RIP HRH Princess Shirley of Hutt River Principality

 Image (L): A young Princess Shirley 

 The Principality of Hutt River has announced the death of their matriarch Princess Shirley, the wife of the founder of the breakaway province, which seceeded from Australia in 1970.

Our sympathy goes out to Prince Leonard and his family for their loss of the lady who has supported and stood by her husband in his battle against government injustice for over forty years.

The Casleys have been an inspiration to many ‘Free State’ and secessionist libertarians over the years owing to their successful efforts to secede from Australia and managing to make a go of it.  While the Australian government has adopted the official position of not recognizing Hutt River Principality, no serious effort has been made to end it.

While there is little to demonstrate a commitment to libertarian principles by Leonard and his family, they deserve some brownie points for the following:

• Secession was a response to the draconian actions of the West Australian Wheat board, (the central marketing authority) which restricted the property to a quota amounting to 1% of the 9,900 acres of wheat ready to harvest at that time.
• They declared war on Australia for several days over demands from the Taxation Department.  A compromise has been reached whereby residents lodge returns, but are considered non-residents for tax purposes, thus paying no tax from income derived in the principality.
• Probably the lowest income tax rate in the world, of 0.5% flat rate.

Hutt River derives income from agricultural production including sheep and grains, a wildflower production and export business, and the approximately 40,000 tourists per year who visit as well and associated stamp, currency and souvenir sales.

The history of the secession is an interesting mix of canny actions by the Casleys and their advisers, and ineptitude in the response to it by the West Australian and Australian governments. 

The move from province to principality was done in response to the threats issued by the incoming Whitlam government to end the secession.  A search of British law revealed that the “Imperial Treasons act of 1495” which had never been repealed, essentially made it an offense (treason) to take action against a de facto prince in the exercise of his functions. 

Thus, the adoption of the title of prince, is not an act of eccentricity, but a legal instrument ensuring the independence of the micro state.

Its nice to find someone who is not only prepared to take on the state, but who can win that fight.

Police war veteran slams gun control legislators

Aaron Wells, an Iraq war veteran and current police officer has delivered a blistering criticism of NY gun control legislators responsible for the misnamed NY SAFE act.  Some of these idiots were actually congratulating themselves for courage in passing it.

We can only presume that they were defining ‘courage’ in the same way Bill Clinton did in justifying the soaring references to the extreme courage of President Obama in sending the SEALs after bin Laden; some of which would make Audie Murphy feel inadequate.  “If it had gone wrong and they had been killed or captured, the downside would have been terrible for him.”

It is not unusual to find law enforcement officers opposing gun control.  A poll of over 15,000 police professionals in the US conducted this year found them overwhelmingly against the idea. 

He makes a valid point in mentioning Chicago: 

“Another issue is the insistence of certain people to stand on the graves of dead children and challenge those that disagree to say it to the parent’s faces,” he said. “Well, I, for one, will pick up that gauntlet.” 

“First off, why is ‘dead children’ your battle cry?” Weiss asked roughly. “You didn’t say anything about the hundreds of Chicago children being killed and for some reason you only screamed when it happens to wealthy white ones.” 

Currently, Chicago is a gun-control advocates dream: citizens with a felony or certain minor misdemeanors are prohibited from ownership. Democratic leaders in the state consistently praise “tough” laws and the need for even more. Last year, more Americans were killed in Chicago than in Kabul, Afghanistan; a war zone.

Here is an item demonstrating just how effective Chicago gun laws really are: 

There were 67 people shot and 11 killed over the long Independence Day weekend in Chicago. Of the 67, eight were shot, with one killed, in a single Saturday evening attack in the West Side neighborhood of Lawndale. … 

… For the 28 days leading up to this past Father’s Day weekend--another bloodbath itself, in which 46 were shot and 8 were killed, including one shot by a police officer--murder numbers matched 2012 exactly with 41. Chicago Police data show that in the two weeks following, another 27 were gunned down and killed.

Edward Snowden; a traitor to whom

Cartoon: By Steve Kelly 

Legislators tend to confuse public interest with their own interest.  Likewise, they tend to confuse national security with their desire to conceal their own activities from the public.

This appears to be the case with the information released by whistle blower Edward Snowden.  The NSA under government directive have been secretly monitoring most of the communications in America and many others across the world.

The statements of John Boehner and Dianne Feinstein, that Snowden is a traitor, or that the release of this information is treason are questionable at best.

It is reasonable to argue that in the interests of preventing terrorist attacks, communications from those likely to plan or carry out such actions can be monitored.  Such people are probably aware or at least suspect that they may be under survalience and are probably taking countermeasures anyway.  Releasing information on survalence of these groups can endanger the public.

