Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The good news: new cat discovered! Bad news: it lives in Indonesia

From the WWF:

Borneo's clouded leopard identified as new cat species

15 Mar 2007

Gland, Switzerland – Scientists have discovered that the clouded leopard found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is an entirely new species of cat. The secretive rainforest animal was originally thought to be the same species as the one found in mainland South-east Asia.
The news comes just a few weeks after a WWF report showed that scientists had identified at least 52 new species of animals and plants over the past year on Borneo.

“Who said a leopard can never change its spots?" said Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator of the Heart of Borneo programme.

"For over a hundred years we have been looking at this animal and never realized it was unique. The fact that Borneo’s top predator is now considered a separate species further emphasizes the importance of conserving one of the most biologically diverse habitats on Earth.”

Researchers at the US National Cancer Institute say the differences between the Borneo and mainland clouded leopard were found to be comparable to the differences between other large cat species such as lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar and snow leopard. They believe the Borneo population likely diverged from the mainland population some 1.4 million years ago.

“Genetic research results clearly indicate that the clouded leopards of Borneo should be considered a separate species,” said Dr Stephen O'Brien, Head of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, US National Cancer Institute. “DNA tests highlighted around 40 differences between the two species.”

The results of the genetic study are supported by separate research on geographical variation in the clouded leopard, based mainly on fur patterns and colouration of skins held in museums and collections.

“The moment we started comparing the skins of the mainland clouded leopard with the leopard found on Borneo, it was clear we were comparing two different species,” said Dr Andrew Kitchener, Department of Natural Sciences, National Museums Scotland. “It’s incredible that no one has ever noticed these differences.”

The Borneo clouded leopard has small cloud markings, many distinct spots within the cloud markings, grey fur and a double dorsal stripe. It is darker than the mainland species.

Clouded leopards from the mainland have large clouds on their skin with fewer, often faint, spots within the cloud markings. They are lighter in colour, with a tendency toward tawny-coloured fur and a partial double dorsal stripe.

By taking into consideration the forest conditions in Borneo, a total number of 5,000 to 11,000 Bornean clouded leopards are estimated to live there. The total number in Sumatra could be in the range of 3,000 to 7,000 individuals. However, further studies are needed to obtain better population data.

The last great forest home of the Bornean clouded leopard is the Heart of Borneo, a 220,000km2 wild, mountainous region — about five times the size of Switzerland — covered with equatorial rainforest in the centre of the island. Destruction of their habitat is the main threat they face.

Last month in Bali (Indonesia), the ministers of the three Bornean governments — Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia — signed an historic declaration to conserve and sustainably manage the Heart of Borneo. This has put the area on the global stage of conservation priorities.

END NOTES:

• Based on their general physical appearance, all clouded leopards were considered to belong to a single species. However, recent genetic analysis has shown that the ones found on Borneo are so different that they are best regarded as a separate species. DNA tests highlighted around 40 nucleotide differences between the two species. This is comparable to differences between the large Panthera species. Lions and leopards, for instance, have 56 nucleotide differences. The combined results of DNA analysis point to a 1–3 million years difference in separation, while the accepted distance of species is 1–2 million years.

• The clouded leopard was first scientifically described in 1821 by the British naturalist Edward Griffith. The scientific name of the clouded leopard from the mainland is Neofelis nebulosa, while the Bornean clouded leopard is now called Neofelis diardi.

• Clouded leopards occur in most forested habitats of Borneo, from coastal areas to the interior mountain ranges. Their preferred habitats, where most animals are found, are the dense lowland and hill rainforests of Borneo. They usually avoid open areas with few trees and are very sensitive to human disturbances.

• Bornean clouded leopards feed on monkeys, mouse deer, barking deer, young bearded pigs and sambar deer, which are stalked on the ground or jumped upon from tree branches. Occasionally birds and reptiles (such as monitor lizards) are eaten as well.

I'm giving it 25 years til extinction.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Message to Mr. Kennett: go back to when you came from (1880 seems pretty accurate)

I was too young to remember the "Dark ages" (as my dad puts it) of Jeff Kennett. Between shutting down stations, schools and deregulating everything he could get his hands on...well, he was apparently a d*ckhead in general. But I thought that although he may have been an overall knob, this just takes the cake:

FORMER state premier Jeff Kennett has provoked a gay rights storm by backing a football club that sacked a trainer for being gay.

The Hawthorn president and potential Melbourne lord mayor sparked calls for his sacking after saying Bonnie Doon Football Club was within its rights to sack veteran trainer Ken Campagnolo after it found out he was gay.

"The club felt that once this had been pointed out and you had this gentleman there who was obviously close to young men - massaging young men - it ran an unnecessary risk and that's why it decided it was best that he not perform those duties again. So the club was trying to do the right thing," Mr Kennett said.

"When you are in charge of a group of young boys, as this club was as I understand it, it's got to make sure."

Mr Kennett said it was as if the club had a pedophile trainer.

"It's the same if you have a pedophile there as a masseur, right?"

"And you might say the pedophile would do no damage, but once it was pointed out to you, you have a duty of care to those underage children not to put them in a situation of risk."

He could not guarantee a gay trainer would be welcome at Hawthorn, adding: "I don't know if we've got any.

"I'm just saying at the moment we have a duty of care to our players and staff and you have to make judgments on that. If you don't do it you end up with potential legal liability."

I think I'll take a leaf out of Sergent Wah's book. (Warning: high levels of obscenity and profanity to follow)

Kennett: fuck you. Fuck you and all of your arrogant, mindless, bigoted winged monkeys who still ascribe to the long-since debunked myths that gays molest kids. Let me put it in a term that a drooling cunt-ass like you can understand: GAY PEOPLE AREN'T FUCKING PEDOFILES! For fuck's sake, how many times do you have to raise the middle finger to sociology and say "up yours, I just wanna hate the fags and dykes and I don't wanna hafta listen to you so called 'evidence!' before you cunts get it? Gays have been persecuted for just about all history by you cock-suckers (irony intended) and these beliefs in 2008 just take the cake. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING? YOU ARE USING YOUR POSITION OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY TO GIVE HOMOPHOBES AN OUTING FOR THEIR HATE. YOU ARE IDENTICAL TO KEVIN ANDREWS AND HIS SHIT WITH SUDANESE-AUSTRALIANS. ANY ASSAULTS AGAINST GAYS WILL BE DIRECTLY YOUR FAULT.
Not that you'd have any problem with that, you twisted malicious Phelps-fucker.

To still think this shit in the 21st century shows just how archaic your beliefs are, and the idea of you running for mayor in the most culturally diverse city in probably the world shows just shit-headed you are. And if you do become mayor...watch out. The G-BIT* community will tear through you harder then Jasmyne Cannick at a Republican convention.

Cross-posted here.

*Gay, Bisexual, Intersex and Transgender, a more accurate term to replace LGBT.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Lolchicken

I've recently found these. I have no idea who have wrote them, but they're hilarious.

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road

Every year the Chicken seems to come up with new reasons to cross the road....here's the latest....

