We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Hen and Jen search for treasure. Little Howrah Beach. March 2012.

The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as a refuge for many, many sad and lonely people.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning..

Let's start with one that gets me fired up. On the topic of the current trend of middle class entitlement here in Australia, it is no very clear that current funding policies of Australian schools aggravate the widening social gap in achievement. Grants to non-government schools encourage social selectivity and policies promoting 'choice' lead parents with cultural and financial advantage to pool their resources in schools of choice, both public and private. The key point is of course, that the winners of our education system are the best off and the losers are the worst off, and that dynamic is self-reinforcing and unlikely to change without systematic restructure.

What we have now is Orwell in reverse: the state, rather than elevate war to perpetuate itself, obscures war to perpetuate itself...

So I read that Vegemite is being undermined by globalisation. I dunno, I reckon that we're keeping Vegemite in business around our joint...br>

A warning to all ladies: your breasts are trying to kill you!

In other news to frustrate and annoy women: there has been a fall in the number of women in Australian parliaments. In a helpful response to an article by Dr Carole on the halving of the number of women on the government benches in the new parliament, she received this from a senior advisor to a Queensland Liberal National Party Senator, “Get a life… Blokes dominate most areas of human endeavour because Nature equipped them with something called testosterone… that women who can’t cut it cover their inadequacies by complaining of bias, and that fewer and fewer people are listening.”

This article is well worth four minutes of your time. It talks about the links between homophobia and suppressed desire…

Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Teachers...

Comments

Kris McCracken said…

I am covered in bruises.

18 May 2012 at 13:36

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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