If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
Author: Kev
Retired infantry officer. Conservative by nature and politics; Happily married and father and grandfather of eight. Loves V8 powered Range Rovers, Golden Retrievers, good books and technology and think there should be open season on Greenies.
Born in the mid forties and overdue for servicing but most parts still work.
The art world are releasing a flood of words that seek to justify Bill Hensen taking and displaying photos of nude girls. Others are shouting ‘Pornography’ and even Rudd doesn’t like the pics (or he sees some votes in taking a public stand against them)
……Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the works as “revolting” and devoid of artistic merit, the art community has come out strongly on the side of Henson, rejecting the accusation that his works are pornographic.
Put simply, it is morally wrong and illegal to take photos of naked children and display them. Calling it art doesn’t change the law or nullify the moral status and anyone suggesting that it does is simply giving us an insight as to why there is a disconnect between artists and the rest of us.
The fact that Hensen might be charged and that commentators have suggested it would be difficult to gain a conviction likewise doesn’t change the status of the act; it simply reflects on a legal system that places legal point and counterpoint above justice.
More poor taste in a poor taste week
UPDATE:
ACTRESS Cate Blanchett and other prominent Australians who attended Kevin Rudd’s 2020 Summit have backed controversial photographer Bill Henson, saying charging him would damage Australia’s cultural reputation.
Well they would, wouldn’t they? It’s their style.
The letter, whose signatories also include writer Peter Goldsworthy, playwright Michael Gow, journalist and broadcaster Marieke Hardy, film maker Ana Kokkinos and economist Saul Eslake, said Henson was being subject to trial by media.
The Art world stand just doesn’t make sense to me. If I, or even Cate Blanchet had nude photos of children on our respective computers we could be charged with an offence if the pics were discovered. It’s not about art, censorship, trial by media or us terrible conservatives getting our way and I don’t care if Bill gets charged or not but I do care that we apply the same standards of law right across society.
It is simply about the law.
THE Defence Department is investigating allegations that television celebrity Tania Zaetta had sex with Australian special forces soldiers during a recent tour of war-ravaged Afghanistan.
So what?
The lady’s behavior isn’t in question; it is the ethics and poor manners of those who reported the alleged incident, with name, to the Defence Minister and those who then released it to the media.
Opposition defence spokesman Nick Minchin, who travelled on a transport aircraft with Zaetta and Anderson during the tour, has demanded an explanation from Mr Fitzgibbon.
He says;
DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon must apologise for the “gross” and “extraordinary” invasion of entertainer Tania Zaetta’s privacy after claims she had sex with Australian troops reached the media.
I agree and wait with baited breath for Fitzgibbon to make amends to the lady in question.
I watched the Australian Story on ABC and was moved by these young guys and girls doing their bit for the morale of the troops. Conversely, I noted in the show that there were entertainers who declined to volunteer to join the entertainers for ideological reasons.
If there is any naming to be done then maybe we could have the names of these bastards who have insulted our troops rather than naming of someone involved in a rumour.
UPDATE:
This entire event happened on Fitzgibbon’s shift but when called to task and asked for answers he has this to say in a Defence Media email release;
The Opposition Spokesman for Defence Senator Nick Minchin’s attempts to play politics with what at this stage is an allegation only has dragged the state of the Liberal Party to new lows.
Nick is not ‘playing politics’ with the allegation; he is questioning the release of the details of the allegation to the media. Just answer the questions, Minister.
He goes on to make sure we know it’s not his fault;
The Minister has formally asked Defence for a review of the process which determines how ‘Hot Issues Briefs’ are generated and how widely they are distributed. He has also asked what measures are in place to test the necessity of using names in such briefs. Further, the Minister has directed that an inquiry be held into how this particular Brief came to be made public.
Pat O’Brien, the leader of the anti Kangaroo cull in Canberra claims kangaroos are already being culled and that it would only cost $750,000 to move the roos elsewhere. There are a bout 400 roos in the area so they are suggesting the country spend $1875 per roo to fix the problem.
Yeah right! I figure one round per roo couldn’t cost much more than a few bucks and the problem is solved. If we never culled any roos we would be overrun by them, farmers would be in dire troubles and the panel beating industry would be on a winner.
The video below has O’Brien explaining how Steve Irwin (now the zoo itself) is funding his anti-kangaroo cull. The video shows O’Brien living in a house owned by the Irwins and goes into details of how he just has to ask and $2,000 a day barristers are paid for by the Zoo. He submits a monthly budget and the money is there just three days later.
I have no problem with the Australian Zoo doing there bit for wildlife but some common sense wouldn’t go astray. Helping endangered species would be a start – maybe they could spend a bit of their money culling the feral cats that are putting dozens of species on the endangered list or even helping to protect the bilby but to spend money trying to stop roo culling is pure activist idealolgical bullshit.
Wasting money on a waste of time.
I know who I’d be culling.
This from today’s Australian. FOUR weeks ago, auction house chairman Tim Goodman received a call from a wealthy client in the US.
The businessman, a passionate military memorabilia collector, had learned that medals and frontline archival material belonging to Australian army Major Peter Badcoe, who was killed in action in Vietnam in 1967, would feature in Bonhams and Goodman’s May auction, to be held in Sydney on Tuesday.
