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 Nuclear debate

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One positive I can see from the Greens having power in the Senate come July and a member in the House, is that their insane policies will now come under more public scrutiny. Senator Scott Ludlam is feeling the poorly after just a tiny bit of scrutiny as he opines on Nuclear Energy.
It is hard to identify where in the mainstream media this debate will be given a chance to develop beyond the juvenile anti-Greens spitting contest we’ve witnessed during the past 48 hours.
Poor diddams…get used to it Scott. Keep on submitting article like this one and you’ll get plenty more anti-Greens spitting He claims
*it is 40s technology – demonstrably wrong; *wastes a paragraph pointing out that 16 g of plutonium will reduce a city to ashes which has nothing to do with the debate; *claims the nuclear industry is military based which it isn’t, and *that these hybridised weapons plants [are] generating a shrinking fraction of electricity across the world. There was a slight downturn in 2009 mainly due to Japan closing the large Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan following the Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki earthquake. However, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency there are currently 27 nuclear plants under construction.
Scott mentions the astronomical liabilities of reactor accidents but there really hasn’t been too many accidents. The Three Mile Island partial core melt down resulted in radiation within a ten mile radius being equal to a chest X ray; no one died at the time and no one has proved conclusively that cancers increased in the area over the following years. The biggest outcome from The TMI accident is that it enhanced the credibility of anti-nuclear groups, who had predicted an accident, and triggered protests around the world. A lot of noise and colour but no health problems.
As an American friend once explained: In the US, more people have died in the Senator Kennedy’s car than have been killed by Nuclear accidents.
Chernobyl, built by the people who brought you the Trabant car is more of an example of what is wrong with communism rather than Nuclear reactors. We do need a debate on Nuclear energy and I welcome Scott’s input. It underlines the fact the the Greens-Marxist answer to the worlds problems have no basis in accuracy or fact.
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Climate Change, Politics

Immigration being swamped

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Now the ALP are back in power they need to do something about the asylum seeker boaties….still! Of course it’s going to get worse as the world knows Australia still has open borders. Come one, come all…don’t worry you’re little heads about formalities…visas and UN refugee status is for the real asylum seekers. THE head of the Department of Immigration has made an “urgent” plea for additional staff, claiming his department is struggling to process the rising number of asylum seekers. Well now, he isn’t singing from the ALP songbook is he? Read his letter here
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Politics

Sgt Till was tired!

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SERGEANT Brett Till may have been fatigued when he was killed 18 months ago trying to defuse a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, a defence inquiry has found.
Sergeant Till, a member of the Holsworthy-based Incident Response Regiment (IRR) had fired a controlled initial blast to destroy the booby trap and was inspecting the result when the bomb’s main 20kg charge suddenly detonated, the inquiry found.
…may have been fatigued. Motherhood statement. Soldiers at war are fatigued for the bulk of their time on operations and unless you have more IED demolition teams than IEDs then it will be ever thus.
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War on Terror

NBN

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I note that a lot of comment on the internet about NBN seems to revolve around “it’s NBN or nothing” as in ” if Abbott gets in bye-bye NBN” Silly really, rusted on ALP supporters seem to be treating NBN as a synonym for broadband. It’s more a synonym for “Rolls Royce” I’m a bit of a geek and fully acknowledge the superiority of optic fiber but that certainly doesn’t mean I think everyone in the country should have access to it. I don’t need it, nor do millions of other people who use the internet for generally seeking knowledge, communicating with family or generally finding out what is going on in the world. Several of my children and their friends don’t even have hard wired broadband, they are happy with wireless and over the time it will take to implement the NBN, they will be become happier as technology improves. The planned NBN will not take advantage of any of these developments in wireless delivery or other developments that we don’t even know about yet. It is, in effect, putting all it’s eggs in one basket. I might be happy in the metro area but I know my country cousins are less so. A lot of them don’t even get reliable mobile services due to their isolation so they do deserve something better. However, when I did a tour of Queensland and the Territory in 2004 I kept on bumping into Telstra gangs that were busy laying fiber to Indigenous settlements. That’s six years ago so something may have come of it. It does mean that the bush has been getting some attention but obviously not enough. For those who think the ALP invented fibre note this map; People have commented that the copper system we have now is getting old but that only means we should be upgrading on a maintenance programme. It certainly doesn’t necessarily mean we should replace the entire network overnight. Industry, commerce generally and governments should have access to high speed fiber and I’m fairly sure that a lot already do. There is a case to develop infrastructure to ensure they all have it but I’m not convinced every house in every town should have or needs to have it. Not immediately, anyway.
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Politics

