I vote we all go to Colin James' home for a party. Given his philosophy I'm sure it will be unlocked when we arrive, have dope growing in the spare bedroom and Colin will arrive, sans seatbelt, in a car with bald tyres after his latest BASE jump. Of course he'll have ignored advice to watch his weight and probably still smokes 40 a day--stoopid health warnings.

Colin, people may be more aware and protective, possibly over reaching in this respect. It's the problem of listening to the mob who tell you how to live. But hang on Colin, aren't you one of those people with all the advice too?

Colin please stop your Corporate Training and let your clients get involved in their own training, Let them drive their own trucks under the bridge they invested their capital in doing their chosen enterprise or do they they need to be bottle-fed.In these "Risk Management" times with the catch cry of "Public Liability" a lot of the fun,excitement and trepidation has been smothered out of various activities.

We in Western Australia have had a spate of fatal road accidents in the past week and one our "Harvest Terrace" wonders comes out and wishes all drivers to undergo ten-yearly tests of their driving competence. As soon as someone dies in a road accident a bed of flowers materialise these days. Some twenty-five years or so ago a teacher and some children got lost and perished in Tasmania. All the states started "Bushwalking and Mountain Climbing Leadership Training courses" and sprouted a whole hive of "expedition trainers" Did James Cook or Ferdinand Magellan have an army of nannies aboard when they did their voyages of reconnaisance or did they venture forth boldly irrespective of the consequences?
In my high school the motto which was that of the Earl of Athlone was "Fearless and Faithful".

Colin, in the era of the elderly truckie, there were less than 10 million people, everyone spoke Aussie, the environment was fine, people weren't packed like sardines into boxes piled on top of each other. You could go to any place in the country and be welcome, all signage was in English. Now we have suburbs where there's no English written or spoken, we have growing religious conflict. Freedom is being curtailed (by bureaucrats) and about two million people living here who can't communicate with us, nor want to.

Our choices have been eroded to only having goods provided by multinational monopolies using slave labour overseas, (bureaucrats did this). Religious nuts from all factions constantly trying to return us to the past of religious enslavement. Constant lies by politicians, lobbyists, advisers, big business and bureaucrats. They Promise a better life but we get worse services, infrastructure, health, lower wages entitlements, higher prices, charged to drive on our roads (not polies, management or the bureaucracy). Our ways of life turned upside down to give power to religious cultural minorities, (more bureaucratic political correctness destroying this country).

Considering the amount of work Colin has done for the elite, I take this as an insult to point out what he has been a party to causing. Just another ploy to try and push the blame away from the elite onto the people. Colin you and your ilk have done this to us, no one else. Lets hope your god rewards you justly.

As for god being dead, I bet 90% of the people of this country would be happy if those who follow the violent fantasy could accept that their god only deals in death and leave him to it somewhere else.

What's going on? Free 'choice' advocates are on a roll. And it's all so individualised and psychologised shying away from any discussion of broad policial or economic context. It's as if free choice sits out there in the ether waiting for the brave to seize the moment. Poor old Peter Costello doesn't seem to understand that sometimes the barrier to your choice is another person's greater power to make a pre-emptive choice against you.

Some irony! Politicians like Costello and Howard repeat ad nausea the mantra, "It's all about choice" to defend the new IR laws, tax-payer subsidies for wealthy private schools, sale of public assets, and so on. Tony Abbott demonstrates a particular skill in using 'choice' without blushing to mean its opposite. 'Choice' is one of the worst of weasel words and it's prudent to make sure your crap-detector is in good working order whenever the weasles are at work.

When will the pro-choicers concede there's a strong interactive relationship between life style and life chances? Choice and freedom don't exist in a socio-economic vacuum and there are obvious limits to individual effort and character when it comes to making important choices such as whether to send your child to Melbourne Grammar or to have your facelift done at The Freemasons' Hospital or to pay full fees for law at Melbourne University or to buy a house in Vaucluse. Lots of decent Australians just never dream of making such choices (or even more modest ones) - not because they are unintelligent or unmotivated, but because they haven't got the money to do so and can see no reasonable prospect of doing so in their lifetime. (I hasten to add that many also decide against such choices for other good reasons.)

Colin, I think you've spent too much time training people. Time to get out and about.

And think about it Colin. If young Timothy and his mates didn't wear knee pads, elbow pads, head protection etc our hospital would be full of those who threw caution to the wind. If you needed to go to hospital you'd have to put in a bid with ebay and you'd probably be told to get ready for your admission...in 2012!

For crying out loud - I say, good on you Colin, time someone out there realised that it is not the doom and gloom situation everyone has been conditioned to think it is.

I see reports all over the place of bad things happening to people, the muggings, the accidents etc. We don't hear about the vast, vast majority of people who make it home fine each night, instead we choose to worry about the few who don't.

I've been to my fair share of nightclubs and walked some dodgy areas, and so have many of my friends - I haven't yet felt fear, and I haven't been in a violent situation - what's more, nobody I know has either (by this I mean in an unprovoked violent situation).

Now, I can worry when I walk at night, or I can walk confidently, happy in the knowledge that it's never happened before.

Okay. So one day I will probably learn otherwise, and suffer for it - but you know what? Until that day happens, I'll know a happy confidence that the fearmongers have been denied, and I think it's damn well worth it.
Whats more, it's vulnerable people that are targeted - so in a way, being confident and happy is a protection.

I can hear you screeching in response, 'just wait until you're a victim'.
Yeah, well, I hope even after I become a victim, I can put that behind me.

Crime is not soaring, and while domestic violence is on the increase, this doesn't seem to be feared in the same way as that 'all terrifying unprovoked attack.'

Well excuse me for having a little optimism. I know it's not all peaches and cream out there, but damnit, it's not the apocalypse either.

Go rollerblading.
Take a skydive.
If you trip and fall on the steps, acknowledge you slipped, and don't try to sue someone to make a quick buck.
And repeat after me 'the world is not about to end, the sun is shining, and things really aren't that bad'.