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Year: 2010 (Page 12 of 13)

Malaysian Churches Bombed

January 8, 2010 / / 0 Comments

A recent Malaysian court ruled that a Catholic newspaper could continue to use the world ‘Allah’ for God. Bombings of churches naturally ensued.

Allah is simply the Arabic word for God. It was used by Jews and Christians for hundreds of years before Mohammed came along.

But some Malaysians believe that use of the word Allah by non-Muslim religions may encourage people to think that those religions are acceptable alternatives.

In English, this would be like the Catholic church burning down Mormon temples because they have been using the word ‘God’ for God.

Religious freedom is guaranteed to non-Muslims under the Malay constitution, but Malays are Muslim by definition – Malaysia is a Muslim country – and Malays are not permitted to convert.

Strange how the liberal media seems to think it is perfectly OK for Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran, etc, etc, to be Muslim nations, but that it is racist for Israel to be a Jewish nation.

There are some positives, however.

First, in the court’s recognition that under the Malaysian constitution, other religions had the right to use the word Allah for God.

Second, in the clear statements by many Malaysian political leaders and journalists that this kind of violence is not acceptable.

The problem is that many Muslims know very well that Mohammed would have found it acceptable. And Mohammed is the model for every Muslim, not the constitution of any country, even a Muslim one.

Fortnightly Nutter Network

January 8, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Every couple of weeks I seem to pique the interest of some absolute raving nutter.

It usually goes something like this. I post an article on some current news item. The Queen spends $10 million on curtains for Windsor Castle, for example (she hasn’t, as far as I know). So I write a few words about whether the British public are getting good value for money from their Queen.

A couple of days later there is a long and outraged comment, demanding to know why I have used a word that is offensive to the whole gay commuity. Don’t I care that gay people have been oppressed for centuries?

Then there will be several paragraphs detailing incidents of oppression of homosexuals, and perhaps a quote or two from the Magna Carta thrown in for good measure.

Shortly afterwards I will find that this comment has been emailed to a couple of hundred people, pointing out what a hopeless homophobe I am.

Then there will be several more comments detailing at rambling and incoherent length, the hideous oppressions to which the gay community is still subjected. Some of these will include unpleasant personal insults directed at me and any other commenters who have asked what the heck is going through this person’s mind.

Some of those comments I will not allow through. Of course this proves what an unspeakable bastard I am, imposing my views on the gay community, using the power of censorship to silence the oppressed.

There may even be a little exchange demanding to know why I didn’t discuss my inflammatory and biased views with representatives of the gay community before publishing them.

I’ll reply that what I said was in response to a news article, and I was just expressing my own opinion. Others are welcome to do the same, and if any members of the gay community do want to speak with me, I’d be more than happy to talk with them.

That’s typical of my kind of ego-centric gender focussed personality, I’ll be told.

It’s very well for me to sit back and expect the oppressed minority to come to me. I wouldn’t think of making the effort to go to them, would I?

By now there will have been several more comments by the same person, perhaps on different articles.

For example, if I have written about climate change, I will be asked why I have, once again, failed to include the gay perspective, which will be detailed at length.

If I write about agricultural policy in Africa, my homophobia means I won’t even give passing recogniton to the plight of gay rice planters in Swaziland. My fortnightly weirdo will thoughtfully fill in the gaps, while continuing to send examples of my perfidious lack of concern to his or her extensive mailing list.

After the first couple of exchanges I usually recognise the pattern, and ask politely that the person stop emailing me. That request will be ignored.

Eventually, a week or so after I stop publishing any more comments and answering any more emails, my nutter will go away, presumably to pester some other blogger or public figure about why he or she is participating in the marginalisation of an oppressed minority by refusing to acknowledge the extensive gay contribution to highway traffic planning.

And then I’ll have a bit of peace for a week or so till the next nutter comes along.

Lesbian Leader Laid To Rest

January 7, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Radical feminist lesbian ‘theologian’ Mary Daly’ has died.

When I was at Flinders University in the early 80s I spent most of my time in the Philosophy Department. It was a Marxist department.

Being a unique individual who was able to think for myself, I thought exactly what I was told, and became a Sandinista supporting, land rights demanding, tree hugging member of the Socialist Workers’ Party – the only political party of which I have ever been a member.

I enrolled in Women’s Studies (and I was dutifully grateful for the opportunity to do so – not every university allowed men to participate).

