Opening Fire in Public

Mine Host does not advocate murder, or the shooting down of people just because you don't like something about them.  Likewise he recognises that moral justification is not a valid defence for murder.

One sees many circumstances where nobody actually goes ahead and shoots someone who really deserves it, or who has really asked for it.

Thus one of these days Mine Host will be shocked, but not surprised, to learn that a normal citizen has cracked under the strain and shot a handful of policemen.
This will happen at the moment a citizen has spent 12 hours in a freeway traffic jam, without any information on when the jam may clear, or when police may allow the citizenry to use the road, or to pass, all because there's been a traffic accident and the coppers are showing no concern whatsoever for keeping traffic flowing.

Were Mine Host on the jury, in a case where someone is charged with blazing away and dropping the nearest half-dozen sunglasses wearing grim faced coppers, after having spent 10 hours held up at the scene of a bog-standard prang - well let's just say the prosecution would need to have a far stronger case than usual before Mine Host would return a guilty verdict.

Even if he had to keep the other Eleven people there for 3 months to get them to see sense.

Reason #1 for banning email

My email inbox, a couple of days ago:

 

Zero Times Each Day

Sometimes a stopped clock isn't even right twice a day.

The Australian deep south is a foreign place.  They do things differently there.  Just how differently sometimes has to be seen to be believed.

For part of the year they change the clocks to a different time.  This can be quite a shock if you encounter it, for it is akin to discovering that the sun has turned around and is setting in the east.

However this act of dickheadsmanship thousands of miles away in the deep south has little to no impact at the Wayside Tavern.

Some people have never encountered it, but those of us who are more well read, or well travelled, have learned of this clock changing.

This time changing  has many names, the most polite name used in the Wayside Tavern is "Brokeback Mountain Time" a most apt phrase.

Aficionados of this clock changing may wish to reflect upon this terminology, and the degree of esteem with which they are held by the working population.



Yesterday the morning staff arrived for work an hour early, without knowing it!

They'd taken their time from the display on their mobile phones.  In an act of supreme incompetence Telstra (the telephone company) had brought forward the time by an hour.  No reason, except that in the deep south, irrelevant to Queensland, the clocks had been brought forward by an hour.

Telstra (not ever likely to be a contender for "smartest corporation") changed their time signal in mighty Queensland, just because some King Canute type in Victoria imagines they can "save" daylight by doing so!

The Six staff who start the day off had never encountered the concept of Time being Tinkered with, are totally puzzled by it, now think Telstra are complete idiots (they got that part right) and will never again take for granted what they see on their screens or phones (this lesson is not necessessarily a bad thing)

Turns out none of these wallies owns a wristwatch ("a whaaat?")

For Richer or Poorer, in Sickness & Health.... etc

Perhaps Mine Host fosters a workplace culture of enterprise and individual achievement.
Perhaps Mine Host selects enterprising types as staff.
Perhaps it is pure chance.

But at least three (3) people who have been low level employees of the Wayside Tavern (with seat out of their pants, blah blah) have within a few short years become larger than average entrepreuers.

Two of them with debts now of more than $5 million.  (Good on 'em!)

A third, having made a lot of money with nothing more than his hands and a mobile phone, has entered into a business where he places capital at risk (a shop).

This has gone quite badly, it looks as if he'll lose his shirt.

But it ain't over yet.  He's putting tremendous effort (likely in vain) into saving the business.

His wife, has she pulled out the stops to support him, making the home front as much a sanctuary as possible, cooing & cah-ing over him, and giving him both refuge from the worries of the world and mental/spiritual comfort, in his time of distress?

Pig's rear end she has!  The bitch has just about pulled the plug on him, calling his judgement into question, implying he is a failure & "loser", and haranguing him day & night at home, over his "blowing" of the fortune he had built up.

She's on the verge of moving out with the kids, and going back to her parents (who are rich - very rich)

Perhaps it is confirmation bias, but this is a very common response by women to their man facing financial or other hardship.

The added distress for this man is almost impossible to imagine.  He never considered even looking at another woman, lives for his kids and what he can provide for them, and loves his wife dearly.
The distress caused by just the thought of his children no longer living under his roof, is, to a practicing Roman Catholic almost intolerable.

