@bennyjohnson Letitia James tried to force Trump to pay a $454 million bond.An appeals court said that was LUDICROUS and…
Open Thread- Mon 8 Nov 2021
- Open Thread – Weekend 21 April 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 18 April 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 15 April 2024
- Projects impending
- Open Thread – Weekend 13 April 2024
@TheChiefNerd Tucker Carlson on Members of Congress Being Controlled by the Intel Agencies “They’re worried about someone putting kiddie p*rn…
Like a magical world, social media is a place where people can create their reality and then use intimidation and…
Winter looks like the time to go if you don’t like crowds. We’re in Rome awaiting a cruise and passing…
No worries Calli. He’s an excellent writer
Just approve it (Novavax) already, lunkheads.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03025-0
tap, tap, tap …
From the Times. “Incapacitated through drink” joins “Tired and emotional – as a newt” as one of the great euphemisms for being ” as piZZed as…”
Ha ha ha. I really did laugh out loud at that. Comedy Gold.
Thermal Inequality is a thing now
I seem to remember that there was a ‘case’ where a young gay man was taken out to a farm or some such place, brutally assaulted and eventually killed. His name may have been Shepard or something.
Anyway his name became the rallying cry for and indeed the eponym for legislation that was supposed to fight the sort of homophobia he had been killed by.
Came out afterwards that at least one of the attackers was an out and proud gay (and the other could not really have been homophobic for attacking a gay man to help a gay man) and the whole thing began from some stupid trifle that had nothing to do with sexual orientation.
The legislation is still there, though.
This really is the last straw. Fake Media! Faaaaaaaake! (the Hun):
The CFMEU? They would never. Has to be a stitch up of some sort.
Nah, nothing will happen. There were no cigarette stubs.
Don’t do it Custard it may come as shock to find a face for radio looking back. In all seriousness do it. My stupid chradonnay socialist mother went nearly blind because she wouldn’t pay for surgury before it was too late. Waited for the public to pick up the tab even though she was rolling in it.
I think that the odds of getting all six are a bit smaller than 1 in 1600.
Enthalpy, enthalpy, enthalpy, enthalpy!
Free Enthalpy! Now!
We know its fake media about the CMFEU because the lines of white powder would have been used, the cans finished anthrown on the floor and theplace unlocked because they couldn’t give a stuff.
Another great column by Steyn. Some highlights:
…
…
RTWT
Allow one unvaxxed at a funeral and the limit of people suddenly becomes 30.
Or do I misread this evil rule?
Let me guess, the people at that site were involved in the protests.
Next up: photos of certain CFMEU leaders caught in bed with prostitutes will be ‘obtained’.
Depends what day it is and which race / religion you are.
works. best thing ever. just do it
No.
The protesters were almost certainly all rank and file.
This was in the union delegates shed (barn).
Why does Kim Beazley (Snr) ‘s comment about “the dregs of the middle class, who persist in using the Party as an intellectual spittoon” spring to mind?
phrasing
On 24/8 I jagged 6 numbers and a bonus to win division 2.
I’d seriously consider blowing some on a big day golf sponsorship at your old club, custard.
Maybe a nice par 3 emblazoned with “Custards Unvaxxed Hole”, then you can wind the old boys up constantly with whatever putting their balls in said hole implies. 😉
Alternatively, get one eye done and buy a boat, the weather’s coming good!
Bruce O’Newk:
On the other hand, Bruce, only a week of no power will focus the Inner City Greens on reality.
Any financial advice given in the above post is general in nature, you should always consult…
Never been a big fan of Keating. He and Hawke benefitted from the Campbell report in the early years (although it would have taken courage from Hawke to get Labor interests to go along), but he planted some real stinkers. Compulsory super has turned out to be a gigantic hoard room for unions and his Redfern Speech has left an indelible skidmark on the nation and how it sees itself.
And I don’t think I have ever heard or seen him enjoy himself without an air of malice. His witticisms seem to be pointed denigrations. Funny at some times but they lose their humour when it is all you hear from someone.
I don’t think he was ever a socialist or any such ideology, just a spiv who was in it for himself. His conspicuous drawing of attention to his Zegna suits and Mahler were kind of obvious signallings that he was classy now.
Then it ended.
To the modern Labor party (and indeed world) he is an anachronism. A relic, greyed with decadal dust, draped in a smell of mould and damp, in a poorly lit case in a forgotten wing of a tired museum. Kicking Australia and siding with those chastising us (as he did with Papa Suharto) is all he has.
I actually enjoy the idea of him sitting in his room with his clocks as they and he tick time away. He can get up and re-wind the clocks, giving them their time again and again, but there is no re-winding his clock as it counts down to his dissolution.
I don’t really think he will be missed.
GreyRanga:
THIS is why I come to the Cat.
That extra serve of originality and sheer viciousness.
Well done!
Stan Grant at the ABC calling Keating a “big thinker”.
Naturally he agrees with everything Keaying says re China.
I guess that puts Stan into the “big thinker” league too.
I actually enjoy the idea of him sitting in his room with his clocks as they and he tick time away.
Keating is a very bitter bloke. Like Rudd he cannot get away from the idea that he was once No 1 in the land, and now he is as nothing. Of course some of the sycophantic media give him press coverage, but as he has no effect on policy and power it’s just lip-service.
I forget the name of the journalist, but it was in the now defunct Bulletin magazine, where the article on him post-his PM years ended with words along the lines of “And every day, he wakes up, and realises, John Howard is still Prime Minister.”
But….but….but…..Tony Abbott is the misogynist who hates and threatens women…..
“AVO taken out against Craig Thomson for wife Zoe Arnold
Police have taken out an AVO against ex-federal MP and union boss Craig Thomson to protect his journalist wife, a court heard.
