Category: General Musings

Taking the unwanted gift back to the store

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Angela Shanahan in todays Australian nails the Lesbian couple who are unhappy about the birth of a healthy baby.
THE yuck factor looms large in the case of the Melbourne lesbians suing Canberra obstetrician Robert Armellin for the conception of IVF twins, rather than a single child.
My wife and I are parents of twins. They arrived unheralded when I was a young Lieutenant on little salary and already with three kids under 6 in the house. The double birth was unknown until a trainee midwife noticed a double heartbeat moments before the doctor was about to induce ‘the’ baby. My wife and I could’ve sued but when you held them for the first time how could you have any feelings but those of love and protection. These women are on $200,000.00 a year, have commercialized the wonder of birth and life and, in my opinion, are not entitled to the love of children. The kids are doomed to a confusing life. “I am the one they didn’t want” thinks Twin 2 while Twin 1 will remember her ‘parents’ didn’t want his/her soulmate. Not to mention…Mummy, why do all the other kids have a Daddy and we don’t?
Lesbians and other single women who have deliberately chosen a lifestyle that reduces the role of the father to carefully chosen but anonymous sperm donor have effectively decided to deny one half of the child’s genetic make-up, one half of who that child is. This tells us something about the basic ethical problem here, and it gives the lie to the politically correct argument that anyone should be able to form a family.
I don’t like it.
General Musings

More Krudd

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Hows this for ‘tell ’em anything and they will come’ KEVIN Rudd has criticised state Labor governments for hurting Australian families with their over-reliance on poker machine taxes, vowing to come up with solutions to wean states off the addiction if he wins the federal election. Read “Don’t worry about the whole country being governed by Labour…see….I attack them too”. Fascinating. I seem to recall he had something to do with the introduction of poker machines in Queensland in the first place and so does Richard Congram in letters to The Australian today
KEVIN Rudd says he hates poker machines and their impact on the families of addicts (“Rudd to confront states on pokies”, 11/9). Yet this caring, compassionate man, when he was chief of staff to former Queensland premier Wayne Goss, was instrumental in the introduction of pokies into Queensland clubs. For many years, former National Party Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen had refused to allow them into the state but the Goss Labor government, elected in 1989, quickly reversed the status quo. But perhaps I’m a little hard on Rudd. Perhaps, like Saul on the road to Damascus, he has been born again. If so, I wonder if the redoubtable Gough Whitlam will describe Rudd, as he once described Bjelke-Petersen, as a “Bible-bashing bastard”? Richard Congram Carindale, Qld
In the same article Rudd mentions his free tertiary education saying he would never had graduated without the largess of Whitlam.
…..And the Opposition Leader says he also feels uneasy that young Australians do not have access to free tertiary education, which he received in the 1970s under Gough Whitlam’s reforms. But in an interview with The Australian last night, Mr Rudd said the need for economic responsibility precluded a return to free education.
Then why mention it? Let me guess. To remind young voters that the ALP are mindful of free education and once had it in place knowing full well that they wont even think about the concept being financially unsustainable. Gee! free education…how goods that…Howard would never think of it…the bastard.
Instead, he promised to ease the burden of the Labor-introduced Higher Education Contribution Scheme, which he said was out of control and prevented children from working-class families from going to university.
Why? How does HECS stop kids from working class families going to university in the first place? HECS isn’t paid up-front and it certainly didn’t stop my kids going to uni. In the first place they don’t pay anything until they have graduated and are in receipt of a salary that exceeds a predetermined level. So tell me, what am I missing?
General Musings, Politics

Turnbull under attack

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Dozens of agendas merge as the proposed Gunn Pulp Mill debate rages. The Greens who fight against any development, bad for the environment or not, have found a green Barrister to say a decision siting the mill in the Bell Bay industrial area would be invalid – whatever that means. The Greens will be against the mill no matter where it is sited. The wine industry doesn’t want it in their back yard for obvious reasons and more pragmatic folk say it is an industrial area so what’s the problem? Such as Susan from Launceston
HOW dare Senator Bill Heffernan and businessman Geoffrey Cousins suggest moving Gunns Ltd’s proposed pulp mill from Bell Bay, an area set aside for heavy industry for 60 years, to a rural part of northwest Tasmania. It’s ridiculous to suggest rezoning agricultural land around Hampshire and alienating it for use for heavy industry, especially so close to the iconic wilderness areas of Tasmania. The pulp mill debate is fast turning into a farce with the intervention of these Johnny-come-lately experts who have no idea what they’re talking about. Let’s keep Tasmania’s heavy industry where it belongs _ in heavy-industry areas such as Bell Bay.
Sounds reasonable to me but then I don’t hate development. While some see it as a environment issue others see it as a means of defeating the government Mr Cousins, one of the most successful advertising men of the 1980s, has personally scripted a full-page advertisement to be published this week in the Wentworth Courier in Mr Turnbull’s inner-Sydney electorate.
It is signed by more than 100 people, including actors Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward and Rebecca Gibney, playwright David Williamson, director Phillip Noyce, performer Mark Lizotte (also known as entertainer Johnny Diesel), arts identity Leo Schofield and chef Kylie Kwong.
No surprises there.
General Musings

