If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
Stupid letters to the Editor.
It is both bemusing and amusing to read once again about the supposed weakness of wind power being that the wind doesn’t always blow (Letters, 6/1). It doesn’t always rain, but every time I turn the tap on, water comes out.
A group of white Americans occupy government property and get called “militiamen” yet, if a group of Muslims did the same thing, they would be “terrorists”. Go figure.
Captain Mona Shindy
When I was serving under the colours if you so much as hinted at a political opinion then the chances are you would be asked to resign your commission. Professional ADF Officers are required to be apolitical.
Or at least they were .
Not any more it seems, particularly if you are a Muslim. Captain Mona Shindy (pictured) is the Chief of Navy’s strategic adviser on Islamic affairs.
Strategic adviser on Islamic affairs! What the hell does that mean?
In a Defence situation Strategy is the art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle but apparently not only has the requirement to be apolitical changed but so has the definition of strategy.
So, is Captain Shindy’s role to advise the Chief of Navy on how to strategically defeat the Islamic Terrorists?
No! It would appear her role is to attack any Australian politician who says anything negative about Islam. As senior Muslim in the Navy Captain Shindy has been operating a Twitter account.
From The Australian;
A navy Twitter account has been shut down after its most senior Muslim officer retweeted a counter-terrorism expert mocking Tony Abbott following the Liberal Party leadership coup and backed the Grand Mufti’s response to the Paris terrorist attacks.
Two reasons to ask her to resign her commission right there in that one sentence. Publicly Mocking a politician and siding with the enemy.
On November 18, five days after the Paris attacks, Captain Shindy used the @navyislamic account to declare Dr Abu Mohamed was a “righteous & courageous man who categorically denounces” Islamic State and terrorism, tweeting the hashtag #IStandWithTheMufti.
Take her uniform off her and let her #StandwiththeMufti who thinks causative factors such as foreign policy, the media and lack of opportunity were fuelling Islamic extremism.
That is, the West are to blame.
The Chief of Navy and the Minister for Defence need to be questioned by the Media as to how this situation has been allowed to continue. However, that’s not going to happen anytime soon as the Media most probably think it’s a good thing. As the ADF continues to march towards political correctness as dictated by the Left they are losing their emphasis on defending the realm.
Sack her!
Bernard Gaynor has a lot more about Captain Shindy but Defence reckons she’s a winner.
ALP are leaping on anything to detract people from the Trade Union Crime Watch report Royal Commission
Acting Opposition Leader Penny Wong said just four days into the 2016 election year the government was “in chaos” and that Mr Dutton’s texting mishap, in which he labelled a senior female journalist a “mad f—ing witch”, warranted a strong response from Mr Turnbull.
Settle down Penny, the government isn’t in crisis, the ALP are – remember 14%…TURC etc. Turnbull is just getting rid of Abbott supporters as he battles to come across as In charge. Men talk like that and to suggest that Dutton’s “mad witch” text is anything other than a miss pressed button is ludicrous. A bit clumsy is all……unless he meant to do it but I can’t see any advantage in that…so let’s just call it clumsy.
The mad witch herself didn’t seem to put out by the text so why should anyone else?
Jamie Briggs had to go as he made no bones about being an Abbott man. Prosecution at Twitter and in the media overall, and Prosecution they be, can only come up with “complimented a young staffer and then pecked her on the cheek when he left to go back to his room”
Waiting for evidence of a crime that requires him to fall on his sword…waiting…waiting.
Drunk? No evidence…hitting on the girl…no evidence…Giving away State secrets whilst drunk in a bar…no evidence.
Notwithstanding the lack of any crime, Briggs’ political career is most probably over so let’s forget him and move on to the real problem.
Malcolm Turnbull.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says it is “appropriate” for ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis to “speak out” if the debate on counter-terrorism in Australia is concerning him.
The Australian has revealed Mr Lewis phoned Coalition politicians to urge them to use the soothing language favoured by Malcolm Turnbull in their public discussion of Islam.
In what is thought to be an unprecedented intervention in politics by a head of the spy agency, Mr Lewis is said to have told the MPs that their more robust comments risked becoming a danger to national security.
Mr Lewis has been defended by Labor and Greens MPs today and by the Foreign Minister.
Well, you have it right there. If the ALP and the Greens defend Duncan then he’s plain wrong. It smacks of Turnbull directing Lewis to talk to politicians with the implication being that Abbott is wrong to say Islam needs a reformation and is therefore dangerous.
I would like to know whether he initiated the calls or was directed to do so.
I suspect the latter.
Disclosure: In a previous life I served with Duncan in the West and hold him in high regard.
UPDATE: Turnbull denies instructing Lewis to phone MPs and says that just two MPs, Andrew Hastie and Dan Tehan, have been called by Mr Lewis.
In a thinly veiled reference to predecessor Tony Abbott, who wrote a column last week calling for a blunter debate about Islam, Mr Turnbull said Mr Lewis “doesn’t just write” about terrorism.
“There are some people who like to write about terrorism,” he said. “There are some people who like to express theories about terrorism – theories about religions and so forth. That’s fine, they’re entitled to do that.
“Duncan Lewis has actually fought against terrorism. He has led soldiers against terrorism. He is defending Australia today. He knows what he’s talking about.”
Abbott just doesn’t write about terrorism either. He was PM for a part of the War against Terror and actually realizes we are in a war and that the people we are fighting will not respond to diplomacy but need to be defeated on the battle field.
Until the West does that the war will continue.
