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.

Tour de France washup

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Being an insomniac I took to watching the Tour de France and started doing so the night Landis hit a wall and lost buckets of time. I checked in the next night and was, like every other viewer, impressed by his comeback. He produced one of the most memorable rides in Tour history when he stormed to victory in stage 17 by almost six minutes. Having cycled a bit myself, but only to work for fitness, I was impressed with the competitors as they went through the Alpine regions. Tough guys, I thought…way tougher than me. Being impressed with the Landis come-back and the other mountain-ascending tough guys you can imagine my dissappointment this morning to read that Landis has failed a drug test taken on the very day of his comeback; the day he won stage 17 in such a determined manner. The day that clinched his Tour de France win.
Landis’ Phonak team has revealed that the 30-year-old tested positive for excess levels of testosterone after winning stage 17 of this year’s race.
Landis’ defence is a bit too hopeful to me;
Landis says he “can’t be hopeful” about the B test but hopes to prove he has naturally high levels of testosterone.
Sometimes I am so bloody gullible. When watching the race, drug enhancement never entered my mind and yet the Tour has been plagued with drug issues for years. I knew that but it didn’t click. The TV has stolen some of my life again. I should stick to web surfing and learning facts I never knew instead of watching TV and confirming facts I already know. Another fallen idol.
Uncategorized

Truth in jest

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Not often I find something worth quoting at Tim Dunlops “How Howard lied today” blog but a comment by tim g rates a mention.
Here’s my prediction: when we eventually have a nuclear holocaust and the only surviving life forms are cockroaches, the cockroaches in the Middle East will start fighting each other. 
General Musings

‘Miracle’ of psalm book found in bog

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DUBLIN: The accidental discovery of an ancient book of psalms – found last week when a construction worker drove the shovel of his backhoe into a bog – has been heralded as a miracle by Ireland’s archeologists.

The book, of about 20 pages, has been dated to AD800-1000 and is the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries, according to Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan.

I do like this;

The book was found open to a page describing, in black-letter Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations’ attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.
There’s an opening for some religious nut to start another conspiracy theory here…better than Nostradamus…it’s a message from God……the end of the world is nigh. You can take it from there guys.
General Musings

Bad move by Israel or Poor assessment by Sheridan?

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Greg Sheridan in todays Australian devotes about two thirds of his Bad Move by Israel article to the wonders of Lebanon and the Lebonese and how hard done by they are. I don’t think any of this is news to the western world and I’m sure most of us feel sorry for Lebanon. I know I do.

But he loses me when he blames Israel on their selection of Lebanon as the theatre of war as if they had a choice. He uses and old Lebaonese journalist aquaintence, Daizy Mir, as his sounding board;

Now Mir is devastated by what’s happening in Lebanon: “Israel is fighting a war against Syria and Iran and it’s using Lebanese territory. This kind of tactic has never worked. All it’s going to do is make things worse. It’s not going to get rid of Hezbollah. The people in control (of Hezbollah) know how to move around and they’ve set this up.”

The exact reverse is the case. Hezbollah has chosen the playing field. They sited their rockets in Lebanon and fired them at Israel from there.

What should Israel do? Send an email saying

“Look Hezbollah, it’s not fair on Lebanon that you site your weapons in their country and then attack us. Would you consider setting the war scene somewhere else?”

Hezbollah would reply –

“We know it’s unfair attacking you from Lebanon, that’s why we do it. It forces you to attack us there to save your people and then we can arrange for Lebanese civilians to be close to the rocket sites so when you do attack, other Arabs and western media can portray you as baby killers. It always works…it’s a part of our tactics…Fighting Terrorist Wars 101, Ch 4, Manipulation of western media. Haven’t you learnt this yet.

Israel has learnt this but are forced to defend themselves anyway and the western media choose not to learn it, they won’t even read the manual.

Sheridan apparently doesn’t even know the manual exists.

However, his last paragraph does touch on the root cause, almost as an afterthought;

None of this remotely excuses Hezbollah, which bears the lion’s share of the blame for this situation. Its leaders probably calculated on and wanted tough Israeli action for a multiplicity of political and strategic reasons.

and ends with this;

Israel certainly has the right to defend itself. But the gains from its actions are very uncertain, while the cost is certain. And enormous

The media just can’t bring themselves to say Israel certainly has the right to defend itself without slipping in the royal rider

But

As in, see how fair and balance I am; I mention Israel has the right to defend herself BUT she is still wrong.

Don’t like the civilian casualties?

Talk to Hezbollah.

