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Random Notes - Idle ThoughtsRandom Note #196,842 — Editorial, Energy
As H L Menken observed — “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary”. Remember that. That is what the Green/left is all about. Keeping YOU alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety. The government should follow the lead laid down in the Hippocratic oath: That is “first, do no harm.” In other words in certain cases, it may be better to do nothing rather than intervening and potentially causing more harm than good. That’s exactly what the government has done with energy policy in Australia
Random Note #197,653 — Population growth
As we are only to aware, most of the 200,000 per year are gravitating to either Sydney or Melbourne and this is having a major impact on the supply of housing and therefore housing affordability (another topic) then of course there’s infrastructure, not only all the stuff your familiar with like roads and rail, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, but also the below ground stuff that is out of sight and out of mind like sewerage, water, gas
AND — electricity
Random Note — 2CH Editorial, Malcolm Turnbull
He conveys neither certitude, authority nor conviction. His judgement is appalling and he embodies and exhibits all of the same dithering characteristics and qualities as Billy McMahon against Gough Whitlam in 1972.
If he were a colour he’d be beige. If he were a flavour he’d be vanilla.
Random Note #198,681 — Australia as Malaysian flight MH370
The best real life analogy I can think of to describe Australia today and it’s leadership is a comparison to the missing Malaysian flight MH370. We suspect it’s been hijacked by a rogue pilot/captain (Turnbull) on an ideological jihad and been crashed somewhere in to the depths of the Indian Ocean.
The Curse of Good Intentions — Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist Blog
It was Milton Friedman who said “one of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programmes by their intentions rather than their results” — The Paris climate accord is one big virtue-signalling prayer, whose promises, if implemented, would make a difference in the temperature of the atmosphere in 2100 so small it is practically within the measuring error. But it’s the thought that counts
Julia Gillard looking through the wrong end of the telescope (again)
From Sunday night Oct 15th — “…Instead of understanding that the election of Trump and the Brexit vote were in response to a collapse of faith in the political class, she, again is looking through the wrong end of the telescope and believes that the anxiety people may feel is in fact caused by Trump and Brexit and things like spiralling electricity bills —- Ideally I think what Gillard and many others would like to do is follow the idea of the German writer Bertolt Brecht, who, after the East Berlin rising in 1953 made the ironic observation that the Communist regime should dismiss the people and appoint a new one.
Confecting, curating and redefining racism and Tim Soutphommasane
A number of people have asked that I post my editorials for the few weeks I’m filling in with Lyle Shelton for Kel Richards on Sunday nights between 9 and midnight on 2CH 1170 — This one on Tim Soutphommasane and his “casual racism” is from Sunday Oct 15
“..He’s now trying to expand and redefine its meaning by referring to “casual racism” and of course with this new and improved version it’ll be an opportunity to attract new customers (victims) who didn’t even know they had a problem in the first place and it gives him further opportunity and reason to justify his job. To these professional chip on the shoulder, grievance mongers of the outrage industry, racism is a product and the new “casual racism” is just another turbo charged version not dissimilar to the upgrades in your IPhone. And five will get you ten they’ll come up with even more new, improved and innovative ways for you take offence and feel aggrieved.
Westpac spraying around bogus SSM suicide statistics
This suicide statistic of 3000 like so much else in this campaign, is totally bogus and 100% fake news. It is simply emotional blackmail. Where is the similar outpouring of concern and grief from Westpac and their staff for small business doing it tough. What about farmers in drought and who can’t get any kind of debt relief on their circumstances and go up to the back paddock and never come home.
A letter to America — Government of the people, by the NRA, for the NRA
Abraham Lincoln memorialised the sacrifices and virtues of the dead in the Gettysburg address to ensure the survival of America’s representative democracy: that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth..” To an outsider from down under it seems quite apparent that this noble sentiment has been hijacked and Lincoln’s sentiments are in need of a rewrite:
“..Government of the people, by the NRA, for the NRA..”
The five extra words that can fix the Second Amendment — John Paul Stevens, Washington Post
This came up on my Facebook feed as a memory earlier today. I posted it originally on October 4, (today) in 2015. “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms WHEN SERVING IN THE MILITIA shall not be infringed