The problem in this case is though, this is not targeted survalence but a blanket coverage of vast swathes of domestic and overseas communication using the pretext of terrorism as cover.  This is a gross violation of the rights of all law abiding citizens whose phone records and internet commumications are recorded.

Revealing countermeasures taken against the enemies of the American people is treason, but when the state uses this as a pretext for wholesale spying on the population at large, not just the dangerous people, such revelations are whistle blowing.

The Obama Administration is dangerously inclined to think it rules by divine right, and dangerously contemptuous of Constitutional limitations to its power, to the point of considering itself imperial.  The idea that such information gathering would not be misused is negated by the misuse of the powers of the IRS in the targeting of political opponents.

The only treason Boehner and Feinstein can argue, is against their belief in the unrestrained rights of big government.

Northern Territory politician’s way out Jolie rant

 It sounds like Northern Territory politician Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe hasn’t been getting enough attention lately, or perhaps is self-absorbed enough to think his comments on movie stars activities are relevant.  Mr van Holthe (Left) has come out with an over the action of Angelina Jolie (Right) in having a double mastectomy being regarded as ‘heroic:’ 

A NORTHERN Territory minister has come under fire on Facebook after bizarrely weighing in on Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy.  Country Liberal Party member and MP for Katherine, Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe sparked a flurry of angry Facebook responses after posting this on news.com.au's Facebook page last night:

Mr Westra van Holthe was referring to a story in which Brad Pitt called his fiancee "heroic" and praised her decision to undergo the radical surgery after discovering she carried the breast cancer gene that killed her mother at 56. 

Pitt was quoted saying: "Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie's choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for their care and focus.

The press are a little overenthusiastic in handing out hero labels to celebrities be it Hollywood stars or gay sportsmen, but at least it saves them from the dilemma presented in finding them in the ranks of the great unwashed.  On the other hand in this case it is somewhat churlish to criticize.

Jolie essentially carried out a preemptive action to prevent the high risk she carried of contracting breast cancer.  While this was probably a difficult and emotional decision to make, it was probably the most sensible one available to her.  A great many women with breast cancer though have difficulty in coping with radical surgery despite the almost certainty of death otherwise.

Her action in announcing her action to the public will give many women encouragement to do what is needed in that situation and may save many lives in the long run.  She deserves to be congratulated on that, not hauled over the coals or have her contribution to women’s health belittled as has happened here.

We wish her well.

(Ed note): Mr van Holthe’s image (above) was taken after a fight in a pub.

Armed robbery epic fail

A popular video is doing the rounds on how not to conduct an armed robbery. It is not certain when this one went up, but the incident was five days ago and the video has over two million hits:

The intended victim certainly either has a set of big ones, has a bit of training, or both. Gun control advocates will probably adopt three lines of attack here:

• It shows a gun is not needed for self defense; 
• It shows how easily a gun can be taken away and used against you, and; 
• The intended victim ended up possessing a firearm without a background check. 

Anzac Day; QX 5005 Cpl Harry Skyring Baylis

As a personal touch to the day, Cpl Baylis was my mother’s cousin.  He was killed in action on the 10^th of November 1942, which according to the history of the 2/33 would have been at Gorari in PNG (7-11 Nov 42).

While this was going on, my father was involved in the battle of El Alamein.

Roll of Honour - Harry Skyring Baylis

Service number: QX5005

Rank: Corporal

Unit: 2/33rd Battalion (Infantry)

Service: Australian Army

Conflict: 1939-1945

Date of death: 10 November 1942

Place of death: Papua

Cause of death: Killed in action

Cemetery or memorial details: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea

Censorship wars; the Telegraph strikes back

The current government in Canberra has more than its fair share of losers and weirdo’s.  Probably the weirdest and most bizarre member though is the communications minister, Stephen Conroy whose obsession with to use his own words, “unfettered power” and his determination to bring the media to heel is the stuff of legends. 

Last September he stunned a group of US businessmen with the declaration: 

“I have unfettered legal power.” "If I say to everyone in this room ‘if you want to bid in our spectrum auction you’d better wear red underpants on your head’, I’ve got some news for you. You’ll be wearing them on your head.”

For some time he has been attempting to use his legislative power as a blunt instrument to intimidate the press with a ‘super regulator’ a fit and proper person test for media owners, and even talk of licensing journalists.  Finally, the Daily Telegraph has had enough with he following front page:

 Inside was an image of Conroy superimposed on Joe Stalin.