Stupid Letters

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Letters to the editor or why some people should be disenfranchised
JOHN Howard seems to be entirely serene in regard to the practice of the Exclusive Brethren and its religious brainwashing of young children. And yet this educational practice is no different from brainwashing in Islamic schools. How is it that Howard regards the Brethren practice as benign and the Muslim one as encouraging terrorism? Paul Drakeford Kew, Vic
Paul, How would you know that Howard regards the Brethren as benign – he only met them for a chat for heavens sake. A couple of points
Howard also meets Muslims, and There is an element of encouraging suicide bombing, and murdering of innocents within the Islamic religion that is missing in the Brethren propaganda.
The Brethren may be weird, and I think they are, but they are a legitimate organization under the laws of the country so are entitled to chat with the PM. Even idiots like you have that right. OK, you hate Howard but at least come up with some rational criticism.
General Musings, Politics

I’ve been bush again

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Arguably the drought has broken – I know because I was intimately involved. As I lay sleeping in my tent at Carnarvon Gorge I heard an express train come up the valley. After gaining full consciousness the train became a gale that heralded a wet arse. With 20 plus Grade 10 boys high up a peak we were somewhat concerned and started plans to pull out before road conditions locked us in for a week or two. We packed and left about 2.00 pm, drove through the day and got home midnight yesterday. 800 km of drought breaking rain No boys lost, hopefully no influenza cases and all home with their mothers fussing over them. Having bad memories of striking camp with several hundred reserve soldiers under canvas it was always a Cadre officers nightmare that the event was preceded by rain. This necessitated pulling all stores back to barracks and then re-erecting all the tents and waiting for the weather to clear and dry them before we could hand them back. deje vu again. Today, the cleanup…maybe not, it’s still raining and little point in it…..could be dry in the bar though.
General Musings

Now we’re sure it’s not the Sydney

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Received this email from Defence Media
NAVY FINDS NO EVIDENCE THAT WRECK IS THAT OF HMAS SYDNEY II The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has concluded its investigation of the area located near Dirk Hartog Island in Western Australia that was claimed to be the site of the wreck of the RAN’s World War II cruiser, HMAS Sydney II. The Navy Hydrographic survey ship HMAS Leeuwin was diverted from surveying duties earlier in the week and arrived in the area early on Friday morning, 17 August 2007. The ship examined the prime location of interest with its high definition multi-beam and towed side scan sonar equipment. That work is now complete. The Leeuwin detected a relatively small wreck that had none of the characteristics normally associated with that of a warship, particularly one the size of Sydney II. The Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence Bruce Billson said today: “The wreck reportedly detected by the Leeuwin was about 30 metres in length and lacked the overall dimensions and features of a military vessel of the scale of the Sydney. “The Leeuwin also examined a one-mile radius around the wreck site and found no evidence of additional wreckage or features of interest.” The locations examined were based on coordinates provided by the Western Australian Maritime Museum, representatives of the amateur research group, which made the initial claims, and other third parties of goodwill. Data from the investigation will now be sent to the WA Maritime Museum for further analysis. Mr Billson said he welcomed advice that the research group would also provide any imagery or other information it gathered from the wreck site. “While all the evidence gathered points to what this wreck is not, further analysis by the museum may enable it to formally identify what it actually is,” he said. “The Howard Government considers solving the mystery of the Sydney II an issue of national importance, particularly to bring closure for relatives of the 645 crew members who died while bravely serving their country.”
Never mind…the media has at least raised public awareness of the ship and her sad demise.
General Musings

