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Last updated on August 5th, 2017 at 03:07 pm
Lefties; they’re so materialistic.
UPDATE. Our lefty friend explains humour:
It’s a bit like that tedious old joke about why don’t they make planes out of the material used in the black box; it relies on the listener completely lacking the most basic reasoning skills. They don’t make planes out of the black box material because they’d be ridiculously heavy and no-one would be able to afford air travel.
- I didn’t know Mr Bean was a lefty. Who would have thought?Posted by murph on 2007 05 31 at 05:41 AM • permalink
- Actually, that post was rather sad.Posted by wronwright on 2007 05 31 at 06:01 AM • permalink
- #4, wronwright,
The man’s a dickhead.This could be one of the many smacks upside the head (I do like that Americanism) he will need to stop him from being such a dickhead. So don’t feel sad. It could be one of the best things that’s ever happened to him.I’ve found suffering to be a very useful spur to personal growth and would not wish anyone to miss out on its benefits.
- I’m surprised they keep score at Mr Leftys indoor soccer matches, to prevent anyone’s feelings getting hurt.Posted by Son of a Pig and a Monkey on 2007 05 31 at 06:57 AM • permalink
- Why has he included the word “Woof!” in his thread title? Have they taken his cat?? Oh, the humanity!Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 05 31 at 06:58 AM • permalink
- The ‘half’ that Lefty got to keep could probably keep several people clothed fed and housed for a decade or two. But I admire the cat for removing itself from an obviously doomed relationship.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 05 31 at 07:42 AM • permalink
- From each according to his ability; to each according to his need. Don’t forget the half-point on the goal.Posted by Mystery Meat on 2007 05 31 at 08:28 AM • permalink
- If Mr Lefty ruled the world, the government would be doing that to all of us every single year. ie, taking half of what we earn in income taxes, and half of what we’ve got in death duties, capital gains, land taxes, stamp duties etc etc etc.
When it’s divorce, it’s sad.
When it’s the taxman, it’s social justice.
Bloody goose.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 05 31 at 08:52 AM • permalink
- O/T but lefty hypocrisy all the same:
the most recent quarterly essayHis Master’s Voice
The Corruption of Public Debate under Howard
By David MarrJohn Howard has the loudest voice in Australia. He has cowed his critics, muffled the press, intimidated the ABC, gagged scientists, silenced NGOs, censored the arts, prosecuted leakers, criminalised protest and curtailed parliamentary scrutiny.
this from the man who declared that anyone not on the left should get out of journalism and fronted media watch.
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 05 31 at 09:04 AM • permalink
IT’S AWESOME FUN. I highly recommend it.
I’m hoping that his soon-to-be ex-spouse had as much fun as Jeremy did. He doesn’t say. But I have this nagging feeling that the fun was all on his side.
And, wronwright, that post wasn’t sad. It was pathetic.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 31 at 09:29 AM • permalink
- Texas Bob, the only problem with your idea is that my ex-wife would have done the same thing if I hadn’t fetched the cops along.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 31 at 09:30 AM • permalink
- On most subjects I disagree with Sears. Actually, I think he’s a dickhead along with most others that hover on the looney left fringe. But I wish him well and good luck.Posted by wronwright on 2007 05 31 at 10:12 AM • permalink
- JeffS
And, wronwright, that post wasn’t sad. It was pathetic.
Jeremy’s was a childless marriage, wasn’t it? If there had been children involved, then it truly would have been sad. Tragic, even.
Although taking the ex-spouse’s favorite pet out of spite is really low class. I’ve seen that happen before.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 05 31 at 10:32 AM • permalink
- The most left-wing thing about it was the self-absorption.
As if anybody gives a——
Posted by Charles Murton on 2007 05 31 at 10:45 AM • permalink
- RE #19, I dunno, Spiny. But I agree, a divorce involving children is very sad.
On the plus side, thus far Jeremy hasn’t spawned. So there’s hope for the world yet.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 31 at 11:00 AM • permalink
- #16 TRJS, I see your point. Tactics like that can work both ways. I’ll throw in my favorite story about my divorce for fun though. I got a call from the succubus after she’d heard I’d closed the sale of our former home. She hissed that she wanted her half. I calmly told her that would be fine. Since I’d taken a small loss on the home and had to pay at closing, her half was the 800 bucks she owed me. I asked her to send a money order, not a personal check. She hung up on me.
