IN TENTS THAWTS

Society is formed by the suppression of tribal rivalry either through homogenous means or through continual jockeying for supremacy. As we speak modern society, Oz style, is dessicated (due to the break down in familial ties), except for pockets of like racial background on their way to intergration into our what??? OK, we disarmed the failsafe and are about to be thrown into (who knows for how long) a Liberal wet dream. It is the 'New World Order', get over it. Like, no, no we wont allow human cloning (bullshit , he says under an exagerrated cough). Social and genetic engineering are the key to global 'likeness'. Until the 20th century occurred our forebears lived for ever under the rule of sword, the chattels of warlords or a ruling upper class to be used as beasts of burden, cannon fodder and grist for the mill. Are we going to allow ourselves to be pushed back to these dark ages? When I was young the Ananda Marga blew up the Sydney Hilton and Russell Sstreet was blo

Well Johnny you are almost there. Soon you will have us emulating your master's race, right down to the rule by fear, using our police forces to subdue any persons that would dare defy or deny your propositions...and all in the pretence of protecting us from those evil terrorists! Who out there thinks that this or any future Government with ultimate parliamentary powers would use these new proposed anti-terrorism laws to subdue or eliminate protesting for or protecting their rights in the upcoming industrial warscape? Could large sectors of industry be re-classified as imperative to national security? The Labour Party are gone in this argument. Beazley is so far up the Yanks bottoms that only the tips of his highly polished boots can be seen.

The State governments Sport and Recreation department are funding the development of a strategy plan to look at increasing participation in our sport. @leisure, the company who won the contract to create the strategyplan, were sourced from a number of consultants that were put up bythe associations and Sport and Rec. to the steering committee(themselves) and were invited by the associations to take up thetender. The company has vast experience in the development of strategies for sporting organizations.Although there is no formal chairman, Simon Crawford, RVBA Development Officer, will be the co-ordinator amongst the two association presidents, the two executiveofficers and Tom Forsell from Sport and Recreation.Simon says that the terms of reference for the strategic plan were designed by theassociations. @leisure were formally briefed by the steeringcommittee of which they are now a part.The steering committee did decide not to mail out to clubs to gettheir feedback as they say they r

Having lived my earlier life in a Yippie lifestyle, devoid of haircuts, I had a home for the buzzin’ bees, but now I would describe my pate as a reverse Mohawk. There are little things happening in the desert, but, oh well! I was a partner with my father in an infused organic product that promoted hair growth called the Hair and Scalp Energiser and have a little insight into the market. Surprisingly our formulation (supposedly over 100 year old Apache recipe that ended up in the hands of an eccentric biochemist dad knew) worked extraordinarily well on alopecious women and Albanian men. It also did a great job cleaning up psoriasis and when used on dogs and horses cleared up many skin ailments. Why am I bald then, one might ask? Well the stuff left a tea stain on the skin and I just couldn’t get over that. I wear a cap, not from embarrassment but to stop the cold in winter and the sun in summer. I challenge anyone to restore my vacant follicles. If you can fix me you can fix anyone. No

You have got to be kidding! Apparently the latest problem at school is the dysfunctional parent. It does not surprise me at all when you consider the fact that the aberrational teachers of the Eighties and Nineties promoted illiteracy as a social evener. Nowadays we have a generation of early parents whose social mores are far less than adequate and are now dragging their children through a mire of ignorance. What cuts me the most is that it is the people I supported that created this philosophy of inadequacy, tempered by the burning fires of socialist feminism. We allowed our future to be under prepared and I reckon while the counter culture was going to sleep those that needed peons acted.

Yeah, yeah! How funny is it, Shane take the piss out of us by using the lurid text legend as a way of promoting his new found hirsute endeavours. Worse are the sound bites that refer to his wife thinking him sexy, how funny is that? You are an ankle Shane! I reckon he shaves his legs!!!

