Sunday Sanity Break 10 September 2017 - Finals Season
Politics is so very awful at present. Barnaby Joyce is lambasted at every opportunity, Blackout Bill Shorten keeps trying to thwart any good idea on how to keep the lights on and the coalition is still 6 points behind Labor on two party preferred terms.
Treasurer Scott Morrison on The Insiders today was in his now normal grinning hyperactive hyperdrive mode. 'No wonder people have stopped saving' he remarked, totally ignoring the question about household debt, which possibly is Australia's greatest risk factor. The Treasurer is however pleased that (modest) growth is being maintained by (very modest) business investment and (very generous) government spending. He is pleased that global growth is picking up, not noting the corollary that global interest rates will rise. When Aussie rates rise, heavily over-indebted Aussie households will go broke in droves. Coalition Kaput!
Adam Smith and David Hume
Thanks to AFR for review of book on these two great men.
' When Smith complained that evening at the cruelty of the world in taking him from them, Hume replied: "No, no. Here am I, who have written on all sorts of subjects calculated to excite hostility, moral, political, and religious, and yet I have no enemies; except, indeed, all the Whigs, all the Tories, and all the Christians."
'With Thomas Hobbes, Hume has good claim to be considered the greatest philosopher ever to have written in English, while Smith is widely regarded as "the father of economics". But even these descriptions underplay the measure of their achievements, for Hume must also be counted one of the greatest of historians, and Smith with equal justice the father of sociology.'
Kulture
Fiona Prior brings you the tip of the iceberg with regards to the very black comedic horror that is Taylor Mac’s HIR. More here
The sporting life
On Friday night, Henry watched one of the great games of footy. For two and a half quarters Richmond ground Geelong into the damp turf at the 'G'. The Tigers were two goals ahead in what was surely the lowest scoring game since the early days of Australian footy. Geelong at one stage scored a couple of quick goals to catch up, and the Tigers went into overdrive. Goal after goal poured from the Tiger boots as they thrashed a humiliated Geelong.
Richmond are now positioned as a feared contender and, like Hawthorn Geelong's modern era at the top is OVER. 'It's a changing of the guard' exclaimed Bert, and he was correct.
The other stunning game occurred in Adelaide overnight. Port Adelaide and West Coast finished a tough encounter 60 points each.
The rules allowed an extra 10 minutes after a brief rest. For most of the time it seemed that Port would win, but its two goals, 4 points was an ominous portent. A fierce scrimmage in front of the West Coast goal produced a free kick for a West Coast player for being grabbed round the neck as the final siren blew. Said player went back and slotted West Coast's third goal to win the game. What fun to watch as an independent supporter of a team (Caaaaarlton!) outside the finals.
In other games, Adelaide flogged GWS and Sydney buried Essendon. These games went according to general expectations, but the size of each defeat will have inflicted serious pain and in the case of the Giants serious thought before next weekend's elimination game.
NRL Rugby saw two close results. The Roosters edged out the Broncos. The Storm edged out the Eels. The Panthers beat the Sea Eagles. Today the Sharks meet the Cowboys, and, frankly, Henry doesn't care a FFF (Flying French F**K) so long as the Melbourne Storm wins the trophy.
The other National Rugby team, from the code what ditched the Force from Perth, played South Efrika in Perth. While our lads did not live up to their form last week against the mighty All Blacks, their draw was a better result. Henry likes watching Rugby, having played one game at school in which he hardly troubled the ball, and fortunately Mrs Thornton is unruffled by his near-manick watching of various codes of footy.
The game of futball against Thailand was equally gripping to the two Aussie rules games already mentioned. The gallant Thais defended brilliantly and then counter-attacked with great zest. Finally Australia scored a goal, after which Thailand replied. Australia then scored again to secure a very hard-fought win but not by a big enough margin to secure automatic entry to the world cup.
As a complete ignoramus about futball, Henry's view is that the new 4 striker set-up was part of the problem. It seemed to Henry that four superstars was one too many as they competed with each other rather than the Thais as they peppered the goals - with (apparently) 43 very near misses. Or else God was against Australia, lending support to the theory that she is actually one of the Asian deities.
The Aussie cricket team came good in the second test to beat the brave Bangladeshies thank to very patience batting by Warner, Smith and Handscomb and brilliant off spin bowling by Lyon. He now truly is a GOAT and will never again be dropped lightly as on some occasions in the past. Opening the bowling at the Gabba in the first game in the coming Ashes series would be a surprise that might just give the Poms a big fright. An Asian deity would of course allowed Bangladesh to win, or at least make it rain on days 4 and 5, so that kills that theory.
Check out the six questions settled in Bangladesh.
Image of the week
