From a Roman Wall #40

“Whatever happened to your young brother, Octavius?” Zoophilus the explorer asked Secundus.

The group of Romans at the Forum Cafeterium looked up from the important morning task of drinking from their steaming beakers of caffeinus.

“I was wondering that myself, last night.” said Libertinus. “He was the life of many convivios, parties, but he has disappeared of the scene.”

Secundus looked sadly at his friends. “He sold off his inheritance and bought a small farm. He now spends his time herding sheep and goats.”

“Why did he do that?” asked the ever-curious librarian,Literatus.

“Why on earth not?” asked Nellus Ursus, the barristerus. “He had such a lovely voice. Why, he could make any girl  – – – -.” Her voice trailed off as she blushed.

“We have no idea.” said Secundus. “I don’t think he speaks with anybody at all! He is now a hermit out on his farm. He certainly never speaks to us these days even when we go out to see him.”

“Of course he doesn’t speak any more.” said Verbo Ipsum.

He looked at the enquiring faces, now all turned to him, “He is now pastoral.”

 

Does the L-NP Kill Australians? Of Course Not

Quietly lying in bed at 3am, I thought of all the big tragedies which have hit Australia during my lifetime.

Not just the ones inside our borders but events world-wide.

And I found a disturbing FACT. Not an opinion, not a conclusion but a FACT.

Up front, I do not think that coincidence is the same as causality.

Although excessive coincidence – – –

I have left out natural disasters here. Bushfires and cyclones and floods for this is a nation of fires and flooding rain. That is a part of being Australian. But there have been horrible, horrible accidents and human-caused tragedies over the years.

I am limiting myself to post-1950. I remember very little prior to then as I was born in 1944. My lower limit on the death toll is 25. Arbitrary, I know but the line has to be drawn somewhere. I have also excluded wars (WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) although each one has cost many Australian lives and each one was instituted by a Liberal-National Party Government.

So here is the list I have compiled,

many of which I remembered  during that inconvenient 3am thoughtfest.

1:-

I began at the current tragedy. The one in the Ukraine. With about 30 Australians killed. And my deepest sympathies go out to all who have been touched by this event. The political words are being spoken on behalf of Australia by tony abbott.

Our Nation is under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at the moment.

2:-

Then my mind drifted back to 2002 and the Bali Bombings. 88 Australians were killed. Yes, I was touched by this event on a personal level. The political words which were spoken were spoken on behalf of Australia by John Howard.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

3:-

I remembered the horrible massacre at Port Arthur in 1995. 35 Australians died. The political words and actions taken on behalf of Australia by John Howard.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

4:-

Further back, there was the Granville Rail disaster in 1977. 83 Australians died. That time the political words were spoken  on behalf of Australia by Malcolm Fraser.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

5:-

The Westgate Bridge disaster in Melbourne, 1970. 35 Australians were killed. The political words were spoken on behalf of Australia by John Gorton.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

6:-

In 1968 there was a Vickers Viscount aircraft which crashed near Port Hedland. 26 Australians were killed. The political words were spoken on behalf of Australia by John Gorton.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

7:-

The William Booth Memorial Hostel fire. in Melbourne, 1966. 30 Australians died.The political words were spoken on behalf of Australia by Sir Robert Menzies.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

8:-

The Voyager/Melbourne naval disaster in 1964. 82 Australians died. The political words were spoken on behalf of Australia by Sir Robert Menzies.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

9:-

Air accident at Mackay, Queensland when an aircraft went into the sea in 1960. 29 Australians died. The political words were spoken on behalf of Australia by Sir Robert Menzies.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

10:-

Air accident near York, Western Australia in June 1950. 29 Australians died. The political words were spoken on behalf of Australia by Sir Robert Menzies.

Our Nation was under the control of the Liberal-National Party Coalition at that time.

 

EXCEPTION!

There was a road accident near Kempsie in 1989 which killed 35 Australians. Bob Hawke was Prime Minister.

Our Nation was under the control of the Australian Labor Party at that time.

 

SCARY CONCLUSION!

 

Excluding Bushfires, Floods and Cyclones,

91% of the major disasters since 1950,

Killing 25 or more Australians,

Have occurred under a

Liberal-National Party Coalition

Sid and Sod #588

Street Wisdom

Should You Work With People or Things?

