4:44 am
drwho
Difficulty score 27. No green.
4:45 am
drwho
HK - no reason to be disheartened by low voter turnout. Its a good sign that people are happy with the way things are running.
4:46 am
drwho
On the other hand - the record turnout for the Iowa caucuses (on the Republican side) indicates there is a lot of anger at what is currently going on in Washington.
10:57 am
helenkeller
drwho - well, duh, there ya go, clearly thats
10:58 am
helenkeller
what's happening (to clarify - that was sarcasm) :)
11:25 am
Phil
Hi All, HK and I were having a little banter but welcome others to join of course. I was explaining our Aussie scepticism with all things political, wherever they may be. Many I suspect strive to do the right thing when they start in politics but they soon get off track when they realise how the system actually works. None is perfect it seems to me, the British and Australian are similar and do work fairly well. Both have ended up with a two party system, British first past the post, Australian two party preferred but all in all, over the years predominantly coming closer in policies as effectively thats what the people want. A good economy but with social justice. Most of the Europeans are pretty good at it too.
11:29 am
Phil
One of the wonderful things about the world is we are all humans. The strange thing is, we are yet to think on a world level. Richard Branson had the right idea, Elders with wisdom but a social conscience. If we are serious, and forgive me for being a little serious here - if we involved the world and aimed to relieve the desperate poverty that exists, I suspect we would have a lot less wars and terrorists.
11:34 am
Phil
On a lighter note, we Aussies do not take ourselves too seriously and poke fun at ourselves often. I still enjoy the video links that get scared around with people doing stupid or funny things.
11:44 am
Phil
I'll leave you with food for thought: it takes a real friend to really tell you how it is - to look you in the eye and say, mate you've been a plonker!
11:54 am
Phil
If your mates don't tell you, you end up making a much bigger fool of yourself. Aussies are friends of the American people, it's just that we really think your pollies are plonkers! (Actually Barrack Obama is a great speaker and you really should be providing healthcare for all. And while you're at it, maternity leave might be a good idea, the rest of the world thought so a long time ago. And another thing, Cruz talks a lot of rubbish about our gun laws, blatant lies in fact. Rapes did not go up and who would have thought, make people apply for licences and get checked out and get rid of as many as you can and wouldn't you know it, no massed shootings since.) Just a thought!
4:44 pm
drwho
Phil, if you have such a healthy distrust of your politicians, why did you let them disarm you?
4:46 pm
drwho
Americans have the right to keep and bear arms in large part to keep the politicians in line!
8:50 pm
Diane
Here, here, Phil! Agree with everything you said.
9:00 pm
Diane
I just changed my profile, now showing a US flag. I'm American, but lived in Canada for 16 years. Phil, most Americans are pretty clueless about the rest of the world. We're an arrogant bunch, thinking we have the best healthcare in the world (not) with with best outcomes (not). We think we're so safe because we have all the guns (not). We don't believe that we can learn anything from any other country (like maternity leave).
