The Agrinautica

Actually, until you posted this question, I hadn't thought about it.

Do you think Hillary will be elected? Do you think America is ready for a WOMAN to run things?

Just asking your opinion since I am not there.

I do find it a bit odd, but of course we have had the same Prime Minister here in Australia for over 10 years. Getting a bit stale.

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Up here in Canada we had the same Prime minister for 10 years, and he was well liked, then mysteriously resigned, shortly after we found out he had his hand in the cookie jar and had quit before the scandal blew up. haha. A lot of canadains think that Hilary would make a good president, and think bush has not done a good job. (we get a lot of American Tv up here and see whats going on)

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Actually, I think John Howard is on 11 years. At least yours was interesting...ha ha!

I was just wondering what the general feeling was about having a woman run for prez. I remember when Geraldine Ferarro ran years ago. Don't remember what happened exactly, just that she decided to run for the office.

We get American tele here as well. But not probably like you do. Usually it consists of our news team interviewing someone over there.

Thanks heaps for your input.

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No problemo. Its definitly going to be an interesting election this time around especially with issues such as health care and the Iraq war being such big topics. We have our election comming up this October, and our provincial government has done nothing but piss alot of ontarians off. I've never been very interested in politics, but now these politics affect (and have been affecting) my line of work, and most of the future economy. I wont be voting libral this time thats for sure~!

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Is your Liberal gvmt like ours? More like the American Republicans?

With Work Choices {definitely should be called Work No Choices} and the state of the environment I am more interested in politics as well.

We have to wait for our PM to get good and ready to call the election! When he decides he has the last mud pie to sling, I suppose we will vote the next morning.

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Our provincial government is libral, and the fedral is progressive conservative. The fedral government has done a lot for us in the last few years, but the provincial has done nothing but make a lot of empty promises. Im from northern ontario and up there our cities we're based on the paper industry. When the market started to fail, they did nothing to help soring energy prices (being one of the major causes.) So over 5000 people lost their jobs within a few years. I had to move to the Toronto area for work. They also in the last month released a new clean air act. Our premier has orded the company I work for (we generate electricity for the province) to stop burning coal by 2014, and plans to replace 6000 megawatts of coal produced electricity with gas generation. This is going to cause the price of power to double and cause a huge economic resession, cause the rest of industries to shut down due to high power costs and the value of housing will fall causing intrest rates to soar (this is what the experts are prediciting from all levels of opposition government and some private experts as well) In the next 30 years 1000 new coal plants will come online in the world so shutting ours down wont make a diffrence anyway. And the kicker to the whole thing, we have 16 nuclear reactors in the province, and 7 will need to be decomissioned by 2014 due to age. The same experts are saying that we will have no choice but to live through rolling blackouts and brownouts by then. The premier had the balls to say "its the price we have to pay to have clean air". We allready have a few clean coal units in operation here in Ontario, and they are some of the cleanest in the world. (my company is government owned thats how he's getting away with it.) We can clean up our coal plants even more avoiding the economic disaster and still making cheap power for the province with a fraction of the pollution. No where else in the world is getting rid of coal an option. Thats because its cheap and clean coal techologies are comming along quite nicely. Will be interesting to see what happens if this idiot gets re elected to another term.

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sjp on my friend's list made a poll today and asked what people were most worried about. One of the options that I picked was the Collapse of the Global Economy. I think what you have described is a step in that direction.

I would not purchase a house in Sydney right now if I had it thrown at me. Interest rates have risen three times in the past 12 months. Yet the government keeps insisting that these are prosperous times. In addition, I see the market price of homes looking a lot like they did in California before the boom went bust. Many people lost money on their homes there when they sold, and had to continue paying the mortgage and move to find work and cheaper housing.

I believe we are at the top of the market here and anyone who purchases now will lose in the long run. It's pretty scary. Nobody really knows what is going to happen after the election. I feel we will get a new government but they are planning to pull money out of their asses if they come through with half of their promises.

It is very worrisome.

We have good public medicine here but I see it getting more and more like the US system. We also do not have dental on our public medicine and I don't understand that. Another thing is that in the past years, private insurance, to help pay the gap for physiotherapy, medication not on our PBS and other formerly fully-covered medical procedures has become necessary. We now have long waiting lists to access the public health system and fewer doctors will bill Medicare directly - it's hard to make a living when the government kicks in less and less.

Schools will be the next to suffer, I believe. Parents are having to pay more and more for supplies and fees for both public and private school. Food and petrol, like in all areas, is going through the roof and now in year eight of a very bad drought, farmers are simply walking away from their properties. We are the driest continent on the planet so it is already bad.