He is young, resilient and resourceful.  He'll make another fortune (and if she pulls the plug she won't share in it.)
Neither will she notice or care, as her father is not just rich, but Rockerfeller type rich.

Even if she doesn't move out, she is making his life hell at a time when he needs support and reassurance that he has a loving family.

Instead she's jerking the rug from under him.

Hell has a special place for such women.

Anzac Day

Business brought Mine Host to the big smoke late in the afternoon on Anzac Day.   This brought one of life's new experiences;  how Anzac Day is finished off in the metropolitan areas of this great nation.

It seems that returned servicemen (or the tail end of them) get awfully merry through over-imbibing, then put the wobbly boot on and lurch off home.

Mine Host has never seen this before.  Anzac Day has always been just another day, though a public holiday, and a mandatory half-day closed for pubs.  Returned servicemen are always out of the picture by 3pm.

Different in the big smoke.

Mine Host's most memorable observation: (Please, this is not intended in a negative sense)
The current crop of returned servicemen are sporting one helluva lot more medals from the left side of their chest than the blokes who served the entire First World War on the front line.

God, I hope we don't end up like the USA, a country where a serviceman who hasn't even been in battle will have fruit salad all over the left breast of his uniform.

Most of Mine Host's uncles served the full 6 years of World War Two, they have/had between three and five campaign/service medals each.  That is Three, perhaps Five, ribbons.  In one simple row.

Bring 'em on!

In the really big smoke on business, and feeling the pangs of morning hunger, Mine Host happens upon a coffee-shop sorta place selling Max Brenner chocolate (by the cup).

Max Brenner chocolate, for those who've just arrived from Mars, is apparently the name of a chain of shops that sell hot chocolate or something, and serve it in a cup to patrons seated at a table.

Hmm.. ok.. us yokels never see this sort of thing.  Our cultural assimilation used to be obtained by reading the Women's Weekly, but in these more modern times it is the online news that ensures we are kept up to date on the antics of our big city co-citizens.

Individual franchises of the Max Brenner chain are from time-to-time targeted for blockades/pickets and chanting demonstrations by bigoted hippes & others who never work/wash/etc for the apparent crime of having an owner that is Jewish (or somesuch).

Thrilled at having found one of these joints, Mine Host looks around eagerly, hoping for some unwashed bigot to confront him and chant "jew-lover" (or something) in his face.  (In such circumstance it is likely the hippie would next speak when the cranio-facial surgeon removed the wire braces.)

Alas, there was to be no "knuckle-on-hippie" action for Mine Host on that morning.  All one could see were disinterested office workers & delivery boys going about their daily business.

Phooey!

Gazing uncomprehendingly at the menu by the door, Mine Host was eventually assisted by a giggle-pot of a waitress, who seemed to be unaware of Max Brenner's reputation among the intolerant class, and oblivious to Mine Host's urge to punch a protestor on the nose.

The choclate Mine Host is unable to comment on, for despite being ordered it was never served to him.

The breakfast was indisputably the worst Mine Host has paid for in his life.  The staff were shocked at being told so, and deflated when given a comprehensive critique on why this was so.  They offered to not charge for the chocolate...

....Mine Host then said something about how them not charging him for something that wasn't provided is a natural expectation of his, not a favour for them to bestow.

Summary:  Being as how they can't provide hot chocolate (and the food 5th rate and tasteless), and Mine Host didn't get to exercise himself by having fun rendering hippies unconscious, Max Brenner isn't worth going back to.

Reason #251

Anybody who says there is "no valid reason for any person to possess semi-automatic firearms" has never had the experience of discovering that a microsoft (or other software co.) update has afflicted their formerly perfectly working software.

There is nothing like discovering that not only do you have all new different shortcuts, but some of the best features have been written out of the software.  "You'll just have to get used to it sir!"

Twit Twitters a Tweet

Copied below is a brief twitter exchange from earlier this week.  It is between two well known people and has attracted a minor amount of attention from the news media.

