Oscar

Think sailing is common too. I did a fair bit as a kid in VJ's and a few catamaran's later in life, when available.. Nev

Hell (er, excuse me , Satan's Residence - love it..) this is getting a bit Spooky, Possums. One of three-up on a VJ, about two miles off Sydney Heads following the Sydney-Hobart fleet, when the Colin J Delaney hove to beside us and a crusty old Sergeant leaned over the side and said 'Got yer passports? Had yer inoculations?' 14-year-old squeak back: 'you'd like us to go back, then?' 'Yep'.

 

Owned an A-Class, taught my kids how to hoon around the bay at Pittwater on it... first boat I built was a Hartley 12-foot Cat that would plane in the right conditions on a 3/4 run with the forward hand out on trapeze.

 

 

Don't you mean "Satans Residence, if I had been astride the Gallus gallus domesticus I would certainly have had enough time between when impact became inevitable and actual impact to dismount, rapidly stride ahead and draw some freehand circles on the wall in a disorganized representation of a target, then hasten back to Gallus Gallus domesticus remount and prepare for the above mentioned inevitable impact!

Absolutely! But I only managed about 15% in my Intermediate Certificate Latin, so I'd have missed a warm dinner while trying to get it accurate, and I can't spell 'britannica' so I'm way behind the octagonally-enumerated spherical object here.

 

 

Glider pilots often have sailing in their lives......Peter

Never made that connection myself - but a (not current) glider pilot and owned and raced an Adams 10 for a couple of years... they are very similar mental and physical disciplines (in terms of 'feeling' lift/wind, for sure). Took a gliding mate all of 10 minute's experience on the tiller to be able to tack efficiently.

 

 

Never hit Armco myself, but I'd take it in preference to the cheese-cutters. Got way too close one time to finding out if I was right on a wayward CBX1000 for the comfortable and relaxed status of my cloaca at rather more than enough speed to cause one of those 'frozen-time, oh shit, this is going to be very, very bad' moments. Our Blessed Mother of a full right-hand of throttle got me out of it, but when you're 65 kgs on top of 265 or so kgs, you really know that you're just along for the ride..

 

 

Andy, I did follow it up; two Board members hadn't heard of any such suggestion and the Tech Manager discussed with me the fact that RAA does not have the 'authority' to do what was implied (somehow force Jabiru to re-engineer their engines by weight of some action or other within the scope of RAA authority). We all wish Jabiru WOULD make improvements, let's not go over that again. I indicated in a post here that for those who wished to check the facts, the Tech Manager was able to supply them so anybody who wished to check could access a proper source of information, not simply rely on any opinion I might be stating.

 

The Tech Manager and I imagine the Board have far more on their immediate plate than hosing down brushfires and quite a bit of that work is pretty much likely to be at close to survival-level for the RAA in future, given the position that the RAA was in when the dust settled on the elections last year. I would infinitely prefer that they have the chance to get on with that work. As you say, as long as they are not affected, the great majority won't give a stuff but if RAA can't do what it needs to do, we'll all go down together and it's not going to be of any practical use to any of us to be able to say: 'I told you so'.

 

 

Andy, I voted in my region, as I would imagine you did also. Beyond that and communicating with my regional member and another Board member I know personally my feelings etc. on issues to which I would like to see attention/decision being given (and I'm sure that all of us who could be bothered to vote probably do exactly the same), I think we're all in the same boat of there being not much more we can do.

 

However, my position on all of this has been very considerably mis-represented. I am in no way questioning the Maj's 'legitimacy' of election as the FNQ rep, nor have I ever questioned his right to hold and express whatever personal opinion he likes as either a personal or Board member of RAA. My sole issue has been and remains that he made a statement purporting to indicate an official RAA position that is not in fact the case and that could have quite a prejudicial impact on the ownership and operation of all Jabirus - yours, mine, everybody else's. If he wants to say that in his personal opinion, every pilot should be forced to wear a pink tutu while flying - he has every right to do so. If a non-Board member says that 'I understand the RAA is taking action to round-up and publicly burn every Jabiru in Australia' - they also have a right to say such a thing and others have an equal right to question, support, deny, ridicule, whatever the idea. However, it is an entirely different thing if a Board member says 'the RAA is doing xxx"

 

I continue to maintain that a Board member has an obligation to correctly represent the actual policies of the Board when making any statement that they imply is a statement of RAA position or policy. When such a statement directly implies that there is an issue of safety of a particular type of aircraft - especially one that that is widely owned and used for both personal and training - it is not a trivial matter.

