"The fence is ugly but it is there to keep delegates and people of Sydney safe from public order problems and the threat of terrorism."
Big, strong, ugly

Oh, come on, Kim! Surely you don’t seriously believe that no-one’s going to think you’re miffed at being turfed as Labor leader?

Father’s Day 2007. Yet another anniversary of yet another example of American capitalistic zeal attaching to just about any emotive event where retailers can excuse their extraction of the almighty dollar from the average advertising dupe.

Reading through this article on Noel Pearson's opinion of political imbalance on the 'welfare state' poses some interesting questions.

Here’s yet another example of just how beneficial APEC in Sydney is for business and commerce.

Dear Introducer

A you are aware, world leaders will be descending upon Sydney this week to participate in the APEC conference commencing Friday 7th September. While we are expecting some minor disruptions and delays during the week leading up to the conference, we have been advised that Friday 7th September will see major cuts to transport services into the city and significant disruptions and delays for those wishing to access the city area.

Because of this, on Friday 7th September Macquarie Leasing will be running a skeleton staff for the acceptance and settlements area for deals originating in NSW, ACT and QLD. In addition, there will be no customer service staff available on that day. This means no clients nation-wide will be able to obtain early payout figures or other similar services.

We intend to run a skeleton version of our Business Support Team who will continue to assist introducers on the 1800 *** *** number.

We apologise for inconvenience this may cause you or your clients.

Australia initially related to the world through its 'great and powerful friends'. Britain was the first such friend - a family bond based on the empire. The United States was the second such friend with the ANZUS alliance negotiated as a result of the Cold War. But the era of great and powerful friends is over. Australia now accepts responsibility for its own fate and negotiates its own way in Asia and the rest of the world.

If this isn't price fixing, collusion and gouging, then perhaps we'd better have Messrs Oxford and Webster redefine just what those particular words mean.

Paranoia-ridden APEC security authorities should have demanded all Sydney CBD workers to pass through metal detectors before entering the cordoned zone. Restaurants should have been issued with plastic cutlery for their al fresco dining areas. Indeed, why hasn't the Sydney CBD been completely shut down, which would have made the job of ensuring no fork-wielding malcontents approached any VIP a whole lot simpler?

"...the ultimate hope comes through democracy. It comes through the same liberties that you and I enjoy. Why should we think that the people of the Middle East, the people of Afghanistan, the people of Iraq want any less than we want." - Condoleezza Rice.

If you want to put that into modern science-fiction terms.... "We are the Borg. Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own."

Over the fold is a brief I received via email from the Senior Economist, Macquarie Bank. A new turn of events in regard to the RBA's domestic lending activities, and a sound indicator that alert bells, while not stridently ringing yet, are starting to tinkle. Recession is still not out of Australia's future.

I love The Chaser, not so much for their willingness to push boundaries, but for their approach to satire as an art form. They really do have a unique capacity to bring out the best and sometimes the worst in Australian society.

There's a whole slew of good reasons to NOT sell uranium to Russia.

There's something both obscene, yet expected in what Michael Duffy of ABC Radio National's Counterpoint has to say about 'recreational' drugs.

The benefit of APEC

Helicopters are patrolling overhead and hundreds of police are on the streets, along with the riot squad. The water cannon is on stand-by.

Lords save Australia from the beneficial impact of globalisation.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell would be enormously proud.

"Dyb, Dyb, Dyb....Dob, Dob, Dob....Arkela, we'll do our best" Then at the end of that week's meeting, you'd trundle off home and continue your life's activities as if nothing had changed just because you'd been to scouts. APEC and like gab-fests are no different. Nice warm and fuzzies, we'll certainly try to do our best, but look, let's be a bunch of realists and admit that twenty of us can't achieve diddly squat. Let's at least look like we're engaged, and leave it at that.

Roll on Bali.

In most of the photos, you're hard pressed to spot the cellulite, excess baby-fat and stretch marks, but none the less, it's all there. Combine the less-than-refined, mediocre body with an intellect matched to the mime ability, and it's little wonder
her own peers don't think much of Britney Spears.

The blogosphere is going to be chockas with polemic about the departure of Chairman Beattie from the board of Queensland Inc, so I'll just add this succinct comment. Big, Fat, Hairy Deal!

