I can’t believe it. Australian politics’ spiral into utter absurdity is beyond belief – beyond, even, stupidity (and do we have that in spades in the present “cabinet”).
So, let’s revisit another cabinet from a gentler, kinder, politic, with the late Malcolm B Duncan’s take on the HoWARd era. Enjoy . . .
(Image Credit: Bill Leak)
Another pair of underpants arched through the air and landed in the suitcase which lay open on the bed. AW Board was packing (not just clothes – he was really packing) and he was packing quickly. A series of hurried phone calls that morning had revealed that black spots were being issued from the Coalface like confetti. Most of the former agriculture advisers to the Mesopotamian trade had received them but what really spooked AW Board was the call from the Cabinet Secretary to tell him that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Fortunately he knew a couple of blokes who had a tinnie and he thought if the worst came to the worst he could avoid ports and airports and get out via the mouth of the Murray. A bottle of aftershave narrowly missed the bed and smashed on the floor. “Get a grip,” AW Board said to himself musing that the Telstra job was now completely out of reach.
Suddenly, the shower curtain caught fire. The records he had been hoarding for years as insurance had to be destroyed but there were so many of them that the only safe thing to do was use a wet room. The newly-installed smoke alarm shrieked into life. “Just what I need now,” AW Board thought, “the fire brigade.” He sat on the top of the suitcase, forcing it shut, and fled the flat, hurriedly hailing a taxi. No more Commonwealth cars for him.
The Coalface faced a dilemma: he knew why he’d been appointed and he knew what he was supposed to say, but the bloody evidence was getting in the way. Oh, he’d been to Paul’s and he knew what Deo Patriae Tibi meant, but it was just proving so hard to apply. The documents which had fallen off the trolley in the Federal Court were just too hot to handle. The white-haired chap who’d been helping was exhausted – they’d sent out about 3,000 black spots in the last week and Blind Pugh had worn his white cane down to the size of a pencil stub. It was looking increasingly like they had found a bloke who knew a chap who had a friend who had had a conversation once with someone who actually knew what was going on. There was a real and present danger that the truth would out. Both the Coalface and the white-haired man knew that wasn’t what Governments set up inquiries for but there was nothing they could do. The Coalface missed his Dad – it would be so nice to sit down and talk about a few foreclosures and take his mind off things, but the problem just wouldn’t go away and his Dad had been dead for years – gone to that vast clearing house in the sky.
Alexander, on the other hand, had problems of his own. One of his most trusted chums had got a black spot and blind Pugh was hanging round like a bad smell. Tap, tap, tap – all day and all night – tap, tap, tap – followed by the occasional muffled curse as blind Pugh encountered the odd tank trap Alexander had borrowed from Brendan. The Lady Jadis was in a foul mood as well, and even the Dwarf was getting worried – it looked like the subterfuge of transferring the Boy Dweeb into a new portfolio wasn’t going to work either side of the Cabinet. It wasn’t widely known, but the Boy Dweeb had received a black spot, and blind Pugh had accidentally speared him through the foot with his cane.
Back at Kirribilli House, Jeanette was in a right pet and was talking to Corder. All this switching about between worlds was getting very confusing.
“That woman. That damned woman. Bloody Goulburn. She’ll be in Yass forever. I want you to keep a careful eye on the runt, Corder. And this time I want them off.”
Corder shifted uneasily from foot to foot. He had never been comfortable with castrations ever since … well, this is a children’s story after all so just use your imaginations.
“And what’s all this about black spot? I thought that only happened to roses.”
Corder distracted himself by remembering the way Jim Killen and Margaret Guilfoyle used to hold hands in the old days before the House on the Hill (or in it, actually) had been built.
“This is a complete disaster, Corder. Board has disappeared and it looks like the entire National Party is going for a long stretch. Worse, it threatens the pension plan.”
Corder gently guided Jeanette, who was still raving and starting to froth at the mouth, to the door of the cabinet and forced her through the damp coats.
