Posted on 10/01/2006 5:35:57 PM PDT by naturalman1975
HE power-walks in the morning with an ear-piece monitoring radio news and comment programs. He fits in radio talkbacks during the day. And almost every night he's on TV talking about issues as diverse as what to teach our children, tests for migrants, Telstra CEO salaries, the Iraq war, Solomon Islands, water, mines in PNG. When Parliament isn't sitting he's travelling the country. Always with admirers around him. School kids have rated him in the class of a pop star. On Labour Day - in NSW - today, what's the bet he won't be relaxing?
Where does the hyperactive John Howard get his energy? Is he running on adrenaline or is he a political freak?
A Prime Minister with such controversial and divisive policies may retain his high level of popular support by appearing comfortable, but he can never be relaxed.
He has earned the accolade of the fittest and most energetic leader Australia has had.
Since he decided to stay on and fight the next election, leaving the much younger Treasurer Peter Costello, aged 49, breathless and lagging behind, Howard has demonstrated an extraordinary vitality. He's proving, if proof were needed, that 67 is far too young an age to retire.
His ministers must feel at times irrelevant or sidelined. His dominance of government is so complete. He covers every portfolio, every subject of political interest. This is one-man government in practice. How does he do it?
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
He's the best leader in the Western World.
Although Harper I think has the potential to match him.
And I'm a big Bush supporter....
Has John Howard made a move to fully restore Aussie gun rights? I know that there was a partial or about total gun confisication in Australia a few years ago...what has happened since?
OK - simple fact - there wasn't a gun confiscation in Australia a few years ago. Various gun rights groups in the United States have misrepresented what happened in Australia. Licencing laws were changed so people had to get higher level licences to own powerful firearms, or if they preferred could choose to sell their firearms to the government voluntarily. People could also choose to sell weapons they were licenced to own voluntarily and because you got a fair price and you didn't have to go through the bureaucratic hassles associated with selling a firearm privately, a lot of people did. So a lot of firearms were entirely voluntarily handed in.
Some people took photos and film of this and tried to call it a confiscation.
Australians are allowed to own firearms provided they are licenced to do so (and unless you have a recent criminal record, getting a licence is quite easy) and all weapons have to be registered - the laws aren't perfect but they're really not that bad.
And the idea of 'gun rights' doesn't really exist in Australia in the way it does in the US - because of our different histories, Australians generally do not see firearms ownership as a right.
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