Putting a face to the Blog

My first mass-in-real-life blogger assembly was quite enjoyable. Thanks to Zoe and TJ for organising. After a shaky start with the corked wine affair, we soon settled around the Lazy Jesus (thankyou for that bible story Dean - hope I'm attributing the correct person) and dedicated the next half hour to banquet ordering and further endearing ourselves to the restaurant staff.

Post consumption of the meal and possibly the most painless bill splitting I have ever witnessed, further reenforcements were greeted at the Wig and Pen.

Great to put faces to names/blogs and chat beyond the comment box.

Heads up

I've recast this post as an entry to the photofriday challenge - "faces". This is a photograph of a sculpture in the grounds of the National Gallery of Australia.

Strange Device

"Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator."

And what a surprise that "Charles and Camilla attend church" was the biggest blob on the news map.

Quite a few other cute devices on the Marumushi website.

Blue Storm

Last Sunday I strolled up to the local patch of bush to have a play with the camera. I had just squatted down, bum up, to try and photograph some lichen, when I heard a voice call out "excuse me, hello?". I looked around to see a woman striding towards me. Wondering what I might have done wrong, I stood and tried to look harmless and hoped that she would be the same.

Turned out not to be a problem though, the woman belonged to the local group who looked after the bushland, and she just wanted to let me know that they were having an art competition for art relating to their walking trail, and that as yet, no-one had submitted any photography. Hmm, sounds like my type of competition.

Day at the beach

Universal Bar Codes the Solution?

Howard appears to constantly reach out to the average Australian seeking to identify with their feelings, and responses. Yet here his government has been held up against what seems to be a fairly average family, and so far that family have demonstrated far more grace, understanding and tolerance than the government appears to be willing to demonstrate to date on this issue. The Canberra Times editorial on Monday (about the only day not on their website) notes that there is no requirement for Australians in Australia to demonstrate that they are citizens or residents - rather it is up to the Authorities to prove otherwise to prove lack of citizenship.

We don't have to carry around ID cards in order to walk down the street, we are allowed to speak another language other than English. But this is all compounded by the way that it appears authorities were unable to diagnose that Cornelia Rau had a mental health problem for so long.

I also wonder whether this incident may be yet another indication of problems with the availability of facilities and resources for mentally ill and disabled people in Australia (both in general, and for those people in detention centers). Do police and immigration authorities receive adequate training in how to recognize and interact with mentally ill people, and when to seek expert advice? Was it that in this case the suspicion that the person was an illegal immigrant overrode all other concerns? Was the assumption made that the unusual behaviour was simply an act?

A number of commentators have indicated that the private nature of the inquiry would appear to be restrictive in terms of scope, openness, and also in the way it can deal with witnesses. Vanstone's argument that it is concern for the privacy of the family that has influenced the manner of investigation does not appear to be in line with the family's own stated wishes. Surely a better approach is that of Peter Beattie , offering to provide evidence relevant to the handling of the situation by Qld officials, and urging a more open inquiry, although I note he is not willing to have his own State inquiry.

It may be that the situation provided challenges that the relevant systems just were not designed to deal with, but if that is the case, would it not be better for this to be openly examined?

Leaf 

Non-Core Promise?

"Treasurer Peter Costello has increased pressure on the Federal Opposition and the state Labor premiers to support the Commonwealth's industrial relations agenda, warning interest rates could rise without the changes....
Mr Costello will not comment on whether he thinks interest rates will rise, but says low unemployment and labour shortages could lead to wage rises, which in turn increase inflation".

Once again the interest rate bogey man is trundled out.

Its left me confused though. I seem to recall that back around election campaign time our PM told us that a vote for Labor was a vote for higher interest rates than under a Liberal govt (due to Labor's record on deficits exerting upward pressure on interest rates, as well as a claim that labor would revert to an industrial relations system with wage rises that were not based on productivity increases).

Now Peter seems to be telling us that no matter how good IR has been under the Libs, its all going to go pear shaped because labour shortages could lead to wage rises, but that this can be prevented if we run a centralised IR system.

I'm not really sure how a centralised labour system is going to prevent labour shortages. Perhaps by making it easier to let people go? Or will a centralised system have some sort of loaves and fishes effect on the workforce, ensuring that there is enough labour force for all?

If the solution to keeping interest rates low is lower wage increases and possibly higher unemployment, then is that really any better than the problem it allegedly solves? So you might avoid or postpone an interest rate hike, but aren't you going to have less money in your pocket anyway with a smaller wage rise or time out of the workforce?

Fish

Yes, He's Having Fun, Yet

From ABC
"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling," said Lt Gen Mattis.
"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Lt Gen Mattis said during a panel discussion.
"You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Good of General Michael Hagee, commander of the Marine Corps, to acknowledge that some people "may take issue" with those comments, but apparently its ok, because Lt Gen Mattis is "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders". Its ok because he knows that Lt Gen Mattis was just trying to "reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war".

No need for any reflection, as it would appear to me from his statements that Lt Gen Mattis may have become one of the unfortunate and harsh realities of war.