I am going on fifty one years of age and it behoves me to say that you weak, self satisfied peers of mine, the “New Forties” – ex hippies, activists (Ahh, the halcyon days of picketing Woolies frozen food cabinets for fear they were selling South African whiting – Zanu Zapu, dude!), bikies, surfers, Viet vets, musicians, strippers and pros, musicians, radical feminists and homosexuals have bailed out on your ideologies. The Counter Culture was extant in the seventies and eighties, but now it appears to have drifted away. Or has it? We have a broad and complex society now, but in 1972 with an illegal war raging and the Liberal government assaulting people protesting the stupidity of fighting others battles and oppressive industrial relations laws, people stood up and said we will have no more of this imposed on us and voted the bastards out. History has proven that when Australians are battered and brow beaten, when admonished for their fervent belief in a fair go for all, they stand up

It appears it is another of the Liberal Government’s objectives to internationalise (read – Americanise) our tertiary education system. I mean if the Yanks have such a great system how come it is the product of our institutions that seem to be leading the way in most scientific endeavour. Benny Nelson is promoting educational sedition! Does anyone else wonder why the Howard Royalist Liberal Party is trying to morph us into a George Bush Republican way of life? Oxymoronic innit?

Amanda Flintstone’s deplorable insight into why Australian kids would not accept or be able to handle working in regional areas as apprentices, because it would take them too far from the comforts of their families and friends, beggars belief! Most would jump at the chance to get support for that sort of independence from often dysfunctional families and friends and to gain an opportunity to prove their worth. Mandy’s answer is to bring apprentices from overseas to fill this supposed gap in our work force smacks of racism, as if these young folk she intends to indenture would not have such like feelings for family and friends, I mean after all they ARE foreigners! And within this puerile argument we need to recognize that the vast majority of those effected come from a growing underclass, the white Australian male. You know the ones, unlike their female contemporaries; with little infrastructure for societal support other than the penal system should they fall through the cracks. Cheap

The Shiek made an appearance on Lateline 10/11/05 to discuss the arrests of these young terror suspects. Now he was doing him self no favours by not being able to express himself fluently, several of his points could have been taken opposite in meaning to what he was trying to say. But he was trying to use his right to freedom of expression to try and clarify for us where these kids heads are at. He has made it clear that these fools had no support from Islam in Australia, that they are a bunch of disgruntled indivduals that are taking it upon themselves to attempt to terrorize our population. We must keep in mind that most of our immigrants come from countries that use these forms of resistence and attack as a matter of course, it is a cultural reflection on how to deal with those you think are your enemy/oppressors. So when confronted with constant racism and cultural attacks they react in the manner that is known to them. The Shiek also made the point that what these people

Mary Clark’s, heroine of the American Black freedom movement, timely death opens a window to us. Maybe her death and the publicity surrounding it will reawaken a few minds in our country. Laws evoked through paranoia and the want for control over a population should ring loud the alarm bells for us…us the most liberated nation on the planet. Who would have thought OUR Government would seek powers to shoot us at will? Everything that that we are, who we are, what we visualise ourselves as in national consciousness is at risk This is the last key. We have been disarmed, we have been dumbed down as a nation and poor English education for our immigrants inflames this situation. Unfortunately for our new arrivals, seeking solace in the dawning myth of the Great South Land, they are dumped into public housing amongst the dross of dinkum Aussies, amongst the mad and the junkies. What type of message are we sending these people? A lot of the public servants dealing with these new arrivals are

The biggest bummer about the Labour Party’s education policy of the Eighties in Victoria was the fact that as they downgraded the relevance of the 3Rs during a time of heavy Asian and Middle Eastern immigration. The effect this move had on multi generation Australians was drastic, but nowhere near as bad as the effect on those kids whose parent’s first (and usually only) language was not English. It was like those on an equality binge, gorged in devising the average, and had made a philosophical decision. We can now reflect that our worst educational outcomes are in the outer suburbs Now I have heard that it is the golden thread of literacy that holds civilisations intact so it is no wonder the youth of today are losing their way - we as a society withdrew the tools that were necessary for these kids to understand and adequately respond to complex global and sociological problems. I fully support any moves to redress this sad state of affairs in our educational system. National uniform

Jack departed the mortal coil almost a year ago, 28th of November last, and the letters keep coming supporting his points of view. It is patently obvious that we have taken the paper in a slightly different direction to where my dear Pappy would have wandered and have received fantastic support from our readers. If anyone has anything to say about Jack or the direction we have taken the paper please contact me through the website via the blog or the yahoo chat site. Good, bad or ugly, the best contributions will be published in next month’s paper.