Why did the Chicken cross the Road?

Phillip Ruddock: I don't care why the chicken crossed the road it should be sent back to where it came from. Who knows what might happen if we keep letting any old chicken cross the road. We could be inundated with them. Send them to the farmer up the road a bit and we can pay him to deal with the problem.

Jeff Kennett: If the chicken did cross the road it should have been fitted with an e-tag and should pay the same toll as all other road users.

Steve Bracks: Regional chickens should have the same opportunities to cross roads as chickens living in Melbourne.

John Howard: The chick never crossed the road. And it was not forcibly removed from its mother! Anyway, that's a matter for the states and is of no interest to us. The united nations should butt out.

Kim Beasley: There WAS a chicken and it DID cross the road. This is a deliberate act by the government to hide the fact that chickens continue to cross Australian roads.

Natasha Stott-Despoja: What if it was not a chicken but a bantam? Minority sectors of our community shouldn't be discriminated against based purely on the size of their legs.

Evelyn Scott: To demonstrate a commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous chickens.

Peter Costello: Accordingly to documentation submitted to the Live Foods Processing Authority, the chicken in question was uncooked at the time of its journey and therefore will not incur a GST charge. However, if that chicken actually crossed the road for profit, regardless of its raw/cooked status, the road crossing would be considered by the ATO to be a service for which GST will be imposed.

Pauline Hanson: Please explain.

Robert De Niro: Are you telling me the chicken crossed that road? Is that what you're telling me?

Martin Luther King, Jr: I envision a world where all chickens, be they black or white or brown or red or speckled, will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

Grandpa: In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken crossed and that was good enough for us.

Fred Nile/Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson: Because the chicken is gay! Isn't it obvious? Can't you people see the plain truth in front of your face? The chicken was going to the 'other side'. That's what 'they call it: the 'other side'. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And, if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other side". That chicken should not be free to cross the road. It's as plain and simple as that.

Captain James T Kirk: to boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

Agent Fox Mulder: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross before you believe it's true?

Hansie Cronje: What if I could guarantee that it won't get to the other side?

Sigmund Freud: the fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity. How do you feel about your mother?

The C.I.A: Who told you about the chicken? Did you see the chicken? There was no chicken. Please step into the car.

Albert Einstein: Did the chicken really cross the road or did the road move beneath the chicken?

Bill Clinton: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What do you mean by chicken? Could you define the word 'chicken'.

Homer Simpson: mmmm Chicken.

George W. Bush: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or it is against us. There is no middle ground here.

Al Gore: I invented the chicken. I invented the road. Therefore, the chicken crossing the road represented the application of these two different functions of government in a new, reinvented way designed to bring greater services to the American people.

Ralph Nader: The chicken's habitat on the original side of the road had been polluted by unchecked industrialist greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV.

Pat Buchanan: To steal a job from a decent, hard-working American.

Rush Limbaugh: I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I'll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I'll bet someone out there is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars, and when I say tax dollars, I'm talking about your money, money the government took from you to build roads for chickens to cross.

Martha Stewart: No one called to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the farmer's market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

Dr. Seuss:
Did the chicken cross the road?
Did he cross it with a toad?
Yes, The chicken crossed the road,
But why it crossed, I've not been told!

Barbara Walters: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart-warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting and went on to accomplish its life-long dream of crossing the road.

Aristotle: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

Saddam Hussein: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

Voltaire: I may not agree with what the chicken did, but I will defend to the death its right to do it.

Ronald Reagan: What chicken?

Bill Gates: I have just released eChicken 2003, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook - and Internet Explorer is an inextricable part of eChicken.

The Bible: And God came down from the heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

Colonel Sanders: I missed one?

Louis Farrakhan: The road, you will see, represents the black man. The chicken crossed the "black man" in order to trample him and keep him down.

Douglas Adams: Forty-two.

Mohammed Aldouri (Iraqi ambassador): The chicken did not cross the road. This is a complete fabrication. We don't even have a chicken.

Aristotle: To actualize its potential.

Buddha: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken-nature.

Howard Cosell: It may very well have been one of the most astonishing events to grace the annals of history. An historic, unprecedented avian biped with the temerity to attempt such an herculean achievement formerly relegated to homo sapien pedestrians is truly a remarkable occurence.

Darwin: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically dispositioned to cross roads.

Jacques Derrida: Any number of contending discourses may be discovered within the act of the chicken crossing the road, and each interpretation is equally valid as the authorial intent can never be discerned,because structuralism is DEAD, DAMMIT, DEAD!

Carl Jung: The confluence of events in the cultural gestalt necessitated that individual chickens cross roads at this historical juncture, and therefore synchronicitously brought such occurrences into being.

Timothy Leary: Because that's the only kind of trip the Establishment would let it take.

Machiavelli: So that its subjects will view it with admiration, as a chicken which has the daring and courage to boldly cross the road, but also with fear, for whom among them has the strength to contend with such a paragon of avian virtue? In such a manner is the princely chicken's dominion maintained.

Nietzsche: Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road gazes also across you.

Richard M. Nixon: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did NOT cross the road.

Plato: For the greater good.

Pyrrho the Skeptic: What road?

Jean-Paul Sartre: In order to act in good faith and be true to itself, the chicken found it necessary to cross the road.

Jerry Seinfeld: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask, "What the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway? Where do they get these chickens?"

B.F. Skinner: Because the external influences which had pervaded its sensorium from birth had caused it to develop in such a fashion that it would tend to cross roads, even while believing these actions to be of its own free will.

The Sphinx: You tell me.

Oliver Stone: The question is not, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Rather, it is, "Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?"

Mr. T: If you saw me coming you'd cross the road too!

Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll find out.

Wittgenstein: The possibility of "crossing" was encoded into the objects "chicken" and "road", and circumstances came into being which caused the actualization of this potential occurrence.

Molly Yard: It was a hen!

I don't need 12 tracks to create a great CD

A recent side-project of the GrodsMilitary is to create a 'muxtape' which consists of 12 songs online, the internet version of the cassete mix tapes from 20+ years ago. I've been working on a CD of my own-it isn't a 'best of' or a '12 fav songs' but rather a set of songs that run extremely well together. I don't know if it counts as a muxtape, but I think it works well.
  1. Talking Heads-Psycho Killer
  2. INXS-Original Sin
  3. INXS-Never let you go
  4. The Clash-Rock the Casbah
  5. Good Charlotte-Keep your hands of my girl
  6. Moving Pictures-What about me
  7. James Reyne-Reckless
  8. Gerry Rafferty-Baker Street
Trust me-it's worth it to download the songs burn the CDs off a friend buy the albums so make this CD. It steadily builds up from Psycho to Baker and sounds awesome.

The tide is turning-and not in our favour

We had the 3rd Battle of Wellington today. For the uninitiated, each Battle features two protests; one campaigning to close the Fertility Control Clinic, (called the Helpers of God's Precious Infants, aka HOGPI) and the counter protest, led by the Radical Women. The first protest that I attended features several soldiers and officers from the GrodsMilitary, and there were dozens at the least.