 

 

If it was the Bantam, you were probably pretty safe

Hell, if it'd been the Bantam, I'd have had time to run ahead and draw a target on it!

 

 

Don't give a reward for apathy Oscar. Apathy is a universal problem not a voting bloc. No-one can claim the vote of the non voters UNLESS a particular group make it their policy on a specific issue. It's still not truly arguable, even then. Nev

Point well taken. But by the same token, you can't claim a moral right to represent the majority without the endorsement of the majority. So what we are left with, after the non-voting population of RAA is discounted, is the behaviour of the elected representatives. 12 of 13 are getting on with business without making a public meal of the proceedings. I'm inclined to go with the flow here.

 

 

.. Someone should take governments to task for those lethal wire barriers that are along the edge of highways. Nev

So I'm not the only one who feels like a Camembert faced with a wirecutter? Nice to know I'm not paranoid.. First ride a Beeza Bantam, next one a Suzuki Hustler - guess which one I nearly put into a brick wall?

 

Cheers, Oscar.

 

 

Ah, well, Captain, you choose to champion the position of someone who has the demonstrated legitimacy to express the position of somewhere less than 1% of the RAA eligible voting population. Absolutely your right to so do..

 

I'll go with the remaining 99+% who did not vote for him and hope to f**k that those we have to deal with outside the confines of this forum recognise that he is not representative of us.

 

 

Occy, 

 

I see that you added a bit to your post # 270 and respond as follows:

 

 

 

I was one of the 5000 in that ride, although down the back with the unedumacated ones. My mates and I were supporting the principle of the issues, not our self appointed representatives and we buggered off as soon as the speeches and self promotion kicked off.

 

 

 

Having seen him ride quite often, Graham C was, and still is, at the right hand of God when it comes to road racing. He was at the Island Classic last year, I think to promote his book, and I was able to say g'day. Thought that he might come back and ride with the NZ team this year, but no such luck.

 

 

 

I have been over to most of the NZ Street Races. Well worth it.

 

 

 

Now, all of this agreement and conviviality is making me dry reach. So let's get back to bluing.

 

 

 

Regards Geoff

Captain - do you remember how we split across the bridges at Anzac Parade?? That was where we became two 5k streams instead of the one 14-kilometer long 10k column. Do you remember which bridge you crossed? If it was Commonwealth Avenue, you were one of my 5k mates! If it was King's Avenue, then it was following the other two of the three of us that organised the whole damn thing.. I was on a blue Honda 400/4, blue leather jacket, yellow helmet. Do you remember at the campsite, a Harley with sidecar riding through the campers, with a wide-eyed 3YO kid in it - that was my older son. Trucker from the Albury Chapter was the rider; we just left it up to them to look after the wee kid, we knew we could trust them absolutely. My son was on the MRA ute for the ride. If you were in the stream leaving the campsite on the Sunday afternoon, he was the kid lying on the ground asleep that everybody split around and didn't ride over. Big people in leathers looked after him the whole weekend, his mother and I had absolute confidence in everybody there.

 

You would know damn well that there was no 'order' for the ride, it was just where you ended up on the road outside Air Disaster Memorial forest when we set out, so don't come the 'class' bullshit with me, sunshine, I know the truth. If you were late in the line, it was because you didn't get your shit together early on Sunday. You're trying to gain credibility for a 'class distinction' that never happened. To claim some sort of minority status you have to have a complex that is clinically abnormal.

 

There were no 'speeches and self-promotion', as you know full well - the only 'speech' was by Milton Morris, and if you remember, that was carried over the loudspeaker of a 'General Duties' police car because the MRA system had failed. Cuz was the guy who told the crowd to shut up and let him speak; he was also the guy who told his lieutenant - Trucker -to take my son on their ride through the campsite. Don't give me grief for being an elitist - you believed that the cause we shared was worth your time, we made that work. Damian Cognodotto looked after my son in the ute on the ride. The whole damn campsite looked after him that weekend. If the general feeling was that you were being led by wankers, that would not have happened.

 

I consider having been a part of the team that made that weekend happen, is a personal best. The next was entombing the Unknown Australian Soldier, and the experience of organising the 10K bike ride on Canberra helped make that also a success. Care to share what you have accomplished that qualifies as progressing anything?

