We all know the Israeli response to any military or terror attack is generally disproportionate, this is what their deterrence is based on. How can Israel produce a disproportionate response based on the barbarity of this Hamas attack? The massacre of the Kfar Aza kibbutz is sickening, women, children and babies beheaded – disgusting.  

To be fair, the Hamas offensive was breathtaking in terms of organisation and execution. The offensive began with around 3500 missiles to overwhelm the Israeli Iron Dome missile shield. Then paragliders with gunman flew over the fence storming military facilities and a dance party before the border fence was breached with scores of Hamas fighters on motor bikes and jeeps. The intelligence failure will be discussed in the future, now is not the time. Israel is going to go in and start to rescue their kidnapped citizens, they know they cannot negotiate with these terrorists.  

One thing we know, Israel is one of the world’s most advanced and organised military will act, Israel will act decisively and I would not like to be anywhere near Gaza when that happens. What these Hamas fighters did was indiscriminately target civilians – this is an act of terrorism we have never seen in Israel before. Hamas targeted women and children to take as hostages to act as human shields and to execute on camera. Israel is preparing to enter Gaza and this will be a bloody battle, tanks are being massed on the Gaza border and they are going to take Hamas on and they will defeat them.

I got up at 7 am on a Sunday morning to check YouTube and see if Ukraine had made any military advances. Even worse, I wanted to find out if Russia had engaged in more rocket attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets in what could only be considered state sponsored terrorism. Instead, I was shocked to see Hamas had breached Israeli defenses in the Gaza strip and initiated a dawn attack on Israel.

Gunmen in motorised paragliders scooting over the border, heavy machinery knocked holes in the border fence and gunmen filed through. An Israeli military base was overrun, gunmen were entering houses and taking people hostages. From the reports I read, families were locking themselves in safe rooms to escape capture or shooting. First, Israel will have to negotiate the release of their citizens including soldiers and offices captured along with families in the border towns.

One thing that I do know, the Israeli response will be disproportionate, this highly coordinated attack. Thousands of rockets have been launched, there appears to be assistance from Hezbollah so this conflict could widen. What I do know is this is a massive failure of Israeli intelligence services, there was pretty much no pre-warning of this attack. In the months ahead, we will see Israel strike back and I suspect they will target the Gaza Strip and then the Left Bank.

The Higgins sexual assault allegations are now considered baseless allegations, whilst Bruce Lehrmann was denied the chance to clear his name via the justice system. Prosecutor Shane Drumgold responded with indigent behaviour, he along with others tried to bypass due process. Despite not being able to prove this case, Drumgold was arrogant to publicly state he could and felt he could get a conviction.

Clearly Drumgold is delusional, the police were unwilling to sign-off on the charges as they believed there was no reasonable chance of a conviction. Where is the outrage levelled at Lisa Wilkinson and The Project producer Angus Llewellyn? The five-hour audio recording of the strategy discussion with Brittany Higgins, David Sharaz, Lisa Wilkinson and David Llewllyn that was broadcast on Channel 7’s Spotlight program was damning.

Clearly Higgins and Wilkinson were out to destroy Lehrmann’s current and future career. They did not just suggest this during the strategy meeting – they clearly stated as much. This was a vindictive approach to harness the #MeToo movement to destroy someone’s future. It should be seen as what it is, a pathetic display of vengeance. They seemed determined to recruit Grace Tame to their cause, we knew they were looking to a women’s group. Whilst not a fan of Grace Tame, I respectfully acknowledge her as a strong campaigner for child sex abuse even though this case is not child sex abuse.

What we do know is the Sharaz and Higgins plan to prosecute their ## strategy as a media campaign spectacularly failed. In a democratic and open society, the media has free reign to operate [within defined guidelines] and the Sharaz/Higgins narrative did not survive the bullshit test. Do the media always get it right? Well no, but what we do have is a variety of media outlets with sometimes contradictory viewpoints where the truth is generally found somewhere in between.

We can look at the left wing/right wing perspective, what we have previously learned is Australia is generally a centre left/right society. When a government strays too far from the centre left or centre right political leaning they are punished at the polls. This is a government making a decision that is not necessarily good for the taxpayer or for women who have been abused that cannot tap into the media.

From what we learned, David Sharaz holds deep relationships deep within the Australian Labor Party and was adept in calling in favours. Sharaz was able to coax Katy Gallagher, Tanya Plibersbek, Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to abuse question time in Parliament to further their case. The Australian Labor Party abused this process to further their political powerbroking, that was to turf the Morrison Government from power.

Not that Morrison escapes this quagmire either, quick to show he supported women’s causes, Morrison apologised in Parliament to Brittany Higgins without proof of guilt against Lehrmannt. What escapes me is Higgins was paid from the Australian government for future earnings lost yet Lehrmann gets nothing. If I was Lehrmann I would be going after Wilkinson and The Project, that is without a doubt. I would also go after Higgin’s government funded payout, that would really stick it to Katy Gallagher and Tanya Plibersek who was played like a total fool here.