Police have successfully applied for an AVO against disgraced former federal MP Craig Thomson to protect his wife Zoe Arnold, a court heard.
The two-year apprehended violence order was issued in Gosford Local Court on Monday and it is understood it was not contested by the former national secretary of the Health Services Union who was not present in court. No charges have been laid.
Journalist Ms Arnold is the third wife of Thomson, 57. They married in January 2011 while he was the Labor member for the seat of Dobell on the Central Coast and have two children.
“An Apprehended Domestic Violence Order was made for the protection of Zoe Thomson prohibiting or restricting the behaviour of the defendant Craig Robert Thomson,” the court record states.
Under the order, Thomson is banned from assaulting of threatening her or anyone she has a “domestic relationship with, cannot stalk or intimidate them or intentionally or recklessly destroy or damage any property or harm an animal that belongs to her or is in her possession.
He is not allowed to go into anywhere she lives, works or other places listed in the order.”
Julia Gillard is unavailable for comment.
“Mother Lodesays:
November 11, 2021 at 10:41 am”
Superb comment.
From Ms Arnold’s statement:
‘I was chastising him about rub and tugs, and he looked at his watch.’
Guilty guilty guilty!
More cutting edge analysis from the ABC:
‘As backyards get smaller and trees are removed, urban heat islands could be making suburbs hotter’
You think?
They even find an academic who says the problem is leading to premature deaths.
Yet they never ask the question: What’s driving the eveer more dense redevelopment of suburbs?
only blocking access to their smashed avo and prosciutto panini and soy latte with almond milk will do that.
Thanks Winston, I prefer cash, but if accolades are all I get at least it more than Keating deserves. An uptick or uplick is still appreciated.
Thumb up Roger.
Custard:
I had mine done about twenty years ago. Best money I’ve ever spent.
Do it – there may be a couple of days of a slight haze, especially at night, but gone in four days time.
Mine was through Lasik – a lovely old Jewish bloke and we spent more time discussing his religion than anything else. (He was wearing one of those skull cap thingies which caught my attention.)
🙂
dickful upskirters
Seems rather more intimate than is usual for a blog.
Still streets ahead of the cunning linky descriptions people were subjected to a year ago.
From memory, that was the same article that cited Keating as scuttling from the House, without even the courtesy of resigning to the Governor General?
I was in the House at the moment Ironbar Wilson Tuckey spread Keating across the floor with his Christine comment. One of the finest moments in political history I witnessed. Many others surpass that magical moment, but sadly missed.
My thumb up is explicit.
None of this behind door link clicking for me.
Despite, I might add, every housholder interviewed looking like a fairly recent immigrant from the sub-continent. Not that they’re to blame; blame sits squarely on the heads of our political leaders who for decades have pandered to their developer & big business maaaates.
Okay ABC flunky, let’s follow this idea to its logical conclusion. So if urban heat islands make suburbs hotter, they also are making cities hotter. Which means that daily temperatures will be hotter.
Hmmm
Custard,
if you go with the laser, don’t skimp on the after care!
The year after Keating admitted that he hadn’t lodged his income tax return for the past financial year, Wilson Tuckey took out a full page advertisement in the West Australian, reminding him to lodge a return this year…
Above the pay grade of the two junior reporterettes who did the story, I should think.
Even if they did go there, it would have been edited out and they would have received a lecture from the political commissar.
jupes
Okay ABC flunky, let’s follow this idea to its logical conclusion. So if urban heat islands make suburbs hotter, they also are making cities hotter. Which means that daily temperatures will be hotter.
Comments like that will cause painful cognitive dissonance at Their ABC.
Lets have more of them.
Roger – the main problem at the ALPBC is the 20 year + Marxist producers. The power behind the Throne.
Death by cognac dissidents.
who said that?
Roger – your spray gets a mention in Fred Pawle’s Bill Leak biography. Well done.
I see Morrison is in Victoria “to shore up support”.
Would be nice if he had something to say about Daniels’ bill to have himself declared Czar of All the Victorians.
Wonder if he has ever heard that line about ‘silence gives consent’.
And this story was carefully ‘curated’ so as not to draw their ire.
‘silence gives consent’
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’
Qué?
And here’s me using a pseudonym.
Roger Franklin’s then.
Re the raid on the Victorian doctor’s surgery by police & the demand for patient records.
The doctor was Dr. Mark Hobart, one of only 2 doctors in Oz (that I know of) who had the integrity to prescribe Ivermectin to patients.
I have only just had news of this – there is a long broadcast on Rumble regarding the whole incident. I believe it was picked up by Channel 7 last night, but I didn’t see it. Craig kelly also has quite a lot to say about it.
Forgive me if I can’t give you any more details. My 19 year old grandson was king hit last night & is currently undergoing surgery for a jaw broken in 2 places. Don’t know yet all the details, but he apparently went to the defence of another boy – black – who was picked on in a McDonalds by 2 Scottish backpackers. He is an outstanding kid, and a fine rugby player. It was his birthday & he had had a few schooners, no doubt, & didn’t see the big one coming.
Not a lot of justice in our world, at the moment.
Dot – hold on a bit longer – Novavax is coming soon!!!
ScoMo:
“I believe in candoo capitalism”.
Also ScoMo:
“Here’s a billion of taxpayers hardearned Mr Candoo”
Ah yes, more likely.
15 minutes of fame dashed just like that. Such is life.
Yep. Gone and forgotten. Welcome to the club. Have you met Aggro?
45 nCR 6 = 8,145,060 combinations (for Sat lotto 45 number, 6 to win)
To get the odds down to 1 in 1600, you’d need to buy 5,090 tickets.
I usually by 50 tickets, so my odds of winning are 1 : 162,901.
