The economy - we’re never happy

Why is it we’re suffering through higher interest rates because the Reserve Bank things we’re spending too much and leading to higher inflation - yet when we stop spending and retail spending goes down thus stemming the inflationary tide, everyone starts shitting themselves?

Surely the fact that Harvey Normal is suffering a downturn was the fucking point of the interest rate hike, so why then is everyone blaming Kevin Rudd and coming out with scenarious of gloom and fucking doom?

Fuck economists, fuck business journalists and fuck Harvey Norman.

Driven to murder by nts, nts, nts?

Yesterday in my post about rude women on public transport, I made a comment about my morning trip where the noise pollution I was subjected was so bad, it made the torture technique of water boarding sound like the kind of fun activity you get to do for free at Club Med. If I had a weapon I may well have committed bloody murder.

Well lo and behold this actually happened in Canada yesterday when a passenger in a cross country bus stabbed, gutted and decapitated a man seated next to him and, and then taunted police with the head.

This is an horrific crime which I don’t really want to make light of, but I couldn’t help noticing this line in the story: The victim, believed to be 18 years old, had been sleeping with headphones on his ears before he was repeatedly stabbed.

I wonder if this is a full on case of iPod rage!

Why I’m voting Liberal

Anyone who has been through this blog can safely assume that my political leanings skew towards the Labor Party. I have never voted Liberal but this will change in tomorrow’s state by-election in the seat of Kororoit.

Kororoit is safe Labor, outer suburban, mortgage belt and any other working-class cliche you care to imagine. I’m pretty happy with the services that have been delivered in the area. However the transport needs in much of the area are a disgrace.

There is a bus network, but it’s too in frequent and does not tie in with the train network meaning 20 minute waits between bus and train. So I drive to a train station instead of relying on the bus. However because of full car parks I have to drive all the way to West Footscray, half way into town, to get on the Sydenham Line, which is one of the most overcrowded on the network.

The transport shortcomings in the area have been identified in the Eddington Report about public transport infrastructure. However, I fear the Brumby Government will barely give the bulk of Eddington’s recommendations an airing, and will instead bow to pressure from inner-city and Green lobby groups.

I feel the only way the State Government will listen to the these recommendations is if Kororoit stops being a safe Labor seat held with a whopping 26 per cent margin.

This is why I, and I hope many of my neighbours, will vote Liberal to give John Brumby, and even Kevin Rudd a scare, and make them realise the people in Melbourne’s outer western suburbs are not to be taken for granted.

I’m also pissed off that Labor have chosen to parachute in a candidate from the northern suburbs, former Darebin Mayor Marlene Kairouz, at the expense of former Brimbank mayor (one of the councils in the electorate) Natalie Suleyman - who was a victim of factional infighting.

Interestingly Kairoz has campaigned against the proposed road tunnel linking the Tullamarine and Eastern Freeways, which would benefit the people she is hoping to represent.

The Liberal Party have brought in a local candidate, Jenny Matic - who grew up in the area since migrating from Croatia, and has has actually lived a real life as a research scientist, rather than as a party hack.

While Labor should win this by-election, it’s obvious by the amount of advertising material dropped in my letter box in the past week - more than the Federal election - that the Brumby camp is concerned.

Even the Liberals are putting up a good fight, which is almost unprecedented around here. Add to that independent candidate Les Twentyman, a high profile social worker who I feel does more to maintain the unfair myth about the “poor” western suburbs than anyone else, and I reckon a sizable chunk will be taken out of Labor’s margin - that said I’m tempted to vote for Twentyman to spite that fat, disgusting cunt Andrew Landeryou, who published a Google Earth image of the candidate’s street and house on his blog.

With public transport being the biggest issue in this area at the moment, I’m hoping a poor showing for the Brumby Government will achieve two things.

Firstly that Kororoit and the western suburbs are no longer taken for granted by Labor or seen as a lost cause to the Libs.

Secondly I hope it shows John Brumby that that continuing to neglect public transport infrastructure and services could cost him dearly at the next state election.

I be memed again!