I understand Mark’s publishers have asked him to write a sequel to the Diaries, as his book has proved to be a minor blockbuster. Has anyone asked Mark how much of his royalty (that’s got to hurt) bonanza he is putting back into establishing a viable alternative to what he has sought to drag down? We need your help Oh Great Piker!!!

Gawd he annoys me! Whenever I see or hear him speak my skin crawls with memories of over fanatical schoolteachers who just KNEW what was best for me. He ranted for months about the Tollway fees and recanted when the din died down. The guy is so bland, so uninspiring, how is he going to convince people to throw out Bracksie? The only chance the Libs have got is to ditch this dreadfully boring man and hunt down an inspirational leader. Yeah, right. Labour is safe for a while yet.

This latest wave of bombings in Indonesia has done nothing but steel our resolve to not let these bastards get to us. The odds are getting smaller and smaller as to when this type of thing will happen on our soil. We are a nation capable of being self-sustainable. We could shut the doors for a little while and pull together to stave off this otherwise alien terrorist extremism. But that would only make them think we are scared. After decades of paranoia about an Indonesian invasion (urban myth would have it that had one million Indonesians arrived on our northern shores, international laws would have kicked in allowing them possession of the land), these r’sole terrorists have brought our two nations philosophically together in what could almost be described as Austral-Asia. Unlike Australia though, Indonesia had the courage to throw off the shackles of their Colonial masters and have matured into very responsible neighbours, while we here are still a teenage nation, still trying to c

I thank our various Godheads that our Australian culture is still identifiable. Early waves of European, Christian immigrants melded into our society like butter on hot toast, bringing with them the best of their previous lifestyles. The next wave was from the attempted Zionist purge of the Middle East and it’s ongoing consequences. We graciously received Muslims, Christians and freaked out Jews and again these people melted into our society enriching the tapestry of Australian life. Our Southeast Asian contingent were next and like the rest have made Australia their home and have added such riches to our society in terms of food, music and art. An indicator as to how well most of these cultures have spread through Melbourne is the variety of restaurants offering the delights from Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Food for thought – You can buy a felafel sandwich in just about every suburb in Melbourne, a good Jewish feed is only available in and around Caulfield.

When you compare the difference between the way the Chinese addressed the flooding of the Yangtze River and the frighteningly slow response of the Americans to Cyclone Katrina I’d advise you to start sharpening up those chop stick skills! They are all bloody woosies though, we have floods, fires, droughts and locust plagues – we are a veritable biblical studies class and we barely flinch. It tickled me that we were collecting charity for the Yanks. Pakistani Response President Pervez Musharraf, of Pakistan, was at the centre of the Pakistani Earthquake Disaster within 24 hours and it was obvious by his sound bites that he was going to make sure that their country's response to this disaster did not mirror America's shame.

We are carbon-based beings on a carbon-based planet. The evolution of the planet and it’s maturing atmosphere allowed us humans to develop and thrive and become the prime being on the planet. Now planet Earth spent a lot of time locking up all that carbon in the form of coal, gas and oil and we foolishly have relied on unlocking this energy to fuel our daily energy needs. We have let the genie out of the bottle. Our reliance on these fuels is really biting us on the bum in most aspects of Australian life and we still support using our future gene pool to militaristically protect commercial carbon fuel interests. Let’s not forget why Australia became the most hospitable country on the plane, why all the multifarious immigrants chose us. They like the way we walk, talk, eat and breathe, freely and enhance our lives with their different roots in art, food, music, family and religion. I am a fifth generation Australian, root from three brothers who left Ticino in modern Switzerland to esca

I feel that when watching anything that has been broadcast from Parliament House, for example, Question Time, doorstop interviews, etceteras, that it is a bit like watching an unscripted super series of a cross between South Park and Groundhog Day. The puerile behavior of the members in any parliamentary scenario sends my blood cold. The set questions of the ruling party answered in detail we don’t need and the answers to opposition questions designed to not answer the questions beggars belief. And for that, in expectation of somehow participating, we pay lots of dollars. The system has been a caricature for some time now, but like Asian flu the threat of terrorism has left our normally disinterested population suffering from an unhealthy overdose of the jingoism that is Australian politics. Latham’s interviews belied a man that had seriously had enough of playing the political game. We all say we know politicians can’t be trusted, that they rank very low on the social esteem register.

