The Shockwave Writer

Stephen Fry is awesome at Inteligence Squared

2012-01-28T21:40:00.002Z

On 19 Oct 2009 Intelligence Squared, hosted a debate :-

The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world

Speakers included :- Stephen Fry, Archbishop John Onaiyekan, Ann Widdecombe, Zeinab Badawi, Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

Stephen Fry shows why he is so awesome:-

Stephen Fry

I genuinely believe that the Catholic Church is not, to put it at its mildest, a force for good in the world, and therefore it is important for me to try and martial my facts as well I can to explain why I think that. But I want first of all to say that I have no quarrel and no argument and I wish to express no contempt for individual devout and pious members of that church. It would be impertinent and wrong of me to express any antagonism towards any individual who wishes to find salvation in whatever form they wish to express it.

That to me is sacrosanct as much as any article of faith is sacrosanct to anyone of any church or any faith in the world. It’s very important. It’s also very important to me, as it happens, that I have my own beliefs. They are a belief in the Enlightenment, a belief in the eternal adventure of trying to discover moral truth in the world, and there is nothing, sadly, that the Catholic Church and its hierarchs likes to do more than to attack the Enlightenment.

It did so at the time: reference was made to Galileo and the fact that he was tortured, for trying to explain the Copernican theory of the Universe. Just imagine in this square mile how many people were burned for reading the Bible in English. And one of the principle burners and torturers of those who tried to read the Bible in English, here in London, was Thomas More. Now, that’s a long time ago, it’s not relevant, except that it was only last century that Thomas More was made a saint, and it was only in the year 2000, that the last pope, the Pole, he made Thomas More the Patron Saint of Politicians. This is a man who put people on the wrack for daring to own a Bible in English: he tortured them for owning a Bible in their own language.

The idea that the Catholic Church exists to disseminate the word of the Lord is nonsense. It is the only owner of the Truth for the billions that it likes to boast about, because those billions are uneducated and poor, as again it likes to boast about. It’s perhaps unfair of me, as a gay man, to moan at this enormous institution, which is the largest and most powerful church on Earth, has over a billion, as they like to tell us, members, each one of whom is under strict instructions to believe the dogmas of the church, but may wrestle with them personally of course. It’s hard for me to be told that I’m evil, because I think of myself as someone who is filled with love, whose only purpose in life was to achieve love, and who feels love for so much of nature and the world and for everything else.

We certainly don’t need the stigmatisation, the victimisation, that leads to the playground bullying when people say you’re a disordered, morally evil individual. That’s not nice, it isn’t nice. The kind of cruelty in Catholic education, the kind of child—let’s not call it child abuse, it was child rape—the kind of child rape that went on systematically for so long, let’s imagine that we can overlook this and say that it is nothing whatever to do with the structure and nature of the Catholic Church, and the twisted and neurotic and hysterical way that its leaders are chosen, the celibacy, the nuns, the monks, the priesthood, this is not natural and normal, ladies and gentlemen, in 2009, it really isn’t.

I have yet to approach one of the subjects dearest to my heart, I’ve made three documentary films on the subject of AIDS in Africa. My particular love is the country of Uganda, it is one of the countries I love most in the world. There was a period when Uganda had the worst incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world, but through an amazing initiative called ABC—Abstinence, Be faithful, Correct use of condoms—those three, I’m not denying that abstinence is a very good way of not getting AIDS, it really is, it works, so does being faithful, but so do condoms, and do not deny it! And this Pope, this Pope, not satisfied with saying “condoms are against our religion, please consider first abstinence, second being faithful to your partner,” he spreads the lie that condoms actually increase the incidence of AIDS, he actually makes sure that aid is conditional on saying no to condoms. I have been to the hospital in Bwindi in the west of Uganda, where I do quite a lot of work, it is unbelievable the pain and suffering you see. Now yes, yes it is true abstinence will stop it.

It’s the strange thing about this church, it is obsessed with sex, absolutely obsessed. Now, they will say we with our permissive society and our rude jokes, we are obsessed. No, we have a healthy attitude, we like it, it’s fun, it’s jolly, because it’s a primary impulse it can be dangerous and dark and difficult, it’s a bit like food in that respect only even more exciting. The only people who are obsessed with food are anorexics and the morbidly obese, and that in erotic terms is the Catholic Church in a nutshell.

Do you know who would be the last person ever to be accepted as a prince of the Church? The Galileean carpenter. That Jew. They would kick him out before he tried to cross the threshold. He would be so ill-at-ease in the Church. What would he think, what would he think of St. Peter’s? What would he think of the wealth, and the power, and the self-justification, and the wheedling apologies?

The Pope could decide that all this power, all this wealth, this hierarchy of princes and bishops and archbishops and priests and monks and nuns could be sent out in the world with money and art treasures, to put them back in the countries that they once raped and violated, they could give that money away, and they could concentrate on the apparent essence of their belief, and then, I would stand here and say the Catholic Church may well be a force for good in the world, but until that day, it is not.

Thank you.

The Result:-

Initial Vote: 678 For, 1102 Against, Undecided 346

Final Vote: 268 For, 1876 Against, Undecided 34

http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/catholic-church

But perhaps, you know, we should believe in Adam and Eve. Geneticists have established that every woman in the world shares a single female ancestor who lived a hundred and fifty thousand years ago. Scientists actually call her "Eve", and every man shares a single male ancestor called "Adam". It's also been established, however, that Adam was born eighty thousand years after Eve. So the world before him was one of heavy to industrial-strength lesbianism, one assumes. Stephen Fry

Britian The Rogue State of Libel

2012-01-19T06:21:00.000Z

If you publish, if you write, this is a book to read to understand just how bad the UK libel laws are.

On 21 July 2008, the United Nations declared that the practical application of English libel law "has served to discourage critical media reporting on matters of serious public interest, adversely affecting the ability of scholars and journalists to publish their work". England's authoritarianism was not a local concern, but created the global danger that one country's "unduly restrictive libel law will affect freedom of expression worldwide on matters of valid public interest".
Libel law was making England look like a pariah state. The internet ensured that all online publications everywhere on the planet could be read in England. Thanks to the Duke of Brunswick and his obedient servant, a single view of a web page in the UK constituted a publication of the libel in England, however old the offending words were. True, wealthy men could sue only if they had a reputation in England that critical reporting could damage. But as many oligarchs had a London home, or had business dealings in the City, they could overcome that obstacle with ease.

The USA did the right thing:-

US Senate passes 'libel tourism' bill
(AFP)–Jul 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — The US Senate on Monday passed a bill to shield US journalists, authors, and publishers from "libel tourists" who file suit in countries where they expect to get the most favorable ruling.
The popular legislation headed to the House of Representatives, which was expected to approve it and send the measure to US President Barack Obama to sign into law despite misgivings from key US allies.
Backers of the bill have cited England, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore as places where weak libel safeguards attract lawsuits that unfairly harm US journalists, writers and publishers.
The Senate approved the measure in a "unanimous consent" voice vote.
The bill's supporters have said that "libel tourism" undermines free speech rights under the US Constitution's cherished first amendment, and so erode accountability of powerful figures in a healthy democracy.

The book is available at The Guardian Bookshop

More information on UK Libel can be found here http://www.libelreform.org/

Libel laws are not just a Fleet Street issue. We have heard from scientists, campaigners, writers, academics and patients that their discussions and publications are being shut down by the threat of libel action. Critical and open debates are vital in medicine and the public are badly missing out without them. Tracey Brown, Managing Director of Sense About Science:

Stop SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-18T05:00:00.000Z

Don't forget

Freedom is in Peril

Sheep Lawsuits Feminism and Venn Diagrams

2012-01-18T01:34:00.000Z

I'm have often wondered why so many women support religion, I have always supposed that it has to do with the fear of death and separation from loved ones. But then again, maybe it's the certainty that it supposedly provides.
But Christian Feminists? Really this is truly an oxymoron

Lets see the compatibility:-

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. In addition, feminism seeks to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist is a "person whose beliefs and behaviour are based on feminism."

Christianity is whatever you want it to be, whenever it is convenient for you, as long as you believe Jesus Christ was some sort of godly figure, and will save you from death. You have a choice to be in one of 33,830 denominations.
But it comes down to men on top, and women down the bottom...look see! I have even made a Venn Diagram.

I have often commented on the UK Nadine Dories as one woman who pushes the Christian view of abortion and sex education. This basically consists of the first will stop, if the second is all about saying no. This is just plain weird.
Australia has her equal in Melinda Tankard Reist, who famously was once an adviser to Sen Brian Harradine, the man who kept RU486 out of the hands of Australian woman for as long as he could.

No place for sheep is the blog of Jennifer Wilson, who also writes in various other places, such as ABCs The Drum.

On the 14th January Jennifer received a notice from MTR and her lawyers to delete all posts about her, claiming that she was upset about being called a Baptist, and was duplicitous and deceptive about her religion.

As you might guess this brings lawsuits in Australia to a new level, it doesn't look to be a case of seeking to clarify the facts and for a correction, but as a means to silence someone through Lawfare.

Australia has a semi-nationalised healthcare system called Medicare, maybe it's time the Legal system was nationalised as well, as it's only seems to serve those who can afford it. But then that's why it's called a Legal system, and not a Justice system.

Further Reading:-

PZ Meyers gets into the act
As does Russell Blackford
Herald Sun
The Australian Sex Party also add their bit, and they are not happy.

Actually I never asked my friend Spitfire about her actual Church.

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

Spitfire shows us Christian love

2012-01-17T00:11:00.000Z

Where our Heroine encounters Christian Love.

This is for Jennifer Ahlquist, who has experienced Christian love such as below.

“If this banner comes down, hell i hope the school burns down with it!”

“U little brainless idiot, hope u will be punished, you have not win sh..t! Stupid little brainless skunk!”

“Fuck Jessica alquist I’ll drop anchor on her face”

“definetly laying it down on this athiest tommorow anyone else?”

“Nothing bad better happen tomorrow #justsaying #fridaythe13th”

“Let’s all jump that girl who did the banner #fuckthatho”

“literally that bitch is insane. and the best part is she already transferred schools because shes knows someone will jump her #ahaha”

“”But for real somebody should jump this girl” lmao let’s do it!”

“Hmm jess is in my bio class, she’s gonna get some shit thrown at her”

“I want to punch the girl in the face that made west take down the school prayer… #Honestly”

“hail Mary full of grace @jessicaahlquist is gonna get punched in the face”

“When I take over the world I’m going to do a holocaust to all the atheists”

“gods going to fuck your ass with that banner you scumbag”

“I found it, what a little bitch lol I wanna snuff her”

“if I wasn’t 18 and wouldn’t go to jail I’d beat the shit out of her idk how she got away with not getting beat up yet”

“lol I wanna stick that bitch lol”

“nail her to a cross”

“We can make so many jokes about this dumb bitch, but who cares #thatbitchisgointohell and Satan is gonna rape her.”

The list of threats and and those caring Christians who made them, are here

There is actually also a Comic Book character called Madame Mirage to me the idea of an evangelical Superhero is rather scary. In reality, it's Jennifer who is the real hero.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.- Socrates

I support the Sparticus Report

2012-01-11T13:30:00.002Z

I have always been suspicious that the UK Tory government runs purely on ideological reasons seemingly at odds with the economic reality at the current time.

One of its projects has been getting disabled people off benefits and back into work, there is of course a slight problem with this, seeing that the economy is a bit of a mess there are actually no jobs to go to, it also doesn't help that is disabled people have to go to Serco and have their disabilities examined by an amateur with check list.

There has been some excellent work done by Sue Marsh , Bendy Girl and other to highlight just how ridiculous this system has become.

On the 9th January they released a report "Responsible Reform" commonly known as the Spartacus report on how the government basically misled the public on their alleged consultation about changes to the disability living allowance DLA.

The government has said it wishes to cut the money paid to the DLA by 20%, a slight problem is that fraud or the DLA is only 0.5% is that it is certainly not something they are going to improve on very much. So the Government a doing what they do best, and attacking those who aren't good at defending themselves.

Summery of Responsible Reform from Ekklesia

'Responsible Reform' is based on the responses to the government's own consultation on its planned DLA reforms, which were only made public once disabled people requested them under the Freedom of Information Act.

Among the report's key conclusions are that:
* Only seven per cent of organisations that took part in the consultation were fully in support of plans to replace DLA with a Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
* There was overwhelming opposition in the consultation responses to nearly all of the government's proposals for DLA reform
* The government has consistently used inaccurate figures to exaggerate the rise in DLA claimants
* The report shows that nearly all of the recent increase in working-age claimants of DLA has been associated with mental health conditions and learning difficulties. Between 2002 and 2010, the number of working-age DLA claimants - excluding those with mental health conditions and learning difficulties remained remarkably stable
* 98 per cent of those who responded opposed plans to change the qualifying period for PIP from three months (as it is with DLA) to six months
* 90 per cent opposed plans for a new assessment, which disabled people fear will be far too similar to the much-criticised work capability assessment used to test eligibility for employment and support allowance (ESA)
* Respondents to the consultation repeatedly warned that the government's plans could breach the Equality Act, the Human Rights Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The easy read version of the Report can be found here at United Response. While the full version is here at Ekklesia.

The latest Sue Marsh article at The Guardian

The news on this report and the Government is getting out slowly, and hopefully will cause the Government to actually do something actually positive for the disabled. Chanel 4 News

This Government has let the Banks and tax evaders get away with £Billions and don't seem to be that great at trying to fix it, oh wait, yes, this is the Tory party, when I said "Banks and tax evaders" I really should have said "Tory party supporters".

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
- Charles Darwin

Diseased Books and the AVN

2012-01-06T19:54:00.002Z

There can't be much more heart breaking than loosing a child, but when you use this as a springboard to push an agenda that will only bring death to more children, then my sympathy will disappear very quickly.

Stephanie Messenger works closely with Meryl Dorey and the AVN (Generally known as the Anti-Vaccination Network), and have authored together yet together another antivax book
On the webpage that sells her book (that I won't link to) she make 3 pronouncements:-

A few simple facts for people to check out:

1. Japan stopped vaccinating young babies and their SIDs rate plummeted to near none. SIDS in Australia mostly happens at 2, 4 and 6 months – a coincidence – I think not, some will definitely be vaccination deaths!

This is actually entirely false, the Japanese do vaccinate children, but have a different schedule
yes they don't use the MMR but 3 single injections, and use the oral Polio tablet, not an injection

Mandatory Vaccines in Japan:

3 Months - DPT (Diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) then again at 4 months, and 6 months & 18 months

3 Months - BCG (Tuberculosis)

6 Months - Polio - and again at 18 months

3 Years - MR (Measles and Rubella) - Total of 3 shots given over a period of several weeks / months

Heath care in Japan is extremely good, and this will be one reason that SIDS is much lower than in other counties. SIDS has been failing in all countries according to SIDS and KIDS Japan and The Netherlands have the lowest incidence, while noticeable the highest incidence is among peoples with a high number of smokers such as Native Americans and New Zealand Maori.

Again from SIDS and KIDS is a report that demonstrates that immunisation decreases the risk of SIDS.

2. The U.S.A. has paid out billions in compensation for vaccine injury. Why do doctors here deny it is happening – are they scared of being sued?

Yes the USA has paid out $Billions, but then just see how much courts award most legal claims in the USA. The actually numbers of verified clams are quite low, recently in the hundreds compared to the amount of those people who actually get vaccinated. The USA started these special courts as the drug companies stopped manufacturing the vaccines after loosing a few court cases.

Here is the latest January 2012 Vaccine Compensation Report from the USA.
It's noticeable that 2011 was a record year for payouts, but note that it takes 2-3 years for the clam to be processed, and there is also the adults and the resent nationwide flu jabs.
Total payouts for 1989 - 2012 (so far) $2,366,649,931.96

In the UK 1997 - 2005 £35 Million has been paid out due to Vaccine Injury

Note the no-one is saying that vaccination is 100% safe, that is why these vaccination courts where set up, but it's the simple case that so many more people would die if there were no vaccination.

