How lucky are we?
Let me count the ways..
Fluoride in the water. Even though Queensland has no remarkable difference in the dental health of adults compared to adults in other states who have been drinking fluoride for the last 20 years, we are now being medicated against our will. Since when was my dental health a concern of the government?
Internet censorship. Who, but who, wants this multi-million dollar government control imposed on us? O.K, I should have asked who but the ACL and a few others who have not thought further ahead than the next five minutes. The government always introduces a reduction in civil liberties by packaging it as “for your protection”.
60 Million Litres per day of treated SEWERAGE poured into our water supply? Hello? This is an experiment that has not been trialled in any other nation to the extent that our glorious government has, despite widespread public opposition, planned for us. Aren’t we the lucky ones? Find me an Australian other than Anna Bligh who thinks this is a great idea. Certainly it is one way of amending the fact that we are one of the fastest growing areas in Australia (choke!)
Drinks anyone?
Although Anna Bligh has stated that she will act against the will of the people (Oh God, please let there be an election before I have to consume my neighbour’s last meal!) there is an e-petition available.
(apologies to my regular readers who may have been anticpating something useful or instructive from this post..)
November 30, 2008 at 7:49 am
I know this comment will be rather random too but here in SA the water is flouridated. However, while at the dentist the other day we went through the usual grilling about what toothpaste we use and were then told the most recent recommendations:
do not rinse after cleaning the teeth!!!!Yes, that’s right. The dentist said that recent studies have shown that we should only use a small amount of toothpaste (nothing changed there) but to not rinse…rather let the flouridated toothpaste sit in our mouths, allowing the teeth to soak it in and ‘provide more protection’.
Pffttttt!
November 30, 2008 at 1:56 pm
“rather let the fluoridated toothpaste sit in our mouths, allowing the teeth to soak it in and ‘provide more protection’.”
I think your dentist has been programmed by Mrs Marsh. Remember her?
the fluoride gets in, just like the liquid into this chalk..
November 30, 2008 at 3:59 pm
ahhh, that’s a blast from the past: Mrs Marsh and the chalk!! I remember it well, now that you mention it.
I remember when we were little (back in the good ol’ days), my mum used to give us little flouride tablets to take daily… and they were all different colours just to make it all the more enjoyable for kids! Oh, brother… lol
November 30, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Sorry darling, that last comment was from me… just trying to get my links thing all sorted out. You are the only other WordPress blogger I know… ah well, what are friends for eh??! Thanks…
November 30, 2008 at 5:00 pm
You obviously got the link thing worked out, clever bunny. Don’t forget that our Esteemed Master of Computer Stuff (alias HGK) would most likely be able to share her wisdom with you if you get stuck. I, of course, would offer, but (choke!) that would be a bit like offering you a band aid for a broken leg
November 30, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Oooh, whilst you are sweet and funny, you are also too modest. You do an excellent job of learning new skills – computer skills.
November 30, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Thank you HGK, I guess if we don’t mention just how many emails from you it took for me to manage to get my trading avatar the same as my community one, people may believe you
December 2, 2008 at 3:02 am
[...] 2.Beyond Bluestockings –and to really make it hard for her I will tag her sweet daughter so she can’t hee hee [...]
December 2, 2008 at 3:10 am
TAG!!!
December 2, 2008 at 4:25 pm
LOL Joi, thanks for posting what I would post if I had the time…..
I’m going to get a water filter istalled in my new house…it’s the first thing on the list of things to organise…for both the fluoride and to take out the nasties if and when we get treated sewerage pumped into our water supply.
As you kow I lived in Adelaide for 5 years, a town that draws a large percentage of it’s drinking water from the river Murray which would have a large percentage of treated sewerage in it from all the towns up-stream….all the more reason that locals don’t drink tap water unless they have a water filter!
Then again, we have a lovely water tank installed, so I could always use that instead!
Elections are just around the cormer….could be interesting!
December 2, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Ah Lisa, how I spared my readers on this issue! The time of writing was after hours and hours researching just the potty water issue. At the conclusion of which, I genuinely came to believe that Anna Bligh is either insane, or a proponent of eugenics. And blind.
Has the women not noticed the flooding?
Every conspiracy theory I have ever stumbled across gains credence when you consider the experimental nature of the project, the scientific advice against it, the Nazi like attitude of Bligh in the face of public opposition, and the plain stupidity of not even trialling other options such as maintaining restrictions, requiring industry to utilize her precious poopy water, encouraging water tanks and offering incentives for reduced water consumption to domestic and commercial users.
Elections? Oh please bring them on. I would even get out and campaign for Bobo the clown, if it means I my children and grandchildren will not be growing up in a world where kiddies are born with two heads… (yes, birth defects are one of the likely consequences of drinking the water after it has had the final “purifying” stage – gamma radiation.
