This is an excellent blog on the current challenge to Border Force Act 2015 by workers in Australian detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island.
I fully concur with the sentiments expressed herein.
Tony Abbott: the human face of evil.
Category: Australia
Outrageous outrage.
In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision in recognition of gay marriage, I’ve noticed a few interesting things.
The flood of rainbow coloured profile pictures on Facebook and other social media and the parallel flood of statements in support of marriage equality for all suggest at first that there is stronger social support for marriage equality than the Australian government seems to believe. I wonder how many of the people I know splashing rainbows around this weekend have written to any Australian politicians voicing their support.
All those rainbows have also prompted a wave of people bemoaning the loss of their “Christian” right to object or to openly state that they do not support gay marriage.
What nonsense.
Nobody is being asked to live against their morals. Nobody is having their personal ethics persecuted or the security of their family endangered.
In fact, if gay people are allowed to get married, I’m pretty sure that the only personal lives affected will be their own. For heterosexual couples, kids at school, and Rover the family dog, absolutely nothing will change. They can still go on doing what they’ve always done. So can your church, mosque or local football club.
In terms of the Australian constitution, nothing will change. The Marriage Act would change, but that isn’t going to annul or change anyone else’s marriage. And please, don’t start bleating about “undermining the sanctity of marriage”. A 50% divorce rate in Australia, the chronic problem of domestic violence, and a popular culture full of dysfunctional families and parents, usually fathers, made out to look like idiots by smart-arsed kids has done more to undermine the sanctity of marriage than legalising gay marriage ever will. If heterosexuals want to be precious about their marriages, it’s about time more of them started treating their marriages as precious.
I fully understand that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is immoral. No argument there.
However, what most of the predominantly Christian outrage against gay marriage conveniently overlooks is that the Bible teaches that there are many practices and lifestyles that are immoral: anyone who is dishonest, greedy, prejudiced, cruel, selfish, rude, atheist, or sexually active outside of marriage is just as guilty in terms of what the Bible teaches. Let’s not even start on different religions. And judging other people? Oops. There are plenty of people in our world who are guilty of that.
All of these things are called immoral in the Bible. Yet all of these other people are fully entitled, as consenting adults, to marry the person they love. That is, of course, as long as it’s a heterosexual marriage. Anything else would be… well… sinful. And we can’t have that, can we?
The Bible wastes no words in condemning those who oppress the poor, the vulnerable, the widow or the hungry. The Old Testament is very direct in that regard. Ironically, though, we don’t hear people raging against the relationships or marriages of the Australian politicians who are actively involved in locking up asylum seekers in small neighbouring third-world nations, do we? No, because that would be stupid. So would opposing the marriage of Joe Schmoe and Mary Bloggs down the road because they don’t believe in God at all, or they worship the fairies at the bottom of their garden. In fact, I do believe it’s been a very long time since anyone living in Australia was publicly stoned to death for “living in sin”, but that’s immoral too.
My point is that it seems that marriage is an option for everyone except gays and lesbians, even though everyone is flawed or immoral in one way or another.
Nobody is suggesting that churches or individual pastors or priests who hold convictions and teachings against gay marriage should be forced to perform the ceremonies. Nobody is suggesting that because something becomes legalised, everyone has to do it. Smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol are both quite legal, yet many people choose to do neither. It’s quite legal to be a nudist if someone wants to be, but most people don’t practise that lifestyle, either.
It’s high time that we all just got over ourselves and treated one another with respect and kindness. If someone wants to marry, let them. If they don’t want to marry, don’t make them. And for heaven’s sake, stop pretending that someone else’s marriage or relationship has anything at all to do with yours.
Attn: Amber Heard and Johnny Depp: It’s not just your dogs that are unwelcome.
Dear Amber Heard,
We don’t care how ridiculously rich, famous or beautiful you both may be. That does not give you a licence to break Australian law and do whatever you damn well please.
Our quarantine laws exist for very good reason, and there are no exceptions.
Kindly keep your opinions and your non-quarantined dogs to yourselves.
Thank you,
Me, and the rest of Australia
.
