In another life I was a recruiting Sergeant and on one notable day lectured to Year 12 kids at two Hornsby High Schools. The first lecture was at a St Leo’s College where the boys, all well dressed and well mannered, listened politely, asked discerning questions and the School Captain thanked me for my time and my service (I was in uniform).
After lunch I entered the hall at the Hornsby High School to be met with pro-communist propaganda on the walls and a group of young people that could only be described as a noisy rabble. Vitriolic abuse flowed freely and the teacher in charge could only smirk. I requested she take some control but she couldn’t or wouldn’t see my point.
I left without another word.
Life, and love, gave me five children and I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised as to what type of schools my children attended. I’m not Cathiloc but they all went to Catholic schools; not that all State Schools are like Hornsby was, but because they could be. A heavily Union or left wing orientated Principal could negate all that is good about the state school system.
All of my children went on to teriary education and two, both men, teach. One in a private school and the other public. Don’t try and tell me it’s different – it isn’t.
The responsibility of teaching young people is heavy and the all to often situation of teachers putting their point of view as fact to young impressionable minds is an abrogation of this responsibility and should be cause for censure.
And no! I am not suggesting all state schools have this problem. They don’t, but while the left wing is in the ascendency in the tertiary institutions it will surface all too regularly.
I don’t want my right wing views espoused as fact either. Kids need to be taught that there are different views on how things should be and given a good impartial education should be able to make up their own minds when they mature.
Howard is right, there is a problem and the biggest aspect of that problem is the left wing refusing to see it. Like the ABC, proof that there is bias is emphasised by the fact that the left wing never complain about bias – it’s biased their way.
While we’re discussing education can we bury this red herring that suggests Federal Government funding suggests some social engineering project on the Government’s part. The fact that the Feds allocate more funding to Private schools than State is a part of their charter. The States have the responsibility of funding their own schools. The Government helps State and ensures private schools have some funding as they do eduacate over 30% of our kids.
Don’t be alarmed though, the Australian public knows all this and will says so come the election.
I’ve been to sea in yachts and ships of the ‘Grey Funnel Line’ (RAN) but I’ve never seen seas like this. Just goes to show it aint all beer and skittles.
Photo courtesy of the
Australian
The summer storms hit Brisbane with a vengence with considerable damage to the community and the power grid.
I flew in from Perth yesterday just in time to notice my website had been hit by spammers before the storm struck and took away the power. I was actually in the pool when it struck having given up on fixing my website. I couldn’t get out quick enough. Water – lightning strikes- run for cover – run back and try and secure umbrella (too late) patio furniture (too late). Later all secure – now find the camera to take a shot of horizontal palm trees. Found the camera but couldn’t switch it on due to lack of reading glasses.
After the storm had passed I found them in the middle of the pool along with my coffee mug and a considerable amount of local flora and fuana.
Ergon Energy reported up to 100 000 homes without power and I went without until 1:30 the next afternoon. Third world service in a state that promised bells and whistles with the new ‘privatised’ power company.
37 degress celcius – no power for the airconditioner or the computer – water for coffee heated on my old gas camping stove – light in the kitchen from my Mothers old Kerosene lamp from the farm in the fifties – hurumph.
Tomorrow will be a better day, I’m sure. I hope. Similar storms are forecast for the rest of the week.
I go away for a week and all hell breaks loose. A spammer got onto my site and left a comment on every post that ever was. It then tried to send emails and because the server didn’t recognize the source it dumped them all in a bin.
90 mb worth of emails clogged up the system and if it wasn’t for the abilities and amicability of Gary Gravett we’d all still be looking at a blank screen. Well I would, you all would have gone on to more fertile pastures.
The old familiar three column template will be up later tonight and my leave pass has finished.
Thanks again, Gary.
Tonight my wife and I will board Virgin and fly west to the land of my fathers, Albany, West Australia. My Mother still lives there at the tender age of 84 and in full command of her facilities. A published poet and writer, originally from the small town of Pemberton, she has inspired most of her children to write.
My three sisters also live in the west and it is the son of my youngest sister that has prompted this return to Albany. He is getting married on Saturday. Courtesy of the cheap air-fairs from Virgin ($300 return Brisbane-Perth) four of my five children will also make the journey. My other son will be starting work in Yepoon too soon after the wedding to manage the flight from Perth and the 600 km drive from Brisbane to Yepoon the night before school starts.I am strong on family and am pleased my children will get this chance to see their Grandmother again and socialize with their western cousins. I will not post while I’m away (7 days) so readers may like to go visit new sites linked on my sidebar. Bastards Inc, penned by an irreverant man with just a hint of ex-service about him makes no bones about his opinions of fools. Marty’s Insight does have insight but I note most of his readers would prefer to be ‘kicking cute puppies’ wich seems to be in direct contravention of my ideas of what is
reasonable but I’ll let it pass. Bizarre Science appeals to my thoughts that science shouldn’t be used to confuse the youth of the country. He dispells bullshit with fact. They are all well worth the read.
Tonight my wife and I will board Virgin and fly west to the land of my fathers, Albany, West Australia. My Mother still lives there at the tender age of 84 and in full command of her facilities. A published poet and writer, originally from the small town of Pemberton, she has inspired most of her children to write. My three sisters also live in the west and it is the son of my youngest sister that has prompted this return to Albany. He is getting married on Saturday.
Courtesy of the cheap air-fairs from Virgin ($300 return Brisbane-Perth) four of my five children will also make the journey. My other son will be starting work in Yepoon too soon after the wedding to manage the flight from Perth and the 600 km drive from Brisbane to Yepoon the night before school starts.
