Thoughts from a Bulldozer Driver

Time to Vote So Mr Morrison has called the federal election for 21st May 2022.  If you’re like me (and thankfully not many people are) you may be wondering how to vote in this election. This is actually the first time that, four weeks out from the election, I haven’t yet decided where to cast my vote. For background, I’m a right-leaning conservative. I dip my toe into the warm and welcoming waters of Libertarianism occasionally, but I’m closer to the centre than that. Conservatives believe in individualism, self-reliance, free trade, minimum government, minimum taxation, freedom and personal liberty. Back to the election; People tend to forget that they aren’t actually voting for Mr Morrison or Mr Albanese. While those two are the leaders of their respective political parties, you and I do not get to vote for them (unless you are reading this as a resident of their respective seats). We get to vote for our local representative in the lower house (House of Representatives) and also ...

 A massive protest rally took place at Canberra on the 12th February 2022. The day before the rally I was talking to a neighbor over the fence, and he asked me what I was doing on the weekend. When I told him I was going to Canberra to attend the protest, he laughed and asked, “What on earth for?”  Fair question, and one that I struggled to form a coherent answer to. In my own mind, I knew why, but expressing why proved difficult. So, in this page of scribble, I will attempt to work out exactly why. You know that sinking feeling that you get in your gut, a feeling of dread, fear and anxiety? You might get it when a highway patrol car flashes and turns to follow you to a stop. Or when you accidentally send an email to the wrong recipient. Or maybe when you get home and your wife has “that look” in her eye - you’ve done something wrong. You know the feeling. Two years ago, I got that feeling when a news broadcast announced that, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a state gove...

Guess what? I’m on Novac’s side.  Novac Djokovic applied for an exemption to the vaccination mandate, in an anonymous submission overseen by a panel of six doctors, as well as the Victorian Department of Health. He was subsequently cleared to attend and play at the Australian Open. Novac applied for, and was granted, a Visa before he stepped onto any plane bound for Melbourne. He knows the rules. He’s no stranger to traveling to a foreign country. He’s done it before. To me, if the above is true, and I’ve seen no evidence to the contrary, Novac’s detention is no more than political posturing by inept, directionless, bumbling and incompetent State and Federal Governments.  Novac Djokovic is a political prisoner. The reason that people are hating Novac right now is because of two reasons. Firstly, (unsurprisingly), because of inaccurate and inflammatory reporting by our pathetic legacy media. Secondly,  he has turned a mirror onto the Australian people. Novak has the guts t...

I’m sure we’ve all had events and happenings that change you. Big or small, for whatever reason, they force you to consider your position on things, and can sometimes change your mind. Hopefully these changes are for the better, for you and the people surrounding you. Thirty years ago, a significant event, and a subsequent conversation, changed the way I thought about some important things. I was working in a retail store in Wagga Wagga. I was only there for a short time, however during that eight or nine months I became good friends with one particular workmate, Mark. When I look back, it seems that we shared very little in common. I think it was our slightly different humour that we both appreciated. One of the things that my workmate and I had in common was an admiration for the music of Queen. One day, my workmate walked over to me and said “Did you hear? Freddie Mercury is dead”. The world had learned only one day earlier that Freddie was suffering from AIDS. To be told that he wa...

I see that Ms Berejiklian has said today that vaccinated people will be enjoying greater freedoms soon, and that she doesn't apologise for life being less free for those who aren't' vaccinated. Good idea. That'll teach the selfish buggers for not conforming to the will of the government! It's a little uncomfortable, sure. But it is after all for the greater good. Unvaccinated people, of course, won't be able to work for a living. The "No jab, no job" policy is already in place for several employment avenues. Who wants the unvaxed in their office? Gross. Risky. Dangerous. It seems to me that the government is stopping well short of what needs to be done. The unvaccinated will be on public transport, at sporting arenas, concerts, festivals... and we certainly don't want the risk of sitting next to one! But the cost of deploying a new branch of the police would be high. It would be a massive undertaking to check everyone's vax status on entry. So ...

 "THE WORLD IS GETTING WORSE" Guess what? You're wrong. When you have a good look, beyond the media narrative, the world is not getting worse.  In a 2016 survey, 58 percent of people in 17 countries surveyed thought the world is getting worse (rather than getting better or staying the same). I’m hoping that this little article will persuade you that this downward spiral in humanity and the natural world is very good news. News that, for some reason unknown to me, is being hidden from the masses. Because negative news often impacts us more than positive stories, the legacy media often push the thought that ‘progress’ is not news. Because many of us follow the news, and the news tends to concentrate on events that shock and outrage the audience, we often think that the world is far worse than what it actually is. It seems that as the world gets better, we become harsher critics of it, and this can cause us to mistakenly conclude that it hasn’t actually gotten better at all....

So this month’s contribution hasn’t turned out the way I planned.  I have been working on a commentary on the Morrison Government’s more stupid policies. That is, the government’s collective thought bubbles that have turned into bad policy and bad legislation. Maybe another time.  Then the war broke out between Palestine and Israel. The fault of which I lay squarely at the feet of Joe Biden. I’d love to explain my thoughts, but that too will have to wait. I’m sure that you’ve had times where you have so many thoughts running around in your head that it’s hard to make sense of it all. If you’re like me you sometimes struggle to make sense of other people’s actions and wonder what the thought process behind it was.  Well this is me. I hear news on the radio, see headlines pop up on my socials feed, and hear of things in conversation with others that have me scratching my head. Not only do we struggle to work out where other people are coming from and what they stand for, of...