22 August, 2011.
Mark it down on history’s wall.
For it was the day we proved that Australia has lost its soul.
On that day, the Convoy of No Confidence came to Canberra. From every corner of this vast is-land.
11 groups. 300 strong.
These the very same folk upon whom we wholly depend.
And yet, take wholly for granted.
Without whom, we do not eat.
Without whom, the supermarkets, retail stores, and petrol stations, in days have nothing left to sell.
These the folk who are our lifelines.
These the very same folk who represent the 2nd largest industry sector to be punished by a carbon dioxide tax.
To be inflicted upon them (and us all) by the most deceitful and illegitimate government in the nation’s history.
A government with no mandate, under threat of the swear jar.
Voted for not by half, on a monumental lie.
Granted power by two rural “independents” selling out their own electorates.
Steered and puppeteered, by the dictates of just two men – Brown and Wilkie – representing a tiny fraction of the nation’s people.
300 Aussies, futures a-question, came to Canberra to make their voices heard.
To demand a destiny, of a majority’s choosing.
And none were there to support them.
Oh, we lauded and applauded them, sure.
From behind our computer screens, we clicked and we tweeted.
And we cheered and we retweeted.
From behind our keyboards, we waged a vainglorious war of words with opponents not a few.
And prided ourselves on our steely resolve.
From behind our steering wheels, far far away, we turned on our headlights.
And congratulated ourselves on our fine show of support.
Oh how rebellious and activist we felt.
Oh how we imagined ourselves to be their brothers- and sisters-in-arms.
But none of us would trouble ourselves, oh no, not to go the distance with them.
No, not to stand beside them.
None of us would put the pedal to the metal.
None of us would put our feet on the street.
None of us bums would take our bums off the seat.
Oh no, there were just so many good reasons. So many imperatives, and excuses.
We dared not take that day off work. We dared not incur the boss’s wrath. We dared not forgo even 1 days’ pay.
To go so far. To spend a hundred, or a couple. To inconvenience ourselves.
To be by their side.
To stand up and be counted for their future.
And our own.
No, that was just too much trouble.
No, we were not as the donkey with a carrot dangling before our eyes.
No, for we Aussie donkey voters, it was a Too Hard Basket that loomed largest in our monovision.
Not for us, the spirit of our ancestors past.
Not for us, the spirit of the Stockade.
Not for us, the spirit of physical rebellion against injustice and illegitimacy.
Not for us, the spirit of The Working People versus The Tax Trough Swillers.
No.
Oh no, no no.
For us, the spirit of apathy.
For us, the spirit of complacency.
For us, the spirit of cowardice.
For us, the spirit of excuse-making.
For us, the spirit of “someone else will do it”.
For us, the spirit of imagining.
For us, the spirit of dreaming.
For us, the spirit of the slave.
Imagine, oh slave, if you will.
Imagine yourself standing in the boots of those 300 free men and women.
Imagine yourself defying your boss. Imagine yourself defying your “responsibilities”. For just one day.
Imagine yourself investing thousands … in dollars and minutes … to do as they did.
Imagine yourself doing all this, to stand up to their faces and express your vote of “No Confidence”.
Imagine how you would feel.
When for all those emails, all those comments, all those tweets and retweets of support … noone came, to stand beside you on the lawns of Parliament.
Imagine how you would feel.
When for all those great swelling words … they were only words. Whitewashed noise, in background receding.
Imagine how you would feel.
Having to do it all over.
Just to get back home again.
Imagine how you would feel, being mocked by that illegitimate government.
Imagine how you would feel, when they all jeered and sneered.
And on the floor of Parliament, in the newspapers, on the TV, and throughout the interwebs.
Belittled and declared your Convoy of No Confidence … a Convoy of No Consequence.
Because no one came.
To stand by your side.
It is said, almost 60% of the nation’s voters do not support this illegitimate government’s continuing to govern.
It is said, over 60% of the nation’s voters oppose this illegitimate government’s CO2 tax.
60%. Of 14 million voters.
8.4 million dissenting “adults”.
And yet.
Only 300 brave souls stood tall on 22 August, 2011.
Only 300 showed they still have the true Australian soul.
For shame! Australia.
For shame.
When a nation has lost its soul, then the end is surely nigh.
Poor slave.
Of mind, soul, and spirit; this the course you have chosen to stay.
A choice made for you. And your children.
By your apathy. Your excuses. And your fear.
“Good riddance”, they’ll say, on that green day.
I hope you had the time of your life.
Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.So make the best of this test
and don’t ask why.It’s not a question
but a lesson learned in time.It’s something unpredictable
but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.Tattoos of memories
and dead skin on trial.For what it’s worth,
it was worth all the while.It’s something unpredictable
but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.(music break)
It’s something unpredictable
but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.It’s something unpredictable
but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
Barnaby Is Right 
With great affection and respect, I offer the following comments on your blog, which I feel is unnecessarily downcast about the outcome of the huge effort behind the Convoy of No Confidence. While the solid nucleus of comets is generally less than 50 km across, the coma may be larger than the Sun*. The coma and the tail of the CofNC covers the length and breadth of the continent, comprised of a unified and solidified resolve to fight the oppression of a misguided and unrepresentative government until there is a fair and democratic outcome at the polls. The trucks, rigs, vans and cars represented the visible head behind whose impetus the tail formed and we, the galvanised onlookers and supporters coalesced in the light of the coma. If the convoy had broken ranks and forced its way onto the lawns of Parlt House as more seasoned protesters would definitely have done-what an undeniable sensation for the cameras that would have made. That the orderly protest instead fell short of our expectations of a more emphatic statement being heard with the humility becoming of a government with a fragile hold on power should not prevent us from rejoicing in the monumental effort, and its place in the history of the downfall of said government. Be of good cheer, friend. We are on track to see democratic justice done.
