and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
Venality …
Perhaps not what you would want in your eulogy.
Besides highlighting his corruptibility Paul Keating also suggested that Neville Wran had a “PhD in poetic profanity”.
Poor Neville, I guess that was the eulogy he had to have.
Wikipedia, an incredible resource …
Another embarrassment for Wikipedia was the recent revelation that a hoax page had survived for five years and had won several awards. The ‘Bicholim conflict’ entry was a detailed but fictitious account of a war in Indian Goa that never took place. It was rated as one of Wikipedia’s top pages and received a quality award that only one per cent of all Wikipedia articles achieve.
Just how incredible? An excellent article <HERE>.
The initials NSW stand for No Scruples Whatsoever.
Spin the bottle
Found at Visual Consumer.
Shannon Bert Thomas has been sentenced to seven and a half years jail for the unlawful killing of a 62 year old woman. He will not be eligible for parole until he has served five and a half years of his sentence. It’s another example of domestic violence, Mr Thomas pleaded guilty.
The case and its reporting somehow leave me with a sense that justice was not done.
Let me kick off with the ABC’s reporting <HERE>. Ninemsn and WAtoday also give it a whirl and are not significantly more informative. The ABC …
A West Australian man has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years’ jail for bludgeoning a woman to death with an Aboriginal ceremonial stick.
Shannon Bert Thomas, 42, pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing the 62-year-old woman, who is not named for cultural reasons.
Which is code for the deceased is aboriginal. It doesn’t make it clear if the miscreant was also aboriginal. The ABC continues …
The two had been drinking at a house in Mirrabooka in December 2012 when the woman attacked Thomas with a wooden ceremonial stick, called a wadi.
A quick diversion to Wikipedia …
A waddy, nulla nulla or hunting stick is an Australian Aboriginal war club.
A waddy is a heavy club constructed of carved timber. Waddies have been used in hand to hand combat, and were capable of splitting a shield, and killing or stunning prey.
… they were generally about one metre in length and sometimes had a stone head attached.
Waddy has also been spelled as wadi, wady, and waddie. The spelling stabilised around the mid-nineteenth century, partly to help distinguish it from the Arabic word wadi, a dry water course.
So more lethal weapon than ceremonial ornament. How quaint of the ABC.
She hit him twice, breaking his arm and causing a deep laceration to his head.
A quiet drink in a private place with family and friends and pursued with such enthusiasm that “both Thomas and the victim were extremely intoxicated, with Thomas recording a blood alcohol level of 0.26 per cent“. Since the ABC gives no reason why this should lead to violence let’s switch to WAtoday where we learn that the victim was Mr Thomas’ partner’s cousin and …
As Thomas, 42, and his partner argued about infidelity accusations, the victim became involved, hitting him about the face with her fists.
He walked outside but she followed and struck him … with a one-metre waddy …
So the poor bastard has walked away from violence and has been pursued and hit twice with a heavy lump of wood, his arm is broken and blood is pouring from a head wound. He takes the waddy and strikes back. He’s drunk, he’s in pain, he’s dazed and confused. He strikes four times and his attacker dies as a consequence of one of the first two blows, there is no reason not to suppose it was the very first. Back to the ABC …
Supreme Court Commissioner Kevin Sleight said while Thomas had acted in self-defence, his response of hitting the victim four times was “excessive and not reasonable”.
Let us contrast this with another case, this one in NSW, again the ABC …
Kieran Loveridge was today jailed for at least four years for manslaughter, with a maximum of six years.
The 19-year-old randomly punched Mr Kelly in the head in July last year as he walked with his girlfriend and spoke on his mobile phone in the nightclub precinct.
The single punch knocked Mr Kelly to the ground and he died from head injuries in St Vincent’s Hospital two days later.
Mr Loveridge was drunk in a public place, out to cause trouble and killed his victim in a totally unprovoked attack. Mr Thomas was enjoying a drink in a private place, attempted to avoid violence and finally defended himself from a potentially lethal attack. Compare the sentences.
The reporting of this case is so sensitive that it is impossible for us to see whether justice has been done or not, for instance we know nothing of Mr Thomas’ prior behaviour.
The moral of the story is this …
… next time you are having a quiet drink at home and you are attacked with a deadly weapon be sure to dig deep into your fuddled brain and instantaneously come up with an entirely reasonable response.
A Black-backed Bittern has been seen at Karkarook Park. Must get along there …
Meanwhile assistance with identification of this bird would be much appreciated …
Reader Truth Serum has been kind enough to correspond with me regarding a prior post. They write …
Do you ever bother to look into a story before you publish it? Or do you simply “copy and paste” information from disreputable groups like the “official sounding” ANZMI?
If anybody had bothered to look a bit further, they would have found that all of Neville’s full time service was with the Special Forces. He was trained as a communications specialist, then Green Beret trained by the Commandos, and then by the SASR in Long Range Patrol & Recon, to complete his “basic training” as a covert operative. If the ANZMI was actually an official organisation, maybe they would have access to classified information about Neville’s highly distinguished service, in combat, in Vietnam.
Or maybe they could have discovered that after his full time service, Neville spent 36 years part time service within branches of Special Forces and Military Intelligence.
Over his 42 years of service Neville was involved in virtually every Australian overseas operation, and also served with distinction on “loan” to the U.S., NATO, and the U.N.
He is entitled to wear all of his medals, but didn’t do so until after he had retired from the service – and had been advised that he was finally allowed to do so.
Neville is too loyal to the military to make a public “fuss” and bring these ignorant people to account. It is the ANZMI who are the “pretenders” and big note themselves whilst hiding like cowards. It is them that brings shame to the Australian military community.
Neville deserves an apology, and a big “thank you” for his extraordinary service to his country.
I’m glad that is cleared up and offer my sincerest apologies for any offence I may have caused. Although, Neville could hardly be called an unsung hero given all the medals he has been awarded.
It would be good to receive more news on Major General Donohue’s health, he was in poor shape last we heard, dying of cancer and all. After all he has been through it would be a great shame if he were to die before having the opportunity to clear his name.
I guess we can take it for granted that the police have dropped the charges.
And of course the Age will be correcting this story, the Sydney Morning Herald this story and the Herald Sun the story about him evading court by pretending to be in the Alfred Hospital dying of cancer. Those vicious vigilantes at ANZMI will, no doubt be updating their web page.
bobmcgee 