You Should Work With Things

You definitely aren’t a misanthrope, but you find people difficult to understand and deal with at times. You’re much more productive working alone – building systems, analyzing data, or honing your own technique. No matter what career you choose, you do best in a field where you can be left alone to specialize, tinker, and invent. A focused, intense person like you would make a great surgeon. Or a fabulous architect. Or a superstar computer programmer.

Should You Work With People or Things?

Blogthings: 100’s of Fun, Free Quizzes!

Poll Sum; 23rd July

POLL SUMMARY

HEADLINE NUMBERS

Lib | ALP

46.18 | 53.82

6,927,000|8,o73,000

Differential = 1,146,000 Votes

Polls older than 14 days have been discarded

This week 13,507 people were polled

Data as at Tuesday night, 22nd July.

Based on the AEC numbers there were 14722754 enrolled electors for the 2013 election so a fair estimate for the 2016 election is 15,000,000 electors.

The symbolic red and blue bar drawing a line where numbers swing around unpredictably.

Polls Included and Totals Polled.

One poll, Essential 08/07/2014 was deleted.

Three polls, Neilsen 20/07/2014 and Essential 22/07/2014, ReachTel 22/07/2014 were added.

As at the time of this post, the Reachtel sample number had not been released. 3300 has been used as it is close to the previous two Reachtel samples.

This will be corrected sometime tomorrow, I hope.

Percentages converted back to Raw Numbers

Simple maths convert the published % to raw numbers using the electors polled.

Liberal and National Party numbers are combined.

Note:- Newspoll lumps PUP voters with “Others”. I split them out at as near to 50-50 as I can with whole numbers. That seems to be how the numbers for other polls fall.

Two Party Preferred

Translating this into electoral numbers,

assuming 15 million electors

we have a National Two Party Preferred of

L-NP 6,927,000 Votes

ALP 8,073,000 Votes

A major drop in ALP support.

Which leads to – – –

THE DIFFERENCE CHART

The swing away from the Abbott Government has stopped.

The expected swing back towards the current baseline of about ALP 52.5/47.5 L-NP has now begun.

It can only be hoped it stops there!

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

1:

The MH17 effect is happening as fast as the Howard/Twin Towers swing.  If it continues then abbott will be in a position to call a DD relatively soon. Even if the numbers do not reach 50/50 abbott has the chutzpah to call an election based on his personal popularity. Whether he can control himself sufficiently on the domestic front is his problem. Although a major Murdoch campaign to promote abbott as competent and important will continue from now!

2:

Again, what do all the numbers mean for seats? The question asked by sitting members on a personal level and by the electorate as a whole. I have assumed that any swing is uniform Australia wide and that a 2.0% margin over the current TPP will show the seats in play at an election held within a month of today. So – the marginal seat list.

If we assume all seats in play fall to the ALP the Coalition and the Independents will hold 68 seats. ALP and one Green will form a Government with 82 seats, a majority of 14.

 

Over to you, the discerning reader.

 

From a Roman Wall #39

“Salve, Good Morning.” Literatus greeted his friends at Forum Cafeterium. He took his beaker of steaming caffeinus from the barristerus, Nellus and walked over to the tabula.

“Salve, Literatus,” said the explorer, Zoophilus. “How is life in the Library? Received any good scrolls lately?”

“Yes, I have. They are a bit disturbing, though.”

Secundus asked, “What is wrong? Is it an Empire problem?”

“I think it is. I’ve been receiving news from some of our African outposts. In the Southern jungles there are tribes of cannibals. We can deal with most of them but there is one tribe which seems untouchable.” Literatus looked puzzled as he continued. “This tribe does not eat the peditatus, the foot soldiers. Just the Centurion. Or the Legate if he was a part of the Legion which was captured.”

“And they let all the others go?” asked Zoophilus. “Why didn’t they go back and finish the job?”

“That was the first tactic.” replied Literatus. “However, it seems that pretty soon, no one wanted to lead the cohort into battle. There were no soldiers who wanted to lead and then be eaten. The whole situation is very strange”

“It seems an effective defensive strategy.”  Said Zoophilus. “Without leaders, no attacking force can succeed. By eating the leaders eventually the army will give up.”

