The Easily Amused

Dear China.. (Disturbing Image Warning)

2011-10-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

In 1989, this became an iconic image of China. Tank Man. He stands between at least five tanks, and thousands of Chinese Students protesting in Tienanmen Square. He was a hero. At any moment he could have been shot, or crushed under the wheels of the tank. His selfless actions of 'tangoing' with the lead tank may well have been in vain, but still at least he tried.

A lot more than can be said for this fellow.

Well him and 17 others like him. Not to mention the two heartless drivers that caused her extensive injuries.

What happened to you my beautiful dragon? When did the enduring image of your suffering change from the selfless actions of one man, willing to risk his life in vain, to the suffering of a two year old baby as 20 people were not willing to risk paying compensation to.

I hope that it is true. That your moral centre is shaken to the core. I hope that you do not let little Yue Yue die in vain as well, and that you learn a valuable lesson from this.

They say that money is the root of all evil. I fear that the indifference to the suffering of this baby girl has proven it.

Graphic Content Warning

2011-06-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

Before this gets much further, I feel compelled to show my stance on the issue of animal welfare.

I have put my weight and support into fighting Animal Welfare atrocities happening on our own shores. One of which has only mustered half as many signatures after many many months of campaigning as the BanLiveExports campaign mustered in a little over 24 hours.

Puppy Factories are some of the most blatant abuses of animal rights executed on Australian shores. Bitches are bred back to back for their entire lives, welping litter after litter of puppies to be sold online and through major pet shops throughout Australia.

They are bred until they cannot breed anymore - sometimes that is when their uterus prolapses outside of their body - and then they are destroyed.

Animals that are saved from Puppy Factories are sometimes found to be suffering from horrible and large reproductive tumours.

Their lives are spent mass producing christmas gifts, which lets not kid ourselves, a large proportion of which are later abandoned at animal shelters.

They live in small, wet, dirty cages with feces covered newspaper, or on cold wet concrete floors eating maggot infested food.

Eye conditions are common.

Animal Liberation Victoria filmed this footage in 2010 in Victoria.

Here is some footage from NSW. And the RSPCA rescuing those same animals.

And yes, Puppy farms HAVE had media coverage.

On ABCs 7:30 Report and TEN's 7PM Project.

Perhaps we can spare some outrage for these poor dogs.

Don't burn it all up yet though. (Extreme content warning.)

There is still an animal welfare atrocity that happens on our shores, sanctioned by several Australian Governments, in plain sight of hundreds and thousands of spectators both in person and on television.

Bear witness to the final horrific and agonising moments of Sirrocean Storm and Crying Storm. Whose deaths were ultimately decided to be acceptable by the Victorian Government and Racing Victoria.

Who died so people could make money and be entertained.

Who died in Australia suffering horribly so people could make money and provide nothing.

Yes, Jumps racing has had a great deal of coverage on TV. TVN and SkyRacing are big racing stations. However in the media, you again can look at TEN's 7PM Project.

So yes. Rage and demand better conditions for Australian Cattle in Indonesian abattoirs, demand Meat and Livestock Australia fixes its mess and delivers on its promise to improve Indonesian abattoirs.

But spare some rage for the animals on our shores suffering at our hands. They need your help too.

The other side...

2011-06-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

4Corners has stunned us all with their recent show, A Bloody Business.

It was always going to shock us to the core. I would like anyone who has seen it to think back on that episode and try to remember, did the vision of seeing the cow being stunned catch you off guard too? Did that make you think 'Oh crap'?

You know it did.

The whole industry of slaughtering animals for meat is confronting and hard. These animals are bred to die. Some people are not capable of dealing with this, others, such as myself, can live knowing this, and others still, such as children, live blissfully unaware of such truths. Perhaps some of the people from the second group try and squeeze into the third and pretend they don't know.

This is an extremely easy thing to do here in Australia. The primary interaction most Australians have with cows is on supermarket shelves.

We buy our milk and meat, bring it home, stick it in our freezer and eat at our leisure, content that it has been born, raised, farmed, slaughtered and packaged in accordance with strict health and animal welfare regulations, backed up and maintained by billions of dollars of equipment and research.

Indonesia is nothing like Australia in a lot more than just our animal welfare laws.

Watch the video again, and as hard as it is, I ask you to look at the whole picture now, not just the cow. (NO, I am not downplaying the significance of what the cow is going through)

Did you notice the personal safety equipment?

Do you know why the knives are different lengths?

Did you see the lighting?

Did you hear them laughing?

Did they answer the questions truthfully?

Did they answer questions at all?

Did you see if the workers roofs were as secure as the ones on the 5star feedlot?

Did they tell you how much these workers are paid?

Did you find out if any of them lost their lunch the first time they saw a cow slaughtered?

Did you find out how old they were that day?

Did it tell you how long these guys have worked in abattoirs?

Did you see how the meat was hung in the marketplace, uncovered and open to flies?

Did you see the people at all?

and finally - did you see the millions of dollars worth of equipment that Australian Farmers and Taxpayers paid for to improve the conditions of these slaughter houses? Because I didn't.

The welfare of the cows, the welfare of the workers, and the welfare of the people buying the meat are all suffering at these abattoirs.

Usually when something like this happens, there is always the same platitude that people will fall back on, and I could be fairly assured that the majority of people reading this right now are thinking it and waiting to get to the comment section to post it up.

"People aren't more important than cows".

I never once said they were.

But they are equally as important.

I am trying to stop this train at the station in the middle that everyone is steaming straight past.

On the one side, we have continued poor conditions for the animal lives. On the other side, we have millions of impoverished and hungry human lives who won't even be able to buy food with money.

There is a station in the middle.

That is the station where we reach out our hand to our neighbours and say "Hi, my name is Kevin, I am from Australia, and I am here to help".

Now we are not giving them these cows. They are buying them. Heck, we wouldn't be sending them if they weren't, and it is a multi million dollar industry - so don't think we can just shut down the exports and it won't affect Indonesian men, women and children that have never seen the inside of an Indonesian abattoir.

Sure, you may be able to look an Australian Cattle Farmer in the face and tell him to suck it up, but could you look into the eyes of a 6yo child who has just spent a day at work to earn $3 to help feed the family and tell them to suck it up?

