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.

Stay Peter, your country needs you.

PETER Costello has been hailed as the “Don Bradman” of Liberal politics during a 300-strong dinner in Melbourne, at which he was urged not to quit politics.
But his closest supporters believe he will walk away from parliament at the end of the year to pursue job offers overseas, after he completes a tell-all book on the Howard years and his youngest daughter finishes school.
If he does walk away, I for one will be disappointed. He is one of the few players we have that can serve it up to the government. God knows we need someone and we do have a lot of ammo but no one’s firing, or if they are, they aren’t hitting the target.

Scam of the century

MORE than $60 billion in planned LNG investments are likely to be shelved because the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme is “backwards” and penalises exports of the clean gas, according to Woodside Petroleum chief Don Voelte.
Asked what he intended to do about the problem, Mr Voelte said: “We have booked a lot of plane tickets to Canberra.”
Good luck – it’s always hard to get zealots to see reason. QANTAS is expected to announce today that it will axe between 2000 and 3000 jobs and cut more routes as it restructures to cope with high fuel prices. Get used to it. Not because the price of fuel will go up due to supply but because the Government are under pressure to raise the price to comply with it’s global warming lie. From David Evans in todays Australian I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.
But since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
You elected them now wear it. The country is being held to ransom by a bunch of alarmists and where are the Liberals in our moment of danger – can’t hear ’em. Surely they should be questioning the basic tenet that says mere humans having more impact on global climate that the sun. We need someone with sufficient testosterone and wit to start educating the public. Tabloid TV, SBS and the ABC have rolled over and we can’t view a scene of nature or animals cavorting without a sombre voice-over mentioning global warming. Films of icebergs melting, as they do very summer, cannot be shown without a mention of the impending doom for all mankind, Polar bears and penguins. All of this is based on shaky evidence that theorizes that we humans are causing these calamities. God forbid that the Sun should have some part to play. The trouble is, you can’t make a religion out of the sun being to blame when it is just a part of a natural cycle. It needs to be caused by mankind so that the High Priests can agitate for change – force those filthy capitalists, petrol consuming V8 4WD owners (me) and other non-believers to see the light and convert. Evans again;
In the minds of the audience, the evidence that global warming has occurred becomes conflated with the alleged cause, and the audience hasn’t noticed that the cause was merely asserted, not proved.
and;
Evidence consists of observations made by someone at some time that supports the idea that carbon emissions cause global warming. Computer models and theoretical calculations are not evidence, they are just theory.
…they are just theory has been my point since Stern’s IPCC report and yet we are about to commit effort, money, profits, jobs and livelihoods on the alter of a false God. It would be OK if we spent money on R & D for alternative energy, forced companies to clean up their act and individuals to think smarter but to arbitrarily force big business to pay for carbon produced seems pointless. What happens to that income? Is it given back to the poor to compensate for price increases and if so what have we achieved. Rudd, Swan Song and Princess Penny say with all of their interfering with our economy, the impact on inflation will only be in the order of .09%. Well, excuse me, they would say that wouldn’t they? Go back to first line of this post to see how believable any estimation of the impact on inflation will be.

Peace statements, hymns and insults

From a Defence Mailing list email. The ADF is hosting military pilgrims from around the world attending World Youth Day 08 (WYD08).
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) and foreign military pilgrims will hold a ceremony including a reading of a statement of peace and singing hymns on the Sydney Opera House steps to thank their NSW hosts for World Youth Day 08.
Seems a contradiction in terms to me but never mind….things do change. Moving right along I note academics still hold us in high regard; THE Australian Defence Force is planning to open the nation’s army, navy and air force bases to high school work experience students in a bid to arrest the crisis in recruitment. All well and good – at least it’s a plan but besides people panicking that a young man or woman should be exposed to, or actually use a weapon, academics apparently think so little of the military culture that the writer drops this little quote.
The program is also likely to be opposed by some education professionals on grounds that military culture is incompatible with the higher ideals of learning that high school teachers are expected to instil.
I can almost guarantee that I spent more time study tertiary level languages, logistics and management than the reporter, and for that matter, most high school teachers, ever will, but I’m a product of the military culture and whereas my higher ideals of learning had to include the pragmatic with the academic, what would I know – I’m just a dumb soldier! I might add, I haven’t always been convinced that an arts degree is compatible with higher ideals of learning as the academics might suggest, but I’ve never thrown gratuitous insults at the young grads I’ve had working for me. Statements of peace, singing hymns and insults from academics. Ned Kelly, you were right…..such is life – but I will reserve the right to feel insulted for myself and the current batch of ADF members.

Art for pedophiles

Olympia, an 11 year old girl, has become a pawn in the debate over photos of prepubescent children being publicized for arts sake, or, as might be the case, for increased magazine sales. Her parents – the flamboyant, bow-tied art critic for The Age, Robert Nelson, and his photographer wife – allowed the nude photographs to be published to protest the furore over “similar pictures” taken by Bill Henson. They hustled their mite before the nation’s cameras yesterday, so that she, at age 11, could insist that she didn’t mind being photographed wearing only her Grandma’s pearls, and displayed in a magazine.
“I think that the picture my mum took of me had nothing to do with being abused and I think nudity can be a part of art,” she said, in words that sounded somehow unlike her own.
In another article she has been primed to say
“I’m really, really offended by what Kevin Rudd had to say about this picture.”
Sorry sweetheart, you were six when the photo was taken and are only 11 now. Your opinion and any words you say have no bearing on the matter. Go to your room now and play with your barbie doll. Jesus wept!

