Commonsense Economics and other stuff

California weighs 'digital adverts' on number plates

2010-06-25T01:20:00.000-07:00

"Moron of the Month" award just has to go to the person who thought-up this idea
California weighs 'digital adverts' on number plates

Under the bill before the state legislature, the California motor vehicles department would have until 2013 to research digital number plates, including the amount of revenue they would raise, restrictions on the messages they display and any impact on traffic safety.

According to a state analysis of the bill, while the vehicle bearing a digital plate is in motion the plate would display the registration number.

But when the vehicle is stopped for four seconds or more, the number would be replaced with a scrolling set of messages including advertisements for private businesses, educational institutions and other organisations that have contracts with the state.

Criminals in California would love this idea.
"Hello 911 some masked men with guns just jumped out of a parked car and ran into the bank"
"Can you tell me the registration number of the car?"
"Yes, it is 'buy vanilla coke now with 20% less sugar'"
"OK Honey just hang about there and wait for the men to come back and drive off, hopefully you will not get shot and will have time to read the real registration number, if the suspects have not interfered with the car's movement sensor"

Wailing Greens tick me off

2010-02-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

I have decided to vote Greens last (along with Liberal and Labor).

I have been extremely unimpressed by the Greens energy policy and housing policy. But the last straw is a moronic piece of legislation proposed by Australian Greens whaling spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert.

http://rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/greens-call-end-aussie-spy-planes-aiding-japanese-whaling

The Australian Greens today introduced a private Senators Bill to ban any form of Australian assistance to Japanese whaling, such as the use of spy planes.

My Bill creates a new offence making it unlawful to provide services, support or resources to an organisation engaged in whaling so the Australian government and local companies can no longer assist Japan's brutal whaling regime," said Australian Greens whaling spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert.

Many Australians were appalled when it was revealed that Australian air services were used by a company with connections to the whalers to assist in this summer's slaughter.

The assistance provided to the whalers was to track the main protest vessel of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society so that a ship from the whaling fleet could hinder the Sea Shepherd's pursuit of the main fleet.

Without the Sea Shepherd on its tail, the main whaling fleet could undertake its mission of killing whales more easily.

In response to the information that the Japanese whaling fleet had hired Australian planes from Hobart and Albany to track the Sea Shepherd ships' movements, Senator Bob Brown committed the Greens to act to ensure no such assistance could be provided in the future.

Firstly, let me say that I do not approve of the killing of whales. I don't eat whale. I don't think there is a humane way of killing whales. I would prefer if the Japanese stopped killing whales. Perhaps we can strike an agreement with them in which they stop killing the whales.

If an Australian does kill a whale I don't mind if that person is punished at my expense. However placing a human in jail for two years is worse than killing a whale - in my opinion.

The Greens are proposing to jail an Australia for two years not for killing an actual whale but for providing any form of help to the Japanese who kill whales. Over-the-top.

The Greens use the example of Australian planes that tracked the movements of an anti-whaling boat. It is ludicrous to jail an Australian for two years for flying a plane that watches a boat that tries to follow and hinder a boat of Japanese that kill whales. I wouldn't jail an Aussie for two weeks for doing that thing. And the Greens want up to two years jail for that "offence".

The last thing we need now is more legislation. Most people have not learned the thousands of pages of laws that we already have. Most police don't know every law that our politicians passed just in the last year. We have so many laws because idiot politicians keep adding poorly thought-out garbage like this whaling bill.

I will not be voting Green again. At the next Federal election I will vote Labor last, Liberal 2nd last and Greens 3rd last. Any other candidate gets my vote ahead of these.

When does paint cost more than carpet?

2009-06-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

Answer: When the NSW tax-payer is footing the bill.
Dragon's teeth to guard school zones
Some quotes from the article:
"THE NSW Government will spend $13 million on new line markings near every one of the state's 10,000 school zones."

"NSW has 3200 schools - but thousands more school zones because many schools have several road boundaries."

"The dragon's teeth markings would be painted on each side of the road for 35 metres at the start of each school zone."

"The program - which has the backing of road safety advocate Ron Delezio - would start this week."

So we have 3200 schools but 10,000 school zone entry points. Government is going to spend $13 million painting marks for 35 metres at the start of each zone. Let's do some calcs.
$13,000,000 for 3200 schools gives $4060 per school.
$13,000,000 for 10,000 zones gives $1300 per zone.
$1300 for a 35 metre length gives $37 per metre. I believe you can buy carpet cheaper than that. You surely can if you buy 350,000 metres of the stuff.

"Mr Daley said flashing lights had been installed in 293 school zones as part of a $46.5 million program that would eventually cover 566 school zones."
That is $82155 per school for flashing lights. Perhaps the painted road is not so expensive after all.

Racism cry is the only weapon

2009-06-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Using typical state Labor spin, with which we in NSW are all too familiar, Victorian Premier John Brumby this week announced his farcical response to the muggings of Indian students in Melbourne's crime-riddled western suburbs: a "Walk for Harmony". Oh, and some "hate crime legislation" to be rushed through Parliament.

But if the Victorian police just did their job, the problem would be solved, without resort to new legislation and bogus symbolism.

The above is not something I wrote but was written by Miranda Devine in her article Racism cry is the only weapon

The Moron of the Month award goes to Victorian Premier John Brumby for his part in the affair.

The situation is not that hard to understand. We just need good basic policing of good basic laws. Hiring some decent police and voting in some decent politicians would make a fine start.

The current system is a decrepit symbiosis between police and politicians:

Lazy police spend their time sucking-up to politicians, providing the bogus statistics the politicians want and providing the bloated fine revenue that the politicians want, instead of doing the basic policing that the public actually wants.

In return the politicians pander to the lazy police by making excuses for any police failure and giving over-the-top new powers to police and anything else they ask for.

Here's the pattern:
* Lazy police allow crime to flourish until incidents alarm the public
* Politicians rush thoughtless laws through Parliament with a flurry of tough proclamations
* Police get an excuse for past failure and get exciting new superpowers to use in future, to make their job even easier.
* Politicians get credit for doing something to tackle this brand-new threat to public safety.

Bikie laws a threat to rights, says Cowdery

2009-05-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

link

THE Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, QC, has condemned the Government's new bikie laws as "very troubling legislation" that could lead to a police state and represent "another giant leap backwards for human rights and the separation of powers - in short, the rule of law".
....
In a paper published on his website, Mr Cowdery says: "There may be a need for better enforcement [rather] than for legal powers."
....
"The spectre of a police state lurks here: an unacceptable slide from the separation of powers

Full text here

Gosh! Who would have thought! Now where else did I read something like that?

