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.
Malcolm Trumps reckless intervention on populist grounds today has hammered the resources stocks.
PM Turnbull has Gas dear Dismayed and he wants us to have it too!
Brain farts don’t fix anything other than to clear the room. You ongoing ridiculousness is tedious.
Does the Muslim activist, Yassmin Abdel-Magied find it passing strange that the refugees she is advocating are mostly muslims fleeing problems in muslim lands??? And those for whom we celebrated ANZAC day for, fought and died so that this country can be as generous as it is in receiving refugees.
She does now dear Milton but not as “far” back as ANZAC Day she didn’t.
Geez another ridiculous populist intervention by the ridiculous government today on gas. Instead of actually doing something like taking on the Gas and Pipeline cartels or actually doing something about third party gas contracts which would easily fix the potential 3% gas shortage. This government to appease the socialist nationals will minimise future onshore drilling exploration investment by this interventionist thought bubble.
Now that is the biggest U turn in the history of this blog
Poor Dismayed, he’s totally confused
Yvonne when you get any idea what is going on in the industry then comment until then keep your ignorant comments to yourself. Oh and there you go starting again on things you obviously know Nothing about, the problem being a sheep like you is you always end up getting your arse kicked then claim to be the victim. Idiots like you that want to jump on the bandwagon give sheep a bad name actually. I apologise the sheep.
JS. No u turn. I have said since the start of the false “crisis” any shortage (unlikely) is very small about 3% which is easily rectified by making changes to the Third Party contracts. You should start reading what is written instead of reading into things what You want to see. Just about over your lack ability to comprehend just about everything written. Stop embarrassing yourself and start to make an effort to comprehend what is written instead of just looking for an opposite and opposing view. This latest do nothing populist intervention will reduce future investment. Why would companies invest, sign contracts to supply when a numbskull Qld’er like Canavan can shut them down? Get your head out of your arse.
JackSprat’s “U turn” descripter is spot on Dismayed. You appear to have morphed from a roustabout derrick hand into post-bellum carpetbagger.
Lets hope, Mr Insider, that when our esteemed PM Malcolm Turnbull arrives in the US to meet with POTUS Trump, Trump’s Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, gets Turnbull’s name right. No more “Milton Trumble’s” or “Mervyn Grumble’s” please Seaney!
Milton Trumble’s ? that sounds like a sly dig at someone..
yeh, i’m sensing it too, Bill.
As to defending out large land mass. We are fortunate to be an island continent, our borders are not porous like vulnerable European nations, and that geographical accident helps us maintain our national security. The advantage we have over Europe is the vast expanse of water…we can monitor ‘them’ coming quite some time before they get here. Our coastline is too big to patrol and our population is too small to defend a land mass the size of ours with an army. This way, no one would dare come near us. Bank of ICBM’s across the top of Australia with a red button in Canberra. Cheaper and much more effective than spending $190billion over the next 10yrs. Subs and planes can’t defend out huge coastline. I have been banging on about this ever since this blog started with very little support, writing to newspapers…everybody thought I was/am mad…I am right and so is this bloke. We should have done this 25yrs ago. Expensive but a one off expense plus maintenance but much cheaper than what we are doing now.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-needs-to-build-a-missile-defence-shield-former-national-security-adviser-andrew-shearer-20170426-gvt3q4.html
I thought our borders appeared rather porous last time labor were in power, Bassman.
True Milton. Giving Rudd a cordless drill for Xmas was a poor gift choice.
Only because bombed the shit out of those poor wretches trying to legally seek refuge here after we destroyed their homes, families and cities. We DO have to take SOME responsibility mate for the carnage we have caused!
The Hobart AWDs (should they ever sail) have the ability to use the Rim 161 -SM3s, and I imagine there are plans to acquire those. The GMDs might involve us with some missile treaties.
It might be time to cut down, or ask the doc, to reduce the mg’s on those tablets you’ve recently been on Dwight? But bro it’s your journey, enjoy.
