Month: November 2004

The US election is still too close to call, with everything unfolding as predicted. But there was one big surprise. According to a story from ABC News Online, the USA has spawned a new state called Merrylands! None of the pundits predicted this.

I’m astonished to find that, according to Google, there is only one weblog called Reality Check, and it’s a long defunct weblog at that. Right now I’m thinking Reality Check with the subtitle The fly in your Chardonnay. I was also puzzled to find that there is not a single web page indexed by Google with that exact sentence. However, a fly in your Chardonnay uncovered many Alanis Morissette misquotes.

Okay, perhaps I was a bit harsh in saying that all Americans would suck if Bush got re-elected. Thanks for sobering me up, BJK, but what were you doing reading my blog in the middle of the night? Of course, I meant I could no longer refer to those smelly ones who voted for Bush as the good people of America.

Obviously it was the wrong post in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m going to bed before somebody else forces me to post a correction.

Today the good people of America go to the polls. If they somehow manage to do the unthinkable and re-elect George W. Bush, I will never again refer to them as the good people of America. In fact, I’ll probably replace the good people with something very derogatory indeed.

Oh, and I can’t believe that John Howard is openly supporting Bush in this election.

Je ne sais quoi is what I actually meant to write. :) Hey, that could be the name of my blog! Maybe…

I forgot Going Postal, which also has a certain je nais se quoi, though that name might connote rather more violent and angry material than is herein contained. Still, I like it.

Here are some names for my blog that I’ve been pondering so far (they’re here so I don’t forget them):

• The Not Quite Daily
• The Almost Daily
• The Commoner

The last two have been taken already. So they won’t do. Nigel suggested Tree Huggin’ Hippie Blog, but I’ve no idea why. Mum usefully floated the name Rubbish Dump. Thanks Mum!

This obviously will not do. Back to the drawing board, although I will ponder The Not Quite Daily a little further.

Australians are among the world’s hardest workers, according to the latest survey conducted by the International Labour Organisation. Apparently twenty percent of the workforce endure a 50 hour working week. David Gregory from the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says that this is the price Australians have to pay to remain competitive in the world:

Australia is performing better than most countries from an economic point of view at the moment And look, if that’s the price that we have had to pay to maintain that position, if that price is that we’ve had to perhaps pedal a little bit harder than we once were, then so be it.

Is it just me, or does that smack of a "slaves to the economy" mentality. If … performing better than most countries from an economic point of view … implies that Australians are happier and have a better quality of life than those people in other countries (most notably, many European countries, where the workers apparently work fewer hours per week), then I’d be totally comfortable with Mr Gregory’s statement. But I don’t think Australians are happier – not any more. A survey conducted by the ACTU in 2002 found that Australians want to work fewer hours per week. Last year, Leadership Management Australia surveyed 2000 workers and found that people will work fewer hours if it leads to a better quality of life. So it should be. The economy serves the people, not vice-versa. A strong economy is not an end unto itself. A strong economy only matters in so far as it creates a better life for the people constituting that economy.

How about The Voice Box: I’m not all ears?