Festive Midwinter Friday

Fiona Uncategorized

A very friendly dragon (stop blushing, Puffy) suggested a midwinter festival theme for this week’s Friday post. What else could I do but tremble and obey?

(Image Credit: Stuart Wilde)

A Canadian-Chinese take on the winter solstice:

(Image Credit: Red Moon Musings)

With the druids at Stonehenge:

(Image Credit: BBC)

In olden days:

(Image Credit: Living Language)

and last but not least, a traditional English Christmas lunch:

(Image Credit: Mirror)

So, let’s settle down by the fire

with – oh whatever – mulled wine?

champers?

vintage port? (from the Secret Cellar, bien entendu)

(Image Credit: Getty Images)

and listen to some of the most joyous music ever written:

Finally, The Pub is pleased to announce that this evening’s raffle will be directed from the harpsichord by Maestro CK Watt.

“Set aside fear and banish lamentation;
Swell full with joy and merriment!”

Sounds okay to me.

223 thoughts on “Festive Midwinter Friday”

  3. His entire life in politics has been based on encouraging and fanning division within society. Whether it be climate science, windmills, school and university education, the strategy is always the same – divide and, in his mind at least, rule.

    Tony Windsor, please come back.

  5. The IPA and the ABC –

    Last night 7.30 ran this story on people being unfairly kicked off DSP.
    http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4262911.htm

    Reasonable, except for one little thing. Who did they get to put the alternative case, apart from Morriscum? Mikayla Newman, from the IPA, referred to as a ‘social policy analyst’. At least 7.30 mentioned where she was from, but how many viewers know what IPA is or how it runs Liberal policy.

  7. Sorry BK. you already had that Tony Windsor article up…it’s just that I am out of gigs’ and back on dial-up so it takes so long to put anything up I didn’t have the opportunity to recheck after I had gone through your morning postings…

  9. Funny, isn’t it. Everyone wants Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott back, we realise what an asset they were in the last parliament, but come in here and say you intend to vote for an independent in whatever election and the sky falls. I’ve been chastised – to put it mildly – because I said I would prefer to vote for a decent independent rather than Labor because of Labor’s weak ‘me-too’ stance on asylum seekers. I’m not alone in thinking more independents could be a good idea. Look what the Gillard government achieved with their help, and look at the current senate, where cross-benchers are vital to the passage of legislation.

    Who knows? A few more independents in the next parliament might once again hold the balance of power. I think the next parliament might well be another where neither side has a clear majority. None of the political pundits and soothsayers seem to have thought of this, they are all focused on ‘Abbott’s gunna win and Shorten’s dead in the water’, chanting in unison as if they had all got together to learn the words.

    The one good thing about a return of this lousy government would be if it ended up a hung parliament with a triumphantly returning Tony Windsor holding the balance of power.

    If Tony Windsor does run again and win then Bananaby would be gone from the parliament. Just think about that.

  10. BK, that flag cartoon(?) makes me think about the consequences of the seemingly strong push to remove the Confederate flag from public view. It will further entrench the nutter red-neck Southern rat-bags who will be out in the woods, cammoed up and polishing their arsenals and feeling ‘justified’ in retreating into their Militia-Mode hatred of ‘Guvmint’ and liberals. Wish I could say it was a popcorn moment.

  12. Leone,

    Windsor and Oakeshott were true independents and deserved every vote they got and more. I am reluctant to say that it is a good thing to vote independent because very few voters have the nous to check out the background of these people who call themselves independent, or even take a good at look at them to discern whether or not they might possess a little grey matter.

    If Tony Windsor stood in this electorate I would vote for him. I would have voted for an independent last election had there been a candidate worth voting for. The ‘independents’ standing in this electorate last election were the rejects from the LNP, or were dipsticks who would starve in a kitchen.

  15. Janice
    I get that. it’s not often a Windsor or an Oakeshott comes along, and both of them had to be elected as Nationals first. You have to choose carefully, because too many independents are nutters.

