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.
I listened to the ABC report on the
Democrat Convention in Denver. Michelle Obama spoke but her earlier comment “
…first time in my life I’m really been proud to be an American” didn’t get a rerun. Ted Kennedy spoke emotionally and eloquently about the achievements of others – his brother Jack and quoted Martin Luther King’s
I have a dream but he didn’t mention
Chappaquiddick
Understandable too, but some people have long memories and if I was Obama I would just as soon not have Ted’s support.
I wonder if the ABC will give the
Republican Convention to be held next week, the same sort of coverage.
FOR seven minutes there was silence on the Indonesian island except the sounds of
two men dying and a priest singing Amazing Grace.
A Irish Catholic priest, officiating at an execution in Indonesia, says the men took seven minutes to die after having been shot. The execution squad of 12 had only three weapons armed with live rounds and the rest with blanks.
I’m not sure why authorities insist on this ‘some rifles load with blanks’ line. I presume it is to help the poor guys doing the executing – ie maybe my rifle had a blank and thus I didn’t kill him’ but if a soldier doesn’t know the difference between firing a blank or a live round he shouldn’t be in the game.
I’m not big into executions but if you are going to do it then let’s not stuff around. Have 9 out of a dozen rifles loaded with live rounds and the rest with blanks.
In fact this makes so much sense I am beginning to doubt the Priest’s story. Nowhere in the article does it say the men were executed one at time and I can’t believe that the authorities expected three rounds to do the job on two people – that would mean one of those to be executed was only targeted by one rifleman. Thus, they would have been executed separately in which case each guy would have taken three rounds in the chest.
That’s enough.
Looks like a beat-up to me but either way I don’t care. Some of the hundreds killed by the soon to be executed Bali Bomber Barbarians would have taken a lot longer to die that 7 minutes.
Shoppers have shunned the Federal Government’s
grocery pricing website, prompting industry experts to label it a waste of taxpayers money.
After being branded a “basket case” because it only listed once-a-month grocery prices, the $13 million website recorded a drop of 2.1 million visitors in its second week.
Opposition finance spokesman Peter Dutton said considering the website’s total cost of $13 million over four years, the number of hits from the past fortnight roughly worked out to about $10 a user, per year.
“It would be cheaper for Wayne Swan to stand outside Coles with gift vouchers,” he said.
Another pointless initiative that will soon be forgotten.
An embarrassed Australia has
apologised to Prime Minister Helen Clark over the circulation of a briefing note outlining her “tight control” and saying her leftwing beliefs & foreign policy outlook was shaped by her anti-Vietnam war views.
It might not be diplomatic but it’s on the money.
I always remember her as the one who
scrapped the New Zealand Airforce.
Says it all really.
Just heard on National radio
Wayne Swan accuses the opposition of being economically irresponsible for threatening to block the alcopop tax.
Economically irresponsible? I thought the tax was aimed at socially engineering young girls away from alcopops.
In a speech to the National Press Club, Mr Swan said the measure had been introduced to target teenage consumption of the drinks. “And all of the medical evidence and all of the scientific evidence and all of the behavioural evidence indicates that they are responsive to price,” Mr Swan said.
And all the rest of the evidence, including Swan’s words, indicates that the tax was just that, a tax with revenue in mind.
I spent Wednesday down south at the Currumbin RSL at a fund raising luncheon organized by Mine Victim and Clearance Trust (MIVAC). Normie Rowe played MC and sang a couple of numbers and all had a good time for a good cause.
MIVAC do wonders in Asia delousing mine fields and UXBs left over from various conflicts in the region. Graham Edwards, the retired ALP MP from WA came over for the lunch and as we were in the same company in Vietnam I attended along with a couple of other Support Company 7RAR mates.
7RAR’s second tour of Vietnam is remembered as much for it’s mine casualties as for it’s honourable service with the two fighting and recce platoons of Support Company suffering a disproportional number of these casualties. Graham Edwards is one of them and well known but there were several others less known publicly but remembered and honoured within the battalion.
Having has such an intimate relationship with mines it is not much of an extension to want to help others similarly inflicted, particularly when they are mostly civilians – woman and children – in countries where the Department of Veterans Affairs has no charter to help. The kids go looking for scrap metal to supplement the families income and often find the metal contains explosives. They are blown up and killed or de-limbed. No one helps..no government department gives them artificial limbs..they just crawl around.
Have a look at the web site, you may be moved to help.
I was.
Uncategorized
The US Navy is commissioning a series of Hero Ships named after heros and incidences from the war against terror. One, the USS New York has recycled steel from the WTC Towers incorporated in her hull
“We’re very proud that the twisted steel from the World Trade Center towers will soon be used to forge an even strong national defense,” said New York Gov. George Pataki. “The USS New York will soon be defending freedom and combating terrorism around the globe, while also ensuring that the world never forgets the evil attacks of September 11, 2001 and the courage and strength New Yorkers showed in response to terror.”
I like the symmetry and can only hope one of the ships gets to give some payback.
More at the USS New York website.
BENNELONG community groups and constituents have accused
Maxine McKew of turning her back on the electorate since the federal election.
You voted for her, now wear it!
PRIME Minister
Kevin Rudd witnessed a heated discussion between US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over Russia’s invasion of a tiny neighbouring country as athletes paraded before them in the Opening Ceremony on Friday night.
And then told the press about it …the little
lickspittle.
How embarrassing!
The Government will this morning launch its grocery price watch scheme,
GroceryChoice. Similar to the controversial FuelWatch scheme, the website will allow people to compare prices for a basket of goods, including meat, vegetables and milk, to find the cheapest supermarket in their area. The prices will be updated monthly through a survey of 600 supermarkets across the nation.
the website will allow people to compare prices for a basket of goods, including meat, vegetables and milk, to find the cheapest supermarket in their area.
Sorry, it’s not going to help the housewife or husband plan their shopping trip. Monthly updates will never beat the weekly brochures stores drop in their letterbox for free. As the site is only updated on the first business day of the month then unless one shops that day or the next the prices will be out of whack.
I can’t see the major players responding to, or being frightened of, a government website that will have neither currency nor item prices. They are already competing with each other on a more frequent rotation and advertise this regularly with letter box drops and TV adds.
Time will tell but it’s typical of this government to set up monitoring websites when there are practical steps they can take. As groceries are delivered by trucks then it might be a good idea to give the
bona fide small truck operators a fuel discount like the major companies receive. Now that has a good chance of lowering grocery costs.
GroceryChoice
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