The lovely Luli, I assume she’s lovely because I picture her as an living anime character, has memed me so I guess I should carry out my obligations to pass on eight things about me - so here goes.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was living in London and working for TNT and Southern Cross Magazines in my first job as a journalist. It was a fantastic time. It was around this time 10 years ago that I scored as a five week trip to South Africa where we drove around doing stories mostly about game farming and anti-poaching - which meant getting up close to wildlife - fantastic stuff. I actually got paid to do it! I also covered the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Edinburgh and worked alongside the great Michelle Grattan and the wonderful Malcolm Farr.

What are five things to do on your list today?

• (Sunday) Clean up the backyard and give the naighbours the shits with the sound of the leaf blower.
• Sit with my girls to watch Geelong pump Port Adelaide (which they did)
• Answer Lilu’s meme
• Make the curry masala (powder) using the recipe in The Curry Bible I recently purchased online
• Try to get to bed before 1am (FAIL)

What snacks do you enjoy?

• Chocolate
• Potato cakes
• Dim sims
• Corn Chips and dip
• Pretzels

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

• Start my own publishing company to produce magazines that defy the predicatble pap we get now.
• Learn to fly and buy a helicopter and fight whingeing residents for my my right to land at my property.
• Travel, travel and travel taking a different travelling companion each time - preferably someone who has never had an opportunity to travel before and will be blown away by the experience.
• Help good causes that touch a nerve with me.
• Outdress George Clooney

Three of your bad habits

• Biting fingernails
• Hopless at remembering dates and events (if I were a billionaire I’d have a full-time PA - named Wendy).
• Procastination (it’s taken me three days to finish this).

Five places you have lived

• I grew up in St Albans, Melbourne
• Earls Court, London
• Brighton, Melbourne (loved it)
• Cricklewood, London
• Caroline Springs, Melbourne (I’m a Westy)

Five jobs that you’ve had

• I was an electrician and did my apprenticeship with what is now Melbourne Water and had an asolute ball. I worked at various other places as a sparky including city high rises and the Laverton RAAF base, but a highlight  was the British Museum in London where I had access to the 70 per cent of exhibits not on public display - like mummies and stuff.
• Barman in London, mostly at the Prince of Tech Pub in Earls Court, which used to be an Aussie institution.
• The worst job I ever had was fire protection installer, which required coating steel beams on building sites with fibreglass insulation panels, which made you itch like a bastard. I lasted about three weeks.
• Salesperson/storeman for a Gyprock plaster store (while styudying journalism).
• Journalist - had some really good jobs and some really and crap jobs in journalism, but I know I found my calling.

How did you name your blog?

I have a surname which, with the addition of the syllable Wah, rhymes with Konichwa - the Japanese greeting. As is often the case with nicknames, the part that has nothing to with your name is what sticks, so in some circles I was called Wah. One day I had a party and sent invites out saying “Club Wah presents … “ . I thought Club Wah would be a good name when I embarked on this blogging caper.

Now, who to tag?

The Hippy from Hippy and the Suit
The Suit from Hippy and Suit
Broken Left Leg

 

 

 

We’re all going to die anyway, so why not bring back the dinosaurs?

Scientists who have brought to life the extinct DNA of a Tasmanian Tiger using a mouse embryo say the same technique could be used to bring back dinosaurs.

Of course such attempts will come under fire by people who believe scientists shouldn’t play God. Such an argument was well put by Andrew of Adelaide in the Herald Sun comments section who wrote:

“These scientists seem more concerned about being ‘The First’ rather than asking the obvious question ‘Why are we even doing this?’ How ethical are these experiments? how many freaks will be created in pursuit of this mad mans dream? Scientists are playing God once again with this Frankenstein gone wrong mentality.”

Andrew has a point, but to me he answers his question in the first line - yes it should be done because scientists can! Despite being extinct for millions of years dinosaurs are still among many children’s favourite animals, so how fantastic would it be to see them for real?

What can go wrong?

The things people search for …

One thing I love about WordPress is the stats page which shows where people who viewed your various bloggings came from, including Google search terms. Here are some of the search terms that led unsuspecting internet surfers to Clubwah during the past two days:

anna coren photos
government negative gearing
chair sniffing
lleyton hewitt
lleyton hewitt (always a popular one)
lilydale topping driveways
moment of truth, australia, which channel (Nine fuckwit)
“big brother” 08 australia
monster house tv (why?)
arguments against paying compensation fo

and my favourites

time to kick out all mexicans 2008
orange in mouth politician
large cunts

What’s fantastic about these diverse search terms is that I have somehow managed to accommodate all of them.

