422 thoughts on “Furnace Friday”

1. Still too much heads-down and aggro from the Indians.

   Oz is coasting.

2. Leone,

   Distressing because of the wilful, or pathetic, ignorance?

3. poroti – LeMay on the Tokyo fire bombing WTTE “it doesn’t matter if it’s over for them in a flash or the victims have time to know they’re about to be incinerated. In the end they’re all dead anyway …”

   Nice guy.

   • What a bastard.

4. It must be a non-news day:

   The older brother of Canadian singer Celine Dion has died of cancer, two days after her husband also died.

   Daniel Dion, 59, died on Saturday near Montreal, a statement by the singer’s spokeswoman said.

   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35336464

   Who’d give an FF about this other than immediate family.

5. CTar1

   “In the end they’re all dead anyway …”
   .
   As a wee un I was confused about the supposed horror of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. My confusion was how people incinerated in Hamburg , Dresden , Tokyo etc were meant to feel better about being incinerated by “conventional ” weapons”. Doubt their last thoughts were “Thank Dog I was incinerated by conventional weapons: .

   Bonus trivia. Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451 ” was partly inspired by a Maori fellow POW as they cleaned up after Dresden fire bombing.

6. Blimey, these MSM pundits seem to have extraordinary powers of perception & ability to predict future events well beyond the abilities of us mere mortals!

   But just as the leadership change cruelled Bill Shorten’s chances of ever becoming prime minister, it dealt a heavy blow to Xenophon’s plan to build a new national political party.

   http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/nick-xenophons-plan-to-build-a-new-political-force-is-faltering-20160114-gm62di.html

   As the old saying goes: “it’s not over till the fat lady sings”!

   She hasn’t started singing yet. Probably waiting for the election night results to come up on the board! 😉

   • It is outrageous, but they worked the same method with Gillard who they couldn’t defeat on policy.

7. kk – 2 golden points for the Maori just for surviving the stench.

8. Al Jazeera America to close down:

   Al Jazeera America will shutter its cable TV and digital operations by April 30 of this year, the company announced Wednesday. The decision by the AJAM board was “driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace,” said AJAM CEO Al Anstey.

   http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/1/13/al-jazeera-america-to-close-down.html

9. Ctar1

   kk – 2 golden points for the Maori just for surviving the stench.

   That was the point in his prologue . Maori chappie did not survive. Keeled over stone dead after going in to another cellar full of dead Chermans what they were clearing out after the raid.

10. kk – Such is life.

    • Yes, Ned.

11. CTar1

    ‘Tis indeed. Ray reckoned it was the horror of what they saw that did him in. Big 😆 to read him mention Maori dude was “large”.

12. Fiona..did you get my email?

    • Jaycee,

      Yes – see tomorrow’s thread.

13. Ah , the wisdom of Truffles. “We do not intend to be in Iraq forever”.

14. Sorry about all the chopping and changing, people. We now have a new threadstarter:

    The Great Australian Novel?

    Comments here will close soon.

15. Several men of my fathers generation have spoken to me about their feelings regarding the bombing of Japan. Every single one of them had no qualms about it at all. As one nice bloke said to me at my fathers funeral “nobody who, like us, spent months brooding on the likely consequences of the coming invasion of Japan felt anything but elation at the news that they had been atomic bombed into surrender. Distaste at the use of the Atomic Bomb was a luxury only available to the uninvolved.”
    Curtis Lemay was one of the greatest pricks the world has produced, but to win a war against criminal fanatics such as Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire takes blokes like him. Don’t start military action unless you acknowledge that to win you will need to be as ruthless as Lemay (and Chukov of Russia) , and that you are likely to be opposed to people of their ilk.

    • That is very true. And I believe every Japanese schoolchild should read Sister Bulwinkle’s book about her war experience, ‘White Coolie’ I think it was called.

16. I urge you to watch the ABC Iview replay of Tracey Holmes interviewing James Hird. Throughout my major thought was to imagine our top political players in the interviewee’s seat being forensically but not belligerently questioned by Tracey Holmes.

    THAT is the level of interview so shamefully lacking in our political discourse. Holmes made every one of the Canberra Press Gallery and the ABC’s Cassidy, Ullmann and Sales look like rank amateurs.

17. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Tim Dick says that death is the only peace left for asylum seekers,
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/comment-tim-dick-on-selfharm-20160117-gm7jry.html
    Self harm in immigration detention centres is rampant.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/asylum-seekers-selfharm-in-detention-centres-at-epidemic-levels-internal-documents-show-20160114-gm6gqp.html
    NSW Labor has the bit between the teeth on reform.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/labor-launches-historic-affirmative-action-rules-in-wake-of-jamie-clements-saga-20160117-gm7mko.html
    It’s not just chiropractics that are getting away with dangerously inefficacious “treatment”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/ken-harvey-20160116-gm7hln.html
    Sussan Ley and pathologists are heading for a big stoush.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/sussan-ley-under-fire-over-pathology-comments-20160117-gm7q4r.html
    This is a bit sad but in one sense uplifting.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/hero-cop-craig-campbell-left-behind-by-the-cronulla-riots-20160117-gm7j5r.html
    Surely there is need for increased compliance enforcement in aged care.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/reports-of-assaults-in-aged-care-up-10-per-cent-in-one-year-20160117-gm7lh3.html
    The TURC secret volume is causing a bit of trouble.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-government-undecided-on-whether-all-senators-can-view-secret-royal-commission-reports-20160117-gm7kaa.html
    What hope do little girls have under these circumstances?
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/push-to-ban-child-marriages-dubbed-blasphemy-in-pakistan-20160117-gm7nvf.html
    How marine species are being widely distributed around the world.
    https://theconversation.com/how-the-japanese-tsunami-sent-marine-invaders-across-the-ocean-and-why-you-should-be-worried-53107

18. Section 2 . . . with Cartoon Corner

    Campbells breaks ranks and will label GMO foods.
    https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/campbells-will-label-gmos–and-the-sky-will-not-fall,8584
    The government is looking at exporting APS jobs to India.
    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/from-barton-to-bangalore-offshore-aps-comes-closer-20160114-gm6ep5.html
    The six technologies that will define 2016.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivek-wadhwa/these-6-technologies-will-define-2016_b_8970168.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World
    Jon Kudelka analyses Turnbull’s speech to the troops in the Middle East.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/7987aeb84c61311c8c2c249a092fcc9b
    David Rowe is suggesting Clive Palmer’s on the skids.
    

19. Alan Austin piles into Andrew Bolt and the ABC.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-abc-plunges-to-a-new-low,8586#.Vpv8BlvIFDB.twitter

20. Great work from Stephen Koukoulas here.
    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/17/risk-is-building-for-australias-economy-but-we-need-action-not-rhetoric?CMP=share_btn_tw

21. From Cathy Wilcox.
    

22. Palmer’s Queensland Nickel has gone into voluntary administration.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-18/qld-nickel-goes-into-administration/7094818

23. Brilliant stuff from Cathy Wilcox. Derision so richly deserved!