Author: admin

Back at the grindstone again after 2 weeks in Melbourne, during of which Melbourne, some would argue not surprisingly, experienced it’s coldest ever Christmas Day, some 15 degrees (celcius) and snow in the high country down to 900m (I’d note when I say 15 the wind chill factor was significantly colder again). Indeed for most of my time there (well at least it feels that way) it was cold. Silly me of course, leaving mid 30 degree days (it’s 36 outside as I write this at home) and no rain, I didn’t pack for it, so Christmas Eve consisted of a trip to Chadstone to purchase a jumper. There are of course many positives in Melbourne, if you are able to look past the weather. Shopping naturally is brilliant, although dare I say as someone who lives in Western Australia that anywhere outside of this state could be classed as brilliant, but it is indeed, public transport, world class food and entertainment, even if seating at Carols by Candlelight at the Myer Music Bowl at the remarkable sum of $100 per seat still caused me to be rained upon, and a brilliant road system. Certainly it’s not New York, although Chadstone on Boxing Day did remind me of the worlds greatest city.

Which takes me to an interesting observation, none the least inspired by my nearly half read holiday reading of Andrew Roberts’ A History of the English Speaking Peoples Since 1900. So far I’ve enjoyed every minute of the book as Roberts’, unlike many contemporary and since departed historians of the past 100 years does not subscribe to the defeatist, negative view of the rise of the English Speaking Peoples that is so often found amongst school teachers and academics, a view that often poisons generation after generation of student in relation to our past. But I digress, because I intend to provide a thorough review upon finishing the book. The observation made, in visiting Melbourne, New York, Sydney, The Gold Coast, Augusta, Perth or any of the other places I have visited in the last twelve months, is haven’t we really, really done well. Cast aside the prejudices of academia or the negatives that exist, and cast ones eyes over the great English speaking nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom. Although often facing adversity, we are amongst the fortunate few, who have never seen dictatorship, mass murder, the loss of the rule of law. We have adopted and thrived, as many of the great empires, and their collective wills and ways have failed. I’ve often thought myself fortunate to be born in Australia, but I know that the same basis of laws, democracy and freedom comes from a common thread, one for which the English speaking world shares together. It’s not uncommon in Australia to here anti-Americanism, as no doubt that it is common in Canada, New Zealand and the UK, but alas we have far more in common than the do have in difference. Indeed, as history shows, it will only be in our division will our time and current strength on this planet wane and/or fade. Say what you will, but we have done well.

Food for thought.

I was all ready to give a glowing valedictory to 2006, until I read Skeletor’s summation of the year that was over at The Spin Starts Here. For those of you not inclined to click on the link, here are a couple of highlights:

The acquisition of YouTube by Google and News Ltd’s belated discovery of the internet made for the sort of heady days for the Nasdaq not seen since before the Techwreck. The real action, however, was the development of Web 2.0, the new form of highly interactive, personalised media and communications platform. But the Netiscenti were already discussing Web 3.0 and Web 4.0, with some speculating beyond that to Web 5.0 and higher; the whole thing reached an absurd climax in September when a Silicon Valley blogger posted his ideas on Web infinity.0, earning the criticisms “dickcheese”, “innumerate tard” and “this blog totally blows” from his regular commenters….

In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin committed his country to spend 1% of its GDP on outlandish assassination methods for dissidents and opponents of his increasingly authoritarian regime. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe West will not outdo our great nation in impractical and absurdly complicated ways of silencing enemies,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Putin vowed. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThey will all feel the sting of slow radioactive poisoning, the stench of the poison gas cell phone, the fury of the satellite-guided robot probe, the torture of the carefully-staged gardening accident.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Russian sources say that officials will be consulting the collected works of Ian Fleming, the CIA?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s plots against Fidel Castro and old episodes of The Avengers for guidance….

Australians in the eastern half of the continent pulled out the winter woollies as temperatures plunged in four states in July. The Australian hailed the falling temperatures as clear proof that climate change was an enviro-nazi myth. Japanese diners, meanwhile, continued to conduct their in-depth scientific research into whales, focussing on the key issue of which sauces best accompanied whale meat, and the development of a new strain of “wagyu whale”.

Credit of course to The Spin Starts Here. Maybe this year we will unmask Caz 😉

GigaGamez reports on people trading PS3s for Wiis. Hilarious. I’ve been away from my Wii for over a week now, and I’m missing it already. Wii games are still as rare as hens teeth. I managed to pick up the last copy of the Sponge Bob Square Pants Wii game from JB HiFi at the Essendon DFO just before Christmas. Every where you go it’s the same, half a dozen titles, maybe a few more if you’re lucky. Some one should call the ACCC on EB games, disgusting conduct, they put titles on the shelf but when you go to buy them they don’t have any in stock, and it’s the same in every single EB store, both at home on the other side of the country (Bunbury) and in the various outlets in Melbourne as well. I haven’t tried again today to buy anything, but I wonder if the often promised “we’ll have them in stock after Christmas” was true. Home in a week, just wondering whether I should pick up a new Wii title or actually finish Call of Duty 3 first 🙂

Steve Rubel reports on Joseph Rago of the Wall Street Journal writing an Op-Ed piece stating that bloggers [are] fools that are read by imbeciles then continues that bloggers “ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps.” Yikes. Some one forgot to take their happy pills this morning. It’s just like 2004, when the last holdouts from the MSM were taking ever more personal potshots at bloggers and blogging as they saw the methodology that had served their careers, established literally over hundreds of years, change before their very eyes. Indeed, in the finest tradition of insult hurling journalists, those luddites who are so weak in their prose that they are unable to construct a reasonable and well written argument without resulting to insult and vulgarity, let me respond as one blogger and blog reader who you, Mr Rago, believe to be both a fool and an imbecile:get f*cked c*nt (pardon the language, but to communicate with f*ckwit journalists it helps to curse like a drunken sailor). Neither I, nor my readers, nor the very fine men and women of Australia, the United States or the rest of world for that matter who read blogs or blog themselves are collectively either imbeciles or fools. Sure, some of them may be, the law of statistics over such a large sample group would make this a given, but simply your insults have as much validity as calling all African American’s criminals, jewish people money hungry, or Muslims terrorists. Indeed, if you’d made such generalizations about any of the 3 groups I just mentioned in the State in which I am currently visiting, you would end up in jail. In your case, one can only hope that your employers see the stupidity of your ways and show you what you should indeed be shown: the door.

Tags: Joseph Rago, WSJ