bigger at the link
Friday, October 31, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
A Point of No Return
As the OZ gets stuck into the important issue, such as whether Sarah Palin is a diva in expensive clothes, Mark Steyn writes a brilliant article about how the sole remaining super-power teeters on the brink of Socialism and unfreedom and weakness.
[My emphasis on the poetry.]
All you Aussie Obama fans should have a good hard think how the power balance of the world, let alone the Pacific region we are in, would be shifted if America became a bunch of touchy-feeling weeklings living of govt handouts.
Think and sh1t your little knickers.
An Obama Administration will pitch America toward EU domestic policy and UN foreign policy. Thomas Sowell is right: It would be a “point of no return”, the most explicit repudiation of the animating principles of America. For a vigilant republic of limited government and self-reliant citizens, it would be a Declaration of Dependence.
[My emphasis on the poetry.]
All you Aussie Obama fans should have a good hard think how the power balance of the world, let alone the Pacific region we are in, would be shifted if America became a bunch of touchy-feeling weeklings living of govt handouts.
Think and sh1t your little knickers.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
What drought? Labor's war on country people continues
This takes the cake. Labor dont like paying the subsidies to farmers that help them in the drought so they try to erase the word "drought" from the lexicon .
It's not a drought anymore, it's "dryness" in official government literature, if Labor get their way.
Interestingly enough, this is also the name i give to the feeling in my mouth when i get gripped by the horrifying visions of a brainwashing socialist future.
As Orwell says, if you cant say the word you can't think the thought. Welcome to AusSoc. Rudd is a doubleplusgood duckspeaker.
A drought has an end. Dryness doesn't. In Labor propaganda, Global Warming has changed the climate forever and it will never rain again. This is a total BS. BS pushed forward with an agenda.
If the dryness is seen as permanent it makes no sense to help farmers get though tough times. Better, in the Labor mind, to run them off the land.
Labor's agenda is taking money from people who produce things in this country, the agricultural sector, and give it to people who dont, the unemployed and others who benefit from this new so-called economic booster package, so these people's support for Labor is entrenched.
Well that money has to come from somewhere. Might as well be from people who voted Liberal and National.
It's not a drought anymore, it's "dryness" in official government literature, if Labor get their way.
Interestingly enough, this is also the name i give to the feeling in my mouth when i get gripped by the horrifying visions of a brainwashing socialist future.
As Orwell says, if you cant say the word you can't think the thought. Welcome to AusSoc. Rudd is a doubleplusgood duckspeaker.
A drought has an end. Dryness doesn't. In Labor propaganda, Global Warming has changed the climate forever and it will never rain again. This is a total BS. BS pushed forward with an agenda.
If the dryness is seen as permanent it makes no sense to help farmers get though tough times. Better, in the Labor mind, to run them off the land.
Labor's agenda is taking money from people who produce things in this country, the agricultural sector, and give it to people who dont, the unemployed and others who benefit from this new so-called economic booster package, so these people's support for Labor is entrenched.
Well that money has to come from somewhere. Might as well be from people who voted Liberal and National.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
AC/DC: Back with Black Ice
Just bought the new AC/DC Album "Black Ice".
In the words of Borat: "Is nice"
The album is exactly what you'd expect from AC/DC. Which is to say it's exactly like the last AC/DC record. What's not to like?
When you have perfected Rock, where do you go from there? You rock some more, naturally. You cant improve on perfection. AC/DC know better than to try.
Before i even heard it, just looking at the pictures on the sleeve got me giggling in fits. Angus just gets funnier as he gets older. It was funny to have a grown man in a school uniform pulling an infantile lippy smirk. To see a bloke in his late 50's doing it cracks me up.
How can the same joke still be funny so many years later? True genius that's how.
The ridiculousness of Angus' act is a shining of example of how not to take life seriously.
A guitarist who used to play for Alice Cooper once said to me "If you go to an AC/DC show and you dont have a good time, you're an asshole." He was a Canadian so that spelling of "asshole" is correct, and the meaning is slightly different from the British/Aussie/NZ "arsehole". An arsehole is an immoral person, an asshole can be an unlikable person in other ways too, two examples being a miserable asshole and a stupid asshole. My friend meant the latter.
AC/DC is about having a good time. Anyone who knows what a good time is understands AC/DC on some level - above or below the belt.
The new album opens strongly with the single Rock'n'Roll Train, a song about an wanton woman as unstoppable in her escapades as a hurtling juggernaut. The song has the same irresistible momentum as the subject. Toe-taping head-banging bliss.