Similar to the odds of people of my age group of dying from covid 😉
Who?
they just rattle around hollow skulls
Having had a sub-continental gentleman as a science instructor back in the day,
this caused some minor bladder leakage.
Such was his accent, enthalpy and entropy sounded the same,
causing much hilarity, albeit perilous, discipline-wise.
He was a Lieutenant Commander.
I put this comment on the vax thread, but I think it needs repeating..
I thought my ability to be gobsmacked by the evil/stupidity of this had been reached.
but a new plateau awaits.
The chap on site that had the ridgy didge full on life threatening reaction to the pfizer vaccine has had his exemption request knocked back.
Instead he has been informed he must take one of the other 2 varieties of vaccine in a “controlled environment” (hospital or similar).
I just cant grasp that medical professionals are willing to induce anaphylaxis for the sake of vaccinating someone.
Deliberately.
Rutgers Faculty Groups Stand In ‘Unequivocal Solidarity’ With Professor Who Wants White ‘Motherf**kers’ To Be ‘Taken Out’
Vicki, that’s terrible news about your son. I hope he recovers fully very soon.
If that doesn’t convince everyone that its not about health, then nothing will.
For the goldbugs here.
Spot price of gold just went up 2% ($50 per ounce) overnight after about three months around A$2400.
Dunno why.
Vicki, please keep us posted on your grandson. You never think it could happen to one of your own but it does.
The average price of my physical bullion stash is $950/oz.
Happy days.
Apologies, Vicki. I meant your grandson.
He sounds like a fine young man.
Don’t forget that Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030 are pushed through the local governments. Minimising livable space for individual families is part of it.
Laser it is then. Love the golf hole sponsorship advice Elvis LOL.
incoherent ramblersays:
November 11, 2021 at 11:28 am
‘silence gives consent’
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’
Morrison has proven himself to be not a “good man”.
One of the many benefits of being a superannuated has been rural recluse is the ease with which unwanted associates from one’s former life can be kept at arm’s distance. Nobody from that world wants to cross the Great Divide (actual and metaphorical), let me tell you. As for the media, reporters are, in my experience, idiots (no offence, Roger & Tom) who, being equipped with an Arts degree, have no idea how much they don’t know and they are not intreested in knowing, of which ignorance one can find ample confirming evidence by reading their work. The worst by far – at least in my time -work for the ABC capital city offices and drip with condescension for anyone not of the prog Left. The smartest cookie I dealt with was actually a producer for A Current Affair, but she was clearly a normie. I hope she’s done well but kept her integrity in the years since.
Eleven a.m. has been and gone here in the east, but it will come by Cats further afield soon.
Don’t forget to remember them.
Looking forward to hearing from him on the steps of Vic parliament on Saturday.
Yes, them too; they’re all in on the game. Note how Monash City Council is driving the redevelopment agenda on the ground as mentioned in the story. They can’t wait until Morrison opens the immigration floodgates again.
Nobody does official corruption the way Australia does, maaaate.
Last week, John Durham’s grand jury issued its third criminal indictment in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. The person who was arrested may be obscure; the news may have been buried after Virginia’s bombshell election results; but Durham’s move is a big deal. It shows that the special counsel’s probe is methodically unraveling a huge conspiracy, seemingly engineered by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and implicating James Comey’s FBI, either as a willing participant or as utterly incompetent boobs.
Vicki
Sorry to hear about your grandson. The incident was probably a by product of the media obsession with race.
Product of backpackers, by the sound of it.
Despite the carefree cutie image promoted by reporterettes, there’s some very nasty types among the backpacker cohort.
Particularly the UK cohort.
Something to mark the day, Dover?
Australia now has a terrible image overseas. I’d wager not many would be willing to risk it being caught here with a horrible Fascist so called ‘government’.
JUST IN: Never-Before-Seen FBI Footage of Kyle Rittenhouse Shooting – Shows More Proof He Acted in Self Defense, Why Wait Until Now to Release it? – (VIDEO)
I know one Christian Indian family who are moving back to India, because they can’t stand what’s happening here.
Will Scott, A.F.A., killed Belgium. Allen Grant, 24th Bn., killed Belgium (last battle of the war). You have not been forgotten.
Oh they were willing participants alright. Clinton payed for the dossier.
As for Durham’s enquiry. At the rate he is going, he will get to Clinton and Comey by the turn of the century.
wot mole said.
+1
On a note of “saving Gaia”, my frustration with petty gesture politics grows. A few weeks ago, the plastic clips on bread bags were replaced with cardboard clips. The cardboard versions have much in common with udders on a bull.
They wont be the last. The Fascist ‘gov’ has fucked up, big time.
I have discussed with my husband my feelings about what is going on at this site, about the pile-ons that are induced by a woman with a fixation, which obviously then provide a basis for others to share it. It has been something I have endured on the old Cat, with some pushback by friends on site, and clearly it is never going to end, regardless of Johanna’s input or not. I am a normal elderly woman and cannot be subjected to this any more. That is my husband’s view, and mine too. To some I am ‘irritating’ in what I say; if so, I apologise, but I don’t think my name is Betty nor do I deserve Pogria’s disapprobating link. I am sorry if I mistook his Snap as applying to me during the middle of the recent acrimonious attack from IC and others, but he has certainly enjoined the nastiness anyway. No-one who knows me has suggested I am a particularly irritating person although my writing this will be irritation enough for some. I do have opinions and the capacity to state them; but that is not a Federal offence.
