Men's Vintage Hats

There’s a funny story regarding his purple Statesman. One day in the pouring rain he was driving back from the west of Melbourne on the Westgate freeway near Southgate. He was cruising in the right lane well below the speed limit. A sedan sped up and closed right behind him. It started flashing its headlights, and as grandad explained later that it looked like it had Christmas tree lights on. He thought someone was playing a prank.

And that’s the way it went for kilometres. My grandad in the fast lane, going slow, in the pouring rain, being pursued by an unmarked police car.

It’s always since been a matter of curiousity to me. If an unmarked police car is trying to pull you over, can you ignore it, and claim later that you didn’t recognise it as being a police car because it was unmarked. I probably can’t use that defence anymore, but I hope somebody tries it for me!

Eventually grandad figured it out and pulled over. The policeman was very frustrated. Tough luck copper! He probably realised he’d pulled over a lovely, old,  yet slightly confused couple, and he’d look more of a tool if he booked them! Go grandad….

“So, in summary, it appears that the government is trying to make up for the failure of an earlier PC-based filtering program by rolling out an alternative, ISP-level filtering program that they know won’t fully prevent access to illegal material. They promise not to state what sites are being blocked, even as they promise only illegal content will be. To prepare for the roll out, they’re doing live testing of equipment and protocols they haven’t used in the lab, and not telling the ISPs when the program will be ready. It sounds like all of the worst clichés about government incarnated in a single program.”

Associate Professor Robert Nelson (Monash University) has sold out middle-aged men: “This was a photo taken not by a middle-aged man but the mother of the child. It seemed quite a responsible thing to do.”

He could be just reflecting social norms though. Qantas, British Airways or Air New Zealand have a policy of not seating adult male passengers next to unaccompanied children.

Boris Johnson, writing for The Telegraph, sums it up better than I could.

A few years back a male friend almost landed an assistant position at a kindergarten. The position was withdrawn at the 11th hour when several parents complained.

It came up in conversation tonight with a former colleague. My take on globalisation had been mostly indifference, as long as individuals could have the same benefits as multinational companies.

We pondered why Australian mortgage holders couldn’t transfer their debt to the US where interest rates are lower?

I recanted a story I’d read once of a US software developer who outsourced his tasks to India and kept pocketing his wage. (Google for it, I don’t want to dob the bugger in!)

There was interesting case recently in Australian Federal Court. The issue was whether genuine Ralph Lauren clothing purchased in the US could be ‘parallel import’-ed legally into Australia and sold here. Polo/Lauren claimed that its copyright had been infringed. However, the proceedings were dismissed with costs. My take is that if clothing producers can swan off to the cheapest place for production, why can’t consumers, or importers on their behalf, swan off to the cheapest place to buy the goods?

I picked up this book five or so years ago: “The Collapse of Globalism: And the Reinvention of the World” by John Ralston Saul. I literally picked it up off the bookstore shelf, just because I found the title cheeky and confronting, but I didn’t buy it. The word “globalisation” was everywhere at the time. The title seemed fanciful. Fast forward a couple of years and I found myself flicking through it again, and found myself agreeing with its tenets. I bought it.

Today national interests are to the fore. The US is at war. China and India are ascending. There are oil and food shortages and there is no common and binding economic consensus…. yet!

© Kenyon Bajus 2001-2007 (from www.artistaday.com )

His web site here: http://kenyonb.com/

I love this piece.

Saturday consisted of cleaning the backyard for a BBQ, riding my new scooter down to the shops, cooking some meat, then going to the local civic centre to watch the traditional fireworks. They were also traditionally late. Whilst waiting in the service road across the way, we copped some passive smoke from a pregnant mother. Hubby was watching their two boys (who didn’t seem to too stunted). “Come here Jordan”, he yelled. I was reminded of this old, entertaining, despot’s quip about us being the “white trash of Asia”.

The wife and I did some volunteer work at the Big Day Out. On the drive to training on Sunday we got stuck next to a Falcon full of boofy blokes who’d had too much to drink. The Screaming Jets were blaring on the stereo. Any skirt on the footpath got a wolf-whistle. Bunches of drunk, boofy, Aussie blokes can scare somewhat.

I watched the Aussie Open Final and some cricket on a flat screen TV. I went shopping. Lots of Aussies there. We love shopping.

On Monday, the Big Day Out was full of suburban kids in shorts and T-shirts, the occasional mo-hawked punk, fat and sweaty goths, international travellers, and old-time rockers from way back.

