SASR in action
Australian forces in Afghanistan have emerged virtually unscathed from their first combat missions, announcing they had inflicted heavy losses on anti-Kabul forces who attacked them twice last week.
Well done, guys.
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.
Hicks to face trial
Hicks defence team not ready for trial.
How many years do they want?
This day in Military History
On this day, 20 September, in 1944, Academy award winning Australian cameraman Damien Parer was killed while filming American troops on Peleliu in the Pacific. Parer’s documentary Front line Kokoda won an Oscar for best documentary in 1943. Having filmed Australians in action during the early years of the war, Parer accepted a job with the American film company Paramount to film American’s in action in the Pacific.
The man
and the image
The Australian War Memorial has a piece on Damien here and Neil McDonald has written a biography of Damien, reviewed here. Murray Sayle, a war correspondence of some note himself, has a lengthy piece in a 2004 edition of Quadrant. It is worth the read, not just for Sayle’s perspective on Parer, but for his perspective on MacArthur and Blamey. He is not complimentary and in my opinion, neither should he be. I would however question some of his interpretations of Japanese capabilities.
Worth the time for those with an interest in our history. Damien Parer did a lot to ensure the Australian people knew exactly what it was their military forces were confronting in North Australia and the Pacific in the dark days of 1942.
The man
and the image
The Australian War Memorial has a piece on Damien here and Neil McDonald has written a biography of Damien, reviewed here. Murray Sayle, a war correspondence of some note himself, has a lengthy piece in a 2004 edition of Quadrant. It is worth the read, not just for Sayle’s perspective on Parer, but for his perspective on MacArthur and Blamey. He is not complimentary and in my opinion, neither should he be. I would however question some of his interpretations of Japanese capabilities.
Worth the time for those with an interest in our history. Damien Parer did a lot to ensure the Australian people knew exactly what it was their military forces were confronting in North Australia and the Pacific in the dark days of 1942.
Anger Management
from the Grouchy Cripple
An oldie, but a goodie.
Simon Wiesenthal dies
HOLOCAUST survivor Simon Wiesenthal, an untiring campaigner who helped track down hundreds of Nazi war criminals, has died in Vienna aged 96, his pressure group has announced.
Mr Wiesenthal was the world’s most intrepid hunter of Nazi war criminals, bringing more than a thousand to trial in a global campaign to ensure no one forgot the horror of Adolf Hitler’s treatment of the Jews.
I always agreed with his premise… there is no statute of limitations on mass murder and he never forgot or forgave the obscenity that was the Holocuast.
He did his best.
For those interested in world matters you will find more details about Simon Wiesenthal at the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Howard recognised as Statesman
And the left go ballistic.
Margo and her pixies are beside themselves with this news and have penned a letter to the Appeal of Conscience organization in New York
The Honorable John Howard will receive the World Statesman Award for his “inspiring leadership that has made Australia a beacon of democracy, religious freedom and human rights and for his courageous stand against international terrorism,” Rabbi Schneier said. Serving as Australian Prime Minister since 1996, Howard most recently announced Australia’s partnership in the Asia-Pacific Partnership On Clean Development and Climate, an enterprise devoted to addressing the challenges of climate change, energy security and air pollution in a way that strives to encourage economic development and reduce poverty in developing nations.It’s not a big deal to me and most probably isn’t to Howard either but it is worth the effort and time involved just to read the left’s vitriol. Although, on reflection, the way Howard upsets the left should make him a shoe-in for the award.
Past recipients of the World Statesman Award include Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, President of the Government of Spain José Maria Aznar, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Republic of Korea President Kim Dae-jung, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Presidents Cardoso, Gorbachev, Havel, and von Weizsaeker, Chancellor Schroeder, as well as Prime Ministers Prodi and Thatcher.A small quote from the letter;
Mr Howard’s anti-terrorism laws have targeted Australian Muslims. These laws give extraordinary powers which are intrusive and demonise the Muslim community.I doubt if Rabbi Arthur Schneier, founder and president, would have bothered reading past this accusation.
