Blind Eyes

Some healthy, robust comment on the Andrew Johns drugs story from Barry Dick of the Courier-Mail. Apparently, I'm not the only one to think it had all been overlooked in the past.

Sporting Nation

Two sport stories have effectively pushed the pre-election campaigning off the front pages – an outbreak of equine flu and the confession of former top Rugby League player Andrew “Joey” Johns that he’d taken recreational drugs throughout his career.

I’d been puzzled by the amount of coverage given to equine flu, which is not fatal and is just, well, flu for horses. Even in this betting-mad nation it seemed a bit over the top until I read that horse-racing is Australia’s third largest industry (and I thought we were a muscular provider of raw materials to the world). I should have recalled that nearly everyone in Coffs Harbour gets a day off for the Coffs Cup and the whole country grinds to a halt for the now-threatened Melbourne Cup. So it’s good to see there’s an alternative - yabbie racing.

Meanwhile, Andrew Johns was picked up by British Transport Police in London with an ecstasy tablet in his pocket (“someone put it there, honest” was his first response) which led to a full confession. Apart from making quips like “putting the E in Joey”, many are wondering why he wasn’t picked up here years ago if the British Transport Police managed to collar him on a busy night in London. It’s all about attitude to sport, I guess.

Don't Care And Not Listening….

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd's drunken visit to a New York strip club seems to have done him no harm. According to this poll , 85 per cent of voters thought it showed he was "a normal bloke". Whether that means that the 85 per cent of us who go to strip clubs are normal and the 15 per cent of us who don't are not, I really couldn't say. More worrying for those who try to manage these things on behalf of politicians, apparently 51 per cent think that the current healthy financial surplus does not stem from good economic management, or even luck, but from setting taxes too high. This despite the fact that the surplus has increased as the tax take has been steadily cut over a number of years. A majority of Australian families now pay no net tax, once various benefits are taken into account. Whatever happened to "it's the economy, stupid" and the feel-good factor?

Convict Stain

True story (honest) from Sara's hairdresser. A British mate of his went to an immigration interview and was asked if he had a criminal record. No, he replied, "I didn't know you still needed one."

Wildlife Bulletin

Running on the beach this morning before breakfast, I noticed something popping under my feet. I thought it was seaweed at first but it turned out to be the sound of bluebottles, small jellyfish, bursting. They're a couple of inches long, translucent, with a blue core and a long, blue tentacle that does the stinging.

There were hundreds washed up by the heavy seas and high winds of the last few days and some still had their fins, which act as a sail, erect. The popping sound is quite satisfying, by the way. I also saw an osprey and a heron.

Vinegar Tits

Australians are generally not very keen on fellow-countrymen and women who make good abroad, particularly when they’re Germaine Greer, who is frequently a topic of derision in the media, which keeps a close watch on her for material to stoke their sense of outrage.

It will be interesting to see the reaction to her latest reported remarks about Princess Diana, calling her "a devious moron." They’re not keen on the Royal Family here but I remember one Queensland shopkeeper telling me (without any prompting) that she used to like the Queen but went off her because “she was so vinegar tits about Di.” I don't expect them to take Germaine's side on this one, and we might even see that splendid epithet turned on her.

Stripping Away The Spin

It’s just what every squeaky clean aspiring prime minister needs as the country prepares for a general election. The press is full of the revelation that Labor leader Kevin Rudd paid a visit to a New York strip club some years ago and was asked to leave for “inappropriate behaviour”, ie touching the artistes. While a Labor MP with him denies anything like that happened, Rudd himself says he was too drunk to remember, which hardly helps.

Not a good look for someone who stresses his family and Christian values but many people feel this will play well with the average Aussie. Queensland Premier Peter Beatty said it showed he had “blood in his veins”, a remark you could probably hear repeated in various forms in pubs and around barbies from Brisbane to Perth.

Even feminists have defended him. Eva Cox, from the Women's Electoral Lobby, said: "Going on the piss for one night basically, and doing something dumb is not a cardinal sin -- it's obviously not part of what he does generally. You can't condemn somebody for getting on the piss, we would never have elected Bob Hawke in that case." (Bob Hawke being a champion toper who became the country’s most popular prime minister).

On The Beach

It’s rare that I turn to our local paper but I do so now to bring you news of a baby whale temporarily stranded at Digger’s Beach in Coffs Harbour, where we used to live. It was successfully refloated but elsewhere on the coast there have been reports of juvenile great white sharks and even killer whales, so I don’t rate its chances too highly.