Tuesday, 31 December 2024

O SAY, DOES THAT STAR-SPANGLED BANNER YET WAVE ...

 ... yeah right. It does in the oddest places - mostly where people would rather it not.





Here's OK I guess - in the USA where they don't know better.



Not here - in New Zealand where we don't need this shit



And not being waved by what we thought was a true-blooded Kiwi

Those images were from a post I wrote in November 2020. see: LOONY TUNES


It seems that Robert is still at it though as seen in a recent post of his showing his new swimming pool and what became of his beloved flag:



When I remonstrated he edited the home page on his blog to show everyone where his loyalties lie:



Maybe he'll stop waving the Gay Pride flag ...


... and follow Trump in molesting "Old Glory':


When I said that flying the USA flag in his backyard  was insulting, this led to Robert claiming that Americans saved New Zealand and New Zealanders from the Japanese in the Second World War.


This is the sort of rewritten history that the Americans - particularly the MAGA Republicans are into with for example their denial of critical race theory and is heavily used in PlayStation - type video games of Americans at war. I spoofed this a bit: HERE

Mind you, the same can be said of the Brits with the sort of narrow-minded potted history fed to us as kids via comics such as VICTOR and COMMANDO where 'Tommy' virtually single-handedly wiped out Krauts, Eyeties and Japs.




"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped." - George Orwell, '1984'


Robert's assertion that New Zealand and Australia was 'saved' by the Americans has been in dispute by real historians over the last 80 years. It's worth reading up on this - across the political spectrum and not just the gung-ho American oriented ones.

Here's a couple of views (Australian but it is relevant to New Zealand's position at the time) from QUORA:

Did the United States save Australia and New Zealand from the Japanese during WW2?

No not “saved”. Until late 1942, there was a fear with that the Japanese Empire, which was knocking at the door of Australia was going to invade. Australian Prime Minister Curtain was so concerned of this probable event, that he recalled his Army back to Australia and ended up in a diplomatic row with Churchill who wanted them sent to Singapore. Curtain got his way…so invasion was a real concern. With Britain heavily engaged in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Curtain turned to the US….. FOR ASSISTANCE….A-S-S-I-S-T-A-N-C-E. This is NOT saving. It’s assisting. BIG difference.

Without three pages of writings here, the Aussies, fought a series of bloody, hard won battles on their frontier…New Guinea. They and to a lesser extent US troops, stopped the Japanese Empire at Australia’s doorstep. It was for all intensive purposes, Australia’s finest hour.

What the US really most likely “saved” Australia from, was the real possibility of strategic isolation. THAT was more attainable than a land invasion of Australia. The Battle of the Coral Sea (mostly USN but the Kiwi and Aussie navies were right alongside) and definitely Midway, ended any chance of Japan strategically isolating Australia… Because of the heavy loss of IJN Carriers in those battles, there was no chance of the IJN isolating Australia or invading her.

Assisting is helping someone up, across the street and beating up a stronger opponent. Saving is them getting the shit beat out of them and you block the punches and save the victim from certain death. I don’t like when my countrymen claim we “saved” Australia in WWII. It’s fake history and insulting. Read about New Guinea, the Australian assistance to the US forces in the Pacific, the RAN fighting in almost every naval battle against the IJN, the ANZACS “saving” American soldiers and Marines teaching them how to overcome jungle bacterias, tracking in the jungle, what equipment to use, and how to survive in the jungle environment and forget the saving. We ASSISTED.

And they ASSISTED us in Vietnam as payback.

No, the US did not stop Japan from invading Australia.

 

***********

 

No, they had nothing to stop. The truth is that the Australian mainland was NEVER in danger of being invaded. There is a popular myth in Australia that it was a hairsbreadth away from invasion by the Japanese. Sadly, the myth has been encouraged by Australian governments from time to time. This is not discounting the bravery and courage of American and Australian military personnel in World War 2, but it’s simply not true that the US stopped Japan from invading Australia. Here’s why:

By mid 1942 when the Phillipines, Malaya, Singapore, Burma, Indonesia and a large part of China were controlled and garrisoned by the Japanese, they were fully extended. They could not spare the manpower for a full scale invasion of Australia. The Japanese Army estimated that it would require 12 divisions to conquer Australia. They could not spare that number of troops.

Apart from the lack of manpower, there are a whole host of supplementary reasons that precluded an invasion. By July 1942, the Japanese were losing merchant shipping at the rate of 100,000 tons a month from American submarines. This was an unsustainable loss rate. They were unable to adequately resupply their existing conquered territories, let alone new conquests.

Besides the lack of men and material needed to mount a successful invasion, the Japanese did not have air superiority in the Coral Sea. They lost most of their aircraft carriers at Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea. Any invasion would have been very vulnerable to air attack from the Australian mainland.

With respect to the role of the US in the Pacific war in general, there is no doubt that they did the bulk of the fighting, but considering the relative populations of Australia and the US at the time, this is to be expected.


