Simmering Uncertainty Simmering Discontent

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Have I not shown you glimpses of the world to come, if we do not act now?

She had, too, and he knew that everything boiled down to a choice between two contending futures. One was a Glitter Band under the kindly rule of a benevolent tyrant, where the lives of the hundred million citizens continued essentially as they did now, albeit with some minor restrictions on civil liberty. The other was a Glitter Band in ruins, its population decimated, its fallen glories stalked by ghosts, revenants and monsters, some of which had once been people.

'I have the weevil data,' he said, when the silence had become unendurable.

Alastair Reyonds.






Simmering uncertainty, simmering discontent, he heard it everywhere, the harsh plays of light, the appalling, apparently racist rants. These are the great working class, the working families our Prime Minister loved so much. He heard them everywhere, talking about the Asians that were taking over, "breeding like monkeys", the Muslims that are just so different. "Wait 40 years and they'll regret what they've done," a gap toothed man said. "Where I get on the train there's not a single Aussie," says another. "Not a single Aussie." "They're all on our welfare," another says.

Threatened, strangers in their own country, there's a reason why the Prime Minister's announcement that he would be massively increasing immigration rates has gone down like a lead balloon amongst his traditional supporters. The Labor Party has always manipulated the ethnic vote, one of the reasons they championed multi-culturalism. Anything to undermine what was already here. Anything to undermine the old power structures. The left wing lunatics are now totally in power, and their simpering deconstructionism and bleating for the most vulnerable entirely dominates our public life.

He couldn't bear it, the anguish of it all, the thirsting, thrusting new races, the ridiculous government carry on, the betrayal of the old, the championing of the new. Old suburbs are now no-go zones for whities, and the city locks down in fear. He was a champion of causes, a fighter of injustice, and the sick rhetoric that dominated everything, sick, dishonest and hypocritical, made him choke. Bile had taken over laughter, and the ancient systems were gone. Always an emigrant nation, built on immigrants and the hard work of the anonymous, the simpering platitudes of the left stuck in his craw.

How could it have got this way? How could we have been so thoroughly betrayed? he thought. And the answer was obvious. Useful fools. Useful fools from the Prime Minister on down. He listened to the racist rants of the unwashed, rants that would make even the most thinly educated blanch. There's monkeys everywhere, they said, there's illegals everywhere, they live in these little mud huts in the back of houses, they build slums, they take our dole. The anger was growing and no one in authority, no one at all, would dare acknowledge it.

The freeways were packed with disillusioned workers trying to get to unsatisfying jobs. Fighting with their bosses. Fighting with their wives, or husbands, or lovers. Nothing was more unfashionable now than old fashioned marriage; except amongst the young Christians, who could see all too well the mistakes their ancestors had made. The papers have been full of stories of traffic jams kilometres long, of the blithering, total, complete, appalling incompetence of the Iemma Labor government, of the shine coming off our new Prime Minister, of the ceaseless left wing rhetoric which has crucified old relationships and stuck the government everywhere in our lives.

Lawyers everywhere in our lives. No one says NO, stop, this is all wrong, it's all the wrong way. Those who have been dispossessed sit on park benches and gristle, blaming the "Asians", blaming the "muslims", blaming the things they don't understand, targeting groups who simply took up an offer to live here. Their calls to prayer. Their expansive mosques. Their tinkling monks. All of it's a different country, a different place; all of it was engineered by people no longer accountable, people who have gone to their graves proud of what they have done, eroded the traditional working class, eroded the traditional prejudices, created a brave new world. A brave new world they never had to live in, protected as they were by wealth. And now a brave new world they will never see, protected by their own deaths.



THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/children-living-among-faeces-and-rubbish-court-told/2008/06/26/1214472673480.html

THE cousin of a Canberra woman charged with neglecting four of her children told police the mother was a disgraceful parent and unfit to have custody of the children, a court has been told.

A bail hearing in the ACT Magistrates Court was told the Ainslie house where the woman lived with her children was filthy.

When the police went to the house on Sunday night they found the four children - aged five, seven, 10 and 13 - huddled in the lounge room alone watching television - Constable Jarryd Dunbar told the court.

There was animal faeces in the bathroom, three of the five bedrooms were inaccessible because of clothing and rubbish piled up behind the doors and there was out-of-date food in the kitchen.

There was also what appeared to be a pot roast in the oven, but Constable Dunbar said it was hard to determine exactly what it was because of the "extent of mould and decay".

The court was told the woman's male cousin, who is now looking after the four children, believed she was "unfit to have custody". But he said she was a good mother "when herself".

The 35-year-old was arrested on Wednesday after a complaint was made against her for allegedly breaching a protection order. A statement of facts tendered to the court said she had repeatedly threatened to kill a woman who lived nearby and cared for her two older children.

This week she allegedly drove past the woman's house and made a motion of slitting her throat. She allegedly said: "You dirty f---ing slut. I'm going to slit your throat if it's the last thing I do.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/27/2287312.htm?section=business

The Federal Opposition has signalled cautious support for including petrol in a carbon trading scheme, as long as it does not drive up fuel prices.

Federal Parliament is now in recess for two months after a week dominated by debate on climate change.

Liberal MP Greg Hunt says his party's position is clear.

"We should have no new net taxes on petrol," he said.

He says it is possible to include petrol in a carbon trading scheme without a price hike.

But it is debate on climate change that will intensify over the winter break, with a key report to be handed to the Government next week.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/26/1214073422618.html

The 3 mobile network is banking on people power to help it convince Apple to allow it to carry the new 3G iPhone in Australia.

A new website, three.com.au/iphone, will go live tomorrow and 3 is encouraging customers to register their interest "for the powers that be at Apple to see".

Launching on July 11, the second version of the iPhone will be available from both Optus and Vodafone.

But because the handsets will come locked to specific carriers, those on the 3 or Telstra networks will be unable to use it without a third-party hack, which may not eventuate at all.

Noel Hamill, director of sales at 3, said since Apple announced the impending local launch of the iPhone 3 had been inundated with queries from customers wishing to buy the device from 3.

"We've engaged Apple to get the 3G iPhone but at this stage we haven't been able to range it, so I don't know if we're going to be able to range it," he said.

Apple's decision to exclude 3 from its local carrier partners is curious given it has partnered with 3's parent, Hutchison, to launch the device in Hong Kong and Macau.

Local pricing details for the 3G iPhone have yet to be released, but in the US the base model with 8GB of memory will sell for $US199 ($210), while the 16GB model will retail for $US299.