Output From a Shrinking Brain

You Worry Me . . .

2010-07-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

'YOU WORRY ME! ' - Captain John Maniscalco

I've been trying to say this since 911 in New York , but you worry me. I wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your colour and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can't help it anymore.

People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in the U. S. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favourite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers.

The Palestinians celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Muslim world. So, I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the souls of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational Australian, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim Australians and the Arab/Muslim terrorists in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR democratic government, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good neighbours and children?

The events of September 11 in the U. S. changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know, whether or not you love Australia . Do you pledge allegiance to our flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your Jihad's? Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of diggers who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love Australia ? If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.

Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect Australia . Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy. I am ONLY interested in action. What will you do for Australia - our great country - at this time of crisis, at this time of war?

I want to see Muslims waving the AUSTRALIAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting 'Allah Bless Australia ' I want to see young Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.

The Australian Federal Police has a list of over 100 people they want to talk to regarding potential terrorism. Many of these people live and socialise right now in Muslim communities. You know them. . You know where they are. Hand them over to the police, now! But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals.

The very few Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that Australia proves who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in Australia and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing 'leaders' like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.

If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, and pure, and true, when your 'leaders' are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance? It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our leaders, burning the Australian/American /British flags, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against Australia , the USA , United Kingdom , - countries of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their travelling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.

We will NEVER allow the attacks of Bali , September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our democratic rights, freedoms, and fun loving way of life. I want to know where every Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very system of government that is protecting you and your family.

I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbour, my friend, as a fellow Australian. But there can be no grey areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance, and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand. Until then. 'YOU WORRY ME! '

I totally agree with this sentiment. I hope you will forget all about the 'political correctness' mandate we've had rammed down our throats, and see if this doesn't ring true in your heart and mind. For Australia , with all the multiculturalism we've been told is so important..... why should we not, as Australians, expect that the thousands of new people immigrating to our country will show their love for our country, their allegiance to our country, their willingness to obey the laws of our country, and acceptance that we are a Christian country? Just because they are able to enjoy exercising their own religion, they should not expect us to be ashamed of ours. They knew Australia was a Christian country when they came here. Why are we erasing Christianity because immigrants who are unwilling to adopt our way of life expect us to? There is just too much insanity in the world, and we have to start taking a stand.

Don't Ask Why !!!

2010-04-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

They may be able to give a "reason" for this but there is NOTHING that can "justify" it!!

And Further to the Point . . . .

2010-02-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

Susan MacAllen is a contributing editor for (FamilySecurityMatters.org)
Salute the Danish Flag - it's a Symbol of Western Freedom
By Susan MacAllen

In 1978-9 I was living and studying in Denmark . But in 1978 - even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants.

The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism won in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other western nation at the time.

The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.

Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies - it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant: generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism. How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets -all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?

By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious - and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was obvious. Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves. As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark 's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming - began to feel slighted.

Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values: belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.

An article by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard, in which they forecasted accurately that the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode. In the article they reported:
'Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.' 'Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.'

'Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.'

'Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem' 'Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.'

It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish values and laws. An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and Canada .: some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade. I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who as a teenager had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of occupying Nazi soldiers - and I wonder what she would say today.

In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration. Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe . ( Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of 'racism' by liberal media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.)

If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes. You must pass a test on Denmark 's history, culture, and a Danish language test : You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship. You must demonstrate intent to work, and have a job waiting. If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark , you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you. You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen . Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark , they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't.

In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying: the government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary. In other words, the welfare system as it existed was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. 'We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration.

The calculations of the welfare committee are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now,' he said. A large thorn in the side of Denmark 's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj. She makes no bones about the new policy toward immigration, 'The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference,'

Hvilshøj says, 'There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come.' And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in, 'In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values, however, are more important than others. We refuse to question democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech.'

Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone. Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen, stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money. When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark.

The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce.

Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law.

And meanwhile, Canadians clamor for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole. As we in Canada look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily, dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history
.. . we would do well to look to Denmark , and "say a prayer" for her future and for our own..

Intolerable Intolerance . . .

2009-08-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me, when I received this, that given the general tendency of fundamentalist beliefs leading to intolerance (of the rest of us), that the tendency described in this video may not be a good thing.

Though what the Hell (oooops) can be done about it is beyond me.

You would have to be MAD!

2009-01-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me :

You would have to be MAD!

It suddenly dawned on me while doing some reading about energy alternatives that there were people who were SERIOUSLY proposing we should return to the time when nuclear energy was thought to be the answer to all our energy prayers.

You would have to be MAD!

There are any number of reasons why this is NOT GOOD!

BAD economics.
It DOES NOT fix global warming (and can make it worse).
It is LETHAL.

Give me global warming, lack of oil, rising seas, conventional terrorist bombs, WHATEVER - just NOT nuclear.

The "experts", few of whom can agree on anything,
pontificate about leaving a better world for our children.
In the short history of man on the planet apparently
all we have done is fucked it up.

Why then should we believe that we can avoid accidents
and incidents from which we can never recover
much less look after any thing for the next 200000 years.

In all our recorded history, about 6000 years,
there is almost NOTHING, apart from the very recent,
that man has created which has been maintained in the
condition it was supposed to be at the time it was created.

What makes us think we can do this now
with something so dangerous.

You would have to be MAD!

Like OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Percy Bysshe Shelly

and the lesser known version:

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

Horace Smith

Minorities Rule

2009-01-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me :

as I contemplate a number of things being changed in the world that

"Minorities rule" is becoming as bad as "Majorities rule".

Both of these are wrong!

Pandering to minorities or majorities is a form of apologist collectivism.

In either of these circumstances one group is having to restrict it's activities "even if they don't harm the other group".

What about "tolerance" rules.

We seem to have become hung up on this idea of you can't express an idea if someone else is going to find it "offensive".

