The Taverner's Vote

Oz is soon to go to the Elections for a new Government. Several customers have asked me what my voting intentions are. Few are satisfied with my long-held view of 'A Pox on all their Houses'.

The man of Integrity, of course, may well look askance at the political field but nevertheless he must refrain from loss of all hope. He must take what small part he has in the life of the World and use it as best he can.

He must seek counsel from his own Conscience.

The media in Oz is firmly 'left-wing' and in thrall to the curse of Cultural Marxism that has swept the West over the past 40 years, coloured as it is by the approved political correctnesses and feminist mendacities. In the spirit of 'free-speech' newspaper commentary columns are littered with the whines and calumnies of millions of fellow-travelling huskies pulling the Labour sledge.

Sledging is the name of the game.

Let us look at just one of the candidates. Mr Tony Abbott.

Mr Abbott is disliked by the lefty sheeples, the feminists, the PC crowd. Frankly, the applause of any of these mobs is a sound pointer. What they approve of is a litmus test of one's own Integrity. Similarly what they dislike is like a sign-post to where you should be going.

Very occasionally though a lefty recants. Or momentarily lets a few truths see some light. So I was particularly pleased when a regular customer, Peter H, stood at the bar and read out a few words from an ex-Labour leader.

Overheard last week: "It's such a shame there isn't someone other than Tony Abbott as alternative Prime Minister. We think the Gillard government is bad for the country, but it would be better if we had another Opposition leader to vote for."

It caused me to ask why that view might exist given Abbott's background, and I wondered if it might be that people do not know his history. So, I have put together some information which might help get a better understanding of the man. 

Abbott graduated from the University of Sydney with degrees in Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Bachelor of Economics (BEc). Then he became a Rhodes Scholar at Queens College Oxford UK  in Politics and Philosophy. He also won a boxing blue at Oxford. He married Margaret in 1987 and has three daughters.  

He is a member of the congregation of the Catholic Church.

He was involved in student politics, but beyond that, biographer Michael Duffy, wrote that during his student days he  "........saved a child who was swept out to sea. Another time, he helped save children from a burning house next to a pub where he was drinking.  

On each occasion he disappeared before he could be properly thanked" 

The famous 'Speedos'. The "Budgie Smugglers"
Apparently non -PC. Derided.
Forget about every other Life-saver wearing the same.

He is a member of Manly's Queenscliffe SLSC, (Surf Life Saving Club)  and a member of the  New South Wales Rural Fire Service, both of which he joined before it was politically expedient to do so. He spent several weeks teaching in  remote Aboriginal settlements in Cape York in an effort  'to familiarise himself with indigenous issues'.

If you are wondering where some of the negativity attributed to Tony Abbott comes from, go on to the Net and have a look at the comments which followed, 2 years ago, when he was asked by the Women's Weekly

"What advice  would you give your three daughters on sex before marriage ?" 

He told the magazine: ‘’I would say to my daughters, if they were to ask me this question …it is the greatest gift you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don't give it up to someone lightly." 

Yet, if you were to read many of the comments on the Internet and the print media at the time, you could be forgiven for thinking he was attempting to impose his will on all females in Australia, had ranted against women, had argued for Muslimlike chastity, and so on...................  

See for yourself - Google it ! Gillard's response was to accuse Abbott of "lecturing women"??? 

Abbott has had a history of being told by 'ABC types' that he lacks compassion, does not understand homosexuality or homosexuals, avoids situations where he might need to face up to gay relationships, and so on.  

Again, because he was not prepared to reveal personal issues of others (ethics, principles,?), he did not speak about his own sister's lesbian relationship and the part he played in supporting her. It would have been an easy defence for him, but in line with his principles and values, he chose not to use it.

Granted, he is not a super smooth, off the cuff, speaker, and does not fit the orator mould. But when he is compared to the glib tongues and untrustworthiness of Gillard, Rudd, Swan, etc., it is not difficult to determine which attributes are more important for the leadership of Australia. 

After Abbott completed his studies, he became a journalist for The Bulletin and also the Australian. For a time he was plant manager for Pioneer Concrete, then became press secretary for the then Opposition Leader, Dr John Hewson. He was elected to Parliament in 1994 at a bi-election. He has held various Ministerial posts and his actions in those roles are a matter of public record . His work ethic is unquestioned. 

He was dismayed at the policies of former leader Malcolm Turnbull relating to ETS, and following widespread disaffection with Turnbull's stance among Liberal Party members,  threw his hat into the ring, as did Joe Hockey, for leadership of the Liberal Party. Abbott was successful. At the time, the polls were running strongly against the Liberal Party (in the 40% approval range), while Kevin Rudd enjoyed figures around 60%Within a short space of time, with Abbott as leader, those figures changed to such a degree that Rudd was replaced in the now infamous "faceless men" coup which installed Gillard.  

