Tuesday 31 December 2013

Room to rent for Mardi Gras

David has done a wonderful job with the spare room (my daughter's old room) and we're now toying with the idea of renting it out on a short term basis over the Mardi Gras period, which is only a bit over a month away in Feb that the Mardi Gras festival starts, lasting a month with the Mardi-Gras parade on March 1st. International or interstate visitors would be the thing we reckon, as those who live near Sydney have lots of opportunity to see the parade already.

At public transport about 15 minutes from the city centre, including of course Central train station, Circular Quay. Close to all the eastern suburbs beaches (one is clothes optional). Two elderly female cats that are just lovely darlings.

It's is a bit late in the day to be advertising but you never know. Contact me if you like through this blog at peterhiv@hotmail.com

Here's some pics:


There are views out onto a main road, with marvelous greenery on a nature strip (well at least I'm being honest...sort of....). Um..... it's very near the Tasman Sea and gets a fresh cool sea breeze from the water in the summer. Other than that it's an old house with "character", but David has fixed it up really well.

Waking up depressed

For the last week or so I've been having some sort of dreams at night that are hardly even remember-able, but they put my head into a bad place by the time the morning comes. I noticed this morning that I was feeling depressed, and realised this had been happening for days now. Anxiety as well, where I can't put my finger on why I'm feeling anxious.

My assumption is the daughter dramas are playing themselves out in my dreams. That'd be enough to depress anyone. Has been hard to get motivated and do much useful. Housework has piled up a bit, mainly just laundry but I'm usually pretty on top of that. Finding it hard to be interested in things.

Maybe it's just the time of year....

Tony's Wisdom - The Promise

Monday 30 December 2013

"Money on the Mind"

A fascinating report into what happens when you make people feel poor or rich.
 
 

Abbott's Medicare cost of living pressure

Firstly, this is what Abbott said just days before the Sept election:
''I want to give people this absolute assurance: no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions and no changes to the GST.''
This is what's being recommended to him now by his ex-advisor Terry Barnes:
However, the report, obtained by Fairfax Media, shows the recommended co-payment is $6 and patients will not get 12 free visits a year. Instead, once they visit their GP more than 12 times in a year the government will start to pay the fee for them. It also says GPs may use their discretion to waive the co-payment on compassionate or financial grounds. Read more
This is what Terry Barnes thinks of his report:
''It's a modest and affordable solution to allowing access to a world-class general practice system,'' Mr Barnes said. Read more 
The gov has at present "no comment":
 On Sunday federal Health Minister Peter Dutton refused to end speculation that the proposal had the government's support, only saying he was committed to ensuring the health system was ''sustainable and accessible to the future''. Read more
Lovely. Obviously this Terry Barnes has no idea how much $6 is to a pensioner. Not that I'd think any doctor in his right mind would charge a pensioner anything. 

I wonder about who it'd effect though. A struggling family with both parents working who relies on free doctor visits for the whole family, isn't going to want to cough up anything. After all, it's all been handled by the Medicare levy until now. Why suddenly should people have to start co-paying when nothing has changed? The budget debt crisis only exists in the Lieberals imagination.

But no. This is the man Abbott who won the election harping on to the stupid about cost of living pressures that didn't exist factually. Blaming it all on the carbon tax of course. Well finally Abbott has found some actual facts to back up his "cost of living pressures" scary monster thing; he's invented his own.

 

Ferals got evicted :)

I am claiming victory.

The other day the ferals (the ones in the unit on the next property managed by the same real estate) where in a great flurry of moving in a hurry. David thought they probably were just leaving after their front door was destroyed in some kind of an extremely aggressive break in, but I have confirmed through the neighbour grape vine that they were booted out.

In the end what bought them down was their own stupidity. Simply because they wouldn't use their own rubbish bins (including to throw out unwanted stolen goods) but used ours instead, filling them to overflowing in half a week. At which time I was left to clean up stuff that they didn't put in the bins because they were full. Namely a smashed mirror, a syringe lid, a steroid vial, and a broken bong, none of which were even wrapped up in anything or in any kind of bag. When I protested to the real estate they still kept doing it, annoying the fuck out of us.

Therefore I spilt the beans to the real estate about everything that was going on over there; it was obvious they were dealing drugs from all the people in and out, and the girl leaseholder was well known for staggering around the place completely off her face. That our mail got stolen by her, and that the police have been called a few times over them screaming the fuck at each other.

Then came the destroyed front door, followed by the forensic police the next morning. I'd say that would've been the last straw for the real estate.

They had about a week to finish cleaning the place and came back a few days later. We were all treated to the sight of this about 20 year old looking guy, wandering around the common areas in a drug induced haze, calling someone's name constantly that was in unintelligible speech. That went on for about half an hour, before someone else got there and they went upstairs to the unit. Instead of cleaning though it looked more like a sad case of a couple of people with fried brains. Dunno how much cleaning they got done, but I doubt they'd have got any of their bond back.