Sadly, after eleven years, I am withdrawing from Catallaxy. This is permanent, in a solemn agreement with my husband, who does not wish me to be on a site where I am called ‘a flash rat with a gold tooth’ and then the above ‘shell game’ comment, with great applause for all of that, given all the other attacks now under the bridge. He has been pushed too far by this in his concern for me and I think he is right. I thank those who have been my friends here. I will miss you. Hairy and I have agreed that this is not the blog for me. Perhaps it never really was, but I have shared good times here. Sinestra delendra est. Good luck with it all, Dover, and thank you. I wasn’t going to say anything, but felt I owed it to myself and some others to say this much. Perhaps too people will be kinder to each other so that others are not driven away, although some I know will just see any comment I make as part of some ‘shell’. I have spoken with Arky via email (he emailed me). He is a good bloke who deserves affection here, I told him I didn’t mean to be ‘picky’ re his thread, which I certainly was, and I wish him well.
It may be time for me to revisit King Arthur. 🙂
Something about “breach of promise” from memory?
I will be sorry to see you go, LizzieB. I have enjoyed your contributions.
At the time of the African non-gang non-problem one mother said she was sending her children back to Africa because of the problems of raising them in Australia. Maybe you have to watch the TIts and Nazi channel to find out how it ends.
Muddysays:
November 11, 2021 at 12:06 pm
Will Scott, A.F.A., killed Belgium. Allen Grant, 24th Bn., killed Belgium (last battle of the war). You have not been forgotten.
Montbrehain, 5 October 1918? Last Australian battle of the war, which continued for more than another month?
Victoria, highest unemployment rate in the country.
Congratulation’s you piece of shit hunchback bat eared mong.
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia/latest-release
I’ve been having a few exchanges with Paxton over at CL’s blog.
Is he as stupid as he seems to be, or just a low quality Hammy troll?
Not if they come into Perth from Big W they don’t.
All their kit comes via a daily 1.8km long express freight train, known as ‘The Great White Shark,’ courtesy of our friends SCT Logistics… 😉
Ditto,I have managed to get a week’s work in a school. Could have heard a pin drop on parade
Sorry to see you go Lizzie.
Yes, Boambee John, Mont Brehain. I know the details such as the date of his death, but my grey matter has been under functioning recently. Uncle Will Scott was a subaltern in the field arty & was killed at Third Ypres the year before. Buried at Dickebusch.
Possibly epic
https://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=193&mn=148523&pt=msg&mid=22560364
Explains the Politico smear of Novavax.
He’s that dumb.
No joke.
It’s really about Hillary giving patronage to the McCabe’s.
Thank you for the reminder, Calli.
Thank you. No need for any other farewells, people. I know my friends here.
You poem for the day is beautiful, Calli. You always choose so well.
Donning the suit and tie for the first time in a couple of years and heading down to the town’s war memorial for the 11.00am Remembrance Day service.
Australia lost the cream of its youth in two World Wars, and there is barely a city, town or village in this country that does not have a long list of names carved on a granite slab, the local lads who never came home.
Lest We Forget.
It is your choice, of course, but I don’t think you should leave. You have posted many interesting and informative comments in the past. The site would be lacking if you left.
IMO, you need to toughen up, and I say that as someone who used to worry unduly about what people thought of me, but lately have developed a very thick skin which can not be penetrated by pixels on a blog. This came about the hard way: long, disgusted grimaces as strangers studied me from top to amputation stump, as though I were some gross exhibit in a carnival.
It really hurt and humiliated me and, even after toughening up, I’m still reluctant to leave the house because I know someone is going to stop and stare. But I’m getting tougher every day, and so should you.
So what if someone is mean on a blog site? It can only hurt if you let it.
I’ve heard it argued that rural Australian never recovered from the First World War.
More madness from the UK…
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/10/i-feel-really-let-down-unjabbed-care-home-staff-on-quitting-their-jobs
Katie Madden, who worked night shifts at Greenways for the last 18 months, came close to tears when she told the Guardian about leaving. She worked through a Covid outbreak at the home and was ill herself with the virus for weeks. She had planned to get the vaccine, but was anxious about it making her ill again. “The decision was taken out of my hands [when the law making it mandatory was introduced] … and I thought, ‘No, I’m not ready,’” she said.
She doesnt need a vaccine, shes had the virus and now has natural immunity…
…
Neil Russell, the chairman of PJ Care, which provides neurological care for adults, said he was losing 14 staff across three sites and potentially another dozen by 24 December unless they could persuade doctors they were medically exempt. Carers are allowed to self-certify a medical exemption until Christmas, but must leave after then if it is not confirmed.
Those leaving this week are going to new jobs including in the NHS and handling parcels at Amazon and John Lewis warehouses, he said.
Scale of the self inflicted “crisis”
Care homes in England set to lose 50,000 staff as Covid vaccine becomes mandatory
Analysis shows care of about 30,000 residents could be affected
Sorry to see you go Lizzie. Hopefully catch up in Sydney some time.
“Sadly, after eleven years, I am withdrawing from Catallaxy.”
Having only come back to commenting over the last few months, I would read every comment by every one who posted here to have a feel for the people, their thoughts and to make sure I did not dive into ongoing rivalries and bitchfests. Some I recognised which had been going for years, Bird, Groogs etc. I have never involved myself in them as they were not interesting to me, nor aimed at me.
Your writings Betty bored me along with a couple of others here, so I would skim past those comments because that is my right. When others would stoush with you, I would read, but not feel remotely inclined to comment. Because you believe everything here is about you, you jumped to a conclusion, and decided to make an example of a stranger. I was mildly amused but decided to have some fun. As the Judge would say in court, “you opened the door on that line of questioning, you can’t cry “objection!” when it doesn’t go your way.
I also don’t believe it is goodbye, more, see you later. You do have form in this regard.
I’ll take 3 hours in Betty Lotto.
Re the raid seizing patient files from Dr. Hobart’s surgery;
Is it fair dinkum that Craig Kelly’s medical records were stored there & among those seized?