That was the best $800 I never saw. Worth every penny.
- BUAWHAHAHAHA!!! Good one there, Texas Bob!
And just so ya know……I didn’t lose much on my divorce (got the bills but kept the house), and I have the satisfaction of seeing her having to actually work* (GASP!) for a living, liable for her own (and extensive) debts at last. Alas, no kegger and bonfire for me. 🙁
==================================
*: How? She’s employed at a local store that I sometimes patronize. Although I try to schedule my visits for when she ain’t working (I have my sources). ‘Tis better that way.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 31 at 11:35 AM • permalink
- Zoe, I know you feel any mention of Jeremy’s new single status to be offensive, but please consider:
* In the first instance, I simply posted a link to his “Hi, girls!” ad. He subsequently tried to claim this was cruel mockery of his separation. Not so; as I saw it, he’d evidently recovered from that trauma to the point where he was posting a singles ad.
* In the second instance, Jeremy’s posted on the pain of giving up possessions (he’s mentioned this previously in comments). I mean, please; the guy is over thirty, posting this stuff for anyone to read, and we’re not meant to comment, however briefly? Give me a break.
- My ex got the house in the divorce; he wore me down for over 3 years until I just gave it to him to get rid of him. Five bedroom, two car garage house that $10,000 of my inheritance from my mother was the down payment.
Karma’s a bi@#%, however, as my house was “too small” for our youngest with her three children to move in with me, so he’s now playing Mr. Mom to a 10, 7 and 4 year old, plus a 28 year old who’s working and going to school and consequently he has to do the housework and support them (he’s 62). And I’m sitting here in my little house, sniggering.
Worth every penny.
Elizabeth
Imperial KeeperPosted by Elizabeth Imperial Keeper on 2007 05 31 at 12:46 PM • permalink
- Getting married in about six weeks and hoping Jeremy’s fate does not befall us. No matter the obvious political differences between us, best of luck to him in his (re)new(ed) single life.Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 05 31 at 01:23 PM • permalink
- Sometimes two busy people ask themselves “do we want our kids to start out as corporate orphans?” If we don’t, who makes the sacrifices? Well, it turns out I’ve been housedad for the last nine years, juggling part-time work with nappy changes and bottle feeds… and the kind of moment-to-moment splatter and spills that two happy, active toddlers can confect.
Unfortunately, my thanks these days are a wife who not only doesn’t know which end of a dunny brush to use, but now has nearly all the money and financial leverage and thinks of herself as the sole provider and achiever.
Not only that, she figures she has the moral high-ground to end nearly every sentence with “arsehole”.
I walked out on the 10th April ‘07.
I’m not sure how it goes from here. Property settlement and parenting orders, I guess. In the meantime I cook dinners for one instead of four, with a lump in my throat thinking “there’s none here for the girls”.
- I’m the “breadwinner”, but Mrs. Paco takes care of all the money. If anything happened to her, I’d probably go down to the bank to make a withdrawal and they’d say, “Who the hell are you?” She’s also the “fixer”: plumbing, electrical, cable TV, computer, you name it. When we do chores together, my job usually consists of holding the ladder steady and handing up the tools.
- paco, I can’t begin to tell you how lucky a man you are. Although you acknowledge that you’re a lucky man, I do wonder if you truly know how lucky you are.Posted by wronwright on 2007 05 31 at 03:30 PM • permalink
- #34 Splice, your sad tale really worries me. I can see it all happening with my son. He and his wife were both corporate high flyers and he chose to retire early and become the house dad. He can cook, she can’t, so it seemed to be the sensible choice.
But after a few years she has become unattractively dominant and bossy.
Knowing my son, he will stick it out until the kids leave home, but I can’t see any long-term future for the marriage.
I blame Germaine Greer.
- Splice, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there have been changes to the Family Law Act over the years, and the lastest one to be enacted on July 1, 2007 is that in the event of separation of a family, both parents are entitled to 50/50 custody of the children.
(Except, of course, where there is the threat of harm towards the kids.)
The law these days is focussing more and more on the children and their needs, so she can’t cut automatically cut you out of their lives.
This is, of course, just my experience and opinion, and I’m not a lawyer.
