2023-11-22 07:27
In the previous post we covered the evolution of Hamas in Gaza. In this post we will cover the background of Hezbollah who are strongest in Lebanon and the West Bank.
Lebanon
To understand H… Read More
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My Comment - Trying To Start A Discussion Beyond T Blog
mycomment.com.au
Trying to start a discussion beyond the headlines
2023-11-14 07:39
Overview
In this and the next post, I want to cover the origins of the two main terrorist groups (or as they might call themselves, freedom fighters) in the current Israeli-Palestinian confr… Read More
2023-11-08 06:03
In the last post I covered the background of what is now Israel and Palestine. This covers the period post 1945 after Israel declared independence. Once again, I rely heavily on Wikipedia an… Read More
2023-11-03 02:45
In a previous post I gave a thumbnail sketch of the countries in the Middle East. With the current war in Gaza, it is opportune to look more closely at the history of Palestine. To do that… Read More
2023-05-07 06:10
I thought for a change, I would do an article on Artificial Intelligence or AI. Rather than give my own views, I thought I would interview ChatGPT and see what it had to say.
Q. For someo… Read More
2023-02-16 03:46
Like most people, I knew there was an Australian Electoral Commission, but had no idea how it worked. I had a vague idea that it set electoral boundaries and ran elections but not much more… Read More
2023-01-06 05:13
Everyone complains about “the cost of living”. Think about those words. “The cost of living”. It invokes images of just being able to survive. If the cost of living g… Read More
2022-12-07 06:35
I read it for the third time and still was not sure if I could park for two hours in the spot. Sound familiar? Parking spaces with three or four signs hanging off a post can lead to confusio… Read More
2022-10-27 03:26
There is about 8 kg of lithium used in the average electric car battery. According to McKinsey lithium demand will rise from approximately 500,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent… Read More
2022-10-25 23:33
Just when you thought it could not get any worse, along came cobalt. Up to 15kg of cobalt is used in an EV. By far the biggest producer is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They accoun… Read More
2022-10-21 04:15
I received a lot of feedback from the article on EVs. Some thought I was opposed to EVs because of the issues I raised. That is not the truth. I think we must move towards EVs but we should… Read More
2022-09-06 08:01
Constitutions are strange things. Written hundreds of years ago, they are still considered by some with almost biblical reverence. To change them requires some sort of national consensus and… Read More
2022-08-13 08:43
Electric Cars
I was thinking about the pros and cons of owning an electric vehicle and decided to do some research. Where we live it is not feasible as we do not have off-street parking t… Read More
2022-07-14 07:07
Time to do a report on the State of the Union in 2030. As you know, President for Life Trump is busy addressing some of the opportunities for Americans and improving its citizens’ live… Read More
2022-06-23 01:49
At first, we had to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees. Then it was 2 degrees. Now we are on track for 2.4 degrees. But what if we can’t limit rises in global temperatur… Read More
2022-06-03 01:35
I was always in trouble as a kid for pulling things apart to see how they worked. I am still unforgiven for straightening the spiral spring in the kitchen alarm clock to see how long it was… Read More
2022-05-15 07:20
Change is hard, particularly in government. There are two types of political forces in the world. One is to change and hopefully improve society, and the other is to maintain the status quo… Read More
2022-05-02 08:11
Scotty called the troops aroundTo plan to win the election ground
They came from near. They came from farBut mostly from the parliamentary bar
Scotty looked on all with prideAnd everyo… Read More
2022-04-23 03:50
Democracy is an evolving form of government. It has only been around for a few hundred years, but has changed over that period. What comes next?
There have been three main forms of govern… Read More
2021-12-02 04:28
“Why doesn’t the government do something?” How many times have you heard, or said something like that. The answer is they don’t do something because it is called demo… Read More
2021-08-14 06:59
Just when you thought there was nothing else to say on Covid, I found a few things worth commenting on. Some relate to the past, some the present and some the future.