Meat and Livestock Australia has been taking money from Australian farmers and using taxpayers grants to help address this situation. However when it is shown that their efforts are clearly inadequate, they point their collective fingers at Indonesian workers making $5 a day, working in dangerous, unsanitary conditions and say it is all their fault.

We gave them a metal box.

We trained them.

But it is their fault.

I would like for those women to have asked them WHY they did some of the stuff they did. They kept saying why in their videos - but no one actually asked these men that question.

Too busy vilifying them.

Knowing anything more about them might make them human. Might show people they are not actually evil. Just men with families who were trained to do a job.

But you can't have a good story without a villain.

PS: The length of the knife would be indicative of its age. As you sharpen a knife, you are wearing some of it away. The shorter, smaller knives have been sharpened and used for a very long time. Apparently no one there can afford to replace them, and no one here in MLA/LiveCorp cares to.

Responsibility and expectations.

2011-05-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

I shall preface this post by admitting that my children are indeed vaccinated. When you read the remainder of this post, you may see why I choose to pursue vaccination to protect my babies. I would be vaccinated myself but contracted whooping cough during my last pregnancy and thus my current antibody immunity is better than can be provided by the acellular pertussis vaccine.

---------

Two month old babies are carrying almost all of the burden of preventing the spread of diseases.

Now their parents are taking the blame for the Australian Immunisation network for failing to take action on the actual cause of the serious and dangerous Whooping Cough epidemic on Australian shores.

So today in the paper a rather obnoxious sounding Doctor known as Rob Menzies has blamed the parents of the 8% of Unvaccinated children for the epidemic, referring to them as the "Chardonnay set and alternatives". Great way to get your point across by the way, Mr Menzies. Ad-hominem attacks are extremely unbecoming of trained professionals.

However his information is not only disgusting and arrogant, it is also completely wrong.

Certainly, Dr Menzies, that as the Deputy Director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, you have noticed that only 11.3% of Australian adults are vaccinated for whooping cough? Surely?

You cannot be blaming the 350,000 unvaccinated babies when there is over 15.5 MILLION unvaccinated adults? Can you? Yes. that is 15,500,000 adults walking around with no protection from Whooping Cough sharing it around with all and sundry.

So now, Dr Menzies, with these figures very easy to source online from official AIHW reports, WHO Statistics and the ABS, what exactly is the NCIRS doing to have it's deputy director spouting such vile, judgemental and uneducated comments in the mainstream media?

Perhaps since we have the absolute worst epidemic of Whooping Cough in the developed world, and with this new and vital information, you can go back to your job and work on promoting adult vaccination to protect our children rather than attacking parents who ironically have the best Adult vaccination rate. Even better than health professionals such as yourself.

I do not expect you to swallow your pride, contact News Ltd and issue an apology and a retraction, but it would do all of Australia a really brilliant favour if you could contact them and properly attribute the cause of this epidemic and appeal to unvaccinated adults to go and get their Boostrix. You will save more lives that way, and not look quite so bad doing it.

Results are slow and in short supply, but satisfying

2011-03-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Anyone that actually has followed this blog or even got bored and read all the posts may remember my post which included a section on Facebook tribute pages.

I was reading the paper today ... no, wait, I was reading Facebook today and this popped up in my feed from QPS. A most definitely satisfying result!

THE first Queenslander charged over Facebook vandalism for plastering child pornography over sites set up to pay tribute to two slain schoolchildren has been jailed for three years.
The Brisbane District Court was told Bradley Paul Hampson, 29, posted offensive messages and photographs on Facebook "RIP tribute'' pages for a 12-year-old boy stabbed at a Brisbane school and a nine-year-old Bundaberg girl abducted and murdered in February last year.

Can't say much about the way you are...

2011-03-03T22:59:00.000-08:00

Interesting story I read in the paper today. Brian McFaddon, of Westlife fame, released a new solo single, Just the way you are (Drunk at the bar), which was met with instant criticism as its lyrics seem to condone date rape. Todays story was him asking they pull the song due to the controversy.

So out of morbid curiosity I listened to the offending song, and while I could barely understand the verses at all, I can certainly see where the chorus has been taken (obviously for him) out of context. Yes, 'damage' and 'advantage' do rhyme, but by golly were they some unfortunate word choices!

But the bit of todays report that made me double take after listening to the song.

McFadden has insisted he wrote the song about long-time fiancee Delta Goodrem and how easily she gets tipsy.
"It's talking about my young lady who doesn't drink and when she has one glass of champagne she gets giddy and I think it's gorgeous," he said.

Delta, tweet us when you deck him.

Top that off that he adds "all messed up, no place to go, flirting at the dace floor, putting on a show". But he likes her anyway. Yeah, I would love it if my hubby felt that way, then told the whole world about it. But its okay because he gets to take me home, drunk as sh!t on one glass of champagne and do some 'damage' while 'taking advantage' of me being drunk.

Well I feel a whole lot better now.

You want to know the worst thing though?

It is possibly the most horrific attempt at a dance song I have ever heard, and I lived through Doop. Its hollow, tinny and just plain bad.

PS: iHubby is nothing like this tosser and is just as horrified at the implications of that song on Delta and Brian's relationship as most of the rest of the world is.

The Great Debate

2011-02-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

This crazy shitstorm pitting grieving mum against grieving mum has been brewing on facebook and spilled out into parenting forums and blogs over the worldwidewebz.

Behind this is the friend of a grieving mother whose 23wk baby girl was left to die after her premature birth despite struggling for 2 hours to live.

Yes, I know it sounds emotionally charged when I put it in those words - but the simple fact is that it is emotionally charged and deserves that respect. Rachel Sorensen lost her baby. Her grief is real and does not deserve to be downplayed or glossed over by any other part of this debate.

Feeling as they do that Poppi should have been given the chance, her friend create a facebook event to gather names as a petition to take to policy makers to get the policy revised. That a parent can choose if their pre-24wk baby deserves a chance at life. They picked the age bracket of 20wks to 24wks. Their reasoning on this is all very sound.

At 20 weeks a baby born is a person. They are given a birth certificate and if necessary, a death certificate and a funeral. If they were born breathing and died later then a coroners report must done.

It was stated to Ms Sorensen when she delivered Poppi that they will not do anything for a baby born before 24wks.

While no baby born at 20 weeks has ever survived, it is very clear from this reasoning that there was no malicious intent in the dates chosen, and at the time, sound logical reasoning for these dates to be chosen.