Damn! 22 minutes.
That’s unfortunate. Lizzie was the first person on SincCat with a kind word to me.
I understand you doing what your husband wants you to do – I would do that too. Personally, I would not bow to rule-by-Smurf-thumb. But that’s just me and I haven’t had to deal with weeks and months of grinding illness.
Bon chance, Lizzie. You can always do a Dame Nellie when you’re up to scratch again.
In fact, you should. That would be extra annoying to the grumblebums.
That’s what the man himself said.
Based.
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Border Closuresays:
November 11, 2021 at 12:50 pm
Re the raid seizing patient files from Dr. Hobart’s surgery;
Is it fair dinkum that Craig Kelly’s medical records were stored there & among those seized?
Seems unlikely. Kelly is from Sydney, the raid was in Melbourne.
He might have asked Dr. Hobart for Ivermectin prescription as the doctor was one of only a few in Australia who do that.
I’m with you Delta. It is not your friends saying this. Only the people I care about are the only ones I pay any attention to personally. If I disagree with them they can get stuffed. Life is too short to worry about the arseholes and we all know what comes out of them. Sorry for being crude, but put some perspective into it. It seems too me the nanowrigglers have got to you. The events of the last 18 months have worn many down especially the older ones who expected to enjoy their twilight years. Imagine how its going to be for the children surrounded by the psychopathics (my new favorite word) endemic to our world. Will miss you.
John of Mel
He might have asked Dr. Hobart for Ivermectin prescription as the doctor was one of only a few in Australia who do that.
Possible. If true, UAP should be able to parlay an obvious political raid into a lot of publicity. Possibly enough to convince Federal Labor that TaliDan has become a liability.
Tired of Killing – Mont Brehain, October, 1918.
So wrote the philosophical war diarist of the 24th Australian Infantry Battalion, 6th Brigade, 2nd Division, of the 1st A.I.F. on the 5th of October, 1918, ninety-five years ago today. It was indeed their last battle of the Great War, not only for the 24th Battalion, but for the infantry of the ANZAC Corps as a whole.
Unless you are a scholar of the 1st A.I.F. in the Great War, chances are you may not have heard of the location the war diarist was writing of – the name was unfamiliar to me until I became aware of a family connection.
Mont Brehain was a village east of Bellicourt, a major obstacle in the Hindenburg Line of German defences which had recently been penetrated by another Australian division.
I do not understand enough about the battle and its context to deliver a concise, lucid summary here, suffice it to say that the battalion gained their objectives and achieved another ‘win’ for the generals on paper. For a tired and understrength battalion (as many of them were at this stage of the war) however, the cost of success again ate into their physical and perhaps emotional, strength.
In his report, the Commanding Officer wrote:
“All the men say they are tired of killing,” wrote the battalion war diarist.
One of the 49 24th Battalion men Killed in Action or Died of Wounds (the battalion also suffered 75 Wounded in Action and 8 Missing), was my Great, Great Uncle, Corporal Norman Allen Grant. He was a tailor’s presser from Yackandandah in northern Victoria who enlisted on the 6th of July, 1915 and served in the 13th Light Horse Regiment and the 1st ANZAC Mounted Regiment prior to joining the 24th Infantry Battalion in France. On the 4th of October, 1917 he received a gunshot wound to the right shoulder and was sent to England to recuperate. Almost exactly one year later at Mont Brehain he was killed and later buried at the Calvaire British Cemetery. The sole effects as delivered to his mother amounted to a damaged fountain pen in a leather case, a ‘housewife’, a pair of socks and a devotional book.
Apart from these dry facts garnered from his service record, I know almost nothing about my great, great uncle, but I can’t help wondering what his emotional state may have been prior to this, his last day on earth. Did he feel as jaded, as worn-down and ‘tired of killing’ as his fellow soldiers did?
[Author – Muddy. Source: AWM4/23/41/37].
Oops.
Sorry. Obviously I wrote that piece some years ago, and my editing a few minutes ago was cursory.
Arthurianism won’t help Lizzie one bit. It’s a tedious field of endless speculation. Joseph Conrad would be a more rewarding interest.
“jupessays:
November 11, 2021 at 12:45 pm
Sorry to see you go Lizzie. Hopefully catch up in Sydney some time.”
We will Jupes. We’re lucky to know Lizzie personally.
“Delta Asays:
November 11, 2021 at 12:39 pm”
Well said DA.
Daily Caller
@DailyCaller
Tucker Carlson: “Joseph Rosenbaum died as he had lived, trying to touch an unwilling minor.”
Outstanding.
“Lizzie was the first person on SincCat with a kind word to me.”
Lizzie is kind and nice….it was Lizzie who encouraged me to comment here.
Not Without its Sorrow… A Christmas Greeting from France, 1918.
I hesitate to quote from a document verbatim and then put it forward as the sum total of a blog entry, however on occasion I believe it is warranted to minimise the commentary and let the original author speak for him/her self. Such is the case with the following, a suggested text for a Christmas greeting to loved ones for the men of the Australian 23rd Infantry Battalion, A.I.F., then in France. It has been extracted from the October, 1918 battalion newsletter. The writer was not to know that their war would end within weeks:
[Editor – Muddy. Source – “The Red and White Diamond” (news sheet) in AWM4 23/41/37].
Not surprised.
Remembering the ‘Broken.’
Shattered Anzacs by Marina Larsson focuses not on the dead of the Great War, but on those who survived and returned home wounded – in body or mind – and the impact this had on their families. Larsson makes the point that these sacrifices – the loss of limbs, sight, lung function, or mental capacity – are just as worthy of acknowledgement as the roughly 60,000 men who were killed outright.