I only lasted a couple of months. Not because I found it challenging – I had already read Greer and Friedan, and knew that men, especially white men, were the scum of the earth, rapists and pillagers who had never done anything good – but because even as an obedient little left-wing clone, I found it mind bogglingly dumb.

Mary Daly was a leader in the mind-bogglingly dumb, Elvis has left the building version of feminism. Germaine Greer was strikingly obvious, but not competely nuts, so I had no trouble with her.

Ten years later doing post-graduate studies at the University of Queensland, we were still being invited to draw from the deep well of Dalyan drivel.

Here are a couple of samples of drivel from an article on the Millenium Project:

It is also of obvious significance that other lethal purifying medicine is working to ensure an even earlier extinction of women. Now that the model of female moral purity has been converted into pure sexual availability, the Purifiers have produced The Pill. This is known to increase risks of …[long list of claims] … Premenopausal Pill-popping thus prepares the way for premature death, the ultimate purification.

(The writer of the article notes: One of the feminists loons that I was forced to associate with told me that using only female subjects in clinical trials of contraceptive pills was an example of how the patriarchy treated women as disposable, worthless objects. My questions about the usefulness of including men in trials designed to test the disruption of embryo attachment to the endometrium were brushed aside as examples of patriarchal ignorance.)

Dreadful, Deadless Women are the ones who have never stopped trying and who have continued to Hope. Our Hope is vigorous and active, and it is sustained and continually inspired by the Outrageous Courage of our Sisters/Foresisters who are ever more intensely Present to us, beckoning and Daring us to move further into The Fifth Spiral Galaxy. They are Calling us to continue our work of Metapatriarchal Metamorphosis Here and Now. This will require a New/Archaic Awakening.

It is never right to rejoice in the death of another, and I don’t rejoice in Mary Daly’s. I am sorry that so much of her life was wasted in pointless resentment and silliness.

I hope now that she knows the truth, she is able to find peace, and accept the certainty of being loved and valued by the Father God she so vehemently rejected on Earth.

Mobile Phones Are Good For Your Brain

January 7, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Research shows the small amount of electro-magnetic radiation from mobile phones may help prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.

So that’s yet another failed science scare.

Although, to be fair, I’m not sure it was ever scientists who were behind the mobile phones will fry your brain theory. I think that was Richard Branson. The same guy who made a fortune selling mobile phones.

But never mind, even if mobile phones aren’t scary any more, and no one believes the global warming stuff any more, new science scares can always be found.

But scientists in Britain have really excelled themselves with this one.

A star called T Pyxidis 3260 light years away might explode in a supernova some time in the next 100 years. Maybe.

If it does, it might explode with force of a billion billion billion megatons of TNT. Some good highlights to look forward to in the MTV best explosion category that year.

If it does, the explosion could, possibly, in about four or five thousand years, strip away the ozone layer from the Earth.

And then we’ll all die. Perhaps.

Plenty of funding opportunities there, chaps.

Sadly, the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is not chewing its way through the galaxy as quickly as previously thought.

Ah well, there’s still the Large Hadron Collider to worry about. Or use as an excuse for sex.

Obama Points The Finger

January 6, 2010 / / 0 Comments

US Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano claimed ‘the system worked’ in relation to the near miss bombing attempt on Northwest flight 253 on Christmas Day.

It did, but only to the extent that once the plot was foiled by courageous passengers, the threat was communicated to other planes, airports and travellers.

The ‘system’ did not work to stop the attack from occurring – that was purely luck.

So I can understand Obama’s angry claim that “We dodged a bullet, but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals, not because the system worked and that is not acceptable.”

Obama Points The Finger

Obama Points The Finger

Obama said he would not tolerate any finger pointing amongst security staff. Again, fair enough.

What is less fair is Obama’s vehemently and publicly pointing the finger at those same security personel, making it clear he blames them for this failure.

It is less fair not only because it was rude and unneccesary, but because clear policy directives from the top have made it virtually impossible for security staff to do their jobs.

If staff are forbidden to profile on the basis of race, forbidden to profile on the basis of religion or nationality, what are they to do?

Rely on second hand information? Well yes, to some extent.

As Napolitano points out, Abdulmutallab was on a ‘tied list,’  on the basis of such information. But there are over half a million people on that list.

And whatever US security staff did would not have mattered anyway.

