People are funny

Took a look at Facebook today, in the allotted 2 hours per day we are permitted in this workplace. I suspect that for many people, Facebook can be a strange out of body experience, with so many sections of one's life all jumbled together like so many odd socks.

My own Facebook page is a fine example of this. Take the world around us. At this point in time Egypt is rising to free itself  from the Mubarak dictatorship, following in the steps of Algeria, Tunisia and Yemen. The Irish goverment, discredited and derisive, are bailing out to the tune of 6-figure pensions, while the average Joe wonders how they can possibly think they are entitled to this and a 30 year old woman dies of hypothermia due to the Council cutting off her heat during the cold snap.

Queensland has faced the most destructive floods in human history, and the clean up is barely started when Cyclone Yasi tracks towards the Cairns coast, with experts predicting the impact will be worse than Cyclone Tracy. The NSW government, heading for annihiliation in 6 weeks time following unprecidented corruption and cronyism and with a legacy that will probably outrun Askin's, still attempts to feather its own nest and rivals that of Ireland in the sheer number of corrupt and absconding politicians.

And Julia Gillard is getting grief because she is proposing an entirely reasonable and logical flood levy, to which the average Australia taxpayer will be expected to contribute somewhat less than a fiver a week, because somehow people seem to think that governments have little pots of gold, constantly replenished, to which the populace should have endless access but never have to contribute to.

It's an interesting time to live. Many friends across the left are posting about these happenings, sharing links and information, educating and informing others in a manner that would not ever have been possible previously.

And then there are my other friends, to whom politics is not so much their lifeblood, but something that happens on the evening news, when they watch it. Their greatest meaning is their children, their families These are friends I love, whose company refreshes me, and whose lives enrich mine. It's good having people around like this, to laugh and joke and be frivolous with, to discuss vital issues of poo and babies, and why they don't eat greens and will only go to sleep with 7 handpicked companions, or just what is the subtle allure of Dora The Explorer.

I love all of my friends. But the juxtasposition of status updates can make Facebook a bizarre place at times.