    Last federal election we had a good indie candidate here, but he didn’t stand a chance against the Nationals. In this year’s state election there honestly was not one candidate I thought worth voting for. No indies at all. Labor’s nice – too nice for politics – lady candidate had my ‘1’ and from there on it was a case of ranking from ‘least worst’ to ‘most abysmal’.

  16. Leone,

    I always vote from the bottom up – though it can be a struggle sometimes to award “most abysmal”.

  20. Frost AND fog , BK !…go figure…but sun is out now..

    We have to remember that this right-wing onslaught is the first, final and only shot from their gun!..they have a very limited supply of ammunition and no real persuasive policies…they can only sow fear, revenge and deprivation and that’s it!..The rest is the MSM. arse-lickers doing the “front-counter” selling. If we keep our powder dry and come out with real-life policies on real education, real climate-change policy, real NBN. etc., then we could be a shoe-in. The thing is not to allow the bullshit peddled by the right-wing to be taken seriously…after all, with people as crazy as the Martin pl. , Pt. Arthur and Hoddle St. blokes as a product of this crazed capital-based society still roaming the place, we gotta expect some to crop up every now and then…they are a product of our and every other times…we can’t help them, but we can’t let those loopies be used to scare the bejeesus out of the rest of us!

    Hold the line till you see the yellow stripe of their LNP. backs!

  21. Good morning all.

    I should never be left unsupervised !

    I always write my passwords etc on separate pieces of paper so I will not loose everything if one piece goes missing.

    I never said I was logical but at the time it all made so much sense to me, Anyway, a big cleanup of my desk and papers put away but no idea where and the story goes on. Long story short found my password etc for the pub last night and here I am .

    I am amazed by the group think of the MSM over the past two weeks. I know by now nothing should surprise re the MSM but it still does from time to time as they descend even further into the swamp.

    The last Fairfax Ipsos poll ( only two weeks ago ) had labor bounding ahead 53-47 with Bill Shorten regaining the lead as PPM. According to Fairfax the Abbott budget bounce was dead and Abbott was on the ropes. Then one day later a Newspoll as 51=49 and not so good figures for Bill and it was all over for labor. The previous Ipsos air brushed aside.

    Since then we have had two good Essentials, a improving Morgan but none of that was of any real importance to the MSM. The fix was in !

    All I can do is shake my head in amazement and make sure I continue to repeat and repeat to myself,

    HOW STUPID AND WORTHLESS THE MSM IS

    Anyway the last two weeks has once again reinforced for me how lacking we are in this country of good journos.

    Have a great day all.

  24. Not every itch a dog gets is due to flees. My dog has skin that allows proteins through, then the immune system fires up. Mostly hits in spring when half a tablet a day of Cetirizine or other antihistamine brings relief. Don’t know what brought this in, wasn’t fleas or smaller parasites—I gave the bitch a flea treatment and also saw no sign (and didn’t get fleas myself.)

    If your dog has itches—a bath using oatmeal shampoo and a fish oil capsule a day are also good.

  27. Goodness! A journalist who understands what has been going on. Excellent comment here from Tom Allard. (Mr Allard is National Affairs Editor for the Sydney Morning Herald)

    Citizen caned: Zaky Mallah scandal diverts attention from Citizenship Act debate

    When Coalition strategists were plotting tactics as they prepared to introduce far-reaching amendments to the Citizenship Act this week, they would not have dared imagine they would be presented with the gift that was Zaky Mallah’s appearance on the ABC’s Q&A
    ………………..
    The debased debate, and the government’s politically charged response, succeeded in diverting attention away from the substance of the changes to the Citizenship Act, perhaps the most significant alteration in the balance of power between the state and the individual since Federation.

    Moreover, Abbott’s fulminating over the ABC, his questioning of its patriotism, was in line with the identity politics that are driving the citizenship changes.

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nsw/requiem-for-a-lightweight-20150626-ghyh4s.html

  28. Zacky Mallah is not exactly a charming person; but neither is Geert Wilders who could potentially do more damage to the nation with his climate change skepticism.

  29. jbitchop at Lib Council meeting in Vic “We are the twelfth biggest economy” yes darling, we are, thanks to the Labor govt. Had to mute her and hokey, talking such nonsense (yup, carbon & mining tax got a mention, they don’t have much else do they?) When it was abbott’s turn at the mike I turned the TV off. ugh!