There were blokes wearing the Australian flag as capes. I meant to ask them why they did it, but didn’t get the courage up. Other people had the flag as a temporary tattoo or on their clothes. The Aussie flag brigade was what you’d describe as a significant minority – noticeable but not exciting to anyone. I fall into the Leunig camp: “Many Australians regard their flag and song and national day, not so much with awe, but rather, a casual, bemused affection, in the way that we may regard an eccentric uncle or a peculiar spinster aunty. They are ours but they are not us.” Have a read…

I got into a verbal stoush with a “dreadlock”-ed couple in the Nandos’ queue. He’d pushed in earlier, and I’d tolerated. She’d joined him. In a moment of inexperience, they allowed me to jump them in the queue, which I did. She was none too happy. I pointed out that her partner had pushed in first. She disagreed. I pointed out that he was tall with dreadlocks, and therefore sort of noticeable. He ‘fessed, “Yeah I did”, and I flounced away victorious. And who thinks dreadlocks are sexy??? Rough and grotty, like old woollen pants! And dread’s are just so passé!

…and so we live, somewhere between our middle-class anxiety and our stubborn, private individualism, out there in the suburban expanses, not giving a toss.

The filtering infrastructure will be a bottleneck, slowing down and making more expensive our Internet connectivity. And the ALP went to the election promising to improve our broadband access and speeds!!!

The system will not stop paedophiles preying on children in chat rooms, nor stop kiddie porn. That’s not what it does.

The system will give the illusion of protection, which is probably more dangerous, because it may stop parents taking more direct action to control Internet access.

I can imagine the blacklist will get distributed some day somehow, so adults who fancy pornography can browse the government’s “recommendations”. I guess children may get this list too but I can’t imagine they’d be interested in looking at a bunch of sites their parents don’t want them to look at!!

Check out the Senate results from last year’s election and you get the story. For the ALP to get legislation through the Senate (assuming the Coalition votes against), it needs the support of the Greens. But that is still not enough. The legislation needs one more vote from either Nick Xenophon or Family First’s Steve Fielding. It looks like the ALP has adopted Family First policy as a future favour-saver!

Sign the petition here: http://petitions.takingitglobal.org/oznetcensorship

He was released today from prison. Here’s how some news sites described him.

The ABC online: “Confessed terrorism supporter” but in photo caption “Convicted terrorism supporter”. A quick search shows that the ABC don’t mind describing Hicks as convicted (1 and 2), therefore implying his conviction was real and just. And listening now to the news break in the cricket, ABC radio are using the word “convicted” too.

The Age: “Confessed terrorism supporter”. The word “confessed” could imply guilt and doesn’t leave open the real possibility that Hicks read a confession purely to get home to Adelaide.

My favourite though is from the News Corp team: They shorten it to just “Terrorism supporter”. I mean what the f***!? You’d think he has an Al-Qaeda scarf and jumper.

Am I being finicky? I don’t think so. A lot of thought goes into what words to use in a situation like this. And a few words can begin to form the accepted truth. And as you can see, the different Australian news sources are gradually forming a timid consensus.

Try some of these on for size: “Returned Guantanamo Bay detainee”, “Alleged Terrorism Supporter”, “Former US-detainee”, “Australian-who-was wrongfully-detained-without-charge-in-a-kangaroo-court-and returned-to-Australia-when-it-became-politically-convenient, David Hicks”?

Okay, that last one was a bit flip’, but perhaps you see how a few words can change your feelings towards the man, and his story.

The International Herald Tribune goes the extra mile: “David Hicks, the only person sentenced by the U.S. military commissions set up to try suspected terrorists…”

Five minutes on the web reveals that they were founded by the National Civic Council. Wikipedia states: “The Association was founded by B.A. Santamaria, a prominent Melbourne Catholic activist of Italian descent”. Nothing controversial about any of this.

A quick scan of their home page today reveals that they are primarily concerned with abortions, gay marriages, cloning, graphic films and porn. It’s unfortunate, in my opinion, because there is some good stuff on there about families and family-rearing. I especially liked this piece: Single Low income men can’t marry. It’s a short read so do yourself a favour. (There are too many idle men in this country and mostly it’s not their fault).

My point is this. The group claims to represent families but is founded from a religious and ideological background. Most Australian families, in my experience, are secular, or “religious-lite”. Gay marriages, stem-cell cloning, abortions, and Internet porn are just not burning issues for most families. I haven’t met any fathers – or mothers – complaining about the latest smutty foreign film.

Every time I see a group quoted in a newspaper article I ask myself. Have I heard of these guys? Do I know anyone who is a member? What is their background? Who supports them? And what is their agenda based in? It’s a pity our newspapers don’t do this for us.

The AFA do some good work, but they don’t resemble any families I know.

Our Internet infrastructure neglected, our educational institutions under-funded, tertiary education becoming the domain of the wealthy, climate change denied, history revised, Africans/Asians allowed to be marginalised, Aboriginals driven to the fringes instead of attempting to integrate their culture with ours, his love of the monarchy, his attack on the wages of the lowest paid, whilst handing the best tax cuts to the wealthy.

But most of all I despise the way he and his mob have come to assume their mantle as a birth right. I still hear him laughing at his victory speech in 2004, the deranged laugh of a man who has won power, but lacks the decency to show any gravitas or humility.