War on Terror

Dual Nationality

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25,000 Australians, 10,000 Britons,an estimated 40,000 Canadians, most of the 25,000 Americans there,1200 Belgians and about 1000 Danes all living in Lebanon with dual nationality. About 100,000 Lebanese, out of a population of 3.8m, have voted for the security and social standing of their country by having a Plan B for life’s little problems. But what annoys me is that 25,000 Australian’s have done the same. I’m also annoyed that we have immigrants who select Australia as a destination because they can come here, do absolutley nothing and get given, free of obligations, considerably more money than they could have earnt back home working long hours. It’s not the type of committment I would look for in aspirational Aussies. I do not agree with dual nationality in any way, shape or form and I believe the people who choose to come to Australia should have sufficient committment to their new country and sufficient competancy in English so as to fascilitate gaining employment. Just in case anyone is in doubt of my thoughts, I’ll state them in one line. No committment, no language competancy, no welcome!
General Musings

Lawyers for the Terrorists

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I note at Larvatus Prodeo that their understanding of the War on Terror is all about legal interpretations of obscure points of law. The war to them is being fought in the courts but the innocents being killed and the military and Intelligence organizations trying to stop these deaths are fighting in a different theatre. Every time a terrorist is caught these lawyers cue up in their thousands to do their best to defeat the efforts of those doing the actual fighting. It’s as if they are defending Jihad Jacks right to change the world through force. Why? From The Age
In an interview, Thomas said he did not like al-Qaeda’s methods but said he trained with them for jihad (holy war) and “to make America change its ways”. This could be done only by force, Thomas had said. He said he had been at close quarters with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and had been told that bin Laden wanted an Australian to work for him in Australia locating military installations. Thomas said he had been told to return to Australia to work and create a cover. He said he had heard of a plan to bring down a jet with the Pakistani president on board and a plan to break a detainee out of Guantanamo Bay. He had been given $US3500 and an air ticket home to Australia. Thomas had falsified his passport to make it appear he had not been in Pakistan before the attacks of September 11, 2001, Ms Morrish said. He had been arrested trying to leave Pakistan in January 2003 with a falsified passport.
I don’t see the problem. If he admits to the above then lock him up. But the lawyers want him free claiming evidence;
…. was allegedly based almost entirely on evidence extracted under torture in a lawless Pakistani military prison without the presence of a lawyer.
Torture has been so devalued over the period of the waging of this war that every interview in CSI Miami and/or New York could be classified as ‘evidence extracted under torture’ let alone the antics of the police in old shows like Homicide. As I understand it, the quote from The Age wasn’t extracted under ‘torture’ in Pakistan by some S&M Specialist; it is a record of interviews conducted by Australian agents. Defence say Jihad wasn’t acting voluntarily;
Jihad Jack’s senior counsel,Lex Lasry, QC, said an interview conducted while Thomas was held in custody in Pakistan in March 2003 should not have been allowed into his Supreme Court trial. He said Thomas was not acting voluntarily when he gave the interview and he had no access to a lawyer, in breach of the Commonwealth Crimes Act.
Commonwealth DPP says he was;
Wendy Abraham, QC, for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, said Australian Federal Police agents tried to get a lawyer for Thomas but were thwarted by Pakistani authorities. She told the Court of Appeal that police informed Thomas he had a right to a lawyer but one could not be provided. He was given a choice about whether to take part, Ms Abraham said.
He agreed to the interview …he admitted his involvement with al-Qaeda. Good enough for me.
War on Terror

Al Jazeera: fair and balanced

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Lateline, the ABC late evening news flagship carries a report from Matt Brown in Lebanon under the headline; UN condemns Israeli offensive
MATT BROWN: Almost every night these southern suburbs of Beirut have been under attack. Now, rubble piles on rubble. The families are gone, but the signs of their ordinary lives are still here to see. On a tour of this former Hezbollah stronghold, UN humanitarian relief coordinator Jan Egeland called for Israel and Hezbollah to stop the fighting. He also condemned the Israeli bombing campaign that’s reduced this suburb to rubble. JAN EGELAND, UN HUMANITARIAN RELIEF COORDINATOR: And I would say that this seems to be an excessive use of force in an area with so many civilians. REPORTER: If it’s an excessive use of force that makes it a war crime?
I could see Matt almost pleading with Egeland to agree and say ‘yes, it does make it a war crime’ but he didn’t and in an obvious case of very selective reporting Matt Brown didn’t mention any other comments attributable to Egeland during his visit to Lebanon. However AL Jazeera does. They report Egeland in full under the headline; Hezbollah blamed for civilian deaths
Egeland was speaking to reporters at the Larnaca airport in Cyprus late Monday after a visit to Lebanon on his mission to coordinate an international aid effort. During that visit he condemned the killing and wounding of civilians by both sides, and called Israel’s offensive “disproportionate” and “a violation of international humanitarian law.”
He also addressed the root causes of civilian casualties
[He].. accused Hezbollah of “cowardly blending” among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel. The militant group has built bunkers and tunnels near the Israeli border to shelter weapons and fighters, and its members easily blend in among civilians.
More balance at Al Jazeera than at the ABC…amazing!
War on Terror

Aussie VC sets record at Auction

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AUSTRALIA’S last privately owned Victoria Cross medal awarded at Gallipoli sold at auction tonight in Sydney, setting a world record price of $1 million.

The medal was purchased by a prominent philanthropic Australian businessman who wished to remain anonymous and who bid over the phone. Lot 1078 included seven other medals with a combined value of less than $100,000. The $1 million price tag breaks the record of $595,000 set in 2005 for a medal won by captain Thomas Hardy at Lord Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in 1805.
The medal was awarded to Captain Alfred Shout who was born a KIWI but trained by the AIF! He was awarded a Military Cross for his courage and leadership at the landing at Gallipoli and won the VC later at Lone Pine further up the ridges. Just being present and soldiering on at Gallipoli took a special type of courage.
Defence
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