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Did they really get a C130 so bogged they couldn’t take off again and then had to fly in other aircraft to get everyone out? Sounds a bit chaotic. Surely the pilots would have seen and avoided soft sand and picked a better place to pull up. I assume they didn’t shut down the engines while they were there. I don’t think we’re necessarily getting the full story. Maybe the Iranians damaged them? No mention of any casualties either except for the rescued weapons officer.

Until Hegseth fires him.

Did you see the gigantic CF that the rescue of the downed U.S. airman turned into? The Yanks went into Iran with a major armed force, they all landed at a disused airstrip near the mountainous terrain the pilot was lost in. Then they had to scramble through 7000' mountains to get to him, and bring him back to the airstrip to fly him home. But then, when they all went to take off, 2 x C-130's developed "technical problems" that stopped them from taking off. So rather than fly in technicians and parts to fix the aircraft, they flew in with another lot of aircraft - and blew up the 2 x C-130's, to stop the Iranians getting the use of them! They wouldn't hang around to fix the machines, obviously fearful of a major enemy firefight, and the possibility of many more lives lost! So now, we (and the Iranians) know what ONE U.S. Colonel is worth - around US$250M, the replacement cost of 2 x C-130's!

I've noticed the level of traffic on the roads is down by at least 20%, and many people are travelling much slower. For my country trips, where I used to sit 110-120kmh, I'm now sitting on 95-100kmh. It makes quite a difference to fuel consumption, travelling slower, and with cruise control it's easy to sit on a selected speed. The downturn has its benefits. I picked up a nice 2012 PMX C-P7 camper trailer for $1200 over the weekend. The sellers started off wanting $3000 for it, about three weeks ago. It's only ever had 2 owners, and it hasn't been abused. It's got 3 near-new tyres, and a pneumatic jockey wheel tyre. It hasn't got the fancy independent swing-arm coil suspension of the later ones, it's just a regular axle with shackle-style leaf springs. It's good enough for me, it's a tried and foolproof setup. It's fully galvanised, has a stainless steel water tank and electric pump, came complete with a good 120A/H deep cycle battery, and all the canvas is in good condition. It does need some wheel bearing attention, as with all Chinese campers/trailers. I grabbed one wheel and shook it, and it wobbled around pretty badly. The owner was shocked, but I think he was the type of bloke who wouldn't think to check wheel bearings like that. There's a broken wire to the water pump (easy fix), and the zipper on the top protective cover is busted. It has velcro as well as the zip. But I found you can easily buy FixnZip (Australian-made, too!) to fix busted zips, without having to stitch in a whole new zipper, at great expense. So, I'm off to Whitworths tomorrow to pick one up. A mate and I are going to camp out in the caravan park in the little country town where I have my block, next week - because SWMBO is heading off to the Gold Coast to see her son and DIL and 12 yr old grandson. The GC doesn't draw me any more, it's a ratrace, and the place has way too many people. You can't get parking anywhere, and it's starting to see a major increase in crime. So, my mate and I will have an enjoyable time, cleaning up my yard, fixing stuff, and sitting around BS-ing - because he lives way down South in the forests now, and we don't get to catch up like we used to. I've got a sea container that needs re-organising, and it needs a new floor panel installed (28mm ply, which I've already bought), so that will keep us occupied for a couple of days at least. After that, we'll probably go onto some shed frame building, and also do some more repair work on my Chamberlain tractor. I've got no end of jobs that need doing, and with two of you, things seem to get done a lot faster. On top of all that, the weather forecast looks great, between 13° - 25° and 18° - 30° all week, with no rain in sight. https://fixnzip.com.au/?srsltid=AfmBOoozzxauxhN15nGx5O7QBUhc9uCxBmAQ8-_q3Bh4mMsNBeqANxJu

I beg to differ Marty, I would say I'm bang on the point. That's just my opinion, you're entitled to yours. I'd consider myself centre right politically and you support a far left party so we're never going get an echo chamber thing happening here.

The only reason we are talking about One Nation is because they are experiencing a fairly significant rise in support which could rock the politcal boat a bit. In previous times they have had around 6-10% support, similar to the other main fringe party, the Greens. One in ten voters think the Greens are worth voting for and nine out of ten think they are not. One Nation was in a very similar position on the opposite end of the spectrum, but things have changed in their favour lately. The Greens will never attract more than that one in ten voters and what you see is what you'll get with them, but One Nation's numbers are on the move and nobody really knows for sure how far they will go. It won't be all the way to the top, I know that much.

Marty, you're dreaming if you think One Nation will ever get close to replacing a major party in government I think. The protest vote will have an impact, and that impact will be to force the major parties to lift their game. Or the option is to just keep voting for the same old status quo in the naive belief that they will magically one day lift their game by their own choice, ie; bend over and keep copping it up the rear end.

That's all well and good, Willie, but it misses the point. Making a protest vote may be a way of expressing frustration or disenchantment with the major parties. But that vote has an impact, and the impact is to potentially replace a major party with a party that has no costed, valid policies, is chock full of despicable people, led by a racist opportunist, and financially supported by people who have very illiberal beliefs who will expect a return on their investment. If people truly wanted to improve how parliament works, they would research the policy positions and backgrounds of independents, and support the campaign of a good one. Simply lashing out won't work. The object lesson from the US showed that. Are the people in the Rust Belt better off now? They voted to "drain the swamp" but elected the biggest alligator around. You can call me "small minded" for considering anyone who votes for ON an idiot, or at best ignorant. That's fine. But I will maintain that voting against your own interests is not the most intelligent thing to do.