Sadly, such a high turn out did not prevail for subsequent battles. During my 2nd Battle, only 11-12 people turned up, and today we were a mere 6. This wouldn't be so irritating if the anti-life/abortion protesters' numbers were also dwindling, but sadly that isn't the case:

Them:
Us:
Guess which group looks like it has popular support,and which looks like the crazed nutters?

So, to everybody reading this (I have the suspicion however that I'm the only one), here are the details:

When: Every last Saturday of the month, 10-11/12 in the morning (usually just 10-11)
Where: 118 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne
Bring: yourself, maybe a sign, and a voice box that can shout slogans for an hour.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Scum in human form

I've never particularly liked Andrew Bolt, as he comes off as a selfish, self-centered, hypocritical, cowardly, misogynistic turd in his columns (probably because that's precisely what he is). But for some reason I thought there something in there that could distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, etc.

Clearly I wasn't thinking properly. Recently there's been the tragedy of an infant being discovered dead in a bag at a bus stop. Personally, as I know almost nothing about it, I currently feel extremely sorry for both the baby and the parent/s who most likely have gone through the most terrible of ordeals and horrific circumstances to have had to abandon the infant.

What does ol' Shameless write about it?

Utterly tragic, but in some ways a grim metaphor:

Homicide Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles said: “Sadly, about 5.30, a gentleman living on a rural property went out to put out his rubbish bins, went to a bus shelter and found a green shopping bag, looked in the bag and found the body of an infant or a baby, aged somewhere between one or two weeks and three months old.”

In the hysteria to “save” Earth from a warming that’s actually halted, we ignore a true and growing threat to children.

I'm not religious, but I try to live to the standard of compassion of "loving your enemies." And you know what? I can't. Bolt, you are pure and unadulterated evil. Go drag your knuckles back to the cave, because you clearly have yet to evolve what might pass for a conscience. You want to help the littlest children? Why don't you? Instead of posting bullsh*t on your blog every half hour, trying to use an abandoned infant to score cheap political points against your strawman environmentalists, why don't you go out to the soup kitchens? Hold fund raisers to help fight poverty? I don't know, maybe just something TO HELP FIGHT THE CAUSES AS TO WHY A BABY WAS ABANDONED AT A BUS STOP INSTEAD OF SMEARING GREENIES.

Who knows? You might even develop enough compassion to pass for a human (although I doubt it).

Cross posted here, here and here.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

It's official: the CDP is theocracy.

I love reading the CDP. It's like watching a train crash..destruction, carnage and you just can't look away no matter how much you may want to. I knew that the CDPers were fundies, the name itself speaks volumes. But even I almost choked on my lunch when I saw this. It doesn't take much to read between the lines and see that the CDP is literally advocating for laws based on the Bible. First of all, it's unconstitutional.
116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

I'm pretty sure that if a law is unconstitutional, then it's illegal.
It is CDP policy to promote laws which reflect Biblical morality.
No kidding. That's the CDP, word for word. I'm curious, guys. Which Biblical laws do you want made law? The one that says not to have sex during a woman's period? Or the one illegalises wearing two different types of fabrics? How about the one that orders the mentally ill to be stoned? Yup, I'm sure that such rules are great foundations for a 21st century civilisation.

They then bang on about the evils of the gays, refusing to cite any statements in classic fundie style. They seem to think:

-homosexuality is a choice (that's bi, not homosexuality)
-it's "sexual immorality" (according to your narrow interpretation of a 2,000 year old book written by a bunch of barely-literate sheep herders in the desert)
-being gay is comparable to being a criminal or a child molester (except for the fact that the latter two don't involve mutual consent)
-Gay pride events should be illegal (f*ck you, freedom of expression!)
-God will smite any country that normalises being gay (despite such countries-such as those in Western Europe and Scandinavia-being un-smoted)

What a kind bunch. Definitely living up to Jesus' statement of "Love others as yourself."

Political buzzwords

Inspired here, I decided to google common buzz words and sound bites that appear in various Parties.

'Working families' appears in the ALP 884 times

'petrol' and appears in the LPA 297 times

'family' and 'families' appear in FF 500 and 275

'values' appears in the CDP only 176 times but 'homosexuality' appears 99 times

'sustainable' and 'climate change' appear in the Greens...4,330 and 8,210 times! And there I was, thinking that 'working families' couldn't be outdone.

UPDATE: I searched the above words for the other parties for the Greens. They appear (in original order): 296 times, 1,630 times, 1,970 and 2,100 times, and 1,390 and 57 times.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The most important article in the world (or close to it)

I've linked to it in the past, and I'll no doubt link to it in the future, but for now, just read this.
God's Own Baby-Killers: Abortions Soar Where Religious Zeal Abounds

by Chris Floyd

Countries with the most fervent religious faith have the greatest number of abortions. This stems directly from one of the primary aims of organized religion: the control of women, especially their fertility.

Tuesday, 26 February 2008George Monbiot reports on a study revealing -- surprise, surprise! -- that countries with the most fervent religious faith have the greatest number of abortions.

As Monbiot notes, this stems directly from one of the primary aims of organized religion: the control of women, especially their fertility. The zealous pursuit of this goal leads to rejection of contraception and sex education, which in turn gives rise to more unwanted pregnancies -- hence more abortions. In fact, studies show that the country with perhaps the most "liberal" and "permissive" sexual policies -- the Netherlands-- has the lowest rate of abortion in the world. Monbiot:

A study published in the Lancet shows that between 1995 and 2003, the global rate of induced abortions fell from 35 per 1,000 women each year to 29. This period coincides with the rise of the "globalised secular culture" the Pope laments. When the figures are broken down, it becomes clear that, apart from the former Soviet Union, abortion is highest in conservative and religious societies. In largely secular western Europe, the average rate is 12 abortions per 1,000 women. In the more religious southern European countries, the average rate is 18. In the US, where church attendance is still higher, there are 23 abortions for every 1,000 women, the highest level in the rich world. In central and South America, where the Catholic church holds greatest sway, the rates are 25 and 33 respectively. In the very conservative societies of east Africa, it's 39...

I am not suggesting a sole causal relationship: the figures also reflect changing demographies. But it's clear that religious conviction does little to reduce abortion and plenty to increase it. The highest rates of all -- 44 per 1,000 -- occur in the former Soviet Union: under communism, contraceptives were almost impossible to obtain. But, thanks to better access to contraception, this is also where the decline is fastest: in 1995 the rate was twice as high. There has been a small rise in abortion in western Europe, attributed by the Guttmacher Institute in the US to "immigration of people with low levels of contraceptive awareness". The explanation, in other words, is consistent: more contraception means less abortion.

