ellen’s scare montage

flood levy is the right thing to do …

here is my latest rant over at goldcoast.com.au:

OUR main poll at the moment asks the question: “Do you support the Federal Government’s flood levy?”

If the numbers are to be believed, 71 per cent of Gold Coasters — at least the ones who visit goldcoast.com.au and clicked on our poll — do not support the idea of a flood levy — a one-off payment to help their fellow Australians who have been gutted by the recent floods.

Really?

Let’s take a closer look at this flood levy.

For a start, if you earn less than $50,000 or were flooded, you don’t pay anything at all.

Second, it’s a one-off payment. Once. Pretty short-lived pain for long-term gain if you ask me.

If you earn between $50,000 and $100,000 per year you will pay an additional 0.5 per cent in flood levy. Over $100,000 and you’ll pay an extra 1 per cent.

Let’s be clear — if you earn, say, $60,000 a year, you will pay 96 cents a week in flood levy.

That’s $49.92. Total. Once.

If you earn $100,000 per annum, you will pay a total of $250.12. That’s it. Once.

(You can calculate exactly how much you’ll pay here.)

So, seriously, Gold Coast objectors? Do you really object to paying between $50 and $250 — ONCE — to help your fellow Queenslanders get back on their feet?

I’ll be honest with you … I find that just a tad mean-spirited.

If you’ve already donated to the various flood appeals then I can understand that you might object to being made to `donate’ again.

But I’m also willing to bet that if you’ve donated then you’re already of the mindset that says giving in order to help someone in trouble is, if nothing else, good karma, and you’d happily give a little more, even if my colleague Robyn Wuth wouldn’t.

There’s an old saw that people become more conservative as they get older. (For the opposing view, check out this study).

I must be the exception.

I swear I’m becoming more of a socialist as I get older.

Yes, I said it — the `S’ word.

Of course, in American politics, admitting to being a socialist is akin to declaring your membership of the Communist Party, and makes you instantly unelectable, the No.1 fear of US voters (at least the ones with money) being `wealth redistribution’.

(Here’s a classic piece of anti-socialism paranoia from the Washington Times.)

I’d like to think that here in the Lucky Country we’re still not afraid of helping those less fortunate.

Me, I’m all in favour.

If I were Queen For a Day — or Julia Gillard or Anna Bligh — I’d go a lot further.

For a start I would make it illegal to build any kind of residential development on a known floodplain, no matter how rare that flood event might be. And no amount of bribery from developers would change my mind.

Next, if your house was flooded, you would not be allowed to return to that location to rebuild. My government will pay to have you relocated to a site that is not floodprone.

Finally, my government would legislate to make sure every insurance company pays out on flood insurance regardless of whether the water falls from the sky, rises from the river or the ocean, whether it comes in a flash flood in minutes or over a period of days.

No exemptions, no refusals, no denials.

And if that means I have to make the rest of us pay an extra $250 in tax — ONCE — then, hell yeah, I’ll do it.

If all that makes me a nasty old socialist, so be it.

Socialist and proud.

At least nobody will call me mean-spirited.

awww … scared panda looking for comfort

apparently this was taken following the May 12, 2008 earthquake in China. Pic taken by Photo Tractatus and found here.

Jane Lynch and Ellen … double yummy

kim clijsters … nice green (you know you’re soaking in it)

some pics posted by the Australian Open on their facebook profile:

star trek producer regrets not having gay characters

Brannon Braga in an interview:

“It was a shame,” Braga told After Elton. “I’m talking about the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and there was a constant back and forth about well how do we portray the spectrum of sexuality. There were people who felt very strongly that we should be showing casually, you know, just two guys together in the background in Ten Forward. At the time, the decision was made not to do that and I think those same people would make a different decision now because I think, you know, that was 1989, well yeah about ’89, ’90, ’91. I have no doubt that those same creative players wouldn’t feel so hesitant to have, you know, have been squeamish about a decision like that.”

it’s okay, Brannon, the fans made up for your lack of vision with a whole slew of fabulous slash. here’s mine — Infinite Possibilities.

mmmm lovely

i don’t know how miss snarker does it, i really don’t, but she always seems to find the most delicious photographs of the yummiest women. case in point:

and then there’s:

thank you, miss snarker, thank you.

a little rant about homophobia and a certain kind of man

Let me paint a picture for you. My local servo. 9.30pm on a sunday. I wander in to buy a soothing bucketload of chocolate, as you do. At the counter is a bloke and he’s ranting on at the young fella behind the counter.

He’s banging on about the flood levy and what a fucking unAustralian slag that Julia Gillard is, giving all that foreign aid to the bloody indonesians. I’m mildly amused about this as i just happened to have written about it in my latest blog post over at goldcoast.com.au — you’ll be unsurprised to learn that i was expressing the opposite view, however.

Now this bloke is what i call an ‘eighties man’. He’s probly knocking on 60′s door but he can’t quite bring himself to give up the Grecian 2000 and let a little gray into his life. Either that or he really needs to update his toupee. He’s got that big bushy mo that tells the world he’s never gone down on a woman and never will if he’s got anything to say about it. He irons his skintight jeans to a knife-edge. He’s got his CFMEU polo shirt on and his knuckle tatts say ‘love’ and ‘hat’ cos he lost his little finger somewhere. Probly up his own ass because he looks the type who would love to take it up there if he only had the balls to admit it to himself.

He then proves me right by switching his rant to the Greens and their gay, anti-fishing agenda. ‘first thing they’ll do is ban all recreational fishing down the east coast of australia,’ he opines. “second thing they’ll do is let the gays get married.”

By now, of course, i’m standing behind him in the queue. I lean forward and say quietly:

“careful mate, there’s a big old lesbian behind you, within touching distance.”

You’d think i’d rubbed an ice-cold dildo between his arsecheeks he moved that fast. Off he scurried and just before he walked out the door he yelled:

“You can listen to me, girlie, i don’t care.”

Well, he certainly told me.

Arseclown.

say hello to Moby

the ugliest house on the gold coast, if not the world

apparently, it’s called ‘cincinnati’.

nice city. ugly house.