  31. Let us hope

    A high court challenge to the Australian government’s offshore processing regime is still on the cards for later this year, despite the passing of rushed legislation through both houses of parliament.

    Amendments to the Migration Act that enshrine in legislation the Commonwealth’s ability to make laws relating to the funding and facilitating of offshore processing centres passed the Senate on Thursday night.

    The government had moved other legislation off the agenda in order to ram the legislation through before parliament rose for its six week winter recess. The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, had warned senators on Thursday morning that the chamber would sit as long as necessary to pass the changes.

    The high court challenge started in May, and justice Geoffrey Nettle, who presided over a directions hearing on the case on Wednesday, acknowledged that the case would at the very earliest be heard in September, raising questions over why the legislation was introduced in such a rush.

    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/27/legal-challenge-to-australias-offshore-detention-of-asylum-seekers-goes-ahead

  33. One of the things that bothers me most about the ALP agreeing to pass this Offshore Detention legislation is that I cannot seem to get a coherent argument out of the party about WHY this negative stand is being taken, especially as it seems to be so unpopular with all the ‘rank and file’ Labor folk I have spoken with.

    If I ever get an answer on it, I’ll share. But I suspect it is one of those things that is now so entrenched that it will take something truly horrible to give this country and the politicians who make these laws a wake up call that it is not really good enough.
    At the same time I can’t help thinking that Manus Island and Nauru are both sufficiently far away that the majority of Australians will not be paraded past the aftermath of our “concentration camps”, and we are storing up grief for our futures.

  36. gigilene

    First Dog on the Moon did a carton some time ago looking into the future . One of the things in it was a Royal Commission into the detention centres and the horrors perpetrated there. As time has gone by it looks an even safer prediction.

    What is happening there is the sort of stuff that that happened here in Howard’s camps. However it could not be kept so secret and word got out , even the GG started highlighting the abuse . Which will be exactly why the LNP Orcs were so keen on making the AS even further out of sight than they managed under The Rodent.

  37. KK

    even the GG started highlighting the abuse .

    Was it William Deane. I don’t think the current GG will ever lift a finger.

    There were major problems under Howard and to some extent under JG but I can’t remember any case of child sexual abuse and a case of murder such as that of Reza Barati. Added to that, overall neglect + a litany of further ruthless examples. And they were not called “illegals” then – a Morrison idea.

  40. My sister is in Dubai, on her way to Europe. In the Airport she met a couple of Aussies who showed her the way to the hotel.

    Lots of dust in Dubai, she says, concrete everywhere and still more construction on the way. Shops open at 10 am. Relaxing warm weather.

  41. I’ll say one thing, if anyone thinks that they should vote Green over asylum seekers think again. They don’t care about asylum seekers and only seek to exploit them for votes (just like Abbott does). Thanks to them and the Liberals we are in this mess at the moment as a result of their rejection of a workable regional solution three years ago.

  42. John Howard started using the words ‘illegal immigrants’ during his time as PM. That was despite his own government’s immigration website explaining it was legal to seek asylum.

    Abbott, Morrison, Dutton and the rest are carrying on with Howard’s racist, divisive agenda and adding to it.

    They all know damn well they are lying when they say ‘illegal immigrants’ but they don’t care and the only checks on them – the ALP anf the MSM – let them get away with it.

  45. GL
    The faux hysterics from the Greens after Labor voted with the government to defeat the Greens amendments to the RET legislation were so over-the-top. Screaming and yelling about ‘the government will now be able to burn all our native forests and Labor voted for it’ sort of thing.

    They didn’t want any of the RET legislation top get through because the target was not as big as they wanted. The bastards would prefer we had no RET at all rather than one on which Labor and the government had reached agreement.

    What a spiteful, manipulative, two-faced bunch they are. Inner-city trendies who wouldn’t know a real native forest tree if it fell on them.

  49. gigilene

    Paris could set 100% renewables by 2025 and the Greens would weep and wail that it should have been 2020 .

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