According to the WHO, There are only 19 countries in the world that do have No-fault Compensation for Vaccine Injuries, and I do think it is something Australia should look at implementing. It's not a conspiracy, it's just something that needs to be done properly.

3. There is absolutely NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF a raised antibody level equals immunity. Apparently doctors want scientific proof of reactions, yet there is no scientific proof a raised antibody level gives immunity. There is proof it does not, when most of the cases of whooping cough are in the vaccinated as they are for this current epidemic.

Wrong.
Answered here in Clinical Infectious Diseases, as it's an actual Scientific Journal written by someone who is actually a Professor of Pediatrics, and not a dodgy website like whale.to, or anything with the word natural in the title, it takes a bit of reading and understanding. Yes it's a bit heavy going, but you can skip to the conclusion.

Whooping Cough needs a booster, just like Tetanus, it does wear off, and the unvaccinated are copping it as well.

Measles :- From the World Heath Organisation

Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available.
In 2008, there were 164 000 measles deaths globally – nearly 450 deaths every day or 18 deaths every hour.
More than 95% of measles deaths occur in low-income countries with weak health infrastructures.
Measles vaccination resulted in a 78% drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2008 worldwide.
In 2010, about 85% of the world's children received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday through routine health services – up from 72% in 2000.

Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. In 1980, before widespread vaccination, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.It remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. An estimated 164 000 people died from measles in 2008 – mostly children under the age of five.
So....not harmless at all.

Some still believe that vaccines cause autism, and it has been refuted quite thoroughly, for example, here is an actual study done by real scientists in Denmark.
When I say "Real Scientists" I mean those with a real degree, and not someone who graduated from the University of Google.

So why do people still hang on to this belief?
Autism is genetic, so it has to come from the parents, so rather than face this fact, it's easier to go into denial, and blame someone, anyone else.

Some more on Stephanie Messenger at Anti-vaxxors

But on the on the hand, if you actually find Melanies Marvellous Measles a good read, you can follow it up with these wonderful offerings from http://www.blissfulblightbooks.com/

Soon to follow is Rachel's Remarkable Rubella and Hillary and her Hilarious HPV

Thanks to Reasonable Hank for the heads up on this awful book.

The AVN have had some interesting exposure recently, recently at Woodford, and just yesterday a slight issue with their magazine and accounts.AVN Accounts info can be read here and a synopsis of Woodford can be read at Dave the Happy Singer.

Having children made us look differently at all these things that we take for granted, like taking your child to get a vaccine against measles or polio.Melinda Gates

Comic:- Starting 2012

2012-01-02T18:14:00.001Z

I hope that this year improves on 2011, I must admit I'm not optimistic. Spitfire and I will have a few things to discuss over the next year, while I have reason and science on my side, she has mental inertia, inherited privilege and blind faith on hers.

Spitfire is still a bit peeved about this.

New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain

Catholic Church costs Italy six billion Euros a year

2012-01-01T21:15:00.002Z

Italy’s Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR), decided to have a look at how much the Italian state either contributes or subsidises the Catholic church, and the result although an estimate is about 6Billion Euros, or about 7.5 Billion US dollars. This will always be difficult research project do to how the Churches assets are spread through various diocese and under different corporations, and some institutions will be in association, but not actually owned by the Church.

The results are in Italian here http://www.icostidellachiesa.it/ no English translation so using Google Translate is the only way to read it.

Although others have tried in the recent past to produce an estimate:- Piergiorgio Odifreddi (Why can not we be Christians, 2007) has estimated 9 billion per year, Curzio Maltese (The questing, 2008) 4.5 billion, the Ares (The Chaste Caste , 2008) at 20 billion.
For its part, the Catholic world is almost always refer to the reply to the Maltese book, entitled The true begging, written by journalist Umberto Folena Future and freely downloadable online , (in Italian) which has no total amount.

PDF on just some of the Catholic Churches finances in the US by Curzio Maltese

Wikipedia Funding the Catholic Church in Italy

"The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy." -Thomas Paine

Newtonmas 2011 Comic- Our heroine takes a fall

2011-12-21T23:37:00.000Z

A few things happened after yesterdays Newtonmas Card photoshoot.

So there I was, down the bottom of the cliff while Spitfire went off to jump out of her cake. HA!, so she says, I'll catch up with her in a short while.

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians ... Isaac Newton, a posthumous child born with no father on Christmas Day, 1642, was the last wonder child to whom the Magi could do sincere and appropriate homage... Why do I call him a magician? Because he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher's treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood... He regarded the Universe as a cryptogram set by the Almighty—just as he himself wrapt the discovery of the calculus in a cryptogram when he communicated with Leibniz. By pure thought, by concentration of mind, the riddle, he believed, would be revealed to the initiate.

— John Maynard Keynes

Have a Happy Solstice or Christmas or Newtonmas

2011-12-19T22:33:00.000Z

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, & leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.- Sir Isaac Newton

I think this is Deviant Art page 3

2011-12-10T17:38:00.001Z

I have had even more pictures done, I generally just look in the Deviant Art Forums on who is having a special, or just search Commission, on the front page search and cut the results down to the last week. Sometimes I find people having specials, and if I like their styles, I might order a commission.

When they ask for a back story I usually just say do an image search for "The Dirty Pair".

I don't usually go in for a bust picture, normally I prefer a full body one.
As done by 8jessica7.deviantart.com

I call this one "Have you seen my Pistol?" The artist was charging $2 US! eroma.deviantart.com

I actually asked for a pin up style picture, and I added a list of suggestions. It was only when I looked at the picture, and the incomplete robot, and then her email address ending in .it, did I realise she was probably a good Catholic girl and English was not her strong point....Ha!
I called this one Space Ranger Plasma and the Incomplete Robot.
As done by vp-artworks.deviantart.com

There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk. - Charles Dickens

Even more pictures from Deviant Art

2011-12-10T16:47:00.001Z

So here I have a few more Portraits I have had done by Artists from DeviantArt

Zonja and I as done by http://coffeekinns.deviantart.com

As you can see, I don't have much confidence in her waving that Light Sabre around.

Here I am with Gospeed Racer (I promised her I would do this years ago) as done by deliriumlina.deviantart.com

I wasn't going to get a Chilbi Style portrait, but I liked how http://cacandy1988.deviantart.com/ did them.

And lastly a $5 special from http://ewgraphics.deviantart.com

I paint German artists whom I admire. I paint their pictures, their work as painters, and their portraits too. But oddly enough, each of these portraits ends up as a picture of a woman with blonde hair. I myself have never been able to work out why this happens.Georg Baselitz

Battlefield America

2011-11-30T08:08:00.001Z

Senators Demand the Military Lock Up of American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window

Dear USA citizens,
You know how you keep going on about being the "Land of the Free", in spite of other counties actually being more free than you eg Norway, Demark etc.

You might want to read how the National Defense Authorization Act will allow the US military to arrest and hold you in detention without charge anywhere in the world, including the US mainland.
You know all those civil right you thought you had? This is the Counter-Enlightenment, and it's coming for you.

There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people. Commander William Adama - Battlestar Galactica

Burzynski Clinic in a tizz

2011-11-30T05:56:00.001Z

So the big news in Skeptic and medical blogging circles is the Burzynski Clinic, and the bizarre emails from Marc Stevens, to a number of skeptical bloggers.
Burzynski claim that Marc was hired for his SEO skills, and I will admit that he has been a remarkable success in raising the Burzynski Clinics profile, but Marc doesn't seems to have a big profile himself, as I can't find him via Google, and his Yahoo Answers profile has been deleted.

It all started off with this story From the Quackometer how he saw a story in the Observer about how Peter Kay was raising money to send a child to the Clinic for treatment. Its certainly a worthy thing that Peter is doing, but as Le Canard Noir said, it's probably all for nought.

Among the others who got the nasty emails was Rhys Morgan a local hero for taking on the Miracle Mineral Solution, also known as bleach, and having it banned in the UK.

Read the emails between Rhys and Marc, two other names stick out Azad Rastegar and Renee Trimble. They both work at the clinic. They both have copies of these emails and they say nothing, only a retweet from @AzadRastegar on twitter from a patient who does seem to be getting better.

Regarding medical side of the treatment the mighty David Colquhoun covers it here

Now it really get interesting as the Burzynski Clinic have finally released a statement. It mentions attorneys will be contacting UK based bloggers about alleged defamatory statements.

This would be rather interesting to see going to Court as the Burzynski Clinic would probably be in breach of the 1939 Cancer Act.

So basically Bloggers says the Clinic can't really cure cancer, The Clinic has only anedotal evidence that it does, the Clinic takes bloggers to Court in the UK, so the Clinic will actually have to prove in front of expert witnesses that it can cure cancer. I can't really see that the NHS and the UK Cancer Research leaving this alone.

Martin Robbins who is the Science writer for the Guardian has just posted this to his Google+

Just got this follow up for the Burzynski lawyer. As I thought, he was straight with me, but the situation behind the scenes seems very confused. In any case, the below seems pretty clear now... I've not seen the press release, and I'm out of the country s will just post this as is...

"The clinic issued a press release on the blogosphere issue which was sent to your paper. It covers the relationship between it and Marc Stephens It turns out some of the issues are more complicated that I had first thought. But the bottom line is that the clinic did hire Marc Stephens and one of his main tasks was to stop the dissemination of false and misleading information, and he initiated contact with at least some of these web sites with the knowledge of the clinic. As stated in the press release, the clinic is still going to pursue having these web sites remove misstatements or misleading omissions of fact. For the time being, these bloggers have managed to make this about threats by the Burzynski clinic rather than whether the information on these sites is truthful, accurate and fair. We're hoping that somewhere down the line, the media will focus of these issues."

Hmmm

STOP PRESS!

As I write this the most excellent Jen McCreight takes a stick to some of the claims and references in the statement.

So it looks to me that the clinic has scored an own goal.

"The highwaymandemands 'your money OR your life,' but quacks demand 'your moneyAND your life!'" -anon

Whatever happened to Milan Brych?

2011-11-26T00:44:00.001Z

Long time ago in the dark days of a gerrymandered Australian state, there was a State Premier called Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Miracles did he promise, and never delivered, such as a steam powered car and a cure for cancer.

The supposed miracle worker was Milan Brych ( Born 11 December 1939), a refugee from Czechoslovakia, who moved to New Zealand in 1968, and he was able to convince then that he was an actual doctor, and then to the Cook Islands 1977 when he was being investigated by the NZ Medical Council.

In 1978 Sir Joh invited Milan Brych to move to Queensland to set up practice, this was headline news at the time, and very controversial. I suspect that if it wasn't for the Deputy Premier Dr Llew Edwards actually being a medical doctor, and being totally opposed to a quack doctor setting up in the state, this would have occurred.

He eventually moved to the US, was arrested for fraud in 1983 and sentenced to 6 years jail. Afterwards he disappeared and seems to have dropped out of sight.

There is a very comprehensive and unfortunately very badly done website here at what used to be called The Milan Brych Underground Website (MBUW). The original domain has expired and it's really hard to navigate, I also don't think it has been updated since 2002, so I guess the design can be excused as it's ten years old and probably done in Microsoft FrontPage (bleh).

He was the subject of two books around that time:-
Milan Brych: the cancer man by Australian journalist Frank Quill (out of print)
and
Cancer and Milan Brych: Cure or Con? by Michael Guy (1978) available to read online at the MBUW website

The Courier-Mail have a recent summery on the visit of Brych to Queensland and his visit with Sir Joh.

The MBUW also has some pictures of graves of those who didn't survive, the locals call it the Brych Yard
(Updated 2006!)

"very devious person, very cunning and quite callous to the well-being of society, particularly when a great deal of money is involved." - Judge David S. Aisenson (describing Milan Brych)

Dawkins asks David Cameron a question

2011-11-25T23:34:00.001Z

Over here at The Guardian
I think it shows just why David Cameron doesn't get it. John Maynard Keynes was real.

Richard Dawkins, ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author
Why do you support faith schools for children who are too young to have chosen their faith, thereby implicitly labelling them with the faith of their parents, whereas you wouldn't dream of so labelling a "Keynesian child" or a "Conservative child"?

"Comparing John Maynard Keynes to Jesus Christ shows, in my view, why Richard Dawkins just doesn't really get it. I think faith schools are very often good schools. Why? Because the organisation that's backing them – the church or the mosque or the synagogue – is part of the community. And it brings a sense of community and the backing of an institution to a school. The church was providing good schools long before the state got involved, and we should respect the fact that it's not just the state that can provide education but other bodies, too."

Domininist Fantasy 2012 If This Goes On—

2011-11-13T22:07:00.001Z

I used to love reading Robert Heinlein as a teenager, much as I used to love to watch Star Trek, it was reassuring that someone thought the future was going to be a better place, and it was just a few engineering challenges away.

One of Heinliens first stories was "If This Goes On—" first serialized in 1940, and rewritten for his 1953 book Revolt in 2100.

The story is set in a future theocratic American society, ruled by the latest in a series of “Prophets.” The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012). You can get the T-shirt here:

So lets play Pick the Scudder :-

Michelle Bachmann
Newt Gingrich,
Jon Huntsman Jr.,
Ron Paul,
Rick Perry,
Mitt Romney
Rick Santorum

Tricky....

Thanks to David Brin for reminder.....

"When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything —you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." Robert Heinlein

Warning signs of fascism

2011-11-11T17:37:00.001Z

I am blatantly stealing this from Stephen Sumpter at http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/

This list was created in 2003 by Laurence W. Britt and published in Free Inquiry Magazine. He took these characteristics from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia.

Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
Disdain for the importance of human rights
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
Supremacy of the military/avid militarism
Rampant sexism
A controlled mass media
Obsession with national security
Religion and ruling elite tied together
Power of corporations protected
Power of labor suppressed or eliminated
Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts
Obsession with crime and punishment
Rampant cronyism and corruption
Fraudulent elections

The original article contains longer explanations and references. Fascism Anyone? – Laurence W. Britt

It certainly seems that most of the English speaking world is on track for most or all of the above.

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.- Benito Mussolini

40 Day of treats is over

2011-11-07T17:41:00.003Z

The gang at 40 Days of Treats have done a great job.

But there are reminders of those in the past who didn't have the luxury of the social progress that we mostly enjoy at the present time.

The pictures below are of Cross Bones Graveyard in Southwark London that I took a day or so ago, in it's early days it was called the Single Womans Graveyard, it's where the unwanted people in as far back as 1600 were interred. Unwanted, unloved, the refuse of a cruel society where they were non-people. Mostly it contains the remains of orphans, babies and prostitutes. I found it extremely moving looking at the ribbons, the keys and trinkets left at the gate.

This is what happened in the past due to lack of birth control,... unwanted babies, turning into unwanted people, living in poverty.

In the late 1990s the Museum of London excavated 148 remains, while estimating this was less than 1% of the total number of burials at this site. Their was also an episode of BBC History: Cold Case S01E04 movie you can watch here called Crossbones Girl where they take the bones to a "Face Finder" to reconstruct her appearance.

Redcross Way

The plaque on the gates

The gates covered in tributes

A small box behind the gates

Inside the gates

Today, young single mothers are still more likely to live in poverty than any other group in society, this is why access to abortion is so important, and in the years past, this is where they would end up.
More Pictures from the BBC

"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of"- Confucius

Woman and more Internet Abuse

2011-11-06T14:23:00.001Z

I blogged back in August about how much abuse Rebecca Watson was getting, as I barley register on any ones radar so I just get comments on how I should read my bible.
In the last few days it's become much more clear about how much the torrent of hate towards woman bloggers writers has become

Helen Lewis-Hasteley kicks it off at The New Statesman

Laurie Penny has a article in the Guardian on the amount of abuse she get.

While Caroline Farrow and I are on opposite sides of the Theological fence (well pretty much every fence really) her writing in this article on the abuse she gets from woman as well as men is extremely good.

