dieter

Unfortunately, Mr hardtrack, we are trying to have a conversation with people whose minds are watertight and closed. I have a neighbour like that. He told me two weeks ago - he is a Herald Sun/Australian/Andrew Bolt fan - that Climate Change is rubbish. He's a terrific neighbour, a very decent human being and I've always liked him. However... In other words, what I'm trying to say is we're wasting our time arguing with people who have beliefs which go against the grain of scientific evidence. Copernicus had the same problem...

Dear JSK, for short, the paper Jara referred to as The Scum is the wee little brother/sister of the most biased Murdoch paper of them all, a paper ex editors have disowned, a paper devoted to spreading the nonsense notion that Australian bushfires are started mainly by arsonists. Obviously some of the fires were lit be deluded maniacs, the demented losers who do such things are an unfortunate component of the human species. To suggest though this is the cause of the catastrophe confronting those poor victims of these fires makes a mockery of their pain and suffering. It puts you in a bad light as well, young man. It suggests you have a capacity to suspend your powers of disbelief when you are confronted by fantasy, lies and propaganda. And, just by the way, the climate change cult you refer to is actually composed of scientist after scientist who have been making dire predictions for over 30 years, most of which have tragically come to bear.

Let's just say, Mr Bing, it's kind of difficult to get past the politically correct censors in order to state the bleeding obvious because there will always be, unfortunately, members of the community who insist that one cannot politicize an issue which for most of the world is a scientific fact of life, namely that there is climate change, that Australia is an ostrich with most of its torso buried in the inferno, that squawking excuses and sliding away from responsibility and believing in miracles is not a solution. This topic is simply way too important to simply be censored for so-called political content: many of us have children and grandkids, they will pillory and hate us justifiably for simply doing and saying nothing. We must act, when will the warning bells become more urgent? Evil things happen when good people do nothing. We are in the midst of that crisis. What more evidence do you want? How many more hectares, how many more rainforests do you want to turn into embers?

Wrecker, we're not in the middle of summer. We are in the 5th week of a 12 week season. All of the previous major fires started in late January through to early March. This round of fires started in September. That's why I use the term unprecedented. Pat Mcnamara, former National Party leader in Victoria acknowledged the same fact on the radio 16 minutes ago. I'm not the only one. All of the Fire Authority big knobs in NSW were desperately trying to send the same message to the Federal Government as early as April last year. To ignore the Fire Authorities, as the Federal Government and the NSW Premier did, is not politics, man, that's putting your head in the sand and saying, I don't want to hear you. Some would even call it total incompetence.

This is priceless wisdom. You have skirted any 'political' digs yet you have nailed the crux of what's at issue here: namely that in our history the scale and unseasonality of the fires is unprecedented. I have travelled and spent much time in all of the areas affected - apart from the fires in the South east of WA - and just about every name which comes up brings back a personal connection, right down to the fires in the back blocks of Corryong, or the fire between Portland and Nelson. Binna Burra, Beechmont, Peregian, Guyra, the fires around Laurieton, Cudlee Creek, Woodside, Mallacoota where I spent a 1980 honeymoon in the adjoining Croajingolong Park, Cobungra, all places I have been to and or stayed at. More than many people I understand the significance of these dreadful events, events made more puzzling and significant simply because they have and are occurring not only on an unprecedented scale - yes, I am aware of the '39, 1897 and other catastrophes - but at a time of year not imagined possible before. I can't help but add that there are and were scientists who forecast the scale of this catastrophe thirty years ago - a catastrophe which is quite probably ( heaven forbid) in its infancy as we speak. God help us all, is all I can say, because the politicians we've voted for are doing sweet fungoolie all about it and the so-called man in charge has re-defined the Peter Principal..

He won a VFL long kicking competition in 1962 or 1963....

Greg would struggle to make the distance from 3o metres out....