Next track of note for me was track 3 Big Jack, a guy who's "got your back". First hoes, then bros. Brilliant. The only other subject they have to cover is beer and it's all there. This tune has some major key blues chord work that sounds like the Cult's attempts at mimicking AC/DC, with more subtly complex arrangement befitting the original masters of the "guitar bite".
The next track was a pleasant surprize, and the one I was looking for. Songs like this are the difference between good and great AC/DC records. The song is called "Anything Goes" and it's a major-key melodic rocker akin to You Shook Me All Night Long and Money Talks . When there is a melodic singalong like this on an acadaca record it shows they have really pushed the envelope and put alot of effort into the writing. Men with balls as large as AC/DC need to be very confident of themselves before they express the smiley kind-hearted feelings the major key requires. Top track.
Other awesome tracks is the bluesy, gritty and downright eerie Stormy May Day. To get the ominousness across Johnston drops his voice a couple of octaves at the end, into the register in which mortals speek - intimate, or intimidating? you be the judge. I gotta say that you could write the crappiest song in the world but if Brian Johnston sang it would still be awesome. He could make Mary Had A Little Lamb strip paint.
Apart from the rifftastic title track, I cant really recall exactly how most of the other tracks went. I'll update this if more of them leap out of the riffy entanglment to strangle me, but when the overall standard is this high, it's hard to get noticed.
One title does jump out at me though, Money Made. As a rock fan I am green with envy at the ability of rap artists to sing about money and making money and make it sound cool. Rock musos are always so obsessed with dressing down and looking like commies and singing about their unfortunate lot in life. If they make money they hide it. It's pathetic really, but you can understand it because it will kill your career if you dont fall into line. AC/DC are breaking the glass ceiling for rockers who not only want to be capitalists (all musicians are business-people) but also ... sound like it. I was going to say "look like it", but let's face it AC/DC have not progressed that far yet. They wouldn't know what an iron was, not without the maiden anyway.
That AC/DC are so popular worldwide is Australia's greatest cultural achievement. Especially since the sound so Australian!
Basically they exported the gleeful Aussie sense of misbehaviour and mischief, and sold more albums than anyone apart from Micheal Jackson. (look it up, fool: #1 Thriller, #2 Back In Black)
AC/DC can teach all of us about how to have a good time, but they also hold a lesson for the new generation of Aussie musicians:
Firstly Australian bands should sound Australian, not like pale imitations of the latest American or British trend.
Secondly and more importantly YOU CANNOT BE A ROCK STAR IF YOU DO NOT ROCK!!!!!
The more you rock, the more success you will have. Stop trying to sound so pissweak. Nobody likes it except the lazy hacks in the indie record labels.
Rock is not the preoccupation of some fringe group in society, ROCK IS THE MAINSTREAM.
What is the highest praise you can ever give to anyone or anything?
One simply says "YOU ROCK", "THIS ROCKS", "HE/SHE/IT ROCKED", "WE WILL ROCK YOU".
You can conjugate the verb to rock more ways than you can re-arrange the chords in an AC/DC track to make another AC/DC track.
And that's more than enough to enjoy life.
.... That last bit made no sense at all. I think the AC/DC is affecting my thinking. Thank God for that. Whooo hooo!!!!!
And by God, of course I mean Angus Young.
In the words of Borat: "Is nice"
The album is exactly what you'd expect from AC/DC. Which is to say it's exactly like the last AC/DC record. What's not to like?
When you have perfected Rock, where do you go from there? You rock some more, naturally. You cant improve on perfection. AC/DC know better than to try.
Before i even heard it, just looking at the pictures on the sleeve got me giggling in fits. Angus just gets funnier as he gets older. It was funny to have a grown man in a school uniform pulling an infantile lippy smirk. To see a bloke in his late 50's doing it cracks me up.
How can the same joke still be funny so many years later? True genius that's how.
The ridiculousness of Angus' act is a shining of example of how not to take life seriously.
A guitarist who used to play for Alice Cooper once said to me "If you go to an AC/DC show and you dont have a good time, you're an asshole." He was a Canadian so that spelling of "asshole" is correct, and the meaning is slightly different from the British/Aussie/NZ "arsehole". An arsehole is an immoral person, an asshole can be an unlikable person in other ways too, two examples being a miserable asshole and a stupid asshole. My friend meant the latter.
AC/DC is about having a good time. Anyone who knows what a good time is understands AC/DC on some level - above or below the belt.
The new album opens strongly with the single Rock'n'Roll Train, a song about an wanton woman as unstoppable in her escapades as a hurtling juggernaut. The song has the same irresistible momentum as the subject. Toe-taping head-banging bliss.