News Limited group editorial director Campbell Reid, defended the coverage stating, ” Do you seriously think that a reader of The Daily Telegraph thinks that we are accusing Senator Conroy of rounding up people? We're making a point about freedom of speech.”

Today The Telegraph doubled down on its effort with an ‘apology’: 

YESTERDAY we ran a picture of Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy depicted as Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. 

It has since been pointed out that this was a grossly unfair and insulting comparison to make. And so we would just like to say: We're sorry, Joe. 

Yes, it is true that Stalin was a despicable and evil tyrant who was responsible for the death of many millions. 

However, at least he was upfront in his efforts to control the media instead of pretending he supported free speech and then suggesting that cheeky, satirical or provocative newspaper coverage might be against the law. We also note that, despite his well-documented crimes against humanity, Stalin at least managed to hold a government together for more than three years. 

Nonetheless, we pay tribute to our new Commissar Conroy and stand ready to write and publish whatever he instructs us to.

Conroy is in the process of spending an estimated $43 Billion on a national broadband network, and is seeking to regulate blogs that get 43 hits per day or more.  While there has been some speculation as to the logic of the number of hits being 43, it is possible that he picked the figure on the basis of one hit for every billion dollars spent on the NBN.

Rural fire service tale of incompetence and bureaucratization

 A friend of this site, Dale Stiller has made a couple of postings on the evacuationgrounds site highlighting the problems faced by rural fire brigade volunteers owing to the growth of central control and bureaucratization within the service: 

On Tuesday I was called out to a fire north of Miles on the Hookswood Road and witnessed one of the biggest stuff ups, of incompetency that you don't want to see. Qld fire & rescue set up a controll centre, overrode local people and treated volunteer rural fire brigade people like dirt. 

They stood around that long talking about what may happen with the fire that it did happen. The fire went from big to massive while us volunteers weren't allowed to do anything. Then at 6.30 when the incident controller was sending in the locals to do some backburning to save people's houses, his mates left in a heap of units to go back to Toowoomba. 

I got to bed a 1am, I have to go now & fight a much bigger fire than yesterday with many unsecured fronts.  I will be having a lot more to say about this.

The subsequent post explained his position: 

In my previous post, Hookswood Rd Fire, I expressed my frustration at the incompetence of Qld fire & rescue who took control of all efforts to fight a fire and by their inaction causing a big fire to grow to something far more dangerous and destructive. 

I was also angry to learn from those who were on the scene on the Sunday, Monday and first thing Tuesday before I was called in as part of the Downfall Creek rural fire volunteers, of 3 occasions were the fire could have contained as a small fire and that on 2 of these occasions the opportunity wasn’t taken because of blindly following of the rule book by Qld fire & rescue. Having hours of inaction on my hands during Tuesday and hearing the outrage of my fellow rural fire volunteers I made sure that their views became known to the media. These two articles are the result - Heat on resourcingas fire threats intensify More RFS review forQld 

This image above was developed from the NAFI web site gives the perfect illustration of why preventive burning is very important.   The image also shows what sectors of the fire the Downfall Creek brigade played a part. 

On Tuesday night our crew joined others to back burn to save property of a family. The Qld fire & rescue incident controller would have had a heart attack if he knew that we went to the lead of the fire yet many km’s away. The sky glowed red, thick smoke billowed overhead and the roar of the fire was enough to strike fear. Earlier we had sighted a spot fire start up 1km in advance of the fire front. We knew of nothing that would stop this fires advance. We left that location to go back to burn a wide band around the house and buildings.  

The Downfall Creek rural fire brigade operated within the Barakula State Forest at the western flank of the fire from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday night. The forestry fire fighters were on the eastern side of the fire on the Wednesday and could only bring equipment to the western side on the Thursday. When the forestry workers shift changed soon after dark on Thursday we learnt from the shift supervisor what stopped the fire front from going any further. 

On Wednesday night he was just off to the east of the lead of the fire front. At 3am the fire was still crowning, that is burning in the tree tops, when it hit an area that had a preventive burn back in September. In the image above it is the peach colour area. The fire lost its ground fuel source and bit by bit died down to a halt.

Look at the image to see how few preventive burns have occurred in the fires path, both in privately held land and the state owned state forest. There was a large fuel build up in this area. You don’t need to be Einstein to know that fuel load plus hot temperature plus ignition equals destruction. More needs to be done to encourage cool burns in August and September.