O.K., now that radicals, these imbos, have nominated us as a target, they have got to be told… Attack us on our own turf and you will not get the reaction you expect. Restraint and compassion are some things you may long for though. Most Aussies abhor needless, senseless violence, but to protect our own we’ve been proven to be the very best at it. Get on with life, says little Johnny, my bum! We need to link arms against arms. "Sideshow Bud" Abbott tells us that if we don’t like the way he/they wish to portray Australian consciousness that we should shrink back to from whence we came. For me, after five generations that would be Canton Ticino, Hamburg, Copenhagen, London, Belfast, Edinburgh and elsewhere. The fact is that most foreigners who choose to live here do so because their country of origin has seen conflict or have been forced out through religious or ethnic purges. They have come here to escape the horror and deprivation of their native lands, and most would no more

We still get heaps of letters in relation to our father. Considering the blackguard he was portrayed as by the major media, it has surprised us the amount of commentary in relation to his ability to uncover major stories well before any of the ‘legitimate’ members of the fourth estate got a whiff. All these letters come in riddles and nicknames I am sure would have tickled Jack but they go straight over my head. Oh, and by the way, Pacholli only has one ‘c’. Jack was probably one of the best-connected individuals in Australia and he only ever got stuck into r’soles. In saying that, I will say this, some people representing public or private interests may have copped more than they personally deserved, oh well, probably should have stayed out of the kitchen. His moles run deep in the infrastructure of Australian business, politics, criminal and social identities. He got the ‘mail’ early and there was no shortage of people who wanted to get into his ear. There is an opportunity to have y

Hawthorn Bowling Club is under siege from the petanque club they allowed to amalgamate with them a couple of years ago. Not unlike St Kilda a group of residents joined the club to ensure its survival and like St Kilda they allowed a petanque club in to stave off demise. And like St Kilda the petanque people have tried on the aggressive takeover. When I was secretary of Middle Park I was foolish enough to encourage the board to allow a petanque member onto the board. Smarter than the other clubs, MPBC did not allow the petanque people full membership or board status, just associates and 3 full memberships. Worst move we made allowing one of them into a management position. Petanque is a desperately waiting vulture hanging around suburban bowls clubs waiting to hear the death rattle and pounce. The extra revenue that they provide is not worth having to deal with this endemically treacherous mob. The next club I am aware of them trying to get their claws into is Dendy Park. Clubs beware!

The Lawn Bowls season has just opened. If you have never tried the game get down to your local club and ask for a go on the greens. Or wander in to one of the many innercity clubs that rent bowls to the public.

Did any of you see the vision of the Danish pylon jetties, just like ours, with the wind power generating fans attached to the sides of the jetties. Looked pretty cool to me and with a coastline like ours I wonder why not?

The ancient Mesopotamian (read Iraq) Code of Hammurabi is still the foundation of Western law. Our numbers are known as Arabic numerals, as it was the Arabs who invented our numeric system. I wonder if this information is still taught in schools. It certainly indicates we owe a lot to those whom we would vilify.

I think most out there in the big wide world recognise our wide, brown land as a last bastion of freedom. We Australians know we are tough, and in past world conflicts when Australians have been held to task we are rarely defeated. If beaten fairly we acknowledge that also. The whole idea of conflict has changed though, and some type of Orwellian swamp has developed. Even our worst conflicts and losses pale into insignificance at the scale and type of brutality in most of the third world. We are accepting refugees, as always, from areas of severe conflict. These people have seen and had horrors perpetrated on them of a type and scale that I don’t think Australians generally can get their heads around. We would be very unwise to be anything but welcoming, while trying to understand the points of view of these people. People come here to escape horror and to have a chance of bringing their children up in peace. Any paranoia on our part could only reflect the same back to us about our int

This whole scarf fiasco cracks me up. Those of us that grew up in Australia during the sixties and before would remember the swathes of scarves and mantillas that adorned the head of every God fearing Catholic woman on Sunday mornings. It was a simple dogmatic way of honouring one’s God. None would walk on hallowed ground without at least a hanky covering one’s scone! The more secular our society has become, the less value has been put on these outward showings of faith. In our free society though no one should have to suffer indignity for following his or her faith in this manner. An interview of a young Muslim man on Today/Tonight showed him explaining that Muslims would never assimilate properly into Australian society. The Jews have operated the same way. Religious Jews keep socially to themselves and have not assimilated, but that does not mean that they don’t contribute to our society in many wonderful ways. The Hijab reminds me of a Catholic nun’s habit, attire designed to provi

