Wandered into a Coles supermarket on Friday. Asked three assistants whether they had Australian flags for sale. They were all, shall we say, recent immigrants. Only one, the last, knew. And she kindly directed me to an obscure section of shelf space measuring no more than nine inches across (look it up if you want centimetres), on which sat two small receptacles. Easy to miss, which I had. One contained half a dozen very small Australian flags costing $3 each, presumably made in China, and the other Aboriginal flags. So far as I could tell there was nothing else of an Australia Day nature. Certainly, there was no celebratory display and signage. A pathetic nominal effort.
Nation states are important.
Javier Milei describes himself an anarcho-capitalist. Think of Ayn Rand, I suppose. He has been particularly inspired, so he says, by Murray Rothbard’s essay “Anatomy of the State.” It is worth a read. Here is a flavour:
“The State provides a legal, orderly, systematic channel for the predation [plundering] of private property…”
It is hard not to feel in tune with Rothbard’s arguments. The State has become gargantuan, spending and taxing, spending and taxing. And often despotic. We saw that especially during the confected Covid episode. But we see it in the application of the law against political opponents. It is happening in the UK. It happened to the Jan 6 protesters in the US and to Trump and some of his allies. You can see the way so-called hate speech laws will be used to quell dissent in Australia, far removed from antisemitism.
So, the State certainly needs paring back and its power over individual citizens contained. Trump might have some success in America. Maybe? But how, without living within a powerful State, can we protect ourselves against monstrous armies, brigands, enslavers? It can’t be done. The State is non-negotiable, despite its drawbacks.
There are, I think two, imperatives. The first is to shrink the size of the State. The second, without prejudice to the first, is to keep the State strong. That is where the flag and what it stands for comes into play.
The flag is a totemic for patriotism and national cohesion. To wit, marching under one flag to defend the homeland. Why would people be prepared to lay down their lives for their State, if it is hopelessly divided and, too boot, replete with national self-loathing? As Honest Abe put it in 1858, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
I bought my flag and stuck it on the knocker on the door of my flat. I thought later, should I buy another and fly it on my car? I am off today (Saturday) to a grungy area of Sydney to see my single-mother youngest daughter who is renting what she can afford. Will someone take offence and damage my car if an Australian flag is flying on it? That is a question which says it all about where we are, doesn’t it.
Iirc Rothbard proposed that private security firms should take the place of police forces. Perhaps we’ll get to that position regardless due to state failure.
I have often wondered why streets in the beleaguered areas of Qld have not done that already. Maybe they have.
Some residents in T’ville got fed up with the lack of police and judicial response and corralled some offenders themselves.
Of course the msm was all over the ‘Vigilante’ angle, forgetting the crime the residents had to put up with. Not surprisingly, there was a fast and sizeable police response (if I remember correctly) and they were there to deal with the residents, not the criminals.
Perhaps in more remote areas where there is no police presence, things have already been dealt with?
Police threatened said individuals with charges too.
Vigilantes are underground now but not in numbers previously.
Meanwhile Chrisifooli dithers while judiciary just ignores his new measures.
He needs to grow a pair.
as well as Townsville, it happens in some Brisbane suburbs as well. Particularly well to do suburbs which are a favourite invasion target as the juveniles get hold of an upmarket sporty car and film themselves driving down the freeway at 160kmh.
In a pared-back event that reflects the diminution of Australia Day, I’ve just returned from a surf carnival at Collaroy (Sydney northern beaches).
It was a small affair, nothing like the hey-day of Australia Day carnivals at Manly and Freshwater over the long weekend. Large contingents of competitors would converge on the area, bringing excitement, top flight competition, and a swathe of people shopping, eating, and finding accommodation.
“Officials” have moved that three-day extravaganza to two days (last weekend) which dissuades many of the surf clubs from interstate from coming.
“Reasons” proliferate but underneath it all is an attitude of why celebrate the 26th January. If decision makers really wanted to promote a positive, united Australia, they would overcome all obstacles and reinstate the Australia Day long weekend carnivals.
I was able to get my little piece of rebellion in under their noses though.
While singing “Advance Australia Fair” along with the swirling Pipes and Drum band, I used young not one.
This morning, I hung my Oz flag above my garage door for all passers by to see – I did this with immense pride ( no, not that perverse sort of pride).
This here’s the wattle
Emblem of our land
You can stick it in a bottle
You can hold it in your hand
Amen.
(I nearly got it right from memory, but on checking had to correct a few words. Happy Australia Day to all Cats!)
