old man emu

So it's now an insult to say that a bloke was hung like a donkey?

What exactly is Iran's ideology? Nobody seems to have laid it out for examination. Sure, it's dominated by a theology. How much impact have the actions of the Isrealis and the USA over the past 78 years influenced that ideology?

Had a really extraordinary rain occurrence last night. Before I went to bed, the sky was clear. About an hour and a half later I began to hear a strange rushing sound from outside. It's hard to explain it until I tell you what happened. The sound at first was a bit low pitched. I wondered if it was a truck approaching, but the sound was coming from the opposite direction from the highway. The sound seemed to be getting louder as it was approaching. Finally the sound arrived and with it extremely heavy rainfall. It was as if a fire hose was in use. If there is rain from a thunderstorm, it usually starts with scattered drops and then the main fall catches up. But last night it was like a wall of water was moving across the land. The boundary between rain and no rain was distinct. This rainfall continued for a short time, maybe five minutes or so, then abruptly stopped. Later that night I saw that the sky was clear again. This morning I checked the ran guage and saw that it regaistered 11 mm of rain. That brings total rainfall since last Monday to about 75mm. There is standing water in the more level paddocks and some dams now have water in them. The creek which runs through the place is roaring and the frogs are making quite a racket.

Down, down, down I go. the qu seems to actually have been an Old French spelling change. It's all tied up with the name of that part of a church/cathedral where the group of singers is located. c. 1300, queor "part of the church where the choir sings," from Old French cuer, quer "(architectural) choir of a church

We often comment on the peculiarities of English spelling. Her's one that got me wondering. How is it that the group of letters, 'choir', produces the sound 'kw-ire' when spoken? I took a dive into etymology and found this: The meaning "band of singers" in English is from c. 1400, quyre. It was re-spelled mid-17c. in an attempt to match classical forms, but the pronunciation has not changed. Now I wonder where 14th Century English got its spelling from.

Prince William is going through the business affairs of his Royal relations and pulling the rug out from under a lot of them. Actually, it is William, his aunt Princess Anne and his uncle Prince Edward who are running the show. William hates Camilla. Anne doesn't like her. The three of them are sick of the likes of Andew's kid sponging off their Royal links. I think William is trying to improve the image of the Royals.

I don't think that the basic Human Rights have been stripped awy. It's the more trivial that people whinge about. It's hard to come up with a list of Rights that people seem to think they have lost, or the extent of former rights.

It would appear that there is a silent coup going on in Buckingham Palace. King Charles seems to have given a bit of responsibility to Prince William and he has been doing things that reduce the power of Queen Camilla. William has sacked a number of Camilla's relations from powerful jobs within the Court. People don't seem to be showing Camilla the trappings of courtesy one whould expect. Queen Elizabeth made a decision that was important in maintaining the Monarchy by permitting William to marry outside the aristocracy. That has introduced fresh genes into the Monarchy, reducing the dangers of inbreeding that dogged European aristocracy over the centuries.

It is interesting that in times of hardship people seem to move to the Right. Over the last half century laws have been passed that are supposed to enshrine the Rights of individuals, but many individuals feel that their Rights have been stripped from them, or are never available to them. Those feelings allow the sort of Right Wing movements to take hold.

A vassal state is a nation that is nominally independent but has its sovereignty significantly limited by a more powerful, dominant state. While it often manages its own internal affairs, it relies on the dominant power for protection and is subservient in matters of foreign policy, defense, and trade. I am furious at what our Governments, on both sides, have allowed to happen. Without telling us, they have made Australia a target in any confllct in the Indo-Pacific region. It's probably a case of "out of sight, out of mind" since much of what is depicted in this video occurs in the sparsely inhabited northern regions of the country.

He was on a spinner winner!

He might have had his nose in places it should not have been, but our Constitution would not have permitted Trump-like behaviour. That's why I say countries which operate under constitutions similar to ours are more democratic than the USA. I suppose the framers of the US Constitution did not want to have a kinglike head of State as that reeked of the British system. It is strange that so many of the US politicians degrees in Business Mangement, but are reluctant to monitor the operation of the Constitution for the purposes of improvement. It seems to me that they only make amendments in response to problematic incidents.

I'm noticing a new trend in short YouTube videos. There is a lot coming up which show Obama's behaviour towards people, or his sense of humour. They show a very positive image of a person.

No. Just review it' - tidy it up by including the OK amendments as Sections. I think that what Trump has been doing is reason to reconsider the role of the Head of State and the House of Representatives in their roles in running the country. Trump has removed the ability to run the country from the Representatives. They could still keep their system for electing a President, but restrict a President's power to act as Trump has been acting.

I've got an idea for gun control in the USA! Invoke the spitir of teh Second Amendment which says "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The spirit of that amendment was to provide secutiry for the State. Therfore, make it a condition of gunownership that a person join a militia unit and attend training that leads to the unit being well regulated. If a person does not do that, then no firearm. People would find it too inconvenient to give up their time for that, and so would hand in their firearms.