Rees Goes Gangbusters

2009-03-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

The "Moron of the Month" award goes to Premier Nathan Rees, a law-writer who seems to think every problem can be solved by writing more laws.

Sydney ambush justifies bikie crackdown
The New South Wales Cabinet will consider new laws to ban motorcycle gangs today.
Under the laws, based on a South Australian crackdown, bikies would immediately be charged and face jail terms if they continue to associate with each other.
Premier Nathan Rees says the latest shooting reinforces the need for the new laws to crack down on bikie gangs.
"This underlines the need for the new laws that we're going to introduce that will prescribe gangs and make it an offence to associate with a gang," Mr Rees said.

The recent flare-up of bikie violence shows that our police force has been slack in that particular area, and is a symptom of the general incompetence of our police force.

The police have taken a soft approach against bikie gangs and have allowed them to get too much money from drugs and now become fearless in their crimes.

The murder in Sydney airport is evidence of their brazen attitude and is further evidence of incompetence of Australian security personnel. I don't expect police to be able to create a crime-free community but I would like a rapid response in such an important place as the airport, and I would also like the security cameras to be in top working condition. I understand that it is impossible to pick-up passengers in the drop-off area of the airport without being fined by security. Yet these goons were unable to stop a man being bashed to death in full public view nearby.

When I left school I checked the minimum school marks needed to undertake various careers. I remember laughing when I saw that the professions needing the lowest marks were teacher and policeman. I'm not laughing now. The dunces so recruited have worked their way through the system and the results are now evident in the quality of policing that we now have.

The community cannot expect perfect law enforcement. We can decide how much we are prepared to pay and how much enforcement we can reasonably get for that expenditure of resources. We must hire police who are smart enough, pay them enough, and then demand they do their job. Our police are now doing a pathetic job, growing fat and lazy pigging-out on easy fines, and putting serious crimes in the too-hard basket. We must demand they do a better job, and if necessary, pay more to get it done competently.

What is not needed is new laws. The Czar of incompetence, Premier Nathan Rees, has decided that the bikie violence proves we need new laws - laws which ban gangs. We do not need new laws. Murder is already illegal. We just need police to enforce the existing laws.

In writing new anti-bikie laws Rees is saying two things:
* Our police are not incompetent, the absence of these laws is the police's excuse for allowing the bikies to get away with crimes.
* Every constitution in history that allows freedom of association is wrong, and Nathan Rees knows better than the founders of all these systems.

The fact is that police will always like more power. Everyone wants more power. The trouble is that more police powers makes the police a juicier target for criminals to infiltrate. This is why all smart systems limit police powers. Police powers must be made strong enough to catch criminals but weak enough to be unattractive to criminals. Once the police are given super-powers, nasty people will move in and take-over the police. The police will then become the most powerful gang and become the government of the country. The usual name for such a place is a "Police State".

If offered super-powers by government, police will always welcome the offer. It makes their next job easier and gives them an excuse for their past failures.
Imagine a wife asks her husband to make something in the garage. He stuffs-up the job. What does she say to him?
"Darling would you like me to give you a new powertool so you can do better next time?"
OR
"Get back in that garage and fix it!"

I propose that we don't give police new powers and instead we order them to get out on the street and do their job right.

Rees is proposing new laws that will ban gangs and make it illegal for gang members to meet each other. What is a gang? A gang is a group. A family is a gang. A company is a gang. A political party is a gang.

Rees is the gang-leader of the most incompetent government gang in Australia. His gang, NSW Labor party, runs this state in a way that borders on criminal. If I could ban just one gang in Australia it would be the Labor party. The second gang I would ban would of course be the Liberal party. These major-party thugs get together and block-vote their moronic legislation through parliament regardless of the wishes of the voters in their electorates. Ban them all I say.

Would you trust me to ban gangs? After banning the Labor party and the Liberal party I'd ban the bikie gangs, then cigarette companies. Still trust me? I'd ban Sydney Airport Corporation, Qantas, all advertising companies, the RTA, local council factions, the Broncos football team, The Wiggles, The Rolling Stones, Wikipedia editors, Microsoft, all banks, Big Brother TV audience, major-party voters and I'm only just getting started. Perhaps you shouldn't trust me with the power to ban gangs?

I wouldn't trust Nathan Rees with the power to ban gangs. I don't trust Rees to do anything well. I don't trust him to fix basic things like roads, schools and hospitals. I most certainly don't trust him to meddle with basic freedoms such as free speech and freedom of association. Only the very best people should be used to adjust the foundation of a democratic society. A statesman with a proud record of serving the people over many years might be trusted with such a task. Nathan Rees is not in that class at all.

Putting aside all exaggerations, the laws proposed by Rees could very easily be used to attack any political party that opposes the party in government. It would be very easy to pay some known criminals to join a rival party and make trouble there. Imagine that I wanted to have Pauline Hanson's party banned. Here is what I could do:
* Arrange for a bunch of known drug users to join and agitate her party to support legalising drugs.
* Arrange for a bunch of known perverts to join and agitate her party to support legalising child pornography.
* Arrange for a bunch of gun owners to join and agitate her party to deregulate automatic-rifle ownership.
* Arrange for a bunch of ex-cons with records of violent crime to join and support all of the above and organise a protest rally that turns violent.

Now I have turned her party into a gang in which some members are clearly supporting illegal drugs, porn and guns, and some have a proven history of violence. Quite possibly Rees's new laws could then be used to ban Pauline Hanson's party and prevent Pauline and her law-abiding supporters from ever meeting again.

Even a NSW voter should be smart enough to see the danger in these proposed laws.

Cinema Privacy Ushered Out

2008-12-15T17:13:00.000-08:00

Worried by the competition from handycam movie copies, moronic cinema companies are now spying on their patrons with night-vision telescopes.

Cinema 'cops' deploy night vision devices

As a movie watcher you have always had a choice of going to the hassle and expense of watching the movie when it comes out at the cinema, or waiting for the DVD to be released and watching it in the comfort of your own home. Movie companies know this and so they deliberately delay the DVD release of movies to force you to take the more expensive cinema option.
Of course the cinema experience has more to offer than just getting to see a movie earlier. Some people prefer the atmosphere of a big-screen cinema to watching a DVD. These are valuable customers that movie and cinema companies should appreciate and respect.

