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First up, I would like to say that I support the AFL stance against homophobic slurs, as I do its stance against racist insults on the field. Izak Rankine and homophobic slurs in the AFL. The Adelaide Crows AFL footballer is in the crosshairs right now over an alleged homophobic insult made against a Collingwood player on Saturday night last. It is important that these things are called out in light of the intense scrutiny AFL players are under here in Australia. Â These things are a given in the current 21C climate, as we progress toward a fairer and better society for all. It is interesting, however, to dig a little deeper into why we find ourselves in this situation.
Footy Fresh
Donald Trump’s attitude to history the same as Epstein cover-up. Downplaying the racist crimes against humanity in American history by banning reference to them in Smithsonian museum exhibits and elsewhere reeks of covering-up the truth. Funny how similar that is when considering Trump’s cover-up of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The paedophile President, who was best friends with America’s most infamous sex trafficker of underage girls, is at it again with the whitewashing of inconvenient truths. Nothing to see here folks! This is despite thousands of victims and hidden cameras in every room at the Epstein mansions. Americans are not the sharpest tools in the shed, obviously.
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AI is coming for your job. As someone who has just been replaced by an automated program this is real, let me tell you. In light of this it is pertinent to remember that Australia punishes the unemployed economically. It is bipartisan policy of Australian governments to provide below the poverty line welfare payments to the unemployed. This has been going on for decades and is one of the reasons why we have a substantial number of older Australians living in poverty. These folk cannot afford to visit the dentist to get treatment because it is too expensive and dental is not included in Medicare. This in one of the wealthiest nations on earth.
Economics Employment Fresh Politics Power
Day 3 of having no power due to a storm. No service: Profitability is the new power. Yes, this post is written under the duress of being cut off from electricity in my home and work. We live in a time, where being connected to the grid is more essential than ever before. Everything now runs on electricity. My gripe is that despite this clear and present reality, we are still dependent upon outdated and fragile infrastructure. 50 years ago, as I was growing up, I heard about the plans to put the power lines underground. Indeed, this has been achieved in many new suburbs. I do wonder why in this wonderful new world of privatised utilities how so many more established suburbs and towns have not been transformed in this subterranean fashion. Storms wreak havoc to power lines on poles.
Do you find reading stuff to be a bit of a drag? Are you always on the look out for an easy hack? The bad news is that if you don’t exercise your brain function you will pay for it later on. Use it or lose it! Technology may seem great and so convenient, but it is dumbing us down and charging us for the service at the same time. Reading utilises different parts of the brain than watching videos. Processing the meaning of words and sentences makes you smarter and not the machine. Ruminating on important stuff via reading essays will make you wiser. Here are 5 good reasons why reading will save your brain.
Do you find reading stuff to be a bit of a drag? Are you always on the look out for an easy hack? The bad news is that if you don’t exercise your brain function you will pay for it later on. Use it or lose it! Technology may seem great and so convenient, but it is dumbing us down and charging us for the service at the same time. Reading utilises different parts of the brain than watching videos. Processing the meaning of words and sentences makes you smarter and not the machine. Ruminating on important stuff via reading essays will make you wiser. Here are 5 good reasons why reading will save your brain.
Down in Tassie things are different to the rest of Australia. The upside down world in Tasmania has the Liberal state government supporting a Yes vote in the Voice referendum, whilst local Aboriginal groups want a No vote. The polls are predicting a rare win for Yes in the Apple Isle, whereas the mainland story is predicted to be all about No. Why is this so? Tasmania is infamous for massacring most of its Indigenous population back in the day. Perhaps this has something to do with the apparently anomalous situation happening there in relation to First Nations recognition in the Australian Constitution and an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
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Contact sports in the guise of AFL or rugby are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life?
Culture Footy Fresh Health News Sport Contact sports in the guise of AFL or rugby are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life?
Culture Footy Fresh Health News Sport
Contact sports in the guise of AFL or rugby are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life?
Culture Footy Fresh Health News Sport
The Sydney Swans flop off the bye at the Gabba under fierce Lion’s pressure. Personally, I hate the bye and always have as a Swan’s fan. Too many times the team fails to fire after a week off. The Swans looked soft on this Thursday night featured contest with last year’s premiers. Brody Grundy gifted Brisbane goal scoring opportunities out of the centre 4 times on the night. These free kicks for crossing the line at the ball up are huge penalties to pay for this indiscretion, especially when advantage is taken and opposing players steal out the front of the centre square toward their goal.
Footy Fresh
You know a lot of the apparent support for One Nation comes from older white Australians. Pauline Hanson and her campaign machine promote the idea that things were better back in the day. This right wing idealisation of the past, of there being some sort of golden age, is nothing new. Fascists in Hitler’s era promoted the concept of the pure German who lived during a bucolic time of yesteryear. Romanticising the past appeals to older folk especially. Contrasting it with the present and focusing on negative stuff like urban crime and demonising special interest groups plays well with this audience. Hitler and the Nazis attacked the immorality of the Weimar Republic, which won them electoral support from conservate Germans. Pauline Hanson attacks Muslims, refugees and immigrants, as all things bad for Australia. The idealisation of the past is a never land, in that it never really existed the way they say it did.
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Whilst watching a documentary about Nazism and fascism in America back in the 1930s, my ears were pricked by the repeated expressions ‘ make America great’ and ‘one nation’! The modern day use of these terms as names and tag lines are by no means accidental. The white supremacist beliefs and racism, which lie at the base of MAGA and One Nation, in the US and Australia respectively, are the foundation of these movements and political parties. If you have read DH Lawrence’s book Kangaroo or seen the movie based upon it, you will know that Australia was not immune from the rise of fascism post WW1.