Follow twitter hashtag #stampoutmisogyny

My only solution would be to selectively turn on revealing IP addresses in comments, just so we can see where these nasty trolls are coming from, yes I know it's far from perfect.

“When you hear men talking," said Cornelia, "all they ever do is speak ill of women. ... And I don't quite know how they managed to make this law in their favour, or who exactly it was who gave them a greater license to sin than is allowed to us; and if the fault is common to both sexes (as they can hardly deny), why should the blame not be as well? What makes them think they can boast of the same thing that in women brings only shame?” Moderata Fonte

The new war on Woman

2011-10-28T09:42:00.000+01:00

It's been a turbulent few months in the battle for womans rights, in the UK and the USA.

But just in time has come a UN report from UN special rapporteur on health, Mr Anand Grover who says all states must provide safe abortion and contraception for women.

Criminal prohibition of abortion is a very clear expression of State interference with a woman's sexual and reproductive health because it restricts a woman's control over her body, possibly subjecting her to unnecessary health risks. Criminal prohibition also requires women to continue unplanned pregnancies and give birth when it is not their choice to do so.
States must take measures to ensure that legal and safe abortion services are available, accessible, and of good quality.
Absolute prohibition under criminal law deprives women of access to what, in some cases, is a life-saving procedure. Even where a clandestine abortion can be performed in a relatively safe, hygienic setting, it may be financially inaccessible for the most vulnerable women. Poor and marginalized women may instead turn to unsafe, self-induced abortions.

The complete report is here

I suspect the Queens cousin Lord Windsor will not agree.

I also suspect we will be hearing from the Rightwing Christians and conspiracy nuts around the world that this is yet again the UN trying to take control of their country.

There has been a UK politician that has been the centre of some attention for the last few years. Her name is Nadine Dorries, as far as I can tell she became well known during the MP expenses affair, for which she was eventually cleared.

She has a blog, but she has also admitted in the past, that 70% of the content in her blog is fictional.

Recently she tried unsuccessfully to change the rules on abortion in the UK, this obviously shows she is not really on the side of woman, but working as the spokesperson of a right wing Christian anti-woman movement. Nadine Dorries wanted to stop abortion providers giving NHS-funded counselling to women. So basically the idea was that those that provide the abortions, should not give counselling as well. This argument was dismissed quite easily

She said it was about offering women more choice but was accused of trying to "import American sensationalism" by Diane Abbott MP to the abortion debate.

The Dorries amendment would have stripped abortion providers such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) from offering counselling to women, MPs rejected her call to offer women the "option" of independent counselling by 368 votes to 118. There are some other advice agencies, but an investigation has shown that some of them are giving absolutely dreadful advice.

In one centre, Skylight Counselling, a Care Confidential affiliate in Coventry, the researcher was given material linking abortion to breast cancer and infertility, and was warned about "post-traumatic stress", should she choose to have a termination.
Deliberately bad advice is common in the USA as well.

Nadine is not really keen on Dr Evan Harris, and had a bit of a chat with him on Sky News

Other weird things this woman has been advocating is the "Just say No" method of sex education, one that has been such a failure in the USA

Young single mothers remain the most impoverished group in society, and the Anti-choice campaigners have a mantra "Support the mother". Does this ever happen? I think not. Again it's more Christian rhetoric but with no substance. Half of those who get abortions in the UK are already mothers, and will have various reasons for not wanting another child, supposedly Nadine says she can stop 60,000 abortions a year. Creating even more single mothers! What do Tories hate more than Unions? People on welfare, and then again the August riots were blamed by many on the lack of parental care, or the amount of single parent families. Soooo..we have a case of trying to have it both ways, so very strange.

As an aside, Nadine is a nominee in the New Humanist Bad Faith Award.

I'm not the only one who is not keen on her http://nadine-dorries.blogspot.com/ seems to be a bit of a fan club.

For anyone who is really interested in the numbers, the Guardian Data blog has done some visualizations on the number of abortions in England and Wales

The USA house of representative recently passed the H.R. 358, the “Protect Life Act.” The measure, introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), is to prohibit federal funds from going toward any health care plan that covers abortion services; it also would block funding from being withheld from institutions that are opposed to providing abortions.

The bill is one of two abortion-related measures introduced by House Republicans in this Congress; the other is H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which passed the House in early May on a near-party-line vote.

On the state level, the attack continues with legal attacks on the suppliers , and Personhood laws. Here is an example:-

“SECTION 1. Article III of the constitution of the state of Mississippi is hearby amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION TO READ:
Section 33. Person defined. As used in this Article III of the state constitution, “The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.”

Naturally hand in hand with womans rights is birth control, this often leads to farcical statements such as the one made by presidential candidate Ron Paul this month. But it even gets better in the race for "How much more crazy can I get" is Sen. Jim DeMint with his push to stop people talking about abortion over the Internet.

The Australian leader of the Opposition Tony Abbot hasn't decided what his Abortion position is this week.

When men are motivated by religion, it's usually the woman who get crucified first.

Comprehensive information on Abortion Laws can be found here http://www.worldabortionlaws.com/

For further information Please see Abortion Rights

More Factual information can be obtained from Education for Choice and Reproductive rights

"No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg." - Frederica Mathewes-Green

Derren Brown - The Assassin

2011-10-22T20:53:00.000+01:00

Derren Brown, you either like him or hate him, personally I like him.

He has done some entertaining shows, but last night he demonstrated how it might be possible to make someone do something they wouldn't normally do via hypnosis. He turned someone into an Assassin (maybe).
I was interested in hypnosis for many years, well I still am, but I never really got anywhere with it.

Now I actually believe that what Derren did is possible, but only for one reason. I have (somewhere) a book called "Open to Suggestion: The Uses and Abuses of Hypnosis" by Robert K Temple.

Temple is one of those writers that produce books on subjects that he is not expert on, but he knows enough, to make you think he might be right. I suspect the Sirius Mystery is rubbish, but his book on lenses "The Crystal Sun" is interesting, and his book "The Genius of China" was a delightful read. I've not read any of his others.

Back to "Open to Suggestion", in one chapter he is talking about psychiatrist and self taught hypnotherapist Milton Erikson, and how he was once asked to make someone do something he wouldn't do. It was observed that Erikson tried and failed, but he didn't do the normal word games and redirection that he was famous for, and this was considered odd by those who knew Erikson.

So I'm just saying..it's possible...really...

We all get stuck in our belief systems, however sensible we think they are. To me, the New Age community is particularly guilty of not testing or challenging what it claims. - Derren Brown

New Humanist Bad Faith Awards 2011

2011-10-22T10:38:00.001+01:00

New Humanist Magazine are running their Bad Faith Awards for 2011.

This years contestants are :-

Michele Bachmann

Anjem Choudary

Tom MacMaster

Rick Perry

Melanie Phillips

Nadine Dorries

Nadine seems to be a bit unimpressed with this nomination

Humanism is a worldview which says that reason and science are the best ways to understand the world around us. Dignity and compassion should be the basis for how we act toward others.

--American Humanist Association

Gresham Lecture on AntiVax in History

2011-10-15T17:14:00.002+01:00

A History of the AntiVax movment

Gresham Lecture by Professor Gareth Williams on AntiVax in History
it's about 60 minutes long, but worth watching.

This is actually a cartoon ridiculing the antivax people, as they believe they are taking on the Cows attributes

Take note at about 40 minutes where you will see chiropractors saying vertebral subluxations to be the cause of all disease, so therefor Vaccination and Germ Theory are invalid..errr yeah...right, but some still believe it.

Professor Williams also mentions a more recent anti-vaxer called Viera Scheibner, I have saved you the google search as he recommends, just watch this from Australian 60 Minutes:-

Today one of the big sources of Vaccination misinformation is the Australian Vaccination Network, headed up by Meryl Dorey you can read here how Stop the AVN is combating this menace.

“I hope that some day the practice of producing cowpox in human beings will spread over the world - when that day comes, there will be no more smallpox” Edward Jenner

Censorship in the UK, coming some time or not?

2011-10-15T11:39:00.004+01:00

Recently the UK Government asked Reg Bailey the CEO of The Mothers Union to have a look at the modern pressures on children.

Dr Petra reviews it far better than I ever could here

But basically the finding are :-

putting age restrictions on music videos to prevent children buying sexually explicit videos, and to guide broadcasters over when to show them
covering up sexualised images on the front pages of magazines and newspapers so they are not in easy sight of children
retailers to offer more age-appropriate clothes for children and sign up to a code of practice which checks and challenges the design, buying, display and marketing of clothes, products and services for children
restricting outdoor adverts containing sexualised imagery where large numbers of children are likely to see them, for example near schools, nurseries and playgrounds
giving greater weight to the views of parents above the general public in regulating pre-watershed TV
providing parents with one single website to make it easier to complain about any programme, advert, product or service
banning the employment of children under 16 as brand ambassadors and in peer-to-peer marketing, and improving parents’ awareness of advertising and marketing techniques aimed at children.
making every customer make a decision at the point of purchase over whether they want adult content on their home Internet, laptops or smart phones, rather than receiving it automatically

Oh look, it's censor the Internet!

I have lots of knowledgeable friends in the ISP game. It's sad to say that over the last 5-6 years it's been an increasing smaller pool of ISPS in the UK to choose from. In some parts of Yorkshire you don't have any choice at all!

As Broadband has been rolled out, it's been getting more expensive to buy the infrastructure from wholesalers eg BT Wholesale, so this has been the main reason for the consolidation.

The UK government has been trying to get the ISPs to store peoples Web browsing history, and the headers of their emails for about 6-7 years now, and not much progress have been made. So it's surprising that David Cameron has promised that Web Filtering will be the default options for new accounts. But then the ISPs say, actually No, it's going to be an option.

So..it's starting to look a little less draconian, and more like a sales tactic for a system that probably any school child could get around in a few minutes.

How can you actually filter the Internet?

Currently the following methods are used in the smaller scale of businesses, schools and homes. The obvious methods are:-

DNS Blocking:- such as you can get via Open DNS http://www.opendns.com/
You could possibly get around this buy changing the DNS servers in the Network setting, or you can put different DNS servers in the local Hosts file. Or type in the IP address if you have it.

Forcing Proxy and filter list:-s eg Squid Proxy http://www.squidguard.org/
A web proxy is basically a server that intercepts your request for a web page, and either filters it, returns a copy of the page on the server to you, or asks for the page and passes it back to your web browser. This can be a bit more tricky to bypass as it should in theory intercept all web traffic

Firewalls:-
From Fortiguard :-

Based on automatic research tools and targeted research analysis, real-time updates enable you to apply highly-granular policies that filter web access based on 78 web content categories, over 56 million rated websites, and more than 20+ billion web pages - all continuously updated via the global FortiGuard distribution network.

How to bypass an Internet filter?

You could use a web based proxy such as www.loband.org

Using a VPN or SSL to connect to a remote server and forward all your traffic through it. This can be done via the setting on the router itself, or with some easily down loaded software on your PC, such as http://www.witopia.net

Something that seems to have passed under the radar has been the new standards for advertising billboards in the UK.

So no more Wonderbra ads.

GOODBYE BOYS

“When governments start covering the eyes and ears of the whole nation, however, there is a real problem. We only need to look at those governments that have taken it to the extreme and burnt books to understand that. But there are more subtle ways to inhibit the flow of ideas that we need to be just as alert to.”
-- Kate Lundy, Australian Labor Party Senator

DIY Atheist Bus slogans

2011-10-04T15:23:00.000+01:00

Remember the Atheist Bus Campaign? Now you can make your own slogans

http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/

Just some simple web based amusement.

“People don’t like being preached at” – Steven Green of Christian Voice condemning atheist posters on London buses.

Little me is famous

2011-10-02T00:36:00.000+01:00

Little me is famous! Well in Melbourne, thanks to Embiggen Books.

Embiggen Books on twitter asked for some suggestions to show Booksellers understand electronic books using the hashtag #bookshopsaredead

Some responses included

"Death on the remainder pile"

"Brave New Bookshop"

"Bleak Bookshop"

"Something Digital Comes This way"

"Why I am not a bookseller"

Personally I thought my "Joy of Press" was a winner...but "We need to talk about Gutenburg" finally made the cut.

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~Henry Ward Beecher

How much is the Greek Church worth?

2011-09-30T23:58:00.003+01:00

It's an interesting question, but like many Churches while there is one person on top, the actual grassroots are spread quite widely and not all legally bound together.
I think the suggestion of the church owning property worth up to 700 billion euros is a bit extreme.

Google has let me down in this case, and I suspect there may be a language issue as well when it comes to questioning the Greek Orthodox Church, the best information I found written here:-
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2784142/posts

"Money sometimes makes fools of important persons, but it may also make important persons of fools." - Walter Winchell

40 days of treats

2011-09-30T01:04:00.000+01:00

First we had Mad Nadine Dories and her attack on the rights of woman, now we have 40 Days for Life doing a prayer vigil outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Services. Some tactics new to the UK, but often used in USA.

In response http://40daysoftreats.tumblr.com/ was created by Carmen D'Cruz and Liz Lutgendorff to cheer up the BPAS staff. The idea is to deliver some nice things like cake, biscuits and chocolates to the staff.

I'll be sending something.

The Guardian have picked this up on their Womans Blog

The preservation of life seems to be rather a slogan than a genuine goal of the anti-abortion forces; what they want is control. Control over behavior: power over women. Women in the anti-choice movement want to share in male power over women, and do so by denying their own womanhood, their own rights and responsibilities. ~Ursula K. Le Guin

Atheist Comics

2011-09-29T23:33:00.000+01:00

Some of my favorite Atheist cartoons and comics.

Atheist Cartoons
www.atheistcartoons.com

Atheist Eve
http://www.atheist-community.org/atheisteve/

Jesus and Mo
Jesusandmo.net

Tom the Dancing bug and Godman
http://gocomics.typepad.com/tomthedancingbugblog/

The littlest Atheist
http://www.freethunk.net/cartoon-funnies/the-littlest-atheist/

Ape Not Monkey

http://www.sinfest.net/

http://cectic.com

http://www.treelobsters.com

http://www.onceuponasaturday.com/

http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/

“True, comics are a popular art, and yes, I believe their primary obligation is to entertain, but comics can go beyond that, and when they do, they move from silliness to significance.” Bill Watterson quotes (Author Calvin & Hobbes)

Chrys Stevenson asks is the ACL Dominionist?

2011-09-19T13:12:00.000+01:00

Chrys Stevenson writes the article on Dominionism that I have in my drafts folder...but she does it much better.

Is the Australian Christian Lobby dominionist?

We are not the only ones who have concerns on this problem, who would have guessed it's a issue in South Korea

More information can also be found on http://www.theocracywatch.org/

Good Going Chrys :-)

"church and state are separate, the effects are happy, and they do not at all interfere with each other: but where they have been confounded together, no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that have ensued." Rev. Isaac Backus quoted from 1773

Guest comic for Jesus and Mo

2011-09-07T11:07:00.000+01:00

Done in Second Life by me...for http://www.jesusandmo.net/ in the Guest Comic section.

In my personal life, I'm a comic novel. But then, so are we all, because we're human beings.
Dean Koontz

Secular Europe Campaign September 2011

2011-08-31T23:28:00.001+01:00

The Secular Europe website has a summery of information of the privileges the Vatican enjoys.

It's easy to fall into the Dan Brown style of conspiracy thinking about the Vatican, but recent history has shown that it can't be trusted, and is a blight on the human race. Of course some people will always defend it, no matter if it be child abuse being the fault of modern society, Nazi gold, or lies about condoms in Africa.