In recent years some people have been sneaking video cameras into the cinema, recording the movie and then selling illegal copies of it on DVD. If you have ever had the misfortune of watching one of these you would know that the quality is awful and it is something to be avoided. Modern movies have super high resolutions and fancy surround sound. These are lost on the pirate DVDs. Only the most impatient cheapskates would buy such DVD copies. In my opinion these pose no threat to the legal viewing of the movies.

Surprisingly cinema companies do perceive handycam copying to pose a great threat to their business. Even more surprisingly, they seem to be prepared to sacrifice their greatest strength - the cinema atmosphere, in order to combat a minor weakness - the threat that unobserved patrons might make a crappy handycam copy for resale.

Cinemas who decide to spy on patrons could find that their decision backfires and costs them more patronage than it gains them. This is because patrons who value a bit of privacy and respect from the companies they deal with, might react to the spying by avoiding those cinemas altogether. They might decide to avoid the nosey ushers and wait for the DVD release.

It is easy to understand why some patrons will feel this way. Instead of being allowed to relax and enjoy the movie in the darkened cinema, you will have to be conscious of the fact that an employee is being paid to watch you with a telescope. They could be watching you at any time. Who knows where they are and what they can see with their fancy device.

In times past, a young man could have waited until the cinema lights dim before making a move on his girlfriend in privacy. Now cinema ushers will be scrutinising the legitimacy of his every move. It will be their job to know exactly what is in his hand - it could be a recording device. Is that a mobile phone in his pocket, or is he just pleased to see the movie?

Under this cinema policy, whatever you do in the dark becomes the business of the ushers to know, in order to avoid a violation of copyright. What about violation of privacy?

The cinemas might think it is a great idea to employ these pervy owls. It might stamp out copying by your average handycam and your average mobile phone - at the expense of patron privacy of course. However once the pirates find they cannot use standard cameras, they quite likely will turn to tiny hard-to-detect cameras. In order to detect these smaller cameras, the cinemas will then "need" to make their searches and monitoring far more invasive. Is this what they really want to do?

I think that instead of employing spies, cinemas should employ a bit of commonsense in the way they treat their patrons. If some dodgy people want to make dodgy copies, and other dodgy people want to watch them, so be it. Spoiling the cinema product to claw back these dodgy customers is not good business sense.

A moronic shift of gear

2008-12-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

The "Moron of the Week" award goes to Toyota. This photo is real.

Denver Dumbos

2008-11-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

The "Moron of the Week" award goes to Denver police who can't tell the difference between drunk driving and child abuse.

Driver charged in Aurora child's death on Halloween
A 46-year-old motorist has been charged with vehicular homicide after killing a 13-year-old Aurora boy in an alleged drunken-driving accident.

Donald K. Edwards of Denver was formally charged today with child abuse resulting in death, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 48 years in prison, and vehicular homicide while drunk.

On Friday night, he told Aurora police he was on his way to a Halloween party when he broadsided a car at East Iliff Avenue and South Peoria Street at about 7:35 p.m., killing Dallas Burton.

Burton was riding in a car with three friends after attending an alternative Halloween youth activity at Colorado Christian Fellowship, 10630 E. Iliff Ave. They were headed to a prayer and Scripture-reading meeting at a private home when the accident happened.

People can donate money for funeral expenses to the Dallas Burton Memorial Fund at FirstBank of Aurora, 2300 S. Havana St. His funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Colorado Christian Fellowship.

At the accident scene, police said Edwards had slurred speech and bloodshot and glossy eyes, and he smelled of alcohol. He admitted he had two Bacardi and Cokes before getting into the car, court records indicate.

Jail for cartels

2008-11-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

I rarely agree with any politician, but the following article is an exception. One thing I am not so keen on is a 10 year jail term. That's too long for most cartel behaviour. I think the 10 year term should be reserved for cartels in the area of medical supplies and services. These cartels actually cost lives, so a 10 year jail term is appropriate in those cases. I'd love to see some overpaid doctor cartelists behind bars.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/making-jail-as-real-for-cartels-as-the-temptation-to-steal/2008/11/04/1225560833543.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Making jail as real for cartels as the temptation to steal

Chris Bowen
November 5, 2008

Imagine a country where some people go to prison for stealing relatively minor amounts of money, yet other people can steal millions of dollars from the public and not risk time in gaol.

That country exists. Its name is Australia.

When businesses get together to form a cartel, they are stealing from the public.

...

Monopoly Australia - Books

2008-09-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

Australia has a long history of creating wealth by contrived scarcity licensing. A government licence enables wealth transfer from consumers of the resource to holder of the licence.

Here is a letter to the SMH editor about lack of competition in the book business:

Cheaper by the dozen
According to David Harris (Letters, September 3) books appear to be cheaper in the United States. They don't appear to be cheaper, they are cheaper. And it's not because of exchange rates. The Australian dollar has fluctuated by over 50 cents in the last 10 years but books have always been cheaper in the US.
The reason is that the wholesale price of books in the US has been consistently cheaper. And the reason they are substantially cheaper at the wholesale level is competition.
What is really different from here is the competition that brings the price of books down, as opposed to propping them up through protection for local publishers and authors.
Don Grover Chief executive officer, Dymocks

Monopoly Australia - Internet

2008-08-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

Australia has a long history of creating wealth by contrived scarcity licensing. A government licence enables wealth transfer from consumers of the resource to holder of the licence.

Badly privatised monopolies like Telstra are some of the worst examples of contrived scarcity licensing.

Why we all hate Telstra
"Where are the hot spots?" I asked.

"Oh," he replied, "we don't have open hot spots in Australia. Our bandwidth is metered — no one can afford an open point for access to the net."

Coming from the United States, I was accustomed to free, wireless internet in nearly every space where people gathered — I even began to see it as a necessity. How had things turned out so differently in Australia?

"A few years back," Weiley replied, "Telstra — that's the national telco — made an agreement with all the internet providers in Australia that set the price of data traffic incredibly high."

I asked: "Isn't there any way around Telstra?" He gave me a sarcastic grin. "No. They control the cables that go overseas. They've made it impossible for anyone else to build a competing service."

From that moment, I hated Telstra with a passion.

Monopoly Australia - Doctors

2008-08-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Australia has a long history of creating wealth by contrived scarcity licensing. A government licence enables wealth transfer from consumers of the resource to holder of the licence. The medical field specialises in licences and high salaries to licence holders and barriers to entry are testament to their success.

Doctor shortage: 10 years before a cure can be found
AUSTRALIA'S system of registering and accrediting foreign medical graduates is so "dysfunctional" hat the country is likely to face chronic doctor shortages for another decade, says a Canadian-born doctor.