One quick read of it and the phrase "we've a couple of anti-gun crazies here" leaps into the head.
Several people have taken umbrage at Mine Host's assessment.  Some of them quite a deal of umbrage.
This has been somewhat puzzling.

Clearly both of these pundus are in the anti-firearm camp. But that is a side issue.
I've made inane banter with all who've brought it to my attention, believing they can see what I see.  However many remain cold, or even somewhat cross.  Perhaps some people are far more laymen when it comes to firearms that you'd imagine.

A thought popped into the head just now;
Am I the only one who can see the glaring error in the tweet?   (It is glaring to me).

Clueless Partisanship

When Mine Host was a nipper in school, one dictionary that we were not allowed to use was the "Macquarie Dictionary".

The teachers would not allow it, for exactly the same reason we kids loved it:  It contained all the swearwords, obscenities, foul language plus any & all "rude" words.

Oxford was the only dictionary allowed, though Cambridge was not actively discouraged.  Webster was prohibited on the grounds of being being the anti-christ (as it should be - Mine Host is a John Quincy Adams supporter, and thus of the belief that Noah Webster should have been thrown down a well or something.)

But Noah Webster, even if incredibly misguided, was at least fair dinkum about language.  The teachers at school recognised his (misguided) efforts, but regarded the Macquarie Dictionary as nothing more than a sick joke.

Credible dictionaries are collaborative efforts by a large group of scholars.
The Macquarie dictionary has only ever had input from pretty much one person.  Ever.

This fact was not known when we were at school.  It became obvious several years later when the person who writes it made a series of television appearances, salaciously using foul language, right there on TV, without a thought for decorum or decency.

Mine Host, watching this, thought: that ain't a bad way to get out of being arrested for using foul language, or being hauled before some commission for swearing on TV; write yourself a dictionary, put all the obscenities into it, then strut around in public using those same words.

When the public was shocked by the language used, the author of this dictionary feigned ignorance, and cluelessly stated (paraphrased): "I didn't realise words such as Faaahk, Can't, & others were considered bad"

Being too clueless to realise some words are too foul for television, or decent society, is not what one should profess, not when one aspires to being an arbiter of the English language.

There are also significant differences between the Macquarie definition of many words, and the Oxford/Cambridge definition of those same words.  One can imagine Mine Host's distress upon arriving at a courthouse for a hearing, to discover that the Australian courts use the (choke) Macquarie dictionary as the final arbiter of a definition.  Oh-My-God!

Given the above mentioned public demonstrations of cluelessness by the author of that dictionary, Mine Host knew how reliable the Macquarie was going to be.

This brings us to the recent incident that brought reputational fallout to the Macquarie dictionary such that it likely will never recover any of the former gravitas it may once have held:


The Prime Minister used a word wrongly in parliament.  (Yep, the same Prime Minister who is a qualified lawyer, a profession that owes its very existence to the fact that words have meanings, didn't know the correct definition of a word!)

This caused the Prime Minister some embarrassment.

The author of the Macquarie Dictionary sprang into action, announced that the meaning of this word had "changed", thus the Prime Minister had been "correct".

This event had an air of rushing in to protect an ideological comrade, rather than an authentic attempt to codify our language.

So the committee (cough) of the Macquarie Dictionary had an extraordinary meeting to change the definition of this word, thus making the Prime Minister "right".

This sort of stuff used to happen in the Soviet Union.

It does not happen in free countries.

The pages of the Macquarie Dictionary are too small to use for dunny paper, but they are of just the right size to use for rolling cigarettes.

Bayonet Charge!

Overheard by one of the candidates during a presidential election debate:

"...we've... got less horses & bayonets nowdays..."   and:
"... submarines.... you know, those ships that go under the sea..."

There are many differences between the US Navy and ours (eg, the US Navy does not have a swimming test - if you can't do two laps of an olympic pool while fully clothed, it is no impediment to enlistment) however, if the informal rules on misuse of teminology are anything like the same, there are a whole lot of sailors right now seething that when they used the wrong word, they had to buy a 24-pack of beer for every man on the boat, while the clueless commander-in-chief gets off scot free!

