I used to consider myself an atheist. Now, when asked, I say I am agnostic. It is not that I have doubts but I don’t want to be bundled in with the atheist crowd.
In answering such a question, it is too difficult to explain the distinction between atheism and anti-religionism and to be honest, the lines are often blurred.
Is it any wonder?
This Easter we have been witness to baffling brawls over halal chocolate Easter eggs and squabbling over whether or not a footy match should be played on Good Friday. I adopt the laissez-faire approach in these matters but I find it troubling that those who advocate sombre reflection on religious holidays are cast as extremists.
Religion is often mocked by atheists. Mockery is fine in some instances but when people are painted as sub-human for holding supernatural beliefs, items of faith in all organised religions, it is clear there is an attempt to wantonly discriminate against people and limit their movements and their associations.
Full column here.
met a couple of lads for a beer last night, the waratahs match was on the tele.
no one much there, and not surprising as the tahs were very ordinary and the game was a shocker.
the Brits were joking about rugby being played in closed stadiums, fans must have been rioting, etc.
Aus rugby is in a very very bad situation.
The way it is going, it simply could not be considered a first tier sport in this country. The ARU are getting smashed by the other codes in terms of development. It will end up like field hockey in terms of numbers and following. It’s sad really.
not just in development, though that is certainly true, but around 2000 they were going great guns as a sport, rugby tickets were the hottest in town, now they could move the games back to Concord.
ARU seems hopeless, but so do the state unions, SANZAR has buggered a very good comp, to the point that no-one understands how it works, and don’t care anyway.
meanwhile, the game is going very well in europe. the Six Nations work because they play only once, so every game means something.
It’s struggling here, mate. I’ve hosted a few mates tonight in the Highlands, one of whom unbelievably still plays at 52. My nephews play it at a good level but they know it’s gettng to be lacrosse in Australia.
Gone downhill since they changed the rules and it became professional. The amateur thing was what made it a stand out game IMHO, the freaks really stood out, same as RL when it was semi-professional and everybody, except Arthur Beetson, had a day job. Now, just money, and more money and kids who have no idea what the real world is.
Having played both codes at senior level I agree it’s a crying shame. Union is more technical but league is harder. I do not know what the answer is. You’d think with more kids attending private schools Rugby would have kicked on but alas it hasn’t.
When my boys were growing up I saw the way the AFL approached kids sport with their school development and Aus Kick. Absolutely brilliant and I’m told it has only got better. All power to them and probably what Union is lacking. Mind you a bit hard to explain to a 7yr old the intracies of the ruck and maul.
the junior rugby here in HK is good, as is the Auskick of course, at least since the AFL had Darren Flanigan on the payroll here for a few years.
in fact the junior rugby looks like it has modelled itself on Auskick to a fair extent, lots of sponsorship , great kit, well organised, one of the lads there on Friday was heading off to Bangkok yesterday with an Under 12 girls team to play in a tournament.
The Super rugby used to get a fair bit of interest from the Euro rugby fans, at home and here in Asia, at least until a year or two ago, but no-one gives a bugger any more., but then nor do the Aussies.
Mate, after the World Cup here in 2003, the ARU had $40 million in the bank. Three years later having pissed it up against the wall there was $18mil left.
Until then the code was flying. We only got done in the final by Wilkinson’s field goal. The stadium was packed. Now no one watches the games live, or on tele.
To think the ARU had the veto to expansion of Super Rugby and whimped it.
We are watching the destruction of a code. I worked for the guy who was the ARU chairman, and I am not surprised.
I haven’t been to the Brumbies for a couple of years – don’t know who most of them are any more. And I can’t pronounce islander names.
Islander names are easy. There is only one or two letters per syllable. Take Folau. Most commentators pronounce it fol-ow, but it should be fo-la-oo. I think the apostrophe is an ‘ng’ sound.
Got the email from the ARU for first dibs on Bledisloe, decided to pass after a complete waste of money last year.
Jean Baptiste says:
April 22, 2017 at 10:07 am
“Look Carl old mate, I’m sorry I was a bit short. I’m posting to you free of charge an olive branch, me old mate.
Best wishes.”
I never thought I’d ever see
Your olive branch extend to me,
I’m humbled to the core JB
That such a gift would come from thee.
Bless you me old mate.
PS. I’ve no use for the other paraphernalia on offer, but thanks for thinking.
