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Of cabbages, kings and a meeting of Blog war protagonists
Leon Bertrand and I have a face to face meet up with Scott Bridges planned for today which should be quite interesting to say the least, because how often do you get a chance to meet up with your online “enemy ” after a decade long blog war?
Hold on comrades this could be an interesting ride
Sending them to meet Mo, in person
Police have taken part in terror raids across western Sydney. Photo: NSW Police Media Unit
Its sort of amazing just how nasty the latest plot to further the cause of Jihad in this country is, according to the news reports the plotters would have grapbbed a random person off the street and then brutally murdered them with a knife.
Police allege the 22-year-old, who was among 15 people arrested yesterday morning during the biggest anti-terrorism operation in Australia’s history, communicated with the Islamic State organisation while allegedly planning the attack.
Court documents allege Mr Azari had been preparing for the attack for several months, working closely with several other men including Mohammad Ali Baryalei, an Australian thought to be in Syria and working in a senior role with Islamic State.
Mr Azari “did between 8 May and 18 September 2014 conspire with Mohammad Baryalei and others to do acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act (or acts)”, the documents allege. He could face a life sentence if convicted.
Police moved swiftly to arrest Mr Azari after intercepting a phone call two days earlier, Mr Allnutt told the court.
“There has been an immediate reaction to a clear and imperative danger,” he said.
The alleged attack “was clearly designed to shock the community as a whole with a plan to randomly select a person to rather gruesomely execute … I don’t think I’ve seen much worse”, Mr Allnutt told the court.
Mr Boland said the allegation was “based on one phone call”.
“As I understand it, there’s a very limited compass of information that federal police intend to put forward,” he said.
Bail was refused, and Mr Azari will return to court in November.
Even worse is the left’s favorite follower of Allah, Waleed Ali who seems to be suggesting that we should not even try to smash ISIL in Iraq because some new iteration of the Jihadi scourge will inevitably spring up in its place:
And it’s that thought that perhaps has the most to teach us in Australia. ISIL is not simply a group to be vanquished. It is not a fixed, finite, collection of people we can somehow control or eradicate. For us in Australia, it’s most dangerously a symbol: a brand a young man from Sydney can claim for himself; a flag in which he can wrap himself, and his proposed victim. For all its pretensions to statehood, the key thing is that it’s anything but. It exists in the mind as much as on land.
So it’s not the kind of thing we can simply destroy with military force. Modern terrorism doesn’t work that way. We keep killing “senior figures” in terrorist groups – indeed, it’s more than three years since we killed the most senior of them all – and nothing substantive changes. We tried to smash al-Qaeda. It fragmented, then morphed into a mass movement not truly under anyone’s direct control, with Osama bin Laden mostly a symbolic figurehead. Then it begat ISIL.
This yields a devilish problem: namely, that we are trying to confront a threat that exists nowhere in particular, and anywhere in theory. We can’t destroy that. Not in the short term and not with the kind of conventional force the state has at its disposal. What we can do is manage it. Arrest, prosecute, convict. The good news is, we’re good at that. The bad news is that this isn’t a cure. It’s the (certainly necessary) treatment of symptoms.
He who lives by the knife shall die by the hellfire missile
A war that is unavoidable and sadly necessary
Tony Abbott: the operation could take ‘many months’. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP
Australia will send a military force to the United Arab Emirates to contribute to the US campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in Iraq.
In response to a formal request from the US for specific Australian defence force (ADF) capabilities, the prime minister, Tony Abbott, said Australia would supply 600 personnel – made up of 400 from the air force and 200 from the military, including special forces – along with equipment to the coalition force against the Isis movement.
Up to eight Royal Australian Air Force F/A18F Super Hornets combat aircraft, a Wedgetail surveillance aircraft, and a tanker and transport aircraft will be sent to the United Arab Emirates.
“In addition, the Australian Defence Force will prepare a special operations task Group as military advisers that could assist Iraqi and other security forces that are taking the fight to the [Isis] terrorists,” said Abbott. Military advice would also be provided to Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq.
ADF personnel will be based in the US headquarters “to ensure close coordination” with the US and to support planning and logistics.
“We are not deploying combat troops but contributing to international efforts to prevent the humanitarian crisis from deepening,” said Abbott.
For once its possible to praise Bill Shorten for something because the on this occasion the opposition is sticking with the long standing tradition of solidarity with the government when our troops are deployed into harms way. In fact with the exception of the far left Greens who have been predictably tacitly defending the IS Islamofachist killers in the northern part of Iraq there is an almost universal feeling in this country that going to war to stop the atrocities committed in the name of Allah. With the brutal murder of a British aid worker fresh in our minds who could possibly think that there is any other choice but to go into northern Iraq and Syria with all guns blazing?