 

Between ourselves privately, the term you were looking for is ' dry retch'. Probably a finger error on your part - I have them also.

 

Cheers, Oscar.

 

 

No wuckers Oscar. Caring, sharing & bonding is what this Forum is all about, and it's great to see you back from the dark-side, even if only perhaps for a short time.

Captain, I don't buy for a minute that you really have trouble understanding me - your vocabulary is no less comprehensive than mine. Seems we have some similar background (though I decided I just wasn't quick enough to race motorcycles and knew I'd break something trying to be competitive, though a couple of club racer mates of mine reckoned I'd be ok on 250's as long as I didn't try to mix it with the real guys, but I think they were being polite). You and I could have shared a table on a pub run or worked together in the pits and I know you wouldn't have blinked an eye at my language, and I both write and speak in the same terms.

 

Motorcyclists, in the main (though I would have real trouble with the current crop of 1-percenters whereas I had no problems at all 35 years ago, up to and including Ball Bearing) are the most homogenous group of disparate individuals I've ever had the pleasure of being with, I do miss things like waking up very wasted at the Alpine Rally and having to sit the XL over the coals of the fire to get it to kick-over in the frost.. There's no class distinction crap, (well, other than perhaps some of the Bimmer mob - remember the old joke about 'how do you recognise when a BMW rider's girlfriend is on her second date - they have matching leathers..?) We all bleed the same colour when we lay it down. I never had to 'dumb-down' my language or even think about things like 'I wonder what the background of this bloke sitting next to me is so I can talk to him'. Never happened, nor did anybody, ever, get up and walk out of a conversation. I watched Hailwood at Amaroo on his comeback ride to racing at the Castrol 6-hour of '76, sitting between a group of Rebels and Angels and swapping joints and beer for (seriously alternative-pharmaceutical-altered) schazlicks off our hibachi; no language problems or 'cultural' tensions there, I can assure you.

 

So why, I ask you in all seriousness, why do you feel I need to 'dumb-down' to a supposed level in exchanges with fellow aviators? Do you really believe we are all of necessity at the intellectual level of early secondary-school children? Your conversations here say to me that you don't. Could it be that you are feeling over-protective of the FNQ member of the Board? Have you fallen for the cult of personality of the 'good 'ol Boy' routine?

 

Let me tell you a wee story about the 'good 'ol Boy routine'. Leaving aside obvious fakes such as Alan Jones et al., one of the major players of the 'good 'ol Boy' routine is without doubt Bob Katter. Akubra, simple speaking, all that jazz. Son of Bob Katter, also a Federal Parliamentarian. I appeared before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Road Safety as a private witness in, oh, somewhere around 1975 or thereabouts arguing for support for Advanced Driver training as a mechanism for reducing road accidents and medical trauma resulting from them. Bob Katter Snr. was one of the members of that Committee. 'Good 'ol Boy'? - he was as sharp as a bloody razor and his language was far more than a match for mine; look at his background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Katter,_Sr. Bob Jnr. is no less sharp, despite the facade he adopts - he's playing to the gallery in his 'public' persona. I don't agree with all of his political stances, but I am damn sure we'd enjoy a couple of glasses of red and a decent meal together. We'd probably choose the same background music, and it wouldn't be a Hat Act from Nashville.

 

What do we, as a group, stand to gain in acceptance of Recreational Aviation by setting the bar at 'simple, down-home folk' or somesuch? Do you think that local Councils will hesitate to close down regional airfields because we are perceived as just a group of likeable, simple folk and therefore deserving of their support? That's going to be a big ask when we fly aircraft that the general public thinks are very, very expensive toys. Chewing tobacco, spitting and calling people who use words with more than six letters 'wankers' is NOT going to change that image. Nor is taking on, unbidden by the vast majority (little pun there, you'll catch it I'm sure) of RAA members the role of 'spokesman' for the RAA and expressing personal opinions that are not RAA policy as if they were.

 

You've decried the existence of 'self-appointed representatives' - yet the one Board member who is adopting that exact position on the basis of the support of 67 of more than 9,5000 members of RAA appears to have escaped your wrath. 12 of 13 Board members are quietly getting on with the business of pulling RAA out of the excrement it threw itself into while one has run his flag up the Maypole for his personal agenda. If you want to pull on the 'I'm here with Stupid' T-shirt - well fair enough, you're perfectly entitled. I'm not going to be the person who says that isn't acceptable. So - how about we declare a truce here, and argue our relative positions without recourse to personal abuse? At least that way we can debate the issue without spoiling the quiet afternoon drinks of the rest of the forum community while we scrap out the back of the shed?