As they came through the magical entrance to the Land of Nadir, the Dwarf was waiting for them by the smart pole. The Keating retrospective had finished and it was now advertising the latest Margaret Whitlam biography. “We lose time, milady,” the Dwarf said. “We must hasten to the teak table for the final encounter.”
He grasped the Lady Jadis by the hand and in a tricycle, they were there. Their forces gathered and a chained Alexander was thrust towards the teak table. Alexander actually hadn’t enjoyed himself actually so much for such a long time actually that he didn’t appear to be frightened at all.
“Things have been going ill at the Coalface, child,” said the White Witch. “Blood will serve.” Ruddock, in his magical guise as a wolf, strained at his leash and bared his teeth, which bore stains with a remarkable resemblance to Pakistani blood.
Alexander went white.
The forces of darkness gathered as all the while the temperature rose.
“This heat presages the presence of the Scion.” Said the Lady Jadis. “The winter draws to an end and the battle must be waged.”
“Could be global warming,” said the Dwarf.
“Shut up, dwarf,” said his mistress. “You’ll be running around in a tinnie next.”
“No, we’ve cut the ABC’s funding again,” said the Dwarf. “There’s no petrol for the tinnie.”
“Scion?” asked Sir Alfred Deakin.
The Dwarf turned to him and said: “You are the Scion of the Party. Our founder, our inspiration.”
The Lady Jadis turned and said, “The boy is mine, I have the right, Scion, I demand blood and the sacrifice.”
In any ordinary Christian allegory, one would expect some element of self-sacrifice but Sir Alfred was a Liberal through and through. “I’ll swap you young Alexander for this creature,” Sir Alfred said miraculously producing Barnaby Joyce from under his waistcoat (he was a Liberal, after all). “You didn’t think this was going to be some pathetic Christian allegory where I was going to sacrifice anything but my principles. did you?”
“Well, no,” said the Lady Jadis. “Will the creature bleed?”
“Like a stuck pig,” replied Sir Alfred.
Just then, the other children appeared over the top of a small hillock accompanied by the beavers and a strong smell of fish.
Alexander ran towards them on wobbly legs and fell into little Lucy’s arms.
Barnaby Joyce was being tied to the teak table which had been extended even to its last leaf. The Lady Jadis approached with a stone knife honed to a keen edge and pulled his head back in preparation for sacrifice.
Peter, still smarting from the unfortunate accident with the baton, rushed forward to the rescue as the forces of darkness aligned themselves against him. Amanda, deftly (surprisingly deftly for a lass of her size), whipped out a foot and sent him sprawling headlong.
One of the sad things about the teak table that had never been realised fully before was that it had been made in the Philippines. As the White Witch drew her hand back for the fatal blow, the middle leaf collapsed and Barnaby magically fell into the ice melt and was instantly translated into the land of Oz. As this is essentially a story about CS Lewis’ insane ravings rather than a story about getting the wind up, I’m afraid we’ll have to leave it there: different story; different lion.
Thwarted, the Lady Jadis exclaimed something which although not entirely clear, sounded to those within hearing distance something like “Wheat.”
THE PUB 
It is only my opinion, but The Greens were too busy playing tactic politics and voted the CPRS down because they saw political mileage in so doing. They were blinded by their perceived purity and forgot to put the nation before their Party – when it comes down to it, the fact that we now have nothing is the fault of the bloody Greens for opting for nothing when they had the chance to achieve something.
Mostly agree Janice…I do believe that had the Greens swung in behind Labor on the CPRS. it could have been the start of a “beautiful friendship” and who know where it may have gone to….
Bloody hell! That Emma Alberici interview is far worse than commentators have identified!
In my opinion, it was so bad that any decent employer would have sacked her for that.
It was disgusting and she should be totally ashamed of herself for that total abuse of the privileges and responsibilities that should be respected and observed in a position such as she holds that can have wide ranging ramifications regarding influencing public opinion.
