(Above: Assisi war cemetery).
We have all heard of the new atheists who also claim Christianity has produced nothing worthwhile. They must never have been to Assisi. (here).
I have rebuilt Blogotariat using superior feed aggregation technology that in testing, at least, is working flawlessly. The current site is straining at the seams and requires manual intervention just to keep the feeds running. I will switch to the new site very soon, so don't be surprised to see something entirely new. The appearance and structure of new Blogotariat will remain a work in progress as I continue to tweak, experiment and refine so please bear with me. The good news is that the feed service is efficient - no more non-appearing items - and the overall experience of the site is faster.
(Above: click to enlarge. More First Dog here).
There's something deeply moving, humanitarian, caring and sharing about First Dog's address to the workers buried in the bowels of Holt street, slaving away at their myrmidon Murdochian tasks.
But perhaps in the end it's a tad too generous.
The results of the 2012 Queensland Election held on 24 March are now final and it is time to summarise the overall result and provide the new and rather lop-sided electoral pendulum.
(As of today, the final distribution of preferences for Bundaberg and Springwood are not available, so I have used estimates based on the partial count of preferences. I will include the final margins for both when available.)
The table below sets out the final first preference votes and seats won by party. Read more »
Does the hatred of women get any angrier than the current GOP war on women in the United States?
Sure thing. Just ask the Angry Sydney Anglicans for an opinion, especially Phillip Jensen scribbling furiously about The Working Mother.
Normally the pond would reserve Angry Anglican thinking for a Sunday, the day of rest and repose but this was irresistible:
(Above: and after Pig Iron Bob came ...)
If only David Cameron had consulted the pond, he'd have known LOL stood for lots of loons, or perhaps loads of loons, or even looning out loud, not lots of love or lots of laughs, or laughing out loud, or even lots of very lickable lollipops.
That way, he could have avoided being labelled part of a GOG - gaggle of geese - who don't have the first clue.
(Above: the Daily Terror responding to a Climate Commission report in its own inimitable front page way).
Read more »
(Above: thanks to anon, we start off Sunday with muscular Jesus, and plenty more Jesus portraits here).
The pond's been away from the Sydney Anglicans for some time, and now is terribly anxious.
I’ve recently read (well..mostly read) Susan Haack‘s amazing book called Defending Science,Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism. As should be clear from the title, the book is a thorough defence of the exceptional success of scientific inquiry. Read more »
(Above: eliminating the last sparrow. Click to enlarge. And a few more posters here and here).
To paraphrase a wag joking about his cock, the pond would rather get its tits caught in a revolving door than debate climate change with representatives of the IPA. Read more »
(Above: a short joke. Time for a take-down notice to YouTube? But if the link disappears, the joke won't).
It will be recalled that, according to the chattering classes, Cardinal Pell won the debate against evil angry atheist Richard Dawkins.
Typically, that idle chatterer and common town gossip, Andrew Bolt, awarded the points to Pell in A Point to Pell UPDATE Four and a half, actually.
So there's Kevin Andrews in The formula for a happy marriage, sort of .. using bodgy, dodgy manipulations of statistical data to suggest that there's a man shortage, and people are delaying getting married. Read more »
Naturally there were visual responses to its quickly withdrawn, wonderfully inept billboard display:
(Above: French hospital food. Wouldn't you know it, there's a tumblr dedicated to the subject of hospital food).
Latest results for the Legislative Council elections in Hobart and Western Tiers now being published at
http://www.abc.net.au/elections/tas/2012/legislativecouncil/
With a number of political matters looming on the horizon, I thought it was worth providing pointers to some of my past posts that remain relevant to current political issues.
The next year will see elections in the Northern Territory, the ACT and Western Australia. Websites for all three will be published over the next few months. In the meantime I have already published analysis of the new electoral boundaries in both the Northern Territory and Western Australia. (Links at the end of this post.)
There is also heightened possibility of an early Federal election for the House of Representatives held separate from a half-Senate election. There is also continuing discussion on whether the Coalition can win control of the Senate if the Labor government manages to last until the end of its term. Read more »
For those who are not aware, I wrote a little piece at Retort Magazine with the attention-seeking ( but popular) title ‘Cultural Fluff and the Death of Faggotry’ . It has now published a response by Bob Buttigieg. ??The original polemic was poorly worded and combined a bit of this, this and that of my previous posts. Read more »
(Above: Assisi war cemetery).
We have all heard of the new atheists who also claim Christianity has produced nothing worthwhile. They must never have been to Assisi. (here).
Actor Hugh Grant tells a public rally for media reform how press problems go way beyond Murdoch. Photo by Patrick Chalmers Read more »
Can the pond just start off by noting how badly James Ashby seems to have been advised by Mal Brough on at least three occasions? (Ashby's motives over Slipper allegations dubious, say lawyers).
A pity the pond's partner wasn't consulted, having dismissed an employee for sexual harassment in recent times.
