The Australian Dream

It used to mean that everyone aspired to home ownership of a detached dwelling in the suburban fringe. In the 90s various factors reduced it to maybe a semi-detached or a flat. In the 21st Century the meaning of the word dream has switched from aspiration to dim hope.

This means in practice that 50% of the current generation of new entrants to the workforce will never own a home. They will be tenants, for life.

In Queensland, various reforms to the rental environment coupled with a sort of institutionalized land-lord sneer mean that leases are short, 6 or 12 months and are often not renewed (churning tenants lets them raise rent more than 5% or so a year that is considered reasonable on a renewal). Additionally tenants live under rules that are more like those that apply to guests in hotels or boarding houses. No hanging pictures, even with Blue Tac. No redecorating, no leaving one's imprint on ones home. No permanence, which means effectively no accumulating more possessions than you can afford to move every year or two.

There is no right or even expectation of pet ownership. There is no right to run even a hobby business from home. Many leases ban parking commercial vehicles on the property. Inspections are often every 3 months, and passing or failing is often subjective and arbitrary.

Legislation is overwhelmingly in the landlords favour. House washed away by flood, tenant pays rent until they lodge the forms to terminate the lease due to the premises being uninhabitable. Basic maintenance not done, the default response of the regulator is to offer the Tenant the option to terminate the lease without penalty, rather than enforcing minimum standards of habitability.

Australia needs to overhaul the concept of residential tenancy over the next decade to give the growing underclass the opportunity to establish roots and connections to their community.

Corporationism

Someone in the US has noticed, but doesn't seem to have heard of National Socialism. The fascists in Germany in the 1930s called their party and system National Socialist. Like Mussolini in Italy, Hitler felt that the Government needed only the rich and the working class... Don't blame socialism which is working quite well in Australia where the AUD is high, crime rates are low and there is universal unemployment payments without time limits and a universal healthcare safety net. From a government that costs no more than that of the US.

Dylan Ratigan writes:

The Cost of Corporate Communism

Google doing Evil

Much of my online identity is under a net.alias adopted because practicing my religion was a criminal offense until a few years ago. There is a threat hanging over me if the government changes hands that those sections of the Criminal Code will be restored.

By insisting that I use my real name for Google+, Google puts me at risk of prosecution should the Queensland State Government fall under the control of certain factions of the LibNats. Prosecution for simply being Wiccan.

Maybe I'll ask Google to remimburse me the costs of moving to another state it it comes to pass. Afterall their policy is to Not Be Evil.

May I recommend:

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/08/rant-googles-real-names-policy-is-evil/

Good and Evil

For every Saint there is a murderous psychopath, for every Inspiring Teacher, there is a thug in a gym uniform. Unfortunately the alternative is a kind of bland stepford world of safe suburbs and vaguely smiling PTA members. Like sorrow permits us to feel joy, the capacity for evil is what gives us the capacity to do good.

Each of us faces choices every day, those choices define us. What matters is not what we think in our heart of hearts, but what we *DO*. The impulse to kill lurks in all of us, acting on it is what makes a very few of us murderers.

The impulse to commit kindness also exists in all of us, that so few of us act on it is what prevents us living in a paradise.

The Thing, for people who read...

Yes Petunia, it was a 1938 novella before hollywood got fake blood all over it.

Who goes there?

Very atmospheric.

The wikipedia article has a link to the text of the story. Also links to the idea it is a lost Doc Savage tale, which makes a surprising amount of sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Goes_There%3F

Parallel Economies

1/ A community of Interest

Religious, ethnic, cultural or subcutural, some element that defines "us" versus "them". Something that either unites a group of people or differentiates a subgroup from the main stream. In some clear way there must be an identifiable community of Others.

2/ A diversity of Skills and Services

Specialists and talented individuals are necessary to make this work. Cooperative labour is not enough to sustain a parallel economy. There must (for a large enough community) be Other plumbers and tailors and lawn services and butchers. Even on a small scale, hobby businesses catering for the specific needs of Others.