 

Everywhere is feeling the pinch

Here is an edited excerpt from a newspaper article about rising petrol prices and household expenses. It says nothing new but is interesting for reasons outlined below.

Tough times ahead
The increase in the retail price of petrol will result in a “period of anguish” for households, an economist said on Wednesday.
Absa economist Chris Hart said the increase would cause food prices to rise and lead to fuel inflation. Hart said the country was expecting a hike in electricity prices as well as an increase in the rate of taxes in the coming months.
“We will see a period of anguish. A significant number of households will lose their houses and cars because of the pressure of the high prices,” Hart said.
Household income would not keep up with the pricing pressure.
The Chemical, Pulp and Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) said the effect of the petrol increase on food prices was enormous.
“Although the department of minerals and energy say they do not have control of petrol prices, we are not happy with this increase and would like to discuss the repercussions with them and other government departments,” spokesperson Keith Jacobs.
Economist Mike Schussler said there was a possibility of a high interest rate hike next month.
He said the petrol increase could lead to the Reserve Bank Governor calling for an emergency monetary policy committee meeting.
A Reserve Bank spokesperson declined to comment.
“We do not comment on petrol prices,” she said.
She would not be drawn to comment on the effect it would have on interest rates.

While it’s a familiar story, what’s interesting about is it’s from the South African Star newspaper which shows that fuel price increases, high inflation, rising interest rates are not specific to Australia - the only difference with this story as opposed to one that would appear in an Australian newspaper is the ommission of the words “working families”.

What this shows is that pinning hopes on the Rudd Government’s first Budget to contain things is naive to say the least. Regardless of what we were told during the election campaign it’s global forces that influence our economy not the government fiscal policy. All the government can do is avoid the moving obstacles rather than steer us through them.

P.S. It’s worth noting that in South Africa, inflation is running at higher than 10 per cent. In Australia it is 4.1 per cent.

Time to out some racist fucktards

I remember once throwing my absolute guts out after a night on the beers, Southern Comfort and 13 shots of Tequila with dangerous amounts of Tabasco sauce to the point that I could have sworn that I was blowing chunks through my tear ducts. As I lay in a laneway in the wee hours, attracting dew, I heard a group of people coming and begged them to kick the shit out of me to end the pain. They kindly took me back to my friends and as I wiped the bile off my face to look as presentable as I could I vowed then and fucking there to never, ever drink again.

The next day I drank half a slab watching the Grand Prix.

It’s like this with the Herald Sun web site comments section - which is binge drinking from a cask of Fruity Lexia for the mind and sees you mentally spewing out bile in return, which is the mind’s way of rejecting this shit without doing permanent damage - with the added bonus of feeling pretty good once you’ve let it all out. And while you vow never to read them again, you do.

So here I am now cracking open some Herald Sun comment and skulling it down on an empty stomach ready to see what comes up. WARNING LANGUAGE MAY OFFEND

The topic? The taxi driver protest in Melbourne. To be fair, a lot of people were sympathetic to the driver’s concerns and worried about their safety and the racial abuse they cop every night. Sadly not everyone shared this opinion.

 Its bad enough I lost my job to an overseas worker willing to work for under $10 an hour (true story) But get real what do these cab drivers want a police escort to ride gunshot with them Its not the fault of the police as to what happened ,no amount of policing could have stopped this random attack. Driving a taxi is your choice if you believe its too dangerous dont do it.
Posted by: Scarletinfidel of Melbourne 10:27am today

No, they don’t want a police escort you fucking “theytukarjarbs”dip shit. What they do want is police to respond when they feel threatened and to treat anyone who fucks of without paying a fare as a thief. This random attack you speak of has a young man in a coma and is one of 400 violent attacks in a year, including one which left another young student dead. You say to them not to do it if they think it’s dangerous as though they enjoy driving around at 4am being abused by drunken shitheads and wondering which one of these cunts will be the one that pulls the knife. What other job would tolerate such violence?

I hate you. If you have a dog I hate it. I’m glad you lost your job. I hope you also lost your happiness and your soul you stupid cunt.