One of the roughly 150,000 wounded who returned to Australia was a man named Ernest Francis Healy. Frank Healy was a single, 27 year-old ‘painter and letterer’ from Dudley, Newcastle, N.S.W. when he enlisted in the 1st A.I.F. on the 21st of August, 1914, and was assigned the number ‘98’ which shows just how keen he was to volunteer.
He embarked with the 1st Australian Field Company Engineers just two months later, and after training in Egypt, was amongst those who landed at Gallipoli on that now fateful day, the 25th of April, 1915. Healy acted as a stretcher-bearer for a time, but roughly three weeks after landing, he was shot by a Turkish sniper and paralysed, as the bullet had lodged in his spine.
After being hospitalised in Egypt, Frank returned to Australia and was admitted to the 4th Australian General Hospital at Randwick, Sydney, in mid September the same year, where a crowd reportedly in the thousands was waiting to greet him and his fellow wounded.
As the first ‘cot case’ to be admitted to Randwick, he was interviewed by a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, and was philosophical in his response: “We did not go over for a holiday, you know. We represented the N.S.W. covering party, and we got it hot … to tell you the truth, you enjoy it while it lasts, but really don’t keep a tally of what you doing. It’s just like a nightmare.”
While Healy mentioned his brother of the 16th Infantry Battalion who had been killed, he stated that if he was able to recover from his wounds, he would return and “get home on those Turks,” though in all probability, the newspapers of the day may have written these words for him had he not uttered them himself.
He was complimentary of the treatment he had received in hospital in Egypt: “all that could be expected under very trying conditions,” though he mentioned – as others did – that they had received no Red Cross comfort parcels, however “other presents from local people made up for them.”
Healy was the proud owner of a ‘Turkish dog,’ which he had somehow managed to bring back (smuggle?) with him, and which at the time of his interview was in government quarantine. The miniature spaniel named ‘Gallipoli’ was found “in a Turkish camp we took” and journeyed with him to hospital in Egypt where it walked with other patients (as Healy himself was unable to) and became quite popular, to the point where he was “patted on the head from the General downwards.”
Laying “helpless on an air cushion,” Healy became a long-term resident at Randwick, and a “familiar figure to thousands of visitors.” For five years he had the use of his own tent, nicknamed ‘Canary Cottage,’ which had been set up for him near the entrance to the hospital grounds.
There is no record of what Sapper Healy’s feelings were as the subject of local ‘fame,’ however on the occasion of the visit to the hospital in 1920 of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, he was honoured with the opportunity to meet the Prince and present to him a deluxe edition of the book “Remnants from Randwick,” written and illustrated by the residents. On the same occasion, the visiting royal renamed No.4 General Hospital Randwick, the Prince of Wales Hospital.
It is not known if Healy married, for a later newspaper report mentioning a ‘Mrs. Healy’ did not state if she was a wife or mother. In about 1927 or ’28, he was recorded as residing ‘in his home’ at Lane Cove, where the fundraising efforts of his community allowed the erection of a ‘motor garage’ to house the car which had been “specially constructed for his use.”
Sadly, however, he was “robbed… of what would have been one of his last pleasures in life” when, after 13 long years of complete dependence upon others, and the denial of the opportunities that his able-bodied peers were able to experience, Frank Healy collapsed and died on Thursday the 9th of August, 1928. It was, as one newspaper called it ‘The End of a Weary Road.”
So as you reflect today, or on Anzac Day or another such commemorative occasion, please spare a thought not only for those sacrificed their physical life, but also for the broken ones like Sapper Frank Healy, who gave their quality of life, and whose struggles endured long after the last casualty list had been published.
[Author – Muddy. Various references including Marina Larsson, Shattered Anzacs, UNSW Press, 2009, and others].
Good stuff, Muddy.
Really good stuff.
Too true.
Snatch was a documentary.
Thankyou Muddy.
In about 2 minutes (relative) from the time of posting, the guns fell silent 103 years ago.
Most people will not Remember around me, but I will.
My association with those who fought and died was only professional, but I carried their legacy. It is the very least I can do in return.
Lest We Forget…
Thanks a lot Muddy. Appreciate it.
Last for today:
All Over – the 4th Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, WW1.
On the 10th of November, 1918, the 4th Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps, then based at Ennetiers in France and equipped with 21 serviceable Sopwith Snipes, flew a collective total of 80 hours and 10 minutes of ‘war time,’ dropped six 25-pound bombs on the enemy, and expended 1,000 rounds of small arms ammunition in strafing the same. An offensive patrol of fourteen aircraft escorting a bombing raid to Hal in the early afternoon observed 3 enemy Fokker Biplanes over Enghien, but it appears that these were not directly engaged.
The following day, Armistice Day as it is now known, just two Snipes flew offensive patrols for a total ‘war time’ of 1 hour and 45 minutes, and both were back on the ground by 1100 hours when all hostilities were to cease. No enemy aircraft were seen, no bombs dropped on troop or transport concentrations, and no rounds fired. The war was all but over.
Less aggressive activity continued however, as the Squadron (which had previously flown the Sopwith Camel) was one of four chosen to go forward with the Army of Occupation, and flying still posed a danger even without the presence of the enemy, for three days following the Armistice, a pilot, Lt. L.K. Swann died in hospital of his injuries following an aircraft accident on the aerodrome at Ennetieres. Swann, who had won the Military Medal with the 40th Battalion A.I.F. before being commissioned and trained as a pilot with the A.F.C., had been taken on strength of the 4th Squadron only five days previously. He died of a fractured skull and internal injuries.
The Squadron was stationed at Bickendorf, near Cologne, Germany from mid December, 1918 until March the following year when it began the journey home via the United Kingdom, arriving in Melbourne in mid June, 1919 prior to disbandment.
