Fielding crows atop the muck heap

Like a skinny rooster crowing on top of a muck heap, the unrepresentative Senator Steve 'I'm the boss of you' Fielding, uses his balance of power position to redraft the already shonky Medicare logo until it begins to look like the one on the left.

This lone Family First member of the federal parliament is becoming a figure of fun because of his juvenile publicity stunts and truly loathed for his frankly ill-informed stance on many issues.

The Age captures him nicely:

"FAMILY First Senator Steve Fielding seems the least likely figure to become a one-man government.
He is gaunt and harried-looking and darts from newspaper office to TV studio in Canberra's Parliament House with the urgency of a man pursued by the terror of letting a chance slip by."

Elsewhere it points out that Fielding brought a pup when he brought the argument put up by the Coalition and medical insurers to fight the Rudd Government's Medicare bill:

"The Howard government introduced three principal measures to boost the coverage of health insurance. The levy surcharge was introduced on July 1, 1997, (when coverage was 32%) but did not stop its membership decline. Two years later (June 1999) coverage was 30.6%. The taxpayer-funded rebate on the cost of private health insurance was introduced on January 1, 1999, with additional rebates for those aged over 65 from April 1, 2005. The rebate managed to persuade only an additional 0.8% of the population to take out private health insurance in its first year. Lifetime health cover was introduced from July 1, 2000, under which people joining funds are penalised an additional 2% of the premium for every year they delay joining above the age of 30. Of all these measures, it was lifetime health cover (the one that cost taxpayers nothing) that had the biggest impact — health insurance cover rose from 32.2% in March 2000 to 45.8% in September 2000. If the surcharge didn't encourage anyone to take up health insurance, why would its adjustment induce an exodus?"

For some strange reason known only to himself Fielding appears to believe that the only thing which will raise the cost of medical insurance in the immediate future is the raising of the surcharge threshold to $75,000 for singles and $150,000 for couples.

The medical insurers are laughing all the way to the bank now he has needlessly locked around 330,000 people into private insurance schemes, but their retention on the books will not stop insurance rates rising because in the end they are not an expansion of business.

Perhaps Steve should remember that in much of this country skinny roosters end up in the Sunday pot.

Logo is from Evidence Based Only.

"Moggy Musings" [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

An end of the Beijing Olympics musing:

AUSTRALIAN taxpayers forked out almost $17 million towards each gold medal won by the nation's Olympic team in Beijing according to online news.

Veronica Lake, my canine friend and I agree - something is wrong with the world when children live in poverty but money is splurged on bits of jade and gold.

A property wanted to buy musing:
Happy Paws Haven, a Clarence Valley animal welfare charity is looking for a new home urgently. Preferably in the Grafton area, with at least a half-acre of flood-free land having a 3 bedroom house and large shed.

Ph: 0419 404 766 if you have a suitable property for sale or rent.

And I thought I was brave musing:

DJ a 20 month-old tenterfield terrier has just been skydiving on the Gold Coast. This young pup did his long dive for the All Saints Anglican School fete on Saturday 2 August 2008.

Well done, DJ.

A competitive musing:
New Zealand will meet Australia under lights in one of two tests at an Aussie Rules stadium for the trans-Tasman sheep dog trial test series in northern Tasmania on October 4 2008. Be there to see our dogs whup the Kiwis!

An international affairs musing:
I hear that Barack Obama doesn't have a pet. If he wins the US presidential election this November, will that make him the first modern president to enter the White House without a pet? Hmmm, must investigate....

How well do you know your accountant?

Attending university is taboo for Australia's 15000 Exclusive Brethrens

Consequently, the Brethren produce heaps of accountants but no doctors, lawyers or teachers.

That may explain how the Brethren have been able to shovel piles of cash in the direction of the conservatives (i.e. the right wing side of politics = the Coalition mob, not the left wing Labor lot!) in Australia.

Yep, that's right, chances are that your accountant is an EB. Well, there's a higher probability that your bean counter rather than your local GP is an EB.

tvnz.com.nz reports that children of the Brethren attend well-equipped schools with low teacher-student ratios and solid HSC results, but none of them will be going to university. ... for them university is taboo.

They can study at TAFEs and other tertiary institutions, but not at universities.

You won't find Brethren children watching TV programs, either, or going to the movies, or visiting google on the Internet.

It's all part of their belief in separation from the sinful world around them, and elders admit that can mean they can grow up ignorant of the extent of that wickedness.

The university ban is one aspect of the Brethren lifestyle that outsiders, known as "worldlies", find hardest to understand.

It means that the 15,000-strong Australian Brethren community is producing plenty of accountants but no doctors, lawyers or teachers.

Which means, ironically, that no Brethren teachers are tutoring the 2,300 students at 43 Australian schools run by the Christian sect, which was described by Labor leader Kevin Rudd last year as an "extreme cult" that broke up families.

Every teacher is a worldly.

"I would say it's not much different from teaching in any other school," says Ewoud Vogel, principal of the original Brethren school at Sydney's Meadowbank, founded in 1994.

"In fact I would say it's my most positive teaching experience in Australian schools," says the South African-born teacher after stints at a Greek Orthodox school and another Christian school in Sydney.

"The students are most compliant to work in the classroom."

Meadowbank has 120 students, 80 in high school and 40 primary.

It has a well-equipped science lab, food tech kitchen, computer room, playgrounds and other facilities.

