Category: General Musings

Photographic Exhibition

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jenny Middle child and daughter Jennifer, has a photographic exhibition on at the moment at the Percolator Gallery, 134 LaTrobe Terrace, Paddington. One of the more adventurous of my brood, she has done the Sandakan Death March Trek, climbed to Everest Base Camp and wondered around Australia, PNG, Europe, UK and the Middle East with camera in hand. She has an eye for colour, perspective and different angles that I never have and even though I might be considered biased, she has some brilliant shots. The gallery is open from 10am to 6pm daily up to and including Sunday  8 March.  Entry is free. Included is a gallery of shots but keep in mind, framing brings them to life. [nggallery id=1]
Work involved in Databases and Photoshop work has impacted on my ability of late to post on the site.
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General Musings

Auslan detracts

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AN Auslan sign language interpreter for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s updates on Cyclone Marcia has been praised as “hypnotic, mesmerising and poetic” on social media.
The animated sign language expert captured the attention of television viewers as he translated the Premier’s updates on the cyclone at Emergency Management Queensland Headquarters at Kedron. The trouble is he becomes the centre of attention rather than the person giving the message.   It is so distracting that as soon as I see a person gesticulating I flick channels. There are approximately 30,000 Deaf Auslan users with total hearing loss and if they don’t have a caption function on their TV then give them one at public expense and let the other 23 million who don’t understand the frantic finger and hand language, concentrate on the message. At the very least put the translator in the little box in the corner where he belongs.
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General Musings

Clancy@the overflow

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Picked this up on FaceBook – Clancy in modern times  

drovingI had written him a text Which I’d sent, hoping the next Time he came in mobile coverage He’d have time to say hello. But I’d heard he’d lost his iPhone, So I emailed him from my phone, Just addressed, on spec, as follows: clancy@theoverflow

And the answer redirected Wasn’t quite what I’d expected And it wasn’t from the shearing mate Who’d answered once before. His ISP provider wrote it And verbatim I will quote it: ‘This account has been suspended: You will hear from him no more.’

In my wild erratic fancy Visions come to me of Clancy: Out of reach of mobile coverage Where the Western rivers flow. Instead of tapping on the small screen, He’d be camping by the tall green River gums a pleasure That the town folk never know.

Well, the bush has friends to meet him But the rest of us can’t greet him: Out there, even Telstra’s network Doesn’t give you any bars. He can’t blog the vision splendid Of the sunlit plains extended Or tweet the wondrous glory Of the everlasting stars.

I am sitting at the keyboard And I’m too stressed out to be bored As I answer all the emails By the deadlines they contain While my screen fills with promotions For ‘V1aggra’ and strange potions And announcements of the million-dollar Prizes I can claim.

But the looming deadlines haunt me And their harrying senders taunt me That they need response this evening For tomorrow is too late! But their texts, too quickly ended, Often can’t be comprehended For their writers have no time to think They have no time to wait.

And I sometimes rather fancy That I’d like to trade with Clancy: Just set up an email bouncer Saying ‘Sorry, had to go.’ While he faced an inbox jamming Up with deadlines and with spamming As he signed off every message: clancy@theoverflow

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General Musings

Somalia – an evolutionary disaster

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Kevin Myers  is an Irish journalist and writer and has a strong opinion on the West responding to all the save the children TV adds where emaciated kids make a plea for more food, or water. So do I.
Somalia is not a humanitarian disaster; it is an evolutionary disaster. The current drought is not the worst in 50 years, as the BBC and all the aid organisations claim. It is nothing compared to the droughts in 1960/61 or 73/74. And there are continuing droughts every 5 years or so.It’s just that there are now four times the population; having been kept alive by famine relief, supplied by aid organisations, over the past 50 years. So, of course, the effects of any drought now, is a famine. They cannot even feed themselves in a normal rainfall year.
Read the full article  
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General Musings

CIA Torture

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The US Senate Intelligence Committee has a Democrat majority and therein lies the rub. Republican members of the Senate committee that released a highly critical report on CIA terrorist interrogations say the study draws inaccurate conclusions about the usefulness of information obtained from detainees through “enhanced” questioning.
“We have no doubt that the CIA’s detention program saved lives and played a vital role in weakening (al-Qaeda) while the program was in operation,” conclude six of the seven GOP committee members, Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Richard Burr of North Carolina, James Risch of Idaho, Dan Coats of Indiana, Marco Rubio of Florida and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
Senator Susan Collins, the other Republican, voted to release the report but was disturbed that it had not been conducted in a bipartisan manner.
……in June 2013, I asked that we hold a hearing prior to a vote to declassify this report that would have included CIA witnesses. Such a hearing would have permitted a robust and much-needed debate about the claims made in the report compared to the rebuttals in the Agency’s formal response. Unfortunately, this hearing did not occur.
I therefore put in the same category as an ALP report recommending we waste billions of dollars on climate change. I actually don’t care if a terrorist sub-human is waterboarded. If he plans to murder thousands of Westerners or just decapitate one then I think it’s OK that we try and find out before the event. UPDATE: On Monday CIA Director John Brennan rebutted two of the central premises of the Democratic Senate report on CIA’s enhanced interrogating techniques. Brennan said the controversial program produced evidence that helped avert potential strikes against the U.S. Today he admitted the information led to Bin Laden.
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General Musings, War on Terror

