The Rant Thread...

[Squirt]

Unless she takes that as an even greater insult and never speaks to you again. I'd prob pretend nothing had happened, eventually she'll prob bring it up, even if it's months later and you can just say, "Yeah, don't you just love spare of the moment decisions! We only decided to go out like 20 mins before we left!" or something, I dunno.

[Lucy]

Thanks peeps - so great to have somewhere to rant! Nothing further has been said and flatmate seems fine now. *shrug* Twas just one of those odd nights.

[Arctic Firefox]

squirt said:

I work in the disability field and have a sister with a disability and they haven't done anything more than take more and more money away from people with disabilities in the last ten years! As you mentioned they brought in the new industrial relations laws (grrrrrrrr), the GST and as far as I know, I don't really pay too much attention when this story comes up in the news *blushes* but they sold Telstra! And don't even get me started on Iraq! Pah!

Not to mention the AWB scandal - which it seems the government knew everything about. Oh, and Tony Abbott suggesting that church groups can give better (and unbiased, yeah right) abortion counselling than independent groups also ticks me off.

I don't quite understand it either - Andrew Robb (Liberal) is my local MP and he is a complete loser. He voted against the RU-486 bill because it would lead to more abortions, despite the fact that other countries have shown it actually reduces the number. He's very paternalistic, and you can be sure I'll be working as hard as I can to return the seat to Labor in 2007. This is a safe liberal seat, but I think his far-right stances on these matters may help overcome the 10% swing he has for him. Either way, Labor has to shape up and stop being such wusses.

I'm wondering whether (after being severely disappointed in the Dems) I should join Labor or the Greens. The advantage about joining Labor is that I might be able to join forces with those who want the party to stop sucking up to Howard, and actually do something about it. On the other hand, a strong Greens showing would force Labor to move to the left in order to regain their voters. Hmm, any thoughts?

[Squirt]

Considering I've definately ruled out voting for the Dems (they're still stuck in that hole that dug themselves several years ago) and the libs I'm having a similar dilemma. Our State election is coming up really soon too.

I can't believe they would say that church groups would have better abortion counselling than independant groups! I mean no offence to those religions (I'm religious myself) but you don't have to be brilliant to realise that church groups can be a little (Note the sarcasm) biased when it comes to certain issues, abortion in particular! Surely it should be a collaboration of groups, people who are for, people who are against and people who are more in the middle. Plus, people who are all anti-religion or follow a different religion aren't too likely to listen to a church group.

[Arctic Firefox]

At the end of the day, you're deciding about your upper house seat more than anything else. Even if you vote Greens in your constituency, you have to preference one of the major parties anyway, and they will end up with your vote (unless there's a massive primary). I suppose the better option would be the Greens for me, because I'm strongly in favour of a new electoral system similar to what several European nations have: total all the votes nationally and allocate seats by percentage. I.e. a party with 10% of the votes would receive 10% of the seats, regardless of where those votes came from. You can imagine how many seats this would lose the Liberals and Labor, so I'm sure they won't be suggesting such a thing, ever.

[Siryn]

I have no idea about politics. I never know who to vote for! i feel they never properly explain what their goals are but instead continue to tell everyone how bad everyone else is. if i do find information, i have trouble understanding the language they use, it seems to be written as if its going around in circles.

[Arctic Firefox]

It's a pity no one has created an Australian "stemwijzer". I would, only I don't have anywhere near the computer skills necessary. Anyway, the Dutch "stemwijzer" or "voting guide" asked you 30 simply-formulated but challenging questions, and you had to answer "Agree" "Neutral" "Disagree" or "No Opinion", and then decide whether you wanted to emphasise certain issues at the end of the list. The programme would then compare your opinions to those of the political parties, and show you which one you agreed with the most.

There was an English version for the European Parliament elections, let's see if I can find it ... no, they've taken it down. A pity.

Having said that, there are Australian websites that give you an indication as to which party represents your views best.

They are:

www.gravett.org/yobbo/quiz/quiz.htm

and

www.ozpolitics.info/blog/index.php?page_id=206

[Squirt]

That's a great idea, especially if it told you where the preferences went, that's the bit i find a little confusing, only because some of them take ages to decide.

