Friday 29th of March 2024

A Horrible Feeling Of Dread

Not my favourite place to visit, I was dragged into the Adelaide Casino last night. After an hour I left because I didn't feel safe  Two hundred people dancing in a venue three stories up from our central railway station didn't seem like a good place to be.

Even though the rubbish bins were taken out of the station two years back because of similar fears.  I couldn't help thinking of the psychological impact on local culture that an attack on such a place would cause.

I didn't want to be fighting my way to an unavailable exit while the floor collapsed beneath me.  Given that the casino's interior was recently re-engineered  by Halliburton/KBR I would assume that expert consideration of such a situation would have necessitated the incorporation of contingency plans.  However, all I could visualise was people jumping of balconies, clawing past each other on the escalators, dodging falling chunks of marble debris... I tried to force myself to stay, but felt compelled to get as far away as possible.

I have a horrible feeling in my gut at the moment, one much stronger than when I discovered this Horrible New World a few years back. 

Please be careful about where you go in the next few weeks.  I hope I'm wrong, but I'm now more alarmed than alert.

If a public attack occurs on Australian soil we only have ourselves to blame- we're the ones who voted in this bloodthirsty government.  I hope the price we pay is not as high as I fear it might be.

 

forming a queue .....

May Day

Paul Sheehan in SMH May 1st, Fixation with appearances turns ugly :

... It was Texas payback. Blowback on the Muslims for September 11. We said so at the time. All the rest about freedom and terrorism and weapons and oil was public relations, rationalisations, bonuses, extras, packaging, spin. ...

... But the Prime Minister can only afford to be so involved in the death of one soldier, so careful to be seen to be not ducking the burden, because Australia's military deployment in Iraq is one of his cosmetic wars, large on symbolism and short of warfare, while 2400 young Americans, and tens of thousands of Iraqis - compared with two Australians - have died so far because of the orders of a profoundly insular commander-in-chief, a leader who, when his own generation was called to war, preferred to let other young men do the fighting. ...

Will be interesting to see the Murdoch blowback tomorrow. Perhaps this was it, in pre-emption, from Greg Sheridan on Apr 29th in The Austrialian, ABC out of step on the military:

... Indeed, among all the egregious, ideological agit-prop that dominates ABC talk shows, At the Movies is light years from the worst. It is a warm and cuddly show. Pomeranz has the air of a daring nun who has just discovered milkshakes, while Stratton speaks in the avuncular tones of a kindly Uniting Church minister dispensing the day's liberal pieties. ...

Darn right! When I hear the word Culture, I give my Browning a good rub.

Well, we haven't rounded up a gang of shoe-bombers lately. The PM must be torn between taking credit for a "miracle" in Launceston (the Saints stealing two points, or the events at the gold mine) and locking up some of the usual suspects. The week's agenda is in disarray! Who will be first to come to his rescue? I tip Kim Beazley.

Kim did it for Johnnee

Yes T. G. Kim came to the rescue, (see blog above) with his half baked policy on yellow cake... It's like watching a back-flip in slow motion as the acrobat is about to fall on his caboose... Who are Kim's bloody advisors... ? Liberals who invaded the Labor party via the back door...? Actually they would have come through the fanfaroneous archway, all equipped with the latest statistics, rubbery advice and rubbing oil, and made Lord Kimott so relaxed about every thing that he can perform bad tricks in slowmo...

From the SMH
Beazley risks party split on uranium

By Louise Dodson Chief Political Correspondent
May 1, 2006

KIM BEAZLEY has flagged a change in Labor's uranium policy, risking upsetting key sections of the party as he strives to rebuild its image before the next election.

The Opposition Leader says Labor's policy of banning new uranium mines should be lifted, but tougher nuclear safeguards are needed.

"The problem is not where the uranium is dug out, the problem is the exports and making sure there are tougher safeguards," Mr Beazley told the Herald.

His position puts him at odds with Labor's environment spokesman, Anthony Albanese, who said in a speech to Sydney University's Labor Club last week that he did not see the need to change the party's policy.

read more at the SMH