Monday 27 October 2014

Tilting like Don Quixote

At the imaginary evil of alternative energy windmills with our cognitive dissonance cruelling the future.
Shane at Waubra....
Shane at Waubra....

G’day Petals,
I suppose the following is all Wombat Droppings again; my little chronicle of Australia’s slide from egalitarian democracy to  fascist state.

Went to a meeting t’other night in Lal-Lal … it was a meeting to  “inform” the public about Wind-Farms and alternative energy.
In reality it was a veritable lecture on the horrors of wind energy, it’s destruction/ Industrialisation of the landscape, the health issues, (it’s worse that Ebola) its costs and infrastructure non-viability and also a very, very, very big push for the conservative National Party in the forthcoming election in the “Tardis State” (Where-All-Goes-Backward).

Anti Wind-farm Meeting, Lal-Lal.
Anti Wind-farm Meeting, Lal-Lal.
As an exercise in fear mongering it took some beating.  
A Mixture of fact, myth, suppositions, appeals to sentiment and downright misleading projections all coddled together to reinforce in a largely negative rural audience the idea that change is bad!
The same hoary old myths of “potential” health issues when…
 “A study carried out by the research institute DK Teknik, in Denmark indicates that perception of the noise generated by a wind turbine has more to do with the individuals attitude to the wind turbines, than the actual noise itself.”
And similar studies done here show that the psychosomatic illnesses exhibited by some are exacerbated by fear campaigns alone. And that newer designs in machinery and blades actually reduce noise is never mentioned.
Always answer with a ½ truth; it’s harder to refute.

Anti Wind-farm Meeting, Lal-Lal.
Where's the Windmill, Not where's a Wally?

Then there was the costs of  “replacing-the–Turbines” every 25 years… will they have the millions and millions of dollars to do it?  And who wears the cost?  A fear-monger 1/2 truth, neatly stepping around the fact that “…replacement of rotor blades, gearbox and generator (IF REQUIRED) is about 15%-20% of the price of a new turbine and that estimated maintenance costs are in the range of 1.5% to 2% of the original investment per annum a day over the same two decades.”

When this “well-informed” speaker was asked by an audience member, ”What are the cost comparisons between wind and coal?” He said he didn’t know the answer.
But the answer is, coal is cheaper, only if you allow for its subsidies. On a production level, alternatives are really now cheaper than coal and gas.
Presently around $27.00 /KWH for alternatives, $23-24.00 /KWH for subsidised coal and gas and in Queensland with its greater use of solar, power is about $20.00/KWH.

“Studies show that electricity can be supplied from a new wind farm at a cost of [$80 per megawatt hour in Australian dollars], compared to [$143 per megawatt hour] from a new coal plant or [$116 per megawatt hour] from a new baseload gas plant, including the cost of emissions under the Gillard government’s carbon pricing scheme. However even without a carbon price (the most efficient way to reduce economy-wide emissions) wind energy is 14% cheaper than new coal and 18% cheaper than new gas.…”



Then on came the footballer….(and as he once played for Essendon, more than one of us quipped, ”What’s he on?”)
 “I remember," he intoned "when I was a young lad and bought the land for 2/6 and raised millions of cattle and  I’m-salt–of-the-earth-and-you-better-believe-it… blah, blah, blah!


Which was fine, somewhat  irrelevant, till he asked the audience, “How many here would want a Wind–Farm on their Property?” 
About 15- 20 hands went up….” Well, you’ll split the Community, that’s what you’ll do!” He spat out.

We don’t want change, you do, your wrong, we’re right! No discussion, be seen but not heard, speak when spoken to, eat your vegetables and watch you P’s and Q’s!

Bloody old fascist!

I left at that juncture.. musing that ex premier of The Tardis State “Big-Bird” Baillieu (Genus: Silvertail Incompetens) had been tarred as a veritable  Greenie Socialist, as had Pretend Premier, Dennis “Do-Do” (Genus: “Inutilis Rusticus”) Napthine, in their support of wind farms…?
After Baillieu brought in sighting restrictions so severe that 300 jobs went from the turbine plant in Naptime’s (sic) electorate and a further 100 have gone with the slashing of the RET, it’s really pushing the boat out a bit far in asserting that!