And... is any reader with a source inside the US armed forces able to confirm the commander-in-chief's statement that bayonets are no longer issued at the ratio of one per grunt?

Cash Burning Hole in Pocket!

In an undisclosed overseas country, Mine Host props up the bar, his only accompaniment a glass of champagne.

In the almost empty bar the late night conversation is between two foreign (western) women and the bartender (a local).

Mine Host cannot help but overhear the bartender talk to the two women of the sad tale of a proposal for a resort development by a foreign entrepreneuer.  A development that had been scotched from afar, by the national government acting under pressure from various groups.

The bartender's meaning:  A great opportunity lost for the people of his district, in the form of jobs, brand naming of the district on the international tourist scene, and ancillary development, jobs businesses, etc.  Perhaps his kids wouldn't have needed to have moved away, or overseas, to find a life.

The response of the only of the two of the vapid western women still able to string a sentence together:
(She'd completely missed the bartender's meaning.....)
"Haha, the [overseas developer] will just have to go & spend all his money at home on fancy cars, luxury holidays & new villas, ha ha ha ha....."

The bartender, bland faced, said nothing....

Mine Host near choked on his champagne.  Yes, people really are this stupid.  Seeing a resort development only in terms of how much money it will make for the developer (making money is baaad).... and being stupid enough to think that 100% of the cost of constructing the resort was discretionary disposable cash burning a hole in the developer's pocket.

One supposes that there are, somewhere, developments that are not done with borrowed money, but such circumstance would be very rare.

Even less likely would be a developer, who when stymied by vapid western green groups, just spends an equal amount of money on lifestyle.

******

Have either of the two women mentioned above ever heard of the phrase "raising capital", or thought about the meaning behind that phrase?

Have either of them thought of how they seem, laughing to a resident of a district with limited economic propects, at how the district, on the whim of already affluent pressure groups, being arbitrarily denied a life-changing chance at some of the properity enjoyed by those same two women?

They walk among us........

Commercial Awareness

There are some things to not do at a job interview.

Some examples:

• Wear sunglasses pushed up on top of the head.
• Dress casually.
• Overtly display necklaces/gold chains.
• Say stupid things.

Recently an applicant for a senior role remarked in conversation that were he as "rich" as Gina Rinehart, he'd use the money for "good" instead of being "greedy and wanting more".

This automatically vetoed his job application.

That Reason: It demonstrates lack of commercial awareness.

The Wayside Tavern is a commercial enterprise.

The Wayside Tavern is self funding.

The very minute the Wayside Tavern stops making a profit, it ceases to exist.

The very minute the Wayside Tavern stops making a profit, every member of the staff loses their job.

Thinking of money as something to give away, is fine for someone on the dole, in the armed forces, in the church, etc., but not in a commerical business!

Almost every business in the land (almost certainly this includes Gina Rinehart) is mortgaged or otherwise beholden to lenders.

If a business is valued at (say) ten million dollars, it does not mean the owner has the option of converting it all into $10,000,000 in banknotes tomorrow morning, putting it under a mattress, and spending it on beer, snacks, dancing girls or perhaps giving $10,000,000 to the needy.

A business is a treadmill, demanding inordinate amounts of the owner's time, without regard to a social calendar.

A business valued at (say) ten million dollars has two options:

Stop trading, in which case there'll be not much left after the fire sale, and the owner will quite likely have to get a job.

Pursue profit, in the hope of keeping one's head above water (financially).

This latter is a constant battle.

In a key role, in a commerical enterprise, there is no room for someone who is not commercially aware!

Heck, this bloke probably believes that all that money in the cash register in Grace Bros. is "pure profit - cash in hand, not bad work if you can get it?"

Noisy Street March in the City

In the big smoke on business yesterday, Mine Host (and everybody else in the CBD) couldn't help but hear a noisy mob on the street below.

Windows were popping open everywhere, as people strived for a better view of the unfolding event below. Police were at the scene.

Yep! Sailors of the R.A.N. marching to a brass band, through the streets of central Cairns!

A similar event happened yesterday in Sydney, but a vastly different mob, with a vastly different outcome, and a vastly different level of public support. As reported by Boy on a Bike.