Next track of note for me was track 3 Big Jack, a guy who's "got your back". First hoes, then bros. Brilliant. The only other subject they have to cover is beer and it's all there. This tune has some major key blues chord work that sounds like the Cult's attempts at mimicking AC/DC, with more subtly complex arrangement befitting the original masters of the "guitar bite".
The next track was a pleasant surprize, and the one I was looking for. Songs like this are the difference between good and great AC/DC records. The song is called "Anything Goes" and it's a major-key melodic rocker akin to You Shook Me All Night Long and Money Talks . When there is a melodic singalong like this on an acadaca record it shows they have really pushed the envelope and put alot of effort into the writing. Men with balls as large as AC/DC need to be very confident of themselves before they express the smiley kind-hearted feelings the major key requires. Top track.
Other awesome tracks is the bluesy, gritty and downright eerie Stormy May Day. To get the ominousness across Johnston drops his voice a couple of octaves at the end, into the register in which mortals speek - intimate, or intimidating? you be the judge. I gotta say that you could write the crappiest song in the world but if Brian Johnston sang it would still be awesome. He could make Mary Had A Little Lamb strip paint.
Apart from the rifftastic title track, I cant really recall exactly how most of the other tracks went. I'll update this if more of them leap out of the riffy entanglment to strangle me, but when the overall standard is this high, it's hard to get noticed.
One title does jump out at me though, Money Made. As a rock fan I am green with envy at the ability of rap artists to sing about money and making money and make it sound cool. Rock musos are always so obsessed with dressing down and looking like commies and singing about their unfortunate lot in life. If they make money they hide it. It's pathetic really, but you can understand it because it will kill your career if you dont fall into line. AC/DC are breaking the glass ceiling for rockers who not only want to be capitalists (all musicians are business-people) but also ... sound like it. I was going to say "look like it", but let's face it AC/DC have not progressed that far yet. They wouldn't know what an iron was, not without the maiden anyway.
That AC/DC are so popular worldwide is Australia's greatest cultural achievement. Especially since the sound so Australian!
Basically they exported the gleeful Aussie sense of misbehaviour and mischief, and sold more albums than anyone apart from Micheal Jackson. (look it up, fool: #1 Thriller, #2 Back In Black)
AC/DC can teach all of us about how to have a good time, but they also hold a lesson for the new generation of Aussie musicians:
Firstly Australian bands should sound Australian, not like pale imitations of the latest American or British trend.
Secondly and more importantly YOU CANNOT BE A ROCK STAR IF YOU DO NOT ROCK!!!!!
The more you rock, the more success you will have. Stop trying to sound so pissweak. Nobody likes it except the lazy hacks in the indie record labels.
Rock is not the preoccupation of some fringe group in society, ROCK IS THE MAINSTREAM.
What is the highest praise you can ever give to anyone or anything?
One simply says "YOU ROCK", "THIS ROCKS", "HE/SHE/IT ROCKED", "WE WILL ROCK YOU".
You can conjugate the verb to rock more ways than you can re-arrange the chords in an AC/DC track to make another AC/DC track.
And that's more than enough to enjoy life.
.... That last bit made no sense at all. I think the AC/DC is affecting my thinking. Thank God for that. Whooo hooo!!!!!
And by God, of course I mean Angus Young.
RBA Chief breaks with ALP ... better late than never
This is the story of the week and probably month, if not the year. The RBA has opposed Rudd recent's Socialist intervention into the credit markets.
I didn't blog it at the time (stupidly) but as a capitalist Rudd's unlimited guarantee of Bank deposits in the wake of recent stock market troubles troubled me.
My problem was that he was putting the tax payer on the hook for sake of the banks, just like the Dems in the US with the housing crisis. Christ! you think they'd learn the right lesson. Nooo. it's all about Gordon Gekko's greed for (multi-millionaire) Rudd.
But my fears were too diffuse to blog. I dont think Aussie banks are going to collapse. The tax-payers exposure is hyperthetical. (and i'm on a roll with my book - no time people)
Turnbull (gotta hand it to him) put specifics to my fears on the insiders on Sunday. The littlest credit union in the land now was a safer bet for deposits than the most well-respected non-bank credit trader. This is causing in sever distortions in the market and actually risks making it harder for some businesses to get credit, the opposite of what was intended.
Rudd is meddling with the market AGAIN!!! He's trying to make it fairer, to the detriment of all.
Rudd and Swan's press conference during the week had snippets on insiders too. Swan assured us that "the world really has changed in the last few weeks". Which is of course code for "The chickens have come home to roost for you Capitalist running dogs. The time for government control of the economy is here, comrades."
