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.

Rudd scraps $25m rugby grant

Former Prime Minister John Howard announced funding for the project last June but Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner today announced the new Government would not be providing the funds. Well that was on the cards – the wrong people play the game. Tanner lays the cuts squarely on the Coalition;
Some of the former Liberal government’s last-minute spending commitments will be revised or abandoned. This irresponsible spending will be cut …….
The grant was announced in the June so hardly qualifies as a last minute gasp from the Libs. Still, when you have the keys to the treasury benches you can say what you like. The ARU and QRU are not happy as they were told that it was happening. They have announced it to the world and now you can imagine who they’re going to blame when they announce to the Rugby world that it’s now not happening. If spending money on a Rugby Academy is irresponsible then the guys and gals at the AIS had better look for another berth. It’s the same sort of thing – can’t have sporting elites get preferential treatment. Other cuts include; Innovation ambassadors program, Flemington Racecourse’s alternative water strategy, advertising programs [for] the simplified superannuation initiative, Fishing hall of fame, The Growing Regions program, and drought relief to farmers . The ALP get the call but the word ‘reallocation’ keeps on springing to mind. Parallel cuts to the arts will, of course, stop me thinking that.

The anti-whaling mob bring in the intellectuals

AUSTRALIA’S most famous prisoner has begged fellow Aussies to help save whales from Japanese hunters.
In an incredible plea, Schapelle Corby forgot her own plight in an Indonesian jail to urge readers to sign The Daily Telegraph/Today Show petition that could stop the marine mammal slaughter.
Australia’s most famous prisoner…….an incredible plea……who is writing this shit…her mother?

CIA admits waterboarding al-Qai’da men

WASHINGTON: The CIA has for the first time admitted publicly that it used “waterboarding“, or simulated drowning, in interrogations of three top al-Qa’ida detainees nearly five years ago. So? Here’s their profiles;
Mohammed has claimed to be the operational mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Abu Zubaydah is alleged to have been an aide to al-Qa’ida leader Osama bin Laden. And al-Nashiri is alleged to have been the operational commander of the suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.
I note the use of the word “admits” like they have admitted to a heinous crime, maybe even as bad as murdering thousands of innocents by flying planes into a building. It just goes on and on, doesn’t it?

Diggers Sailors face trial over footy stoush

TWO Australian sailors accused of attacking a California man after a drunken argument about sport will stand trial in March. The article says it was all about the differences between Grid Iron and Aussie Rules but reading further I see something ominous in this statement;
The men also argued about politics in the Middle East.
Like most Vietnam Veterans I have been insulted by stupid people and it was only my absolute disdain for such opinions that stopped me from ICUing them. I can easily imagine Left wing terrorist apologists attacking a couple of sailors over them having the temerity to support a war against terrorists and if that was the case then I can only encourage excuse them for hitting out, considering the mitigating circumstances. Give them one for me when you get out boys! The Australian headline refers to Sailors as Diggers. In my long association with the military I have never heard the term used with sailors hence the strikeout in my headline – yeah, I know pedantic but accurate.

Fool of a father

A 14-YEAR-old British girl has been arrested after protesting against whaling outside the Japanese embassy in London, inspired by the work of Greenpeace in the Southern Ocean.
One video clip which showed a whale being blown up, had “hit me hard”, she said. The video pushed her to stage the hour-long protest because she felt it was wrong to wrong to “brutally murder” whales. “It’s a very important subject at the moment. They’re such amazing creatures and they deserve rights and love and a bit of respect,” she said.
For a moment there I thought she was talking about whales, you know, those very,very big sea creatures. But no, she’s obviously talking about people. Phrases such as – brutally murdered… deserve rights, love and respect are normally reserved for humans. She should be released and told to go home and start acting like a teenager, to keep away from her father and do her bloody homework and he should have the book thrown at him starting with Corrupting a Minor by turning her brain into mush. Bloody idiot.

Bumper sticker politics

THE Australian Government has flown its first surveillance mission as forces step up around the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic. The flight, by an extended range Airbus, together with the appearance of a Japanese fishing boat said to be shadowing Sea Shepherd, raise spying over the “scientific” whaling program to a new level. Didn’t find the Japanese whalers though;
Bad weather prevented it from flying into its original search area, but depending on the weather conditions and the activities of the whaling fleet, the A-319 would fly another mission again soon, the spokeswoman said.
As the Australian Antarctic Division has only one airbus that I’m aware of then all of last weeks positive press about air travel now being available for scientists is now subject to the whim of Garret and whatever Greenie terrorist group he’s backing at the time. You might recall Garret, the Minister for Plastic Bags and any Green activist who wants media coverage, flew to the Antarctic recently looking for errant plastic bags or other threats to Mother Earth. Sorry scientist, I’ve just read a sticker that reads “save the Whales” and it reminded me of my mate and Eco-terrorist Paul Watson who so far has only sunk ten whalers and a mob of other fishing vessels – we need to target more for him.