David cleaned daughter's room

He started in there yesterday and finished in the afternoon. Volunteered to do it to save me the heart ache he said. Vacuumed it all and the fleas have carked it after two cans of flea bomb I let off in there. Rearranged it all and put various pictures and ornaments in there. Looks like a different room now, although you can still see where the pictures were on the wall as the walls are yellow with smoking in there with her mates.

Was so thankful to David for doing it. I'd just shut the door and had no plans anytime soon to open it, apart from bombing the fleas.... He could see it was bothering me. Honestly I dunno if I'd have been able to go in there and clean up her shit for the third time. Was seriously doing my head in. It brings back so many very painful memories. Each object becomes like a stab in the heart. It was one of the nicest things David has ever done for me.

It's a nice room. We're near the water and it gets a fresh sea breeze in the afternoons through the window.  a good size being an old place. On the corner of a free standing house. Double brick. And my daughter turned it into a dark horrible pigsty.

Saturday 28 December 2013

"I Am HIV Positive" - anti-stigma sign


Pension paid early! :)

PSA to all disability pensioners: we've been paid early!
 photo bliss.gif photo firework75.gif

Turned on the PC this morning to look at the grim-ness involved in the rent this week. David's only recently started getting some valuable shifts at work over the holiday break (penalty rates) but he won't see any of that money for nearly another two weeks. We were just about at the point this week of paying the rent on my credit card and living off noodles until next Wednesday.

So I look at the balance on my bank account and it's way too much. I look at the transaction record below and I get a thrill! My pension has been put into my account early! Hooray! I can pay the rent this week! Must have something to do with the holdays and banks being shut at the wrong times.

Yeah Abbott, read this fuckin shit. And you want to target us bloody disability pensioners..... You try living on this Abbott.

New Senate election coming WA?

OMG! Is there some light in amongst this ghastly Abbott nightmare that we're all enduring?

As is known, the senate results from the Sept 7th election come into effect July next year, at which time the senate may become less difficult for Abbott's nightmare plans for us. Although that would remain to be seen given Abbott's hopelessness at any sort of negotiation with anybody; getting legislation past Labor and the Greens would require negotiating with a number of independents. A tough ask for Abbott in itself.

Now however it may get a lot worse for Abbott in the new senate than he thought. The Western Australian senate vote is in dire straights. The entire results of the WA senate vote (3 Lieberals and one Labor, and two very close seats) are being challenged in the High Court! For good reason. The results were so close that recounts saw that idiot Clive Palmer's candidate lose their senate seat to the Greens, and Labor's seat to the Australian Sports Party (whoever the fuck they are :s). But there's more.....

Now the whole senate vote in WA is being challenged  because there were over 1,300 votes that went missing in the recounts. It's all up to the High Court of course, but given the latest polling in WA I suspect Abbott is privately shitting himself. The Lieberal Coalition's support in WA has spectacularly crashed since the Sept election of Abbott (no shit Sherlock) by fuckin 10 points on the primary vote:
The final two Senate spots initially went to Palmer United Party candidate Zhenya Wang and Labor's Louise Pratt but they were replaced by the Greens' Scott Ludlam and Australian Sports Party's Wayne Dropulich after a Greens-instigated recount.

The entire election is now being challenged after it was revealed that 1370 votes went missing during the recount.

Senior Liberals fear a fresh election opens the possibility that minor-party candidates could increase their vote as electors face a tablecloth-sized ballot paper as the minor parties line up to contest the re-run, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. more
And so what's the federal gov's response to these polls? Pretty much it's Abbott saying "It's not my fault" showing an oblivious perception of reality: 
According to the latest Newspoll analysis of state-by-state and demographic voting support in the past three months, conducted exclusively for The Weekend Australian, the Abbott government's first 100 days have ended with a drop in Western Australia of 10 percentage points from its election primary vote of 51.2 per cent to 41 per cent. 

Labor's primary vote support in the state has risen from 28.8 per cent at the election to 36 per cent and support for "others" has gone from 10.3 per cent to 13 per cent. 

On a two-party-preferred basis, using preference flows at the September election, Labor and the Coalition are even on 50 per cent, compared with the election result of 58.3 to the Coalition against Labor's 41.7 per cent. 

Federal Liberals believe the Abbott government is suffering collateral damage from the plunging popularity of Premier Colin Barnett and his Liberal government. In reaction to the poll slide in Western Australia, the Prime Minister told The Weekend Australian that if there was a new Senate election, it would be a referendum on the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes, which were "anti-Western Australia taxes" in the minerals-rich state. more
We can only hope the High Court will say yes to another senate election in WA, and that the drop in Lieberal support there will be reflected in the voting.