Please don¿t forget the men and women of our police, fire, ambulance and defense forces that are putting their lives at risk every day they go to work¿ you don¿t see them protesting.
Posted by: Anthony of Nunawading 10:27am today
Comment 29 of 241

Actually you do see emergency workers protesting and unlike the poor cabbies they get almost full public support when they do it - unlike cabbies these people are usually worried about pay and conditions. Yes their job is dangerous but everything is done to ensure their safety and they are paid very well, especially if they work the sort of hours taxi drivers work. You’re wrong Anthony. Fuck off.

95% of you taxi drivers are HOPELESS. You don’t know where you are going, you CANT DRIVE, you CANT SPEAK ENGLISH and a lot of you try and rip people off. You listen to your foreign music and talk on your mobile in a different language. You try and rip off the wrong type of person (someone who wont accept it) you can expect to get stabbed. The only taxi drivers that are good at their job are the ones that live here, and have for their whole life. They know how Australians act, they know how to speak to us and they know what language to speak in. They know we just want to get where we need to go and they don’t piss fart around with it. They also know LANDMARKS & POPULAR PLACES.
Posted by: James of Melbourne 11:08am today
Comment 57 of 241

You’re absolutely right James. Fuck I don’t know why more of these foreigners aren’t bashed and stabbed. I had an Indian taxi driver the other day who spoke little English and the first thing that went though my mind as how much I wanted to beat him senseless into a coma and run away with his piss poor takings. 

You’re a vile, racist uncaring cunt who makes me ashamed to think I share the same drinking water as you. Get fucked. I hope next time you need a cab at night they all drive by you and then you get several layers of shit kicked out of by white kids wearing hoods who say all the right Aussie things to you as your body shuts down and you take your last putrid breath. I bet your mum hates you.

I will sentence the person who stabbed the cabbie to 2 days community work..
Posted by: Australian Judge of Australia 11:18am today
Comment 65 of 241

Fuck I hope this is a sarcastic remark about our justice system and not some kind of sick show of gratitude for the sick bastard who attempted to murder a foreign student. The part of me that sees good in people reckons that’s where you’re coming from, but your name “Australian judge of Australia” is a literary version of wearing an Aussie flag like a cape and abusing women in hijabs. I can’t believe the moderator allowed this comment.

Please go home! Make the government charter them a plane back to India and they can chant and run around with their tops off all day long BUT while their in our town they play by our rules. Cops, it’s time to get these clowns off the street, they’ve caused enough trouble for one day!!
Posted by: Rick Tyson of Reservoir 1:15pm today

You are a despicable piece of fetid, bleeding, TB-ridden shit! I hope you put your full name thinking it wouldn’t be published and that people who know you read it now know you for the narrow-minded fucktard that you really are. OUR rules are really working on OUR streets, aren’t they fuck wit?

OKAY, QUICK ,all the Australian Cabbies, get out there and earn a buck. Does the picture remind you of any other country. I don’t seem to be able to see many WHITE faces or chests there. Well the government let them in, I suppose now we have to put up with their fundamental views as well. If it were up to me, I would send them all home now and clear up the CBD. Why do we put up with the non english speaking, smelly taxi drivers, there must be hundreds of people out there who could and would drive cabs if the jobs were available.
Posted by: PAULINE of null 1:25pm today
Comment 96 of 241

What a charming fucking slut you are! God forbid anyone not of your skin should complain about their own lives being regularly threatened - and what fundamentalist views? I love how racists like you can’t even get the target of your shitful uneducated views right, you fucked up, stinking fascist bitch.

In Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, about the Spanish Civil War, there’s an account by a woman from the Communist Republican side about how they dealt with fascists in their town, which included making them walk along a path lined with communists who beat the shit out of them to plunge to their deaths from a cliff at the end of the path. As more and more fascists were killed the crowd grew more blood thirsty to the point that most of the dead didn’t even reach the cliff. One thing that occurred before the killings was that they agreed no women or children would be killed - I’d make an exception for you, you fucking sick bitch.

How the fuck is this sort of comment allowed on the web site of a national newspaper. What a fucking disgrace Herald Sun!

I’ve had enough. I’ve wiped the bile away from my mouth, shaken the chunks off my shoes and now I’m off to get a kebab. I’m never reading the Herald Sun web site comments again.