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What Hamas did is no worse than what the Japanese army did in Manchuria and Borneo, or what the Nazis did to the Jews. But once done, you can't fight a war against a segment of society. There were good Germans and good Japanese, but the bombs rained down on them all. There is no other way to fight against evil in wartime. And war is the only way to sanitise the evil. Each society, worldwide, is responsible for the actions of the groups within it.

Two men walk into a pet shop in Dingle, they walk over to the bird section and Gerry says to Joe, 'Dat's dem.' The owner comes over and asks if he can help them. 'Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere little budgies in dat cage up dere,' says Gerry. The owner puts the budgies in a cardboard box. Joe and Gerry pay for the birds, leave the shop and get into Gerry's truck to drive to the top of the Connor Pass. At the Connor Pass , Gerry looks down at the 1000 foot drop and says, 'Dis looks like a grand place.' He takes two birds out of the box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off the cliff. Joe watches as the budgies fly off and Gerry falls all the way to the bottom, killing himself stone dead! Looking down at the remains of his best pal, Joe shakes his head and says, 'Fook dat. Dis budgie jumping is too fook'n dangerous for me!'

These people know they will be away from their family's before they take the jobs, just as ever FIFO miners does. It's a decision/ compromise they have to make.

I find it very hard to believe that any government department relies on paper records for anything. This isn't 1980. The data may be on incompatible systems or databases but it would be digital somewhere, and if it's digital it can be ingested, converted and matched.

That is such shit.

Yes, you can apply on a written form, but when that form is lodged it's either optically scanned or manual data entry by staff. Either way, the data is held on a state government database.

That is the very problem with knee-jerking - unintended consequences. Once again the good intention adversely affected those for whom the intention was not met. There's a Latin saying, festina lente, which roughly translates as "hasten slowly", or its equivalent, "look before you leap".

They must be a bit pungent by now 😉 In the UK, which also has uite strict gun laws, almost anythign can become a dangerous weapon under the dangerous weapons act. If someone is carrying a rock in a sock for the purpose of commiting some damage, then that particualr rock in a sock will become a dangerous weapon under the act. I can't recall precisely, but I think it is an objective test - i.e. not what the person actually intended, but what the reasonable (not average) person would deem to be the purpose. I could be wrong on the intent threshold.

People in prison have been killed with a rock in a sock. If that weapon becomes popular, will Albanian ban rocks or ban socks?

The W.A. system is largely digital/computer-based - BUT - as always, there are a number of firearms owners who are not computer literate, and more importantly, they reside in many far-flung areas of the State, where computer access is limited due to inadequate internet/phone service coverage. As a result, firearms users can apply to keep using paper records - and they currently have to keep their A4 size paper firearms licence with them when they are purchasing ammo, or transporting their firearms. As you might all know, W.A. has had a new, revised and much tougher Firearms Act since last year, in a reaction to a vicious depraved murderous bastard, who owned 13 firearms legally - but who was in a bitter dispute with his ex-wife - and he was mentally unstable. Despite his daughter warning the W.A. Police several times that he was dangerous, shouldn't own firearms, and had continually threatened to kill her mother, the W.A. Police did nothing. Accordingly, this murderous bastard set out on a trip to the city looking for his wife, to kill her - broke into her female friends house, looking for her (and she wasn't there) - and when he realised he wasn't going to able to kill her, he killed her friend and her daughter instead. The daughter went ballistic and went on a campaign for tighter firearms laws, and the W.A. Police reprimanded 8 officers for numerous failures in failing to adhere to the previous Firearms Licensing laws. And of course, the Premier and MP's went on a knee-jerk rampage, carried out a major gun buyback, stated they were intent on removing around 90,000 firearms licences from firearms owners in the city - stating they had no need for firearms - and they've pretty much achieved their aims. Many firearms owners I know, have given up on owning firearms here, the Govt has just made it too hard. Many farmers are complaining they can't even get hold of a firearm to destroy stock or vermin. It's all a violent over-reaction on the part of the States MP's and Premier, and tens of thousands of W.A. firearms owners have paid a heavy price, simply because the W.A. Police didn't do their job properly, previously. https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/western-australia-police-force/licensing-services-firearms

Looks pretty excessive to me: https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2025/jan/20/devastation-aerial-views-gaza-ceasefire-in-pictures

I expect for the LNP and other more right wing parties, the answer would be never. I bet they got Howard to say it, thus any flack they can dodge with a strawman.

Agreed, given the billions ASIO get in funding, the millions should be a great investment. The stumbling block has been the states , gun lobby and previous long term LNP government. I note today John Howard was bitching about changing the gun laws is a distraction from the labour failures- just more bullshit and bluster from the LNP. No one without a genuine need should have access to a gun, bar inside a gun club and the gun stays at the club.

Some are saying he's a Maronite Christian. But whatever he is, he wouldn't have known the shooter he tackled was a muslim terrorist. He just saw someone shooting and waited for his chance to pounce on him.

One of the videos on X zooms in for a close-up on the younger shooter as he was firing the .410. The way he was holding it and cycling the bolt action, plus the cycling rate looked like he'd done a lot of previous training. He was no amateur shooter.

Absolutely we are entitled to our own views. On the payback for the current war - you maybe right - but I think from the protestors who were calling for death and gassing the jews as opposed to stopping the war, and the fact that the hatred of jews pecedes Israel by many centuries, if not millenia, I doubt the current war is anything other than an excuse.. I hope I am wrong, but doubt it. Re the war, Israel from about day 1 has maintained that disarming Hamas and returning the hostages would stop it.. not even killing Hamas. Hamas are still there, they wage a war and hide behind their citizens. What would you do if you were in Israel's situation (and I am NOT saying Israel is acting with entire propriety, either). Indeed - Ahmed al Ahmed is a hero and should be recognised as such, especially when you consider those who appear to be attempting to impede the police dealing with the murderers. @old man emu dealt with that one nicely. Suffice to say, I have rarely seen a poor application of logic... If you can hit a bunny from 100m with a police issued pistol and your father can at 500m under pressure of shots being fired and the ensuring mayhem, they you should have been in the olympics shooting team.. I seriously doubt you could do it without a decent long-barrelled gun and a scope. Certainly at 500m, it would be very difficult. Very differenet situation. You may not watch US movies now, but i bet you did if you seriosly believe the the dramatics you suggest would be real life.

I agree with most of what you have said except this. At the Palestinian protests, at campuses, in Sydney, Melbourne, etc, people were openly chanting kill the jews and gas the jews. This was not protesting for Palestine, but protesting against Jews.. anywhere.. and calling for their murder. The response from the governments? Tepid. Did anyone get charged with incitement or racial vilifcation? Crickets. In the UK it was nuch the same, except apparently you can be charged with a hate offence calling a horse gay or something. Surprise, surprise, the same thing happened, although more weren't killed because of logistics and it was a long gunman as I recall. Just imagine the response had it been Jews protesting to kill and behead the Muslims...

I object to Americanisation of Australian heads. We must immediately deport anybody seen wearing a baseball cap. Especially if they wear it backwards. America will be held accountable for all ear melanomas occuring in our great country. Thank you for attention to this matter.