Married - by order of the Government

2008-08-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

Till debt do us part: a rude shock for de factos
Here is another case of yet another question that can no longer be decided by individuals, but must now be decided by the government. The question is whether two people should be married. Before the de facto marriage was created by government, people could either decide to marry or decide to not marry. The two people involved made the decision. But now government deems that two people may not make the decision not to marry. In fact government will pry into their affairs, and depending on what they have been doing to each other in which bedrooms, paid for by whom, and for how long, government will decide they are in fact married.

"Marriage is being imposed on everyone whether they like it or not," says Patrick Parkinson, professor of law at the University of Sydney. "It will come as a shock to some people."
Yeh, that is exactly the problem.

Nazstralia

2008-08-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Concern as police bugging power widens
NSW takes another step toward a police state. Now police will be able to bug anyone at any time without Court approval for up to 4 days. They can go on fishing expeditions for 4 days and if they find nothing of interest, simply destroy the records and don't ask a court for approval. Or they can bug for 4 days, ask a court for approval, and what if the court rejects the request? Sure the evidence will be destroyed, but the police can remember what they saw or heard.

Mr Hatzistergos said. "The law says the emergency powers may be used if there is an imminent threat of serious violence or substantial damage to property, or if a serious narcotics offence could be committed.
Yeh, that means the emergency powers can be used whenever the police want.

Qantas rule leaves toddler stranded

2008-07-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

The "moron of the day" award goes to Qantas staff in Christchurch.
Full story here
So they have a rule that young children must be accompanied by someone at least 15yrs old. Sensible rule. Their dodgy website then sells tickets to a young child and a 14yr old. Then when they both turn up to fly, these rule-following morons refuse to let the young child fly. Do they really think that stranding a 2yr old away from its family is a better result than the kid being accompanied by an "adult" who is less than one year younger than their rule says is acceptable?
Some people on this earth still know how to use their brain and when to break a rule. These Qantas morons clearly do not.

Sustainability Commissioner knows nothing about cars

2008-07-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

Call to slug petrol heads more for rego
Petrol guzzlers should be slugged more in vehicle registration than those who drive greener cars, according to Victoria's sustainability watchdog.
A report by Environmental Sustainability Commissioner Ian McPhail recommends registration fees be pegged to emissions output. Under the scheme, Victorians who own more efficient cars would qualify for concessions on their registration bill.

Ian McPhail does not understand that cars only emit pollutants when they are being driven. The pollution is highly correlated with litres of fuel consumed, is closely linked to km driven, but has no connection at all with time elapsed. eg a registered car that sits idle all year emits no pollutants and guzzles no petrol.
One good way of deterring petrol guzzlers would be to increase the tax on every litre of petrol.
A reasonable way of deterring petrol guzzlers would be to tax every vehicle based on the km driven and a guess of its average fuel consumption.
However, it is moronic to try to deter petrol guzzlers by increasing the yearly registration charge. Under this system a person who drives a few km per week in his old Ford Falcon will be slugged whereas someone who burns through an enormous amount of fuel in a small car will be rewarded. How sustainable is that?

These govt clowns have got no idea of the user-pays principle, and in this case, no idea how to improve environmental sustainability.

Money down the drain?

2008-07-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

Over the space of many years I have been highly critical of government for never having adequate backups or reserve capacity. Time and time again mishaps occur and we find out that govt has no backup. One part fails (or there is a fire on one part) on the Hornsby to Gosford railway and there is no backup. Hospital loses power - no backup. A few train drivers get sick - no backup. Roads at full capacity - no backup. Etc, etc.
One of the most important things that govt provides for us here in Sydney is water. It all comes from one or two dams and there is no backup supply. Finally govt has wisely decided a backup is required and has ordered one. Now, our govt is grossly incompetent and no doubt will get this wrong in many ways and spend far too much money. I don't doubt that. However they do deserve credit for finally giving us a backup supply of a vital service.

Some people however are not happy:
So much money down the drain
Water plant branded a bungle

This is a rare occasion when I agree with a politician:
$2 a week guarantees water supply

Caring in Cowra

2008-07-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

I have grave concerns over the quality of care that injured or ill people are receiving from the NSW Ambulance Service - particularly in Cowra.
link1
link2
link3

Car-hater makes the news again

2008-07-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

link
Man who doesn't drive a car or use an MP3 Player wants the combination banned
chief executive of the Pedestrian Council, Harold Scruby, wants to see the devices banned for drivers and the manufacturers to place warnings on their packaging.

He says the "block-out effect" of headphones compounds the risk posed by listening to music in cars.

"If you take out the audial sense, you remove one of the most important aspects of road safety," Mr Scruby said. "You wouldn't hear an ambulance or police car, let alone someone tooting you."

Court overturns father's grounding of 12-year-old

2008-07-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.smh.com.au/news/unusual-tales/court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12yearold/2008/06/19/1213770765707.html

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the internet, his lawyer said.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

"She's a child," Beaudoin said.

"At her age, children test their limits and it's up to their parents to set boundaries.

"I started an appeal of the decision today to reestablish parental authority, and to ensure that this case doesn't set a precedent," she said. Otherwise, said Beaudoin, "parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on".

"I think most children respect their parents and would never go so far as to take them to court, but it's clear that some would and we have to ask ourselves how far this will go."

According to court documents, the girl's internet transgression was just the latest in a string of broken house rules. Even so, Justice Suzanne Tessier found her punishment too severe.

Beaudoin noted the girl used a court-appointed lawyer in her parents' 10-year custody dispute to launch her landmark case against her dad.

AFP

This is an interesting one. There are two questions:
1) If a 12yr-old girl chats on websites and posts photos of herself deemed inappropriate by her father is it a fair punishment to ground her and not allow her to go on a school trip?
2) Who best decides this?

My answers are:
1) Sounds fair to me
2) Her father

Canadian voters would answer:
1) Not fair - too severe
2) A Judge - Justice Suzanne Tessier

Towering Stupidity

2008-07-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

The "moron of the day" award goes to the people responsible for the Sydney Tower lift fiasco, the moron lift designer, the morons maintaining the tower and the moron staff who failed to call for help in a timely fashion when the lift went wrong.

link 1
link 2
link 3

This is a rare situation where praise goes to an intelligent police officer, Steve Adams, who appears to know something about doing his job:
The police officer who lead last night's rescue operation also criticised the management for waiting over an hour before calling his squad.
Senior Constable Steve Adams said the place was in a panic when he arrived.
"People had lost control of things and were running out of options, that's why I had to yell and scream at people and say 'I'm here now, it's my job'," he said.
Mr Adams said he was concerned the long delay in contacting the police had jeopardised the health and safety of the trapped passengers.
Ten people were confined to the tiny upper half of the double decker lift, with no food or water and with cold night winds blowing through the doors.
An eleventh person was trapped on her own in the bottom half.
"I made the point that they shouldn't have been there an hour and a half to start with and I needed to get them out.
"People do deteriorate really quickly, the body starts to shut down."

