According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard, Pétard comes from the Middle French péter, to break wind, from the root pet, expulsion of intestinal gas, derived from the Latin peditus, past participle of pedere, to break wind. In modern French, a pétardis is a firecracker (and it is the basis for the word for firecracker in several other European languages).

Shakespeare in Hamlet Act 3, Scene 4, has Hamlet use the phrase, “hoist with his own petard,” to mean, “defeated/blown up with their own plan/bomb.” A petard is a small bomb that was once used to blow up gates and walls when breaching them.

This time round Pauline Hanson is tougher and more politically streetwise. She is speaking up on the big issues of concern to Australian, such as the recent revelations that within three years each child will owe $ 100,000. (The Australian, February 15, 2017, p. 1)

Australia’ gross public debt is set to rise from $ 474 billion to over $ 600 billion in the next three years. The debt burden per capita threatens, under the conventional economic system, to erode away the standard of living of young Australians. Billions are wasted on a multitude of politically correct programmes, that should have been abandoned long ago, but are financed because of the power of the multicult/ethnoracial lobby.

The last three weeks have been as busy as ever and the attacks on sanity grow daily. Gillian Triggs continues to pretend the Australian Human Rights Commission did the right thing in the QUT case, Bill Shorten is upset over Trump's measures to restrict Islamic immigration, and the entire state of South Australia is shutting up shop thanks to the wonders of eco-friendly power.

The good news is that we finally have an admission from Australia's Islamic leadership that Islam allows wife-beating. However, all the feminists (including the Chief of Defence Force's gender advisor) have failed to notice because they're out rallying around Yassmin Abdel-Magied. She supports Sharia law and recently claimed that Islam is the most feminist religion. Ever.

To The Australian
There is no truth in Greg Craven's claim ('"King Charles" would skew our republican debate', 23/2) that the death of Her Majesty the Queen 'could set off a constitutional crisis here.' Upon her death Prince Charles would be at once proclaimed King of the United Kingdom and he would then immediately become King of Australia and of the other royal realms. There is no possibility of interruption of a smooth process of succession.

Prince Charles is one of the most intelligent and dedicated royal personages in the 1100-year history of the British monarchy. He holds a university degree and is the author of a brilliant book on the world's ecological crisis ('Harmony') and of many profound and perceptive speeches on a wide range of important cultural matters. He has worked tirelessly for many charities and performed his long period of service as heir apparent with great dignity. Craven's description of him as 'an unlikeable nutjob' is nonsense.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic

To The Age
Kevin Donnelly's conservative critique of multiculturalism ('Multiculturalism is no recipe for success', 23/2) has its heart in the right place, but may be a bit old-fashioned. He should have developed more carefully his important qualifying insight that 'Western civilisation is far from perfect.' This being the case, it is not clear that 'if there is any conflict between imported values and our way of life then traditional Australian values win out.'  For example, superior insights from Islamic Sufism, Chinese Taoism and Indian Hinduism may be just what our own sacred tradition of Christianity needs in order to regain the capacity to wisely guide society. Nor is a disguised plutocratic oligarchy masquerading as 'liberal democracy' deserving of uncritical acceptance. We need a sensible balance between diversity ('the spice of life') and a core of shared values in accord with truth.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic

To The Sunday Age
Don Mackay’s ‘Faith’ column only scratches at the surface of the topic of the afterlife (26/2). It seems clear that our ordinary mind (or everyday level of consciousness) is unable to conceive an answer to questions such as ‘What is the universe? Why is it here? Who or what created it?’ This suggests that a higher or deeper level of cognition is required; and the great sacred traditions confirm that this is so. Connected to this enigma is the tradition that we do not know who we are and that answering this question is ‘the first step towards wisdom.’

It seems that there may not be any future life for who we think we are, but that there may be for who we really are. There does seem to be a large worldwide consensus that our ‘souls’ or ‘spirits’ do continue; and that what happens to them is shaped by what we have done here. The matter deserves serious thought because the kind of political order we live in is ultimately shaped by our religious beliefs.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic

To The Adelaide Advertiser
Many have claimed the need for both Israel and Palestine to negotiate their peace. Such a superficial comment lacks any regard for the Palestinians. 
Recognition of borders would be a fundamental requisite to any talks and while Israel continues expanding across the shared border, does anyone expect reasonable peace talks to begin?

Israel has ignored UN policy to recognise borders and defiantly stated that any seized land will not be relinquished to Palestine. What would the world say if President Trump decided to build his Mexican wall one kilometre inside Mexico?
Why should Israel be different?
KG, Naracoorte, SA

The last three weeks have been as busy as ever and the attacks on sanity grow daily. Gillian Triggs continues to pretend the Australian Human Rights Commission did the right thing in the QUT case, Bill Shorten is upset over Trump’s measures to restrict Islamic immigration, and the entire state of South Australia is shutting up shop thanks to the wonders of eco-friendly power.

