Category: General Musings

Police seize insult to Nation masquarading as “art” VICTORIA Police may have illegally seized a ragged Australian flag that was hung outside a Melbourne art gallery. The gallery’s director, Michael Brenner, said he had received no complaints about the ragged flag.

But two days later, when the gallery was unattended, Senior Constable Jay McDonald, of Footscray police, climbed out of the window of the India Impex cafe next door and removed the flag. Next day Mr Brenner contacted Constable McDonald, who had left his card behind. “He informed me he had removed the flag due to numerous complaints within the community,” Mr Brenner said.

Good on Senior Constable McDonald. Burning, deliberately damaging or defacing the nation’s flag the flag may not be illegal but it’s certainly poor form. It’s like a marketing ploy as in ” lets deface a flag around Australia Day – the police will react and we will get some free publicity. The National Association for the Visual Arts, together with the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, said the removal of the flag was an act of censorship. I’d call it an act of common decency.

Mark Steyn, in The Wall Street Journal, on the success of pro-American leaders:

REMEMBER the conventional wisdom of 2004? Back then, you’ll recall, it was the many members of George Bush’s “unilateral” coalition who were supposed to be in trouble, not least the three doughty warriors of the Anglosphere – the President, Tony Blair and John Howard – who would all be paying a terrible electoral price for lying their way into war in Iraq. The Democrats’ position was that Bush’s rinky-dink nickel-and-dime allies didn’t count: the President has “alienated almost everyone”, said Jimmy Carter, “and now we have just a handful of little, tiny countries supposedly helping us in Iraq”. (That would be Britain, Australia, Poland, Japan . . .) Instead of those nobodies, John Kerry pledged that, under his leadership, “America will rejoin the community of nations” – by which he meant Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder, the Belgian guy. Two years on, Bush, Blair, Howard and Junichiro Koizumi are all re-elected, while Chirac is the lamest of lame ducks; Schroeder’s government was defeated; and the latest member of the coalition of the unwilling to hit the skids is Canada’s Liberal Party, which fell from office on Monday.

No one can say it isn’t so.

If anything proves Howard’s point on the teaching of history it is this statement;

Australian Education Union secretary Andrew Gohl told The Australian: “We know that John Howard says we shouldn’t have a black armband view of history, but what does that mean? Does it mean we can’t talk about the invasion of Australia, or the appalling treatment of indigenous Australians?”

No, but it does mean that your using the word “invasion” precludes any balance in your approach to teaching history.

Well, I’m proud to be an Australian, I’m happy to fly our flag and I don’t care that the Jack is in the corner. It’s a part of our history that we can’t and shouldn’t ignore. The Jack and the Cross….. graphical depiction of where we come from and where we are going. A very small minority refer to today as Invasion Day – well they need to get over it. It’s not as if the First Fleet invaded Sydney Cove destroying buildings and defences. Some locals were killed but descendants of those indigenous peoples are alive today and accepted as Australians. It certainly wasn’t a repeat of the Spanish in South America or the Dutch in South Africa. There isn’t a list of battles detailing an Army of thousands defending their birthright like Zulus or Incas. There was a myriad of small bands who sometimes speared whites who later retaliated. I read this mornings Australian the negativity of the Left all bundled up in one page. Tom Kenealy couldn’t help himself with snatches of Invasion Day, Terra Nullis (because the High Court said so) and this;

For me, Australia Day also brings up the issue of the republic. The republic is inevitable, but lies implicit in Australia Day, for the best way to celebrate the day is to achieve the fully post-colonial status of our own republic. Most of us know that, but a highly viable indirect model was rejected at referendum under the assumption another one would be along any moment. And anyhow, I’m uneasy at the idea of an Australian republic that imprisons people just for seeking asylum, seeking asylum being something I can imagine doing myself if I had been born under less kindly stars than those which fill the Australian sky.