I would just like to add this
I am a pensioner,aged 76 and widowed
I am disabled–Menieres Disease and osteoarthritis needing a walking frame.
I would have loved to go to Canberra,as I hate the guts of all in this Federal government and their actions, with a passion belying my years but…well your “excuses’ apply to me
I consoled myself by sending a $50 donation for their costs
Now you have made me feel my big sacrifice of cash I need for my bills, was all in vain
Thanks
NOT!
Jazza, you should not feel that this post applies to you. To each, what they are able.
In donating of your precious, scarce resources (money), you have truly given of yourself, and beyond what you are able. Indeed, you have done far, far more than 99.9% of the 8.4 million voters referred to in this post who merely talked, and perhaps (at best) applauded from behind a keyboard.
BTW, the convoy was far from “in vain”. There are many lessons to be learned … by all of us.
I do not want to be the bearer of bad news, but . . .
1. On the bright side, AGW may only mean “Alarmism Generates Wealth.”
2. A dark side : AGW(“A Glitch in Wicked”)-social-engineering is suggested by:
a.) Official response to Climategate disclosures
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/01/finally-the-new-revised-and-edited-climategate-timeline/
b.) Official blindness to solar mass fractionation, and
Click to access 00HiZ.pdf
c.) Official ignorance of neutron repulsion in nuclear rest mass data
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1102.1499v1
#1 is everyone’s preferred answer, but
#2 cannot be discarded so long as the US NAS, the UK RS, and the UN’s IPCC pretend to be ignorant of experimental data and observations.
Today Vice-President Biden discovered the unpleasant response to AGW-social-engineering in the political arena
http://www.news24.com/World/News/Republicans-blast-Biden-comments-20110823
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
Former NASA Principal
Investigator for Apollo
There are uncanny truth’s in much that Green Day has to offer.
No. Absolutely do not concede to “Lysenkoism.”
Its strength comes only from our admission of weakness.
AGW is not our concern; Climategate exposed the tip of an extremely dangerous iceberg – growing out of sight since the 1960s. Hang on now, the real battle is ahead.
“Lysenkoism” is the real danger.
http://www.skepdic.com/lysenko.html
1. Evidence for and against AGW (anthropogenic global warming) is weak. Climategate and official responses to it provided the first public hint that politics dominates rational thought in Western science.
2. Evidence for solar mass fractionation and neutron repulsion in the solar core – Earth’s heat source – are overwhelming:
http://www.omatumr.com/Data/1972Data1.htm
http://www.omatumr.com/Data/1983Data.htm
http://tinyurl.com/224kz4
Click to access 5011.pdf
Click to access lpsc.prn.pdf
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x1n87370x6685079/
Click to access jfe-superfluidity.pdf
Click to access 1033.pdf
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/jrnc/2005/00000266/00000002/00000887
http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0609509
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1102.1499v1
Thus, it is blatantly false, dangerous, and unscientific to claim that:
a.) Earth’s heat source is steady and in equilibrium, as concluded at the Bilderberg in 1967, and
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1968SoPh….3….5G
b.) Future energy needs can be met with H-fusion reactors – like the heat source of the Sin and stars.
These two dogmas reveal that Western science is controlled by the old USSR-style of “Lysenkoism.”
http://www.skepdic.com/lysenko.html
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
Like Trofim Denisovich Lysenko, the followers of “Lysenkoism” believe that the scientific method has made them equal to the gods of “common folks”.
They congregate into herds of self-admiration – the UN IPCC, the US NAS, the UK RS – seek favors from world leaders and give each other awards and recognition.
Arrogance and lack of humility blinds them to reality. They in fact have no power, except that received by successful bluff and bluster.
They cannot hide evidence of mass fraction in the Sun because it shows as excess lightweight s-products in the photosphere, as excess lightweight isotopes in the solar wind, and as a C/O ratio in the photosphere that is far too high to explain by theoretical or laboratory measurements on helium burning.
They cannot hide evidence of neutron repulsion – the greatest known source of nuclear energy – because it is stored in the nucleus and recorded as rest mass of every nucleus with two or more neutrons.
If the Sun sneezes or the Earth quakes – events that they predict – they are as dead as the poor peasant they have collected taxes from to give themselves awards.
So be of good cheer. Stay spiritually strong. And do not fear bullies. Like one drowning, they make the most noise before sinking below the water.
The roots of Climategate started growing out of sight about four decades ago.
Click to access 20110722_Climategate_Roots.pdf
All is well,
Oliver K. Manuel
Former NASA Principal
Investigator for Apollo
Correction: If the Sun sneezes or the Earth quakes – events that they cannot predict – they are as dead as the poor peasant they have collected taxes from to give themselves awards.