3/ A commitment to the idea of community

It is not enough to be an Other, one must actively participate in both Otherish activities and main stream activities as an Other. Even if one passes at main stream events, not wearing distinctive symbols or dress, awareness of one's Otherness will influence your participation.

4/ Self and mutual identification

You must not only think of yourself as an Other, you must be able to see faces in a crowd and pick out the Others from the common throng. Either through distinctive symbols or through familiarity.

5/ A locus or central place(s)

Be it a Temple, or Coffee Shop or Bar or Market, there must be places Others gather and can exchange information, recommendations, gossip and news.

6/ Cash and kind: payment; barter; community effort; favours and obligations.

Even without participation in the Black Economy, Others offer discounts, trade in kind, barter and non-commercial exchange of goods, services and labour to other members of their community. This reduces the tax burden on the community, and preferentially targets Others money and energy into the Other economy and away from the businesses of the main stream.

7/ Rejection of the other.

With a dollar in your hand, as an Other you will make the effort to cross the raod to spend it in the shop of an Other in preference to a supermarket or fats food chain. You will preference an Other tradesman or professional over those outside the community.

Give me liberty, er, bacon.

I used to have a rule against eating anything smarter than my elected representative. Then I moved to Toowoomba and decided bacon was more important than a dumb rule.

Io Pan, Hail Eris

I am a strange thing.

I was raised Atheist by lapsed (walked away fast) Catholics.

In my mid teens I encountered Discordianism, through the Illuminati Trilogy, and it spoke to me. I also encountered Wicca, but in a hide bound bookish form that celebrated Midsummer in the depths of the Southern Winter.

A few years later I was firmly Discordian, and while ignoring a great many gods, found myself looking to Eris as the Feminine and Pan as the Masculine aspects of the Numinous. At that time my (now ex-)wife and I encountered a slightly more open form of Wicca that had just begun to celebrate seasons we experienced, not those marked on a Glastonbury souvenir calendar. The coven was also in transition to circling with the sun, not with the directions in books.

So I find myself Wiccan, henotheistically Erisian and seeing the Masculine energy in the figure or thought form of Pan in his aspect as practical joking god of shepherds and ordinary men. I try very hard to see the Gods as mental tools to assist in making the Numinous accessible on a human scale, however they refuse to be so constrained and overflow, at times inconveniently, into my life.

A bit of my past

My parents were born the same day in 1939, my Mother in Aylesham, Kent, England and my Father in Newhaven, Edinburgh, Scotland. They met as children, relatives of my father lived in the same street as my Mother, and my Father's family would fruit pick in Kent in summer as a sort of working holiday.

They didn't like each other much. As a teen I was able to ply many of my Mother's childhood friends in Acacia Ridge (aka Little Aylesham) with drink and ask them questions. No-one knew how they came to be married (there was strong drink involved) and not one of their friends could work out why or how they stayed together. My Mother was a strange child, and to use the words of one old friend "always a bit of a space cadet".

In their teens and early 20s my Parents ran with the Teddy Boys. My father and his younger brother Mac had a reputation as hard men and had spent some time as smugglers. My uncle remained outside the law throughout most of his life mostly as a moderately successful somewhat violent petty criminal. I suspect my parents' decision to take up the opportunity to become assisted immigrants to Australia had a certain amount to do with fallout from my Father's less salubrious activities.

In Australia they lived in an assortment of cheap inner city Brisbane properties before settling down at Whynot St in West End for a couple of years. It was at this time I was born at Brisbane's Mater Hospital. A year later they bought a house block and hard a weatherboard house built on the Lettuce Farm Estate at Eight Mile Plains. They moved in, in exasperation, to an unfinished house, which took my Father some years to get around to finishing the ceilings in some rooms.

The part of Eight Mile Plains they lived in was hived off to form the core of Underwood in the 70s.

Many adventures and 14 years later they built a house on 10 acres at Eagleby. Allowing my Father to fully indulge his love for Clydesdales.

They lived there nearly 20 years before moving to a smaller house on a suburban block nearby where they lived their remaining few years.

