I could’ve picked the AOTY by just selecting the last person I would choose for the honour. Well, it used to be an honour and I used to think they were far better men or women than, me but over the last three years at least, it is not the case. Three years ago we had an Aboriginal whose claim to fame were as follows; He could play football, He publicaly ridiculed a teenage girl accusing her of racism, and He  found it hard to say “I am proud to be Australian” after seeing Pilger’s ‘Utopia’  Not proud to be an Australian…John Pilger…Utopia… We then had a woman, a long term victim of domestic violence, who left her young son in the care of the main perpetrator of this violence, whereupon he beat the kid to death with a cricket bat! My role model would’ve kept the kid away from the bastard, not hand him over for slaughter. Now today we have a retired General who’s only claim to fame is a speech he gave accusing the military of misogyny telling them if they didn’t like women in the the ADF they should get out. This seemed to be based on the fact that some male soldiers were hitting on some female soldiers. Some cases were criminal or offensive but the rate of such offenses in the military was much less than the civilian rate and anyway, if soldiers commit offences then charge them and if warranted discharge them. You don’t start with the premise that problems are rife when they clearly aren’t. The speech was written by an Army officer who was a man but now claims to be a woman. FFS The General says his main points over the tenure of his honour will be domestic violence, diversity, the gender pay gap and the republican movement. I would like to think the AOTY award would recognize people who had excelled in their field  thus representing what’s best about Australia, not some doom and gloom activist whose whole outlook is concentrating on the minuscule number of hormone driven offences, slaughtered babies or teenage football fans. Those indigenous of the perpetually offended type call it Invasion Day.  Some fool even had a pic of himself with a banner accusing Cook of invading in 1788, some years after Cook’s death.  Phillips, who was actually the guy who came in 1788 was very fair to the indigenous, tried to help where he could and showed restraint when attacked, but apparently the great unwashed occupying Facebook and Twitter don’t even know of Phillip.  The indigenous have done well from us whities but there are plenty of fools who would wish we had never came; what with our medicine, transport, alcohol, decent and plentiful food, roads, railways, sit down money and money for grants the whole thing makes me think of the Monty Python Sketch on What did the Romans ever do for us? The Left attack any sign of patriotism.  Flags are a no no as is lamb (currently cooking in my BBQ) and we all  should bow to the God of Multiculturalism.  Most who have come from overseas have fitted in well but the later Muslim wave is a worry.  They will always put religion before nation and seem to go out of the way not to fit in. Open borders would leave us in a fools paradise and if we’re not careful we well may experience the associated problems in Europe where member nations are asking Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel “What have you done?” Reminds me of Rudyard Kippling and his poem on the problem; This was my father’s belief And this is also mine: Let the corn be all one sheaf– And the grapes be all one vine, Ere our children’s teeth are set on edge By bitter bread and wine. Makes me think. But no too much as I have to get the lamb roast just right for tonight’s dinner.  I’m using the BBQ for the first time and all seems well.  Apple pie and custard (my Mum’s recipe) will follow. I’ll be thinking of what makes Australia great and that’s  a whole lot more than what might be wrong with this great nation. Have a good day and ignore the whingers. UPDATE: Quadrant has more on Morrison’s appointment.

What we don’t hear often are the voices saying that Morrison demoralised the army with his “feminisation” of the service, which scandalously included taxpayer-funded sex-change operations. Or that his concerns about gender-bashing came very late in his career. The enthusiasm for his YouTube clip effectively snuffed out any analysis of the Morrison style: the fierce, almost jihadist fanaticism in his eyes, the tightened facial muscles, what might be taken by some to be a self-righteous vindictiveness lurking in his delivery. Those who puzzled as to why the Chief of Army needed to deal so publicly with an internal disciplinary matter involving spotty cadets and a hidden video camera might just have glimpsed the unleashing of a political ambition fettered for four decades by military discipline.

And Miranda Devine has a go.

While Australian soldiers were dying in Afghanistan, Morrison was talking about social ­engineering concerns such as gender equity. Fourteen soldiers died between July 2011 and July 2014 in that dangerous and confusing war, when Morrison was chief of Army. But instead of the leadership that ​soldiers at the frontline may have ​craved, they got flowery speeches decrying masculinity and patriarchy to mark International Women’s Day at the United Nations.