In this day and age, much of firefighting has come under the control of state bodies, as has land use and management owing to the increased influence of the Greens who tend to be based among the inner city trendies.  As result, fuel reduction burns have become a sacrifice to political correctness and policies developed by the ignorant of reality and idealists who believe standard practices are the result of the stupidity of those they see as yokels.

State bodies are by nature bureaucratic and inclined to follow the rule book rather than rely on commonsense.  Initiative is scorned by such people as a dangerous anarchic tendency.

Most people raised in the bush get their first experience of firefighting soon after their dads deem them strong enough to swing a wet corn sack, and understand that a buildup of dry grass and shrubbery is a disaster waiting for the next ‘dry storm’ where a lightning bolt can set the country aflame.  This experience should be utilized rather than scorned.

Song to help Israeli kids overcome trauma

Nobody copes well with constant danger, although some manage to control their fear better than others. In Israel there has been plenty to fear lately with constant rocket attacks aimed randomly at the civilian population. Most adults have through long experience, learned to cope, and through long practice, learned how to respond.

Children though, have to learn fast in order to survive despite a feeling of helplessness as the missiles fly around them. A song has been produced to assist them to overcome their fear and react as needed when they have to:
 

 Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best and most effective. It would require a psychologist to really assess the benefits of this approach, or in the case of a government assessment, several of them, along with representatives of several departments, child care and refugee advocates, and a couple of climate scientists just in case.

H/t Breitbart

Iranian women “put the jab into hijab” beat up cleric

"Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.” - Victor Hugo

Image: A cartoonists view of the Iranian Adam and Eve

 A number of posts have appeared here on the disillusionment of sections of the Iranian people with the theocratic and authoritarian government there. This was highlighted by massive demonstrations after the stolen 2009 election, which were brutally suppressed. It has also been mentioned on a number of occasions, that women seem to be at the forefront, owing to the oppression of Islam.

 Australian men have understood for many years that getting our women really pissed off with us can have dire consequences, although it is understood that they are much more docile, compliant, and obedient in the United States and Great Britain. (Just kidding)
  
 It now looks like Iranian chicks are developing the same stroppy nature their Australian counterparts have had all along. A couple of them beat an Islamic Cleric senseless, (assuming he had any senses in the first place) when he ordered them to cover up:

They may be a far cry from their Western counterparts fighting for the acceptance to breastfeed or go topless -- in public, but two girls clobbered a cleric recently in a small town in Iran when he admonished one of them to cover herself more completely. The cleric said he asked "politely," but the girl's angry reaction and some pugilistic double-teaming with her friend landed the holy man in the hospital, according to an account on Monday in the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.  

Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he encountered the girls on his way to the mosque in the village of Shahmirzad for noon prayers in late August. He told one of the girls to cover up, the report said. "She responded by telling me to cover my eyes, which was very insulting to me," Beheshti said. So he asked her a second time to cover up and also to put a lid on what he felt was verbal abuse.  

She hit the man of the cloth, and he hit the ground.  

 "I don't remember what happened after that," he said. "I just felt her kicks and heard her insults.” Beheshti, who emerged from the infirmary three days later, said he did not file a complaint against the girls. But he doesn't mind the local prosecutor's investigation into the matter either "as long as the case helps the cause of Islamic hijab.” 

 In all seriousness though; these chicks have probably placed themselves in serious danger of severe penalties, possibly even death for their resistance to this old wowser. It is to be hoped they are safe.

 The biggest threat the free world has to offer the authoritarian one is ideas, especially liberty. One of the hallmarks of tyranny over the years has been the need for vast propaganda efforts to convince their own people that the West was tyrannical, with downtrodden masses yearning for the joys of ‘liberation’. To a tyrant, liberty is a dirty word.

 The main threat to free societies is that most politicians have delusions of relevance and believe they deserve a bigger role in the day to day lives of the citizenry, than administering those few matters that the people allow them. For this reason, Western governments feel the need for vast propaganda efforts to convince their own people that the government knows what’s best for them.

 Oppressive regimes tend to believe the myth that fear overcomes dissent, but while the human body is fragile and easily dealt with; ideals of liberty are indestructible. We have observed with disgust the Iranian regime killing and brutalizing its dissenting people. Feel confident, it will lose in the end; then the real ‘Arab Spring’ can get started.

Update: 'The Australian' reports that this is a widespread and growing phenomenon. 

Citizen saves cop; 150+ yard pistol shot.

Police tend to be increasingly paranoid in their attitude towards the idea of the armed citizen. Some of this could be caused by the insularity of a group that is increasingly being used to enforce more and more petty regulations of the modern nanny state and its attendant them against us mentality. What tends to be forgotten is, that with an armed citizenry, the guns coming out in a crisis will be on their side.