Speaking of journeys: Vale Robert M, Pirsig.
The author of a book that many people had. and half read, and never fully understood (ok that was my trip, man).
On the subject of books, my latest, and soon to be released, is called ” Neotantra and the Art of Penis Maintenance.”
Say Milt sent you at your local book emporium and you’ll get 5% off!
Right BASSY. Just what we need, a nuclear arms race.
Goodness me, Mr Insider, the ABC’s Yassmin Abdel-Magied has sure caused a storm with her ANZAC Day Facebook post, now deleted by her. She is a well credentialed young lady and may I say, possibly politically incorrectly, a cracker sort too. Is it ok to say that in the Muslim world, if not your humble correspondent apologies unreservedly. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
bad luck canucks….
https://www.rt.com/usa/386146-trump-trudeau-trade-dairy-lumber/
Build a wall!
Canadians want to build a wall , too – to keep Americans out …
The higher , the Better ….
The Washington Post…
Strangely enough there’s a cross-border trade in smuggled dairy products.
Crikey! I take it putting a wheel of cheese into a condom and hiding it in a body cavity is not a favoured smuggling method?
Even for a cheesehead like me that’s a step too far. Dairy prices in the US, particularly in my home state of Wisconsin, are half what they are in Canada. Being that the vast majority of Canadians live within 100 miles of the border, people fill their cars and hope the Canadian customs folks don’t look too closely.
And the milk doesn’t come in plastic bags.
Just in case you think I’m having a lend:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/niagara-police-officer-breaks-bail-in-cheese-smuggling-case-1.3263053
‘Hard Cheese’ if you get caught.
Don’t get offside of Trump. He probably has watched docos on how the Romans treated people who went against them.
Meanwhile Kimmie keeps watching US action movies.
What an interesting mix.
I don’t agree with what Yassmin Abdel-Magied said but in terms of what has been said about free speech in the light of 18C; Brandis and his bigotry; the fact that people should be allowed to throw insults and offend in the name of ‘free speech’; demonising of refugees; people on welfare; Bill Leak’s case; the unemployed; Dutton and his comments the other day about refugees being paedophiles-all this viewed in how this newspaper and the hard right view 18C make it O.K and within Brandis’s ‘boundaries’.
Why should she be sacked from the ABC? She said it in her own time not on the job at the ABC and using her own computer. OK she apologized but I still do not agree or enjoy what she said. We are STILL waiting for Dutts to apologise. Even Bolt tore into him over his Manus lies and has told him to apologise. 3 agencies said his account of the Manus incident are not correct. Police and detention employees said Dutts had not contacted them. He said he had. Also he will not reveal the information he says he has which supposedly clears what he has said. Let’s be honest. This bloke is truly evil. Bolt said calling a person a paedophile is the lowest.
Especially when they cannot defend themselves when Dutts has the power of his ministry with all of the govts resources at his disposal. Yep this is the mob that has been screaming from the rooftops about 18C and free speech for two years. What hypocrisy. Just listen to Abetz, Christensen. When the late Bill Leak had his case before the Human Rights Commission dismissed, Abetz said, “Australians do love their freedom of speech even if sometimes they find it uncomfortable.”
Dutton was equally outraged, saying, “I think it’s unacceptable we would impinge upon free speech the way we have on Bill Leak.” The whole 18C campaign has been a con job. This mob only want freedom of speech on their terms. That means you have to agree with them every time. This is a baaaaaaaaaaad government and getting much worse!
B’MAN, I’ll leave alone the issue of whatever happened on Manus Island because I haven’t been following it, wasn’t there and don’t know.
But as far as the section 18C issue goes – and it’s being raised all over the place – it’s a false equivalence. There is no tension between loudly abhorring that which we find offensive and applying pressure – the ordinary pressure of condemnation that can be wielded by the average citizen – on people who are being offensive to sort out their ideas or piss off; and being outright opposed to the power and resources of the state being brought to bear to enforce ideological compliance.