He softens the insult with a compliment of sorts however Tom can’t see a connect between our high standards and quality of life with restricted access to our shores. Totally unfettered access is a guarantee of a downward slide and while he claims we imprison people just for seeking asylum; I would suggest we incarcerate them for arriving unnanounced, with their papers freshly destroyed so we can’t assess their status. Whilst manning these barriers we welcome, with open arms, hundreds of thousands of documented refugees. I would also add that the majority of those incarcerated were released after their status was ascertained and if the length of time at Baxter or elsewhere seemed drawn out it was because it takes time to do this without documentation. I’m proud of how we have helped refugees; how we have welcomed immigrants into our society from dispossessed Europeans all the way through to threatened Nigerians. Stuart Rintoul also gives faint praise but acknowledges the true makeup of Australians in this paragraph;

Focus groups, says Chalke, consistently show the three R’s – the push for a republic, the dream of Aboriginal reconciliation and concern about the plight of refugees – are all “somewhere down the bottom” of our thinking, with only 3per cent or 4per cent concerned about them.

Stuart, of course, presents this as an insult but I think it’s close to the truth and better refelcts a more pragmatic approach to our history and future. It’s not as if the other 96 or 97% of Australians are uncaring. They are not. Stuart Rintoul seeks and finds dissent – at Dangar Research in Sydney, Liz Dangar says;

Dangar senses a malaise in the community that belies the national prosperity and the fair-go ideal. She thinks Australians are troubled by an absence of community and connection and a raft of issues including health and education, plus the lack of affordable housing and “how will the kids ever get a start?” She thinks there is great unease about Australia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. “On the surface we are doing very well, thank you, but underneath I don’t think people necessarily think that we are comfortable, decent and happy,” she says.

I beg to differ Liz. It’s amazing, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how well the country is doing there is always someone ready to write a book explaining how it isn’t so…how really we are in a bad state. As well, there is always someone willing to quote these people to suit their agenda that decries our great attributes and concentrates on a few malcontents, appeasers and isolationists. Our military abroad from the Boxer Rebellion to Afghanistan have only ever brought credit to Australia. Others of a less worldy approach or those who support outright the tennets of Fascism, Communism and Moslem fundamentalists will disagree with me but if Germany had prevailed in Europe in World War I and II then Australia would be a different place today. We had to fight in far off lands to protect Australia and her interests. While hundreds of thousands of French and Italians surrendered during World War 1 for purely selfish reasons Australian diggers held the line in the deserts and the Western Front and contributed disproportanately to the outcomes. We were the first of any nation in World War II to beat the Japanese in battle at Milne Bay and then young untrained and poorly equipped soldiers fought them to a standstill on the Kokoda Track marking the furtherest southward thrust of the Japanese with pools of Australian blood. We contributed to the war against communism in Malaya, Korea and Vietnam and stemmed the flow and helped deplete the coffers of an ideology that murdered millions of their own citizens and supressed countless millions more. While politicians procastinated or actively supported the Indonesians, eventually the Australian government ordered the ADF in and repaid a World War II debt of honour by stabalizing East Timor. Once again we are involved in a fight for freedom with no talk of the ADF being involved in any untoward activities. Just reasonable men helping others and risking their own lives in the process. There is a lot to be proud of and readers might like to comment and add to the list. If you wish to denigrate this great country then comment elsewhere. The Moderator believes that today, of all days, patriotism is the keyword. Celebrating Australia Day is back in fashion, so grab your flag and start waving, writes Stuart Rintoul. Mate, I never stopped. UPDATE: Go on over Larvatus Prodeo to get an idea of the Left and their reaction to Australia Day. All whinging about flags and invasions. Click here for the offical Australia Day government website

CONVICTED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby would probably refuse to be transferred from Bali to an Australian women’s prison because of “big butch sheilas”.