There is also a clear relationship between sex education and falling rates of unintended pregnancy. A report by the United Nations agency Unicef notes that in the Netherlands, which has the world's lowest abortion rate, a sharp reduction in unwanted teenage pregnancies was caused by "the combination of a relatively inclusive society with more open attitudes towards sex and sex education, including contraception". By contrast, in the US and UK, which have the developed world's highest teenage pregnancy rates, "contraceptive advice and services may be formally available, but in a 'closed' atmosphere of embarrassment and secrecy"....The more effectively religious leaders and conservative [media] anathemise contraception, sex education and premarital sex, the higher abortion rates will go.

Monbiot also points out that while these attitudes cause much suffering in rich nations, "it doesn't compare to the misery inflicted on the poor":

Chillingly, as the Lancet paper shows, there is no relationship between the legality and the incidence of abortion. Women with no access to contraceptives will try to terminate unwanted pregnancies. A World Health Organisation report shows that almost half the world's abortions are unauthorised and unsafe. In East Africa and Latin America, where religious conservatives ensure that terminations remain illegal, they account for almost all abortions. Methods include drinking turpentine or bleach, shoving sticks or coathangers into the uterus, and pummelling the abdomen, which often causes the uterus to burst, killing the patient. The WHO estimates that between 65,000 and 70,000 women die as a result of illegal abortions every year, while 5 million suffer severe complications. These effects, the organisation says, "are the visible consequences of restrictive legal codes".

Monbiot goes on to note something we have been condemning here and elsewhere for years: that the supposedly "pro-life" policies of George W. Bush and his ideological fellow travellers are directly responsible for killing thousands of the most vulnerable people on earth. As Monbiot says:

When the Pope tells bishops in Kenya -- the global centre of this crisis -- that they should defend traditional family values "at all costs" against agencies offering safe abortions, or when he travels to Brazil to denounce its contraceptive programme, he condemns women to death. When George Bush blocks aid for family planning charities that promote safe abortions, he ensures, paradoxically, that contraceptives are replaced with backstreet foeticide. These people spread misery, disease and death. And they call themselves pro-life.

I first wrote about this issue in 2003, after Bush had cut off funding to family planning services and health clinics all over the world to stoke the zeal of his religious base. Nothing much has changed. As I wrote then:

The defining issue of modernity is control of women's fertility. It is this question – more than religion, politics, economics or the "clash of civilizations" – that forms the deepest dividing line in the world today. It is a line than cuts through every nation, every people, from the highest level of organized society down to, in many cases, the divided minds and emotions of individual men and women.

Control of fertility – and its active principle, sexuality – has always been an organizing principle of human society, of course, but modernity has presented the world with a revolutionary concept that overthrows millennia of received wisdom and tradition: namely, that an individual woman should control her own fertility. This notion destabilizes state structures and religious dogmas, and uproots cultural mores whose origins reach back to prehistoric times. It is a profoundly disturbing development in the life of humankind.

Little wonder, then, that anxieties over fertility and sexuality are the chief engines driving the frenzied and increasingly violent fundamentalist movements now sweeping through the world. It is here that extremists of every stripe make common cause against modernity. Almost every other aspect of "the modern" – science and technology, high finance, industrialization, etc. – has been absorbed, in one form or another, by the most "traditionalist" societies. But what today's fundamentalists – from Osama bin Laden to George W. Bush to Pope John Paul II, from the American-backed warlords of Afghanistan to the anti-American mullahs of Iran – cannot accept, at any cost, is the freedom of a woman's body.

This frenzy, this primitive fear – understandable perhaps in the face of such a wrenching upheaval – does not in itself make a fundamentalist an evil person. But it can – and does – lead them into evil: sometimes blindly, in ignorance and panic; but sometimes knowingly, with eyes wide open, a willing embrace of primitive emotions to serve selfish and cynical ends.

And so: last month, George W. Bush quietly cut off funding for a highly praised AIDS program for refugees from Africa and Asia. Why? Obviously, to keep his helots on the Christian Right frothing with passion to do battle for him in 2004. He has already given them control of American social policy, particularly in international negotiations, where they routinely form alliances with Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and other repressive states to derail treaties on women's rights.

But what was his public reason? Bush says he gutted the program because one member of the non-profit consortium running the project is also working with a UN program that was falsely accused of colluding with China's policy of forced abortions. That charge was investigated not once but twice by Bush's own State Department, as well as by the UN, and was shown each time to be completely untrue. The only "evidence" produced to support the slander was an allegation that in a single office in a rural Chinese province a few years ago, the desk of a UN official touched the desk of a Chinese Health Ministry official. That's it. The truth, of course, is that the UN program, and all the non-profit organizations associated with it, are trying to end China's forced abortions.

Of course, this heinous practice that has never stopped Bush from granting massive trade benefits to the "baby-killing Communists." Nor has it ever disturbed the orgy of investment in China's repressive regime by the corporate barons of the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce, headed by that genial old aristocrat, Prescott Bush Junior – known as "Uncle Prescott" to the current president. Naturally, any punishment for China's forced abortions must not fall on the Beijing government itself – not when Uncle Press has choice deals on the line. No, instead it must land – like a ravening MOAB – on the poorest of the poor, in Angola, Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Eritrea, and other poverty-stricken areas where the Bush family has no investments.

Not content with slapping AIDS-stricken refugees around, Bush has also cut off all U.S. funding to countless family planning services in the poorest regions of the world. This ban applies to any clinic that so much as mentions abortion as an option to its clients, even if it doesn't provide abortions or referrals itself – and even if the woman has been raped (perhaps by the goons of a Bush-backed warlord), even if she will die in childbirth. A clinic will also be cut off if its workers take part in lobbying campaigns to secure legal abortion in their countries. Such rights, hard-won by Western women, are to be denied to the world's poor. (Meanwhile, Bush's helots are scheming to roll them back in America as well.)

Many of these clinics provide the only maternal and post-natal care available for millions of destitute women and their children. They are the only place where the world's most downtrodden and uneducated women can receive information about reproduction and birth control, or treatment for AIDs, genital mutilation and rape. All across Africa and Asia, these clinics – including many run by Bush's beloved "faith-based organizations" – are closing up as they lose their American funding. Yet this funding itself is a mere pittance from the war-fattened federal purse – less than one day's spending on Bush's rape of Iraq.

It is simply a fact that thousands of women and infant children will die needless deaths in the coming years because of Bush's edicts. He could have saved them; instead he has killed them. He has chosen to stand with terrorists and tyrants in the fundamentalists' war against women.