“It is an old jungle game.” said Verbo Ipsum. “It’s called swallow the leader.”

 

 

 

 

Sid and Sod #587

It Tickled Granny’s Fancy

 

The Australian Women’s Weekly, Saturday 22 July 1944

God and Australia

Pretend Poetry

Street Wisdom

The Next Three Word Slogan

A Fictional Tale

About Fictional Aliens masquerading as Human Beings

 

The scene; A despondent meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office.

tony abbott, “This Senate is so hard to control. They all have minds of their own and I can’t get stuff through. It makes me look weak.”

Peta Credlin, “Well, your popularity is so far down the tubes you cannot call a double dissolution. Rupert doesn’t have everything he wants yet so you cannot give the Government benches away. He will not like it!”

“Well what can I do” asks a querulous tony. “OH Wait! There has been a plane crash involving Australians. Surely we can use that somehow.

“True.” says Peta. “I remember a time when John Howard was way down in the polls and he found an international incident to cling onto and it helped raise him up in the polls.”

“That’s right!” cries abbott. “9/11. It worked for him. He found a scapegoat and things went really well for him.”

“Don’t forget the Russians are right next door and Putin is coming here for the G20 meeting.” Peta contributes.

“That’s right,” crows tony. I can start blaming the Russians now and Rupert’s  media will raise a huge hatred of them here in Australia. It doesn’t matter what he does overseas. Then I can ban Putin and any other Russians from coming here. That will win us the support of a majority of Australians.”

“Hmmmm,” Peta thoughtfully says. “There is not a lot of evidence that this has anything to do with the Russians. It seems the separatists got hold of this missile system when they overran one of the Ukrainian bases. It wasn’t supplied by the Russians. Some Eastern separatist fool decided to fire at will and ask questions later.”

“We don’t need to worry about complicated stuff like that even if it is true. We cannot make that into a three word slogan, no matter how hard we try. “Russians did it” is much more suited to convincing those dodos who vote for us. And it fits into Rupert’s headlines so well.”

“OK.” says Peta. So now we whip up anti-Russian feeling for about three weeks. Then we ban Putin from entering Australia. Then we can do the Double Dissolution thing and get proper control of an open and adult Parliament.”

“Yes!” concludes tony. “It worked for John Howard, it’ll work for me.”

At least, I hope it is a fiction.

 

BBC Quiz of the Week

LAST Week:- I went shopping with my grand daughters yesterday and so totally embarrassed them. I found one of those tremblingly terrified doors which has the ‘This door is Alarmed” sign on it. Then I gave it a cuddle to comfort it and explaine dthat things were getting better. The grand daughters tried very hard to ignore me for the rest of the day. If they looked like forgiving me I would innocently say, “But it was so scared!” and that would set them off again  🙂

Hats and Crowns:-  A very good effort with low scores of 3/7 yet again mean that the Hat is unemployed this week. DaisyFae almost won a Crown with her 6/7.

THIS Week.  After blowing the first question I scored 4 in a row so was feeling rather good till I flubbed the last two. So that gave me a disappointing 4/7.   How will you score this week?

Previous Dunces

11th July , 3/7, No hat awarded

4th July, 2/7, healingmagichands

27th June, 2/7, Rob

2oth June, 3/7, No hat awarded

13th June, 1/7, Rob

7th June, 3/7, No Hat awarded

30th May, 4/7, No hat awarded

23rd May, 2/7, Ærchie, healingmagichands

16th May, 3/7 , no hat awarded.

9th May, 2/7, Rob

2nd May, 2/7, Rob

25th Apr, 1/7, Rob

 

Crown Winners (7/7)

14th Sept, 2012, healingmagichands

28th Sept, 2012, dinahmow

5th Oct, 2012, dinahmow, healingmagichands, Buff

7th Dec, 2012, healingmagichands, Rob

31st May, 2013, dinahmow

14th June, 2013, dinahmow

26th July 2013, dinahmow

9th August 2013, dinahmow

21st Mar, 2014, healingmagichands

Lots of Fun

In the 1930′s & 1940′s when these were published in The Western Mail,

PCishness was not a consideration