The only consistent in this meeting was one of closed minds, lack of imagination and a visceral hatred of anything that looked “Green, Conservation, Climate-Change or actually good sense.”
It's interesting just how visceral the hatred is ... completely unreasoned. It's almost as if they hate their god for not giving them imagination, talent, and vision.
How very conservative! How very unintelligent!

And the “Killer Line” from the night….
“Oh we don’t mind wind farms, we just want them where we can’t see them …besides..” (echoing Joe “Cereal-Toyota-Killer”) Hockey’s line, “..they industrialise the landscape.”

Beremboke
Bush in natural State
Beremboke
Bush Industrialised for Sheep and Cattle
And let's not forget that in NSW in  Gloucester in the Hunter, fracking wells (hydraulic fracturing) will be 
1/   500-600 meters from houses
2/   60 meters from the Avon River
3/      Located on a flood plane

What country are we living in?

Hoo-roo Possums,
Shane.

Monday 20 October 2014

with Putrid Prose and Callous Thought


Once as a middling nation remember being able to hold our heads up world-wide and be heard for impartial sober advice?  Not now. The ASPIRATIONAL BOGANS are in charge.

Shane at Ballarat Showgrounds
Shane at Ballarat Showgrounds


 G'day Possums,
Mrs Wombat and I recently popped out of the burrow and up to Ballarat to the market to re-stock with some of the very good hand-made soap sold there.

I wondered what I was going to photograph and why, and vaguely entertaining the thought of looking for parallels for the Wombat Droppings’ rant.
When this presented itself ….
Ballrat Showgrounds, Child crying
Ballrat Showgrounds, Australian Child crying..



And Wombat Droppings’ Chronicle of the Demise of Egalitarian Australia became apparent.






Bronwen backs down on Burqa ban in parliament but balks at being clear about why such a decision was made in the first place… wouldn’t have anything to do with Rabid-the-Hun’s meeting with new Indonesian Prez Widodo would it? Or that Rabid didn’t need to give the Indonesian any more to belt Oz about the ears with; like illegal incursions into Indon waters by Oz Navy cruelly returning refugees to their jump off point?





Then we saw these young people making a fine noise and on approaching to say what was happening was told that as all the mother's were not there to give their approval this pic couldn't be posted....  hmmm... perhaps they should have a sign saying "no photographs" or "that this is not a public space and we are not on show" or, they could all wear Burqa's or perhaps just play a record with no-one there? 
P.C. gone mad or "Helicopter Mums" in full flight?... whatever.... no wonder Rabid-the-Hun get's votes!


Healthy religious ammunition





Rabid-the-Hun will not send medical staff to fight the Ebola epidemic. Peter “Enema” Dutton (Liarbril, alleged Health Minister) says it’s not in our region yet and we’ll wait till it is.
Just like Iraq is next to South Australia and the Ukraine is only slightly North of Perth!
Perhaps they should talk to “The Drone” Morrison’s Born-Again Friends (no, not the paedophile ones) at Hillside and Catch the Fire Ministry’s to send their Faith Healers to strut their powerful stuff?
The science of Climate Change is crap, this lot say …let’s see if that works.

Medibank Private is also on the market. No longer will the profits benefit all Australians, they will now go to a limited number of shareholders and with it’s sale, the brake on rising Insurance costs will be broken and it will further the imperil the Medi-Care systems ability to contain costs.
Which is what the “Coot’s-With-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe” want in their Free-Market Frolic: to destroy Australia’s social contract.
And now, the final irony.. today (21-10-14) the architect of Australia's noted free health system, free University education, recognition of China, and many other reforms has died. Vale Gough Whitlam: we'll not see your like again. 
One only hopes that Rabid-the-Hun and his venal rabble do not attend his funeral as the hypocrisy of these unimaginative destroyers being there would be too obvious and in such bad taste!
It was interesting to note one of The Ugly American's minions Greg Sheridan on radio, playing the right-wing troll even before the corpse has even cooled in the grave. 
Vicious, nasty and tasteless is what these cretins do best. What a sad place this Oz has become with these amoeba in power.