Like all Socialists Swan is a LIAR.
The world did NOT change. Capitalism is here to stay. Especially in the most Capitalist nation on Earth, Australia.
Today the RBA has made sure of that.
Glenn Stevens has basically told Rudd to shove his Socialism up his arse.
Now that he is taking on Rudd it seems Stevens has at last rediscovered his independence of mind.
Or has he?
He didn't say anything to the press about this until Malcolm Turnbull hammered his point home in Parliament and on the ABC.
Maybe Glenn Stevens is just backing the winning team, again.
But i should not get distracted by Joe the Plumber. I must focus on Obama ... sorry i'm coming down with with US election fever.
Rudd, Swan and the ALP are the real problem here. The are amateur socialists in charge of this great capitalist nation. They have been humiliated by Turnbull and Stevens over their clumsy and over-zealous interventionist tendencies.
Either Rudd stands his ground and looks Socialist, or introduces a limit to the deposit guarantee and looks weak and stupid. It's a lose-lose situation for Rudd, of his own making.
He can pull the wool with his Sunday night TV appearances all he wants, but the smart people in this country are moving away from Rudd. Sure, obviously the really smart ones (me and my mates) didn't vote for him in the first place, but you know what I mean.
I didn't blog it at the time (stupidly) but as a capitalist Rudd's unlimited guarantee of Bank deposits in the wake of recent stock market troubles troubled me.
My problem was that he was putting the tax payer on the hook for sake of the banks, just like the Dems in the US with the housing crisis. Christ! you think they'd learn the right lesson. Nooo. it's all about Gordon Gekko's greed for (multi-millionaire) Rudd.
But my fears were too diffuse to blog. I dont think Aussie banks are going to collapse. The tax-payers exposure is hyperthetical. (and i'm on a roll with my book - no time people)
Turnbull (gotta hand it to him) put specifics to my fears on the insiders on Sunday. The littlest credit union in the land now was a safer bet for deposits than the most well-respected non-bank credit trader. This is causing in sever distortions in the market and actually risks making it harder for some businesses to get credit, the opposite of what was intended.
Rudd is meddling with the market AGAIN!!! He's trying to make it fairer, to the detriment of all.
Rudd and Swan's press conference during the week had snippets on insiders too. Swan assured us that "the world really has changed in the last few weeks". Which is of course code for "The chickens have come home to roost for you Capitalist running dogs. The time for government control of the economy is here, comrades."
Like all Socialists Swan is a LIAR.
The world did NOT change. Capitalism is here to stay. Especially in the most Capitalist nation on Earth, Australia.
Today the RBA has made sure of that.
Glenn Stevens has basically told Rudd to shove his Socialism up his arse.
RESERVE Bank governor Glenn Stevens is warning the Rudd Government its blanket guarantee of deposits is creating serious dislocation in the entire financial system and must be changed.Steven's actions have dovetailed beautifully into the ALP's economic narrative up until this point. Not any more.
Despite the Government's assurances that it is working closely with the regulators on the global financial crisis, the argument has strained relations between the RBA and Canberra.My question is: if the RBA is supposed to be independent why is there a need for the government to work with them (read: tell them what to do)? Why do they need a cordial relationship? The RBA was all but openly hostile to the previous government and went out of their way to demonstrate their "independence" by putting up interest rates during the election campaign dispite there being no economic justification for it, the credit crisis already having hit.
Now that he is taking on Rudd it seems Stevens has at last rediscovered his independence of mind.
Or has he?
He didn't say anything to the press about this until Malcolm Turnbull hammered his point home in Parliament and on the ABC.
Maybe Glenn Stevens is just backing the winning team, again.
But i should not get distracted by Joe the Plumber. I must focus on Obama ... sorry i'm coming down with with US election fever.
Rudd, Swan and the ALP are the real problem here. The are amateur socialists in charge of this great capitalist nation. They have been humiliated by Turnbull and Stevens over their clumsy and over-zealous interventionist tendencies.
Either Rudd stands his ground and looks Socialist, or introduces a limit to the deposit guarantee and looks weak and stupid. It's a lose-lose situation for Rudd, of his own making.
He can pull the wool with his Sunday night TV appearances all he wants, but the smart people in this country are moving away from Rudd. Sure, obviously the really smart ones (me and my mates) didn't vote for him in the first place, but you know what I mean.
Friday, October 17, 2008
This time it's personal ... and that person is Joe the Plumber.
The media have gone to far in attacking their enemies. Again!
And again they will reap what they have sown.
