An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
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Yeah, see, everyone’s shy about saying Frist now.
Er, Frist? Damn, no, secondus.
Dritte!
Everyone:
Di Si ge.
Been reading all the stuff about the Financial Crisis/ Meltdown/Depression over at John Quiggen’s blog. Very interesting. IMHO, not all of the fall in the Australian Dollar can be explained by logic or by economics; we do live in “interesting times”.
A bunch of blogging US election junkies are gathering in Brisbane on the morning of November 5 to witness and share The History. Details are at comment #11 on the link. Interested LPers are cordially invited to pop in and join the fun.
http://politic.osm.net/the-party/#comment-12459#comment-12459
The concerns expressed by some LP bloggers in late November 2007, viz “what shall we blog about now that the Ruddster is victorious?” seem now a little quaint and old-fashioned
cheers
The two main drivers of the high Australian Dollar were interest rates and high demand for high priced mineral commodities. The economic crisis will put a quick end to both of these meaning a return to historically average dollar value is reasonable.
Forget the markets, get along to see Lemon Tree while it’s showing. It was a highlight in an otherwise bleak week.
Now for the good news. The Abortion Bill has finally psased the Upper House in Victoria and is no wlaw.
I must get off the internet and out into this beautiful morning. Park and garden calling.
Me too Helen.
I wish Fine and Paul Norton and whoever else is on top of these things would give us a few tips for the races.
Praise Be! The Abortion Law Reform Bill passed Victorian Parliament unamended! A watershed moment for women’s rights in this great state, 100 years to the week after women gained the right to vote.
I can’t wait for the tanty throw from Catholic Hospitals, it should be entertaining.
This is a link to the video and audio of the passing of the abortion bill. Listen to the audio and here the Speaker use very “fruity” language. It is pretty funny. Sadly they have cut a little bit out.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/10/2387615.htm
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. McCains campaign just went further into freefall.
“Investigators found vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her powers as Alaska governor, dealing another blow to Republican John McCain’s struggling White House bid.”
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxHUZ-vz0qO7-XDTuwaMb3l6Pi5Q
Very little mud will stick to her over that joe2.
When the general public gets to the bit about the trooper in question tasering his 11yo stepson for the hell of it, they will wonder how he managed to KEEP his job, then shrug & cease scrutiny of finer details of the matter.
Fine [9] and Andos [12]:
Those with a genuine theological objection to abortion will be upset …. and that is understandable, even if you disagree with them..
However, it is the utterly ruthless political manipulators who use opposition to abortion to enforce unquestioning loyalty and to dominate their followers who will be furious. The Victorian Parliament has taken their toys away. So now I expect them to resort to violence and other nastiness to keep their followers from drifting away. [Surely you weren't so naive as to think they gave a rat's a**e about religion or women's sexuality or the rights of the unborn, did you?]
IF …. and it is a big IF …. this legislation is accompanied by a widespead practical sex education campaign then it is possible that the incidence of unwanted pregnancy will be greatly reduced.
Any Bris-oids checked out the railway station, formerly known as Brunswick Street, now given a lick of paint and tinsel to make it the “jewel in the crown” of the urban rail network? Where’s the resident photo documenter of the New farm peninsula edition, or does it just show such a complete lack of class
…to not be allowed to darken his lens? As in giving new meaning to technicolour yawn, but hey there;s no accounting for taste.
They’re very proud of the project coming in earlier, cheaper and accident free, by employing the radical strategy of not doing very much or well or too hard.
Andrew Stafford must be laughing all the way to the ATM, having copyright snackerals from his tome recycled yet again as slogans on the subway walls, echoing the sound of … silence.
My favourite QR story along those lines is when a contractor decided a few measurements didn’t matter and went off-spec with the fleet of brand spanking new rolling stocks’ air conditioners. Result: trains wouldn’t fit through the tunnels. So that had to make the tunnels bigger.
Laura,my tips aren’t great, but this what I did today. Only had two bets both in Melbourne races. They were horses ridden by the great Clare Lindop. She’s an Adelaide jockey, so when she comes to Melbourne, she has a reason.
Dolphin Jo won paying $11.20 and Impressive Eagle ran second, just giving you you’re money back. So, back Clare in Melbourne. And back Dolphin Jo for a place in the Melbourne Cup. Horseracing is the toughest industry for women that I know of and Clare’s doing really well.
That was a great result [Dolphin Jo] Fine and by the look of that apostrophe you are spending the proceeds in the appropriate ozzie way
Zorronsky, I love the Dolphin. Ooops, about the apostrophe.
danny, QR doesn’t allow people to take photos on railway stations – it might help the terrsts.
No doubt I’ll be able to check out the station when I next get a train from it.
What exactly would have satisfied you if you think it’s inadequate? Most of the concerns that prompted the renovation were related to safety. How do you think it should have been done?
Mark,
I think you’ll find that you are allowed to take pictures at Brunswick St. (soon to be “Fortitude Valley”) Station.
