiance is a christian). I personally regard the Bible as guide book rather than a rule book. I think it's an excellent guide book and I try to live by it every day. I'm a bit uncomfortable with a book telling you to be a good person or else. When I die I expect that to be the end of it rather than suffer perpetual torment because I don't believe in God regardless of how I lived my life.
Anyhow, I digress.
Joe Hockey. He's challenging Malcolm Turnbull and now says he will allow a conscience vote on the ETS. So it appears that this is now more of a leadership challenge rather than being about the ETS. I've seen Hockey in interviews and debates and the man handles himself really really well. Scarily so. He's intelligent, eloquent and plays the crowd well. After Turnbull, I reckon he'd make an excellent Liberal leader. Which is why I'm hoping Tony Abbott will get the leadership job.
With Abbott in the Liberal Party's top job the opposition will remain in the opposition for at least a decade.
Malcolm on Pipingshrike.com put it well when he said:
"The party would be mad to make Abbott leader – he would be a polarising figure a la Mark Latham who would lead them to further infighting and decimation at an election. On the other hand Hockey would be mad to become leader of this rabble and, being a moderate, still have the trog Right destabilising him.
Kevin Andrews? ROFLMAO!
Part of me is enjoying this chaos immensely, but the more sober part is concerned with how the nation is going to be run in the absence of an opposition in touch with reality."

Is it love that I'm thinking

I think age is just a number that we humans invented. However a 25 year old gym instructor marrying a 56 year old millionaire just seems a bit too suss to me.

Would someone please prove me wrong and cite a marriage with a 31 year age difference that actually worked.

If it works, good on 'em. If it doesn't, then she's going to get a sh##load of money.