Every branch has a thorn Bald…be careful Hee hee
You sure? Theres a lot of things you can do with electric rosary beads to put a smile on your face.
Tried that Bald.Didnt werk!
I’ll take your word for it JB.
Carry a clutch of hematites in your pocket yourself me old mate, eh?
Ah garn you curmudgeonly old man, you haven’t lived!
merditch coorndong unna?
https://lilium.com/press/#investors.
Intriguing, Is that a real flight, or is that a projected simulation of what they expect this thing to?
dunno was not on the ground at the time….. But
https://www.dezeen.com/2017/04/21/electric-flying-taxi-aeroplane-lilium-completes-first-voyage/
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/21/electric-flying-car-lilium-google-uber-vtol-jet-taxi
I got it. It’s just an oversized RC drone. It looks cute, but I cant see how it is superior or even equal to to a regular drone with four or more overhead rotors. In it’s present form it’s hard to believe you could put one medium size person in there and get off the ground, or at least travel very far at all.
Cheers.
potentially disruptive….big time
Yes, reduce the sit-down money and you’ll reduce the unemployment.
It’s as easy as 457.
Really funny cartoon from Mark Knight in the Herald Sun today
Looks like full on war now. TA’s girl Credlin making a move on Kelly O’Dwyer’s seat. Abbott a treacherous piece of work. Liberals are screwed, short of a miracle
Who would have thought Tony Abbott was actually a Labor Party stooge Boadicea, the fabulous job he’s doing for the Labor Party and Bill Shorten, PM in waiting. He came in like a wrecking ball and keeps wrecking!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxq__3z9zGM
Boadicea, our immediate past Prime Minister “intelligent” at 4.54am and “treacherous” six hours later?
Raises the question how such a loyal, bright, sagacious and intuitive fellow could become tratorous in such a short time?
That’s “traitorous”.
In other news here’s a little sneak peek from an ABC edit suite of Mike Bowers and I doing the Talking Pics segment tomorrow. 9.00 am ABC 1. Watching is mandatory.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9_KLPHVwAAw2E-?format=jpg&name=large
What’s that on your head, mate? *lol*
It’s the Australian flag, otherwise known as the blue ensign, Dwight. The best flag in the world and I have the underpants to prove it. Definitely better than the Tuvaluan flag which, quite frankly, is a pale imitation.
Looks like they are still running Windows xP (like me) on that computer on the right of the picture!
Is that you with the bun and hair comb?
(Sorry mate couldn’t resist)
Flag as a bandana like all patriots should, Ray.
I noticed that you were on the show and was about to comment. I’ll look forward to some morning silliness.
Carl, it is quite feasible to be treacherous and intelligent simultaneously. In fact its probably essential. Nothing like a treacherous fool.
So how are ” intelligent” and “treacherous” mutually exclusive?
I would think “rat cunning” would be the type of intelligence most apt in describing him, and treacherous is self evident.
Intelligent people can be treacherous and complete morons can be, and often are, faithful.
Besides it would be unreasonable to expect someone who is as mad as a cut snake to be consistent throughout the day.
Now, ……………….. well, the voice of experience, or what?
You made yet another dopey statement, got shot down and now you’re getting snippy again.
Yes it has been my experience to observe those behaviours.
You missed my point, again JB.
Put your “cut snake” biases to one side for once, take a deep breath and have another read.
I think you’re getting flustered me old mate.
That’s using the word “point” in a very reckless manner. You misinterpreted what was being said to suit your purpose. Nothing new there.
“Cut snake” is not a bias. He’s as mad as a box of frogs which is the equivalent measure to “mad as a cut snake.”
Now you are flustered JB. Did the box have wheels?
I’d get flustered if you spontaneously combusted Carl. I cant imagine you could induce perturbation in my demeanor by any other artifice.
Do not thing he is treacherous B.
He does not leak and says it out in the open and what he says is very reasonable.
The real treacherous little prick sits in the PM’s office.
At the heart of all of this is a battle royal going on within the Liberal Party between, for a better terminology, the “wets” and the “drys”.
Tony has been described as belonging toe the Catholic Mafia within the Liberal Party.
You also have this sort of stuff going on
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-19/nsw-liberal-party-asks-powerbrokers-to-resign-state-council/7765968
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-party-powerbrokers-wife-kristina-photios-quits-over-lack-of-action-on-climate-change-20161208-gt7376.html
I would not bag Tony too much – he has his faults but he is as straight as they come.