I am strong on family and am pleased my children will get this chance to see their Grandmother again and socialize with their western cousins.
I will not post while I’m away (7 days) so readers may like to go visit new sites linked on my sidebar. Bastards Inc, penned by an irreverant man with just a hint of ex-service about him makes no bones about his opinions of fools. Marty’s Insight does have insight but I note most of his readers would prefer to be ‘kicking cute puppies’ wich seems to be in direct contravention of my ideas of what is
reasonable but I’ll let it pass. Bizarre Science appeals to my thoughts that science shouldn’t be used to confuse the youth of the country. He dispells bullshit with fact. They are all well worth the read.
And so am I.
Over at Whackingday Tex is angry and rightly so. I link to the post because people need to know the left wing rubbish that passes for debate on our national campuses.
I’ll say no more. Just go
read
How anyone can knock an addition to the national infrastructure such as the new Adelaide-Darwin 3000 km rail link offers is beyond me.
The link has been a long time coming, promised by politicians for 150 years, it is now a reality and the country’s export/import and defence ability is greatly adhanced.
Chris Corrigan from Patricks talks about the link having a return equivalent to a tick’s testicles and Tim Fischer rightly replies; some tick, some testicles.
Corrigan is a bean counting profit and loss motivated buisness man and would view any new project from a pure commercial view. Fischer, a politician and one time Deputy PM views such infrastructure from a national viewpoint.
The potential to open up trade between Australia, specifically Adelaide and Darwin, and our near norther neighbours is huge. Who gives a damn if it doesn’t show a profit for five or even ten years. In one step it alters the logistics of trade enourmously.
Don’t think of the link as a 3000 km rail link between two Australian cities. It is clearly much more than that. It is in fact the bottom end of a rail-sea link between Australia and all of our trading partners. Those long established partners; those being developed and those who have yet to sign up.
Defence is well served as well by the new link. When the Leopard tanks first come onto the ADF’s inventory, visionaries wanted to bring them north so Infantry (all situated in the North) and the tanks (all situated in the south) could get together for training. Too hard. The rail link between Victoria and Queensland couldn’t carry them. Rail tunnels alone prevented movement of tanks. This abysmal state of affairs has been rectified but the lesson always stayed with me. National Transport infrastructure should always be placed against a military template of needs during the planning stages.
I can recall in my last days in the Army commanding 100 vehicle convoys to Darwin as the ADF come to grips with the obvious need for a defence presence in the Territory. The logistics of such moves were horrendous on both vehicles and men and the trip could take up to 14 days while we waited for the slowest vehicle. Now they can all travell at the same speed, on flatbed rolling stock-overnight
Corrigan and his bean-counting type need to lift their thinking beyond ticks testicles and think on a national and global scale.
The completion of the rail link certainly ranks as one of the country’s great engineering feats. It involved the laying of 2.9 million tonnes of ballast, 2 million sleepers, 140,000 tonnes of rail and 8 million sleeper fastenings across its length. Perhaps the only comparable rail project being undertaken on this scale, albeit under vastly different conditions, is an 1100-kilometre line being built from Qinghai to Lhasa on the Tibetan plateau.
The link was completed in two years and after 150 years of promises from various Prime Ministers I am pleased to get up the nose of the Howard Haters by pointing out John Howard made it possible by supporting the project with 150 million dollars and talking it up so private enterprise entered the game.
INTERNATIONAL soccer boss Sepp Blatter has caused an uproar by suggesting
women players should wear tighter shorts to attract more attention to their sport.
The FIFA president said women’s soccer needed different sponsors from the men’s game and should seek to attract fashion and cosmetics companies by featuring “more feminine uniforms”.
I tend to agree with any gratuitous display of the female form but of course in the case of soccer I doubt the male players would look kindly to any inroads into their domain of acting, playing and looking like girls.
Marianne Spacey, manager of London club Fulham Ladies, said fans watched the women because of their ability to play rather than their looks.
Who’s does she think she’s kidding?
“People don’t come to watch what they look like and how they’re dressed,” she said.
Maybe not but I can promise you men always live in hope that some gratuitous sex will wander by or, at the least a sexually exciting vision will come into view.
“How can you wear tight shorts? It was proved 10 years ago when the footballers were running about, male and female, in tight shorts it wasn’t really conducive to a good spectacle on the eye.”
Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of Aussie men and woman who watch and play Australian Rules.
I can tell she is serious about her soccer and I applaud that stand but a quick study of the sexuality of the male of the species would indicate that not all spectators are there for the sport (of soccer) and that the FIFA President has a point.
More here if your really interested
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Latham thinks the Eureka Stockade flag would be a great flag for Australia. So do the BLF and, according to
Christopher Pearson in todays Australian, so does the Maoist Australian Independence Movement.
There’s still the related issue of the flag. As far as I can determine, he’s never resiled from his 1992 preference: “The Eureka model is a fine starting point and says a lot about the Australian ethos ? standing up for your rights and bearing adversity. It is time to reassess.” Indeed it is. Considering that the Eureka Stockade flag was the emblem for the Maoist Australian Independence Movement ? as contaminating an association as there ever was ? can Latham still seriously be entertaining the idea?
I too thought it could be a good choice until I noticed the BLF had beaten the country to it. How can a flag, that had once symbolised union thuggery, every be considered to be symbolic of the country overall? No way, I thought, and I put that issue aside as did the vast majority of Australians.
Go for it, Latham. We conservatives must encourage Latham in every stupid move he makes.
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