It seems clear that the Walkleys directors – journalists Adele Ferguson, Karen Percy, Sally Neighbour, Erin Delahunty, Kate Ferguson and Victoria Laurie – and chief executive officer Shona Martyn 

Very interesting, all women yet they don’t see anything unusual about it. Where is men’s representation? So much for diversity, equity and inclusion.

After Versailles and educating myself about Louis XIV’s rectal problems we headed to Chartres.

 On the way we passed wind turbines, some sad arrays of solar panels and a nuclear power station with steaming cooling towers. No secret which one was carrying the load.

Chartres has a famous cathedral but this time there were thankfully no crowds-a welcome relief.  

We visited nearby Dreux via Uber ( the car turned out to be a Tesla) where the Royale Domaine has some magnificent enamel on glass windows. Made it there and back without catching on fire or running out of electrickery so all good.

Then to Blois for the start of a 5 day bike ride in the Loire.

French is reckoned to be the most attractive language but some of the pronunciation of towns names is more like the noises emanating from the bathroom after a punishing night on the turps-

Chartres pronounced Shaaartr
Dreux pronounced Druuuur
Blois pronounced Bwaaah

Mind you my pronunciation could be the reason why my high school French teacher didn’t let me speak in class for 2 years and I barely passed the Junior French exam.

Andrew Bolt:

Anti-Israel protesters lie when they claim they’re saving Palestinians. No, they’re just hurting us, and have become a danger to Australia.

Even Labor must now realise this after protesters outside a state Labor conference in Melbourne on Saturday physically attacked and manhandled Labor politicians.

Federal MP Daniel Mulino was shoved and abused. About 30 protesters surrounded and shouted at state ministers Lily D’Ambrosio and Harriet Shing, as well as MP Paul Edbrooke, and slapped pro-Palestine stickers on their jackets.

Edbrooke was blocked from delivering his planned tribute to the late Peta Murphy, but dozens of protesters stormed inside and banged on the conference room doors to drown out another tribute, to former federal Labor leader Simon Crean.

Premier Jacinta Allan was incensed, tweeting: “Today, protesters and intruders brought violence, homophobia and anti-Semitism to the front door of state conference. I’m disgusted.”

Fine, but will Labor now see these protests for what they really are?

It’s trite and mistaken to say such protesters just hurt their own cause.

That’s true only if you thought their cause really was to stop Israel fighting back against Hamas terrorists, but that’s clearly wrong.

Only an idiot would think they’d help Palestine by menacing Jews, fighting police, vandalising politicians’ offices, blocking traffic, invading university lectures, spraying paint over an ABC building, and cheering the mass murder of Jews.

That may cow other people but acting like mini-terrorists might actually make their victims understand a little of what Israel is up against.

Nor will anything these protesters do here stop Israel from firing even a single bullet.

Israel is fighting for its existence. It won’t stop just because protesters in Melbourne trashed Labor minister Bill Shorten’s office.

No, this isn’t really about stopping deaths in Gaza. It looks instead like an attack on Australia.

The damage being done is stunning. Most obviously, protesters are importing a Jew-hatred unparalleled in our history.

They started on October 9 – just two days after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1200 Israelis, raped women, beheaded men, shot children in front of their parents and kidnapped 253 people – by disrupting a planned memorial at the Sydney Opera House to the victims.

“F … the Jews,” some chanted. “Where’s the Jews?”

At that rally were Sydney University academics, including senior lecturer Nick Riemer, so pitiless that he refused to condemn the slaughter and rape of the Jews, saying: “Resistance is justified.”

This shocking indifference has spread now to students occupying parts of some of our top universities.

An organiser of the Australian National University occupation told ABC radio: “Hamas deserves our unconditional support.”

An Adelaide University protest organiser, Habibah Jahoori, said the same: ”Unconditional solidarity to the resistance.”

These protesters are also brutalising Australia by normalising the rhetoric of political violence.