My Mother was a professional machinist, in both the industrial and sartorial senses at various times. So much of my childhood was spent in the daily care of her Mother and Father (who had Huntingtons Disease). After Jake died, Ellen lived with my parents for most of the next 20 years, she kept my Mother from driving me nuts, and got alone well with my Father, her least annoying son-in-law. My Mother and I didn't get along, so my Grandmother was the safe sane presence in my childhood.

My Father was a horse trader, figuratively and at times literally. He was a legendary figure in the Queensland construction industry, in the 60s as The Black Pom, later working in various aspects of the concrete industry. We once picnicked on the bank of the Logan River. During the afternoon dozens of boats stopped as people recognized him, many tying up and joining us. Enough people and boats that the Police arrived to see what was happening. Walking down the street in Brisbane CBD he would have people come up and greet him, builders and businessmen, bikers and politicians, police and street thugs.

Linkies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aylesham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhaven,_Edinburgh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia%20Ridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Boy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Mile_Plains,_Queensland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwood,_Queensland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagleby,_Queensland

Shallow History

Shallow history, it is the Best Best Friend of Creation science, the Young Earth, and the absurdity that is Baby Jesus as the bizarrely anachronistic fourth wheel of the Trinity.

Understanding Histories vast sweep and then pushing the timeline back back back into prehistory and geological time makes Zombie Jesus Mad.

Patriotism

It is strange watching Patriots of other countries on TV.

In Australia, Flag Waving Patriotism is generally considered an indicator of either incipient fraud, or madness.

In some cases both.

Bullying: I will not stand by and watch

I will not stand by and watch; I will step in on behalf of the victim; I will speak up; I will inform Teachers/Management/Security/Human Resources/Police and will follow through. I will assure the victims of bullying that they are not alone in the world. Bullying exists only so long as we stand aside and let it thrive.

Repost this is you are against bullying...

Claiming to be Optus

My GF just got a call from 028661900 claiming to be Optus.

I've had a couple of calls from this number trying to get me to verify my details and offering to sell me different plans, but I've just said I'm not interested and hung up. My suspicions were raised when they called several times. I don't verify my DoB or address with anyone calling me, only if I initiate the call. I have a nasty feeling my GF may be about to be churned.

I'm googling for the number and it has been calling various mobile companies customers for the last year or so. Seems they are a phishing outfit after credit card details. The usual free Free FREE, just allow us to withdraw $1 to verify account routine. We've hung up long before that point, luckily.

Annoyingly Optus charge $3/month to block numbers.

Apparently the TSA defies G*D...

Where are the Leviticus quoters when you need them...

[...]
In 2008, TSA employees began wearing new uniforms that have a blue-gray 65/35 polyester/cotton blend duty shirt, [...] [From Wikipedia]

Leviticus 19:19: [...] Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

Ah, there they are... On facebook

Can we afford the Carbon Tax

Australia is thrashing around in preparation for some sort of Carbon trading/tax/fairytale scheme. Gillard promised a Labor government would not push through in this term with such a scheme, but having been forced into (effectively) a coalition with the Greens and Country Independents, all bets are off.

Numbers between $600 and $1,100 per year are thrown around in the article below based on $30 or $40 a tonne Carbon Tax and the question of including Petrol. There is much talk of offset payments, but even if those are a lump sum, efficient appliance grants and a rise to the rate of Pensions, Unemployment Benefit, Youth Allowance and AustStudy, they are unlikely to maintain even the poorest Australians at their current level.

Treasury releases carbon tax estimates

Privatization of electricity supply and generation has seen prices skyrocket, despite coal being cheaper and the private companies not spending money on maintenance. Profits to share holders are high and salaries to the bloated plutocrats are, of course, obscene. So compared to the increased efficiencies of privatization, the carbon tax will have a moderate impact on electricity prices, and even at 440/tonne is unlikely to push alternative energy investment mush faster than it is currently growing. At 1/3kg/kWh (1) $30/tonne is 10c/kWh is a large increase now (40% where I am, much less in less fortunate areas) but with prices predicted to double before years end, the impact will be lessened.

