I’ve said it before. If any wild animal were to attack Kevin, his CATS would spring into play. Gabby would go mental.

They love him.

Meet the Characters: A Friendship with LIONS | The Lion Whisperer

From the Oz.

Israel has targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in its most aggressive strike yet on Beirut, flattening six buildings with what is believed to be 5,000 pound advanced bombs.

It is unclear if Nasrallah has survived the attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which destroyed the Hezbollah command headquarters in the southern area of Beirut.

However amid growing speculation the strike had killed Nasrallah, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel: “It’s very hard to imagine him coming out alive from a strike like that.”

Penny will be more sad now.

Grab your chair and hold on tight.

DIDO – Here With Me (?@alyandfila? Remix) (Live at Transmission Prague 2021) [4K]

The chutzpah from this bloke in the Daily Telegraph:

Labor heavyweight Tony Burke has come out swinging in defence of his southwest Sydney seat, accusing activists of bullying community organisations, and the Greens of using misinformation to “throw petrol on the fire” of local tensions.

Speaking for the first time about the new “Muslim Votes” threat to his seat of Watson — an electorate which is almost one-quarter Muslim — Mr Burke said the Greens and other activists were trying to weaponise the Gaza conflict for domestic political gain.

In a no-holds-barred interview with The Saturday Telegraph, the Home Affairs and Immigration Minister said he was actually working to improve and save the lives of Palestinians, while the Greens and others engaged in “performative” outrage that achieved nothing.

The national security supremo said he was “completely” confident the refugees he had helped relocate from Gaza would not pose a threat to Australia.

In contrast, he said there was a “direct line” between rising attacks on both Jewish and Muslim Australians and the inflammatory rhetoric of the Greens and the Coalition.

“(Greens leader) Adam Bandt makes those rants, and they’ve never protected a single Palestinian,” he said.

“The Greens move motions in Parliament routinely. You get similar motions being moved by the Opposition, and the only purpose of them is domestic politics.

“None of them have any impact on the region.

“When we provided aid, that has mattered. When we voted in the UN General Assembly, that has mattered. There are things that we’ve done that do matter in terms of international pressure, and there’s a whole lot that’s happening at the moment which is performative games which just throw petrol on the fire.”

Mr Burke – the leader of the government in the lower house – said there had been a clear escalation of both Jewish and Muslim Australians being targeted since October 7 last year, and that inflammatory rhetoric from the Greens and their activist allies only fuelled those attacks.

“Since October 7, the nature of the debate has meant if you’re a Jewish boy wearing a yarmulke, or you’re an Islamic woman wearing a hijab, you are more likely to receive abuse in the public square than you were 12 months ago,” he said.

“That has happened, and every time we raise the temperature there might be politicians thinking they’re harvesting votes on either side of the debate, but the raising of the temperature means those vulnerable people cop it worse every single time.

“And that’s real and it’s immediate, and it’s been happening for nearly a year now.

“I think there’s a direct line between how the Greens have used the parliament and how Peter Dutton has used the parliament and the increased bigotry that’s happened in the country.”

Key among the “misinformation” he says is being circulated by the Greens is the fake claim that Australia provides arms to Israel.

“A whole lot of people in the community, because of the misinformation put out from the Greens, think that we are sending weapons to Israel,” he said.

“For at least the last five years, Australia hasn’t sent any weapons to Israel. It’s just not true.”

He also took aim at social media platforms, whose algorithms deliberately amplified and spread that misinformation.

The veteran MP, who has lived in and around Punchbowl all his life, has been the most senior and outspoken minister in raising concerns about Gaza publicly, while also working behind the scenes.

Yet he said activists had tried to turn community organisations against him.

“There’s been a bit of bullying – I don’t know who’s behind it, so I can’t speculate – but there’s been some bullying of different organisations saying, you know, don’t you dare deal with the government, or don’t you deal with him and this sort of thing.”

However these efforts were short-circuited by a spontaneous campaign launched by respected community leader Jamal Rifi.

Burke, a lifelong Catholic who still attends mass, also questioned the wisdom of overtly making religion a political issue.

He said he did not expect Catholics to vote for him because of his faith, and likewise the self-proclaimed “Muslim Votes” should not claim to be representative of all or even most Muslims — and questioned how much or how widely they had even consulted the Muslim community.

As for his own Muslim support base – now overtly championed by Dr Rifi – Mr Burke said he had not asked for any assistance nor even knew it was in the offing until the Belmore GP and others went public in T-shirts emblazoned with “Friends of Tony Burke”.

“It brought a very grateful smile,” he said.

FMD. Is this not the same bloke who said he was proud of the Palestinian flag being flown over a town hall in his electorate?
Has he had anything to say about the filth marching on the Opera House the Sunday after the atrocities in Israel?
And just how many times Mr Burke has any Muslim woman been harangued for wearing a hijab? Compare that to the weekly protests in any city.
It is you and your lot Mr Burke that have actively fomented anti Israel behaviour, the Wong Chap chief on that miserable list.
Disgusting people.