In no way do these opinions, and mine, denigrate the valiant efforts of the young Americans who fought and died in the Pacific but, as I said in a comment to Robert, The Americans were following an agenda that wasn't about saving New Zealand from the Japanese. We just weren't that important to them other than as a base and sadly a rehabilitation centre for the wounded.


 

Monday, 30 December 2024

2024 HIGHLIGHTS

 Yes it's nearly the end of 2024 and The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ has decided to bring you the highlights from this blogging community.

Let's look at Robert's blog first.

Robert changes his blog frequently, perhaps believing that the Google Police are after him. When following links placed by Richard on his blog: 


or by me on my blog: 


the links take readers to either of these blogs:

or,


These are essentially the same blog and replaced his earlier blog which was known as Robert the old guy who gets up early to pinch power off the national grid to cook the following week's Sunday dinner before going off to mass or something. As the earlier history was deleted the 2024 posting record looks like this:


Not a great record really but it will make it easier to trawl through looking for the highlights. Just give me a moment.

Dum de dum de dum de dum .... OK, here it is!


The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ judging panel awarded high points for its modern layout, minimalistic prose-style, edgy photography and this wrap-up which provided a classic Trent Horn quote which so enthralled Richard that he used it may times in his own posts and which Robert uses in the heading for his latest version of his blog.

Rob was chuffed to receive positive feedback for his comment on Trent Horn's page. It was rather a long comment and the love hearts gave him a buzz. He didn't expect love hearts for this blog, however. For some reason he couldn't fathom, lapsed Catholics and heretics who had renounced their faith, couldn't stomach Catholics who hadn't. As Trent Horn had said in the video "I'd rather be a naive member of the elect than a calumnious member of the damned".


Next up is Richard's blog.

Richard hasn't changed his blog title, layout or, let's face it, its content for a couple of decades. It still looks like this:


with its redundant sub-title "the original bass-bagging site" as if anyone in their right mind would create another on.

Even after Richard deleted his entire blog (twice) he came back to using the same old name and format.

In 2024 the posting record looks like this:


Yes, I know that it's hard to read and the use of a silly turquoise blue colour on a brown background makes it impossible to establish how many posts were published on each of the months. Perhaps he's embarrassed at the lack of frequency and has deliberately done this.

Extensive forensic investigation  has established that the 2024 total of posts is 300 if anyone is interested.


Let's have a look anyway to see if there was a highlight. Don't go away - it won't take long.

Dum de dum de dum de dum .... Hey! There was one.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ judging panel though being unable to award high points for its modern layout,  prose-style, edgy photography, originality, humour and sophistication nevertheless found that the content was memorable, particularly the use of 'Pete' and 'The Curmudgeon'. For this we approve and are eternally grateful. So grateful in fact that we award a deserved second place to Richard's Bass Bag for posting highlights in 2024.

If it makes you happy, go for it Peter (aka The Literary Curmudgeon, Peter’s Golf Bag, The Wine Curmudgeon, The Curmudgeon Express, Right As Rain, The Twitter Curmudgeon, The Inconstant Curmudgeon, The Cultured Curmudgeon, The Lazy Curmudgeon, The Music Curmudgeon, The Food Curmudgeon, The Religious Curmudgeon, The Mundane Curmudgeon, The Church Of The Blessed Curmudgeon, The Nostalgic Curmudgeon, The Curmudgeon’s – Agony Aunt, The Aluminium Foil Curmudgeon, Irascible Old Bastard, The New Different Time Zone Bill, Northland Musings, The Curmudgeon, The Curmudgeonly Luddite, The Curmudgeonly Inventor, The Happy Curmudgeon, The Polemical Curmudgeon, The Philosophical Curmudgeon, Deacon Tanimate and The Darker Curmudgeon).


This then leaves my own blog to investigate.

Let's face it - it's a classic.


The title is clear and consistent so that readers (already in single figures now) have no confusion as to the blog's provenance or content. The layout remains classic yet contemporary and has clever snippets of information on the home page to alert readers to new events or to any additions and alterations.

Let's look at the 2024 record:


Wow! 403 posts to date and December hasn't ended. This is going to be a challenge finding the ultimate highlight because there will be so many of them. It's best that you leave it to me to trawl through. Why don't you make a cup of tea, have a nap or a game golf golf or something and pop back later.

Whew! That was a lot of reading but I narrowed  things down to 390 and eventually came up with the ultimate winner. Here it is:

2024 HIGHLIGHTS


"Well done that man. I knew that you had what it takes. I look up to you." 

- Father McCann.

 

Saturday, 28 December 2024

BEACH BOYS

 


Robert posted about Palliser Bay today. This brought back fond memories for me as for many years between 1969 and 1980 (the more arithmetically-minded reader will no doubt see that as 11 years) I used to, with my brother and neighbourhood friends, go to Ocean Beach in Palliser Bay quite regularly.  It'd be great to be able to "do it again". A neighbourhood friend of my brother's parents owned one of those baches there that were built in the1950s. I believe that these have now been demolished or handed over to DOC. See: this link OCEAN BEACH BACHES

We used to go there on weekends for a bit of fishing, hunting and generally 'horsing about' lighting bonfires on the beach and drinking beer. I remember some truly great holiday weekends there and it's a wonder that we got through them unscathed.

