If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
“We met on the Internet. These are our kids: Control, Alt and Delete.? The painting includes a line that states: “John Howard and Australia are so far up George Dubbah Yah Bush and the USA’s arse that we’re in the s—. We’re kept in the dark and it stinks.”How indescribably tasteless. He might think he’s clever but the majority of Australians will think he’s fouling his own nest . You are in the dark, old son, and you stink. Bill Leak’s cartoon yesterday that depicted thre Ostriches, two with UK and US flags adorning their feathers have their head in the sand while the third, with the Aussie flag, has it’s head up the US birds fundamental orifice. You are so clever, Bill but the only people who would have laughed are the grade three boys my son teaches at Yepoon. Oh, Ok some lefties would have laughed as well but their sense of humour is based on grade three anyway. Grade three humour, Grade three art. Upgrade: Reader James Riley has come up with more info on Hocking and his Grade three scribbles and daubles here and herethat links to the offensive painting, “Fuck’n Our Land. Should you wish to send the gallery an email complaining of this gutter art then click here Yobbo also picked up on event.
Capt Christopher Strickland ejects from a USAF ‘Thunderbirds’ F-16C less than one second before it hits the ground at Mountain Home Air Base Idaho, on Sep 14th 2003.
Update:
Wallace from Big Gold Dog says it’s true and who am I to argue with a Texan. See comments. Pointing to the 600,000 children who live in single-parent households, Latham has promised to set up a national mentoring program. He told the conference: “For boys without men in their lives this is a real issue: a lack of male mentors and role models teaching them the difference between right and wrong. I see this in my own community: boys who have gone off the rails. And lost touch with a thing called society.” These are fine ideas that will resonate with voters who were left wondering if judgment-shy politicians would ever catch up with the social problems inflicted by a 30-year experiment in fatherlessness.The thirty year experiment in fatherlessness takes us back to social engineering days of Latham’s hero, Whitlam, and his partners in social disharmony, Cairns and Murphy who in paying homage to the gods of the left trivialised marriage. No-fault, easy divorces was a warm and fuzzy ideal that lead to the national trauma of the Family Court and a mentality that thinks 600 000 fatherless kids is cool. It’s not. It’s tragic. Relationship too hard – too easy – split – damn the kids. No committment become the order of the day. Married bliss comes and goes and if it is always bliss then it is only so because one or the other partner is ignoring reality. Thousands of years of experience in all cultures of the world has left us with one basic tenet for marriage – committment. The seven year itch, menopausal uncertainty, the instinctive proclivity of men to keep on ‘spreading their seed’ are, or were, all covered by ‘committment’. Settle down mate, think it through lady, the family unit becomes the driving force and anything attacking this should be repelled. If times are bad, they will improve. If love looks lost it will come back but not if you’re apart. Most understand this and marriages last. Some don’t and kids suffer. Obviously some marriages should never have been – wife beating, serial adultry and when it happens a split can be the only answer, but breaking up after a bloody domestic arguement is plain stupid. Janet continues;
As English conservative journalist Roger Scruton wrote last year marriage is more than the bond between one man and one woman in time. It is a social contract where the dead and yet to be born are also parties. It is “the principal forum in which social capital is passed on”. As with same-sex marriages, the push to equate de facto relationships with marriage is misguided. Co-habitation is not marriage. Most people, when asked, express a long-term desire to get married. They don’t say they want to settle down into a good de facto relationship.Go read Janet’s article, it makes sense
Of all the reasons why John F. Kerry will not become President of the United States, the biggest reason has to be that, once he returned home from Vietnam, he betrayed his fellow servicemen who remained at war. Kerry not only allied with the likes of Hanoi Jane Fonda, but, before the United States Senate in 1971, Kerry went as far as to belittle the bravery of embattled troops by generalizing their every action in Vietnam as an atrocity.
THE owners of a cattle station yesterday pleaded guilty to breaching occupational health and safety rules after the death of a jackaroo. Daniel Croker, 23, was killed when thrown from a horse mustering at Gunbar station, near Hay in New South Wales in 2001. Mr Croker was not wearing a helmet. The case, the first of its kind to go before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, could result in hard hats replacing the traditional Akubra worn by stockmen and farmers across the country. The NSW WorkCover Authority prosecuted Gunbar’s owners, B.H. MacLachlan Pty Ltd, claiming the company failed to provide safety equipment and training for Mr Croker. B.H. MacLachlan faces a fine of up to $550,000 but will contest some facts of the case when submissions on penalty are heard in June.Seems a bit odd to me. Will MacLachlan and Company have to muzzle the horses as well. They bite you know. What about hobbling them to stop them kicking. We should also look at filling in all the small holes in the paddocks to stop the horses tripping in a rabbit warren and maybe we should get rid of the cattle – they’ve been known to spook horses. Yellow hard hats – bloody hell. The hat rack on the verandah of the Boulia Pub will never look the same.
