(Miscellaneous debris)

[redandblack]

Can't debate opinions, TSG?

Safer for you to attack the poster?

My question still stands unanswered, but I enjoy that as site troll you find it necessary to be the first to answer so many of my posts.

I know that southee can debate for himself without your usual unconstructive sniping.

Have a good night, though, you're always good for a laugh for being so predictable

Your not debating.

Mate, apart from taking a while to decipher your 3 word sentence, I think your answer is one of the weakest you've put up for a fair while.

Sometimes your one-liners are funny, most of the time they're just trolling, but this one is just a bit weak.

I think that if you nearly always post just one-liners, you're either a brilliant wordsmith, or an attention seeking, self-serving arsehole with psychological problems.

Fortunately, I'm convinced you're on the way to being one of the great wordsmiths of our time, but I'm having a problem persuading a lot of people who think otherwise

[dedja]

Your not debating.

Sure it wasn't a mass debate?

[southee]

Thanks Southee, I always enjoy a debate with you.

I can understand what you're saying, but my comment was on your last sentence,.

I can't comment on an article I said I haven't read, but I can comment on a comment you made.

Fair enough?

I can see why you are a huge labor man .... What a great spin on things

[dedja]

[Jimmy_041]

Can't debate opinions, TSG?

Safer for you to attack the poster?

My question still stands unanswered, but I enjoy that as site troll you find it necessary to be the first to answer so many of my posts.

I know that southee can debate for himself without your usual unconstructive sniping.

Have a good night, though, you're always good for a laugh for being so predictable

Your not debating.

Mate, apart from taking a while to decipher your 3 word sentence, I think your answer is one of the weakest you've put up for a fair while.

Sometimes your one-liners are funny, most of the time they're just trolling, but this one is just a bit weak.

I think that if you nearly always post just one-liners, you're either a brilliant wordsmith, or an attention seeking, self-serving arsehole with psychological problems.

Fortunately, I'm convinced you're on the way to being one of the great wordsmiths of our time, but I'm having a problem persuading a lot of people who think otherwise

I couldn't find one with a red and black guernsey on

[redandblack]

That's understandable

[Psyber]

I must get my wife to try that medication he was on ...

It is one of the recorded side-effects of L-dopa and its relatives, along with psychotic episodes.
Which way the side-effects will go can't be relied on though, so you'll have to focus on being charming...

[Psyber]

Kevin Rudd airbrushed out of ALP history! http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 6212731618

Is that a Juliar of omission...

[The Sleeping Giant]

Can't debate opinions, TSG?

Safer for you to attack the poster?

My question still stands unanswered, but I enjoy that as site troll you find it necessary to be the first to answer so many of my posts.

I know that southee can debate for himself without your usual unconstructive sniping.

Have a good night, though, you're always good for a laugh for being so predictable

Your not debating.

Mate, apart from taking a while to decipher your 3 word sentence, I think your answer is one of the weakest you've put up for a fair while.

Sometimes your one-liners are funny, most of the time they're just trolling, but this one is just a bit weak.

I think that if you nearly always post just one-liners, you're either a brilliant wordsmith, or an attention seeking, self-serving arsehole with psychological problems.

Fortunately, I'm convinced you're on the way to being one of the great wordsmiths of our time, but I'm having a problem persuading a lot of people who think otherwise

Jesus.

[redandblack]

Kevin Rudd airbrushed out of ALP history! http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 6212731618

Is that a Juliar of omission...

Perhaps he'll challenge for the leadership, Psyber?

We've been told all year that it would happen and that the PM would be out by now, but she's got a bigger majority than she started with

There was an article today about who would be Opposition Leader if Mr Abbott went.

What's your take on that?

[Psyber]

Kevin Rudd airbrushed out of ALP history! http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 6212731618

Is that a Juliar of omission...

Perhaps he'll challenge for the leadership, Psyber?
We've been told all year that it would happen and that the PM would be out by now, but she's got a bigger majority than she started with
There was an article today about who would be Opposition Leader if Mr Abbott went.
What's your take on that?

I don't know enough about the core internal dynamic of either party to be able to predict who has the numbers within the group of elected members.
Personally, I like Turnbull, and Cory Bernardi said to me yesterday that he thought Turnbull would give it another shot sometime.

However, I think Turnbull did lose ground by supporting the ETS.
Many in the Libs think, as I do, that an ETS is only window dressing that will not create real change anyway.
And, of course, there are the actual Global Warming sceptics in the party who would not have liked it.

(I put the case that convinced me there was a significant human contribution to current CO2 levels on top of the Milankovich Cycles to Cory Bernardi yesterday, at a party function, and he did listen and ask for more information.)

[redandblack]

Thanks Psyber.

Corey Bernardi has an (shall we say) interesting reputation as a very right-wing person, allied to the US Tea Party, etc.

How do you assess him, seeing you know him?

[Psyber]

Thanks Psyber.
Corey Bernardi has an (shall we say) interesting reputation as a very right-wing person, allied to the US Tea Party, etc.
How do you assess him, seeing you know him?

I don't know him really well as I have met him and talked to him only a few times at party functions.
He is rather right wing from my point of view, and I was surprised that he showed the interest he did in what I said about how I moved from scepticism to acceptance of the human contribution to current CO2 levels.
However he is a reasonably friendly person face to face - though he can be a bit abrupt in expressing his views, he will hear you out if you make a case.

