The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.

Early morning boat race. Sullivans Cove, June 2010.

Today's Sunday Top Five? How about my Top Five Australian Prime Ministers! Try and guess the theme...

John Curtin [ALP, 7 October 1941 – 5 July 1945]

Bob Hawke [ALP, 11 March 1983 – 20 December 1991]

Ben Chifley [ALP, 13 July 1945 – 19 December 1949]

Andrew Fisher [ALP, 13 November 1908 – 2 June 1909; 29 April 1910 – 24 June 1913; 17 September 1914 – 27 October 1915]

Chris Watson [ALP, 27 April – 18 August 1904]

Who's winning? The one on the left? Right? Middle? June 2010.

I'm pretty sure that boat in the middle is being steered by Andrew Peacock!

Unleash the spinnaker! (Is that legal?) June 2010.

Look! It's Bill Hayden!

Comments

Roddy said…

They are all Labour Prime Ministers. Do you give an answer if I am wrong?

27 June 2010 at 20:03

Kris McCracken said…

Roddy, yes they are. Pat yourself on the back. I considered Alfred Deakin because of some of his reforms in the workplace, but just couldn't stick him in there.

28 June 2010 at 09:07

Julie said…

What did Watson do in his 119 days? Did you consider Keating a better
Treasurer than PM?

Were you only considering their +ve contributions rather than their cock-ups? Otherwise why no EGW, purely for Medicare ...

5 July 2010 at 18:30

Kris McCracken said…

Julie, Watson gets the nod for being the first Labor PM anywhere. According to Percival Serle, Watson "left a much greater impression on his time than this would suggest. He came at the right moment for his party, and nothing could have done it more good than the sincerity, courtesy and moderation which he always showed as a leader". It must also be remembered that he was only actually 37 (still the youngest ever PM).

I do think that Keating was a better Treasurer than PM, that said, much of what happened on his watch was well beyond his control. Moreover, most of the Howard boom was actually down to Keating's reforms. He did lack the kind of discipline to build support though, which harms his legacy.

I'm not a Whitlam fan. He showed poor judgement and progressed too much too quickly at the wrong time ('73 oil crisis etc). Hawke's Medicare was a significant improvement of Gough's Medibank, which was not embedded enough to resist Fraser's meddling. Plus, Gough just comes across as an egocentric tosser, without the humour that saves Keating.

6 July 2010 at 16:20

Mad as hell

So there I was, arm hooked up to the machine, watching my plasma swirl away into a bag while the morning news dribbled across the screen like a bad fever dream. And what were they showing? A "riot" in Melbourne, allegedly. The sort of riot where the real thugs wear body armour, carry pepper spray and look like they just walked off the set of RoboCop. The people they were beating? A ragtag crew of teenagers and old hippies—probably fresh out of a drum circle, still smelling of patchouli. But sure, let's call it a riot. Now, here's where it really gets good. I mentioned this spectacle to a few people later, thinking maybe they'd share my outrage or, at the very least, give a damn. But no. What did I get instead? A smirk, a chuckle, and—oh, the pièce de résistance—"You should really just let it go." Let it go? Yeah, let me uncork a nice, overpriced cup of coffee, sit back with my legs crossed, and soak in the latest reality TV trash. Why bother caring when ...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...

This will hurt me...

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