Also, potential serious ramifications which could result from a community sector that feel aggrieved regarding not only the issues that she should have explored more fully with the interviewee but the manner in which she demonstrated total disrespect not only for the interviewee, but the opinions that she sought but yet talked over in such an aggressive manner.
Very poor form ABC. Sack her. She is dragging your venerable institution down towards LNP pond slime level!
A bit of Adelaide history.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-08/adelaides-prisoner-of-war-camp-on-torrens-island/5795158
We have not changed much. (sigh)
Puff,
This is a fascinating and horrifying site on what we Australians did to Australians of Germanic (including Austrian) origin – also Turks – during WW1.
Note, in particular, the use of the words “concentration camp” on some of the original illustrations.
http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/enemyathome/the-enemy-at-home/
I “discovered” Canberra’s involvement in the “internment” camps shortly before I left Canberra in 1979.
Ironically, the camp was in what’s now regarded as Canberra’s red light district: Fyshwick.
If only the inhabitants had known . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyshwick,_Australian_Capital_Territory
Greens talk the talk of progressive left, but they are bog standard conservatives nonetheless. Because of their ACTIONS:
1. Abbott was able to rescind the Carbon Price—should have been a real ETS from 1/7/13 or even 1/7/12
2. BOATS! remained an election issue and no Malaysia Solution led irrevocably to Manus Is
3. They want to approve Tone’s ridiculous PPL
4. They let Hokey remove the debt ceiling and the debt has since blown out
Of course they are conservative while talking progressive left—their main support base is inner city professionals. I will NEVER vote for the weasels.
I have read a bit about the history of the German settlers here in SA. I do not think ANZAC Day is big in Hahndorf,. (I could be wrong). With a lot of vineyards and farms settled by Germans it was a tense and unhappy time for them.
Puff…a lot of the Germanic people who came to SA. were, in fact , not German at all…they were of Slavic origin..they were Wends or Sorbs..from eastern Germany ..or what is in some places now Poland. It is a very interesting history..
A couple of my relatives were interred in a camp near Blancetown during the 2nd.ww.
Jaycee,
I’m not being picky, just want to clarify.
Were your relations held in that camp, or buried there?
Gongite:
I agree that the Greens have principles they need to stick to, but on this one they played really dumb politics. The reason Rudd didn’t negotiate with them was because he had an in-principle deal with the then Turnbull opposition. The spill that resulted in Abbott threw everything achieved thus far out the window, and I’m sure the Greens would have been both miffed at having been shut out of negotiations and pleased at now holding the whip hand on carbon pricing.
But the way they used that power was very stupid. By sitting with the opposition in the Senate to vote the CPRS down (and, may I add, looking like the cats who just got the cream) they sent a message to the electorate that action on carbon pollution is ‘not that urgent’ and that there’s plenty of time to stonewall and do some political jostling, which was in direct contradiction to the message that they had been sending out up until then. They were basically saying they were prepared to take carbon pricing off the agenda for the immediate future. Abbott’s team saw their opening and wheeled out the “climate change is crap” big guns. And that was pretty much the last time Australians were engaged with the climate change issue. We had Greens supporters all over the place arguing that doing nothing at all in the short term was a preferable outcome. Even if doing nothing was preferable to the Rudd proposal, no progressive party can afford to advocate sitting on our hands as a viable response. You still need to send a message.
The Greens should have abstained from that vote. Actively voting against a carbon reduction scheme, even one they thought wouldn’t work, was a very bad look. Grinning and shaking hands with Liberal senators directly afterwards was even worse.
And what was even worse than that was Bob Brown saying, not that long afterwards, “We don’t want to keep the bastards honest, we want to replace the bastards.” Now we’re looking at a party that couldn’t give a rat’s arse about short-to-medium-term policy work, a party that’s only interested in snagging votes from the other parties.
