Friend living in Hong Kong who owns a small shop. "I carry a machete and a small ax in my car now in case stopped by violent pro-democracy people ordering me to keep my shop shut and to go home. I'm not going to do that".

Looking at the Brexit thing...well, yes, it will happen soon and things will just go on, or change, as they normally do to deal with change. People will do this, and do that etc. Nothing very interesting. The UK is not a dynamic or interesting 'thing' to anyone outside it, nor to a lot of people in it. That won't change. Grist for the mill of history. Kingdoms naturally die...it may well be what Kingdoms do best.

ah, El Paso...Ah, America, almost daily mass shootings. I don't know if we can expect any better from a country whose greatest achievements are Country & Western Clog Dancing, Agent Orange, and Wrestlemania. If they build a wall, hopefully it will be thick and high enough to keep them all in.

From the decades in Palliative Care as a nurse, faceless bureaucrat, and government adviser in Qld, I do think a concomitant Euthanasia service is essential as a component of a Health System. Cross referrals etc. Simple. It just makes sense. It's just doing social good. Palliative Care and Euthanasia are different and the difference is in the Doctrine of Double Effect where Palliative Care doesn't actually kill people, disease does, and its a fine but real line, whereas with Euthanasia, people kill people, or better still enable really sick folk to kill themselves painlessly, when and if they want. I think both are very worthy notions and there should be good funding for both, and good funding for folk who prefer to rage against the dying of the light and turn up every day whooping and wailing in Emergency Departments.

I guess, if one had to pencil in the emotions of a lifetime on a graph, it would start above the baseline, kind of happy, then, as life progressed with its complexities, it would drop bit below the line, then a bit more, only to come back to the base line and then rise above it in latter life...thus, a wry smile.

Mens ties...I wore one for the wedding awhile back, but I can't see any other reason to ever wear one. marriage is or has respectful traditional indices...and I would have worn a cummerbund if that traditional thing was so important...but...wearing a tie to go to work? The iron collar replaced by the silk one? I dont think so. Its the 21st century. I have no idea why men wear ties...and I don't trust men who wear ties. Wearing a tie to anything apart from a wedding or a funeral...we are talking about real active psychosis here.

General Political Views: Australia: Australia is fortunate in having stuff to dig up and sell and this won't change really for many decades. But, in preparation, a good bit of each budget should be spent on making Australians somewhat smarter, brighter. I'd be happy with a moderately leftist or centralist government interested in the wellbeing and continuity of its people based upon very easily know factors, as could easily be done, with long range planning. I think a 3 year term for the Federal Government is absurdly short, and it should be 5 years, every 5 years, Government kicks off on January 1, and ends 5 years later on December 31. This enables planning and certainty, and enables a reasonable period for judgment of the Government's progress. I don't like the current Australian government simply because the Right is always trying to create more wealth for the rich here and overseas, and see the poor as disreputable and unworthy. Thats what they do. Its an ideology. Why is the Right an ideology? Because its just so Easy and yet improves nothing. This doesn't serve Australian folk at all. I think that ideology is very flawed. I don't think the Free Market Notion looks after anyone except itself...and the government should be a rock of serious responsible certainty- they certainly get paid enough to do that serious job, and there's ample money to do that, and be very proactive in protecting the population. How can one be living in 2019 when the education of children and the quality of health services etc are dictated by international players every month on the stock exchange? This is absurd. This is not responsible government. This is the failure of government. As for Alliances, we can be allied to any great power where the future, rather than the past, is seriously considered and planned, and brings real benefit to Australians. As for: America, Europe, China, Russia, etc well I wish them well in working out what is best to do within their borders. It is their business, their people.I doubt that democracy matters at all, as long as government is mostly concerned with the wellbeing of its people. As for Ireland, well: one island, One Ireland, I think is best. To bring this about, the UK's attachment to Northern Ireland needs to be destroyed by whatever means are available.