The beauty of AIMN
Hi to all the writers and readers who associate with AIMN. I have been involved with AIMN as a writer and supporter for roughly seven years now. What a personal blessing for me that has turned out to be.
Michael and Carol Taylor have set up this wonderful platform. It hosts the pithy (and she even swears now and then) political commentary of Kaye Lee. It runs the Rossleigh discourse on everything that is crazy in this world. It gives many other intelligent people and bloggers the space to express their opinion and analysis of events that are currently happening in our society.
Just because I carry traumatic legacies and rarely comment on things … that does not mean that I am not paying attention to the writings that appear on AIMN. I am paying attention. The rare thing about AIMN is that, while it might carry strong critical analysis of political happenings etc … the Articles that appear on AIMN are not hate-driven or mindlessly ideological in content. Now what a refreshing change that makes from the fodder that is presented from the Mainstream Press.
I am proud to be associated with this platform. I am mortified that nobody liked my ‘Eating Tomatoes in Portugal‘ article, but I easily toss that one aside and say … this platform, which gives a voice to so many people, is beyond value.
Regards Keith
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Keitha Granville
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Lurline
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Diane Larsen
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Kerri
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New England Cocky
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Coralie Naumann
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Michael Taylor
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Carol Taylor
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Kaye Lee
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Michael Taylor
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Carol Taylor
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Michael Taylor
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Michael Taylor
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Carol Taylor
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Terence Mills
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Michael Taylor
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The AIM Network
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Kronomex
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Keith Davis
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Ad Astra
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Rossleigh
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Rossleigh
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DrakeN
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DrakeN
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Michael Taylor
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wam
Return to home pageI agree wholeheartedly. AIMN keeps me sane, it keeps me hoping for a better future, knowing there are so many others who believe it’s possible inspite of the mindless rabble we have for politicians. I include both sides, with some notable exceptions although sadly their number is few.
How have we managed to travel back in time to a place where fundamental religious nutters are in charge of the country, with the scruples of sewer rats but none of the intelligence. (apologies to sewer rats)
We MUST make a change, and with the help of the writers in this platform and those who read it, we could do it.
I also don’t comment often, but I feel as if everyone here is a friend. There’s always the odd one with weird ideas that we have almost given up hope for, but most of the writers and commenters are familiar and I miss them when I don’t come and read.
I agree I don’t comment that often but feel this site is aligned with my views and gives me hope that there are others out there that feel as I do.
Well said Keith!
Ditto from me!
OK Kieth, so this is an ad for your article – but where is the link?
Seriously though, AIMN ranks in the Top Ten independent news sources combatting the Muloch mindless mainstream media-ocrity with incisive perceptive, interesting analyses of the present mess we call ”Australian politics”.
Indeed, I am reminded of the 1972 pre- Whitlam elections when the MacMahon COAlition misgovernment would make a press statement and within minutes a credible academic would refute that rubbish with a concise detailed description of the real event or material. Perhaps that is the underlying reason for the Liarbral hatred of OUR ABC – too much truth restricts corruption.
There is hope that these scurrilous self-serving fraudsters Australian voters elected to represent foreign owned multinational corporations rather than our people have recognised that ”the best financial managers” are LABOR not the Coalition, that Crosby Textor do not represent the truth of matters, and that creating a structured class society is actually the worst strategy for Australian voters.
Yes, yes and more yeses.
Always a safe place to come to also choices of topic and author are numerous. (Although I do have my favourites, I try to find time to read most articles, even ones about Portuguese tomatoes.)
Thanks to AIMN and all writers who make it so special.
Wow, Keith. I am humbled. You leave me lost for words.
It goes without saying that Carol and I are not only proud of your contribution to The AIMN, but that of all our writers and commenters.
And we are also fortunate that almost without exception when someone starts typing away to write an article or make a comment on The AIMN they are doing so in a respectful manner and that their contribution is appreciated by all who visit our site.
Many here have been with us since the day we opened our doors just over eight years ago and we are honoured by their loyalty. And we are also honoured that so many have since joined us on our journey.
Thank you, too, to the kind words from the commenters above.
And, Keith, do not be too concerned that one of your posts didn’t do as well as you hoped. It happens to all of us. But it rarely happens anymore since we’ve learnt better techniques in promoting our posts.