I rather firmly of the opinion that a predominately air based campaign will be more successful on this occasion than it was in the previous forays into Iraq. I think this for a couple of reasons. Firstly the current crop of Jihadis have very little willing support from the people in the territory they nominally control. This has to be a natural consequence of their brutality and continuing war crimes. Without some support from the population for their aims and methodology then all they have is fear from the people who currently live under their rule. While that is a good motivator for population compliance its not going to help them much in terms of defending the territory that currently occupy. Secondly the local geography of dry desert mostly flat territory provides little cover and that means that vehicles and men on the move are hard to hide form air surveillance and more importantly air strikes. If its moving and holds armed men then it can be taken out form the air.
I think that we can be pretty sure that the Kurds in the north will not tend towards the excesses of war that will alienate the Sunis who we want on our side n this war but I am far less confident of the Shia militias who may well be inclined to take some sort of revenge on the Suni population if they are perceived to be at all sympathetic to the IS Jihadis, this issue was front and center in the weekend news reporting out of Iraq on the ABC.
One thing that I don’t expect though is that there will be many IS Jihadists taken prisoner. Fanatics can not be trusted to be honorable nor is it to be expected that they will surrender when their situation is hopeless. Rule 303 is also likely to be applied by the ground forces that mop up as well. If many of them are taken prisoner its likely that bleeding hearts like the loopy Greens will want to see them tried by one court or another. While that may suit the namby-pamby Greens I just don’t think that you want to give too many of these scumbags the venue to further promote their hateful ideology.
Its of course too early to predict the result of this war but I don’t share the pessimism of dyed in the wool extreme lefties who are already wishing for failure here. Frankly failure is not an option because we have to excise the cancer from he middle east if any of us are to sleep well in our beds into the future the death cult has to be, well, killed as quickly and completely as we can do it. Fortunately there seems to be a quite broad range of nations who are willing to join into this sadly necessary task.
Cheers Comrades
If it moves and it has armed Jihadists in it blow it up even if they have hostages as Human shields which, sadly, is likely to be the case
The ephemeral news
This vid is most amusing commentary on the nature of the News industry and while its creator is clearly focused upon his own American experience we in this USA colonial outpost have precisely the same sort of media.
Personally I think that the reason that we have this sort of news is simply because in the blink of an eye news cycle on a media that never sleeps there is a vampire like hunger for comment that precludes the possibility of quality under the avalanche of quantity.
Cheers Comrades
Play it loud!!!
Chasing the GST dollar
There is a a hoary old chest nut that is dragged out on a regular basis from our domestic retailers . Its the exemption for online purchases of less than $1000 dollars from the GST. The retailers dream that lowering that threshold will make an improvement in their ability to compete.
click for source
I can’t see Abbott going anywhere near this to be honest, firstly the GST is workable only because retailers are forced to act as tax collectors for the government but the Australian government does not have the jurisdiction to force overseas suppliers to do the same for them. It just can’t happen. So how would such a tax be collected? from the shippers or via Customs? The reason for the $1000 threshold is to make the administrative burden of collecting the tax commensurate with the revenue gathered. Lowering the threshold would not lower the burden per transaction so it could very easily mean that the cost to collect the tax could exceed the revenue collected which is the Labor way of doing things (see the mining tax as an example) its unworkable and the government knows this.
The simple fact is that retailing is moving more and more online simply because we the consumers like to shop that way and personally I would be more than happy to buy from Australian based online traders and I do so when ever I can because domestic online stores have one very big advantage over those based overseas and that is reduced shipping times. In my experience any item purchased from China will take about a month to arrive items shipped from within Australia can be on your doorstep within days if not the next day. In this age of instant gratification that short of difference in shipping times is a deal maker/breaker for most people.
So I predict that this whine about GST on online sales will amount to nothing just as similar whining in the past has done. If domestic retailers want to retain their market share then they are going to have to try to play to their strengths more, namely work on their service, their ability to instantly supply the goods to a customer and being available to attend to any warranty claim that may arise finally they have to realise that the price for their products is a big determining factor in buying decisions and they can no longer just hope that we consumers don’t notice that the product they sell can be bought cheaper elsewhere.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- No change to OS internet sale GST – yet (news.theage.com.au)
- Net shopping tax talks (stuff.co.nz)
- McClay to consult on GST for online shopping (stuff.co.nz)
- Canberra to maintain current GST threshold for online purchases (zdnet.com)
The useful idiots of the left and Islam
There really is nothing more bizarre than a minion of the left who has willful blindness about the nature of Islam and the way it considers homosexuality. So often I have seen then full of righteous indignation when someone like myself dares to point out the problems with Islam for someone of their political persuasion. They are horrified that someone should point out that most followers of Islam would happily send every Gay person to a grisly end.
I think here in particular about “useful idiots” like “Paul wello* ” and Richard Ryan and more intelligent lefties, like our learned friend and “Reb” from Gutter trash who seem to be able to achieve an otherwise impossible reconciliation between Islam’s attitude to homosexuality and their own advocacy for Gay marriage. How they do it totally eludes me but then I have moved on from the hypocrisy of political correctness and the madness of trying to pretend that Islam is not totally at odds with secular western democracy.