What fun to watch Chris Uhlmann and 7.30 get done over by Media Watch, and flap and squawk about being hard done by Jonathan Holmes. Read more »
Sadly the pond sits firmly in viewer Bernie's camp: I'd like to comment that I am unable to comment because I don't watch 7.30 anymore.Why are there laws against prostitution? All of us, with the exception of the independently wealthy and the unemployed, take money for the use of our body. Professors, factory workers, opera singers, sex workers, doctors, legislators — all do things with parts of their bodies for which others offer them a fee. Some people get good wages and some do not; some have a relatively high degree of control over their working conditions and some have little control; some have many employment options and some have very few. And some are socially stigmatized and some are not. However, the difference between the sex worker and the professor — who takes money for the use of a particularly intimate part of her body, namely her mind — is not the difference between a “good woman” and a “bad woman.” It is, usually, the difference between a prosperous well-educated woman and a poor woman with few employment options. Read more »
(Above: Chris Uhlmann, with bonus smirk).
The amazing thing about headless chooks is the way they manage to squawk in unison.
Here's Christopher Pearson, arriving a little belatedly at the headless chook celebration:
Voters in the Victorian state seat of Melbourne face a by-election following the resignation of former Labor government minister Bronwyn Pike. A date for the by-election has yet to be set.
Labor will face a strong challenge at the by-election from the Greens, the Greens having finished second in the seat at the last three state elections. The state seat of Melbourne also lies within the federal seat of the same name won by the Green's Adam Bandt at the 2010 election.
Pike was re-elected at the 2010 election only because the Liberal Party chose to recommend Liberal voters give preferences to Labor. At the previous elections in 2002 and 2006, the Liberals had recommended preferences to the Greens.
It seems unlikely that the Liberal Party will contest the seat, leaving Melbourne as a head-to-head contest between labor and the Greens. Read more »
(Above: more Nicholson here).
Read more »
I want to do what little I can to make my country truly free [and little it was], to broaden the intellectual horizon of our people, to destroy the prejudices born of ignorance and fear, to do away with blind worship of the ignoble past, with the idea that all the great and good are dead, that the living are totally depraved, that all pleasures are sins, that sighs and groans are alone pleasing, that thought is dangerous, that intellectual courage is a crime, that cowardice is a virtue, that a certain belief is necessary to secure salvation.
- Robert G. Ingersoll, lawyer and oratory pleaser. Read more »
Once again, I got into a bit of back and forth with Heathen Republican on the subject of global warming. Please check out my original lengthy and time consuming exchange in the comments here – because he certainly didn’t appreciate.
Heathen asked the question: “why is the current temperature, the right temperature?”; below is my quick response.
Speaking of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ temperatures would be a bit silly, but we can certainly compare effects and judge what temperatures are more conductive to human well being. Read more »
The comments section of my previous post created a great point of discussion between Bob Buttigieg and I, on the grounds for criticism, and whether there can be an objective standard upon which to judge culture. It also covered issues regarding scientific research and intersubjectivity. It was very lengthy and interesting so I thought it deserved a post. I have edited from the original comments, and placed them under convenient titles. Let me know if thought doesn’t flow clearly. Read more »
Did you know that almost 90% of the world’s population lives in the northern hemisphere? And that half of all Earthlings reside north of 27°N? Or that the average human lives at 24 degrees from the equator - either to its north or south.
Another wonderful post from Frank Jacobs at Stange Maps.
http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/563-pop-by-lat-and-pop-by-long
It’s a fair question. Last year I was punching out articles and raging against the dying of the light. This year, a quiet has largely settled over my corner of the internet. But what kind of quiet? The kind where I decided I hated everyone and retreated to a rustic mountain cabin to grow my own tomatoes in a beehive and teach my dog to pump clear cold water from the stream? The kind where I stared too long at an enchanted painting, so that one distant day, someone will notice my tiny silent grimace among the oil-pastel throng? The kind where I’m waiting in a cupboard with a vacuum-cleaner pipe for someone to come looking? The kind where I choked on a corn chip, leaving my nine cats locked inside the house to eat my face, and giving a poignant reminder to all when I’m eventually found that I was alone, just so alone? What gives? Read more »
The announcement this morning that businessman Clive Palmer wants to nominate for LNP endorsement in Lilley against Treasurer Wayne Swan is a distraction the Labor Party would welcome today, and welcome even more in the next Federal election campaign.
After having been forced to distance itself from Peter Slipper and Craig Thomson over the weekend, the government would welcome today's announcement by Palmer as it swings the spotlight of political attention from Labor's political fringe dwellers to those of the Coalition.
In my view the Labor Party would dearly love to see Palmer as an LNP candidate, and the LNP would be crazy-brave to select him as a candidate.
Mr Palmer has many admirable characteristic as a self-made billionaire, but one of them is not tact. Read more »
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