Army recruiting ad

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THE Department of Defence has scrapped recruitment advertisements criticised for their alluring content. In one of the advertisements for the Royal Australian Army Dental Corps, the modern woman digger is depicted as a buxom , full-lipped wonderwoman wearing a tight-fitting white nursing outfit. Unfortunately, many women in the military did not believe the “you” as depicted even existed and believed the posters sent inappropriate signals. One senior air force officer was appalled by the portrayal.
“I think they are woeful and say a lot about how army males see the world,” she said.
She’s most probably right but I don’t see her point If any kind hearted digger would like to send me a copy of the Dental Assistant (in a plain brown wrapper, of course) I would gladly display on the wall of my bar. Not as a gratuitous pin-up (I’m married with three daughters) but as a memorial to ‘Political Incorrectness” In the meantime, where do I sign up? I can feel a toothache coming on.
General Musings

Haneef vs the Commonwealth

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The beat-up of the week must go to Brisbane’s Courier Mail with an article on the front page claiming Moslems in Queensland are sleeping overnight in mosques as they are “gripped by fear and anger over what they claim is racist and unjust treatment of terror suspect Mahomed Haneef” Wow, amazing. Not the doubtful fact that they are “gripped by fear” but the fact that journalist Tanya Chilcott says so. The case is moving away from the guilt or not of Haneef and has swung clearly towards inflicting the most damage the players and journalists can on the government. Agendas are flying quicker than cliches at a writers conference. Haneef’s lawyer, Stephen Keim, SC, yesterday defended his decision to leak the the transcripts of the interviews between Haneef and the AFP, insisting he had not broken the law.
“If they feel I have committed any offence or done any wrong, they know where I am – let them take action against me,” he told the Seven Network. “What I have done is perfectly legal, perfectly ethical.”
and perfectly politically motivated. Not being legally qualified I have no comment on the legality of his actions other than in my opinion I think they are a bit doubtful. Stephen Keim is also an ex President of Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, he is, or was, a paid up member of the ALP and has a track record of speaking out against the establishment, particularly when it’s a conservative establishment Just for once I like one of these accused terrorists or supporters to be defended by a lawyer whose sole motivation is the defence of his client. And pigs might fly. Chris Merritt in the Australian argues that authorities are over reacting to the leaking of the documents;
It matters not at all that Keim, like all leakers, had a barrow to push. What matters is the veracity of the information he has placed on the public record.
It does matter that he has a barrow to push – it taints his motives. Which barrow is he pushing? His clients or his own? I watched him on TV last night and deduced he was more into civil liberties than responsibilities and that he considered he was striking a blow for these liberties in attacking a government that had the temerity to charge suspected terrorists or supporters with charges under the new anti-terrorist laws. The leaked documents record the interviews between Haneef and the AFP only. They do not relate what the AFP have been told by their British counterparts and what they know from their own intelligence. This AFP intelligence may amount to not much at all but but it might be significant; whatever the case, time alone will tell. The litany of agendas and opinions rolled out by the media means little at the moment Both Sheridan and Steketee are predictable in their responses. Sheridan writes about everyone being outraged at the length of incarceration;
Imagine if the authorities had someone in custody who was genuinely a terrorist and the terror plot was in the 36,000th piece of encrypted information on his computer. And imagine if they released this terrorist after getting through 10,000 such pieces of information and a terrorist outrage occurred that they could have prevented. Every citizen would be outraged at such fecklessness.
Reasonable point. We need to accept that this is the case. The AFP work overtime trying to sort through confiscated computers knowing full well that the internet is the chosen means of communication for the terrorists. Miss and encrypted email and people die. The case against Mohamed Haneef, based on guilt by association, points to a slippery slope, says Mike Steketee The entire terrorist concept is a slippery slope and I for one accept that the rights we defend are at risk. They are put at risk by the terrorists not us and while the authorities only apply the anti-terrorist laws to people suspected of being terrorists or on the periphery of such organizations then I’m not alarmed. What is wrong with “guilt by association” if it’s tested in court and proven? It’s been around for hundreds of years and generally referred to as “Consorting with Criminals” If you lay down with dogs you get fleas…if you consort with criminals you are most probably heading that way and if you associate with people who blow up innocent citizens then there is a case to answer. I’d rather the authorities spend their energies guaranteeing my right, and those of my fellow citizens, to live without being subject to suicidal killers, before any other rights.
General Musings, War on Terror

Get over it Digger

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AUSTRALIA’S Defence Force has come to the aid of Channel 9’s Sea Patrol after a disgruntled viewer took umbrage at Lisa McCune gracing the cover of a TV mag wearing active service ribbons. I don’t know who the Veteran is but he needs to get a life just after he looks up the regulations. The crime is in wearing medals and claiming to be entitled to them not in wearing them as an actor playing a role that needs medals for authenticity and credibility. I don’t know about others but pretty woman in RAN Whites always grabs my attention.
General Musings
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