This makes no sense
From ABC’s AM on Monday, on the rise of anti-government rhetoric in the USA:
BILL CLINTON: A lot of the things that have been said, they create a climate in which people who are vulnerable to violence because they’re disoriented, like Timothy McVeigh was, are more likely to act. We ought to have a lot of political dissent a lot of political argument. Nobody is right all the time but we also have to take responsibility for the possible consequences of what we say.
LISA MILLAR: After first raising his concerns two days ago the former president has been criticised by conservatives including talk-show host, Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: With this comment – you have just set the stage for violence in this country. Any future acts of violence are on your shoulders Mr Clinton.
Is Limbaugh’s comment somehow completely out of context? (I heard it told the same way on another report from a different outlet.)
How does it make even the slightest bit of sense? You can argue that Clinton is being alarmist by making a link back to McVeigh, or being overly critical of the Tea Party movement, sure. But when Clinton asks people to be mindful of inciting violence, Limbaugh responds that it’s therefore Clinton’s fault if it happens?
It’s not just at odds with the traditional conservative view of taking personal responsibility, unless I’m missing something fundamental, it also makes no sense whatsoever.
Tags: Bill Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, USA
15 comments
The hero
A while back we were in EB Games in Swanston Street having a look at the big Nintendo area on the first floor. Jeremy sat and played a bit of New Super Mario Brothers with another kid. Both being experienced players, they gave the very last level a go. But towards the end, Jeremy’s character fell into the lava or got hit by a fireball or something, and his game ended.
The other kid kept playing, right to the very end of the very last level, which (if you don’t mind spoilers if you’re a player of the game) you’ll see involves some pretty daunting hazards.
He got all the way through. Those of us watching were awestruck.
At the final victory, on the last level of the game, with Bowser vanquished, and the princess rescued, he put down the Wii remote. He stood up from the couch, and he walked off into the sunset (well, back towards the exit to find whichever parent or guardian he was with).
He didn’t wait for praise. He didn’t wait for the reactions of those who had witnessed his great deed. He just moved on.
It was truly an awesome moment of video game heroism.
Hello, Sunday drivers
I’ve become something of a Sunday driver since I no longer generally drive anywhere on weekdays. But I’d like to think I’m better than the stereotype.
Out and about yesterday, I’m just staggered by the number of people not paying attention, or wilfully ignoring the rules, or apparently ignorant of the rules.
Ms Old Bomb — if you’re going to turn across my path, you need to give way. That doesn’t mean crawling out of the side street so I have to slow down to avoid hitting you.
Mr 4WD — pausing coming out of your driveway on North Road was a good idea. Leaving the back of your car out in oncoming traffic was not. Yes, your arse does look big in that. At least you noted my beep and moved out of the road.
Mr Mercedes — this is not a complicated rule: If you are doing a U-turn, you give way to EVERYBODY. Yes, even if you drive a Mercedes.
Mr Little White Car — you obviously didn’t notice the “Merge right” sign. That means your lane is ending. That means you merge into the lane to your right. The one I was in. You don’t just try and overtake me as your lane vanishes. I’m glad I saw you coming up behind and to the left of me. (My driving instructor Andre always taught me to keep checking my mirrors.) I’m not confident you even saw me before I beeped at you. Please don’t merge your car with mine.
Mind you, I wonder if the line markings could be modified to more clearly show the merge.
(Pic from Nearmap.com)
Mr Bogan on Monkey bike — no, the driver of the car correctly turning right on a green arrow is not the “f—ing idiot”. You are, for (a) illegally choosing to ride your stupid monkey bike on footpaths, and (b) for ignoring the red man and almost getting yourself mown down. (Why did you even press the ped button if you were going to ignore it?) Dickhead.
I suppose all you can do is keep your eyes open, give people some space, and be prepared to give way, and to use the horn when it becomes dangerous that they haven’t noticed you.
Unfortunately there’s no mechanism to transmit details of someone’s transgression (complete with photos, diagrams and a cite to the relevant road law) direct to their vehicle. Well, you can try shouting at them, but that is unlikely to do any good.
Who’s taken a defensive driving course? Are they good?
Monash transport FAIL
Monash students going back decades will tell you of the poor connection from Huntingdale Station (the closest for people coming from the city direction) to the Clayton campus. Even after they added an extra bus route in 2006, most connections aren’t timed well outside peak hours, and during peak hours you get delays from long queues and packed buses. This year it’s been so bad the University themselves have funded shuttle buses.
It’s made worse by the fact that the two bus routes have their stops to campus at different locations, around the corner from each other, so you get the classic multiple queue conundrum for passengers arriving off the train, and sometimes apparently the queues (which head in opposite directions) even cross each other.
(Other buses from Oakleigh station to campus were, until recently, only able to be used by paying an extra zone 2 fare. This has been fixed, but it’s not clear if anybody’s bothered to tell the local users about it.)
