• @sue elliott Well yes Sue , we could all put our aprons back on and get back in the kitchen and just shut - the - f..k - up. You sound like the Women of the Liberal Party. - Carole/m
  • What Wendy Green said. Thank you for your professionalism Emma. Please keep the hard questions coming. - Annie Also
  • Would be wonderful if this letter (posted by Joni and written by a Muslim) went viral :) - Anne W
  • The IPA which is the Liberal Party , are putting pressure on the LNP to privatise the ABC and SBS and Getup have just started a campaign to prevent this happening. Don't know if I care anymore, am disgusted with the ABC and hardly watch anymore . Abbotts latest Reply to Budget was riddled with lies , ABC interviewers failed to call him out on these . He's a protected species in all the Media. - Carole/m
  • Emma, you are a fantastic journalist, you are fair and always well prepared. Unfortunately, I don't get to see your show very often as I'm usually in bed by the time you're on. I agree with some of the previous comments. Ullman is obviously a liberal party plant. His way of talking about the Prime Minister, smirking away, gleefully 'reporting' and adding his own two bobs worth at every opportunity, drives me mad everytime I see him. Sales is ok. She has her good interviews and her bad interviews, but I think she's clearly in over her head a lot of the time. I think the ABC should start up a new program with Emma and Virgina Trioli. That would be a show I'd stay up all night for :D - Debra
  • Have a look at [if you can find it], MrAbbott being interviewed in Devonport in Tasmania mainly about the Ford closure but a journalist, a real journalist, asked him questions that he didn't like and see his reaction. He was increasingly displeased with the questioner and it was plain for all to see, time that the msm asked some real questions and pressed him on answers and let's see how how handles it. - Lindy
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  • @ Sally "What more can anyone say about savagery carried out in the name of religion?" I'm sure my ears heard one of the perpetrators say it was in retaliation for British troops invading Afghanistan, just before he apologised that women had to see it, like so many women in Afghanistan have had to witness so many atrocities. Even PM David Cameron pretended not to know why it happened. Duh! It's not about "buckling" David, it's about not sending troops to invade countries. Most of their citizens have had enough, so how surprising is it that a "hot head" lashes out. I'm fairly sure if Australia had been invaded for years with so many innocent people killed and maimed there'd be an Aussie "hot head" or two who'd take drastic action to try and make it stop! The perpetrator also clearly said British politicans don't care how long their war goes on or how many people in Afghanistan are killed and maimed, so don't fall for the religion-based lie the politicians want us to swallow. Make no mistake, it's all about the atrocious war in Afghanistan! - MicheleS
  • Wendy Green, I used to think that Sales demonstrated some balance compared to the right wing Abbott-lover (I think the admiration is mutual) but she lost my respect when commenting on the the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry in to abuse by the Catholic Church. In the introduction, Sales stated: 'Today, Church elders finally stepped up to faced questions at a parliamentary inquiry in Victoria. Among them were the leaders of the Ballarat Diocese, where there've been 116 substantiated cases of abuse, 67 of them committed by a single priest. There've also been up to 50 suicides as a result.' http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3747830.htm Where did Sales get these figures come from? A police report? The victims themselves? The answer came in Sales' wrapping up: 'The lead to that story said there were 116 substantiated cases of abuse. As Bishop Bird made clear in the story, that number is correctly 107.' Sale's deference to the Catholic Church's assessment of 'substantiated cases' was an insult to the victims of child molesting monsters that were/are protected by the Catholic Church. The victims encapsulated the Catholic Church's handling of victims as follows. 'JUDY COURTIN, VICTIMS ADVOCATE: There are lies, misleading statements, a whole lot has been avoided. We've gotta remember that since 1996 - at least since 1996, when over 600 survivors have gone through these Church processes, the Church hasn't referred one of these at all to the police.' Victims of Catholic Church abuse have fought long and hard to flush out child molesters and their protectors from under the rock provided by the Catholic Church. Despite this, Sales preferred the assessment of 'substantiated cases' made by those hiding the abuse, a body that, to use Uhlmann's favourite accusation, has 'blood on its hands'. - Matida
  • Hazel has not been far from my mind since she was diagnosed with dementia. She was a wonderfully down to earth, smiling example of an Australian woman who worked tirelessly for her family and her country. My thoughts are with her family today. Hazel will be remembered for a very long time, for all the right reasons. Vale Hazel. - Nel Matheson
 
Categories:  Must see, News and Opinion, Wellbeing

OUR MIDWEEK MEDITATION. INFINITY

When we think of those companions who travelled by our side down life’s road, let us not say with sadness that they left us behind, but rather say with gentle gratitude that they once were with us.
Anonymous

 

One Thursday morning, a few weeks ago, I walked some rubbish up to my garbage bins, which sit just at the edge of my property next to a fence, with a large old fence-post in the corner. 

A normal enough occurrence, it’s usually – as it should be – bereft of incident.

Imagine my surprise, then, when as I lifted the lid of the garbage bin, I heard this strange cacophony.

At first I thought it was the bin itself, and then I realised it was actually the post!  It seemed to be making a kind of hissing, squawking noise.  I wondered if perhaps it was a family of frogs, hiding from our unusually dry weather in the bottom of a hollow post, and didn’t think much more about it.

Every time I went to the bin, I heard this noise. Perhaps, if I hadn’t been distracted by a family tragedy in the shape of our lovely Shetland pony, Sally-the-Boy, whom we’d discovered a few weeks earlier had a brain tumour, and who was put to sleep about the same time I first heard this strange noise, I might have paid it more attention.

Losing a beloved pet is hard, isn’t it? 

After ten years Sall had become truly part of our family; my daughter had grown in – and out – of him in that time, and he had continued giving pony rides to numerous neighbourhood children.  He was only 20, young for a Shetland, and we had expected many more years of fun with him.

But a harsh reality is that pets die, and if you live in the country and have animals you have to learn to cope with their demise, and to accept the cycle of life and death in a way that is perhaps more present on a daily basis than in the city: a beautiful wompoo pigeon flies into the barn windows and dies; a neighbour’s chicken has gone missing –  in the past few years we’ve lost a dog to a tick, a horse to pneumonia, Sall to a brain tumour, and one of our dogs has been chased by wild dogs, and twice savagely mauled by the neighbour’s dog which has since been put down.

Last weekend, at peace with Sall’s departure from our lives, and enjoying the beautiful weather, I took a horse for a walk up the lane to enjoy some spring grass and dandelions, and as we got near the bins, the strange noise happened again – this time, though with a bit of time on my hands, I was determined to find the source of this disturbance.  So I perched on the fence beside the post, and peered down into the gloom – and there, right at the bottom, in a tiny huddle at the bottom of the hollow post, were two baby Rosellas, shrieking noisily at me for food.

I could see their red heads, and their juvenile feathers quite clearly – the red and green and yellows sitting jauntily in the bottom of the pale woody interior of the post. 

It was the hollowness of the log that was causing the strange noise – their echoes enhanced almost as if they were inside a didgeridoo.

 

Image: Baby rosellas by Shaun Taylor. Winner 2011  Tatiara Tourism photo competition.
 

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Comments

  • Carole/m: @sue elliott Well yes Sue , we could all put our aprons back on and get back in the kitchen and just shut - the - f..k ...

  • Annie Also: What Wendy Green said. Thank you for your professionalism Emma. Please keep the hard questions coming.

  • Anne W: Would be wonderful if this letter (posted by Joni and written by a Muslim) went viral :)

  • Carole/m: The IPA which is the Liberal Party , are putting pressure on the LNP to privatise the ABC and SBS and Getup have just st...

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