Now there's the problem! It's emotively incorrect language.
Repugnant is the term you are looking for.

When you look up the dictionary (at least the ones I have)
repugnant : is "contrary or contradictory" (to one's own position) whereas
offensive : is "of or pertaining to attack" (which evokes violence).

Then the argument becomes :

I find your remarks offensive
You are being offensive
I can defend myself
If you say something I don't like you are attacking me
If you say something I don't like I can attack you

So people who don't like what you are saying (ie find it repugnant) think they have a right to attack you.
The lack of their understanding of and belief in reciprocity is interesting here.

Consequently , because we are intimidated and/or trying to be reasonable (and I don't know why because they aren't),
we begin to impose voluntary restrictions on our freedom of expression.

Pretty soon it becomes institutionalised.

What about :

I find your remarks repugnant.
This your place - I will leave, or
This is my place - GO AWAY.

Globalisation and Your Community!

2009-01-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me :

that "globalisation" is generally uncritically accepted as a "good thing".

It can create new jobs in your community, because
assuming that all other factors are equal,
the labour component of production is cheapest in your community.

So rejoice because :

"You are getting paid less than anyone else in the world."

However, it may also take some jobs from your community.
Just a "few".
Say 100 when the factory in your community closes down, because
goods can now be imported cheaper from the other side of the globe, but
this is "OK" because the majority benefits from being able to buy cheaper goods.
Oh. Except for he 100 people who lost their jobs of course, and
ignoring that tax now goes up to pay the social services for the unemployed.

However, IT'S FOR THE GOOD OF THE MAJORITY!*

(*That's DEMOCRACY, where the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group.)

And then there is the minor issue of the flow of wealth.
The capital (ie profit) being made from the sale of goods now leaves your community.

So let's buy imported goods because . . .

It makes goods cheaper, for those who can still afford them.
It puts people out of work in YOUR community.
It increases YOUR taxes.
Relative to the rest of the world YOU are getting poorer, because
it transfers wealth out of YOUR community, so
YOUR community now needs to borrow to acquire capital, and
all that has a myriad of additional negative side effects, and
not a single positive one that I can find.

And what about the non-monetary issues, like
YOUR feelings of self-respect and personal worth.

We will make less than any one else!
We will import more than any one else!
We will until we are too poor to pay for anything anymore!
We will be the poorest economy in the world!
We will get more aid than anyone else!

There's no end to our will and aspirations!

Political Incorrectness 101

2009-01-02T04:54:00.000-08:00

I know. I know.

There'll be a fatwah out for me by morning but I still think it's funny.

I'm just asserting my freedom of speech as an "Individualist".
I'm not asking you to believe what I believe, and even though I think you should think like that too, I don't believe you should be forced to. Hhmmm? Or do I??
Man even this individualist atheist shit gets complicated!
What the hell!

Taoism : Shit Happens
Hinduism : This Shit Happened Before
Islam : If Shit Happens, Take a Hostage
Buddhism : When Shit Happens Is It Really Shit?
7th Day Adventist : Shit Happens On Saturday
Protestantism : Shit Wont Happen If I Work Harder
Catholicism : If Shit Happens I Deserve It
Jehovah's Witness : Knock, Knock. "Shit Happens."
Judaism : Why Does Shit Always Happen To Me?
Hare Krishna : Shit Happens Rama Rama Ding Dong
Atheism : No Shit!
TV Evangelism : Send More Shit
Rastafarianism : Let's Smoke This Shit!

Rational Self Interest - Revisited

2008-12-30T05:54:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me:

as with a lot of other issues; that people who do not (and cannot) know you will assume you will have the same motivations as them.

They reason;

I'm sane (rational).

I want to make money (in my self-interest).

Therefore, if you're sane you will want to make money.

If you act in your rational self-interest you will make decisions based on the fact they will make you more money.

Rational self-interest always means to make more money.

If you don't try to make more money you must be nuts (irrational)!

However lots of people make decisions based only on making themselves happy.

But in the world of economics | finance it's too hard to put a value on happy.

The exchange rate is different for every person.

Emotional Blackmail for Adults

2008-12-29T05:47:00.000-08:00

"You Make Me Unhappy"

or the other version

"You Don't Make Me Happy"

Wow! That means I don't have to be responsible for my own happiness!!
YOU DO!!

I don't have to do anything.
I just sit back here and wait for you to make me happy.

Go on. Go on. Make me happy!

Shit! It's not happening . . .

So . . . IT"S ALL YOUR FAULT !!
(and you should feel guilty about that).

This is not an adult thought process and it is negatively re-enforcing (especially if the other person is similarly stuck) ie it's highly unlikely they are going to change in the aftermath of that little exchange.

The only thing that's going to help is if you change. You can decide that a particular set of circumstances is NOT going to send you into a paroxysm of self-pity (which has to be about the most pointless exercise in human existence) but that you are going to do the thing that will ultimately make you happy ie decide to be responsible for yourself.

Of course it's OK to invite the other party to do the same for themselves.

Emotional Blackmail for Kids

2008-12-29T05:37:00.000-08:00

It occurs to me that one of the most abhorrent behaviours being practiced today is the deliberate confusion being perpetrated on children by obfuscating the rationale of cause and effect with regard to behaviour and instigating the practice of irrational reasoning.

I just couldn't resist that sentence.
It's mine. I made it up. I believe it.
I just have to get you to believe it.

First step I suppose is to understand it.

Children are being taught that emotional blackmail is OK!!
It's NOT! It's abhorrent. It's irrational.

They first come across it from misguided parents who think you should "never smack a child".
Why not?

OK. I understand that there are psychotics out there who go to extremes but that is the case regardless. I'm sure that any crazy who deliberately abuses a child (or person) is not going to consider whether it's politically correct!

So the well intentioned parent is left with what:
"If you don't do what I want I will feel bad . . ."?
The correct and rational response to that is:
"OK. If that's your choice - go ahead."

