Scary Go Round

I was shown a leaflet from The Greens today by Krystal and it got my blood boiling about our partisan political system… again. The below is a cut and paste job from a private forum.

http://www.nsw.greens.org.au/materials/reports/Dev%20Map.pdf

I agree with some of their points, however, all their ideas are about how to spend money and none of them are about how to make it.

This is what shits me about partisan politics. Both sides are caricatures of themselves. The Left wants to save the environment, let in all the refugees and increase welfare spending. The Right wants to privatise everything in sight and encourage the economy via free enterprise.

There needs to be a freaking balance. However, that’s never going to happen with the way our political system currently is. Most people don’t vote on issues, they vote for the party they’ve always voted for because their mums and dads always voted for them. Then out of the people that do vote on issues, most of them get their information on said issues from Today Tonight and A Current Affair.

It’s for this reason that the political parties paint their policies and standpoints in big, primary colours that are easy to digest within a 15 second soundbite. “We’re the Greens, we like the environment!” “We’re the Nationals, we like guns and farmers!” Because that’s the only way they’re going to fit into the tiny portion of mindshare that Australians have allocated for politics.

The Democrats were the only hope we had for a decent centrist party but they’re well and truly dead now. I am feeling decidedly unrepresented in the current political climate.

Also, just to clarify, this treatise is in no way against you, Krystal. You’re one of the good guys since you actually think about these things.

Saturday night was Clare’s uncle’s 40th. It was commemerated by a major bash at his place, complete with ridiculous amounts of alcohol, service staff, very little food and a karaoke setup. Needless to say, this is an explosive combination. No-one knows how to throw a party quite like Alex.

I managed (as far as I know) to avoid completely disgracing myself in a drunken mess, which is always a plus. However at some point we decided that karaoke was a fine invention. I forget what songs I ended up belting out, but I’m sure they were forgettable.

Sunday was spent in recovery mode. Did general house crap, pruned the garden, washed the vehicles etc. I also got a bunch of my tax crap done (finally). There’s still a bit more information I need to collate before I can put it to bed, but I’m getting there.

I tried out a new dish on Sunday night. It’s something my mother used to make a lot (she may still) and that Luke’s been telling me I should do because it’s awesomely cheap. Mussels with a tomato and white wine sauce. It didn’t actually end up being all that cheap for us. Not overly expensive, but not incredibly cheap either. The mussels cost us about $10 to serve 2 people. I think they must be out of season or something. Anyway, the recipe is nothing revolutionary but I couldn’t find anything online so it’s a David Banham Original.

Ooh, and I finished Tony Hawk’s Project 8 on Friday. Definitely an enjoyable game overall. The bail physics still annoy me but it’s not enough to completely kill it. That said, now that I’ve finished it I probably won’t be revisiting it to play back through the challenges. I’m really looking forward to playing some GRAW though. Should be good.