I was not quite 10 in early 1979 when the Shah of Iran flew into exile, preempting the takeover of that country by the mullahs, led by the odious fanatic the Ayatollah Khomeini. That was not the only thing going on around that time. The USSR rolled tanks into Afghanistan a few months later, and …
Tag Archives: politics
Obviously It Is All About The Oil
At the start of that surreal period of history which was the Covid Pandemic, we did have a run on toilet paper. I, like most other people, went out of my way to acquire as much toilet paper as I could, not knowing how long the crisis and the shortage would last. But I was …
The Misuse Of ‘Fortunate Son’
I was watching Die Hard 4.0 yesterday, the one where Detective John McLane takes on cyber terrorists. He does not start getting really violent until after his first phone conversation with the chief villain. In that conversation, he is informed that his 401K account (ie his superannuation fund) has just been wiped out. Immediately after …
The Death Of Charlie Kirk – Some Reflections
Some 30 years ago I had a boss who was fond of quoting the poetry of John Donne, the first of the English metaphysical poets from Jacobean times. More specifically, she liked to make speeches where she quoted solemnly from No Man Is An Island, which is an important passage in English literature: No man …
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Council Rates Rise Again
In the past couple of weeks council rates have arrived in our letterboxes. This is, in my extended family, always a source of annoyance. Local councillors are rarely seen except when kissing babies at election time – I only met my local councillor when, during the Federal Election, she was door knocking on behalf of …
Initial Thoughts On The Cessation Of The Liberal-National Coalition
I cannot be bothered being too insightful about the decision by the National Party to (for now at least) abandon the Coalition for the first time since the Clive Palmer managed debacle which was the ‘Joh for PM’ campaign of early 1987 (a debacle which I fully embraced as a rather naive and silly 18 …
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Vox Populi Vox Dei Redux – Takeaways From Last Saturday’s Federal Election
Three years ago, just before the 2022 Federal Election, I made some reflections on the lack of political engagement on the part of the Australian populace, compared to their counterparts in the 1950s: With the 2025 election now all but over, with just a few seats left to count and confirm the winner, it is …
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What A Silly (Democracy) Sausage!
It has been quite a while since I read the classic Mr Men series by Roger Hargraves. I assume it was in primary school, which is now 45 years ago. Hence I am not sure, but I do believe such expressions as ‘you silly banana’ or ‘you silly sausage’ originate in those books. The phrase …
The Apathy Election
It’s now just over two weeks since the Federal Election was called, and last night, nominations closed. I don’t think that it is just me – it seems that virtually everyone does not care two hoots about this election. The level of apathy appears to be much higher than I have ever noticed (or not …
Some Reflections On Trumpist Tariffs
I am vaguely acquainted with someone whose grandfather was, in the era of the Bolte Premiership, a politician and a major protectionist. From what I have been told about this chap, the nicest thing that could be said about him was that he owned a company which made radios and TVs locally in Australia. That …
Lost For Words! 