Alison Fan will tonight broadcast an interview she has conducted with John Kizon regarding Ben Cousins.

The interview was conducted at a wake in a Subiaco restaurant recently after the funeral of Craig Christian's father. No doubt a fine crowd of upstanding citizens turned out to farewell Craig's old man. I'm sure he spent the last half of his life revelling in the antics of his son and his associates. He must have been a top bloke to produce a piece of excrement like that and I would like to pay final tribute to him. Well done sir! He sets a fine example to all would-be killers thugs and drug dealers.

I wonder if it was a religious service? I've never had anything but contempt for a church that can welcome and take support from organised criminals and drug dealers, but hey! hypocrisy has long been their hallmark hasn't it?

What Kizon could possibly add to this saga is beyond me. I have heard shorts from the broadcast in which he rails at the Eagles for not providing sufficient guidance and help. Yet, here is a man with his record of criminal activity and drug dealing, spouting forth on the subject. What a laugh.

He may be right in his suggestion that the Eagles didn't do enough for Ben, but as someone else has said, what did Kizon do for him - his friend? I can guess what he did. Probably put him in contact with someone who could provide a ready source to feed his addiction.

We need some good old Melbourne Underbelly blood-letting here and I would delight at the prospect of seeing the likes of Christian, Kizon and various bikie and ethnic gang leaders wiped clean off the face of the planet. If some hangers on get hurt in the process well, such is the price you pay for not picking your friends more wisely.

Much talk about whether to boo Chris Judd tonight. I am really surprised at the amount of angst amongst fellow Eagle supporters about whether they should boo or not.

These guys are cattle. You could be the most loyal player of a club but if they choose to trade you or dump you, they do so. How many loyal servants of the club would we have dumped if that was what it took to get hold of Chris Judd in the first place?

There will be booing and it will be good natured booing at worst. I won't boo. I won't cheer or clap him either, but I won't boo him. He is an extraordinary person and player, and I carry no grudge that he left us - only disappointment. We should remember that had he not re-signed with us, we could have lost him two years earlier.

Swastikas, US flags and Olympic torches. Crucifixes and pictures of Allah. All symbols.

They represent love, devotion, hatred or death and people get so worked up about them. yet they are just... symbols, inanimate representations.

This Olympic torch stuff is really annoying the crap out of me. It is a bloody torch for fuck's sake! the media in all forms have humanised the thing.

"The torch was whisked away to safety overnight"

"The torch was welcomed to Australia by..."

and so on.

I'm just waiting for the torch to develop a bloody headache one day soon and decide not to go out jogging.....

This whole Olympic thing is one big yawn to me. Some of the sports are enjoyable but not that many.

As for Olympic ideals... They clearly died for the majority of people when professionalism took over.

Furthermore, I think every four years is far too often to have to endure the opening and closing ceremonies and why can't we put in place a total news embargo on the Olympics until say a week before the games start?

Miserable killjoy ain't I?

;-)

I think Carey's behaviour here in Australia (and apparently) in the US is disgraceful, shameful and simply shocking.

I think that the Kangaroos Football Club should be called before the AFL to explain. After all, he was their leading player until only bloody light years ago...

My Melbourne Cup form up until three years ago was always very good. Of late though, it has been nothing short of disastrous. 

Regardless of current form, I am happy to share my tips with you just so that you can laugh at me by the end of the day.

Possible winners:
Master O'Reilly
Mahler
Zipping

Good Roughies:
Tungsten Strike
Dolphin Jo
Eskimo Queen

Real Roughie:
Lazer Sharp

Happy punting people!

A huge announcement was made today by the Western Australian State Minister for Hype THE HON SHEILA M McHALE MLA. :

"Perth wins 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships"

Sheila is - amongst many things titular, the Minister for Tourism. (She is also the Minister for Culcha and the Yarts). Sheila was quoted on radio this morning as saying that this will "help put WA on the map".  Well, whoopee-bloody-do.

I swear if I hear this hackneyed phrase just one more time I will blow the frigging place up and take us right off this bloody all-important map.  

Brother Peter (No, he's not a monk - and he isn't the Messiah either) mentioned here, his opinion regarding the Red Bull Air Race. I am compelled to agree. Much ado about very little. 

From my perspective, I'm sick to death of being inconvenienced with road closures and alternate plans just to go about my everyday existence while these much-hyped events are in session. 

Be honest, how many of you had even heard of the bloody Red Bull Air Race prior to it arriving in Perth last year? As I sit at home this Sunday morning all I have heard is the constant drone of planes zooming down the river. It sounds like some great lawn mower gig in the sky. 

I think some of this stuff is overkill. I work shift work from the Hyatt Building and over the course of the past few years I've been put out greatly by Christmas pageants, cycle races, sky shows, car rallies, Red Bull planes and Anzac Day. 

Now, I don't mind the inconvenience of a couple of these events and you might guess which they are, but I am fed up with the tourist dollar being touted as the lifeblood of this state and having to make sacrifices for that very reason . It is not - and never was our lifeblood. 

The people who organise these events are very good spin doctors and governments of the day are astute enough to realise that they have to jump on board or be trampled underfoot. How I pity the poor people of Sydney for what they went through for the Johnny and George show!

Specifically, I guess I don't greatly object to this air show,  but I'll be damned if I am going to overrate it's value to this state. It's economic and marketing significance is about as great as mine, and yet you don't see me heralded in the media and see streets roped off for my dazzling arrival at the Hyatt Centre. 

I do it on an almost daily basis too.

As an Eagles member, I have to say this has not been a great year. 

Ben Cousins.

To me it is just a tragedy to see someone lose control of his life like this. Unlike some of the behaviour of people off the rails, he's only done physical harm to himself. On a secondary level, certainly he's hurt his family. At a further distance, he's hurt the club and it's supporters. Frankly, I don't really give a toss about that. I just think it is so sad to see someone lose so much. To see so much potential laid to waste. To see good people close to him having to deal with such pain.

Now Ben has gone and I think the club were right to cut him from the player list. The press conference they held last night was all about supporting Ben (if he wishes their help) in overcoming his problems. It was made clear however that he will never play for the club again.

The one thing that really irritates me about this is that there are small-minded people who form their opinions based on club loyalties. Smug and superior is fine until you open the closet door of your club and perhaps see some lesser profile player with similar issues. They are out there. They are out there in real life too and I doubt that there are many people who have not been touched by the pain of drug abuse in their personal lives, or sadly - will be.

This is an issue that transcends a bloody game and Western Australia is suffering a pandemic of drug taking. It needs to be dealt with. Forget the footy.

Anyway, back to the simple little message I was originally going to give before I digressed:

Out of the tragic end to what was left of Ben Cousin's self respect this week, comes the opportunity for people to blog incessantly on the West Australian's web site. A number of people put many different spins on this saga. One comment that caught my eye (who don't they catch both your eyes?) was this post:



 At first I thought it may have been used in jest and might even have been a quote, but I can find no reference to it on Google. I think that what Susan lacks in literary depth is more than adequately compensated for by her numeracy skills.