Cut-price education

2008-07-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

I am having trouble making sense of this one "Uni cheats outsource to India"

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/sydney-uni-cheats-outsource-to-india/2008/07/03/1214950908513.html

Students who want to learn how to be computer programmers have discovered that programming can be done cheaply in India. As a result, these students are paying Indians to do their programming assignments.
If I found out that my current studies would give me skills of so little value, I would quit the course. What would you do?

A Housing Crash and Cycle Smash

2008-05-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how many news articles fail to mention the most important things. Take this article:

Man drives into neighbour's lounge room

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/man-drives-into-neighbours-lounge-room/2008/05/09/1210131216573.html

"It appears his foot got stuck on the accelerator when he was half sitting in the driver's seat with one leg out the door," a police spokeswoman said.

Now obviously accidentally pressing the accelerator is a serious matter anytime the motor is running, but the main reason there was a serious crash was because the foolish man had his car in gear. Whenever a car door is opened, the car should be in neutral or park, never in gear.

Here is another article with a similar omission:

Cycle pack smash: driver questioned

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cycle-pack-smash-driver-questioned/2008/05/09/1210131206412.html

A nasty idiot appears to have deliberately driven in front of a group of cyclists and braked savagely without good reason. Most of the cyclists then crashed into the car or each other.

Now obviously the driver’s behaviour was wrong and extremely dangerous, apparently a deliberate assault on the leading cyclists. However I figure that if the cyclists had all been riding safely, then only 2 would have crashed. By my understanding every vehicle should maintain a safe distance behind the vehicle in front. A two second gap is recommended in the driving manual. Cyclists are allowed to ride up to 2 abreast, therefore the first 2 riders would have hit the car, but the next two would have had an extra 2 seconds to stop and a good chance of avoiding collision, the next two would have 4 extra seconds to stop and so on. Only by riding recklessly too close together did these cyclists turn a 2-bike crash into a 50-bike disaster. And the news article doesn’t mention this obvious fact.

Dogs save boy from drowning in dam

2007-12-13T20:02:00.001-08:00

A little boy owes his life to his family's pet dogs, who rescued him after he wandered away from his home and fell into a dam on a nearby property.

The incident occurred on the morning of 13/12/07 on Glenpark Rd Andergrove in Queensland. Police reported that the boy, 2 year-old Max Hillier, had apparently wandered from his home followed by the family dogs, a black rottweiler cross and a brindle Staffordshire terrier.

The boy's mother had noticed he was missing at around 10:30am and had alerted neighbours. They searched but had been unable to find him anywhere in the vicinity of his home.

At 10:50am in her house 300m down the road from Max's home, Mrs Narelle Kay heard the sound of an animal in distress.
"The sound was like a whining. It was shrill like a kitten crying or screaming like it had been stood on"
Mrs Kay looked out her kitchen window and saw two dogs on the embankment of the dam in a horse paddock 30m away.
"At first I thought the dogs were trying to kill something"
"The dogs were halfway around the dam in a frenzied state"
"The brindle dog was pacing back and forth like it wanted help"
"Then I saw Max standing by the edge of the dam. My heart just went and I ran"
She found Max naked and covered in mud and slime from the dam. His upper arms had teeth marks where a dog had grabbed him.
"The black dog was wet all over. I assume he was the one who retrieved Max out of the water. The brindle dog was making sure the boy wouldn't go back into the water."

Sergeant Eric Close of Mackay police station told reporters that police had identified slide marks in the soft mud at the edge of the dam which indicated that the boy had been dragged out of the dam by the dogs.
"The boy was found covered in mud with both of the dogs beside him," he said. "He also had several scratches and abrasions on his arms that were consistent with the dogs dragging him out of the dam."

The boy was taken with his mother to Mackay Base Hospital, from where he was released in good health after a check-up and a wash.

Sources:
http://www.dailymercury.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3758364&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=336459

RTA, women, police and magistrates need brain enlargement patches

2007-11-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/31/1193618974061.html
More evidence of how moronic Australian society has become can be found in the above story.

Apparently a man changed lane in front of a woman who flashed her lights, stuck her middle finger up, and then did the little pinky finger gesture from the RTA anti-speeding campaign which suggests the man driver has a small penis. The man got angry and threw a plastic bottle at her car. Then police and a magistrate helped the woman charge the man with malicious damage and give him a $400 fine which went to the govt.

RTA Campaign
A recent RTA campaign tried to equate the small penis gesture with men who drive above the limit posted by the RTA. This campaign is based upon a few simple assumptions:
* having a small penis is bad and makes a man inferior to larger penised men
* speed limits posted by the RTA are correct, to exceed them is bad
* exceeding a speed limit is like having a small penis
* the public should condemn and mock speedsters as they should men with a small penis

I mostly disagree with these assumptions.

I am particularly displeased by a govt campaign based upon denigrating people based on body image. Since people cannot control most of the way their body looks it is unfair to judge a person by the size or shape of their body or body parts. The RTA campaign does this. In today's moronic society it is acceptable to denigrate men but not women. The RTA campaign does this.

Proper Behaviour on the Road
The way to behave on a road in my opinion is not to change lane offensively, not to flash lights, not to stick up middle finger, not to make little pinky gesture and not to throw plastic bottles at other cars.

The man seems to think it is OK to change lane offensively, but not to make little pinky gesture, in which case it is OK to throw a plastic bottle.
The woman seems to think it is not OK to change lane offensively, in which case it is OK to raise middle finger and OK to make little pinky gesture. It is not OK to throw a plastic bottle, in which case it is OK to level a charge of malicious damage. The police and magistrate seem to agree with the woman. I don't.

Reverse Gender
Imagine if the gender was reversed. Imagine as I walk through a cafe a careless woman steps in front of me. I say "hey floppy tits, keep your fat bum away from me, you look like a cow". The woman gets angry and throws a plastic drink bottle at me. I go to the police and have her charged with assault. I sincerely hope that the police and magistrates would not support my charge in this case. What do you think?