The alternative is for them to learn that they are expected to be responsible for someone else's emotional well being.
By extension they will then begin to expect someone else to be responsible for their emotional well being.

They should be taught right and wrong by positive feedback.

When YOU do something wrong YOU will feel bad.
And yes there are lots of ways of making that happen other than beating up your kid.
But it is important that the kid understands that they are being punished not because you feel angry (or they are a "bad person") but because THEIR behaviour is wrong.

It's part of learning to be responsible for themselves.

Rational Self Interest

2008-12-27T22:56:00.000-08:00

Previously I mentioned that I tend to favour "individualism" over "collectivism".

Easy to say.

How do you make it work?

Some parts are easy for me; (not in any particular order nor meant to provide a logical train of argument.)

The role of the individual is the basis for all decision making.
An individual should not take any action which will knowingly disadvantage any other individual.
An individual should have the benefit of his own labour.
When someone pays you for your labour then they are entitled to all the result of your labour - you are entitled to all of the payment.
Individuals should be entitled to agree between themselves to alter this arrangement.
and lots more . . .

But somewhere along the line it gets mentioned that all this individualism relies on individuals having "Rational Self Interest"

WHooeee.
There are sociological, psychological, cultural, economic and philosophic arguments and definitions all over the place.
I spent three solid days over Xmas reading up on that one and I still don't really understand it!

The trouble is today there seems to be way too much of the immediate "self interest" and way too little of the "rational".

Individualism vs Collectivism

2008-12-27T06:29:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking quite a bit lately about "individualism" vs "collectivism" and the role of "nationalism".

I know it's not as much fun as the latest blockbuster movie or bestseller novel but I have two adult children and I can't help but think sometimes about whether or not I would like to be in their position.

Around 1970 sometime I was introduced to what was then referred to by many titles including "objectivism" and "rational anarchy".

These ideas are not as we would find them in the dictionary today but refer (not always accurately) to the philosophies expounded by Ayn Rand.
While the ideas as I understood them seemed to me to be desirable on an intellectual level I have always some difficulty in understanding how to implement them in the real world.

It seems we have at one end of the spectrum "the individual" and at the other end a "global collective". It would appear to me that at this point in time there is considerable influence being brought to bear on public thinking that we should be moving toward the global collective.
Anyone who doesn't think this is so should spend a little time reading about GATT, IMF, WORLD BANK, WTO, MAI, OECD, etc..

Very few persons live as individuals outside of (the influence of) some form of social group and to them these thoughts would be entirely irrelevant. The rest of us live at some point in between and therefore need some ideals of how to structure our societies. I use these terms deliberately as I believe that not everybody need or should have the same desires and ideals and we should allow for different societies to structure themselves in different ways.

The big question for me is where to draw the boundaries.

Information is Empowerment

2008-12-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

I was looking at my local government rates and taxes account the other day and it reminded me of the information "package" that came with it.

Beautifully illustrated graphs and bar and pie charts that showed me where all my taxes were being spent and how that compared with last year.

How come I've never seen anything, much less anything like that, for state and federal taxes?

When you've filled in your tax pack every year the government sends you either a bill or a refund.

But how come they don't send you a breakdown of what they're doing with your money?

For example; wouldn't you like to know how much of it is spent on education, how much of it is spent for defence, and how much is spent for social security benefits.

Breaking down your tax into areas like this would empower you.
It would empower everyone to know where their money was going.

You could see, every year, what went up and what went down.
You could then make more informed decisions about the issues and how vote at elections.
You may even come to better conclusions and make better choices.

How hard can it be?
A small change in the Tax department's computer system could easily calculate the relevant percentages of government expenditure for every one's tax return.
The figures would show you where their money was being spent.

So why doesn't the government do this?

When politicians talk about millions and billions spent here and there, it doesn't mean anything to you or them.
The numbers are too big and everybody pays different amounts and so you have no idea what it really means to you.

The government could solve this information deficit within a month.
A few lines of computer programming would print a simple breakdown for all of us.
You would then know where your money was going.

And this really would inform and empower you.

$200 for education. $695 for defence. $2577 for social security benefits. $362 for politicians' salaries and benefits.

But, knowledge is power, which, presumably, is why the government doesn't want to give you such information.

Tax and GDP

2008-12-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

Have you ever considered that services such as those provided by lawyers make up part of a nation's Gross Domestic Product.

The greater the number of legal disputes, the higher is the GDP.

The more legal activity there is, the better a country appears to be doing.

The creation of a single law, regardless of its merit and purpose, nearly always gives lawyers and government, more "work" and therefore the country more wealth.

But isn't the amount of legal activity going on within a country partly a measure of how much its people are involved in fighting with each other?

In addition burdens incurred because of required compliance to government regulation also do not count as tax. They are counted in the national statistics as a sign of wealth.

The same is true with regard to, say, the expense of using accountants. What you pay to an accountant to sort out all your tax details is not counted as being part of your tax burden, which it is, but it does count toward the GDP.

Business also has to pay significant amounts to lawyers, accountants and various bureaucrats who deal with all the government red tape involved with doing business, and these costs get passed on to you the customer.

All these extra burdens are forced on us by governments. But they do not count as tax. They count as wealth.

If the government itself did all the jobs that it insists have to be done by citizens, then citizens would have to pay for this directly through the tax system. By forcing citizens to pay professionals who work outside of government to do these enforced things, then the government does not have to raise taxes at all. It shifts what are, in fact, governmental burdens forcibly imposed on citizens (tax), into what appears to be extra wealth!

The average taxpayer spends some time dealing with matters related to tax. The monetary value of this activity is not included in the calculations when working out the burdens forcibly imposed by the government on citizens.

Indeed, when government-imposed burdens are taken into account, 'tax' rates in the western world are nowadays hovering around the 50% mark - and much higher in some places.