Abbott started his gov thinking he was going to walk in and everyone was going to just say "yes yes Tony, throw me over and fuck me hard". The reality though is vastley different than his perceptions. 

Friday 27 December 2013

Pensions promise broken by Abbott

This is what Tony Abbott said only days before the Sept 7th election:
''I want to give people this absolute assurance: no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions and no changes to the GST.'' Read more
This is what his gov is saying now:
''This [the disability support pension] is one of the fast-growing areas of government expenditure,'' he said on Sunday. ''The Commission of Audit is looking at this whole area for us … and is expected to make some recommendations on how that can best be achieved by the end of January.'' Read more
In the article they interview a real live disability pensioner, a Mrs White, who suffers from MS. She tells her story of how hard it is to actually get on the DSP in the first place, let alone have some kind of review done. I'd agree. Although I seemed to easily jump through all the hoops, it still took about a month to go through the process.

Then there is the sense of betrayal. Even though people like me and her will be fine, the fact that we pensioners are being singled out for some sort of cuts to the system whilst the Abbott gov sets about buying $3billion worth of drones, is obscene. Mrs White puts it bluntly:
Jacqui White, of Symonston, considers the breach of faith is on a par with Julia Gillard's broken ''no carbon tax under a government I lead'' pledge and ''probably worse'', given Mr Abbott did not have to form a minority government. 
 .................................... 

She said the move had created uncertainty and fear for her and the estimated 822,000 other people dependent on the hard-to-get pension, which amounts to an annual cost of about $15 billion. ''It took me two years just to qualify to apply,'' she said. ''I believe it's even harder now.'' Read more
I might add that illness often includes much more anxiety than is normally in the general population. A threat to pensioners on our measly money would only exacerbate that anxiety.


Capitalist nightmare Oz style

In the true spirit of capitalism, we have an example in Sydney of the desire to consume being stronger than the responsibility to a baby. The mother's own baby. 

In a fit of what I can only consider to be brain dead consumer drone type behaviour, a mother left her baby in her car for an hour and a half whilst she went shopping for Boxing Day specials. The car was in an undercover carpark, but still it was pretty warm yesterday. She rolled the windows down in case the baby got hot, and took off to the shops. It wasn't until a passer by saw the baby alone in the car that the police were called and the baby taken out via the wound down windows.

At the very least she should be charged with child abandonment. How in the hell could whatever she was going to buy be more important than the life of her baby? The baby could have been abducted or anything, let alone being in the heat. 
"She parked the car in an undercover car park and attended the centre alone. 

"Security were notified of the unattended child by a passer-by at about 10am. 

"They made numerous attempts to locate the owner of the car but were unsuccessful. 

"Security removed the child and took him to their office where they were met by police," he added. 

The woman, from Doncaster, was eventually found at 11am and spoken to by police. 

Ambulance crews checked over the child, declaring him in good health. more

Bishop praises anti-gay bill - Uganda

Don't worry, "they're not all like that"......

Surprise surprise. An Anglican bishop in Uganda has praised the Ugandan gov for recently passing the anti-gay bill that can see someone locked up for life because of their sexuality/LGBT status. This is from Uganda telly, some of it's a touch hard to understand because of their accent but the points against gays are loud and clear.

Christian hatred at it's finest:

Thursday 26 December 2013

Anti-gay Pastors and pollies caught out

NSW cops - know your rights factsheet

With the 2014 Mardi Gras on the way we will all be having our attention somewhat focused on the performance of our police, as compared to the obscenities that occurred in this years parade. As part of this lead up the Inner City Legal Centre has put together a fact sheet on exactly what your rights are regarding police powers and their searches for possible drugs. It makes for some interesting reading.
Police powers and drug searches 
If you have attended Mardi Gras, Sleaze Ball or a music festival in recent years, you have probably noticed a significant police presence, often accompanied by sniffer dogs looking for people carrying drugs. If you are stopped and searched by police, it is important to know your rights and what police can and can’t do. The following fact sheet outlines police powers regarding stopping you, searching you and using sniffer dogs. more
I note that nowhere in there does it state that it's OK for 5 cops to assault a person for crossing the road. Or for cops to arrest someone for tickling people.

Edward Snowden’s Christmas Message

Evidently this harmless little video is being censored in some countries or removed. This is from the Wikileaks Party site where it can't be removed. I've embeded it here as well.


Wednesday 25 December 2013

US cops force man to pay for anal search

"Anti-Christian Atheists"

AIDS vaccine test results faked

This is truly sick:
An Iowa State University assistant professor resigned after being accused of spiking rabbit blood to falsely show that an AIDS vaccine was working in the research animals. 

Dong-Pyou Han was an assistant professor of biomedical sciences. He resigned in October after admitting responsibility, an ISU spokesman said. 