There are very few crimes against society that can’t have, after time, redress. Pedophilia is not one of these. Allowing the Mr. Baldys of this world to re enter open society at such great expense only lifts the paranoia levels of the community as a whole, and also creates an element of vigilante revenge. It appears that the Victorian Government though is quite happy to accept these scum in numbers. As a parent of three children under the age of twelve my skin crawls just thinking that any of these recently released scumbags could be placed secretly in their community. I don’t think the electronic surveillance is good enough either, just the knowledge of the presence of these creatures being allowed to live relatively freely is too much for victims and their families. We need an off shore facility to permanently accommodate this type of offender. A cross between Lost, Big Brother and 19th Century House reality TV shows. Make it as hard and uncomfortable life as possible with no communi

It is heartening to hear the Muslim leaders in Australia calling for calm amongst their people. It must be terribly frightening to have to wander around a society that has taken to carefully checking out your every move, even though your only association to the terror being perpetrated overseas is via a religion and a mode of attire.

Listening to the radio the other day, a question was put: Where has common courtesy vapourised to in Australia? It is patently clear to me that women have broken a vital contract of civilisation as we knew it. Although sages like Virginia Hausegger, and a bunch of grumpy old women implore that females can’t have it all, it is the bottom end, baby booming, bra burning, free love muthas of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s that have established a feminist power plurality. I know them. They reckon they want half, PLUS 20% for positive discrimination. Growing up in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, pre the Vietnam War, Australia was still a hokey outpost of the British Commonwealth. Men’s and women’s roles were pretty well laid out in concrete. What changed all this? The timely convergence of The Pill and Germaine Greer in the auspice of time put paid to the historical roles that men and especially women played in our society. One of the mores of society drummed into me as a boy was that I should respect and care fo

God help Luna Park, there’s a Fox loose in the enclosure!!! I hope Lindsay doesn’t save it and refurbish it the same way that they saved the St Moritz ice skating rink; it is now the Novatel on the Upper Esplanade in St. Kilda. I’ll be watching this one with interest. You got to admit though that the Luna Park mouth would make a great entrance to a 'theme' housing estate.

What a waste of time and space. This has to be the most vacuous of TV shows, yet drags people in by the millions. I find this kafuffle over a few exposed doodles and bosoms to be hysterical. It is certainly not on the required viewing list of the straight laced and sexually anxious, so what are they doing sitting up that late to become so offended? Self censorship is as far away as the channel switch or the off button.

Are you as sick of this wanton wanker as I am? Deception, unlike stupidity, is not your strong suit, Shane. Pity you can’t regrow a brain, yeah, yeah

Those Japanese are just not going to give two hoots about world opinion. They love to munch on our cetacean brothers and sisters, and their claims to an historical use of sea based resources to feed their people holds water. We eat cows and feed Skippy to rover, I see very little difference. Whales really took a bashing when they were used as a fuel and lubricant resource. This atrocious slaughter exists no longer, so the food aspect of the animal has to be considered as legitimate for those that have used it as a staple part of their diet. Would you stop the Inuit from eating whale and seal? I don’t think so!!! A chain of Mc Orca restaurants would be over the odds though.

Watching Ron Bakir on the box announcing his break away from the Schapelle Corby family road show, it made me ask myself what this guy was really up to when he tied his dinghy to this proverbial Titanic of a debacle. The split is over money that may or may not come to the family in regards to selling the story, and the merchandising, imagine little Schapelle dolls with handcuffs and leg iron accessories and “It’s not my pot” ring tones! The vision I saw of the family was reminiscent of a Yank trailer park, and even the idea of making a quid out of one’s loved one’s misfortune is on the nose. Good time to get out of their aura Ron… Hotman Paris is still in for his chop though!