Why March? For the promotion of:

freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and freedom of speech
women’s equality and reproductive rights
equal rights for LGBT people in all the European Union
a secular Europe – democratic, peaceful, open and just, immune to the clandestine influence of privileged religious (or other) organisations
one law for all, no religious exemptions from the law
state neutrality in matters of religion and belief

Opposing:

the privileged status of the churches under Article 17 of the TFEU (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)
the special status of the Vatican in the United Nations
state-funded faith schools
the economic privilege and political influence of the Vatican

The Campaign has a number of Videos up on YouTube This one from Stephen Law is my favorite and pertinent to everyone in regards to religious based education.

Nearly 20,000 people attended the Protest the Pope rally in London last year protest against the State Visit of Pope Benedict in the UK,to demand an end to religious privileges and ask that European institutions remain secular.

The Internet (well mostly Facebook) is slowly drawing people together, protesters and activists are coming together and sharing information like never before. Secularists, Humanists and Atheists are finally finding a voice, and realising they can make a change for the better.

‘Secularism is the only way to protect people of all different religions and those with none. It is vital that everyone who believes in liberal democracy and who values human rights comes on the march in September to show their support. If you want to defend women’s rights, children’s rights, the rights of gay people, human and reproductive rights, then march with us this September and let people see that we object to the influence of religion within the law and on the state.’ - Marco Tranchino coordinator of the Secular Europe Campaign

Nymwars and the propaganda of Botgirl

2011-08-29T15:27:00.000+01:00

The Nymwars against the forces of ~~Morder~~ errr Google continue. Currently it still looks all very vague with Google not really seeming to know what of their executives are going to say next.

SUCH AS :-

All wars produce some good artistic propaganda, and Botgirl has been a quite a bit prolific, and I would like more people to see them:-

Who is Creeper?

“Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.” - Aldous Huxley

Wikileaks :- VATICAN ACKNOWLEDGES SEXUAL ABUSE BY PRIESTS

2011-08-24T19:37:00.000+01:00

Reference ID	Created	Released	Classification	Origin
01VATICAN1615	2001-03-23 13:28	2011-08-24 01:00	UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY	Embassy Vatican

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the

original cable is not available.

-------------------------------------------- 

VATICAN ACKNOWLEDGES SEXUAL ABUSE BY PRIESTS 

-------------------------------------------- 

 

Â¶5.   (SBU) IN A RARE STATEMENT ACKNOWLEDGING FAULT, VATICAN 

SPOKESMAN JOAQUIN NAVARRO-VALLS SAID MARCH 20 THAT THERE WAS 

A PROBLEM OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF NUNS BY PRIESTS IN SOME 

MISSIONARY TERRITORIES. HE SAID THE VATICAN WAS WORKING TO 

CORRECT THE SITUATION. THE STATEMENT WAS IN RESPONSE TO A 

MARCH 16 ARTICLE IN U.S. CATHOLIC WEEKLY, NATIONAL CATHOLIC 

REPORTER THAT CITED FOUR REPORTS BY SENIOR MEMBERS OF 

WOMEN'S RELIGIOUS ORDERS ASSERTING THAT SEXUAL ABUSE OF NUNS 

BY PRIESTS, INCLUDING RAPE, WAS A SERIOUS PROBLEM, 

 

                       UNCLASSIFIED 

 

PAGE 05        VATICA  01615  01 OF 02  231320Z 

 

                       UNCLASSIFIED 

 

                           UNCLASSIFIED     PTO7054 

 

PAGE 01        VATICA  01615  02 OF 02  231320Z 

ACTION EUR-00 

 

INFO  LOG-00   NP-00    AF-00    ACQ-00   CA-02    CIAE-00  USNW-00 

      DODE-00  DOEE-00  DS-00    EAP-00   FBIE-00  UTED-00  VC-00 

      H-01     TEDE-00  INR-00   IO-00    L-00     VCE-00   M-00 

      AC-01    NEA-00   NSAE-00  OCS-03   OES-01   OIC-02   PA-00 

      PM-00    ACE-00   P-00     SCT-00   SP-00    IRM-00   SSO-00 

      SS-00    TEST-00  T-00     USIE-00  R-00     SNIS-00  NISC-00 

      PMB-00   DSCC-00  DRL-02   G-00     NFAT-00  SAS-00     /012W 

                  ------------------D63E4F  231330Z /38 

R 231328Z MAR 01 

FM AMEMBASSY VATICAN 

TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0000 

INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE 

AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 

AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 

AMEMBASSY SEOUL 

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UNCLAS SECTION 02 OF 02 VATICAN 001615 

 

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SENSITIVE 

 

DEPT. FOR EUR/WE (VAN CLEVE), EUR/SE, EAP/K, NEA/IAI, 

 

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TAGS: PREL PHUM SOCI IS GR KN KS PHUM SOCI IS GR KN KS VT MEPP VTPREL MEPP

SUBJECT: VATICAN - "VIEWS FROM THE HILL" 

 

ESPECIALLY IN AFRICA. ONE OF THE AUTHORS TOLD A VATICAN CITY 

NEWS AGENCY THAT SHE WAS VERY PLEASED THE VATICAN HAD ISSUED 

ITS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. (COMMENT: THE VATICAN HAS BECOME 

INCREASINGLY SENSITIZED TO INCIDENTS OF SEXUAL ABUSE BY 

CLERGY, PARTICULARLY IN COUNTRIES LIKE THE US, AUSTRALIA AND 

ENGLAND. WE EXPECT THE REPORTS OF SEXUAL ABUSE BY PRIESTS IN 

MISSIONARY TERRITORIES TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND DEALT WITH 

PROFESSIONALLY. END COMMENT). MERANTE

"The best justification governments can find to shut down information isthat lives are at risk. In fact,

lives have been at risk as a result of the silences and lies revealed in these leaks." -- Jemima Khan

William Craig Lane V Stephen Law in London

2011-08-14T22:33:00.000+01:00

William Craig Lane is on his way back to the UK again, doing the usual tours and talks to the faithful.
This time he is having a debate with Stephen Law "Does God Exist"* on 17th October 2011 at Westminster Hall.

Tickets are £12.50 and available at http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

If you are in London and can go, it would certainly be an interesting event. It would also be interesting to see if William Craig Lane brings out the same arguments that he has in the past, or has thought of something new.

*No

Religion. It`s given people hope in a world torn apart by religion. Charlie Chaplin

Latest news on the Australian (Anti) Vaccination network

2011-08-08T09:11:00.000+01:00

The AVN have a few court cases coming up soon, here is a bit of a summery of the the conspiracy nuts at the Australian Vaccination Network.

But what is rather frightening, is when I did a google search for "Vaccination Quotes", just how many others like the AVN are out there.

Anyone who knows how difficult it is to keep a secret among three men - particularly if they are married - knows how absurd is the idea of a worldwide secret conspiracy consciously controlling all mankind by its financial power; in real, clear analysis. Oswald Mosley

Mark No Religion Australian 2011 Census

2011-08-06T16:22:00.000+01:00

August 9 is Australian Census night

In February I blogged about the upcoming Census in many countries this year , and how many Humanist Societies such as the Scottish Humanist Society did a Good without God campaign

In years past if you wanted to get somewhere in Australian politics you never mentioned religion, now thanks to John Howard it seems that we seemed to have taken the American route and it has become a part of the Australian political landscape. Most of this isn't obvious unless you really scrutinise the members of Federal and State Government. It makes you wonder how Julia Gillard at first was an Atheist, but now has become a non-practising Baptist.
How much influence does religion have in Government? Lets make a list.

Chaplains...no real use except for buying votes from Christians.
State funding of religious schools.
Government refusal to have a Charity commission, only 1st world Gov not to have one.
No tax on profits on Church owned businesses, only 1st world Gov not to do this.
Church exemptions on anti-discrimination law.
No general inquiry into Church child abuse
Evangelical Religious Instruction in schools

Do you really want Global warming denier George Pell, giving "advice" the many Catholic people in the Liberal Party?

How about Jim Wallace from the Australian Christian Lobby, a friend to all Gay people everywhere /sarcasm

When you say your Christian, than your giving these self elected spokesman more influence than they deserve.

It's time to take Religion out of Politics http://www.censusnoreligion.org/

Religious creeds encourage some of the craziest kinds of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and favor severe manifestations of neurosis, borderline personality states, and sometimes even psychosis. - Albert Ellis

Google+ and being who we need to be

2011-08-06T13:58:00.001+01:00

I have had this blog for about 4 years now, so I would guess this makes me an established personality, but not established enough for Google+. I jumped into Google+ when it first went live, and enjoyed the way it worked and the people on there. Then the purges began, people started to disappear...gone from my time line.
People such as :-

GoSpeed Racer
Moggs Oceanlane (restored then she deleted it)
Wizard Gynoid (restored)
Crystal Rehula has been banned twice

Then I jumped from Google+ as I had seen on twitter that some people had lost access to Gmail and didn't want to lose access to my account. As my name is made up of fairly common words, but not actual names, I guessed the BanHammer was coming after me soon.

I'm rather sad about it as Google+ had the potential for me to stay in contact with friends that aren't on other networks, and to deal with the information overload issue that comes from networks I am on.

Then Botgirl Questi got the ban hammer treatment, and she's not taking it lightly, and is giving it her best parody treatment:-

Then she had to go and talk to Google, as she does....

It's not just just Second Life personalities falling foul of the names policy.

Violet Blue has a few comments of her own and and has added her name to My Name is Me

Ex-Google Employee Skud had her Google+ account suspended and has written a great post about it here.

Another post I enjoyed reading was by Danah Boyd "Real names" are an Abuse of Power the article itself is quite good, but the comments show a complete range from total agreement, to those who haven't a clue.

My Name is Me is a site that lets people explain in their own words why they have chosen pseudonymity for their online existence.

A lot have to do with issues of sex, religion, (or lack of), politics,Human Rights and to avoid abuse and misogyny. (If you don't that this is a problem, I refer you to my last post on Rebecca Watson, and the daily amount of abuse she gets)

In the last year, we have seen Twitter, and Facebook become the launchpoint for the biggest shake up in world politics since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since December 2010 there have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, civil war in Libya, uprisings in Bahrain,Syria, and Yemen, major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. Minor protests in Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara. We can also add the failed Iranian protests.

Remember how Egypt turned off the Internet, to stop the people communicating. I wonder how many people where using real twitter and Facebook accounts. If it had all gone bad in Egypt, well, you can be sure those people with the real accounts would be either dead or missing by now.

Using alternate names is nothing new, it's quite famous for writers, sportsman, actors soldiers:-

Mark Twain = Samuel Clemens
Lewis Carroll = Charles Dodgson,
George Orwell = Eric Blair
Mary Ann Evans = George Eliot
John le Carré = David John Moore Cornwell
Mary Westmacott = Agatha Christie
Dr. Seuss = Theodor Seuss Geisel
Tiger Woods = Eldrick Tont Woods
Larry Niven = Laurence van Cott Niven
Andre Norton = Alice Mary Norton
Batman = Bruce Wayne
Elvira = Cassandra Peterson
Wonder Woman = Diana Prince
Banksy = ????

Much to my surprise I just discovered Porn Stars don't use their real names!!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also support pseudonyms , and this quote sums it up best :-

As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens put forth in deciding McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm’n 514 U.S. 334, 357 (1995),
"Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation—and their ideas from suppression—at the hand of an intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable consequences, and, in general, our society accords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse."

EDIT:-
We now seem to have Spartacus standing up for some of us We will see how long this lasts.

Lady Gaga is my name. If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don't really know me at all. - Lady Gaga

Rebecca Watson and the Religious War on Woman

2011-08-01T01:55:00.000+01:00

This is one of the best videos on modern womans issues I've seen in a while. Rebecca Watson a the CFI leaders conference talks about what it's like to be an outspoken Atheist, and the terrible and disturbing abuse that she gets on a daily basis.

She then sums up how the rich christian organizations are attacking the rights of woman in the USA and are now exporting their vile ideology overseas.

Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. ~Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler

The Case of the Disappearing Complaints

2011-07-27T11:46:00.000+01:00

In the last week, Minister Garret, has had two reports drop on his desk.

The First Report

The Ombudsman's reports into the National Chaplaincy says that some Chaplains believe that school children with bad behaviour are possessed by demons.

It also highlights a lack of oversight, and a totally inadequate complaints procedure.

From the Report:-

3.6 - The investigation also found that current complaint handling procedures do not appear to adequately serve parents and students and should be improved, as it was not apparent that the Department has an adequate process for capturing complaints regarding chaplains and the program. In particular, the Ombudsman is concerned about the absence of any formal protocols between State and Territory education authorities and the Department regarding the day to day administration of the Chaplaincy Program.

This is not surprising as while the Federal Government provide the money, the Chaplain providers hire the staff, and the the Schools house the Chaplains, it seems the perfect setup for everyone to avoid any responsibility. Initially DEEWR said it only received formal 35 complaints:-

While it had initially told the Ombudsman that only 35 formal complaints had been received about the chaplaincy program over four years, the department later advised it had received 277 complaints and was still checking its database for more.
Mr Asher was unable to identify any guidelines provided to schools by the department on complaints procedures and suggested many complaints had fallen through the cracks - failing to adequately protect the rights of parents and children.

The word "formal" is also significant, how is that defined? Do you have to follow a set procedure, is there a form? Does it have to go to a particular person or department? Does anyone actually know about it? Probably not.

School Education Minister Peter Garrett said yesterday that the chaplaincy program was "very popular among school communities".

As many have said, The State School system has been run down for years, in favour of the religious based private schooling. This is quite comprehensive covered by Jane Caro and Chris Bonner AM in their book The Stupid Country.

So having anyone/someone who is an extra pair of eyes in the school ground would be useful. But then again the Minister could just be playing word games again, with the term "School Communities". I also suspect more word games with "Only 17 complaints about proselytising", nothing about evangelising, oh, but are these just "formal" complaints?

Australia's history with mixing Children with religion is not a happy one. In the past children where placed in Religious institutions such as orphanages, the 8000 British Child Migrants to Australia suffered terrible abuse, and of course the world wide child rape in the Catholic Church, and in each case we look back and say what a terrible tragedy, and it should never have happened in the first place, and we will learn lessons.

I suppose the lessons that have been learned are that you don't put children into evangelical religious institutions (as eventually they will get caught, but typically not punished), but put the evangelicals into childrens institutions eg schools.

The Second Report:-

About ACCESS ministries and their Evangelising. Minister Garret has given them the all clear. Well it seems there were actually no complaints, but then I suspect we come across the word "Formal" again. As usual FIRIS say it best.

So again we see a total whitewash of the Christian influence is schools and Government.
Now is the time to make proper Formal complaints and also time to give some money to the High Court Challenge

Further Reading:-

How the Chaplaincy Program continues due to dodgy statistics

The Bible is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything that is cruel. - Thomas Paine

Pulp Science Fiction Fun

2011-07-22T00:47:00.000+01:00

I have always enjoyed Science Fiction, I remember waiting for Star Trek on Sunday afternoons and wondering when life will be like that.
Just recently I realized how much of my own moral values have been influenced by the show, and I would have to now classify Gene Roddenberry as a hands-on Humanist philosopher.

I was mostly inspired by the brilliant artist Aly Fell , some of his Pulp Covers are here

I was advised the first edition was a bit dark, so I have brightened it up a bit and changed the colours on some text.

“Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.” – Isaac Asimov

Moral high ground...really?

2011-07-19T03:30:00.000+01:00

One should examine oneself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others. - Moliere

What reason for Censorship, Sex, Violence, and Robots

2011-07-17T20:15:00.000+01:00

Censorship is an odd thing, usually it's "Think about the Children". In the past it was usually books on religion and Atheism that would be banned, now it's Harry Potter, and books that portray single mothers in a positive light.

In the lists above I added a few I made up, but believe it or not "Harm to Plantlife", and having an A cup breast size have been used in the past. Actually if a woman in a movie sex scene has an A cup breast size, the film will be banned in Australia.

I'm slightly annoyed that Blogger doesn't show these images better. Hopefully Flickr might due better.

