She Needs To Be Tough

Julia Gillard is a tough person. How many times have you heard that recently? It’s repeatedly proclaimed from her colleagues. Many would agree that she is tough but it’s said as if we ought to like her because she is tough.

She has had to be tough. Her toughness has been displayed after enduring continual and much deserved criticism that has come due to the excessive incompetence displayed by her and her colleagues.

So she is tough, who cares? It doesn’t make her a good PM. It doesn’t make on competent.

Catch Up Football

League fans and commentators wonder how the AFL is making such inroads into what they consider “league heartland”.

Perhaps it has something to do what Triple M’s ‘Grill Team’ discussed recently.  A listener asked them whether rugby league clubs are doing enough to promote the game.  Their resounding conclusion was NO!  Their media manager even declared which clubs were the most difficult to deal with.

Meanwhile the new AFL club in western Sydney is working extremely hard to form links with the community.  They do clinics, school visits and scholarship programs to mention a few.  They do all this because they realise that it is of great benefit to the club and to the game, especially in the long term.

Any criticism of AFL’s rise in Sydney is out of pure envy.  Rugby League could be dominating the region more than they are already.  Instead they are playing catch up after years of sitting on their hands and not investing in grassroots as much as they should.  They seem to believe that they ought to exist in the region out of entitlement not through any work or investment.  This is just lazy.  Rugby needs to get their act together, otherwise they might just lose a grip on their stronghold. 

Consistency Please

So a carbon tax is about decreasing carbon pollution. Yet its subsidies will keep big polluting industries afloat.

But if you want a carbon tax, and truly believe that it will affect global pollution and change the climate, then you shouldn’t be disappointed to see big polluting industries such as manufacturing disappear. You should be unfazed at the potential of massive job losses. After all, your claim is that so many ‘green’ jobs will be created.

So why is the Australian govt so keen to bolster already declining industries? Especially when subsidies don’t work in the long term if at all. They are a crutch and don’t promote productivity. All they do is create a reliance on further govt subsidies.

Once again the govt’s policy defeats the purpose for which it is intended. Do they think anything through??

Own Worst Enemy

“Thrilled to Death” 

by Dr Arch Hart PhD

It seems obvious. We are stressing ourselves out to a point that we can no longer enjoy life.

Psychology researchers are catching on to what Hart has been talking about for a long time. They’re emphasising that we need to slow down, relax, sleep, take pleasure in the small things. Otherwise life goes by with a flash and there is nothing to show for it.

Hart defines the clinical condition of anhedonia and points out its dangers. Anhedonia being a condition where one has sought so much pleasure that the pleasure centre in their brain no longer functions properly.

It is important to acknowledge the presence of anhedonia so that we can avoid it and live fulfilling lives. Hart gives 7 steps to do just that or to get out of it all together.

It all seems like common sense. Unfortunately common sense has become increasingly uncommon. It is why we need a psychologist to point out what we should already know.

Best of Holmes

“The Best of Sherlock Holmes”

Wordsworth Classics

Edited by David Stuart Davies

Sherlock Holmes stories have proved themselves timeless.  This has been assisted recently by feature films starring Robert Downey Jnr and a TV series placing Sherlock in the modern day.

After the first Sherlock Holmes movie I was motivated to pick up my best of book.  It featured 20 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s best, as chosen by the editor.

Having not read any Holmes prior I can’t complain about his choices.  It appears the editor tried to get a broad spectrum of the Holmes timeline and include pinnacle moment in the life of Holmes.

Conan Doyle’s style is amazing, through the narration of John Watson, Holmes’ detective partner.  Even those not interested in crime novels will enjoy Holmes.  Each story will take approximately one hour to read.