When I watched the BBC’s HARDtalk interview by Stephen Sackur with our former Prime Minister of Australia, I was reminded why Mr Howard was one of our greatest leaders. He had to endure Sackur’s constant interruptions but came out the winner because while Sackur behaved like a desperate ferret trying to scurry from point to point and failing visibly, Mr Howard was amazingly cool.

Sackur tried to interrupt him before he could answer a question and was extremely rude which made Howard look so very much like the statesman that he is. It is now even clearer why former treasurer, Peter Costello, could never reach the heights of Prime Ministership. He just never had the balls.

What was impressive about Howard in this interview was that in defending his actions as Prime Minister, he never criticised the actions of his successor, Kevin Rudd. How cool is that in the current arena!

Now that we are in the woods with Prime Minister Rudd I certainly miss the aplomb of the old master.

It was moreover evident that Stephen Sackur has none of the panache of former interviewer HARDtalk icon, Tim Sebastian, and we certainly miss his informed methods of interviewing on that programme.

I honestly don’t understand how anyone could expect Ahmadinejad to lose the presidential election. He is the darling of the lower classes and there are plenty of poor people in Iran whom he has cultivated.

Does it really make a difference who is president of Iran? The man is a puppet of the ayatollahs and the real power rests with the clerics. They are the ones who rule the country. They are the ones who control the purse strings and nothing will change in Iran until the clerics say goodbye.

If President Obama thought that reaching out to the Iranians was a good idea then he has been taught a lesson. Perhaps. Obama makes pretty speeches. Enough to emblazon on the front of many T-shirts. But when it comes to addressing the Muslim world, nothing he says will change their innate culture. They hate the West. They hate Israel. They hate the U.S. And it doesn’t make a skerrick of difference if Obama points out his name is Hussein. It only makes him look desperate and silly.

When you think about it, the re-election of Ahmadinejad is propitious. At least with him you know where you stand. Nowhere pleasant. It is very important to know who is your enemy and the most dangerous kind is the one who pretends to be your friend and then double crosses you. That was the danger with Mousavi. He was hardly going to be an improvement since he had to obey the clerics anyway.

The latest news from Iran is that Mousavi is under house arrest. That is only a rumour, however. We can’t really know what’s going on in Iran at the moment because the government is interfering with phone lines and broadcasts. Supporters of Mousavi are being beaten up and arrested by police. So much for free elections.

There are now riots in the streets but in the end the government and the clerics will no doubt crush the rebellions since they have the military on their side. What a tragi-comedy!

Quite frankly, I am relieved that things have turned out this way since perhaps President Obama will now learn that Iran is not a country that you can reach out to. Not for a long time anyhow. Not while it is a religious dictatorship.

It is hard to believe that some people are actually questioning the Government’s reaction to suspected Swine Flu cases. I personally applaud the Health Department’s decision to err on the side of caution. Continue reading →

Better later than never, I guess, but Australia has decided to take a moral stand against the bigots at the United Nations Geneva Racist Conference. It will not attend a conference whose main purpose is to attack Israel. Continue reading →

I wish to express my disgust at the justice system that has given a lenient sentence to the four men who doused an elderly man with petrol in his home and set fire to him. He has fourth degree burns and will probably lose his ears. He has had his lips and eyelids removed. The victim is suffering from a mental illness. He is in terrible pain and will never recover from the attack.

The four men, plus a fifth who is yet to be sentenced, have received short jail terms of about three years. I don’t understand why these monsters did not receive the maximum sentence of fifteen years. It was probably because they said sorry. I wish that word would disappear from legal situations. How does saying sorry make it all better now?

Can you believe that after the scumbags were sentenced their own families called out “We love you!” What is there to love is a question I often ask.

No wonder we have no respect for the legal system which pays more attention to perpetrators than victims of crime. There is something to be said for the Code of Hammurabi.

Incidentally, these monsters will be held in protective custody in jail…away from the smoking inmates, I guess.