Currently distribution companies charge a premium for "green" power, but don't reduce your bill if they oversell and have to dig into the coal fired system to keep your lights burning. I wonder how that little money maker will go when the carbon price/tax comes in. They also pay quite poorly for co-generated power fed back to the grid from domestic photovoltaic systems.

I can say fairly certainly that the richest 1% of the worlds population will somehow be better off and I'll be able to afford meat less often.

Just me

And my GF and my Daughter, celebrating my 45th Birthday last year.

Sometimes I let my beard grow out, I suspect it is to remind myself that I am indeed in my mid-40s and too old for pretty much all of it. My hair has always been unruly, I'm considering going really short back and sides

So our landlord & agent are a cliche

The Real Estate Agent turns up and tries to intimidate us every time we complain about major stuff. Smoke alarms not working (there are 6) the owner of the agency turns up and complains that because we complained in writing they had to get an electrician out. The electrician popped the one in the living room, dead. I pointed out they had stickers saying they should be replaced after 10 years and were marked 199[]. He went and got replacements but the agent insisted on replacing only one. Same went for replacing washers, they waffled until one failed completely, by the look of the withered rubber corpse it hadn't been replaced in 10 years.

The hot water system backflows into the cold line, so intermittently the cold taps flow hot until they clear. Because it doesn't do it every time and he hasn't witnessed it, he insists that we have an "alleged" problem. We've already had to have them replace the toilet. When we moved in there was a 1970s pan, with a modern low flush cistern that took an hour to fill and two flushes to scour. That went to 3 hours to fill after a flow limiter was fitted.

The water hammer is also frightening, like whacking the front door with a sledge hammer at 2:00am when someone elsewhere in the complex flushes. One evening after a particularly violent rendition of pipework percussion's greatest hits, the hot water system was making a weird buzz louder than the TV, I "fixed" it by running the purge/fill valve for an hour.

The shower is dangerous, water flow often stops when someone in another flat uses the water. Which wouldn't be too bad, except that it sometimes comes back full hot, and there is no tempering valve. Which means I need to help my GF shower because she can't dodge the flow due to her physical disability. They can't just turn down the hot water system, because it is a tiny storage unit (although not on off peak, so at least  it heats up in about an hour).

To give an idea of how far down the slumlord path they are, we can't use the kitchen cupboards for non-canned food because they smell of rot. In the case of the draws and 1/4 of the cupboard space we can't use them at all. Have a nice pic of the active mould in the cupboards we can't use.

That's what it looked like when we moved in, we filed a complaint to get it fixed, they said the owner was looking into it, hasn't got back to us several months later. Don't know what it looks like now, I stuck a humidity sucker in there and closed the door.

Want the punch line, they say because his costs have gone up our rent rises from $200/week to $210 a week.

(We're looking into lodging an appeal against the rise.)

I can has follower...

I have my first follower.

Just about 2 billion to go to total world domination.

Bullying is a hot topic...

Goddess grant me the Courage to confront
the Arseholes who bully me,
the Calm to deal with them as they Deserve,
the Wit to leave no Evidence,
and the Luck for the bodies to never be found...

Goth

Goth: start with the basic black and the anti-anti-intellectualism, add lace, music with a social conscience on both a large and small scale and a feeling of alienation, season well with non-conformity and creativity. Bake in a hotbed of interpersonal conflict and petty jealousies. Present in a darkened room with a side of cynicism and a glass of absinth. Serves no-one but looks good in the corner near the cheese platter.

A link to the classic piece Why Nerds are Unpopular.

A net classic...
Why Nerds are Unpopular

10% of Australians living in poverty.

"The number of Australians living in poverty, estimated at 2.2 million, will continue to creep up as families buckle under cost of living pressures [...]
More Aussies in need - ACOSS

There are a number of factors, but I blame the Howard Years erosion of basic Pension and Dole rates for a large part of it. Add to that the way Tax breaks for investment (rental) homes have pushed up house prices and thus rents, and the meagre dogs breakfast of "Rent Assistance" and you have a lot of people teetering on the edge of homelessness.