We saw it before with Palin, when the MSM's feeding frenzy on baby trig helped boost the GOP in the polls.
Backlashes happen. There is about to be another one because the one man who asked Obama a tough question (and i include McCain in that) is about to be run out of business
Joes question exposed Obama as a socialist and so "Joe the Plumber" was mentioned more times in the prez debate than Iraq was.
He was approached by Obama on the campain trail, not the other way around, he said what was on his mind about taxes, and now media scutiny is being applied to him.
Here's an Expose on Joe in the NYT deconstructed by Treacher
Bear in mind this is the same media scrutiny not applied to Bill Ayers or the The One, who actually wants to be President, not a plumber.
Joe will now pay the price of free speech in the new West: the ending of his career.
Sure, he should really get a license to be a plumber but his boss is happy employing him. This would never have happened if he had not taken on The One and the media
This time they have really gone too far. Sarah Palin was a politician. Joe is an ordinary citizen. The Media are taking on the people directly, openly, unapologetically.
This could tip the election. There are alot of Joe the Plumbers in America.
(picture swiped from Ace Of Spades HQ)
PS I just noticed how on the first line I wrote about the media's enemies, not the Democrat's enemies. I now unconsciously assume the entire media to be left-wing and vehemently so. It doesn't help when Murdoch's main Aussie rag always plumps for The One. I cant even read The OZ anymore. I just skim the headlines on-line. It's all about how great Rudd is ... and no news. You wouldn't read about it.
UPDATE: Ha!! Told ya. news.com.au the main on-line portal for Murdoch in Australia has exposed Joe too. Feel oppressed yet? This is no joke folks. The media really are out to get the everyman in their way.
And again they will reap what they have sown.
We saw it before with Palin, when the MSM's feeding frenzy on baby trig helped boost the GOP in the polls.
Backlashes happen. There is about to be another one because the one man who asked Obama a tough question (and i include McCain in that) is about to be run out of business
Joes question exposed Obama as a socialist and so "Joe the Plumber" was mentioned more times in the prez debate than Iraq was.
He was approached by Obama on the campain trail, not the other way around, he said what was on his mind about taxes, and now media scutiny is being applied to him.
Here's an Expose on Joe in the NYT deconstructed by Treacher
Bear in mind this is the same media scrutiny not applied to Bill Ayers or the The One, who actually wants to be President, not a plumber.
Joe will now pay the price of free speech in the new West: the ending of his career.
Sure, he should really get a license to be a plumber but his boss is happy employing him. This would never have happened if he had not taken on The One and the media
This time they have really gone too far. Sarah Palin was a politician. Joe is an ordinary citizen. The Media are taking on the people directly, openly, unapologetically.
This could tip the election. There are alot of Joe the Plumbers in America.
(picture swiped from Ace Of Spades HQ)
PS I just noticed how on the first line I wrote about the media's enemies, not the Democrat's enemies. I now unconsciously assume the entire media to be left-wing and vehemently so. It doesn't help when Murdoch's main Aussie rag always plumps for The One. I cant even read The OZ anymore. I just skim the headlines on-line. It's all about how great Rudd is ... and no news. You wouldn't read about it.
UPDATE: Ha!! Told ya. news.com.au the main on-line portal for Murdoch in Australia has exposed Joe too. Feel oppressed yet? This is no joke folks. The media really are out to get the everyman in their way.
Undercover Cops bust ring of dangerous Hippies
In a word: Awesome . The Victorian Police's stocks just went up in my book.
This comes via Blair and Bolt but I thought i would link straight to The Age because their blatant anti-police spin make is funnier, and the picture of the disgruntled hippies (post-showering) makes this even more awesome.
I get so warm n fuzzy when i hear about a hippie beat-down in my home town. Yeee Haaawww!!
This comes via Blair and Bolt but I thought i would link straight to The Age because their blatant anti-police spin make is funnier, and the picture of the disgruntled hippies (post-showering) makes this even more awesome.
I get so warm n fuzzy when i hear about a hippie beat-down in my home town. Yeee Haaawww!!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Quick post of final US Prez debate
Thought McCain was way better. Was smiling and taking the piss out of Obama throughout, Obama seemed ruffled and put off to me. HE rambled with some of his responses, which did seem like amateurish bureaucratic interfering in people's lives (or they did to me).
McCain main great headway out of the "spread the wealth around" remarks Obama made on the campaign train recently, particularly by addressing to "Joe the plumber" straight down the barrel of the camera were great and warning him that is was his wealth that Obama was about to spread (read: take).
McCain ironically praising Obama for his "eloquence" and then offering to decode Obama's speech for the audience. brilliant.