Nova Peris in the news

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LABOR senator Nova Peris has asked federal police to investigate the leaking of private emails that led to allegations she sought taxpayer funding for a secret lover and sent him ­racially charged emails claiming white Australians “hate black people”. That’s fine but I trust the AFP are also looking into the question of whether she actually used public monies to pay for Trinidadian sprinter Ato Boldon to visit Australia so they could pursue an extramarital affair. Just curious. Warren Mundine said taxpayers could ignore Senator Peris’s private life as long as they “got bang for the dollar”.
“If it’s true (she made racial comments), it was a silly statement and she needs to say something about that. Otherwise there’s nothing in it for me.”
Therein lies the problem. Warren is suggesting so long as Nova does a good job as a Senator then it doesn’t matter if she makes racist comments. Not the point, Warren.  The point is; did she, or did she not use public monies to satisfy her libido?
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General Musings

Booker prize winner out of order

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Man Booker prize winner Richard Flanagan says Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s environmental policies make him ashamed to be an Australian. Well mate, I’m ashamed that as an Australian you denigrate our country in an international forum and I’m worried that citizens of other countries might believe your left wing ramblings actually represent Australia. They don’t. From Cut and Paste at The Australian; Guardian Australia online, yesterday:
THE winner of the Man Booker prize, Richard Flanagan says he is “ashamed to be an Australian” because of Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s environmental policies …
Flanagan, The Guardian, December 16, 2010:
AUSTRALIA does have a dismal public life largely bereft of courage or humanity
More shame! ABC television’s Q&A, August 27, 2009:
RICHARD Flanagan: I must say I felt deeply ashamed to be Australian through the Howard years
Flanagan, The Guardian, November 28, 2007:
Every mainland capital city now has a water supply crisis so severe that people have been murdered by neighbours for watering gardens.
Flanagan, The Good Weekend, ¬October 21, 2006, on his new book, The Unknown Terrorist, dedicated to David Hicks:
(David Hicks is) just a naive young man who, through the romance of adventure, ended up in bad company …
Flanagan in The Unknown Terrorist, 2006:
…Jesus is history’s first, but not last, example of a suicide bomber.
On all accounts his book is readable and maybe even worthy of the Booker prize that he’s been awarded, but I think I’ll pass on spending good money on buying the book. I wouldn’t want to encourage him or give him any oxygen. There is plenty of good literature available written by people with a greater grasp on reality than this clown, penned by authors who  appreciate what a great country we have and would never think of  denigrating it publicly like he has.
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General Musings

Local killed in Syria

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A QUEENSLAND man has died after travelling to Syria to fight for the terrorist group Islamic State (IS). Good! AFGHAN-BORN Zia AbdulHaq, 33, was killed during the conflict on October 3, The Australian newspaper reports. A foreign fighter believed to have been part of AbdulHaq’s unit confirmed the death to The Australian on Monday, but he has yet to detail how or where he died. AbdulHaq migrated to Australia in his 20s. He lived in Logan, south of Brisbane, with his now ex-wife and son before travelling to Syria to join IS in August.
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General Musings, War on Terror

Senate Inquiry stinks

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Wow, simply wow! A Senate public inquiry has been initiated into the Newman government based on the fact that  Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney refused to give Clive Palmer preferential treatment and approvals to enable development of Galilee Basin coal assets. The Greens supported this move and can I say again “Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney refused to give Clive Palmer preferential treatment and approvals to enable development of Galilee Basin coal assets” That’s funny, I thought one of the Greens major ambitions is to see the coal industry closed down and yet here they are backing a coal baron. Mmmm… maybe they have other priorities. The Senate inquiry is due to be released a week or two before the Queensland elections……Gee, I wonder if the whole idea is just to sling mud at Newman in the state election. Couldn’t be, could it? Pup, the Greens and the ALP wouldn’t stoop that low, would they? The select committee, which will consist of five members but only one from the Coalition, has a reporting date on or before March 27 next year, very close to the date of the next Queensland election. Palmer, who isn’t even in the Senate, and coincidently is seldom in the House where he is charged with working in the interests of Australia, not his business interests, had to get his minions, Senator Private Lambie and Senator, The Brick, Lazarus to move the motion for the inquiry.
Senator Lazarus said people were on the phone to him crying about the way [the LNP] are running QLD – sure this warrants investigation?
Yes folks, that is an adult saying that and actually using the sentence in the debate. As a matter of interest, The Queensland Paliament is accountable to the Queensland people, not the Australian Senate.  The whole exercise is setting a dangerous precedence and is obviously a vengence attack on the Queensland LNP by a businessman who has been refused preferential treatment, as he should have been. I wonder if the Terms of Reference can be broadened to include investigation Clive’s withdrawal of $12 million from a mining development bank account funded by a Chinese partner which Palmer used in his campaign to get the balance of power in the Senate. A balance shared by Lambie and Lazarus. God help us.  
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General Musings, Politics

Subjugation of women not on

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22_niqabgraphic2   Personaly, I think the Niqab, Burka and Chador represent subjugation of women but that’s just me.  If the woman is brought up in a 7th century environment I can see how they wouldn’t think of it like that.  It’s just life, they would think and that is true from their perspective but the rest of the world has moved on. In the West we depend a lot on body lanaguage and no way would I have dealings with some one who is hiding their identity for whatever reason.  If they choose to hide their faces, then in my opinion they choose not to partake of life in Australia.  They can’t enter banks, houses of parliament, shops, Police Stations or any government offices.  I’m not allowed to enter any of these institutions wearing a balaclava so why should they get a free pass.  They also choose to deny themselves the right to a drivers licence and passport. They need to move on but in the meatime I think they should be denied services whilst dressed like a bank robber.    
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General Musings, War against Terrorism
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