A great man passed on this day. Or, as some noted, died. His name is plastered around Australia in lots of locations, some unlikely. He was a little bit shallow in some ways, but he towered for his achievements for which the world should applaud. Some despise him, but that is probably mere partisan politics. He was above that. The great man was Horatio Nelson and he died in 1805 at Trafalgar off the Spanish Coast, near Cadiz. An old chardonnay socialist also died this morning, Gough Whitlam, more about him later.

To set the scene in 1805, England's greatest sailor was facing near certain death and humiliation off the Spanish coast on the morning. He had a desperate plan that had never worked successfully before. He was faced with a larger force of a combined fleet of Spanish and French fleet, under the command of Pierre-Charles Villeneuve for France and Federico Gravina for Spain. Nelson had 27 ships of the line to 33. Classically, the ships would form in two lines and shoot at each other with broadsides until the fleet with less guns and ships was annihilated or surrendered. But Napoleon had had plans to march his grand army into Britain and if Napoleon's fleet was free, her massive army would easily take London. So Nelson was faced with a battle he couldn't surrender or lose, but couldn't win through conventional means. So Nelson's plan addressed it by promoting the superiority of British ships on one to one combat. Britain had had better ships thanks to her guns having triggers instead of lit wicks for firing, better trained men and copper lined bottoms to her ships. Nelson's desperate plan was to sail his ships directly towards the enemy line in two lines at a right angle. He knew the front two British ships would have to weather about thirty minutes of direct fire from the enemy line, but when the closed, he would be able to fight ship to ship with the centre and vanguard of enemy ships, while the enemy ships in the top of the line would have to turn around and re engage. Nelson had two lines because when the tactic had been applied in the past, the concentrated fire on one ship had sunk it and every subsequent one. Two lines, he calculated, would diminish the damage taken to either. Nelson led one line, Cuthbert Collingwood another. Nelson wanted to tell his men he was confiding in them, and he knew they would do their best. But the flag signal man told him he could transmit the message more easily if he substituted a few words. The message, approved by Nelson, is recorded in history and stirring. Instead of Admiral Nelson, the word used was England. Instead of confides, the word used was expects. The message had become "England expects every man will do their duty."

In battle, the forecastle of Victory (Nelson's ship) had lines of marines. Some six were picked off before he gave instructions that they could break ranks and seek cover. Nelson's secretary was adjacent to him when a cannonball knocked his head in, splashing his brains onto Nelson, who remarked he didn't like the taste and regretted that the secretary would not experience victory. Nelson stood with full assignations on his uniform, including a stunning diamond. Smoke obscured the scene as Victory closed with Redoubtable and a sniper shot from Redoubtable's Mast Nest mortally wounded Nelson. Captain Hardy was on hand, and carried Nelson below deck to see the surgeon. Hardy could have been charged with negligence for deserting his post later. Nelson took some five hours to die. Near death, Hardy returned to report success. Nelson thanked God he had done his duty. Britain had not lost a ship, but captured 21 ships and destroyed another. Napoleon would march his Grand Armee on Moscow later. As a result, England would rule the waves around the world until WW2.

I dispute that Gough was the worst PM at the time of his death. His abysmal foreign policy is still felt around the world, his debt crisis is still unbalancing the Australian economy and his bad 'reform' of ALP has kept it in the nineteenth century and prevented good people from achieving anything, but Rudd, then Gillard were worse. It is worth listing Gough's achievements. Gough distrusted the US who were allies, and embraced Communist China before Nixon went to negotiate freedoms. He ended conscription and pulled Australia out of Vietnam sooner than high command had planned. That meant when US pulled out in '75 that lots of weapons were left behind that were dangerous for the communist world to have. The threat that Communist Vietnam would sell those weapons to Timor's communist rebels meant Gough gave the nod to Indonesia to invade to prevent those communist Timor rebels from buying and using those weapons. The Timor invasion by Indonesia resulted in the apparently planned deaths of Australian journalists at Balibo by Indonesian special forces, some of whom vie for Indonesian politics today. Gough distrusted Southern Vietnamese who had been supported by the US and spurned their pleas for help. Because of his disastrous spending, Gough needed lots of money and sought to embroil Australia with Iraq. Gough had become leader of a disunited infighting ALP and he took steps to reform it by aligning it more closely with unions and producing the model that cannot be reformed now without disentangling from corrupt union leadership. In Australia, Gough spent unsustainably, and made reckless promises. He promised free education and made it harder for better students to study at university, ultimately making it more expensive for everyone. He promised fair access to health care but delivered a faulty product that needed to be reformed. He politicised the High Court and Governor General's position and created the family court which even today is highly criticised for poor decision making. Gough cared little for those he was responsible for and complained when his holidays were interrupted for disasters, like Cyclone Tracy and the Melbourne floods. Gough was the champion of empty symbolism and claimed to do things he hadn't done, like ending the White Australia Policy. He divided Australia on racial lines by creating a body which has failed to address needs of Aboriginals adequately. Gough felt betrayed by the governor general he appointed and he ruined the man who served faithfully, John Kerr. Gough was patron to notable ALP failures in Keating, Gillard and Clare. He was a charming man who could joke about his megalomania in a pasta advert. On the plus side, he got rid of McMahon as Liberal chief. But he ruined that with Fraser.

World Series Baseball.
Pixar vs Disney vis San Francisco Giants vs Kansas City Royals. The rivalry is friendly and serious. US politics is dominated by the Presidential elections which have primaries which result in two opposed candidates. The process is pretty good in galvanising support behind each candidate. And so too the World series is an example where the main season is about demonstrating the superiority of each team that has their division. By the end of it, the best team of the season will have won four WSB games against the next best. May the best team win.

Terrorists
Turkey allows Kurdish reinforcements after obstructing help from going to desperate Kurdish fighters. A 17 year old Australian ran away from home and now preaches hate in favour of ISIL against Mr Abbott. As he is now a terrorist, maybe his school report cards could be released for the public to know what a terrorist spokesperson was like at school.

AGW Alarmism
Warmists should apologise to Bob Carter who was slammed by AGW alarmist scientists rather than debated. A basic tenet of academia is that anyone can have a good idea, and that ideas can be robustly debated. Instead Carter was smeared and his ideas not debated, but denied. That is anti intellectual which is a character of most AGW alarmism. People suffer from green alarmism. A lot of poor people who get denied what others get because they can't afford it because of Green policy. Greens might have good intentions.

Freedom of Speech
Barry Humphries defends Barry Spurr, the Sydney University poet whose privacy was invaded by a left wing magazine who denied him natural justice for saying things the magazine did not agree with. Luckily the NSA does not often behave like that. Celebrating on the ABC what diminishes women as a guest wears a hijab to obscure her face and says she likes it. ABC spreads Peter Carey conspiracy theory that US government dismissed Whitlam, and not the Australian people. Universities embracing freedom? A few universities have stopped terrorists from advancing their noxious claims. Oscar Pistorius got five years maximum for killing his girlfriend on Valentines Day. Oscar's success is not a great moment in freedom of speech, but the judge had determined it wasn't murder, so it must have been personal expression of a person who struggled to say what he meant.

Local politics
ABC is too big, dwarfing commercial media. Labor leads in polls which means little at the moment but is a big threat unless addressed. $433000 for each unemployed Aborigine placed in a job by a $1.5 billion ALP policy. I could have done a better job for half that.