Labuschagne is a flog, at best…

In a team of flogs…

Tactics.
Late to the party of course, but I’ve just watched the Pierre Poilievre ‘apple’ interview (admittedly, only the best two minutes of it). What I liked was that Poilievre refused to accept the standard role the media assigns to conservatives: that of defenders against whatever accusations the Filth Filter can create. Rather than respond to the broad cliches flung (mumbled, in this case) at him, he reversed the onus of evidence and threw the jismist from his familiar rehearsed pattern. This repositioning may be only minor and quite temporary, and needs to be followed-up with other tactics, but it’s a vital step towards regaining and maintaining the initiative, without which we cannot hope to win* the competition for influence.

What follow-up tactics could be used?

* Winning = using the ashes of our enemies as garden fertiliser.

This interruptive tactic can be practised the next time a scammer calls you on your phone. Rather than simply hang up or swear, if you have a spare 30 seconds: Ask the person (male or female) what they are wearing. Ignore their scripted speech and continue to ask variations of ‘What are you wearing?’ (use different voices, be a little suggestive if you feel comfortable doing that) until you break their focus. It may take the whole 30 seconds, but it is satisfying when it works, which is when THEY break contact.

Having lost 8/100 in 16 overs, Straya may yet be carved up when the Pakis bat.

364 ish. Not enough on this ground, and on that deck.

Billy Connolly at his finest.

Thanks Zulu.

We’re going to see The Corrs in Sydney next weekend. Looking forward to it. Would have liked to have seen Billy at his height.

Muddy:

This interruptive tactic can be practised the next time a scammer calls you on your phone. Rather than simply hang up or swear, if you have a spare 30 seconds: Ask the person (male or female) what they are wearing. Ignore their scripted speech and continue to ask variations of ‘What are you wearing?’ (use different voices, be a little suggestive if you feel comfortable doing that) until you break their focus. It may take the whole 30 seconds, but it is satisfying when it works, which is when THEY break contact.

I had an interesting call from a lady from one of the animal lover mobs, yesterday and decided I was going to play with her head rather than be polite.
Told her I was a professional pig and dog shooter and told her of the damage these wild dogs were doing to defenceless sheep and cows.
In the end I had her agreeing that ammunition was way too expensive and there should be a bounty on dogs and pigs, and that I should be able to get a subsidy on a new rifle that used smaller and less expensive rounds…
I was having to really cut corners and would have to go on the OAP if living costs didn’t stabilise soon.
I almost convinced myself.

Greta Stands With Gaza!

I bet she doesn’t live in Malmo or any of the other no-go Swedish districts.

Sweden becomes the first EU country to declare Islamists alien

If it’s a male Subcontinental, tell them your gaydar has picked up that they’re into hot guy-on-guy action. They’ll become increasingly agitated the more you insist that they must be gay because real men drive trains and wrestle bears rather than spending all day calling people they don’t.. One gent was so upset he hung up, then called back to shout obscenities.

Well, goodness me, if you can get to see a place called Paestum near Silerno, then do. It’s a toss up between that and Pompei for me. This small once-was-a-city with high city walls still visible, part of the Greek push to colonise Italy and Sicily in the 550’s BC, is still a wonder to behold. I’ve seen some big Greek temples still extant on a visit to Sicily a few years ago but the big one of the three here beats that. Columns as thick as those of the Parthenon and you can climb up into it, if you’re game, which I decided I was. The main god initially here was Poseiden, and the Roman name Paestum falls along a ‘name scatter’ from the original, through iterations of Italian mercenaries hired by the Greeks, and then by the Romans.

You can see good street outlines (although no full buildings because unlike Acrotiri and Pompei, no volcanic eruption) and get a sense of the expanse of the place, including a boy’s school (gymnasium) and a 25metre swimming pool. Young boys from aged 10 lived here until sixteen, when they joined the army, prior to that they mainly practice gym for ‘the games’ and physical pursuits. They only do the rudiments of writing and learning, for maths and philosophy is left to older men. Reminded me of what a teacher once said wistfully to me – that he wished he could take boys from 12 to 15, put them in a paddock and just let them run for four years.

What makes this site so good is that there is an exhibition-quality new and dedicated archaeological museum on site, and it contains the best pottery and paintings you are likely to see in either Greece or Sicily or anywhere else from the period 550BC. There’s not much left in the way of artifacts and statues from the Roman period. However, when the city was plundered for stone in the early Christian period, many hidden and neglected tombs, when excavated. produced an amazing array of the best of imported Greek urns large and small, loads of plates, and so many of them – and this is the best bit – look entirely newly minted. The glazes are perfect and the only restoration needed was a wipe down for dust. The tomb wall paintings, in a similar style (and I think showing a little of the earlier Etruscan influence still) are also in perfect condition. These people and their lives actually live for you in front of your eyes. Marvellous.

In Pompei a lot of the artefacts have been moved to the museum in Naples, same for Akrotiri, they are in Athens.

Thanks Lizzie- love your travelogues, you’ve got a fascinating talent for linkages, and it’s wondrous what you seem to find not too far off the beaten path.

I am fully packed before dinner and Hairy is not. He came in from the sail-out from mountain-ringed Salerno, which I did not attend as I sorted stuff out, and said he met a man up there whose wife was going on just as I had been about ‘getting the packing done’. We both raised eyes to heaven, and sighed about the ways of women, he tells me. Hairy intends to pack after dinner and after imbibing the last of the sommelier’s best choices. Suitcases have to go out by 10pm and I just know it will be a last minute rush for us; it always is. 🙂

For those wondering, the medical services on board here are excellent. Our recent dinner companion, the Professor Soil Science, in his late eighties, had a bad cough which turned quickly to pneumonia but they had it under control very quickly. They have XRays, MRI’s and other diagnostic facilities plus competent medical staff. It’s costly, but sensible people who are older do have insurance to cover it.

@Lizzie ..cheers to you big sister … you deserve a dignified slurp ( OK and a guzzle too ) ..and so much more …

Peace Sister .