Four cheers for John Howard
From the SMH:
"Prime Minister John Howard says many people who plan protests against this week's APEC summit are hypocrites because the international meeting will help cut global poverty.
"Prime Minister John Howard says many people who plan protests against this week's APEC summit are hypocrites because the international meeting will help cut global poverty.
He said anti-globalisation protesters "hate" economic growth and capitalism.
"Stop and think for a moment. Are you really going to alleviate poverty by killing economic growth?" he said at a news conference in Sydney".
Hurrah for straight talking Australians, and as I've said before he would be a very, very welcome addition to British politics if he fancies serving the Mother Country
Labels: Australia, Sane economics
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on Monday, September 03, 2007 at 6:22 am.
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O/T and no connection with this thread, although it's a very nice thread, but imagine how you would feel if you went to the loo before retiring at around midnight, and there in the shower was a very large tarantula. Well, it certainly concentrates the mind.
Midnight was too late to run next door for help, and besides, in Mexico, they tend to kill things and I'd heard that tarantulas don't attack unless attacked, and even then, their toxicity is only enough to give you a very sore arm or leg that will eventually fade without medical attention. By which I mean, you will still have your arm or leg, but the pain will have gone.
I called a friend who has a huge garden, with apologies for the hour, and she said, "Oh, they come in when it's very rainy or there's a hurricane in the air. It'll leave eventually." Eventually? As in ...?
Anyway, I put a towel up against the outside of the door, not that I thought it could get underneath, but it would have been just my luck to get a tarantula who could do the limbo.
Slept with my light on all night. Opened the bathroom door this morning and, all clear.
They really are as big as saucers. Also, just in case you're ever in a room with one, they're not aggressive and they don't bite. When threatened, they shoot their spikey hairs at you (I think hedgehogs do the same thing).
Crikey. That is quite the tale. You have my sympathies.
I believe the spine-shooting hedgehog / porcupine theory is an urban, or rather, rural myth.
Oh, I didn't know that about hedgehogs. But tarantulas are known for this. They have no bite. But the black hair that covers them,including their legs - all of them - is apparently stiff and spikey and they do shoot it at you. I believe the poison on the end of the hairs can make a small pet very sick - as in, requiring medical attention - but only gives humans a semi-painful skin irritation that eventually goes away. I still wouldn't want to speak from personal experience, though.
The tarantula was back last night. I have a horrible feeling it's hung up its hat. I can't let the cats go for it because it can make them sick. I was wrong about the venom. They do throw their sharp and venemous hair at predators who are very close by rubbing some of their legs over other legs and sort of throwing it off.
But they can also kill not by biting, but by injecting some sort of venom into their prey, which - don't be eating when you read this next bit - liquefies the prey and they then suck it up into their stomachs. So, multi-taskers.
Anyway, this whole thing is making me a nervous wreck.
You write very well.
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