In its almost three year history, including 11 months of operational experience in France, the Squadron suffered 35 killed and 16 wounded.
[Author – Muddy. References: AWM4 & NAA: B2455 series. Details available upon request].
Time to be pedantic.
Swann, who had won the Military Medal
Please substitute ‘earned’ for ‘won.’
Perhaps ‘earned and received’
Thanks, Muddy. It always grates.
It’s a contest no one would engage in willingly. Ditto VC.
“Awarded” also works. It has a sense of being weighed in the scales and being found amply sufficient.
Muddy, if you don’t mind, I’ll put them together as a guest post for the weekend.
I don’t mind, Dover. The challenge is getting your attention, though. Have you received my recent Catictionary submission?
LOL! Yes, I have it. But is that the entire Catictionary? If it is, I will add it as a page.
TFM:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/10/care-homes-in-england-set-to-lose-50000-staff-as-covid-vaccine-becomes-mandatory
Somehow, I get the feeling this isn’t about healthy working conditions – it’s more about getting rid of carers who cost, and replacing them with cheaper ones who will work for less, via kickbacks for services.
I’ll send you a quick email later, Dover, regarding the Catictionary. I’m feeling a bit cranky, but don’t want to do this in public, which I think is bad form.
Yes, it’s fine to combine the above posts.
lunaticville
hurty feelz
Although I am vastly sceptical about a lot of claims about COVID19, the existence of the so-called “Long COVID” does not surprise me.
CV19, after all, is a virus, and many suffer a syndrome, now simply called “Post Viral Syndrome” after appearing to recover from the initial virus. This is commonly characterised by extreme fatigue, myalgia, & a bunch of other symptoms. My mother suffered from this following a bout of Ross River Fever. She consulted many physicians, including some well known specialists. One, in particular, did tests on her muscle function & could find no physical restriction. But she simply could not walk for normal distances. She was never a “shirker” and, as a keen gardener, often wept over her inability to do the thing she loved the most.
Brent Boltitude, one of the morons on 2SM rabbiting on about EVs and the phasing out of petrol cars and fossils. Guy rings up and tells him roads (as well as EVs) are made out of coal – bitumen, tar, concrete, steel, rubber etc – as well as powered by it so you can’t get rid of coal because of the many things which are made from it. Boltitude said he had never heard that before. I have been telling him for years that coal is just as important as an ingredient as well as a fuel source. FMD I hate the media.
BTW for those Cats who have very kindly inquired about my grandson – we are still awaiting the result of his surgery. On examining him, the surgeon remarked that it looked like he had been hit with a baseball bat, the damage was so severe.
Thank you for your concern.
Yes, Vicki. I agree. It’s just Post Viral Syndrome, or Chronic Fatigue.
When I say “just” it isn’t to downplay the problem. I had it in my 30’s after a bout of HepA contracted in PNG. Three young children, and basically unable to function. But you crack on as best you can, sometimes to the doubts of people who haven’t had it and think you’re piking. Wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but it’s fantasy to think it’s something spookily new.
Mother Lode so eloquently said, I almost feel sad for the spiv then I remember his spiteful arrogance and the recession we had to have and that feeling evaporates.
bugmen empires
Jowly chick on Focks Sports’ The Back Page moaning about skinfold tests for chick football ‘players’.
‘Ooooh but they do it in front of teammates and the staff and all the officials know about the results and it can be devastating‘ she said.
What? Thousands of blokes undergo the same thing every year, umpteen times a year.
If they want to be paid the same and hold close the fantasy that they are the equal of players with penises, then stop your fucking bitching and get on with it.
Was just sending a message of support to someone via Fakebook messenger and decided to add a cheery gif.
What came up in the offerings for “soon be over” you might ask?
An image of Biden addressing a crowd of his followers and saying…..
“The days of Donald Trump’s divisiveness will soon be over”
I’m speechless, I am without speech!
Quick, someone inform our resident fattard, monty.
The 3rd World is now the Climate Vulnerable World.
That’s been the case since 2009, at least.
Remember the shithole-island politicians pretending to drown.. for the cameras?
Come on Cats! Your memory’s better than that!
Was that the interview where the journalist asked Keating how he was. Keating replied that he was keeping fit, “like a greyhound, all muscle with a dick.”
Maybe Mr Morrison’s doing nothing and saying nothing about the dreadful situation for so many people in Australia is that ‘good’ is not an adjective that applies to Mr Morrison, cowardly, craven, prideful, egocentric, tin-eared … but not ‘good’
Is it attempted murder/manslaughter?
guys, I just found a tiara in the Cat open forum.
…anybody know whose it is?
Why thank you, Matrix. I wondered where I’d dropped it. 😀
Talk about lack of relevance, someone seems to have gone right off his rocker.
Prince Harry says he warned Twitter CEO that a coup was about to happen a day before the Capitol riot
I used to think his problem was just being too credulous but, honestly, now I think he’s just as loony as that horror of a wife of his. The apple obviously hasn’t fallen far from the tree.
Lizzie Delta A has a point but I know your loving husband cares for you so much and he doesn’t want to see you hurt. You are indeed blessed to have such a loving husband with whom to share Life’s ups and downs. Will miss your comments. Arrivederci presto.
Thanks Harry. What a scoop.
He must have missed the actual coup that occurred two months and three days earlier.
Easy to overlook if you’re only watching with your Left eye.
60,000 Australian citizens have departed to distant shores to escape the tyranny. So to have 300,000 permanent visa holders who have decided that this land is not to their liking.
What have we lost due to this madness which has descended on us. Those who have left obviously possessed skills,talents and capital which are sought elsewhere, how many skilled doctors, clever engineers, and enterprising entrepreneurs have withdrawn their services to the common good of the nation.
