Friday Night Fever

Fiona Uncategorized

The Boss is still away, so it is my happy lot to put together the Friday Evening Raffle threadstarter.

It’s been an amazing week, with the budget triple somersaults with pikes, more and more scandal emerging at ICAC, and – most importantly – my last lectures for the semester.

So, my friends, let’s put on our party hats (I used the left-over wool from the latest mankini)

(Image Credit: Crochet Concupiscence)

rev up the juke box

(Image Credit: Wikipedia)

and remember, our courteous bar staff

(Image Credit: Time Out Chicago))

and chef

(Image Credit: Stuff))

are here to serve your every whim … well … nearly every whim …..

If any Pubster becomes *ahem* slightly tired and emotional, I’m sure we can find a little nook upstairs where you can have a bit of a zizz …

(Image Credit: Domaine de Chantilly))

Our rafflemaster extraordinaire, Sir CK Watt, will do his usual magic with the numbers (I hope). So …

Enjoy – and don’t forget to pat the miniature schnauzer.

(Image Credit: Great Dog Site))

296 thoughts on “Friday Night Fever”

  1. Jaeger I reckon OVLOVs are pretty toxic, especially the one that boxed me in at the supermarket today

    Please excuse my ignorance, but Google suggests than an OVLOV is an NZ Volvo Penta dealer – is that correct?

  2. So – if the move is on does that mean Mr Eleventy will no longer be treasurer? Will he be moving up a rung or down a few?

  3. Leone,

    My understanding is that the move will be straight into the Top Chair. JoHo can keep his gig. He’s not important.

    Anyway, it will be interesting to watch.

    Be warned, however: he sings straight from the Ayn Rand songbook.

  8. Is anyone else watching the Eurovision Song Contest. So far, I give it to the bearded guy/lady in the long dress. He or she has a nice voice.

  9. I live in the Melbourne house owned for the last 30 or so years of their lives by Menzies’ parents – and he lived here until his marriage in 1920. Maybe, just maybe, Ming is sometimes on my shoulder whispering that things are not quite right …

    … then again, almost certainly not.

    I still think he would be at least as horrified and disgusted and – betrayed – as Malcolm Fraser may well feel by the current destructive Lord of the Flies crew who’ve taken over the Liberal Party.

  11. My instinct has been developing that Abbott will deliver a stinker budget then be replaced as Baillieu was rolled for Napthine

  21. A treasurer heavying the reserve bank? Surely not!

    George Osborne has suggested he will not intervene to try to tackle a housing bubble, despite growing concern that spiralling property prices could lead to a crash.

    He said responsibility to cool the housing market lay with the Bank of England, which he said should not hesitate to use its powers to ensure economic stability. He said the government should “let them make the assessment” about the housing bubble.

    http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/may/10/george-osborne-bank-england-act-cool-housing-market

  22. AJ,

    The rumours I’ve heard is that there’s a lot of fast-tracking happening, so right at the moment nothing would surprise me (but then nothing much has surprised me for several years as far as OzPol is concerned).

    One of the theories doing the rounds is that the Victorian branch is pissed off at having the PM and the Treasurer from the same state, especially the *gasp* (evil) state of NSW. So they’re just trying, like, to restore a bit of equilibrium, like, and putting that thoroughly nice and likeable, like, Josh, into the top seat, like. ‘Cos, like, he will have a firm hand on the tiller, like, and JoHo can do what he likes, like, and it won’t really matter, like …

  28. So, an Italian cycle race starts in Northern Ireland.

    Oh well, Michael Matthews (Oz) has the pink jersey.