The Football Blues.
Last night, I watched the match between Geelong and Carlton. It was abysmal, but with a sense of grim determination, I watched to the end.
I’ve been a Carlton FC member for over 20 year, and I love my club. Naturally, I want to see them win, but right now I’d be happy to at least see them being competitive.
I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that.
However, I feel like I’m the only one not baying for the coach’s blood in a silver chalice by the next full moon. I’m so tired of people calling for Mick Malthouse to be sacked as coach of Carlton.
It’s true that the team couldn’t beat the Lower Gidgeebugga reserves at the moment. But I don’t think it’s fair to put the blame on Mick Malthouse. Before him, they blamed Brett Ratten. Before him, they blamed Denis Pagan.
Let’s be honest. Since the glory days of the mid 1990s, Carlton have struggled to string a few consecutive wins together. You can’t blame the current coach for something that has been a problem for two decades.
The way the media and most football pundits are behaving reminds me of those years when Richmond couldn’t put four good quarters of football together in the one game, and subsequently changed their coach more often than some people change their underwear. Melbourne have been guilty of the same thing.
I think it’s time the players took some of the responsibility.
Yeah, I know.
Shock and horror.
A Carlton member blaming the team for the most incredible demonstration of under-performance in living memory. Unheard of.
Seriously, it’s about time the boys went back to basics.
Kick it straight.
Kick it long.
Quit stuffing around with the ball and turning it over.
Watch every Blues match from 1995 and learn to play like that.
Stop playing as individuals and learn to work together as a cohesive, cooperative unit.
The team as a whole need to stop looking at themselves as underdogs and developed a positive, determined attitude every day of the week instead of trying to muster one on game days when they don’t think the opposition is too hard to beat.
This is stuff that I’m just not seeing. I watch every game, even though it hurts, and I listen to the commentaries of ex-players and experts who know far more about football than I do, and I know I am not the only person saying these things.
I really hope they don’t just blame Malthouse, let him go, and find another coach who will turn into their next scapegoat. It beggars belief that this is all his fault.
Unless he really is a Collingwood plant, a suggestion that I discussed a couple of weeks ago. Then it might be his fault. Sadly, though, I think I’m at the point where I actually do believe that my team really is so bad that such conspiracy is completely unnecessary.
I know it’s a big call when the season isn’t even half-way over, but it would be a miracle if Carlton make it off the bottom of the competition ladder this season. Wooden spoon, anyone?
ANZAC Day, 2015.
Hundreds of people attended the ANZAC Day memorial service at the cenotaph in Cobden for the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. There were thousands at the dawn service in Warrnambool and hundreds of thousands at the dawn service in Melbourne. The grey clouds and steady rain did not deter them: instead, it seemed appropriate for a time of sombre reflection.
In Cobden, the path to the cenotaph was lined by a guard of honour consisting of our Scouts and Girl Guides.
A lone piper played in tribute to the fallen and in honour of the returned servicemen who were present.
Hearing the New Zealand ode spoken in Maori was very powerful, even though most people there couldn’t understand a word of it. The speaker’s love for his country and thankfulness for the ANZACs and all those who served after them was evident through the emotion in his voice.
The Australian ode was spoken equally powerfully.It was impossible to remain unmoved by all the feelings of love for my country, gratitude for those who have served and the freedoms we still have because of them, and sadness for the loss of life on both sides. I made no effort to hide several tears that spilled down my cheek when they played The Last Post and during the period of silent observance before they played the Reveille.
When they played the instrumental version of the Australian national anthem there was no invitation to sing, but half the crowd sang anyway. I would have loved it if everyone joined in, but I guess the “I’m not singing in public” sentiment is still strong among many people.
It was beautiful to meet a little boy, Euan, who was incredibly proud to be wearing his great-grandfather’s war medals. I watched him stand attentively and proudly through the whole ceremony. He had obviously been made aware by his parents of the importance of the medals and the reason for the commemoration, because he took it all very seriously.
I am so thankful that remembering those who served their country and their fellow Australians, New Zealanders and allies, often at the expense of their own lives, is so important to so many.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
Lest We Forget.