Equal Opportunity

2008-12-18T01:04:00.001-08:00

Equality of opportunity does not equal equality of suitability.

If you are 4' tall it might be said you don't have equal opportunity to be say - a high jumper

This is not true! You have an opportunity - just go do it.

The problem is you are just not suited for it (genetically).

No matter how hard you try to do something you are not suited for you probably wont succeed.

Just because you want to be successful at something doesn't mean that someone else has to make this possible.

The only thing that would make you a lesser person would be to blindly continue once you have determined you are not suitable.

And to bitch and moan about it.

Life isn't fair.

Get used to it.

Get on with it.

In Choice

2008-12-17T00:39:00.000-08:00

"We are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by.

The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience.

Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer?

In choice."

(Robert P. Beebe 1909-1988)

A Crass Oasis in a Cultural Desert

2008-12-16T04:24:00.000-08:00

I was, for some reason now completely unknown to me, as the product of a shrinking mind (sic), reading something about "ART" the other day.
Some of my really nicest friends have a lot to do with ART.
It is however a subject about which I am abjectly ignorant.
I am of the "I don't know what is good (or bad) I just know what I like" inclination.

In this literature however was a list of "Definitions of Style"

I am still trying to decide whether it was serious or not.
The general literature was serious (and I am always a bit dubious about the sense of humour associated with people in ART).

The list reminded me of something I used to find extremely humorous with regard to programming languages when I was involved with the computer industry.
I daresay it has no relevance in the current software world as I have absolutely no idea anymore how software is constructed. However, just in case there is anybody else from the same era for whom this may evoke a wry smile I have included it at the end.

Here, however, is what appears to be an ART equivalent - to me at least.

"Definitions of Style"

Landscape - just what it says
Figure in landscape - when you don't know who the figure is
Figurative - when you don't know who the figure is but you can't see the landscape
Portrait - when you do know who the figure is or there is just a face
Still Life - objects that cannot move on their own
Floral - close up of a flower or flowers
Illustration - tells a story
Fantasy - tells a fairy tale or sci-fi story
Realism - all of the above
Objective - when you don't have to ask
Abstract - when it's something rearranged in an unnatural way but sometimes you have to ask. These usually have definable form.
Non-objective - when it has no object, form and is hard to figure out, actually there never was a form so stop looking for one and enjoy the show.
Installation Stuff, objects, junk or nothing at all put together in a conceptual way. created to reside in a specific site, or built on site as a temporary work of art.
Performance Art: A short theatrical work expressing a abstract concept created by the artist.

and for those familiar with the ancient and arcane school of "coding":

Shoot Yourself in the Foot in Any Programming Language

The proliferation of modern programming languages (all of which seem to have stolen countless features from one another) sometimes makes it difficult to remember what language you’re currently using. This guide is offered as a public service to help programmers who find themselves in such dilemmas.

C
You shoot yourself in the foot.

C++
You accidentally create a dozen clones of yourself and shoot them all in the foot. Providing emergency medical assistance is impossible since you can’t tell which are bitwise copies and which are just pointing at others and saying, “That’s me, over there.”

JAVA
After importing java.awt.right.foot.* and java.awt.gun.right.hand.*, and writing the classes and methods of those classes needed, you’ve forgotten what the hell you’re doing.

Ruby
Your foot is ready to be shot in roughly five minutes, but you just can’t find anywhere to shoot it.

PHP
You shoot yourself in the foot with a gun made with pieces from 300 other guns.

ASP.NET
Find a gun, it falls apart. Put it back together, it falls apart again. You try using the .GUN Framework, it falls apart. You stab yourself in the foot instead.

SQL
SELECT @ammo:=bullet FROM gun WHERE trigger = ‘PULLED’; INSERT INTO leg (foot) VALUES (@ammo);

Perl
You start shooting yourself in the foot, but you lose the gun.

Javascript
You’ve perfected a robust, rich user experience for shooting yourself in the foot. You then find that bullets are disabled on your gun.

CSS
You shoot your right foot with one hand, then switch hands to shoot your left foot but you realize that the gun has turned into a banana.

FORTRAN
You shoot yourself in each toe, iteratively, until you run out of toes, then you read in the next foot and repeat. If you run out of bullets, you continue anyway because you have no exception-handling ability.

Modula2
After realizing that you can’t actually accomplish anything in this language, you shoot yourself in the head.

COBOL
Using a COLT 45 HANDGUN, AIM gun at LEG.FOOT, THEN place ARM.HAND.FINGER. on HANDGUN.TRIGGER and SQUEEZE. THEN return HANDGUN to HOLSTER. CHECK whether shoelace needs to be retied.

LISP
You shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds ..

BASIC
Shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol. On big systems, continue until entire lower body is waterlogged.

FORTH
Foot in yourself shoot.

APL
You shoot yourself in the foot, then spend all day figuring out how to do it in fewer characters.

Pascal
The compiler won’t let you shoot yourself in the foot.

SNOBOL
If you succeed, shoot yourself in the left foot. If you fail, shoot yourself in the right foot.

Concurrent Euclid
You shoot yourself in somebody else’s foot.

HyperTalk
Put the first bullet of the gun into the foot of the left leg of you. Answer the result.

Motif
You spend days writing a UIL description of your foot, the trajectory, the bullet, and the intricate scrollwork on the ivory handles of the gun. When you finally get around to pulling the trigger, the gun jams.

Unix
% ls
foot.c foot.h foot.o toe.c toe.o
% rm * .o
rm: .o: No such file or directory
% ls
%

Paradox
Not only can you shoot yourself in the foot, your users can too.

Revelation
You’ll be able to shoot yourself in the foot just as soon as you figure out what all these bullets are for.

Visual Basic
You’ll shoot yourself in the foot, but you’ll have so much fun doing it that you won’t care.