I don’t know an associate professor of sociology at Macquarie University called Amanda Wise, but she knows me. She knows me so well, in fact, that she’s not only able to tell me what my cartoons mean, but she’s also able to tell me what I was thinking while I was drawing them.
There I was, naively thinking that if I drew a group of poor Indian people trying to eat solar panels contained in parcels sent to them by the UN anyone seeing the cartoon would assume it meant the people in it were hungry. But, no. What I thought I was thinking wasn’t what I was thinking at all. According to Ms Wise, my “unequivocally racist” cartoon drew on “very base stereotypes of third world, underdeveloped people who don’t know what to do with technology”.
The Twitter verse went ballistic with people claiming the cartoon was racist.
The cartoon is ridiculing Climate activists, not Indians, but the Left don’t get it so I’ll leave it up at the masthead for a day or two. Maybe it will eventually dawn on them.
But somehow I doubt it. They will maintain the right to be perpetually outraged at things they don’t understand.
Go here to Twitter to witness the insanity of the Twitterverse.
A Brisbane man deported from Germany who spent several months with Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria remains under investigation after being released without charge.
Ashley Dyball, a 23-year-old former weightlifting enthusiast, returned to his family’s home in the Queensland capital yesterday after being questioned for several hours on arrival at Melbourne Airport late on Sunday night.
Despite claims Australians who fight with the Kurds may avoid prosecution, it is understood Mr Dyball was released because police lacked the grounds on which to charge him under foreign-fighter legislation. Those convicted under the legislation face up to 25 years in jail.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton yesterday said that it was “difficult” to punish Mr Dyball because he came from a “very good family”.
What a ridiculous statement.
So did Brett Cowan, murderer and sex offender who was convicted of the murder of Daniel Morcombe. I personally knew his father.
Coming from a “good family” is a matter that the judge might consider when sentencing a person if found guilty but it certainly shouldn’t be considered when deciding whether someone should be charged or not.
Immigration Minister needs to have a chat with Attorney General
Bill Shorten has suddenly decided to do something about the Unions stealing money from their members and exhorting bribes and blackmailing businesses.
He is about to announce a proposal for significant new powers to crack down on corrupt unions in a bid to reposition Labor in the wake of the trade unions royal commission.
After a year in which the Opposition Leader has been dogged by the royal commission and his performance in the witness stand, Labor will attempt to demonstrate to voters it too is prepared to crack down on corruption.
Their first plan of attack was to ignore all the revelations coming out of the Trade Union Royal Commission but when the press kept on reporting the shady deals as facts, which they obviously were, they then started labeling it as a witch hunt. The public saw through that as well so now Bill feels obliged to show he has “zero tolerance for criminality or corruption in the union movement”.
“Zero Tolerance” as different from “Full Tolerance” that has been the ALP’s attitude to Union rorting up to this point.
I don’t recall the words “Zero Tolerance” ever used during the Craig Johnson trials.
Bill Shorten indicates he is still in denial;
“At the core of the Liberals and their political ideology, is a desire to destroy the ability of unions to effectively represent workers, making it easier to rip away pay and conditions like penalty rates,” he said.
No it isn’t Bill. The core of the Liberals and the thinking public’s ideology is to have unions operate under the same rules as businesses. That is to say, when Union officials steal money from their members, extort money from businesses or blackmail them, they are fined or sent to prison just like Business leaders are.
Don’t steal money from your members….nothing to fear.
Don’t extort money or blackmail businesses….nothing to fear.
Account for your funds through independent audit….nothing to fear.
Easy Bill.
I wonder if today’s news has any impact on Bill’s timing;
Two of Australia’s most powerful construction unionists have been charged with blackmail as a year-long investigation into Victorian CFMEU state secretary John Setka and his deputy, Shaun Reardon, arising from the trade union royal commission, culminated in dramatic arrests.
A bit hard to deny now.
The ABC are flogging Climate Change for all it’s worth. If you aren’t a paid up member of the Church of the Latter Day Alarmists who will never get a gig on the ABC.
And…I’m wary of Turnbull. It’s no accident that the polls are siding with him. He’s a Lefty, believes in radical measures to stop nature as she warms and cools and has ascendancy in the polls simply because he isn’t a conservative. The media, the insane Greens and rusted on ALP prefer him because he is one of them. Doesn’t mean they will vote for him come election time however.
Which leaves us with an outsider leading the Conservative Liberal Party.
Unless something changes between now and the elections I will be faced with voting for a Left wing led LNP, the ALP or the insane Greens.
Hobson’s choice indeed.
Had a visitor last night. Nearly stood on him as it was late and I had just turned the patio lights off. He struck at me and hit my unshod foot causing me to rush to Google and find out who he is. According to Snake Catchers Brisbane he is a White Crowned Snake
Species name: (Cacophis harriettae)
Weakly venomous
Other Common names: Crowned Snake.
They go on to say;
Not considered dangerous to humans. All crowned snakes are reluctant biters, relying more on bluff display than bite. They are weakly venomous and have tiny mouths and short fangs. They will generally rear up & ‘mock strike’ with mouth closed, more of a ‘head butt’. If bitten, as with any snake bite, apply correct first aid and seek medical attention.
All OK, no fang marks but it made me wary. Big tough old soldier weakens at the knees when confronted with snakes and it matters not at all that he wasn’t even half a meter long.
Possibly they are the most abundant of Brisbane’s smaller snake species and they are nocturnal which might explain why I have never, ever seen one.
Keep an eye out for the little critters.