Greens still won’t accept responsibility for killing climate change action stone dead. But that’s what they did. And the likelihood is that they are also responsible for the current Abbott government, because climate change denial is what gave him his first burst of momentum.
They are ignorant, naive fools.
Aguirre
I am with you on that one, with apologies to any Greens here or lurking. Sometimes political parties do some really dumb things, like the ALP going to the 2007 election with Rudd instead of anyone else, even the cleaner.
One particular episode made me dislike the Greens for, I think, all time. It was when the miners, the australian, the liberals & most of the rest of the media hammered Rudd & Labor day after day after day over the original mining tax. Nowhere to be seen during all of this, on the cessation of the barrages the greens emerged from their bunkers to put the boot into Labor, declaring that THEY would’ve taxed the miners at many times the rate those wimpy Laborites proposed.
Their commanders are just generals & for generals, as we’re seeing, the wars must go on. With no reasonable prospect of forming government they can afford the luxury of always being more just completely righteous than any one else. Come to think of it, I don’t like the bastards at all.
On reflection, I’ve been a little harsh on them. They did at least negotiate something after the 2010 election. But it was all mired in the “she lied” hoohah, and they didn’t lift a finger to help allay that misconception. Still playing politics.
My real disappointment with them is that they have a gold-plated opportunity to exercise their power as a dealmaker on important issues. Holding the balance of power presents an opportunity to get some great things done, as the lower-house cross-benchers demonstrated in the last term. If you’ve got the smarts to negotiate, that is. But the Greens insist on being seen as a real third force in politics, demanding to be perceived as distinct from either of the major parties. They’re not that, so any efforts to portray themselves in that way only stymies policy action. It just means there’s three voices shouting against each other in Parliament, which presents more obstacles than it overcomes.
It’s probably in part because there are two strains running through the party – one which seems to be primarily committed to environmental action, and another which more or less aligns with socialist ideals. The two are not compatible, so the voice the party speaks with is not a consistent one.
On the whole, I think I agree with them – in general – more often than I don’t. But there’s no way I’ll vote for a party that only seems to serve to complicate and strangle the political process, or one that places ideals so far ahead of practicalities that they can barely explain the mechanisms by which their policies are supposed to work. I just can’t do that.
FIONA..awright!!…it’s late and I should be beddy-byes!!
Not often I agree with The Idiot
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/09/australia-opera-drops-carmen-smoking-scenes
My all-time favourite Carmen. Julia Migenes-Johnson with Placido Domingo
Hugh Grant: ‘I can’t get to the end of a tweet without getting bored’
http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2014/oct/09/hugh-grant-the-rewrite-video-interview
Julia Gillard’s statue in the Prime Minister’s avenue could be the last
http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2616065/julia-gillard-unveils-her-statue-in-ballarats-prime-ministers-avenue/?cs=62
Cripes I hope so. To be spared the sight of Abbott’s mug in those gardens would be a godsend.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Hockey is all piss and wind.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/joe-hockey-says-tax-cheats-are-thieves-20141009-113heo.html
Wanted – more corporate transparency on tax.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/wanted-more-corporate-transparency-on-tax-20141009-113cl1.html
Hockey plays the ABS blame game as unemployment hovers.
https://theconversation.com/hockey-plays-the-abs-blame-game-while-unemployment-hovers-32746
Campbell Newman’s $32b whopper and other LNP lies.
http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/here-we-joh-again-newmans-32-billion-budget-whopper–and-other-lnp-lies,6980
Is Abbott heading for a big party room stoush with his PPL scheme?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-stands-firm-on-parental-leave-scheme-in-face-of-backbench-opposition-20141009-113kvn.html
Adele Ferguson continues to write good stuff on financial matters. This time it’s about life insurance advice.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/watchdog-report-finds-one-in-three-customers-receive-poor-life-insurance-advice-20141009-113lm6.html
ASIC deplores the failures of the life insurance industry.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/patients-the-losers-with-medibank-privatisation-20141009-10r5zc.html
More from Michaela Whitbourn on the plight of NSW apartment owners. Is this another example of why developers are banned from making political donations?