The opposing group have continually asked that they change it to 22-24wks, and that if they did so, then they would go away. The even did just that, and needless to say, the opposing camp did not pick up stumps and leave. They continued to fight.

Now, as I pointed out, no child born at 20 wks gestation has survived. It has been noted by another woman in a forum linked from this group that 100% of babies born at 20wks gestation would have cerebral palsy. As none have survived to confirm this, we will have to dismiss this as 100% speculation, not fact.

It would also not be fair to say that this means there is a 0% chance of survival at 20wks. If you could liken the journey with a Micro-Prem to riding a roller coaster, then the 20wk gestation babies did not meet the height requirement. There is, just on the basis of this petition, a very real chance that the 100% loss rate is due entirely to the 0% intervention rate.

The next week of gestation has two documented survivors. However the opposing camp has argued that one is in fact a 23wk gestation baby on 'corrected dates'. I will give them this and we will stick to just one.

Of this one surviving baby, he at 18yo was suffering no disabilities at all, let alone any caused by his extreme prematurity.

So again the argument that babies born this early would suffer from horrible disabilities is a fallacy. Of all the surviving babies born at 21weeks gestation (based on the dates the opposing came wishes us to use), 100% are not disabled.

Again, that only one baby born at 21wks survived shows a low survival rate is an unsupported statement on the basis of the very low intervention rate.

As they support 22wks gestation and up, we do not need to cover these children.

As we go deeper into the debate, we have those that states that this rule would confound abortion law and strip away the rights of pregnant women. Then in a moment of breathtaking hypocrisy, they pull out the anti-abortionist catch phrase "Someone needs to speak for the baby".

Do I really need to continue with that one?

The next position was in my humble opinion, horrific. "It costs taxpayers to keep premature babies alive".

Yes, it also costs them to keep car accident victims alive, even when their outlook is grim.

No one should attach a price tag to someones life.

But lets get into the real part of the argument, and the reason why I cannot support their position.

"Someone needs to speak for the baby"

There are many facets to this point of the debate so I will try and take it slow on you.

One woman has contended that we would be creating children with disabilities and that they would have no quality of life and would rather be dead.

Some of the disabilities people have stated for premature babies are

Cerebral Palsy
Blindness
Deafness
Autism Spectrum Disorder
ADD/ADHA

Because medical establishments do not actively seek to help babies born before 24wks, I can only go on what has been compiled for survivors 24wks and over. This data was collated between 1998 and 2001by NSW NICUS.

Three in ten babies born at 24wks will have one or more diabilities. So starting with 1000, we have 300 with disabilities. It goes on to say that two thirds of these babies will only have a mild disability and can go on to lead an independent and productive life. That means one third, 100 babies, will have a moderate or severe.

The graph below shows around 40% of 23wk babies suffering from moderate or severe. Grouping the two together means I cannot rightly say how many of them are severe, but as there is moderate as well - and I would have to believe the greater portion is moderate as the majority of babies are fine, then we can say that less premature babies suffer major afflictions such as Cerebral Palsy as we are being led to believe.

Bringing down the emotional backdrop of the debate a few notches we can now move onto what it is saying.

It is contended (paraphrasing here) that by attempting to save the life of the premature infant because the parents are "unable to say goodbye", we are creating disabled children.

My Step Daughter was born with Bilateral Retinoblastoma.

Retinoblastoma is a rapidly developing cancerous tumour of the retina. Bilateral means that in her case, both eyes had tumours.

When this discovery was made, she was 6 months old. The tumours had developed inutero and they were not treatable. The only option was enucleation - removal of her eyes. If they did not do this, the cancer would spread and would result in her death.

To save her life they were creating a disabled (blind) child.

This argument contends that my step daughter should have died at a young age from cancer.

In the stance that someone needs to speak for the baby, the truth is that there is someone speaking for children. Their parents. That is their right and theirs alone.

Imagine standing in a hospital emergency room. The doctor tells you that they can save your child, but s/he will lose their arm. Some random stranger walks up and says "Someone needs to speak for that child. S/he would not want to live without their arm. Don't save them". What would you do? You know for a fact you would tell them to back the hell off, it is not their child, it is your child and they have no right to make that decision.

Removing the decision to proceed or desist medical treatment for our own children is a dangerous and slippery slope. While you may think it is justifiable for a 21wk preterm baby, allowing that to happen could make it legally possible for a 10 year old child.

Informed decision making is a right enshrined by law. Whether it be informed consent for ourselves or for our children, you cannot pick and choose the parts you want us all to have. Once you start cherry picking parts out of it, you open the flood gates to remove it all under the premise that "Doctor knows best".

While I have neither pledged my support to the actual cause - for or against - of Poppi's rule, I will not sit idly by as anyone at all demands the removal of our rights to informed consent.

I have not been in a position of losing my old child, nor have I had a premature baby. So as much as people like to think, my reasonings on the actual situation of Poppi's rule are not 'clouded by emotion'. I do not believe though that a parent should accept that their child may have been 'collateral damage' to the cause when s/he could have survived and lived a full life.

I have however been in a position where I have said "No" to a doctor and he has proceeded anyway. I have clearly told two nurses "No" more than once, and had them attempt to hold me down and continue against my wishes.

I will not have my right to consent or refusal stripped away from me by a technicality.

As they say in the movies: Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.

What ARE you teaching your kids today???

2011-01-24T23:46:00.000-08:00

And so it goes that children are forever learning. We try and teach, such as I am currently battling to teach Hurricane and Diva how to share. Yet as I sit on my deck, cold can of coke in my hands and Diva at my feet pouting enormously because I won't let her have any, I realise that I am in fact teaching them how not to share. My bad habits only rivaled by my hypocrisy, I won't let my darling little 1yo have some coca cola, so why should she let people have stuff of hers that she doesn't want them to!

I came to the conclusion that I had to do one of two things. One was to give up all my bad habits. The other was to take the alternate route and try and teach the kids that sometimes sharing is not such a good thing.

I would love nothing more than to share with my little Diva, but I won't even share so much as a glass of water with her. I may sound like a heinous bitch, but its in her best interest. You see, I get coldsores. I have no problem with sharing the water - just would prefer not to share HSV1 with my children. As HSV1 sheds 5% of the time, and we never actually know when that 5% is, I err on the side of caution and avoid any situation that would share it 100% of the time. With careful management I have not had an outbreak in a couple of years, but the threat looms.

