Yeah!

Go forth!

Thanks to Black Ball — just catching up on yesterday’s doings I had to bring these two comments here for others to savour — this is the guy who supported Dai Le to become the member for Fairfield as an independent-

Black Ball
Jan 12, 2024 2:31 PM
Firebrand mayor alert!

Fairfield mayor Frank Carbone has asked his council to hand out thousands of Aussie flags for free in western Sydney in response to Woolworths ditching its Australia Day merchandise.

Slamming the supermarket giant’s controversial move as “against Australian values”, the popular mayor said the council has now ordered thousands of flags to celebrate January 26.

“Major multinational organisations have no place in making political comments on our national day,” Cr Carbone said.

Outstanding.

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Black Ball Avatar
Black Ball
Jan 12, 2024 2:43 PM
Firebrand mayor continues:

“This is something we are seeing more of, large organisations trying to tell people what to think. Their actions are completely against our Australian values and denies Australians the opportunity to be proud of who we are.

“During a time when people are struggling with cost of living pressures, major supermarkets should be focusing their efforts on reducing their prices instead of telling people what to think and using their stores to make political commentary.”

The mayor’s doubling down comes as German supermarket chain Aldi also made a similar decision for its Australian stores.

On Friday it confirmed its “Australia Day special buys catalogue” would not be part of its campaign this summer.

The local government area of Fairfield counts itself as among one of the most diverse in the country.

Cr Carbone told the Saturday Telegraph Fairfield welcomed about 5000 new Australian citizens last year, making it among one of the biggest in the nation.

Calling on the state and federal governments to provide extra funding for other councils to do the same, Cr Carbone took aim at the NSW Premier and Prime Minister for seemingly avoiding the conversation.

“Australia Day is on 26 January and unless the government makes a decision to change the date, we will continue to celebrate on that date and be proud of who we are,” he said.

“It is time for the Prime Minister and the Premier to make it very clear what their intentions are for Australia Day and take leadership on this issue, instead of sitting back while commercial organisations weigh in on our national day with their unwanted opinions.

“It is disappointing that as mayor I need to speak up about this, but we want to make sure that the community is given the opportunity to display their pride on a day that is important to all of us.

Cr Carbone told the Saturday Telegraph the council was in the process of buying “tens of thousands” of Australian flags

Doubly outstanding.

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I hope gatti e gattine send an email of support to Frank Carbone the mayor of Faifield for his stand against Woolworthless — I did at about 4:00am his email is: [email protected]

When daylight appears and brekkie and blood pressure tablet are done, ’tis time to crawl back into the aircon and attempt once more to join Hairy in blissful slumbers.

Have transfered my worries into ‘to do’ notes, for later.

Sorry if this has been posted already but Steve Waterson’s pieces are always worth a read. From the Oz.

Older, but sadly not much wiser
Here’s some moderately helpful advice for the younger generation from a Boomer, okay?

By STEVE WATERSON

From Inquirer

January 13, 2024

It’s sobering for a member of the boomer generation – should I say proud member, as seems to be obligatory these days? Are there any humble people left in the world? – to contemplate the future, not that 2024 shoots us too far into the realm of science fiction.

And what a bittersweet task it is, for those of us who’ve waved a wistful goodbye to youth, to imagine how society might look in years to come, because our chances of participating in that society are dwindling. The fact no one else, outside a death-row cell, has any idea how or when they will die is little consolation.

Sure, there are people reading this who will set off cheerfully for work on Monday and never make it home; it may already have happened to me between the writing and publication of these words, which I have to agree would be hilarious. But vicissitudes of fate aside, for my cohort the laws of probability indicate the road ahead is considerably shorter than the one behind.

(This article is part of a special series by senior journalists to mark The Australian’s 60th anniversary this year.)

Maybe that explains our propensity to dwell on the past; it’s harder to seek a meaningful role in your truncated future than to reflect on and exaggerate your achievements, however insignificant. (At a golden oldies rugby competition a few years ago I saw a portly fellow sporting a T-shirt that read “The older I get, the faster I was”; there’s some boomer truth-telling for you.) Nevertheless, I try not to bore my juniors with burnished lies about my glory days; instead, a working life alongside waves of gifted beginners fills me with rare optimism.

