Thursday, June 13, 2013

Liar, Liar, pants on fire - Jihardist terrorist - NOT

Just the other day Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison were holding forth about a specific Egyptian asylum seeker, Sayed Abdellatif.  He had been convicted of murder in Egypt they claimed.

Today the Egyptian Interpol advised that he has not only not been convicted, he is not a wanted man at all.

I guess I better not hold my breath waiting for the apology to Mr Abdellatif.


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Oh What A Night - Menugate

I was planning to write today about how I hoped the Prime Minister had been telling porkies with her  comments yesterday about the role of women in the Coalition.

And then the Mal Brough's menu proved she was 100% accurate.  And if you look at the menu, it is littered with offensive jibes.  But boy did they go overboard with offensiveness on the PM.

Even if they are not prepared to respect the office - which they obviously aren't - there is no reading of the menu that could disguise its offensiveness.

And so far the presence of Joe Hockey has slipped under the radar.  He cannot have been unaware of the menu.

And if this is an example of what they think is funny and an appropriate way to refer to women, then I sure hope they do not win government.  I am appalled at this.  It is grubby, nasty and so far removed from what I want to see in my government or in anyone who represents me.

Do you think he would have said something similar about Julie Bishop or Connie Fierravanti-Wells and lived? At the least he would have been emasculated.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

God, what a day

Today was one of those days when you just wish you could go CTL-ALT-DEL and restart.

Not only did I not sleep well, I woke up to find one of the dogs had developed raging diarrhea during the night - including on the bed.  YUCK.

It is all cleanable, so I keep telling myself things could be worse.

I have been doing quite a bit of family history research and am trying to find more about my Great Grandfather. He came back from Gallipoli with shell shock.  He left his family and came to Australia and literally disappeared.  He was written out of family history and my father and I are trying to find out what happened to him.  It isn't pretty.

He ended up in a Mental Asylum in Brisbane and died in 1942, buried in an unmarked grave.  He now has a gave marker, at least.

I have been trying to work backwards and find out what led to him being sectioned.  Today I found two very old newspaper reports that mentioned him.  In one, he and a fellow returned soldier stole 11 chickens while they were living in the Hillview Camp in Sydney in 1921.

In the second one, he failed to answer a summons relating to a drunken fight at the Royal Hotel in Cairns, Queensland in 1924. He was sectioned in 1925 and remained in the Goodna Asylum until he died.  Such a sad waste.

And then I check the new and she is at it again.  Yes, Pauline Hanson is the red head you can trust - to lie about asylum seekers.  Politifact caught her out claiming asylum seekers deliberately destroy their passports. Truth is most don't have any to begin with.

And the ALP continues its determined stance to completely destroy itself.  Certainly makes it darn near impossible to find any credible alternative.  And they seem determined to give Abbott the Senate as well as the House.  Oh well, if they do they will have no one to blame except themselves.  What a bunch of prats.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Cats, friends and cooking

This morning I went to visit Brenda, who does cat rescue.  My sweet Luka kitty met a sad end a couple of months ago and I am looking at adopting soon, so have been visiting with Brenda and have selected two cats - Max the Manx and a tabby currently called Sugar Plum.  Brenda has 30 cats at present ranging from sweet kittens to grumpy old cats.  Max and SP - who I will be calling Lucy - are both about 15 months old and have been with Brenda almost 12 months.  Max has a few health problems at the moment, so they can't come to me until he is on the mend.  I just hope the pills work soon and the two of them can come home with me and face meeting my three dogs - and won't that be fun!

I came home in time for a nice bowl of lentil soup - boy was it welcome because it was a crappy day weatherwise.  Anyone might think it was winter.

After lunch, a quick trip out for a cuppa with some of the girls, and then home again and my friend Janet came over and stayed for dinner - home made Moroccan lamb pizza, which was really delicious.

I have started a boiled fruitcake, which should be ready to go into the oven shortly.

So a busy day.

Very interesting day politically with all the scuttlebut about the ALP Leadership.  Who knows who is lying?  Time will tell.  At least this week in politics will be very interesting again.  I wonder how many fibs will be flung around.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

A cooking day

Today has been very enjoyable.  Met up with some of the quilting girls out at Gold Creek for lunch.  But before I headed out, I threw some lentils, smoked sausage, celery, carrots, stock and tomatoes into the slow cooker.  Got home to some good smells.  There will be soup for dinner, together with a lamb and rocket home made pizza.

I am also doing some reading on refugees.  I don't think it is possible to 'Stop the Boats', but I want to know more about refugees in the Middle East.  I know that the Syrian Civil War is generating huge number of refugees.  I can't imagine for a minute that a small percentage will not try to come here.

But now is the time for some sewing.  I have a quilt to work on.

Why blog? 98 days

I plan to have a bit of fun.  Show off some of my cooking successes and bemoan the hopefully few failures, and generally complain about the poor standard of political debate in this country.

In 98 days, I will be with a few friends quietly crying while Tony Abbott takes on the PMs mantel.  Assuming things continue as they are today.

I am not a member of either party.  I describe myself as centre left, so am pretty disillusioned with everyone.

But why I am writing this is because my biggest bug bear is the lies that are being allowed free rein.  So for every lie I come across, I am going to call it for a lie and provide the evidence of why it is a lie - irrespective of who makes it.  Which is more than the Australian press is doing.

So the lies I hate the most (at the moment) are:

- boat people are illegal.  They aren't.  They have the right to seek asylum under the UN Human Rights Convention, which Australia is a signatory to.  Every politician knows this.  These days they ignore it to spruik a rhetoric they know to be a lie.

 - Australia is being flooded by asylum seekers.  This is the easiest lie to disprove, but the lie the Australian press refuses to kill off.  Here is the correct information from the Australian Human Rights Commission.  http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/2012-face-facts-chapter-3

- The Indonesian Government has agreed to receive boats that are turned back.  They haven't as of 31 May 2013.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-31/ambassador-says-indonesia-opposes-policy-of-turning-back-boats/4726842

- Australia's economy is going down the gurgler.  It is not.  While it could always be stronger, Australia has an economy that the rest of the world envies.  http://theconversation.com/punching-above-our-weight-sizing-up-australias-economy-10153 Our economy isn't perfect and we are coming into a period of contraction.  But compared with the rest of the world, we are miles ahead.

- Deficits are bad and our level of debt is appalling.  Deficits might be and they might not be.  It depends on the world circumstances.  And our level of debt - well check the comparisons for yourself.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/may/27/debt-deficit-oecd-countries-data

So this has got a few of my pet hates off my chest.  I intend to post every political lie I become aware of for the next 98 days with the facts - and I don't care who makes the lie.  Any party that lies and I know of it, I will post it.