Category: General Musings

Over at my Wontoks site in Texas is an article by Rand Simberg. It deals with the similarities of the post-war Iraq and post-war Germany. Interesting reading and well worth the time. Go there

Try this for a confused loyalty background. Grew up in West Australia and played Aussie Rules until 17 when I enlisted. Rugby only in the Army! (I nearly lost my chance of a commision when in answer to a General’s question of ‘what position do you play? I answered ruck and full forward!) Spent 4 weeks in a RAAF hospital next door to a rabid Essendon supporter and followed them for years. VFL goes AFL and the Eagles join the league. Change to barracking for my home state. I then resign from the Army and move to Brisbane. Now I follow the Lions but if the Eagles or Essendon come good I’m not that distressed – but Collingwood……………..no way. It promises to be a good match as Collingwood aren’t there by accident as they were last year, and after watching the Swans fold under attack this weekend just gone, I have high hopes for next Saturday. It’s refreshing to be able to disagree with Tim Blair on something. His site is currently the cyber equivalent of wearing your heart on your sleeve. Great graphics though and easy to change to ‘in-mourning all black’ next week.

Now the wowsers are attacking ‘shouting’, at least in NSW. Shouting a mate who’s had a few too many may soon prove costly. The state’s liquor watchdog has proposed a fine for drinkers doing what many Australians would consider is their moral duty – buying a round. The fine could be as much as $5500. In this article in the Sydney Morning Herald the Nanny State strikes against society. The proposal arises from a submission to the alcohol summit by the Liquor Administration Board, calling on the Government to consider making it an offence to buy alcohol on an intoxicated person’s behalf. How are they going to police this piece of loony thinking? There is enough arguements in pubs now over who’s shout it is, let alone when admission could incur a fine of $5,500. I can just see those we all know, with long pockets and short arms, using this as an excuse not to shout. It also fails to take into account that shouting presumes all drinkers in the shout have had an equal amount of drinks so who’s going to be sober enough to make the call. This is not to say that we don’t have alcohol related problems, we do. But might I suggest that the answer lies more with education than baseball-bat type Nanny State laws. Still, once the wowsers start talking you know it will gather speed. I think it’s time to start dusting off the bar at home. No, they wouldn’t, would they…..I mean come around home and book me for having that last beer I didn’t really need?

If this doesn’t worry you, it should. Australian prime ministers should be stripped of their power to send troops overseas, according to Australian Democrats Leader Andrew Bartlett. Senator Bartlett said the approval of both houses of parliament should be required before Australian troops were committed to any conflicts. A referendum should be held to change the rules, he said. I can see it now. The Indonesians..oops, the Musorians, are landing at Cape York and when the bill gets to the Senate Bob Brown points out that all problems between Australia and Musoria are our fault as we blatantly enjoy life, drink alcohol, fornicate heterosexually and do other unspeakable acts in defiance of the Word of the Prophets and we should negotiate and apologise. During the debate, Senator Bartlett tables a private members bill demanding we apologise to the aborigines first as if we don’t, we have no rights to the country, let alone the right to defend it. The Indonesians, oops the Musorians, advance down the penninsular and are on the outskirts of Brisbane while the debate, back to the Senate for the second reading, rages. Carmen (I can’t remember) Lawrence, the new President of the Labor Party makes a public denouncement of those people who support defending Brisbane as acting in defiance of the UN Human Rights Charter, of which Australia is a signatory, that clearly states all human rights abuses originate in the West and for the well fed, educated, testosterone overloaded and smugly superior Australian diggers to attack and possibly kill the poor disadvantaged starving Musorians (I got it right this time) would run the risk of 144.5 million innocent victims somewhere in the world. All of these victims would be cute looking seven year old kids with Aunties working in the ABC. She also stated that on previous performances the Jakarta Museum would be ransacked and the Borobudur temple and surrounds would be destroyed by unthinking and unfeeling F111 pilots. I wonder how Bartlet’s referendum would go?

I agree, Latham, Singleton (and Keating as well), could all do with some remedial ‘English language useage’ to lift their game above ‘arse licking, scumbag’ type comments in the House. They are all ‘the same type of fellas’. ‘Bovver boy’ Latham, the same title I gave Keating, needs to lift his language to climb higher. Publicity from poor language doesn’t sit well with mainstream Australia and is indicative of poor debating skills. ‘My sort of fellow’ indeed – they deserve each other. I love and encourage the Labor Party infighting – bodes well for the economy. Read more if you must but it’s only on NSW League clubs and NSW taxes.