Go back as far as you can in recorded history and you’ll find the same lament about how disappointing that era’s young people were: there are hieroglyphics inside Egyptian pyramids complaining of adolescent bad manners and disrespect.

“They think they know everything, and are quite sure about it,” Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote 2500 years ago; 2250 years later, the Earl of Shaftesbury shocked Britain’s House of Commons with tales of girls who “drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, and care for nobody”.

‘They think they know everything, and are quite sure about it,’ said Aristotle of the younger generation.

The world’s population has gone from around three billion to eight billion in my lifetime. Seven billion of them are younger than me, therefore it wouldn’t seem prudent to take on a gang that size.

So, unlike many of my grumpy contemporaries, I refuse to despair of modern youth, despite their profligate whistling, and instead admire their confidence and bold wit. One of the talented young women in The Australian’s newsroom approached me recently and mentioned she’d just finished reading George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

“I can’t believe how bad things were for you back then,” she said, turning away with a grin before I could come up with a droll response, which I still haven’t quite formulated.

We are, happily, a fair way short of Orwell’s sunny vision, though the speed with which we close in on it appears to be accelerating; then again, everything goes quicker on life’s down escalator. But we can join George in frolicking in the gaps between what could happen, what should happen and what will.

Do we ancients have any advice worth passing on? Maybe not, but if I could urge one thing on the young, it would be to question everything: all the pieties we are expected to venerate, all those in authority, everyone who claims to have the answer. Plato records Socrates as saying, “I know that I know nothing.” Start from the principle that Socrates was smarter than our lickspittle politicians and repellent social influencers, and you’ll reduce your chances of disappointment.

As a live and delightfully contentious example, let’s consider the environment, and our attempts to manage it. There are few topics that attract such a swarm of know-alls, or consume as much of our attention and, lately, our money. I had thought the battle to cherish and protect nature, embraced by my generation, had largely been won in the Western world. (Are there many people left in Australia who throw their rubbish into the ocean?)

But laudable efforts to clean our rivers, safeguard animal habitat and scrub particulate pollution from the air seem to have been redirected to generate contagious climate hysteria, with children – and adults who should know better – trembling through their near-perfect lives, consumed with apocalyptic anxiety.

We’ve reduced an extraordinarily complex, multivariable system to one molecular pantomime villain who can be defeated, it seems, only by transferring our wealth to environmentally appalling state-owned industries in China, much of whose land and waterways are toxic sludge.

If you believe carbon dioxide is responsible for “boiling” our planet, fine; but at least note that of all the CO2 that enters the atmosphere each year, less than 4 per cent is generated by human activity. And barely a hundredth of that 4 per cent comes from Australia.

You don’t need to be a mathematical prodigy to realise that if this country sank beneath a rising ocean overnight it would have no impact whatsoever on this utterly intractable “problem”.

So even if we allow that some warming is in progress, I fear the long-term threat of climate change is dwarfed by the more immediate existential threat presented by our economically suicidal reaction to it. Just a thought, but perhaps the trillions of dollars we’ve earmarked for adjusting our climate might be better employed to mitigate whatever consequences attend on that warming.

Meanwhile, although global population continues to climb, most people are enjoying longer, safer and healthier lives. Time and again, the experts’ touted “limits” to the planet’s carrying capacity are updated, the number outpaced by our scientific advances and inventions. Remember, as you try to turn its thermostat down, the world’s a big place: at eight billion you could invite everyone on Earth to a cocktail party in Tasmania and still leave seven-eighths of the island empty.

But even as our lives continue to improve by so many measures, it sometimes feels like the opposite is happening. The dramatic advance (if that’s what it is) in communications must take a large share of the blame.

A few hundred years ago – a blink in human history – it might have been months before word of a great battle reached us. Today we know within seconds that there has been a murder on the streets of Chicago, and, despite its remoteness, we feel a little less safe.

Some catastrophic event – flood, fire or earthquake – in a foreign land used to be briefly sketched in a quarter column on the world pages of the newspaper. Now the heartbreaking stories are meticulously recounted, accompanied by numerous images of despairing survivors.

You could invite everyone on Earth to a cocktail party in Tasmania and still leave seven-eighths of the island empty.

Our impotence in the face of distant tragedy is corrosive to our wellbeing, an accumulation of vicarious sorrow that can’t be exorcised by a few coins in the donation box. It’s a disturbing thought for someone who has spent his working life trying to get news to people, that they might have been better off without it.

So if I might indulge myself to address younger generations on behalf of my own, my recommendation is that you try not to be timid, aim to think for yourself and, above all, count your blessings (the old-fashioned, guilt-free version of “check your privilege”).

Marvel at the wonders that your unenlightened ancestors have heaped upon you, largely born of their mastery of reliable energy supply. Gratitude would be welcome but not mandatory.

And finally, here’s a thing I real­ly wish I’d been told when I was young: you start out worrying what people think about you; then you grow up and try not to care what they think; but eventually you realise that they were never thinking about you in the first place. So be yourself and be brave; you probably won’t get another go at life.

In the end – a couple of world wars aside – things seldom turn out as badly as we fear. Let’s hope the coming decades are not as bleak as the hypocrites schmoozing on the slopes of Davos would have us believe. Embrace the vibe, kids, treasure and defend the precious, fragile gifts of free speech and independent thought, follow your conscience to do what’s right and, above all, good luck!

Just bear in mind that we oldsters won’t be around to tidy up after you.

Go back as far as you can in recorded history and you’ll find the same lament about how disappointing that era’s young people were.

How amazingly amazing.

WHO: ‘Incredibly Low’ COVID, Flu Vaccination Rates (12 Jan)

“Too many people are in need of serious medical care for flu, for COVID, when we can prevent it,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s interim director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.

She cited “incredibly low” vaccination rates against flu and COVID in many countries this season, as the world tries to move past the pandemic and its restrictions.

Weird huh? Is it at all possible, lady, that we the people distrust fascist scam artists like the WHO?

Hope you are not up troubled and pained by the busted tendon in your ankle, Tinta.

. Thanks Lizzie for the first time I am troubled I am now allowed to be without the boot in the house but not when outside — but the boot is causing me pain on the outside of the ankle not on the injury, and I am not sure why. Hitherto it’s been smooth sailing. I’ll have to go to the physio on Monday and try to get it sorted. I don’t like pain and it is really impeding my movements.

Cheers and thanks for asking.

Mak Siccar
Jan 13, 2024 6:36 AM
Sorry if this has been posted already but Steve Waterson’s pieces are always worth a read. From the Oz.

Thank you, I do like Steve Waterson’s articles

So Hunter will front up to a closed committee session.
What was this week’s circus all about ?

Doco?
He wants more attention?
Will he discuss his art money laundering scheme?

Tinta, the cause of your ankle pain is probably due to a changed pattern of walking. e.g. you may have been walking normally on the outside of foot, the boot being much wider will make your foot move laterally as it takes the weight. Check your other shoes for where the wear is. Is the pain on the opposite side of your ankle to the wear on the shoe. Indicating the ligaments being stretched a little more than they are accustomed to. You may also just doing too much. Is there still swelling of the ankle. Frozen peas are your friend.

My latest Reddit battle is with some shill pushing young people not to pay any extra on their mortgages and put any money they can into superannuation.

F$&@ing idiot.

Last time I broke my foot at karate wife came home to find me up the extension ladder trimming branches off a tree. “Don’t you think you should wait till you get the boot off”.

My latest Reddit battle

Reddit – Greshams law for ideas in action.

I was once described by one of my surgeons as an orthopaedic nightmare. Used to live next door to my surgeon, had a medial meniscus taken out. Bumped into him 2 weeks later with another surgeon fishing. Those were days when getting going was frowned upon.

Nothing beats the SBS newsreader sneer when reading stories of the right and are all smiles for stories of the left.

Indolent
Jan 13, 2024 8:27 AM

They killed him.

I hope it’s not true, I wasn’t particularly impressed by his reporting, them being the same as of all the other pundits’.
Killing him for that is a bit of over the top*.

*Tried to avoid the obvious, in this case unfortunate pun

Hairy Festeringpenis has a sad….

?Mary Kostakidis
@MaryKostakidis
Appalling decision for Australia to ‘support’ ‘joint’ strikes in Yemen. The U.N. did not authorise strikes in Yemen.
We have rushed to do this but not even a strong word about the Israeli genocide. The PM is advised by warmongers and US bootlickers. If Israel stopped killing Palestinians, the Houthis will also stop their action in the Red Sea.
#Gaza

I think I am coming around to Dr BGN’s repugnant beliefs.

The problem with politics is that people are stupid.

I want to make a lot of money. I am patriotic. I want to be a good boss. I want to live in a healthy environment and have a thriving community to live in.

I’ve been intrigued for years how we have destroyed our native forestry industry.

How I would love to build a sustainable, ethical & profitable native logging & milling business and reverse the trend of dying country towns.

I am a reasonable person. I would sit down and try to be conciliatory with my critics.

I think the only “talking” that would happen is hyperbolic, attention grabbing headlines from astroturfed and wholly unrepresentative & misinformed green and indigenous groups.

It sounds paranoid but I am starting to think rent a crowd are used by established interests. That’s probably obvious to older players.

A full divulging of activist finances would be illuminating.

Digger
Jan 12, 2024 11:20 PM

Perhaps it has changed, but my sense is that such “exciting” exchange postings tend to be reserved for officers, and senior ones at that. That is quite the wrong approach. NCOs, junior and mid-level (up to and including Majors) [officers] is the way to go, to get value from the program.

I was a Chief when I had a 2 year 8 month exchange from 1982 to 1985 with the USN. I was based in Hawaii and served with EOD Group-1. It was a magnificent time in my 20 year career …

I held the position of Command Master Diver, Work Centre Supervisor and Senior Chief of the Command. The whole experience was certainly exciting, challenging, rewarding and fulfilling.

Upon return to Australia I was not interviewed or debriefed for one minute. No one in the RAN was interested in what I learned or did… Pathetic.

Being a bit of a cynic, I wonder if perhaps a less than impressive CD officer was supposed to organise your debrief? One who was hoping to get such an exchange?

IMposition of morals

“Commitment to diversity in the media cannot be skin deep. Culturally diverse staff should be respected and supported even when they challenge the status quo.

Translation: I’m all grown up now and I want my turn at the National Microphone. And if I don’t get it, I’ll…, I’ll… – I’ll go and make podcasts for the Turnbull Guardian!
Then you’ll all be sorry.

Of course envy plays a part here. Wealth taxes are becoming a popular idea now. My recent Reddit jaunts show many Australians are greedy but also incredibly envious.

A constant drumbeat of “any one who is rich has got there illegitimately/exploited people” (unless they are a “not for profit”) doesnt help with this.
Id be guessing you could cruise through Austfailures school system without being shown anyone like Lang Hancock, unless it was to excoriate him for “stealing all the iron ore” from Abbos.

The mainstream media doesn’t seem interested in reporting on this next debacle for the greenie wind turbine industry.

Federal Judge Orders Removal Of Wind Farm In Osage County

The Osage Nation took a European wind farm company to court and prevailed and now the operating windmills have got to be dismantled and removed per court order. A federal judge has ordered Enell Energy to remove the 84-turbine wind farm in Osage County. Court documents estimate the cost of removing the turbines at $300 million.

And another one down
And another one down
Another one bites the dust.

Richard III received his justice on the battlefield at Bosworth Field in 1485.

Can someone here tell me what is offensive about…

You advocated for justice.

Chilling winds towards Israel from Britain and America
Melanie Phillipa (January 11, 2024 / JNS)

Obsessional hostility has even infected counterterrorism experts.

The chilly winds that have been blowing towards Israel from its American and British allies have grown even colder.

Mum said you shouldn’t kick elbows!

Windmills aside, this is the sort of anti-mining, anti-farming native heritage law Labor state governments would like to introduce here.

That is so bizarre to me. I’ve mentioned it before but my mother had great uncles who were wheat farmers and State ALP Ministers.

The dregs of the middle class have grown like a rapidly mutating cancer.

Assuming that the Gaza Ministry for h@m@s Tunnels’ casualty figures are roughly correct *ahem,* this genocide business, if it continues at the same pace, looks like taking about 20 years to complete. It seems to be an awfully inefficient use of resources, no?

I might also point out to Hairy Festeringpenis that time moves only in one direction.

Therefore the Rootie-Tooties launching of missiles/drones occurred BEFORE the naval airstrikes.

Said farewell to the grandchildren this morning. Now it’s just us and the derg for a week before the next invasion appears. I can’t believe how much laundry they generate. As for the Dyson, many…many trips to the bin.

I already miss them. It’s quiet. Too quiet.

Kostakidis was from the early phase of SBS development when it was completely dominated by Greeks. Most were second and third generation Australians but could spot a grift at long range just like their real estate dads.

They employed racism dog whistles to deflect any criticism. Kostakidis perfected the ethnic sneer. Her claim of UN soverignity over international affairs typifies the incidious globalist, anti-nation state culture that dominates the whole clown show. However watch her come out scratching if anyone criticises Greece.

The last bastion of the Greeks appears to be the SBS soccer industry which they are clinging onto tenaciously.

They set the false flag racism tone that has dominated the sinister outfit’s culture. Their racism rubbish has been overboosted of late as more extreme haters, and blackfellas progressively replace the Greeks. SBS is far more dangerous than the idiotic private school girls of the ABC.

SBS was the perfect vehicle to absorb NITV. Political and racist fantasy journalism was already established as the guiding culture. The merger has resulted in a huge boost for rad blak propaganda. SBS has transitioned NITV into a megaphone for the whole global first nations’ grift industry. At less than 1% viewership, the powerless taxpayer is being raped.

It is interesting that the big US sponsors of Vice have walked away but SBS clings on. They can afford to as their fake budget is boosted enormously by endless hectoring meaningless Government advertising.

So who had ” amputating body parts for fun and profit” on their bingo card??

The ringleader of an extreme body modifications group who was known as the “eunuch maker” claimed £18,500 in disability benefits after willingly having his leg amputated, a court heard.

Marius Gustavson, 46, was the mastermind of a “lucrative” and “widespread” extreme body modifications enterprise in which procedures – including the removal of genitals – were filmed and streamed on his pay-per-view website, the Old Bailey was told.
…
The court heard that Byrnes, from Tottenham, north London, was filmed cutting off Gustavson’s penis with a kitchen knife and saying: “Well that’s one off the bucket list.”

The court heard that Gustavson advertised for someone to assist him in becoming a eunuch on a gay dating app before offering Byrnes, an escort, £500 for carrying out the procedure.
…
Two days before the procedure, Gustavson told Byrnes that he was cutting another person and that he could be a “sexy, kinky helper”. Gustavson had previously boasted that he had “done over 26 guys in total, 18 totally done”, which was a reference to the removal of both penis and testicles, the prosecutor said.
…

RTWT…

Dotty Dot:

I think I am coming around to Dr BGN’s repugnant beliefs.
The problem with politics is that people are stupid.

also Dot:

Of course envy plays a part here. Wealth taxes are becoming a popular idea now. My recent Reddit jaunts show many Australians are greedy but also incredibly envious.

The species is 200,000 years old, give or take. It is only in the last 200 years, with collapse of feudalism in Europe, that wealth and prosperity have flourished. Somehow, some humans have given up on theft, pillage and murder and opted for the free exchange of goods and services. Why did it take so long? How long will it last?

I know someone who rushed it after a knee op and went arse over and hit his head.
Much worser for rushing.

Yes that happens I know happens with over-confidence. (that’s not me) I know a lady who had a foot injury was on crutches, thought she was doing really well, over confident on the steep front steps at her house in Glebe, fell and suffered a spiral fracture humerus. Poor thing. Hence in no hurry to rush.

A dripping clothes peg wanders aimlessly.

The Grand Duchess Olga Romanov, sister of the last tsar, was the Grand Duchess Anastasia’s aunt. Prior to the 1917 revolution, aunt and niece had been very close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMhdLspttjE

Fancy dress parties are nothing more than women making men worry about what they’re going to wear.