In an incident in Texas an armed citizen, Vic Stacey probably saved the life of a police officer who was pinned down under gunfire by a murderer who was reportedly better armed and in a better position. Not only did he hit the offender with the first shot, but that shot was at more than 150 yards with a pistol, something many could not do with a rifle:

... Stacy, who had a seen Conner around his trailer park and described him as “off the wall”, watched the gun fight for a few moments and concluded, “I think (Conner) is gonna take (the officer) out if I don’t help him out.”

So, that’s when Stacy decided to act. Conner may have had excellent cover against the Officer Means, but Stacy was in a flanking position that gave him the perfect vantage point. Stacy recalled, “I had a side view of that man the whole time standing there, and I thought, I’m fixin’ to put one in him, if I can.”

Stacy raised his gun, fired, and landed one hell of a shot – by his estimate “a good 165 yards” – with a pistol (we do not know the make or caliber at this time). Stacy wasn’t even sure if he could make the shot at that distance: “I hope this magnum bullet’ll hold up, you know, this distance. And sure enough it did and I hit him in the thigh.”

At that point, Conner returned fire against Stacy with his AR-15. He missed his shot, luckily, but that gave dead-eye Stacy another opportunity to pull the trigger. Stacy “hit him again and put three more in him … The patrolman got two shots in him with that AR-15. And it seems like he’s all over with, then.”

Conner died on the scene, but if it wasn’t for the aid of Vic Stacy, the body count might have been a lot higher.

Stacy told Brownwood Bulletin that he wasn’t able to sleep at all the night following the shooting, but the following day was a different story. Stacy was able to get a good night’s sleep after police convinced him that he had acted appropriately and saved lives. Stacy added, “I hate that it happened. But I’m glad that we got him down. I felt sorry for those people.”

We might have a new role model. Vic Stacy was not overeager to pull the trigger, he felt the appropriate weight on his conscience after taking the life of another person, and he hasn’t let the media attention get to his head. If you ask us, the world could use a few more Vic Stacys.

It would be nice to know what the pistol was; it appears that he hit the killer five times at long range, so it’s a hell of a gun with a hell of a good shot behind it. (My mate Bawb will want at least one of those.)

Raise a glass to concealed carry

The Blaze has a report on an elderly customer at an Internet café who foiled an attempted robbery by drawing his pistol and opening fire on the perpetrators, hitting both. The customer, Samuel Williams has a concealed carry license and took action when he became concerned that others could be injured.


The great thing in having concealed carry is that the sort of dropkicks who attempted the robbery can never be sure of whether they have a clear run or face a real risk of getting killed. Just the possibility of encountering the armed citizen is a great deterrent.

Putting parliament in its place.

A shorter version of this video has been posted here before, featuring Media Magnate, the late Kerry Packer fronting up to a parliamentary inquiry on media ownership some years back. This one is a slightly longer version.

One of the especially amusing aspects for those who remember the circumstances surrounding this was the sight of preening politicians giving interviews on just how they were going to take Kerry apart when he was called. They quickly found the boot on the other foot with him putting them in their place.



This guy was one of the finest Aussies ever to walk the planet and it’s a shame he is not still about.

Hostage rescue, and no “Gutsy call” statement from VP?

Four hostages have been rescued by Special Forces who carried a long nighttime forced march and a firefight to release them. Oddly there are no ‘tense’ situation room scenes, nor ‘gutsy call’ statements from the leadership, and the only kudos apparent was given to the troops involved. A possible explanation might be; this one was carried out by the British SAS:

BRITAIN'S Special Air Service made a daring night-time march across the mountains in Afghanistan in a “breathtaking” operation to free the British aid worker Helen Johnston and three other hostages, David Cameron has revealed. … More than 10 of the heavily armed kidnappers were killed.

The SAS opted for what Mr Cameron called their “long route march at night” because they did not want to tip off the hostage-takers by arriving in a helicopter. A helicopter raid to rescue another British aid worker, Linda Norgrove, in 2010 backfired disastrously. The Taliban panicked when they heard the helicopters and Norgrove was killed in the ensuing chaos. …

In a significant toughening of the government's stance towards those who kidnap Britons, Mr Cameron said the outcome served as a warning that such groups could expect “a swift and brutal end.”

The action was part of a joint UK/ US operation in which the American Special Forces attacked another area where it was thought hostages could be located:

A contingent of British and American special forces supported by a dozens more paratroopers had been flown by helicopter into the area early in the week. While the American special forces headed towards the cave complex, about 30 British SAS undertook a long march to the mud hut compound.

