(That sounds like a recipe for disaster-Ed)...indeed...anyway, shoosh, they're here now...uh-huum...
Hello United Kingdom...(what actually like has a Queen and stuff, just for the last 50 years-Ed)...quite...and also to the United States of America, Brazil, and Ukraine...welcome to the blog...
I've not posted about the violence in Ukraine because it's been well documented across the media, but I'm truly amazed at the extraordinary scenes of political disintegration/reconstruction in Ukraine, and the incredible commitment of those involved...it makes a bit of a mockery of what happens in Australia where most people seem to consider elections/politics as an annoying inconvenience...whilst I realise the situations are poles apart, I personally do feel a little weak compared to their resolve...
True, as covered in previous posts, I have had cause to fear for my life when involved with former parliamentary Speaker Peter Lewis's office, in circumstances where some other people who had contacted him about Child Abuse were being murdered, as covered in the media at the time...but I wasn't being attacked and shot at and seeing my friends and associates being killed right next to me.
I couldn't begin to define what has happened and who drove it and why, I can only offer deepest condolences to the families of those apparently killed by their own government, and my hopes for what they're worth, that that is the beginning of the reconstruction, not the start of further decline...even now pro-Russian Ukrainians are protesting in the Crimea...
Nothing I have experienced in my own life offers me any understanding of the war continuing in Syria, it leaves me speechless and dumbfounded that a country can do this to it's own people, that people can do this to each other...the wholesale destruction of entire cities and millions displaced...I cannot not talk about it, but I cannot understand, so on occasion, I just cry...not that that helps...
It seems almost flippant to talk about the sort of political bastardry that has been experienced by Regional South Australia, particularly the South East, but that's where I find myself and so that's what's most real to me...and there are very genuine reasons to be horrified even terrified at the prospect of Fracking and the outright lies being told...(and apparently accepted-Ed)...indeed...to ease away the vague opposition...and I say vague with all due respect because short of physically stopping that well, it's a done deal...
Beach Energy Fracking: From today's The Advertiser newspaper a casual acknowledgement of the reality of what's happening at Penola in the article Beach Energy surges past $2bn in value (page 29). There is this reference to the Fracking well being drilled right now at Penola..."Beach expects to finish drilling it's first shale gas well in the Otway Basin in March"...(what a cleverly deceitful reference to the mine only 2kms from Penola-Ed)...indeed, and it doesn't say anything about 'exploration' it's a straight out statement of fact.
Said it once, twice, three times and maybe more, that is not a 'test well', that is a well, and whoever gets into power in 3 weeks time will rubber-stamp Beach Energy pumping tonnes of toxic sludge deep underground with the obvious massive and irreversible consequences...
Bloody Bike Lanes: I don't blame the cyclists but bike lanes on Penola Rd are ludicrous, and I find it unbelievable and incredibly galling that the Labor state government have refused traffic lights at the notoriously dangerous Penola Rd/Wireless Rd intersection...(even though one prefers a round-about-Ed)...indeed...but whichever, either/both have been refused because 'there aren't the traffic numbers to justify it', yet the cost, inconvenience, and design stupidity of the bike lanes is being forced on everybody due to what numbers?...a tiny minority.
Last Saturday I was headed South going 'up' Crouch St North with the bike-lane on the Eastern side (to my left) and parking lane with bike lane outside that, on the Western side (to my right)...(we drive on the left in Ostraya-Ed))...and so the 'centre line' is now well to the Eastern side...there was a car parked just up from the roundabout, effectively stradling the bike-lane line, forcing me to cross into the oncoming lane by nearly a metre...then 50 metres on were 2 'lycraed amateurs' wobbling up the hill on bikes.
I've seen some schoolkids riding up/down those lanes, but never before recreational riders...and despite having their own designated lane, they were riding side-by-side...(which is apparently legal-Ed)...apparently...having a chat, meaning the outside rider took up a meter of the 'driving lane', forcing me to go onto the other side of the centre line, again, by that 1m...a minor inconvenience given the relatively wide road with good visibility and no pedestrians.
But apply this to the Penola Rd bikelanes currently being implemented/installed...as per previous posts, the design as presented shows a bike lane along either roadside, with a broad (2m?) painted median strip being promoted as a safety feature for pedestrians...if this design if followed as presented, when cars are parked along the 'bikelane' all traffic, going both ways will be driving nearly a metre onto that proposed pedestrian zone...as the road is currently configured traffic passes only a metre apart so I don't know where the transport Dept plans to find this extra 2m.
Despite the advanced stupidity of the whole bikelane plan, I still find the most hilarious thing about this situation Mt Gambier City Council whinging and complaining about how the state government/Transport Dept don't listen to them...
Sorry, I'm going to close because my Internet connection is cutting out repeatedly... I have received a letter from the Housing Trust Residents Assoc repeating the claims made a fortnight ago by alleged Independent Don Pegler that the Liberal party will ditch people out of housing and/or force 'spare bedrooms' to be utilised or payed extra for...with a number of identical sentences to Don's letter and a shiny flyer saying in big red writing 'Warning' and 'If not, don't vote Liberal in March'...more,
Tomorrow: Housing Trust letter
And sorry the other letters stuff as well...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters
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