For example, they say that our produce costs will double within the next two months. We are now paying $7.99/kilo for bananas. After a typhoon 18-months ago, we were paying $14.99/kilo but as banana trees are re-planted each year, the industry recovered. But now, lettuce that we pay $3.99 a head for will be nearly $8 within two months time. This is shocking. We do get yearly cost of living raises - but there is no way any average family will be able to keep up with all the other cost rises.

I am glad that I am thrifty. I am glad that we garden, can and preserve, love to cook and entertain at our home and also...dumpster dive. No matter how much we make, it all goes so quickly these days and it is going out faster now.

These are scary times. I think what makes it even worse is that the world is so connected now, financially. If one major country takes a dive, I fear many others that are dependent upon imports or exports from that country will go down with it.

China seems to be doing very well, though.

hmmmm....

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Youve pretty much summed up canada as well. Our health care is government funded and we have to pay for dental and pills (thank god my company has a very good medical plan). My family Dr gave me a referral to a gastrointerolagest, and that was 2 months ago. My appointment is at the end of September. We cant keep specialists here becasue the government cant pay them what they can make in the states so a lot of them move down there. Its a problem that is getting worse. Our housing market has skyrocketed as well. In Toronto the average price for a house is around 350,000 dollars. Average price of a new home is around 900,000. The city I live in, Burlington wich is a suburb of Toronto, a new house runs around 700,000 and you cant find a place for less than 350. Now what will happen when the price starts to crash and the intrest rates start to rise? the same thing that happend here in the early 1980s. Intrest rates hit 20 percent and a lot of people lost their houses. Now Interest rates run around the 5 percent mark, and with the price of houses being so high that if the rates went up a few percent a lot of people wont be able to afford their mortgauges because so many people live off their credit cards and carry a lot of consumer debt. The cost of living here is going up a lot too. One litre of gas (thats what we call petrol here) runs anywhere from 95 cents to 1.20. Its not as bad as it is in the UK where its over 2 dollars at times. I have noticed too that a lot of things like food have gone up in price over the last few years. I could imagine it being worse where you are due to the fact as you said, that its very dry. Its getting to the point where people who are lower income families cant afford even the bare nessesities. Our federal government last year did us all a favor by giving every family with children under 6 100 dollars a month each to help pay for childcare, and everyone gets it regardless of if they need it or not. Its nice for us cuz we have 2 kids under 6 so we get a 200 dollar cheque in the mail every month. I think A lot of governments like to hide figures, but this one decided to use surpluses to help out young families.

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What you just described about interest rates rising is happening here now. So many are up to their necks in credit card and vehicle debt that one-half of a percent interest on their bloated mortgage will send it to the auction block.

Rents are horrific as well. If you can find a rental, that is.

Our petrol is running around $1.40 a litre. Round that to 3 litres per gallon! I know it is high in the U.S. but they must be prepared. It will go higher. Therefore all goods are going up just on that account - nearly everything gets trucked in. Again, the rise in petrol can snap an already stretched budged.

Nice that you get the payback for childcare. How much would it cost on average for a family to have one child in regular day care for a 5-day week?

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I think childcare costs around 35 dollars a day. Its more expensive for babies. Rent here is bad too. Im paying 1100 for a 2 bedroom apartment. I have underground parking, 2 bathrooms and central AC so im getting my moneys worth, but a place without that isnt much cheaper. (btw I friended you)

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I have a daughter in Uni. She never went to childcare a day in her life because of how I structured my life - I had a feed store/nursery when she was born so she came to work with me. Then when she was in school full time, I began teaching. Good hours for a mum. I still had my business but by then it had taken off and was running itself. I really was fortunate in that. And she says all the time that she was the luckiest kid in the world with her upbringing.

Rent is so bad here people pay weekly! But at least you have a decent place. Many places here in Sydney are so old and the owners just aren't keeping them up. Sad because they are so pretty.

I thank you for adding my rather eclectic and strange journal. I shall add you back.

Cheers!

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My wife is a stay at home mom. Financialy it would be easier if she worked, but in the long run its going to pay off big time. We find ways to get around one income!

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Of course it would be easier. But in the end, your kids will thank you.

My step-brother and his wife have always worked very hard. They get new cars constantly, have a home in America in a gated community. They take expensive vacations. They claim they both work hard so their kids can have the best.

Both kids have been in childcare since they were 4- and 6-weeks old. I cannot imagine having to part with my child that early.

Now their kids are over 16 and have actually been raised by strangers, with the other people's morals and values. The kids don't want to go on an expensive yearly cruise to Mexico, the Carribean or Alaska. They want to go camping or hang out with their friends at the beach or pool. My step-brother and his very nice wife don't understand it. They just shake their heads and call the kids ungrateful.