It seems now that we are seeing enough of the real Obama for McCain to be able to create a aura of uncertainly around him. Just what is Obama gonna do? The more he talks the more he sounds like a real socialist. That freaks people out. When Obama says he wants to take America in a fundamentally different direction he means it!
And it's not just a different direction to the last 8 years as he says. It's different to the entire history of the United States. It's socialism.
Via Ace of Spades HQ
They are a bit down on the debate, and make the point that McCain didn't pin subprime on Acorn/Dems/Obama. At least he brought up Ayers!
McCain main great headway out of the "spread the wealth around" remarks Obama made on the campaign train recently, particularly by addressing to "Joe the plumber" straight down the barrel of the camera were great and warning him that is was his wealth that Obama was about to spread (read: take).
McCain ironically praising Obama for his "eloquence" and then offering to decode Obama's speech for the audience. brilliant.
It seems now that we are seeing enough of the real Obama for McCain to be able to create a aura of uncertainly around him. Just what is Obama gonna do? The more he talks the more he sounds like a real socialist. That freaks people out. When Obama says he wants to take America in a fundamentally different direction he means it!
And it's not just a different direction to the last 8 years as he says. It's different to the entire history of the United States. It's socialism.
Via Ace of Spades HQ
They are a bit down on the debate, and make the point that McCain didn't pin subprime on Acorn/Dems/Obama. At least he brought up Ayers!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Peerless Akerman finds some gritty figures
Looks like Rudd's been a little bit greed-is-goody in his Brisbane real estate dealing with "directors of a key Labor Party company which controlled party assets."
*Chortle chortle*
He also gives his a slap along the lines of what I said: that Capitalists (like Rudd) are not to blame for this crisis but rather Socialists (like Rudd ... yeah i'm confused too).
*Chortle chortle*
He also gives his a slap along the lines of what I said: that Capitalists (like Rudd) are not to blame for this crisis but rather Socialists (like Rudd ... yeah i'm confused too).
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
US Prez Debate: Closing remarks said it all
Just finished now. (no link)
I'm biased (that honestly tells you i'm a conservative) but i'd call it McCain by a nose. Not a game-changer unless people really let some of the messages sink in. I'd say the game has been kept alive. McCain did well enough not to sink his campaign.
I was glad to see McCain on the attack about Obama's record on the current crisis and foreign policy, and still homely and physically embracing the serviceman in the Audience. I'm disappointed Ayers did not come up, i guess that means there as still aces in the pack, and McCain had to confront the economic message of the Dems head on. Still, Obama was pretty slick and seemed to have a counter attack for every attack on his record.
For me, the real difference came not in the debates over specifics but the visions of both men. Before i read a single line of commentary i'd like to say the closing statements said it all, paraphrased below:
Obama: I was poor to start with and rose to great heights that i could never have hoped for in any other country. Now it's time to change the country fundamentally. I hope you are with me on this amazing journey (destination not specified)
McCain: (in unspoken reference to his POW years) I know what suffering is like. I know what it's like when others look to you for hope. I know what it's like when others pick you up and give you hope. I ask the American people to give me another opporunity to serve because through all this it has always been "my priviledge to to put my country first."
That last part is a direct quote.
Obama's statement was all about himself, and how the country has to change to suit him.
McCain's was all about his country and how much he loved it and was willing to sacrifice himself for it.
Oh yeah. There are "fundamental differences" alright.
One candidate understands the words of Kennedy "Dont ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country"
The other is a total wanker.
Some people's legs might shake when Obama speaks. I was almost in tears when McCain spoke.
I never knew he had it in him.
I'm biased (that honestly tells you i'm a conservative) but i'd call it McCain by a nose. Not a game-changer unless people really let some of the messages sink in. I'd say the game has been kept alive. McCain did well enough not to sink his campaign.
I was glad to see McCain on the attack about Obama's record on the current crisis and foreign policy, and still homely and physically embracing the serviceman in the Audience. I'm disappointed Ayers did not come up, i guess that means there as still aces in the pack, and McCain had to confront the economic message of the Dems head on. Still, Obama was pretty slick and seemed to have a counter attack for every attack on his record.
For me, the real difference came not in the debates over specifics but the visions of both men. Before i read a single line of commentary i'd like to say the closing statements said it all, paraphrased below:
Obama: I was poor to start with and rose to great heights that i could never have hoped for in any other country. Now it's time to change the country fundamentally. I hope you are with me on this amazing journey (destination not specified)
McCain: (in unspoken reference to his POW years) I know what suffering is like. I know what it's like when others look to you for hope. I know what it's like when others pick you up and give you hope. I ask the American people to give me another opporunity to serve because through all this it has always been "my priviledge to to put my country first."