The Americans found a group of kidnappers in the caves and killed them. But there were no hostages.

At about the same time the British SAS came across all four hostages being held by the second group. Although the kidnappers were armed with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s, the SAS killed them after a firefight.

Signs of rebellion in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is one of the most oppressive regimes in the Middle East owing to the extreme nature of the ruling Wahhabi sect. While most Islamist nations have varying degrees of paranoia in relation to women, the Saudis have taken it to a fine art form, not even allowing them to drive. While ‘morals police’ are not unique to the Saudis, theirs are among the most extreme, even to the extent of forcing schoolgirls back into a burning building for being improperly dressed.

These ‘police’ seem to be recruited from the pool of trailer trash types who get their jollies by flogging women. Surprisingly, Saudi men seem to be too cowardly and effeminate to resist these people. There have been signs of rebellion from the women though, with some posting images of themselves exercising illegal freedoms. This chick in the video though has caused some interest and praise by resisting an order to leave a shopping mall:


Western apologists, especially in Europe have been attempting to appease the extremist elements among the Islamic population with laws against free speech, draconian PC requirements, and the ever present human rights commissions which seem loaded against native populations.

It seems pretty clear that there is a resistance beginning among youth and women in Islamic countries, especially in the more conservative and repressive ones such as the Saudis and Iran, which has been reported on before on this site.

The younger generation is tech savvy and is able to access information from outside their countries. They see the freedoms and liberties of the West and want them for themselves. This woman was able to use the threat of the ‘Morals Police’ conduct turning up on the web to intimidate them:

But the woman replies: “That has nothing to do with me. Besides that, I am allowed to wear nail polish if I wish. You have nothing at all to say to me. I am not leaving here. I will remain here. And, just so you know: I am filming all of this right now. Smile for the camera.”

And further: “This video is running right now on Facebook and Twitter.”

The greatest threat we pose for these fascist regimes is not a military one. It is in fact a lifestyle and liberty one. Would you prefer to spend your life trying to live up to the demands of the local Imam in prayer and contemplation when you are aware of the freedoms available elsewhere?

Rather than attempt to placate these toads, we should celebrate our liberty, hit them with rock and roll, country and western, even a bit of bluegrass, Bollywood (not Hollywood, its apologist and wimpy), and generally give them something to aspire to. If the population as a whole don’t kick these bastards out, the chicks will.

Anzac Day, with a tribute to Kapyong.

Map: Battle of Kapyong.

Korean war veterans tend to feel that they fought in a forgotten war. This is probably an overstatement as it gets mentions, but probably less attention than it deserves. Perhaps the fact that it sits between two longer wars – WW2 and Vietnam may have something to do with it.

The defining battle for Australians in Korea was the Battle of Kapyong, fought on the night of 23Apr 51 and through the following day. The 24th of April is officially ‘Kapyong Day’ but it is generally overshadowed by Anzac Day on the 25th. The Battle of Long Tan which was smaller, less significant, but no less courageous, has fared better with its day on the 18th of August.

At Kapyong the Australian 3rd Battalion and the Canadian 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry set up defensive positions on hills either side of the Kapyong Valley to block the Chinese spring offensive from reaching Seoul, and with some American tanks and New Zealand artillery were able to block a Chinese Division after heavy fighting.

The following transcript gives an idea of the situation:

Early in the evening, retreating South Koreans streamed past the Commonwealth position, with Chinese forces closely intermingled. Soon afterwards a platoon of American tanks supporting 3 RAR was overrun. The Kapyong valley was too large an area to defend with the forces available, and the brigade was spread very thinly.

Throughout the night the Chinese repeatedly pressed the Australian positions, attacking in waves over their own dead and wounded.

At dawn, A Company, under the command of Major Bernard "Ben" O'Dowd, found that the Chinese had infiltrated its position, but a counter-attack was able to eject them. Meanwhile B Company, which had spent the night on a hill near the riiver, discovered Chinese occupying some old bunkers on a small knoll. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued with grenades and bayonets. C Company, under the command of Captain Reg Saunders, was in position to reinforce both A and B Companies.

"Major O'Dowd then directed the radio operator to contact anyone. The American 1st Marine Division answered but their operator refused to believe who our operator was speaking for. Major O'Dowd took the phone and demanded to speak to the commanding officer. The general in charge of the [Marine] division came on the phone and told O'Dowd we didn't exist as we had been wiped out the night before. Major O'Dowd said, 'I've got news for you, we are still here and we are staying here.”

Both the Australian and Canadian Battalions were awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation for their actions (Image left).

