John Fitzpatrick. About New China, the Koreas, Myanmar, Thailand, and also about Japanese and Chinese writers and poets. The main emphasis is on North Asia and the political tectonics of this very important, powerful, and many-peopled area.
Friday, 12 February 2016
Good to watch Democrat Bernie Sanders in the US and Labour Party Jeremy Corbin in the UK actually pushing a real and effective democratic socialist position. We in Australia will still have to wait for the present Labor Party Wannabe Bill Shorten to be trounced at the next election before the Australian Labor Party realises that it actually has to change, that there does have to be some serious blood-letting, and can therefore one day put someone into leadership who can actually...lead. I won't hold my breath. Bill spends an awful lot of time making sure his brighter blue contact lenses are in, and his skin is botox perfect, and his suits are appropriate, and his views are those espoused by each random poll before he actually says anything...we really can't wait for change that long. We can't just hang around waiting with baited breath for the unhappy past to re-emerge via Bill.
I see Cardinal Pell, the 3rd highest ranking Catholic on Earth now, and from Sydney, is just too sick to fly to Australia from the Vatican to answer questions regarding sexual abuse under his leadership of the Church here. Oh, how convenient a weak heart is...mind you, I never thought he had a heart anyway. Ruthless barbaric conscience-less cunt. He fits in well in the Vatican. He won't be coming home soon....and Heaven can wait.
Thursday, 4 February 2016
"Rapacious Chinese Developer Sets Greedy Sights on Manunda Sewage Works." Indigenous groups complain re traditional ownershit.
"Rapacious Chinese Developer Sets Greedy Sights on Manunda Sewage Works."
Indigenous groups complain re ownership.
Indigenous groups complain re ownership.
Monday, 1 February 2016
Brief world news: China: China Superleague (Soccer) is now buying European players (UK & Spain) and Brazilian players, spending more on them than the English Premier League spends. Rationale: to meet the plans of the China President Mr Xi in having a football-worthy nation as soon as possible. Thailand: The opening up of Myanmar to a post-sanctions world means that Thailand's relative wealth, based upon under the counter oil and gas buying from Myanmar is basically over; with nothing to replace it in terms of making or keeping Thailand economy stable and efficient. Iran: 20 years of sanctions upon Iran have caused a remarkable period of innovation and creativity in Iran adding to the robustness of its economy and its strength for the future. With sanctions lifted, Iran will boom, but not in the nuclear way.
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Home from Nightshift, stopped on the way and bought a bike rack to attach to the bullbar attachment, and also an attachment to attach to daughter's woman's bicycle so it can attach to the bike rack...and a tow-ball wrench/spanner thing so that I can attach the bike rack attachment to the bullbar... It's quite complex to be a bloke. We think and suffer deeply about this stuff. Still a couple of hours to be awake to go and pick up Dear One from work, come home, then get some sleep. A tall bottle of Guinness Extra Stout in the fridge as the usual 6 hour sedative. I was thinking about cars...I never really liked them much after about 1965...much more interested in motorbikes for decades. The current car, the 2015 Nissan D22 working blokes 4WD Navara dual cab ute is the most expensive car I've had in my life...just under $30,000 AU dollars...and that was on a very serious end of the marque 'run-out' sale...so about $15-20,000 less than an equivalent Hi-Tech Toyota Hi Lux or Ford Ranger dooded-up one...and the D22 included a bullbar, twin batteries, spotlights, towbar, roofracks, tonneau cover, etc. The D-22 model hasn't changed, I think, since 2003 by the look of it...a better engine now, but everything else is pretty old school...it has a real cigarette lighter, 4 ashtrays and a 6 disc CD player...odd, yes. The speakers are awful so brings it all back to reality. The thing is that I really do like it after about 6 months...I really do like everything about it...it doesn't go fast, the brakes aren't magnificent, it steers like a cow, the seats are pretty standard Nissan uncomfortable, it's noisy, it's basically a truck...but somehow it's an honest vehicle in some way. Genuine olde worlde Japanese technology made in Bangkok. It's got an efficient 2.5 common rail turbo diesel engine and blows black smoke on strong acceleration as they all do. It's only done about 5,000 kilometres. As I've mentioned before, I don't like things in cars ...warning, reversing, overtaking alarms that go 'beep'. Only the car horn should go beep...and the Nissan is very good in this way. I don't like tv entertainment 'screens' etc and the Nissan doesn't have any. What it does have is a massive air-conditioner which is just wonderful....ambient 45C temp to 16C in about 5 minutes. No Volvo or Honda can do that. Looking back, I haven't owned many cars, and no very expensive ones at all...and most very second hand...but as I get some free time I will post an 'apples & oranges comparison' of them....from the 1965 Austin Westminster A105 with the twin SU carbies and the Borg-Warner shift, the benign and silent Wolseley 24/80, an immensely fun Honda Acty Van, a couple of magnificent Daihatsus, a tediously boring Subaru Impreza R, a high flying Volvo SSRI sports coupe, a very good Mazda Boss big-tray ute, a VW 1500 Beetle, a Holden Kingswood Station Wagon, & one of the first Honda Civics. As things stand, I'm really happy with the current Nissan Navara Dual Cab Ute...basically because it's so simple and honest, it works, and spare parts are dirt cheap...because the line has been in production for so long up til last year without changes...and the airconditioner, as mentioned, is like something from heaven....and the whole 2015 thing almost at a 2003 price. The only cars left that I'd like to actually own, but don't need to and won't are: 1: a 1990 Subaru Brumby Ag-Quip Ute with bullbar and winch... 2: ...hmmm, nothing else. As for motorcycles I'd like to have, but won't ever get, and don't expect to...there's only 2...a 2003 Moto Guzzi Le Mans Bon-homme VII in silver, green, brown and red...I forget the special name but I'll post a youtube video of one starting up...what a treat of sound...Ah yes! The Moto Guzzi Le Mans Tenni...magnificent... and one of the new BMW street bikes...an R Nine T...they look good. Both are twin cylinders, the BM donk is horizontal, the Guzzi's engine is at that odd Italian Lake Como 45 degree angle. To ever have to choose between the two...I'd go for the old Guzzi. They're related too, both designs had their inception during the time when Hitler and Mussolini dreamed together of a United Europe...A European Union...what a strange dream of bizarre madmen that was...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)