(I promise I'll try not to have another Lazyboy Moment for my next post)

Neoconservative politics and ideology in Arabia: PWNED

As George Bush limps to November, his Presidency shot to pieces from the war in Iraq, it’s always good to know this. And this.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Pope officially declared a fundie

Evidence: unable to comprehend irony, black-and-white thought system.
POPE Benedict XVI has marked his triumphal entry to the World Youth Day festival with a "boat-a-cade" on Sydney Harbour and a trademark message of hope and warning against the "poison" that threatened to corrode and distort young lives.
This "poison" being equality for gays, perhaps? Or that women should have the same rights as men?
Addressing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who turned out to see him by the harbour at Barangaroo, the 81-year-old pontiff said the world had "grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and the pain of false promises", and urged them to seek the true, the good and the beautiful.
The Pope's lack of comprehension of irony is more of a "poison" then anything I've seen lately. Greed? Exploitation? Division? Wanna cite a few examples that DON'T make you out to be a total hypocrite, Ben?
Delivering his first major speech in Australia, the Pope also lamented the advent of television and computer entertainment exalting violence and sexual degradation. "I ask myself, could anyone standing face to face with people who actually do suffer violence and sexual exploitation 'explain' that these tragedies, portrayed in virtual form, are considered merely entertainment?
I've been playing Grand Theft Auto 3 since I was 14. I'm a more moral person then you ever will be.
"Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the god, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth. Christ offers more. Indeed, he offers everything!"
If I ever become a Christian, I won't ever worship you, you hypocritical, homophobic misogynist.
Like a good politician, the Pope stayed on the main message of his three-year papacy in his address to pilgrims, as he warned against secularism and relativism.
"Relativism? Oh no! People might actually think that there are different interpretations of the truth, and that no-one has a total monopoly on morality! If our flock start to think this, they'll be leaving our churches in droves!"

But I can understand why the church is so terrified of secularism. It weakens their grip on power, and has a tend to prove religion somewhat wrong.

He said something sinister stemmed from the fact that freedom and tolerance were so often separated from truth.

"This is fuelled by the notion, widely held today, that there are no absolute truths to guide our lives. Relativism, by indiscriminately giving value to practically everything, has made experience all important," he said.

Way to build your own strawman, asshat. That isn't relativism at all. Relativism says that morality is heavily based on cultural experience, and that no-one has, as I said before, a monopoly on truth and morality.

And apparently "freedom and tolerance were so often separated from truth." That's the whole f*cking point, you idiot! We have freedom and tolerance because one person's 'truth' may be totally different from another person's 'truth!' Do you honestly not understand that we have cultural freedom in society because those cultures may not be entirely truthful?

But this led not to genuine freedom but to moral or intellectual confusion, lower standards, loss of self-respect, and even to despair. While secularism presented itself as neutral and inclusive, in reality it imposed a world view, he said.

"If God is irrelevant to public life, then society will be shaped in a godless image, and debate and policy concerning the public good will be driven more by consequences than by principles grounded in truth."

Uh...what? Can you give any examples that such an event could happen? Must you build non-existent strawmen to support your arguments?* "Principles grounded in truth?" What did the most outspokenly 'Christian' President do in 2003 that was so "grounded in truth?" As for "imposing a world view"-Christianity has never done that, I'm sure.
He also used his harbourside speech to criticise the plundering of natural resources. "Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are scars which mark the surface of our earth — erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption," he said.
Excellent point. Sadly, one of the only two made in this drivel.
Earlier, in a speech at Government House, Pope Benedict hailed the Rudd Government's apology to indigenous Australians as "courageous", saying its reconciliation agenda offered hope to people around the world who had been denied human rights.
Hmmm...I wonder if the Pope will ever do the same. I doubt it.

In comments that harked back to Pope John Paul II's 1986 speech to Alice Springs Aborigines — and which were credited with fuelling the land rights movement — Pope Benedict reaffirmed that indigenous heritage "forms an essential part of the cultural landscape of modern Australia".

And he encouraged Australia in its bid to close the gap between indigenous and other Australians in health, education and economic opportunities.

Closing the gap would be a bit easier if you didn't follow a 19th century ideology.
"This example of reconciliation offers hope to peoples all over the world who long to see their rights affirmed and their contribution to society acknowledged and promoted," the pontiff said.
Unless any Aborigines are gay. In which case, it's off to hell with them.

So it's official-the Pope is a class C fundie,** but a fundie nonetheless. I still can't understand how many people believe that he's the genuine Pope. Only a white, heterosexual, elderly man can become the Pontiff, which excludes almost all of the world's population. What if the next representative for God was-brace yourself-a woman? Is that so impossible? For the Vatican, it certainly is.

*Actually, that's a stupid questions. Clearly, you do.
**Classes A and B fundies are more anti-environment and more bigoted in general.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Lazyboy moments with religiophobia

To celebrate the new term 'religiophobia', I'll have another Lazyboy Moment (I'll try to find the link):

The fear of Muslims

Compiled by Vikki Leone, The Age Education Unit
The Age, Wednesday December 4

Are Australians becoming less tolerant?

Having many cultures and religions flourishing in relative harmony has long been one of Australia's great achievements. Some are concerned, however, that since the terrorist attacks of September 11 last year, there has been a growth in ``Islamophobia'', a fear of Muslims. Robert Manne, an associate professor of politics at La Trobe University, says: ``Islamophobia now represents by far the most serious threat to the idea of multiculturalism, and even to the ideas of religious and ethnic toleration, that Australia has witnessed for very many years.''

Has fear of terrorism increased racist behaviour?

The September 11 attacks, the Bali bombings, public alerts about terrorism, the Washington sniper and the Monash University shootings have all fuelled concerns about personal safety in Australia.

The attacks in New York and Bali have allegedly been carried out by a small number of Islamic fundamentalists.

Few would suggest that Muslims in Australia - many of whom were born here - are anything but law-abiding citizens who share the same desire to live in peace and freedom as other Australians. Muslim community leaders have repeatedly condemned fundamentalist terrorism and expressed concern about growing resentment towards Muslims.

However, there is evidence of increased racist attacks on Muslim Australians and those of Middle Eastern appearance. Mosques have been vandalised and subjected to bomb threats, and Muslims have reported growing harassment. The hijab, the Islamic headdress which so visibly links Muslim women to their religion, has made some feel so vulnerable that they avoid public places for fear of harassment.

Some argue that any racist behaviour comes from a small intolerant minority, just as an unrepresentative minority carries out terrorism.

Recent developments

Recently, a NSW MP, the Reverend Fred Nile, caused controversy when he urged the government to consider banning the wearing of the hijab in public places as a security precaution, because it could be used by terrorists to conceal weapons and explosives.

Prime Minister John Howard initially did not clearly rule out supporting such a ban. Mr Howard's ambiguity drew fierce criticism from political opponents, unions, the Anglican church and the Islamic community, who claimed he was allowing peaceful Australians to be vilified because of their religious beliefs.

Mr Howard more clearly distanced himself from the proposal the following day. The Greens leader, Bob Brown, accused Mr Howard of fostering anti-Muslim sentiment by default, and opposition leader Simon Crean said: ``National leaders have responsibilities to respond to these statements immediately and unequivocally; to speak up for the nation and the need for tolerance; not to promote division, blame or scapegoating.''

Recent headlines

  • ``Muslims in the middle'' The Sunday Age, November 24, 2002.
    ``Crean blasts PM over stand on Muslim clothing'' The Age, November 23, 2002.
    ``Our leaders should mind their tongues'' The Age, October 21, 2002.
    ``Beware the new racism'' The Age, September 16, 2002.

