Look Out Guys!

Today is Feb 29… a leap year.  Does that mean today should be Saturday?  I dunno…

But for the single guys out there, don’t get to close to your girlfriends as today is the day that they may ask you to marry them!

Given that I am married and all my mates are either married or engaged… I don’t see this as a big deal, but I’d be interested to know if any lady has taken the plunge today…

Men.  Stay at home.  Watch a tape of an old Grand Final or some action movie DVD’s and don’t answer the phone.

You have been warned ;-)

Late Night Posting

Sorry, missed my post today... my day was scrambled. Trains ran late, so many work deadlines, including trying to save my own job and then meetings all afternoon.

Had to cab it into the city for a meeting at 3pm... thats cab changeover time and it was bucketing down with rain... not a good afternoon!

Now the kids are in bed, I am waiting for LOST to come onto the tele and I check my comments and realise I hadnt posted anything! d'oh!!

On another front, I have now cracked over 1000 posts on Lime Kettles... freaky when you think of that!

Political Donations...

More stories in the press about the use of political donations to “grease the wheels” to gain profitable political decisions.  Frank Sartor, ex Lord Mayor of Sydney has received donations from a particular developer and then Sartor made a land zoning decision that netted that developer a $2M windfall.

 

Without going into the whys and wherefores of each donation, the simple question is this:  “If you thought that it would not gain you any political advantage, would you give a donation to an Australian political party?”  The answer is of course NO.  Therefore, whilst we jazz up these payments as “political donations” or “campaign funding” they are purely and simply bribes.  If I as a multinational corporate give you $’s you in turn will be more sympathetic to my request for a law change or some other political instrument to be granted to aid my corporation.  Bribery.

 

Political parties have to disclose their donations and their source but what is the point of that?  It simply tells you as a voter who your party is going to favour… it is probably a more important list than a schedule of proposed policy changes as cash is king and any political ideal you may think your party upholds will be washed away should a financial benefactor have an opposing view.

 

So what do we do?

Ban donations.  Make parties a cash-exempt body and grant each political party a stipend that would see them through election campaigns from the parliamentary budget.  For example, every year each party can spend $5M of taxpayers dollars on marketing, promotional material etc and use that as their “funding” for their campaigns.  It will be a level playing field and at least then we wont have to worry about who is actually “sponsoring” the major parties of Australia.

India - GO HOME

Enough is enough... India are AGAIN threatening to pull out of the tour because of "bullying". I know not all my readers are cricket enthusiasts, but it has gotten to the point where I have to have a rant.

To the BCCI, I say this:

"Stop your whinging, play the game, play it hard, deal with "cultural sensitivities" and stop threatening to take your lollies home every time something happens. Your bowler gave as good as he got, and your wicket keeper cheated. We Australians let the officials deal with that, you don't see us crying about it. Grow Up!"

Post Script: I have volunteered my own cricket team, the Mighty Greystanes B8's to play for Australia against Sri Lanka should Sri Lanka win today. This will mean India will be sent packing! I have sent the ACB an email and I keenly await their answer!

Weekend Wrap

A beautiful weekend weather wise and we had a good one to match it!  Saturday, the girls had an ice skating party to go to so I headed to the shops to buy my mums birthday present and also spent a bit too much on myself as well!  Then it was on to cricket and we wrapped up the Minor Premiership with one round still to play by beating Wenty Waratahs by about 80 odd runs… I took a neat catch in the slips as well and then it was onto the pub for some victory drinks!

Showed my age though by being in bed on Saturday night by 10pm after a long week and a long weekend last finally caught up with me… can’t be a party boy every day! Lol.

Sunday I mowed the lawns, clipped the hedge and spent some time out in the sun and then went to Mum & Dad’s for Mums birthday lunch which was nice and relaxing.  Then we ducked over and to my mate Joe’s place to see his new baby boy Adrian.  It was great to see them and they both, Joe in particular, are very happy at their new addition!  Well done guys!

On a sadder note, other friends of ours aren’t doing too well with Scott & Linda having problems with their little baby Jacob.  Their story was actually told in the Sunday papers this weekend and we’re all thinking about them.

Wollongong - The Hotbed of well... beds!

Wow, who would have thought that the Wollongong area was such a hot bed of scandal! This whole thing about a 32yr old single-mum who was a Town Planner for the Council there having affairs with developers and subsequently approving their development applications has finally reached Premier Morris Iemma's office.

When the wheel starts turning, it certainly gains momentum doesnt it! 32yr old woman probably being taken advantage of by devious developers involved in low grade criminal activity explodes into a connection with a member of the council on sexual harrassment charges who has just landed a plumb job for one of the Premiers cabinet who himself has been known to be subject to sexual harrassment and now the Premier is in the cross hairs.

Who knew that local politics was so seedy! *feigns shock*

Funny how all this stuff comes out with the Government in disarray and waiting for a credible opposition to knock them off... but thats still the issue, the NSW State Liberals are still proverbial limp lettuce at the moment.

The Missing Link...

... is a piece of "brown algae" (read: poo) in Sydney Harbour!

Rejoice!

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