After all, I have had them for as long as I can remember, so it was shared with me some time many many moons ago. Probably from a well chewed building block at the local playgroup that I just had to taste test myself.

This is a lesson on more than just what are you sharing - or not sharing. What else are you teaching your children? As well as teaching them I don't share, I am teaching them that mummy is a big bad hypocrite!

Its a useful exercise. Stop and think about what your doing. Is is at odds with what you have said? It doesn't mean you have to change what you are doing, but to change what you are saying.

Give your kids more credit. Explain it to them like adults. They may just end up respecting you for it!

Ironically, I forgot to grab a new window...

2010-12-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

Spending the day window shopping with Diva, it became rather apparent to me just how easily I am amused. So without futher ado, I present - Seriously, WTF?

If I had known that...

A new interesting phenomenon has hit our supermarket shelves. Apparently if you put the same product inside a black box with gilded flair, you can charge at least $3 more. I can see how it works as I have always liked the look of black with gilded flair, I am not about to pay extra for it!

The most disturbing part of this is that I first noticed this in the one aisle. Ansell Skyn condoms followed by U Platinum by Kotex sanitary pads.

Honestly my hip trendy teenaged friends - does this actually work? Do you pay the extra money for generally the same thing as the cheaper pack by the exact same company?

I am having a Migraine just thinking about it - lucky me, Neurofen has little pills that can pick up just that type of pain. The pack says so....

Bratz win again

The battle between Barbie and Bratz is a long running affair. Starting with Bratz hacking into Barbies market share, the failure of My Scene, the protracted legal battle where for a moment it seemed like Barbie had won - only to find out that the Judge overstretched and Bratz winning again their right to exist.

But Barbie has gone that one step too far. I present, Exhibit A - Fashionista Barbie.
Yes, I too am having SATC flashbacks. They may have well as just called her Cougar Barbie and be done with it.

At least her fans know how to dress her age appropriately - and I am not talking about the age group she is targeted at. Seriously Mattel - she looks 40!

New does not necessarily mean better.

I thought I struck gold today when I found Fruche on sale. Happily grabbed my Strawberry fields and went home with my conquest. About two bites in I started to wonder if they were on sale because they were off - god forbid! But no, they were perfectly in date. However a look for the Use By Date revealed a small red triangle with the worst words ever. "New Great Taste".

There was nothing wrong with the old taste! In fact, it was the best flavoured fruche of the lot, and the hardest one to get on the shelf, possibly because it was the best tasting one. So why did they have to change it?

I am, needless to say, extremely shattered at the loss of my favourite yoghurt and am inconsolable on the fact that there was no equal. Now there is simply no winner.

Mother knows best...

2010-02-25T20:55:00.000-08:00

The future sounds more like a bad 80s film...

Breastfeeding seems to be a hot topic these days. Whether you do it or don't, see someone do it or not, you have an opinion. It astonishes me and always will that those of us who do breastfeed, and choose to do so when and where our child is hungry are considered 'Militant'.

May I direct anyone who feels that way to dictionary.com - the correct word you are looking for is 'Maternal'.

However they do not feel the same way about themselves. It is apparently not militant to verbally abuse and humiliate a breastfeeding mother. It is not militant to demand that their sensitivities are more important than a hungry baby. Those same people who will look down their nose at you as you walk through the shopping centre with your crying baby trying to find the mothers room. As with everything in parenting, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. Keep doing it despite what people say - you are a bad parent. Don't stand your ground and go find somewhere else to do it - bad parent.

Every single parent on the face of the planet is a bad parent ---- in someones opinion. Every.single.one.

So anyway, the militant solution to public breastfeeding is bottle feeding. So pushed is it that they even push some of the most ridiculous misnomers about the "lack" of benefit in breastfeeding. The amount of people that not only still believe, but still push that breastfeeding has no benefit after 6 months is startling. How in heavens name did the human race survive for so long before the advent of baby formula and heinz baby food??? I don't normally become blatantly insulting on here but seriously - How utterly fucked up in the head are you people to be so blindingly stupid?!

But I digress. So the best solution for our babies is fake milk, because lets all admit it, its a baby sucking on a breast that disturbs your twisted little minds. Fake milk from fake nipples... Oh wait, my baby came out my hooha! (No, I am not apologising for that, either!!!) We better put a stop to that sick practice! C-Sections for all!

Hang on a tick.. the thing goes in where???? Ooooooh no.. that wont do.. You cant have... s.e.x! Not to make a baby, thats disturbing! IVF is the order of the day...

Yes, that is how ridiculous you all sound.

The many faces of Facebook.

Facebook is copping a lot of heat right now. Tribute pages for murder victims Elliot Fletcher and Trinity Bates are being vandalised by childish idiots with nothing better to do. "NOW" its a problem. Its been happening for as long as facebook had open public accounts. There is nothing new in the world. But now the media hype would have us all believe that FB should be monitoring every single page every single moment of every single day. Its simply not possible. I am not saying at all that what these animals did to those pages isnt wrong - only that it is not FBs responsibility to protect everyone out there from the harsh realities of human nature. Some people are just assholes.

FB is a valuable social networking tool which when used responsibly can connect families and friends across great distances. Lets not destroy it by once again forcing the rest of the country to live to the standard of the lowest among us.

Closing Words

Children are not a social accessory or a way to get money. They are a living, breathing feeling responsibility. I would very much like for some parents to finally get this concept on the basis that ITS NOT THAT HARD!

Once again budget time has us looking in the wrong place...

2009-06-21T09:48:00.001-07:00

499 ways to lose your mind completely...

So here I am again at budget time, but once again the budgets that are doing my head in are not governmental. I recently sat down and read a list at kidspot - 499 ways to save money. Well, based on some of these I see people still have not managed to get their heads around the simple concept of priorities.

Some of this advice is just purely insane. We have people giving out advice on how to save money on airfares and furniture polish when some people just want to be able to afford to pay the rent and put food on the table!

I am not sure about some people, but I find that it would be utterly insulting to be given advice by someone who was 'doing it hard' so they managed to save $500 on a coffee machine by haggling. Perhaps the rest of us can make our own list - 499 ways to live within your means!