He's taught Anna Bligh well, she's always been a good disciple, and he's laid the ground-work for her path between now & 2009's election. All she has to do is follow that path and Labor is another shoe-in. Why? Take a good, hard look at the alternative Queensland government, dear reader, and tell me with your hand on your heart that Seeney Flegg & Associates are capable of a board overthrow.

The nutty bunch of scientific debunkers are again on our television screens, Mondays, SBS at 7:30pm. We're only nine months behind the US with this series, which begins with episode 72.

If you're unfortunate enough to drive your vehicle into the drink, is it possible to escape or will a watery grave be your fate? Heading poolside, the guys get their feet wet by doing some intensive underwater training. Then the pressure is on as they seat themselves inside a submerged car and do their darndest to get out. Meanwhile Grant, Tory and Kari roll out the Seven Paper Fold myth. Is it possible to fold a piece of paper in half more than seven times? Taking this myth to the outer limits, our crew sets up at a location that has plenty of space — NASA. Here, in the biggest build they have ever attempted, their mission is to put together a piece of paper that's the size of a football field.

If you've never seen Mythbusters, then it's time you did. SBS has the best shows. You only need to get past the 'eeewwww! It's not really Australian' hangup.

Ahhh yes, the itinerant boarder and the Spanish suppository. Both banes of any politician's career. It seems that John Winston is currently suffering the malaise of too much of both.

Members for Moreton and Bonner - Gary Hardgrave and Ross Vasta respectively - are relieved at supposed being found not guilty of rorting electoral allowances by Federal Police.

It seems this morning's Liberal partyroom meeting was a non-event as some pundits predicted it might be.

There is no conspiracy among the Murdoch rag's right-wing columnists, anymore than the ABC refuses to employ right-wing presenters.

Spotted on the way to work. 26 acres of virgin bushland, two access points, Moreton Bay views and a level house site. Just a mere $800,000. A snap for this kind of property on Brisbane's southern outskirts. Now.....where's that lotto ticket?

For someone like me, who's never seen this group perform live, it's almost worth the cost of a holiday to the UK. Well, alright......it's a pretty big 'almost', but seriously, for a child of the late fifties and fervent believer in the real music which the sixties and seventies spawned, what an experience it would be to sit through two hours of Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham(jnr). Imagine, just for a moment, being able to relive the thrill which filled the soul to Gallow's Pole, Battle of Evermore, Kashmir, Dazed and Confused, or the iconic Stairway to Heaven and the myriad of other famous and fabulous tunes from the greatest metal quartet to have ever recorded.

Would it be the same as it was? I reckon the experience, the sound and the maturity which time brings would make the occasion better than any recorded or previous live performance. If there was ever any doubt, I'd urge a listen to "Coverdale Page", "No Quarter", or the soundtrack of "Scream for Help". No doubts in this believers mind.

As many of us who like to observe politics and politicians have been doing of late, I’ve been paying particular attention to the demeanour of the master politician, John Winston Howard.

I'm sitting at home after another day playing financial go-between, and idly re-scanning the news sites. One I touch on rarely is the DT, and doing so this evening, I happened upon what must be the last of the really staunch Howardian apologists, Piers Akerman.

Does this man ever write a piece from a serious, even slightly objective viewpoint?

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd yesterday again asked Howard whether he would commit to remaining in office for a full term after the election. That question indicates Rudd’s presumption that Howard will beat Labor’s glamour candidate Maxine McKew in Bennelong and ignores the extraordinary flights of Labor premiers from office around Australia well short of the expiration of their terms. Perhaps there should be an inquiry into the “premiers overboard” scandal.

On the face of it, and from the headline, you'd think this article might be a bit trivial. It's actually more revealing than I suspect Mal Brough knows.

"I was disturbed to learn that you can sell anywhere in the territory, from your home if you register as a business, x-rated material," he said. "I just presumed it was like the ACT."

On the matter of Foxtel or Austar being nobbled, slim chance, I'd suggest, however watch SBS programming for removal of foreign soft porn from the program offerings.

Y'know, I keep on writing it in here, but it's true! Only in America does this stuff happen. However, if you're a conceptual artiste, you'll be awarded in the UK.

As my Dad always said, with a sad shake of the head, "takes all kinds to make a world"

Today is race day at Sandown. The Just Car 500 for V8 Supercars. The main race hasn't started as I type this, but will do in 10-15 minutes. So I thought I'd acquaint you with one of the absolute essentials of motorsport analysis. Beer!

There's a few leftovers from yesterday's fiftieth commiseration and this little beauty is one of them.

