Loose Bricks & Irrational Fears

*



"What a shocking bad hat!" was the phrase that was next in vogue. No sooner had it become universal, than thousands of idle but sharp eyes were on the watch for the passenger whose hat showed any signs, however slight, of ancient service. Immediately the cry arose, and, like the what-whoop of the Indians, was repeated by a hundred discordant throats. He was a wise man who, finding himself under these circumstances “the observed of all observers,” bore his honours meekly. He who showed symptoms of ill-feeling at the imputations cast upon his hat, only brought upon himself redoubled notice. The mob soon perceive whether a man is irritable, and, if of their own class, they love to make sport of him. When such a man, and with such a hat, passed in those days through a crowded neighbourhood, he might think himself fortunate if his annoyances were confined to the shouts and cries of the populace. The obnoxious hat was often snatched from his head, and thrown into the gutter by some practical joker, and then raised, covered with mud, upon the end of a stick, for the admiration of the spectators, who held their sides with laughter, and exclaimed in the pauses of their mirth, “Oh! what a shocking bad hat!” “What a shocking bad hat!” Many a nervous, poor man, whose purse could but ill spare the outlay, doubtless purchased a new hat before the time, in order to avoid exposure in this manner.

Charles Mackay Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.



As if in all darkness, black cars across black asphalt, the lonely swish of tyres in the rain, his own gut falling sideways into fear, frothing white terror, never knowing what was beyond the perimeter. The drift, he thought of it as; that terrible place where the psyche went, running out of control, the minute he was allowed to feel anything. It was a heartless world out there. He could see the grim night enveloping the tiny tree at the front of the house. He knew he was going nowhere. Oh heart, heart, already everything had died, already friends were passing on, already the significance of what they thought they stood for was being washed away.

He was trying, trying, to become something, do something. He was encountered in dark alleys. He slipped into murky places, steam ridden. He waited for love and found nothing. Already his own history was bouncing back, uncertain, unsure, longing to be someone else, to just be a normal person, for once in his life to just feel normal. He was classified as dark rage, dysfunctional, unable to even help himself. Blinding hangovers greeted every dawn. He really did want to be someone, he really did want to overcome these travails. He just wanted to get smashed, all the time, morning noon and night.

He wanted to feel the first prickle of alcohol luxury as he downed the first beers of the day, the relief climbing through him, spreading through his veins. He wanted to soar. He wanted to sit on the balcony at Watsons Bay, the first there, waiting for the rich to arrive, nursing his drink while waiting for all his rich friends to arrive, to tell him everything was alright, to admire the beauty of the harbour. To pick out the luxury yachts bobbing at anchor as the salt water slapped against the white beach. To be told that everything really was fabulous. That money made everything acceptable. That there was nothing wrong with sitting alone on the veranda, just as his grandfather had done, enjoying a drink before anyone else got there to ruin it.

All was lost, he knew that in his heart of hearts. He wasn't sitting on that fabulous veranda sipping away his inheritance, worrying, or boasting, about the movements of the stock exchange, complaining about the lack of servants. He was stuck in inner city grot holes, where everything was musty and everything coated his own failures. Where shadows darted in the evening light. Where money was always a problem. Where his personality had been barely formed before being wiped away; oh classic hunter, classic day. So little did he think of himself, he draped himself in other people's lives; lived theirs for absence of his own. You could always be the observer, but sooner or later your heart drops out.

Months later, he was blind furious when the tin pot magazine he had written the Roy Orbison piece for refused to pay, claiming he had used slabs of a press release and hadn't earnt his pay. That's what press releases were for, he countermanded, and demanded his lowly sum, all of $75. They wouldn't budge and he wouldn't budge; and as he was on the outside, with no influence, no leverage, no standing, there was little he could do but whinge and complain and demand, all of which he did. He refused to provide any more copy until they coughed up. Finally, they invited him to their Christmas party, promising to give him a cheque when he arrived.

He was drunk when he got there. And instantly got a whole lot drunker. There was nothing like free drinks to feed his already towering addiction to alcohol. Tequila got into the mix somehow. Tequila and cheap wine and beers in the middle. He was taken off into an office and given a cheque for $50, less than what had been agreed. He was outraged. It was just another injustice in a string of injustices. Everything was going wrong. Nothing was working out. Lovers had left and no one was paying on time. He still had to survive, and was sick of the humiliation. He got drunker and drunker and drunker; Christmas was coming for everyone but him. He left the party, and as the lift opened on the bottom floor where the magazine owners had parked their smart cars, he spotted a loose brick. It was a fatal moment.




THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/19/2394987.htm?section=australia

Labor suffers historic swings in NSW

By Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop

A grim-faced New South Wales Premier last night said he had heard the "sobering" but "entirely expected" message from voters, who have punished the State Labor Government with some of the biggest swings in Australian history.

Lawyer Victor Dominello became the first Liberal to snatch a state Sydney seat from the ALP in 20 years in one of four state by-elections held yesterday.

He reaped a 22.6 per cent swing, far bigger than the 10.1 per cent he needed.

Mr Dominello won outright, claiming 53.7 per cent of the primary votes and 62.5 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis to take ex-deputy premier John Watkins' former seat of Ryde.

Labor also suffered dramatic swings in the western Sydney electorates of Lakemba and Cabramatta, its safest seats until yesterday, but they were not big enough to secure wins for the Liberals.

The Liberals scored a 22.7 per cent swing in Cabramatta and chipped back sacked premier Morris Iemma's 34 per cent margin with a 13 per cent swing in Lakemba.

Labor had held dumped health minister Reba Meagher's seat of Cabramatta with a 29 per cent margin.

ABC election analyst Antony Green says the results are disastrous for Labor.

"The size of the swing means that one in five voters who voted for the Labor Party at the last election have switched to voting for the Coalition after preferences at this election," he said.

"That's an enormous swing and to get that many people changing their minds between now and the next election, Nathan Rees as the new Premier has got to try and convince them why they should go back to Labor."

The ALP's Nick Lalich beat the Liberals' candidate, former ABC journalist Dai Le, to win 49.5 per cent of Cabramatta's primary votes and 56.4 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.

In Lakemba, Labor's Robert Furolo won 58.3 per cent of the primary votes and 71 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.

'Lift your game, or else'

Nathan Rees spent last night visiting the candidates and their supporters in Sydney, telling them he had heard the message to "lift your game, or else".

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/washington/19summitweb.html?hp

WASHINGTON — President Bush has agreed to play host to a summit of world leaders soon to discuss the global response to the financial crisis, a senior White House official said today.

Mr. Bush was expected to announce his decision at Camp David, where he met on Saturday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President José Manual Barroso, who have been pressing for a high-level meeting of this kind to take place before the end of the year.

The White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to alert news organizations to the president’s expected announcement, said the meeting was intended to explore ideas to prevent any recurrence of the cascading financial failures that have forced the major economic powers to take costly, coordinated actions in the past several weeks.

At the summit, Mr. Bush hopes to get participation and ideas from both developed and developing nations, the official said.

No date for the meeting was set, as this and other details have not yet to be decided, the official said.

Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Barroso contend that the financial crisis presents a good opportunity to tighten oversight and better coordinate the financial markets around the world.


http://www.climatechangefraud.com/content/view/2520/223/

Falling Oil Prices: Useful Lessons from the Slump at the Pump Print E-mail
Written by Ben Lieberman, heritage.org

As summer turned to fall, sky-high pump prices in the face of a weakening economy led to lower demand and a drop in those prices. In other words, market forces do work, and they tend to counter big price moves in one direction or the other. The financial meltdown may have weakened faith in markets over the last few weeks, but the precipitous decline in oil and gasoline prices should help strengthen that faith.

Of course, markets can work only if they are allowed to. The biggest threat to the functioning of energy markets right now is costly cap-and-trade legislation in the name of fighting global warming. These measures would set a limit on the emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas. This cap-and-trade legislation, and the energy use restrictions that would result from it, would create an unprecedented level of interference by the federal government in the energy sector and the overall economy. Bottom line: Such legislation would lead to gasoline rationing and higher prices.

The America's Climate Security Act, the only cap-and-trade bill to be voted on in 2008, was easily defeated in the Senate last June, largely due to concerns about costs. The bill was estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to add 0.53 cents to the price of gasoline by 2030, while analyses by The Heritage Foundation and others estimated considerably larger impacts.

Reps. John Dingell (D–MI) and Rick Boucher (D–VA) have recently introduced a new cap-and-trade proposal that could serve as a starting point for global warming discussions in 2009. At the same time, the EPA is pursuing a regulatory crackdown on carbon dioxide emissions.

Costly restrictions imposed by a cap-and-trade bill or EPA regulations would act as a one-way ratchet on oil and gasoline prices, precluding the kind of market-driven declines like the one we have experienced since the summer.



The countryside between Gunnedah and Tambar Springs, NSW, Australia.