Public outrage about your opinions might lead to you being rejected and treated as a social outcast, but there is no mechanism there by which the state is press-ganged into being an accomplice to extort “go away” money as happened to some of the QUT students, or would lead to a prosecution, as happened to the other QUT students and Andrew Bolt if you fail to demonstrate sufficient contrition, as decided by an employee of the state.
In one of my many exchanges with John O’Hagan on this issue I proposed that the best possible way of dealing with issues of bigotry is through civic institutions – sports clubs, professional associations, the media, unions, workplace standards, etc. Apart from the inevitable abuses of bureaucrats wielding state power to police opinions, people tend to pay more attention when their peers and neighbours condemn their attitudes than they do when being looked down upon from on high by professional busy-bodies.
So my attitude – and the legal reality – is: Yassmin Abdel-Magied is free to say what she wants and to be offensive as she likes; she can be the ignorant bigot and ridiculous poseur she appears to be without let or hindrance.
And we can – and should – condemn her for it. That’s free speech in action, my friend, in all its glory.
Well said BOW as usual…we should condemn her for it. A terrible thing to say after I had just got back from the Anzac march on a very hot day with my wife 38 weeks gone…but we soldiered on…I have always taken my kids to cheer on the diggers it is an imprtant day in my calendar…many more worst things than this will be said when 18C goes.
Well, I’m not sure that they will. I don’t remember Australia being a hot-bed of racist hate-speech before s18C was passed and I don’t discern a noticeable improvement in race relations since. If anything the country seems to be more ethnically fractious and hateful than before.
By the way, I do agree with your view that what she did was not grounds for being sacked from the ABC. If I understand correctly the Corporations employee code of conduct allows for disciplinary action if an employee acts up on their own time, including by social media, if it reflects badly on the broadcaster. At most she should probably get a brief written reminder to consider her tweets more carefully.
more of an arched eye-brow situation, if anything at all.
They are not asking for the lady to answer to AHRC, Bassy. Is she not in a tax payer funded job?
And to think league players get sacked for taking the piss: their own!
Hey hey…it was nothing to do with the ABC. She did it in her own time using her own facilities. Also her views are NOT the views of the ABC. They are her own views. Not the ABC’s. She made no statement as an ABC employee on the job. The hypocrisy is mindblowing on this issue. Sad Cafe to say, but I am revelling in this watching the hard right squeal like stuck pigs when they say more worse things on a daily basis.
fair play bass…onyer
Well said BASSMAN. Cant have it both ways! The “sanctimonious when it suits” are creeps.
While I disagree with Yassmin’s suggestion regarding ANZAC Day, it would be a good idea for every nation to have a “National Shame Day” where the citizens may freely express what it is about us past and present that should be honestly acknowledged and confronted.
Just another beat up. the eternally outraged need to be fed something every day in the echo chamber. On a day when Australians are remembering the fallen in disastrous wars what is wrong with an Australian suggesting that all people who have died in disastrous situations are remembered??? For mine the greater outrage is the commercialisation of ANZAC day and sections of Australia attacking people for daring to mention that the wars are such a terrible waste as being some sort of Islamic sympathisers. I see no complaints here about relatives being told they cannot walk either.
Corry Bernardi’s new Conservative Party gobbling up some “bottom feeder” Parties, Mr Insider, in an attempt to become remotely relevant in todays Australia. Mention the name “Cory Bernardi” to the general populance and most likely you will get a blank stare or “Who?”. Cory you are a legend in your own coffee break buddy!
http://tinyurl.com/l4tfk6w
Henry old fruit, I’d caution against loose lips apropos ‘bottom feeders’ around that old maid, with the cold spoon, young Cory B. It gets all excitable, puts 2 and 3 together and gets sex. Let’s not scare the horses!
And speaking of odd coupling, imagine Cory and Pauline as a love interest?? Wouldn’t that sell a few New Ideas…
cop that beavers…
https://www.rt.com/usa/386146-trump-trudeau-trade-dairy-lumber/