Two up for Brendan

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will ask police to investigate whether an art magazine broke the law when it used a photograph of a naked six-year-old girl on its cover. and; BRENDAN Nelson has abandoned support for an emissions trading scheme without international action, warning Australia would be sacrificing jobs by going it alone. I am becoming very concerned with the Rudd government and their seemingly blind acceptance of the Gospel of the Latter Day Alarmists. I would rather we didn’t lead the world in this matter – when we can see everyone else is catching the bus then we should step on board. Until then lets look at what we can do with technology.

No women in Infantry

Army chief General Peter Leah retires and talks about women in the ADF. He has no problems with the girls serving in most of the force but draws the line at direct combat units, as he should. General Leahy said the other key issue involving gender was one of physical strength and the capacity of men and women to perform certain tasks.
“There aren’t many women playing in the Wallabies, or for Carlton, or Essendon. It’s about the physical capability and there are some men who can’t play in the Wallabies. So we need to be fairly clinical, if you like,” he said. “If you want to be in the infantry and you want to be fighting in combat you had better to able to carry a heavy pack long distances.” While army studies suggested some women could do that, “right now they are busy getting ready to go to Beijing for the Olympics”, General Leahy said.
That ‘heavy pack” in my experience could, and often did, weigh about a hundred pounds or 45 kilos so his point is valid. The other reason I never wanted women in Infantry is I know full well that if Private Kevin was in a forward pit with Private Sheilah I wouldn’t be looking to my front or watching my arcs – I would be trying to chat her up. Basic but it’s true. General Leah commanded the Army over an almost unprecedented era of expansion of troops,roles and deployments and he is leaves it in good shape and I for on, wish him well in the future.

French Army shoot 17 of their own

SEVENTEEN people were injured when soldiers fired live bullets instead of blanks during a military display in France’s southwest.
….investigators believed the deadly ammunition was loaded by mistake.
A bit hard to imagine. Most blank rounds, in my experience, are a different colour and weigh a lot less. I have no experience with French blank rounds but can’t imagine them being much different. Should make for a career changing and interesting investigation. UPDATE: A sergeant has been identified as the culprit;
The 28-year-old sergeant fired his assault rifle into a crowd of hundreds of visitors watching a mock hostage rescue operation Sunday at the base near the southwestern city of Carcassonne.
He fired the shots from his FAMAS assault rifle and was described as an experienced soldier with no history of behavioural or psychological problems. The report confirms my belief that French blank ammo is of a different colour and weight than live ball ammo. Presuming he only fired one mag of maybe 30 rounds then 19 hits is pretty deliberate shooting and even if he fired it all in one burst it’s still hard to imagine all those casualties. The final report will be interesting

I’ll vote for him but he’s still a liar

The BBC, ever ready to publish something anti-Republican, have dug up the Head Jailer at the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War where John McCain was incarcerated after having to eject from his jet. It now appears that after all this time they were actually the best of mates and the North Vietnamese were nice chaps.
“McCain is my friend,” said 75-year-old Mr Duyet as he feeds the caged birds he now keeps in his garden in this coastal city. “If I was American, I would vote for him.”
but;
“…. I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners.”
Besides lying about being tortured then, McCain is still lying;
“But I can somehow sympathise with him. He lies to American voters in order to get their support for his presidential election.”
You have to give it to the BBC; they start the article with ‘I would vote for him’ and from that point on ‘McCain’s a lying hound’ Didn’t torture prisoners….yeah right.

Clear the remote communities

ABORIGINES in the Northern Territory should be encouraged to leave remote communities in the next phase of the federal Government’s intervention to normalise indigenous communities. Hoo-bloody-ray, someone finally agrees with me. I previously posted on this exact issue in March 2004;
I don’t think anyone is talking about forcing them off their tribal lands, just encouraging them to move to where the action is. Move to town, go to school, get a job, earn and save, buy a block of land, build on it – eureka – you have equity in the land. something you will never get in the desert. Stay where you are and even with land rights you are left with no equity in shit country. Sit in the sand, teach your kids about the dreamtime, watch them sniff petrol, grow up, beat the wife, stay drunk all day, die, get buried, get nowhere in life, didn’t improve on the last generation. No hope for the next.
I watched the 4 Corners report titled Educating Kimberly and couldn’t help but think it reinforces the issue. Clearly education is an answer, and arguably the prime answer, but the current structure inhibits good education.
A current principal laments trying to teach 13-year-olds with reading ages of less than six. Put it down to any number of things: chronic absenteeism and lack of motivation springing from family dysfunction, violence, substance abuse, sit-down money, too few role models, no jobs, not enough teaching in English, paltry government investment in schools and teachers.
We need to stop accepting the words and deeds of Whitlam and Nugget Coombes as gospel and offer them some hope. Lock them away, out of sight out of mind…do nothing…reinforce failure or actively encourage them to join our society. It’s a no-brainer – surely.
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