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AFL has been messed with by former players and luminaries of the game to serve up a version their sensibilities are happy with. They wanted to turn the clock back to more high scoring and less ferociously defensive AFL games of the 1980s and 1990s. However, there are always side effects that come with any fixes – just ask the medical/pharmaceutical fraternity. AFL: What s**** me about the game and broadcasts. What we have in season 2023 is the ball carrier walking on water in terms of being protected by the umpires. Holding the ball has just disappeared from the umpire’s rules book it seems. Players must not attempt to fight off the tackle but just hang onto the ball for a ball up to be whistled. The obvious ramifications of this are the spate of dangerous tackles, as the tackler attempts to dislodge the ball and/or incapacitate the ball carrier because he cannot get a free kick for the now obsolete holding the ball rule. Players are getting head injuries and being suspended for dangerous tackles, as a consequence of this change to rule interpretation.
AFL side, the Sydney Swans, went down to Geelong undermanned and got thumped. Swans shellacking by Cats is déjà vu, after the 2022 grand final thrashing was repeated. The Geelong team were mighty and won the contest all over the ground. The Swans were missing their full back, centre half back, and other big man in defence. Sydney was also without their full forward and first choice ruckman. The Swans battled manfully and never gave up but were severely outclassed and outplayed. The result of the match exposed some serious flaws in the #Swans recruiting over the previous few years.
There is talk of the huge cost to Australians of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The NDIS mess is made by bureaucrats. A worthy idea at heart the NDIS has been overloaded with many unnecessary protocols. The fact that individuals on the scheme with lifelong conditions are made to front an annual review panel to prove their disability is the perfect example of this. Who benefits from this? The bureaucrats involved, of course, they create employment and working hours for themselves to conduct these unnecessary reviews. Someone who is blind from birth is not going to suddenly see – no matter your religious beliefs about whether miracles exist. A quadriplegic or paraplegic should not have to prove their status every year. This is red tape wastage that makes the NDIS much more expensive than it need be.
Paranoid, racist, gun-toting society gone mad. This apt description of parts of America is a frightening fact for the world to consider. White people shooting black kids through their locked front door just for ringing the bell or knocking. White people shooting kids dead in cars for driving onto their property by mistake. This is a population out of control and dangerous to those around them. Guns make people, whatever their whim or momentary state of mind into potential killers. Talk about arrested development, the U.S. is stuck in a violent past, which had its day long ago. Corporate greed manipulating the constitution and the country’s elected representatives is keeping this society locked into a disgusting tableau of death and mass shootings.
Sydney Swans’ forward line is letting the team down with inaccuracy in front of goals. Sydney Swans poor kicking for goal costs wins. Lance Franklin has been poor and has missed the few chances he has had. Isaac Heeney is not doing enough and lacks reliability on his set shots. Will Hayward has tried his guts out and done some fine things, but misses too many shots at goal. Logan McDonald has shown some excellent signs and his goal kicking has been pretty good this year. Tom Papley is starting to hit his straps. Joel Amartey has been good but was ineffective in front of goals against Port Adelaide.
When the Liberal Party elected Peter Dutton as their leader what did they think would happen? This is the hard right face of this once broadly representative political party. Peter Dutton: Australia what did you expect? A party shunted out of office after 10 years of doing little more than protecting the status quo. At a time when Australia and the world required real leadership, we got jobs for the boys and heads buried in the sand. The Coalition was a federal government devoid of vision and tightly controlled by vested interests.
The Liberal Party under the leadership of Peter Dutton has moved further right into irrelevance in Australia. This is the party that has played politics over climate change for the last 15 years and bogged Australia into the slow lane on this existential crisis facing humanity. Now, the Liberal Party plays politics with Aboriginal Voice and reconciliation. It is a dreadful shame that our nation cannot move forward on something so important united on the political front. The Coalition parties, Nationals and Liberals, were never going to get on board this momentous recognition of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, as they represent the hard right racist minority within Australia.
The space agency NASA has fallen through the glass floor by announcing a team of socially disadvantaged astronauts to fly to the moon. In this brave bid to buck the decades of elitist expeditionary forces sent into outer space – NASA names first homeless astronaut to orbit moon. Diversity and social inclusion have come to the fore in the selection of these intrepid planetary trekkers. The theme of this team is outliers living the dream. More women, more people of colour, more neurodiversity, more people of all abilities, and from a much wider social circle. Frank Sinatra sang, Fly Me to the Moon, and he, although being blue eyed and white, was not of Anglo origin.
We are in the midst of a housing crisis. A 1000 new migrants are coming into the country a day. Rents are sky rocketing due to the shortage of available housing. Australian government does sweet f*** a** during housing crisis. There is a bill before parliament that if passed may build 30 000 social housing properties over 5 years. This, however, is an emergency and governments are doing bugger all right now to alleviate it. It is not enough to promise better things for the future. We need swift action right now to meet the challenges of this unfolding crisis.
The opioid crisis in America is a terrible indictment on American doctors. The fact that OxyContin was widely prescribed as a safe cure for pain despite being an opioid is testament to the stupidity and gullibility of American doctors. The training and experience of medical practitioners should have indemnified them with a healthy scepticism for claims made by the pharmaceutical companies in this instance. Opioids have been known to be highly addictive for many decades and there have been no exceptions to this over the period.