No giving rego the slip

2007-08-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

No giving rego the slip

Three weeks ago I re-registered my 15-year-old car, costing $262. Last week the gearbox blew up. It's not worth fixing. I took the number plates to the RTA for cancellation and refund. For using less than a month out of a year's registration fee I am only going to get about half back. This is state robbery. My green slip provider will give a pro-rata refund, minus a small administration fee. Why doesn't the RTA do likewise? An arrogant, unaccountable bullying bureaucracy - a pox on them.

Daniel Flesch Bellingen
http://www.smh.com.au/letters

The moral of this story: Don't vote Labor and don't vote Liberal. A govt of unaligned independents might fix this rip-off. Labor and Liberal created it and are unlikely to fix it.

How Internet Perverts Get Off in Queensland

2007-05-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/man-not-guilty-of-luring-schoolgirl-online-for-sex/2007/05/21/1179601317477.html

Thank you for coming in today for this interview. Can we start by asking what is your current position?

I’m currently a Detective for the Queensland Police.

Excellent, and what essentially does this job involve and what skills does it require?

This job involves enforcing the laws of Queensland, investigating cases where a law has been broken, uncovering evidence indicating which persons broke said law, and charging those suspects in Court. Our role also involves maintaining a presence to help deter crime. Skills include investigation, interview techniques, computer skills, time management and making best use of scarce taxpayer-funded resources.

Very good. The position you have applied for will require you to work undercover and possibly in disguise where you must assume another identity. Can you demonstrate any experience in this area?

Yes. In one Police operation I was disguised as a 13yo girl and worked under the alias "Erin Princess Baby".

Oh! For how long were you able to keep up this disguise and for what purpose?

I was able to maintain the disguise during a 3 1/2 hour period for the purpose of conversing with a suspect.

This is very hard to believe since you don't look at all like a 13yo girl. How did you achieve it?

I was able to maintain the disguise by chatting on the Internet and typing things such as would be typed by a typical 13yo girl. This included discussing the colour of pubic hair and the size of breasts. I was able to further the deception by emailing a photo of a teenage girl to the suspect, and pretending to follow a series of instructions on how to masturbate.

I am sure you must have been investigating a very serious crime if you were prepared to go to such lengths. In this role we need someone with such determination combined with an excellent knowledge of the law. Do you possess such knowledge?

Yes of course. In fact in my role as a Detective I often enforced the law and charged many suspects with breaking various laws.

Could you perhaps tell us the most recent case in which you did this? not revealing any names of course.

Yes. In the most recent case I charged a man with "using the Internet to procure a child under 16 for a sex act" so I clearly understand the law in this type of case.

Could you please elaborate a little? How many children was he suspected of procuring, and how many charges did you convict him on?

Um, zero and um zero.

What?

Well the suspect was actually only chatting on the Internet to another man who was pretending to be a teenage girl, so there was no actual child involved. Although the other man had typed in details of pubic hair, breasts and masturbation, and sent a photo of a girl, this was insufficient to convince the Court that a crime had taken place.

We are looking for someone who can handle setbacks in a dynamic environment and make fast decisions on his feet. In this case, did you consider laying charges against the other pervert? The one who was misrepresenting himself as a young girl, apparently encouraging illegal sexual conduct, and ultimately wasting police time?

Er, no, the other man was in fact a Queensland Detective who was working undercover at the time, myself in fact.

Next candidate please.

Morons abound

2007-04-24T02:24:00.000-07:00

One of my theories as to why our society is going backwards is that there are too many people acting like morons and failing to think for themselves. Morons simply do not know what they are doing. They do not know their own business.

This is simple stuff. If you need to drive a car, then learn to drive. If you need to vote, then learn how to vote. If you need to work as a shop assistant, then learn what is required to do that job.

My "moron of the day" award was all set to go to these New Zealand morons:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/column/story.cfm?c_id=702&objectid=10435764

On Thursday Louisa Merceanu and her friends were going to the Waiwera hot pools to celebrate her 13th birthday. "On the way we stopped at the Pak'n Save supermarket in Albany to buy some picnic food for our trip. My friends and I bought some food, fizzy and ice and went to the checkout. The checkout operator asked us for ID because we were buying ice. Initially we thought he was joking, but he called the supervisor and she confirmed that we needed ID because the ice is stored in the alcohol section. We had to go and get my Dad who assured them that he was over 18 and was allowed to purchase the ice. We sure had a good laugh but is this madness or what?"

So children are banned from buying frozen water in New Zealand. That is clearly "moron award" material.

But I saw 5 minutes of the nightly news and heard the following story.
A woman was in a supermarket and saw a thief snatch her bag and stuff her wallet into his pants. She grabbed the thief and called out to the shop assistants for some assistance. These shop assistants told her that they were not able to apprehend thieves and so instead of doing this they escorted the suspect out of the store and let him go free. The woman called the police who arrested the suspect in a nearby store shortly afterward. A policewoman was interviewed and said that all citizens, including shop assistants, are entitled to make a citizen's arrest in a case such as this.

My take on today's happenings: The "moron of the day" award goes to the Australian shop assistants who escorted the thief from the premises. The police should charge each of these morons with being an accessory to the theft.

How stupid can people be? What is next? A person collapses in a shop aisle and the shop assistants don't ring 000 because they are not allowed to make phone calls while on duty. The shopper dies. It is going to happen one day.

It all goes to show a few things.
Firstly, there is often an existing law to do a thing. We do not always need new laws to be written. These morons can be charged under an existing law, and this could serve as an example to people.

Second thing it shows is that many people act like morons and do not know the simplest things about doing their job. Morons like this are dangerous enough when working in a store. They are much more dangerous when driving cars, working as teachers, or govt officials, or police. Here is what can happen.

Man charged with 'unauthorised use of milk crate'
May 21 2003
New York: Jesse Taveras, 19, stepped out for a breather from the hair-braiding salon where he works and sat down on a plastic milk crate that happened to be on the footpath.
A New York City police officer on the Grand Concourse, a main boulevard in the borough of the Bronx, walked up to Taveras and wrote him a ticket citing him for "unauthorised use of a milk crate".
The infraction can carry a fine of up to $US105 ($A161).
As he told the story to the New York Daily News, Taveras was incredulous.
"I don't believe this," he told the cop, identified only as police officer Payan.
Payan asked Taveras for identification, radioed his name to the local precinct to check for outstanding warrants, found none and gave him the ticket.

