Geezus...not you guys too!?

I don't know, 1984 seemed like an ideal place to me. I could learn to live with it. 

It's why you can't move to a more dependant windows OS. One day you privacy and ability will butt heads. If you can't work offline, you won't be online.

Oh, the desire to limit freedoms and the right to at least a bit of privacy is not just restricted to Australian and American politicians, let me assure you.

A little privacy is better than none at all.  And I think the OP mentions a scenario of "if you don't relinquish your privacy for any reason we see fit, you're going to jail".  And also not every company sells or gives away your information.

I strongly assert my right to have "just a little bit of privacy".  And I think all of us want "just a little bit of privacy" until we all become telepathic.

The hell they don't... they chum and put a pommy on the hook for bait... until the Greenies protested the horrific, inhumane poisoning of the sharks. 

You all think they haven't been spying on everyone for years? Now they moan the 9/11 mantra and "Taliban this and that" and the "Patriot" Act... and *poof, they have all the powers they always wanted: Happily (and idiotically) surrendered for "Security and the protection of the country and western civilization"... and any surviving will soon be gone. Hell, there haven't been any since way before the Civil War.

If that weren't bad enough, they then tell us, "If you have nothing to hide, why all the fuss?", while carrying on with Congressional pages, interns and insider trading.

Time for the tar and feathers, imho.

Maybe so, but when government wants to see ALL you do and look into EVERY orifice, it's far too much and has to be stopped.  It's like they consider every one of us a terrorist and/or criminal... no presumption of innocence, and they can do as they please with us.

Sadly, this will not reduce the incidence of organised crime or terrorism [they'll just get smarter] and the days of Stalinism are NOT dead.

I'm not normally a violent minded person, but for mine, we ought to start hanging a few politicians here and there [can't reuse a bullet but you can a rope] to let them know we elected them to SERVE US and we WON'T BE BULLIED.

So what's the difference between a banker, a politician and a rapist?

Nothing, they all dangle the same way at the end of a rope.

We don't have jails.

To poison crocs that way is inexcusable. You are sentenced to South Central.

Nah, it's the safest way for us to harvest croc leather for handbags.

Now that we've had some fun, let's get back to government bullshit ruining peoples lives.

I've just been made aware that my niece [and landlady] is having trouble with her exes new wife, who is using government [child support, tax and family laws, etc] to try to wrest ownership of this home to herself and him.

Now my niece bought him out fair and square and he has no legal claim regarding the property, but his new wife has uncovered and is using very obscure laws that place my niece's ownership at risk.  I mean, he walked away with over 400, 000 [proceeds from his share of the house, their savings/superannuation], but he blew it and now she's after the house.... and the government is letting her, despite my niece showing the relevant agencies that this woman is doing this more out of spite and greed than, legal claim/entitlement.

What's worse, the government agencies agree with my niece [citing several demanding calls every day for months], but they keep saying "the law is the law and we cannot do anything about it" to excuse their inaction/blase attitude toward what is patently wrong with this case.  If it is allowed to continue as is, my niece could be forced to file for bankruptcy to offset what would be a mounting debt she personally did not incur.

Anyway, I had some ideas that may help her and she has gone to seek legal advice regarding them.  Initial indications suggest that my thoughts could well save my niece from financial ruin, thank goodness.  However, it is the incessant government intervention into more and more facets of our personal lives that is responsible for this completely unnecessary debacle.

Gillard, you foul piece of flesh [won't say human], you and your Labor cronies sticking your noses into family affairs are responsible for this totally abysmal state of affairs.

Yeah, everything was finalised and he was paid out on all he was entitled to.  However, this woman is using the kids, family law, child support laws and tax laws. The trouble is, she's not using them as they were intended, but rather by using obscure and ambiguous clauses that were supposedly written for specific cases involving the wealthy... which my niece is not, though the pencil pushers seem not to care about her financial status... that she currently lives below the poverty line, no thanks to government intervention in what should be private family matters.  Let's put it this way, there's 2 children involved, but due to this woman's manipulation of things, the child support only goes one way... from my niece to them cos the kid don't see it. 

And to make matters worse, the child support is calculated on last years income, which was 3 times more due to a forced [health related] change of employment.... meaning she has to pay 3 times more than her current income allows... and on top of that this spiteful woman is looking at ways to include into the child support equation the daughter's Austudy, my niece's new partner's income.... and rental income.  Sure we pay rent, but it's only covering actual costs, nothing more, and the house is 'negatively geared'... meaning any income derived [not that there is in this case] is non-taxable.  However, this spiteful woman has spent hours upon hours bashing the law books to find ways to circumvent laws that are supposed to protect people like my niece.

Like I said before, it is spite driven [resentment that my niece was there first] and it will all unravel in her face.  She's not the only one who can pore over the law books, and I found some stuff that should reverse the situation... karma, if you like.

I'll say... now there's a vacant mind if ever I saw one, and he's an MP in charge of shit in this country.  How terribly sad!

Yeah, this government has to go.... not that I'd give the job to that Abbott idiot.... born with two brains... one's lost and the other's out looking for it.  So no, shopping would NOT get any better under that clown.

Yeah, my mother recently returned from England to live and reacted exactly the same way... that food prices here have steeply risen since she left and are daylight robbery, with other stuff even worse. She bought a memory foam pillow to replace the one she couldn't bring with her. Exact same brand/quality... here $79.95... in the UK, 9 pound 75p.  However, she did say that some of our electricals are a little cheaper [TV's Hi-Fi's, etc]

Still, that's not enough... not when you consider how much more we pay for most everything else.  And computer parts... let's just say I'm glad that I upraded when the Aus dollar was flying high against the greenback.  I've noticed components are already starting to rise in price as the AUD weakens against the USD.  Shouldn't make any difference when it all comes from Asia, and we're dealing in those currencies, but still we pay according to what's going on with in relation greenback... sucks big time.

Yeah, I'll listen to it later today, too tired now due to my mother visiting and getting very little sleep over the last couple of days.

However, I don't need a negative view on Gillard from anyone else to know that she is lower than a brown snake's belly... nor do I need her to bite me to know she is venomous.... just like the LNP parasite that recently became Qld premier, Campbell Newman.... lower than a basement spider and leading the state into political chaos.