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The Pinecone Wars: How a Hilltop Childhood Trained Us for Glory (and Trouble)

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Written by: Op-Ed Shaydee Lane
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Before Xbox and iPads, we had mist, mud, and pinecones -  and we waged battles worthy of any history book. From Māori trenches to rice-gun rebellions, here’s how a quiet New Zealand hill turned a bunch of wholesome Sunday School kids into “savages.”

I grew up in a small rural community in the hills of New Zealand, where the mist and ever-present wind pummeled our hilltop -  and we loved every soggy second. We also loved the wars -  the pinecone wars -  that left us with bruises, bleeding heads, and glorious victory speeches.

Even now, decades later, my idea of a perfect day is a misty, drizzly one where I can take life off the hook, snuggle in, and allow my mind to drift back to those days, as kids, when we roamed the paddocks, built campfires, and fought epic battles.

Just above our home was a dairy farm with the perfect staging post for war. We called it Pine Cone Hill, and this was where we staged our greatest battles of all. 

Read more: The Pinecone Wars: How a Hilltop Childhood Trained Us for Glory (and Trouble)

Trench Warfare: Way Older (and Smarter) Than You Think

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Written by: Op-Ed Monty
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Picture trench warfare, and you’re probably seeing World War I’s muddy, rat-infested ditches, with soldiers slogging through rain and barbed wire. That’s the image burned into our minds from history class.

But here’s the kicker: trench warfare didn’t start in 1914. It’s way older - and it’s not just a European story.

Long before French generals or our boys were stuck on the Western Front, the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, were digging trenches that would make any military engineer jealous. We’re talking centuries before Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban turned trenches into a European art form.

Read more: Trench Warfare: Way Older (and Smarter) Than You Think

Digital Duck Deletes Joints: Trevor the Wallaby Victim of “Knee-Free” Policy

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Written by: Op-Ed Ratty News
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Digitally Removed in Shocking Duck Directive - Trevor the Wallaby Victim of “Knee-Free” Policy – Gulch Governance hits red button on reality

New “Online Safety” Laws Trigger Anatomical Censorship Scandal

By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble | Dusty Gulch Correspondent, Ratty News

Dusty Gulch Primary School is in uproar this week after Trevor the Wallaby’s knees were digitally removed from a school safety poster -  allegedly to comply with new “online safety” laws introduced by an increasingly twitchy Maurice the EDuck.

The poster,  part of a government-funded awareness campaign titled “Hop Smart, Hop Safe!” ,  was meant to promote playground safety and responsible monkey-bar usage. But when the final version was released, keen-eyed locals noticed something missing:

Read more: Digital Duck Deletes Joints: Trevor the Wallaby Victim of “Knee-Free” Policy

Lest We Forget - Even When We Do

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Written by: Op-Ed Shaydee Lane
Hits: 405

How my father’s final hour barefoot in the sun taught me what it really means to remember.

Dad passed away on the 4th of August, some years ago now. This year, the date slipped by quietly, and I didn’t remember.  For all my talk of “Lest We Forget,” for all the importance I place on remembering what matters, somehow, I missed the anniversary of my own father’s passing.

When I told Mum, she’s 93 now,  she said something that has stayed with me: “It’s not your fault. We don’t have time to think of ourselves anymore. The world is too terrible.”

And maybe she’s right.

We’re bombarded by the weight of everything - news, crises, endless noise. We chase the big picture and forget to think about the real things. The things that matter. 

Read more: Lest We Forget - Even When We Do

Sacrifice, Scent, and the Shape of Civilisation

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Written by: Op-Ed Monty
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What a healed bone, the smell of leather, and a soldier’s burden reveal about who we are -  and who we may forget to be.

We often think of civilisation in terms of inventions -  the wheel, the plough, the phone in your pocket. But true civilisation isn’t measured in tools or technology. It’s measured in what we do for one another. It’s in the instincts we carry, and the sacrifices we make. And maybe ... just maybe ... it’s in something as quiet and human as staying with the wounded when everyone else runs. In an age obsessed with moving fast and recording everything, it’s worth asking: do we still remember how to carry someone?

Years ago, someone asked the anthropologist Margaret Mead what she considered to be the first sign of civilisation in an ancient culture. They expected her to point to tools -  fishhooks, clay pots, grinding stones -  the usual suspects in the archaeological story of progress.

But Mead didn’t name an object. She named an act.

Read more: Sacrifice, Scent, and the Shape of Civilisation

Rats of Tobruk - A Magnificent Triumph

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Written by: Op-Ed Happy Expat
Hits: 506

Thomas Pritchard, Australia's last "Rat of Tobruk"  passed away at the age of 102 on 3rd of August 2024. Pritchard was part of the famous garrison who held the Libyan port against a furious Nazi siege in World War II. 

" They lived like rats and  they fought like lions "

I would venture to say that the two most famous and well known phrases of our military history are “Gallipoli” and “The Rats of Tobruk”. One was a magnificent defeat. The other was a magnificent triumph.

Field Marshall Sir William Slim, 13th Governor General of Australia and at the time, General commanding the 14th Army said after the triumph over the Japanese at Milne Bay that “…..Some of us may forget that, of all the Allies, it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army and it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the German army.”

In speaking of the defeat of the German Army he was speaking about Tobruk. 14,000 Australian soldiers embarked on an eight month siege defending the harbour town of Tobruk, beginning on April 10-11 1941.