The fraudulent results helped an ISU research team gain millions of dollars in federal money, according to James Bradac, who helps oversee AIDS vaccine grants for the National Institutes of Health. 

Bradac said in a phone interview Monday that Han apparently added human blood components to the rabbit blood to skew experiments' results. He said this was the worst case of research fraud he'd seen in his 24 years at the federal agency. 

The human blood came from people whose bodies had produced antibodies to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Bradac said. The presence of these antibodies in the rabbits' blood made it appear that the vaccine was spurring the animals to build defenses against HIV. 
"This positive result was striking, and it caught everybody's attention," Bradac said. more
I can't imagine how somebody could even fathom giving hope for a vaccine to untold people, simply because they wanted more funding sent their way. And how on earth did the guy think he was going to get away with it?

Infested with fleas - daughter's room

David went in there yesterday (the door has been shut as I can't stand looking at the mess in there for now) and had about a half dozen fleas jump on him in seconds. The room is infested with them. Not the rest of the house, just her old room. Sprayed surface spray all over the carpet and shut the door, even put a thing at the bottom of the door to keep the fleas contained in there. Will have to bomb the thing when the shops open after Christmas, and even then it's going to have to be sprayed regularly in case any eggs still remain and hatch. 

Gonna take a while to clear them I think, and a bit of money. Kicking myself now as I should have got a bond off her when she moved in. These bombs and sprays aren't cheap. And what about my labour that it's going to take to get rid of them?

She must have known about them. She gets like an allergic red spot where they bite her on the ankles. But she didn't say anything about it. As they're not in the rest of the house they must have been bought in by one of her feral friends; perhaps the one who stunk to high heaven and left piss all in front of the toilet on the floor? Fuckin druggie grub.

Tuesday 24 December 2013

Jesus Rebranded

Life in prison for gays - Uganda passes bill

It used to be called the "Kill the gays" bill as it did have the death sentence included in the legislation, until there was such international outrage that the Ugandan's chose the life in prison thing instead. It is still however a shocker:
NPR reports Uganda’s parliament approved the Anti-Homosexuality Bill on Friday in the capital, Kampala. When the bill was first introduced in 2009 it was called the ‘Kill the Gays Bill’ because it punished certain acts of homosexuality with execution. The death penalty provision was removed following international outrage, but the current bill still calls for life imprisonment for gay sex involving HIV-positive individuals, acts with minors and the disabled, and for repeated ‘offenses’ involving consenting adults.

A person who “conducts a marriage ceremony” for a same-sex couple faces seven years behind bars under the bill, and it also criminalizes failure to report homosexual acts to authorities, and calls for five-year prison terms for medical professionals who treat gays, landlords who rent them property and even individuals suspected of being gay.
“Promoting” homosexuality is also a crime under the bill, an ‘offense’ which reportedly covers acts as innocuous as providing HIV counseling. more
It's well known that US evangelical Christians have been going to Uganda for years to drum up gay hatred there. We have no further to look at the cause of this current Ugandan hatred of gays than those lovely dear Pentecostals darlings. 
NPR reports the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was written with the help of US evangelical Christians with “close ties” to the Ugandan lawmakers who are pushing for its passage. Chief among these Americans is Scott Lively, a Massachusetts-based evangelical facing a US lawsuit filed by Ugandan gays under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to sue in US courts for human rights violations committed abroad. 
“There are those factions of the evangelical community in the US that believe they’ve more or less lost the fight against the homosexual agenda,” Malika Zouhali Worrall, co-director of a documentary film called “Call Me Kuchu” (queer), told NPR. “Therefore, they’re trying to pre-empt it in other countries.” more
So what might be the result of this drumming up of gay hatred in Uganda? Well folks, here it is; some poor bloke over there burned alive in front of everyone because he was gay:


Are the evangelical Christians satisfied now? Perhaps the US Pentecostals may wish to reflect on their so called morality around the Christmas tree this year?

Update:

Richard Branson calls for a Uganda boycott.
I have been courted by various people and government officials to do business in Uganda. I was seriously considering it.

However, the dreadful witch hunt against the gay community and lifetime sentences means it would be against my conscience to support this country.

I would urge other companies worldwide to follow suit. Uganda must reconsider or find it being ostracised by companies and tourists worldwide. more

Bumped into Alex Greenwich :)

I've noticed a pollie in Sydney lately, who actually thinks like a normal Sydney person. Gay Independent Alex Greenwich, has taken up some really excellent causes; the non-discrimination in private schools just one. Being gay he's representative of the gay community, and has been playing a big role in the aftermath of the police brutality at Mardi Gras earlier this year.

