From the Fridge Friday

Fiona Uncategorized

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As you are all probably aware, much of Australia is sizzling at the moment in heatwave conditions. South Australians have been sweltering for several days; Victoria for a couple. Around Melbourne today, it was 41C at Tullamarine, and 40C at Coldstream (inaptly named at this time of year).

Much to my surprise, OH has obeyed my instructions to keep certain doors closed except when necessary to get from one room to another, so the house is for the moment fairly comfortable. What’s more, parts of the metropolitan area are enjoying a mild respite with winds from the south. Tomorrow, however, we are in for a stinker, and I plan to do a runner to my favourite merchant and offer to be a volunteer in the cool room . . .

Meanwhile, I am doing my best to stay cool, calm, and collected while imbibing a local cider. Please feel free to join me. The punkah wallah has been instructed to use his best efforts.

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424 thoughts on “From the Fridge Friday”

  1. NZ’s only national newspaper has this editorial re FTTH currently being rolled out in UnZud , cannot imagine seeing this in The Australian , headline “Editorial: Cost of fibre optic cable is competitive” ending with “It is the future and we are relieved that its cost is competitive with the cable it will replace.’.

    The old joke was that as you flew into NZ pilots would announce they are about to land in NZ and for passengers to please turn their watches back 20 years. When it comes to the internet it will be the reverse.

    When I flew into Auckland on a Qantas flight (1982) the advice about turning back of watches was actually made to the passengers !! Mind you it was close to the mark back then , tourists arriving on a Sat or Sun would find the country “Closed for the weekend” the roads an “Antiques Road Show”.

  4. Received an email from our local Federal Senator which said in part.

    “At a federal level, Labor is working hard on outlining our positive plan to rebuild our economy by creating new jobs in growing industries, stopping the Abbott-Turnbull cuts and investing in our schools and hospitals to advance Australia beyond the mining boom. Click here for the booklet that sets out Labor’s first 50 practical policies that put people first: http://www.alp.org.au/practical_policies_that_put_people_first”

    http://www.alp.org.au/practical_policies_that_put_people_first

  5. I just checked my email. I see many here are as proud of Julia as I am. For those unaware, if you hit the like button you get an email that tell you who ‘liked’ your comment.

  7. Small world –

    BK linked this story –
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/aipe-8000-students-in-limbo-as-sydney-college-has-its-registration-cancelled-20151221-glt0av.html

    One if the names mentioned rang a bell.

    The name of one of the co-owners is, according to Fairfax, Ajay Vanju. They are wrong. The chap’s name is Ajay Valanju, and years ago, when he was a little boy, he was one of No 2 son’s best friends. He was a nice kid, his dad was a respected local doctor. The family moved to Sydney and we lost track of him.

    And here he is, a property developer ripping off disadvantaged students.
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajayv

  15. Funny, isn’t it. A bunch of RWNJs get together and plan to blow up a mosque or three, and hold rallies to which they intend to carry guns, and Border Farce, the AFP and state police do nothing, except turn up at the rallies and arrest the anti-Muslim protestors.

    But when a few blokes with Middle Eastern names write a few words about Garden Island naval base on a piece of paper they are – eventually – arrested and charged with ….wait for it ….”making a document likely to facilitate a terrorist act”. And is that arrest made as soon as assorted Mr Plods learn about it? No it is not. Nothing is done for a whole year, a whole fracking year. Are we told about the charges as soon as they are made? Of course not. The AFP wait until the media is full of ‘to hell with cutting penalty rates’ stories before they release the story.

    Collusion? Deliberately creating a distraction? With-holding information until a time when it will be most favourable to the government? Draw your own conclusions.

    Two arrested in Sydney raids linked to alleged plot to attack naval base
    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/23/two-sydney-men-arrested-counter-terrorism-raids

  17. The Department of Immigration and their blockhead Minister Dutton have really shot themselves in the foot with their (and his) refusal to grant Visas to the Asif family.

    We sure are a caring nation, not.

    Of course, Dutton has form on matters like this.

    My bleeding heart (a term I bear with pride) is certainly bleeding for this 25 year old young man. He’s seen so little of life and now some callous bureaucrat and a up-himself Minister are refusing to let his parents come to say goodbye to him and help him say goodbye to the world.

  18. 2gravel

    At least one person replying to Leigh has zero sense of humour.

    David Jenkins ‏@DavJenks · 43m43 minutes ago
    Why set this up as a dodgy poll @ALeighMP? Results will be meaningless. Is it simply a clever way to exceed twitter’s character limit?

  20. Fiona and Kaffee

    Some people just don’t know how to have a bit of fun, well at least it’s my idea of fun. It is sad that people have to be nasty and/or vindictive all the time.