"Obviously, the danger is not in the actual act of reading itself, but rather, the possibility that the texts children read will incite questions, introduce novel ideas, and provoke critical inquiry." -Persis M. Karim

Even more reports on Catholic Child abuse in Ireland

2011-07-14T01:09:00.000+01:00

Wednesday 13th of July, The long-awaited Cloyne Report has been published, detailing how the Catholic Church and the state authorities dealt will allegations of abuse in the County Cork diocese between the years 1996 to early 2000.

The report’s main points:

The “greatest failure” of the diocese was the failure to report cases of abuse to the civil authorities: the diocese failed to alert the Gardaí about nine out of 15 cases that “very clearly” should have been reported.

The Vatican was “entirely unhelpful” in assisting clerics wishing to implement procedures – describing the guidelines as “a study document”.

The response of the Diocese of Cloyne was “inadequate and inappropriate".

Primary responsibility for the failure to implement agreed child sexual abuse procedures lies with then-bishop of Cloyne John Magee. Bishop Magee "took little or no active interest" in the management of clerical child sexual abuse cases until 2008, 12 years after the framework document on child sexual abuse was agreed by the Irish Bishops' Conference.

An American watchdog group BishopAccountability.org said the handling of clerical abuse cases in Cloyne is “eerily similar” to a US grand jury report released earlier this year, which found church leaders showed a “brazen disregard” for both civil law and the church’s own internal policies.

“The Cloyne report is disheartening confirmation that even today, despite the church's knowledge of the profound anguish of thousands of victims, its reform policies are public relations ploys, not true child protection programs,” the group said.

The Boston-based organisation asked: "how many second chances will Irish church officials get before they are criminally charged for enabling the molestation of children?"

This is the fourth report into Child abuse committed by the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The first was the Ferns Report published in October 2005.
The Second was Ryan Report Published in May 2009.
The Third was Murphy Report Published in November 2009.

The main focus of the report Bishop Magee who resigned in March 2009 to spend the rest of his life in some comfortable house paid for by the donations of the shorn flock.

Each report shows that the Catholic Church was only really interested in keeping it's power, and was totally arrogant in the way it dealt with the abuse being inflicted by it's priests.

So then again showing the Vatican is only a power structure, lacking in any form of any moral courage or authority.
It also shows another failure of the Irish Government to do what is best for it's citizens, and shows why letting the Catholic Church to be the defacto 2nd Governent in the Irish Republic is such a very very bad idea.

It’s an incredible con job when you think about it, to believe something now in exchange for something after death. Even corporations with their reward systems don’t try to make it posthumous. — Gloria Steinem

Book Review - Stephen Law and his Believing Bullshit

2011-07-11T01:08:00.000+01:00

When you say "philosopher" most people imagine old men with great white beards, possibly this was true in old Greece, but we have have moved on a bit since then. I have been reading a book from Stephen Law called Believing Bullshit.

I have only started reading philosophy recently, and came across Stephen Law when I bought his earlier book The War for Childrens Minds, as I had hoped it would have been useful in our current battle in Australia with the Chaplains, and Religious Indoctrination classes in schools. Maybe he can add a chapter for the next edition on Australia.

I have to admit I'm not sure who Believing Bullshit aimed at, I would be encouraging younger people to read it, as it covers a good range of logical fallacies, some basic philosophical questions, and it's not a book that is hard going. I'm sure it would have been helpful to me when I was younger. If you have spent some time in the atheist movement, or reading atheist blogs, and watching the debates with religious and theological people you will probably have seen most of the areas covered in the book. It's not particularly aimed solely towards religion, but also alternative medicine and much of the New Age style of thinking.

The Book has eight chapters

1. Playing the Mystery Card
2. But it Fits and the Blunderbuss
3. Going Nuclear
4. Moving the Semantic Goalposts
5. I Just Know!
6. Pseudoprofunity
7. Piling up the Anecdotes
8. Pressing your buttons

These are some of the methods and verbal strategies used by those who seek to defend their positions when put under rational scrutiny.

I have to admit its the only book I have read with two appendixes to the Introduction, but the contents are entertaining,and provide good examples of woolly thinking, one such being a theological reason for earthquakes.

Each Chapter explains how the method is used and applied, the author also explains what is wrong with it.

It does seem to have rather more italics in the text than I am used to.

I have made a few of my own examples, and found another a few days ago. I think the chapters they relate to are quite obvious.

And from the web a few days ago

I wasn't so keen on the Screwtape letters at the end of the book, but then I didn't read the original by C S Lewis, as I usually steer clear of Christian hypocrites.

I really do sympathise that Stephen must have to read an awful lot of this rubbish, in order to refute it.
If you can read an interview with Stephen Law at New Scientist and you can hear him talk at the Poddelusion podcast from the BHA Convention in June.

Stephen Law is lecturer in Philosophy at Heythrop College, The University of London. He is also editor of THINK, a journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy aimed at the general public.

How many Bishops does it take to change a light bulb? They don't want the lightbulb to be changed as they prefer everyone be kept in the dark. -Anon

My last pretty portrait for a while.

2011-07-03T13:06:00.000+01:00

This was done by the very talented http://kinkei.deviantart.com/ and after a week has had over 10,000 views!

If the style is familiar to you, then you have probably seen Tim Mitchins Storm. Look for the fairey :-)

Well, I might get one or two more done...

Some people want to make the world a better place. I just wanna make the world a better-looking place. If you don't like it, you can paint over it!- Banksy

The Australian Tax Armageddon cometh.

2011-06-30T10:19:00.000+01:00

Australia is one of the very very few countries where you can a church or religious group can own a profit making business and there is no tax paid on those profits, to understand the issue I recommend reading this article in The Australian and this 2001 story from the 7:30 Report

Wikileaks, American Diplomacy and BAE.

2011-06-22T22:49:00.001+01:00

A few years ago the US Dept of Justice decided to investigate BAE, who used to be British Aerospace, for bribing Saudi Princes (among others) for defence contracts.

I have absolutely no doubt that BAE actually did hand over bags of cash, but I always suspected the real motive for the US investigation is that BAE handed over more cash than the US companies did.

I was hoping that something would appear from Wikileaks along this line eventually, I've not kept up with the Wikileak releases, as I have to admit all the drama with the Wikileaks organization and the various newspapers does get rather tiresome.

Today Rania Khalek wrote on Alternet a story of how US Diplomats are working as agents of US Corporations
Here is the part I like best :-

In late 2006, then President George W. Bush wrote a personal letter he had hand-delivered to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, practically begging the king to buy as many as 43 Boeing jets to modernize Saudi Arabian Airlines and 13 jets for the Saudi royal fleet.

King Abdullah responded by asking the US government and President Bush to trick out his private airplane with the same high-tech equipment used on Air Force One. He hinted that if the US fulfilled his request, he would make a large purchase of Boeing planes for the royal family's fleet and Saudi Arabian Airlines. And lo and behold, King Abdullah got his airplane upgrade, and Boeing made billions.

Now of course there is no actual cash changing hands, it's swapping goods so there is no money trail. Maybe this is where BAE went wrong, possibly suggesting a new jet, or fitting out of the old one, would have been a bit less troublesome.

Eventually the US Dept of Justice got about $US400 Million in fines from BAE

The scandal provoked quite a bit of a argument at an OECD meeting, with the usual suspects taking sides. The French were almost certainly angry not selling their own jets.

But why is it surprising that Diplomats act as salesmen for their country? It's certainly been going on for a long time, not only that but a front page incident in Australia from 1995 was about a joint Australia USA mission to bug the Chinese Embassy in Canberra.
This was before the Web was mainstream so there are no copies of the paper online, but the newspapers of the day said this was actually leaked by ASIO, as the Americans where passing commercial intelligence to US businesses, and using it to undermine Australian business in China. ASIO asked them to stop, and of course the US denied it all.

EDIT:- The point of it all? I wonder who in the US will chase all these diplomats with the same rules as they did BAE?

Diplomacy means the art of nearly deceiving all your friends, but not quite deceiving all your enemies.
- Kofi Busia

Access Ministries tries to shutdown Mike Stuchbery

2011-06-22T09:12:00.000+01:00

I've been very impressed how Mike Stuchbery has taken on the rather odious state supported Access Ministries.

He was sent a letter from a lawyer about his deconstruction of another strange Access comic.
This is almost certainly what all the fuss is about

Today on his tumblr

GAGGED!

It’s been an interesting week. On Friday I received a letter from Moore’s Legal, regarding my posting of Access Ministries’ ‘Man Hunters’ graphic novel. I had posted it online to highlight what I thought was not suitable for ue with children, due to the violence, sexism and racism that filled the pages. You can find the letter here. Advice from colleagues and the pleading of my fiancee led to me removing the PDF and several images sourced from the comic that I had used for the purposes of criticising the text.

Today I logged on to Wordpress to find that my ability to post on my blog, ‘Mike Stuchbery’ had been disabled. This is presumably as a result of a DMCA notice served against Wordpress. I cannot post until Wordpress contacts me - which may be some time. In the meantime I’ve taken to Twitter, Facebook & Tumblr to continue the dialogue regarding Access Ministries, SRI and the influence of evangelicals in our public schools.

It’s clear that Access are playing hardball. I think I can guess why. This has nothing to do with copyright. It’s just the cheapiest and easiest route through which to try to shut me up. it’s certainly easier to prove than defamation or similar, and less costly. I’m certainly not making any money from their works. It’s all about flexing their muscle and making an example of someone amongst the clamour of opposition to the current SRI system. They don’t their material to see the public arena, not after the ‘bullying comic’ fiasco that made the frontpages of the Age. They’re frightened of the spotlight turned across their simplistic, unconsidered, culturally-insenstive and inappropriate curriculum materials.

I’ll be back posting on the blog soon. I’m getting advice on the best hosting that won’t be so quick to fold if Access decide to maintain the attempts to gag and silence me. In the meantime, keep the discussion flowing and keep calling on the Education Minister to provide the best outcome for kids.

Australia and the US have provisions for fair use or fair dealing in their copyright laws, and Mike has certainly been on the side of Review and Criticism. As ACCESS are keen to get their materials in front of Victorian children, they really do need to come under the tightest scrutiny

In Australia, the grounds for fair dealing are:

Research and study (section 40 Copyright Act 1968 (Cth))

Review and criticism (s41)

"Reporting the news" (s42)

Legal advice (although the federal Crown is deemed to own copyright in federal statutes, and the Crown in each State in state statutes). (s43)

Parody and Satire (with some exceptions) (s41A)

"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." — Salman Rushdie

Some more pictures I had done from Deviant Art

2011-06-21T20:51:00.000+01:00

This was done by http://redg404.deviantart.com/

And here I am with my friend and revolutionary Zonja Capalini

The picture was done by http://shinn3.deviantart.com/

Our outfits are by Jackie Graves, who gives an interview here

A portrait! What could be more simple and more complex, more obvious and more profound. - Charles Baudelaire

60 Minutes and the Anti-Vaxxers

2011-06-15T23:13:00.000+01:00

The Australian 60 Minutes team has interviewed two Australian antivaxxers, Dr Viera Scheibner and Bronwyn Hancock.

Here is some of their reasoning :-

BRONWYN: There are benefits of diseases. Now I say that with qualification, because obviously diseases have to be well managed and going through a disease is like us getting exercise. This is one of the reasons why it’s good to get rubella as soon as possible, so that you have immunity to it. And um…

ELLEN FANNING: But what about the risk of rubella to pregnant women who can have babies suffering terrible birth defects?

VIERA: Don’t answer things that you don’t know enough about, OK – don’t answer them. You were drowning. So let’s call a spade a spade.

ELLEN FANNING: Why would she be drowning?

VIERA: Because she hasn’t got the extent of knowledge that I have.

ELLEN FANNING: If she hasn’t got the extensive knowledge, why on earth is she writing these articles on the website?

VIERA: Maybe you have a point then, yes. That’s right. Maybe you have a point there, okay.

ELLEN FANNING: So just for clarity, you’re not a medical doctor?

VIERA: I’m not a medical doctor, no. But I am a doctor of natural sciences.

ELLEN FANNING: Am I right in thinking that in fact your expertise is in studying microfossils, little fossils?

So yes, Dr Scheibner, is not a medical Doctor, but she believed that she knows more than actual medical practitioners.

You can see it here:-

Or at the official site here, with a Transcript

I'm sure you all remember seeing people with calipers walking around the streets? No? I do, I also remember people who had to live in Iron Lungs, you don't see either of them anymore in 1st world countries, but sadly 59 years after the Polio vaccine became available we still have victims in Africa and India, as in the picture below.

As a counterbalance to the stupidity of the AntiVaxxers, we at least have Bill Gates who has dedicated himself to the eradication of Polio.

“We don’t know exactly when the last child will be affected. But we do have the vaccines to wipe it out,” “Countries do have the will to deploy all the tools at their disposal. If we all have the fortitude to see this effort through to the end, then we will eradicate polio.” Bill Gates

I talk to the POSTGRES Missionaries

2011-05-27T04:45:00.000+01:00

This Comic is a work of fiction, and not based on any particular person, alive or dead, if you can identify any person in this portrayal, then you have got it wrong.

Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every Sunday, singing, yes, gravity is real! I will have faith! I will be strong! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen! If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about it. Dan Barker.

Where I ask the Minister about ACCESS Ministries

2011-05-24T22:38:00.000+01:00

Australia has been on a slow slide to a soft theocracy for the last decade with even the left wing Labour Party moving to embrace the religious right. In 2006 the then PM John Howard decided that the schools of Australia needed a Chaplain, not a youth worker, or a councillor or a Psychologist, but a religious Chaplain.
To bypass the constitution, these Chaplains who must be religious, are supposedly forbidden to mention their religion while at school. So the Chaplains often meet with young students at lunch, and after hours in order to make converts.

The Australian Government has cut funding to disabled students, and added more money to the Chaplains. Some people think it's for votes, but I think the Religious Right have actually made inroads into the Liberal and Labour parties, and are in the process of attempting to take the country back to the intelectual dark ages, but I seem to be in the very small minority with this veiw.

No other first world country would even think of wasting money on this bizarre project.

To keep up to date with this ongoing story, a parent created website http://religionsinschool.com/
is keeping track of events. If nothing else, listen to the recording of the ACCESS Ministries CEO in a talk to a conference of Bishops, and how she says the complete opposite on the radio to the public.

Mike Stuchbery has been amazing good at following the story, and a publicly funded High court challenge hopes to stop this waste of Tax payers money.

And just in, is a story on the one days training given to religious teachers from ACCESS.

I would defend the liberty of concenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent. - Arthur C Clarke

A bit more vanity from me.

2011-05-18T21:58:00.000+01:00

As done by http://icemaxx1.deviantart.com/

"The essence of drawing is the line exploring space." - Andy Goldsworthy

Deviant Art Commissioned Picture

2011-05-11T02:51:00.000+01:00

I got this done by http://operative274.deviantart.com/ and I really love it. I have tried to get some artwork done by other people on Deviant Art in the past, but sometimes it just seemed so hard to get something done.
This was almost done overnight, did I say I love it?..Did I?

I wanted to become a cartoon artist, a portrait artist, and an illustrator. This was my first idea.
Karl Lagerfeld

Debaptise and become and an Official Pastafarian Minister

2011-05-10T02:29:00.000+01:00

The UK National Secular Society produced a Debaptism certificate some time ago and it's available on their website here

The US Freedom from Religion Foundation has also started to produce one, and is available from here

I guess after this event, you might feel a little empty, you could of course read some Darwin, Dawkins, some books of Philosophy, books on rhetoric to defend your new found freedom, or you could join the fastest growing religion amongst the worlds most intelligent people.

Become an Official Pastafarian Minister!!