Then… “crack tube”
The correct version:
Two arms, two hands, two steely bands,
Beneath the Southern Cross I stands,
A sprig of wattle in me hand,
Symbol of me native land,
Orstrailia, you bloody beauty,
So up the old red rooster,
And more beer!
Two arms, two legs, two swollen glands
A tin of Emu in me hands
A symbol of me native land
Orstralia
Sink more piss!
Buuuurrrpp!
(Took me right back to uni that did!)
A fierce, happy joyous Australia Day to you all Cats. Winning!
When you import too many people of from non Western type countries, most of whom are wedded to the countries they came from, it’s no surprise Australian Day is dying. You see it at sporting events such as soccer, cricket, and will in Melbourne today, with demos .
They love the financial benefits of Australia via Centrelink and elsewhere but it generally ends there. Their kin elect them to the 3 tiers of government and bit by bit the old Australia is dismantled. Cultural diversity is our downfall.
It is difficult to comprehend the attitude of people who think that Australia is a terrible place. Have none of them ever travelled (outside the five star hotel route) and seen how the majority of the world’s population lives?
Not only that, many of the wealthiest countries have lousy weather compared to ours, live in cramped conditions compared to ours, and are under the thumb of an intrusive State compared to ours. In other words, Europe and the UK may have the GDP, but not the lifestyle.
BTW, I have seen numerous cars, tradie vehicles and Harleys on the street in Queanbeyan today sporting Australian flags and related regalia. Despite the best efforts of the MSM, pride in our country is far from dead.
Happy Australia Day, everyone!
Hey, true blue
Don’t say you’ve gone
Say you’ve knocked off for a smoke-o
And you’ll be back later on
Hey, true blue
Hey, true blue
Give it to me straight
Face to face
Are you really disappearing?
Just another dying race?
Hey, true blue
True blue, is it me and you?
Is it Mum and Dad?
Is it a cockatoo?
Is it standing by your mate
When he’s in a fight?
Or just Vegemite?
True blue
I’m asking you
Hey, true blue
Can you bear the load?
Will you tie it up with wire
Just to keep the show on the road?
Hey, true blue
Hey, true blue
Now be fair dinkum
Is your heart still there?
If they sell us out like sponge-cake
Do you really care?
Hey, true blue
True blue
Is it me and you?
Is it Mum and Dad?
Is it a cockatoo?
Is it standing by your mate
When he’s in a fight?
Or just Vegemite?
True blue
I’m asking you
True blue
Is it me and you?
Is it mum and dad?
Is it a cockatoo?
Is it standing by your mate
When he’s in a fight?
Or just Vegemite?
True blue
True blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR8p5nRVJ1s
Locals confused as Australian Venue Co-owned Cobblers Falcon in Mandurah flies Chinese flag on Australia Day
West Australian
I don’t blame overseas owners in this case.
Look at the exec of Aus Venue Co and there’s your culprit there.
Choc-a-block with non jobs and exuding wokeness.
Just watched the original Kekovich lamb ad at Michael Smith.
My how things have gone backwards!!!
Do they sing Song of Australia these days? I preferred it to Advance Australia Fair back as a child in the 70s. Of course, I’m annoyed they dropped the Captain Cook verse and I still sing “Sons”.
Local boozer has got a string of Australian flags along the main verandah railing, with two larger flags either side of the main entrance. Well done!
For as long as the state is perceived as beneficent – which arguably it is by the majority of our population who are addicted to it – it will not be shrunk.
The great challenge is to counter the very effective propaganda of Big State proponents, a task which conservatives are demonstrably lamentable at, despite not lacking the smarts to do so.
(No, riding on the coat-tails of the Trump-Train doesn’t count. Conservatives long ago so watered-down the definition of ‘winning’ that it now means little more than ‘continuing to breathe’).
Discard the ego, pride, and hubris.
Oh, and Happy Centrelink Day to youse all.
Smaller crowd, then usual at the “Invasion Day” protests in Perth, a record crowd for the Australia Day fireworks on the Swan River foreshore.
There is only one rule modern governments follow without exception: they must get bigger every year — even though government is now 10 times (100 times?) bigger than it was at the end of World War II.
PS: Voters are never asked whether they support governments getting bigger and interfering in every part of their lives from ballooning traffic fines to hysterical, puritannical, compulsory advertising about the evils of gambling that acccompanies each gambling advertisement
The ever-growing Australian nanny state treats citizens like delinquent children.