I'm all ears but I'm yet to hear a compelling case as to why this knighthood should have been granted.

Now as to the reasons why not....

Here's Strewth in The Australian.

The snark knight rises

THE knighting of Prince Philip certainly made for the most remarkable episode thus far of My Australia Day Honours List Rules. Indeed, the only way yesterday could have been any more surprising would have been if Tony Abbott had, at the conclusion of his doughty defence of the knighthood, split open with a mighty brrrrip to reveal none other than Kevin Rudd, dusting off his hands and declaring, “Can I just say, my work here is done.” Of course, we can float such thoughts here. It wouldn’t work on Twitter, a place of clockwork Abbott-bashing the PM was understandably keen to brush off. “I will leave social media to its own devices,” he explained to journalists yesterday. “Social media is kind of like electronic graffiti and I think that in the media, you make a big mistake to pay too much attention to social media. You wouldn’t report what’s sprayed up on the walls of buildings …” Speaking of spraying stuff up walls, Abbott has seen to it that $4.3 million is spent monitoring Twitter et al. Also, it was a bit rough to say that just as Scott Morrisonwas breaking a Twitter silence that had endured since some jaunty notes of encouragement to the Cronulla Sharks back in September 2013.

Glass half Phil 

ONE of the many upsides of the knighthood is the fresh lease of life it gives to the old expression “like sending coals to Newcastle”. Philip, after all, has more gongs than the collected instalments of Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Red Faces. According to the British Monarchy website, Philip’s full title is s HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, KG (Knight of the Garter), KT (Knight of the Thistle), OM (Order of Merit), GBE (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire), AC (Companion of the Order of Australia), QSO (Companion of The Queen’s Service Order), PC (Privy Counsellor). The website also notes that Philip has “many foreign orders and decorations. He also holds honorary appointments and rank in the Armed Services”. It’s a good thing Queen Elizabeth doesn’t take the view of the first Elizabeth, who got cross when Thomas Arundell, one of her favourites, was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Quoth she, “My dogs shall wear no collars but my own.” Philip’s on safer ground. We only hope he can some day add Mikado to his titles.

(my photo from around this time two years ago at Sans Souci, Sydney)

Thanks to reader SJ for the tip about this article from PJMedia - http://pjmedia.com

The New Colonizers

A little while back, leaving the local “swimming hole” frequented by residents and summer tourists, I noticed a large group of dark-clad visitors sitting in a circle and solemnly keeping what appeared to be a meditative vigil. They had occupied a considerable space where others would normally pass on their way to one of the promontories leading to the river. They were obviously Muslims, probably an extended family, conspicuously observing the traditions of their native culture and, oblivious to their surroundings and the people who had to detour by an arduous route around them, preparing no doubt to face the Qiblah (direction to Mecca) and to devote themselves to prayer.

Just the other day, I had a similar experience. Since there are no facilities at the beach, swimmers often change out of their bathing suits into street clothes beside their cars, shielded by towels held by friends and intimates or strung between the open doors of their vehicles, an operation conducted in an atmosphere of courtesy defined by a mutual and studied disregard. I was assisting my wife in this delicate maneuver when three Muslim men emerged from the trail giving onto the parking lot. Soon they were trying to stare over and between the towels, mesmerized by the partially hidden lure of a woman in semi-undress. My wife had to enter the car and slide low into the front seat while I glared indignantly at the intruders. Then, as I was about to confront them — the odds were not in my favor, but so be it — they moved aside and, after a few moments, spread carpets on the grass margin a few yards away and ritually prostrated themselves in prayer — close enough that I had to be careful when backing the car out.

It was not violence, but it was a violation, a transgression of the norm, remarked by several others in the parking lot who were struck by so blatant an infringement of both common decency and shared space. These men clearly did not realize or, more likely, did not care that they were contravening the tacit agreement of reciprocal discretion that prevailed among us, whether friend or stranger. They were animated by a robust and incontestable sense of their own priority, a conviction of privilege that need not take into consideration the cultural usages and social expectations of those they had come to live among. The same goes for the band of votaries blocking a public route, heedless of the inconvenience caused.

Such behavior is patently different from the Muslim-inspired havoc and thuggery erupting in Canadian cities like Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, or in the municipal war zones of many European cities with sizeable Muslim populations. But it was nevertheless a visible presumption of specialness and of indifference to the conventions of ordinary civility.

Every immigrant group in this country has variously adapted to the heritage culture, integrating more or less seamlessly by the second generation. However, second-generation Muslims are increasingly being radicalized, some going off to fight with jihadist militias in the Middle East and Africa, others plotting terror attacks on the very country that has offered them freedom, health care, education and the opportunity to prosper.

The common denominator along this spectrum of cultural invasiveness is the sentiment of vested ascendancy and pre-eminence minus the obligation of having to earn them. It bespeaks the spirit of natural entitlement that goes hand in hand with Islam, and which is instinct throughout the Muslim holy book, in which the true believer is exalted as superior to all other people (see, e.g., Koran 3:110) and enjoined to conquer, enslave, tax and slay the kafir, or infidel, who rejects the dominion of the Prophet (see, e.g., Koran 4:89, 9:29, 33:50, 47:4, among numberless other ayat). The violence we have seen both everywhere in the Muslim world and everywhere immigrant Muslims reach a certain critical census in their host societies is the inevitable consequence of the inherent conviction of higher status and mandated predominance — even in comparatively innocuous situations like a ring of Muslims commandeering a public venue or three obtrusive men breaching without the slightest compunction or embarrassment a local standard of behavioral propriety.
“They feel entitled,” writes Daniel Greenfield, “that everything be done according to their cultural expectations.” Greenfield is referring to a group of Muslim asylum-seekers in the Italian hamlet of La Secca who have staged a demonstration, replete with flying furniture and slashed tires, to protest the cultural trauma of having to eat “monotonous” Italian food, a culinary insult of pasta with tomato sauce, bread and eggs, instead of being served the food of their own countries. A police official was not impressed. “There are thousands of Italians living in poverty and who aren’t even eating one meal a day, let alone two or three,” he said. The Muslim migrants were not impressed either; they demanded their due, a right pertaining to their faith and very being. Greenfield’s conclusion is apt:  “They aren’t immigrating. They’re colonizing.” This is not only Italy’s problem. Think Norway, Sweden, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.

Sydney's 2UE started broadcasting in 1925 and yesterday was the station's 90th birthday.

I grew up in a home where the radio was never off 2UE so it's wonderful to hear some of the old clips the station published yesterday (sound engineer Steve Molchanoff is the guy to thank for much of 2UE's extensive archives, great work as always Steve!)

Congratulations 2UE and happy birthday.

Here's the legend of the radio industry John Brennan talking with passion about the importance of having the right owners to back a radio station like 2UE.

And here's the master of the medium Gary O'Callaghan.

Hearty congratulations to one of Her Majesty's former sprogs at the nation's toughest proving ground for all-round good blokes the Army Apprentice's School, Balcombe (34th class) -

Sean Michael O'Boyle AM.

This was your ABC this Australia Day.

Could this be our new flag?  Peter Fitzsimons doesn't like the one we've got.

@mpsmithnews Technicaly 'A boofhead rampant emblazoned with decorative red rag on an empty field'

— Geoff Fraser (@Geoff_Fraser) January 25, 2015

Good way to start Australia Day!

KNIGHT (AK) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA

I have met Osama bin Laden about 20 times he is a lovely brother the only reason the West call him the most wanted terrorist is because he got the money to take action. 

David Hicks's letters home have been published many times in various forums over the past few years - here's some of them from The Australian newspaper, December 2007.