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/government-urged-to-act-after-court-ruling-hits-apartment-owners-20141009-113ggk.html
Mike Baird talks tough as Kerry Schott nears completion of her study into political donations.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mike-baird-told-politicians-who-break-donations-laws-should-face-10-years-in-jail-20141009-113o7t.html
Trading for two years whilst insolvent. Who’s a naughty boy then?
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/sublime-builder-could-have-been-insolvent-since-2012-says-liquidator-20141009-113i43.html
Section 2 . . .
Race relations in St Louis take another dive as a white off duty cop shoots and kills a black teen.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/white-policeman-kills-black-teen-in-st-louis-triggering-fresh-protests-20141009-113y6e.html
This is hardly surprising. Too much local hate preaching?
http://www.smh.com.au/act-news/women-children-mosques-targeted-in-abusive-attacks-20141009-3ho36.html
And just who ARE Abbott’s preachers of hate?
http://wixxyleaks.com/son-of-a-preacher-man-just-who-are-abbotts-preachers-of-hate/
Our First Defence To ‘Threats To Our Freedom’: Dump Freedom Safeguards
https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/09/our-first-defence-threats-our-freedom-dump-freedom-safeguards
Bob Katter just can’t help himself at times. (Just heard on ABC24 that initial blood tests on the lady have returned a negative result for ebola).
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/aid-workers-creating-ebola-risk-in-australia-bob-katter-claims-20141009-113x3z.html
This will go down well.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/civil-disobedience-at-centrelink-medicare-20141009-113fs3.html
Mark Kenny – Stringent new laws create new terrors. Interesting.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/stringent-laws-create-new-terrors-20141009-113f8x.html
How the sale of Medibank Private will adversely affect the punters.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/patients-the-losers-with-medibank-privatisation-20141009-10r5zc.html
Peter FitzSimons examines the aftermath of Sam Burgess’s fractured face.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/damage-is-done-nrl-response-to-sam-burgess-injuries-too-little-too-late-20141009-113i97.html
More on the defamation trial Father John v The Advertiser.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/catholic-priest-father-john-fleming-tells-sa-defamation-trial-he-did-not-have-a-threesome-with-two-teenage-girls/story-fni6uo1m-1227085708812
Section 3 . . .
The current head of Hillsong’s day at the Royal Commission hearing. What a prick!
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/10/09/hillsong-head-contact-police/
The three worst things the Liberals did yesterday.
http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2014/10/09/the-three-worst-things-the-liberals-did-yesterday-81/
Alan Moir – Terror Australis.
Cathy Wilcox on Science and Climate Change.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/cathy-wilcox-20090909-fhd6.html
Brilliant work from David Pope!
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html
Ouch! Ron Tandberg on our response to the ebola situation in West Africa.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
Scroll through these Fairfax cartoons that cannot be linked separately.
http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/national/the-age-cartoons-october-10-2014-20141009-3hnqr.html
Nice work from Rod Clement on the difficulties facing the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
http://www.afr.com/p/home/cartoon_gallery_rod_clement_dKTsVx4omRRhInyIOB7oFN
Why I loathe the Greens –
After the Greens voted against Rudd’s ETS and again in April 2010 after Rudd announced he was scrapping it Bob Brown was all over every TV show. In one interview – I can’t remember where and can’t find a transcript – he was smirking, barely able to conceal his glee. He raved on about how after the (2010) election the Greens would have the balance of power and would be able to get THEIR legislation passed.