No, I remember ray Biffin very well. I loved him as a full back and even more as a full forward

Bernie Massey, when he took over full back from Tas Johnson, kicked the ball just as far. During the 70's a player who came from WA as a full back was kicking punts from the goal square to the outer wing in Reserves matches. Ray someone.....

Most of them in the bush by lightning strikes, apparently.

Pass all the comment you like. Goodwin was clearly not out of his depth the year before when he had a decent list to play with. Continually playing favourites? Even Casey struggled to fill a team with Melbourne players for most of the season. I rest my case....Go Demons.

You seem to have totally missed the point, not straying one centimeter from your negative narrative despite just about everyone - including the new Fitness Guru - now finally acknowledging that it's hard to win a lot of games with either injured or recovering from surgery players. I just shake my head some times...

I hope it isn't Melbourne. I can't stand hypocrites. Maybe he can join the Power. He can join Mr Watts on his adventures...

As someone who got suspended from this site for using a term which rhymes with a four letter word beginning with f and finishing with k - oh, yes, not THE word but , I repeat, a word which rhymed with it - I commend the Censors on Demonland for allowing the many swear words on this blog to remain intact. is it a sign that Demonland now accepts common community standards? Why, I even heard dem words on the ABC!!!!

Granted. However the bulldust adulation of this base grade self adoring, self obsessed sniper called Rance puts him up there on the hatred stakes. With Matthews, Dipper and Brereton and Scott you always knew you were facing bare-knuckled thugs who would maim you without blinking. Rance was the spoilt pretty boy who lived on pretence and smoke and mirrors. There used to be a saying, Tis better to be blatant than latent.

I hate him even more after seeing this picture.

How the hell did Islam get into this conversation? What has it to do with Alex Rance? My two bob's worth is that I despise everything Alex Rance stands for. For a start there is/was his insatiable capacity to stage and act for free kicks etc etc. There were the acts of thuggery - you tube squirrel grips, for example - the platitudes of 'spirituality', all of which, to me, add up to a man who is a seriously deluded hypocrite. I don't really care that he was a talented AFL footballer, I guess I just hate all forms of hypocrisy and self delusion.

DL? D. Lawrence of lady Chatterly fame?

They say penicillin cures Sisyphus these days. Anyway, the stories of Syphilis flying too close to the sun are apocryphal.

Soothsayers and Cassandras galore on this site. Who the F knows how we'll go this year. There are too many unknown variables. All we know for sure is that Geelong and West Coast and the E Coli Wobblers get an armchair ride via the Draw, the rest is in the lap of Scomo's gods. I'm happy to wait and see. We shall see what we shall see...Maybe we should get Scomo to include the Demons in his prayers?????

The Lord said to Peter, I will make you a fisher of men. He said to Satyriconhome, I will make you a banger of bodies who run an average of `11 km each session.

I'm sure they do! Interesting sociological insight about plumber apprentices also. On the other hand, I always said it would be very handy to include among one's suite of friends at least one plumber, an electrician, a copper, a solicitor, a dentist, a chemist, a physician, a surgeon and a builder and these days a landscape gardener. Perhaps this could be the prototype for the most successful footy team, a team that has everything. Then again, apart from penicillin, what else can you give a man who's got everything?

From what I saw, Garlett turned up for 2019 with his heart really focused on footy again. He trained well, he seemed determined to put last year's hard and bad luck and personal misfortune behind him. Then he did his shoulder in an early pre season game and did it again when he came back. That's got nothing to do with a 'pea heart', that's just plain bad luck. I also note when Garlett needed to put his body on the line in those games, he was fully committed. Yes, his heart wasn't in it when he froze to death at Casey in 2018 but who knows what was going on behind the scenes. There are too many on this site who expect AFL players to be switched on robots who just follow orders and go to their football graves kamikaze-like. I prefer human beings, flesh and blood types, guys like Jeffy who could make a football sing.

Potentially the three picks could be bonzer additions. Jackson has obvious talent, Pickett has chutzpah and x factor and Rivers reminds me of Brett Lovett - no praise can be higher from me regarding the latter.

Absolutely.