Yes, you to can become assume the title Reverend, (or maybe Captain, or Father)

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
Denis Diderot

UK decides it can't figure out how Australian voting works

2011-05-08T07:15:00.000+01:00

Well the AV vote has been, and surprisingly it turned out to be NO :-(

Yes vote at 32.1% and the No vote at 67.9%

But at least some people are happy

If the NO side says #yes2av is too hard, then the Tories are admitting Australians must be smarter than people in the UK, so prove them wrong - Shockwave Plasma

Concordats, the Vatican and Human rights

2011-05-08T03:07:00.000+01:00

I'm not a Catholic or a diplomat, and my reading of history is pretty good, but I had never heard of a Concordat until recently, when I came across Concordant Watch.
It can be as simple a treaty, or legal document that is written up between a sovereign state and the Vatican. It's one of those documents that both parties must agree to dissolve, but as it's usually about the Vatican keeping it;'s privileges then it's not likely they will do so.

The Vatican is a legal oddity, it claims to be a state, and the Pope to be the equal of a Prime Minister, or a country's President. the discussion usually is split by people who are Catholic or sympathetic who say it's a country, and those who are irreligious, and think that it's probably not. I haven't the slightest idea who is legally correct, I just find it seems to be what ever is convenient for the Vatican to be what it want to be at that particular time. In Italian law the Vatican is it's own microstate, this was confirmed in 1929 when the Lateran Treaty was signed between the Vatican and the Mussolini Government.

One thing to keep in mind is that the catholic Church isn't really big on Civil law, you know the stuff everyday people have to worry about. It's got it's own Canon Law, that it believes overrides Civil law. That's why raping a child will just get you moved to a different parish, but making a woman a priest will get you excommunicated.

So how does the Church really see it self?

The Catholic Church, for her part, has always maintained that she is a supranational community and does not receive her legal existence from any temporal State. The Catholic Church exists as such, and it is in the Holy See that her organic unity is guaranteed, represented and perpetuated. Her extension corresponds to the spread of Catholic believers throughout the world. She is therefore a universal community that knows no national frontiers . Put in other words, when a state and the Holy See conclude an agreement they enter into a relation as two "perfect societies": the first as a temporal society, the second as a spiritual one. The Church receives its laws from her 'Founder' and not, like states, from some temporal power. But that doesn't mean that acts of the Catholic Church can have no effect on temporal jurisdiction. An intersection is possible and at this point the sovereignty of the Catholic Church stops and the problem of concordats begins.

Why does this really matter?

The Catholic Church is a big employer, it has a million people working for it in Germany, and it is one of Australians biggest employers, one of the biggest landowners, and would be in the 10 richest corporations in Australia if is was actually incorporated, and could sort out it's accounts. In concrete terms it can mean that you can be discriminated against for employment, in a church run business, that is paid for by the state, such as happens in Australia, for not being the "correct" religion. Italy still pays the Vatican money for the loss of the Papal States. State funded, but church run hospitals will refuse abortions.

To to find out what has been happening in modern times we can use a Slovakia as an example. Oddly it has recently been turning more Catholic, a trend that has been a bit disturbing to the rest of the EU, where Poland and Ireland have been becoming more secular.

How have they been using in the past? Well it shows very simply that the German Government under Hitler was very keen on the Vatican, and signed the Reichskonkordat not surprisingly as he was a Catholic, Germany still continues to sign them to this day

Are they still in use in this day and age?

On the third of May 2011 Azerbaijan the and the Vatican signed a new one

East Timor is currently in the process of signing one.

To find out more about concordats this very very excellent page on Wikipedia sums the problems very well, and is far better than I could have written myself.

As usual with matters of the Vatican, caution must at all time be taken to recognize actual issues, and those that are products of conspiracy, or fantasy.

“Each concordat marks a state’s renunciation of its own powers and its assumption of the obligation to contribute to those of the Catholic Church. In exchange for these gifts, authoritarian governments buy from the church hierarchy a kind of legitimacy and support for their power, as being in harmony with the commands of God. In some cases they gain influence in the appointment of senior Churchmen. A democratic system does not need this legitimacy [...] To grant the Church any privileges violates the foundations of democracy, even if the facade is retained.”
— Anonymous Polish MP to President Kwaśniewski, cited by MP Ryszard Zając on 12 September 1996 in the Sejm.

Want to get Divorced in Malta, well not yet.

2011-05-04T17:30:00.000+01:00

There is only one European Country that does not have a divorce law, and it's Malta, unsurprisingly Pope Benedict XVI praised Malta’s stance against abortion and divorce, during a visit last April. Malta is about 96% Catholic, and usually the only time anyone actually hears about Malta, is when the Knights of Malta appear in some sort of historical or less likely modern context.

On 28 May 2011 Malta will have a referendum if they should have a divorce law. The local Humanist are for it, and as usual the dark age Catholic Church is against.

The referendum question in English is as follows:
Do you agree with the introduction of the option of divorce in the case of a married couple who has been separated or has been living apart for at least four (4) years, and where there is no reasonable hope for reconciliation between the spouses, whilst adequate maintenance is guaranteed and the children are protected

Malta is still big on Billboards, and here is one for the YES side

Personally I am on the YES side.

Divorce is a declaration of independence with only two signers. – Gerard Lieberman

To presume to be talk for god ?

2011-05-03T08:57:00.000+01:00

May 21 is coming, my take on what the real Rapture story will be.

2011-05-02T13:50:00.000+01:00

Many people will have heard about FamilyRadio and Harold Camping, and his prediction (yet again) of the Rapture and the 2nd coming of Christ. You may have even seen the Billboards, or the car, or even the Vans.

I suspect something else is going to happen, that it's a cover story for something much more sinister.

Nom nom nom

Thanks to lynnfriedman on Flickr for the Wecanknow van image
Thanks to Oni Horan for Necronom
Thanks to various Aliens for eventually not eating me

Those of little faith are of little hatred. - Eric Hoffer

Derren Brown does a Marjoe

2011-04-26T23:48:00.000+01:00

In following up with my post on the movie Marjoe, Derren Brown has trained a person on how to become a faith healer. He is called Pastor James Collins, and he even has his own website. The show includes another fake healer who tries the old leg lengthing trick on Derren, brilliant!

If your in the UK you should be able to see it on More4

He's really cool and has a show on in London from June 8 to July 16 at the Shaftbury Theatre

"Seems the seance has become the most complained-about show. It received 700 complaints. I might add that the prospect of me blowing my head off on live TV last year attracted only twenty. Fair enough, I suppose." -Derren Brown

Happy Ishtar

2011-04-24T11:13:00.000+01:00

Ishtar was the ancient Sumero-Babylonian goddess of love, sex and fertility. Also known as Inanna (sumerian name) and Astarte (kanaanäic name).

So it follows to have a really traditional Easter, have sex.

I mean if you can believe in the Christian religion you can believe in anything, you know it's so utterly preposterous.- Tom Baker

Thanks to seriykotik1970's for the Ishtar picture

Happy 84the Birthday Pope Ratzinger

2011-04-16T14:43:00.000+01:00

It's the Popes Birthday, and I would like to celebrate with a little song

Has science ever retreated? No! it is Catholicism that has always retreated before her, and will always be forced to retreat. Emile Zola

Say NO to Chaplains

2011-04-10T15:33:00.000+01:00

Dave the Happy Singer has created notochaplains.org This is to let those in power how much the general population of Australia, really don't want religious based evangelical helpers in our schools.

It's an expensive vote grabbing exercise, and an insult to the mainstream of Australia.

The current church going population of Australia is about 7%, but the Federal government is falling over itself in letting these people having their own way. The Church run schools already get a huge handout of cash, now the State schools have to put up with this Christian interloper.

Dear Labour party, remember, this was started by the second PM ever to have lost his seat in an election, and you have been in the political wilderness for many years, for the precise reason that Keating forgot about mainstream Australia. Sucking up to minorities just doesn't work.

"I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. " Bertrand Russell

Marjoe and the Religious Con trick

2011-04-10T00:15:00.000+01:00

Thanks to the Skepchick Rebecca Watson blogging about this movie. I remembered reading about this man "The World's Youngest Ordained Minister" Marjoe Gortner, in Hitchins "God is not Great", but I never followed it up even though I had the book on my desk.

The movie is called "Marjoe", a 1972 Academy Award winning Documentary, thanks to YouTube it's available for viewing here.

Marjoe was the son of two missionary parents, and as a child he was turned into a tiny Evangelical minister until he was about 16 and decided he had enough, and stopped. Then his father took what was remaining of the US$3Million (US$15million in 2011 money)that Marjoe had raised, and left.

The movie follows Marjoe as he makes his return to Ministry, and shows the tricks used and events that the evangelicals use to suck cash from those taken in by these confidence tricksters.

While we are on simple con tricks, a good one is the Miracle Leg Lenghtening, it's been done in the past by AA Allen , it's currently a favourite in Denmark and in the USA. Starting with the legs slightly sideways and pulling the shoe slightly off the heel, makes one leg appear to be longer, or the other to be shorter. James Randi has exposed this trick a number of times.

A book about Marjoe is available on Amazon

"Missionaries are perfect nuisances and leave every place worse than they found it." Charles Dickens

UK Democracy undermined again.

2011-04-04T20:34:00.000+01:00

Today could have been a very good day for British politics, the reform of the House of Lords as been an ongoing issue for nearly 100 years, and the Liberal Democrats have been trying hard to have a fully elected Upper House.

The previous Labour Government had got rid of most of the hereditary Lords, but 92 remain. I'm not sure if that was really much of an improvement, more like getting rid of those who are not toeing the Labour Government line.
Personally I would trust the Hereditary Peers, rather than those appointed by the political parties.

Britain is one of two countries that have clerics given a guaranteed place in it's Parliament, the other one is Iran, it's good to see the company we keep with open and democratic government.

But we see that we are going down to 300 Lords, of which 80% will be elected leaving 20% to be appointed, simple maths, 60 will be appointed in some way. As usual, no one has actually figured out how the second Chamber will actually work.

The hardest part is to make something the citizens will actually trust.

The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians. Tony Benn

Vote YES to a fairer voting system

2011-03-30T23:41:00.000+01:00

On the 5th of May Britain will have a vote on changing the current first past the post voting system to a proportional vote.

In 1994 New Zealand changed to a proportional vote called Mixed Member Proportional, this is much like the system they use in many places in Germany. Australia also uses this method to vote for it's Senate.

It's hoped that the change will help stop the Jobs of Life mentality of those MPs in safe seats. The major parties don't want it. Not at all! So you know it has to be a good thing.

The No campaign will tell you it's only used by a few countries, when it's actually used by over 80, and the current First Past the Post is prone to wasted votes and our old friend Gerry Mander.

http://www.yestofairervotes.org/

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good -

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken

Priest takes down Sex Party Electoral Posters

2011-03-26T05:03:00.000Z

Sex Party Posters Ordered Down at Church Polling Booth

Written by ASP Staff

Saturday, 26 March 2011 13:55

Sex Party volunteers at the St Peter’s Catholic Church polling booth on Devonshire st in Surry Hills, have been ordered by the priest in charge of the venue to pull their posters down for most of today’s NSW election.

No other parties were ordered to take down their signage. Sex Party volunteers claimed that the priest was so aggressive and rude to them that they were fearful of an altercation developing and agreed to take down the signage.

Sex Party President Fiona Patten said the Catholic Church was being paid by the NSW Electoral Commission to hold the election in the Parish Hall and that included hosting signage on the property.

“The actions of the church’s representative in unfairly discriminating against the Sex Party for its political views, represents an offence under the Discrimination Act. He has also jeopardised our chances of getting a fair and legitimate vote at this booth which could constitute an offence under the Electoral Act. We will be pursuing this issue with the Electoral Commission on Monday and see what our options are”, she said.

Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Learned Socities, debates and the Web

2011-03-25T06:01:00.000Z

One of the things I really love about being in Britain is the history, and the amount of public discourse. The country really does have a large amount of intellectuals, (although you would never know it around Soccer season)

Learned Societies have been around here for over 350 years with the founding of the Royal Society. These days most are on the web, and provide great resources with Libraries, pictures and videos. Many have been hosting public lectures from experts in their fields for hundreds of years. (not the same experts)

Britain was the centre of the industrial and scientific revolutions, and this means a great number of these Societies or Institutions exist in London, such as :-

The Royal Society
The Royal Society of Arts
The British Academy
Gresham College
The Royal Institution
Society of Chemical Industry
Royal Geographical Society
Royal Institute of Philosophy
Royal Asiatic Society
The Linnean Society
Royal Academy of Arts
Royal Statistical Society

Almost all of the above have useful and informative web sites.

These days we can see many of these lectures on the Web
Royal Society TV
RSA on You Tube
RiAus

I am quite pleased to see that some of these have spread around the world, and have branches or affiliates in Australian such RiAus

Intelligence Squared is a London based debating forum, where the debates are now streamed over the web for free, and people can interact via twitter in real time. It's been so popular it's spread to the US, Australia, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and the Ukraine.

London also has public debates at the Centre for Inquiry. Some of these are video recorded as well.

Many Universities have Lectures on the Web, just to point out two London ones.
London School of Economics
Imperial College London

It was on YouTube where I first came across The RSA, and from there I started to discovered the rich variety the local instutions provide.

“London is the epitome of our times, and the Rome of today.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Purple Economy - A book review

2011-03-18T05:20:00.000Z

Max Wallace has authored a book that lays out how Australia, and (almost only Australia) keeps the Churches on side with Government with these particular Tax deductions and handouts.

The first part of the book demolishes any ideas about separation of church and state in Australia.
In the 1998 DOGS case (Defence of Government Schools), the high court decided there was no separation of church and state in Australia.

This is why we had Peter Hollingworth an Anglican Archbishop as Governor General, and the Government can fund Chaplains in Australian schools.

Even though the Australian constitution is almost exactly written and intended to be the same in the church/state regard as the USA, it has a single word different, and that was enough for the High Court to determine their is no separation.

Looking back over 100 years to the founding of the Australian Commonwealth can't be easy, and parts of the constitution will have been taken from many models, but our interest is in Section 116.

I won't reproduce it here, as the wikipedia entry is quite through. But the interpretation of the meaning separation of Church and State is one that needs to be investigated, e.g. What does it all mean?

Some think it means that the State looks after the government of the people, and religion is just something funded by believers and and those particular principles of belief are just for themselves. This is how secularism works, and certainly the most desirable in modern society (until the human race grows up). This is the French model.

Some think it means the government will not establish a State Church, as it exists now in England. This is how the courts have interpreted the situation in Australia.

Some think it means that the Government will not tax you to pay for the support of a religions that you don't believe in. The situation in Germany, Denmark and Sweden, is actually much like this. The Government taxes it's citizens on behalf of their church.

Italy has the Tax Eight Per Thousand

In the US, the principle is that the state does not subsidise religion, also
Everyone is free to exercise their religion.
Religion can't be imposed on anyone.
There is no religious test for government positions.
There is no State religion.

Nice theory, but for those in the USA, this NYT article will probably interest you your separation of Church and state is slowly being eroded, your taxes going to support the religious, and civil laws being exempted for their benefit.

This is exactly what is happening in Australia, the taxes the church doesn't pay on it's profit making activities is made up by taxes the rest of the population pay. Australian Government money goes to religious schools, these schools that were setup precisely to be outside the government system, and to promote the religious views of the respective churches

But to sum it up, Australian Church / State separation is a DOGS breakfast, and the importance of the DOGS case takes some pages to go over in the book

So again it comes down to money, I have covered this before in my post about the lack of a Charity Commission in Australia

The Business Review Weekly estimated in 2005 the 5 biggest religious groups in the country had a revenue of A$23.3 Billion. It is summarised in this PDF from the Australian and New Zealand law and History journal and this page at the ADOGS website

The BRW also claim the Catholic Church is the biggest landowner in Australia, I can't confirm this, and finding out for certain is beyond my resources, as part of the problem is the parish systems and the different Australian states. The Catholic Church is spread across 200 religious orders, and if the comments by an ex-member of Opus Dei are to be believed, the accountants are completely disorganised, and it's very likely the Church doesn't know what it actually owns, and probably prefers it that way

The Second part is about Religion and Government

How much has religious thinking affected those we elect to Government?
In the last decade a National day of Thanks Giving has been informally held, although I have no idea how popular it is compared to Talk like a Pirate day.
Peter Costello is certainly keen on it, and even likes to make the occasional speech , John Howard was also keen to support this day of intellectual fiction.