Prolog
You tell your program you want to be shot in the foot. The program figures out how to do it, but the syntax doesn’t allow it to explain.

Ada
After correctly packaging your foot, you attempt to concurrently load the gun, pull the trigger, scream and shoot yourself in the foot. When you try, however, you discover that your foot is of the wrong type.

Assembly
You try to shoot yourself in the foot only to discover you must first reinvent the gun, the bullet, and your foot. After that’s done, you pull the trigger, the gun beeps several times, then crashes.

370 JCL
You send your foot down to MIS with a 4000-page document explaining how you want it to be shot. Three years later, your foot comes back deep-fried.

You're a Hard Bastard to Convince . . .

2008-12-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

Many of my friends have had cause to utter the above statement.

This is a more reflective attempt to put my position than that which generally occurs in the heat of the moment.

Belief in things which are false may have serious practical consequences.

A clear and accurate understanding of the world needs to eliminate inconsistent and false beliefs.

Metaphysics is the philosophical study of being and knowing which provides an account of the basic structure of reality.

There are 5 generally held metaphysical assumptions:

1) Future events cannot effect the present. (Time is uni-directional.)

2) A persons mind cannot change the material world without the intervention of some physical energy or force.

3) A person cannot know the content of another person's mind. We can only infer based on experience and observation of speech and behaviour.

4) We cannot directly know what happens at a distance without some sensory perception or energy being transmitted to us.

5) Disincarnate beings do not exist as persons separable from physical bodies.

Science provides strong support for each of these assumptions.
Some people however believe these things are possible.

They may both be wrong but they cannot both be right.

There is a difference between doubt and disbelief. You don't have to disbelieve to doubt. If you doubt something you don't necessarily believe the opposite.

What should we do with claims which are at odds with general experience?

Epistemology is the philosophical theory of knowledge which deals with the problem of matching belief to evidence.

Refuse to accept as true claims for which there is insufficient or ambiguous evidence and recognise that doubting is preferable to accepting claims for which there are not sufficient grounds. Match your belief to the evidence.

While it is impossible to prove a negative case it is irrational to believe that supernatural events occur. This does not argue that they cannot occur - merely that it is irrational to believe that they can.

The evidence against such things happening is quite strong and no evidence is sufficient to establish these occurrences are true unless it would be more preposterous that it was not true.

Only when the evidence is beyond dispute should we accept it as a basis for belief.

Unfortunately we often confuse our 'wish to believe' as evidence that such a belief is supportable.

(Acknowledgement to William Grey)

100 ways to disagree

2008-12-03T05:28:00.000-08:00

Recently I read a couple of crime novels where the characters are the same in each novel (except for the criminals - otherwise it might get just a little too predictable). I quite enjoyed this particular series as the characters seem a little more real than usual. No superheroes. A few flaws in character even.

The interesting part for me is that there is a very low key sub-plot running through them all. The premise is that the main character's partner has given him an iPod for his birthday. Along with this is a voucher for 100 songs from the iStore. He has taken it upon himself to treat this as a challenge. He is going to limit himself to only 100 of the best songs from the "Rock Era". Somehow there is also a presumption that this would be listened to while on a "road trip".

I didn't realise at the time that at the back of the book there was a list. (There is one song obviously out of place - but you'll have to read the book to find out why :) ) There is apparently no particular order to the songs other than "any intelligent person knows that you have to start a road trip with ZZ-Top"!

Unfortunately while transfering the list I put it into alphabetical order. I guess the only real difference is that now ZZ-Top are at the end. Unfortunately this medium strips out all formatting that I know how to do so the list is a bit hard to read.

AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night Long
AC/DC, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Aerosmith, Sweet Emotion
Aerosmith, Dude (Looks Like a Lady)
Allman Brothers, Ramblin' Man
Animals, House of The Rising Sun
Aretha Franklin, Respect
Bad Company, Feel Like Makin' Love
Billy Idol, White Wedding
Billy Joel, Piano Man
Black Sabbath, Paranoid
Blondie, Heart of Glass
Bo Diddley, Who Do You Love
Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone
Bob Dylan, Knockin' on Heavens Door
Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
Bob Seger, Night Moves
Brewer and Shipley, One Toke Over the Line
Bruce Springsteen, Dancing in the Dark
Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen, Thunder Road
Buddy Holly, Peggy Sue
Byrds, Mr Tambourine Man
Chuck Berry, Roll Over Beethoven
Crash Test Dummies, Superman's Song
Credence Clearwater Revival, Down on the Corner
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Ohio
David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust
David Essex, Rock On
Def Leppard, Rock of Ages
Del Shannon, Runnaway
Derek and the Dominoes, Layla
Dire Straits, Skateaway (Rollergirl)
Dmitri Shostakovich, Jazz Suite No. 2, Waltz 2
Doobie Brothers, Black Water
Doors, Roadhouse Blues
Eagles, Lyin' Eyes
Eagles, Life in the Fast Lane
Elvis Presley, Jailhouse Rock
Eric Clapton, After Midnight
Eric Clapton, Lay Down Sally
Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Foreigner Blue Morning, Blue Day
George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Bad to the Bone
Gipsy Kings, Hotel California
Golden Earring, Radar Love
Grateful Dead, Sugar Magnolia
Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child o' Mine
Guns N' Roses, Paradise City
Guns N' Roses, Knockin' on Heavens Door
Hollies, Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
Jackson Browne, Tender is the Night
James Brown, I Got You (I Feel Good)
Janis Joplin, Me and Bobby McGee
Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit
Jefferson Airplane, Somebody To Love
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire
Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I Love Rock 'n' Roll
John Lee Hooker/Bonnie Raitt, I'm In the Mood
John Mellancamp, Jack and Diane
Kingsmen, Louie, Louie
Kinks, Lola
Led Zepplin, Rock and Roll
Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side
Lynryd Skynryd, Sweet Home Alabama
Metallica, Turn the Page
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Devil With a Blue Dress On
Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit
Otis Reding, (Sitting on) the Dock of the Bay *
Paul Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years
Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)
Pink Floyd, Money
Pointer Sisters, Slow Hand
Police, Every Breath You Take
Prince, Little Red Corvette
Queen, We Will Rock You
Ramones, I Wanna Be Sedated
Rolling Stones, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Rolling Stones, Brown Sugar
Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil
Roy Orbison, Oh, Pretty Woman"
Run D.M.C., Walk This Way
Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK
Steppenwolf, Born to be Wild
Talking Heads, Burning Down the House
Clash, Should I Stay or Should I Go
Everley Brothers, Bye Bye Love
Righteous Brothers, Unchained Melody
Tina Turner, What's Love Got to Do With It
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mary Jane's Last Dance
Tom Waits, Heart of Saturday Night
Tracy Chapman, Give Me One Reason *
U2, With or Without You
Van Halen, Hot for Teacher
Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl
Who, Wont Get Fooled Again
Wilson Pickett, Mustang Sally
ZZ Top, Sharp Dressed Man
ZZ Top, Legs *

