All Fired Up

I'm normally one for prudent behaviour, but sometimes you have to compromise your principles. I didn't watch any of the New Year's Eve coverage, but of course heard all about it this morning, about how Tex Perkins 'stunned' viewers when he took to the stage, turned towards Kirribili House, and shouted, 'This one's for the Prime Minister!', as he flipped the bird and then launched into the old Cruel Sea hit The Honeymoon is Over.

You know something? I'm completely with Tex on this.

How can I not be? The country is on fire. Experts tried to warn Scotty from Marketing back in May, but did he listen? No! Whilst he deemed it too unimportant to take advice on harm minimisation strategies for bushfires, he did all he could to push his odious Freedom of Religion Bill. We already have rights when it comes to religion, and not being discriminated against. What he seems to want is the right for people to use their faith to discriminate against others. It's stupid to use your faith to discriminate against others. ('I'm not baking you a cake for your same-sex wedding because it goes against my religious beliefs.' 'Fine, you bigot, I'll take my business elsewhere, and tell my friends about it, who will in turn take their business elsewhere. Go broke. See if I care'). That flippantly toned scenario in the parentheses is one thing, but it concerns me that medical and mental health services could be denied to a person in need, on the bases of the religious beliefs of service providers.

Furthermore, the clown pissed off to Hawaii, and had the temerity to compare cutting into the holiday with his family (by all of 45 minutes, so it would seem)  to the decision of a plumber to take on an extra emergency job on Christmas Eve. I have no problem with the Prime Minister having a holiday, but this is a national crisis. It's not a clogged-up dunny spouting effluence on Christmas Eve.

The NSW Government cut funding to fire services, and hey presto! - the frigging State is now alight! I'm in my fifties, and I cannot recall it being this bad. People have died. We have lost an astronomical number of wildlife.  For weeks, the air has been redolent of smoke. I woke up today feeling like I was hungover, and I only had one beer last night. Yeah, I'm angry.

New Year's Day has a sad association for me. It is on this day twenty-seven years ago that my mother, surrounded by her children and her many siblings, and with my father by her side, took her last breath. I remember the raspy sound of my Dad's stubble as he rubbed Mum's hand against his cheek. My parents are now together. I miss them today. However, I have my own family now, and when I look at the young men they have grown into, I am filled with pride and wonder (and occasionally horror because, I will admit, they can be ratbags). I have family and friends, and will likely catch up with some friends later for a New Year's toast, and a swim.

I'm off to read the book I treated myself for Christmas: Identity Crisis by Ben Elton. I'm liking the satirical look at the chronically offended hashtag generation.

Happy New Year, Reader.