Terror Australis
Arfur “Da Spiv” Sinodinas has had a five page faux apologia in “The Age, Good Weekend” (Jane Cadzow,18-10-14)
I’m not sure it will help his cause in returning to a senior position with Joe "Cereal/Toyota Killer" Hockey and Mathius “Horse-Shite” Coormann and assisting in dismantling what’s left of Australia’s economy.
Mummy’s boy, Arfur “Da Spiv” comes across as a political dilettante  in whom a sense of self preservation and entitlement seems paramount.
Jumping ship when “Little Johnnie” Howard was going “On-the-Nose” to feather his own nest in a Corporate World, Arfur, who is “…resourceful and savvy..”  get’s mixed up with Eddie Obied.
Now, I would have thought that if I, in my Wombat Burrow down here in Vic knew “interesting” stories about Eddie “O” then a New South Welshman like Arfur (who, sort of running in the same circles though on the opposite side) would, too.  Accepting 5% share in “Sydney Water Holdings” and a director’s fee of $200,000.00 for 25-45 hours work a year with a possible pay-off of $20,000,000.00 from the Sydney taxpayer might make you think all is not quite kosher!
Council assisting the Royal Commissioner seems to have Arfur neatly summed up when responding to Arfur’s defense of his onerous hours and spruiking at social functions, he said, ”What, should we add on 90 seconds over a Gin and Tonic to the other 45 hours a year?”

Arfur’s capacity of ”…absorbing a mass of detail” seems, sadly to have disappeared with his 60,  “I don’t remember / recollect” during the Royal Commission as did his credibility for re-entering parliament (for a Senators paltry $141,000.00) “I want to work on something big and important.. larger than myself” and “Always doing the right thing.” Particularly when attending a meeting as State Treasurer of the Liarbril Party and Finance Committee Chairman and didn’t hear that developer monies as donations were not allowed under state law was being discussed.
Arfur… you stink!


jumping castle Ballarat Showgrounds
Oohh, what going on there in that dark place or Where's Arfur? 


...and this lady had a very deft hand in cutting out stencils... much practice,me'thinks...


Dylan at Espresso Mobile Cafe

I was really impressed with this set-up.. functional, neat, a compact mobile great idea and design...   www.cafemobile.com.au
Man with hats Ballarat Showgrounds
Man with hats Ballarat Showgrounds
who looked uncannily like the "interesting" Liarbril Mayor of Geelong but probably wasn't as his hair was almost normal.

And then a shock on leaving to find this ....

site....
Ronaldson's Wall, Ballarat.


which used to be this....
Ronaldson's Wall, Ballarat.

and this in detail
Ronaldson's Wall, Ballarat.

While it may have seemed an eye-sore to many its visual appeal is obvious... I'm glad I have a reasonable record of the old wall...


on way home : Silky Terrier in Mustang:

Incongourous combination....as are most things these days..
Liarbrils and Fair Play, Labor and Pokies....Arfur"Da-Spiv" Sinodinas and entitlement..it's all a muddle where we're all besmirched . Then there was another nail in the Liarbril coffin, Professor Spurr selected to review changes to the English curriculum gets himself "outed" with racist and misogynist emails to colleauges...
The other heads of the curriculum review, fellow right-wingers, Kevin Donnelly and Ken Wiltshire, did not comment on the Spurr emails…… they no doubt probably agree with their sentiments.
The faux-education minister, Christopher Pyne, (the Whyne-and-Perfect-Poodle-Prat-of-a-Prefect) has dismissed the attacks, saying Spurr was independently selected to be a “special consultant” on the English curriculum. Spurr was hired by Sydney University as chair in poetry in 2010 (Guardian Australia on Friday).
Typical, Pyne-the Whyne and Perfect-Poodle-Prat-of-a-Prefect.”
“Not me .. I didn’t do it. “ And another Liarbril thought–bubble, silly idea goes pear-shaped.

Then one  Peter Grace c/o Face-book added this little ode dedicated to the Professor of Putrid Pensiveness….


a professor of pomes was asked  what he thought 
of the English and History our children are taught
so he said what they wanted to hear him say, 
kissed the right arses and picked  up his pay

now it would seem he’s an old racist prick 
trying to pull the old “No, not me!” trick
with a pathetic excuse where he calls it whimsy 
the rest of us reckon that’s a little bit flimsy

and then in the end when the uni suspends him
not even Christopher Pyne defends him
“We didn’t hire him so don’t look at us! 
It’s the people who hacked him who caused all this fuss.
He was hired by the people we hired 
and his opinion still stands and he won’t be fired
from the role of advising us on education 
that nothing much happened before Federation”

he should pack up his stuff and they should send him home
that’s my “F**k You Pome Bloke" pome.