And the new OH&S Ringer – hardly an inspiration for country music. 
The ALP want a US style Coast Guard and whereas images of cutters like the USCG Cutter Hamilton (pictured) might make us feel grown up and a significant player in the world all such thoughts would disappear when the first payment fell due.
Peter Reith, when Minister for Defence had this to say more than two years ago when Kim Beazley first raised the coast Guard issue.
You can read the ALP policy on the Coast Guard issue in their Policy Paper – 007 – 27 November 2002 Although mentioned in this election build up, the ALP have yet to update their site with more recent considerations.
Try as I could I couldn’t find a picture of our Coastwatch cutters. If the debate continues could we have some please – Mr Coastwatch PR man. I know they won’t be as big and as flash as the US Cutters but they sound OK to me. Our cutters are 38 m long versus the US 250m plus versions.
The division of Customs that handles Coastwatch vessels is the National Marine Unit (NMU)
The NMU fleet comprises eight vessels:
ACV Roebuck Bay
ACV Holdfast Bay
ACV Botany Bay
ACV Hervey Bay
ACV Corio Bay
ACV Arnhem Bay
ACV Dame Roma Mitchell
ACV Storm Bay.
All ACVs are surveyed under the Uniform Shipping Laws Code (USLC) to class 2B standards with a 200 nautical mile (NM) offshore capability. Bay-class vessels have an operational fuel load of 25,000 litres and are powered by two MTU 1050-kilowatt diesel engines. This provides endurance in excess of 1000 nautical miles at 20 knots and considerably more at lower speeds.
Each ACV has two 6.4m tenders capable of carrying two crew and four passengers. Each tender is powered by twin 90 hp outboards and has a cruising range of 150 nautical miles. Tenders are deployed from an ACV via compensated davits on the port and starboard sides aft.
The standard crew for an ACV patrol consists of eight Customs Marine Officers. These officers come from a diverse range of backgrounds and spend 22-30 days at sea per six week roster cycle. Southern ocean crew will work under modified conditions and will generally spend around 40 days at sea. A variety of training is undertaken to ensure crew are skilled to operate as a safe and professional team. Training includes:
occupational health and safety at sea
Bay-class operation
operational safety and defensive skills
statutory Federal and State marine qualifications
other Customs specific training.
More than two years ago I was sailing off the West Australian coast and while at the Monte Bello Islands a Coastwatch plane (pictured above) come over and demanded all sorts of answers such as yacht’s registered name and home port, who was on board, last port, next port, ETA next port and what did we know about the other yacht nearbye that they couldn’t raise on radio. I was impressed. Days later we witnessed Coastwatch operatives conducting training with heli fast-rope inserts onto a small rock way out in the ocean. I’ve been there, done that, am critical and they looked professional to me.
The Australian Coastwatch service has a website here and the National Marine Unit here
Coast Watch is a uniquely Australian answer and currently under the umbrella of Australian Customs. Why change that?. If the ALP think Coast watch is not working properly then why not just boost Coatswatch?
Canada are looking at our system and ask; ‘Australia’s Coastwatch ? What Can Canada Learn?’ Read that here. It’s a short piece
Could someone tell me why we shouldn’t just develop and improve Coastwatch. Why do the ALP insist on a Coast Guard when we already have one? Is it just a name change or do they want it under the umbrella of Defence?
All sounds like books for kids to me – the wrong angle of approach. “Most would agree that kids spend too much time with computer games and TV,” he said. “If we can get them reading and doing more exercise it will give them a more balanced lifestyle.When my kids were at school there was no TV during the week AT ALL. That didn’t happen because some loopy MP gave them free books, it happened because I said so and therein lies the rub. It’s the parents, stupid. If most would agree that kids spend too much time with computer games and TV then it’s the parents who need counselling, not free books for kids. No parental discipline and the free books will be lost uner the TV Times on the coffee table. Parents who don’t read to their kids don’t do so because they’re stupid and don’t understand education and its benefits. The same people think homework is an invasion of their leisure time and take-away is healthy and for these reasons they are most probably already voting for the ALP so what’s Mark Lathams point. Free books for kids? He hasn’t heard of school and public libraries chock-a-block full of free books? Mark’s point is this; Look at me, I read to my kids. Look at me, I plan to give free books to people so they can read to their kids. People who read to their kids are are responsible parents and people who give them books to help them be responsible are very responsible. Ergo, I am very responsible – vote for me. It’s not the wherewithal Mark, it’s the motivation. Work on the parents. Encourage them to go the local libraries where they can access free books for thier kids that won’t cost the country another 80 million dollars. Update: One of my progeny states I turned soft later and the younger kids could watch TV for an hour after school but not after dinner. Another tells me the rule only worked when I was home which explains the flurried activity as I drove into the driveway. At least I tried.
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