The POOL ROOM

[boxhead]

How is this damn weather, Bloody cold and wet.

[BMK]

I know what is cold...

I was at a recent Council function when I saw the latest Political Candidate handing out brochures. I was surprised as being green I thought she would be anti handing out paper/trees.

Being polite as I am I took the brochure from her. Threw it on the seat beside me in the car and read it later.

The big shock is just what this group is stating will be their platform and direction when elected.

Reading between the lines - Higher power costs. Get us out of our cars. Closing down power stations. More annual leave. ..

An interesting concept.. we all sit around under the trees pondering our navels..

[Merv and Sharon]

One thing is for sure and that is that the costs of power and water will continue to expand quickly. The private companies that run them need to make good profits for their investors and it just does not matter if we use less power or less water, as they are only worried about the total of the final bill - they then charge more per litre or kw/hr. Such is free enterprise.

If we want to save the planet from the emissions of fossil fuels we should use them faster in my opinion and that way we are taken into the electric/hydrogen/lithium future even faster!

[Rog246]

This one is a little different.... Two Different Versions.... Two Different Morals

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OLD VERSION

The ant
works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
his house and laying up supplies for the winter.



The grasshopper
thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and
dances and plays the summer away..



Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.


MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.


Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be
allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
Channels 7, 9 and 10,the ABC and SBS show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his
comfortable home with a table filled with food.
Australia is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper
and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where
the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.'
Cardinal George Pell then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Prime Minister Gillard
condemns the ant and blames John Howard, Robert Menzies, Capt
James Cook, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Bob Brown exclaims in an interview on Today Tonight
“the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper”, and calls for an immediate tax hike on
the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, Labor in conjunction with the Greens draft the Economic Equity
& Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs
and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government
and given to the grasshopper.



The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food
while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house,
crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again!

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders
who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighbourhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Hmmm!


I’ve sent this to you because I believe that you are an ant – not a grasshopper! Make sure that you pass this on to other ants.

Don’t bother sending it on to any grasshoppers because they wouldn’t understand it, anyway.


Rog246
Harry #100

[Modena]

it would be funny if it wasn't true!

[BMK]

Mmmm you talking about my driving in the US??..

Yes must say that 180 km/h was actually 180mph - took me awhile to get it right reading that mph speedo. Wondered why things were going past so fast...

[boxhead]

Not wanting to start a bun fight, so I ask this in the "Aussie lounge".
Has Gillard managed to lose the unlooseable.
Please just say yes or no.

[jcraigau]

yes (praying, fingers crossed)

[Merv and Sharon]

not sure worried about a recession if Dr and the old ones "no' get a gurnsey and all those cuts hit home

[Merv and Sharon]

Mean: "if Dr NO and the old ones get a guernsey"

[Zedn]

There is a huge risk of the Greens preference saving Labor. That Bob Brown is a nutter.

If they stay in, this country is in big trouble. 3 more years of this Governments wastefull spending will see us placed next to Greece needing a bail out. Labors spending plans will not stop a recession. Effective management of the stimulus could have held off a recession for much longer.

I dont care what anyone says, the NBN is the biggest waste of money every. Majority of people are not paying for an internet connection that is as fast as they can go currently let alone paying extra for data plan for fibre. If its for business, why connect to every house. I say spend the money on our hospitals that are barely safe they are so run down.

Could you imagine if any private company used as many lies in ad campaigns as have been seen this election? Or made such defamatory accusations to the competitors?

Sorry Boxhead... cant say yes or no, too close. Can only say hope so!

[Merv and Sharon]

Hey this is the Lounge and we can say more!

Maybe right Liam on some aspects. The advertising all round has been very low level and the quality of the leaders, deplorable on both sides. We seem to be at the bottom of the barrel all round.

Our debt is tiny compared to GDP and ... anyway Les has given the real data on that. Lots of spin on debt. My major worry is education as they announced to us the cuts they will make on Thursday and the Libs said that they will cut 3 billion in Education (!!). That immediately takes 1.5 billion out of unis and the rest from (mostly) state schools. Seems nuts to me to, but who needs an education? Look at us, few of us mechanics or engineers yet we can make cars!

[Zedn]

I agree with those points you raise Merv. I am a civil engineer.

I think the poor quality of leaders is due to the fact that the pay is much less than a CEO of a reasonable size company earns.

[victor]

The only winner in this election is the media. The real loser is us.

[jcraigau]

Australia get what they deserve.

Preference votes are a joke!!! They should not count for a real vote - may be 1/2 a vote.

My electorate is safe from the scurges, others not so lucky... Succession is all we can hope for here in the west if worst comes to worst.

[Zedn]

O Oh, its looking like my original prediction is coming true. My money is on the hung parliment with the Greens favouring labor.

[Tenrocca]

If the green voters actually looked at the green policies instead of just voting for them cos then are something different and "green", they wouldnt get more the 1%. Heard a great term for them tonight - watermelons, green on the outside, red on the inside.

[jcraigau]

Victor is right, we are all the losers. Who do I give my timesheet to for the hour I'm never getting back!

I'm setting up a party in the next election called the "Text Party". We're setting up a 13hundred number for you all to text your vote in to. Do you think it's got legs?

[Zedn]

Texting? Perhaps you can utilise the new broadband network for superfast voting.

[jcraigau]

I'd put money on teletext before NBN...