Archive for November, 2007
In a remarkable turn of events, Bikko of the Daily Diatribe has returned to something like almost daily, well, weekly, well a few over the last couple of months, blogging.
I see a conspiracy here. Howard loses his seat, and suddenly Bikko has a lot more time on his hands to get back in to blogging. hmmm
You know it is funny that you never see Howard and Bikko in the same room at the same time. Similarly, Bikko wears glasses and can sometimes be hard of hearing. Admitedly, that is often in the bear pit of the Breaky Creek after 10pm and three sheets to the wind, but let’s not split hairs.
Also, Bikko has been known to wear long pants and shirts, JUST LIKE JOHN WINSTON HOWARD !!!!!
I will leave it all up to you, dear reader to join the dots. I can only take your proverbial horse to the stream, I can’t make it stick its head down and go the gallon gulp.
My last thought on the subject. Some have had a perceived cause in the past to refer to Bikko as an evil conservative fascist. Game Set and Match, I believe.
Interesting watching over at the A.E.C. tally room. There is a little bit of comback in a few seats that were previously considered locked up by the Prissy Little Bitch.
Close seats for all states and territories
NSW Robertson Liberal 49.50
NT Solomon C.L.P. 49.53%
QLD Flynn The Nationals 49.58%
WA Swan Australian Labor Party 49.98%
QLD Herbert Liberal 49.98%
QLD Bowman Liberal 49.99%
QLD Dickson Liberal 50.16%
NSW Macarthur Liberal 50.36%
VIC La Trobe Liberal 50.48%
It isn’t going to change the final result, but the makeup of the new parliament will alter. Especially considering if the incredible happens and all of these seats go to the Liberals.
It may not sound like much but it is a lot easier to come back from a sub 20 seat difference than it is from over 20 seats.
Though the most interesting part is the fact that the seats of Flynn and Solomon have both come back in to play today. Previously they had been consigned to the ALP. I would personally like to see Flynn get up for the Nats and Dave Tollner get over the line in the NT.
Should make for interesting watching over the coming days.
## Update ##
Well this is interesting, The first seat to fall on Saturday night, Corangamite, seems to have come back in to play on postals and pre-polls. Libs are still 700 or so behind, but it has definately closed over the last couple of days. Be an absolute turn up for the books if the ALP were to lose this one after claiming it first up on Saturday night. Keep a close eye out team, we could be in for some fireworks if a few more of these fall over the line. The Prissy Little Bitch’s mandate is starting to look a touch more shaky. Then again, they could just be referring to him having dinner with Garrett.
For those that don’t know, Sam Ward from the Yobbo is standing for the Liberty and Democracy Party in the seat of Stirling over in WA.
I like the Yobbo, being a former Gravett Empire Stablemate, also because he is a genuinely decent bloke with a good philosophy of libertarianism.
I even admire the political philosophy of the LDP. They are the closest thing to being a true capital ‘L’ Libertarian Party in Australia. A philosophy that I aspire to, despite its inherent practical deficiencies. I do feel like it has some of the issues of practicality as socialism but from the opposite spectrum. The problems of socialism devolve through the fact that people are actually people with all their faults and peccedilloes, but Socialists believe that they can be better if the State ran things for people. The problems with libertarianism are the same but if people ran things for the State.
I can empathise, but I still understand that a little bit of social engineering will be needed before either can really be considered practical.
Personally I despise socialism and I aspire to libertarianism basically because Socialism is about dragging everybody down to a common denominator, where as Libertarianism is about allowing people to evolve according to their own skills and abilities.
Sam spammed me through my post on James Baker announcing his Senate Preference List. All fine and well except for the fact that the cold light of dawn descended on those who aspire to high office through the vehicle of the LDP.
Sam is not a bad looking bloke and sems a reasonable person, but the detritus of the LDP reminds me more of the kind of blokes who weren’t cool enough to join the Dungeons and Dragons club at school. The remainder seem to be comprised of retired real estate and used car salesmen.
Look, as I stated above, the LDP has some very fine goals. But to be a realistic chace they have to get a saleable face and tone down their message to a point that the intersect with a part of the community.
It is a bit like being an artist who is only appreciated after his is dead. Great that people might be in agreement with yo in 30 years but you’ll still be dead.
In the only contest that really matters at the moment, Blair is unfortunately falling behind some nob from the Unfairfax Stable. Get over and vote early and vote often.
For those not aware, the love of my life and I are growing the family and the new rebellious spawn is due to arrive this afternoon.
I will update with details afterwards, but suffice to say that I probably won’t be around much for the near foreseeable future.
Personally, I think Mrs Rebellion is spoiling me just a tad by agreeing to schedule the delivery during the first day of the first test. Maybe it is an omen and the Future First Female Prime Minister will become a big sister to a little brother destined to go on to play for Australia.