In all honesty, you really need to read the list to believe it. One piece of advice recommends that rather than buying an expensive cake knife to cut cakes, you should use dental floss. Well apart from the fact that an expensive cake knife will eventually work out cheaper than the yards and yards of dental floss you will be using - why not try using a normal kitchen knife like the rest of the normal people? That will save you in both knives and dental floss because you should already have it!

Another recommends buying clearskins to save money. I think I know what you are doing wrong if wine is such a vital addition to your shopping list! Then one of my personal favourites recommends you make up a budget in Excel so you know exactly what you spend. Yes - first off I spent $400 on Excel!

From there it does tend to move into the utterly insane where people suggest that using mobile phones to make calls has suddenly become cheaper than the home phone. I guess instead of shopping around for a better cap on your mobile, you should be shopping for a better deal on your landline because my pre-paid mobile cap will never allow me the 2 hour phone call to my family for the measly $2.50 I get on my landline.

If this list has done one thing for me, it has shown me that these people have completely lost touch with reality. Here is the most vital money saving tip anyone can have - it comes in the form of a question and should be asked before you open your wallet. Every time.

Do I need it?

Ok, so its not all bad. There is some good advice on there. The one about cutting up credit cards is great, and there is recommendations to go on picnics and take drinks with you when you go out. Kudos to those who have given real practical advice.

But when your biggest worry is how to polish your furniture on the cheap and saving $15 at the hair dresser by drying your hair at home - you wouldn't survive a day on my budget.

If you all looked at the right budget...

2008-05-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

Labor and Swann have delivered their first budget, and the hyperbole and hysteria of the far right is in full swing. The way they are acting, you would expect to have woken up yesterday morning to a post apocalyptic waste land the likes of Resident Evil: Extinction. Several interesting things came up in this process, and at least one has been proven right over and over.

The EQ Study

A bunch of smart scientists took it upon themselves to do an emotional intelligence study on the high IQ students of 15 years ago. They discovered that 9 out of 10 of these ex-students were either on the dole or in low income menial work. This is because on the EQ level, these people were introverted, shy and in this day and age of everything being a mini popularity contest, none of these people of superior intelligent could out flashify their dunce, but cool, school mates.

So much for needing to be smarter and more intelligent to get better paying jobs. Apparenly all you need is to be outgoing and arrogant.

The segue..

This brings us to why I mentioned this first. The misnomer that low income earners are apparently too stupid to get a better job. Sadly, this is not true. Its just because we are modest. The intelligence of high income earners has managed to be proved ten fold after this budget. None of them seem to understand either what it means, or what they are even saying. Lets start the comparison.

Low Income Earner
If lucky, buys modest house with small mortgage on the trainline in an outlying area - if not so lucky, are paying rent, but a modest amount on a house that is just what they need, not what society dictates they have.
Drive a second hand car they either saved up to buy outright from a road side seller or have a small mortgage for a car that suits their needs.
Shops at various stores for the best deals on their groceries.
Have a cheap pre-paid mobile.
Have waiting lists for medical and dental.
Are still using that 54 cm CRT they saved up to buy 15 years ago.

High Income Earners
Buys a 400K mcmansion near the CBD.
Mercedes, BMW, Lexus or Audi.
Do all their shopping in the one spot for 'convenience' - wouldnt buy home brand even if it were the last bag of peas in the freezer.
Mobile with fries and coke.
Private health
Large screen 'plasma'

The conclusion....

If High income earners are finding it hard to make ends meet, then quite simply, they are living beyond their means and doing their level best to help drive up inflation while they are at it. I personally have a family of 7 and a yearly annual income of up to $50,000 net.

Yet we have a home - on a quarter acre block, enough rooms, a double garage, entertainment area, on the trainline in commuting distance to Sydney - should know, we've done the commuting. No - its not public housing.
We have enough food for every day. We shop fortnightly, and have 3 squares a day, kids have school lunches and there is always fruit and biscuits for extras.
We have a 7 seater car - which we paid off the mortgage on with that income.
We have clothes. Our bills get paid - but my combined internet, phone and electricity bill is less than $200 a month.

If I can raise 5 perfectly healthy children and have everything we need, plus a little left each week for us on just $50k p/a, why are families with less children and more income having problems doing the same?

Thats easy to answer now. Just look at where all the smart people are.

Welcome to the party.

2007-12-16T07:40:00.001-08:00

It being Christmas, and Christmas being the most exploited time of the year, it must be time for my compendium of exploitation!

If it looks too good to be true, then I have a fund...

Nigerian 419 is as old as they come. You would think that it was so old, everyone could see the scam coming from a mile away. Despite this belief, Internet "fraudstars" still take thousands of people for billions of dollars. Sad, but true. Sending an email about the "100% RISKY FREE" transaction, victims blindly follow through, sending thousands of dollars to the scammer before realising they have been done. In some cases, people have lost their lives - murdered by the scammer, or so broken they have taken their own life. Many have been arrested, charged with a crime - their reputations ruined.

419 scammers will target young and old alike (12 year olds are not off limits) - the disabled, no problems. They will support illegal actions to get money to them, they do not just steal money from greedy people - they ruin lives.

419eater, scamwarners, aa419, and many other websites do everything they can to save as many people from this as possible. Through having the info online, warning potential victims and even baiting a scammer to waste so much time on them that frankly, the result is utterly hilarious. They organize attacks on fake websites made to lure the victim into a false sense of security, they offer counselling to broken victims, they do what they possibly can - and the great majority of them are just the average joe that wants to help.

But, there are people in positions to help. The majority of the stolen money is sent via Western Union. Some others by Moneygram, and the smaller amount transferred into a bank account. Yet when a person walks into these businesses with a large sum of cash being sent to some African country - you would think that Alarm bells would go off in the minds of these well informed cashiers... Well, they dont. I am not saying all of them, not by a long shot - and I am sure that some WU & MG staff could not live with themselves if they didnt warn the person in front of them brandishing $15,000 to go to 2 African recipients with no proof of identity required all about Advance Fee Fraud or Fake jobs cashing counterfeit cheques. But WHY isnt this standard? Why is there not a huge warning before sending the money, why not a simple set of questions? How can these companies stand by, money transfer and banks alike, while innocent victims (of their own greed, yes - but a victim all the same) are being taken for a ride.

