Australia Day

Watching TV last night I was struck by a sea of Australian Flags being displayed, on the whole, by young people and I must say I found it pleasing. Quotes by kids of being proud to be an Aussie while enjoying themselves in youthful exuberance wrapped in flags or dressed in ‘Flag’ bikinis all looking young and healthy must have really depressed the “hate patriotism, hate the Jack in the corner, we want another flag and a Republic” types And that bodes good for the country. On the other hand we have a psychiatrist, Professor Patrick McGorry, selected as Australian of the Year who, in light of his background of helping kids with depression makes him a worthy recipient. Except he just couldn’t stop himself. Someone gave him a microphone and a camera and he was of on his hobby horse. Terrible governments who lock up asylum seekers when all good folk know anyone coming to our shores by boat should be allowed straight into the community. He had to restate his case to make it clear he was only referring to Howard Government which was a little strange as the Rudd government do it as well. He vowed to use his new position to lobby for asylum seekers to be allowed to live in the community, instead of being sent to detention facilities on Christmas Island. I would have hoped he might use his new position to advance Australia’s interests at home and abroad rather than going on about the Left wing mantra of letting anyone into the country who pay large sums of money as an investment to place themselves in the well documented Australian social security gravy train. I would have hoped he might use his new position to advance public awareness and to gain more funding for youth depression but I guess that’s all to simplistic. Overall, I give the day to the youth. UPDATE: Australian of the Year is becoming Left Wing Whinger of the Year according to Mark Henderson

Hurry up and take this thing!

labsnakeHE’S never had a nose for trouble before but black labrador Bronson sure knows how to turn heads with his retrieving tricks.
The champion obedience dog stunned his Victorian owners when he recently returned to them to proudly show off his latest find. Locked firmly in his jaws and coiled around his snout was a long, live snake, believed to be a deadly copperhead.
He was bitten but that didn’t override his training. He never dropped the snake until his master said “Give” A couple of days on a drip and he’s back home. You just gotta love those Labs

I’m back

For the last six months I’ve been working full time on a Regimental Reunion. The reunion was over four days at Twin Towns Services Club at Tweed and culminating in 740 of us sitting down to dinner. The event was successful and now I get my life back. As part of the reunion we invited some new generation soldiers from all rank grades recently back from Afghanistan and if there has ever been any doubt in your mind about the quality of our troops then rest easy. Meeting them buoyed and enthused me…they are, simply put, quality and the Regiment is in good hands.

Vegans get it wrong

PEOPLE who live on vegetarian diets have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts, researchers said yesterday. A joint Australian-Vietnamese study of links between the bones and diet of more than 2700 people found that vegetarians had bones 5 per cent less dense than meat-eaters, lead researcher Tuan Nguyen said. The issue was most pronounced in vegans, who excluded all animal products from their diet and whose bones were 6 per cent weaker, he said. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had less neurons as well.

Vale MJ

The Sunday Mail devotes the first nine pages and a ten page insert to the life and death of a weird, grotesque looking negro singer. Sure he had some good music in his day but that was more than negated by his weird behavior in his latter years. The following comment, picked up from a US blog could well be his epitaph Only in America can a Negro boy grow up to be a white woman. Mark Steyn pretty well nails it for me.

Adelaide Hills hotel promotes topless barmaids for Anzac Day

AN Adelaide Hills hotel’s decision to introduce topless barmaids on Anzac Day has drawn fire from the RSL. SA Returned and Services League deputy state president Graham Nybo said the Kersbrook Tavern event was an affront to the dignity of Anzac Day. “For the 106,000 people who lost their lives, it is a day of commemoration,” he said yesterday.
“It is a day of integrity and should be that way (and this) doesn’t lend to the dignity of the day at all,” federal member for Mayo Jamie Briggs said the owners should reconsider to show respect for the day.
We are serious and contemplative in the morning at the Dawn Service and later at the march, but after that, at our reunions, dignity is not necessarily the dominant theme. Either way, I can tell you one group that won’t complain about under dressed bar staff – the Diggers I don’t know Graham Nybo but I do know he is a Vietnam Vet and Artillery…figures ;-)

Can’t read a compass or map

Some 200 mosques in Islam’s holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say.
All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca’s Grand Mosque. But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba.
That’s the way guys, you keep working on the real problems of the world and us western folk will worry about the small stuff. You know science, maths, art, research and development, health, disease, transport……

Taps – so sweet

In the last century, when I was a soldier, many a night I went to sleep listening to Taps on the Battalion PA system – on other nights I ignored it and order another round. However it was never played as sweetly as this and never by one so young – do yourself a favour, stop, watch and listen for 5 minutes. Her name is Melissa Venema