One of the strategic downsides of the war in Ukraine is the isolation of Russia. This isolation forces Russia to rely on their rather dubious allies and do deals that are not in the best interests of anyone. You may well think, how is this a downside, sanctions against Russia are justified and I agree with such a view. However, there are also unintended consequences to these justified sanctions and this could have long term consequences for the rest of the world,

Russia may now supply more advanced weapons to Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba as part of the deal to supply essential weapons to their war effort. Due to their production constraints, Russian weapons production has a number of constraints placed on it. However, the Russian economy is still able to produce artillery shells and we have seen so tremendous amounts of munitions expended over the year long war with Ukraine.

What Russia cannot supply is technological weaponry, whilst they had a vast supply of missiles in reserves, we have seen their aircraft failing, their navy ineffective and their logistics disaster. Russia is pulling 1960s vintage tanks out of storage to be sent to the front. Russia has a vast population compared to Ukraine and has no issues throwing human lives into the conflict despite massive losses.

So, what is the problem then? With Iran supplying drones and other technological weapons Russia cannot produce, the one technology they crave that has been previously beyond their reach is nuclear weapons. If the Russian leadership, I use that term with a degree of contempt, agrees to share nuclear technology and knowledge with Iran, the world is now a much more dangerous place.

The 2020 Curtis Ancestor shiraz hits you from the first sip, I was surprised as I generally do not purchase reds from McLaren Vale based on previous experiences. When my contact from United Cellars phoned me to offer this premium McLaren Vale shiraz for a very good price, I was willing to give it a go. They normally offer pretty decent selections, they are well informed as they are involved in frequent tastings.

This is not a bottle of wine I would normally select, so naturally I did have some slight concerns. This is exactly the reason I am with United Cellars, I get the opportunity to purchase premium wines at discounted prices. Ok, so what does this shiraz offer? This hand picked wine is from 80 year old vines and cold soaked for 14 days with the grape skins. The juice was further fermented for 14 days allowing tannins and colour to permeate through before being pumped into French and American barriques for maturation.

For me, I associate the McLaren Vale region with their top class white wines. I have previously tried reds from McLaren Vale but they were really not to my liking. I am not saying they were bad, taste and preferences are very personal and for the price, they were not for me. Maybe I have been a little harsh on the McLaren Vale region for red wines, my previous experiences with the region should not influence my future decisions. This shiraz has excellent berry flavours, vanilla overtones from the American oak and chocolate overtones.

Much to my embarrassment, we went to a local hawkers hut restaurant where I intended to open a bottle to review, however, we have a cork and no corkscrew handy. I always have a corkscrew handy, I normally keep one in the glovebox of my car. For some reason I took it out and on this occasion I was caught out. I had to run to my local bottleshop to purchase a screw-top to consume in its place, this was pretty disappointing. So I had to wait over a month to finally pop the top on this shiraz, it was worth the wait.

I was searching through my half completed blog posts when I stumbled across an unfinished post dating back to 2018. At the time, I was reading plenty of comments on social media regarding halal certification. There was certainly an anti-Islamic sentiment on social media and I wanted to know if these were genuine concerns or bandwagon reactions. I asked myself, was this concern warranted or is this an anti-islamic rant?

I wanted to make my internet search objective, I cannot use the term research as this would be genuine and an original investigation of a selected topic with a thesis written, or at least a formal report. Instead, my blog is my opinion, whilst I try to remain as objective as I can, it is my personal opinion. I certainly have no problem with Islam, my attitude is people should follow whatever religious beliefs is their preference, as long as they do not infringe on people’s rights.

Instead, I asked the simple question, halal certification an islamic tax? It opens food manufacturers to overseas markets with a large muslim population. That is true, but is this just more than a levy? To help determine this, we need to follow the money trail, where does Islamic funding go? Apart from paying salaries, superannuation, Australian tax and business costs, including charitable donations. Is this funding used inappropriately? There is no evidence to support inappropriate funding currently.

Whilst I have neither the time nor funding to engage in a full investigative journalism. Some online preparation will allow me to build the foundations of an academic argument. To date, there has been an enquiry and the report has found that there is no direct link that halal funding is being used to sponsor terrorism.

To answer this question I need to really look at what exactly is halal certification, who is the certification authority and what is the cost? Then we need to review the benefits to food manufacturers and distributors, is this compliance, cost and quality. The enquiry found that halal certification has not increased food prices but has allowed Australian companies to access international markets.

I was able to go to the Australian parliamentary page where it describes the term halal and what it involves, haram and mashbooh. So pork is out [I knew that], also animals with fangs [I did not know that] and the rituals of livestock slaughtering are included [I knew that]. I have no problems with an individual’s religious beliefs, we have a growing number of muslim people in Australia who seek halal certification so this makes sense.

So who are the halal certification bodies in Australia?