 

 

Captain, I can't begin to tell you how warm and fuzzy your endorsement makes me!

 

btw, and appropos of nothing really here, but on the Saturday night of the Canberra ride, I passed up an invitation from the Head of the ACT motorcycle police squad - with whom we had become good friends during the organising for the ride to have dinner at his place with him and a 'mate over from N.Z. who was interested in the ride thing'. The three of us stayed out on the camp-site to help with organisation and security (being provided by some heavies from the Albury chapter of a bikie club whose name I can't remember).

 

Turned out the 'mate from N.Z.' was Croz - one of my all-time motor-cycle racing gods. Missed the bloody chance to have a beer and a talk with Croz, FFS. Apparently he enjoyed watching the ride, though.

 

Oh, and btw - as far as 'chasing an AO' goes, for my money there isn't any gong that would match up to riding across Commonwealth Avenue bridge in Canberra with 5,000 motorcycling mates in line astern behind you. With your wife as pillion, facing the wrong way and taking pictures, and the top ACT motorcycle cop beside you grinning like a loon the whole way (he was mates with Croz because they used to street race together quite illegally in Pukekohe, I think it was, as youngsters).

 

 

Geoff, the best way to get a good bloke into politics is to FORCE some talented decent type to do it. Most bowling clubs etc are a power group making an empire for themselves.. I had so much distain for CAMS when I was involved with car racing I got out of it. Most competitors have contempt for their organisation, because often it doesn't run for them. It usually runs for money.. I haven't come across the AO thing but I wouldn't be surprised. I prefer the quiet life and just get on with it but how often can you let things just fall apart as the RAAus has nearly done, when you can't operate without it? Nev

Nev - so true about CAMS, I felt the same way when I was racing Clubman class and it grated that we had to accept that all the tracks were under their control so we all had to kowtow; but CAMS did manage to keep (mostly) the 'racing cars should be banned' stuff off our backs. It's always a bit of a swings and roundabouts situation, and absolutely, the situation of the RAA in the last couple of years culminating in the multiple debacles of '12-'13 ought to be taken with the utmost seriousness by anybody who wants to fly RAA-class aviation.

 

 

Captain - I see you still want to take a crack at me, but let's put that aside for the moment.

 

You would remember, I am sure, the campaign against the proposed 'headlights-on' legislation? It was a serious issue for us as motorcyclists, because it effectively put the onus of being seen and treated with safety by the rest of the road-using community onto us to BE seen - not the others to look out for us. Motorcyclists were 'represented' on the MVPSS committee by the frigging NRMA - who wouldn't even insure us in those days. We were getting nowhere in trying to get attention to our side of the story in the ORS, and as for being taken seriously by the Minister for Transport - that wasn't happening.

 

I used to write some articles for REVS about the political stuff that was happening to us; Damian contacted me and asked for assistance in trying to cut through to the people who were forcing their proposed regulations down our throats. The MRA was the only organised group trying to get us a hearing. I dragged in a couple of mates who knew how to put submissions together.

 

Since you have such a rooted objection to what you consider to be 'self-appointed' representatives, I guess there's no point in me going through chapter and verse of how the fight was conducted. However, not every motorcyclist saw us in the same light - those three 'blokes' managed to organise a ride of 10,000 motorcyclists (official ACT Police estimate of the numbers) to Canberra to protest the legislation. They came from every State and Territory to show the level of support. Yes, Damian was heavily involved in that; we three dropped back from the fight once we'd managed to do our bit, so don't include us in your 'hate people who chase AO's' box. We were asked to help, I believe we delivered, especially in getting some decent representation on the MVPSS to help bring some sanity to the formulation of regulations we had to ride under (and no, none of us had any interest in being on that Committee, we left that to Damian et. al to organise. None of us has taken any active part in 'motorcycle politics' since then; fortunately for motorcyclists, there are always new people willing to put in the yards and take up the slack.

 

As Nev says, the fight goes on for motorcyclists to be treated as any sort of equal in road use. Following not entirely successful carpal-tunnel surgery to both wrists, I don't ride much these days, the Viffer has a heavy clutch and the brakes aren't modern-day light and effective, so the issues of today don't affect me very much and I have zero interest in having any sort of personal 'platform' for any reason.

