We have a left wing for the rich and a right wing for the rich. We are a rich country. We have immigrants come for $$$ and to work hard, not for labour laws. We have poorer people left to chose which is better for them ,of course none of them are, but at least the right are not so judgemental, get enough of that from the religous nutters already.

Scout. You see the thing is that you can be a right brain thinker and not vote Liberal. Just like you can be a left brain thinker and not vote Labor.

Who you vote for doesn’t always depend on your learning style and way of thinking. The most defining factor that determines which party people vote for is what party is going to be more financially worthwhile for their needs.

I believe that a creative artist that is earning mega bucks will probably vote Liberal. But a creative artist who has not been able to make it in the Artist world and is broke, they will most likely vote Labor because they need access to financial assistance and welfare.

The alchemist.... right brain people might be thinkers – but, your right, it doesn’t mean they are all good

Is admitting failure to understand the first thing we all need to get positive politics?

One thing, that James admits failing to appreciate, and not understanding, is the artificial distinction between politics of the “Left” and “Right”. Also 'Scout' asks: "How can we have positive politics when politics are beholden to big business?"

'Tubley' concludes "Education is the answer." But surely after a century of "universal" education, Australians should be seeing the answer to such questions!

'Alchemist' wrote that "the particularly disgusting aspects of our current system ... is the federal ‘compulsory preferential’ voting system ... It is unbelievable, and yet over the years it has remained unrecognised by most voters and practically unpublicised." Is that so "unbelievable"? How can something "particularly disgusting" remain "practically" unpublicised? What debate has been publicised - however little?

Well, for those who do not remember, Albert Langer opened such a debate. Most voters would have not eard of it except that Albert was so disgusted that he defied the judge who tried to stop him from showing how our votes will not end up where we had no intention. His jailing was widely publicised but how many knows what has happened since? Its is considerable, but it is not publicised even though plenty of reporters and editors have been informed. If its practically unpublicised, why?

Piers Akerman once told me he thinks reporters and editors are often intimidated. If intimidated, how? Here's my theory.

Like many of us, reporters and editors are intimidated because they are loathe to admit their own failure to understand. That's likely if they have been "educated" to think they do understand! Its doubly likely if they see themselves as elite commentators rather than humble reporters.

Any reporters and editors reading this are encouraged to comment, particularly if they have facts that contradict my theory.

Bloody Garden Gnomes, My Granny had one she called Red Herring.

Positive Thinking in Today’s World.

The above title brings many things to mind. Get Big or Get Out in economics is still in vogue from the early eighties, as we see big companies like BHP and Billeton absorbing each other. We see Big W in our Hall’s Head Mandurah taking over a smallish liquor store before Christmas extending the joint and stacking it with a million bucks worth of mixed beers and liquors, the place soon stacked with lines of customers coming in from God Knows Where. “Economies of scale, me lud,” says a wise Brit migrant to a dumb bush Aussie, “And don’t you know that Woolies has got shares in the big grog companies where they can buy wholesale at special rates. You gotta wake up, me lud and buy their shares.”

How different the concept of Positive Thinking is these days than when Dr Vincent Peale insisted that the power of positive thinking was all about morality - meaning your positive thinking was really only about doing good for others, sort of Sermon on the Mount and Good Samaritan kind of stuff.

But, hell, James, here we are now making bosom friends with our old sworn enemy - communist China, with the promise of buying our pitstock proceeds for years to come. No worries about the Tibetans right now - it’s all forgotten. Already we have our consumers contented with low-priced Chinese imports, especially as such saving keeps inflation down, our government gaining popularity by taking the credit for it.

Here with so much needed patriotism owing to the fear of terrorism which even the CIA says is mostly just blowback caused by trying to get rid of communism in the first place, and gaining a bit of stratagem and contraband on the side as is surely going to happen in Iraq.

But does James mean to let our thoughts become positive as we appreciate such encouraging words from our PM because we are backed to the full by the US of A, the greatest power the world has ever seen.

Part Two

It seems that to be personally positive these days is not the way of Vincent Peale, but by having faith in our PM’s favourite religous group, Hillside Pentecostal, knowing that like similar groups in America they have faith in the Rapture and a Second Coming, possibly even comfortable about the ever increasing terrorism, part of a sign of the Endtimes as predicted by St John the Divine.

Does the new positive thinking mean like the message from our government to be wary of philosophers, who are warning that much of out thinking has not only gone back into the 19th century, but much further back into those BC years when a Greek philosopher said the world was not flat but round and possibly speculated on a single solar system with earth as its centre, thus the leaders of our Christian Church in the early AD years were able to abuse this theory by making it part of a Revelation, that our good earth was surely the centre of the universe.

The same sort of people could be those who have so much faith in our government policies, and will not believe the news that the focus in the Middle East is now turned to Iran, because Iraq according to a Google report, is turning into an ever deepening terror-ridden quicksand.

Also the Israelis could be ahead of the Americans in their planning, already said to be setting up sites in Kurdish northern Iraq, right close to the Iranian border. The Google report says there is a danger that if the Iranian nuclear works have become secretly active, a bombing might set off a reaction far worse than Chernobyl. It also seems that China is backing Iran, because Iran’s high-grade petroleum is so much needed