Peter Grace (Facebook)


Hoo-roo Petals,
Shane.

Sunday 12 October 2014

Blood and Sand 2 and the hidden Grenade

Shane with Grenade
Shane with Grenade
Blood and Sand 2:  Perhaps we should have a "Missile Fund for Humanity" drive?  Or better, perhaps we should just March on Canberra and throw the incompetents out? 









More later in Wombat Droppings






Here are some more rehearsal shots....
Ballet Theatre of Australia....

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia


Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia

Ballet Theatre Australia



Wombat Droppings
or
A Chronicle Detailing
 the
 Disappearing Egalitarianism of Oz.


The hand grenade of their own stupidity is that the wealthiest seats in Liarbril electorates have suffered only about 10% of the budget cuts as compared to the poorest in Labor seats. 
It will not be a Muslim who’ll pull the pin, it’ll be one of the 25% below the poverty line, one of the unemployed or one of those unable to afford an education, housing, health or food.

The dog-whistling over terror conveniently ignores the manufacture of drugs, particularly “ice” by criminal bikie gangs whose activities are “observed” but don’t rate an 800 police strength raid. 
Activities that are far worse in their terrorist effect on the community than any Muslim has been accused of or perpetrated.

David "Gunna" Johnston  was all over the shop on "Insiders" last week.
Apart from his constant contradictions... "it might be easier than we first thought.." and"... although there are some excellent elements in the Iraqi Army to work with..."  and  "...we'll degrade the baddies"   and    "... it might be more easier.." (?)
It all sounded a bit too much like a Boy-With-a-Toy and he incompetently stumbled over how much it is all going to cost; as did Rabid-the-Hun to the same questions.

The Liarbril’s credibility with their vicious nonsense and their pretence of being a ruling party is being severely and, I think, terminally compromised. In ruling according to “thought-bubbles” from the “Coots-with-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe” (IPA) for oligarchs and select business,’ not only are they wasting the legitimacy of government but are becoming the most untrustworthy rabble to ever be in Federal Parliament.

This is the most incompetent government Oz has ever had.

We have no money to fund education, healthcare or pensions. No money for job creation or social security or significant infrastructureand manufacturing  but there’s $600,000,000.00 for spying on us and $600,000.00 per missile or bomb dropped as a humanitarian gesture on top of the estimated $500,000,000.00 for the Iraq#2 frolic.

Soon there will be a real budget emergency.

Perhaps we should have a "Missile Fund for Humanity" drive?  Or better, perhaps we should just March on Canberra and throw the incompetents out? 

Anyone?

It would seem that more than 50,000 people spontaneously booing Rabid-the-Hun at the footy isn't newsworthy; not reported any where except by the Guardian a week later.
I thought it was a very significant poll and a direct proof of what I’m saying, Petals.
We have become a severely divided society and there is much trouble brewing!

*StopPress* Rabid-the-Hun has said he'll "shirt-front" Putin over the shot down airliner when the Russian arrives for the G20 meeting in Brisbane.  Goodie.....farcical entertainment for the Aspirational Bogans as we have a "Face-Off of Fascists!"
Most betting seems to be favouring a Putin win but how long it will take for Australia's reputation to recover is another matter altogether.
Apart from the most incompetent government we can now, sadly add, the most ludicrous.



Hoor-roo Possums,
Shane


PS: further reading….

Saturday 4 October 2014

Shane Wombat goes off To Blood, Sand, Berks

Shane in Naqib
Shane in Naqib
 with Rabid-the-Hun’s malign IPA rabble to drop humanitarian bombs creating a real budget crisis.













But more of that later in “Wombat Droppings.”



Here, because it’s been  “World Ballet Day” or something… some more from the last session in class at Ballet Theatre Australia…

Ballet Theatre of Australia, Class

Ballet Theatre of Australia, Class

Ballet Theatre of Australia, Class
Ballet Theatre of Australia, Class

 … and something for spring; some Jonquils from the Wombat’s garden.

Jonquils
Jonquils

Wombat Droppings
or
A Chronicle Detailing
 the
 Disappearing Egalitarianism of Oz.

