Friday ANZAC

A funny to start the day …

I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so

I sat down and had a cold beer. 

The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking.

My wife walked by and asked me what I was doing,

and I said, "Nothing." 

The reason I said "nothing" instead of saying "just thinking" is because she then would have asked, "About what?"

At that point I would have had to explain that men are deep thinkers about various topics, which would lead to other questions.

Finally I pondered an age old question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the nuts?

Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts, but how could they know?

Well, after another beer, and some more heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with an answer to that question.

Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby, and even though I obviously couldn't really know, here is the reason for my conclusion:

A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "It might be nice to have another child."

But you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts."

I rest my case.

Time for another beer.  Then maybe a nap.

🤣

Today was ANZAC day.

As I do with most subjects, I have strong opinions about ANZAC day and the way we ignore the most important and overwhelming facts about war and the loss of innocent lives - ALL of the victims of ALL of the wars and the way we’ve all been convinced/brainwashed/conditioned to only focus on our loved ones who fought and died as heroes “protecting” our lives and lifestyles.

What I believe we should be focusing on and fighting with all of our might about, is holding the “powers that be” accountable for those lost lives.

The giant corporations who make billions from war - the war profiteers - like arms manufacturers, defence contractors, oil companies, essential goods (food water medical supplies) providers. As always, pharmaceutical companies profit from war in a big way.

ALL of the above make billions from war and are not in the slightest bit concerned with the death toll.

The USA made $318billion in revenue during 2023 just from arms production. That’s more than half of the global arms profit.

Not one of those wars were on our doorstep or threatening our lifestyles but our leaders decided to send our loved ones to risk their lives for a fight that wasn’t ours. Australia hasn’t been threatened since 1942, that’s 83 years, yet just under 1,000 men and women have died fighting in other wars since then.

Almost 3,900 were injured and an unknown number suffered significant mental health issues, many of which resulted in suicide.

While all of these war profiteers continue to lobby government leaders and heavily involve themselves in the decision making processes, nobody is ever held accountable for our losses and we just meekly focus on our “heroes” and complain loudly about the youth of today who don’t respect the tradition.

We should ALL be protesting loudly about past atrocities, lobbying our leaders to STOP sending our people to fight wars that are not ours to fight and all of those who profit from our losses should provide compensation (from their huge profits) to families who have suffered, not just lives lost, but physical injuries, mental and emotional injuries, loss from suicide and any other negative outcome resulting from war.

I don’t understand how we accept our loved ones being deployed and then celebrate their loss on ANZAC day.

Protecting our borders, coastline and country is the only act of war that should be practiced by our soldiers.

Anyway, that is just a small taste of my opinion - I will stop there.

Today, I used the morning to finalise the wedding photos.

I put the finishing touches on the slide show and taught myself how to add my own music to it. On two flash drives I put the slide show and a file of 170 photos ready to deliver tomorrow.

It’s been a long arduous process that I both enjoyed and detested at the same time!

Apart from playing with Harley and spending 45 mins on the phone with Best Cousin in the World, I watched 3 games of football (not doing so well in the footy tipping this week).

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.