I am pretty sure the answer is as simple as - Fees. Transferring money overseas always involves fees - which the provider collects.
I recently had an attempt to scam me on Ebay. Thanks to sites like scamwarners and 419e, I noticed it for what it was immediately. I contacted Ebay through LiveChat and all the items the scammer purchased were cancelled, the haul was gone, the potential victims, dozens of them, were also saved. Ebay deserves kudo's for their immediate action, for refunding to the sellers the fees because of the fraud. Others who drag their feet should hang their heads in shame.

I like the pink ones, they taste like money...

I was a little confused on this one actually. I have known for a very long time that many cases of ADD/ADHD were actually food colouring issues. Many a parent experiencing disciplinary problems would be better advised to try the "Food Elimination Test" before ritalin. Yet more and more, ritalin is perscribed and the real issue, food colouring, is ignored. Well, no longer. Finally a newspaper (not that I give it much credit) has reported the findings of a school test into the phenomenon. Wouldn't you know it, they ended up with a school of model citizens. Knock me down with a feather, if the 'quack' homoeopaths haven't been saying it for years. Next thing on the agenda, all schools in Australia should get their hands on that list, print out enough copies and send one home with every, single, student. There is a lot of very frazzled parents out there who would love a copy. - But where is the exploit you ask? Well, thats the confusing bit. I am still trying to work out if its that the colouring is cheaper, or has some form of narcotic effect that causes a kind of dependence. I will leave that one to the experts.

As seen on TV...

We have all seen the great ads on TV for kids. Awesome toys, evil food, bright colours - now go drive your parents nuts. Can you believe that they still happily exploit the kiddies for the advertising dollars? Ever notice it gets worse at Christmas too? Come on guys, straighten up your act, or the dinosaur of free to air will be slain by the monolith of Advertising Free DVD.

Because the voices in your head need their mouths taped shut!

When you have an Aloholic, do you give them a 'pseudo-alcohol' to help them go on the wagon? No, you dont.
When you have a pot head, do you give him fake pot? No, you dont.

Yet why would a smoker, suffering the exact same affliction (addiction), need more nicotine? Thats easy. Smoking is legal, it doesnt make you dangerous, and someone can make money! Its so very simple to see it now, isnt it? The government 'wants' you to quit, yet they wont ban it - they get money from it. They will send you to quitlines that will give you lots of nicotine replacement therapy advice - because they get money from that too - and the NRT will continue to propagate your dependence on nicotine for as long as possible - because they get money.

Wanna quit? Be a man and go cold turkey. Alcoholics do it all the time. If not, do it for the money. Greed is the best motivator.

Closing words..

There was another report in the news today - answered a question for me. Recently there is a man on the run in Australia - he shot and killed a father of 4 who dared confront him about his loud music at absurd times in the morning (2 and 3 am). It was then discovered that this man has killed before. He run a man over with his car, then got out and shot him, killed him too. He served 7 years for Manslaughter?

Today we find out that plea bargaining is rampant in the Australian law - explaining why so many horribly lenient sentences have been handed down in recent times. I have been so shocked by them that I could not understand what was wrong with our justice system.

Now I know.

Now we all know.

You people are a disgrace.

I am not an everyday blogger.

2007-08-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

Mum - Your computer isn't working!

Did you know they have been trying to filter the Internet for kids since the beginning? My first version of Internet Explorer had the still ineffectual "Ratings Filter". Why it was so ineffectual was because not all sites are rated. In fact, a teeny tiny proportion of them are. So you had to allow access to many, many harmless sites. With a co-ordinated effort to allow all sites to be rated, and a few more options in the filter settings (such as for those of us who don't think our kids will go to hell for reading Harry Potter) it could be the most effective of all the filters. So long as parents remember there is a nice big stack of Internet browsers available to download, and that you need to set it on all of them. There is an overwhelming majority of kids who are more computer savvy than their parents and they can install a browser without their parents even knowing they are there. This I know because if it were not a staple of Windows, you wouldn't know Internet Explorer is on my computer. All shortcuts for it are removed because its not as effective in its safety standards as my beloved FireFox.

Where is all this going? Well, Obviously the 84million dollar waste of time - NetAlert. A bunch of really computer dumb politicians (that know so little about the net they need to get their Hip - tech savvy employees to edit Wikipedia entries for them) thought that they needed to protect our children from the evils of the world wide web. Of course, that only related to the evils of Naked Women, non christian view points, Blue Tit birds, and breast cancer research. The true evil on the Internet for them, that which can actually do them real harm - Chatting with Paedophiles in Chat Rooms - is still available to them.

What is the real problem here, is that its another electronic Nanny that parents count on to do their job for them. Much like the Square Nanny in the corner of the lounge room, this new Net Nanny is designed to give parents further ability to take little notice of their children, and what they are doing. People wonder why childhood obesity is on the rise, and yet then in homo-superior rants at their children's 'demands', explain how when we were kids, there were no PlayStation, or Computers. There was no Foxtel with hundreds of channels to choose from. We had Vinyl LP's which didn't fit into any portable device, and the Walkman - which took tapes - also took two AA batteries that run flat awful quick and you had to wait for your parents next pay day to replace them. We used to play cricket in the back yard and ride our bikes to spend our pocket money.

That said, I am not denying there is not reasons to fear letting your child out by themselves on any of the countries roads. Mine, well Mine cant go out without me or their father. This is a fear our parents never knew, and so we try and compensate with PlayStation and Computers - the Internet - not really acknowledging that we are exposing them to the same danger there. So what do we do?

My method appears to work well. Firstly, they have a decent sized back yard (Please, if you have a child in a townhouse or unit, consider moving.. Even to a whole new place on the map.) with Swing set and Trampoline. We have Cricket sets, totem tennis, and many other toys that allow our children movement in their yard. They also have a large undercover play area, just in case it rains - so they are not too disadvantaged. That didn't work well when the storm came through the central coast and flooded the play area with freezing cold water - we lost a lot of toys that day.

Next, we do have a PS2 and 4 computers. One of the first things I got for the PS2 was Eyetoy. Thankfully not in the play area, but in a decent open area, it encourages them to move to play the PlayStation. They also have singstar - but that's a story for another blog! (All the activity they get fighting over who's turn it is) Now with the computers, 3 are desktops and one is my laptop. The G5 apple mac and the Laptop both have the main purpose of being work machines - so the kids don't normally get within cooee of those two. However, of the other two, an Intel Celeron 2.6Ghz and an G4 Apple Mac Sawtooth, only the Celeron is set up due to room constraints. This is because they are set up in Common Rooms. Generally, anything my kids think they shouldn't be doing on the Internet, they don't do because they are not hidden in the privacy of a study or bedroom. The G4, when set up, comes with the bonus of OSX 10.4, which has an effective enough parental control built into the operating system. Personally, I can not think of a better "Net Nanny" than their family, and so - while my computer sits in a common room, whether I am looking or not, my children are safe surfing. It works for both my sisters too. The best part about this method, is it costs no one - not me, not you, not any other tax payer, one red cent.