Fail mark for 10’s The Circle.

American shows like ‘The View’ are standard daytime TV fodder over here on Channel Ten ever since ‘I Love Lucy’ got a bit too aged for further reruns. Being a forward and progressive channel wanting to increase Australian content the heads decided to make a local chat show with female hosts.

Lacking what most Americans consider the towering intellects of Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell, or Barbara Walters, they settled on Corgi Coghlan, and Yumi Stynes, calling it ‘The Circle’, a sort of The View Lite. By inviting aging celebrity current affairs host, George Negus to be a guest, they have managed to answer the question, “What could go wrong?”


Corporal Roberts-Smith stated that the comments were not intended to be malicious and is probably correct in that they are puerile babblings of brainless twits. It is though, a good indication of the reaction of the wet liberal self appointed elites to being confronted by a real man.

Charged for controlling parthenium weed.

By Dale Stiller on behalf of Property Rights Australia.

Property Rights Australia chairman, Joanne Rea said it is beyond belief that the Qld government would prosecute anyone for controlling weeds especially parthenium, a declared noxious, exotic weed which spreads aggressively into neighbouring property if not treated.

This follows hot on the heels of the capricious prosecution of Trenton Hindman of SW Queensland for renovating country infested with the invasive woody weed, turkey bush.

This reveals a pattern of unacceptable activism by some departmental officers. “What is the agenda of the State Government in pursuing people who have, in essence, done nothing wrong? Is common sense ever going to return to the pursuit of justice in this State?” Mrs. Rea, Chairman of Property Rights Australia said.”

The above quote was included in an article on page 9 in the 29th December 2011 issue of the QCL written by Troy Rowlings called, “Moore grazier defends weed ‘damage’ charge.” (not online - Ed)

Peter Leo lives on the farm that his family first settled in 1897 not far out of the hamlet of Linville. In 1911 a railway easement was cut through the farm and was used for this purpose until its close in 1989. Then in 2008 the Department of Infrastructure and Planning (DIP) took a sub-lease from the Department of Transport and Main Roads for the rail corridor land which was previously known as the Brisbane Valley Railway Line that ran from Wulkuraka Railway Station to Blackbutt. The DIP then started to develop the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail as part of the Queensland Government’s South East Queensland Active Trails Strategy and community greenspace network. The rail trail is supposed to be for walking, cycling and horse riding.

Photo sourced from ATHRA

The start of Peter Leo’s recent problems was the floods in January 2011; the same floods known nationally and internationally for the havoc they wreaked along the Lockyer Creek and the Brisbane River. After the flood waters had long gone, weeds germinated. In a phone call that I had with Peter he related not only of the abnormal amount of weeds but the variety of them, some that had not been seen before. Amongst the normal weeds such as noogoora burr were patersons curse and parthenium. The parthenium plants were found on the rail trail and Peter sent a sample to the Queensland Herbarium who confirmed that the plants were indeed parthenium.

The Brisbane Valley Rail Trail employs a Trail Ranger to whom Peter Leo reported the weeds on at least two occations but no action was forthcoming. Peter wrote a letter to the Minister whose portfolio included the DIP. When a new minister, Paul Lucas took over this department a letter was despatched to him as well. In all his efforts to have action taken about weeds on the rail trail after 8 months Peter received no satisfactory response. An unwelcomed response was for the Director, Resource and Landscape in DIP, Steve MacDonald, sending a letter of demand for records of any agreement that the family had with the railway. An unlikely event that even if there was any agreement of the chances of documents surviving from 1911.

By mid-August the weeds were out of control, Peter did not wish for the weeds to go to seed so he decided to control the weeds by the means of a tractor & a disc implement to plough the weeds in. “A light harrow job””, as Peter called it. At the end of August parthenium was found by Peter & a friend on the rail trail. Peter sprayed the parthenium and also ploughed again. This was the first time that he had ever found parthenium but controlling weeds and encouraging natural grasses had been practiced by Peter along this easement ever since the railway had left.

On this map the railway is shown as a dotted line. Peter Leo's farm is just south of Linville.

After the weed control had been done the Trail Ranger turned up & reported it to the DIP. As a result a policeman paid a visit to Peter Leo, the policeman inspected the situation & left presumably satisfied that no charge was warranted. However the next day the policeman came back with the news that he had been instructed to charge Peter Leo.

Peter found himself taken in, finger printed, a swab taken for DNA and charged. Peter had been told to plead guilty and take a $100 fine. In a state of disbelieve and indignant at his treatment Peter told me that he decided, as he put it, “I’m not a criminal; I am not pleading guilty.”