Going Viral

One could post about the advisability of clicking on the wrong part of an unsavoury website, or the benefits of keeping one's anti-virus up to date......

..... but it is when all your auto-storage of passwords is consigned to history that the full impact of losing one's usual computer hits home.

One could post on the joys & hardships of trying every password combination possible, only to be locked out of websites by this message: Account suspended due to too many password attempts.

... Mine Host has now winched up a bucket of water from the memory well, and has drunk the elixir contained therein. All passwords are now stored in the super safe location of an A4 page blu-tacked to his office wall, in a word document in every computer, on a card carried in his briefcase, inside his suitcase, and just about everywhere else except tattooed upside down on his tummy.

Regular posting will now resume.....

The Billy Goat Gene

A challenge for anyone who fancies putting together a really complex venn diagram:

Make one of which elected ALP politicians have rooted which other ones. A very large sub-group would be those who have walked out on a spouse in favour of rooting a fellow elected ALP parliamentarian.

The urge to seemingly root anything that moves, without regard to any sense of propriety, seems to be limited to that one political party. (The sub-group of elected ALP parliamentarians who have been convicted of having sexual intercourse with children won't be the smallest group in the venn diagram project - just saying)

Wonder what causes it? And why no other party has the same scale of ...er.. compulsion the ALP does?

Channel 10 - Back on the Air!

A couple of weeks ago TV station Channel 10 commenced broadcasting for the first time since sometime in March (a break of about 5 months.)

... or so it would seem to anyone frequenting the Wayside Tavern!

In March Channel 10 was tuned out of every television set at the Wayside Tavern (all 110 of 'em) This isn't difficult, just one tweak at the master control.

For in March the host & hostess of a mid-morning TV show on Channel 10 made belittling & nasty comments about a Victoria Cross recipient.

These comments were made on air.

Channel 10 is free to air what they wish.
Mine Host is free to boycott any channel he wishes. And so he did.

A couple of weeks ago the airhead themed morning TV show was cancelled.
Thus Channel 10 is now back on the air at the Wayside Tavern!

In public circumstances (such as a TV appearance) a VC recipient is representative of all who have served, and of all who fell.

To publicly denigrate, belittle, and show disdain to a VC recipient, (going about quiet enjoyment of his life) is extremely offensive.

One of the two philistines, George Negus, is an experienced foreign correspondent & television journalist, with decades of reporting behind him.

He knew better. He has no excuse. He deserves to be shunned from polite society. That is, whenever he appears in public, or private, all should turn their backs to him. (Similar to when military cadets "shun" one of their own for a breach of honour).

The hostess, lacking Negus' worldly experience & perhaps not as capable of meeting the challenge of understanding the discretions & norms of wider society, still should have known better.

Confronted with community & viewer ire (on a grand scale) and with sponsors withdrawing cash from the programme, they each gave a Claytons apology.

They then went on to make some incredibly stupid statements. All of which indicated a total & complete tin ear for the sentiments of decent society. Example: They claimed to be "anti-war", as if that implies a free pass to insult & sneer at the memory of war dead.

Columnist Andrew Bolt (a Channel 10 presenter, whose own show hasn't been seen at the Wayside Tavern during Channel 10's blackout) made possibly the stupidist excuse for them Mine Host has ever read:

Mr. Bolt, who is himself apt to make contentious comments at times, but always conducts himself as a gentleman, does himself no credit by saying that morning TV is a difficult gig, and saying nasty stuff is okay, as it can be "very difficult to think of things to say to fill the hour".

Bunkum! When faced with air time to fill, one is not compelled to say horribly nasty things about people.

The remarks in question were not said in isolation. The hostess, whose media career has rightly disappeared *poof*, did not just suddenly decide out of the blue to say nasty stuff about a national hero.

This sort of comment is built up over time. It was something she was comfortable saying.

In all the months (before spontaneously airing it) the remark was germinating in her psyche, at all the gatherings it (or similar) was aired, to all the people in her social & work circles who conversed with her, not one of them had seen fit to pull her up or correct her.

This speaks volumes.

Credit...!!

"..and how will you be establishing credit with us sir?"