I am, however, going through mediation to sort out custody and access and parenting plans, so that’s been entertaining me for the last couple of months.
Good luck with everything.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 05 31 at 05:55 PM • permalink
- Jeremy,
I’m sure this sucks.
However, if you two are getting along well enough to sit down and go through possessions, then you’re doing better than many. Be thankful for small mercies, as they say.
Divorce is a terrible business.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 05 31 at 06:05 PM • permalink
- #34 splice
my parents between them racked up seven marriages. They were both self-obsessed leftie baby boomers from upper middle class families (one the son of a high country sheep farmer, the other the daughter of a Wing Commander).
My life as a a kid was like one long episode of ‘Absolutely Fabulous’. Except for the night my stepfather smashed in our front door with a crowbar and went after my Mum and her boyfriend in her bedroom. That was more like ‘The Shining.’ My Mum walked with a limp from that day til the day she died because of being kicked in the knee.
I’ve now been married 20 years to same lovely gal (country girl born and bred), three gorgeous kids, couldn’t be happier. Except moonbats – and anyone who says the 60s was a happening decade – give me the screaming shits.
Splice, what you’re going through is terrible but people recover. You and the kids will I’m sure. Some don’t have the inner resources to get through the tough times, but that certainly doesn’t sound like it applies to you & yours
all the very best my friend
- Good luck, splice! Been there, done that, although not the same scenario as you. My only advice is, get professional advice. And counseling, if need be. Do not stand on your own.
paco—that’s an excellent arrangement for you and Mrs. paco. Would you consider adopting me?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 31 at 07:50 PM • permalink
- Above is excellent support and advice for our own. And anyone else for that matter.
Splice, from my experience, lay off alcohol, coffee, other drugs and meaningless sex for a while.
The good news is that once you are feeling better you can rip right back into the above with a vengeance.
Go and see a heterosexual male counsellor, whether you feel as if you need it or not. You do.
- Thanks so much for the words of encouragement everybody. There’s no place like Tim’s site for a daily dose of wisdom and a good laugh.
I’ve made preliminary enquiries with solicitors over the past few weeks and the recent changes to Family Law that Nilk mentions really do show what a forward-looking nation Australia is. The most important thing for me is right now is the welfare of my two beautiful daughters and I’ll be seeking every assistance to make sure that they come first.
But most of all, I draw strength from the examples set of courage and commitment shown by our own and our allies’ brave men and women serving in the world’s trouble spots like Afghanistan and Iraq. What they are selflessly giving for the security and the future of all of us who are safely back here at home make my troubles seem tiny in comparison.
- Splice – firstly sorry you are going through this, especially with 2 children. You can contact me with my gmail account for advice (next door to me in my office is our resident family law specialist – I know enough to get you in trouble, and he can get you out of it!).
As a newish husband and VERY newish father, who every day just falls deeper in love with his daughter, I dread thinking about what it would be like not to share her life as I do now. I guess you have to file that under the “shits happens” folder and hope it really is better for them in the long run.
re jeremy – I don’t know why there is this personal conflict between some sites and AL, and this is pretty minor, but I have seen some silly stuff going on and it does no-one any good.
- #48 paco
Cheers. Marriage is a severe limit on freedom but unlimited freedom leads inevitably to decadence, just like Rousseauist romanticism leads to Sade. You gotta serve somebody. If there ain’t no-one or nothin’ bigger than your own tiny little existence you’re gonna shake, rattle and roll.
I see it every day. People who can’t discipline themselves to stay focused, and can’t feel blessed with what they have. As Theodore Dalrymple says, people aren’t ‘unhappy’ anymore. They’re ‘depressed’ (which means its not their fault or within their powers to alter). They court disaster without even knowing what disaster looks like—til it rises up like the Kraken to sink their misbegotten rudderless little ship. Tragedy is, they take their loved ones down with them, at least for a while.
I don’t blame Greer so much, Skeeter, as the whole mollycoddling marshmellow-headed obsession with therapy and self-gratification, coupled with the modern parents’ obsession with their kids ‘self-esteem’. This, like so much progressive bullshit, sounds wonderful in theory but in effect means kids never get taught the real consequences of their actions. Nothing they do comes back to bite them. They behave appallingly with near-total impunity, unless they go to a good private school with a strong discipline policy, and/or get that discipline at home.