(I also met, for the first time, Mary Jo Fisher and her husband John at yesterday's function - that was interesting.)

[Q.]

OECD finds inequality increasing in Australia

Income inequality among working-age people in Australia has been rising since 2000 and is today above the OECD average. In 2008, the average income of the top 10% of Australians was $131 300, nearly 10 times higher than that of the bottom 10%, who had an average income of $13 700 . This is up from a ratio of 8 to 1 in the mid 1990s.

That’s the finding in a new report on income inequality published overnight in Paris by the OECD.

If you look at the top 1% the growing inequality is even more noticeable. The richest 1% of Australians saw their share of total national income almost double, from 4.8% in 1980 to 8.8% in 2008. Moreover, that of the richest 0.1% rose from 1% to 3%. At the same time, top marginal income tax rates declined markedly, dropping from 60% in 1981 to 45% in 2010.





Notes: The Gini coefficient ranges from 0 (when all people have identical incomes) to 1 (when the richest person has all the income). Market incomes are labour earnings, capital incomes and savings. Disposable income is market income plus social transfers less income taxes. Incomes are adjusted for household size. Data refer to the working-age population.

Other key findings on Australia in the OECD report are:

 Labour market changes have been a key driver of inequality trends in Australia. The earnings gap between the 10% best and least paid full-time workers increased by a fifth between 1980 and in 2008.

 Employment income makes up only a third of household income in the bottom quintile in Australia (compared to an OECD average of two thirds). This suggests jobless households face a much higher risk of falling at the bottom of the income distribution.

 As in most other countries, the divide in hours worked between higher- and lower-wage earners in Australia is growing, confirming a trend seen in most OECD countries. Since the mid-1980s, annual hours of low-wage workers fell from 1300 to 1100 hours, those of higher-wage workers remained stable at around 2300 hours.

 Societal changes, such as more single parent families and people living alone, and people marrying within similar earnings classes, also contributed to rising household earnings inequality. At the same time, higher employment rates for women helped reduce household earnings inequality. Growing disparities and declining employment rates among men are the main drivers, explaining about two-thirds of the increase.

 The tax-benefit system in Australia has offset just over half of the rise that occurred in market income inequality during the past two decades, a percentage that is higher than in many other OECD countries.

 Nonetheless, since the mid-1980s, taxes have become less redistributive. Both progressivity and average tax rates have declined. And since the mid-1990s the overall redistributive effect also weakened. In most cases, out-of-work income as a proportion of in-work income has fallen, in part due to allowance rates failing to keep pace with wage growth. Only lone parents, whose income support is tied to an average earnings measure and who benefitted from more generous family benefits, were excepted.The flattening of the personal income tax system in the mid-2000s (e.g. through increases to the top threshold) also contributed to a reduced capacity of redistribution.

 Spending on public services in Australia is higher than the OECD average but spending on cash transfers is lower [Figure8.1]. Overall, these services such as education, health or care cut inequality by 17%, a little less than the OECD average.

[GWW]

(I also met, for the first time, Mary Jo Fisher and her husband John at yesterday's function - that was interesting.)

In what way

[Gozu]

(I also met, for the first time, Mary Jo Fisher and her husband John at yesterday's function - that was interesting.)

In what way

She tried to flog his porsche?

[The Sleeping Giant]

(I also met, for the first time, Mary Jo Fisher and her husband John at yesterday's function - that was interesting.)

In what way

What was your diagnosis Psyber? Is she taking her meds?

[Q.]

Wonder if our Government and MSM will be held to account for the 'corporate dishonesty and media negligence' surrounding the JSF:

Flying into a defence disaster

In the next few months, an event more dramatic for Australia than the export of uranium to India and one ranking alongside the European crisis looks like it will hit our country – the United States is getting closer and closer to abandoning the Joint Strike Fighter. If they do abandon what was to be our biggest defence purchase it will not only cost around 250,000 jobs around the world (including 5,000 to 10,000 in Australia) but it will also lock in Russian and Chinese air superiority in our region for the foreseeable future.

The Australian Department of Defence has conducted one of the biggest ‘snow jobs’ ever attempted on most Australian media so there has been little commentary warning of the looming JSF disaster. However, step-by-step the whole JSF program is unravelling.

The eurozone crisis was caused because Europe consistently denied that its banks and countries like Greece had a problem. Australia has undergone the same process of denial with the JSF, which has not only ballooned in cost and been hit by delays, but can’t compete against the equivalent Russian and Chinese aircraft. If we face up to the problem, however, there is a solution that will keep most of the jobs and retain US air superiority in the region.

[Sojourner]

Think it stinks that Elderly people on fixed incomes are being asked for so much more coin just to pay an electricity bill. If the Bills go up then the Governments should be putting the Pension and or Subsidies up also!

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/lives-at- ... 6213570394

[Psyber]

(I also met, for the first time, Mary Jo Fisher and her husband John at yesterday's function - that was interesting.)

In what way

To answer this and the other issues raised:

1. She said she was much happier with her new shrink who is being much more up front and directive about her medication management and offering more certainty.
2. She seemed fairly stable in mood at this stage - none of the hyper-excitability shown in the old TV clips.
3. It looks like the diagnosis was right and the current treatment is more effective.
4. Her husband brought me up to speed on modern automated dairy operations.

And, I sold the last Porsche I owned myself in 1996.