  30. Good morning Dawn Patrollers and especially all you mothers.
    More leakage from Manus Island for Morriscum to refuse to comment on.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/mad-and-missing-from-manus-island-20140510-zr8a4.html
    Medicare changes to prompt ill feeling.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/medicare-changes-prompt-ill-feeling-20140510-382y0.html
    The ambulance crisis in Victoria continues to simmer.
    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/ambulance-crisis-plunges-to-new-depths-20140510-zr91w.html
    I can’t wait to see what the cartoonists do with this.
    http://www.theage.com.au/national/joe-hockeys-cigar-smoking-criticised-by-health-expert-20140510-zr8ul.html
    More immigration lawyer blacklists emerge. Will there be blacklists coming for doctors with the DSP crackdown?
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/multiple-blacklists-rate-immigration-agents-20140510-zr8ed.html
    “Reassuring” words from Mr Grecian 2000.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/unemployment-spike-in-elderly-a-risk-for-pension-changes-20140510-zr8lc.html
    Abbott to descend into tokenism.
    http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/abbott-to-freeze-mps-pay-20140511-3833y.html
    Some introspection by Rolf Harris.
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/rolf-harris-confession-letter-to-the-father-of-alleged-abuse-victim-20140509-zr8me.html
    Mission accomplished, one would think!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-budget-to-make-australia-more-unequal-economists-20140510-zr7hy.html

  31. And from the Land of the Free –

    An interesting question posed on gun control in Texas.
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/05/09/right-action-wrong-reason-gun-nuttiness-texas/
    FoxNews hosts eat each other.
    http://crooksandliars.com/2014/05/watch-fox-host-clashes-fox-host-trying-cut
    Pope Francis explodes Sean Hannity’s expensively coiffed head.
    http://crooksandliars.com/2014/05/hannitys-head-explodes-over-pope-francis
    Another gun fail compendium.
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/07/1294922/-Poor-etiquette-firing-into-a-neighbor-s-home-while-pistol-whipping-one-s-girlfriend-GunFAIL-LXVIII
    A sister takes down a Repug on the minimum wage.
    http://crooksandliars.com/2014/05/sister-simone-campbell-takes-dinesh?utm_source=Crooks+and+Liars+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0f1bbc9b11-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d4904be7bc-0f1bbc9b11-327020361
    This ridiculous charade in the US Senate just shows how religion does not belong there.
    http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017190968

  32. re federal leadership rumblings from Victoria.

    Abbott is electoral poison in Victoria, he is such a vote loser that the next Victorian government will be Labor despite the flurry of infrastructure announcements in the state budget last week. It hasn’t taken long for the electorate to learn that these are back of the envelop projects at least 6 years away from turning the first sod, while the costed, planned and approved infrastructure projects are abandoned as they are ready to dig.

    Pollbludger has Kooyong and Higgins as seat of the week
    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2014/05/11/seats-of-the-week-kooyong-and-higgins/

  34. Kevin Andrews blames Labor policy for the spike in Newstart recipients over 50. Bullshit! the keen observer of the Australian labour markets knows that job applicants over 45 spend longer looking for work are unlikely to get a permanent position because employers prefer younger workers

  35. “Alex thought a lot of him.”…..If Alex thought a lot of me, I’d find that distinctly unsettling!!
    You gotta be joshing??!!!…christ..if dumb and stupider could be given a face…

  36. Abbott to freeze MPs pay – pfffft – that’s an old ploy. Rudd was the last to pull that stunt, in 2008.
    http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s2163297.htm

    Since then our politicians have had a couple of very generous pay rises. Freezing might go down well with Alan Jones listeners, but it’sonly ever for one year and the next pay rise, eagerly accepted, is always more than generous as compensation.

  38. Michael West points out News Corpse and its journalists hypocrisy with headline saying not many of us pay tax and we are all on welfare and then News does pay very limited tax itself. It is the second story in the link and it is good to see that Macquarie gets pinged for a fair lump of tax after all the swifties it has pulled.

    News has a legion of scribes, mobilised daily across the nation, avidly issuing instructions to anybody prepared to listen on precisely how to conduct their lives. How they should vote, adore billionaires, hate greenies, you know the drill.
    And at the very time we perused the News financial statements, we noticed the lead story on the News Limited websites:
    ”Welcome to the welfare nation: half of Australia’s families pay no net tax”. Damn those welfare bludgers. It was blood-boiling stuff.
    ————————-
    Casting an eye over the latest profit result, it appeared that News’ revenues for the three months to March were $2 billion and its tax bill was … wait for it … $1 million.
    It gets better. Drum-roll … it actually recorded a $686 million income tax benefit for the nine months to March. How good is that! Taxpayers not only had the pleasure of sage advice from Murdoch’s commentators but also the privilege of transferring $686 million of our sovereign wealth to News Corp.