The good news is that we finally have an admission from Australia’s Islamic leadership that Islam allows wife- beating. However, all the feminists (including the Chief of Defence Force’s gender advisor) have failed to notice because they’re out rallying around Yassmin Abdel-Magied. She supports Sharia law and recently claimed that Islam is the most feminist religion. Ever.

To The Australian
It is good to learn that the new NSW senior secondary curriculum emphasises 'how Western civilisation was shaped' ('Classroom focus shifts to life skills', 21/2), but the ways in which this is to be done arouse some misgivings. Is there to be sufficient attention given to the role of British constitutional and cultural history, surely the most important aspect of our heritage? Is there too great an emphasis on the last 500 years of history at the expense of the civilisations of Greece and Rome, the mediaeval period and the Renaissance? (The new focus on ancient China is to be applauded.)

Yes, it is good to decentralise education at this level, as Kevin Donnelly notes, but are individual schools being given adequate flexibility of choice? And surely the 'Bush legend' is more important to an understanding of Australia's self-image than a focus on any particular politician from the past? Much more interesting too!
NJ, Belgrave, Vic

To The Age
Is the current 'groundswell' of populist politics really 'far-right', as Paul Blackman thinks? (21/2) Perhaps the right-left terminology is inadequate to define it. Maybe it is a genuine rising up of decent and ordinary people who are fed up with the dishonourably self-serving policies of elites based on financial privilege and nepotism. In this case things aren't so gloomy after all.

The 'collective notion of what we agree upon' was largely shaped by these elites through their powerful propaganda.  What is important now is for people to keep cool heads, engage civilly in public discourse, make careful analyses of what is happening and chart a sensible course into the future that is both wise and compassionate. Let's proceed on that basis.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic

We all know that we can trust our politicians and wonderful organisations, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Why, just the name “United Nations,” drips with moral authority, like ethical nectar!
Some shocking racist types – not mentioning any names – feared that there just might be more than a few “bad hombre” (hombre malo) gangsters in the refugees from Mexico and Central America, which was done as part of the Obama/Turnbull deal for the US to take 1,250 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru.
Don’t worry. A UNHCR spokeswoman said “You cannot be a criminal and a refugee at the same time.”  (The Australian, February 13, 2017, p. 1) Did you hear that Donny Trump, you got it all wrong.

But then I read; “the refugees swap deal inevitably increases exposure to the world’s most dangerous criminal gangs working to spread their extortion and murder rackets around the world. There were reports this year that the notorious Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, may have a presence in Sydney, after gang graffiti was found in Bondi, in the city’s east, but there has been no confirmation or evidence of gang activity.” Maybe not: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3160206/The-call-sign-one-LA-s-deadliest-crime-gangs-started-showing-face-tattooed-MS-13-members-REALLY-infiltrated-Bondi-local-graffiti-taggers-just-trying-act-tough.html.
As Con the Fruiter, my favourite ethnic, used to say on the TV show the Comedy Company, “coupla days.” Immigration makes all bad things possible.

Here, in brief, are some interesting poll results on Trump and Muslim immigration, topics perennially in the news.
First, the firm Remington Research conducted a poll which found that Trump’s executive order on immigration  received 50 percent approval, and 41 percent disapproval. The support across America for the executive order was greater than voter support for the president; http;//washingtonexaminer.com/author/david-m-drucker.
Another poll. This time by emerson college, found that the Trump administration was viewed as more trustworthy than the mainstream news media: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-08/poll-finds-trump-administrtion-seen-more-truthful-news-media.

In 2016, an Essential Poll fond that 49 percent of Australians supported a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia (The Australian, February 13, 2017, p. 12) A Chatham House poll of 10,195 respondents, across 10 european states, found that on average 55 percent wanted Muslim migration stopped, and the figure rose to 59 percent for those with secondary qualifications: https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/what-do-europeans-think-about-muslim-immigration.
Food for thought.
Pauline my girl, this is your time, so make the most of it. Next job is to draw the federal government out on how it paid for a Muslim activist (“Islam to me is the most feminist religion”), to tour, what The Australia newspaper describes as “some of the world’s most repressive Islamic regimes,” all at tax payers’ expense. And the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to reveal the costs of this. (The Australian, February 16, 2017, p. 1) Wouldn’t you like to know how much you paid for this from your hard-working tax dollars?

The Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Not-Just-News/Trending-Now-VIDEO-British-Muslims-chant-USA-you-will-pay-caliphate-is-on-its-way-476196,  reports that hundreds of British Muslim protesters in a rally organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, which is a Muslim group wanting the establishment of a caliphate, chanted: “USA, you will pay, caliphate is on its way.”
A caliphate is essentially an Islamic theocratic state, an Islamic New World Order, under sharia law: http://counterjihad.com/jihadists-dream-caliphate-heres-need-know. So, stopping Muslim immigration in the USA is met by this threat. Trump is confirmed.
Readers may like to read the comments in the JP article, which enjoys freedom of speech that we once had in Australia.