Cheers Comrades
*Paul is banned here but I will recover any comment he makes from the trash if it is on topic and not too silly, hang on it might be very entertaining if it is as silly as his usual efforts.
Related articles
- Islam, Homosexuality, & Same-Sex Marriage (bloggingtheology.wordpress.com)
- ‘In an ideal society we would punish homosexuals’, says Islamic cleric in BBC interview (pinknews.co.uk)
- Islamic cleric who describes gays as ‘filthy’ cancels UK tour (pinknews.co.uk)
- Islam and the Death Penalty (religiousgroupsdp.wordpress.com)
- Why you will love Islam (whatyouwannado.wordpress.com)
- Why the West Fears Islam?! (yerelce.wordpress.com)
- Is Islam Oppressed? (ireport.cnn.com)
Happy days are here again…
In the wake of the election, Labor and the Greens have sharpened objections to the repeal of the carbon tax, despite the risk it would trigger a double-dissolution election to resolve the impasse.
Labor deputy leader Anthony Albanese and fellow future leadership contender Bill Shorten toughened their stand against a repeal of the scheme; Greens leader Christine Milne also rejected the change, making it clear the Coalition could not get its way in the Senate.
click for source
My businessman brother was chiding me this morning for not posting about the stunning victory of the Tony Abbott led LNP this morning but I have been just stepping back and enjoying the way that others have been reacting to the game changing result. From Ray focusing on the real possibility that Sophie Mirrabella may lose her seat of Indi to the despair of the far left zombies like the Taylors at a certain dishevelled electronic Cafe and the pretentious and wilfully obscure pseudo intellectualism of Lavatus Prodeo its all been a bit of a hoot to be honest. I am also very well aware that with the change of government to one that I broadly endorse a political blog like this one faces new challenges. Many readers may now be expecting me to defend the government and the way that it prosecutes its policies. I certainly will defend the policies that I believe in but you won’t find me defending anything that I disagree with just because its something done by “my team” I don’t roll that way. To be entirely Francis I think that we are in for a rather politically boring couple of years and as such there will be far less political stories for me to write about.
As some readers may have noticed I do have interests other than Australian politics so I expect to write a bit more about those topics when the mood takes me I am also hoping that I can make some good progress on my Morris Eight project (depending on my heath issues 😦 ) popular culture topics will feature a bit more and I want to look at some more domestic life issues too. That said I think that you never know just how the issues will present themselves but if you want to keep up with the Sandpit then please subscribe to the blog for email updates.
Anyway I offer this vid for your viewing pleasure:
That all said I am not the only one who writes for this blog and I very much look forward to the other authors here contributing to the debate about the future of our country even when I disagree with their arguments. You see political discussion is not so much about the destination, which is always a moving feast, as much as it is about the journey and the conversations that we have along the way.
Cheers Comrades
For the benifit of the despairing left
Related articles
- ‘Tony Time’ euphoria for Abbott backers (bbc.co.uk)
- Tony Abbott’s key policies face rough ride in the Senate (theguardian.com)
- Tony Abbott opposed eco-taxes, hate crime laws and gay marriage – and won a landslide (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
- Conservative Christian Tony Abbott wins majority in Australia (winteryknight.wordpress.com)
The left dancing on air
how the other side see things, sadly its utterly delusional. click for source
This blog has no trouble or problem with contrary viewpoints, in fact as site owner I just love hosting posts like Ray’s effort yesterday even though I absolutely disagree with the premise and execution of Ray’s argument. That is because unlike the sad and deluded Mr Taylor I both understand and respect political diversity. As one of the “right-wingers” he alludes to in his piece I have to totally disagree with his claims about a lack of logic or rhetorical rigour. I was banned from his blog because I had a habit of forensically dissecting the arguments of the regulars there and thus making their arguments look very silly indeed. You see Taylor is a perfect example of just why the left is losing the argument in this election. Put simply they don’t understand that they do not have a monopoly on virtue and that it takes generosity to have civil debate about issues of politics. I foresee a very dreary time in the next couple of weeks on the blogs of the left Heck we may even see a few of their stalwarts on suicide watch because its hard being on the losing side when you have been fighting the good fight in the lead up to the election (as I well recall from 2007 and 2010) Ah well it must be time to remind them that tomorrow is another day when they will have to face the defeat of a bad Labor government, So while they consider the pills and booze we more sensible “right-wingers” can enjoy the air-dance being performed by the left.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- Inside the Mind of a Right Winger – Part 1 (usualsyntax.wordpress.com)
- The mandatory tweets of the self-righteous vacillating centrist stats bore: a user’s guide (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
- Right-wingers aren’t all evil. For some reason this banal fact needs regular repeating (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
- Delingpole on Friday: Why there’s no point arguing with lefties. (bogpaper.com)
- Why Do Some People Really Seem To Hate Obama Care So Much? (americanliberaltimes.com)
- Want to Win a Political Debate? Try Making a Weaker Argument (psmag.com)
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 