That last part is a direct quote.
Obama's statement was all about himself, and how the country has to change to suit him.
McCain's was all about his country and how much he loved it and was willing to sacrifice himself for it.
Oh yeah. There are "fundamental differences" alright.
One candidate understands the words of Kennedy "Dont ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country"
The other is a total wanker.
Some people's legs might shake when Obama speaks. I was almost in tears when McCain spoke.
I never knew he had it in him.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sack the Reserve Bank Governor
Glenn Stevens has just cut rates by 1%. The biggest cut since 1992, the Keating horror years.
Why the drastic reversal now? It's almost like the present economic difficulty was unforseen by him. Sorta took him by suprise. That's bad for a econobrainic isn't it? hmm
But hang on. This crisis started in August last year.
Stevens increased interest rates FOUR TIMES since August last year!!
Sep 2 2008 25bps down 7.00pc
Mar 4 2008 25bps up 7.25pc
Feb 5 2008 25bps up 7.00pc
Nov 7 2007 25bps up 6.75pc
Aug 8 2007 25bps up 6.50pc
As i recall the first one just before the crisis hit, at that point Stevens failed to foresee it.
Since then he's failed to see whats right in front of his goddam eyes!
There was never any need to increase interests rates since August last because this danger was always coming our way, and our economy was never expanding out of control, except in ALP propaganda.
Why the drastic reversal now? It's almost like the present economic difficulty was unforseen by him. Sorta took him by suprise. That's bad for a econobrainic isn't it? hmm
But hang on. This crisis started in August last year.
Stevens increased interest rates FOUR TIMES since August last year!!
Sep 2 2008 25bps down 7.00pc
Mar 4 2008 25bps up 7.25pc
Feb 5 2008 25bps up 7.00pc
Nov 7 2007 25bps up 6.75pc
Aug 8 2007 25bps up 6.50pc
As i recall the first one just before the crisis hit, at that point Stevens failed to foresee it.
Since then he's failed to see whats right in front of his goddam eyes!
There was never any need to increase interests rates since August last because this danger was always coming our way, and our economy was never expanding out of control, except in ALP propaganda.
Is Australia the most Capitalist, and therefore safest, country in the world?
That is the questions I asked myself as i read this great piece in the OZ about how regulation of capital markets always fights the last crisis, and risks making the next one worse.
The author Johan Norburg directly contradicts Rudd.
I learned that America has loads of regulation already. I had heard of the mark-to-market rule when accounting asset values, which devalues all companies balance sheets every time there is a stock market dip (even though they have no intention of selling anything). But I did not know about how much regulation started under FDR's New Deal after the depression, and persisted for so long. Note the Fannie Mae was created as part of the New Deal, to give loans to people who cant afford it which led to the current crises now, over 60 years later!
As far as i'm aware Australia is free from all this Socialist hocus pocus.
You little rippah! We can be proud we are at the forefront of Capitalism - that force which makes everything happen.
The author Johan Norburg directly contradicts Rudd.
I learned that America has loads of regulation already. I had heard of the mark-to-market rule when accounting asset values, which devalues all companies balance sheets every time there is a stock market dip (even though they have no intention of selling anything). But I did not know about how much regulation started under FDR's New Deal after the depression, and persisted for so long. Note the Fannie Mae was created as part of the New Deal, to give loans to people who cant afford it which led to the current crises now, over 60 years later!
As far as i'm aware Australia is free from all this Socialist hocus pocus.
You little rippah! We can be proud we are at the forefront of Capitalism - that force which makes everything happen.
Monday, October 6, 2008
The Geek speaks out against Capitalism
Tell me. Does this sound like an economic conservative speaking?
Rudd is the Reddest PM we've ever had, and a total lightweight.
He has written a column against Gordon Gekko, a fictional character created by Hollywood to parody Capitalism. No real person ever said "greed is good". Us capitalists dont say it. We dont think it. We know greed is overstepping the mark and will get you in the shit.
Rudd has his little knickers in a twist so bad about evil capiltalism he doesn't even bother to look up the facts about the current crisis before shooting off his gob.
He's so petulant and lazy. Like a spoiled teenager. "Whhhhaaaaaahhhhh. Those capitalists want me to do my homework. It's not faaaiiiir."
The fact is that, Capitalism is not at fault here. Socialism is.
Left to their own devices, the capitalists at the big US banks would never have lent to money to people who they knew could never pay it back. That's not greed. That's just common sense.