Rest of the news is good:

Just Stop Oil fanatics are jailed for two years after tipping soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers masterpiece | Daily Mail Online

Media Worried Judge May Be Biased Against Trump Assassin | Frontpage Mag

The 2 hags who attacked the van Gogh masterpiece were revealed to be a pair of spoilt brats.

@RealJamesWoods

Stated perfectly. So many young people of this great nation are emerging as bright beacons of hope.

Six policies for an Australian Libertarian movement

Drew Roller, The Spectator (Oz), 28 September 2024

The Coalition is having an existential crisis. With the threat of a Double Dissolution election looming and the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill at the gates, Labor has effectively wedged them into a position they’d rather not be in. What position is that, you ask? Well, having to advocate for the values espoused in the opening statement on their website.

‘We Believe … in the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples.’

Pretty emphatic, right? Apparently not. The smell of more surveillance and policing power has proven alluring, especially for Opposition Leader and former policeman, Peter Dutton. You can take the man out of the police, but can you take the police out of the politician?

This cataclysmic betrayal of Liberal ‘values’ has opened up a lane for a new form of politics to move into the mainstream. The ‘Greens on the right’, as some are calling it. In short, the Libertarians are in play. Having sprung onto the scene after a stunning result in the NSW council elections, the Libertarians are a party with freedom as its guiding principle.

This opportunity will not be without its challenges. With an adversarial media landscape, rabid authoritarianism rising on the left, and a conservative Coalition seeking to disrupt any challenge to its majority-building powers, the pitfalls for Libertarian candidates will be plentiful and bad faith attacks numerous. They will be hit from all sides. On the flip side, they will be able to build unexpected legislative partnerships. These predicted adversarial conditions aren’t only external. Perhaps the biggest challenge to the movement will come from within.

Often compared to ‘herding cats’ – if the cats were feral and on the spectrum – Libertarians are unsurprisingly renowned for being horrible collectivists. Fiercely intransigent and principled, they are awful organisers, poor communicators, and are known for being less lawmakers and more law breakers. In short, they are horrible politicians, while their perennial messaging of ‘No Government’ has been a failing policy position in Australian politics for decades and for good reason – it’s not a great bumper sticker. It fails every time to capture the imagination or cultural zeitgeist. It doesn’t unite us in a shared belief or our common traditions. Libertarians understand that it’s sound fiscal policy, but doesn’t inspire anyone – not on a spiritual, cultural, or national level. How can Libertarians translate these philosophies and ideals into a language Australian voters will resonate with and how can we send a message less Ayn Rand or Milton Friedman, and more Crocodile Dundee and Barry Humphries?

One way is to build a suite of policies that are brash, abrasive, and downright antagonistic. Policies that cut through the nonsense and noise and connect with voters in tangible ways. Policies that resonate in the context of their homes, families, and communities. The goal should be to build a new brand of cultural Libertarianism that overcomes the limitations of philosophy and idealism with a set of policies that are rooted in culture and community, not economics and monetary policy. Here are six policy ideas that attempt to do just that.

FOOD

Libertarians should propose tax-free status to independent grocers earning under a million dollars in revenue. This is a policy designed to shake up the Australian grocery market, long dominated by giants like Coles and Woolworths. By giving small grocers a financial free pass, the policy would boost local food production, supporting regional farmers and offering them fairer prices. This locally sourced food would be more sustainable, cutting down on long-distance transport and large-scale farming practices. This move could inject much-needed competition into the sector, benefiting both producers and consumers.

This policy not only promotes Libertarian ideals, it provides a talking point that cuts across politics. From the cost of living crisis to anti-monopolistic practices, this is a policy that even the Australian Greens would struggle to resist. When half the job of being a Libertarian will be pushing through constant bad faith attacks accusing them of racism and misogyny, it is this kind of policy that can neutralise divisive actors, cut through the media machine, and forge unheard-of alliances in Australian politics.

ENERGY

#Repeal140A A policy described in a hashtag. Ironically, this policy should be a no-brainer for the Australian Greens also, but it is highly likely to go down like a solar panel at midnight so no paradigm disrupting alliances here but the policy is very simple – end the ban on Nuclear energy.

As Libertarians our policy should not be to oppose renewables. The Libertarian wet dream should be a power source on every house free from centralised control and climate dictates. Solar panels aren’t just compatible with Libertarian ideals, they are the embodiment of them. This is not a zero-sum game, with one losing or the other. Put Nuclear on a level playing field with renewables and let the market for clean, reliable energy run safe and free.

HOUSING

The Libertarian housing policy should be to dismantle the ABC. You heard that right. To dismantle the already failing ABC and SBS brick by brick. To decommission, privatise, and sell off the national broadcaster and build the future for young Australians with the proceeds. To take the profits from the sale and the 1.5 billion a year spent on the ABC and ‘Build The Rail’. Rail, you say? Yes, high-speed rail. Spend the 1.5 billion a year the ABC uses to lecture us about white privilege and toxic masculinity to roll out high-speed rail infrastructure into regional Australia servicing and supporting families to spread out around the nation and most importantly to prosper. This is a policy designed to bring hope to the young at the expense of the ABCs Boomer viewership; to alleviate the pressures on the capitals and last, but not least, to get people’s attention with its provocative stance. Oh… And end immigration until housing affordability is back to 1990 levels not a moment sooner. Enough is enough!

