Australian Federal Election 2007/08

While normally I would confine my blog posts to gaming and entertainment stuff, with a vast amount of free time I have become concerned about politics. I have become (as much as possible) alarmed about the media coverage of the forthcoming federal election. This is because of two factors, one the media's biased reporting favouring the Labor party, and two the American Presidential style of political analysis occurring.

While I could be considered a coalition voter, I have been tempted to swing my vote because I have felt John Howard is becoming a bit old and stale. Looking at the possibilities has highlighted one major thing, Australia is not led by a single person and a comparison between the parties needs to be drawn. With that being said I have disliked a few of the political decisions being made which include the higher education systems, the entire Telstra mess, and I am not clear I like workplace agreements. Alternately the Labor system is reliant on unions for which I have no control over and the track record of the Labor party is horrendous for a strong economy. Also I think as a party the coalition are more unified then the Labor party with its many factions.

In Summary, if this was an American style debate over the preferred leader, then Rudd would probably beat Howard. However in Australia the party is as important as the leader, and in such a comparison then Howard wins every time. It is interesting to note that last time I would have voted for Labor under big "Kim" if it weren't for the fact he was representing Labor.

In conclusions, while the representative for the party is important, defining a working structure for the party is also a big factor in getting my vote. Sadly Labor is hindered by two many factors and won't get my vote this time. Plus media you suck....

Harry Potter and Die Hard 4.0

Recently I went to see the fifth Harry Potter movie in the cinemas. I nice experience, as I was looking forward to the movie and was not disappointed. I think it was worth waiting for. My only negative comment would be that I was sad I could not get a gold class ticket, either way it was fun.

Yesterday I went to see the new die hard movie. While it was full of action and things happening, I was disappointed in its lack of realism. Unlike Harry Potter where realism in not terribly important, Die hard must cling to some resemblance of reality. Clearly a fighter jet chasing a truck at almost road level down a highway is just stupid. Secondly once you get past the endless hacker crap, which entailed the usual array of mythical user interfaces and cinema l33t speak, it was hard to focus on the story. The other comment would be if someone gets thrown through a wall, then hit by a car, they will at least have broken something....wake up you studio jerks!

Lastly I would say the paying $17.50AUD for an adult ticket is just robbery. While I would never encourage theft, the cost here may be an indication into why people don't go to the movies. For Harry Potter I didn't mind but for just the normal studio crap like die hard.... ggggrrrr!