Soldiers to be charged over raid

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AN OFFICER in line for a medal is among a group of Australian soldiers who will face manslaughter and negligence charges over the deaths of five Afghan children in a bungled raid last year.
The soldiers, mostly from the 1st Commando Regiment, are facing an unprecedented court martial over the raid, codenamed Operation Pakula, near the village of Surkh Morghab in February 2009.
Well, thats it then. Soldiers can no longer go into battle for their country without worrying about legal charges. It could force them to be reluctant to return fire when they are in contact. That could add to our casualty count.
The soldiers were targeting an insurgent leader who was not found at an initial compound. A crucial part of the prosecution argument will rest on the decision to move to a second compound, and whether the intelligence was sufficient for it to be approached with the same level of stealth and tactics.
In the field, particularly in Afghanistan with no clear and recognisable enemy, all places needed to be approached with […]stealth and tactics. The interpretation of Intelligence in the field is often at odds with the opinions of staff officers in safe rear echelon compounds – particularly when you are being fired on. It goes like this: I’m being fired on from a second compound…f**k intelligence ….return fire…still being fired on…throw grenade….still being fired on…throw another grenade…thank God! Not being fired on anymore! Yes, it’s terrible that civilians died but the Taliban do that. They fire on Coalition soldiers from within a group of civilians and then use the resultant civilian casualties to wind up left wing armchair warriors. What are the Coalition soldiers to do in these circumstances? Take casualties, maybe die, because there might be civilians in the compound? The report suggests the Commando weren’t fully trained. Well, if true, that’s another problem but that can’t be sheeted home to the soldiers themselves. I have to back the Diggers on this one.
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Defence, War on Terror

Something wrong here

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New England Tony Windsor. The ALP polled 7,396 votes or 8.1% of the total votes Lyne Rob Oakeshott The ALP polled 11,457 votes or 13.5% of the total In summary, on average 10.8% of voters in the Independent’s electorates voted ALP but in the long term both electorates went to the ALP. The other 89.2% of the voters who voted against the ALP will be pleased.
10
Politics

Katter for the Coalition

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I’ve just received a text from mate Bicko saying Katter has gone for the Coalition making it 74:74 What pressure on the other two now. They did say they would most probably have to vote for stable government. Link up now at news.com UPDATE: Windsor has gone for ALP based on the un-costed , most expensive broadband in the world. UPDATE11: Oakeshott to form minority government based on rural education?? Gillard can now form a minority government. Good luck, Julia. You are definitely going to need a lot of it.
11
Politics

Not looking good

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THE Coalition is increasingly pessimistic about its chances of winning the support of the three rural independents it needs to take power.
Senior sources believe the decision could go either way, but pessimism has grown among some senior Coalition figures over the “disengagement” of the independents during key briefings last week with senior frontbenchers.
Key issues such as the opposition’s alternative to Labor’s National Broadband Network and opposition costings were only briefly canvassed.
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Politics

Theatre of the Absurd

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This not the way to run a country. Gillard gets into bed with the Greens and then takes us further Left by rolling over for Wilkie. Going by todays press every commentator predicts the major party that got the least votes and the least seats is about to take over running the country. There is no way you can say that’s what the voters wanted! They voted for a centre right solution and got a centre left result and if you look more carefully at the ideologies of some of the Greens, we’re heading either further left. I would like to know exactly what game the Independents are playing because I can’t see why it would take more than two weeks to decide which way they are going to pledge. I can’t remember anything so demeaning to the country as what has transpired over the last couple of weeks. With Wilkie sucker punching Abbott as in: Wilkie: What I would like is $1 B for the hospital Abbott: OK, We’ll look at that! Wilkie: Ah, gotcha and subsequently runs to the press calling Abbott irresponsible for offering $1B for the hospital. ex-Liberal, ex-Army, ex-Greens,ex-honourable, ex-trustworthy Wilkie will be long remembered, by me at least, for his total lack of standards. Does anyone in their right mind expect stable government from this collection of ALP/Greens and Independents? Can’t even see it lasting until the Greens get the BOP in the Senate. Frightening
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Politics
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