Mother Rosleigh Rose also insisted she didn’t care what others thought of her children being behind bars because at least she knew where they were.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said the Australian diplomatic service would be “prostituted” if Senator Hill was posted to the UN when he left John Howard’s ministry. Right. Then I presume that whenever the ALP has been in power they never posted their own people to ambassadorial and consulate duties. Yeah….right Somehow managing to keep a straight face, Mr Rudd said such a move would undermine Australia’s diplomatic service.

“If the Howard Government proceeds to appoint Robert Hill to the position of Australia’s permanent representative in New York, this would represent the comprehensive prostitution of Australia’s diplomatic service,” he said. “John Howard needs to learn that the Australian diplomatic (service) is not a Liberal Party employment agency. It is supposed to be a professional operation. And if this action is taken to appoint Robert Hill to New York, it will make a laughing stock of the way in which diplomatic appointments have been made.”

Here’s a couple of ALP politicians appointed as ambassadors by the ALP starting with Whitlam as Ambassador to Unesco in Paris; June 75 Barnard LH (ALP) as Ambassador to Norway, Finland and Sweden after losing at Bass Feb 84 Johnson LR (ALP) resigned and was appointed High Commissioner to NZ. Feb 86 Jenkins HA (ALP) resigned and was appointed Ambassador to Spain. Feb 88 Hurford CJ (ALP) resigned and was appointed Consul-General in New York. Mar 94 Blewett N (ALP) Resigned and was appointed High Commissioner to the UK

Mark Latham is back in the news in such a manner that everyone in Australia should be thanking their respective gods that he didn’t get across the line at the last election. I presume that every time Mark’s name comes up, everyone who voted for him feels embarrassed at how they were conned.

MELBOURNE’S train temptress has struck again. However police and rail officials have met to plan an end to her saucy crime spree. The woman broke into a cabin on a peak-hour Frankston train on Tuesday night and broadcast X-rated praise of the driver to stunned commuters. The husky-voiced intruder is believed to be the serial seductress behind a similar break-in and announcement on the Sandringham line last week. The trespasser evaded capture by authorities on both occasions. What is with that city?

Three generations. The one in the middle, Holly, is my old faithfull 12 year old retriever; the one on the left, Coco, is my daughters chocolate labrador residing with us while she is in season. The young black lab, Coco’s daughter, is my new dog. She is very lucky to have made this photoshoot as she has the labrador habit of finding out about life by chewing anything she is not familiar with.

This includes my reading glasses…$500 thanks, two pairs of sandals, track shoes, several power and audio cables (and yes, the power was on) and a host of other curious pieces of kit.

I have previously posted about her father, Mossad;

My youngest daughter Liz, currently resident in London, has a boyfriend named Abraham who is currently in South Africa coaching Rugby. Last year Liz brought a black Labrador and they called him ‘Mossad’. (Well I had to give some explaination for the name!) Anyway, the summer storms hit in Brisbane the other day and I allowed my golden retriever and Mossad into my office so they could be near some life form that wasn’t terrified of thunder and lightning.

They both try and get on my lap and failing that, on my feet. I use my ‘you had better do as I say’ voice and told them ‘ ON YOUR MAT!. Peace reigns, the storm thunders and I go back to the keyboard. A sniff at my feet and I look down to see Mossad there. He had reasoned I only said ‘On your mat�? and said nothing about not relocating the mat. He had picked up the mat, placed it on my feet and lay down on it.

Smart dog, rational thought. – I vowed I would have one of his progeny and Chloe is the result.

She is smart and the both of us are doing well at obedience classes, notwithstanding the summer break, but man, I’ll be glad when she’s past discovering life with her teeth.

I helped Coco, the chocolate lab, when she whelped and as a result she wont leave me alone. I’m in the habit of having a coffee in the pool whenever I’ve knocked off for the day, or night, as there are no mozzies below the waterline, but I cant stand at the edge and reach for my coffee without Coco trying to lick me, her paw out in handshake mode…..bitch won’t leave me alone.

Last night I retreat to the middle of the pool to drink my coffee in peace.

Who’s the pack leader again?