I had a look at my music collection afterward and I find it hard to believe but out of my entire music collection I had about 3 of these songs!!

I have transferred over time all of my CD's to my computer where I can listen to them without the hassle of changing CD's all the time and I don't have to listen to every track. What am I telling you for?? If you are reading this you will probably know a lot more about these things than I do!

So it occurred to me that I could make a CD of my own 100 (nominal) interesting songs. If I use mp3 format I can actually get closer to 170 on a single CD. What a challenge. I can just throw that one in the in-dash car mp3 player for ultimate convenience when I don't want to listen to the radio.

How to choose?? I don't really want to restrict myself to a particular genre as I don't have a favourite type of music - well - that I recognise anyway. Some of you may say after reading the list that there is an obvious bias toward such-and-such a type of music. It would be interesting to know.

It seemed to me the easiest way was to just go through my library and drag anything that immediately appealed to me from memory into a CD burning program. I can then save and listen to this list adding and deleting as I refine my choices.

There are few I can't find video or other sources for - I have them in my collection but can't get them in to the "My Music List" (yet) but the rest of them if you want to hear them are over there --->

Shrunken Heads are No Longer Appropriate

2008-12-02T06:40:00.000-08:00

I saw a presentation recently on "TED". This is a very interesting site where I spend far too much of my time and bandwidth allowance. You should have a look some time. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the presentation ( "oldtimers" disease ) but it was very relevant to me at this time ( of my life ). In it the fellow (whoever he was) was describing the seven elements of the Great Expedition Adventure. I had never realised until then that there was any formal precedent to what I was actually doing however it appears there may be.

One of my very good friends (who is unfortunately no longer with us) used to say that we had been living in fairly exciting times (the last 60 years) in the world but we had seemed to miss out on any big adventure in our lives. We had both (very fortunately) not been drafted for Vietnam. In my case my number came up but as my surname starts near the end of the alphabet and it appeared that things were being done in alphabetical order the quota for that date was filled and I was not required. For this I will be eternally grateful as while it could by some weird stretch of the imagination have been called an "adventure" it is NOT one in which I wished to partake.

When I started my first official full time job as a teacher in a small town "up north" (as a very callow 19 year old) I was fortunately taken under the wing of a couple, Eric and Irene, who were somewhat older than me and became over time my most valuable mentors, closest friends and surrogate parents (as mine were of course "down south"). I was fortunate that this friendship lasted over 30 years until they both passed away. Now my point in mentioning this couple is that they had adventures. While I don't recommend some of them I think the others were worth having!! They had met and married during WW2 in the Middle East. It was always quite strange to me that they were able to completely avoid the horrors that must have accompanied some of these experiences and only seemed to remember all of the "fun" and "interesting times" they had. It almost seemed that they were on some sort of adventure holiday. In fact when we used to tell stories about all the things that had gone on in our lives they inevitably seemed to end up telling "funny stories" about these times. It was not as if they had never done anything else interesting either. When we were leaving this town after our obligatory "country service" in the Education Department they decided to, for the second time, drive from Perth to London! (You actually have to start in Singapore of course.) I was invited to join them but decided that my interests at the time were "down south" so another friend of mine went in my place! See what I mean about just missing out - my own damn stupid fault of course.

It's not that I didn't want to do this sort of thing but "life" just seemed to get in the way. While I was in my last year of high school (about 1964) my best friend and I decided that we were going to take what is now referred to as a "gap year" before Uni. and go to South Africa buy a Land Rover and drive to London. What is it with this London place? My sons who have been there tell me to go somewhere else. Unfortunately my friend died in a car accident and no one else seemed to think such a thing was possible. I actually think they had already been caught up in the "get married, have children, buy a house then play golf for the rest of your life etc. Aus. dream".

I guess the closest I came to being involved in an adventure was my first day in US. I booked a ticket, one night's accommodation in the Bedford Hotel (flophouse?) in San Francisco and a car for four weeks. Those were my travel plans. Next morning first thing I walked the 200 metres to the car rental agency and collected my car and started to drive back to the Bedford to collect my gear. There was a set of traffic lights about half way where I had to stop for a red light. To my amazement some fellow ran out into the street about 1 metre off my front bumper pulled out a gun and began to shoot at another fellow only a little further away. Who of course responded by also pulling out a gun and shooting the fellow in front of me twice in the chest. (A little selfishly I was glad he was a reasonable shot as if he missed it was coming straight through the windscreen!) Fortunately both guns were relatively small calibre and the fellow in front of me managed to crawl onto the footpath. The other fellow just walked over to another bunch of people on the footpath and showed them the gun with which he shot "that other fellow over there (pointing)". I am glad he managed to crawl away as from the amount of horn blowing going on I think I was supposed to drive over him if he didn't get out of the way! I decided to leave San Francisco as early as possible which turned out to be about 3pm that afternoon. I drove out across the Nimitz Freeway and the Bay Bridge to head north eventually to go round Lake Tahoe and into Southern Utah and unknown places beyond. It wasn't until I reached Visalia that I found out that the Nimitz Freeway had collapsed and the Bay Bridge had fallen down. This was of course in 1989. Missed by that much .....