  21. Why is it our government, no matter which side is in power, only does the compassionate thing when there has been a huge public outcry about an unnecessarily cruel decision. This is not the first time they have denied a visa out of sheer nastiness, only to have to back down under pressure from the public, and it won’t be the last time.

    I always wonder about all the other cases that don’t have the benefit of a decent Australian going public to defend them. How many others just have to suffer because we don’t know about them?

  22. Oh FFS! Rich bloke sends out e-cards for Christmas because he’s too much of a tight-arse to pay for real cards and stamps, and the MSM, predictably, goes into an orgy of gushing admiration.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/12/22/malcolm-turnbull-christmas-card_n_8859316.html

    He can shove his Christmas message. He can stop preaching at us about thinking of the homeless and vulnerable and start doing something practical to help.

    What next? St Malcolm walks on water at the start of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race?

  26. leonetwo

    ” This is not the first time they have denied a visa out of sheer nastiness, ”
    .
    Way back after the Solon and Cornelia Rau stuff happened The Australian ( Amazingly) sooled an investigative reporter on to the issue. He wrote a long article about DIMA (?) . The culture and attitudes he discovered at the department , especially amongst management, were described as being “little changed from the days of the White Australia policy” .If it survived that long then it may well still live on.

  27. I’ve had a think about the current state of affairs, and this is my present take on it:

    The Liberal Party are all about spending political capital. They really haven’t got any choice in the matter, considering who funds them and who they’re answerable to. Most, if not all, of what they’re doing is counter to the wishes of the electorate, so they’ve been racking up short-term advantageous situations for themselves, and then carrying on with their program until that situation is no longer viable. That’s the strategy, and Turnbull represents an end-point of that strategy.

    It’s not like the old days, when Howard could simply hoodwink the public with his ‘steady hands on the tiller’ fairytale. He worked his arse off to keep himself in power, and had to resort to naked xenophobia around 2001 to make it work for him. He was part lucky, part shrewd in having the country ‘trust’ him enough to keep him on power. But that’s not an option any more.

    Abbott got lucky. His rampant misogyny and attack-dog style made him a natural to take on Gillard. I don’t want to go on about that, we’ve thrashed that one out dozens of times. The only point I want to make is that a combination of crass bullying and confected ‘scandals’ (along with a supine press corps who allowed the ‘carbon tax’ fiction to take root), gifted him the PM-ship.

    He never bothered to build on it, to create a situation where he might become impregnable before carrying out the program. He (they) just went straight into it, racing against time to get as much business/IPA ideology into practice as humanly possible. He got a good two years out of that, and the party just let his reputation – such as it was – go up the creek. He was expendable.

    Two years in, and they either finally cottoned on that the next election would see the end of them in power, or more likely twigged that they could steal another three years out of us with a change to the more popular Turnbull. The switch was probably inevitable, and likely a bit sooner than they would have wanted.

    Turnbull is already spending his capital. To put it more accurately, the party is carrying on with the program and he can’t do a thing about it. All he’s allowed to do is sit back and watch his own reputation get slowly eroded. They’ll use him up until he’s unelectable, then they’ll think of another ruse to grasp the reins. Though this possibly is the last roll of the dice they had.

    Turnbull’s no leader. You can see that. He defers anything he can to the ‘relevant minister’, which means he’s trying not to be accountable for any of the bastardry that’s going on. He nicked off overseas for the announcement of MYEFO. He’s basically happy to carry on with the perks of office for as long as it lasts. He’s a useful idiot.

    When they’ve drained the last of his credibility from him, that’s when things will start to get interesting. It’s inevitable that will happen some time. It’s just a question of when.

  30. Thanks Leone.

    It comes down to a question of how quickly the electorate wakes up to itself. I’ve given up hoping the press will come to their senses. I suspect they’ve come to their senses already, and have decided their fortunes rest on placating the people who hold the puppet strings. So we’re really relying on the old bullshit meters kicking in.

  31. Aguirre

    I really love your optimism, you almost make me feel optimistic, but then I think of the msm and it just shrivels. Please keep giving us your excellent lateral thinking. It keep the flame of hope alive.

  32. http://www.pipingshrike.com/2015/12/fabulousish.html I don’t agree with all of this, I didn’t even retweet it because of that, but there are enough bits of interest to make it worth a read to people here, who as I like to think of it “already know which direction they’re coming from”

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/12/23/tips-and-rumours-1527/ the tips & rumours secition free today, also worth reading for the fair Work Commission and Eddie McGuire bits.

    For some reason “Medium” links vanish when I try to post them separately on this wordpress site, but you can open the article from within the tweet. Its a short read.

    http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/one-month-extension-granted-to-royal-commission-into-family-violence/

    http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/12/21/despite-a-rough-year-pope-francis-vows-its-full-steam-ahead/

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