Red hot lead

I know bushfires are bad, but I didn’t think they resorted to sexual assault. 

Could you have a more poorly written intro to this story?

Herald Sun comments are surely not moderated

WARNING: The following post contains very course language, a cruel reference to Tracey Grimshaw, sexual references and wishing death on at least one fucktard and a dog.

Much fucktardery on the Herald Sun web site today with loads of fucking idiots complaining about receiving the warning SMS (because it really would have inconvenienced them) and accusing the government and emergency services of crying wolf. Well yeah? The wolf had already came on February 7 you pitiful stupid cunts. Fuck I hate you all, you lamentable wastes of fucking space, air, blood and organs!

Deep breaths … . 1, 2, 3 …

Anyway, I decided not to go through individual comments as I should not waste my energy on getting angry – the gym was tough enough tonight and my arms are as sore as fuck as I write this. The hot gym instructor said I did really well tonight, gee way to get me back there. I reckon she’d go off like fucking safety flare in the sack too.

Anyway I digress. Where was I? Ah yeah, fucktards and no moderation.

I came across this post which made me realise it’s unlikely that the comments at the Herald Sun web site are being moderated.

I wonder if Mike Hunt would get through?

OK, I wasn’t going to pick on individual comments but I couldn’t help notice the cynical piece of shit, steve of berwick, above. 

Aren’t you fucking funny you outer eastern-suburb pile of fuck snot? Emergency service bosses who contribute more than you ever have when they take a dump do the right thing to make sure stupid people like you, who rely on that fat-lipped bitch on A Current Affair for their news and information, know what’s going on in the foolish belief that even you are worth saving.

So what do you do? Do you appreciate their efforts steve? No, you bullshit on about dog farts. As it turns out it is windy cock head and I hope a tree falls down and kills your stinking fucking dog, and you feel like shit for a very long time. Your type shows that natural disasters bring out the fucking stupid, and you, cunt head, are hogging it all.

As Voltaire should have said, “I don’t agree what what you say, but I defend to the death our right to put a bullet through your thick fucking skull so you shut the fuck up forever, you contemptable gaping arse!

At last, common sense applied to bushfire aftermath

I’m not usually one for link blogging, but this article in The Age written by Dr Edward J. Blakely looks beyond the blame game and arm-chair firefighting to suggest how the lessons learned in rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina should apply to Victoria’s bushfore ravaged towns.

Dr Blakely is well qualified to make such suggestions. As the executive director of Recovery and Development Administration, he has been for aiding in the recovery of New Orleans while on leave from the University of Sydney, United States Studies Centre. He is a permanent resident of Australia and has been involved in urban and regional planning in Australia for more than three decades.

I think this suggestion is particularly pertinant given the current situation:

Recovery timelines: In an age of instant gratification and quick problem-solving on television, it is hard for most community residents to understand that it took many years to build the community and it will take years to restore. Safe restoration is better than quick rebuilding. So, short, medium and long-term goals and projects need to be articulated as clearly as possible …  .As we assessed the underlying infrastructure damage to sewers, water, and power along with buildings suffering from extensive saltwater incursions, it became clear that rebuilding New Orleans, much like post-earthquake San Francisco and Kobe, Japan, will take more than a decade. 

 Have a read, it’s very interesting. Hopefully John Brumby will too.

Disasters bring out the best in people, but some will always be cunts

I keep hearing how the bushfires have brought out the best in people, which has a semblance of truth though I do believe that, some of the great examples of sacrifice aside,  helping someone in time of need by donating money or donating some old clothes, is a matter of common courtesy rather than a superhuman effort.

However, while people are volunteering to risk their lives to put out fires, to raise money, to organise donated goods and to really go out of their way to help in anyway they can, we have to remember that things do move on and that there’s a significant part of our population that is, and always will be, a bunch of cunt.

Like, the piece of shit who threw a full stubby at a Swiss tourist on the Geelong road and nearly killed him – honestly who’d waste a full stubby. Joke! Sorry I couldn’t resist.  You can imagine what happened. There’s a bunch of dickheads in  a car who see a cyclist head on the freeway and one of them, egged on by his mates decides to throw a stubby at him. When they hit the guy in the face, and he slams to the ground bleeding and unconscious, they keep going, probably laughing. Yes the bushfires really brought the best in these users of our air.

We’re probably talking about a bunch of young guys, like the filth who set the mentally ill man’s home on fire. Who, if caught, will show up to court in suits to create the illusion that they are half decent. They’ll be surrounded friends and family who will say what lovely boys they are and that after they realised what they did they cried like babies. Fuck them!

Then there’s the “callous” burglar who stabbed a dog to death during a break-in at a Geelong home last night. Remember he’s one of us. Did the bushfires make him reflect on his worth to society? Fuck no, once a cunt …

Meanwhile at Yarambatt, cowardly killers have slain two kangaroos with bows and arrows. These sick shits probably donated some money to the bushfire appeal and think they are good people. They are not and if caught they should have electrodes connected to their fucking sick heads and studies to see what makes people so stupidly cruel.

While the bushfires have resulted in some wonderful examples of human sacrifice and kindness and have made the rest of us do decent things, we shouldn’t put our guard down to the bastard fucks that will always do their best to destroy the lives of others.

