Jack Scott's Blog

This has to be the most entertaining federal election of all time… not. Both major parties (the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/National coalition) agree with each other so much there’s nothing major left to argue about.

They’re both going to give us offshore processing of asylum seekers (though we have to decide between Nauru and East Timor). Personally, I’m appalled by the fact we are even considering either of these options. These are human beings we are dealing with here. We should be welcoming them with open arms into our country. No terrorist is going to come by leaking boat, so they pose a relatively small danger to the existing population. It’s all just a load of fear-mongering by the major parties, and I’m disappointed.

Both are making huge stuff-ups with Climate Change. The L/N coalition can’t even decide if it exists or not. The Labor party is having trouble committing to anything, and that’s showing through with climate change. We’re going to get a citizen’s assembly of 150 people to decide for us. This is a matter where normal citizens do just not have the information available to make the right decision. I (if I may) call myself a well-informed voter, and I don’t have the information for the job. The one man who does, Ross Garnaut (who wrote a report on this for the government), got his solution to the problem blown into a million pieces in parliament.

Both parties are completely over-using their campaign slogans.

One of the leaders is a backstabbing whining bitch; the other is also a backstabbing whining bitch.

There isn’t just a small number of people agreeing with me either. Here’s one of them.

At the election, I’ll be voting Green first. I think it’s the only rational choice. I don’t agree with every single policy they have, but the parliament needs a mix-up and a bit of discussion rather than simply disagreeing on the identical policy. I have no idea if they are running candidates in Tasmania, but if they are, the Liberal Democratic Party (basically a libertarian party) will get my second vote, simply because I think we need to stop turning into a nanny state.

So, unless something interesting happens, that’s all I really have to say about the federal election.

Note: As of the time of writing, the LDP’s website appears to be down for maintenance. I think they may need to fix that, being an election on and all…

Today was an interesting day in world history, to say the least. And while I’m not a U.S. citizen, I do have a few things to say on the subject. First and foremost, thank the heavens all the people that are U.S. citizens did vote the way they did.

What the U.S. needs right now, just like Australia needed last year, was a breath of very fresh air. I don’t think another republican in the white house would have done the country any good. They needed to get rid of George W. Bush. When I got home from work today and checked all my RSS feeds, I was surprised to see the drawer of the Ctrl+Alt+Del web comic (of which I am a fan) make this statement: “It is so wonderful to finally feel optimistic about the future of our country again.” What struck me about this comment was that while I was in the car on the way home, listening to the radio, they were interviewing several people from the U.S.A. And a few of them said exactly the same thing. So it might be that being optimistic is more important that actually doing well (because the US is certainly not doing so right now).

It’s also nice to see that the guy who made president, Barack Obama, is pretty much unlike every other American president for a while: reasonably young, enthusiastic, an extremely good speaker, and most importantly, Black. This will shake up a few people’s worlds, and that can only be a good thing.

John McCain is a decent enough bloke, don’t get me wrong. He just made a few errors of judgement, namely, Sarah Palin. I don’t think she would have made a very good vice-president… at all. Even more worrying is that I have heard reports she might be left the reigns of the republican party in the future. God help America.

Well, yesterday saw the last episode of Gardening Australia ever hosted by the extraordinary man himself, Peter Cundall. I’ve never been much of a gardener myself (I think my last attempt at gardening produced more rocks than vegetables), but I just want to say, in my own little way, thankyou.

Peter Cundall has inspired tens of thousands of people to take up gardening, and to get out and enjoy the outdoors a bit more. He is also, without a doubt, the most consistently enthusiastic individual in Australia. I have never seen him not excited about something.

There’s an interview with Andrew Denton that gives amazing insight into his life… he’s been in both the British and Australian armies, presented television shows for over thirty years, and stood for election for the communist party and then not voted for himself. An odd man to be sure.

I hope the rest of his life is just as fruitful.