I took my children for a walk up the St Kilda pier the other Sunday. Work has again started on replacing the café, foundation work is well advanced and we will have it built in time for the Commonwealth games. I used to enjoy going fishing off the rocks past the café; unfortunately the building site is blocking access to the public. Hurry up will you fellows…

I thought I might draw our attention to an old furphy, ha har...let's drag an iceberg up here and use it as a water resource...could never imagine that such a big bit would break off! Tug Boats, that's the go, big ones... Why Australia? Because we have an 'inny' while South America and Africa have an 'outie'. Plus, we are closer to it... and as dry as a nun's front bum !!! It's all possible, but you could write off the regular fishing in that whole area, no more giant whiting and mulloway, it would never be the same, tuna would re route through the Arafura Strait... the home of the Great White, the Great Australian Bight would be laid waste. I'd hate to see all that energy go to waste...you could probably make a quid out of it...Designer ice cubes???

victimless crime faction MICK PACHOLLI Copyright May 2001 CHAPTER 1 E and I had been working together for about five months. You wouldn't call it a partnership - more co-operative entrepreneurs - although, if you had asked either of us what we did, the answer would be that we provide a public service, not unlike s.p. bookmaking or sly grog, over-coming unworkable statutes. A thankless job but someone was going to do it... We complemented each other. E was a green man, whereas my contacts mainly provided a smorgasbord of imports - all types of hash, hash oil, Buddha sticks and a variety of South American and African combustibles. We did a lot of product swapping providing our customers a varied selection of illicit, euphoric delights. The local grass was rarely great, no-one really knew what a mature female hooch plant looked like in the mid-seventies, although the Greeks produced some amazing seedless dope (sinse was unheard of), but the Italians - neither knew nor did they give a

It has been a long time coming, but it looks like we've given little John the opportunity to attain one of his longest held desires, to achieve a purely market driven Democracy. I would ask why, during, arguably, the most worrying times in modern history, juxtaposed to our relative comfort, wealth and local peace here in Australia, would our Government choose to take on it's own people with a philosophy that resonates so negatively at the grassroots AND with the silent, militant not-so-minority that has been prepared to cop what has been served up so far. We can hardly remember the ferocity of the fight Norm Gallagher and the BLF put up to acheive the living standards most workers enjoy in Australia. I actually had the screen printing contract at Lygon St. while Norm was in gaol, printing all the last gasp battle shirts, sizes 00 to 28. Is waking this sleeping giant an attempt to distract us while our Democracy is diluted, a way to demonise the working man merely protecting his

What an arsehole, eh!? I remember when Hunch got a burr in his beard over my father. Dad spoke it like it was, he thought Darrel was a sad poser and desperate to make a mark. Like the almost hero sportsman, one should realise that one's chance of being relevant is gone, and best left to the new boys and girls. Unfounded, desperate grabs to try and flush out a story have certainly put you 'on the coat' , pariah - even if you do recant now, you are forever blemished. While watching Darren, scruffy and looking like a rabbit in the head lights, on tele with a news crew asking for a retraction, which he refused to issue, I thought , yep, dead man walking, career wise. Yeah dad also reckoned he was a grub, well you couldn't have got much more grubbier, Derwent. Even if Kennedy did have Aids or Hep C or spots on his bum, no one gives a fuck Hinchy, we love the man. Now you just piss off back to where you came from...

Cleanskin in Oz busted with this quantity would probably get a suspended jail sentence...but, with the different perspectives of the judicial systems, she is lucky to have her life. When you consider that the only evidence deemed fit for credence could not seperate her from her baggage, she is a very lucky girl. Yes... SHOCK?HORROR! Mr. 100% Guilty gave her 20 years, probably his lightest sentence of a foriegner. An appeal will probably go before Mr. 95% Guilty. Emotions aside, I don't think we should be poking pointy sticks at this young democracy; we probably educated their best, we should nurture, wholeheartedly their shift in consciousness and try and 'meld' in some way with their acceptance of this alien way of deliberating. Basically, now she's stuffed. Our Government can do nothing to sway anything but emotional pressure, and to gain a pardon she would have to admit guilt. And what's to stop them saying that with admitted guilt, even as an innocent, that they

The pain and acrimony that ensued my fathers death came down to him dying intestate. Do your family and friends a big favour and leave explicit instructions in regards to your estate.

I was so happy to see a lot of sense being put out there for the"sisters'. Virginia Hausegger, you is my hero...