So now we are at war again in the Middle East.
 “No we’re not,….it’s a Humanitarian Mission” stutters Prime Miniature, Rabid-the-Hun.
No… it’s not to support American Oil Companies to protect their assets, “…it’s to degrade the evil death cult ISIS and stop its terrorism and killing of people.” 
We will commit these “Humanitarian Acts” by dropping bombs on people, too.
Rabid-the-Hun
Chiming in with his even-more-rabid-than-he colleagues, Peta “Bloody-Idiot” Credlin (his C of S), Cory “Bestiality” Bernardi,  Bronwen “Pompadour-Kerosene Bath” Bishop and PUP Senator, Jackie “Tassie-Wing-Nut” Lambie, Rabid-the-Hun opined that “he too, found the Burqa, confronting.”

Bestiality Bernardi
Bestiality Bernardi
After everyone had stopped laughing, particularly in the light of his penchant for displaying as much as his genitalia as possible with clothing on: in his “Budgie Smugglers” and his cycling Lycra. We found out that women wearing the Burqa had, by the Speaker Bishop and her Senate compatriot The Once Honourable Stephen Parry, been segregated when visiting Parliament to being placed behind a glassed in area specifically used for noisy schoolchildren.
It seems these women so attired, are a security risk.
Bronwen Bishop

I can only surmise that the Opera singer’s daughter didn’t like the costume and that he ex-copper was only trying to further embalm the truth like his fellow Senator Brandis.

It finally occurred to these Right-Wing paragons of intelligence, freedom, fair play and social harmony that A/ if the Burqa attired Women were indeed a security risk why would you place them with children? B/ did this little frolic contravene both the Racial discrimination and the Sex Discrimiation Acts? And C/ was it religiously intolerant and undemocratic?

Some unkind souls offered Rabid-the-Hun a Burqa…. to cover the Egg on his face.

The much vaunted, “Budget Crisis” will really happen because it’s now needed to fund a war.

War is not a crisis.
Welfare, education, health, superannuation and pensions and social harmony are.


It was interesting to note that ex-liarbril and fellow traveller of “Coot’s-With-Queer-Ideas-from-a-Parallel-Universe” (IPA) Timmy “Twat-Freedom-Man” Wilson was again nowhere to be heard on this issue.
It’s amazing what $330,000.00 p.a. doesn’t buy you.
 
Timmy"Twat-Freedom-Man" Wilson.
In speaking of Georgie “Bookshelves” Brandis… “Sotto Voce” of course, it now seems that our spy and security forces are not allowed to torture suspects, although what “torture” is exactly hasn’t been defined. But they will be able to arrest anyone publicly criticising their operational matters… e.g. reporting things like the bungled training raid in Melbourne some years back in a prominent hotel that involved Vic Police… or the raid on the Lawyer assisting Timor-Leste in its struggle for a fairer deal on its Oil reserves (actually, it’s to protect “Little Johnnie” Howard and then Foreign Minister, Alex “Things-That-Batter-Fish-Nets” Downer from prosecution?) or even perhaps the rumours that ASIO’s new “secure” headquarters in Canberra have already been compromised by Chinese Intelligence.. will land you in prison.

Geez, where’s Timmy ”Twat-Freedom-Man” when ya need ’im


It's the cynical erosion of trust by the right-wingers that has irreparably damaged the country.
They’ve been “grooming” the public for years… a touch here a touch there.. and now it’s time for the ”kill.”

The Liarbril pandering to the banalities of the Aspirational Bogan has brought its obvious reward in the Islamaphobia presently being witnessed.
Now, on so many levels, this place that was once admired throughout the world for its levels of acceptance and candour is now seen as foolish, narrow minded and cruel.
Thank you, Liarbrils and your lick-spittle IPA fellow-travellers for having only the vision of your donors at heart…lowest common denominator of medieval fuedalism.

The crux, of all this as expressed by America’s most successful investor Warren Buffet: "There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making the war, and we’re winning."
"Rabid-The-Hun" is more of a threat because he has supporters within the “Bogan Aspirational” community and the backing of powerful vested interests.

His is the passport which should be cancelled.
His consorting with right wing “Tea-Party” ideologues in America is only damaging Australia’s future and its international reputation.




Hoo-roo Possums,

Shane