Let’s Buggerup Rupert’s Firewall

Remember Buga-up? This crew used to alter billboards in very constructive ways.

I’m not sure if they’re still in operation – they should be.

I’ve always found subversion of the corporate world appealing, although never have I personally been involved in it.

Given the liberating effect of semi-retirement, and more time available these days, its appeal looms large.

Guerrilla tactics – asymmetric warfare – whatever label you care to apply, is almost always effective when it targets large unwieldy conventionally organised structures. It worked well for the Vietnamese forty years ago.

One structure that is begging to be buggered up is Rupert’s firewall. Given the crap that’s daily posted on the Fart of the Nation, it really deserves its comeuppance.

The irony in this is, of course, that said crap becomes free to browsers. I comfort myself with the thought that much of what is posted is so biased that it deserves to be held up as an example of the depths to which our print media in this country has descended.

The method is simple.

We would need seven bloggers – one for each day of the week. Each would buy a copy of TFOTN* on a different day. Blogger 1 would buy the Weekend edition, blogger 2, Monday’s, blogger 3 Tuesday’s and so on.

Each would post their daily list of stories. To give you an example, the weekend FOTN list would look something like this:

Page 1 – 2^nd June 2012

PM told: migrants or the mine – Dennis Shanahan and Joe Kelly

Secret ‘war’ with China uncovered – Brendan Nicholson

Bonita Mabo’s call to women – Greg Callaghan

Cabinet split as Crean lashes ‘hasty’cattle ban – Hedley Thomas

The list could be posted page by page. You then do a Google search with the whole title including the by-line. Try it with the list above.

The whole article (including pics) is available – no firewall. The firewall does operate if you link from a blog, but the Google search circumvents this.

So who out there wants to volunteer to be responsible for a day? I’ll do the weekend edition – I buy it for Phillip Adam’s article in the magazine anyway. Pick your day and let me know. You can then email the list of titles and by-lines and I'll post daily on this blog, or maybe set up a different website for the purpose.

Today’s front page is true to form, by the way – three out of four stories biased against the government.

It’s about time the monopoly power and bias of News Limited was targeted.

*The Fart of the Nation

Stop Go

In the last couple of days I've driven about 1000km on the Warrego highway.

I've also spent plenty of time parked on that same road behind traffic controllers. Working it out, the time involved was about two hours all up.

In other words, for two hours I was paid good money to sit on my backside. I think that's referred to as a loss of productivity.

The whole highway is under repair, and the damage is a consequence of exploding mine and exploration traffic which has well and truly buggered the road, most of it built across black soil country.

I've followed all manner of trucked machinery along this road, and actually watched the surface move and squirm under the massive tonnage of trucked dongas, drilling rigs, and all manner of gear heading for the Surat basin.

So who's paying for the repairs?

You and me - the Aussie taxpayer.

Our tax dollar is subsidizing the billion dollar earnings of the miners through making good the damage they do to local infrastructure.

It's about time the "user pays" principle was applied to these cowboys.

We won't go Gently

Fearsome Baby Boomers

“This decade's retirees will be the first generation to be university-educated, opinionated, articulate and with time on their hands. What better "sport" to while away the slow hours of retirement by a generation used to being in the spotlight than objecting to property development projects?”

And

“They will demand services on a scale that has not been provided previously. And they will demand attention: protesting and agitating and generally making a nuisance of themselves.”

These quotes from my favourite demographer, Bernard Salt, caught my eye.

I reckon he’s on the money.

The gist of his article is that there’s never been a generation like the Boomers in the past, and there most likely never will be in the future.

We are demanding, assertive, and have changed the world (for the better, obviously).

He points out that we’ll be missed when the last of us leaves the workforce.

My guess is that the nation will go backwards. They really won’t be able to do without us.

(To get around Rupert’s firewall, just Google “The inexorable rise of the opinionated boomer retiree by: Bernard Salt)

Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers

Here, just for the hell of it, is a sea shanty.

My son reckons it's a drinking song. Any song you're singing whilst drinking is a drinking song.

Thanks Brendan.

Democracy?

It’s strange how myths develop to the point where thay become part of the language. The USA is referred to as “The home of the brave; the land of the free”.

If freedom is defined as having the capacity to participate in the democratic process, perhaps our cousins stateside had better have another look at their definition.

A brief examination of some simple comparative statistics is revealing –

National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2010

This grid provides information about voter statistics, including age of voting population, voter registration, and turnout.