Now if I may have stern words to NEC … What do you mean Top Ten?! Top Three, mate. Top Three. 😜
I can’t add much more to what Michael has already said, but will simply add my appreciation to you Keith, and indeed to all our authors and contributors who want nothing more than a fairer and more equitable Australia. Well done everyone.
As I have said many times, it is the AIMN family that makes this place so special. It’s different to other places because the articles start genuine conversations – people talking to each other. Even when I am not taking part in the conversation, I enjoy reading it.
Keith, I thought long and hard about a contribution to the tomato eaters – my creative imagination wasn’t doing it justice – but it did make me remember and laugh about many situations we found ourselves in as we travelled the world.
One of my faves….
Travelling Europe in a VW Kombi van with my husband and sis-in-law. Hubby hated paying for accommodation and was also one of those people who wouldn’t stop for the night until it was dark.
Somewhere late at night in the French countryside, tired, hungry and lost, we pulled up on this grassy knoll with a few trees, made dinner, had too many drinks, and went to sleep.
In the morning, 20 year old sis climbed down from the bunk in the pop-top, grabbed the roll of toilet paper, and wandered outside to squat somewhere while I set up for breakfast.
She jumped back in and said quick, we gotta go.
We were parked on a big roundabout where four highways converged with peak-hour commuter traffic heading to Paris. The bumps we had kinda noticed the night before was us going up over the gutter. Hubby jumped into drivers seat and took off as soon as he could force his way into the traffic – pop-top still up, breakfast things flying and us laughing hilariously and not helping him work out where to go at all.
And then there was the time, same trip, same scenario, that sis raced back saying come look where we’ve parked. And there was Chenonceaux mirrored in the river. WOW.
So yeah, eating tomatoes in Portugal really did get me thinking about a lot of fun memories.
(PS Sorry bout the swearing.)
Now there’s a first. 😁
Michael, I’ll get you later…
Kaye, often I feel like writing about such stories. They’re too good not to share.
We didn’t have far to go for our most recent memorable experience:
We live near the base of a large hill, so our block slopes down in a couple of directions. On the steepest slope we have a garden along a driveway which is hard to water, so a few weeks ago I put in a drip system. This required running a pipe along the top with the little drippers on the high side of the bushes. For the really difficult to get to plants I borrowed my young, fit and strong neighbour.
After a test run I noticed that there wasn’t enough water flow from the drippers, and not to bother the neighbour again I thought I’d fix them myself.
So up the little hill I climbed, sat on my bum and got to work. Unfortunately gravity had other ideas.
While still sitting on bum I slid right into the rose bush. I couldn’t move – it’s hard enough to get up from the ground at the nest of times – so Carol raced to get the highly-amused neighbour to help me up.
Two seconds later our kitten got out and went up the hill to the neighbour’s fence. Up the hill goes Carol to fetch cat when neighbour’s dog detected a cat in the vicinity so starts a barking spree, causing cat to fight free of Carol’s grasp and in doing so Carol lost balance and slid down the hill… on her back, no less.
After watching her flay around at the base of the hill for a couple of minutes like a beetle on its back, I knew I had three choices: get the neighbour (again), pick her up myself, or leaver her there.
Heroically, I went for the second option.
In a year there hasn’t been much to laugh about, and even though Carol was left with much pain and grazing… we nonetheless ‘appreciated’ those five minutes of ‘disaster’.
Keith, I have started a few words of a travel post myself. I’ve had it stuck in drafts for two years!
I must act!
We were just working out a new script for the Keystone Cops..slapstick at its finest. 😁
Michael
Talking of water and irrigation, the volunteer landcare group I work with acquired an old – about 120 years – RAM pump which we have been working at installing adjacent to a weir on our creek to pump water up a hill to irrigate newly planted trees.
The pump works like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUTjVovpKvA
This technology was developed in England in the 18th century and before the introduction of electricity was among the principal methods of elevating water using only air and water pressure.
Our pump is now operational and with very few moving parts will probably do its job for another hundred years without the use of fossil fuels or that new fangled electricity.
What would we do without AIMN !
Terry, what amazing technology (from an era when technology was a thing of the future).
Pure genius.
Whoever thought of that in the 18th century… we need here now in the 21st century. His or her thinking has no limits.
A link to Keith’s ‘Tomato’ post has been inserted in the article above. Enjoy!
I would say the kittens evil plan to ultimately humiliate the humans worked out perfectly.
