Email conversation after the recent election in NSW, Australia. Context: The Greens increased their vote by 2% to about 12%, but this was dwarfed by the massive swing against the Labor party, to the Liberals [for non-Australians, the "Liberals" are actually our conservative party]. We could analyze why they didn't do a lot better, but the simple ( Read more... )

An email from my brother, back in Australia where the economy is going strong.

When he refers below to "the libs," that's actually our conservative party, who were in power under the very cleverly populist John Howard, from 1996 to 2007:

And a poll today (in the Terrorgraph!*) found that most people believe we would have done much worse in the Great ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I don't agree with everything from the Australian Greens party, but on quite a few issues they're talking sense, unlike the major parties. (Disclosure: I'm a member of the Greens - albeit an often disagreeable one.)

Recent media reports that The Greens want to legalise drugs, including the dangerous drug "ice", are false.

It is clear that the ( Read more... )

I visited the website of a local club, Ashfield RSL, looking for info on their Latin dancing classes. This is an RSL club, supposedly a support organisation for men and women who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force. The splash screen had nothing about serving those who served the country. No "Lest we forget." Nothing even ( Read more... )