Sikamikanico Blogs

Feeling a bit directionless lately? Never fear, our inestimable leader, John W. Howard, has presented his vision for the future of Australia in a speech to the Queensland Press Club. Titled "Australia Rising" (faster than the levels of the seas our land is girt by, we hope) , it's Howard's "sketch" of the world in 2020 - but only, of course, if Australia keeps on voting Liberal. You could read the full transcript , but let me save you some time with the general gist of the thing: As with just about everything for Howard, putting the economy first is a "moral argument". Those morals including a promise to dismantle the welfare state as we know it. According to Howard, "One side – we in the Coalition – aims to build on what’s been achieved over the last decade... The other side wants to tear down this achievement...[which] will see Australia fall behind in the global economy, reducing our capacity to create jobs, to innovate, to care for the si

The big news of, well, last week (hey, I've been busy) was Libby Lenton getting married , wearing a lovely white...tent. This she did because she'd signed a deal with a women's magazine to sell the wedding photos for more money than I'll earn in the next two years, and she has to protect the magazine's exclusive, or the deal's off. More and more celebrites are doing this lately, requesting that guests sign confidentiality clauses and not take photos, sometimes even not informing them of the location for the vows until immediatley before the ceremony, all so they can flog the photos of their day of days to Women's Doh or No Idea for perusal in doctor's waiting rooms three years after the fact. And good luck to them say I. In fact, I think they don't go far enough. If I ever get married (and hey, in a world where Condileeza Rice thinks George W. Bush is a genius, anything is at least theoretically possible), I'm going to out do them all. I shall

Well, the NSW state election has been run and won since I last posted. I've listened to a wide range of opinions on this - 'round where I live, politics is always a popular topic. Although considering I live in the inner west of Sydney, getting any non-left points of view was a bit diffcult (I managed, though!). Nonetheless, the general consensus seemed to be that the election didn't really matter, as the result was never in doubt; however sorry things are in NSW, the Iemma government is better than the possible alternatives. So I pass on the following story to you without further comment... Last Monday, feeling slightly bored at the end of a four-day weekend, I went to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to Darling Harbour. The pier was already pretty crowded, and got more and more so as 1:20pm passed, then 1:25pm, with no sign of the 1:15pm ferry. Finally at 1:35pm, a voice announced that the 1:15pm ferry was cancelled, and we'd all have to wait till 1:45pm. Of course, a