The part that really stings? My tax dollars are what Anna Bligh will be using to buy her bottled water…
December 3, 2008 at 9:11 am
All this just makes me think more and more about how having women leading our country is a sign of God’s judgement. In Vic we had a female education minister who changed laws making home ed more difficult.
Love ya.
WRT fluoride, our town is one of the few who hasn’t had it in our water and are also fighting the battle. The only benefit the govt can come up with is that it is supposed to improve children’s dental health by 10%. How about encouraging parents to not feed their kids fizzy drink, and perhaps make working parents make sure their kids do have breakfast in the morning instead of leaving it up to the school (and my tax dollars) to feed their kids. Oh, yeah, you’re not the only one that gets riled about it all, BB. Is there such a thing as a militant anti-feminist group??
Joel
December 3, 2008 at 10:46 am
It’s funny you should mention the militant anti-feminist group Joel, as I had just this second come from reading one!
Some amazing stuff. I just read an article about how a man was JAILED for three years for feeding his wife/girlfriend abortion pills in her sandwich. Now, not that I condone for a second a man’s right to feed his wife/girlfriend (can’t remember which it was) abortion pills, but why on earth it is illegal for the man to do what the woman gets to do as her right is staggering.
Here’s the link if you are interested in seeing the poor chaps who are out there trying to tell it like it is (with a little added bile);
http://endofmen.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/abortion-good-if-women-want-it-murder-if-men-want-it/#comment-2120
I will warn you though, it is not a family friendly site!
ETA: oh, so with you on the fluoride alternatives. Educating parents would make a lot more sense. What next? Diet pills in the water ’cause kids are getting fat? Please!
December 3, 2008 at 11:51 am
Hi Joel
I agree with your comments about Fluoride being the ‘great saviour’ of our children’s teeth.
Lets look at diet and the hideous amounts of sugar that kids ingest daily!
My parents fed us daily fluoride tablets and are still shocked that we didn’t do the same for our kids.
All our kids have fantastic teeth, no fillings, none need braces, (thank you Jesus)….it is due to the good diet that they had when growing up…and the fact that the main drink in our household was water….not juices and large amounts of soft drink (soda for the readers from the US)
My kids cousins have terrible teeth but they were allowed to drink sugar loaded beverages….until they came to my house for a visit!
I can’t wait to install my water filter!
December 3, 2008 at 11:53 am
LOL, Joi about the ‘diet’ pills in the water…..
Of course the ‘nanny state’ has our kids wrapped up in cotton wool and at state schools they’re not allowed to play sports in their lunch breaks….of course that so isn’t related to the obesity issue in this country!
xx
December 3, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Lisa, are you serious about the sport? Are kids really not allowed to play sport at lunch time? Wow. Pretty soon they will stop them breathing. (just in case they intake some pollution or somthin’
)
December 3, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Hi
I think you all might be relieved and in fact you may already know by now that Bligh has backed down on the recycled water option… for now. I’ve inserted the address, but have no clue on how to make it a link, sorry about the backwardness
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,24707735-952,00.html?from=communities
Kindly
JM
December 3, 2008 at 9:41 pm
This is ‘Joel’ changing her id to Elle. I think it will give the more correct impression of me being female.
December 3, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Thanks for that link JM, and taking the time to post here.
If you read carefully through all the media-speak that is trying to make a big deal about the wasted money the project has swallowed, it doesn’t actually sound too much like the idea has been scrapped. (I resisted the urge to pun with “canned”
)
The Queensland Water Commission board will meet today to discuss Ms Bligh’s demand for urgent advice on what the dam levels should be for recycled water to be triggered, as well as the board’s own polling on its popularity.
At one point the article states that the project won’t go ahead regardless of dam levels, but reading the above, we see that despite flooding in the region, Bligh is “demanding urgent advice” on what level the dam should reduce to, before the recycled water is introduced.
I don’t think we’re out of the soup yet.
One thing I find concerning is that while Bligh has been keen to jump in with figures at which the dam will be augmented, she has refused to state a cut off point at which the dam levels would be considered satisfactory to cease supply of recycled water.
Considering that one of the functions of Wivenhoe dam was for flood mitigation, we may find ourselves in the ridiculous position of not only drinking our recycled sewerage, but being flooded by it as well.
Edited to add: “ello Elle
I missed your comment while I was busy on my soap box
December 4, 2008 at 8:03 am
Hi Everyone
I’m really enjoying your blog
So much to learn, so little time
Kindly
JM
December 4, 2008 at 10:24 am
Thanks for your kind comments JM, I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts
December 4, 2008 at 1:49 pm
BBS wrote….>>>Considering that one of the functions of Wivenhoe dam was for flood mitigation, we may find ourselves in the ridiculous position of not only drinking our recycled sewerage, but being flooded by it as well.<<<<<
Yes, how quickly people forget that point, Brisbane is overdue for a big wet/cyclone event….Wivenhoe wasn’t meant to be our major water storage facility, is that correct BBS??
xx
December 4, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Regarding the sport, yes I’ve heard it reported a few times….