SPEECH

Let me set the scene. It’s summer 2025, the hot Aussie sun beaming down, Australians stand on their sun-soaked lawns, ready to take a ride on what’s looking more and more like a deeply authoritarian slippery slide. Those who lived through Covid know our elites can’t be trusted with this power and that our ancestors didn’t fight and sacrifice their lives just so a group of kindergarten teachers turned politicians could take away our right just so they could stop young men reading Andrew Tate tweets.

And while the Libertarian approach to this might seem simple, ‘oppose censorship’, a crucial opportunity to win this war on speech is being somewhat overlooked. This is again another chance to join forces with policymakers on the other side. To come together with the flag burners, keffiyeh wearers, and man-haters. To fight for the rights of those whose ideas are also deemed ‘regressive’. Alliances such as these might just be the difference between success and failure.

In the words of the great Ricky Gervais, ‘The point of free speech is that you can say things I don’t like. If you can only say things I do like, then it’s not really free speech.’

PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE

With our political class on both sides salivating over the dystopian new tools of tyranny coming online, it is incumbent on us as citizens to put their ambitions for 1984 becoming a nonfiction book on ice. To that effect, Australia should legislate a data policy that would enforce severe penalties on any government employee that uses, stores or shares the personal data of Australian users outside the realm of standard police investigations involving real crimes derived from real laws being broken. If the government wants to mine, store, or archive personal data on its citizens, it should be forced to seek permission first. It should never be granted freely.

WAR & GEOPOLITICS

Anthony Albanese might not be able to ban words like isolationism and non-interventionism, but he sure would struggle to pronounce them. These are the words that have been at the core of Libertarian thinking since its inception. Emphatically pro-peace, and adamantly self-defence, the Libertarian approach is simple. No war. Stop funding it, supporting it, condoning it, or endorsing it. Just stay out of it. We are done sending our young to die in counterproductive attempts to remake the world in our own image. Enough!

In the words of Jeffrey Tucker, President of economic research nonprofit Brownstone, ‘I’ve always believed that libertarian ideology should be to a well-lived life, what scales are to a symphony: essential to know but not the music itself.’

Australian Libertarians, your time has come. Time to stop the doodling and write some tunes.

Coalition, take note.

The Coalition has retreated so far from its principles that Peter Dutton is prepared to pass Labour’s draconian misinformation legislation if it just “strikes the right balance.”

The leader who preceded him wanted to make covid vaccinations mandatory – and practically did for those in the workforce – and closed the borders to Australians wanting to return home at the time, among other attacks on our traditional freedoms.

John Howard replaced economic productivity with a population ponzi that is changing Australia irrevocably, not least by making us all poorer.

I could go on.

Abandon all hope, ye who vote Liberal.

I thought Dutton was going to oppose MiniTru. Dutton just needs to pushed in the right direction.

Mmm…like he was pushed in the right direction on the voice.

That’s the problem…he’s meant to be the leader, yet he can’t seem to apply the Liberal Party’s clearly enunciated principles to the practical political issues that come before him. And he’s surrounded by wets in the party room for whom Dutton is simply their best chance of sitting on ministerial leather again.

In Canada, meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre has just taken a left-liberal Toronto seat from Trudeau’s party in a by-election. He didn’t do it by hiding what he believes or sacrificing his political principles to entice progressive voters but by explaining to the electorate how his policies could make their lives better.

I don’t see anyone in the Liberal Party attempting to do this outside of one or two senators who aren’t in the main game (and one of them is leaving the party to run as an independent after being demoted to an unelectable position on the QLD ticket in favour of a faceless party drone).

Australian Libertarians, your time has come. Time to stop the doodling and write some tunes.

A good piece of Drew Roller, Roger. Well, I am about to find out – at the demonstration called by the Libertarians against the modified ACMA bill embodying censorship of social media – in the Sydney Domain in a little over an hour.

That result of the Libertarians in the local elections in Sydney was interesting, though it may not translate into state or federal elections – but who knows? It may drag some critical votes from the Greens, but may also take them from UAP and One Nation.

Good grief! Just scanned The Australian & found the most disturbing article I have read in a while. In an article entitled :Act now before “pandemic amnesia” sets in, we are reminded that Albanese promised to establish an equivalent to the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) that exists in the USA. This is now being supported by the Australian Medical Association, the CSIRO, the Public Health Association of Australia. Within this article, it is noted that “Vaccine mandates should be carefully considered and used only as a last resort when uptake was low.” (!!!)

So…..I read that as…this new CDC would actually enforce people to be vaccinated against their will when uptake was low!!!!!

Have the bureaucrats learned nothing??? Clearly, they have not.

So…..I read that as…this new CDC would actually enforce people to be vaccinated against their will when uptake was low!!!!!

A moonbeam from the larger lunacy:

Northern Ireland is passing health emergency legislation that will facilitate compulsory vaccination among other nightmarish powers.

It seems to me that test submerging a sub at the construction dock before sea trials might be a good idea.