Read more: Rats of Tobruk - A Magnificent Triumph

From Terra Australis to Terra Absurdus

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Written by: Op-Ed Monty
Hits: 450

In a thoughtful historical essay published on this blog, John Ruddick celebrated the British discovery of Australia. He detailed how Captain Cook, through a mix of science, navigation, and extraordinary luck, laid the foundation for modern Australia -  a nation shaped by Western civilisation, built on exploration, liberty, and law.

“None could have done so much with it as the British,” Ruddick wrote, thanking Captain Cook and placing Australia within a proud tradition stretching back to Rome.

In that same piece, he highlighted the significance of ideas, of intellectual heritage, of the long arc of Western civilisation culminating - quite literally - on these shores.

And yet, in August 2025, that same John Ruddick praised the closure of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to allow a mass pro‑Palestinian march to proceed - a protest movement whose leading organisers have cheered on Hamas, and whose symbols are aligned with the very forces that oppose everything Ruddick once defended: Enlightenment values, classical liberalism, and ordered liberty.

How does a man go from quoting Roman philosophers and honouring Captain Cook... to waving through the disruption of a city in support of ideological chaos?

Read more: From Terra Australis to Terra Absurdus

Strain the System, Break the Nation: Is the Cloward-Piven Strategy in Play?

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Written by: Op-Ed Monty
Hits: 461

From immigration policy to identity politics, energy to ideology -  the erosion of Western society is no accident. It’s part of a pattern.

Sometimes, you have to wonder: is all this just incompetence, or something more coordinated? Policies that seem to defy common sense are being rolled out with alarming consistency - not to strengthen the nation, but to fracture it.

One might start by looking at immigration. Not just the numbers, but the nature of it. Instead of families or vulnerable refugees, we’re seeing a steady flow of young, single, fighting-aged men, often from regions with vastly different values, cultures, and religious worldviews. There's no requirement to assimilate. In fact, it's almost as if assimilation is the one thing being actively discouraged.

And when ordinary citizens begin to express discomfort, the response isn’t dialogue ... it’s dismissal. They’re labelled racists, xenophobes, far-right agitators. Their frustration is turned into something sinister. No longer patriots but monsters to be erased....?

Read more: Strain the System, Break the Nation: Is the Cloward-Piven Strategy in Play?

Return of the Signal: From Pirate Radio to Digital Defiance

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Written by: Op-Ed Shaydee Lane
Hits: 551

In the 1970s, listening to Pirate Radio was more than entertainment -  it was defiance. As modern censorship creeps into every corner of digital life, I find myself wondering: will we need to tune back in?

Not to music over the waves, but to whatever Pirate Radio becomes in our age of tech control.

In the 1970's, Pirate Radio Stations were all the rage. It was seen as a badge of honour to quietly admit to listening to Pirate Radio. As the internet becomes increasingly censored, are we going to turn the clock back to those heady days of defiance and consider buying a shortwave receiver? if not, what will be the modern-day equivalent of Pirate Radio?

My first encounter with Pirate Radio was in New Zealand as a schoolgirl in 1968.

Read more: Return of the Signal: From Pirate Radio to Digital Defiance

Beaks Off Our Screens!

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Written by: Op-Ed Ratty News
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DUSTY GULCH IN TURMOIL AS SOCIAL MEDIA MELTDOWN HITS MULTI-SPECIES SCHOOL

By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, Ratty News Correspondent, Whistleblower & Former School Captain (1987)

DUSTY GULCH – In a town where ducks debate policy, possums parent fiercely, and rats run rogue under the monkey bars, peace at the local school has finally gone down the drain - quite literally. What began as a simple playground prank has spiralled into a full-blown multi-species standoff over memes, mayhem, and malfunctioning toilets.

With viral videos, rogue VPN networks, and a self-declared duck censor now running the show, Dusty Gulch School is no longer just an educational institution, it’s the frontline of a generational cyber war. And somewhere in the middle of it all, poor Trevor the wallaby is still icing his knees.

Read more: Beaks Off Our Screens!

Censorship, Control and Safety of the Internet - The New Tyranny of Safety

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Written by: Op-Ed Blythe
Hits: 528

“Every tyrant must begin by claiming to have what his victims respect and to give what they want. The worst of all public dangers is the committee of public safety.”
— C.S. Lewis

In 2025, we are being told, once again, that it is for our own good.

We are told to obey the experts. To trust the committees. To believe that restrictions are signs of enlightened governance. But history tells another story: one where the language of safety becomes the camouflage of control. Where fear is not conquered but cultivated. And where God is replaced, not with reason, but with rulers.

We have seen governments lock us down, isolate the elderly, muzzle dissent, and silence the young — not with reasoned debate, but with edicts. Under the guise of public safety, we are being reshaped. Social cohesion is no longer built around families, churches, or communities — but around bureaucracies, panels, and platforms.

This is not safety. This is sedation.When Governments Say ‘It’s For Your Own Good. ' rest assured, it is probably not. 

Read more: Censorship, Control and Safety of the Internet - The New Tyranny of Safety

  1. Into the Jaws: Faith, Fear, and the Fight to Stay Afloat
  2. Is Compulsory Voting Killing Australia?
  3. Children and Innocence - Bangles Beads and Broken Promises
  4. The Flight of the Navigator - Old Pilots, New Aces, and Why Childhood Matters

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