And of course there are all the adventure stories that you read as a kid . . .

But to get to my point . . . there are apparently 7 stages to "the great adventures" which generally seem to involve an "expedition" of some sort.

IMAGE, EMBARKATION, LABYRINTH, BEACON(DRAW), PAYOFF, RETURN, MEMENTO

IMAGE
You imagine yourself doing it.
There you are [ walking | riding | driving | sailing | flying ] through the great unknown into the great unknown.
Enduring great hardship
"What do you mean there's no cold beer??"
Fighting off enemies at every turn
"Where's the mosquito repellent??"
Exercising ingenuity to overcome all obstacles
"So if you can't find the bottle opener use a screwdriver for crying out loud!!"

I have had a few ideas in this area over time (some of which I have mentioned earlier) but others as well :

1970-1980
Buy a small plane in the US and fly all over the place ( I was into flying a the time but my brother in law was killed in an aerobatics demonstration at a small airshow in 1980 so it didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.)

1980-1990
Build a decent sized boat, about 20metres long and take it to Europe and then America and cruise about in all the canals and inland waterways. (After having 5 successively larger boats my complete inability to resist seasickness finally made me see a little sense. But I still have the set of plans for the boat. :) )

1990-2000
Travel on a motorcycle. I have actually owned motorcycles (many more than I will admit here) from about 1968 onward and have travelled quite a bit within Australia but unfortunately advancing age does not incline me much to overseas travel by this means any more.

2000-Present
Actually for all of my life I have had an interest in the Aus. "outback". (The "bush" is anywhere off road and the "outback" is far enough into the bush that there aren't anymore bushes left - just desert. Aus. is a bit like that.)

Even as a 16 year old during one Xmas holidays (we have our major school holidays around Xmas time for about 7 weeks) I rode a push bike to a town "even further south" about 550Km/350Miles away and back. Come to think of it that was a bit af an adventure. I couldn't possibly imagine letting my own children do such a thing at that age.

I even remember (as that young school teacher) in one of our shorter breaks during the year (two weeks) visiting a station to take part in the last horse based muster on that station. Farms are in the bush and smaller (anywhere from 500 to 30,000acres) while stations are in the outback and are bigger (generally 500,000 to 2,000,000acres). We had about 20 stockmen and 100 horses and it would last two months (but I could only go for 2 weeks) - next year it changed to motorbikes, planes and helicopters. At the time it seemed like a hell of an adventure to me.

Once I was able to get my driving licence (1964) my friends and I were never home. We would drive almost any distance to where there was supposed to be good surf or an interesting place to see.

Later when my own children were old enough (3 months is old enough to go snow skiing isn't it??) we started travelling to friends country properties and various parts of Australia. One of the more interesting trips when the kids were about 10-12 was to put our car and camper onto the trans-Australia train. It's a great way to go when the kids are little. You load the car about 4pm at the goods depot and take a local train into the city. Have dinner, see a movie and return to get on the train about 11pm. Travel through the night and the next day you are out in the "nullabor plain" (nul = no / arbor = tree ie outback desert) which is surprisingly interesting to watch. Excellent food is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One more sleep and you are in a town called Port Augusta about 2/3 of the way (3000km/1850Miles) across the southern edge of Aus.. It beats the "are we there yet" chorus by a long way.

From there we headed north to Alice Springs and West to Ayres Rock (now known to the politically correct as Uluru). This is the normal tourist route with many interesting places to see on the way. However we had heard of other interesting places not so well travelled (at least at that time) so from there we travelled a further loop ranging about 500km/300miles north west. There were some quite magic places! Try King's Canyon, Palm Valley and Haasts Bluff in google. At that time there were only 4WD tracks, not even a parking area at King's Canyon or Haast's Bluff and Palm Valley was hidden up a creek bed that you needed a map reference to find the start of. There are hotels and tourist centres everywhere now but at the time it sure smacked of adventure.

EMBARKATION

This term seems a bit specific for me but in the sense of this ramble I think we have to incorporate PREPARATION as well.

A most interesting area when you think about it. Take a drive through any local boatyard and see how many half-finished boats you can see. Many of them evidence very little in the way of ongoing work but talk to the owners and they are "preparing to 'get away from it all' or 'leave it all behind' or 'embark on a round the world cruise'". I remember from flying, boating, motorcycling and camping etc. just how much time and fun is had in the preparation and getting it all together phase. Do I need a single or a twin engine plane? Does the boat need new motors or can we just overhaul the old ones? Surely a 600cc is better than a 250cc for hauling all this gear through the outback? Do they make any decent off-road caravans to replace the camp trailer? (Actually the answer to that one is "Not Really"!)

Can't you just feel the excitement growing as the plans are made, travel bookings requested, confirmations received and rapid changes of plans made when something can't be arranged. Sleep is more and more difficult. Sometimes when I'm driving somewhere I just give up and leave at 3am because I may as well be awake and travelling as awake and lying in bed. And the thrill of last minute checks (I'm sure there was supposed to be a kid to fill that space!), locking everything up that's left behind and that one last look around.

Yes I think that PREPARATION/EMBARKATION is definitely a big part of it.