Abdulmutallab was checked in and boarded the plane to Detroit in Amsterdam. Increased check-in security procedures in the US, increased information sharing, or even race/religion/country profiling, would not have made any difference.

So what exactly were Obama’s security staff getting blasted for?

I’m sure I don’t know. But it certainly made him look as if he was serious.

Anti-Whaling Protest Boat Damaged

January 6, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The bow of the Ady Gil was sheared off in a collision with a Japanese whaling vessel. It is taking on water, but all crew members have been rescued.

It’s not fair, says anti-whaling person Paul Watson, from the Steve Irwin mother ship, ‘this seriously escalates the whole situation.’

Oh dear.

Of course the protest vessel was quietly minding its own business at the time …  No?

Actually, the Ady Gil was launching projectiles at the Nisshin Maru and attempting to entangle its propellers with rope.

What sort of projectiles? By the protestors own admission, some of them were chemical containing projectiles:

Earlier the campaigners – who are trying to stop Japan’s whaling fleet – said they threw chemicals onto the whaling boat to prevent it being used.

So we have a high speed anti-whaling vessel circling a commercial ship while throwing out ropes to entangle its propellors and tossing chemicals on to its decks, when there is a collision. Whose fault is this?

The Japanese are certainly not in any doubt.

Japan’s Fisheries Agency said:

“These acts of sabotage that threaten our country’s whaling ships and crew were extremely dangerous. It is totally unforgivable.”

Apart from the unforgiveable part – nothing is unforgiveable – I agree. Not only that the protestors are to blame, but that the anti-whaling protest is hypocritical.

There is no shortage of Minke whales – in fact they reduce the krill vailable for other endangered species.

Whales have similar intelligence to other grazing animals like cows.

A modern harpoon kills quickly, and no more painfully than halal methods of killing sheep, goats and cattle.

So if the protestors eat beef, what basis do they have for complaint about Japan’s carefully managed whale harvest?

Could it be racism? Cultural insensitivity? Or just plain old hypocrisy?

Update:

Who rammed who?

The Ady Gil is a much faster, smaller, more nimble boat. If they didn’t deliberately ram the Japanese ship, they certainly put themselves in its way.

What Makes Children Happy and Stable?

January 6, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Having their fathers around:

The report cites half a dozen pieces of research that demonstrate pretty conclusively that children do better in terms of mental health and social adjustment when their fathers as well as their mothers are involved in their upbringing. Children are 40 per cent more likely to suffer mental health problems if they do not have contact with one parent. Girls are more likely to have healthy relationships with men – as you’d expect – if their fathers are part of their lives.

Getting a smack from time to time:

 According to research from Marjorie Gunnoe, professor of psychology at Calvin College in the US State of Michigan, children smacked before the age of six perform better at school when they are teenagers. They are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to university than their peers.

Professor Gunnoe interviewed 2,600 teenagers about being spanked. She found that when participants’ answers were compared with their behavior, such as academic success, optimism about the future, antisocial behavior, violence and bouts of depression, those who had been physically disciplined only between the ages of two and six performed best on all the positive measures.

No surprises in either case, really – it’s about being loved, feeling secure, and having clear boundaries.

Aussie Window Washers Rule

January 6, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) really is an amazing accomplishment.

The Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa

Earlier in 2009 Dubai looked like it was on the verge of a financial meltdown. It was rescued by Sheik Khalifa of Abu Dhabi. The tower has been renamed the Burj Khalifa in his honour.

At 2700 feet it is massively taller than the previous record holder, Taipei 101, which stands at about 1500 feet.

And all those windows are being washed by an Australian company, Cox Gomyl.

Cox Gomyl spent $12 million designing and installing gondolas on telescopic booms which can reach every part of the tower.

Window Cleaners

Window Cleaners

Cool!

Darwin Awards

January 5, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The 2009 Darwin Award winners have been announced.

These are given to people who have done the gene pool a favour by removing themselves from it.

I know it is not fair to laugh, but you just can’t help it.

One sample:

Traffic was moving slowly on southbound I-95. Shawn M. had recently left a Pompano Beach bar, and now he was stuck in traffic. As the saying goes, you don’t buy beer–you just rent it, and Shawn couldn’t wait another moment to relieve himself. “I need to take a leak,” he told his friends.

