Political capers in the land of OZ

Yes, Australia's PM Julia Gillard missed her true calling in pantomime.  Nonetheless here in Oz we are being treated to almost daily updates about the lack of confidence in her as Labor's leader from her party backbenchers, along with ongoing polls which see her constantly lagging behind the Liberal leader Tony Abbott as preferred PM.  She hasn't been a great leader by any stretch of the imagination, but the thought of Tony Abbott as PM makes me shudder.  With Julie Bishop (aka The Android) as his deputy; now there's scary conservatism personified.  Here's why I call Julie Bishop The Android;



It's her eyes; it's all in her cold blue eyes.  She's a real "no - nonsense" type of the mega-anal variety.  She would have made a good nurse/matron in the sixties.  In fact that's where I see a lot of her values grounded; a mash of sixties/seventies/eighties, and not in a good way.

Some women might argue that bringing down women in power defeats the sisterhood.  I guess there's elements of that in Australia, particularly so for Gillard.  Much of the criticism which Gillard has had flung at her certainly is of the sexist variety, which I guess was to be expected for Australia's first female PM.

My main problem with Gillard is the way she expresses herself; slow, plodding, repetitive, deflective, slippery, insincere.  She's never won peoples' confidence.  Unfortunately voters here tend to get swayed by elements which are largely out of government controls, ie: the state of the economy (dependant on the shape of the world's economy, mostly the USA and China) which then has seen our budget go into the red.  The Liberals leap upon this and squawk about how "Labor can't manage the economy" and that they "overspend" yada yada...."unlike the responsible Liberal government you saw under John Howard and Peter Costello".

The Liberals have a point to an extent; they do spend less on infrastructure like Healthcare, Education and Welfare.  All the concerns of the lower to middle class earners, to which Labor have always appealed.  Not anymore.  All the polls are indicating a crushing defeat for the Gillard government, and the election isn't until September.

Anyways.........my very amateur political opinion aside; I just saw the Julia Pic above in todays online paper and thought it too good not to capture.

Meanwhile.........get ready Australia.  Barring a major mishap, this Joker is going to be the next Prime Minister;




Even his smile reminds me of Jack Nicholson's one as the Joker in Batman!!!!!!!!!!

Psychotic episode in Hospital

It may appear as though I lean much more towards the bipolar end of the spectrum than any experience of psychosis.  This is by and large true; most of my issues are mood related, not thought distortions.  I got heaps more of those when I was in my 20's and early 30's.  The past 10 or so years has seen a bit of a levelling out from my psychotic symptoms.  Indeed, even the psychosis I had while on my recent hospital meds swap came and went fairly swiftly.

I can't remember the exact dosage levels of the Zyprexa onto the Saphris when I got unwell in hospital, but essentially I went through approximately 72 hours believing that I was;

(1)

The next Messiah;  basically I "felt" as I entered the dining hall that everyone was talking in hushed tones about me.  I believed that if I ate my meal then the apocalypse would arrive.  I ran out of the dining hall crying then howling.  Luckily 2 nurses brought me to my room where I recounted my thoughts.  I had an hallucination as I was talking that I "heard" and :"felt" a white light come through the roof into my right shoulder blade.  It sounded like a tuning fork; a pure singing sound.  I thought it was the holy spirit.  Then I sat up and declared that I couldn't be the messiah "because the world's got a Whole Lotta Living to Do!!".

the next day i change my tack, instead believing that I was;



(2)

The next Dalai Lama; this was based on some dribble from a co-patient who told me she'd heard that the next Dalai Lama was going to manifest in the form of two women.  Mind you she kept hugging me a lot.   Plus when I tried to tell her about some of my thoughts she'd bark at me: "First rule about Fight Club: You Do  NOT talk about Fight Club!"  It's fair to say she was pretty unwell.  I guess you get that in a hospital.

unfortunately my delusions took a turn for the worst on the 3rd day;

(3)

I believed I was the spawn of satan.  This involved a lot of self-deprecating rubbish along the lines of "I am evil and I deserve to be punished".

So I was pretty glad for all 3 delusions to evaporate, although the Dalai Lama one had some mirth to it.