So how is the Australian Government records for doing what is best for it's citizens, instead of furthering the Christian agenda?

2005 was a year to remember for the drug RU486, Tony Abbott showed his contempt for women by trying to have it restricted/banned, but it was made available during a conscience vote, it was noticeable the overwhelming number of woman in parliament voted for it.

The lack of a Royal Commission into priestly Child Abuse.

Sale of a radio transmitter to a fundamentalist Christian group so they can send their signals into Asia (Station is now closed)

20 Million gift for a World Youth Day, with the pope in attendance, but nothing for the World Atheist Conference in 2010.

Of course there is also the Chaplains, a social/psychological disaster just waiting to happen.

Religious businesses are exempt from anti-discrimination laws.

Continual disregard for the establishment of a Charity Commission

Much of the book then goes in to the murky world of Charities and Government, and some comparisons of how other countries handle the relationship. Then continues with how some MPs deal with their religious convictions and the rest of the community, and the Liberal Governments attack on the human rights of citizens.

One thing Max Wallace says in a minor paragraph is how Dr Carmen Lawrence received hate mail and death threats when she spoke about Hill$ong Church in Parliament. This reminded me about this video of Richard Dawkins reading his hate mail. Ben Goldacre the author of Bad Science, just said on twitter that he does get abusive hate mail, and it would surprise many who it's from.

The book also has a short section on Black Collar Crime, and notes the Catholic Church had documention called On the manner of proceeding in cases of the crimes of solicitation in 1962 to advise on how to move Priests around, and threaten excommunication on anyone who made claims public.

This is the first time I have re-read a book immediately, it's full of shocking details of things that I never knew, but then again I have never been exposed to Religion. This was where I first heard of the Magdalene Laundries, and how they operated in Australia at least in the 1940s, and only due to the intervention of a "miracle" they didn't come to public notice at that time.

The Purple Economy is available from Embiggen Books

Notes:-
Australian Industry Commissions 1995 report (PDF) Charitable Organisations in Australia

The Catholic Church also gets income from Peters Pence.
It's only $US84 Million, but it's likely it goes into the Vatican bank, an organization with alleged links to the Mafia, a fencer of Nazi gold, and money laundering potentially even more corrupt than banks are generally supposed to be.(I take note that the Vatican Bank is the subject of many conspiracy theories, so anything written about it is highly suspect)

Do you know why I have credibility? Because I don't exude morality -- Bob Hawke

British Humanist Posters deemed offensive

2011-03-04T22:43:00.000Z

Seems there are some problems with the following posters from the British Humanist Association:-

Two reasons were given by owners of the space: they were concerned that the use of the phrase ‘for God’s sake’ would cause widespread and serious offence and they also did not wish to take adverts relating to religion.

The BHA has reacted with astonishment that an everyday phrase should be deemed too contentious for public display.

‘It is a little tongue-in-cheek,’ BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘but in the same way that saying “bless you” has no religious implication for many, “for God’s sake” is used to express urgency and not to invoke a deity. This censorship of a legitimate advert is frustrating and ridiculous: the blasphemy laws in England have been abolished but we are seeing the same principle being enforced nonetheless.’

I can't see it myself.

Maybe they are worried some employees might have problems?

Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead. - Kurt Vonnegut

Scottish Census time, Good Without God

2011-02-28T22:58:00.000Z

As a follow up to my post on the Upcoming Census in various parts of the world, I forgot the Scots! Silly me. The Scottish Humanist Society have their Good Without God campaign.

"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation." --Voltaire

Quickies for 18 Feb 2011

2011-02-18T20:30:00.000Z

Catherine Deveny has produced a wonderful little counter on how much the Churches are costing Australia.

The UK based Open Charities project started up recently, it would be great to see this in every country.

The Victorian State Government is making sure that Religious groups are able to discriminate against employing people that don't share their beliefs, as they are supported by the Australian Tax payer, then this is quite wrong.

Just to show the Victorian Government isn't alone in helping religion discriminate against non-believers , while being provided with public funds, UK Education Minister Michael Gove is planning to let faith schools discriminate against those that follow their particular beliefs.

The UK government has announced that the cost of the Papal Visit to the taxpayer was £6.9m. But the British Humanist Association membership had climbed so dramatically during the visit, the BHA have asked him to come back next year.

Google has released the Public Data Explorer a way to examine publicly available data sets.

The High Court challenge to the Australian Government Chaplains programme is underway, and getting lots of news time in Australia. The Churches are throwing lots of money into fighting it.

A brilliant idea is Open Corporates now we can all see what UK companies aren't paying tax.

Could benefit cuts lead to a spate of suicides?

While I'm very much against the Australian Chaplains program, I do recognise there are some decent kind people who sincerely want to do what is best for the children in their care, and Cecily who is a chaplain gives her view.

"Being surprised at the fact that the universe is fine tuned for life is akin to a puddle being surprised at how well it fits its hole" -- Douglas Adams

So you want to know about Australian Charities

2011-02-15T07:17:00.000Z

So you have given money to your favorite charity, and you would like to know where does the money go.

Doesn't it seem that each year it seems you also paying more tax, and getting less in return

In New Zealand they have a Charity Commission
Their is a Charity Commission in England and Wales
The Scots have one as well, as does Northern Ireland
In Canada the Tax Dept looks after Charities

In the USA you can check with the IRS the status of the Charity you with to Donate to.
In the republic of Ireland they don't have a register of Charities, but the Tax Dept has a list for tax purposes.

for more Information on giving in Canada and Canadian Charities

So many counties and so many rules...it's quite mind blowing, and while there are places to find specific Charity organizations such as http://www.givingineurope.org

To bad if your in Australia, there is no Charity Commission of any kind. There are Charity Registers such as http://www.givewell.com.au/ , but no way to see the source of any money, or how is it used, or spent.

So why should you care?
Does it matter that Churches don't pay tax on the land they own and have churches residing?
Does it matter that Churches don't pay taxes on their commercial interests?
Does it matter that the Catholic Church is worth ?????
the Uniting Church is worth, and

In 2002, the Australian Federal Government established an inquiry into the definition of a charity. That inquiry proposed that the government should legislate a definition of a charity, based on the principles developed through case law.

In 2003 the then Government proposed a Charities Bill . The Bill incorporated a number of provisions, such as limitations on charities being involved in political campaigning, which oddly enough many charities didn't like.

The government then appointed a Board of the Taxation inquiry to consult with charities on the Bill. As a result of widespread criticism from charities (funny that), the Government decided to abandon the Bill. Afterwards the Extension of Charitable Purpose Act 2004 was passed, the just legalized the charity status of Child Care, self help groups and other religious orders, not covered elsewhere.

Recently the Govt had the Henry Tax Review, this was to be a comprehensive examination of the Australian tax system on a Federal and State level

The Government has decided against the advise to establish a Charity Commission as was recommended the the Henry Tax Review, From the ProbonoAustralia website

The Government also rejected a Henry report recommendation that was also recommended by the Productivity Commission report - the establishment of a National Charities Commission.
The Henry report said in its report that consistent with the recommendations of previous inquiries, (2) a national charities commission should be established to monitor, regulate and provide advice to all NFP organisations (including private ancillary funds).
It said the charities commission should be tasked with streamlining the NFP tax concessions (including the application process for gift detectability), and modernising and codifying the definition of a charity.

The Henry Report said in its 1500 page report that Not for Profit organisations make a highly valued contribution to community wellbeing and receive government and community support for their activities.
It pointed out that much of the support provided to the NFP sector comes from tax concessions, including income tax exemptions, GST credits and exemptions, capped exemptions from (or rebates of) fringe benefits tax, and tax deductible gifts.

However it said this system of tax concessions is complex, and does not fully reflect current community values about the merit and social worth of the activities it subsidises.
It said the income tax and GST concessions generally do not appear to violate the principle of competitive neutrality where NFP organisations operate in commercial markets. However, the fringe benefit tax concessions provide recipient organisations with a competitive advantage in labour markets.

It said where NFP clubs operate large trading activities in the fields of gaming, catering, entertainment and hospitality, the rationale for exempting receipts from these activities from income tax on the basis of a direct connection with members is weakened.
It recommended that these issues could be addressed through: the establishment of a national charities commission to monitor, regulate and provide advice to all NFP organisations; reconfiguring the FBT concessions to alleviate competitive neutrality concerns while retaining government support for the NFP sector; and better targeting the application of the mutuality principle.
The Rudd Government rejected this as well as any future study or community discussion on a tax on bequests.

                     ( Italics mine )

Four reports, and they all recommend some sort of State Office to regulate charities, and Australia is one of the few countries that doesn't have one. Make you wonder doesn't it ?

David Locke from the UK Charity Commission gave his thoughts on the matter in June 2010, he was also commenting on the Report on the Not for Profit Sector by the Productivity Commission

        So remember, the issue here is where the money that is given to Charities goes. A lot of this is from the Government, well that's really Australian tax payers money, and Australians have no way of knowing where is spent, and how much money and assets these charities have.

   A well known example is the company Sanitarium its owned by the Seventh Day Adventist church, and Sanitarium has an income of $A300 Million, it's profits to Charity, so therefore pays no tax.

The Australian Tax Office does try to keep a lid on theses abuses :-

The decision of the High Court in F C of T v Word Investments Limited (High Court, 3 December 2008) gives a green light to charities that want to become more commercially adventurous. The ATO argued that Word should not be endorsed as an income-tax-exempt charity.

Word was a company founded by persons associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators (International), a missionary organisation. Wycliffe is particularly active in developing countries, and among sections of the population who have no written language. The missionaries learn the local language, teach people to read and write that language, translate the Bible into that language, then teach the people how to read it.

The High Court appeal centred on the fact that Word did not carry out these activities itself. Rather, it carried on a funeral business, giving its profits to Wycliffe and other organisations to enable them to perform those missionary activities. The High Court felt that there were four issues, all of which were decided against the ATO.

First, the ATO submitted that Word's objectives were not confined to religious or charitable purposes because of its funeral business. It said that the 'basic function' of Word was to conduct businesses, and that the making of profits and distributions of them to charitable institutions like Wycliffe was merely incidental to the conducting of businesses. The High Court, however, said that it was Word's purpose and the carrying out of that purpose that mattered; not how it carried out that purpose.

Second, the High Court said that an institution can be charitable where it does not engage in charitable activities beyond making profits that are directed to charitable institutions that do engage in charitable activities.

Third, the ATO submitted that if Word were to be a charitable institution, it had to ensure that the distributions it made were utilised by the donees (so far as there relevant) for the advancement of religion. However, the High Court said there was no evidence that Word knew, or ought to have known, that the entities to which it transferred its income would misapply it, or that they did misapply it (there was no suggestion that they had).

Fourth, the ATO tried to argue that Word was not entitled to be endorsed as an income-tax-exempt charity because its activities were not effected in Australia (that broadly speaking being one of the requirements for endorsement). This argument was also rejected. The ATO has revenue collection responsibilities. However, this decision suggests that some entity other than the ATO should be responsible for determining whether an entity is a charity or not.

So basically, they are a religious charity running a Tax free business.

Some information from a Hillsong Church insider:-

Tanya Levin’s (2007) “People in Glass Houses”, Chapter 19 (pp. 198-207)
(giving examples of how some religious groups such as Hillsong/Assemblies of God churches take advantage of our money, via the government)
“Everybody knows moonlighting’s where the money is.
When a pastor preaches at his own church, he earns his weekly salary. When he preaches at someone else’s, he gets a traditional ‘love offering’ as well. The love offering stems from the days when evangelists traveled in faith, not knowing where they might rest their heads that night or how they might feed the new baby … It is still a common practice.
The love offering is pocketed. No one sees it.”
Lou Robson reported in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail (2008):
“Prosperous pastor Benny Hinn flew into Brisbane a multimillionaire. He left, 28 hours and three shows later, an estimated $800,000 richer.
The Queensland capital was a goldmine for the flamboyant televangelist who left with cash, cheques and the bank account and credit card details of more than 50,000 Australians fans.
Some attendees, who travelled from as far away as Hong Kong and Perth, handed over gold earrings and wedding rings instead of cash.
An Australian Taxation Office spokeswoman said Pastor Hinn’s Australian haul – part of an estimated $110 million donated to the World Healing Centre Church each year – was seen as a “love offering”.
“The tax office is unable to comment on individual tax matters,” the spokeswoman said.
“However gifts received by churches aren’t usually tax-exempt unless they’re given in a personal capacity. It’s a very complicated issue.”
An Australian Customs Service spokeswoman said Pastor Hinn’s visa allowed him to leave the country two hours after his 3pm show on February 16.
He travelled aboard his $36 million Gulfstream jet to Auckland, part of a 27-stop world tour expected to generate more than $10 million.
The 105,000 Australians who attended Pastor Hinn’s shows in 1998 were believed to have donated more than $1 million.
Brisbane attendees at his February 15 and 16 shows were urged to give as much as $10,000 each. Conservative estimates place the Australian donations, minus merchandise sales, at $800,000.
Pastor Hinn says he is accountable to God and authorities which oversee not-for-profit organisations.
But on November 6, the US Senate Committee on Finance announced he would be investigated. Senator Chuck Grassley said he believed Hinn, and other wealthy pastors, had experienced personal gain through tax-exempt work.
It was believed Pastor Hinn had profited from financial donations.” 1

All tax free...good work if you can get it.

In 1993 Professor Ole Gjems-Onstad reported that besides Australia, only Israel and Hungary have such lax reporting laws on Charities

Now the big question is why? What is it in Australia that makes the Charities so special ?

Most Charities have a religious content......Hmmm
Could it be the longest serving PM John Howard is a Christian, as was his Treasurer. What about Kevin Rudd, well we all know he will pray for anyone to anyone. How far into Australian society does the Purple Glove of the Church reach? What does it do with all that money?

Just who is pulling the strings to keep the Churches money and business dealings withheld from scrutiny?

The Business Review Weekly ran a story on 24 March 2005, I can't find it on line , but the main areas of interest are found here at the ADOGS Site again the amount of money involved in staggering.

It was estimated by Treasure that the Black Economy (untaxed and cash in hand) was worth 2% of GDP, and that brought in the GST or consumption tax to Australia, the Purple Economy is certainly worth more.

Some more financial figures I found are from John L Perkins and Frank Gomez who made a submission to the Australian Senate as part of the recent Tax Review.

But what you really need to know is that it's about 31 Billion Dollars. This is the money that is untaxed and unseen. It's money that the average Australian is partly having to make up for in Council rates and Income Tax.

$ Million	Notes
Revenue of the 10 biggest churches	47,647	W
Estimated collections	2,760	X
Catholic Church Assets	150,000	Y
Estimated other church assets	217,647	Z

Notes:          W   2005 information from BRW article "God's Business" June 2006 + 20%
                    X   10% of estimated Catholic Church revenue
                    Y   2005 information from BRW article "God's Business" June 2006 + 50%
                    Z   Assumes Catholic assets same ratio of total (40.8%) as of revenue.

Table 2 – Estimates of Cost to Taxpayers

	$ Million	Notes
Income tax lost (at corporate rate )	15,122	A
Capital gains tax lost (corporate rate)	6,529	B
Grants for family counselling	64	C
Chaplains in schools programme	30	D
Grants to religious schools (from commonwealth)	5,630	E
Grants to religious schools (from states)	1,800	F
Grants for abortion counselling	20	G
Grant for interfaith convention Melbourne	2	H
Grant for Catholic World Youth Day (state & federal)	140	I

Notes:          A   30% of the estimated revenue
                    B   Assumes 10% realised CG from asset holdings, property + shares
                    C   2005/2006 budget forward estimates
                    D   One third of $90 million announced over 3 years
                    E   2007 Budget Papers (90% of total non-govt of $6.256 billion)
                    F   SMH article as above estimate of NSW funding x 3
                    G   Media releases
                    H   2007 Budget Papers
                    I    Govt media + budget

Further estimates of income lost to state and local governments are given in Table 3. The information in these Tables suggests that religious organisations receive ample support via direct grants for many of their activities. It is questionable whether local and state taxpayers should pay higher taxes and rates as a result of extending exemptions to organisations that are already subsidised through direct government expenditure.