Basically, if you take out a whole of life policy to care for your wife if you should die before her, then she dies first, your kids or other family members will have to be named as the beneficiaries. You won't claim the benefit, you'll be dead.

Whole of life are a real trap. Effectively, to get anything back, the person insured has to die. Even if the policy is no longer required, they require continuation of premiums or you forfeit all you paid.

Fuel prices are starting to hit tourism. Over the whole four day Easter break, the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta had two tourists visit, compared to the usual 50 to 100 per day.

More specifically, if any of the letters at the bottom of the screen are contained in the solution, they will have been placed on the puzzle board. If they are not on the puzzle board, they are not part of the solution.

He still got his premiums back though. Sounds like a good insurance company to me. Wish they were all like that.

Yes, I believe there are policies that part insurance and part investment. But still the risk the insurance company takes on your behalf does not come for free. No company would assume the risk for free. I believe such policies are referred to as "Whole Life" or Endowment Policies"

A lot of people can't see the woods for the trees. Some who are unhappy with the rise in popularity of One Nation delude themselves that the problem is all One Nation and it's supporters who their critics perceive as a bunch of ignorant, redneck idiots. Fact one: One Nation wouldn't be having this rise in popularity if the major parties were doing a half decent job. Fact two: The major parties have been complacent for too long, and as long as they have their comfortable two party system of your turn/my turn without any major threat to their voter base, they will never get any better. For sure, a lot of the rise in One Nation is a protest vote against that laziness, complacency, and disregard for ordinary Australians that a lot of people see in the major parties. The voter erosion to One Nation is the kick in the pants that the status quo needed and still needs. They won't voluntarily get any better, so they need a boot up the rear end like this to to make them get off their backsides and start performing better to provide Australians with what they want and need from a government. If the threat of losing voters in possible election losing numbers keeps the major parties on their toes, in my opinion that has to be a good thing and an incentive to provide good government. I'm not defending One Nation or any other party, but just trying to point out the small minded nature of just blaming One Nation and their supporters and dismissing them as fools. Throwing rocks at them is not going to make them go away. You need to ask yourself why. Why are so many people abandoning parties they have supported for years. The problem the major parties have is not One Nation. The problem is within themselves. They need to ask themselves why do so many people not want to vote for them any more. To be honest, nothing much in politics surprises me, but I have been surprised lately by the sheer numbers of people I run into who say they are changing their vote to One Nation at the next federal election. A lot of these people are the last people in the world where I would have expected to see that. There's a problem for the One nation critics who are stuck in that rut of name-calling, ridicule and stone throwing in their stereotyping of supporters. While they're so distracted doing that, they're not seeing what's really happening. There's a big groundswell of a protest vote building, and I think it will keep rolling. I don't personally think what's happening now is just a flash in the pan. The way I see it, the Greens are immune from it. The Coalition has already taken significant hits and a lot of it by their own hand. And Labor, well I wouldn't be too complacent about if I was one of their supporters. At the moment, they are almost guaranteed to win the next election, and that's about as far ahead as most pollies can think, but they are already starting to bleed blue collar votes and that loss will continue to grow. For anyone who doesn't want to see One Nation grow in size, the challenge is how to create an environment where those lost voters will return. That's where they need to spend their energy. Ridiculing and blaming those lost voters for leaving in the first place is unproductive, and as I said earlier, small minded.

To be fair, I used to take out life insurance in the 1970s. After seven years (I think it was) you got all your premiums back. And had enjoyed a tax deduction on them.

It just means you can't use any of the little letters at the bottom of the picture.

Sovereign fuckin imbecile for like it

The term is 'sovereign citizen'.

Then don't answer the brain teasers. Marty, PMcC, onetrack and a few others appear to enjoy them.

Maybe he's moving toward being an Autonomous Citizen and everyone's out to get him. If he get's ill Hanson will Build Trump Hospital next door and he will complain about the Noise of cars using his NEW road to get to the Hospital. Nev.

You are paying them for the risk they take of you of being responsible for a costly accident. They don't owe you a refund if you never make a claim because the deal was that you pay and they accept your risk. You may not like the fact that it's a compulsory payment, but that's the deal. If you don't like it, just hand in your driver's licence.

Won't do them any good with Trumps troupe. He will keep tossing his Bombs out of the Pram and saying "watch this one go off". With No idea where it will all finish up . Nev

Each to his/her own. I think I'd rather die. There's Plenty to do around here and see and hear outside, and people to go to and see and talk to . Nev

Watch this Youtube video of a bonus round. After the woman spins the prize wheel, they cut to the puzzle board. The 6 given starting letters, R, S, T, L, N. E, appear in the lower left corner. If any of those letters are in the puzzle, they are turned on by the hostess. The contestant then selects their 4 letters, Again, the correct letters are turned on. Based on the displayed letters on the puzzle board, the contestant has to guess the puzzle in 10 seconds to win the prize.