Troublesome Priest

I’m reminded of Henry VII — “Who can rid me of this troublesome priest.” when reading about Father Kennedy in Brisbane. The debate is more political than religious but Kennedy’s spin doctors say it’s all about social justice for the disadvantaged and minorities, woman clergy and aboriginal land rights but there is more to it than that. When I was helping at Legacy I drove past ST Marys most days and was always confronted with a “Free Hicks!” or “Close Guantanamo” type of banner hanging out the front of the church. Refugees, The Iraq war and HoWARd.often got a mention. I’m sure a lot of good comes out of the diocese but following left wing causes whilst not following the churches protocols leaves few friends outside of the closed circle. It might be just me but I don’t look to churches to be agents of radical politics.
An estimated 1500 people attended mass yesterday morning and hundreds more turned out for evening services on Saturday and yesterday, and for concerts and rallies.
Big turn ups at Mass as well, if Mass it is, but then being the only Catholic hold out for radicals, bleeding hearts, human rights advocates and land rights activists in the city and maybe even Australia, birds of feather will flock together, won’t they? By all means march to a different drum Father but in all honesty if you choose to do so outside of the churches protocols, if you disagree with the churches stand on issues so strongly, then you should resign and set up your own denomination. Avoids charges of hypocrisy. Peter Kennedy, on being sacked talks of his replacement;
“The people are not going to receive Fr Howell. He’s naive enough to think he can walk in there on Sunday and the people will welcome him. Well, they won’t. I know the people, I’ve been there 28 years – the people want me there and I’ve helped build that community into what it is today. And then this guy comes in, like a religious scab.”
Sounds like someone has a “messiah-complex” and now considers himself above the church. Disclaimer: I’m not a Catholic but respect their role in our community

Bush Fires and Global Warming

From First Byte in The Australian
Do the climate change sceptics still need convincing that something is changing our weather and that we need to take immediate and drastic action to prevent more disasters? Doug Steley Maroochydore, Qld
From my desk this morning;
Yes Kev Gillett TAIGUM, QLD
Clive Hamilton in today’s Cut and Paste is of the same opinion as Doug; CLIMATE scientists have been predicting more frequent and severe bushfires due to climate change for some years. The bushfires and the extreme heatwave, whose death toll when tallied will probably be in the hundreds and exceed that of the fires, are global warming made manifest in the daily lives of ordinary people. But that’s just Clive – he would say that. We don’t need global warming to start disasterous bush fires; just a very hot day, unfavourable winds, fuel and Greenies. David Packham, a bushfire scientist for more than 50 years explains;
Fuels build up year after year at an approximate rate of one tonne a hectare a year, up to a maximum of about 30 tonnes a hectare. If the fuels exceed about eight tonnes a hectare, disastrous fires can and will occur. Every objective analysis of the dynamics of fuel and fire concludes that unless the fuels are maintained at near the levels that our indigenous stewards of the land achieved, then we will have unhealthy and unsafe forests that from time to time will generate disasters such as the one that erupted on saturday.
Speaking to my nearly ninety year old Mother last night and she recalls her youth and life in Pemberton, WA, the home of the majestic Karri and Jarrah forests. I recall as well, that the attitude of the townspeople to fires, was one of extreme respect and fear. Every winter men were called off farms to light and control burn-offs to limit the amount of fuel per acre. Every winter without fail. Disasters in the Karri/Jarrah forests, as extensive as Victoria’s timber lands, never eventuated other than the odd individual who, for reasons long forgotten, drew the short straw of life. Of the factors in the formulae of hot temperatures, high winds, fuel and Greenies only the first two applied and given this, the townspeople could handle the bush fires that sprang up every winter. And then along come the Greenies and the last two factors became dominant. More from David Packham.
The decision to ignore the threat has been encouraged by some shocking pseudo-science from a few academics who use arguments that may have a place in political discourse but should have no place in managing our environment and protecting it and us from the bushfire threat. The conclusion of these academics is that high intensity fires are good for the environment and that the resulting mudslides after rains are merely localised and serve to redistribute nutrients. The purpose of this failed policy is to secure uninformed city votes. The politicians who willingly accept this rubbish use it to justify the perpetuation of the greatest threat to our forests, water supplies, homes and lives in order to secure a minority green vote. They continue to throw millions (and no doubt soon billions) at ineffective suppression toys, while the few foresters and bush people who know how to manage our public lands are starved of the resources they need to reduce fuel loads.
I’ve been aware of the fuel per acre situation since my pre-teen years; as I travel Australia and talk to country folk, they are all aware of it and yet state governments consider forests sacrosanct, get their Greenie votes and people die. Until this day I have never, never agreed with anything Germaime Greer has said but she is close to the money with this;
Bushland that is not burned regularly turns into a powder keg, as the fuel load inexorably increases. The cause of these disasters is not global warming; still less is it arson. It is the failure to recognise that fire is an intrinsic feature of eucalypt bushland. It cannot be prevented but it can and should be managed. Unless there is a fundamental change of policy across all levels of government in Australia, there will be more and worse fires and more deaths.
Fancy that, me quoting Germaine. The Victorian Government will hold enquiries and hopefully, a Royal Commission and with a little bit of bipartisan research we may just arrive at some long known truths. One can only hope that something good can grow from the tragedy of all the lost souls and we could be better prepared in the future, as we once were in the past,
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