Things that make you go der.

Treasurer Joe Hockey wants to cut tax concessions for 3.6 million workers on lower incomes, but not those for around 16,000 of Australia's highest earners

DER!

Der (interjection)

contemptuous acknowledgment of the obvious

synonyms

Tell me something I don’t know,  No shit Sherlock

One person refusing to cop it sweet

Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of having insanely dysfunctional interactions with the financial services industry, as I have had recently when trying to sell a property, are the platitudes that come from those who are witnessing the steam coming out of your ears.

“This happens all the time”

“Settlements are always delayed by the banks”

“Mortgage brokers are notorious for stuffing things up”

“Everyone’s doing everything they can”

“If it’s meant to happen it will happen”

And the absolute worst of all:

“Don’t stress or get angry about it because there is nothing you can do”

So it appears that the status quo is that the largest bank in Australia, which in the last financial made record profits of over 7.6 billion dollars, and their partners, the mortgage brokers who get a slice of the action, are frequently unable to organise the paperwork necessary for the sale or purchase of a home within the time frames set by common law.  The frightening thing is that this status quo is accepted by the public because “that’s just the way it is” and “there is nothing you can do about it”. Sorry, but there is something seriously wrong with this picture. The banks’ and the brokers’ inability to carry out basic and common functions in a timely manner, for which they are remunerated very well, is unacceptable. The public’s general acceptance of this as usual and unfixable is disturbing.

Australia has just been ranked as the richest nation in the world. This is primarily due to the inflated value of houses we live in. So the banks and mortgage brokers are doing quite nicely because of this and it comes as no surprise that the extra wealth that Australia has gained has gone to the already affluent. That’s the wealthy minority who definitely do not want the government in any way to step in and regulate the seemingly unassailable right for the rich to get richer. Yes the bullshit that Australia is an egalitarian nation is becoming an even greater lie. It might also come as no surprise that numerous studies are showing in general that the richer a person becomes the more selfish, less empathetic and less generous they become. So let’s just take stock of this:

–        Australia is the wealthiest nation in the world

–        This is primarily due to the inflated cost of housing

–        The distribution of wealth continues to flow upwards to the already affluent

–        The wealthy invest in property, with the sponsorship of the government through tax breaks, which further inflates the cost of a house boosting income for banks and mortgage brokers

–        Average workers are paying an increasingly larger portion of their income in either rent or mortgage repayments for a roof over their heads

–        Banks and mortgage brokers continue to fail to complete paperwork in time for settlements of real estate transactions

–        The costs of such tardiness are born by purchasers and sellers of property while banks and brokers are not accountable for failing to provide standards of service which they themselves agree to

–        The customers of these services are ignored and even treated with contempt when they request services to be delivered

–        And for as long as the majority of us believe that “there is nothing that can be done about it, because that’s just the way it is”, that is exactly how it will stay

The only power you have is to no longer patronise these fat, incompetent and inconsiderate institutions and to move all you accounts and financial dealings to your local community based credit union.

Experts - what's the use?

Monday 23rd September 2013
Q and A ABC TV - experts debating climate change, nuclear power, genetic engineering and the environment - what do you believe
Tuesday Insight SBS TV - experts debating ECT therapy for severely depressed patients

Beats me how anyone is supposed to make an informed decision by listening to the so called experts.

I am a Naturalist not Naturist.

An important distinction

"The naturalist understands not only that we are not exceptions to natural laws, but that we don’t need to be in order to secure any central value (freedom, human rights, morality, moral responsibility) or capacity (reason, empathy, ingenuity, originality). We can positively affirm and celebrate the fact that nature is enough. Indeed, the realization that we are fully natural creatures has profoundly positive effects, increasing our sense of connection to the world and others, fostering tolerance, compassion and humility, and giving us greater control over our circumstances. This realization supports a progressive and effective engagement with the human condition in all its dimensions."
 http://centerfornaturalism.blogspot.com.au/2008/11/worldview-naturalism-in-nutshell.html

The naturist, on the other hand, advocates and practices the non-wearing of clothes at every opportune moment.

Needless to say, naturalists can be naturists and vice versa.

Hey Are You Thinking

Hey are you thinking what I am thinking?

What everyone's thinking is wrong

To keep ourselves going we've gotta keep growing

But there's only one planet we're on

Hey are you shopping where I'm shopping?

Cause where everyone's shopping is wrong

That corporate super centre’s killing my village

And that’s where my money belongs

So wake up and smell the humans

The species you find everywhere

It’s time that we all stopped competing

Don’t we teach our children to share

Hey are you eating what I am eating?

Cause what everyone's eating is wrong

Destroying the land to put food in a can

And where have all the fish gone

I’ll bet you are you working like I am working

And can't stop to question why

Cause the roof over your head is owned by the bank

And ownership’s based on a lie

So Wake up and smell the humans

The species you find everywhere

It’s time that we all stopped competing

Don’t we teach our children to share

Reconnect with yourself and with nature

Cause deep down we know it is right

But doing exactly the opposite

That’s what's waking us up through the night.

Hey are you feeling what I'm feeling?

In your gut something is just not right

You do what your told and buy what is sold

And get sick with a heart full of fright.

Hey are you thinking what I am thinking?

That nobody’s thinking at all

Cause the world never stops for us to get off

So we continue to ignore the call

So Wake up and smell the humans?

The species you find everywhere

It’s time that we all stopped competing

Don’t we teach our children to share

Obvious really

Surely the universe is complex and mysterious enough without humans having to put layer upon layer of extra stuff on top just to really confuse the situation.

Are humans innately bad?

Every human being needs to make a very important decision at some point in their life. That decision is whether or not to believe that human nature is such that it will thwart any and all attempts to save the world and ourselves from our current vile and destructive behaviour. The study of history, evolution, economics and DNA can be erroneously interpreted to argue that greed, competition and violence are so intrinsically hard wired into our nature that extinction is inevitable. Unfortunately this flawed interpretation and its ubiquitous, systemic broadcasting, by both beneficiaries and victims, is the norm. Consequently, anyone who dares to speak out, about the possibility of humans creating a sustainable, cooperative and peaceful society, are ridiculed as naive, childish and ignorant.

Any person who is genuinely working for a transformation to a just and sustainable future must be able to identify, challenge, resist and destroy this belief, in themselves and others, at every instance.