Or it could be a vicious curse designed to restrict me from attending all future first days of the first test forever more. Time will surely tell.
Thanks for all the kind thoughts recently and I will talk to you soon.
####Update####
Looks like a future Test Captain in the offing
Born at 3.45pm, coincidentally very close to the time that Jacques scored his ton. 7 pounds 4 in the old money. Mum and bubs doing very well but the Future First Female Prime Minister is not too sure about being a big sister to a little brother. Should make life interesting.
James Baker, as you would know, is in the running for the Senate in Queensland. According to highly reliable Rebellion index, he scores very well in the following major categories-
A. Does he want to take a lot of my money from me or my family - NO
B. Does he want to destroy the country with particularly stupid ideas - NO
C. Is he a keen on gutting the Military of the Country right when we need them the most? - NO
D. Is he too high and mighty to come out for a beer with the lads? - Definately not, in fact he even stood his round!!!!
E. Is he a nice bloke who will do the right thing by the people of Queensland? - YES
To be fair I am not in the habit of promoting the fortunes of independents. Whilst I recognise the ideal of a true State’s House concept for the Senate, normally getting a bunch of independents to negotiate anything is like herding cats without a shovel to stove their heads in first.
However, I will make an exception for James, not merely because he bought me a beer, but mainly because I feel he is reasonable enough and practical enough to make a real difference. Plus, he has seen it from both inside and outside the party. It would be very nice if we had a few more like James in the Nationals, but maybe that is why our fortunes are where they are. Those like James have basically been pushed from beneath the wings of the Nats by those that will preside over its death.
That is another post entirely, but sometimes I wonder if that would be a bad thing. Take it to the point of death to give it a chance to realign with what it is really all about.
As I said, another post for another time.
James has put up his Senate preference list. Whilst I am not 100% in agreement, I can appreciate the fact that he put the retarded Socialists and the Greens at the end of his preferences.
The order of the major contenders is:
- Family First
- Pauline
- Liberals/Nationals
- Labor
- Democrats
- Greens
Personally I would rather see the Greens dead motherless last just on principle, but I guess you can’t have everything.
Good Luck James. You could do a lot worse than giving him your vote.
An argument between several Indian men during a cricket match in Orlando led to an on-the-field shooting that seriously injured one of the players, according to police.
Personally I think that this is a new revolution for the game. From now on, I want to see Stuart MacGill with a Smith & Wesson. I want to see Brett Lee packing a .50 cal and I want all batsmen to walk out with minimi’s. Maybe we will see a resurgence of spectators from the all-too-important psychotic segment. It is an often overlooked demographic. Besides, it may give the idiot lefty’s something else to bitch about, which is always a worthwhile outcome.
Though the ‘matter of fact’ way the police officer had of mentioning the following, just makes this story that much more enjoyable.
“The shooter was defending himself from an attack with a cricket bat which is simlar to a baseball bat but it’s flat,” Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Spike Hopkins said. “For this man to bring a firearm to a sporting event is odd but then again, he has the right to do so. He has a concealed weapons permit and if, in fact, he was protecting himself, he was authorized by law to do so.”
BTW, my new favorite name for a cop - Sgt Spike Hopkins.
Hey, looks like Tex is adopting a new cat for his current “target” to play with.
Just remember the old adage, Tex, Never have more Cats than Guns in a house.
Hope you all didn’t miss me too much. The move has gone well, despite the evidence of a wide and varied collection of full and empty boxes populating the new house. The Future First Female Prime Minister is having a veritable ball and being very “Helpful”. As you can imagine.
Just a tip for young players, when that mighty bastion of telecommunications, Telstra, tells you that your internet will be set up within 7 days, check every day. We got to day 6 and found out that the order hadn’t been sent to the technicians. Consequently, they had to start the 7 days all over again. Luckily I have a grumpy tone of voice and I resist the urge to rant and rave and we got it fast tracked. Even so, the new modem only turned up yesterday. Anyway, alls well that ends well and the new service, ADSL, seems to be ticking along nicely on the new ‘puter.
I went a bit all out on the new system and opted for the 22′ screen and a few fluffy extras that I will probably use once and then never again. Like a tv tuner and Vista Premium.
I have to tell you, that despite all the dramas you hear about Vista, I quite like it. It is fast enough for me and has some nice features that will hopefully stop my ever-loving love of my life from downloading too many itunes and costing me a second mortgage.
All in all, I can’t really complain about the move. We lost 3 fish, broke the plastic sleeve on the dvd holder and scratched up our coffee table that we were going to replace anyway. All in all, we can’t really complain.
Hopefully we can return you to your regular program very soon of hate filled bile, internet porn links and cricket.