So there it was, an admission that the Greens had voted against Labor’s ETS not because it was flawed or bad, but because it was not the Greens who had put it up, it was not their own, supposedly ‘perfect’ plan.. All Brown wanted was power. Despite a lot of waffle from Brown at the time about maybe negotiating if stopping all logging in Tasmania was thrown into the deal he was not interested in negotiation at all. He just wanted to win votes and gain power. It was all blatant political manipulation to benefit only the Greens and the environment be damned.
Ouch!
I will never vote Green. When Labor needed help getting legislation through, it was never good enough for The Greens. Their All or Nothing approach meant we got the Nothing.
Beautiful photos of Julia at the unveiling of her bust. When abot realises that he won’t be there, he’ll cough up the money that fast it will make your head spin.
As for the greens, they should change their name, they certainly put the environment last, and bragged about it. I does amuse me that people are still trying to say they didn’t vote against rudd’s scheme. It
Gravel,
I will be posting the book to you later this morning. When you receive it depends entirely on Australia Post but I would expect it to be in your hands mid week….hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
One of my many objections to the Greens is SHY. What did she ever do for AS? Did she say yes to the Malaysian deal? No. All those crocodile tears for nothing.
Janice
Razz and I are very excited, thank you so much, will let you know the minute it arrives, as long as it is not Thursday as we have a two hour drive to the neurologist.
China’s sweet revenge?
b’tards
http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/federal-budget-1000-hit-in-seats-coalition-cant-win/story-fnhld5o2-1227085953083?nk=73bd5818ec0988e8fcd07493b45bc3a0
This is an example of the type of filth “born to rule” people that we name city streets and towns after…and then promote “hero status” to school children back when I was a Grade 7 pupil. The reader I quote from has two other crossed out names before mine…so it was in continual use for some time.
From Whitcombe’s – Vivid History Reader.
Ch. 6..Settlement in Sth. Aust’.
…in 1829 (mark that date..; jaycee) a little book called ..”A letter from Sydney…together with the outline of a System of Colonisation” written by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, was published in London, it aroused considerable interest.
[ considering that the “South Aust’ Land Co.” was formed only three years later demonstrates the enthusiasm by which it must have been received. Note that Wakefield had never been to the colonies at all…ever..and indeed, was lately released from prison for attempting to illegally “marry “ a thirteen years old girl in Gretna Green (not mentioned in the book)…you wonder just why he was considered a worthy person to be listened to at all!…but THAT is the mark of the “born to rule” class….; jaycee.]
Wakefield’s plan as differing from the other colonies was to ; “…condemn the sale of land at a low price, for a labourer would soon be able to save enough money to buy a farm for himself and then his former employer would find himself without a servant and instead of having the leisure time in which to enjoy himself, he would have to work for a living. To preserve leisure for the rich, Wakefield advocated that the land should not be sold too cheaply. Then the labourer could not afford to buy it, and would remain a labourer, earning his master’s living and his own. The refined and cultured master would then have the leisure which was his by right.”
There is some more on this theme and then we get to George Fife Angas , a coach-builder, a very wealthy man. I have tried to get the personal letters of Geroge Fife..but found the task too time consuming and tangled over the internet…and not having the personal time…But on my recorded land ownership maps I have here on this district, the dates of purchase and the acreage of those initial blocks, I can see that those small land holdings would soon prove incapable of supporting a family in farming, being from 40 – 200 acres only, in some of the driest, harshest “farmland” of the state (with now the nickname of ‘break heart country)…this soon proved to be true, many Germanic “farmers” selling up and moving on ..to Hahndorf and Hamilton (Vic.) etc. Local, more prosperous people added the acreage to their own, creating broad-acres enough for sustained cropping and pasture for sheep. But in doing so, we have the devastated land that we see now. It is a continuing tale of temporal success on the back of future failure…The land now being farmed is not topsoil, but subsoil…the farmers not dirt-farmers, but chemical farmers, the aquifers spoiled and saline to the point of almost useless without “shandying” with mains water at prohibitive cost in price per kilolitre plus cartage.