Since that time, Abbott has maintained constant focus on the ever widening circle of disasters associated with the Gillard government to the stage where support for that government now hovers around the 30% mark.

Abbott, strikes me as a person of integrity, he has values in which I too believe, and ethics based on his Christian beliefs.  

I would much rather place my trust in someone who, in his actions, has shown he is what he says,  

rather than someone who will say anything to gain a prospective advantage for themselves. 

BY Mark LATHAM, Former Leader of A.L.P.

Now if someone cares to stand in the P&B and recite the words of an ex-Liberal Leader praising Kevin Rudd, I will be happy to let them read them out just as loudly here.

Meanwhile Mr Rudd's colleagues are doing a good enough job of showing his character for what it is.

Not that any of the above is an indication of where my vote will go, mind you. But it is heartening when a lefty recants.

Another lefty recanted recently. A Chinese chap who has been a 'Red Guard'.

This poor soul, taken by evil in his younger years, has had a life of immense guilt. And guilty he was. He even denounced his own mother and watched her being shot. for failing to kow-tow 'sufficiently' to Maoist thugs. He had a young fellow neighbour shot too for having had a grandfather who owned a plot of land.

a 61 year-old retiree and former “Red Guard” Liu Boqin posted a personal apology this month in the advertising section of a respected Chinese print magazine Yanhuangchunqiu.  

Red Guards were a “paramilitary social movement of young people” who inflicted a great deal of torment during the early period of the Cultural Revolution (1966 and 1967) in the name of re-making an ancient society.  

Liu wrote that he was “immature and ignorant” in those years. He apologized for the “harassment” he delivered upon “school teachers, classmates, and their families;  

“upon painful reflection in my later years, [I realize that] although I was wrapped up in the environment of the ‘Cultural Revolution,’ my personal responsibility for my own evil actions will never vanish…I apologize to all of you.“

- See more at: http://www.tealeafnation.com/2013/06/my-grandfather-the-red-guard/#sthash.5OCXLqEi.dpuf

The Tavern would welcome this man.  He is on a road to redemption.

The 'left' in the West are intellectually immature and much slower to inflict such evil as the Red Guard. But make no mistake when looking at evil. It comes. sometimes, wearing lipstick and handing out taxpayer's monies with one hand and taking more with the other. It's aim is antithetical to Humanity.

The 'Left' in the West - Labour in the UK and Oz, Democrats in the USA - are GUILTY of wreaking immense damage on our society.

Under them abortion has exploded, marriages have been shattered, men have been demonised, economies have been driven into poverty-inducing debt.

A Pox on their houses at least.

Mr Abbott appears to be a 'Good Man'.

Another good customer, Yan, asked for my opinion of what is a 'Good man'.

I said to him: 

 A 'Good Man' will acknowledge a Standard. An Ideal.

 A 'Standard' is a flag. Something held in veneration. Something to gather around. Few get to touch it.

 We strive. We try to get close. It is 'just ahead'. Maybe out of reach right this minute, but we are marching toward it.

 The 'Ideal' I constantly put here IS a man of Integrity. An Authentic man. He strives for intellectual honesty. He considers the next man - yea and woman - to be a human being of approximating equal status in the eyes of a Higher Standard, a Higher Power. He sees the person and the actions of the person as distinct.

 He monitors his own actions and words. He challenges them even as they exhibit themselves. He Judges himself, sometimes mitigating his actions but only when honest. He has a Conscience. He corrects himself. He does not 'excuse' himself.

 He acknowledges his own locus of control. He resists controlling others even when he would 'like' to, because he knows he cannot.

 He examines his 'qualities'. He constantly finds them to be lacking just that little bit that would enable him to be the 'Ideal' that he strives to be. He strives on.

He teaches his children. He teaches his friends. He does both through his example. He cooperates. He 'joins' in with them. He does his share of the heavy lifting.

 His example is often not good enough in his own eyes but that makes him strive to be even better.

When a man, a male rather, marches away from the Standard, the Ideal; when he would rather take the path walked by the rabble, the liars, the haters, the hysterics; when he venerates a dirty flag, a sullied flag, a flag raised by the Left, the feminists, the corrupt and the dishonest, the men of the 'Good' sort will call to him to change direction.

 No-one gets to be as 'Good' as he might wish to be. But he can always be a 'Better' man than he was.


In regard to National Elections, it is time to get the disinfectant bottle out.