LABYRINTH

It's different today. Google Earth, GPS, Internet Chat Groups. A lot of the mystery has gone. I remember once setting off from Carnarvon to "find" Mount Augustus with only a Shell Oil Co road map that showed it alright but with no roads or even tracks going anywhere near it! We got there, in a Holden Panel Van (the same colour as the desert (before we started) would you believe? NOT a wise choice as we nearly lost it when we went for a walk late in the afternoon) but only after some extended cross country driving. That part of Aus. is so flat you could drive hundreds of kilometres across the desert without the least trouble. Years later I found that there was a cattle station homestead right up against the other side of Mt Augustus and in fact have visited it since via a more conventional route. It was for a while developed as a tourist site but even though it is the largest monolith on earth it is not quite as spectacular as Uluru (which is in fact a denuded monocline) so the camping facilities have gradually degraded to about 1/2 star rating (as of my last visit 2 years ago). These days it's not quite like finding your way to King Solomon's Mines - look it up on google, find the co-ords on google earth and plug them into your GPS. These days the arduous part is more in the government paperwork etc. Last year I wanted to drive the Great Central Road from Perth to Uluru. I had to get permits in two states to go through aboriginal reserves for very specific times in a very specific vehicle with very specific permissions for any accompanying passengers. I was not allowed to leave the road except at very specific points (aboriginal roadhouses where I could spend money)! And that's in my own country. Try to go overseas with a vehicle! You have to learn all about shipping, "carnet de passage en douane", insurances, which countries will not even allow right hand drive vehicles to enter and in China you have to work out how to get a "Letter of Invitation" to even apply to enter and which "stan" is safe to travel through. Confuse Uzbeki with Kazak and you could be "in the 'nure up to your nostrils and then the devil will go waterskiing!" I'd still like to drive south to north across Africa but the security problems are a nightmare. There's your labyrinth!

BEACON(DRAW)
Hard to separate this from the payoff in some ways. The draw is what you think you'll get out of it and the payoff is what you do get out of it. Treasure? First? Last? Discovery? What hasn't been discovered yet? Is the going now enough? Do I have the mettle? While I love the remoteness of Aus. (such as it is now days) and the scenery it is quite different from other places, if the aliens transport you instantaneously to Lone Pine you are not going to confuse Mt Whitney with Mount Kosciuszko. And while I love the remote nature of outback travel in Aus. it doesn't have to be primitive - and I'm not someone who admires the (so called) dignity of poverty and primitive conditions - that's why I am being a "Uni-copy-cat". I think for me the draw is twofold. In Aus. and some other parts of the world if I can get to them it's the challenge of going to remote places (albeit "in style" and with more than a modicum of creature comforts). Taking my own base station to where I can hike and ride to the more inaccessible areas and then return to a nice hot shower at night. The other side of the coin is I think of the vehicle as a type of "land yacht" whereby I can travel the canals and inland waterways without getting seasick. I can picture pleasant campgrounds in parts of France (for example) looking out to magnificent mountain scenery from where I can ride my pushbike into the local village to collect todays provisions of bread and cheese and have coffee in the cafe where the locals can sneer at my school learned French of 45 years ago. N'est pas?

PAYOFF
What makes people want to do this sort of thing. What do you get out of it. Some time ago I bought a subscription to a camping and caravaning magazine. I only did it because I received a "rattle gun" for about the same value as the subscription and I enjoy reading the magazine. With it each month comes a DVD concentrating on some particular area in Aus. as a caravan route. I have had to stop watching these. They would have to be one of the biggest contributors to the idea of NEVER becoming a grey nomad that I can think of. There are only so many old gaols, mines, and bric-a-brac museums I can deal with. And tinned sausages in tomato soup is NOT my idea of a gourmet meal. I must admit that when I plan a trip (as much as I do!) I rarely even see the towns on the map except as places to re-provision or conspicuous turning points that are hard to miss. I think much more about the "geography" as I label it. In Aus. you have to look for the more subtle variations, there are few of the "rear up and smack you in the face type of impact" sites that you find in some parts of other countries. I am thinking more of Alaska, Maine, Utah and Nevada than Kansas for example. I have seen some of these first hand but I know there are many more. What could be more fun than finding some pleasant spot outside a little town in France to stay for a couple of weeks and getting on my motorbike each day and riding out to today's section of the Tour de France. Or the 24 heure de Le Mans or the Giro d'Italia or Oshkosh. And then there is that trail that leads to a really nice little waterfall - it's about 4 hours each way - pack provisions in your hiking knapsack, grab the GPS and your camera - start about dawn - you can be back for the sunset. And that fellow I met yesterday while hiking mentioned a river not so far away where you can catch some nice fish for dinner (getting a fishing license is an adventure all by itself). In fact everyday alive is a payoff!!

RETURN
I am not so sure about this part. I have often wondered what it must be like to set off to travel somewhere without a fixed date of return. I have always had a fixed time frame. 4 weeks holiday and back to work. I was reading one of the websites associated with Unicat some time ago and was fascinated that a couple had been travelling in their "camper" for 12 years. Think about some of the ideas associated with that. People always ask me what am I going to do with my factory? "Sell it". What am I going to do with my car? "Sell it". And so on and so on and so on . . . It always reminds me of a saying (I can't remember where from) "You end up being owned by your possessions". How much of your life is spent maintaining one item or another. The idea of a beach house gives me nightmares. My small farm required that I be there several times a week to check on fences, cattle, water and feed etc. Spontaneity gets crossed off in the dictionary. The lawns need mowing, the gutters need cleaning, the car needs servicing, the house needs cleaning. From what I've read by the people who've done it - you haven't really left until you have sold it all and what you own you take with you. Return doesn't have so much meaning then. These days you can keep in touch with everyone you know as often as you wish. Take a satellite phone if you are really desperate. Get on an aeroplane occasionally and go see whoever you want. My idea is to send my (now adult) "kids" a plane ticket every now and then and say "You have to come and see this part of the world". Maybe I could book a place in a nursing home for when I need it and return when I need someone to change my nappy again.

MEMENTO
Shrunken heads are no longer appropriate.