What The Age says

``It is a very sad state of affairs that Australians whose only difference is their religion should exist in a climate of mutual fear and suspicion. It is the responsibility of Muslims and non-Muslims alike to see that this does not continue. Attacks on Muslims are to be deplored, but Muslim leaders also need to state, strongly and often, their condemnation of the terrorism that has been conducted in the name of their religion. Muslim Australians have as much interest in preventing terrorism as other Australians. We are in this fight together.''
Editorial, The Age, November 6, 2002.

What people say

``It is a sad day when an MP feels the best way to fight terrorism is to wage a war against Muslim women. The Australian Arabic Council is not only appalled that an elected politician would so clearly scapegoat Australians, but that senior political figures should let him get away with it.''
Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council, The Age, November 25, 2002.

``They'd have understood Nile in Moscow when those Muslim women invaded a theatre with bombs under their burkas.''
D. Smith, The Age , November 25, 2002.

``Fred Nile points out that as world terrorism is coming from mainly Muslim extremist sources, and because Muslim women are now joining their menfolk in acts of terror - as recently happened in Russia and has happened on several occasions in Israel - it would be prudent to ban Muslim burkas, which could be used to conceal weapons. Some of your readers have argued (22/11) that we then must ban all such garments worn by judges, priests and nuns - but that is to miss the point that none of these is associated with a culture of terrorism.''
R. Walker, The Age , November 25, 2002.

``Indeed, no country in the world is as conscious of terrorism as Israel is; no country, unfortunately, has had more experience. Yet Israel has never banned its Muslim citizens from wearing anything, and I'm yet to hear of an Israeli expert who thinks such a method would be effective in combating terrorism.''
Sol Salbe, The Age , November 25, 2002.

``The IEU is appalled that anyone, particularly a MP, would come out and promote such religious intolerance. There is nothing Christian about this attitude; it is divisive and plays into the hands of extremists.''
Dick Shearman, NSW/ACT Independent Education Union.

``Perhaps Fred Nile might also ban maternity smocks, beer guts, oversized jeans, sombreros . . . the list is endless.'' Diana Greentree, The Age , November 23, 2002.

``Before the (ASIO) raids, Australian Muslims had frequently encountered an outrageous and vitriolic discourse of hate on talkback radio, and in tabloid columns. We observed our government's manipulation of mostly Muslim refugees in a scare campaign to retain power in the 2001 election. It is natural then that Muslims viewed ASIO's horrific and unnecessary tactics to raid Muslim homes as either a calculated message, or an involuntary expression of an underlying paradigm.''
Waleed Aly, president of the Melbourne University Islamic Society, The Sunday Age, November 21, 2002.

``Just last week, molotov cocktails nearly set alight the Doncaster East mosque at which my family and I worship. One of my closest girlfriends, who only last month commanded the personal courage to decide to wear hijab, went home in tears after being harassed and sworn at by a car-load of women while filling her car with petrol.''
Randa Abdel-Fattah, The Age, October 21, 2002.

Your view

Students are encouraged to share their views. Have you seen or been subjected to anti-Islamic behaviour? Is Australia's identity as a tolerant and peaceful multicultural society at risk? Have Muslims become an undeserving target of suspicion? Do religious garments pose a security risk? Submit your view online.

Curriculum links

CSF II Learning outcomes

SOSE: Australia's people & places, 3.1, 3.2; Eco 4.2, 5.1; History 6.6

Web Links

Islamic Council of Victoria

Racism no way

And these two were written by Iain Lygo.

This is where religiophobia comes into play, not racism.

A new term for an old hatred

Is anybody as annoyed as I am about how 'racism' is applied to situations where it simply doesn't work? It's like trying to use the term 'sexism' when hating gays, as in on the surface it may sound right but collapses when it gets a whiff of logic. We were able to create 'homophobia' to describe hating gays, so what about now?

Hence, I am hereby creating a new term; religiophobia-an irrational fear of, or hatred of, a particular religion. This is the term that should be used when referring to anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, because that isn't racism but a hatred of a particular religion. Judging by my readership, I expect the term to catch on in a century or two.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Oppression in the name of religion is still oppression

Or, as Malcolm X would say, "wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it."

I went to a Bible study class last night, hoping to quell some of the few dozen questions I've gained from the first 3 Gospels (I'm not a Christian (not yet, anyway), merely an agnostic). There were prayers, before we studied singing and music as it relates to the Bible (whenever I think of gospel music and black Christianity, I always think of Rev. Turk).

Shortly after dinner, I was able to discuss some of those burning questions (like “how can God, a spirit, have a biological gender?” and “I don’t care what you say, my brain still melts when I try to comprehend how sin is inherited”). We talked about evolution vs. creationism (always a fascinating debate) before someone mentioned that the Bible doesn’t oppress anybody.

When I then asked “what do you think of the gay community” the concept of irony left the room (if it was ever there). And, unfortunately, therein is the problem of African Christianity. No doubt this is mostly (if not entirely) the West's fault, due to both our cultural rape of Africa and preventing her as a continent and as countless individual countries to evolve socially on their own, and currently with our shockingly low aid. However, it still remains that Africans, including everybody of African descent, were-and still are-at the forefront of the abuse of Christianity to justify slavery, and then to justify the denial of black Americans' rights. Blacks and gays have been oppressed for almost of all human history, and it is terrible that either would still hold any form of prejudice against the other.

Hence, I have compiled a small list of quotes from two brilliant black Christians:

Coretta Scott King

  • I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.
  • Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group.
  • I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy.
  • For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions
  • We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say "common struggle" because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.
  • We have to launch a national campaign against homophobia in the black community
Desmond Tutu

  • We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
  • I give great thanks to God that he has created a Dalai Lama. Do you really think, as some have argued, that God will be saying: "You know, that guy, the Dalai Lama, is not bad. What a pity he's not a Christian"? I don't think that is the case — because, you see, God is not a Christian.
  • There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative - not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.
  • Fundamental rights belong to the human being just because you are a human being.
  • "Isn't it sad, that in a time when we face so many devastating problems – poverty, HIV/AIDS, war and conflict – that in our Communion we should be investing so much time and energy on disagreement about sexual orientation?" [The Communion, which] "used to be known for embodying the attribute of comprehensiveness, of inclusiveness, where we were meant to accommodate all and diverse views, saying we may differ in our theology but we belong together as sisters and brothers" now seems "hell-bent on excommunicating one another. God must look on and God must weep."
  • If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.
Homosexuality and Christianity aren't mutually exclusive. Especially since Jesus never even mentioned it.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Aussie fundie thinks equality isn't an Aussie value OR: Aussie fundie has yet to grasp reality

I've just found an ad produced by the CDP attacking the Greens in the lead up to the 2007 Federal Election (I think). Initially, I had no idea what "family values" or "Aussie values" he's talking about, because a) Nile's "family/Aussie values" belong in the 19th century and b) because every family values are interpreted in totally different ways. Henry Makow, for example, sees family values as the woman staying at home, either in the kitchen or in the laundry (certainly not relaxing) whilst the man goes out to work. The DLP seem to agree with him. I have no idea what 'family values' are, because it's a term so corrupted by the ultraconservatives it has no meaning other then as a dog whistling buzz word for homophobia and misogyny.