Anyway, the main race is about to start, so.....cheers!

As the lead-up race to Bathurst never is, today's Just Cars 500 wasn't boring. It was, however, revealing.

Great word that, isn't it? Pusillanimity. Perfectly describes the current attitude by fuel companies to price structures while the ACCC Public Inquiry into the Price of Unleaded Petrol is running.

What are petrol prices doing in your neck of the woods? In mine, unleaded fuel hasn't moved awhisker for well over a week now. I filled last Tuesday at 105.9¢/l and noted this morning it's exactly the same. It's been that price now since last Sunday, as I recall. Mind you, Distillate is going through the roof, but there's no public inquiry into distillate pricing, is there?

Better get in for your chop, dearest reader, before the public hearings end. Ballarat is the last one, this coming Thursday. You can bet your bippy that once the public face of the inquiry vanishes, so will the inertia of unleaded fuel prices. Results won't be made public until October 15, and I'll bet my lefty nothing untoward will be found.

Queensland Nationals Senators, Ron Boswell and Barnaby Joyce, will today take advantage of Parliamentary Privilege to table - or make public - the 3,000 word Rofe Report into the 1989 'Heiner Affair'.

Here's that idiot, Bolt again frothing over a subject he has bugger-all knowledge of, yet so much to say about.

If ever there was a graphic representation of the bias and total corruption of House Standing Orders by House of Representatives Speaker, David Hawker, that evidence was on show today. Anthony Albanese brought a dissent motion against the Speaker, and to my mind, rightly so. Then we saw Tony Abbott - a meek, mild, compliant and deferential Tony Abbott reply, as if political butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Hansard, once transcribed and available, will bear out the total chaos which ensued during Question Time today. It's clear that Labor came to the House fully prepared to attack the Speaker, given that focus was placed squarely upon things said by the Government yesterday and ignored by the Speaker at the time. The same instances from the Opposition today were canned severely, hence the motion of dissent. And, as I say, rightly so. David Hawker is the worst example of Speaker I've seen in operation since I started taking an interest in Parliamentary affairs some thirty-odd years ago. If there's one over-arching benefit to be gained from the upcoming election, it's the likely end to Hawker's reign as Speaker of the House.

Thanks to Nicholas Gruen for chewing away a goodly portion of my evening yesterday. I'm a sucker for these on-line pretend money-making, gambling gigs. I just couldn't resist a gander and wound up creating my own predictive market for the upcoming Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. Do me a favour and have a punt on who you think, of the 31 entrants, will take out the event.

Yet again, we are treated to more absolutely horrifying statistics surrounding the Prime Ministerial largesse.

According to Brendan Nelson, in an address to the House today prior to Question Time, today marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the so-called Joint Defence Space Research Facility-Pine Gap. Secrecy, innuendo, obfuscation about just what Pine Gap is and does, and just how Australia benefits(?) aside, I'm bemused by the fact that while we host numerous super-secret American intel gathering facilities, we still failed to be aware of terrorism right next to our own shores earlier this decade.

Forty years of high level intelligence gathering about which the average Aussie knows nothing, other than it's good for us. Just open up and swallow the spin, there's a good voter. Isn't it time, if we are in fact the closest ally the Yanks could hope to have, that much more open-ness is forthcoming?

Yes, indeed. Yesterday was a spritely day in the House of Representatives.

Remember, earlier this week, I warned about the strange absence of the so-called fuel cycle? Fuel prices in Queensland leapt $0.20/l on Wednesday and haven't budged a cent since then. How absolutely coincidental that third semester school vacations start tomorrow.

ACCC? Who or what is that, exactly?

This is how the flawed Iraq Invasion will ultimately play out. Clearly, the world is being subjected to spin-cycle after spin-cycle over the supposed US advances in bringing American-style democracy to that shattered country, yet behind the scenes, it's Iran and her influence in the region both politically, ideologically and religiously which holds sway.

America will eventually become a pariah, if she isn't already in the Middle-East. An unwanted conqueror of Iraq too afraid to release the tail of the tiger, lest it whip around and bite her. Unless she pulls out and abides by regional and global concerns for peace and stability in the longer term, America risks placing herself at even greater risk of attack both at home and abroad.