 

 

Will do - on the way.

 

 

I'm not assuming anything of the sort.

So why do you treat them that way? - seems to be a dichotomy...

 

However, all this internecine warfare is not progressing the point of the thread at all. I'll get back to you when you have a contribution to the issues the thread has raised, Turbs - no offence there, but I have a life to lead beyond personal squabbling. As for the Maj's contribution: quod erat demonstrandum.

 

 

The real issue of this thread is what limits ought to apply to Board Members making statements, not whether I choose to communicate with due respect for the intellect of the vast majority of the members of this forum and the RAA - or accept the long-held principle of the advertising industry that any message not capable of being understood by an 11-year-old is likely to be lost (and no, that's not a sideways dig at anybody here, that's a fact that is adopted by that industry, so if you choose to charge in on me for the demographic research that has been done, you're on very flimsy grounds indeed.)

 

In conversations around the traps with RAA members and aviators generally, I use the exact same sort of language as I use on this site and I have yet to have a single one pull me up and ask 'please explain' my use of terminology or vocabulary. I am extremely comfortable with the idea that I don't have to moderate my use of language to have conversations with our sector of society and I have no intention of patronising people by assuming that they neither understand nor appreciate the use of language that is restricted by some sort of truncated version. That's akin to the old British Raj-era idea that all foreigners will understand English if you just speak slowly, loudly, and using simple words. I do not intend to insult my fellow aviators by adopting that principle - and if you consider that is a 'wank', then perhaps you (and some others) need to examine your own view of your fellows in the sector.

 

Returning to the point of the thread: the essential debate here is whether Board members are required to moderate their statements to reflect (or at least acknowledge) RAA's official position on matters, or whether they have the right to imply that the RAA has a position/policy that happens to accord with their own agenda but is not a Board decision. I believe that any Board member has the right to express that he supports 'X', but NOT to imply that that is the majority Board decision unless that is in fact the case. If he wants to state that his position on 'X' has been vigorously prosecuted by him and that he is unhappy that the Board majority position does not agree - fine by me.

 

However, there is a bottomless fissure between a statement that 'the RAA is taking action' on an issue and an individual statement that is in fact not the case but purports to be a faithful representation of RAA position/policy. In this case, the statement has implications for the ownership and operation of aircraft belonging to a considerable percentage of RAA members. As an individual member of RAA, one is entitled (I believe) to any opinion one chooses to hold; however as a Board member of the regulating authority, one has at least de facto if not de jure accepted that one is now a part of the management of the regulating authority and therefore one is bound to present the majority decision of the management of that authority if making any statement that purports to carry the imprimatur of the authority.

 

Turbs, you are quite evidently more than sufficiently educated to understand my language without needing someone to explain the big words. I don't believe that I need to moderate my language to fit in with those who may consider that John Laws's songs for truckies is the Australian equivalent of Shakespeare (in whatever variant form of that spelling is currently in vogue) - and I know more than a few truckies who have not the slightest problem with the distinction between between 'quintessential' and 'typical', before you go decrying my intellectual snobbery once again. It would progress the discussion on this thread if you could return to the point at issue rather than taking up the cudgels for a supposed membership of this forum that has, by your apparent standards, a limited capability of dealing with polysyllabic words.

 

You are assuming that the audience here is of limited understanding of the English language. I don't believe that is, in fact, the case. In terms more aligned to the patois of current usage, you are assuming that the majority of forum members are dumb f**ks who need to be talked down to if they are to understand the points of an argument. I disagree; my experience so far is that the vast majority of aviators are very astute and intelligent people. However, if you have evidence to support your position, then please bring it forward.

 

Quite incidentally - the only BAFTA I know is the British Academy of Film And Television Arts. It doesn't seem relevant unless I'm being mistaken with Stephen Fry and he's taller, more famous and differently sexually oriented than me. However, I guess we could probably converse with no real difficulty - is that the connection?

 

 

Ah, don't be too hard on old Turbs, he's just trying to wind me up. Not with any success, though; it's a long way away from the topic of the thread and there are far more important things to discuss.