However, I then found this, where Nile finally expands on his "value value values, ra ra ra" rhetoric. Apparently, 'Aussie values' are based on Jesus' values, when he gave that sermon on the mount. Ignoring the reality that if that was the case, namely that every predominantly Christian country would have such 'Aussie values' (rendering such values in no way Australian), let's look at the sermon:
The Beatitudes
1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

...
An Eye for an Eye
38"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'[g] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Love for Enemies
43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 6

Giving to the Needy
1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

...
Treasures in Heaven
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

...

Matthew 7

Judging Others
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

...

(my emphasis)

Hmmm...that's odd. Nothing about banning Muslims from entering the country, or denying rights to gays (nothing about gays at all, so as far as I'm concerned, Jesus was fine with it). Plenty on not judging others, not being a hypocrite, giving to the poor, and bringing peace and unity and being merciful. These aren't 'Aussie values' as much as they are 'Universal values' which people in just about every country practice, from South Africa to America to Brazil to India and all over the world. So far, Freddy's rhetoric is pretty shallow and hollow.

Apparently, Aussie values are also Christian values and simultaneously family values. Thanks Fred for excluding every non-Christian and non-family Australian from your 'Aussie values.'

The perfect Christian also says that the founders of Australia said that this is a Christian country, which is what it should be kept as. Unfortunately, our founders were also thought that women shouldn't be allowed to vote and Aborigines weren't human. So I can't see how their views on society should influence the 21 century.

Any rational person's irony meter will probably melt if they see this; where, in classic fundie style, Fred shows a total lack of the ironic message he's making. It's perfectly alright for Christians to stand for parliament and represent Christians, but if a Muslim tries to do the same..."TEHMUZZIESARECOMINDEY'LLBRINGSHARIALAWAUSTRALIA
WILLBECOMESAUDIARABIAOVERNIGHT!!1!" Which is effectively his frothing, rabid reaction every time the Islamic Australian community gains a sliver more representative power.

I'll do a better post on that video sometime soon.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Better then the original

(if you have no interest in Michael Jackson, I’d suggest you go to another blog)

For the uninformed (ie all of you), I am a major Michael Jackson fan. I have almost all of his CDs and DVDs, save for a few albums from when he was a kid and with the Jackson 5. Naturally, this lead me to buy one of his ‘best of’ albums. In this case it was The Essential Michael Jackson album.

And, I can tell you, for a 2-disk ‘best of’, it was sh*t. What kind of sicko puts Rockin’ Robin and The Girl Is Mine onto a best of? So I set out to produce a rival album: The Ultimate Michael Jackson. Away with cr*p like the aforementioned songs. Away with Bad and ABC (how that mediocre pop was so popular I just don’t know). In with Liberian Girl, Give in to Me and Tabloid Junkie (three fantastic and criminally underrated songs).

I’ve also greatly improved the covers. Look at Essential:



Utterly sh*thouse. Look at what I’ve done (inspired by the multi-covers on Number Ones):



And, most importantly of all, the song line up:

Essential:
Disc one
  1. I Want You Back
  2. ABC
  3. The Love You Save
  4. Got to Be There
  5. Rockin' Robin
  6. Ben
  7. Blame It on The Boogie
  8. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)
  9. Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough
  10. Off the Wall
  11. Rock with You
  12. She's Out of My Life
  13. Can You Feel It
  14. The Girl Is Mine
  15. Billie Jean
  16. Beat It
  17. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
  18. Human Nature
  19. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
  20. I Just Can't Stop Loving You
  21. Thriller

Disc two:

  1. Bad
  2. The Way You Make Me Feel
  3. Man in the Mirror
  4. Dirty Diana
  5. Another Part of Me
  6. Smooth Criminal
  7. Leave Me Alone
  8. Black or White
  9. Remember the Time
  10. In the Closet
  11. Who Is It
  12. Heal the World
  13. Will You Be There
  14. You Are Not Alone
  15. Earth Song
  16. They Don't Care About Us
  17. You Rock My World


Ultimate:

Disk 1:

1. Ain’t no sunshine
2. I’ll be there
3. Music and me
4. I want you back
5. The love you save
6. Sugar Daddy
7. When I come of age
8. I wanna be where you are
9. Life of the party
10. Blame it on the boogie
11. Shake your body
12. Don’t stop til you get enough
13. Rock with you
14. Workin’ day and night
15. Off the wall
16. Billie Jean
17. Beat it
18. Thriller
19. Human Nature
20. PYT
21. Can you feel it

Disk 2:
1. I just can’t stop loving you
2. Liberian Girl
3. Man in the mirror
4. Dirty Diana
5. Smooth Criminal
6. Heal the world
7. In the closet
8. Give in to me
9. They don’t care about us
10. Scream
11. Tabloid junkie
12. Stranger in Moscow
13. Earth Song
14. Fall again
15. You rock my world
16. We’ve had enough

Thursday, July 10, 2008

One would think that racism in the 21 century would be a little more discreet.

I was checking up on the most popular Klansman political party* (the one that has managed to elect a senator) and I was naturally drawn to their immigration policies. And was I in for a shock. As the title suggests, I thought that for a hardline racist party to elect a senator they’d have an army of spin doctors to rival that of the Liberals, making sure that their racism well-hidden, a la CofCC. I was hysterically wrong. They might as well just say “We don’t want them darkies and Muzzies in our country!!1!” because what they have here isn’t any better.

Beware, you might want a sick bag ready:

ONE NATION POLICY STATEMENT:

#11 IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS

One Nation believes in zero net immigration, (subject to review depending on economic conditions) & that coming to Australia is a privilege that must not be undervalued. We reserve the right of discretion to ensure these privileges are maintained, so protecting our economy, social cohesion & cultural heritage.

POLICY #11: CUSTOMS & IMMIGRATION

One Nation notes that immigration throughout the last century has been of great benefit to Australia. However it must be recognised that inappropriately high levels of immigration can be detrimental to employment, to national infrastructure, services & environment.

Illegal unauthorised arrivals by sea & air, has increased 354%. The situation is virtually out of control. Australian's are demanding action, these invaders should not be allowed to land on Australian soil, boats without documentation, containing illegal cargo should be turned around before they enter our waters, any detention should not be on the Australian mainland. Processing will be immediate, with no legal appeals. (Certainly not at taxpayer’s expense)

Our immigration program is in urgent need of overhaul; an immediate hold on immigration is necessary, until the economy has recovered. Then the balance needs to be bought back to the 1960 percentages to protect our culture & heritage, & promote, assimilation, nationalism, loyalty & pride in being Australian. (The real cost of immigration adds at least $15 billion Pa. to our foreign debt)

One Nation will re-Australian-ise the department by returning to its correct name "Immigration Department" we will dismantle the multiculturism part, & restore democratic choice.

To ensure it reflects the will & aspirations of Australians.