Dr, it hurts when I do this...

Rudd recently unveiled a long overdue idea of the Federal government taking over public hospitals. To be honest, the whole three levels of government thing has been handled incorrectly for far too long. While I understand that the Federal Government cant be expected to sit around and plan for each and every state individually, I find the lack of co-operation between State and Federal, because of the party differences, childish!

Obviously, one State Premiere will want an allotment of funding for something, and another will want that allotment for something different, and both will have very good reasons for wanting it, but the Federal Government has to choose. Either way, they are pissing off someone. For example, the insanely long time spent pissing off central coast residents through ignoring "the missing link". Or the Qld Health crisis. Certainly we can point our fingers at the state government and say "its all your fault", but if I remember this correctly, the buck is supposed to stop with the federal government. Apparently, they are toothless tigers against the state government. It's far worse in a Labor run state with a Liberal Federal Government. You never hear solutions, you hear the blame game. For example, I once appealed to my local member, Jackie Kelly, to do something about the child care crisis. I had a job in St Leonards. To get there at my start time, my train left at 5am. No Daycare centre was open at 5am. So I toyed with the idea of putting them in one closer to where I work.. It cost more than I earned! I was left choiceless - our two income family became a one income family. (Prior to that, my sister was minding them while I found a house and child care facilities.) I didn't want that much - a long day care centre that opened early enough for me to go to work, and didn't cost the earth. I used to have one in QLD, why couldnt I get one that good in NSW? Well, Jackie's reply was basically - its not hers or ther federal governments problem. Go speak to your local state government rep. (We wont mention who just quit because trying to work and be a mother is so darn hard! - even if she had a personal Nanny). For me, her "tough stance" on childcare was too little too late, and really, it yielded no real results. The point is, It was a Problem - and rather than *taking charge* and FIXING the problem, the blame game perpetuated to stupid proportions..... and everyone lost interest, leaving working parents with the same old problems, but no hope in sight.

So when Kevin Rudd looks at another state problem, ailing health systems, instead of hiding behind "Well, that's a State Problem", he puts his foot down. Certainly, I would answer a referendum much sooner than 2008, but what people are missing here, is he is shaming state governments into action. If they don't fix it, then Big Brother has to come and clean up their mess. I know with kids these days, threatening to get big brother to beat up the school bully is "cool", but lets not kid ourselves, we are from the era where if your older sibling had to do anything for you, it was ultimately embarrassing and just made the whole situation worse. In this situation, the federal government having to step in and take over one of the most important jobs in their portfolio would also be considered Political Suicide.
That said - I am counting on their common sense as much as Rudd is.

Fair go! I had to park on the footpath, or I would have had to walk an extra 100 metres...

Today's most amazing news story is about how *Greedy* the councils are. I would like to think I am not the only sane person in the world that realises that if people didn't park illegally, then the councils wouldn't have to fine them... right? Its the same as the "evil Speed Cameras" and how millions in fines are given out every year in those "revenue raisers in disguise". I find it more disturbing that so many people blatantly speed through known speed camera's like they have some god given right to do whatever the bloody hell they please. You cant miss the speed camera - there are THREE warning signs before it. You cant honestly not know where you cant and cant park either.. again - SIGNS! At the very least, common freaking sense! The Daily Telegraph, once again, in all its glory blames the councils for the stupidity of others.

Even funnier was the implication that Randwick Council is a lot meaner than Parramatta Council. No, Mr Bissett, people parking in Randwick are just a whole lot dumber! If I am right with who in Randwick cops the most parking fines, then you can just look at their behaviour at the race course for proof of that! I used to have a Race Horse, and I remember the parking *joke* well. We parked a fair way up the road, in a legal spot, and had a bit of a walk (myself while several months pregnant) to the entrance. About 100m of road shy of the entrance, the footpath disappeared under a string of cars. I cant remember which track this was at (Rosehill or Randwick), but it was absolutely shocking! We had our Four Kids with us for "Family Fun Day" while our Horse was racing in a listed event. Yet, I had to take them, and my pram onto the road, on the outside of parked cars just to get to the track. Wonder where the parking police were that day.

In Other News...

Apparently these days, Paying your rent amounts to squat if your landlord is less responsible than you are. Tenants have gone on record as being given 30 minutes to move out - one told to vacate the premises immediately, sorry, you cant take your stuff with you.

We all knew getting a rental property was getting hard these days - so you do your level best to maintain the rent and property in the most pristine of condition. But when you think that it gives you some security, you may one day find out you are sorely mistaken. Perhaps we should all keep the books other fiddly things packed - until buying a house finally becomes an option again.

Closing Words....

I wonder if I can stick my ex husband for $16,000 a week?

The Joke Thickens...

2007-08-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

Stop the Press!

I have got to admit, when the Daily Telegraph starts making an idiot of themselves, they manage to go the Whole Hog! I always knew that as it was, their Journalists were all sick the day that they taught the Impartiality Clause at Tabloid School, but at least other newspapers Sub-Editors manage to do a good job at hiding it for them.

The Daily Telegraph however, seems to revel in their employees horridly bias views and make a big deal out of nothing stories. Today's headlines see Kevin Rudd's Sister-In-Law admitting to being an exotic dancer (read: stripper) as a previous occupation. It will, according to the image caption "further embarrass" him. Oh well crap - If I had known I was supposed to be embarrassed by family being exotic dancers, then I guess I should walk around red as a beetroot!

To further add to my amusement, a comment posted (that one hopes is tongue in cheek - but based on the post, its doubtful) implies that since he cant possibly be able to control 20 million people because he cant control his own family..... And what era does Steve of Wollongong live in where he outwardly believes that Kevin Rudd has ANY say in his Sister-In-Law's life? So tell me Steve - should Kevin go over and belt her around a bit for being unashamed of her life choices? Perhaps you believe he should have done the same to his Wife for daring to run her own business without him controlling her every move. Hate to be frank here Steve, but people like you are the reason that those crazy ass feminists exist!