Anyway David and I were walking along Oxford St a couple of days ago and I recognised him from his online pictures next to us. Called out "Alex" and we chatted a short time and shook hands. With Australia's political system seemingly straight jacketed by last centuries politicians, this bloke is a breath of political fresh air.

Here is his review of 2013:


Christmas blues

Have been feeling pretty down the last few days. Christmas isn't a happy time for me. Will be glad when it's over and gone. 

Have decided not to communicate with my daughter for about a month as every time she texts or emails it's a hissy fit at me about something. That will of course include Christmas and new year holidays. I know I've done the best I can and I know my daughter leaving (albeit in a fit of anger) was the right course of action. And I know it's the third time she's done this in 7 years, but having my own daughter not wanting to have anything to do with me still hurts, especially at this time of year. I'm not alone in feeling like this about it:
Yet, while Christmas is a happy experience for some, it can be far from it for others. A major case of the holiday blues can be brought on by the knowledge that it will be a Christmas without a loved one, or perhaps it will be marred by conflict and family tension, the weight of financial pressures or simply the realisation that another year has passed in a less-than-fulfilling marriage or job.

Whatever the cause for your festive unhappiness, it doesn’t have to be that way. The most important step to achieving contentment at Christmas is to stop acting cheery when you’re not. That’s the opinion of US public speaker and author Dr Dain Heer.

"There’s this holiday myth that Christmas is a happy time for everyone," the former chiropractor says. "If you’re happy over the holidays, then that’s great and that’s the way it could be and ought to be, but what I’ve found is that there are a lot of people who are unhappy during the holidays, even if just for a short time, and they don’t acknowledge it and realise, hey, I’m not alone here." more
Wish me luck. It's Christmas eve here and I have to shop at the supermarket :/

Monday 23 December 2013

It Gets Better: Dan and Terry

Review of Disability Support Pension by Abbott

Typical. This is usually number one on the hit list isn't it when a conservative gov comes in; hit the fuckin pensioners. It's a moral crisis! There are too many on the DSP and will send the country broke! We must put an end to the pensioners taking advantage of us all!
FINANCE Minister Mathias Cormann has confirmed the government is reviewing the Disability Support Pension to ensure any person capable of working returns to employment. 

News Limited Sunday papers have reported the Disability Support Pension scheme is facing a significant overhaul, with the Abbott government contemplating a two-tiered system that would limit new entrants to temporary payments if their disability was not permanent, and subject workers under 40 to more regular reviews to determine whether they are capable or part-time employment. 
Speaking on Sky News' Australian Agenda this morning, Senator Cormann said the Disability Support Pension was "one of the fast growing areas of government expenditure." more
Note the picture of doom at the end; "fast growing" and "expenditure". Couple that with the Abbott fairy tale of a debt crisis and there you have it.

It doesn't concern me personally as apparently I have three permanent conditions (HIV, depression/PTSD, chronic kidney failure). They nearly threw the bloody pension at me when I finally applied for it. Readers of this blog would know how hard I tried to keep working but couldn't.

I realise that there will be cases of people abusing the system, but from my experience going on the DSP isn't exactly the pinnacle of human success. And can't those people be weeded out without demonising all of us and threatening us with some big club? There are very good reasons why I'm on the DSP, as I'm sure there are many others with just as good or better reasons. Why should any of us legit pension getters feel threatened by the gov over this?

Update:

From Bob Ellis.
AFTER 107 DAYS, it is clear the conservatives will redefine ‘disability’, as I said they would.

After betraying the whales and “liberating” Holden workers (their bosses couldn’t handle the world recession, so they should endure humiliation, and their children educational disaster) and the disadvantaged children, and after angering the Indonesians, the Chinese, the East Timorese, the Niuginians and the United Nations, and punishing the children of Tamil fugitives anxious for a better life, they are now kicking cripples, as tories in the past have been keen to do.

What a mean, sadistic bunch they are. What swindlers, what grubs. more  

Sunday 22 December 2013

Daughter refuses to pay utilities

I decided to leave trying to contact my daughter about all the crap she's left behind to clean up, including utility bills, until she's had enough time to calm down a bit.

I sent her a little text 2 days ago about the gas bill that's just come (the meter reading is well within the time she was here) and the coming electricity bill in Jan, which will have a large portion on it of when she was here. All I got back from her was some kind of text explosion raving on and on. I looked at David and said "I guess that means no". She's not going to get away with this though as there's no reason why she shouldn't contribute to the utilities she owes. Will leave it for a little while and send her the bloody PDF's of the bills that they send to me for my records.

The gas bill was only about $100, but she owes for the whole time the meter readings were. The electricity bill last time was a lot at $650 for the quarter but it was a winter bill. This one I'm expecting around $400, but she would owe a bit of that. 

My point is that the money owed has nothing to do with any arguments with any flatmate or partner, it's just business. As the cleaning of the room is supposed to be.