Table 3 - Income Lost to State and Local Governments

	$ Million	Notes
Payroll tax exemptions	473	J
Stamp duty exemptions	418	K
Land tax exemptions	139	L
Rate income lost to councils	$ 610	M

Notes:

J      Based on NSW treasury figures X 3 for whole country
K    Pro-rated on above
L     Pro-rated on above
M    Pro-rated on above against Association of Local Councils source

If love of money is the root of all evil, then by their own reasoning and actions, dosen't that make churches the most evil of all.?

1 Thanks to http://www.jesusallaboutlife.com/ for this

2001 Charities Definitions Inquiry This inquiry also recommended a Charity Commission

To learn more about the role of Churches Charities and Tax in Australia The Purple Economy

is the best reference.

Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separated. -Ulysses S. Grant

Valentines Day 2011

2011-02-14T00:27:00.000Z

For something a bit different I did whats called a LOTD (Look of the Day) for my friend Nunna Nightlys blog Shapley Onions.

Here are some Hearts for you all

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? ~Author Unknown

Census Matters so make it no religion

2011-02-14T00:09:00.000Z

During 2011, Britain, Ireland, Canada and Australia are all going to have a census, The UK will have Census on 11th March, Ireland is 10th of April, Canada 10th May and Australia is 9th of August.

Last time I had a difficult choice...very difficult, I had to decided if I should put Jedi or not. Since I decided that I can't use the Force or and I don't posses a Lightsaber, I put Pastafarian.

While many people think a census is just the government intruding and trying to find out all it can about it's citizens...well yes. that's true to a part. The Government needs this information so it can provide services, roads, libraries (ok, forget the libraries in the UK) and for understanding what people do for work,health, age ranges, and how they travel. Among the questions asked is about your religion.

It's very simple just not to worry about this question, and think "Well, we have Christmas at home, or we were baptised" and then put Christian in the box without a second thought. If so, you have just given a small boost to Archbishops, lobbyist leaders and everyone who jumps up and down waving a book, and says god is on their side. Those religious leaders then get to say "I represent the views of X% of the population" and this helps them persuade political leaders to maintain the undeserved privileges religions enjoy, and also to do what these religious want, not to do what is right for everyone.

Suggestions from the pulpit can sway votes, and what is the most important thing to politicians? Votes. It would be nice to think that doing the best for their country would be the most important thing...sadly no. Universally, reelection is more important than the public good

Australian results for those who are claiming no religion have been climbing steadily:-

1996: 16.6 per cent
2001: 15.5 per cent
2006: 18.7 per cent

In the 2006 census the top three responses for religious affiliation were Catholic (25.8%), Anglican (18.7%), and No Religion (18.7%). So the amount of people who are learning to think for themselves is increasing, we just need to give them a hint.

This year the the Australian Atheist Foundation have launched their Census No Religion campaign.

The idea is to encourage those people to think, what do you really believe in now? Really..Sunday School was a long time ago.

In the UK the Humanist Society have launched the Census Campaign for the March 11 Census.

Again it's important to put NO RELIGION, not Jedi, not Atheist, and don't leave it blank. In the last Census over 390,000 people put Jedi, unfortunately this didn't change anything, or help anyone.

Atheist Ireland have also launched "So be honest to Godless" in the Irish Census on Sunday 10 April.

From their site:-

In the last Irish Census, over a quarter of a million people either ticked the ‘No Religion’ box (186,000), or didn’t answer the question (70,000), or wrote in an answer that isn’t a religion (over 2,000). Overall, that’s about one person in every fifteen. On its own, the ‘No Religion’ figure is the second-largest group after Roman Catholics.

And we believe the real figure is much higher than that. The ‘No Religion’ figure has risen from 1,000 (in 1961), to 7,000 (in 1971), to 39,000 (in 1981), to 66,000 (in 1991), to 138,000 (in 2002) and 186,000 (in 2006). With even normal change, that figure should be higher now. And with the dramatic changes in Irish society since the last Census, the true figure may be much higher.

We hope that the Census results for 2011 will accurately reflect this. You can help to make this happen.

I did find it rather surprising that No Religion came second in Ireland, I'm quite sure with all the fresh scandals, such as the Magdalene Laundries, and the amount of child rapists in the church, and how the church spent so much time and effort covering it up, it will grow higher than the 186,00 from 2006.

The Canadian Centre for Inquiry have called for those who are not religious to say so, on the next Census.

This year the message is simple, put NO RELIGION.

One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it. -- Bertrand Russell,

Salvation Army , Chaplains, child abuse, and bad timing.

2011-02-11T01:00:00.000Z

There is currently a very important court case being fought in the Australian High Court. Ron Williams is talking the Australian Government to court of it's funding of Chaplains in Australian schools. The website gives the reasons and methods, and it's certainly a cause worth fighting for.
Today the Queensland Govt decided to intervene on the Federal Govt side, not really surprising, as they are getting free money for schools. Although the timing of the announcement cold have been better. I do like this comment :-

Minister for Education and Training Geoff Wilson said the constitutional challenge threatened the good work of school chaplains.
“Chaplains have been working positively with students in our State schools for two decades,” Mr Wilson said.
“School chaplains are the Salvos of the school yard. Just like the Salvation Army representatives who work in the wider community, school chaplains provide a vital and valuable service within our schools.
“Chaplains are a friend to those in need, and touch the lives of thousands of students every year.

He is referring to the Salvation army, who in the last few years have seem to have become increasingly evangelical. They have always had a good name in Australia, as they do a lot of good work, until the recent child abuse claimaints came forward.
This press release was also released the same day as the one above:-

An advocacy group for former child wards is urging the nation's churches and charities to sell assets to fund compensation for children who were abused in their care.
The call comes on a day where the Salvation Army will formally apologise to those people who were abused in its care.
More than 500,000 Australians were raised in institutions over the past century.
The Salvation Army was responsible for around 30,000.

So Geoff Wilson has just said that the wonderful chaplains are just as good as another Christian group who are guilty of the abuse of children in their care. The Salvation Army finally said sorry last year, I'm sure there are more stories out there, about what really happened in these awful places.

It is just part of an extraordinary story of how migrant children where abused in Church run institutions in Australia

The Salvation Army is also known for it's anti - gay stance.

"Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children." -- Albert Camus

So your looking for a woman speaker?

2011-02-07T00:17:00.000Z

I can't say for certain but it does look like public talks and lectures are becoming more popular in the recent years. There has been TED running in the USA, and in the UK we have the Royal Society of Arts, and Intelligence Squared.

All three have spread to Australia, with a Fellows Network of the RSA, TED and IQ² both having very is popular events in Sydney.

Public talks and Lectures have been popular in London for many years as Gresham College and the Royal Institution are located here.

I suspect it may be the publicity via the Internet, and in most cases these lectures are recorded and placed on YouTube, or Vimeo, so everyone can see them.

Now if your looking for a woman speaker in Australia, there is help. Leslie Canold, Catherone Deveny and Jane Caro have launched No Chicks No Excuses.

No Chicks No Excuses is the brainchild of Leslie Cannold, Jane Caro and Catherine Deveny, three women in public life who got tired of event organisers saying they couldn’t find good women speakers.
The bright, capable and witty women listed on No Chicks No Excuses are those in our network. They are women we know, have seen in action or who have otherwise come to our attention and who we think are great value.
If you’re looking for a speaker, please understand that we offer the names and details of women on this site as a starting point for further investigation. It’s up to you to discover more and find the right fit for your event.
Catherine says that living in an all male household made her want to print a t-shirt that says, “Where have you looked?” When event organisers tell us they can’t find women speakers we had the same question, “Where have you looked?”
The search is over, the answer is here. No Chicks No Excuses – expert women for every event.

So There!

It's not how strongly you feel about your topic, it's how strongly they feel about your topic after you speak.
--Tim Salladay

He was probably behind the fridge

2011-02-05T23:24:00.000Z

Eeeekkk! Get me an Exterminator, or a Time Lord!!

I don't get to play very much with Photoshop, or clean behind the refrigerator very much either.

 Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! -Every Dalek ever.

Being Disabled in the Worlds 6th biggest Economy

2011-02-05T16:37:00.000Z

Being in a wheelchair, or having to walk in crutches, having a severe debilitating illness or Epilepsy is really got to suck big time. I suspect that most people in first world countries are so used to modern medicine, and the benefits of childhood vaccinations that seeing people who aren't in good health is probably quite rare for many.

But of course the disabled are with us, those people who though no fault of their own picked up a design flaw in the womb, had an accident or disease, and are unable to work, or in some cases look after themselves.

Most modern societies understand this, and try to make an attempt to make life bearable for the disabled, being via a Government benefit, work done by a charity, or some sort of religious organization.

Babies and children are now living when they used to die, but sometimes at a price of their health, and those who would normally have died through neglect or lack of medicine are now living longer, much longer. Some people can lead fairly normal healthy working lives, but others will need Government support. Personally as a tax payer, I'm quite happy for this, while I'm not happy to keep those F^*%&;*g Bankers in Porsches, when they messed it up for everyone.

We have come a long way from Victorian times when Charles Dickens wrote "Nicholas Nickleby" that told of the events of Dotheboys Hall. For those unfamiliar with the Children's orphanages of the times, some not all, were actually set up to kill children, not bring them up or put them up for adoption. Newspapers of the times would advertise child care, for just a few pence, and the child would disappear. It was not until "Nicholas Nickleby" was written that the British govt took steps to end this practise.

Speaking of which, now the UK has a newish Tory Government, and the first thing they seem to need to do is change things, all sorts of things, anything that will look like they are doing something, anything. As long as I can remember, the NHS has been undergoing some sort of "reform", year after year.

Welfare is also a popular political football, over the last few years people on Disability benefit have been the ball, and the Ministers have doing the bend it like beckham kicking.

But is benefit fraud really such a problem? Some suggest not. Currently the plan is to get as many people as possible off benefit's and into work. There are only two major problems

1)The recession

2) The people who say "Yes, this person can work", are not responsible for also finding these (certainly non-existent) jobs.

It's not as if MPs are known for rorting the system is it?

A few things to think about:-
Data from Family Resources Survey and the National Equalities Panel 2010 found that:
· 75% of disabled women and 70% of disabled men are already at the bottom end of Britain’s income distribution scale living in poverty.
· A tenth of disabled woman have incomes below £31 per week and a tenth of disabled men have incomes below £59 per week including earned income and benefits.

I have a friend with epilepsy, suddenly she will fall to the ground, have some minor convulsions, and gets up after a few minutes, oddly enough this can be off putting to some people...really.

So what sets this off you ask?

Lets see..stripey shirts, stripy shadows, car indicators, fluorescent lighting, bastards with flash cameras who take photos after being told not to, flashing mouse cursors...flickering things..you get the idea. The govt agency that was trying to get her employment tried for 4 years to put her in work, before they actually decided that someone who falls over at the turning on of a light switch is probably a bit in the too hard basket. It only took 7 case managers to decide this.

My friend really would have liked to have been able to get a proper job, you know, have money to travel the world and see things, go on a drive through Paris, Red Square in Moscow, Night Clubs in Rome, cruise the Nile. But no, she lives in the darkness of her flat, someone might take her shopping , sometimes going out to the local shops after the sun goes down.

She won't get better..there is no cure.

Being disabled...it really sucks..

So the government wants to cut what little they already get. Sickening.

But we are getting replacements for Trident, you know, those submarines that we will never actually use, just in case Russia does something, like turn off the gas, or China sends no more flat screen TVs.

BTW the UK Treasury have done a deal with Liechtenstein and Switzerland about the people hiding their money in the tax exile

The first is that the Lichtenstein disclosure arrangement will yield up to £3 billion to HM Revenue and Customs, rather than the £1 billion first forecast. This is, in retrospect, unsurprising . The Lichtenstein deal is extraordinary. It offers a flat rate penalty of 10% for the disclosure of significant tax evasion. The normal penalty for evasion can be up to 100%, and simple errors made by honest traders can often carry penalties of 30% , even when voluntarily disclosed to HMRC.

The second claim is that the forthcoming deal with Switzerland on withholding tax will raise up to £6 billion for HM Revenue and Customs over the next four years. But in this case the question is why is the capital that underpins these tax evaded funds being ignored? If the withholding tax is to be at 35% over £4 billion of income must be involved each year to generate £1.5 million for HMRC. That implies that HMRC think there are more than £100 billion of illicitly held funds in Switzerland and yet they are doing nothing to recover the tax that should’ve been paid on those funds in the first place.

From Tax Research

But I have to pass you over to someone who really knows what she is talking about, her name is Sue Walsh, she is on twitter here http://twitter.com/#!/suey2y and she blogs here diary of a benefit scrounger , and she has written for the Guardian and she rocks!

Also to read up on who is and who isn't paying their fair share of tax, read Taxresearch, I certainly am.

If I have a bad day, it's all over. It's always because of my disability. "Oh, that poor girl, she's upset because she has a disability" and I'll say, "No, I'm upset because my boyfriend left me." "Oh, because he couldn't deal with the disability?" "No, because I slept with his best friend".."Oh, you slept with his best friend because you were feeling bad because you have a disability.”
Ellen Stohl (first playboy playmate with a disability)

The Swedish and Religious Education

2011-01-31T20:20:00.000Z

It came across Twitter today from the Suffolk Humanists & Secularists, that the Swedish where to make the teaching of Religion on the assumption that is factual, illegal.
Sadly this does not seem to be the case, it would be a great step forward for the human race if it was.
It was written originally in the Guardian newspaper from 2007.

I was certain I new someone from Sweden somewhere to ask if it was true or not, and asked Twitter, and the answer came from Sin Trenton.

I'm sure he wouldn't mind me cutting and pasting it here :-

As always, the answer is not a simple yes and no.
The new law for schools as of August 2010 basically states that undervisning (‘lecturing’, the actual classes) shall be neutral, utbildning (‘education’, programmes, the school’s general profile) doesn’t have to be.

Det står skolorna fritt att “anordna andakter, bönestunder eller annan form av religionsutövning till exempel fördjupning i den egna trosläran som konfirmationsläsning”. Men de “konfessionella inslagen ska liksom i fristående skolor vara frivilliga för barnen.”

Translated: The schools may decide to “hold worship, prayers or other form of religious practice such as deeper studies in the own dogma, as part of confirmation studies. ” But the “confessional parts, shall, also in private schools, be voluntary for the children.”

It is stressed that it must be voluntary for students to participate and that it should not take place within the frame of regular lectures.
So you need to be brave as a seven years old to refuse going into the chapel or to memorise Psalms, Bible verses, Qu’ran suras, etc.

Further; “…grundläggande demokratiska värderingar och de mänskliga rättigheterna som utgör utgångspunkten för skolans värdegrund måste omfattas utan inskränkningar även av skolor med konfessionell inriktning”.

Translated: “… fundamental democratic values and the human rights that make up the starting point for the school’s value foundation must be included without limitations even by schools with confessional profiles”.
But that’s about it, actually.
The basic problem is that the minister and his “People’s Party The Liberals” want to smack down on Islamic schools, while not alienating their Christian Democrat coalition buddies, who has a large group of various Christian sects with their confessional schools, I’d say.

I believe that religion should be totally separated from the state. That's not the way it is today, not even in Sweden. :- Bjorn Ulvaeus

I love Sweden. The entire world should be like Sweden. They all like to drink and get naked, and the women are hot. I can't think of a better nation on the planet. :- Drew Curtis