Rat Whistle politics

Izzie spends her morning slinking about the dials in search of the elusive ABC news radio. See - Izzie is now a wannabee News Radio junkie. And today we had the promise of lots of tasty morsels. Firstly - the Rat had been running around with the thumbscrews and working out his little fingers on the Phone of Doom ringing the various State Leaders and regaling them with spooky stories and ironclad guarantees and promises.

And then there was the minor matter of the introduction of the "Arbeit macht Fair" bill (also known as SerfChoices 2005) So things were looking most promising indeed.
But then - we get a tasty delicious snippet beyond our wildest dreams.

Our fearless leader and most Prime Mendaciousss has received an urgent memo from the Spooks in ASIO revealling a most imminent real and present danger of a terrorist attack! Facts and figures no doubt provided by the same source that warned us of all those nasty evil weaponses in Iraq and evil baby eating boat people.

An amendment to the present legislation was of the utmost urgency and the Senate has to be recalled tomorrow to add their rubber stamp on it.
But the nature of this danger - oh no. We can't tell you that. Commercial in Confidence. Just trust meeee. I'm an honest man. Would I lie to you?
Oh of course - this hairy scary spook stuff just happens to be revealed the same day that the King of Commonwealth Rats is trying to get agreement from at least four of the seven state leaders on his amended Abolition of Liberty Bill - the Bill that he wanted rushed through the Reichstag on the same day as the Melbourne Cup but got delayed due to pesky Snivel Libertarian concerns of these lilly livered Labour state leaders.

It just happens to be the very same day that the Minister for the management of House elves introduces the latest industrial relations reform legislation. They have spent at least $$100 million of taxpayers money telling us all how wonderful it will be and how these new laws will turn Oz into a worker's paradise. (Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your right to choose) but they somehow could not manage to find the silver sickles to print out 60 copies for the representatives of the other parties - (must use the word 'other' as while this party is technically the Labour party and is in opposition - in reality they are nothing of the sort)

Of course, the bumbling baboon and leader of the federal labour party (Kim Beazley) - when the Rat blows his whistle, he stands to attention and grovels obediently to his Lord and Master. In fact he bends over so far backwards to please him that his nose is up his nether regions.

Izzie thinks - Oh my God. They really must think we are all stupid. But then got to thinking. You know what? They are right. For the last ten years the Rat has been blowing his 'interest rates and national security' whistle and all the lemmings march into line at the voting booth.
He has consistently been rewarded for such shameless use of scare tactics. And as even Supernanny could tell you - behaviour that gets rewarded gets repeated.
We cannot help but think there is a method behind the madness of taking texts such as Animal Farm and 1984 off the school curricula across the various states. Soon such subversive stuff will be declared as degenerate art and locked away safe from vulnerable young minds and kept in its rightful place with the rest of the Rat's Re-election resource materials.

Oh and bombed out Beazley is also big into book burnings too.
So between abolition of unfair dismissal protection for the majority of house elves, reductions in the minimim wage, detention without trial and the most all encompassing definition of sedition imaginable - this will be all wrapped up and rubberstamped by the Reichstag by the end of November. Or even just in time for the Reichskristalnacht anniversary celebrations - next Wednesday. Oh - assuming of course it has not been burnt down by then by those nasty nasty Muslim terrorists

So it seems that the Australian Electorate turkeys have well and truly voted for Christmas.

The Garden of Arcane Delights

Izzie potters past for a quick squiggle in the nasty netcafe. It was so so nice to have most of the day with the Preciousss and to peek about online and snatch lots of pretty piccies of rats and other undesirable creatures.

Izzie is a most slushy sentimental of serpents. Not only do we indulge in certain anniversaries based on dates like most normal folks - but never missing an excuse for a snakefest - the Iz also considers that any occasion sharing the same day and date as the original of the species is also worthy of celebrating. This year we hit the jackpot and had three months where the 2nd was on a Wednesday. Unfortunately we were working for the first two and it rained both days anyway so we stayed at home. But today was different. Glorious sunny crisp and crunchy day. Not that Izzie ever needs an excuse to visit her favorite lunatic asylum but today was certainly one of them.
(gotta make the most of it as next year will be only one Wednesday falling on the 2nd of any month)

Got up around 7ish and pottered about in the garden and cleaned out one of the garden sheds. Uncle Vernon has been laying down slabs at the side of the house and it would be most mean indeed to expect him to empty the woodshed too.
Was listening to the radio the whole time and was most gobsmacked indeed with stacks and stacks of horseshit piled higher and deeper than possibly imaginable.

The grand plan was to pack a picnic, slink off to get the bus at 10.30 and spend until 2pm at the Angels' Cafe before slinking off to the Gardens of Arcane Delights and lurking there until closing time.
Izzie had her green hat and serpent necklace and other accessories and was bringing in the bins shortly before slinking off when a big black car comes cruising down the street. Who was it but the ma and pa. Got them hidden pretty quickly in case they decided to go for a quick snatch. And if Petunia seen our scaly snakie she'd surely have a heart attack right on the spot.
She had come with him in order to admire his handiwork and we must admit - it does look rather neat and pretty (Not very Izzie) but was most surprised and shocked to see the Texas chainsaw massacre out the back where he had gone on a hedge slashing fit.

They did not stay too long but long enough for us to have well and truly missed our bus and therefore one precious hour of pottering time until the next one at 11.30 but that was before Iz remembered that there's also buses on the hour on the days when the university is open. So we had in the end lost only 30 minutes after all.
While waiting for the Orange Cat bus that goes to St Brutus, Izzie seen a most interesting book in an op shop window (same place we got our evil green serpent hat many moons ago) It was none other than "The Grinch who stole Christmas" Izzie so so loves that story - not the slushy twee happy little Hollywood ending of the movie but the original of the species. So so gorgeous. And the cutest thing - some of the piccies of the Grinch looked positively Ratty! Must copy the said pages and send it off to Mr Leunig - he could do all sorts of inspired things with it. Izzie may just amuse herself over the next week composing new words for the Oz 2005 edition.

It was so so gorgeous sitting in the sun near our favorite tree. Decided that Wednesday 2nd is the perfect occasion to indulge in the changing of the guard where we bring along both our current spiral green notebook and the new one. We then find a nice long wand size twig that is thin enough to fit along the spiral spine as well as a leaf or two for the first page. There's also the business of moving various bits of paper such as letters and cards. Izzie likes to keep correspondence from her special friendses in her little green notebook. Oh and there's also a tattered page detailing the adventures of a certain very special Rat. That one always jumps from one spiral notebook to the other. A special guest of honour so to say.
It is so nice to have a fresh crisp and crunchy secret diary. Is only a pity that we had to return to using black ink because the green stuff had started to make the nib all scratchy. Will need to remember to bring the bottle for refilling when we go for our weekend away to the Bridgetown country gardens spring festival this weekend.
Also deciding what book we shall bring with us to read on the train or in cafes. Last year was Shadowmancer which turned out to be a dreadful waste of a most gorgeous weekend. Or rather - when we reread the book again we remember where wwe were last time and this book was so damned pathetic that we did not even finish it the first time let alone read it again.
So looking forward to smelling the roses. Must be off now. Going to lurk about in the garden basking in the mystical new moonlight ;)