The teacher-student ratio of less than one to 10 at Brethren schools around Australia is up to three times lower than public schools.

The principal, who also takes geography, has a current HSC geography class of six students.

"I have not found my teaching restricted in any way, or had to change any of my programs," he said after leaders of the secretive Brethren sect went public to correct what they said was years of untrue and negative stories about them.

"About the only difference is that I can't just pull a video off the shelf and show it to students without first having its contents scrutinised.

"And that's probably a good thing."

The school's televisions are used only for showing educational programs.

"I can't come in and ask my students if they saw reports of Hurricane Gustav on the news last night, because I know they haven't," said Mr Vogel.

"So I just open up the newspaper, and we talk about it that way."

Even Disney films are out.

"They're really just entertainment value," said Mr Vogel.

"Some of our children are reading Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at present.

"They won't be going to see the movie, but I think their imagination is enhanced and heightened by reading rather than seeing the movie."

Internet use on the computers is strictly controlled.

Rather than applying filters that block out certain subject material, the Brethren has gone the other way, allowing access only to approves sites and links.

Clearly, the almost ubiquitous google search engine is a no-no.

"From an educationist's point of view, it's great," said Mr Vogel.

"The kids don't get distracted or waste hours on unnecessary material," he said, though he conceded Brethren students may not have as much practice in digging out information as others.

"I am a Christian by faith so I enjoy teaching in a Christian atmosphere," Mr Vogel said.

"I believe in what they (the Brethren) basically stand for, even if I may not believe in all of their interpretations of the scriptures.

"We all believe in the same Bible and the same God."

Brethren schools receive government funding in line with other non-government schools, but overseer David Stewart denies they get any special treatment.

He says the curriculum of all schools is approved by the Board of Studies.

The Meadowbank school ranked 96th of 800 in NSW in terms of HSC results, he said, but that won't lead to university for any of the students.

A chat with senior elder Daniel Hales makes it clear the hippie generation of 1960s and 70s changed all that.

"Universities were once Ivy League bastions of conservative Christianity," he said.

"Then came Flower Power and professors advocating drugs, and so on.

"They became the vanguard for re-engineering society."

"I was enrolled myself once," said the 58-year-old father of five.

"I was going to study law or medicine.

"Then I thought it all through, and I realised it would draw me away from my Christian faith and my family."

"We feel our children would find their faith being challenged (at universities).

"The first thing they learn at university is to question everything.

"We are not afraid of them but we don't see why our children should be subject to that."

"We're not goody-goodies. I have tried cigarettes, and I have seen movies in my wayward youth."

Quotes of the week on the US finacial crisis and Bush bail-out

So this rescue won't bail out the Ship of Fools, but it will make the American Ship of State even more insolvent than it already is. Aggregate US government debt is now running at 92% of GDP (the Federal component is 53%), and another $700 billion will push it closer to 100%. As Michael West concluded yesterday with profound understatement, "America is in trouble".

By Associate Professor Steve Keen, School of Economics & Finance, University of Western Sydney writing in Crikey.

"History does not repeat, but it rhymes," as Mark Twain said.

Peter Hartcher writing in The Sydney Morning Herald

"If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down."

George W. Bush quoted ad naseum everywhere

"The day began with an agreement that Washington hoped would end America's financial crisis. It dissolved into a verbal brawl in the White House cabinet room, warnings from an angry President and pleas from a Treasury Secretary who knelt before the House Speaker and appealed for her support.

S.G. Stolberg & A.R. Storkin writing in the Sydney Morning Herald

"The American people are angry about executive compensation and rightfully so," ... "We must find a way to address this in the legislation without undermining the effectiveness of the program."

Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary quoted on executive compensation caps in Time Magazine

"It's the law of unintended consequences."

Charles Elson speaking of executive salary packages and golden handshakes in the Time article.

"I am who I am."

Australian Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, former investment banker and multi-millionaire, quoted in The Canberra Times

It's Sunday - kick back & relax

From Tumblr.com

Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) Grafton, Friday 24th October

Announcement of the winners of the 2008 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award is drawing closer.

In 2008 the award celebrates 20 years of promoting innovation and excellence in Australian drawing and has increased to $30 000 to coincide with this important anniversary. The major award of $15,000 is acquisitive, along with further acquisitions to the value of $15,000.
Hendrik Kolenberg, Senior Curator of Australian Prints, Drawings and Watercolours Art Gallery of New South Wales, is the judge for this year's prize. Entries to this prestigious award close at 4pm on Friday 1 August 2008.
Acquisitions from the Jacaranda Drawing Award (JADA) enter the Grafton Regional Gallery’s nationally recognised collection of Australian contemporary drawing.
A selection panel will select between 45 and 55 works for the award. The exhibition of the selected entries opens at the Grafton Regional Gallery Friday 24 October. It is from this exhibition that the judge, Hendrik Kolenberg, will select the overall winner.
One of the outstanding features of the award is that entries selected for award will tour regional and metropolitan galleries along the east coast throughout 2009-10.
The Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award was originally an open national art award, the Jacaranda Art Prize, that ran from 1961 to 1987, the drawing award was established in 1988. The drawing collection includes works by Maria Kontis, Michael Zavros, Gordon Bennett, Godwin Bradbeer, Andrew Browne, Luke Doyle, David Fairbairn and Deborah Klein.