It would seem that we are finally starting to have the debate about alcohol and violence - the real debate that is - not the one about how kids today are drinking too much - that not a debate its a fact. The one about how is that today when young people get pissed they want to thump someone when in earlier days everybody just went home or to bed (not necessarily in that order)
The real issues behind this are many and they include the uncertainty of young men and where their position is - what they are expected to do - say - feel etc - they are constantly told by the mothers they can’t climb a tree, play football without a helmet, run naked down a street - in essence they are told they behave more like girls and discuss every little thing on their minds and to express their emotions (in other words boys today don’t know whether they should be boys or girls - they are uncertain and need something to reaffirm to themselves their place in things)- they can however spend hours after hour watching and playing increasingly violent video games (but wait the government says there is no evidence that violence in the media has any affect on the actions of those who watch - what a lot of absolute crap - of course it does - the same way a soldier becomes desensitised to war, injury and death - if you do it long enough soon it loses its meaning - you become numb).
They also include the failure of the government and the judiciary of dealing with violence perpetrated whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs - defence lawyers actually use this now as a mitigating factor in order to get a reduction in sentence - particularly against law enforcement officers - what a joke that is - touch one of those guys and i say throw the book at them
Governments need to put in place multiple layer packages of both harsher penalties, increased 'in your face' marketing programs, parent education programs and celebrity marketing (the one things marketers do when they want to sell something is to put a famous face behind it - why not do the same to market against violence - doesn't seems like rocket science does it)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Carbon Tax The Great Distraction
The Carbon Tax - the great distraction
Call me a conspiratorialist (is that a word) but it seems to be there are some questions that need to be answered (not the meaning of life)- if you were a government that was having trouble managing the economy, education, health, the size of the public service (in fact when you think about it everything) would you tackle something that every country in the world is virtually ignoring Global warming. Lets introduce a Carbon Tax for the good of the planet – don’t worry that all the primary issues within our country are simply not being attended to effectively – don’t worry that we have 40,000 people with nowhere to sleep, thousands of Australians who can’t get adequate and timely hospital care, an education system that rewards mediocrity and spends most of its time preparing for Naplan etc etc, lets just have a crack at Global warming – let’s just show those yanks and Chinese a thing or 2
Nope i think i have got it wrong it’s got naff all to do with aiming too high its got everything to do with if we spend our time and everyone else’s talking about one Holy Grail or another no one will notice we are not doing anything else (standard government practice 101) No one will notice we give away 4 boat people and get 4000 back – don’t the Indonesians love us now - and while we are at we will throw a couple of hundred Billion dollars at a communication network that will be obsolete by the time it gets to WA (and by the way why is it given governments - of all persuasions - lack of credibility when it comes to estimating what something is going to cost - by say 200% - that no one questions them as to the legitimacy of the original quote or holds them accountable to it?
Thats what governments do - they concentrate on talking about things that cant be achieved (or shouldn't be) - about what great crusaders they are for the common man or the good of the planet or for the plight of the down trodden (not ours mind you just everyone else on the planet) rather than actually getting the business of government right and helping to ensure those that need help/assistance get it
Call me a conspiratorialist (is that a word) but it seems to be there are some questions that need to be answered (not the meaning of life)- if you were a government that was having trouble managing the economy, education, health, the size of the public service (in fact when you think about it everything) would you tackle something that every country in the world is virtually ignoring Global warming. Lets introduce a Carbon Tax for the good of the planet – don’t worry that all the primary issues within our country are simply not being attended to effectively – don’t worry that we have 40,000 people with nowhere to sleep, thousands of Australians who can’t get adequate and timely hospital care, an education system that rewards mediocrity and spends most of its time preparing for Naplan etc etc, lets just have a crack at Global warming – let’s just show those yanks and Chinese a thing or 2
Nope i think i have got it wrong it’s got naff all to do with aiming too high its got everything to do with if we spend our time and everyone else’s talking about one Holy Grail or another no one will notice we are not doing anything else (standard government practice 101) No one will notice we give away 4 boat people and get 4000 back – don’t the Indonesians love us now - and while we are at we will throw a couple of hundred Billion dollars at a communication network that will be obsolete by the time it gets to WA (and by the way why is it given governments - of all persuasions - lack of credibility when it comes to estimating what something is going to cost - by say 200% - that no one questions them as to the legitimacy of the original quote or holds them accountable to it?
Thats what governments do - they concentrate on talking about things that cant be achieved (or shouldn't be) - about what great crusaders they are for the common man or the good of the planet or for the plight of the down trodden (not ours mind you just everyone else on the planet) rather than actually getting the business of government right and helping to ensure those that need help/assistance get it
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