You would assume I would be used to mass media and how strange it is. Yet I am not. Listening to radio today I was amazed at what ease news jockeys can exaggerate things. I heard about Ted Bailieu's "attack" on a Liberal power broker and thought "Oh my, what mean nasty thing did Ted say?" And then a bit later they actually played that vicious attack. It went something like: "He is entitled to his own opinion. I do not agree with his opinion." Wow, how biting. The recipient of such stern comments was probably incredibly scared and offended. He probably had to get trauma counselling. Seriously if that is an attack, then what is a civilised disagreement? Is Bailieu meant to hug and French kiss his opponents before expressing his viewpoints? Or is he meant to agree with absolutely everything anyone else says? Just to make sure any disagreement will not be interpreted as an attack by our intellectual and mature media.
I wonder if there are any journalists or news presenters left in Australia who would just like to educate the country about what really happens or if all of them are just happy to use shock tactics to get the average pundit to consume their crap.

bananas

Well the ridiculous video that Westbank pulled out talking about bananas does not really deserve a comment (although I guess that in itself is one), but I was quite interested in its parody "message to Tony Abbott" recently released by Australian Youth Climate Coalition. While spoofing the idiotic bananas video, AYCC really drove the point home of the lack of knowledge (or disrespect of knowledge) Tony Abbott has in regards to the economic, environmental and other consequences of climate change. An important part of the message is the explanation that Tony's claims that ETS can cost a lot of money can lead to billions of dollars lost later. That is a point that needs to be repeated over and over again to any "climate sceptic" if you try saving a few dollars now by inaction on climate change - you will be paying much much more in a few years time. What people fail to realise is consequences are not a matter of 50 years from now. It is something that we as humans will be dealing with in the next 12-25 years. And we do not start behaving appropriately now, our economies will be crushed by Global Warming and then humans will just choke on the consequences of their laziness (and their leaders' hypocrisy).
Quite disappointed to read of Liberals' success in this week's by-election. The voters really had a chance to send Tony a "bananas message" of their own. A large part of those electorates chose not to take that chance, recording only a small swing against the Libs. On the other hand Greens had extremely good showing in both districts, which is an indication that environmental issues are raising to the top of the political agenda and many Australian citizens are tired of Labor and Liberal cowardice in dealing with those problems.
Greens really have the chance to step up their game now and position themselves as a major political party who is aiming for a large representation in Senate and some seats in the House of Representatives at the next election as well as dinting the 2-party dominance in the States. Whether they can use the cards that have been dealt to them is up to their leadership. So far they have been quite on the ball when it comes to taking opportunities that come their way, but whether they can play in big leagues remains to be seen.
Liberals and their supporters continue to amuse me. In the last week I have heard quite a lot of comments like "Turnbull is destroying the party" or "Turnbull and his supporters are preventing unity". Excuse me? Didn't Minchinites openly disobey the Leader, when Turnbull was in charge? Did they not campaign against the legislation that their party's representatives negotiated? And now they complain about Turnbull doing the same to them? Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Loud noises

This day seems incredibly mellow. I woke up really early for no apparent reason. Just didn't feel like sleeping anymore. Outside the sky is grey and it is quite cold given that it is meant to be summer now.
So I guess in such a mundane atmosphere it is quite strange to hear sirens going off and cars speeding past nearby. What makes them so focused, so stressed out, so intent on causing a calamity?
But I suppose tis life in the middle of something peaceful and quiet you can have a disruption, sudden action or an unexpected event. Or maybe peace and quiet are unnerving to some so they try to gain inner peace by cranking up their alarms and rushing somewhere.

ETS

I have been really impressed by Malcolm Turnbull in the last few days. The man demonstrated that he had... Well not integrity, that term probably can't be used for an Australian politician, but whatever the downgraded equivalent would be.

The behaviour of Minchin, Andrews and the rest of the climate sceptics is downright disgusting. At this time noone can afford to delay actions that combat the climate change. Leave those policies for a few years and the nature would have taken such a turn for the worse - that it would be too late to reverse it. But those guys do not care. So what if the temperature goes up? I mean, some species might die out, natural disasters (well not so "natural" anymore) will increase, their children will struggle to find clean air and water... I mean, who cares, right? A long as Liberal Party's corporate bosses are happy - that's all that matters. That means that come next election certain MPs will get some funds from the big donors and all will be just swell...

A person I am least impressed with in this whole thing is Tony Abbott. Yes, sure we all knew he is a right wing nut. But in that he seemed to be a man of convictions. A man who has certain beliefs and will stand up for them no matter what. Yet on this issue he swayed this way and the other - one day he needs ETS trading, the next he doesn't, one day he is Turnbull's best buddy, next day he wants to see him go. Pathetic.

It makes me wonder - do these people actually want to see a Liberal Party win a federal election? Maybe, not next time, but the time after? Or ever? People are not likely to vote for a party whose members spend most of the time bashing each other, party that openly demonstrates that it stands for nothing, party where members think it is OK to openly attack its leader over his policies that HAVE BEEN APPROVED by a party meeting, party where people think a solution to all of life's problems might be to install Joe Hockey as a leader, a nice guy with seemingly no opinions or policies of his own and most importantly attempt some kind of ridiculous coups or revolts in order to bully their leader and other party members into submission.

The results are already visible - Nationals gained points, Labour gained points. Perhaps Greens and Dems can score some seats out of this mess at the next election also.

Maybe that's for the better. While Malcolm demonstrated that he is worthy to be a PM, showed bravery, intestinal fortitutude and strong convictions uncanny for an Australian federal politician - other Liberals certainly do not deserve to be anywhere near the Government.

After days of sun and thirty five degrees heat we have a huge rain fall. What a radical change!
I woke up this morning and was not sure what exactly was going on. So loud! Took me a while to realise that there is strong wind and massive rain outside attacking my poor window.
It was so dark. The room was grey as if it was still night time even though the clock clearly indicated 9 am.
And when I stumbled out of bed I saw a roof leaking in the kitchen a bit. So weird. All looked surreal. Wind smashing the trees outside. Puddles filling up. Felt like the nature said: "All right that's about enough of this warm sunny weather stuff. Let me show how it's done!"

hot days

On such brain meltingly hot days you start to wonder why the floor does not just turn into sand and the walls start growing with palm trees. Wouldn't it be nice to sit under a palm and drink a cocktail from a coconut? Yes, yes it would.
Or if a bath would just magically turn into an ocean... And it would be possible to go for a nice relaxing swim... Not hot water, but not cold either... Just right.
And of course since we are inside there is no risk of sunburn, skin damage or skin cancer. No need for sunscreen. No white streaks on the forehead. Excellent.