A supervolcano eruption  destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii, near the coast of the Bay of Naples, in 79 A.D. Now it seems that a repeat is on the way: http://collapse.news/2017-02-07-report-supervolcano-that-could-kill-millions-of-europeans-ready-to-blow.html.The supervolcano is called Campi Flegrei, and is under Naples in Italy. There have been recent seismic signs that the volcano is reawakening and a big eruption will kill millions of Europeans. Clouds of ash could black out the sun, making Europe dark for years, if not a decade. Air travel, probably across the world, at least involving jets, would cease. Media reports say that the eruption could accelerate global warming, which is the religious faith. Actually volcanic eruptions contribute to global cooling, and a volcanic winter would be more of a concern than any hypothetical global warming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter.

This has happened in the past. The Lake Toba supervolcano in Indonesia erupted around 74,000 years ago and wiped out over two thirds of the humans existing at the time. Global temperatures dropped 10 C for over a decade : https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/06/scientists_discover_the_trigger_that_could_set_off_a_supervolcano/.

Reply to JoNova
While your readers will find the recent article on The Managerial Revolution of interest, I would like to point out there were two Australians who, many years ago, warned about the Managerial Revolution in this country.
But first, 2017 is the 100th anniversary of the completion of the East-West railway here in Australia and there is is quite a Story of The Commonwealth Bank in that for Australian readers. But back to the Managerial Revolution.

I wrote an article in 2007 in which I explained to the readers WITHOUT A STUDY OF MAMMON (MONEY) – HISTORY IS BUNK and James Burnham should not be ‘let off the hook’.

My favourite "out there" news story this year is the report (Natural news.com, February 12, 2017), that the evil Dark Lords of the global elite conspiratorial New World Order Illuminati etc. etc., will be staging a “cosmic false flag,” a massive, false, alien invasion. You may think that this has already happened right across the West, but apparently we have not seen anything yet.

In fear, and hysteria, people will beg for world government, even saying, “Please, pretty please, oh Dark Lords of the eternal night, please enslave us, so the evil aliens from Mars, don’t.” I am not sure why one would bother, but there you go.

As outlined in a new book by Peter Turchin, Ages of Discord, (Beresta Books, 2016), the West is entering an age of discord, a time of severe social crisis, the second such age in modern times. It is difficult to predict with any accuracy when, but hit the fan it will. I have already written about how the super-rich see it coming and are using their money to become survivalists, big time; http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich?currentPage=all.

One aspect of prepping often neglected by the survivalist movement is medicine. The usual position taken is that one should attempt to stockpile medications needed, such as antibiotics, blood pressure meds and the like. But, one can only get so much of prescribed drugs, they have a shelf life (longer than that stated on the pack, but still a shelf life), so much of the prescribed medicine will run out in any grid down situation.

African American Democrat from Los Angeles, Maxine Waters, who has been in the saddle for 13 terms, doesn’t like Donald Trump one bit. No sir. She wants Trump impeached for, among other things, Trump is “Wrapping his arms around Putin while Putin is continuing to advance into Korea.” Korea? Yes, that is what she said.

Perhaps she meant “Crimea,” but screwed up getting the word out? Maybe, maybe not, but that is a mistake of 4,500 miles. Should the libtards really be making a song ‘n’ dance about Don Trump’s alleged mental state, when we have such “muddled waters” : http://www.dailywire.com/news/13232/muddled-waters-thinks-putin-invaded-korea-joesph-curl?

The assault on manhood continues unabated. Men are not permitted to have any territory of their own, and the feminist/gender agenda, is unrelenting and remorseless.
The latest inroad into manhood is women’s football, which has kicked off here in Melbourne, with the AFL opener between Carlton and Collingwood being played at Princes Park. Yes, 24,500 people turned up, making it a full house. But many, like my sons, just came for the curiosity value.

Of course, the usual female journalists, covering the women’s issues saw this as a “coup for women in footy uniform.” (The Weekend Australian, February 11-12, 2017, p.21) How many coups are needed? Is there any end to this? And, why? Why is it necessary to feminise absolutely everything in the universe?

The Washington Post was beside itself about the use of computerized “predictive policing,” where computer algorithms are used to assess the risk of recidivism and to set gaol sentences: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/big-data-may-be-reinforcing-racial-bias-in-the-criminal-justice-system/2017/02/10/d63de518-ee3a-11e6-9973-c5efb7ccfb0d_story.html.

The WP feels that racial bias creeps in because the initial data fed into the computers makes blacks and Latino defendants look riskier than Whites. There are racial biases in arrest and conviction rates because – the liberal faith has it – the existence of “racial biases,” so a Black or Latino defendant will be more likely to have a prior conviction than a White.