Rudd could read on this blog here and here the way the Left in America, specifically ACORN, forced banks to lend to people from minorities without jobs, assets, income or any form of security in the full knowledge that one day this would all come crashing down, so they could then turn around and say the Capitalist system has failed.
Sure the debt was packaged off in supposedly non-transparent instruments and that's how the risk was spread around the globe, but the problem was the government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (big Democrat donors) gave the impression that the debt was government-backed and secure, when they had no intension of going guarantor for millions of home-owners and couldn't if they wanted to. The BS originated in the Socialist desire to make the the market "fairer", which distorted it's proper working.
You wont find a single capitalist arguing for less transparency. We want to know what we are buying. Once again that's not greed. Just sensible rational self-interest. The reforms needed to avoid this crisis were put forward by real economic conservatives like Bush in 2003 and McCain in 2005 (yes, even McCain is economically conservative compared to Rudd). The Socialists Democrats in congress blocked them.
Costello on insiders yesterday was very level headed and sober in his discussion of this, as has been Turnbull in recent interviews. Rudd's panic attack about Capitalism has shown him up to be anything other than an economic conservative. He's a died in the wool Socialist and unfit to run this country.
If Rudd keeps this BS up he wont be around for long.
Rudd's kind of not-quite-high-brow commie-talk has only ever appealed to a small minority of the Aussie public. Aussies dont like being ripped off, that's why they make good cautious un-greedy capitalists, and they know Socialism is the biggest rip off of all.
UPDATE: Expert Hypocrisy-spotter Tim Blair hits the nail squarely on the head:
Rudd is the Reddest PM we've ever had, and a total lightweight.
He has written a column against Gordon Gekko, a fictional character created by Hollywood to parody Capitalism. No real person ever said "greed is good". Us capitalists dont say it. We dont think it. We know greed is overstepping the mark and will get you in the shit.
Rudd has his little knickers in a twist so bad about evil capiltalism he doesn't even bother to look up the facts about the current crisis before shooting off his gob.
He's so petulant and lazy. Like a spoiled teenager. "Whhhhaaaaaahhhhh. Those capitalists want me to do my homework. It's not faaaiiiir."
The fact is that, Capitalism is not at fault here. Socialism is.
Left to their own devices, the capitalists at the big US banks would never have lent to money to people who they knew could never pay it back. That's not greed. That's just common sense.
Rudd could read on this blog here and here the way the Left in America, specifically ACORN, forced banks to lend to people from minorities without jobs, assets, income or any form of security in the full knowledge that one day this would all come crashing down, so they could then turn around and say the Capitalist system has failed.
Sure the debt was packaged off in supposedly non-transparent instruments and that's how the risk was spread around the globe, but the problem was the government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (big Democrat donors) gave the impression that the debt was government-backed and secure, when they had no intension of going guarantor for millions of home-owners and couldn't if they wanted to. The BS originated in the Socialist desire to make the the market "fairer", which distorted it's proper working.
You wont find a single capitalist arguing for less transparency. We want to know what we are buying. Once again that's not greed. Just sensible rational self-interest. The reforms needed to avoid this crisis were put forward by real economic conservatives like Bush in 2003 and McCain in 2005 (yes, even McCain is economically conservative compared to Rudd). The Socialists Democrats in congress blocked them.
Costello on insiders yesterday was very level headed and sober in his discussion of this, as has been Turnbull in recent interviews. Rudd's panic attack about Capitalism has shown him up to be anything other than an economic conservative. He's a died in the wool Socialist and unfit to run this country.
If Rudd keeps this BS up he wont be around for long.
Rudd's kind of not-quite-high-brow commie-talk has only ever appealed to a small minority of the Aussie public. Aussies dont like being ripped off, that's why they make good cautious un-greedy capitalists, and they know Socialism is the biggest rip off of all.
UPDATE: Expert Hypocrisy-spotter Tim Blair hits the nail squarely on the head:
Kevin Rudd is complaining about “greed" and “extreme capitalism”. The challenge is to measure these things. Does capitalism become “extreme” when one amasses $20 million? Should a person who blows $10,000 per week renting a beachside apartment be considered “greedy”?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Obama and the Crisis (part II)
Man. This piece at AmericanThinker has gone for Obama harder than anything i've ever seen. Basically fills in all the details from the my prev post, and then some.
I'd always throught the lefties would ruin everything. I didn't know they are one record as doing it on purpose. I thought they were just thick.
Scary stuff.
I'd always throught the lefties would ruin everything. I didn't know they are one record as doing it on purpose. I thought they were just thick.
Scary stuff.
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