Traffic was deadlocked, so the waterlogged man climbed out, put his hand on the divider, and jumped over the low concrete wall… only to fall 65 feet to his death. “He probably thought there was a road, but there wasn’t,” said a Fort Lauderdale police spokesman. The car was idling on an overpass above the railroad lines.

His mother shared her attempt thoughts. “Shawn didn’t do a whole lot for a living. He got along on his charm, just like his father.”

Though his death was tragic, Shawn’s downfall proves the old adage: Look before you leak!

Top 20 Highest Grossing Films

January 4, 2010 / / 0 Comments

An interesting list of the top money-making films.

Avatar has made it into the top ten in just two weeks. This makes two films by James Cameron in the top ten – Avatar and Titanic.

Of the others, three of the top ten are Harry Potter movies, two are from the Pirates of the Carribean series, and two are Lord of the Rings.

That makes nine – the other is Dark Knight.

With the exception of Titanic, all of the top ten are fantasy.

Further down the list is Jurassic Park, Star Wars Episodes one and three, Spiderman, and more Harry Potter.

If nothing else, this proves people go to the movies to be entertained.

A startling revelation, I know, but it still doesn’t seem to have made it into the heads of Australian film producers.

Diocese of The Murray

January 4, 2010 / / 0 Comments

We arrived home in SA on Saturday night. Before church the next morning, we went to McDonalds for breakfast (Well why not? – It is cheap and convenient, they make good coffee, and the hot cakes aren’t bad) and picked up a copy of the reliably abysmal Sunday Mail.

There was a short article about the tribunal into the behaviour of Bishop of The Murray Ross Davies.

The Archbishop of Adelaide has had an extraordinarily difficult task in dealing with what is the worst crisis in episcopal leadership in the history of the Anglican church in Australia.

Earlier in 2009 the Archbishop had announced an enquiry into Bishop Davies’ actions as Bishop. That enquiry produced some 100 signed statements from people around the diocese alleging various kinds of verbal, spiritual and emotional abuse. Once those statements had been received, a tribunal could not be avoided.

The legal status of the tribunal is doubtful. Bishop Davies has made it clear he will not be stood down while the tribunal proceeds, and that he does not believe the Archbishop or the Primate have any right or authority to intervene in the Diocese of The Murray. He may well be right.

I suggested a couple of months ago that it was doubtful anyone outside the Diocese of The Murray could act to remove Bishop Davies. Nonetheless, clear findings of ongoing abuse by a carefully conducted and impartial tribunal might give Diocesan Council the stateable reasons and courage it needs to end Bishop Davies’ employment.

I hope and pray that the tribunal will reach its conclusions reasonably quickly, and that actions will then be be taken which will give the best possible outcome for the Diocese and for Bishop Davies and his family.

Whatever that outcome is, it is likely that this will be the end of The Murray as a conservative anglo-catholic diocese.

That statement needs to be clarified a little. The Murray is not an anglo-catholic diocese. It is a polychromatic middle of the road Anglican diocese which has been served by traditionalist anglo-catholic clergy.

As long as their views have been heard, and they have been treated with care and respect by their clergy, the people of the Diocese have been generous in accepting that the Diocese and the wider australian church have been well-served by the special witness of The Murray to a particular and important strand of Anglican faith.

That has changed.

Traditionalist clergy in the Diocese, and organisations like the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) and Forward in Faith, have supported Bishop Davies to the point of refusing to hear or give any credibility to reports of  inappropriate behaviour by Bishop Davies.

Even worse, they have shared with him in efforts to damage the credibility of anyone who complained or did not toe the line. This has left lay people feeling betrayed and deeply hurt.

The crisis in the diocese is not just over Bishop Davies’ leadership. It is a crisis of trust in the clergy.

This sense of having been betrayed, not just by a traditionalist bishop, but by almost all of the traditionalist clergy and the organisations to which they belong, means that it will be near impossible for someone who shares Bishop Davies’ conservative views to be elected.

The Anglican Church will be poorer for this.

OK, I Was Wrong

January 4, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Finally, proof of global warming:

Proof of Global Warming

Proof of Global Warming

But then, what about this:

A new study shows no change in the proportion of atmospheric and absorbed CO2 for the last 150 years.

Many climate models also assume that the airborne fraction will increase. Because understanding of the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide is important for predicting future climate change, it is essential to have accurate knowledge of whether that fraction is changing or will change as emissions increase.

To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Oh, hang on. He looked at real world data. The man’s obviously completely unreliable.

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