My son just broke up with his girlfriend because she and her friends like to pass the time on weekends by taking ecstacy or powdering up Ritolin and snorting it. Good kids, from nice families, with no fucking idea what they are doing. They’re seeding their own little cancer of misery deep into their bones and will quite possibly spend the next twenty years or possibly their whole lives in thrall to it, no doubt believing it’s somebody else’s fault. Weak, weak, weak.
Back in my younger days as an insufferable arts prick I used to tour with an Aboriginal comedian who was one of the happiest, most well-adjusted blokes I’ve met, despite seeing his father and most of his uncles commit suicide or rot away in prison. He used to get all sorts of racist abuse at times, and he never let it bother him. I asked him once how he stopped himself from getting angry. He just smiled and said: ‘I grew up in a dark room, and I got out of it and into the sunshine. I ain’t never going back into that dark room. Not for nothin’ or nobody.’
That’s what I call strength. Mastery of the self is the first essential step on the road to happiness. Yet we live in an age when the authentic self is not even held to exist anymore. So unhappiness abounds.
Go and see a heterosexual male counsellor, whether you feel as if you need it or not. You do.
I agree.
Nothing like an hour of no-holds-barred analysis and picking through the issues, with a confidentially contract in place.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 05 31 at 09:17 PM • permalink
- Bravo splice. Well said. I wish you good luck on whatever choices you make.Posted by wronwright on 2007 05 31 at 09:18 PM • permalink
- btw I agree with Zoe somewhat, I’m afraid. Just because someone puts their heart on the line doesn’t mean you have to be the one to tread on it. People make bad decisions when under stress, and in this case, Lefty’s decision to blog about his divorce – when he’s entrenched in highly charged political debates- was probably a mistake. Despite this, the most prudent thing is to show, if not sympathy, at least restraint.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 05 31 at 09:23 PM • permalink
- I don’t know his ex but Jeremy Sear is the most sympathy sucking, needy, wilfully naive, cognitive dishonest, spiteful, vindictive juvenile person I’ve ever come across.
So I’ll save my humanity and give the benefit of doubt to her.
She may have got sick of sleeping under a Power Ranger bed cover. Embarrassed about seeing him going to work with a Spider Man lunch box and didn’t fit in with his Captain Planet fan club.
Posted by armageddon on 2007 05 31 at 09:54 PM • permalink
- #33 RebeccaH;
I’ve been chained married to Mr. H for 39 years.
Hmmm. (Lessee…carry the four…)
Nope, not me. I’ve been married now to Mrs. H for 34 years, next month. A different Mrs. H, mind.
Sometimes these things just work out. Three kids grown up and out; two married, the last better not be, at least until he finishes getting things squared away. But he’s getting there.
Us? We’re doing fine. Looks like we have a couple more decades for figuring stuff out. I may yet learn to play those renaissance bagpipes.
A lot of people just haven’t had our good fortune, and we know it.
- #23 Texas Bob. Long working hours eventually finished my first marriage, which I didn’t take too kindly to at the time, she liked the money ya know. Anyway when she hissed at me she wanted half of everything, I buldozed down my half of the house and sold the furniture to a friend for $1.00AUD. I got into a fair bit of shit for that one but it was worth it – at the time. Now, it seems a bit stupid.
- #63 Skeeter
Greer is a perfect example of someone who never got past the self-gratification stage or achieved even rudimentary mastery of herself because of her massive and debilitating complex about her father, who was an airforce officer absent during her childhood because of WW2 and the Marshall Plan.
For Greer, everything that happened thereafter was her father’s fault and by extension, the patriarchy’s. Her whining middle-class poor-me grievance-based hatred of men was (and is)just laughable. And her prose! Aaargh!! The Female Eunuch ranks with the very worst and most pretentious pieces of shite I have ever attempted to wade through. Which is why just about every Study Guide in every modern university humanities course emulates it so slavishly.
- #63 Damn you, Skeeter – I nearly snorted my soup.
Pickles, as a woman, I third the suggestion of getting a heterosexual male counsellor.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 05 31 at 11:43 PM • permalink
- #64 A lot of people just haven’t had our good fortune, and we know it.
yes, yes, there is an element of blind luck. But everybody feels like the cat that got the cream when they first get married. They feel like the luckiest person alive (or they bloody well should!). But to keep feeling blessed for something that happened 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago takes a strength of mind that many people just lack. It only takes one partner in a marriage to lack it, and the marriage is stuffed.