My brother eventually - in the mid 1970s I think - built a bach of his own a little bit further along the bay than the neighbourhood friend's parents bach. This obviously wasn't one of the 1950s baches that had some sort of historical reprieve from DOC and I'm certain that this would have been demolished if it hadn't already fallen down. My brother died in 2001 so I can't ask him unless Robert can intercede for me and set up a meeting in the afterlife (it won't be in Heaven).

Here are some photos I found on the web of Ocean Beach that show some of the longer-lasting baches.


















We used to tramp from the baches up the big and small Mukamuka streams (the big Mukamuka when in flood was more like a river) which were outstanding and afforded great views at the top.







My brother and his friend Richard (not of RBB) were lazy buggers though but, because they were exceptionally practical-minded and could turn their hands to anything, built river and beach buggies like this ...



.. cutting down old Austin and Morris cars circa 1940s and by connecting two gearboxes were able to create a primitive 4x4 vehicle that, in extremely low gear of the 16 or more gears could creep over the biggest boulders in the rivers, ford streams and almost never get bogged down in the sand. This was the fate of my trusty old 1948 Austin 8 that I sold to Tony and when he had finished with it (he peed in it see: HERE ) I brokered a buy-back deal for my brother to buy if from him and he converted it into a beach buggy.

Apart from Ocean Beach and the baches I remember many great trips tramping up the Orongororo River into the Orongorongo hills which are just at the back of where Richard of RBB lives.


I've also walked the Palliser Bay to Pencarrow tracks along the very pebbly beach to both Wainuiomata and further along to Eastbourne and have seen the lighthouse that Robert mentioned.

Thanks for the memory Robert.

Friday, 27 December 2024

SORRY GRANNY GOOGLE

 I wrote a review of the excellent TV series SLOW HORSES today when checking the website on one of the actors (Saskia Reeves).

Saskia Reeves

I really like this series and am in the middle of series three. Thank Robert's god there is a series four to look forward to.

Here is what I wrote giving a 5-star review:


All good? What could be wrong with that you'd think?

Well, Granny Google thought that I was a rude and naughty boy and sent me this email"


It seems that writing "piss-taking" is considered 'profanity' in their policy.

Has Robert's Trent Horne joined Google?

Will Google's prissy (not pissy) attitude extend to our blogs?

Robert will be pleased but I know that I won't and what will Richard write if he's not allowed to use profanity? Even more 'Dad' jokes? God (Robert's one) help us!



I changed it though to this with slightly better grammar (and not grandma) and removal of the offensive micturition reference. I guess Granny Google, Robert, Trent Horn and Richard of RBB will now be happy.




Thursday, 26 December 2024

LISTEN UP

 I tried to tell The Old Girl about my new tennis serve today and guess what? She didn't want to know!


She said that she'd find it boring when I told her how I'd perfected my spin serve by adding a swerve to it. I was able to win two service games with a love score with the serve. The ball, with spin and the added swerve hit the extreme corner of the court each time and shot out of reach of the receiver. It was .......

........ hello! Are you listening?





BOXING DAY

 Yes it's Boxing Day today although I note that some old jokers still have trouble with the name, the meaning and the history of the day. Oh well, Chi dorme non piglia pesci as Richard's old Italian would say.

In the past I'd have been keenly watching the for sale offers from the 'big box' retailers and maybe buying some 'essential' things. As it is though, we are going in the other direction and quitting 'essential' things.

Today I'll continue clearing out the basement as I still have a trailer-load of junk to take. I'll load up today if the rain doesn't return (rain and thunderstorms this morning cut tennis short) ready for an early morning run to the tip tomorrow morning. At this time of the year an early run is necessary to get in before all the once-a-year handymen go there. These are the ones who invariably can't reverse trailers and create havoc in the tipping area.

Amongst the junk there will still be treasures like a functional microwave, a column heater, a large electric fan, some electronic gear and boxes of VHS tapes along with a VHS player. I'll put these to the side at the tip and hope that they will be of interest to someone if the tip-shop don't take them in. I'm getting a bit tired of the chancers who say they will turn up to collect items that I've listed on Free Stuff sites and who never arrive after I've told other interested parties that the items have gone.



Wednesday, 25 December 2024

CHRISTMAS DAY DINNER

 Just The Old Girl (La Grande Dame) and me again this year.

Spinach and salmon quiche ...

... with La Grande Dame Champagne

Followed by:

New York-style cheesecake ...

... with Sauternes from House of Chateau d'Yquem




Meal cooked by The Old Girl.

Wines sourced by me.


All delicious. Some serious exercise required tomorrow.