    But we know that is par for the course for that parasitic and criminal organisation.

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/macquarie-banks-humungous-tax-bill-catches-eye-20140509-380zd.html

  39. ‘Pollbludger has Kooyong and Higgins as seat of the week’

    Josh and Kelly, Liberal blue-bloods, rising stars. What a lovely young couple. What a shame they are both married to others, we could have had our very own Kennedy-like couple if only someone had pushed them together years ago.

    Which brings me top my latest opus – some Sunday silliness
    The Pillars of the Liberal Party
    Chapter One
    The Making of a Liberal Politican (OK, I stole that from Battlelines, but no-one has ever read that so no-one will notice)

    Not so very long ago in a city in the south a baby boy was born to well-to-do, well-educated parents. They named their treasure ‘Joshua’ and a grand celebration was held. Two fairy god-fathers attended – Uncle Peter and Uncle Alex. They bestowed great and valuable gifts on the infant. He would receive a lavish education, the gaining of which would take him overseas, then he would, of course, become a Young Liberal and one day, if the spell lasted, he would be Prime Minister. Uncle Alex added a bonus spell, Joshua would always have a beautiful head of thick hair and would also appreciate elegant footwear and fishnet stockings. The baby’s parents were overjoyed with these gifts, although they had their reservations about the fishnet stockings.

    Young Joshua grew and flourished, becoming a somewhat chubby young man with, of course, a lovely head oif hair. He had been sent to the best schools his faith had to offer. He went on to study law at Monash (although his mother secretly longed for him to study medicine), then, as his fairy godfathers had promised, headed off to Oxford and then Harvard. And, of course, he joined the local branch of the Young Liberals, also as promised. Whenever his travels allowed he handed out how to vote leaflets at elections and engaged in occasional Black Ops forays into the less salubrious, Labor-voting parts of the city. In every way Josh was the perfect young Liberal blue-blood

    But sadly, all that study did not take and it became evident he would never be a lawyer’s bootstrap. One day his worried Papa took him aside for a man-to-man chat.
    ‘Oh Papa’, said Josh, ‘I already know all that stuff, I went to Oxford, you know’.
    ‘No son. that’s not the purpose of this talk’ said his no longer very proud Papa. ‘I have come to a decision. It’s time you found a job.’.
    ‘Me! Work!’ said a startled Josh. ‘But Papa, what about my doctorate and what about my professorship, and what about the next young Liberal BBQ and what about…….’
    Enough’ roared Papa. ‘I’ve spent several fortunes already on your education and you are still as dumb as a box of rocks. And not even the smart rocks either, just the very dumb ones. I have decided. You will become a political advisor, no-one will notice your stupidity among that lot. Uncle Alex and Uncle Peter have already found you a position. You will be working for Darryl Williams’
    ‘Awwwwwww, Papa, noooooooo’ wailed young Josh.
    ‘There will be no moaning, my boy. Go and pack your bags. you are leaving for Canberra tomorrow. Uncle Alex says he might take you under his wing himself if you do well with Williams, so work hard and keep out of trouble’.
    And so it came to pass. Young Josh took his first unwilling steps towards his eventual glorious future.

    Sadly not all the spells cast by his fairy god-fathers worked. Much to Uncle Alex’s dismay Josh began to lose his hair, slowly at first, then more and more, until his hairline looked as though mice had been nibbling it as he slept. And he never did develop a fondness for leopardskin stilettos or fishnet stockings. Which is probably a good thing.

    Next chapter – A True Liberal Princess.

  40. TLBD,

    “So, an Italian cycle race starts in Northern Ireland.”

    A few years ago that would have been a big advantage to the sprinters and weavers.

  42. billie11
    That has me flummoxed too. I have no idea what it’s all about. Just more crap about baby boomers frittering away their super or something. A lot of baby boomers now retiring don’t have much in the way of superannuation anyway. If you were not lucky enough to be working in an industry that required you to pay into a fund then you might not have started paying into a fund until it became compulsory for everyone, by then you were well into your forties.

    The article seems to me to be little more than myth-pushing, dolled up with a reference to some ‘study’ that is not even named.

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