• Adelaide Mosque Islamic Society of South Australia.
• Al-Iman Islamic Society.
• Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc.
• Australian Halal Development and Accreditation.
• Australian Halal Food Services.
• Global Halal Trade Centre Pty Ltd.
• Halal Australia Pty Ltd.
• Halal Certification Authority Australia.
• Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria Pty Ltd.
• Islamic Council of Western Australia.
• Muslim Association of Riverina Wagga Wagga Inc.
• Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia Inc.
• Western Australia Halal Authority.

I am thinking the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shane Drumgold will be in a whole lot of trouble. By withholding evidence in the Higgins v Lehrmann sexual assault case that was detrimental to the prosecution, it can be claimed DPP Shane Drumgold attempted to pervert the course of justice – a criminal offence.

But we need to be fair, DPP Shane Drumgold must be afforded due process and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. The very due process and presumption of innocence he failed to afford to accused Bruce Lehrmann will be offered to Drumgold – now there is some irony. The Sofronoff report is a liability to Drumgold, his mishandling of this case, the political interference and the personal liability he now carries.

I am a Fremantle Football Club supporter since their inception in 1994, I, like many others has purple pulsing through my veins. I have been a loyal supporter over those yeas, we knew supporting a new team in the AFL was going to be challenging. The AFL under pressure from the clubs were happy to grant Fremantle a licence as they sought to dilute the ability of the cross town rival to draft the best talent in the state.

We had a period of relative success in early to mid 2010s, the team was competitive, playing finals and just missed out on an inaugural premiership. Then from 2016 to 2021, the club engaged in a rebuild, this was six years out of finals contention before a breakout year in 2022. The young team was not only competitive, they had a chance for a premiership. Their finals campaign was derailed by a deserving winner, you don’t get too upset when your team is beaten by a more skilled and desperate team.

So we are missing the 2023 finals, after six years out of contention, we had one finals appearance before missing the cut again. So, the question I ask is how long does a team rebuild take? I would say three years is a reasonable time frame. That allows a team at the bottom of the ladder to select top young talent in the pre-season draft as well as recruiting talent and trading non-required players. The problem for Fremantle Football Club is their player selection and trading strategy, they traded away their medium-term future for what they believed was a short-term fix, they could not be so wrong and wasted half a decade of player’s success.

Based on what I have observed for rebuilds at other clubs, three years is a reasonable team rebuild period. So six years is really equal to two team rebuild periods. Sure, you take on young players, they have plenty of development time and should be competitive after four to six years. So a six year rebuild results in a finals appearance in year seven followed by missing the finals a year later and finishing down the ladder again. This is a disastrous period for the club, financially viable yes, but still starved of on field success.

What a mess the whole situation has become, the #MeToo movement, Lisa Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins, David Sharaz and the complicitness of the Australian Labor Party. There are plenty of questions to be asked of politicians Senator Katy Gallagher, Senator Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – the Australian Labor Party is heavily exposed here.

It is clear to all that this was used to bring down the Morrison Government at the 2022 federal election. Whilst Morrison received an extension to the Abbott and Turnbull governments dating back to 2013, it is unlikely the Morrison government would win a fourth term for the Liberal Party. The Albanese government can legitimately be accused of being elected on a lie, the then opposition and media were happy to push the [alleged] sexual assault story to claim the Morrison government had a problem with women.

Yet, the weaponisation of the alleged sexual assault claims made public by Brittany Higgins occurred. Whilst Higgins had the benefit of anonymity, Brittney Higgins and David Sharaz made a conscious decision to bring her allegations into the public forum. Higgins now claims mental health issues now that her case has fallen apart whilst receiving an extremely large federal government payout signed off by Labor Minister Katy Gallagher.

So what was Lisa Wilkinson trying to do? Well, the presumption of innocence was well and truly bypassed, due process – no need for that. As the Australian Capital Territory mandates jury trials, the blanket media coverage, #MeToo appearances and interviews was an attempt to sway a jury. Everyone in the country was aware of this case and potential jury members were influenced by the largely one-sided media coverage. We all knew what Lisa Wilkinson was trying to do and she has now found herself in a whole world of hurt.

The Heuer Skipper is an interesting timepiece for me, Heuer was very much a motorsport company, their chronographs were very much targeting motorsport enthusiasts of the day. Jack Heuer was well known at race tracks, Heuer was a motorsport sponsor and a motorsport official timer. It is not difficult to link Heuer with motor racing, they had some great advertising, TAG Heuer is still strongly involved in the sponsorship of formula one.

The Skipper isn’t a huge departure from their core competencies of precision timing with chronograph movements. Yes, this is a different market to their traditional market, this still aligns to a market segment with a high disposable income with highly competitive individuals fighting it out on the water instead of a racetrack. Whilst this is not their main market, this is a lucrative secondary market to stabalise sales.

The Skipper is a different market, yacht racing is still racing, although the chronograph is generally used as a 10 minute, 5 minute or 3 minute timer based on the race instructions. Instead, for yachting race starts, a countdown timer is required and the chronograph provides this. Heuer had a number of sailing timepieces from the Yacht-Timer, Regatta and the Skipper, Heuer was more involved in yacht racing than many thought.