As any old person who has been interrupted by a checkout assistant at a do-it-yourself supermarket scanner would agree, there is a general perception among the younger members of the community that we oldies are senile and useless. While refusing to let the unwelcome interloper scan for me, I always remember the great poem Ulysses by Lord Tennyson, which ends with the following lines:
This topic has been prompted by comments from knitters on my last dissertation “The Men Who Saved Australia”. I was surprised that it arose in the way it did because the role of the Japanese escort with the first ANZAC fleet was touched on in my series on the first HMAS Sydney and its fight with the Emden.
The history of Japanese and British alliance is a maze that keeps going back at each stanza of the relationship but in the interests of brevity and completeness, I am starting with the Anglo-Japanese treaty of 1902.
Growing trees need three essentials – radiant energy from the sun, CO2 and rain from the atmosphere, and nutrients and minerals from the soil. Climate alarmists correctly claim that burning forest products in thermal power stations is “net-zero emissions” because burning the wood just puts the same CO2 back into the atmosphere. Identical reasoning applies to grazing cattle.
Read more: Our Children First or Last... that is the Question.
As our world descends into a chaotic shadow of its former moral self, I have been thinking about finding a way out of this maze of cancel culture, identity politics, sexual dysphoria and narcissistic self gratification. Our governments are herding us into lockdown, exile and social isolation whilst assuring us that it is for our own. good. So many people are happy to receive an unemployment payment, sit home and take selfies - as long as there is food and drink and a roof over their heads.
Yet the sage words of John Steinbeck and John Calhoun are increasingly in my thoughts these days. Will we ever find our way out of this maze?
Almost 200 years ago this expression was first used … “bolt hole”.
It has a few meanings, … a hole in an animal's den, or through a wall or fence, used for escape or emergency exit; i.e. a hole the animal may bolt through, or (figurative) a second home, etc. where a person can go to escape the stresses of everyday life.
If you are suspected of being a bit naughty in Australia, your mates in power can spy on your social media and email accounts and you won't even know it. By " you " I mean "us " and this makes me feel a bit uncomfortable and dare I say violated.
Seriously, have we truly come to this? Being spied on by our federal police if they suspect that we are up to no good?
From sleepless nights to stubbed toes and nightmares, tangled hair and sniffy noses, Mum always had a remedy. Yet these days, governments are preventing mothers from doing what Mums do best - loving and caring for their children without stifling their ability to grow and thrive.
Rapidly approaching the big NINE O, along with many others at the same stage of life’s interesting and sometimes troubled journey, I should be relaxing contentedly with friends and relations, enjoying the mind boggling range of new sights and sounds and knowledge not previously encountered, reliving with them the many wonderful experiences of past years, rejoicing in the journey to maturity of children and grandchildren who have grown up so rapidly, having left behind the childhood years seemingly in the blink of an eye … and yet …
When I was a lad, life was simpler, harder yet straightforward and honest. As the world is flooded with newfangled gadgetry and newfangled woke spoke, I find myself looking back on the post war years with a strange regret. Life is so newfangled that it is a complex place of ever-increasing innovation, and gratitude for the simple things in life is a far distant memory. We should consider how imprisoned we have become in this newfangled world which has rewarded us with so much and yet taken even more by stealth.
Read more: I remember... when newfangled stuff didn't exist - summer wine was not some whine
RATTY NEWS SPECIAL REPORT THE PROFESSOR PECK PHENOMENON How Dusty Gulch University Accidentally Created the…
124 hits
Barefoot in the Grass: The Last Lesson My Father Taught Me My father passed away…
211 hits
Thomas Pritchard, Australia's last "Rat of Tobruk" passed away at the age of 102 on…
207 hits
From immigration policy to identity politics, energy to ideology - the erosion of Western society…
264 hits
Twenty-Five Teenagers. One Mother. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? When I was about twelve years…
247 hits
Swish, Swish... Off With Their Heads When I was a young lass, I was a…
244 hits
Mystery Deepens: Who Are the Chookhouse Four? By Roderick (Whiskers ) McNibble, Chief Investigative Correspondent,…
236 hits
The sea doesn’t warn you. It doesn’t care who you are, what rank you hold,…
294 hits
The Census Came for the Quiet Ones I have just finished the Australian Census. Had…
2730 hits
In a fast-changing Australia, where new cultures and identities weave fresh threads into our ever…
310 hits
“Every tyrant must begin by claiming to have what his victims respect and to give…
331 hits
At nine years old, I felt the silence of the lambs, long before I knew…
297 hits
While the new aces argue about the runway, the old crew still knows how to…
344 hits
Howling into the Abyss of Settler-Colonial Absurdism A Decolonial Reading of "The Werewolves of Dusty…
288 hits
RATTY NEWS SPECIAL INVESTIGATION THE WEREWOLVES OF DUSTY GULCH Project Howl, the Hacked Rolling Pin,…
372 hits
The Ghost Returns The first thing he noticed was the silence. Not the silence of…
338 hits
A Dream Needs a Driver: Sir William Hamilton, the Jet Boat, and the Men Who…
363 hits
When I tell people I’m a beek, inevitably the first thing they say is, “Yes,…
379 hits
He stood on top of the world - literally. But Sir Edmund Hillary never saw…
360 hits
The Basement at Yekaterinburg When People Become Symbols, History Takes a Dark Turn On the…
384 hits
In many Western countries today, we often speak of multiculturalism as though traditions no longer…
364 hits
RATTY NEWS EXCLUSIVE THE DUCKS WHO KNEW TOO MUCH How the Mysterious Death of the…
341 hits
In a world that seems determined to teach us to hate our countries, I remember…
420 hits
When the Bush Is No Longer Enough Just days after Sam Neill's passing on 13…
444 hits
Why Churchill Still Matters in Australia: Blunt Voices, Shared Goals, and the Fight for a…
432 hits
Bastille Day, Artificial Intelligence, and the New Reign of Terror The guillotine has gone digital.…
426 hits
How a turned head, a washing machine, and a handful of extraordinary coincidences made me…
407 hits
RATTY NEWS FILM REVIEW Dracula the Emu No Stakes... No Steaks... No Hope. Reviewed by…
449 hits
A 94-year-old’s heartfelt plea about cruelty to animals, the neglect of children and the elderly,…
416 hits
No, Sire. It Is a Revolution. It's easy to forget, but revolutions don't just fall…
416 hits
RATTY NEWS EXCLUSIVE The Great Sausage Tax Scandal and the Return of Laughing Jack McKooka…
447 hits