- Tim – it’s OK. I’m over-sensitive on the subject. Your recent post isn’t the problem, it’s some (actually a tiny minority) of the comments both here and there.
As you posted 2 years ago now, I didn’t ask to change sex, it just happened. Now I should have asked, the stress was killing me (literally). It doesn’t take much intellectual honesty to state that had I known what the relief was like, I would have done it long ago. It was cowardice that I didn’t, not some altruistic sacrifice.
But I’m married, with a son who turns 6 in a fortnight. Also, my partner of 26 years doesn’t deserve this to happen to her, both of us are straight. We’re staying together, for now, until she finds a guy who she wants to marry. She needs a man in her life. I don’t think I do, the thought scares me.
We should split, we both need to move on, but our little boy wants us both to be together, and we’re still best friends. Living apart is something we hate the idea of.
So I’m a little sensitive to break-ups, and can’t help feeling sympathies for both parties.
Mr Lefty’s ex- has visitation rights to their moggie. So whatever his Sins, Mr Lefty is not a complete asshole. He deserves some human decency shown to him.
- Iv respected your opinion for a long time Zoe but your over compensating on this one. His situation is one of his own making and nothing in common with yours.Posted by armageddon on 2007 06 01 at 12:20 AM • permalink
- Cheers Zoe.
Jeremy has had more engagement then a petulant child should.
Posted by armageddon on 2007 06 01 at 01:58 AM • permalink
- Hey Splice, sorry for airing my dirty laundry. I too went to a councilor after my divorce, and I highly recommend you try it. He forced me to see things I had blinded myself to. And that life really was going to go on. I met the real Mrs Texas Bob about a year after my divorce, and we took it very slow (both of us having been previously married). We’ve been married seven years now as of this month, and both of us are very happy. There’s a lot to be said for being for waiting and finding someone to be equally yoked with. That was my fundamental flaw in marrying my first wife. I married to end loneliness, we had little in common and vastly differing opinions about Christianity. I spout a lot of crap at this blog (some true, most Texas-sized exaggerations), so don’t take that baloney to heart. I’ll try to watch it from now on.
As for Jeremy, I’m on-board with those who’ve pointed out his vile, contemptuous nature. My sympathies to his soon to be ex.
- Pogria, thank you. But never, ever, ever, ever offer a Texan encouragement. It can have as serious of consequences as bursting a dam, and possibly as dangerous as slapping Andrea on the butt and telling her to fetch you a beer. (Actually, wronwright tried that once. And you see what’s become of him.)
As a matter of fact, offering a Texan encouragement is much like opening your mouth behind a fully loaded cement mixer in pour mode. That reminds me, did I ever tell you about the time my dad had drunken sex with a wild mountain lion? Several months later, I was born…
- I have to say this thread is certainly one of the better ones for me. Some very good thoughts have been shared.
My own opinions on marriage have been influenced by watching the WWII generation’s approach to marriage. Two people, willing to sacrifice their own wants, ambitions, and goals for the good of the family unit. It’s that understanding that no one can truly “have it all” and should not try to do so that have helped the older generations forge solid marriages.
Posted by wronwright on 2007 06 01 at 06:31 AM • permalink
- #32
Dylan.
When I got engaged I took my new fiance and went to see my grandparents to ask them a question.
They had just celebrated their 64th year of marriage (yes, sixty-fourth year), having been married in 1921, raised 4 kids thru the Depression and WWII.
The question was: ‘What’s the secret to a happy marriage?’
They both smiled, very, very slightly, glanced at each other, and both said the same word simultaneously: ‘Communication’
Oh, they elaborated of course, positive comms ALL the time, never shut the other out unless you must and make sure they know why you need the space, never bottle stuff up, adjust to each other deliberately and consciously etc etc
Best advice I ever got. We have just celebrated our 21st anniversary.
MarkL
Canberra
- Jeremy argues that gay bars refusing to allow hetero people in is okay, using Fernwood as a
nexcusereason. Therefore, the left would have no problems with the old style gentlemens’ business clubs that didn’t allow women to be members, now, would they? Remember: those ones that the feminist left had closed down?Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 06 01 at 08:00 AM • permalink
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