Not like some of the others
Well said JS.
I’ve said it many times, but rarely as well as this:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/grace-collier/idea-of-government-as-allpowerful-god-is-strangling-australia/news-story/af82714081560471254d4f67930de4e0
yes, i agree.
it is turning a great nation into toddlers with a graze on their knee.
The 60% figure is downright frightening. I see no sign of anyone addressing it.
I’ve been thinking about the worship of government thing for years–one of the things I do nowadays is political economy. My working hypothesis goes to the origin story of Botany Bay.
Well, Australia’s always been a government project. From day one there has always been a high reliance on government leadership and provision of services. Probably around the gold rushes in Victoria and NSW things got a bit more free-wheeling and entrepreneurial and there was active hostility towards governments and their agents and edicts but we’ve since reverted to the convict frame of mind – hands out, waiting for the next food ration from our gaolers.
As I said over the wall, you look at these things as an American. The origin of the USA is, to an extent, the opposite of ours – it was founded by people who were actively trying to get away from church and state; later you fought a war to be independent of it. I think it explains a lot about the differences between our countries.
yes, it always seems that aussies don’t understand that the US system of government was originally designed to protect the individual from the State.
They founded us *because of* the Americans
Well, true but it doesn’t alter the fact that Australians tend to a much more obeisant and reliant view of government. The reliance we had on London in the early days of settlement has just transferred to Canberra.
The situation Collier describes would be a real concern — if it bore any resemblance to reality, rather than just being a glib IPA talking-point.
Not long ago Collier revealed how out-of-touch she is when she proposed her Marie Antionette-style solution to unemployment: the unemployed should all just start businesses. The fact that she remains unconvinced that there is a housing affordability crisis shows what a very privileged bubble she continues to inhabit. But if it does exist, she believes it must have been caused by too much tax and regulation, because according to her religion, that is by definition the root of all evil, no factual enquiry required. Strangely, she is perfectly happy with government interference in the form of tax breaks for speculators, which has helped create the crisis in the first place.
But that is always the way with these big-end-of-town glibertarians: they are content for the government to do what they want it to do — enforce their property rights, maintain the financial system, keep wages low, free up the flow of capital and goods but tightly control human movement, etc — but not what the population as a whole has democratically elected it to do.
Sure, waste and middle-class welfare are of concern, but Collier and her fellow-travellers are just plain wrong in their central argument that “the government doesn’t owe you anything”. Democracy means the government is responsible to the people. That in turn means that the government has an obligation to work to create the best possible conditions and opportunities for its citizens, to provide services and safety nets, protect and balance their rights with those of others, and manage the economy for the benefit of ordinary people. As a basic starting point, that means access to a decent job and somewhere to live.
Talking points from the Politburo?
I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean. If you’re saying my comment was Communistic — well, no, it was actually fairly mild middle-of-the-road democratic liberalism. Maybe you’ve drifted so far out that that looks left-wing to you, but even so, equating anything vaguely left with Communism is about as clever as accusing every conservative of being Hitler.
John O’Hagan – see my answer re guns below.
On a happy note, Mr Insider, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the 2nd turns 91yo today . She has reigned for a record 65 years and am sure even the most crusty anti royalists would pause to wish this exemplary Monarch a “happy birthday”. An outstanding Lady imho.
http://tinyurl.com/lwbjeeg
She is an amazing woman, HB. Tough old duck. Happy birthday, your majesty.
I am a raging Publican but have a great deal of tyme and respect for the Queenie
Bassy, “a raging Publican”?? It’s no wonder you can’t spell.
(Re)Publican Bald
My mother in law shares the same birthday Henry, but a couple of years earlier at just 88.
I suggested that was two fat ladies in bingo, went over like the original lead balloon.. Thank god she’s got a sense of humour.
Australian values as PM Turnbull is alluding too lately, Mr Insider, and there are so many arnt there in this great free country of ours. Of course we Aussies love to stick it up “toffs” who have a higher opinion of themselves than they deserve , none better to demonstrate these feelings than the attached clip of the low mongrel Sir John Kerr speaking at the 1977 Melbourne Cup and receiving a very hostile reception, as he deserved too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqesjLRXmr0