Category: Towards a better way of life

Winding down

The year is almost over – the year end doldrums have set in (in my case that happened about 4 January…)

Even Trump has lost his allure, which is not quite the right word as it omits the whimsical menace of his mind. With a bit of luck the Epstein files will show him clearly as the leering, bullying thug I believe him to be. But I no longer really care.

Imagine if clear evidence of paedophilia by him emerges – will Congress try impeachment again? Don’t bet on it.

I did not do a forecast for 2026 as I have not been very accurate in the past.

But here goes:

There is some hope that the Ukraine war will be resolved soon.

Trump moves could include divorcing NATO, invading Venezuela and annexing Greenland. I do not think he will support Taiwan or other countries China is bashing.

His tariffs are likely to continue. According to CBS News:

Economic growth has surged to its fastest pace in two years, inflation has risen less than feared and the stock market has climbed to fresh highs. 

So well done, Donald, despite rising unemployment and prices for the ordinary man in the street remaining high.

Just a random thought about powerful leaders…. Winston Churchill was one.

He too seemed to have bewitched parliament and had some very dubious views and habits….

Here in Australia, with a bit of luck, Albaaneasy and Wrong will continue to be boo’d in public. Realisation that Labor’s narrow focus on renewable energy is excessive will spread to the majority of the population.

In Europe, there are glimmers of stronger, conservative leaders are emerging.

Maybe we will see more conversations about compulsory national service.

In Africa, colonial infrastructures continue to crumble and leaders continue to struggle to get fatter as the public purse is swindled. Economic overlords will continue to absorb natural resources.

The winding back of woke regimes will be difficult as practically a whole generation has been infected. Instilling backbone into the wider populace is difficult. Evasion of the issue is the predominant attribute of most.

It will be interesting to see the how far AI will be deployed in governments…

There lies an interesting conundrum: surely forms and applications could all be processed instantaneously by AI! No 2 year average processing times for immigration applications.

Mind you, I would give the administration of justice to AI: lie detectors, no more juries, no more lengthy trials …

Oh and the electoral process too – online voting, instant results; frequent referenda on important issues.

Sorry… getting sidetracked

May the Year of the Horse bring you joy and sufficiency.

Stripping your moer

This is a South African term for losing your temper. A ‘moer‘, amongst other things is a nut. One frequently loses one ‘s temper if the thread is stripped on a moer that one is tightening.

Other meanings are cruder and even obscene. We won’t go there; save to say if someone strips his moer with you, he is likely to moer you. In this case the second moer is short for murder!

What brought this to mind was the damage done when one’s temper is lost. Whether physical or verbal, the blows struck can cause significant bruising which can ache even after calm is returned.

I am a firm believer that we always have a choice in such matters: the straw that breaks the camel’s back can be deflected. Instead that straw should be seen as a signal to step away and not lash out.

It is a chance to give clear indication that your restraint is being tested, you are amper gatvol. Maybe just say, let’s leave it for now or don’t go there, please.

That’s a clear signal to others that sensitivity has been trampled upon; a change of subject is needed, immediately.

That way, there is opportunity for all parties to step back, review and seek another way forward.

If a clear signal to desist is ignored, there is licence to declare your moer to be stripped!

But, even then, moderation minimises mutilation!

Losing control means you are a loser… even if the other party surrenders or recants. They will be scarred and so will you, because you will know you failed as a reasonable human being.

There have been some notable temper failures …..

Jesus displayed righteous anger (stripped his moer) when he cleared the money lenders from the temple … whew! Am I brave enough to go there?

King Henry II of England wanted to be rid of a turbulent priest, thus Thomas a Becket was murdered by four loyal knights…

Of course one can be righteous if one is right, but who is the judge of that?

So, if you strip your moer, – take a deep breath and think carefully how to rein your temper in …. then smile!

That really disconcerts others!

Oops! Maybe a bit passive aggressive?

Points to ponder

These are mostly extracts from others’ articles which resonate with me.

Artificial Unintelligence

AI is only as bigoted as we make it

Feed an AI whale a lot of antisemitic swill, and it will defecate antisemitic crap on command.

These large language models just summarize whatever texts were fed to them. This is why so many of them actually ratify progressive conventional wisdom, culled from academic and journalistic texts.

July 11, 2025 The Dispatch Logo Jonah Goldberg

The global wellness economy is valued at $6.3 trillion per year and is expected to grow to $9 trillion in the next three years

… wellness influencers represent a new generation of morality salesmen, marketing the idea that health is something you can buy—and that virtue is part of the package when you purchase their products, and poor health is part of your punishment when you don’t.

This religion was a heavily moralistic one, and its road to hell was as wide as the door to dieters’ refrigerators

The influencer who gave us the idea of the body as a temple was none other than St. Paul. 

The Wellness Gospel Won’t Save You – Hannah Rowan
July 19, 2025, The Dispatch

Humans are wired with a “negativity bias” that triggers a stronger emotional response to bad news than good news – evident in the journalism maxim “if it bleeds, it leads”

… progress is often about what doesn’t happen

The modern world was built and shaped by optimists. We owe it to them to carry the torch.

We have everything we need to thrive. Our resiliency will protect us; our intelligence will propel us.

Old Fictions, New Fictions – Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch  1 August 2025

“Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”  – Marx brothers

The pampering of pets

The other day a wise woman said to me that the amount of money squandered on the pampering of pets is scandalous.

This scratched an irk that has been lurking in my mind for some time.

This irk was concretised by a recent article in the Summer 2025 issue of American Affairs by Peter Pilkington called The Limits of Consumption: Why Consuming More Makes Us Poorer.

It is quite heavy reading! What it said to me was:

We are told year in and year out that living standards are rising, but many people—especially younger people—can feel their quality of life decline as time goes on.

  • quality of life is degrading as GDP increases, i.e. many are getting poorer and some disgustingly richer
  • consumers are spending too much money on valueless crap
  • education, health and housing industries have been artificially inflated to extract more money from consumers.

In the US since 2011, the number of housing units per person stayed roughly constant at around 0.425 – that suggests there should be enough houses.

But average household price has risen by 85% !!

Non economic measures show a large decline in quality of life in recent years, but economic metrics show it is increasing.

Surprisingly the homeless populations and deaths of despair are rapidly increasing.

It is time for economists to admit that their metrics are broken

Basing the economic health of people is based on outdated calculations

Big Pharma, Real Estate tycoons and Universities have found the keys to manipulating governments for money. They inflate their markets. This results in higher prices that consumers must now pay.

There is little value increase for huge price increases, called consumer deepening which has degraded quality of life for many.

The pampering of pets is just a symptom of the general malaise that has infected capitalism:

  • consumers have lost their ability to see real value
    • corporations manipulate governments to provide funding as economic policy
  • white collar information workers are non-producing and increasing, while blue collar workers, who actually produce are disappearing
  • large, entrenched and empowered DEI inspired bureaucracies
  • the lack of willingness in politicians to challenge entrenched practices and bureaucrats
  • ruthless production and marketing of valueless goods

Trump’s rampage in the US has targeted some of these problems. Let’s hope his initiatives are noted and adopted by all (hopefully with a bit more finesse…)

Paying us with our own credit card

We choose government representatives. They decide how much money to collect from us. They also determine how to spend it for our benefit.

We expect them to be honest, disciplined, anticipatory and prudent.

We expect them to spend only what they can collect.

Without fear, favour or prejudice.

Just before an election the current Australian government is paying more money to every household.

It will have to borrow money to do so.

Is it trying to persuade us it is a good government by paying us money that we will have to pay back?

Well, Jim Horner, that is our pie and our plum – you are not a good boy!

If the people re-elect this government, they deserve what they will have to pay for.

In the future, more will have to be spent on government debt than on services to the people.

This has go to stop!

Another Mad Hatter’s Tea Party?

I guess I should be celebrating, making odd Musk-like salutes ‘from the heart‘ and singing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy‘ with my South African accent..

It seems there is a mighty punch coming up for the Woke way of thinking.

The Donald’s antics and gestures are very puerile and devoid of dignity. Why all the pomp and circumstance when the top billing is a clown act?

But I keep on having flash thoughts of Alice’s Queen of Hearts and Caligula and occasionally Mussolini.

The violent white supremacist thugs who bludgeoned police officers at the Capitol were among the throng released by Trump.

* Trump launched a meme coin called $TRUMP on Friday, just days before his inauguration. Is this a new way to buy influence? Market capitalization soared to nearly $6 billion within hours. Melania also has a coin, so there! (Not called $trumpet…)

Vindicatory vengeance seems to be gushing up.

Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has come up with a specific list. In Patel’s 2023 book Government Gangsters, he lists 60 current and former executive branch officials whom he refers to as members of the “Executive Branch Deep State.”

President Biden issued preemptive pardons to many people who tried to hold Trump responsible for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election and against whom Trump has promised “retribution.”

How far will Trump’s “retribution” actually go? Should Biden have granted himself and Harris and Clinton pre-emptory pardons as well?**

Trump is notoriously antagonistic to institutions that oppose him, like the Supreme Court and the Treasury and even Congress. His promise to extend the Tik Tok deadline to 90 days is contrary to a Congressional decision. Wonder if anyone will mention that to him?

I’m not squeamish about the purge.

Government bureaucracies have either been given or have usurped the power of elected representatives. They now control society by incriminating them. The rule makers are now the real rulers.

To unravel that Gordian knot will be impossible, so only an Alexandrine sword will reduce it.

I hope Musk’s purge will trim them, slim them and refocus their purpose.

The woke way of thinking is embedded in western culture and will be resistant to jackboots and muskrats. But there will certainly be a shaking up of the fashionable fringe followers, so that’s a start.

I wonder whether Trump will be constrainable or will he have to go the way of Caligula?

 *Daniel Hampton – https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/

**Robert Reich January 21, 2025 ‘That’s interesting:’ Did Trump just launch a new conspiracy theory? – Alternet.org

bleak

…sterile, gloomy, almost bitter, valueless..

Do you ever feel like that?

It’s the other side of bored. It’s the inability to see flowers on the road ahead. No doubt they are there but going out the gate to see them is such an effort…

The wonderful thing is that it is quite easy to shake off. Just listen to a bird or feel a breeze cool the sweat, check out how blue is the sky, just walk out the door and into the park.

But … almost tempting to wallow or just stand and think about the mud oozing between your toes…. it’s not self pity or feeling of lack of worth … it’s just a lack of desire to do anything.

It’s the pits and I am pretty sure I am not the only one to have been there.

Fortunately I have a self-inflating ego which will bounce me out of there. I will receive complaints that Pavarotti is too loud, tut-tutted for my conservative views, be informed that a dozen lychees have more sugar than a glass of coke, on top of the mango I had for breakfast…

It’s a matter of choice … and the desire to choose. Mud is mud and it is probably harmless and seductively soothing to stay…

So winds the darkkserpent his slowly tightening coils around your mind until it really does get too much effort to move.

My tuppenny therapy is to get on a bike, sing, eat fruit, pat a dog, swim in the sea, paint a picture, talk with an infant ……….. write what’s in your heart, so you can send the beast in your mind slinking away.

Tough Love

I have just read “in Cold Blood”, a novel by Truman Capote, based on a real event in Kansas in 1959.

Two petty criminals who met in prison, agreed to rob a rich farmer in Kansas after their release.

They made preparations and an alibi and drove 800 miles, broke in late at night, tied up the four family members. There was no safe. They shot all four victims leaving with just $40 and a portable radio.

All they did leave was a bloody footprint.

They were identified by a former cell mate, who had told them of the rich farmer and been told by them of their plans to rob him

Arrested, they confessed and were tried, duly being sentenced to death.

There was a suggestion that the accused did not feel it was wrong … and that should save them from the noose.

To no avail – they were hanged in 1965 after many appeals.

As was right and just.

Many countries have now abolished the death penalty. Terrible crimes can be punishable by life imprisonment. This can actually mean as little as a dozen years in prison before parole is granted. At huge cost to the State.

I believe that a society that nurtures people who commit ghastly crimes and later releases them is eventually doomed.

If we can’t pull the trigger, we are not up for the job. Remember the Lindt cafe fiasco?

Rehabilitation is an unacceptable gamble.

At the 2021 “Summit for Democracy” President Biden said:

“Today, democracy is under more pressure than at any time since the 1930s….  Will we allow the backward slide of rights and democracy to continue unchecked? Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to renew it with each generation. […] In my view, this is the defining challenge of our time.

President Macron said: ..”… the only political model that allows us to defend these rights and freedoms: democracy” –, adding that the fight was “more necessary than ever”.

Many are beginning to believe that: …the time has come for a world dominated by authoritarian powers, that the historical cycle of freedom has come to an end…..

So we see the surge of influence by authoritarian regimes. They have no compunction in using their power to obliterate opposition.

There, criminals receive short shrift, death penalties are common for all manner of acts. At the same time the sowing of destruction outside borders is actively promoted.

The democratic Western polities struggle mightily with huge issues like the right to declare oneself to be the opposite gender and unfettered rights to abortion.

Governments are unable to say “No”. Police must wear kid gloves to restrain the dangerous and disobedient. They must do so with a compulsory delicate etiquette. Children wreak havoc again and again despite frequent arrest.

Politicians are powerless to act without being pilloried by vociferous public dissent. They seek to keep their positions through the buying of public affection with the reckless disbursement of our revenue.

No wonder we are dissolving into disillusioned leaderless mobs, changing side every week. Soon the demagogues will turn vigilante.

We need some hard leaders who can say:

  • We will act to solve our problems, despite outcry.  We did it in the pandemic, we can do it again.
  • Stop pussyfooting: squash disorder and crime quickly using the most effective means.
  • No more public protests stopping traffic. If students fail, they leave university. If they misbehave, they will be expelled. They will repay their loans in full.
  • The Review Tribunal will clear the Immigration backlog. Illegal entrants will be removed and can appeal from offshore. No more refugees/asylum seekers
  • Tax carbon emissions; incentivise clean energy systems; let the market prevail.
  • Minimise imports, maximise home grown
  • Labour disputes to be resolved by Tribunals.

These are the things I would do if I was PM:

  • Introduce nuclear power stations
  • Introduce National Service for all school leavers
  • Ban gender transition until 18 years of age
  • Bring back the death penalty for murder, child molestation and drug traffickers
  • Limit the right to silence, requiring explanations for compelling evidence. I would also dispense with juries
    • Media would be banned from interviewing witnesses or accused persons.

WGEA

Workplace Gender Equality Act

Women in Australia earn 28% less than men!

This type of bite size statistic is a hallmark of the sensational disinformation used by identity politicians.

In my last blog, I mentioned that the incoming Labor government had added 26000 jobs to the payroll.

This statistic is the type of work they do

It is illegal to pay women less than men for doing the same work.

Prosecute the bastards that do that! Don’t squeal and puff out meaningless statistics.

  • More women than men choose to stay home to care for their children and parents.
  • Fewer women work fewer years than men.
  • Fewer women work in dangerous and isolated occupations than men.
  • Fewer women (only 15%*) follow STEM careers

* https://www.industry.gov.au/

Note the above Ministry also collects gender data…

Of course, I am sure that other identity imbalances have not nearly been addressed appropriately. What about the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual, aromantic/agender people ?

(Oh! don’t forget + additional identities that are not included in the acronym).

All of them should have their own departments and compliance legislation too.

Soon only racist, misogynist, misanthropic bigots will not be employed by government!

That’s what Musk’s job is going to be. He will clear out all that ephemeral, flimsy, dangerous and expensive regulatory claptrap.

Purge

At a time when most Western democracies are burdened by disillusion, poor economic and social outcomes and leadership that lacks either conviction or courage, Trump arrives as a giant on the stage of history

In his campaign Trump has promised “… savage public-sector cuts, a reduction in federal bureaucratic numbers, a purging of regulation, cutting taxes…extending tariffs… dismantling environmental obstacles to development, a domestic war on ..identity politics, boosting defence spending..”

If Trump succeeds …

“the governance model for Western democracy will be shaken to its foundations “

Paul Allan Western Australian 16 Nov 2024

A purge will not be before time, I say. And this should pave the way for all Western democracies to see the writing on the wall and change.

For decades governments have swung back and forth from Democrat/Labor to Conservative/Republican. Each victory led to a replacement of supporters and sponsors. The public service bureaucracy grew because each policy promise required an executive department.

Stalin used the Secret Police in his ‘Great Purge’ in Russia from 1936 to 1938. – his methods were a bit drastic -up to 1 million people were killed.

Politicians, intelligentsia, critics, government officials and the army were targeted.

President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order in 1947 to screen federal employees for possible association with organizations deemed “totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive

Primary targets were government employees, prominent figures in the entertainment industry, academics, left-wing politicians, and labor union activists. McCarthy was his hit-man. Public servants were screened…

So now we will see another purge in a democracy, not a totalitarian state ! Interestingly, the same as it was before, it will be the same types and classes of people who will be purged: the bureaucrats, intellectuals and professionals….

Trump has appointed Elon Musk who said he’d cut $2 Trillion from federal bureaucracies . That’s about one third of all employees! Tell me that won’t cause a riot!

He did it to Twitter / X seemingly without crippling industrial action. Maybe he can do it on a much bigger scale.

“Progressives are no longer the party of the working class or the non- college educated…

… the incompatibility of identity politics with the liberal principle of equality … citizens’ trust in mainstream institutions has been absolutely shattered..corporations and the military, universities and the courts .. trust is gone

When people look (at these institutions) they see progressive values shoved in their faces. It’s ​n​ot the democracy they voted for.”

Politicians don’t purge, because those purged are voters.

Now it seems that this has changed, Trump doesn’t want re-election after this term. He is backed by the working class and opposed by the elites. He wants to change what the elites have done and he doesn’t care about the political risk.

Here in Australia it was reported recently that:

An estimated 70% of jobs growth since 2022 has been government funded….The 2024-25 budget showed the number of public servants had grown  by about 25% since the COVID-19 pandemic

Dan Power, The Mandarin, 18 October 2024

Now we see how politics works! Vote for me an I’ll give you a job!

I hope the Coalition ask Elon Musk for some tips before the next election!