Did you like the one about teachers not using red pen to mark students work?
Here is the story..
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24745075-3102,00.html
December 4, 2008 at 5:37 pm
It was designed with the goal of meeting our water supply needs over the long term, but flood mitigation was a driving force at the time, with the goal to prevent another disaster like ‘74.
The capacity of the dam was intended to be around 50 percent, with the remaining capacity a safe guard against flooding.
This is where the Bligh government scare mongering falls on deaf ears – for those of us who are old enough to remember that it is not unusual for us to have weeks and weeks of rain.
This is one cause for concern (though the health reports alone would be enough to make me run for the hills) as Bligh refuses to name a cut off point, citing that it takes time and money to turn the tap off, so that even if the dam level was high, there would have to be “consultation” about when to turn it off. (I’m guessing she does not personally live in a flood prone area?
)
I also read that she stated that she would not stop until all dams were at capacity. I would need to go back to dig for the reference, but it was an indicator of just how completely unqualified she is to make any decision about water management.
All that aside, where is the woman’s pride? Who wants to be remembered by history as the first female premier….to force her constituents to drink sewerage?
In comparison, anything else she says or does will seem prosaically forgettable.
It’s great to have you ’round Lisa: it helps a girl to spill the vitriol with a grand rant buddy
December 4, 2008 at 5:51 pm
“The red pen brings up association of aggression more than blue or black as red is linked more with dramatic things like stop signs,” Dr Bramston said.
God help us if we ever expect these children to grow up and be soldiers, doctors, policemen, or…..
adults!
“This is a kooky, loony, loopy, Left policy from a Labor Government that is out of touch,” he said.
I’d struggle to put it better myself.
December 5, 2008 at 12:16 am
Your POOOR Premier! Someone must have used way too much red ink on her papers in school-she seems to have issues giving in to reason when she wants her own way…Maybe a nice flouridated cocktail would cheer her up?
We have places on the Minnesota River where the fish are showing up with extra sex organs (female ones in even the male fish)–it is from all the residue of birth control pills left in the water after the filtration process before they put it back in the river–besides flouride- water treated this way comes with the benefits of many medication residues-here mostly (I think Digitalis?-a heart med anyway)and some high-blood-pressure meds that are taken by a lot of people-along with lots of hormones from birth-control pills and hormone replacement therepy. They can’t get that stuff out–and a nice,fresh chlorine smell for that fresh,disinfectant-clean illusion. Funny how the “better” our water gets and the more filtered and tested and added and refined-the more health issues our communities turn up with!
Is she really filling up dams meant to be flood-control levies??!? I hope you are on high ground! Don’t you have some militant enviromental group or other with deep pockets to go after her for ruining habitat of unique species or something? We even had a guy here stopped by a group from cleaning up a dump sire of OLD TIRES and garbage! (they claimed that it was a protected wetland now!!)–Why are they only around at the ridiculous times?
December 5, 2008 at 6:47 am
Ha! I feel like giving her a good taste of my red pen, that’s for sure! And not that I am going to admit to desiring to conspire against our illustrious leader, but if someone would slip her a bit of a cocktail…I’d not being crying in my cups about it.
Dandelionmom, your rivers! We were learning the other day that the Cuyahoga River was the only body of water considered combustable (!) and that in 1969 it caught fire. Scary.
We have issues with the hormones in the water too: there are places where the turtles and crocodiles are changing sex, producing birth defects, etc. It is one of the reasons I think if Anna is not stupid, she sure must be evil, because it is not new information.
When it starts happening to people, which they predict will take one generation, and even if the treated water planned is then scrapped the effects will take several generations to work out, with the availability of prenatal screening it will mean a lot more abortions.
Here we a perfect scenario for a bit of genetic cleansing. The wealthy (supposedly the more intelligent/successful people) will do the research, will be able to afford bottled water, and so will be “spared”. The poor masses who are not in a position to add water to the family budget will soon have a higher abortion rate.
If there is an outbreak of disease in the water supply (almost inevitable if you read what the treatment stages are) the government plans to only inform the public if there is an “unusually high risk”. How kind. Who will be effected? The elderly, the sick, and the poor. And there you have a perfect example of depopulation planning at it’s ugliest (and my dose of conspiracy theory for the day)
It just so happens that we do have a militant greenie camp here, and although I have been known in the past to hope that they would all chain themselves to trees…and stay there, this time they have managed to seriously impede her plans for a dam that none of the residents of the area wanted because it would hurt the little lung fish, and a few turtles.
But because it’s only people who will be harmed in the drink-your-own(& everyone elses)-effluent-with-all-our-industrial-waste plan, they don’t care, obviously. They probably consider that the more of it we drink, the less of it is being dumped in the river to harm the fish…
Grrr.