And this lass; and she’s not even a cute owl.

Piers Akerman with an excellent introduction:

The utterings of Anthony Albanese are, to borrow from Shakespeare, but “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. Expressing disproportionate rage over the tragic but accidental death of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom exposed the dizzying heights of Albanese’s (and Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s) hypocritical approach to the whole Gaza conflict. Neither has contributed anything toward a speedy resolution. Both have danced to the terrorists’ tune.

If Albanese wanted to make a mark on the international stage instead of merely playing up to Muslims in seats held by his ministers Tony Burke and Ed Husic, he could demand that Qatar stop hosting key Hamas leaders. Or that Qatar, a principal funder of Hamas, pressure the terrorists to immediately release the remaining 134 hostages – and the bodies of those estimated to have died in captivity since October 7, up to half of them. But Albanese is playing the emotional card, as is the ABC with its relentless prosecution of heart-rending pleas from aid organisations for a unilateral ceasefire with no demands on Hamas to release its captives or stop using Gazans as human shields.

Albanese told a sympathetic ABC radio interviewer on Thursday’s AM program “we need a full, transparent and clear explanation for how this occurred” it must be published and the Netanyahu government “must be held accountable”. The Israeli government has promised just that and sacked two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in the disastrous missile strike. Unlike Hamas, which murders civilians and is delighted when Gazans are killed, the Israeli defence forces take greater care to limit the number of civilian casualties than any other military in the world.

Albanese noted the vehicles carrying the unfortunate young Australian woman and her colleagues were clearly identified as being from the World Central Kitchen, but he didn’t say the strike occurred at night. To the best of my knowledge, a convoy in a designated conflict zone travelling by night is more likely to be carrying terrorists than aid workers.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, these things happen in war. Albanese knows as much about war as he knows about full and transparent investigations. His experience of warfare has been limited to adolescent fighting against Tories, a practice he has yet to grow out of. He has shut down more inquiries than he has opened and his government has been less accountable for its insane actions than any previous administration.

Even the Open Government Forum, the government body supposed to promote transparency, is noted for refusing Freedom Of Information requests about its operation and how its members, public servants and non-government representatives vote on issues.

Israel’s preliminary investigation concluded there was no deliberate attack against the WCK body’s aid workers. IDF chief of staff Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi said the “severe incident is the result of a mistaken identification under complex conditions, at night, during a war. This should not have happened”.

Albanese has used this most unfortunate incident in an attempt to undermine international support for Israel’s attempt to eradicate a designated terrorist group and protect its citizens. He has tried to turn the spotlight away from Hamas and its deliberate attack on civilians and equate the greatest slaughter of unarmed Jews since the Holocaust with the accidental death of one person, albeit an Australian aid worker, during an intense war.

Albanese should visit the site of the October 7 massacre, speak with those who know what war is and learn something before making a reckless fool of himself again.

The ‘Hamas hides behind human shields’ lie exposed.

Lavender? Where’s Daddy? FFS

Grace Tame Foundation accounts late again
By yoni bashan

• Margin Call Editor
• 10:07AM April 7, 2024

Starting to wonder what they’re actually doing over there at the Grace Tame Foundation. For the second year running the organisation has failed to promptly lodge its accounts with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. They were four months late in filing last year and it seems the former Australian of the Year has missed the January 31 deadline once again for 2024.
Too busy to fill out the paperwork? Hard to believe looking at the only available rundown of spending and activities. For the year ended 2022 the Foundation recorded about $57,000 in seed funding and roughly $410,000 in donations. It spent a modest fraction of that total – $72,640 – on three core projects. The rest was kept in the bank.
To be fair, these are worthy projects. One is to achieve uniform grooming legislation. Another is to change the Bankruptcy Act so pedophiles can’t hide their assets in superannuation (and thereby avoid paying compensation to victims). A third project aims to adjust the language of offending itself, namely in South Australia and the Northern Territory, where the sexual assault of a child is still described, in law, as a “sexual relationship” rather than the “persistent abuse of a child”.

