Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Liberal Party Hypocricy? Surely Not!
I've been having all sorts of flashbacks recently with the ACT's current difficult fiscal situation and the talk of closing 39 schools. You see, I went to three schools between primary school and the end of year 12, and all of them are now closed. (The uni I went to is still open, so my curse is ended.)
So I was a bit pissed when I read this article, which contains a "scathing attack" by Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop (who?) on the ACT government.
It goes as follows:
"It is a disgrace that parents and students and teachers were not notified that 39 schools are being closed in the ACT," she said. (Funny, I thought that's what we were talking about!)
"I want to know how Jon Stanhope intends to account to the Commonwealth taxpayers for the $7.5 million that's already been paid in recent months under our investing in schools programs, to schools he intends to close."
I have an inherrent suspicion at the figure quoted - politicians love to quote facts out of context. Was the $7.5 the total allocation to the ACT government? She's implying that was the share that went to the proposed closure schools. And even if it was, was it spent on essential maintenance to keep the schools open for another year? Salaries? Consumables such as paper, or cleaning? Would you suggest we dump all of that?
But what shits me more about that quote is that I remember being in high school when the local Liberal party was in government. They announced they were going to close schools but not which ones (hypocricy point number one).
And I had my experience, which I've blogged about before, of being personally lied to by Gary Humphries, a local government minister of the day. What was he lying about? The fact that a brand new computer lab in a school means that it has a better chance of not being closed on account of the associated capital expenditure.
How much did that lab - which wasn't teacher's salaries, consumables or building maintenance - cost, hmm?
So I was a bit pissed when I read this article, which contains a "scathing attack" by Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop (who?) on the ACT government.
It goes as follows:
"It is a disgrace that parents and students and teachers were not notified that 39 schools are being closed in the ACT," she said. (Funny, I thought that's what we were talking about!)
"I want to know how Jon Stanhope intends to account to the Commonwealth taxpayers for the $7.5 million that's already been paid in recent months under our investing in schools programs, to schools he intends to close."
I have an inherrent suspicion at the figure quoted - politicians love to quote facts out of context. Was the $7.5 the total allocation to the ACT government? She's implying that was the share that went to the proposed closure schools. And even if it was, was it spent on essential maintenance to keep the schools open for another year? Salaries? Consumables such as paper, or cleaning? Would you suggest we dump all of that?
But what shits me more about that quote is that I remember being in high school when the local Liberal party was in government. They announced they were going to close schools but not which ones (hypocricy point number one).
And I had my experience, which I've blogged about before, of being personally lied to by Gary Humphries, a local government minister of the day. What was he lying about? The fact that a brand new computer lab in a school means that it has a better chance of not being closed on account of the associated capital expenditure.
How much did that lab - which wasn't teacher's salaries, consumables or building maintenance - cost, hmm?
Friday, June 09, 2006
Scrumple
Is "scrumple" a word?
To scrumple a piece of paper is to screw it up into a ball.
I just looked it up on dictionary.com and it wasn't there! Maybe it was one of those words from my childhood that don't mean anything to most people?
Or maybe I am doped up on painkillers and am imagining things... :|
(I have a very sore back. We got a new IT system at work and it's not agreeing with me; the default resolution is really crappy. I might have to turn into one of the Chair People and get an OH&S assessment.)
To scrumple a piece of paper is to screw it up into a ball.
I just looked it up on dictionary.com and it wasn't there! Maybe it was one of those words from my childhood that don't mean anything to most people?
Or maybe I am doped up on painkillers and am imagining things... :|
(I have a very sore back. We got a new IT system at work and it's not agreeing with me; the default resolution is really crappy. I might have to turn into one of the Chair People and get an OH&S assessment.)
Toilet Literature
Recently whilst in another building at work I had call to visit the ladies room. This wouldn't be worth blogging about in and of itself, but there was a little poem on the back of the toilet that read as follows:
"If it's not clean
After you've been
Please use the brush
Then give it a flush"
The third line was in a font twice the size of everything else.
Anyway, this reminded me of another half-baked attempt at a poem with similar effect, which runs as follows:
"If you do number twos
Please use the brush provided
And CLEAN THE LOO"
So this got me to thinking about toilet literature - the stuff that is officially sanctioned by the toilet owner, rather than just graffiti. For example, the toilets closest to my workplace have emergency evacuation (haha!) instructions for if there is a fire. They are two years out of date, mind you...
And I know TechnoHorror was telling myself and Mikey about the website reading material he takes into his favourite toilet at work, leaving it in a holder on the back of the door for others to contemplate.
Anyone else have any other examples of toilet literature?
"If it's not clean
After you've been
Please use the brush
Then give it a flush"
The third line was in a font twice the size of everything else.
Anyway, this reminded me of another half-baked attempt at a poem with similar effect, which runs as follows:
"If you do number twos
Please use the brush provided
And CLEAN THE LOO"
So this got me to thinking about toilet literature - the stuff that is officially sanctioned by the toilet owner, rather than just graffiti. For example, the toilets closest to my workplace have emergency evacuation (haha!) instructions for if there is a fire. They are two years out of date, mind you...
And I know TechnoHorror was telling myself and Mikey about the website reading material he takes into his favourite toilet at work, leaving it in a holder on the back of the door for others to contemplate.
Anyone else have any other examples of toilet literature?
Shining Upon Man
I was looking at one of my favourite name site the other day and on impulse I looked up my own name...
CASSANDRA
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Pronounced: ka-SAN-dra
From the Greek Κασσανδρα (Kassandra), which possibly meant "shining upon man", derived from κεκασμαι (kekasmai) "to shine" and ανηρ (aner) "man" (genitive ανδρος (andros)). In Greek myth Cassandra was a Trojan princess, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba. She was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, but when she spurned his advances he cursed her so nobody would believe her prophecies.
Which just goes to show that hell doth have fury like a woman scorned - the Ancient Greek gods were far worse!
I found it interesting because most name definition sites definte Cassandra as a "prophetess of doom" or something similar, which is of course not what it means but what it is associated with mythologically...
CASSANDRA
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Pronounced: ka-SAN-dra
From the Greek Κασσανδρα (Kassandra), which possibly meant "shining upon man", derived from κεκασμαι (kekasmai) "to shine" and ανηρ (aner) "man" (genitive ανδρος (andros)). In Greek myth Cassandra was a Trojan princess, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba. She was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, but when she spurned his advances he cursed her so nobody would believe her prophecies.
Which just goes to show that hell doth have fury like a woman scorned - the Ancient Greek gods were far worse!
I found it interesting because most name definition sites definte Cassandra as a "prophetess of doom" or something similar, which is of course not what it means but what it is associated with mythologically...
