to a birthday.. Oohhh, look over there!

Shane with Damocles sword

Like our pastiche of a federal Government whose birthday it is, the Sword of Damocles hangs over our nation.

G’day Petals,

And like what we will further document in Wombat Droppings, this blog too, is all over the place. 

Neighbour, artist and friend Paul Anthony presently has work on exhibition at Backspace Gallery, Ballarat.

Paul, (right) at the Opening
“Beneath the Surface” The Floating World of Paul Anthony, paintings derived from images taken whilst diving at the Ewans and Piccaninnie Ponds in South Australia.As Paul says in his introduction “I respond to the organic forms, shimmering light…in essence… it’s the interaction of water and light .. elements essential for life…… these evoke the transience and fragility of life.”

His title: Floating World also had me thinking of the Japanese for this Ukiyo-e but not the ennui of the pleasure seeking Tokugawa period but more of the Japanese Buddhist word for  “sorrowful world” the perpetual cycle of rebirth, life, suffering, death and rebirth that Buddhists seek to transcend.

The earlier paintings are very evocative in their literalness of his stated aims but I have to admit that the later evocations from the Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland and the Ben Shahn- like astringency of the underwater ladders present other dimensions which are heading toward a more pure painting rather than simple representation.

Exhibition is on till September 14, Backspace Gallery, 14.00 -16.00 Alfred Deakin Place (down Police Lane or Camp St.) Ballarat.

Here in the burrow we have been busy building a greenhouse. One of our small tanks was giving up the ghost so we re-cycled it, with quite a few other materials, as part of the greenhouse structure. Although not in an ideal position it should still provide a better environment for Tomato, Capsicum and other plants that prefer warmer climes and a lack of Currawong and Chough attention.

Greenhouse
And some pretty stuff before the horror story starts….Ballet Theatre Australia...

Wombat Droppings

or the chronicle of the demise of egalitarian Australia.

“Rabbutt-the-Hun” and his rabble of a Ministry this week, blundered to one year in office.

Their sagging poll popularity figures have firmed a bit on the distractions of the murders of the MH17 passengers and the bloody rampage of the Islamic State through Syria and Iraq.

Touted in the past week by “The Ugly American”, Murdoch’s relentless media assault on the non-thinking as STRONG LEADERSHIP, DECISIVE ACTION blah, blah, blah… “Rabbutt” and his Foreign Minister Julie “Death-Stare” Bishop continually and repetitively spout the obvious about Russia, (the sun was shining the day it was shot down), Terrorists (they’re baddies) and Security (put-em-up-Putin). They are hoping this will allay the electorate’s growing fears over the incompetent and unfair mixed signal budget. which is still in Limbo.

It’s this mean and unfair budget that the slogan wielding Aspirational Bogans of the “methodical, purposeful, adult” cult cannot deliver and if anything, looks more like a vision for this nation that our social parody of egalitarianism, the “Coot’s–With-Queer-Ideas-from a-Parallel-Universe,” IPA “ Right-Wing-Free-Market” want. Their agenda of destroying the Medicare system, crippling education, emasculating manufacturing and public broadcasting, Xtian-izing State education, fouling the environment, extending welfare to the wealthy via the poor and lower echelon’s superannuation benefits, as well as providing coal burning electricity companies with a windfall of profits from the repeal of Carbon Pricing whilst crippling investment into renewable energy with the withdrawal of the Renewable Energy Targets and cutting wages and penalty rates with their “Undead” WorkChoices, are real  fears that ARE being realised.

Murdoch Reporter

Vision is a word not found in the Liarbril lexicon.

The “Oohhh, look over there…” distraction of The Islamic State cannot obscure the fact that the real terrorists are here, now. The Liarbril Party, The IPA, The Coal miners, Gina Rinehart, Palmer, Forrest, and the Murdoch media are doing more damage to this nation than a few loopy Islamic zealots 10,000 km away will ever do.

The “Slippery Pete Affair” has reared it’s ugly head again with Rabbutt-the-Hun” proclaiming it a sordid affair of the past Government that is over … neatly but wrongly hinting at a Labor problem but “Tones” … all the players were LIARBRIL! 

Pyne lied, Brough is a political thug, Ashby is a … well that’s pretty obvious…. and “Slippery Pete,” a turncoat.

They’re all Liarbril’s Tone…all your boys.
Yes, it was sordid…. a very vindictive and nasty payback… but as we have documented before, this is what your people seem to do best, Tones!  No vision …but payback? Geez, you’re really good at that Tones!

And in a delightful vignette of the intellectual prowess of those who would take us to war in the Middle East again came this gem from the ICAC investigation into corruption in NSW (from The Saturday Paper, Mike Secombe 13-9-14)

"... Did you know that that was money coming from a property developer?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“What did the name of it, Elmslea Land Developments, tell you about it?”

“Ah, yeah...”

“What did you think it was doing?”

“Well, there are many different names for, for companies, ah…”

“It’s true, but this one was Elmslea Land Developments. What did you think that name meant? That it might have something to do with land development?”

“Yes, it could have possibly, yes.”

“And would it strike you that land development was another aspect or one aspect of property development?” ..

Tardis State (Where-All-Goes-Backward) Pretend Premier Dennis “Dodo” (Genus: Inutilus Rusticus) Naptime, has decided in election mode that it would be a good idea to let Crown Casino direct the legislative program of the State in return for a either a few Shekels or 30 pieces of Silver (it’s all about choice y’know) ... and re-fund Cranbourne Secondary School the money his party ripped away from the school four years before.  

 Pity that Ambo’s are still waiting for a settlement on their two year old pay dispute, that hospital waiting lists are worse than when Big Bird (Genus: Sivertail Incompetens) Baillieu scraped into power….but there is still no sighting of a business plan for the $8,000,000,000.00 tunnel to nowhere.

On a funnier note, Geoff “Fiddles” Shaw survived…another ex Liarbril, self admitted crook gets away with it…Good one, “Dodo!”

Dear reader, does this sound like a nightmare?

It is.  Welcome to Australia.

Hoo-roo Possums,

Shane.

Quote of the week from Jonathon Biggins (Actor, Satirist, performer) on Q and A  ABC,

 8-9-14. “The Daily Telegraph: it’s like Pravda …without the balance.”