Ha .. I’ve been ‘sprung’ by the sleuth from New England. I meant every word in the little article above about the AIMN Community, but New England Cocky spotted my paltry venal add-on attempt to boost up Eating Tomatoes from 18 to 20 shares – when I re-read the thing now quite frankly I’m amazed – the fact that it got to 18 at all is one hell of a magnificent achievement. There must have been something strong in the chai that day!
I love the way little stories like Tomatoes bring out other stories like the one from Kaye Lee above. It reminds me of waking up near the Kombi on a very foggy Spanish morning only to realise that we’d camped overnight in a farmer’s lime pit and we and the van were covered in white dust and a very unhappy shotgun-toting farmer was about to clear the fogginess out of our brains very very quickly. All ended well – even gave us some olives as he told us to piss off.
Michael and Carol
AIMN’s audience is thoughtful and responsive. It’s discouraging for writers when their words evoke no feedback. Those of us who contribute here appreciate the comments your audience make.
I hope you will continue to sponsor AIMN. Politicians worth their salt read it. Only political idiots don’t. That’s their loss.
My wife and I were in a coffee shop today and the table next to us was full of people discussing the Porter situation and only one of them seemed to have an actual grasp beyond what was being pushed by the media about rule of law and the “troubled nature” of the woman.
It was when the man said that he read “The Age” even though it was so anti-business because he liked to get a balance from a range of sources that my wife thought I was going to start talking loudly about Nine Media seeming left wing because the Murdoch Muckrakers were the sort of scumbags that would have been happy working with Goebbels and gave me the look of it’s just not worth it.I was silent, but when they mentioned that Bill Shorten was lucky, she scoffed. “From what I know, he’s a thoroughly decent person!” she told the other table as we left. I think she said something about she wasn’t so sure about anyone in the Coalition but I’d left in case I told the guy that if he really wanted to read alternatives he should try the internet.
Yes, we get told constantly about the dangers of the echo chamber but what has the mainstream media done for decades but provide an echo chamber where the arguments are about which thing will have the outcome they want rather than question whether that outcome is really the most positive one.
I would say that I am humbled to be part of such a great group of people, but that is just not true. I’m proud and thankful to be part of whatever solace I can give those who think of someone about from the numbers on a chart and understand that money is only important insofar as what it does.
As Bertoldt Brecht one said:”Much has been accomplished when one person says no.”
Ok, he said it in German and it may sound different but you get the vibe.
And by the way, I am NOT left wing even if Labor is meant to be a left party but they haven’t actually expelled Joel Fitzgibbon. We’ve been gaslighted to believe that the believers in social justice, a fair go for all, merit based decisions, equality, free speech with limitations that acknowledge other people’s rights and a belief that we have a responsibility to others are left wing. It’s nonsense and it’s about time we started calling it out.
In the avian world, Rossleigh, when the left wing takes precedence there is a tendency to drift to the right and when the right wing has too much power the movement is toward the left; alternating the two leads to more direct flight.
Do you consider that human politics could be of a similar nature?
Thank you Keith for this post on the huge value which AIMN provides for the paltry donations which I contribute.
It is indeed a steadying influence on what has often been described as: “A Mad, Mad World.” (There’s a song about that somewhere in the ether.)
My mornings usually consist of a trawl through a range of traditional and other news media – kick-starting my irritation, impatience and crossness at the shennaneghans of our ‘elders and betters’ but which is tempered (pardon the pun) by AIMN in the midst of it all providing a touch of sanity and rationality.
Thank you to everyone for your kind and encouraging words.
Ad Astra, Carol and I are proud of our relationship with TPS. TPS has always been one of my favourite sites, but I am guilty for not commenting there more than I should.
wow, Keith, a couple of weeks out of range and I miss a great read. This site has been a back bracer for me. It has taken me from a completely negative arsehole, for which I apologise to those I have aimed to offend and am sorry for any accidental offence, to an ordinary arsehole. For which my darling is grateful. We were a teacher family, with two, kaye, so Asia and europe were winter holiday destinations and I can recommend that time of year for travel. (tried the septics once in 71) Eurail was so easy last century, for that time of year. There was 4 of us and we’d buy rolls and sausage and lay the seats down for overnight travel. But Japan was the xmas holiday number one for young teachers as that is the time of young uni student travel and they loved practising their english. The hot springs in Beppu when it was snowing were, and in memory still are, magnificent and unbelievable to those who haven’t been there.
ps kaye the di had 8 target seats and the albran sharpy has 9 Albo needs to target one with full power.