Year	Voting-age population	Voter registration	Voter turnout	Turnout of voting-age population (percent)
2010**	235,809,266	NA	90,682,968	37.8%
2008*	231,229,580	NA	132,618,580*	56.8
2006	220,600,000	135,889,600	80,588,000	37.1
2004	221,256,931	174,800,000	122,294,978	55.3
2002	215,473,000	150,990,598	79,830,119	37.0
2000	205,815,000	156,421,311	105,586,274	51.3
1998	200,929,000	141,850,558	73,117,022	36.4
1996	196,511,000	146,211,960	96,456,345	49.1
1994	193,650,000	130,292,822	75,105,860	38.8
1992	189,529,000	133,821,178	104,405,155	55.1
1990	185,812,000	121,105,630	67,859,189	36.5
1988	182,778,000	126,379,628	91,594,693	50.1
1986	178,566,000	118,399,984	64,991,128	36.4
1984	174,466,000	124,150,614	92,652,680	53.1
1982	169,938,000	110,671,225	67,615,576	39.8
1980	164,597,000	113,043,734	86,515,221	52.6
1978	158,373,000	103,291,265	58,917,938	37.2
1976	152,309,190	105,037,986	81,555,789	53.6
1974	146,336,000	96,199,0201	55,943,834	38.2
1972	140,776,000	97,328,541	77,718,554	55.2
1970	124,498,000	82,496,7472	58,014,338	46.6
1968	120,328,186	81,658,180	73,211,875	60.8
1966	116,132,000	76,288,2833	56,188,046	48.4
1964	114,090,000	73,715,818	70,644,592	61.9
1962	112,423,000	65,393,7514	53,141,227	47.3
1960	109,159,000	64,833,0965	68,838,204	63.1

*Source 2008 election results: http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2008G.html.

Interesting stuff – I’m too lazy to do the maths, but it looks like participation in Presidential ballots (Bold) averages about the mid fifties, and congressional elections score in the high thirties.

Think about it. Only one Yank in two elects the President, and only one in three his/her congressional rep. This is the home of freedom as expressed by participation in the democratic process?

Given the control the Yanks exert over the rest of us through their military and economic power, I humbly suggest that if the Septics are too lazy to get off their bums and vote, then maybe residents of other democracies who are affected by American power should get a vote if they wish. Seems only fair.

Comparing the USA with other democracies is even more revealing -

Turnout in national lower house elections, 1960–1995
Country	Compulsory	№	Turnout
Malta	N	6	94%
Chile	N	2	93%†
Austria	N	9	92%
Belgium	Y	12	91%
Italy	Y (not enforced)	9	90%
Luxembourg	Y	7	90%
Iceland	N	10	89%
New Zealand	N	12	88%
Denmark	N	14	87%
Germany	N	9	86%
Sweden	N	14	86%
Greece	Y (not enforced)	10	86%
Venezuela	N*	7	85%
Czech Republic	N	2	85%
Argentina	Y	12	83%
Brazil	Y	3	83%
Netherlands	N**	7	83%
Australia	Y	14	81%[35]
Costa Rica	N	8	81%
Norway	N	9	81%
Romania	N	2	81%
Bulgaria	N	2	80%
Israel	N	9	80%
Portugal	N	9	79%
Finland	N	10	78%
France	N	9	76%
United Kingdom	N	9	76%
South Korea	N	11	75%
Ireland	N	11	74%
Canada	N	12	74%
Spain	N	6	73%
Japan	N	12	71%
Estonia	N	2	69%
Hungary	N	2	66%
Russia	N	2	61%
India	N	6	58%
Switzerland	N	8	54%
Poland	N	2	51%
United States	N	18	48%***
*Compulsory voting until 1998
**Excludes pre-1968 elections, when voting was compulsory.
***Turnout rates during the period ranged from 55% for general election years, to 40% to off-year elections (those for which the presidency was not on the ballot).
Statistics from Mark N. Franklin's "Electoral Participation", found in Controversies in Voting Behaviour (2001). Includes only "free" elections.
†Excludes pre-1989 elections. Sources: Electoral Service, Election Qualifying Court. Voting is no longer compulsory in Chile.

Of the group of nations listed the USA ranks lowest, behind the likes of Romania, Poland and Estonia.

Given the apparent belief held by many Americans that their country is the bastion of democratic principles, I find that passing strange.

What is even stranger is this report in today’s Fart of the Nation.*

It seems that partisan and discriminatory laws are in place in some US states that make it virtually impossible to register to vote if you are poor, disabled, or elderly. Sure, these laws are being challenged, but their existence provides an interesting insight into the American definition of freedom.

It sure isn’t mine.

* The Australian 

Update - To get around Rupert's firewall on that link, do a Google search on  "Tough new voting laws threaten Barack Obama election by: David Weisbrot".

Song for my Dad

>
Great song and my dad's favourite.

Yowah

Yowah golf course

This is a unique town. I use the word “unique” advisedly. There’s probably nowhere else like it.

It is similar in many ways to places like Lightning Ridge and Cracow but has its own character which sets it apart from them.

Despite the fact that most who live here are doing it tough, they are a friendly and generous crew. Making a living scratching for opal in this hard red country is not for the faint hearted.

There’s an awareness of the history of the place, and most are happy to yarn to visitors about it. Talking to the locals renders time unimportant, and you are reminded of the long lost arts of conversation and yarn spinning.

They are a strong community, and have developed, in their own unique way, a golf course, a library and a museum. All are worth a visit.

I was working, so couldn’t dawdle, but it would be a great place to spend a few days, or if you’re the adventurous kind, stake a claim and scratch a while.Toompine is also worth a visit, even if it’s just to meet the donkeys.