The Australian continues on its crusade to beatify Hicks and bring him home for trial so left-wing lawyers can claim abused childhood or some similar abrogating point of law and gain him his freedom. His mother (poor woman) claims; “He should be allowed to be brought home for trial,” she said. “We don’t think David will get a fair trial over in America as Mr Bush doesn’t want him to go free.” Sounds fair enough to me that Bush doesn’t want him to go free but I’m confident he will get a fair trial. Why? Because the US are limiting his access to lawyers who will only argue whether he is guilty or not and not argue over ideologies or some how or other rationalize treason as OK in this new world of reverse standards. Forty years ago he would have been shot if found guilty – thats how serious the world considered traitors. These days, of course, even a right wing conservative old soldier like myself wouldn’t advocate the death penalty but considerable time in prison is a must. Lets revisit his crime. He was fighting for the Taliban; Australian and US soldiers soldiers were fighting against the Taliban; ipso facto, his actions were traitorous. The US captured him and hold him in prison. He should face trial by the capturing army and do some time in prison for a couple of reasons; one – to keep him off the streets were he will most probably do something stupid again, and two; as a reminder to like minded idiots that in spite of the efforts of warm and fuzzies and left-wing idiots in general – if you do the crime – you do the time. I tremble at the thought of the circus that would be visited upon us if the US allowed him home to face trial. Our laws on terrorism are only recently enshrined in law and of course any legal secretary can fight and win against retrospective application of the law. Hicks would have access to thousands of anti US/Bush/Howard legal pro bono malpracticers and pages and pages of poor fellow Hicks coverage from the press. The trial would be a circus of Ringling Brothers proportions.

The beach north of Noosa was pristine, the moon just on the wane from full and still the fish didn’t bite. Of course that’s not the issue here. My son and I lost the window of opportunity to go together so I just took off and enjoyed the solitude. You married guys know what I mean – for 24 hours I wasn’t told how to do things, or when to do them. I was amazed at my ability to drive 250Km without crashing into ‘that car on the left’, or running ‘the red light’. Over and above this I somehow picked up how to drive within the speed limit without being told what the current speed limit sign says. I must be maturing. Mind you, speeding and Series Land Rovers is not necessarily a problem. I am happy to report that even though Bundaberg Rum is now owned by a foreign conglomerate, the standards have been maintained.

Good! A serial anti-abortion protester who spent nine weeks in jail because he refused to stay away from a city abortion clinic may be headed for another stint behind bars after he has shown no sign of paying about $8,000 in fines. Again, good! Lock him up, he’s a pest. His gender precludes his trying to force his opinion on people who are faced with abortion as an answer. I try and stay away from the abortion debate but this is about serial pests inflicting opinion on others in sometimes violent ways. Most recently we had the Melbourne case of a guy murdering staff at a Melbourne clinic. We need a watch on these loonies along the lines of Paedophile programmes.

Delta Goodrem has cancer. If the article in the Courier Mail hadn’t mentioned that Delta is a singer and Neighbours star I woudn’t have known who she was and yet she gets front page treatment. This article has paragraph leaders like; Wearing blue slacks and sporting a new hairstyle and A black BMW hire car with tinted windows drove through waiting photographers to drop the singer and Neighbours star at the entry to the clinic. and thus sets the tone for children and other Neighbours fans but misses the vast majority of the paper’s readers. I do feel sorry for the girl as she suffers press coverage during what could only be a traumatic time in her life, but I also feel sorry for thousands of cancer sufferers who, while not TV stars, have worked hard, contributed to society in meaningful ways, and in some cases, significant ways, and will never get front page treatment – just 2 centimetres in the Death Notices.

I’m rereading Phillip Knightley’s The First Casualty (the 1975 edition, not the latest one with a foward by John Pilger – I do have my standards!) and find myself enthralled with the trials and tribulations of war correspondents in the early part of the last century as they try and scoop the war news. Dashing across battlefields in France, on horseback, to the nearest train station and then on to the eastern shores of the channel to catch a fast clipper to Fleet Street to submit their copy. Put aside the book and look to blogging. Scooped again. If the early bird gets the worm then Tim Blair is travelling well and there is no worms left for us minions. First post 2:28 am. Not fair Tim! I read on and note the last post is at 10:47 – I look at my watch, supposedly set on EST, and it says 9:50. So does the computer and the kitchen clock. What am I missing here? Even if I adjust for Tim’s computer clock being out he is still getting up to early for me. Any original thought I would have at that time of the day would centre on making a caffiene fix. Cross over to Sam Ward who is suffering writer’s cramp and Professor Bunyip, who could be forgiven for basking in his expose of Phillip Adams recycling the original wit of others under his own byline, has a telling article on the idiots who vandalized our Opera House. He suggests we contribute to their defence with cheques for two cents. Great idea!

Not quite. The old Landie broke down as I drove into my son’s driveway. Pleasures postponed are better for the longer anticipation and the vehicle should be ready today.