Julia Gillard bad for nation’s image

POLICE spraying fans with pepper spray in the middle of Australia’s showcase tennis tournament is bad for the nation’s image, Deputy PM Julia Gillard says. Wrong – Thugs threatening police and throwing missiles is bad for our image. The fact that the Police stopped potential rioters with pepper spray sends a message to would-be trouble makers. Sure, some bystanders received a minuscule amount of over spray but that has to be better than being accidentally hit by flying bodies as the police and thugs set to. Julia continues;
Ms Gillard said there was nothing wrong with barracking for a sporting side and it was understandable fans would turn out to support their ancestral homeland. “What we don’t want to see of course is … barracking at sporting contests degenerate into aggressive conduct or aggressive behaviour,” she said “The debate we’re having about what happened at the tennis is what side of the line the conduct was on.
We are not having a debate, you are.
“The police say that the conduct was well over the line into unacceptable and potentially violent behaviour and that’s why they reacted”
See, no debate.

Activists promise ‘aggressive’ action over hostages

Of course they do. It’s a part of the overall PR scheme to get coverage; first harass the Japanese until they make an error of judgment, or, as happened in this case, illegally board the vessel and force the Japanese to defend themselves. Two activists boarded the vessel with a view to handing the Captain something or other. It doesn’t matter what it was – the intention was to put themselves in such a position on the vessel that the Japanese would be forced to react. They did – they secured the activists and apparently wont let them go. I think ‘ (the activists)were tied to the rails of the ship and immersed up to their waists in freezing seawater after an attempt to throw one overboard.’ owes more to the radical politics of Sea Sheppard rather than the truth. I can imagine the Japanese were very upset at being boarded in the high seas and are entitled to secure the radicals until they can be safely got rid of. I would secure them in the brig in protective custody just to shut them up and to ensure the crew don’t take them apart or have to listen to their rantings. Still, all the luvvies are lapping it up. The younger set were recently trying to tell me that the Japanese really have a surplus of tons and tons of whale meat in cold storage in Japan and are only doing this to wind us up. Given that this is obviously a commercial enterprise I can’t see it but as they believe everything they read then how can rational thought get a guernsey. Meanwhile the lawyers have got into the act as The Federal Court yesterday handed down a landmark judgment ordering Japanese government-backed company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha out of the Australian Whale Sanctuary. It’s landmark alright as a very few select countries recognize Australia’s Sanctuary and the Government aren’t going to actually enforce the landmark decision because it’s unenforceable in international law. Notwithstanding all of this, it’s a very good PR exercise for Sea Sheppard as millions will respond with donations while governments and media organizations queue up to dance to their tune. Diplomacy is the answer, not piracy on the High Seas, but that would never suit a radicals agenda. UPDATE: This just in;
The Japanese whaling fleet says protest ship the Steve Irwin is deliberately avoiding its attempts to hand over two detained crew members. Japan’s Institute for Cetacean Research claims the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel is trying to prolong the controversy.
Tactics, Sea Sheppard haven’t milked it for all it’s worth yet. UPDATE II: The next page in the Sea Sheppard pre-written script goes like this;
THE Japanese whaling ship holding two activists, including an Australian, will release the men only if a list of conditions is met, the Sea Shepherd conservation group says.
No proof, just a statement. I wonder if the media carrying this story has bothered to ask for their source. And this raise a few questions;
A witness said the pair were tied to the rails of the ship and immersed up to their waists in freezing seawater after an attempt to throw one overboard.
As the whole ‘boarding the Japanese whaler’ is a Sea Sheppard tactic to excite the media are we expected to believe that the activists didn’t have a camera on their boarding party? Where are the pics proving the ‘immersion in freezing sea water and tying up stuff’? I’m sure they’ll be along soon.

New Government renegs

SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) – The new Australian government will scrap a landmark deal to sell uranium to India for its nuclear energy program, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Tuesday.
The deal was struck by former premier John Howard last August, shortly before his conservative government was ousted in elections by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party. Smith said he had told a visiting Indian envoy that the new government would not sell the nuclear fuel to any country which had not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Presuming this is true then the Left have won this round. Australia’s reputation suffers as well as our economy. We need them to go back on leave…the country’s was safer. I can imagine a host of other countries waiting for us to let them down…to reneg on signed deals for ideology alone. They’ll be looking up all their agreements with us – vetting them to ensure they meet the ideological standards of the ALP loonies and looking to count their losses and resolving to never deal with us again. Can’t blame them.
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