The collector told Mr Goodman he intended to bid for the Badcoe collection, which includes the only Vietnam War VC medal still in private hands and awarded to Major Badcoe posthumously. The estimated price for the collection, which also features the US Silver Star with Oak Leaf and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, Gold Star and Silver Star as well as 37 letters, photographs and audio recordings the major sent to his family, is about $400,000-$600,000.
I’ll watch this one with interest. Will the government help or will private enterprise act to keep the collection in Australia.
Kerry Stokes please note
I’m off to the RGH Greenslopes to have a femoral artery rebore so will be otherwise involved for a week.
By the time I get back Wayne Swan will have done his part in stuffing the economy as he builds up reasons for a conservative come-back. Is the honeymoon over? I note Denis Shanahan pens a negative report on the Rudd government.
LABOR’S industrial relations changes are likely to trigger job losses and higher inflation that will ultimately create “wage-price spirals” and drive up interest rates, according to Treasury’s official analysis of the plan to scrap Work Choices.
And that’s before we delve into the Unfair Dismissal laws.
Wage increase can’t flow on: Gillard. But they will Julia, the union power play/you owe us, Rudd approach to fiscal conservatism is about to roll over us.
I’m reading books all week in hospital and will wait and see what come out in the wash next week.
AUSTRALIAN troops are believed to have been involved in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan, resulting in casualties including the death of a soldier.
The Australian Defence Force will hold a media briefing at 7.30am (AEST) today to provide details on the incident believed to involve casualties from a Taliban attack.
UPDATE
An Australian special forces commando has been killed and four others have been wounded in a firefight with Taliban militants near the Australian base in the southern Oruzgan Province.
Twenty-seven-year-old Lance Corporal Jason Marks was killed last night (Afghan time) during an attack on a Taliban position 25 kilometres south of the Australian base at Tarin Kowt.
Lance Corporal Marks was a father of two who was born in Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales and was raised in Yeppoon in Queensland.
Source ABC News
The report continues;
Defence Force head Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston said Lance Corporal Marks was part of a Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) platoon which was leading a company-level “deliberate assault” at the time of the firefight.
He said they were attacked while they were out in the open and preparing for their own assault on the Taliban.
Likely translation. The guys were involved in a Company Attack and were caught moving to or from the FUP
While the Olympic torch was being run through Canberra I was otherwise involved in ANZAC Day prep and planning so had little chance to blog on the issue. I thought, given a couple of days the media would be investigating how come so many pro-Chinese Chinese arrived at Canberra in such an organized fashion. It was almost as if the Red Army had provided the convoy to move the troops.
No one has followed it up so I’ll say it. The move of the Chinese students was too slick to have been organized by a bunch of youths. Someone stepped in and organized and paid for the coaches from other cities and considering that the only organization that`stood to benefit is the Chinese government then it is a reasonable deduction that they planned the event.
If this is true then we should all feel very indignant that a foreign power is moving ‘troops’ around Australia for their political gain.
I certainly do.
The saga of the Red Chinese Guards torch minders being allowed on the streets to run with the torch and ‘protect’ it descended into chaos when the government backed down and left the matter to the poor AFP individual who we all witnessed on TV trying to muscle the Chinese away from the torch carrier.
It struck me as undignified and the world witnessed Australia abrogating it’s sovereignty to the Chinese.
Not happy, Kevin.
FEDERAL Health Minister Nicola Roxon has blamed the former Howard Government for the rise in teenage binge drinking.
Nicola uses some pretty inventive logic to suggest the Howard government is solely to blame for the rate of teenager girls drinking rising from 14% to 60%. Not a mention of state liquor laws, lax club administration or poor parenting.
So now she has established the fact that the wonderful, socially aware ALP are fixing an insidious act of the evil conservative government that is killing our babies; while we watch her right hand conjuring up this image we fail to notice her left hand dropping a new tax on us.
She has come up with a plan to halt binge drinking, a problem amongst kids, that is supposedly rocking the country. I haven’t seen any good stats yet that back that up only anecdotal evidence but lets take it as a given.
The plan? Excise has been almost doubled from $39 to $67 per litre for RDT (ready to drink) products with one paper suggesting that will up the price of a bottle by a dollar. Queensland pubs and clubs currently charge, on average, about $8 per bottle but they can range from $5 specials to $12 rip offs.
So, there are two factors to consider here.
First. The pubs may or may not throw the rise straight back at kids buying RDTs. They could absorb the excise rise elsewhere in the inventory if they feel it to their advantage to keep the premixes cheap.
Even if they simply put up costs by a dollar a drink I can’t see that guaranteeing kids will stop buying them.
So it may or may not work but based on my experience it won’t work. If price was the determining factor I would have stopped drinking when a pot went from .30 cents to 45
Second and most important. The government will make a couple of billion dollars from the hike.
My Holy Day of Obligation.
I’m back from the Dawn Service at Enoggera Barracks and sadly note that the 500 odd my regiment lost in Vietnam over ten years is less than what my fathers ship, HMAS Sydney, lost in an hour in 1941. (He was taken off the ship and sent to hospital the day before she sailed or there wouldn’t be a Kev!) I will take my Father for a walk through Brisbane shortly, or at least his medals, and then I’ll retire to the Pig and Whistle for a beer with old mates. I feel safe giving the location of the reunion as my other regiment (SASR) also meet there. I doubt any anti-war/soldier type people would be dumb enough to mix it with two line Regiments.
Still…could be lucky.
Lest we forget
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