Australian "citizenship" is a valued privilege, to qualify it will be necessary to study the Australian Constitution & laws & after five years pass a test in English & swear allegiance to the crown & flag. This will eliminate the expense of printing material in foreign languages, & ensure assimilation & employment of those genuine in becoming a good citizen in their adopted country.

One Nation will review the criteria for business migration, increasing the minimum capital requirement; participants not complying with agreed terms to be placed on notice of repatriation.

Foreign student migration is abused to the extent that it precludes Australians from entry to educational institutions. One Nation believes that due to most countries now having good education facilities it is no longer necessary for them to come here to study.

The carrier's (airlines & shipping) who convey people to the country without documentation will be responsible for them. This includes immediate return to port of embarkation, & any other costs incurred.

One Nation will withdraw from UN treaties on migration & refugees, that conflict with our sovereign rights & laws, & amend laws if required.

DISCRETION

This means freedom of judgement or choice, to choose wisely, with the current terrorist problems this is essential. The facts are that all involved in terrorist activities to date have been Muslims between the age of 17 & 40. Muslims see terrorism as a black & white issue. A jihad between Muslims & infidels. Our policy in this regard has nothing to do with race; it is about protecting our country from a real threat.

Obviously. If you ignore the Creativity Movement, KKK, Army of God, Earth Liberation Movement, Animal Liberation Movement, IRA, and every racist skinhead movement in existence, then obviously only Muslims are responsible for terrorist attacks.

A minimum of five years waiting period on social security benefits for newly arrived migrants

Migrants passing a complete & thorough health check before acceptance being granted. Including AIDS, Hepatitis TB. (Due to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, it would be to risky to allow black immigration from there.

That's not what the ex-Immigration Department said:

Liberal Bruce Baird said Ms Hanson had her facts wrong in suggesting immigrants were bringing disease into the country.

Mr Baird said all immigrants underwent strict health and character checks before being granted visas.

"Ms Hanson will never let the truth get in the way of a good story,'' Mr Baird said in a statement.

"There are no immigrants from Africa or any other place in the world coming to Australia with diseases. This is pure fiction, designed to provoke racial intolerance in the community.''

Continuing on (BTW, I am aware that Baird is responding to racist remarks made by Hanson, not the ONP. However, his statement still stands):

Family reunion other than for immediate family, & that Australian relatives provide unconditional guarantees that they will provide full financial support, so that the family members do not disadvantage, indigenous Australians who have worked hard all their lives to provide hospital & social services.

The character of people wishing to migrate to Australia to be investigated. No dual citizenship, Australian citizenship to be mandatory after 5 years residency.

One Nation proposes that Immigration will become the Department of Customs & Immigration; Responsible for protection of our coastline from illegal invaders, goods (Drugs) & terrorists, control & monitoring of entry & leaving of people & goods, issue of passports, visas & other documentation

BRIEFING: IMMIGRATION

Australia does not presently write its own immigration policy in spite of any claims to the contoury. It yielded that right when it signed an international agreement, The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations on October 13,1966. This was ratified on September 13, 1975, without a referendum & against the will of the people as required under the constitution. Coalition governments, have used this to deliberately introduce into Australia unassimilable aliens, while at the same time people from where our founding ancestors originated, are deliberately prevented from entering.

Yup-it's OK if the majority wants it!

Deliberate over taxation has caused a drop in our birth rate, & so the government has an Immigration policy of multiracialism "Populate & Perish", to confuse the public they call it multiculturism.

IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT

Immigration Dept covers the following: Citizenship, Grants, Illegal Migration, Migrant Services, Migrating to Australia, Passports & Visas, Visiting Australia.

Facts from Departments 2000-2001 Annual Report:

Average staffing was 4000, $18,949,000 was written off for detention of illegals

Total cost for immigration activities $666,607,000. Multicultural activities $76,620,000.

Number of registered migration agents as of 30/6/2001, 2429.

Asylum Seeker's Assistance Scheme cost $11,163,000.

Of 58,674 over stayers only 9054 removals so far.

1,646 applications & appeals to the courts.

1,877 refused entry at airports, 4141 illegal boat arrivals.

$350,000 paid to Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia for operating expenses $407,000 for interpreters.

$98.9 million paid to contractors under the Adult Migrant English Program.

RACISM

This is a new term, which gained currency soon after WW11. It has been defined differently in various dictionaries, in wording & meanings.

Racism is a term used as a weapon of offence against white people who are proud of the achievements of their race & history, & who wish to live among people of their own kind.

Actually, racism is a weapon against a racial or ethnic minority group. Just about every black Australian and Muslim woman could testify examples.

Racism is used as a weapon against the freedom of speech. Article 19 Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion & expression; this right includes the right to hold opinions without interference & to seek, receive & impart information & ideas through any media & regardless of frontiers."

Uh...racism has nothing to do with freedom of speech. It's whether you promote your racist views-that's when it may conflict with FOS laws (depending on the country). Racism as an ideology itself is perfectly legal.

This is now the outcry when the people of Australia try to debate their future & protect the country from the failed evils of multiculturism. In an attempt to gag debate, the coalition has introduced "Anti-Discrimination Legislation," the Beattie Government announced an apartheid policy for Queensland, to celebrate Australia day 2003.

IMIGRATION DETENTION AMENDMENT BILL 2003

The speech by Senator Len Harris clearly points out some of the loopholes that allow illegals (criminals, drug dealers & terrorists) to use our legal system at the expense of the crown to remain in the country. Labor typically has put forward a plan for a special appeal committee that would add further delays & costs.

The loophole in sect. 1963 of the immigration act, allows illegals to appeal & to be released into the community for up to 540 days on an interlockery order.

These people are now in detention centres because they have chosen to be it’s their wilful decision.

The cost to the Australian taxpayer is horrendous; the average time for a case in the Federal Court is 179 days, appeal to the Full Court 149 days, appeal to the High Court 189 days. Total 550 days, at an average cost per illegal of $270,000. This is not acceptable; the money would be far better invested in public health & other areas.

Len Harris clearly pointed out ONE NATIONS policies when speaking to this bill that will eliminate this loophole.

WHITE AUSTRALIA

All conducted surveys clearly show over 85% of Australians wish to retain the white Australia Policy which was replaced with the evil multiculturism policy without their consent.

One Nation will ensure the will of the people.

(my emphasis)

Personally I wouldn't mind a few links to back up those uncited statistics. And I'm also curious-if the majority of people wanted highly draconian laws against hate speech ? As in to the point where it became a genuine threat to free (not just hate) speech? Would you still rant on about the will of the people (as if that has anything to do with justice) or would you want certain laws that the majority of people, even if they wanted it, still couldn't remove? It's a two-way street, d*ckheads.

PS: If you want proof that this is genuinely their policies, then I have the screenshots if you want them emailed.

*Other Klansman parties include Australia First, the Australian Protectionist Party, Pauline Hanson’s United Australia Party, the Australian League of Rights and Australians Against Further Immigration**

**A more accurate title would be Australians Against Further Non-White Immigration, but I doubt it would be popular.