[Siryn]

that was interesting, if they're accurate then i sorta have an idea about where i stand in political terms.

[Elondriel]

Brief rant.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

was getting ready 2 go out last nite n was straighening my hair. finished first section n had just started on 2nd when my hair drier blew up! N thanks 2 uni text books ive no money 2 get new 1 atm.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Swallow]

Okay, i admit i'm more conservative than most that don't vote Liberal, but that quiz told me i was more likely to vote Family first than Liberal by a good 20%!!! No where in that quiz did it ask me about religion! Nor about fanatical fundamentalism. That, and it said i was most likely to vote for the Greens. Silly, silly, silly quiz

[Dameon]

You should NEVER vote based on what a website says to you! The best way to decide is to watch the news regularly, read the papers, and decide over a longer period what you believe is the best thing.

Those two quizzes seemed inadequate, and Flit's right, neither of them mentions religion, which can be an important factor. I think that second one is biased towards the Greens, too. It seems to put an inproportianate number of people there.

Have you tried the Political Compass, Flit? Its much more comprehensive, and includes questions about religion. It's the original version of that first quiz, and puts you on the spectrum of "left-right" and "authoritarian-libertarian". Of course, you can't really summarise a person's political views that way, but it's still interesting.

www.politicalcompass.org/

I, incidentally, come drastically to the left of Nelson Mandela, and even further below the Dalai Lama...

All: COMMIE!!!!!! RAVING PINKO, SOCIALIST, LEFTIE ANARCHIST!!!

Bite me...

Anyway, give it a try. It's kinda fun (although also slightly disturbing... am I really THAT socialist?)

[shinigami]

I'm (-6,-3.69)... but I didn't understand some of the questions lol

[Lucy]

Economic Left/Right: -3.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.36

Hmm, I've surprised myself...

[Dameon]

Okay... so...

Guys who shout stuff at you from a moving car. Why?

Do they not realise that I can't hear a word they're saying when they zoom past me at 80kph? Do they not care? All it ever does is leave me standing there confused, going "Um... okay... what the hell was that?"

Is it to look cool? Cool to who? Everyone else in the car is doing it. They only do it in groups. It certainly doesn't appear cool to those OUTSIDE the car, both recipient and witnesses. They usually just look confused.

Testosterone? Possibly, but I've seen girls do it too.

It's a total mystery...

[Kangaruth]

What am I, a secretary?

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. My (deputy) supervisor has somehow decided that I'm here purely to do the things she can't be bothered to. Like, book rooms for meetings, take minutes in those meetings, set up the video conferencing and now she wants me to write an email complaining because the system for booking meeting rooms is rubbish. I don't mind the first three, because it's only occasionally and doesn't take much of my time, but the last? I'm her student, not her slave! She wants to complain about something, she should do it herself!

*goes off to meekly write complaining email*

Edit: Nyargh! Apparently I did it wrong. Or possibly there is a big problem somewhere.

[Siryn]

Write a really insulting email in CAPS and sign her name on the end.

[Lucy]

Aw, that sucks, Kangaruth.

Edit: Nyargh! Apparently I did it wrong. Or possibly there is a big problem somewhere.

Ugh! You should've used that as an excuse to shout: "Well, maybe you should just do it yourself then, biatch!" I did that once at work. It kicked major ass and I felt great afterwards. Plus, the person stopped treating me like a total skivvy which meant I could do my actual job much more efficiently. Although, I'm sure that strategy wouldn't work on everyone and may lead to firing...so be careful how you use that special tactic!!
Hope you get it sorted soon

[Kangaruth]

Oh, I'd love to - I can just imagine her face! - but I don't think that would go down very well! Especially since I'm relying on her to help me get my PhD. And I guess helping your supervisor is part of being a graduate student. Plus, I think she'd shout back, probably in Russian - she's very scary and Eastern-European. My current tactic is being downright incompetent. If she can't trust me with simple tasks she'll just leave me alone.

[Lucy]

Oh dear...yes, perhaps feigning incompetence is the best course of action then. I'd definately be more intimidated by a scary woman shouting at me in Russian...I was just up against a middle aged barrister who was stuck up his own arse, so it wasn't that bad!
Good luck with the plan!