In an article in todays Australian (no link) Colin Rowley. the Marshal of the Family Court responsible for its nationwide security and with nearly forty years experience in the field, has quit, accusing the courts management of jeopardising safety. Colin resigned on June 4, citing concerns over attempts by the courts administrative arm to place security in the hands of court building managers. “It’s fundamentally stupid” Mr Rowley said yesterday when contacted by The Australian. Coins ‘forty years’ experience includes a couple of years in South Vietnam and in 1970, as a Staff Sergeant, he was my Platoon Commander. In June, July and August the platoon had a torrid time and on one particular day Colin led an attack on a bunker system that was well dug in and manned by 50 plus VC. During the attack twelve Aussies were wounded and a good number of these men were saved by Colin as he dragged them back to safety. Ignoring the machine guns, AK47s and RPGs targeting him, he was an inspiration and good role model of a leader. The battle started at 1:30pm and after bringing in another platoon, some tanks and APCs, the position was secured by 4.00pm. For this and following actions in July and August, Colin was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field. After Vietnam Colin went on to be a Inspector in the Australian Federal Police and some years ago became Marshal of the Family Court. Unflappable in a crisis, and we had some, and quicker than most to understand the problem, if Colin says ‘It’s fundamentally stupid’, it is. The news behind the news brought to you by the long memory of an old soldier. Some debts can never be repaid!

Tomorrow I go fishing with my eldest son. (31 this week) We go up to Noosa, cross the barge at Tewantin, hit the beach and head to the mouth of the Noosa River. I have been working for two days now bringing my old Land Rover (Landie) up to fishing trip standards. A full innerspring mattress inside in case the fish don’t bite or the Bundaberg Rum does and new 60 watt speakers to enable me to actually hear the radio/CD when moving at road speed. Sound insulation was not Land Rover’s strong suite. As Professor Bunyip points out, the old Land Rover didn’t have many strong points at all but I do claim one- longevity. The vehicle, first commissioned into the Australian Army in October 1966, is still going strong and capable of travelling anywhere in Australia. She became a Veteran before myself, having served with a Field Workshops in Nui Dat in 1968. Three years ago I drove to Albany, West Australia (from Brisbane) to visit my Mother who, while well into her eighties, was still delighted to climb aboard, refusing the offer of a box to help. That year my eldest daughter was in London and told me how she was spending Christmas with some locals and they were driving a hundred or so km to spend the season with their family. Well, I said, tell them that your eccentric father just drove 11, 500 km to see his mother and he did it in a 33 year old Landie! My other vehicle is a Land Rover as well, a V8 Discovery. Obviously I like the breed and when in the Disco I do like the V8. Every now and then, when my wife isn’t with me and there’s no wallopers in site, I floor her. The small V8 (3.9 li) takes the two tonne plus vehicle to 100k/hr in just over 10 seconds. It takes me back to my irresponsible youth when, unfortunately I coudn’t afford a V8, but still managed to develop a speed problem with lesser power plants. You can view the old Landie here and scroll down for self-depreciating humour. I’ll be back Wednesday, my back sore from the rigid suspension and my ears humming with tinninitus from the lack of insulation. If it rains I’ll be wet (as Landie drivers often say, if it aint leaking, it aint raining!) but I will be happy and recharged. And yes Proffessor, I’d be delighted to partake of cool refreshments should you bring your baby Austin north.

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 which makes Mossad a whole smarter than Mark Slater from the ACT who writes to the Australian here headed Lives risked and lost for a lie. AGAIN the Prime Minister seems to have chosen political expediency over truth. He failed to correct the record over Iraq’s nuclear capacity, misleading the people and the parliament. As a result, Australian lives were put at risk on the basis of a lie. Mark, the nature of intelligence assessments generally precludes the nessessity of anyone having to tell a lie. As a rule, they don’t state categorically that this or that will happen or is a fact, they simply state that they believe, given all knowledge, track form, reports from agents and other national intelligence agencies that this is most probably the case. For the ‘dark force’ to isolate one part of an intelligence assessment that appears later not to be the case and then accuse the PM of lying is a poor tactic, easily recognized by even ‘Mossad’ (the black Lab). Mate, clearly Saddam had WMDs that he used against his own people, the Kurds, and his neighbours, the Iranians. Further, he never proved to the UN that he had got rid of them hence the basic reason for the war. It would appear that he didn’t approach Niger for weapons grade plutonium on this occasion but obvioulsy had a nuclear weapon program and would have approached someone. He goes on to leave the mat where it is by stating; As an interesting contrast, Simon Crean courageously stood before Australian troops heading to the Gulf and declared his opposition to their participation in the invasion of Iraq. He risked his political stature for the sake of honesty and integrity. I know who I would prefer to be leading this country after the next election. An interesting contrast indeed but the more telling contrast is reflected in the polls.Only yourself and a very small percentage of the Australian voters would think to use the word ‘courageous’ in descibing Crean’s words on that day as he tried to satisfy the looney left with his pitful ‘I support you but not what you are doing’ statement that every soldier heard as ‘I don’t support you”. You obviously hate the PM as is your right, but in the future how about just writing “I hate Howard, Mark Slater, ACT” instead of venting your spleen on pointless criticisms. Note: More WMDs will be found, a nuclear weapons programme will be proven, Iraq will settle down and end up a democratic society and none of the Dark Force left wing US/Howard haters will stop this happening.