If you want to be entertained or unwound then “Defiance” is not for you, but it is a terrific way to celebrate the anniversary of the cowardly suicide of Hitler on the 30th April. Continue reading →

I am very pleased to read that the criminal charges against Richard Pratt have been dropped What would have been better, of course, is if he had been declared innocent of the charges, but that did not happen.

Whether he was guilty or not, I believe that Mr Pratt was conned into admitting his guilt and paying the enormous fine because he was promised that all charges against him would be dropped. In this he was tricked by the ACCC and particularly by a certain man who is no fan of Pratt’s.

I am very disappointed that it should have come to this. Pratt was disgraced and had all Australian honours taken away from him and I consider that to be a terrible ordeal which no doubt aggravated his illness.

Long after Pratt’s nemesis has been forgotten, I know that Pratt’s generosity will be remembered. There is a stench of betrayal in the entire episode and the ACCC has not come out of it smelling like roses. One has to wonder what role jealousy and hatred played in this whole miserable affair of hounding a man to his death.

p.s Richard Pratt passed away on the 28th, just a few hours after his criminal charges were dropped.

The “Melody” cruise ship was attacked by Somali pirates on Saturday. So who saved the ship and its passengers? An Israeli security team hired by the Italian owners of the Melody. Those Somali creeps have been getting away with terror attacks for far too long and cowardly nations have been paying huge ransoms to the pirates. I can’t understand why there were no security guards on board other ships earlier.

Be that as it may, it’s only the Fox News Channel who mentioned that the defenders of the Melody were Israelis. I watched CNN and the BBC to hear if they mentioned who protected the ship and there was no mention of the crack Israeli security guards. Australia’s ABC TV also failed to mention the Israeli defence.

Had the security team been of any other nationality, I am certain that there would have been hours devoted to talking about their amazing feat.

On the one hand, this reluctance to praise anything Israeli can be galling. On the other hand, however, the fact that Israelis are skilled in protecting lives from terrorists is nothing new. It is a talent which has been hard won through having to deal with terrorists from their neighbouring countries.

What would have made news, indeed, is if the Italians themselves had been capable of defending the liner, or perhaps the Spaniards who are also quick to capitulate to ransom demands. So far the only people to fight back against the Somali pirates are the Americans and the Israeli security team.

While the Western world is condemning Ahmadinejad for his anti-semitic attacks I believe he is doing a great job in winning support for Israel. Following his scripted vitriol, the Western nations decided to walk out on him in disgust at the Geneva Racist Conference.

So in my opinion, he should go on ranting and raving because he is achieving lots of good PR for Israel.

The more he spews forth hatred the more he is despised and the more he is shown to be a nutcase which even the Iranians must be ashamed of. So go ahead Ahmadinejad. Keep on clowning!

If we didn’t know better we’d think the President of Iran was in the pay of Mossad.

One could claim that the conference achieved nothing, but that’s not quite true. Continue reading →

I couldn’t help but chuckle this past summer as I watched trendy and not so trendy women wobble about in their very high stilettoes. Their gait was jerky and their ankles jiggled about from side to side as they tried to keep their balance.

Some fashionista had declared that the very highest heels were in and it didn’t matter if they were the equivalent of the ancient torturous custom of foot binding which had been imposed on Chinese women. Women who had no self-confidence would feel compelled to buy the highest heels even if these destroyed their ankles and caused other foot disorders.

Hard to believe that in this age of women’s rights that it is the women themselves who choose to stuff chicken breasts into their bras and to subject themselves to orthopaedic torture. I could hear podiatrists cheering at the growth in their business. Bunions R- US would not be affected by the economic downturn, not as long as women continued to be so gullible.

What those silly females don’t understand is that the shoes business is just a business and the last thing that shoe manufacturers want women to do is to keep wearing last season’s styles. So they have to come up with something new.

Surprise, surprise, following the highest heels in the world, how about making the lowest heels the latest craze?

And that’s what I see in shoe shops around Melbourne right now in preparation for the new season. There is a return to Edwardian shoe styles, with small heels or even flat heels and lace-up fashions that great-grandma wore in 1910. Very avant-garde, I don’t think. But that’s not the point, is it? As long as women sheepishly follow the latest fashion, then they are happy.

The one good thing going for the new sensible styles is that wobbly ankles and blistered feet will say thank you from the bottom of their soles. That reprieve, however, will be only temporary, since there are some smart Generation Y’s working on another trend for next summer as I write.

How about wooden clogs with high heels or those felt shoes with bells on that court jesters used to wear, or UGG boots with high heels or maybe flippers, since we are bound to have more floods because of climate change?

There’s no end to possibilities of how you can mangle your feet with masochistic styles and, thankfully for business, no end to fools who will buy them.

As I sat and watched the devastation caused by the earthquake in L’Aquila, I was baffled by the gratitude of the survivors. They had thanked God for saving them. 294 Italians lost their lives in the earthquake. 20,000 Italians have been left homeless by this act of God, as it is called.

So why are these benign folk thanking the very cause of their misery? Wasn’t it the almighty, omniscient and omnipotent God who brought this tragedy on those poor Italians?

So why are they thanking him for killing those little children whose white coffins rested on the ones of their family members who had perished? What crime had these babies committed to deserve this? Why were the 294 victims being punished? Punished for what? Isn’t it absolutely presumptuous of those who survived to be thanking God for being rescued while others perished?

I remember the same mantra following the flooding of New Orleans. People were dragged out of the water and all they could say was “Thank God.” Well, it was the same God who had destroyed the lives and homes of thousands of inhabitants of New Orleans.

No wonder I will never understand the mysterious ways in which God apparently moves.