[Swallow]

Work place relations my a$s! I am so goddamned tired of office politics! I'm there for four hours on a Saturday and because i spoke up at that STUPID work place relations thing they made us go to, i have now been pushed to one side. Because i can't keep my GODDAMNED MOUTH SHUT it's so watering canning STUPID can't these people act like adults? is it too hard??

[Arctic Firefox]

Of course you shouldn't let quizzes determine how you vote. Especially the Australian ones, none of which are designed by an independent body. The Dutch one I was trying to find the English version of was far more reliable because they actually had people from each of the parties fill in the quiz according to their programmes, and then based their results on that.

The political compass is okay-ish, but I have serious issues with it. To begin with, they ask you some incredibly stupid questions - the one on Astrology springs to mind: "Astrology accurately predicts many things" (or something like that). Come on! I think astrology is rubbish, but what does this have to do with anything? Also, the grid is a bit vague - where are the centrists? But it's an okay quiz as far as it goes.

The Self-Gov quiz, run by Libertarians, is too short, but I like their political map more.

www.self-gov.org/quiz.html

Coincidently, I am:

Self-gov quiz: LEFT-LIBERAL - 90% Personal, 30% Economic

Political Compass: Economic Left: -7.00; Libertarian: -7.13

Australian Political: Economic Freedom = 7; Social Freedom = 13

Oz Politics Blog Test: Greens 93.7%, Australian Democrats 69.5%, Labor Party 62.5%, Family First 23.6%, Liberal Party 17.8%, National Party 10.8%, One Nation 25.8%

Sounds about right - I've been stable in those areas for the last few years.

In a way, determining your political alignment has a lot to do with gut-feelings. I know I probably belong to the Greens, but if Labor would make a significant swing to the left, I would consider joining them first because they'll be able to make a bigger impact on Australia. The only way I see that happening is if Beazley goes and someone like Gillard takes over, but really, Labor is probably dead in the water for the next few years.

[Dark One]

My Rant is about cars! (and Autoplanet where i bought it from)

With all the trouble i've had with my Golf, i've now found out that its probably screwed!

I sent it in to get the rear wheels aligned, and the garage couldn't align them. They told me it looks like the cars been in a few accidents in the past as there are quite a number of new components underneath! They told me to take it to a bodyshop, get it put on a bodyjig and check the chassis alignment! That'll cost me a fortune!

So far since i've had that car i've had he following things go wrong with it:

The heated rear window failed
The heated drivers door mirror failed (twice! as the one the garage fitted fell out)
The solenoid that locks the petrol flap shut failed
The handle on the drivers arm-rest broke
the lambda sensor (the device that sorts out the fuel/air mixture) failed, causing my car to only do about 250miles to a tank.
The fuel and ecu system had to be reprogrammed.

All replaced under warranty fortunately (apart from the handle)

I also found that three wheelnuts were loose on one of the front wheels a week or so after buying it. And now this!

I can't sell it privately, so i'll have to sell it to a motortrader. I'll probably only get about £3000 for it. I paid £9000 for it in August 04, and its now worth about £5500.

I could just as easily torch it and claim of the insurance for all i care about it now!

Autoplanet are complete bastards! It always took about three or four attempts to get them to fix anything, and my warranty doesn't cover accident damage!

I'll just get rid of it and get my other car on the road (its a 1990 Vauxhal Cavalier that only cost m £160 on eBay)

[Squirt]

I hate it when you buy a car and EVERYTHING goes wrong! The same thing happened to me a couple of years ago! Something seemed to break every couple of days! If I knew enough about cars to remember what went wrong I'd list them, but well, all I know is that it was red. It got to the point where the car would rarely start, would stop if I accelerated too quickly, broke too suddenly or made the revs go under 1000, it got broken into a couple of times too and was a magnet for police (I kept having my registration and stuff checked - don't know what that was all about). I also crashed it three times (none of them my fault I swear!).

But, yeah, the point is I know how you feel DO, Hopefully you manage to find a solution to your probs (mine was a looooooooooong loan and a lovely new dual fuel car), my condolences, Good luck.

[Dark One]

Thank you Squirt

I shall hopfuly get rid of it sometime next week as its due for a service, cambelt change and MOT next month. I'm not paying out for that lot too! My other car just needs a headlight, a tyre and road tax to make it legal