hardtack

I took my son to see Hunt For the Wilderpeople the other day (I had seen it on my return flight from NZ recently) and I have to say that it is one of the funnier films I have seen in a long long time... in fact, since Taika Waititi's previous film What We Do In the Shadows (a superb mocumentary about a share house in Wellington occupied by vampires). This film has a real heart, laugh out loud laconic humour, and the kid who played Ricky Baker (the overweight "bad boy") is brilliant, as is Waititi's cameo as a minister providing solace at a funeral. And Sam Neill is perfrect in the part as the hardened bushman "uncle" with a heart of gold. Just 4 words - Go and see it!!

Thanks Wrecker, it does suck... big time! I have itemised all treatments and costs including the Medicare gap that I am out of pocket and plan to approach the competition organisers and possibly the AFL if no satisfactory result can be forthcoming. The insurance the clubs take covers, I think, up to $2,000 in costs incurred, but only the gap in private health insurance and income loss; the Medicare gap is untouchable. To make matters worse, the insurance they took out pays only 75% of the outstanding private health gap and there is a $70 excess taken off the total amount owing.

Mediscare my arse! They have been dismantling the whole thing by stealth for some time already! I have just come from Medicare after making a claim for my son's ongoing treatment for a footballing injury. So far THIS govt has frozen the scheduled fee (from last Jan 1st if memory serves) meaning the gap will continue to grow and grow unless I want to travel to the planet Koozbane where I hear there are specialists who charge this mythical scheduled fee for their services. Next, I was just informed by the Medicare staffer who dealt with my claim, that the Govt has withdrawn any tax rebates this year for family claims made during the financial year due to budgetary constraints. I can only hope he has been misinformed, but somehow I think not. Couple this with the fact that the Health Act contains a clause stating that insurance companies are forbidden to make payouts in claims for the Medicare gap and I am literally up [censored]-creek sans paddle. This is more of a moan and a vent than a contribution to the political discussion, but thanks to corporate greed I was considered less important by Oracle Corp than their shareholder's dividends and hence 'set free' last September (at 64, finding gainful employment is NOT easy) and now thanks to govts (I don't know which side was responsible for the Health Act clause), I am out of pocket over $3k for my son's knee injury, with no hope of recovering any of it...of all expenses incurred I've managed to recover just over $300 for the private cover (Bupa) components!!! So to sum up, Medicare has been moving towards an American model for some time already and govts of all persuasions (left or right) can go and [censored] themselves!! (I am NOT in a good mood, in case you hadn't noticed)

Also interesting to note that most on here didn't rate Nathan Jones highly (many left him off completely), yet the press I think rated him equal B.O.G. with Tyson and Viney.

Nathan Jones gets that award (plus the Atlas Award for carrying the entire team on his shoulders for much of his footballing life).

Can't view either link.

Perhaps Dante is confusing Andrew Ferguson with Daniel Andrews? Not quite 100's of millions, which is no surprise when one considers the CFMEUs funds totaled just $14mil. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/cfmeu-accused-of-shifting-7m-into-secret-trust/news-story/28bf06392caccfb5026237e1792cad88

The key words "the LNP will scrape in"...despite not winning, Shorten (who completely reinvented himself in a few short weeks) gained far more credibility from this result that his opponent who will be reliant on/beholden to a couple of independents to get anything done and then will have to face a hostile Senate to get anything passed. I would say that unlike his LNP counterpart, he will not be in any immediate danger of losing his position. I would have thought that a 16 seat turnaround is no mean effort at all.

Not sure where I got that from? Possibly from the lengths you are going to in defence of the ON party supporters and your extraordinary overreaction to NB's comments. Not sure why I entered the conversation? Possibly for the same reasons you entered the original conversation between Jaded and NB... in my case, I was stating my thoughts and was in agreement with NB... what was your reason? They probably don't care what I think? So what? That's their prerogative and good luck to them. Strange that you seem to care so much though. Edit: and looking at your response to NB above, it seems that you have an issue with people using a discussion forum for discussion?

Overreaction much? I think that NB is well within his rights in labeling those who vote for Hanson because they support her racist/xenophobic views, idiots. However, I'm not sure how you extrapolate from that, that people think they should be locked up simply for holding those views. Perhaps you admire her politics and are taking this a little too personally?

I'm curious... I can understand that like many non gays, they may not particularly find the institution of marriage attractive or necessary and prefer, like I did, a de facto situation, but on what grounds would your gay friends be AGAINST gay marriage?

I'm afraid that intellectually, he would leave you far far behind

What game are you watching?

What, you mean place the country in an extremely precarious position and then bail out? Yep, his ego's really in check...shame his spine seems to be a little out of whack.

More interesting now...with 77.8% of the vote counted, according the the ABC website, Other 5, Libs 65, Lab 67 and Undecided 13 (that was just a few minutes ago). I'm thinking a hung parliament is the most likely outcome...but does that mean we may see another election? The Libs have already started the blame game and their #1 spokesperson Bolt is calling for Turnbull's head...hard to see how they could manage to run the country while they are in this state.

I thought Fury Road was the best Mad Max film after Mad Max 2... really though, the only dud was Beyond Thunderdome.

One of the best in the entire competition! So glad he's signed on for two more...one of our most important players.

Yeah, but that's not such a big achievement these days DC (the halcyon days of Australian rugby are long gone; not that I've ever had any interest in the game)... but for them to go down in a game of football to a country with an entire population (330k) that equates to a small percentage of the number of registered players in the UK, now THAT'S a big deal.

Went to NZ for a few days (arrived back yesterday) and on the flight back watched "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"... it has to be one of the funniest films I have seen.... ever! After I saw "What We Do in the Shadows" a couple of years back,. I didn't know how anyone could make a funnier film...but somehow Taika Waititi has managed the feat. Can't recommend this highly enough (if this film doesn't raise a laugh, then you are officially dead).

I thought the second Avengers film was pretty ordinary, but I really enjoyed the latest Capt America Civil War thing.... nicely tongue in cheek. Of all of them though, the one I have enjoyed most is Guardians of the Galaxy.

Ok, I'll see your big noting and raise you... Firstly it should be understood that I have not seen any of GoT...not even a preview so I can't vouch for the veracity of this B.N.. Now, if you have seen the clip of my song that I posted a link to here for YouTube (song was Don't Blame Me), the guitarist in that clip Steve Ralphs is the advisor on correct use of long bows (he makes them) and has worked in that capacity on GoT since the beginning, or so I'm led to believe. Check out the credits and see if you can find him. Here endeth my big note.

Brexit was so successful it seems, now they have rush released Brexit 2 - Iced by Iceland. Hilarious!

Yeah, and of course the referendum cost the tax payer nothing and the result is going to cost the tax payer nothing, not to mention the economy in general. And besides that, Grapeviney was responding to Radar's comment re the ABC and looney left telling people what to think and say...but that will never stop you from clutching at straws.

And now apparently the people are wishing that maybe they hadn't spoken. And by the way, it has bugger all to do with the left and the ABC telling anyone what to do...funnily enough, it was a conservative politician (Cameron) who was the biggest proponent of the Stay vote.