Many dress as Hamas terrorists with keffiyehs masking their faces, while pushing people around and chanting the Hamas-endorsed slogan to wipe out Israel: “From the river to the sea …”

Students at both Sydney University and Melbourne University have chanted “Intifada, intifada” – the word for terrorist wars against Israeli Jews – and Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah posted how she was “inspired” by a Palestinian female terrorist who helped to slaughter 13 Jewish children in a raid on Tel Aviv.

These protesters are also preaching an unhinged hatred of Australia, and – worse – linking a war started by Hamas terrorists to Aboriginal activists “resisting” our supposedly white “occupation”.

Palestinian flags dominated many protests against Australia Day this year, and GetUp, our biggest Left-wing activist group, posted a call to arms from board member Sara Saleh claiming Israelis “have also been invested in killing us (Palestinians), in restricting our freedoms, all of that should sound familiar to anyone living in Australia” because “we are all in this same shared anti-colonial struggle”.

What’s actually linked is this hatred of Australia with the crudely racist identity politics of some anti-Israel protest leaders.

Take Nasser Mashni, head of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, who last week ranted: “Israel and Australia share two things in common, aside from being a s–thole, racist, settler colony … They also have the highest incidence of skin cancer.”

Untrue. Israel is 23rd on that list, but Mashni used his fake statistic to delegitimise white Australians here and supposedly white Jews in Israel: “Their skin is designed for northern Europe … but our skin is designed for this land, it’s designed for the Middle East.”

The protesters are bringing to our streets a great hatred, and it’s not just for Jews. Israel is not alone in having its very existence challenged.

Roger
 May 20, 2024 7:41 am

Maladroit Blight Trumble’s legacy to the nation:

Deep within the government’s 2024-25 budget papers is a revealing paragraph on the allocation of $7.1bn to support Snowy Hydro Limited’s “continued construction of Snowy 2.0”,

Florence the Tunneling Machine is digging quite the black hole.

BoN, new SF: I’m about 20% into “God’s Girlfriend” by one Dr Insensitive Jerk.
He must have spent time in Australia. It’s a hoot.
Thanks for the Bob’s Saucer Repair recommendation. We’re both enjoying it. Up to Book 6 so far.

BoN, I get back to you after I’ve read it all the way through but it isn’t coming across as you think, so far.

Just in time eh?

The avian flu outbreak across the U.S. has continued to spread in Michigan, where the disease has been found in poultry and cattle, and prompted an emergency order by state officials earlier this month.

How bad is the bird flu in Michigan and what does it mean for eggs, milk? (lansingstatejournal.com)

Sounds like they are hoping for a Hail Mary.

Very dry in our part of SA right now, so yesterday our Pastor led the congregation in earnest prayer for rain.

We walked out of church into a downpour. Then another 6+ ml overnight, instead of the <1 which BoM had predicted.

Don’t knock the power of prayer.

Now try a prayer for winning the $150 million in Powerball this Thursday,

An ignorant comment. You have much to learn about the respectful manner of prayer.

“However, as long as it remains peaceful, respectful and not disruptive to university life, it remains a legitimate protest.”
Professor Scott said the university would not tolerate protests that crossed over into “racism, threats to safety, intimidation, bullying or unlawful harassment”.

Vice Chancellor Mark Scott is wrong to claim that students and staff at Sydney University have not been subject to threats, intimidation, bullying etc. There have been many first hand reports of all of these events by both staff students.

Yet another story at TheirABC about how programs that are going to stop the crimewave of Aboriginal kids are being prevented by lack of funding from stingy and presumably racist gubbmints.

If over $40 Billion a year is not enough, they want more and more. How much more is enough?

Wot’ Baat’ the Oldies living on the Age Pension. They helped build the joint. Where is their more?

Vice Chancellor Mark Scott is wrong to claim that students and staff at Sydney University have not been subject to threats, intimidation, bullying etc. There have been many first hand reports of all of these events by both staff students.

Would this be misinformation or disinformation?

Which is to say, is he honestly mistaken or is he lying?

?

Lysander
 May 20, 2024 4:12 pm

Al Jazeera are reporting that Raisi had 400 Palestinian children onboard his heli…

He has now gone to ‘eaven and the 72 virgins. Trouble for him is that they are all virgin men.