 

 

Captain, the mere fact that you can use supercilious correctly convinced me that you are an educated and literate member of the RAA community - as are almost all of us I have ever met. I don't believe that we have to come across as rednecks to be 'one of the boys' in this group and I certainly don't think it is in the interests of the RAA community to suggest that we have a limited capacity to comprehend sophisticated reasoning in responding to the challenges we face in trying to gain credibility for having a responsible and considered approach to the numerous issues that we face: trying to get a decent response to regulatory problems, combating the ever-diminishing availability of airfields in regional and rural areas, trying to engender the acceptance of 'Recreational'-class aviation as a socially desirable activity and suchlike.

 

Having (successfully) represented the interests of motorcyclists ( a group then generally considered to be somewhat below-par in the intelligence stakes) to the Federal Minister of Transport a considerable way back in time and having achieved quite a significant improvement in our acceptability (as a result, we were specifically included in the authority that set Vehicle Performance and Safety Standards, for a start) I can attest to the efficacy of presentation of cogent, intelligible reasons for a position. The Minister involved was Peter Nixon, who gleefully embraced the description of him as 'the bastard from the bush' as his nick-name and my being a pompous ass did our cause no harm at all, you may be slightly surprised to learn.

 

If you care to read the report of the HORSCOTS enquiry - http://www.recreationalflying.com/tutorials/students/horscots_1987_PP3A.pdf - (paras. 106 -108) you will see the difficulties that a combative, ''good 'ol boy" attitude on the part of the then President of the AUF, George Markey - had done to the progress of ultralight activity in Australia. George was a mate of mine - as far as one could be with George, who took first place in the World's Championship for difficult people to get along with (there was no second-place awarded, as the competition was just not in the same league). He stayed at my place on numerous occasions when traveling south; I've stayed with him on his boat when I traveled to Bundaberg. George did an immeasurable service to Australian sports aviation by being one of two who re-cast Part 103 of the CASR's . Sharing a hangar with George while we worked on our respective aircraft was a re-make of the 'Rumble in the Jungle', but George would bounce his submissions to CASA off me for comment - and even sometimes take notice of my comments! Given what George did manage to achieve, I'm not inclined to take the criticism of certain loudmouth members of the Rec. Av. community at all seriously (and FWIW, you aren't yet included in that category, though you can, if you wish, continue to strive for that honour).

 

You evidently thought you were the target of my comments - you weren't. No cigar there, Captain.

 

 

This is a shocking revelation by Turbo as, to quote Emmy "I'd like to think that those I share the sky with can fly and spell correctly at the same time".

Heck, Captain, I can spell 'correctly' at the same time as flying, honestly I can. I might have trouble SMS-ing 'Britannica' when joining downwind, but hey, nobody is perfect...

 

 

Important safety tip! I hope you have a good flight, looks like Vic. is in for some more heat.

 

 

Well spotted, Turbs - one to you!

 

 

It's called irony, Captain, and the Encyclopaedia Brittanica describes its etymology rather comprehensively. I admit to assuming that RAA members, by and large, have a reasonable IQ and a functional education. Certainly, the ones I have met fit into that description, and I am perhaps a hopeless romantic that they represent the majority. I'd like to think that those I share the sky with can fly and chew gum at the same time, and so far I have not been massively disappointed - just a bit shocked that there are aberrations to that norm.

 

 

Well, good grief! It all becomes clear!

 

Those other 12 Board members who have noticeably NOT been running around squawking like chickens on speed are not, in fact, doing that because they are concentrated on getting the mess the RAA is in sorted out in a quiet and professional manner, but instead are obsessed with plotting ways to suppress the word of the only true prophet! Words cannot say how distraught I am to have this revealed. Perfidy, treachery and the obvious venality of their motives in closing up the OBC that (apparently) is the RAA has been exposed!

 

I, for one, am not going to stand for it. I shall be conducting an extremely close investigation of the circumstances of the Board member I know well, and should I see a new Bentley in his driveway and a crisp new Bizjet in his hangar - well, I'm going to be asking him some pretty damn searching questions, mark my words.

 

Obviously it is time for a real demonstration of authenticity on the part of the one Board member who shines the light of truth, justice and democracy on the machinations of the RAA to convince the unbelievers. Given the apocryphal similes to another savior surrounded by 12 followers, I think that at the very least turning water into wine at Natfly is called for. I'm not going to be unreasonable and suggest that resurrection following crucifixion is required; one should not be required to surrender one's hammer and nails to someone else. Hell, even the ATO allows tools of trade as a reasonable deduction of one's occupation - and who am I to argue with them?

 

Yea, brothers, I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!