Driving around Hawaii listening to conservative radio (There really isn’t a lot of choice) I heard a 30 minute segment on what hand you should carry your groceries in if you are packing heat. 30 minutes – I shit you not. At least 10 callers. If you are wondering, it is the right, if you are right handed. That way you drop the groceries, clear your shirt with your left and pull the gun out with your right and that way you can plug the bad guy. These people need to move neighbourhood. Jim Jeffries gives a great and hilarious take on the difference between Australians and Americans and our attitudes to guns in:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jim+jefferies+gun+control+
During the aforementioned GOP debate one of the questions was “I want to know if any of [the candidates] have received a word from God on what they should do and take care of first.” This was not seen as an extraordinary thing to ask. Imagine asking Keating, Julia or Hawkie this. I think these two things – God and Guns – are where we are profoundly different and never the twain shall meet.
I play golf with Sean and Jay, two native Hawaiians. Jay has been to Melbourne when he was a kid and his abiding memory is flake. “You people eat shark and it tastes great”. The reason he was in Melbourne was that his uncle was a surf champion who married a QANTAS hostie. They were both murdered by their neighbour in Oahu over a parking dispute. I can’t stress enough how matter of fact Jay was about this. Oh the golf? Jay and Sean played well.
I go to see the USS Missouri. The Missouri is an Ohio class battleship that served in Second World War and was recommissioned and served in the Gulf war when the smarter George wanted to kick some ass. During the Second World War “Mighty Mo” was attacked by a Kamikaze pilot. Rather than dive bomb this Japanese chappie came in horizontally. The gunners on the Ack Ack guns saw that the pilot was slumped over the controls apparently already dead when the plane hit the side of the ship. The plane flipped and landed on the deck starting a fearsome blaze that the sailors managed to put out in 5 minutes. Post fire they discovered a charred body. They knew it was the pilot because they did a headcount of their own. They were simply going to hose it over the side, but the Captain wouldn’t let them. He wanted a proper burial at sea in spite of the fact that his brother had been killed earlier in the war by the Japanese. Over night the sailors made a Japanese flag out of a sheet that they hand sewed a red rising sun on. So this 19 year old received a proper burial at sea. I find this magnanimity staggering, one that I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be capable of.
Mighty Mo
These things fire 1200 kg armour piercing shells 32 kms.
- Collingwood doesn’t know how amusing they are to Americans
- How are you going to keep them down on the farm after they have seen the Latrobe Valley
- You just let the Grizzlies gnaw on you for a while
50 States of golf 