Governor General petition - dismiss Abbott gov

I'm a bit bleary eyed and shattered after being so sick yesterday. Forgive me darlings if I'm not the slightly whitty sarcastic prick that I often am. 

I think I've got petition overload. Everytime I see another petition I groan internally. Seems like they can get a bit overdone at times, although the amount that some can get up too is a statement in itself. This petition however has caught my eye, for both reasons of the numbers signing but more particularly the subject matter itself.

I've often sniped at the end of a post about Abbott, "Is it time for the Governor General yet?", referring of course to the Whitlam gov being sacked by the Governor General in the '70's. Well, wouldn't you know it, there's a petition for just that going. It's nearly up to 60,000 signatures, quite a number considering the subject.
To: Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce, AC CVO Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

This is a statement of non-confidence.

We the people of Australia do hereby firmly reject the Abbott Government and the Liberal National Party as our ruling body. We do not condone any of its actions henceforth, nor do we accept its values as our own.

We strongly implore the Governor General of Australia to dismiss the LNP Government before serious damage is done to Australia as a nation. Already the LNP has removed several key, and crucially important ministers from the Cabinet. Among these are the ministers for Science, Mental Health, Aged Care and Disabilities. Insultingly, they have been replaced with a minister for Sport.

Furthermore, just 100 days into the Abbott regime, we have become the first nation to attempt to repeal actions against the Climate Change, have been slammed with human rights abuses for our Asylum Seeker Detention Centres including children being separated from their parents, the sick being denied medication and asylum seekers being imprisoned for unacceptable amounts of time, and have had the very last bastion of free journalism in Australia (the ABC) threatened with budget cuts because they do not say what the LNP want them to say!

We simply cannot sit by idly while our Country is ravaged in this fashion. Everything that we have built these many long years is now at risk as the LNP dissect Australia and sell her vital organs for profit.

If there is any love in you for the state of Australian Society, we strongly urge you to dismiss the LNP or to dissolve parliament, as is your right and power to do so.

Sincerely, 
Sign here
Yes, it's still in the Australian Constitution because we're not a Republic. The monarchists want us to hold on to the Queens apron forever more, hence the Queen is still our head of state. Her representative here is our Governor General, who still has the power to sack a gov.

Personally, I'd rather see the LNP grab the bull by the horns and ditch Abbott as their leader. They're doing an historic nose dive in the polls that I can't see them coming back from with Abbott in charge. Are they so deluded and arrogant that they think they're doing the right thing for Australia?

Saturday 21 December 2013

Kiera the cat

This is Kiera yesterday. 


This morning she kept me company in my hour of need :) Lying next to me happily. She's come out of her shell a lot since Felix left a few days ago. He was this big boisterous young male cat who got carried away with Kiera a lot. She's an old thing and not in the mood these days for much play. So she used to stay in one or two places that were safe from Felix, like the computer chair of the dinning chairs. 

Now though she's walking all over the house, sleeping and investigating everywhere. She hasn't slept on our bed for months, but the last three nights she's been there all night. She's meowing/talking to us again like she used to. Think she's actually quite pleased Felix has left.

Sick

Have spent the morning in bed, trying to sleep and trying not to vomit. Dunno why just not well today. Took my morning pills and very nearly chucked them all up soon after. Lay in bed and slept a bit. Kiera stayed with me there happily purring and sleeping next to my shoulder.

Stomach feels like really bad indigestion. It's Eno aplenty again, burping like mad after having it. I'm wondering if it's all the stress of late with my daughter. Don't at all feel like eating.

Friday 20 December 2013

"Will you stand with us in 2014?" - Unions

An end of year message from Unions Australia, looking at the challenges that are ahead in 2014 under an Abbott gov:


Russian TV star - "Burn gays alive"


Three times in seven years - daughter leaves

After a bit of addition yesterday I figured out how long it took for my daughter to leave my place three times in a great angry explosion, the latest being this time (as usual at Christmas). Even I was surprised at the result. This is the third time in only seven years that she's done this to me, and every time it's always been someone elses fault and not hers.

Enough is enough FFS. Even if David wasn't even here I wouldn't have her back living in the house with me again, not to have to go through this shit again at some point. I've been through enough and have enough of my own issues to deal with her bullshit. Not when she's 23. She needs counseling or seeing a psychologist about her own issues, which she won't do. Honestly it's like she's a touch psychotic living in her own fantasy world. 

I wonder what her drug intake has been of late; that's been the crux of the whole disagreement. If she's taking pills on the weekends then they may well be messing with her moods as well as psychosis. Believe me I know, have seen it before. Silly girl if she's doing that.