There won’t be any Facebook pages outing these people. As sick as their crimes sound they are things that happen everyday and get lost in all the flag waving, self congratulatory pomp in which we immerse ourselves after events like Black Saturday, in the mistaken belief that basking in the glorious sacrifices of the relative few makes us all great.

Bushfire lessons already forgotten

A bushfire suvivour who lost everything was on the Derryn Hinch program this afternoon complaining that new building codes in high-fire risk areas will mean that many people can’t afford to rebuild. This man said he was already under-insured and – get this – didn’t want to be further out of pocket because of building codes that were a “knee-jerk reaction to detract from the fact that there was not enough fuel reduction done before the fires”. As it turns out the new building codes have been in the making for eight years.

If your property has been destroyed in a bushfire and you are under insured than stiff fucking shit! The Red Cross and government should do as much as they can to help people caught up in the tragedy, but at the end of the day why should people who made a calculated risk to save money on insurance premiums be reimbursed with charity and tax-payer dollars? There was another woman on 3AW complaining that she was not eligible to receive any money to replace her uninsured holiday house – I mean for fuck’s sake!

At end of the day, the loss of their properties is no different to a suburban house fire when people have to rebuild without the benefit of generous charity and government handouts. Should you be better off being involved in a large scale disaster than in an individual incident?

Now, back to the fuel reduction point. If we’re going to blame a lack of back burning for these fires than we’re setting ourselves up for the same thing to happen again. I reckon one of the reasons Black Saturday was so deadly is that we thought we had learned the lessons from Ash Wednesday. Sure the CFA was much better equipped and people had fire plans, but nothing (even new building codes) is going to stop the full force of nature and the cruel hand it dealt out on February 7.

Apart from complacency (which has yet to be discussed), it was the weather that killed 210 people (and counting). Even if all forested areas were subject to fuel reduction we’re not going to stop bushfires from starting, be it naturally or by the hand of man. And nothing will stop the intencity of the fires under those treacherous weather conditions. It’s not like they’re going to remove all the trees. 

If this guy thinks he can build a bog standard timber kit home in the bush, and that it will be protected because of some backburning in Autumn he can get fucked. If you live in Darwin your house has to comply with certain codes to withstand cyclones. Places like Japan and San Francisco have earthquake codes. Living in high fire-risk areas should be no different.

This guy has shown that, despite what has happened in the past two weeks, some people will never learn.

We have to make sure that any implementations as a result of the Royal Commission, be it increased fuel reduction or tougher building codes, do not result in creating another false sense of security.

A predicted bushfire royal commission outcome

Shortly after Black Saturday it was rumoured that rivalry between the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) resulted in CFA management preventing MFB firefighters, as well professional CFA firefighters mostly deployed in urban and regional centres, from fturning out at the bushfires.

These rumours have now become accusations by the United Firefighters Union which claims CFA management of blocking Metropolitan Fire Brigade and CFA professional firefighters, and incompetently handling the fires.

The union, which will put these claims to the royal commission, also accuses CFA management of panicking and being ill-prepared despite knowing the conditions on February 7 would be the worst in the state’s history.

While CFA volunteers are idolised in this state, the United Firefighters Union not surprisingly sees them against the best interest of its paid members. This is a muck raking union which often thrives on fear to get it’s way, yet unlike most trade unions it is above critical scrutiny because of the noble profession it represents.

Whether or not the union claims stack up at the royal commission, the relationship between both fire services will come under scrutiny and I reckon one of the findings will be to amalgamate the CFA and MFB into one service, as is the case across the border where the NSW Fire Brigades oversees the operation of metro firefighting services and the mostly volunteer based NSW Rural Fire Brigade.

A simular restructure has occurred with Victoria’s Ambulance Service. It would require a significant change in state legislation which needs to be looked at in any case considering that CFA is now responsible for a large slice of metropolitan Melbourne – a role which under the Country Fire Authority Act 1958 No. 6228 it was not intended for.

If  implemented properly amalgation would prevent turf wars, communication issues, double handling, standardisation of equipment and streamlined management structures.

Observation leads to speculation

I noticed after Black Saturday workers were putting black screening along the wire fence at the Coroners’ Court and Morgue at Southbank – I’m not sure if they were making repairs or if they were installing it new, in anticipation of the many bodies that would end up there, in portable buildings, from the bushfire zone and the interest this could cause.

Then this morning and this afternoon, on my way to and from work, I noticed armed Protective Services officers patrolling the perimiter of the complex.

Why is that? Has someone tried getting in or filming the temporary set up?

Holy shit! Bolt and Greer agree on something

The planets are aligning and the world as we know it is about to be fucked, ripped apart and swallowed up by giant black hole because the two opposing forces that held things together and now like-poles.

Andrew Bolt and Germaine Gree actually agree on something – that the the lack of controlled burn offs are a cause of Victoria’s bushfire tragedy.

Bolt points out that “since 1939 government have been warned repeatedly of not burning off forest fuel. On Saturday, did unheeded warnings end in deaths?”

Greer said Australians were paying the price for repeatedly ignoring the lessons of past bushfires – the need for burn-offs in cooler months to lessen the risk of blazes in the summer.

What the fuck is going on arund here. Can someone tell me what kind of  crazy world this is we live in? (Apologies to Joe Pesci).