So spoke the receptionist handling Mine Host's check-in to a fancy hostelry in USA.

First impressions are meaningful. Sometimes a first impression is too bad to recover from.

Mine Host's nostrils flared. Never would he dare to speak to a client with such phraseology. Offended, nay borderline riled, Mine Host presents his credit card, vowing to not spend one brass razoo at this hotel beyond the room charge. Extending the stay? Not a hope, buddy!

The receptionist, with that one abrasive phrase, has guillotined any chance of Mine Host raiding the mini-bar, dining in-house, or using the telephone.

In a case of most unfortunate timing, Mine Host had spent the previous hour regaling his travelling companion with tales of how the American hotel industry is a world leader in how they handle matters at reception.

First impressions count.

It speaks volumes for the hospitality of the people & positive atmosphere of the nation, that most anyone who has visited the USA is actually able to recover from the first impression that is dished out by the immigration officer at passport control.

Using the scientific sample size of every border crossing he has ever made into the USA, Mine Host authoritavely states that commnist countries, with all the frigid baleful glares they could muster up for a representative of a "non-fraternal" nation, were never as unwelcoming as is the typical immigration officer with which one is confronted when entering the USA.

For a contrasting and very positive first impression, visit New Zealand, which has possibly the world's most friendly & disarming passport control officers.

First impressions count. One enters New Zealand feeling positively buoyant!

Enchanting

Everbody, at least once in their life, should see Disney's Electric Main Street Parade.

Fight called off

Any boxing fan's heart would have been gladdened at the recent prospect of the great nation of South Korea engaging in a spot of whaling.

Besides the joy of seeing the usual suspects have conniptions at the idea, Mine Host was somewhat looking forward to the vicarious thrill of watching the Sea Shepherd organisation take on some South Korean fishermen.

It'd be a brief contest. The first good whack in the gizzard & Sea Shepherd runs crying to teacher.

Koreans, for those who've never familiarised themselves with the breed, are a very tough bunch. Sea Shepherd on the other hand are a pretty gutless collection of hippies & other dickheads, with serious form when it comes to running from a fight (a fight they started).

Alas it is not to be. The government of South Korea has announced they'll not be whaling after all.

Hah! Fooled all you worldwide people didn't they...!!

So we won't be treated to the sight of oxygen theives whining at the outcome of them sailing up to some Korean workingmen on the high seas, and trying to destroy these men's livelihood & property.

Phooey!

Salvo for the Salvos

For those who really did have too much time on their hands recently, there was a brief bit in the news about some pop star braying on...

... about how people intending to donate money to them, should first consider the attitude of the Salvation Army toward homosexuals.

Fair enough. One would presume that this is already considered by those whose sympathies lean heavily toward homosexuality.

Mine Host is not keen to give to the Salvation Army, for similar reasons.

Specifically their attitude toward those who are not Christians. At one stage in a previous life of Mine Host, the Salvation Army called for an army of volunteers to assist with good works in a time of crisis....

.....the local community arrived by the horde. The Salvos refused them. Not for their ethicity, but because they were of a non-theistic religion. The packaging of relief parcels, & other desperately needed good works, remained forever incomplete.

Mine Host has never given to the Salvation Army since.

Grudgingly Mine Host allows them to shake the tin once a week in his bars (the only persons allowed to do so), but doesn't put money in himself.

On occasion, Mine Host has offered to evict and never readmit the Salvation Army, when some of their younger members have gone too far in badgering patrons for money.

While the angry & outraged pop star may bang on loudly about the attitude of the Salvation Army toward homosexuals (they aren't impressed by them & prefer to not have them as members) one can only imagine the spluttering incandesence this pop star must have toward Islam.

A religion in whose name homosexuals are strangled by hoisting them with a crane.

A google search for this pop star's proportionate condemnation of Islam brings up ... .... ... nothing.

.... If you're in down & out in Brisbane (& presumably other cities) the Salvos are often the only people who will give you a feed, and they'll always do it.....

....If you're on the front line defending this country, the nearest civilians will be the Salvos, right up there close, providing cups of hot tea, & a friendly non-military word for a digger, and they've always been there..