And it begins. The government wants to start randomly drug testing welfare recipients in Sydney's south-west region. I've said it before, and I guess I will have to say it again because clearly the government is not listening to me. I am aware I am embodying the pinnacle of arrogance in my belief the government should listen to me, but I daresay I will have to wear it Look, you pack of turds, this is going to achieve nothing. What is the point to doing this? The majority of the more noxious drugs actually leave the system quite quickly, so by the time you caught up with some random and subjected said random to a drug test, the result yielded would be negative. Waste of time and money, and frankly something of an infringement of civil liberties. There is no reason to test somebody. A lot of people have a problem with alcohol. That's a drug, too. What if the person you test is over the limit? What then? Oh, that's right, you're getting tax dollars from alcohol. Fat soluble drugs like cannabis tend to hang around in the system for a while, but so fucking what? A person could have had a smoke a few weeks ago, and owing to the properties of tetrahydocannabinol, there could still be traces that would show up, even though a person is unlikely to be 'affected', and probably has had no craving for Tim Tams in weeks. This testing is just such a needless lot of bullshit. Compromise an addict's welfare, and watch the crime rate rise, when people are stealing to afford their habit. And for those of you who complain that you have to be drug tested in the workplace, big whoop. You're tested for safety reasons; your decision to ingest drugs could compromise the safety of one of your workmates. Bitching that YOU have to be tested so therefore OTHERS have to be tested is like me griping that I don't have a butt like Beyoncé, so therefore nobody else can, either.
I watched some talking heads on television this morning saying they should be tested because it's 'our money' they're receiving as a subsidy upon which to live. No. Once they receive it, it's theirs. Also, welfare recipients pay tax in the form of GST, and many welfare recipients have found themselves in
the unenviable position of being that way after having paid tax for many years. So spend the money elsewhere, government. Does the testing agency have a vested interest in the government? Are they donors to the Liberal Party? Jus' wonderin'. Oh, who am I kidding? Youthful street slang doesn't sit well with me. I am curious about this. Ah, that's better.
Life's been a bit overwhelming of late. I've still got to finalise the edit to my upcoming novel 'Howling On A Concrete Moon'. I've been in a malaise brought about by some misjudgement of my own, but also actions of people who really are the skidmarks in the underpants of humanity. These are people who've had no conjugal joy since Operation Desert Storm, and who suck the joy from life with the ferocity of an imploding black hole. I'm hoping the situation will resolve in my favour soon. It's making me very despondent.
I addressed my current malaise by treating myself to an hour at a local pub on Saturday night, to watch a band. I enjoyed this band. I enjoy any band whose repertoire consists of very competent performances of numbers by AC/DC, Ted Nugent, Free, Bad Company, The Angels, and Deep Purple. I do not enjoy someone who is pissed out of his skull trying to engage me in conversation; I could not hear over the sound of the band and what I did hear was as boring as dried bat guano on the floor of a cave. Except the constant refrain of: 'I saw you here a coupla years back. You were wearing a green dress and boots.' Yes. That would have been me. I do have a greenish dress and I do usually wear boots when I go out to this pub because I walk there. I did not know whether to be flattered at having clearly made such an impression, or creeped out that I might have an obsessed stalker.
No comments:
Post a Comment