I wasn’t aware that abortion was actually illegal in Victoria prior to the passing of this legislation. My ex had a termination there in 1993 with no hassles at all (after a 45 hour non-stop drive from Perth). The previous year she’d had one in Perth, where we’d had to run the gauntlet of placard-wielding, slogan-chanting neanderthal protesters outside the clinic. I know it sounds like we were using termination as a form of birth control, but either she was cheating on me (a distinct possibility, given her later form) or we had a run of bad luck with the condoms. Or maybe my sperm were super-human penetrators of latex? Maybe we should have used condom + spermicide + rhythm method + interruptus? Anyway, it seemed to me then that obtaining a legal abortion was not a major problem in Melbourne. Good to hear they finally have state sanction.
Mark, not sure, perfectly happy to plead the fifth and say admit it’s a case of knowing what I don’t like when I see it. That and being over the Valley = TEH Music precint branding exercise, with the same old stuff being recycled 5 years or 10 years down the track. I admit, it’s just a personal aversion to the same olde, same olde all the time.
If they were serious about treating the actual musicians as something other than the images of them a convenient empty cargo-cult branding opportunity, it’d be okay. By Me.
But I’m happy to be converted- Tell me they put money in the budget to pay performers. Tell me they incorporated acoustically kind busker alcoves. Or that it’s all a wireless zone, and you can download recordings from gigs at the venues onto my mobile phone from bluetooth posts. “This post was sponsored by The Zoo” “This Post was sponsored by PowderFinger” “this post was sponsored by Arts Queensland” “This post was sponsored by the Grumpy Old Bastards, and only has grumpy old bastard music on it so don’t even bother”
Mind you, I’m not completely one eyed about it, I’m grateful and supportive that a venue there does a good job at all ages gigs, so mine can get to some bands, no wukkas. When I rang up to see what the place’s form was like, the proprieter said “Mate, the biggest thing you’ve got to worry about is the sugar in the red cordial”. We now call it The Red Cordial Club, even though there was never any red cordial there. Pity, I would have gone then.
Now I’ve had the question rolling around the skull for a bit, the sort of train station I’d like would have really high ceilings, and Ingrid Bergman.
I know …. how about dismantling the Regent Theatre brick by brick and transplanting it as Brunswick St Station? Kill 2 birds etc. They need some youth projects down that way, a wheelbarrow run from the cbd down Wickham street would be do-able, if it was a relay. You know what they say: It worked for Mao, It’ll work for Me. And they could brand it as Green.
Or a Replica Cloudland. With Snowcone souveniers.
I was walking down from the Step Inn the other week, the Old Shamrock, past what I think was the old Trittons, or was it Waltons, the one that used to have the long gallery of curved mirrors set back at footpath level, remembering from childhood, and I wondered how long they stood the test of time for, ages I reckon, and how quickly they were then destroyed, and what it says about the different generations. What do they call it, the broken window effect?
It probably works for ideas to. A broken idea gets left un-fixed for long enough in public view, and then more broken ideas start appearing, and it attracts people who like to go around breaking ideas, and pretty soon the whole discourse is unthinkable.
It was a character in Wilde, and I believe it was parents. Discussing multiple terminations seems to be a bit of a taboo, which I think shows how little we have really progressed on this issue.
Once Upon a Time in America (Theme by Ennio Morricone)
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj5Xczethmw
luv all you people…miss you…& there
N’
The Untouchables
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_61X4_RL3CU
THE RECKONING
NY TIMES…???
N’
Paul Wellstone Iraq War Speech
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BF2CLRZLK2E
N’
Lord Of The Rings – Opening scene
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr_i2w0W-ZM
N’
Alien Trailer (1979)
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=bEVY_lonKf4&feature=related
Primrose Hill…can you hear me…?
N’
The Thing, Truncated
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=VYXaiVCPAQY
N’
Dark City
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=jSpowoKqSzc&feature=related
N’…Greenaway, I gave you…w/ The Crow…and HK
up yo YOU
Matrix Reloaded
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=F0On9Hf7Quc
N’
Babylon zoo – Spaceman
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=t_9MI2ymN6s&feature=related
N’
The Verve – Come on (Live)
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=jkWbMp-VqrM&feature=related
N’
the verve – slide away (live)
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=O4HXRAwn1Pk&feature=related
…N’…
i watched the people roll…away…
The Verve – The Rolling People USA Tour 1997
look out for ThE LiGhT
to appear
N’
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Hib2HQ7UOLQ&feature=related
Mark [22] and Terangeree [24]
Holy fridge-magnet!!
Queensland Rail has guidelines that encourage train enthusiasts to enjoy their hobby and, at the same time, promotes effective security against terrorist attacks?
No, this can’t possibly be true. How can we maintain nice high levels of public hysteria and paranoia if outbreaks of common-sense are condoned?
Speaking of abortion, in Canada Dr Henry Morgentaler has received the Order of Canada for his fight for reproductive choice in that country.