The major question before the American voters is not which side of domestic politics is best for the American economy or business, but which side has the awareness of longer term global opinion in regard to America's role as the sole remaining superpower and tacit global police force. Which side of American politics will have the gonads to withdraw from Iraq, withdraw from an untenable situation and one which simply won't get any better than it is currently. If Iranian ideology and religious influence take precedence over those of the west, then so be it. If America loses whatever tenuous threat value it's presence in Iraq has on Iran, then so be it.

In my view, the best defence America can mount of it's own citizens and it's place in the global community is withdrawal from the Middle-East entirely, introspection and consolidation at home.

No one will convince me that a federal government of Tasmania's Mersey Hospital before it really wanted to is in any way a move it makes willingly.

Proof positive that some men definitely proffer the wrong part of their anatomy for filling with grey matter, when bodies are being constructed.

Remember the young Formula Ford driver I write about occasionally? Ashley Walsh? Well, he's in the UK now driving as a part of the CAMS Rising Star squad as a result of his outstanding form in FF here at home. Over the fold is a media release from his management, and it seems he's finding that driving manners and common sense take on a whole new meaning in the UK.

I....actually, we - as in Mrs B and myself - spent today on a marketing exercise on Moreton Bay's island community of Macleay Island. On a very serious note, if you're looking for a genuine real estate investment opportunity, you could do a whole lot worse than Macleay.

As a result of being 'overseas' all day, there's been no time at all for blogging, so I'll treat you all to a personality test I took late last night. Some things just don't change. I've been an ISTJ since my very first Myers-Briggs some 25 years ago.

I'm resisting the urge to re-create a category I had in a previous blog, entitled 'Only in America. Instead I'll probably resort to a series of posts sequentially numbered.

This program on tonight's ABC, filling between 7:30 Report and The Bill really takes the cake for mine.

Here's a quick take from the show....

"Because we have the biggest freezer around, we tend to wind up with everyone else's dead ferrets. We get a good price on cremation for 25lbs or more of dead ferret, so we tend to accumulate up to 25lbs and then afterwards, when we get the ashes back, we pass out a teaspoon or two for you, and some for you....."

I know, I'm always writing it in here.....but.......Only in America!

Due to my losing my YouTube login details, I don't seem able to link to the video spook ad in today's news. Suffice to say that it is a very professionally made recording, and the attribution does appear to have been deliberately blurred out.

See if you can determine just who is behind it. Here's a tip. The clue lies within the graphic of Australia.

I'd urge you, dear reader, to have a gander at Ken Parish's spittle-flecked rant about the ABC's Media Watch program treatment of someone who just happens to scribble on Club Troppo occasionally.

As in 'what a load of...' for Joe Hockey to claim he could double his income if only he could free himself of the Federal Parliamentary pay scales.

I'd like to see the Mythbusters duplicate this circumstance. According to previous arcing electricity experiments, it can't really happen unless the distance between penis and source is very short.

Being an outdoor urination exponent, I'd suggest the average distance between penis and ground wouldn't allow for a stream consistent with conducting of electricity. Still.....would make for a challenging test.

For more than 3,000 years the swastika represented life, the universe and all good things.

In 2005, John Hewson stated during an interview on ABC Radio,

"My own view is that you will carry John out in a box. John has got nothing else in his life but this job."

Of course, he might not want to leave, or even relinquish the reigns of power at the helm of the Federal Liberal Party, but I'd suggest that if a loss does eventuate later this year, he'll have no option but to exit through the door which I expect will be held open for him. A fourth by-pass for Lazarus might not be out of the question though.

Should the worst of all possible circumstances for the Liberal Party arise, and no serious challenge for the leadership post-election-loss present itself, then I suspect the party will become the dog it was during the late eighties-early nineties. Internal sniping, back-stabbing and factionalism. There is no real leadership material in the current frontbench ranks, and those who pretend are either too old - Downer, Ruddock, Truss, Minchin - or too inept and lacking the character at the least to carry off the position. I don't regard Costello as a worthwhile challenger, let alone party leader. Turnbull has the 'guts or glory' persona to do the nasty, but has he any 'friends'? I don't think he'd last long enough to find out.

No, dear reader, I can't see Howard willingly retiring in any shape or form, win, lose or leadership challenge. He never commits, and he never makes decisions before he absolutely, positively has to. “I just obviously have to give thought to my future, but I'd do the right thing by the people in my electorate.”

I think that just about says it all.

October 1 heralds the unveiling of the real, honest-to-goodness Citizenship Test which the current government says will decide just who qualifies for a run at the goal of Australian citizenship.