If you were ever in a spot of bother and needed a policeman to help you, how would you feel about relying on such a moron as this ticket-writer? Does scum such as this have what it takes to deal justly with any incident where any level of judgment is needed (such as a rowdy crowd)? I don't think so.

Morons are especially dangerous in the voting booth. Morons clearly do not know their own business, yet they eagerly poke their nose into other people's business when they vote-in politicians to write all kinds of bans, restrictions and regulations.

Sydney's Housing Disaster

2007-04-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of this article is found at http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0420.html

Sydney's Housing Disaster

Sydney is suffering a housing crisis. Housing has become so expensive to buy or rent that many families cannot afford independent housing. In Sydney and most other places in Australia an average family can no longer afford to buy an average house.

In response to the crisis, many young adults have delayed moving out of their parents' homes, some younger buyers are pooling resources (eg two couples buy one house) and outright homelessness has increased with charities reporting record numbers of homeless people in Australia.

In crisis there is opportunity and landlords have responded by raising Sydney rents to a high percentage of average earnings, and by creating an unprecedented number of illegal half-houses to rent to people desperate for even half a house to live in.

Since Australia's population now exceeds 20 million, and we now have less than 100 acres of land per person, some people believe that this acute shortage of land is what has driven housing to unattainable prices for an average young family.

I think the housing crisis is not caused by a shortage of land, but by a shortage of govt permission to build houses. Govt has simply given permission to build fewer houses than are needed to house all the families here. It's that simple. It is a monumental failure by central planners.

This article is about more than just a planning problem in one city. It is about ignorance of markets and price, and the absurd things people believe about economics. I recommend the article to all readers with an interest in these things, particularly part 1.

The housing crisis in Sydney is duplicated throughout the world where similar views and policies are found. Every Australian capital city is affected, as are parts of New Zealand, the United Kingdom and parts of the USA. I recommend this entire article to all readers who are concerned for poorer families struggling to pay for housing in these places.
....more

How voters cause their own headaches

2007-03-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

There once was a man who would become easily upset at things and bang his head against a wall. This man suffered from headaches and eventually decided to visit a doctor and seek a cure.

The doctor at first was puzzled by the man's symptoms, and did all kinds of tests and asked all kinds of questions. But when he heard about the head-banging behaviour, the doctor knew at once what the remedy would be.

"These headaches are caused by your action of banging your head against a wall." said the doctor "Next time you are about to do this action, I want you to stop and think about the consequences. Do you want these headaches to continue? If not then do the complete opposite of what you were about to do. Do the complete opposite of what is causing these problems, and I promise, your problem will go away."

A few days later the man returned to the doctor's surgery. Not only were his headaches still bad, but he now had the imprint of a shoe on his face.
"What on earth happened to you?" asked the doctor.
"I did as you said" replied the man "When I got upset I did the complete opposite of my usual behaviour. Instead of banging my head on the wall I banged my head on the floor. I was doing this when someone trod on me".

"You fool!" said the doctor, momentarily losing his detached demeanor "the complete opposite of banging your head on a wall is to NOT bang your head on a wall."

The Labor government has failed so this time I am voting Liberal.

In society today there are not many people who bang their heads on walls or floors. However there are many voters who are not happy with their govt who continue to vote for the two major parties. They somehow think that alternating between these two woeful mobs will somehow solve the headache.

Many voters seem to think that the complete opposite of voting Labor is to vote Liberal, and vice versa. This is not so. The complete opposite of voting Labor is to NOT vote Labor. The two major parties are not so much complete opposites, but more like two different sides of the same turd.

Vote on merit, not likelihood of win
When I vote for a party I base it on how good this party is likely to be IF ELECTED. I don't base my vote how LIKELY they are to be elected. The votes determine the likelihood of winning. If you think the likelihood of winning should determine the vote you have got the cart before the horse. I don't base my vote on my guess of a party's likelihood of winning, ie on how popular they were last election, or how I think other people might vote this election.
For example in the March 2007 election I will be putting Labor last because they have been an extremely bad govt, and are likely to be extremely bad if re-elected.
I know that Labor was most popular last election. That's not going to get my vote.
I know that Liberal was 2nd most popular last election. That's not going to get my vote either.

I base my vote on which party would make the best govt if elected. Some morons seem to think voting is like betting money on a football team. In that case you might like one team, but place your money on another team which you feel is more likely to win on the day. To be a winner you should bet that way.

But voting is completely different to this. In voting the only way you can win is if your preferred party gets the most votes. The only way you can help it and yourself is by voting for it. Sadly, many morons base their vote on which party they feel is more likely to win. eg they would like to see more independents but feel that Liberal has a better chance and hence vote Liberal. Losers vote this way. Don't they see that they are creating a vicious cycle? If enough morons vote for a bad party because they think it will get many votes, then this bad party WILL get many votes - because of the morons themselves. These morons make themselves correct, and make themselves losers, by their own stupid policy.

When you vote, that is your way of saying what you want and marginally steering govt toward that. Voting is not your way of guessing what you think other people will want. Become a fashion designer, or trade shares, if you want to play that game.
Imagine if many other people vote that way too. In that case voting would be your way of guessing what other people are guessing what other people will vote. It is ridiculous.

Let us use an extreme example to demonstrate the two ways of voting. Imagine you and several million other people are taken back in time to Germany in the 1930's just before Hitler was first elected by German morons. You all get to vote in that election. You know that Hitler is likely to win, and you are sure he will start a ruinous World War. The trick is that your group has several million votes which can thwart those German fools and avoid a disastrous war. Will you vote against Hitler because his govt will be bad, or will you vote for Hitler because he is popular with morons and hence most likely to win?
Do you vote on merit or likelihood of winning? Think about it.

How to figure who is best
I vote based on a points system. Parties gain points for being likely to do good things. Parties lose points for being likely to do bad things.
The surest way of knowing what a party is likely to do is to see what that party did when last in govt. For this reason a govt that has done good things gets many points, whereas a govt that has done bad things loses many points.

When any member of a party tells lies or deceives I subtract points from the entire party and do not believe any promises made by anyone from that party. You might think this is harsh, but a good honest man has no business forming a gang with scoundrels. A good honest man cannot accomplish any good in such a gang and should be treated like the scoundrels he chooses to associate with and probably will become.

Remember that these barstards will block-vote in 99% of cases. This means that all the Liberals vote one way and all the Labors vote the other way - regardless of the will of the voters each is supposed to be representing. If they can use their numbers against you, then turn it around and use their numbers against them. Punish all of them for the failing of each one. This is a great way of destroying giant unrepresentative parties. When I see a party block-voting or doing shabby deals, that party loses points.

