Category: General Musings

Nick Leys, in todays Strewth colum in the Australian, takes Cairns Mayor Kevin Byrnes to task over dressing up as Arafat for a charity function.

CAIRNS has been rocked by debate over the past week after mayor Kevin Byrne thought it would be a good idea to attend a charity debate and lunch dressed as Yasser Arafat ? just two days after his death. Byrne defended his actions as just a joke, but a local businessman of Palestinian descent is far from laughing.

Just two days after his death is not an exact date as we all recall nobody wanted to declare Arafat dead until they found his PIN number for all his stolen billions.

Nick has the whole town ‘rocked‘ but all he quotes is one Cairns resident.

John Hawash yesterday lodged a complaint with the anti-discrimination board, saying the mayor had “made a fool” of all Cairns residents. “This problem has to be rectified. It’s done damage to the city. There are investors coming from the Middle East to Cairns and this sort of thing will scare them away.”

The type of Middle East investor that is ‘shocked’ by fancy address that lampoons Arafat should stay in the Middle East and we shouldn’t have anything to do with them.

I should declare an interest here. Kevin Byrnes is an ex Infantry Major from my Regiment and his Chief of Staff is likewise, an old friend from Army Days. When I phoned for an indepth analysis of the ‘shocked’ city I found my friend absent on a holiday in China and Kevin busy getting on with his Mayoral duties.

Great to-do about nothing but it does give Nick Leys a chance to put Conservatives in a bad light.

You’ll just have to do better Nick.

How does anyone expect the Palestinians to ever become a functioning nation. I mean the last time I saw anything like the chaos of Arafat’s funeral it was a mob of drunken soccer hooligans

They can’t even mourn decently. Shots fired in Arafat’s mourning tent. Someone insulted someone else and the AK54s start rattling as they would if wielded by idiots that fire the bloody things in the air like a child in the first place.

The Jeruselum Post reports;

At first, Palestinian police and soldiers fired off entire magazines in an attempt to keep the mourners from enveloping the helicopters. Then they seemed to do it for the celebratory effect.

Totally lacking in any form of discipline others join in the decidedly dangerous practice.

Masked gunmen joined in the manic gunfire which only ceased two hours later.

Palestinian officials later said that nine people were wounded, one critically, from the gunfire. Hundreds more were treated for various injuries, including falling off walls, trampling, and dehydration ? aggravated by a blazing sun and the widely-observed Ramadan fast.

Nine people wounded!

Hundreds injured!

Masked gunmen!

At a funeral, for God’s sake

Remember the pomp and ceremony of Churchill’s funeral; The heart felt sadness and that little boy saluting his father at Kennedy’s funeral; the reverence of Menzie’s departure and then witness the stampede of primeval adulators and idolaters of the murdering thug Arafat at his final circus.

These people have a very long way to go to statehood.

I’m shopping (12th August) and as I approach the checkout the small items I’m holding in my right hand fall to the floor. Confused I try and pick them up and can’t. My right hand and arm have disconnected from the drive-train.

Doctor..XRays..Osteoarthritis in the neck from a thousand cold bivouacs..pinched nerves…Neurologist referral to confirm..go home..get used to it.

I accept the news and drive 600 kms to a wedding where I am billed to play ‘Marie’s Wedding’ on the bagpipes.

I can’t. My right hand is still in neutral.

I drive further up to Carnarvon Gorge and work for a week helping a local boy?s college run a camp for teenage boys.

My right hand is now re-connected to the drive train but the clutch is slipping.

Drive back 1200 kms.

I arrive at the local Veterans Affairs Hospital for my specialist appointment with an Associate Professor who destroys my erroneously based confidence by bypassing all ‘Osteoarthritis’ type questions and going straight to ‘Stroke’ type questions.

My blood runs cold. Driving 2,500 km after a Transient Ischemic Attack, aka a mini stroke, is not conducive to longevity and worse, could have damaged my beloved V8 Discovery.

Two weeks of every test known to man and machines tell their human operators that I have an 80% blockage in my left Carotid artery and something had better be done about it.

Quickly.

Three hours after confirmation I’m talking to two specialist surgeons and they’re describing how they are going to slit my throat and fix the problem.

Three days later I’m on the operating table and five days after surgery I am at home writing this post and working on some funny one-liners to handle the ‘Jesus! What?s that scar” type exclamations when I venture back into polite society. I currently look like a reject from a B-Grade Frankenstein movie.

And if my little story isn’t the greatest ever reflection on the standards of the Australian Veterans ‘Repair and Maintenance’ program then I don’t know what is.

Being the left carotid artery, my right (wing) brain was under threat but I’m happy, deliriously so in fact, to announce all is in order.

But as I drift off to sleep each night when there are no books, computers or conversations to distract me, I shudder and have trouble engaging my ‘fantasy-drive’ that for years has lifted me from low nights and rocky days.

It’s a long fall from where I’ve been but as my first Platoon Sergeant used to say “Keep moving soldier, I’ll tell you when you?re tired”.

Should be my old cocky self in a day or two and by then it should be two out of three for us right wingers. Bush will be orating poorly while leading well and my world will be in order.