The Clayton campus, like VFL/AFL park, was built there with the idea that a rail connection would be provided along Wellington Road, which was purposefully provided with a nice wide median strip to cope. But like the Eastern Freeway (where the median and overhead bridges were specially designed) it never happened.
What apparently usually happens is that by about mid-year, enough students have given up and bought cars and joined the traffic that the problem dies down for a while, apparently giving the Department of Transport an excuse not to do anything about it.
So in summary you have a bunch of people who want to use PT, but that option is made so hard that they give up and drive instead. More cost to them, more traffic on the roads, more congestion, more pollution. Sustainable transport FAIL.
- The Age: Monash goes private as staff, students struggle with delays
- Huntingdale chaos brings renewed call for Monash/Rowville rail
Traffic light cleaner
Here’s a job I never knew existed: traffic light cleaner.
(Seen on William St yesterday)
Tags: traffic lights
7 comments
Health insurance
The Medicare levy surcharge is, in my opinion, an stupid tax designed to force some people into getting private health insurance, whether they want it or not, by taxing them more than the cost of the premium if they don’t, all in order to subsidise the otherwise unprofitable private health industry.
I earn enough to be stung by it, but with the insurers bumping up premiums, it’s getting close to the point where the costs are comparable. My Medibank Private policy (covering myself and the kids, for hospital) jumps about 10% this month to $99.60 per month. By my rough calculations that’s now quite a bit more than the surcharge would cost me.
At the same time the premium jumps, the brochure says a bunch of services that were previously “Restricted” will no longer be covered at all — including major eye surgery, assisted reproductive services, renal dialysis, and hip and knee joint replacement surgery.
Not that I expect to need any of these anyway (in fact, I never, ever, claim anything). But they’ve got some cheek marketing it as giving me “more certainty about the benefits you can receive”.
Dental cover
Meanwhile, we’ve found that Jeremy’s going to need braces. Not that he’s delighted, but he understands that now is the best time to do it, while he’s growing.
I don’t know how much it may end up costing at this stage, but the Australian Society of Orthodontists says fees involved can vary between $4500 and $8000. Ouch. I should find out in a few weeks what I’m looking at, but even if I wanted to join a health fund, there’s a 12 month waiting period for orthodontic benefits.
How much would I get back if I did have major dental cover? Comparing a few of the policies on the government’s private health insurance comparison web site, it would seem that as is typical in this game, the benefits from the fund for orthodontic work are far, far out-weighed by the premiums.
If I wanted that cover, I’d be paying more than $1000 per year more to Medibank, for a maximum benefit of $300 per year (though it may rise a bit each year).
Now, I’m not expecting them to hand out so much money that they go broke. But surely for something for which there is a waiting period, which is a major dental expense, for which you pay a huge extra premium to be covered, and is likely to be once per lifetime for people (if it’s done properly), they could do better than a measly $300 per year? Surely that’s the sort of case where (in that year), the insurance company should pay out more than you’ve been paying in.
Even looking around at other companies’ plans, I could have been paying $2000 per year more than at present, and only be getting 75% of the cost back, which is also not a winning proposition given the cost of the braces is likely to be spread over several years.
Insurance is a little like gambling, but it seems incredibly unlikely that anything will happen other than the private health insurers making money hand over fist.
Perhaps I’m misreading all this information I’m looking at (it’s amazingly complicated; looking through iSelect as well helped a bit), but I come away with the impression that even if you make some claims, private health insurance in Australia is a ripoff, unless you’re chronically unwell and repeatedly claim for a wide range of different services (eg not too much of anything so you hit any annual limits).
And of course these premiums are after the 30% private health insurance rebate has been applied. The rebate is a massive subsidy of the private insurance companies, costing around $4 billion a year — apparently up from $2.6 billion back in 2003-04.
Jeez; I can think of better ways of spending that amount of dosh in the health sector without propping-up inherently unprofitable enterprises, but for all the talk of reform in health, that seems to be one Howard government policy Mr Rudd apparently doesn’t want to roll back.
Another Myki stuffup
I know I’m not the first person to find this happening, but here’s an example of why you should be particularly wary about the Myki web site.
The actual Pass expiry date, which is correctly recorded on the card and displayed on the scanners, is Friday the 14th of May (or to be precise, 3am on Saturday the 15th).
The other incorrect detail is the Myki Money balance, which is actually $14.06 — the web site can see the relevant travel history, but hasn’t figured out that a quick jaunt down to Pakenham last week cost another $2.02. Again, this is correctly displayed on the scanners. It’s just the web site that’s stuffed.
Tags:
14 comments
Sorry in Little Bourke Street
…between King Street and Spencer Street, way up above eye level.
You can see the same spot in Google Streetview, from before the signs went up.