Saturday morning I dreamt about a character in The Bill. I watched The Bill Saturday night and that character died!
danny [26]
You’re “pleading the 5th”?
How does the 1967 decision to amend Section 51(xxvi) and repeal Section 127 of the Constitution (thus, belatedly, counting Aborigines as “Australians”) have anything to do with Brunswick Street Station and the wider Valley of Fortitude?
silkworm,
strange program, The Bill. Some of us have been watching it for solong we don’t realise how much its seeped into our subconscious.
“pleading the fifth”- I’m glad you asked, T(45)
Obviously from the context, I was referring to the first example from the wikipedia record you consulted, not the third,
ie the famous quinternary amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, per wiki, : the right to remain silent.
In case you never have, or otherwise are never likely to have, contemplated it’s literal content and meaning, here it is,
as prime example of good ideas getting broken, see g:Peter Lowy pleads fifth. Talk about making a mockery.
The (Vintage) Bill: ah yes who can forget Detective Frank Burnside.
He would have known what to do with Peter Lowy, and possibly utilized a fourth fifth , see above, as foreshadowed, en passant.
Chris Berg editor of the IPA Review in the Sunday Age Opinion Page today: Greed is OK. Regulation is Bad. Waiting for Black is White.
Danny @47. Is an industry run super fund an ‘Australian financial institution?’ I’m hopeful (having lost some $20 grand 07 – 08) but not optimistic.
‘Fraid not Pablo.
As far as your bank account is concerned you are a depositor.
As far as your super fund is concerned you are an investor.
But buck up, maybe your super fund isinvested in the shares of some “very sound” Australian banks.
Who’s writing the epitaph for neo-liberal deregulation? That ideology is as dead as state socialism in 1991.
In particular, let us hear no further nonsense about “self-regulation”.
Thanks Katz …reminds me of that graffitti ‘work.. consume..(lose &) die’.
On another topic though sadder. Is it time the Australian media laid off Britt Laphtorne’s suffering Dad? I’m particularly critical of the ABC. This poor guy is having his every conspiratorial thought/frustration against the Croatian police broadcast loud and clear. It is becoming almost a diplomatic disaster – not that that worries me too much – but a father facing the loss of a child/daughter should not have his pain used in such a way. Emma Alberici should be doing her own leg work with the Croatian authorities.
Danny @ 45:
I didn’t consult Wikipedia — I went to my bookcase instead.
I thought the US 5th amendment allowed one to refuse to answer a question if the answer could incriminate oneself.
Pablo @ 48:
Cheer up, a relative (by marriage) was planning to retire this year, but this month’s financial contretemps has seen his superannuation reserves drop by around $200,000 in the space of a couple of days. Now retirement, for him, is somewhere over the unseen horizon.
Check out The Little Black School Book in the IPA Review site. Should be a big help for students. Not.
Re the Lapthorne tragedy: Both Britt’s father and mother have sought publicity over this matter from the very beginning, blaming everybody frim the Federal Government, Federal Police, Croatian police, etc., and obviously still find it hard to accept the terrible way Britt died. Obviously, their grief is utterly shaping their reactions and our hearts go out to them.But this was the strategy thoey chose to hasten the case along, and probably still is.So its a bit rich to blame the journalists they’ve sought out on the commervial TV as well as the ABC.
The only thing that’s really clear in this terrible tragedy is that whether its a Liberal or Labor Government, neither are particularly adept at looking after Aussies in trouble overseas.
Terangaree@52:
As indeed it does, among other things, as the wiki snatch I included for (hopefully) general edification shows : you’re not saying wiki is in disagreement with your bookcase, that wiki folk make stuff up are you?
And I gotta admit, I, in the end , went with it, ‘cos it allowed me to refer to a fourth fifth. Welease Wojer.
I’ve just thought of a fifth fifth: In the not-people’s key of A, D is the fifth, so a chart, arrangement, pattern, tune would have a fifth fifth.
Look, Mark asked me what aesthetic I would have preferred privilaged at the station, and I wasn’t prepared to say “chintzy bordello, with overstuffed couches in absynthe green to lounge on, just waitin’ for a train, Yodel-ai-ee-ooo, lest I appear, y’know, louche. So I pleaded the fifth. Capiche?
Am thinking Julie Christie opium scene in Robert Altman’s (anti?-)Western, “McCabe and Mrs Miller”. Would like Go-bies, Ed, etc music in the iCushions, which emated gps cordinates wirelessly, so they could be retrieved and reloaded in case Brisbane ever came up with anyone any good again.
Am now thinking Sarah Palen as Mrs Miller- the movie was set in snowbound Alaska. Opium wouldn’t be one of her transgressions would it, that might explain things, ‘cept someone would have been having to cut it with something faster. Do they do drug tests for elections?
Everyone:
Where is our gentleman from Brooklyn, NY, j-p-z?
Haven’t seen him post lately?