I finally got a response from her about her cleaning up the room she left after I emailed her this photo,


and told her that as this was the third time she's done this to me I don't see why I should have to clean up her room again. The pic is just one little part of it. There was a cardboard box fallen into the back of a little bar fridge she had in there too, lucky the place didn't catch fire. Of course she's refusing. Says she's scared of David that he'll hit her; the same bullshit lie that she feed to the cops about me when she was 16 and had fucked off to the country. So it looks like it's going to be a job for David and I.

Thursday 19 December 2013

Signing for Abbott - extended version :)

This is an extended version of the latest Wound Up 7 episode of using sign language to interpret Abbott's bullshit. Fuck it's funny.


Harbour Bridge fireworks :)

New years eve fireworks preparations are afoot and as usual the Harbour Bridge will be the main focus. There's something strange going on here though :)


I lost 5 kilos - stressed

Got on the scales yesterday and had a bit of a shock. I've lost 5 kilos (11 pounds) in about the last month. Am down to only about 62 kilos. Have been having stomach problems with indigestion and not feeling at all like eating.

It's been pretty stressed around here lately. I can't believe how completely unreasonable my daughter has been these last few weeks. She's behaved like a rebellious teenager. Apparently the feral attracting drug thing is worth exchanging my relationship for. Silly girl. I've not heard a thing from her since she left, despite me repeatedly trying to get her to come and clean up the mess she's left here.

That, combined with the general shit that goes on in my head anyway in the lead up to Christmas, may well have caused the weight loss. Christmas is a bad time for me in the best of years.

David's Christmas curse

It's the time of the year when people ring each other who they've not seen in ages and go all bubbly with well wishing for the holidays. Or as the case may be, constraining themselves from telling people exactly what they think of them.

David rang his mother yesterday. She's never accepted his sexuality after all these years, but still she's still his mother. So he rings her and is chatting a bit. The conversation is light hearted and he laughs at something she says and he says "No I'm not like the rest of the family" smiling.

She answers him "No you're not. None of the rest of the family will die of AIDS". 

What a wonderful time Christmas is......

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Oz public - a Kiwi dream

There is nothing more to explain, the picture says it all:


Daughter's left/Christmas curse

This is the third time she's done something horrible to me right around Christmas. First was when she fucked off to the country with a 19yr old guy she got to know online; the first Christmas after the death of her mother/my wife. She had just turned 16 so I couldn't go out there and get her. She also told the police that she was scared I was going to "hit her". I was all alone after my wife's death, then she fucked off telling everyone what a bad person I was. That one ripped my heart out and hurt worst than my wife dying.

The second one was after she'd been living back here for about a year, being an absolute fuckin asshole. We had huge screaming arguments about stupid little things like cleaning her room and household chores. In the end we ended up having a real doozy, at which time I did punch her very lightly on the arm as I told her to "get out of my fuckin house". She went to the local police and had me charged with domestic violence FFS. That happened about a month after Christmas.

And now this time, she's moved out in a great fit of anger telling everyone what a terrible person I am for staying with David. Just before Christmas. Fuck! WTF is going on with her and Christmas? Glad I don't celebrate it anymore, or I'd likely be a mess right now.

It was really horrible how she left. I'm not unhappy that she's moved as it was well and truly due time, but the way she did it.......  She went and packed up what she was taking, came and got Felix off his favourite chair at the back door, and left. Didn't say goodbye, see you later, anything. Poor Felix is gonna be wondering WTF is going on; it's no way to move a cat. I'd have liked to give him a pat on the head and say it was OK as he got taken out, I mean fuck I've been looking after him a lot. 

Her room is a pigsty. There's three years of dust behind things, and a flea jumped on me in there. I'd say one of her feral druggie friends that she would have in there a lot bought them in. Probably the bed bugs she got as well; a really bad infestation it was. I'd guess that that's how they got into my room too. Thing is I don't see why I should have to clean up her room again, for the third fuckin time,  because she's left in a huff. I texted her asking when she was planning on cleaning it properly, but of course no answer. David said he'd help.

It hurts yes, the way she left. I don't deserve to be treated like that, especially by my own daughter. David was very worried about me yesterday as there were periods when I couldn't stop crying. He was even going to not go to work, but I said it was OK for him to. Nothing I can do about the pain. It's just going to hurt. That's life. Glad I've got David now to help me through and not alone like previously.

Wound Up 7 - Aussie political commentary

OMG you have  to watch this one. Remember that sign language guy at the Mandela funeral who was bananas? Well this video includes a rather interesting idea; using sign language to interpret what Abbott is actually saying. Utterly hilarious!


Religious contribution this month

This months report on religious fuckwits includes a well known case in Australia of a notorious pedophile Catholic priest. They even show when he was going to his first court cases, with who is now Cardinal Pell (on the right). Pell gave support to the pedophile priest then, not the victims who'd turned up to court. Here's a snip from the video, and the video below:




 

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Abbott's first 100 days - worst in polling history

Meanwhile in Teabagistan....


