The Llama on the Hill

This post may be full of contradictions, but there is probably a general feeling I'm going for, at least that's how it presents in my brain as I type. Not everything you say is going to be perfect and not everything you hear or read from others is going to be perfect, but there are a couple of things we probably should all be aware of before we respond to one of these non-perfect comments or indeed before we respond to the response to one of these comments. Confused already? Read on my online friends. " It is of course well known that  careless talk costs lives , but the full scale of the problem is not always appreciated. " - Douglas Adams Saying the wrong thing can be bad, it's why we don't walk up to someone holding a weapon and tell them that we just engaged in carnal activities with a member of their family on the hood of their car. There are likely to be severe consequences. This is about assessing a situation. The choices you make may cost your life or ...

" I have always believed in miracles..." Anyone who focuses on Australian politics will certainly be familiar with that line uttered by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on election night 2019. He had claimed, what was for many, an unlikely victory and stood proudly on the stage thanking...who was it again? Who is responsible for miracles? Ah yes, God. He stood there proclaiming his win to be a miracle.  And just a reminder -  an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs the healing  miracles  described in the Gospels.   Now I'm going to segue briefly before returning to this miracle. Back in the mid-2000s, I worked for a business here in sunny Melbourne, which was run by two Directors, Both of them were nice enough guys and one day they informed the staff, half a dozen or so, that they were having someone come in to try and get us all fired up. You know the thing, a bit of team building to get the most out of us. I'd heard about this sort...

Talking about or being obsessed by sex is not uncommon, after all, we were generally brought up with it being a somewhat taboo subject, so in the olden days we'd look up rude words in the dictionary before we fed our woolly mammoths and fended off the Neanderthals from the homestead. Today though, with the vast opportunities the internet provides, the juicy gossip seen in the trashy magazines is magnified 100%...and unlike the magazines, is usually true! Everyone can indulge in a bit of salacious gossip, because after all, talking about other people is part of what brings people together. Or something. Molly, what does "Belgium" mean? But if you're a conservative, you might be one of the special ones. One of those select numbers who seem completely obsessed with the sex of other people so much so, that you wish to interfere. No, I'm not talking about joining in, I'm talking about the unhealthy obsession with what other people do or say or how they refer to the...

One thing we know, even if we like China and the Chinese people, is that their government can be reasonably precious if anyone questions or comments on things they do. And this makes complete sense. China is an Authoritarian State, not a democracy and as such, they don't like being questioned. This should not be a surprise. Add to this the propensity for China to want to save face and not be seen to have done the wrong thing, and, well, it makes things a little awkward if you're not happy with something they've said. Firstly, they're not going to take it back and secondly, how dare you even question that they've said it. There's also that little problem of what they said being kind of accurate. Now sure, the picture wasn't accurate, but let's just have a look at the tweet. The tweet "Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians and prisoners by Australian soldiers." So the hell was I!!! We're supposed to be better than shit like that. I'm not ...