PETER Costello should be silently hoping Simon Crean is not hit by a commonwealth car after the Treasurer’s rather tasteless joke in question time yesterday. Costello explained how he was occasionally asked what would happen should the Opposition Leader fall under a truck: “To which I said he would not be run over by a truck – if he is run over, it will be by Carr.” Come on, Matt, it’s not that tasteless, not particularly funny but it’s drawing a long bow to call it tasteless. I just hope it raised a smile on poor Simon’s face….. he needs something to lift his spirits. >>more

Update from yesterday. Australia wants to send a large contingent of federal police to ensure law and order in Papua New Guinea and place its officials in high-level positions in key ministries. Wow! The government is listening to me at last. Australia now tells PNG that aid comes with reponsibilities. They want to send over 200 Australian Federal Police (AFP) with the aid cheque. PNG is a hot-bed of trouble that needs to be sorted out very quickly. The last thing Australia needs is discontented uneducated, unhealthy people on our northern flank. That flank is already too busy! The problem centres around corruption being endemic in PNG. The AFP will be good at sorting that rot out and setting an example for the locals – this is how you do it. Discussions with government ministers and heads of departments starting with..’the aid money is actually for the country and the people, not you personally’…would be a good starting point. <<more

Foreign Minister Downer risks inflaming tensions with Papua New Guinea over Australia’s hardline aid policy when he reads them the riot act tomorrow. Michael suggests we are ‘disrupting’ PNG’s sovereignty while our government is suggesting that corruption is incompatable with aid and the money is for the people, not the PNG ministers holiday homes in Cairns. I trust it will eventually sink in to PNG and all the other small Pacific nations we help – receiving aid from Australia has certain responsibilities associated with it. Update: Reader Dave points to a political development in PNG and leaves some good links in ‘comments’.

The Australian page one -Simon Crean scores the lowest of any opposition leader ever in the preferred Prime Minister stakes. The Australian page two SImon Crean attacks Howard over “going to war on a lie” There’s a connection Simon, and you and your scaley mates on the left need to make the connection reasonable soon to be considered by any voter as an opposition. The fact that one of a thousand intelligence assessments suggested that a collapse of Sadam’s regime would increase the chance of terrorist attacks is of little importance when read in isolation. Does the report suggest things would get worse in a post-regime vacuum and if so it drops from ‘of little importance’ to ‘irrelavent’ as any vacuum has been well and truley filled by the US. Yes,I know, your scaley mates think that’s the problem but I’d rather have the terrorists swarming to Iraq to have a go at the Great Satan than flying aircraft into the Pentagon or worse, Russel Hill in Canberra (I’ve got mates there!). You need to move on, Simon, Australia has.

The western world will always back Israel while the Palestinians target women and children and Israel retaliates by only targeting Hamas. There are no clever words words that make Palestinian actions acceptable and even though Israelis have killed women and kids they were not targeted. There is a huge difference. This has to be a given and yet Rob at Mentalspace starts a reevaluation of his Paletine/Israel opinions with; I’ve been trying to reformulate my opinions about Israel and Palestine lately. In part, they are a response to Simon Crean’s disgracefully one-sided speech about the issue,….. Well, yes, his speech was one sided but so is the battle. The Arab world expects Israel to negotiate with terrorists while the terrorists only want Isael to cease to exist. That’s never going to work. Crean said; Destroying the peace process is what the terrorists want. That is precisely why they cannot and must not be allowed to succeed. It might be one sided to condemn Hamas, the IRA, al Quaida, the Taliban, and a host of like minded terrorist organizations but I can live with that. I’m not looking for balance anymore. All my reading on Arafat screams TERRORIST and while he is in the chair in Palestine things are never going to change. His hand shows in a long list of atrocities including the Lod Airport massacre, the Munich Games massacre, the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, (remember the guy in the wheelchair?) the Entebbe hijacking etc, etc, etc. How do you negotiate with someone who is using his women and children to murder your women and children? Until they stop – you don’t. For some light reading you can check Arafat’s CV here and here. Pro terrorists and the scaley left will claim it’s a right-wing plot but hey, facts are facts.