Why is there a vax… Read More
2021-05-25 07:48
Winston Churchill said the following in 1947:
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or… Read More
2021-03-08 07:20
Are we over-regulated? Of course, we are. Everyone says so. Everywhere you look there are laws that restrict us from doing stuff. We can’t walk across the road without breaking some la… Read More
2021-01-04 00:54
Stand back. Way back to where a year looks like a blade of grass. Back to where your front lawn looks like the history of man. What do you see? is it progress or recession? Has the social jo… Read More
2020-12-23 07:54
There is an old saying that if you put two economists in a room and ask a question, you will get three answers. I understand a bit about economics after reading for years, but there are some… Read More
2020-10-16 02:55
I learnt a new acronym recently. WEIRD. It stand for Western – Educated – Industrialised – Rich – Democratic. It refers to much of the western world today. Maybe we a… Read More
2020-08-10 06:55
It is interesting to hear all the comments from Generation X, Millenials, and Gen Z about how we Baby Boomers had it so good. What is rarely mentioned is what we didn’t have so good. M… Read More
2020-07-24 08:52
What are inconvenient truths? The things we kind of know but would rather we didn’t. We all know too much chocolate is bad for us, but we sort of bury that fact in the back of our mind… Read More
2020-06-15 07:39
It seems more and more, the USA is broken. Aside from Trump, this year we have had a poor response to coronavirus, further withdrawal from the international scene by such actions as quitting… Read More
2020-04-28 12:17
It worried me at the time. An uneasy feeling, I could not actually pin down. I overheard someone say, “If you’re not a capitalist, you must be a socialist.” Aside from the… Read More
2020-04-11 08:24
I heard Scot Morrison say a few weeks back that where we are today with Covid 19 is unimaginable from where we were a week previously. Really Prime Minister? Where is the contingency plannin… Read More
2020-03-18 04:36
These days when I start reading the news, I wonder if anything is happening in the world other than coronavirus. Surely there is something else to write about. So I am going to write about s… Read More
2020-01-09 03:44
Does filling your recycling bin make you an environmentalist or is it just virtue signalling? Do you like people to think you are concerned about saving the environment or is it because you… Read More
2019-12-04 07:09
Foreword. I started out to write a brief history. I failed. It turned into a lengthy document which is still only a superficial history. I hope you can persevere and come to the end of the p… Read More
2019-11-08 06:04
The older I get the more I find I know very little about. This post is about something I know about only at a superficial level. The reason for expounding my views is to give a city version… Read More
2019-10-25 06:47
This may sound like an esoteric subject but bear with me. I would like to start with a question. Is it morally OK to deceive people for your own advantage? Your initial response is probably… Read More
2019-06-19 07:55
What do we want from our politicians? What forces drive them. Which of those do we want to be dominant?
We have just had an election in Australia. The Labor Party put forward a detailed… Read More
2019-05-09 08:28
Roll the roulette wheel! The time has come again to elect the government. Red or black? Place your chips and gamble away your future.
What is important? “The economy.” shouts… Read More
2019-02-22 05:55
Mick Jagger and I have a disagreement. He said:
“You can’t always get what you want but you get what you need.”
I say:
“You can’t always get what you n… Read More
2018-12-29 07:43
I had an experience a few months back that got me thinking. Imagine this. American doctor. Plastic surgeon from down south. Strongly believes in God but not in man made climate change. Says… Read More
2018-11-05 06:51
For those of you who do not live in Sydney, we have had a letter signed by the heads of 34 Anglican schools and published as an open letter in newspapers. It all relates to anti-discriminati… Read More
2018-10-02 00:55
One of the most sophisticated civilisations of the 1500’s, the Incas, managed to survive with only three rules. “Ama Sua. Ama Llulla. Ama Quella” :
Don&rsq&hell…Read More
2018-08-03 01:36
It seems the standard summary of every government infrastructure project. is “Over time and over budget”. How can they get it so wrong we ask? Well, this is an area I know about… Read More
2018-07-22 07:27
The headlines say it in different ways but it all boils down to the same thing. Wage growth has stopped. Wages are going backwards when compared to inflation. Wage growth is around 2% wherea… Read More
2018-06-11 08:32
Trade is boring. We hear about G7 meetings discussing trade, Trump dumping trade treaties and glaze over. Maybe we should pay more attention.
When Hawke and Keating came to power in Australi… Read More
2018-04-21 05:41
For the last two weeks the local media has been full of Israel Folau’s comment on homosexuals. For people who are not aware, Israel Folau is probably the best rugby player in the world… Read More
2018-03-05 12:24
With those four words, Bill Clinton summed up the relationship between business and politics in the 21st century. Politics become focused on the economy. Politicians then started to assume t… Read More
2018-01-08 23:34
If I were to say that democracy was in danger of collapse, that dictators would emerge over the next few decades would you say I was deluded? Many would. Maybe I am. The niggling problem is… Read More
2017-11-19 23:03
Let’s start with this premise. Businesses exist to make money for the shareholders. If anyone says anything other than to make money, get out your bullshitometer.
The concept of compan… Read More
2017-10-24 07:49
This is an article that will reach no conclusions. It is a collection of thoughts someone smarter than me may be able to answer. If you want to be led nowhere, and end up with only a bunch o… Read More
2017-08-20 12:34
My favourite program on TV is Utopia. For those who have not seen it, Utopia is a comedy about a fictional government body responsible for Australia infrastructure. They are constantly hassl… Read More
2017-08-08 07:20
The financial intelligence agency Austrac has alleged the Commonwealth Bank’s Intelligent Deposit Machines broke anti-money laundering laws on 53,700 occasions, and that the bank turne… Read More
2017-07-23 00:31
I have this image in my mind. A tent. Not the modern nylon and aluminium variety, but more the wooden pole and deerskin covered type. The ones you you see in movies about American Indians. T… Read More
2017-06-28 12:08
Paul Keating hit the nail on the head. He has always had a way of doing that. He said recently that no recent government has had a ‘narrative’. In other words, governments &ndash&hell…Read More
2017-05-04 08:17
A few years back, my understanding of farmers did a U turn. I had never considered a major decision farmers have to make. In one or two sentences on radio, a farmer explained it. He&nbs&hell…Read More
2017-03-12 07:16
I heard a story decades ago. It was sort of a parable. Evidently a king long ago asked the wisest man in his kingdom to write down all human knowledge. The wise man went away and five years… Read More
2017-02-26 02:50
I was interested in the Fair Work Commission deciding to reduce some weekend rates. Obviously they gave this a lot of thought as did the Productivity Commission. According to Justice Ro… Read More
2017-02-16 07:40
We all know the gap between rich and poor is getting bigger. In this article I will try and highlight a few of the results that perhaps you have not thought about in relation to home afforda… Read More
2016-12-22 08:03
We all know what we don’t want in a political leader. What do we want? We rejected Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott and now Turnbull but how would we describe the perfect leader of the na… Read More
2016-11-11 05:29
You can’t tell anyone. It is a secret. The ABC has a coup on their hands. Leigh Sales scored an interview with Donald Trump. It is to be broadcast soon but don’t tell anyone.