Toss in skyrocketing electricity prices and Centrelink punishing welfare recipients for failing to read their mail by cutting off their payments, and it is no wonder there is a serious problem.

Things to do.

I'm sure there are things to do in Toowoomba, I often hear about them after they've happened.

Bad enough that bad Saturday bus timetables and nothing Sunday or in the evenings makes getting to and from things hard. A Sunday event takes planning and saving for a taxi. Which means you need to know it is on.

Quite annoying. A lack of reasonable communication about events, especially fringe things mean that events are smaller than they should be. It goes beyond the obvious, there is something strange about Toowoomba.

Or should I say Toowoombas. There is not just one City of 100,000 people. For some strange reason, Toowoomba splinters, schisms, is clannish and divided. Time and again I discover that things of interest have been happening in one of the other Toowoombas that I would have supported if I'd known about them. It is as if there are a dozen or so small towns with the same highways running in and out of them that don't internally overlap despite occupying the same geographical coordinates.

For some reason people cluster looking inward, and there will be more than one circle of Anime Fans or D&D players or Goths or Pagans or Accordian Players or Stand Up Comedians. Which would be great, diversity is good, except that they either ignore the other groups with similar interests, actively go all Highlander (There Can Be Only One!) or engage in the kind of infighting usually reserved in fictional for Cat Breeders Societies.

I've attempted to address this a little with a facebook group called Minority Retort, trying to encourage people to subscribe, tell their friends, and post things of interest.

(Toowoomba) Minority Retort
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=155999551088623

My GF and I are also trying to get a Goth social thing happening through Meetup.com
http://www.meetup.com/Toowoomba-Goth-Meetup/

Toowoomba RC

http://toowoombarc.qld.gov.au/


The Toowoomba Regional Council.


Rather a stupid idea. Doesn't have boundaries determined by community of interest, they just shoved a bunch of randomly adjacent shires and the old City of Toowoomba under an ill planned ad hoc "New" regional council. Part of a number of such accretions imposed by the State Government a few years back.


Having said that, they are trying. Lots of dead wood in the system still, but they are moving forward.


There's a Local Law review on
http://www.toowoombarc.qld.gov.au/about-council/have-your-say/local-law-review/5761-local-law-review.html




We're thinking of putting in some comments.


For example when it comes to bouncers queuing people to enter nightclubs (yes, a joke in Toowoomba) they tend to pretty much block the footpath, so some of the bit below needs tightening.


Subordinate Local Law No. 1.2 (Commercial Use of Local Government Controlled Areas and Roads) 2011 Submissions on subordinate local laws



I really like Schedule 1 2(2)(u) provide, for use by patrons of each of the principal premises and the area on which the prescribed activity is undertaken, adequate toilet facilities; 

I am a Witch

I am Wiccan. Oddly Discordian Wiccan, I see the Feminine and the Masculine aspects of deity in terms of Eris and Pan.

I believe a number of things...

Responsibility for my own actions.
(There is no forgiveness vending machine in the sky).

That the Numinous is omnipresent and immediate.
(Divinity is within and without).

That my way is right for me.
(Other people may find different Stairways to Heaven suit them better).

That the Masculine/Feminine duality is at the core of being human. 
(And that we each express aspects of both).

Finally I believe that I should minimize harm while perfecting my Self.
(Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill, An it harm none do what ye will.).

The Idiot holds forth

I've lived in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia most of the last 25 or so years.

I'm something of a fixture at the local University, USQ, though not a student at the moment (my GF is).

I'm politically active in a non-party somewhat left of centre (by Australian standards, so probably flaming RED by those of the US). I am not nor have I ever been a Communist, though I have strong Fabian Socialist tendencies, mostly because by world standards I am rich, and Eat The Rich is so much more than a clever sound-bite. I'm rather partial at the moment to The Australian Sex Party, and antipathic to Family First.