He is convinced that the orders to charge him came from at a higher level in the DIP. The minister Paul Lucas was well aware of the situation, in fact Peter was told that “Paul Lucas had hit the roof”. Peter believes that this is a “political charge and that he has been subjected to intimation” and also that, “Independent discretion has been taken away from the police.”

If this is what occurred it is a very serious situation and of great concern for the administration of justice in Queensland.

Charging a person for controlling a declared noxious, exotic weed such as parthenium is bad enough but what is even more incredible is the charge brought against him, that he has to appear before a court for mention on January 6th – wilful damage.

Peter Leo was told that he had damaged the integrity of the rail trail.

Peter Leo told me that he “just wants to be left alone”, but I can tell you from listening to him that he will not roll over on this one just to be rid of the situation as soon as he can; this is one determined man.

Qantas dispute, Labor folly, Liberal cowardice.

Cartoon: by Pickering,(for overseas readers; Allan Joyce is an Irishman.)

Over the last weeks and months viewers became accustomed to the sight of chaos at airports caused by a series of rolling stoppages by unionists employed by Qantas in support of wage demands. Numerous images appeared of disgruntled travelers, inconvenienced by delays and cancelled flights stating that they would never use the airline again. The unions were talking of a slow bake of Qantas for as long as it took.

Last Saturday Qantas CEO, Allan Joyce bit the bullet, grounded the airline worldwide, and locked out the employees. Rather than allow the company to suffer a suffer a death by a thousand cuts, losing $15 million per week, and its reputation for reliability being trashed by its staff, he had to bring the matter to a head and trigger the compulsory arbitration provisions of the Fair Work act.

This mess was created when the government abolished ‘Work Choices’ which allowed employers to negotiate directly with employees with individual contracts, and empowered the unions under Fair Work Australia. This allows unions to take ‘protected industrial action’ and limits employers right to respond.

By taking this action, Joyce lost little as far as the airline was concerned; it was already suffering to no good purpose already because of union action. It not only forced intervention, but necessitated the government to argue on the side of QANTAS against its union mates for the dispute to be terminated rather than suspended. Gillard has been embarrassed to the point where she has had to try to blame Abbott for it, (beats me too) and claim that QANTAS didn’t let her know what was going on, prompting this response from Senator Barnaby Joyce; (no relation)

The Qantas chief, Alan Joyce, has been hanging around Parliament House for the past few weeks, not because of an impending aviation calamity, but apparently because he likes the decor and the coffee. Well, that is what you would have to believe if you are to believe the Government.

To say the Qantas lockout and fallout came as a surprise does not pass muster especially now in light of the abundant leaks from key Labor Party ministers, all protecting their jobs in the shadow of this fiasco, so as to quarantine themselves from the political fallout in the rumoured leadership change.

Julia Gillard wrote the Fair Work Act when she was Industrial Relations Minister in 2009. Section 431 allows the minister to demand the parties come to the table and avoid the massive damage which has happened to the nation's airline and our nation's image. The Government had at its disposal the mechanism to avoid the travel chaos over the weekend. However, Gillard was not convinced of her own competencies in writing the Act or her Government's capacity in administration of her own Act. She claims that section 431 could not be used because it has not been used before. Well, why did you put it there? It appears she did not even source legal advice until Saturday afternoon. Breathtaking!

Our nation's Government is not on auto pilot - it is rudderless, clueless and hopeless. The Qantas dispute is a metaphor for the Government's day-to-day management as we lurch from crisis to crisis. It is the same management style as the live cattle debacle which brought about a middle-of-the-night closure of the live cattle trade that we did not need while creating an immense diplomatic issue with our largest neighbour. …

… In a political team when it becomes apparent that the halfback cannot pass, the five-eighth cannot catch and the coach is a plant from another greener team, then the crowd of supporters dismally dwindles to a core of the loving family members, the morbidly curious and those recently removed from the closest pub.

Tragically for Australia, the opposition under Tony Abbott is, despite holding the whip hand as far as polling is concerned, is too timid to offer any alternative to Labor’s return to the bad old days of union dominated industrial relations. In response to calls to introduce individual contracts again, he has been proven to be so terrified of doing anything, which may cause the term “Work Choices” to be mentioned, he has guaranteed that he will do nothing.

If ever a party was in a position to offer the public a courageous vision of the future, Abbott and the Liberals are in it. Unfortunately, they are too chicken shit to rock the boat.

This leaves the Liberal Democratic Party, LDP as the only party in this country that favors a deregulated and free labour market.