www… Read More
2016-10-21 08:13
Very occasionally someone puts up an argument against something that sounds like it was constructed by a three year old trying to explain away a broken plate. That “very occasionally&r&hell…Read More
2016-06-29 23:58
A comment from Brexit seems to sum up the world of western politics today. A woman was asked how she would vote.
“If you have money you vote to remain. If you have no money you v… Read More
2016-06-24 07:46
Labor needs a Tampa moment to win the election. Remember when John Howard turned around his campaign with the Tampa crisis? I hope Bill Shorten has one up his sleeve. If not, her… Read More
2016-06-19 03:07
One of my favorite authors is Hugh McKay the social researcher. The reason I like reading his material as he often makes you look at something in a different way. One memorable p… Read More
2016-06-17 00:04
They call it democracy. Government by the people. The original concept developed in Greece and the concept was that the people’s views would be represented by their elected representat… Read More
2016-06-14 08:31
A comment from a journalist got me thinking. It was about the Nick Xenophon Party. The comment was “If we don’t know your policies, how can we vote for you?”
I… Read More
2016-06-05 04:34
Turnbull arrived like a messiah. A rock star. The Dali Lama. A year down the track he is just another PM struggling to win an election. What happened?
The answer is “lots&r&hell…Read More
2016-05-21 03:20
The first few weeks of the election campaign were not going well. No surge in the polls. No capitulation by Labor. No gaffs from the Shorten team. Malcolm the Almight… Read More
2016-05-14 01:44
The year is 2046. 30 years from now. The Crumbling Blocks Royal Commission has just completed and released it’t preliminary report.
For those who are not aware of the Crumb… Read More
2016-04-29 06:01
So Labor want a royal commission on the banks. The banks don’t seem to think it is needed. Then again, asking the banks if they want a royal commission on banks is like ask… Read More
2016-04-04 08:57
The people we label “terrorist” presumably bring terror to our lives. Terror is defined as “extreme fear”. So do we suffer extreme fear when we think abou… Read More
2016-03-10 02:41
“So you’re a lobbyist for the NRA?”
“Sure am, but don’t get us mixed up with the National Rifle Association. People get us confused.”
“So whic… Read More
2016-02-07 07:47
To increase the GST. To broaden the GST so that it applies to food, education and health. Is Scott Morrison on a different path to Malcolm Turnbull? How can we have a sensi… Read More
2016-01-24 07:37
I am part of a tribe. Several tribes in fact. I am part of the Inner West Tribe, the Sydney Tribe, the New South Wales Tribe, the Australian Tribe. Even the World Tribe. &n&hell…Read More
2016-01-12 11:36
Around Easter of 1946, my parents, and another couple by the name of Peggy and John Jones in Brixton UK, celebrated in a “matrimonial” manner. About nine months later, on 8… Read More
2016-01-03 06:57
An interesting question was posed to me a few months back. “If all men are created equal, are borders moral?” If we are all equal regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, religi… Read More
2015-11-22 05:16
Imagine you belong to a club. I use the term “club” in a wide sense here. The club you belong to may be a country, a religion, a sport, a multinational or even the bird wat… Read More
2015-09-28 08:57
It would be fair to say both major parties are less than popular with most people. What other choice do we have? The Greens have some support. They get into the low teens w… Read More
2015-09-18 12:21
You would think that everything that could be said, had been said about the refugee influx into Europe. I think there are a few topics that are new, or glossed over, so here we go. These are… Read More
2015-07-29 07:35
“Is everyone here for the cabinet meeting?” asked the chief Abbott.
“Still waiting for BB.” replied ‘Kauri’ Pyne.
“Is BB King coming to provide some… Read More
2015-07-17 08:56
In an autocratic country, people are afraid to discuss ideas. Every concept that doesn’t fit with the state view is a potential point of punishment. Think North Korea… Read More
2015-07-13 08:26
‘Twas way, way back. About 2 million BC. We know about a man who lived then, through a recently discovered cassette tape. His name was Trog Le Dite. He was famous back then… Read More
2015-07-04 09:03
Daily we are subjected to comment on the Liberal government. They rang from propaganda to outright slander. In this post, I will try and take a step back and look at the facts. … Read More
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