Harry was spot on. Twitter did assist in a coup.
Calli:
Hmmmm.
You’re a lot younger looking than you sound, Calli.
Same from me Lizzie, please let us know when your King Arthur book gets published.
Muddy
One of the roughly 150,000 wounded who returned to Australia was a man named Ernest Francis Healy. Frank Healy was a single, 27 year-old ‘painter and letterer’ from Dudley, Newcastle, N.S.W. when he enlisted in the 1st A.I.F. on the 21st of August, 1914, and was assigned the number ‘98’ which shows just how keen he was to volunteer.
In a day or so, I will put up a post on WW I army numbers. It is not as simple a subject as the bolded bit suggests.
Delta A:
I just read your post about losing your foot and how you felt about it.
I realise we gave you a bit of curry about it, suggesting all you needed was a parrot for fancy dress, etc.
I certainly hope you took it in good humour as intended.
But abject apologies if I hurt your feelings.
I’m an Old Soul, Winston. 😀
Three of those 300,000 were three disability workers who worked with my son, competent, compassionate and favourites of his — he has been terribly disturbed by the changes in his life over which he has no control and about which he cannot utter a word —- only through his behaviour does he express his heightened anxiety about what is happening in his life. It is crushing to see him so fraught, he pounds his head in frustration, gouges his flesh, and pulls his toenails off such is his anxiety. I’ll say no more.
At the very least you’d be excused for thinking it’s gross medical negligence.
Are these doctors all being blackmailed or something? What can be enticing them to go against all common sense and, you’d think, their medical training? To any commonsense person, this is absolutely nuts, stark raving bonkers in any medical care sense.
For which they can be sued — ahem, I know a good lawyer who has a leading case in NSW on medical negligence
Winston Smithsays:
November 11, 2021 at 3:35 pm
No apologies necessary, Winnie. In fact, IIRC, I thanked you all for your witty efforts to cheer me.
My chagrin arose when I started going out in public, to the shops etc. People do stare. Old lady in a wheelchair, wonder what’s wrong with… ew, there it is. Gross.
I wouldn’t have mentioned it, except my situation then was similar to Elizabeth’s now – hurty feelings – and the only way to deal with that is to toughen up.
What did that wily old bastard Paul Keating say……………”Always back the horse called Self Interest……”
Liz
Don’t flounce. Just stick around.
Winnie, you also told me about your amputee mate and the redbacks.
I still laugh about that.
Yes, JC.
There’s a lot to be said for lurking.
I suspect that’s where a lot of the dickless uptrickery* is coming from.
* note to Muddy – you have to put “Dickless upticking” in the Catictionary
Judge Jeanine predicts Rittenhouse trial outcome
Sadly, after eleven years, I am withdrawing from Catallaxy.
I sincerely hope you won’t.
IIRC you did this previously, yet here we are.
This Cat is still the best blog in OZ, by several light-years, the only reason it works is because of the general intelligence and life-experience of all involved.
Even the socks contribute to its protean entertainment.
The “secret” is to keep it all in perspective, it’s just a blog, not one’s life. Accept the positives and ignore the negatives.. the overall result is still (much) more than zero.
Having the last word, as many here are intent on doing, is also a waste of time… In the end, nobody here cares about who “wins” some stupid argument.
Oh, and it’s second to none for the level and breadth of information that passes through it, yours included.
Sociopaths who derive pleasure from others’ distress are everywhere, even here.
Just ignore/scroll them… and keep contributing, as it’s clearly something that you’re good at, and that seems to improve your QOL.
In the end, that’s all that matters.
Former Communist Countries leading the world race to not be duped…
Vax rates:
-75.6% of European Union citizens are fully vaccinated
-Bulgaria is 26.2%
-39.6% in Romania
-20.2% of Ukraine’s population
-36% Russians;
-etc…
Sorry to hear that Lizzie. I have only just read back through the days’ posts – as my grandson’s accident has occupied me most of the day, with occasional time-off to look at recent posts & to post my own replies.
There are very strong characters on this blog. It is what I admire a lot about it. And outstanding intellects, with a lot of life experience as well. Love you to reconsider, but Hairy’s feelings also very much a consideration. Bon chance!
“JCsays:
November 11, 2021 at 3:55 pm
Liz
Don’t flounce. Just stick around.”
JC, I will encourage her. Sometimes we all need a break from here. However the Cat is like Hotel California, whilst you can check-out any time, you can never leave.
True, that. And if someone says something horridly, horrid to you, leave it there like a fart in a lift. If there’s a stack of blue thumbs, look at them as extra little stinks.
Lizzie, what Gilas said. Stay.
No it’s not! 😀
#TeeHee!
Yes it is. So there.
1st and last.
Nope. But I found a thumb condom on the patio.
Varvel and Garrison this morning, Tom, especially Garrison.
When the side-effects of these products become a subject for a cartoonist, you know that a corner has been turned.
I’ve also been thinking about making a permanent exit from the Cat after so many years. I’ve really been hurt at times by those attacks against me by my detractors. I’m calling it quits and best regards all my blog pals.
hahahahahaha Just kidding. As if.
“JCsays:
November 11, 2021 at 4:24 pm
I’ve also been thinking about making a permanent exit from the Cat after so many years. I’ve really been hurt at times by those attacks against me by my detractors. I’m calling it quits and best regards all my blog pals.”
Don’t you dare go anywhere.
Cassie
I’m not. The chances of that happening are absolutely zero. Don’t worry. With all these idiots here needing to be frequently schooled about their rank stupidity… There’s no chance. Also, it’s fun.
I’d give you a big sheaf of flowers to celebrate your comeback, JC, but Dover has no suitable emojis.
Tease!