The Latham Debacle just keeps on giving
MARK Latham’s new life as a stay-at-home dad is being funded by a generous $66,000-a-year pension scheme that he slashed for the next generation of MPs.
But yesterday on 2UE radio in Sydney, the former Labor leader said if he had become a merchant banker he would be earning $300,000 a year.Who on earth would pay Latham anything after his dummy spit? On reflection though, the country and the ALP would have been a lot better off if Latham had picked merchant banking as his career. Any commercial enterprise would have picked Latham as useless quicker than the time it takes to fracture his fragile ego with the result that he would never have occupied a responsible position in Merchant Banking or in politics. A definite win-win situation Lathams verdict: The system is sick Australia’s verdict: Latham is sick. Over at Silent Running a Kiwi has a message for Latham The post starts with this plain spoken message;
In the unlikely even I need some asshole comment about my countries apparently enviable pro-terrorist position we have plenty of home grown f**kwits already thanks.Latham still has plenty of supporters though, and one of them comments on Anthony Lowenstein’s blog
I want to be able to vote for a party that is public in it’s mistrust of this American administration. I want candidates who assert the primacy of Australian sovereignty in matters of war, fo-po, trade, media law, etc. I want a party that will guarantee that ID won’t end up in our schools on their watch; that there will never be computer screen voting in this country; that someone like Scott Parkin would not have even been questioned by their government; that dares to call Israel on it’s sins.I note he says …mistrust in this American administration to cover himself for the unlikely event that a left leaning Democrat gets to the White House. Glen just wants an anti-Bush/US party. You’re dead right Glen…don’t hold your breath. Australians think deeper than US evil…Bush dumb. I trust by now the Libs have all his most outlandish quotes databased on their laptops for quick reference in the House at question time. It’s going to be fun.
Ex Judge touts for book sales
Sir Edward Woodward, a former barrister, judge and head of spy agency ASIO, says in his new memoir that Australia was wrong to take part in the US-led coalition of the willing.
Well he would, wouldn’t he. The judge has always been anti conservative and against the war for years. Two years ago the Age ran a piece by the good judge and today the Australian recycles his anti-bush/Howard/Iraq war opinions to help the old guy sell a book he’s written.
I presume when the article starts with ‘Ex Judge’ I’m supposed to read his words and tremble. The man is so educated he must know more than me. His words are gospel.
Well, I don’t tremble, I don’t think his words are gospel. I actually think his word indicates a lack of exposure to the world in general.
He said it was significant that “very few informed voices” had supported Mr Howard’s decision.Other than those who voted him back in, that is. Maybe they weren’t informed of the judges opinions but they were informed.
HMAS Sydney II
In light of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II I refer to notes by my father as he describes the last days of HMAS Sydney. The Sydney was sunk on 19 November 1941 with the loss of all hands.
It was from the mine sweeper Olive Cam stationed at Fremantle in the second year of the Second World War that I was drafted to the Sydney, a cruiser in the Australian Navy. She was the pride and joy of the Navy Board at the time after sinking the Italian battle cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in the Mediterranean. I was at that time Able Seaman in the RAN drafted with a potential batch of Leading hands and Petty Officers and we were drafted to the Sydney as Cruiser time was an essential part of any sailors promotion. Continue reading »
Roald Dahl
Fathers now in their fifties are aware that Roald Dahl wrote much more than Charlie and the Chocalate Factory, a newly released film. He also wrote a series called Revolting Ryhmes and when my kids were growing up we all got into Roald. The kids loved him and I enjoyed reading them his poems and stories. How I ever did it before that idiot Latham come on the scene and passed on the secret that reading to kids was a good idea I’ll never know.
If you don’t know much about his works or have forgotten his wicked sense of humour then go read his versions of Goldilocks and the Three Pigs.
If you don’t enjoy ’em you’ve had a humour bypass.
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