The Land that George Fife Angas and his cohorts in the Sth. Aust’ Land Company” sold to those “sucker farmers”, was done, I believe, knowing that the owners would have to clear-fell right to the boundary to try and make anything of it ( “ Trees don’t pat taxes” )…the same principle, I believe, was used with the soldier settlers in the Murray-Mallee out from Karoonda and Pinaroo in the sth. East. I believe it was sold deliberately knowing the poor buggers would break their backs, families and hearts doing the dirty-work of clearing the land which would then (after the family went broke) be consumed into the wealthy Cockys of the district.
I could go on about those past injustices, but what I am trying to show is the “echo” resounding down through the ages to now, with land / housing being “unaffordable” to the lower-classes and the sloganeering “Lifters and Leaners”…”end of age of ‘entitlement’” and “work choices”, directed only to that same class …a clear , concise echo of ; “The refined and cultured master would then have the leisure which was his by right”….cigar anyone?
Of course, Wakefield’s plan failed..: “…It is necessary only to state that it was a complete failure.”…the rest, as they say…is no longer just history, it could well be our future, for the “born to rule “ , too bone-idle to put in an honest days work, will keep on trying….and they laugh when I quip : “Joe Stalin was too soft” !
Further on my post above…not to make too fine a point on it, but to put it into perspective…below is a short poem I put up some time ago on the tale told to me by a lady who’s uncle was a soldier settler out in the mallee-scrub near Pinnaroo…when he died, about the only thing of sentimental value ( I was told) was those breeks she wore to work.
Bachelor Bill.
“He was a bachelor, you see.
He was a soldier-settler
Out in the mallee scrub…
And he died…
Father went through his things
But he couldn’t throw these out…”
She “thumbed” out the pockets of her breeks.
“They have his army number on them, see !
He was a lovely old man , my Uncle Bill.”
But I have seen a few “Uncle Bills”,
Spurned or turned from a woman’s embrace.
Uncertain and clumsy in affection
Toward sisters or brothers children…
“The breeks were army issue,
Part of the “deal” for soldier-settlers…
God only knows how he struggled out there.”
A soldier-settler alone in the mallee.
“God only knows.”
A soldier-settler alone in the mallee.
Nice line, jaycee.
Gerard Henderson must have photo’s of Mark Scott! I know the show is going down hill but two weeks in a row?
Insiders ABC @InsidersABC · 17m17 minutes ago
This Sunday on #insiders, Barrie Cassidy interviews @JoeHockey. @KarenMMiddleton @andrewprobyn & Gerard Henderson on the panel
http://www.thelocal.it/20141009/vatican-buys-500-packets-of-cigarettes-a-month
Jason,
I will definitely be reorganising my collection of navel fluff on Sunday morning.
The tax-payer funded Gerard Henderson!
Andrew Elder eviscerates a silly little boy churnalist:
http://www.andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/once-again-we-have-journalist-who.html
Mark Scott must be looking for an excuse to axe Insiders. Driving audiences away with weekly appearances by Gollum Henderson should guarantee a huge drop in viewer numbers and bring on that axe.
In the spirit of Jason above…
jaycee
Old Edward Gibbon pops up a bit in NZ history as well. Managed to get himself elected in the first NZ parliament in the 1850’s
Pig faces are some of the most beautiful flowers at this time of the year. They come in various shapes and colours, and they don’t require all that much tlc.
Gigilene, I’ve often wondered why those flowers are called “pig face”. Even garden centres who dress them up a portalucca don’t know why they are commonly called such a dismissive name. Yet they are such a blaze of glory when they flower enthusiastically (and don’t require a lot of water, always a plus for a front garden)
Actually these two piglets are simply gorgeous:
If he ever read the Elder article, and I think he would have, Kenny should feel real shame. I think, deep down, he does. But, just like Cudgen Chris, he believes he is a playa. Sad.
Hello Roy.
Just surfacing after last weekend?
And I agree with you.