Recreational Whinge: Here in Australia, we’re in the middle of an election period with all the typical debates, promises and mudslinging that you might expect…and a fair amount of atrocious behaviour you might not expect.  (Disrespectful Human Behaviour Choices!)

If there’s one statement I’m more angered / saddened by than any other it is this…”Let’s wait and see what other countries agree to do about the environment before we commit ourselves to an emissions trading scheme.  Why should we have one if countries like the USA, China and India aren’t running one?”

Oh come on!

Australia is the number two emitter of CO2 on the planet after the USA.  Don’t we have a responsibility to act now and be a role model on the planet?!

I recognise and appreciate that there are economic complexities involved.  We are smart enough to overcome these.

Waiting to see what other countries do before we act is more than just irresponsible.  It’s also downright dumb!

The Positive Spin: There have been some great articles and research papers published recently demonstrating how Australia could take the lead in energy generation for the planet, particularly using solar power.  We have a HUGE amount of space in the Outback which is mostly uninhabitable but could be effectively used to create incredibly large solar energy farms.  The energy harnessed could then be shared to the rest of the world through a series of power lines through Southeast Asia and then around the world.

Yes, this would be a massive undertaking!

But it could also mean putting an end, once and for all, to our reliance on fossil fuels!

Here is a great link if you would like to read just a bit more:

http://www.desertec-australia.org/content/australiacsppotential.html

WE CAN DO THIS! We simply need our politicians to agree and commit to it for our sake in Australia and for the planet!

WRITE TO YOUR FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVES AND ALL OF THE POLITICAL CANDIDATES IN THE ELECTION AND DEMAND THEIR ATTENTION TO THIS!

Recreational Whinge: A friend was telling me last night that he went to the football (Australian Rules Football) over the weekend and during the between-period break, there’s a part of the stadium area where kids and others can pass and kick around a football.  All good sporting atmosphere fun, right?

Well, some jerk (a 20 something adult) comes up to two kids kicking the football around, tackles one of them, takes the ball and kicks it out of the stadium, then walks back to his mates laughing about it.  Meanwhile the kids have stunned looks on their faces wondering what just happened and why.

Recreational Whinge: This past week, the Australian Senator Steve Fielding (from the Family First party…that’s a RW for another day!) stated in the Senate that he was concerned some women would choose to get pregnant, receive parental leave benefits from their employers (as part of new government legislation granting these rights) and then have a late term abortion and keep the money.

Does he really believe the rubbish that comes out of his mouth?  Is it possible he’s had a serious trauma to his head recently?

Recreational Whinge: There was a news report recently about some hooligans who late at night decided to jump start some bulldozers, put one in a lake and use the rest to demolish an historic gazeebo and destroy some beautiful park lands.  Could alcohol have been involved?  You can read about their stupid vandalism here.

What could possbily have been going through these young guy’s minds to think that their prank which destroys really expensive equipment and historic structures is fun?  I will never accept that the alcohol made them do it if in fact that’s an excuse they might base their defense on.

How fun will it be when they get sent the bill for their stupidity?

Recreational Whinge: I’ve just read in the online news that in the state of Queensland in Australia that there is a call to remove pool cues and glass ashtrays from pubs because the end up being used as weapons, particularly against paramedics and ambulance crews when that have to show up to the pub to provide medical assistance.  Some places have already banned glasses to prevent “glassing” attacks.  I am astounding at the lengths we have to go, or the directions we have to consider, just to try to reduce the harm caused by violence and in particular alcohol-fueled violence.

Here’s the article if you’d like to read it for yourself.  Highly recommended and check out the different views on this.

Recreational Whinge:  It never ceases to amaze me how often I hear people say, “I can’t deal with emotions!” 

I hear it in both my personal and professional life, and although I fully respect that emotionally charged situations can be challenging, I find irresponsible (and maybe even lazy) when people don’t care or try to understand someone else (or themselves) at an emotional level.

Recreational Whinge:  I’m a big fan of the website, The Onion, and recently they came out with this very funny article:  “Group of popular girls reduces nation to tears”.

As funny as I found the article, it also immediately reminded me of a whole bunch of both personal and professional examples of people behaving badly without consideration for the feelings of others.

Recreational Whinge:  Today’s recreational whinge is one I’m quite confident most of you will agree with.  Those dirty, rotten, unethical, JERKS who send out their insidious little spam-bots to wreak havoc on email systems, websites, etc.  (Although I’m not writing the swearing language I’m using verbally at the moment…just imagine the words I’m really thinking/feeling here!)

Recreational Whinge:  There was a news report released today about the winners of a “Gobbledegook” competition – or in other words, the top stupid and incoherent things some famous people have said.

My all time favourite is from George W Bush, “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” 

Recreational Whinge:  You may have an opinion on that question…and after going to a comedy club last weekend with some friends, I now have one too.

It was a lovely night – the club offers dinner and a show for a very reasonable rate, and the place was packed.  And we didn’t really care if the comedians were going to be any good or not, as we were with good company in our little group (although good comedy would also have been welcomed…but that’s a blog for another day!).

What we didn’t like, and neither did much of the rest of the room and certainly not the comedians, were the groups of drunken women celebrating as part of Hen’s Parties (Bachelorette Parties for the Americans).  There were four of these loud, raucous groups, with at least one thrown out by security.