WTF?

Letter to car industry - Abbott pre-election

Well well well, this is interesting. This is an open letter sent from Tony Abbott to the Australian car industry, Employers, and employees. It's dated Sept 3rd, just 4 days before the Sept 7th election. It's mostly about the evil Labor fringe benefits something or other that I don't understand about (I don't own a car and the cops got my licence) but there's some glaring lies in there. First, here it is (click to enlarge). PDF here.


The most notable part of the letter:
The Coalition understands the importance of business and consumer confidence and wants confidence to return Australia’s car sector.”

Australians should know the Coalition supports their efforts and wants them to succeed.
You have our support now and into he future.
And here he is sitting in a Holden all smiles:


Of course we know now that it was all lies. The car industry didn't  have gov support, completely opposite of what he said before the election. Of course in Abbott's world we all must've got it wrong. He really wasn't lying at all, and apparently his gov is doing marvelously. 

I've not watched this one in quite a while. This is Abbott trying to explain and justify why he lies. It's excruciating watching him on it. This is only from 2012 too, and yet the dumb fucks who believed him voted him in.

 


Conditional love

Feeling pretty bad at the moment. Daughter in the process of packing all her stuff up, doing washing from fuck knows how long; the whole line is full outside with her stuff. Hassled and nearly kicked Natasha (one of David's cats) telling her to "get out". Natasha came running out of the kitchen and hid in a box. David saw it as he'd walked in with her unaware he was in the room. So later David and I are talking about it and she walks in, I ask her why she's being mean to the cats? She denies it, even though David saw her. Big argument between them. Me standing there in the middle of it.

So they're both screaming at each other, at one point it was so heated I put my hand on David's shoulder and said for him to go into the other room, which he did. Then she starts on me; "Have a good life with him" and saying she wasn't going to be a part of mine anymore with him in it. She's crapping on about whether she kicked the cat or not, and that David was lying and attacked her "for nothing". I'm rolling my eyes internally, saying I wasn't here so how could I know either way.

My point in the whole thing was that she's using her relationship with me as a lever in an argument. I told her this, said "WTF do you want me to do? Kick him out?" She goes on about this and that about him and how terrible he is. I say "It doesn't matter if he's the most worst person for you to get on with, I still love him. I can't choose who I fall in love with." It's not about who was right or who was wrong with the cat, it's about her accepting who I love. 

I also said to her "I love you unconditionally, will  always love you, and now you want to put conditions on your love for me." I dunno if I got through to her at all. In the end I left the room in frustration. How anyone could even consider using the love between a father and daughter as a bargaining chip is beyond me.

Monday 16 December 2013

TPP - No Singapore agreement reached

The TPP "negotiations" have wrapped up in Singapore, with Obama's so called deadline of an agreement by years end in tatters. They've basically agreed to keep talking. Obama's position of "zero flexibility" (curious in something called "negotiations"; sound more like the US preaching to us mere non-US citizens to me) has torpedoed the thing.


Fred Nile gets letter from Abbott

Christian looney Fred Nile is getting married darlings. I didn't know at all. But well he's got a letter sent to him from PM Abbott himself. Fred was so pleased about this he put the letter up on his facebook page. Here it is (click to enlarge):


The extravaganza of gushing is quite revolting in itself. But what I find more revolting is that this is just days after Abbott's high court challenge overturned the ACT same sex marriage legislation. This is like a fuckin slap in the face to gays. The picture says it all:


Further to this though is the rather disturbing reality that we now have a PM who believes in angels  :s

BTW, did Abbott go to Nile's wedding at taxpayers expense?

Here's Fred and his new wife. Fred is 79 and his wife 55.


Here is the protest at Fred from us. With comments from the article:



I should point out, note the effusive love and empathy expressed by the Christians at the end, to us. They wanted to "thump" the protesters, called them "stupid" and "dicks".
Prime Minister Tony Abbott sent them a message: ''Marriage is about walking the same path together. It is a profound, rich and fulfilling journey that should draw out the better angels of our nature.'' 

Viva la Bang would agree. She said Nile's ''point of being against gay marriage is because the Bible says it's between a man and a woman for the means of procreation''. 

''Yet's here's a man, 70-something years old, marrying a woman of 55. Are they really going to procreate? So if they can get married, why can't we?'' 

As the wedding party emerged, the protesters resorted to the loudhailer: ''Divorce the church from the state/Love is equal, don't preach hate.'' A woman returned fire with blasts from the shofar. 

''I feel like going over there to thump one of them,'' a wedding guest said. A man wearing a magenta jacket that would have blended just as well on the other side of the street, said: ''Stupid people. It's a federal issue, not state. And it's his wedding day … They're dicks.'' Read more