Both kids came to the ranch to stay with me one summer. They ran around like wild children with my daughter, rode horses, built dams in the river and cubbies out of left-over timber, had outdoor campfires and slept in a tent on the lawn next to the river half the nights. They got scratched and dirty but lived to tell the tale.

They loathe the cruises and having to dress for dinner. They have had no real childhood. They now seem so institutionalised.

Your kids will fare much better in life and you and your wife won't miss a thing. They won't remember what your furniture looked like but they will remember the fun they had with you both.

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True that. My son has kids in his class that are being raised by live in nannies. The parents are never around. I think we're lucky that my wife enjoys staying home with the kids. They are so happy and our 5 year old is such a good big brother to our 9 month old daughter. Theres so much that kids learn from their parents that they wouldnt learn from day care providers. I know that this day and age alot of families have both parents working, but for a lot of them its because they want the million dollar house, the 2 luxery cars and the posh lifestyle. Mabey its the way they grew up and its a reciprical thing.

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I taught second grade...trust me, it is obvious who is raising most kids today.

Your kids will be winners in the long run. And you and your wife will have all the things you desire some day. But most of all, you will have good kids.

That is much more valuable than a million dollar house that you might have to put up to bail a kid out of gaol.

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We've learned how to be quite thrifty too. Theres a lot of ways to get cheap cloths when you have 2 growing kids!

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Wow that was a long reply I made. Oops...the dogs woke me up at 4am and I reckon I was chatty. Apologies to

emo_snail

So,

colt_4_5, do you have http://www.freecycle.org up there?

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emosnail.livejournal.com

Thanks for the apology, but it wasn't my entry, it was

emo_snals! ;)

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oops. Thanks for the correction.

I apologise to

emo_snal for the extra wordy responses.

What a close user name!

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emosnail.livejournal.com

Indeed, indeed!

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Yes we do! (I can be quite chatty as well)

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Freecycle rocks! You can get heaps of good stuff on it. Even lamps, which are expensive to purchase if you think about it, can be found nearly everyday on our group.

Plus, if people move, they usually prefer to give the big stuff away instead of paying for storage.

Kids here wear uniforms to school so around the turn of the semesters parents get on there and offer up uniforms. Big swaps are made and heaps of money is saved.

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But 24 years is a lot more than ten (Its 240% as much!).. its basically a quarter of a century -- most of my life!

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That is a lot! Nothing like that has ever happend up here.

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It is a very long time! Therefore if you think about it...a bit creepy.

Who do you reckon will run? Or have they already decided.

We have had the flu for two weeks and have only now recovered so I am very behind on the news, which is not normal for me.

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I haven't been hearing as much about the Republican primaries, but I suspect Hillary is going to steamroller everyone else in the Democratic Primary and get their nominations (she's got huge bags o money -- she ran the highest budget Senate race in history or something) ... and if she does, I am predicting a Republican win in the end notwithstanding not having the slightest idea who the Republican is going to be.

I have a feeling sooner or later the media will catch on to "24 Years!" and that'll scare the bajeezes out of a lot of people (I can't believe I haven't heard one mention of this from the media so far), but moreover I think she just creeps people out ... she comes across as a bit of a dragon-lady you know? A dragon-lady who throws ungodly amounts of money at elections, moved to New York just to be a New York senator, which was odd, and was willing to completely sell her own self out by looking the other way while her husband philandered in front of the whole world, for the sake of her political career. In a nutshell, way too much baggage.

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Have you read Christopher Hitchens' No One Left to Lie To? It is a rather shocking expose on Bill Clinton.

It made me sad to read it.

We called Hilary "Billary" She surely seemed to be the tail that wagged the dog. But after reading the book above, I don't really know.

Another Republican government? Oy! But who knows...May a change of any kind at this point is all that is needed.

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Like I said I don't know how things are going in the Republican primaries, but I kind of like McCain -- he seems to think for himself pretty good. And I have a good general impression of Guiliani.

Whats the gist of No One Left to Lie To?

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yami.livejournal.com

Whats trully alarming is that this has been common knowledge and yet this neo-fascist oligarchy with a seemingly not-so-clandestined plot for New World Order ala' Hitler's 4th Reich has so successfully usurped our democracy while we do nothing about it.

If voting changed anything, THEY would make it illegal.

(deleted comment)

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But you can't vote for someone just based on their gender of ethnicity. It would certainly be nice to prove that those things don't matter and either type of person COULD ge elected, but one still has to evaluate the rest of the package. I don't really know much about Obama actually at this juncture though -- hopefully I'll figure him out by the time it comes to vote.

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extoria.livejournal.com

When you put it that way, yes... scary ^_^

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