If a party does bad things whilst in govt, but promises good things next time, then I do not believe these promises.
A leopard does not change its spots, and a political party never reforms itself just after retaining power. When a party is re-elected it is going to keep doing what is has been doing. If they did a bad job last time, they WILL do a bad job this time.

If a govt builds 200km of new railway in its first term and promises to build another 100km next term, that's credible. But if a govt builds 0km of new railway for 10 years then promises to build some next time, that's not credible.

Points are carried over from previous years but are discounted over time, and as the people behind them leave the party. For example lies told by Paul Keating count less because they were many years ago, and stupid plans of Mark Latham count less because he has left the party.

My voting points system has never needed me to keep accurate records because the point margins are alway huge. Every govt in my lifetime has done such a bad job and have got so many negative points that I must vote them last.
Also every election the other major party is carrying so many negative points from its last term in govt that I must vote them 2nd last.
Independent candidate who have I do not know will start at zero points and get a small negative or positive score based upon their stated policies. There credibility being not yet known.

This March 2007 I will be voting Independents and Greens, then Liberal 2nd last and Labor last.

If everyone voted like me then the Labor and Liberal parties would not have a single member in govt or in parliament. These scoundrels would be out on the street the very next day asking people what they did wrong. "What must we do better next time" these elites would be asking the voters.

Even if only 10% or 20% of people vote like me then it will have an enormous impact. You see, sadly probably 60% of Australian voters are complete morons who base their vote not on the merit of a party, or the likelihood of its winning, but rather on the spelling of its name. Probably 30% of Australians are complete morons who always vote Liberal and 30% are complete morons who always vote Labor. They don't realise that the only thing the Labor party of 1970 has in common with the Labor party of 2007 is the spelling of its name. Same goes for Liberal. All the candidates and policies have changed, only the name remains. Anyway, since 60% of the voters have essentially put their vote on autopilot, and flushed their chance to make a difference down the toilet, the politicians realise they need only tend to the other 40%. Therefore if a small percentage of people vote like me, it would be a significant part of the 40% of votes that the major party politicians are trying to win.

Introducing the "Onion of Lies"

2006-11-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

Modern economics is like an "Onion of Lies", a web of stupidity. It is a pile of nonsense, built on a completely rotten foundation.

It is so bad that I almost don't know where to start to describe its faults.

Trying to correct the faults of conventional economics is like trying to restore an ancient wooden boat. If the timbers are in moderate condition then a restorer can easily replace it piece by piece, temporarily tying the new pieces onto the old pieces that will be later replaced.

However if every timber is completely rotten then this technique is not so good, because the repairer has nothing solid to tie onto. The restorer would be well-advised to completely rebuild from scratch.

Sadly conventional economics is like a completely rotten boat with nothing solid to tie onto. But a complete rebuild is not practical either. Many of the faults in economics come from faults in the English language. Ill-defined overloaded words such as value make up the rotten foundation of economics. The rebuild from scratch is too hard because it would require devising and becoming proficient in an entirely new language for both writer and reader. This is not practical. Instead we can only try to correct it piece by piece, tolerating and ignoring the rotten framework that we must temporarily rely on.

Enough of this general talk, let me give some examples of why economics is an "Onion of Lies" with a completely rotten foundation.

"People need money to live".
Wrong, in order to live people need resources. Most people commonly buy these resources with money.

"The first thing people need is a job".
Wrong. People need resources, such as food, to live. Resources are often bought with money that often comes from wages from a job.

The important difference can be seen by giving an extreme example. Imagine you are shipwrecked on an island and a rescue party will arrive in 3 days time:
Case A - Job but no food. There is a storm coming and your job is to build shelter, but there is no food to eat for the next 3 days.
Case B - food but no job. There is food and shelter for you but no work to do.
Which situation would you rather be in?

This simple example shows that people really need resources such as food, and jobs are a bad thing, albeit often necessary. You might think this example is stupid, but look around you today. The whole economy is to a large extent a giant make-work scheme. In 1960 a man could support a wife and family, now it takes man and wife working to support a family. Of course there are other reasons for this, but a misunderstanding of the role of work is, in my opinion, part of the problem.

"Homeowners will suffer from this latest rise of interest rates".
Wrong. A homeowner is someone who owns a home. They have paid for the home and now own it.
A rise in interest rates will actually cause suffering amongst people who owe money at variable interest rates (not homeowners). It is true that in Sydney most large loans were taken out for the purpose of buying homes, and it is these people who will suffer the most.
Higher interest rates effect money-owers not homeowners. If a person borrows money from a bank as a mortgage and buys a house, this person is not a homeowner. Their ownership of the home slides from 0% up to 100% as they repay the loan to the bank.

"Homeowners are taking money out of their houses, taking out equity to sustain their lifestyle."
Wrong. When a homeowner (or partial homeowner) takes a home-equity loan, they are actually compromising ownership of the house in order to borrow money from another entity.

The term "taking money out of" is nonsense.
For example if Fred borrows $10 from a loan shark and the loan shark says "You better pay me back next week or I'll break your leg". Fred has not just taken $10 out of his leg. He has risked his leg in order to borrow $10 from the shark.

Similarly, if Fred borrows $10,000 from ABC bank and hands his house title to them as security, then Fred has risked the title to his house in order to borrow $10,000 from ABC bank.

"Americans have taken $800BN of equity from their homes".
Wrong, Americans have borrowed $800BN from [mostly] foreigners and have compromised ownership of their homes in doing it.

"The whole US economy is dependant on housing and equity extraction, if equity extraction ceases the economy is in trouble".
Wrong. To an extent the economy is dependant on the $800BN borrowed from foreigners. Or more correctly it is dependant on the imports purchased with the $800BN borrowed from foreigners. If the foreigners cease lending the $800BN, then the US must make do with $800BN less of imports in some way shape or form. It is dependant on the foreign product makers and lenders, not on the US housing used to secure the loans. The economy is already in trouble because it imports more than it exports (based on current world product prices). This situation has problems of sustainability and dependancy.

Summary.
We all must use common language. If I talk about "equity extraction and housing dependant economy and homeowners", then we both know what we are talking about. These terms are fine for everyday use, and indeed we are stuck with them.
However the terms are also wrong to a degree and it is dangerous to base conclusions upon them as if they were absolutely correct. If we do that many times over we end up with the nonsense that is modern conventional economics.