A new low in “reality television”.
When I was a teenager, the dating show ‘Perfect Match’ was at the height of its popularity. Since then, we have seen a long list of shows that have varied only in the degree of tackiness, such as ‘Please Marry My Boy’ where the mothers of single men selected a bride for their sons to the considerably more sordid ‘The Bachelor’. I honestly didn’t think it could get much worse than that… until tonight.
I’ve just seen a promo on TV for a show called ‘Married at First Sight’. The premise of the show is that a number of couples are ‘matched’ by a psychologist and a neurologist, and meet each other for the first time at the altar where they enter into legally binding arranged marriages. They have never met; they don’t know anything about each other; they don’t even know one another’s name. The show is openly advertised as a social experiment.
Seriously? How is this allowed? Can this really be legal in Australia, where arranged marriages that are quite acceptable in other cultures are frowned upon? I am incredulous at the hypocrisy of this is acceptable in our society when the right to marry is denied to loving, committed couples who happen to be gay: hasn’t the loudest, most popular argument against legalising gay marriage is that “it debases the sanctity of marriage”? Surely, this ‘experiment’ is guilty of doing exactly that. Let’s face it, heterosexual couples haven’t done such a great job of maintaining the sanctity of marriage up to this point, and this program is most likely to hit a new low in that department. This really only serves to reinforce my belief that we are guilty of huge double standards in this department.
It must not be forgotten that these are real people with real feelings and the rest of their lives ahead of them. I can’t imagine how my gay friends and family must feel about the sanctity of marriage being turned into a game show but still denied to them.
It seems that “reality television” is about to reach a new low. Are we really that desperate for entertainment?
Articulate.
To play the board game called Articulate, a player must give clues for something specific without naming it or using particular words.
AD: Clue 1: It got bombed. Clue 2: It’s in Australia. 3. They made a movie of it.
Everyone is clueless.
AD: Pearl Harbour! Duh!
Me: Pearl Harbour isn’t in Australia, honey.
Awkward.
Hubris.
Abbott.
Hockey.
Turnbull.
Morrison.
Pyne.
They dare to accuse ordinary Australians of having a sense of entitlement.
Enough said.
And so, we wait.
Australia’s response to those in need.
Today’s offering comes from ‘First Dog on the Moon’ because I am so ashamed of our government on this issue – and many others – I have few things to say about it that can be published.
One day, Australia will have to come to terms with her guilt.
It’s official: Australia’s Prime Minister is a real winker.
Australia’s Prime Minister has proven to be a real winker… or something like that.
I was listening to 774 ABC Melbourne radio in the car on my way to work this morning when a woman named Gloria phoned in. In introducing herself, she told the Prime Minister that she was a grandmother with several chronic, life-threatening illnesses who had to work on a phone-sex line to make ends meet.
When she said that, Tony Abbot smirked and winked at the radio host, Jon Faine. Obviously, I didn’t hear that on the radio, but it was all captured on film, since the station had the video camera rolling as well. Not surprisingly, outrage immediately flooded Twitter, Facebook and every other social media site people could get their fingertips on.
Apart from the fact that it’s kind of creepy, it’s totally inappropriate.
Gloria didn’t call to be sensational or give anyone cheap thrills.
She called to let the Prime Minister and all of Melbourne know how she feels about the way things are for her now, and the ways in which they’ll be worse when the Government’s latest budget is implemented on July 1 this year.
He acknowledged she was doing it tough and then started talking about how repealing the carbon tax would give her an “extra couple hundreds of dollars a year” more.
I was dumbfounded.
For someone in her situation, is “a couple of hundred dollars a year” more going to make a significant difference? Is it going to release her from having to work that part time job on the phone lines?
He didn’t even sound sympathetic. She was just another opportunity for him to tell the world how good he thinks he and his Liberal Party Government are.
I’ve got news for you, Tony Abbott. You’re getting harder and harder to believe all the time.
Gloria was right. You don’t give a stuff.
And I don’t feel very nice about you either.
WordyNerdBird 