Minus the nickel and dime spending on a website ($3082) and office expenses ($589) and advertising ($364) and rent ($3467) it’s clear enough that the foundation didn’t really swing for the fences on its three key aims, leaving behind a net profit before tax of $369,414, or three quarters of its starting budget.
Our interest in the numbers for 2023 is simply to know whether the foundation is using its donations to good effect. When it last reported the foundation had two volunteer staff. Its four directors – Tame’s lawyer Michael Bradley, academic Michael Salter and survivor advocate Scarlett Franks, as well as Tame herself – draw no salary for their efforts. But again, what efforts? What is being spent, what is being achieved, and what are the outcomes?
Who knows, maybe they knocked it out of the park in 2023, although we’re yet to hear of any pivotal legislative amendments of the kind the foundation has been seeking.
We asked about the holdup and a spokeswoman said the accountants were to blame, which brought to mind the great Samuel Johnson, who memorably said all the way back in 1775 that blaming the accountants is the last refuge of a scoundrel*.
“We were already aware of the overdue status,” said general manager Chantelle Tibbotts. “The paperwork has been signed off on our end. We have been working with the accountants to ensure that it is lodged by the end of next week.”
*We joke. He really said: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Something interesting arising from the recent Rain of Terror…

And a rebuttal to all those people who dismiss school with things like “Why did I study quadratic equations? I have never used them” etc.

I had used one of those crystalline-salt grinders with my dinner a few nights ago. Some tiny shards of Sodium Chloride goodness must have careened of the plate onto the table top.

Next morning I sat down to drink my coffee and saw drops of water scattered about. A moment’s puzzlement gave way to tidal swell of joy.

A long forgotten promise suddenly fulfilled.

A long since rehearsed speech suddenly finding its moment.

I had a situation in front of me that demanded the word ‘deliquesce’!

The salt had deliquesced on my table!

A word from a chemistry class so long ago that had sat like some long neglected and forgotten at the back of some sock drawer beneath the mismatched argyles for a tie and shirt combination from an extinct fashion moment.

Even now it brings a happy tear to my eye but one which, as a reminder that happiness in our life on this Earth must be tempered by disappointment, is salty at secretion and not the product of deliquescence.

I am more than half-way through my life now, so the odds are against, but what magnificent joy would it be to see a truck accident and call 000, and when they ask what is happening now, to be able to say “The driver is hanging upside down in his cabin which is engulfed in flame from the leaking fuel, the people in the car he clipped are draped on the bough of a tree dripping blood on the pavement, an old man who saw the whole thing is lying on the ground and passers by giving him CPR, and the truck’s load of Copper Sulphate has spilled across all the lanes of traffic…and is deliquescing”.

Holding onto little hopes like that truly help to keep you feeling young, I think.

Husic accuses Israeli government of ‘systemic failure’ over aid worker deathsBy James MassolaApril 7, 2024 — 12.50pm

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3 min
Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic has blamed systematic failures within the Israeli government for the deaths of seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, and accused it of not obeying international law.
He also argued that Israel has not been fully accountable for the events that led up to the deaths of the seven World Central Kitchen charity workers.

But opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham defended Israel for demonstrating “some action and some accountability” by investigating the aid workers’ deaths and refusing to say whether international law was breached.
Husic’s comments come after Israel announced late on Friday that two Israeli officers were being stood down from their positions and disciplinary action was being taken against two commanding officers, following an investigation.

The review found the killings occurred after Israeli troops mistakenly concluded Hamas gunmen were travelling with the World Central Kitchen charity convoy and concluded the operation was “carried out in serious violation of the commands and IDF standard operating procedures”.
In response, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced on Saturday that Australia is pressing Israel for further action and will appoint an as-yet-unnamed special adviser to ensure the investigation by Israel was conducted in a manner consistent with the Australian government’s expectations.

Husic’s criticism carries additional weight as he is the most senior member of the Albanese government who is of the Muslim faith. His comments underscore the growing frustration within Labor with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It would be the easiest route to say, to use the bad apples defence here. That it was a couple of people that operated outside of policy. All you’ve had at this point is two people stood down and a general reprimanded,” Husic told Sky News.
“I believe this reflects a systematic failure within the Israeli government to genuinely commit to the observance of international humanitarian law.
“That’s why you’ve seen 33,000 Palestinians killed, 14,500 which are children, and 77,000 injured, and then on top of that, 200 aid workers, 100 journalists. I mean, this comes down to a failure by the Israeli government to observe international law distinguishing between combatant and civilian.

“You cannot target humanitarian workers, you cannot target journalists, you cannot target schools, hospitals, and you’ve got a responsibility under international humanitarian law to distinguish clearly between combatants and civilians and protect civilians.”
The appointment of the special adviser, Husic said, would ensure there was full transparency and full accountability for the actions that led up to the Israeli Defence Forces targeting the aid workers vehicles.

On the ABC’s Insiders program, Birmingham said the federal opposition would reserve judgment on the appointment of a special adviser until they knew who would undertake the job and how they would work with Israel’s government.
“There are no details as yet from the Albanese government. When we see those details, we’ll be able to have a more informed consideration of it,” he said.
Birmingham added that to ensure the future protection of humanitarian workers, “our expectation is to see Israel continue the investigations they have underway, to use the processes that they have and for there to be transparency around that”.