I picked up this link from Tram Town and reproduce it here for all petrol head readers.

It links to a story of hot rod powered by a Patton tank engine, an AV-1790-5B and it’s 1792 cu. in. It has overhead cams and Hemi heads. Since it was designed to move a tank, it puts out 810 hp and makes 1560 ft.-lb. of torque. The engine is 6 foot long

Worth the read.

An amazing story of courage from North Queensland where a 60 year old woman took on a 4 metre, 350 k croc by jumping on it’s back and wrestling until the beast cried ‘uncle’ and let go of the 34 year old man in it’s jaws.

It’d would make a good Mother-n-Law joke but it’s no joke and I for one would be honoured to shake her hand.

In this article in the Queensland’s Courier Mail the gutsy woman is identified as Grandmother, Mrs Sorohan.

Way to go Lady. I bet the grand kids do what you tell ’em now.

Top 20 countries reading my website.

1. au (Australia)
2. com (Commercial)
3. net (Network)
4. (no entry)
5. edu (Educational)
6. nl (Netherlands)
7. il (Israel)
8. mil (USA Military)
9. gov (USA Government)
10. uk (United Kingdom)
11. cn (China)
12. sa (Saudi Arabia)
13. org (Non-Profit Organizations)
14. ca (Canada)
15. be (Belgium)
16. jp (Japan)
17. fr (France)
18. th (Thailand)
19. us (United States)
20. no (Norway)

12. sa (Saudi Arabia) Jesus Christ! Golly Gosh! I hope they don’t mind me putting down on terrorists. Hey Saudi Guy…don’t…..read….archives.

Stop panicking…could be a good guy. If the Saudi guy would leave a comment and calm me down. Something like “I hate Terrorists too” would do.

Hang on, it’s most probably an expat. That’s it. Now I remember..a lot of guys from a regiment I was once in, live and work over there.

Whatever…leave a comment..please.

I have included a weather link on the right bar so people can be better aware of the reason I live in Brisbane. A sub-tropical city on the east coast of Australia the only issue about weather is will tomorrow be like paradise or just perfect.

However, each winter, the temperature does drop to single figure celcius for about two weeks and when it does the family get nervous and/or just wait for me to start ranting about moving to Cairns, a tropical city a thousand miles north of here and definitely Tropical.

Why do kids roll their eyes like that?

Old soldiers prefer warmer climes. Something to do with osteoarthritis – a medical term for aches and pains associated with years of sleeping on the ground in not-so-warm climates.

So you can all feel sorry for me I have included a picture of the view from my home office. This nice little set-up is fiercely guarded by Holly, the Golden Retriever on sentry duty half hidden behind the chair.

I feel so secure.

The patio roof sheeting (the shiny stuf at the top of the pic) is insulated with 50mm of a foam not unlike cold-room material. The cold room insulation has been modified in Queensland to try and tame the power of the sun. Last Christmas the temperature was 10 degrees celcius less under the patio than out in the sun and it was still mid 30s under.

For those who live in snow-bound climates like northern Europe, and some of my readers do, you may find it hard to believe, but in December and January the pool is too hot to swim in and we have to provide shade over the pool to cool the water down.

If I get bored at home I can always tavel about 90 minutes north and arrive at the southern end of this shitty little beach. From the point, one can drive south (towards the top left hand corner in the pic) along an almost deserted beach (50 to 100 m wide at low tide) for about 60 km.

Fish, swim, camp, drink or just sit there and get overwhelmed by the beauty of it all.

Count my blessings…feel better now.

Very busy with Legacy this week but hope to be free sometime tomorrow morning to comment and watch the Left wind up for a huge dummy-spit on Saturday night. Legacy, that organization that looks after the widows and children of deceased veterans is planning an auction of militaria to be held at 41 Merivale Street South Brisbane, QLD 4101 (07) 3846 4299, on Sunday 17 Oct.

One lot caught my eye…

Dagger – Japanese Kamikaze Dagger. Has very old ancestoral blade C1850. Pilot’s name in panel on sheath with red ‘Rising Sun’ & “Kamikaze” on reverse. Brass Naval symbols on hilt. From estate of CPO Percy Ross, on HMAS Nizam at Phillipines Invasion.

Like, how many ‘Kamakaze’ daggers would there be left in the world? They should all be melted somewhere in the Pacific..a part of the wreck of a US or Aussie destroyer or simply at the bottom of the sea.

Phone (07) 3846 4299 for more details. Legacy accept phone bidding and will gladly send you a catalogue if your not local. If you are local drop in. I manage the database and catalogue so I can promise you over 500 lots of Australian military history.

I’m prepared to bet that the God of rational thought will prevail on Saturday and send the Coalition back to the treasury benches. The lesser gods of hedonism and socialism will have to take a backseat for another parliament.

I’m standing by for a deluge of ‘Just how stupid are the voters’ on Sunday.

Should be fun.

I will never, ever, tell stories again about bad Infantry camp sites.

How do you check the sentries?

From Gut Rumbles.

If 228 people voted to withdraw our troops because a terrorist said so, then what the hell else are they confused about.

Isn’t there some way we can disenfranchise idiots like this?

Must be Green supporters.