That aside, Steve, last time I checked, it was not the job of the Prime Minister of Australia to "control" the general public. He is a Public Servant, meant to Serve the Public. But given your obvious liberal bias, I understand where you got the misconception. After all, the Howard Government hasn't 'served' the public for a very long time..

If your post was Tongue in Cheek, please accept my apologies, otherwise, Please go straight to hell, and take your 50's attitude with you.

Onto Mrs Okhola Rudd - please don't feel bad. I am sure that part of the reason you spoke out was to try and show people that Exotic Dancers, and those that go to view them, aren't the spawn of satan as certain "Pretend posters" that actually have party affiliation would have us believe. (Oh yes, I do know about the comment posting by party faithful pretending to be a concerned citizen. It happens all over the place really - so most of the really slanted comments I read with a whole salt shaker.)

In Other News....

Dr Haneef today was awarded his visa back, pending an appeal by now disgraced Immigration Minister, Andrews. I am simply appalled at the treatment of this man, who in the grandest scheme of things, only real crime was assisting in easing the burden on our ailing public health system. Again, The Daily Telegraph managed to beat up the story a fair bit, speaking of his One Way Ticket to India (failing to mention that his wife, in India, had just given birth to their first child), and that the prosecutor "withdrew" the charges (Again, failing to mention that if it were not for Howard's anti terrorism laws, they would never have even been able to arrest him on the non-proof that they had). If being related to someone suspected of terrorism is a crime, then the Hicks Family had best be watching out. If giving a sim card to a family member makes you a terrorist, then I guess I had best be on the look out too.

Closing Words...
How do absolute nobodies make news? Who is the Queen Of Mean? Paris Hilton's idol perhaps?

The Inaugural Post

2007-08-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

Strip clubs and Red Blooded Men

I am sure I am not alone in my shock at the most unbelievable reaction to Kevin Rudd's visit to a strip club, four years ago. What a pathetic way to try and divert attention from the real issues that face everyday Australian's. Although I am sure his party set up the whole smear campaign, I am at least relieved that John Howard is playing it all down enough and pretending he only cares about policy. The "Howard Huggers", as they are so eloquently called, could take a leaf out of their Messiah's book. Sadly, they all seem to think that if I don't realise what a horrible, horrible thing that Rudd has done, then somehow, this evil visit to Scores is going to make my life incredibly worse!

Honestly people, if his visit to scores is vilifiable, then you should think about what the result of your actions should be for the drugs you are clearly taking.

Lets boil this down with some scenarios, shall we?

1) I am a school leaver. I have my HSC and I want to get a job. Now I would like a fair deal, after all, who doesn't. But I know for a fact that If I am offered a job, and the pay and conditions are utterly and dreadfully woeful, so bad that its tantamount to slave labour, if I should refuse, the government benefits are ceased. Of course, I can always "contest" this decision, but during the ensuing wait, I am broke and still trying to find the elusive and alleged "Fair Deal".
So how will Mr Rudd's visit to a strip club in New York make this situation worse for me?

2) I am married with a young family. We both work and are paying for child care which eats up most of the second wage, that its really not worth having a 2 income family. (Don't let the pollies fool you, that is the truth of the situation!) We want to buy our own home. There is a problem. Between the price of housing and the current interest rates, coupled with our day to day expenses and the amount of children we have, we cant pass the means test on home loan repayments! The dream of our own house is gone and we are stuck renting, with no stability for my children in their home, or school.
So how will Mr Rudd's visit to a strip club in NY in 2003 make this situation any worse for me?

3) My child has started school. It was OK at first, everything was going well... Then as happens with all kids, (s)he gets head lice from one of the kids at school. It takes several weeks of treatment to finally eradicate the unwelcome infestation, but the damage is already done. Kids are bullying him/her every day. (S)He is Physically, Mentally and Emotionally abused. The teachers either have no control, or no interest (usually the latter). Their grades start slipping, they lose all self respect. Then the school starts looking for reasons why - and unwilling to point the finger at their own inaction, they point it at their home and use "mandatory reporting" as an excuse to justify their actions.
So how will that one four year old visit by Mr Rudd, to a strip club make this situation worse?

4) My baby has developed a flu. With the rash of flu related deaths I become worried and take him to a doctor. They say its just a flu, keep him hydrated and take their paycheck from my utterly pointless visit. Over night it gets worse. His temperature soars and I pack everyone in a car and rush him to the hospital. Unfortunately due to the current state of the health system, we are faced with a terribly long wait. 8 Hours (this is not an exaggeration, I have waited 12 hours on a Sunday at Nepean Hospital because of all the insane extreme sports nuts breaking bones). By the time they finally get to him, its far too late - he had the deadly A an all that is left is the crying.
So if Mr Rudd didn't visit the strip club, that would bring the baby back to life, how exactly?

5) Ah, the twilight years. We are retired. Unfortunately I am from that generation where women didn't work, and superannuation wasn't as good as it is now. My whole income is reliant on centrelink. There is no real inheritance to speak of for my kids, nor do we own a house. We are left to rent...... on a pension! Or I become horribly ill, and its left to my children, who have families of their own to raise, to cover the costs of a nursing home.
The strip club visit could change the outcome of this in what way?

So lets put this into perspective shall we? A man visits a strip club in New York in 2003, and it, like every other man who visited the exact same strip club in 2003, or any other date or strip club you could mention, will have no bearing whatsoever on my life now , before or afterwards.

So why should I care? I don't.

I don't expect Rudd to be perfect, I expect him to be human. He is not a repeat offender. He didn't do anything illegal. He, like millions of men before and after him, had a few drinks and walked into a strip club. Whoop-de-f'kn-doo.

In other news...
So, the Rabbitoh's are pretenders huh? Determined little bunch of pretenders then, aren't they? Thank you Manly for such a great performance for you to Lose to, so that we don't get any of the usual "But Manly had a bad game" vitriol. Finals bound, and 2 teams that aren't exactly setting the world on fire in between us, and an extended season for the first time in far too long. Glory Glory!

Closing Words...
Spend time with your children. Cuddle them often, never is anything more important to you, and nor anything should be. They are lives created by you, depending on you. They have your love, they need your support and time.
Support SIDS research.